Governments and our Christian Duties

Romans 13: 1

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.

Main Idea: In light of the end of the age, believers should honor their civil rulers since they are appointed by God.

In the last chapter of Romans Paul urges believers in the One True God to live as a sacrifice to God, however when it comes to submitting yourself to the civil government of your time, we are commaned to submit themselves to the governing authorities. Why would Paul command us to submit to the Government? (Remember Paul is saying AND doing this to a Government that was headed by Emperor Nero and would have Paul beheaded.) The reason he commands us to submit to the government is because it is a form of submiting to God. How can we submit to an invisible God if we cannot submit to a visible Government?

As believers we must remember that there is no authority except that which God has established. This is a statement of the overarching sovereignty and rule of God in the affairs of this world. If God has appointed every civil ruler, every governing authority, then why should any Christian fear submitting to that which God has appointed?

In the book of Daniel, Daniel wrote that God “sets up kings and deposes them” when he praised God in prayer for revealing to him the meaning of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream(Daniel 2:21). When Daniel provided the interpertation of the dream to King Nebuchadnezzar he said “The God of heaven has given you [Nebuchadnezzar] dominion and power and might and glory … he has made you ruler” (Dan. 2:37–38). Daniel then goes on to explain to the king that a number of other kingdoms will rise and fall, until a fourth kingdom and then “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.”(Dan. 2:44).

What Paul wanted the people reading his words to understand is that in the Roman Empire, or any other government, “No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another” (Ps. 75:6–7). And even after the King/President/Prime Minister/or anyother public office holder, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Prov. 21:1). Therefore, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero (those Roman emperors spanning the lifetime of the Roman church up until Paul’s writing) had ascended to power with God’s permission—actually, by his direction (have been established by God)—as have the rulers of the day.

Romans 13: 2-7

2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

Rebelling against what God has instituted will bring the judgment of God, more than likely throught the rulers themselves. While we are painfully, and sometimes shamefully, aware of the fist that we raise against God in some areas of life, it is sometimes hard to see it here. If a deranged person violates our personal or property rights, we can rest in the sovereignty of God more easily than we can when a twenty-something police officer pulls us over for rolling through a stop sign. We looked both ways, we slowed almost completely to a stop, we have a (reasonably) good driving record, we were under the influence of nothing—and yet we still got a ticket.

Paul says that to rebel agains that ticket is to rebel against what God has instituted. If we rebel against it loudly enough, or aggressively enough, or persistently enough, we may be punished with an additional fine for disorderly conduct, interfering with a police officer’s duty, or touching (assaulting) a police officer.

The fact that “governing authorities” are human authorities—sinners just like us—is perhaps what makes it so difficult. Earthquakes and natural disasters have no will. Diseases and congenital deformities have no will. Deranged assailants have a will, but one that is obviously deserving of pity. But when an otherwise competent individual, set apart from us by nothing but a gold badge, asserts his or her authority over us, it is hard to see God in that blue suit. But God says he is there, and to resist him is to invite his blue-suited judgment.

The example of a policeman and a traffic ticket is almost trivial in today’s world of moral, ethical, religious—and ultimately legal—quagmires. But it does illustrate Paul’s point. It is far more difficult to deal with is the question of limits. How far is the Christian expected to go in obeying civil authorities-especially when those authorities demand that which goes against the will of God?

Romans 13: 11-14

Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.