Romans | Chapter 13

Romans 13:1-7 

“Lessons in Civics”   

Vs. 1-2 Obey the powers that be 

Vs. 3-5 Reasons to obey

Vs. 6-7 Benefits of obedience

Intro

In the 12th chapter Paul dealt with the obligations of love and focused his attention to those within the body of Christ and those outside the body of Christ. Here Paul points out that we have obligations to love outside these personal relationships to general relationships such as being a good citizen in the country the Lord has placed them. I’ve heard it said that there are a few things you should never discuss, “Religion and politics.” And one other that no one wants to talk about “taxes”, and here Paul is going to do all three. Paul can’t be talking about us being subject to the “governing authorities” with the mess we are in right now? The times in which Paul wrote these words were far more evil than now. When one considers that he was writing to the church in Rome where 2/3 of the people were slaves and many within the church were Jewish and they were notorious for their uprisings. Yet it is to this very group that Paul tells Christians that they are to be subject to the governing authorities. 

Paul defines for us three ways that we are to maintain a relationship with the state:

Vs. 1-7 The Christian’s obligation to the state

Vs. 8-10 The Christian’s obligation to the citizens of the state

Vs. 11-14 The Christian’s practice of their civil obligations      

Vs. 1 The first things we learn about both the forms of Government as well as those that occupy the positions of power within the government is its source as Paul says that “the powers that be” are from God. Paul tells his readers of their obligation for civil obedience and that there is not one Christian that is exempt from obedience to the state! The reason for this has nothing to do with the righteousness or lack thereof of the “powers that be,” but rather because of the “righteousness” of the God who is the source of their authority and the One who has sanctioned it. God is not removed or uninterested in governments and political affairs, He is orchestrating them. 

God hasn’t sanctioned any one form of government so it can take on many different forms and still be from Him. All of society needs government as God intended man to live under authority. I’m reminded of a quote from a letter written by the French diplomat Joseph de Maistre in August 1811 about Napoleon Bonaparte in post revolutionary France when he said, “Every nation gets the government it deserves”. We Americans love to think that only democracy is ordained by God but at the time that Paul wrote this Rome had been a monarchy, republic, principality and now an empire under their 5th emperor and perhaps the most ruthless Nero. The best form of government for a nation is whatever form God has brought into being for that time and place. Sometimes God uses a government or the powers that be to bless a people and sometimes He uses them to judge them and to get them to repent! 

America has tried to set up democracies in parts of the world where the people of that country just can’t seem to make it work. In Daniel 2:20-21, Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar, “God changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” God is interested in not only the form of government but also the persons who occupy the offices of authority. And by His grace and wisdom He not only sends us good leaders but allows us to have bad ones at times as well. In Daniel 4:17 King Nebuchadnezzar came to this decision when he wrote a decree saying, “the Most high rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men.” 

Vs. 2 In light of the corruptive form of government that Paul and believers were living under at the time of this letter he still condemns the resistance to the governing authorities saying that it is equivalent to resisting God. Since God has allowed the “powers that be” to govern over us the flip side of that is also true: governments are in power “under God”.  In February of 1948 Louis Bowman inserted those very words “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance quoting from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Under President Eisenhower’s administration in 1954 it was signed into law as part of the pledge of allegiance. This in no way suggests that everything that a government does to its citizens is justified or ordained by Him. 

This concept isn’t new as you will recall Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:21 as they handed him a coin with Caesar’s image on it and He said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” God has put His image on man, we belong to Him. We can give certain things to Caesar but people belong to God, they may have the right to our property and possessions, they may regulate how we treat one another but they have no right to the spirit of man. They have no right to tell us how to worship, or forbid our obedience to the Word of God. Whenever a government commands that we do what ought not to be done we don’t have to listen. We must not enslave people, oppress them because they are God’s not the governments. Such is the case in Acts 5:29 after being commanded to never speak about Jesus, “Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” To oppose overtly the government that is in power such as was the case at the founding of this country;

two things not mentioned here must be considered:

  • What is our responsibility, should the government persecute Christians?
  • What is our responsibility should the government fail to do its duty to its citizens? 

