“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. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 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, 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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 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.” (Romans 13:1-7 ESV)
A few comments in response. First, we need a foundation on which to base the discussion.
The earliest known Christian creed is found in the New Testament: “Jesus is Lord.” In Roman-occupied Judea, this was unmistakably a political declaration. Your lord is someone whose laws you obey. As New Testament historian F. F. Bruce has noted, Christ’s message was correctly recognized by the prevailing authorities as sedition, the crime under Roman law for which the punishment was crucifixion.
In proclaiming that “Jesus is Lord,” his kingdom’s citizens affirm that
all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.
(Psalms 22:27b, 28)
This affirmation denies legitimacy to competing jurisdictions, for Christ’s jurisdiction is over all the nations of the earth. His rule brings into question the claims of autonomy or sovereignty of existing governments who do not recognize him as their ruler. Rejection of Christ’s authority is manifested by establishing or obeying as authoritative a different law than that of Christ’s. In our setting, this is law given authority by legislatures representing the voice of the people, not the word of Christ.
Allegiance to Christ’s government is a political position. When confronted with the division of loyalties between biblical and man-made law, Christians cannot avoid it by refusing to place their religion in the same category as their politics. By removing religion as a competing alternative to what is offered by Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, or Constitutionalists, it is made to be something else, unrelated to human social organization or power. Acceptance of this categorical distinction concedes to the world-system the very grounds that Christ requires his followers to recover, affirm, and maintain.
As US law diverges significantly from biblical law, the pressure to choose between competing political loyalties becomes more evident. In response, some Christians are retreating from public affirmation of Christ’s government to find refuge in a private and personal spirituality. Even Rome did not make claims against this meager realm of quasi-reality. Private religion in the Roman Empire was not persecuted. Christians were persecuted by claiming over society a rival ruler to the Roman emperor. Consequently, for Christians to make no claims that would challenge the legitimacy of the powers in Washington - that Jesus is Lord - means he is lord only of their private religiosity and not of American public or institutional life. Jesus as Lord certainly entails the Christian’s personal submission to his rule. Yet that cannot be all it entails. Rome was certainly not mistaken in understanding the message of the early Christians as promoting a competing ruler and a distinct world-order.
Now let's look at
The Nature of Divinely Instituted Authority
The apostle Paul addresses the relationship of Christians and the State by first describing the State in a letter to Christians in Rome, some of whom were in government circles (Romans 13:1-5).
He also wrote to Titus (Titus 3:1, 2):
Remind them [Christians] to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
In addition, the apostle Peter wrote also to Christians under Rome (1 Peter 2:13-17):
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
The first question that arises is one of identifying the authorities the Christian is to submit to. The second question is what this submission entails.
Both Paul and Peter state explicitly what constitutes authority established by God: “to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.”
Anyone with power who fails to act in this way also fails to qualify as an authority “which God has established” because “the authorities that exist have been established by God.” Consequently, a distinction must be maintained between authorities established by God and anyone who happens to wield power, but does not exist as an authority established by God nor is instituted by him as such. In other words, authorities not established by God are illegitimate pretenders to it, lacking a valid claim to authority, though they may be powerful. Neither Paul nor Peter say this explicitly because letters to Roman Christians in Paul’s circle would fall into the hands of government officials. Nevertheless, the conditions for who these
huperecho exousia (higher powers) are
is made explicit by both Paul and Peter. Roman officials could have assumed they met the criteria without being offended.
How then can authority established by God be distinguished from usurpers of power? Both Paul and Peter give clear criteria. What earthly powers require of their subjects fall into three categories:
Obedience to the law of God. By upholding God’s law, human authority operates as an intermediate agent of God’s authority. By obeying God’s law, one is ultimately obeying God, while incidentally obeying a human authority who can rightfully execute social sanctions of God’s law. Such human authority, though, is outside of lawful (godly) authority to do anything else.
Obedience to what conflicts with the law of God. In this case, as Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29). Human authority commanding that which is contrary to the law of God is in rebellion against God’s authority, is not a servant of God, is not instituted as an authority by God, and must not be obeyed.
Obedience to what is not addressed in God’s law. In this case, deference to human authority, when required, is counseled by the above texts of scripture, to accommodate the operations of lawful human authority. However, because Christians give sole allegiance to God in Christ as their authority, what the law of God does not require cannot bind the Christian conscience. Obeying human authority where the law of God does not require such obedience is a free act of the Christian, subject to the Christian’s or the church’s judgment. In this case, merely avoiding punishment (as Paul alludes) may be an adequate reason.
There is no simple rule by which to discern some humanly-enforced laws from the application or interpretation of the law of God. When in doubt, the above texts advise submission to godly human authority, though the Christian must exercise obedience to a biblically-informed conscience on such matters. It is a question of whether actions taken by such authority are in obedience to the law of God, as understood, or whether it is human law-making, forbidden by scripture.
Godly authority is not determined by deciding whether God has approved existing rulers and whether God wants us to obey them
as rulers or not. It is not the person but what
law the ruler enforces that determines legitimacy. Even Hitler and Stalin enforced laws consistent with scripture, and when they did, the Christian was duty-bound to Christ to obey them. When they did not, the Christian was duty-bound to Christ to
not obey them. In both cases, the Christian is heeding Christ’s authority and responding to it, though an intermediate ruler is imposing various demands.
