Romans 13:1-7

Exegete

Romans 13:1–7 ESV

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Principles from this passage

Be subject to your government v1

God appoints governments v1

Resisting your government subjects you to the judgement of God v2

You should only be afraid if you are doing bad. v3

The government has the right to bear the sword or inflict violence to protect. v4

Do this out of fear but also out of good conscience. v5

Taxes are a reality of this. v6-7

Notes from Moo. p. 790 and following

This is a very abrupt shift in 13 v1 and shifts back hard again after verse 7.

Views of why:

Its not pauline writing and was added later.

The letter may have gotten damaged or something and this is just an excerpt from a quote he is making of a doctrine.

Paul is being abrupt on purpose to make sure we dont get to extreme in our not being conformed to this world.

along the same lines as 3, there was an insurrection in Rome among christians to not pay taxes in order to not support their govt and what it stood for.

Moo seems to hold to view 3.

So what lesson do i take from that. We shouldnt be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good? I think so.

But still, i dont think we can mindlessly follow a govt right? I need to look into this more.

Moo quotes 1 Peter 2:13-17

1 Peter 2:13–17 ESV

13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

As with the discussion on parents, there seems to be a direct relationship with our obedience to God and our obedience to govt. I argue that our obedience to parents is an indicator of how we obey God and govt. Its all related.

My thoughts on when comes the time to not obey the govt.

He says submit but not obey (highlighted by moo). Not sure this is totally valid, but it plays a part.

Verse 3 is important. This sets up a parameter for when to obey. If a govt is no longer ok with good and a punisher of biblical evil, then you must decide if it is still a govt or an evil institution.

God’s word never tells us to disobey God and his word to obey a govt.

Our submission to God cannot be violated by submission to a “fake govt.”