Paul wrote this during the reign of the Roman Empire which was no democracy, and no special friend to Christians – yet he still saw their legitimate authority. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, one of the worst Roman governors Judea ever had, and Paul under Nero, the worst Roman Emperor. And neither our Lord nor His Apostle denied or reviled the ‘authority! We are bound to obey the governing authority unless they order us to do something in contradiction to God’s law.

Vs. 3-5 Reasons to obey

Vs. 3-4 Paul adds additional reason for submission to the “powers that be” saying they are “servants of God” and ought not to cause any fear or trouble to those who are good citizens only to those who are evil-doers. Three times in this section Paul refers to them as “ministers”, and that is the same word we use for deacon and was used of those who served in the Jewish temple.    

Governments are to protect its citizens from evil: 

This evil may be in the form of an outside attack. Or it may be from the inside attack like crime from within. This is why governments have armies, police forces and courts. Rulers that bear the sword simply means that they have the authority to act on behalf of society to afflict punishment upon those who have injured the citizens. They have the right on behalf of its citizens to execute force if necessary even to taking a life. There is no doubt that these powers have been abused and misapplied but the answer is to correct the problem, not eliminate governments’ right to act on behalf of its people. So, the next time you get pulled over by the traffic police, realize that the person who did so was acting like a deacon.  

Vs. 5 He further tells his readers that such obedience to the “powers that be” are not only to be made by the believer because it will keep us out of trouble but because it is the “right thing to do”! This conscience not only gives us the right moral compass, it also serves as the government’s limitation. The powers that be that govern in God’s name must not do anything contrary to that Name and if they do we are not obligated to participate in their practice. Now I’m certain that all of us can come up with examples from all political parties of those who have abused their God given authority, but we aren’t called to always respect the person in office, we are called to respect the office because the powers that be are from God. 

Vs. 6-7 Benefits of obedience

Vs. 6-7 The second function governments have is to tax its citizens: Governments not only serve their citizens by protecting them from without and from within they also provide common services that minister to the needs of the people. Utilities, education and relief agencies are common things that taxes are to go for. Governments have two things at their disposal to ensure that their citizenry complies with these things: physical force and economic force.  

Taxes to whom taxes are due: To get people to do the right thing in caring for each other the government has the right to tax its people to ensure that folks get the services they need. We may not like the amount the government takes and the way they spend it but the answer is not to be found in not paying but rather in changing the laws or the people making the laws. It is our responsibility to do the right thing even when we are trying to change it. Paul gives an example of civil obedience in the paying of taxes to which he says, “render therefore to all their due”;

Then he mentions four aspects of civil authority:

  • Personal property taxes: Taxes, refers to an annual collection such as property or income tax. I’m certain that most folks don’t think of their IRS agent as a minister of God. Some say that they don’t want to pay their taxes because the money the government is collecting is going against the things of the Bible but so too in Paul’s time.

  • Export, or import taxes: Sales tax is paid upon purchase, something some states don’t have. 

  • Fear, or respect of the government: Fear does not mean terror but rather that which removes terror and as such we are to have high regard for those in authority over us who have removed our terror. 

  • Honor and respect for those under the government as well:  But beyond that we are to pay what we owe; honor.                

This is not the only passage that deals with the Christians civil duty:

1 Tim. 2:1-2 where Paul exhorts “first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” 

Titus 3:1 We read that they were to be reminded “to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.” 

1 Peter 2:13-17 Peter writes, “submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men– as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” 

Justin Martyr (103 to 165 AD) wrote during the height of Christian persecution, “We worship only God, but in other things we will gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men, and praying that, with your kingly power, you may be found to possess also sound judgment.” 

Romans 13:8-14 

“Living on the Edge”   

Vs. 8-10 Payback time 

Vs. 11-14 What time is it? 