Basically, what this is saying is that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be law-abiding citizens. We should pay our taxes on time. We should stop at red lights and at stop signs, and yield in traffic where there is a yield sign. We should not cheat and lie and willfully misinform or withhold information from those to whom it is due. We should be honest people who abide by the laws of the land, and we should not be those who try to find ways around the law so that we can do what is crooked and evil and sinful.
But are there exceptions to this rule? Yes, there are, and they are biblical exceptions. For if any ruler or government official should demand that we do something contrary to the will of God, or that is evil in the sight of God, we are to say “No!”, but respectfully. Or if they require that we compromise our faith and convictions, or God’s moral standards, in any way, we can refuse, gracefully. And examples of this are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Jesus Christ, and the NT apostles. We never have to submit to sin.
Now there are other exceptions with regard to what this passage is teaching which I want to note here, as well. Although it is true that God is the one who puts rulers in place, if we read the Old Testament, especially, we will see that he put in place rulers who were evil and crooked and not always ones who were just and righteous in their dealings with the people. And even in Jesus’ time, the rulers were evil people who Jesus chided for their religious hypocrisies, and Jesus did not always submit to their wishes.
Now, when this says here that “rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad,” that is not always true, is it, by the examples mentioned above? Jesus was absolutely perfect in every way, but the rulers hated him and wanted him dead, and so they found ways to accuse him falsely of what he did not do, and they arranged to have him arrested and put on trial, and they called for him to be crucified, and they convinced the crowds to join in with them in calling for Jesus’ crucifixion. And Jesus was put to death.
And then when it says that if you do good, you will receive approval by those in positions of authority, for they are God’s servants for your good, that isn’t always the case, is it? And again, I yield to the biblical examples mentioned above. The rulers of Jesus’ time and of the time of the early church after Jesus died and was resurrected from the dead, were persecuting Jesus and his followers for doing good. They certainly were not approving of the good that they did, and so sometimes they had to resist those in authority.
Submission to Authority
Submission entails two kinds of response to authority:
Obey: actively comply with the commands of the authority;
Defer: avoid activity that would interfere with achievement of the goals of the authority. That is, don’t do anything that would hinder what the authority is attempting to accomplish.
Additionally, Christians are not only to submit to divinely established authority; they are to petition God on their behalf, as described by Paul (1 Timothy 2:1-6):
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Paul encourages Christians to appeal to God on behalf of rulers, not necessarily in support of their ideology, decisions, or actions but that they would let Christians live “peaceful and quiet lives” of a godly and separated or distinctive (holy) nature, so that the gospel of the Kingdom can best be propagated in society. Consequently, the motive for such prayers regarding authorities is to advance the kingdom of God and activities of its members, not to approve rulers.
As a general rule, what this is teaching is true. Rulers are put in place by God, and I agree with that fully. He even has put evil rulers in place all throughout history, ever since the people demanded to have a king over them, I believe (not certain on that). And unless we are being required to disobey the Lord, we are to obey the rulers over us, even if we disagree with their judgments. We are to remain in submission to whatever authorities are over us, provided that they are not requiring that we disobey our Lord.
We are not to be rebellious against those whom God places in authority over us unless they require that we rebel against the Lord and that we disobey him in order to obey them. But not all authorities over us are necessarily of God, but are ones of our own choosing, and so we can choose to come out from underneath those authorities. For example, at least here in America, we have a choice as to where we work and who we work for. And if we have a boss who is a tyrant or who is abusive, we can go somewhere else.
The same is true for what are called “churches.” If we decide to attend gatherings of institutional churches which are not following the Scriptures, but which are compromising the Scriptures to make them more acceptable to human flesh, and in order to not offend the people of the world – the people who they are trying to attract to their gatherings – we do not have to submit to those who would have us lie, cheat, and compromise truth and righteousness, but we are free to come out from under their authority.
And when the Scriptures teach that wives are to be in submission to their husbands, it is to be as they would submit to the Lord. So they do not have to and should not submit to anything that is sinful and that is against what the Scriptures teach with regard to how we are to conduct our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. So, in all submission, either for wives to husbands, or for all of us to submit to governing authorities, all submission should first of all be in submission to God and to his moral standards of right and wrong.
The relationship between God and the rulers of evil does not allow them autonomous rule. As Paul clearly states, the rulers to be obeyed are those who commend citizens of the kingdom of God - those who do good. What makes them
ordained of God is not some righteous quality they possess but their use by God to sustain his law. Christians are instructed not to attempt to overthrow this world-system of rulers by military means, but through God’s method of Christian revolution, based on the power of the gospel. Christians undermine the humanist roots of societies maintained by evil rulers as the numbers of those exclusively loyal to Christ increase. We are to recognize (“honor”) evil rulers in their restraint of evil while we attempt to put society on a better footing, a righteousness found in obedience to Christ. In our time, evil rule is sustained by the support of the many “good Christians” who continue to aid the enemies of the gospel in the name of Christ.
Submission to worldly government therefore consists largely of non-interference (deference), though in the case of active obedience, it is an obedience to God’s law that coincides with what is acceptable to the ruler. In not violating such human laws, the Christian is not legitimizing their human source of authority but instead recognizes the legitimate origin of law as being from God. To maintain political stability, evil rulers often unwittingly uphold God’s law, though they do not recognize it as such. Though sometimes reflected in human law-making, all authoritative law for the Christian is given by God and not by those who write, pass, or decree laws as their own.
