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CHAPTER 13
The first seven verses of Romans 13 cover the relationship between Christians and government in more detail than any other Scriptures.
Verses one through seven of Romans 13 are probably some of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible which result in horrendous consequences.
The view that Romans 13:1-7 or 1 Peter 2:13-15 were written to compel believers to submit to tyranny is biblically incorrect. Consider the following three points:
1. None of the verses in question state that we must submit unconditionally to civil government even though some people impose that idea on the text. In fact, there are no Scriptures in the entire Bible that teach that.
2. Proper hermeneutics (interpretations) forbids such a conclusion. There are many examples in the Bible of people who disobeyed civil government and were blessed by God for doing so as we’ll see in Chapter 10, “Examples of Biblical Civil Disobedience”.
3. There are clauses in the Romans 13 and 1 Peter passages that limit civil government. Only rulers who function as “ministers of God for good” have authorization from God, Rom. 13:4. Good citizens have nothing to fear from God’s ministers; in fact, they may receive praise from them for their good behavior, Rom. 13: 3 and 1 Pet. 2:14. This certainly does not ap-ply to rulers who abuse people they have pledged to serve.
Still, many believe that Romans 13:1-7 requires unconditional submission and so they feel obligated to stand idly by while their government enslaves them.
“Romans chapter 13 has become a kind of ubiquitous opiate that causes Christians to revel in sheepish slavery and servitude… [and has] caused more Christians to surrender their God-given liberties and freedoms to all sorts of tyrants, both secular and religious.” 97
One of the main reasons people misunderstand these seven verses is because they fail to recognize that they do not refer to all governing rulers. They refer only to those who submit to God’s authority and function as His ministers for good. All other rulers are under His condemnation, not His blessing.
These verses define the ideal government from God’s divine perspective as one that operates properly as His minister for good, possessing legitimate authority to punish evildoers.
To apply the submission that Romans 13:1-7 requires to a tyrannical government that has become a minister of Sa-tan for evil is a gross misapplication!
“Nothing in the entire passage has any reference to wicked rulers. It says not one word about rebellious magistrates; or those who oppose God; or those who become despotic or ty-rannical in their abuse of power. None of these sorts of gov-ernments are addressed or described here at all. Rather, the whole point of the passage is simply to clarify that there is in-deed a God-ordained purpose for civil government.” 98
On January 30, 1750, Jonathan Mayhew delivered a sermon on Romans 13:1-7.
“The apostle’s [Paul] doctrine… may be summed up in the following observations, viz.: That the end of magistracy is the good of civil society… That civil rulers, as such, are the ordi-nance and ministers of God; it being by His permission and providence that any bear rule and agreeable to His will that there should be some persons vested with authority in socie-ty, for the well-being of it… It is obvious then, in general, that the civil rulers whom the apostle speaks of, and obedience to whom he presses upon Christians as a duty, are good rulers, such as are, in the exercise of their office and power, bene-factors to society.…” 99
In the earlier chapters of Romans, Paul stressed the Good News of salvation through faith in Christ and how it set us free from servitude to the Mosaic Law. But there was the possibility that believers of his day might misunderstand this newly ac-quired freedom and misuse it to support a growing anti-government view- point that had developed out of hatred for the Roman conquerors who had taken over their land.
Runyan Gordan describes their erroneous viewpoint in what could have been their own words:
“I used to be under the [Mosaic] law. Now, Christ has set me free. Not under law but under grace. If I am no longer bound under the jurisdiction of the Law of God in this manner, then surely no merely human laws or governments can have any authority over me! If I’m free from servile life under God’s own Law, how much less could any government of man command my service?” 100
Romans 13:1-7 very clearly condemns lawlessness and anar-chy which is the mindset described above. So Paul corrected this problem, not by requiring unconditional submission to an abusive government, but by describing a government that op-erates as a minister of God for good where submission is re-quired.
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We must not fear because God is in control! The people need to wake up to this evil government because if they can do this to President Donald Trump they can do it to us! Things are not falling apart they are falling in place.🙏🇺🇸🙏😊