Intro

We come now to the 2nd and 3rd parts of this chapter as Paul has been giving us a civics lesson on how to be godly citizens to the “powers that be”. I’m amazed at how one phrase can answer how we are to respond to the state and our fellow citizens who may not like us all that much. Paul simply writes in verse 8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Just like the original readers of this letter we Christians today need to learn how to display love amid all the pressures we face each day. Do you think LOVE makes a difference? Let’s put it to the test: We Christians just like everybody else have things we love; sports, food, hobbies etc. 

  • Name who won the championship 10 years ago in your favorite sport. 

  • Name what you ate three weeks ago on a Thursday night? 

  • Name what you made or did with regards to your hobby a year ago?

How come if we love them, we can’t seem to remember that much about them? Oh, but recall the time when someone loved you, reached out to you, remember the situation, the details, the people. You have just learned a great and powerful lesson. It is not what we love that has a lasting impact, it is who has loved us and who we have loved. Love makes ALL the difference!!!!     

Vs. 8-10 Payback time

Vs. 8-10 There is something about trying to follow a bunch of rules and regulations that we humans just find difficult. If the speed limit says don’t go over 70 then we have to go at least 75. I’m convinced it’s part of the fall, my granddaughter has learned when she asks for a piece of candy to start counting 2, 3, 4.  She then realized that she could just skip the counting and started saying a lot and now she is saying “lots a, lots a, lots a”! I believe God knows that about us, so he had Paul write not on what not to do but on what to do by saying, “This is easy, my children all you have to do is love!” Have you ever had a person that just brings your blood to boil and you are struggling on what to do? Well Paul says, “Love them and you won’t be able to hurt them!” 

I had a fellow a few years back that before he left the church decided to call people in the church directory to see if they would join him. When we heard of it I took some leadership and I bought him lunch and asked him if we had offended him personally in any way as we were unaware of anything. He told us no, then we lovingly asked him why he felt obligated to call folks and encourage them to leave fellowship with us. He denied doing so and left angry! We then had the opportunity to bless him with a substantial amount of business! I don’t know how it made him feel but it made me feel great! I can’t honestly say that love made a difference to that person but I can tell you that loving him made a difference in me! My biggest problem is a lack of love but it’s not a lack of love FROM others it is a lack of love TO others! You see, loving people and harming people are mutually exclusive, you can do one or the other, but you can’t do both at the same time!

 Paul gives us three specific things about our obligation to love:

Debt: Paul says that this is not a suggestion but neither is it a command; it is something even more binding, we owe a debt! The word “owe” is the verb to the noun in “due” in verse 7. The connection is when you pay all your dues you still have an ongoing obligation to love one another. When you owe somebody something, it’s on your mind continually until you make a payment. So the moment you and I came into contact this morning I owed you something and you owed me something, LOVE! I needed to make a payment directly to you, to give you kindness, courtesy, patience and understanding. Whatever the situation or circumstance maybe I need to pay my debt to you and you to me. Our first response should be, “I need to pay this fellow what I owe him right away, even though he hasn’t paid me what he owes me!” If we did that right up front it may jog their memory about what they owe us! In Philemon 1:18-19 Paul was writing to a church leader about his runaway slave named Onesimus saying, “If he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay–not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides.”  

Everyone: The second thing we learn about our debt of love is that it doesn’t have a limitation upon who we need to pay. Paul said we were to owe NO ONE anything except to love. Read down a few verses to verse 10 where he describes “NO ONE” as our neighbor! Now I was thinking that’s only two or three families, I can do this. Then I started thinking about more than just geography. A neighbor is the one who lives next to you; they are the ones at this very moment that are seated next to where you are. That would mean that at any given moment my neighbor is the person I’m closest to: at the store, as I’m driving, on the phone, at work. I need to give kindness, courtesy, patience and understanding to whoever is closest to me at this very moment.  

