Whose Authority?

Read Romans 13:1-7

What do you hear when you read a verse like Romans 13:1? It reads, “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

Now we all know that there are some very difficult questions to be answered here. When it says again in verse 1 that “there is no authority except from God,” does it include evil rulers? When it says in verse 3 that the civil authorities are “not a terror to good conduct, but to bad,” is that always true? What are we to make of Paul’s seemingly absolute statements?

This text has implications for laws and law enforcement, political activism and civil disobedience, elections and protesting, mask wearing and social distancing. This is not a small or simple text.

The plain reading of the text is clear. Submit to civil authority 1) because it’s instituted by God, 2) because it is good for you that there is civil authority, 3) because you will get punished if you don’t, and 4) because if you don’t, your conscience will condemn you for breaking the higher law of God.

Now, I imagine you, like me, jump to the “buts.” 

“But our leaders are morally corrupt.”  

“But that law is stupid!”

Paul says submit to the government out of reverence for God—not reverence for the ruler. That’s what verse one means. They are not God. God is God. When you submit, you submit for God’s sake.

I believe that Paul writes in such absolutes (“Be subject to the governing authorities.”) not because he believes that every government all the time is perfect and will do right (remember – he’s living in a time when the Roman government was killing Christians because of their allegiance to Jesus- but because he is more concerned with our humility, self-denial and trust in Christ, than he is about our civil liberties. In other words, Paul risked being misunderstood on the side of submission because he saw pride as a greater danger to Christians and our salvation than government injustice.

Both matter: civil liberties and social justice on the one hand, and personal faith and humility and self-denial, on the other. But in Paul’s mind, faith, humility and self-denial are vastly more important for the Christian than that we be treated well by the government.

by Jim Caler