Romans 13 is certainly not an endorsement of the use of strength (specifically the use of military force) on the part of governments. However, I can see why a reading of Romans 13, uninformed by broader Biblical principles would lead to that conclusion. Romans 13, I suggest, expresses Paul's view that while worldly governments are invariably corrupt and wicked, they are better than anarchy. But that is hardly an argument to support the kind of government that does something that we know for other Biblical reasons that is at odds with the Kingdom of God agenda, namely the use of the sword.
The Bible is full of examples of God using wicked governments (e.g. the King of Assyria) to accomplish His purposes. But, again, this is hardly grounds to conclude that God likes evil governments. If we can participate in the election of a government that follows Jesus' pacifistic model, that's much better.
You're basically correct in your understanding, but here is the problem: Once upon a time, lions lay in peace with lambs and sharks swam in peace with seals. That was then, this is now: This is a fallen world. Survival on this earth from the microscopic level on up to humankind is by tooth and claw because of the Fall. The kings of this fallen world maintain their wealth and power and keep their order by the sword, and it will be a fallen world until the Lord remakes it in the Future Age. and just as the lion is given permission by God to eat the lamb in this fallen world, kings are given permission by God to maintain order with the sword in this fallen world.
But Jesus is not a liar: "
All who live by the sword will die by the sword." Every lion dies and every kingdom falls. Egypt fell, Assyria fell, Nineveh fell, Babylon fell, Persia fell, Greece fell, and the vestiges of the Roman Empire--of which the United States is one--will also fall (notice I expressed that in the future tense).
What is the Body of Christ in all this?
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. -- John 17.
But our citizenship is in heaven. -- Philippians 3
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.... -- 2 Corinthians 5
To God's selected ones, aliens dispersed throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia [the world], who have been selected according to the foreknowlege of God the Father [not by random chance or by fickle whim, but by a deliberately conceived plan], through the sanctifying work of the Spirit [prepared for the mission], to be obedient to Jesus Christ [the commander of our mission] and sprinkled with His blood [wearing the distinctive uniform of His forces]... 1 Peter 1
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. -- 1 Peter 2
Oh, man. This is the
team speech...I get kind of choked up reading it ("
We are the Titans!"). Peter started acknowledging that we are scattered, dispersed through the world, then points out that even though physically scattered, we are actually an integrated body, given a specific mission to perform: To declare Him who selected and saved us, to encourage defectors from the nations of this world and to give them asylum.
Peter harkens to Daniel 10 to call Jesus the Living (uncut) Stone--a stone which is rough, unhewn, unshaped. Of course an uncut stone is rejected by the builder because it doesn't fit. Yet he says that Jesus is both cornerstone and capstone of His own house.
You have to get the paradox Peter is presenting here. The cornerstone and capstone must be the most carefully cut stones of all, yet Jesus is the cornerstone and capstone of an entire house of uncut stones...a house that is wholly rejected by human architects of society because it does not meet the approval of the world's homeowner's association.
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. -- 1 Peter 2
Now after identifying what we are--unified members of a nation deliberately dispersed through the world to carry out Christ's mission levied upon us--Peter gets to his main purpose of the letter. This letter is actually a Field Manual for how citizens of Heaven are to relate as ambassadors of Christ to the natives of this world (and he warns us that they will think it strange that our ways are not their ways).
The next few verses of Peter's letter sound a lot like Ephesians 6, but it's not. Ephesians 6 was about how Christians should relate to Christians. Peter is talking about how Christians should relate to pagans (even if married to a pagan).
And that is what Paul is doing in Romans 13. Paul acknowledges that human kings have permission from God to use the sword to keep order in this fallen world.
But Christians are citizens of Heaven deployed to these nations on a mission of limited duration--then we're going home.
As diplomats assigned to a host country, we're bound by our Commander to a "Status of Forces Agreement" with the host country.
When I was in the military assigned overseas, we were also bound by a "Status of Forces Agreement"--a SOFA. The SOFA required us to:
1. Obey their laws
2. Honor their officials
3. If we lived in off base ("in the 'ville") to pay the taxes they levied on us.
Which is precisely what Paul gives us in Romans.
Yet, as soldiers overseas these rules did not cause us to think we were citizens of those countries. We always knew we were there to perform a mission of limited duration, not to "go native."
Nor is "going native" expected of citizens of Heaven. We continue to be "aliens, pilgrims, and sojourers."
Our models are people like Joseph, Daniel, Mordechai, Ezra, and Nehemiah. They worked in nations that they never accepted as "home," and even achieved high status...but they always maintained their "otherness."
Daniel became a top official of Babylon, yet his "otherness" was so clear--he kept himself so detached from being a "Babylonian"--that when the Persians conquered Babylon, he slid right into the same job for the new king. He and his comrades had never become "Babylonian."
They never "went native." They were always aliens, pilgrims, and sojourners.