Positive: The final thing I learn about my debt of love is that it goes beyond what I don’t do to them to harm them. That’s the difference between “LAW” and “LOVE”. The law’s concern focuses only on not doing negative things to those closest to you. Do what you want with your property, but you can’t do what you want with your neighbor’s property, wife, stuff, name or life! There are folks that think, “Well that’s enough; not doing those things to those closest to me is loving them!” Ah but love says, “Don’t just not do harmful things to those closest to you, do good things to your neighbor.” Love them, reach out to them, help them, and find ways that you can bless those closest to you. The law stops at the line but love crosses over that line and goes the extra mile, bringing a coat not just a scarf, not just a glass of water and a piece of bread but a 5-gallon container full of water and a 5-course meal!  

Vs. 11-14 What time is it?

Vs. 11-14 After saying that we Christian’s owe everyone a debt of love Paul now moves on to give a motivating factor, THE TIMES we are living in. 

He says that understanding the times will motivate us four ways to love our neighbors:

Vs. 11-12a Wake up: The first thing Paul says is that the “times” ought to cause us to get going, not to “political mobilization” but to “evangelical globalization”! Right now the night is all around us but that only signals that the day is about to dawn. If we have been waiting for the opportune time to pay back the debt of love to someone then there is no better time to start than today because you may not be given tomorrow. The alarm has gone off folks, it’s time to recognize all the opportunities to love those closest to us. The church needs to awake out of its spiritual slumber and start reaching folks with the glorious good news that Jesus is coming. It’s a lot easier for us to send our dollars to some foreign mission field so that someone we barely know can love someone we don’t know at all, rather than us reaching out to someone ourselves. That leads us to the 2nd thing we are called to do. 

Vs. 12b-13 Clean up: Paul says we need to “cast off” the works of darkness. Time for us to clean up a bit and do what the author of Hebrews in 12:1 says, to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”. We all need to do some spiritual house cleaning and get rid of some junk that has been cluttering up our lives. Paying back the debt of love is going to require us to let go of three things that are keeping us from loving others:

Parties: Paul says if you are going to be involved in paying back your debt of love, if you are all about the good times and getting wasted. Not only do you get “wasted” you end up “wasting” time that you could be spending on having a real good time blessing someone else. Each of us only has so many moments to spend to demonstrate God’s powerful love and if we are spending it getting wasted then all we will end up is wasted. 

Immorality: Paul describes it as lewdness and lust and says you can’t love people and live for sexual conquests at the same time. In using these two terms Paul covers the whole range of immorality here from, adultery, homosexuality, immorality and pornography. If we indulge in these things Paul says we will be wasting time that will destroy us and others. 

Contentions: Finally, Paul says that if we are going to pay back our debt of love then we are going to have to clean out strife and envy. There are some that just live for gossip and the spread of negativity. They aren’t happy unless they are unhappy and spreading that unhappiness around to others. Folks, you can’t be paying back that debt of love if you are all about trying to cause division and strife. In Matthew 12:30 Jesus said “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” What effect do you have on people, are you gathering them or scattering them? This is how we can tell if we are with Jesus or against Jesus. Proverbs 27:15 says that, “A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman (person) are alike”.   

Vs. 14a Dress up: To walk properly requires us to wear the right outfit and it won’t include the following attire “revelry and drunkenness, lewdness, lust, strife and envy”. But dressing right isn’t just about what you aren’t wearing it is about what you are wearing and in this case we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we get up in the morning we put on clothes that make us presentable to others and friends. There is no outfit in your closet that makes you more presentable to others than the Lord Jesus Christ! Make wearing Him today your life, wherever you go and whoever you meet folks will be complementing you on how nice you look. They say that what you wear makes the person and I couldn’t agree more when what you wear is Jesus. There is a fashion today that seems to be a mix-match of several outfits and I’m afraid that this is what the Christian looks like sometimes, a little of the world’s clothing and a little of Jesus.      

Vs. 14b Grow up: Finally, we are told that we will need to grow up and growing is going to require us to make no provisions for the flesh, not to give it any inroads into our lives. That may mean that we are going to have to let go of things. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 13:11,  “When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” J.B. Phillips translated this verse “Let us be Christ’s men from head to foot, and give no chance to the flesh to have its fling.”