Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Ch. Rom 13:1-7. Christian practice: civil duties: authority and obedience
1. Let every soul be subject, &c.] A new subject is here treated Civil Obedience. It is not isolated, however, from the previous context, in which (from Rom 12:19) subjection to individuals in private life was considered. And it passes in turn into a different but kindred context again, in Rom 13:8 below. We offer a few general remarks on the subject.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1. In this passage it is stated, as a primary truth of human society, that civil authority is, as such, a Divine institution. Whatever may be the details of error or of wrong in its exercise, it is nevertheless, even at its worst, so vastly better than anarchy, that it forms a main instrument and ordinance of the will of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let every soul – Every person. In the seven first verses of this chapter, the apostle discusses the subject of the duty which Christians owe to civil government; a subject which is extremely important, and at the same time exceedingly difficult. There is no doubt that he had express reference to the special situation of the Christians at Rome; but the subject was of so much importance that he gives it a general bearing, and states the great principles on which all Christians are to act. The circumstances which made this discussion proper and important were the following:
(1) The Christian religion was designed to extend throughout the world. Yet it contemplated the rearing of a kingdom amid other kingdoms, an empire amid other empires. Christians professed supreme allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ; he was their Lawgiver, their Sovereign, their Judge. It became, therefore, a question of great importance and difficulty, what kind of allegiance they were to render to earthly magistrates.
(2) The kingdoms of the world were then pagan kingdoms. The laws were made by pagans, and were adapted to the prevalence of paganism. Those kingdoms had been generally founded in conquest, and blood, and oppression. Many of the monarchs were blood-stained warriors; were unprincipled men; and were polluted in their private, and oppressive in their public character. Whether Christians were to acknowledge the laws of such kingdoms and of such men, was a serious question, and one which could not but occur very early. It would occur also very soon, in circumstances that would be very affecting and trying. Soon the hands of these magistrates were to be raised against Christians in the fiery scenes of persecution; and the duty and extent of submission to them became a matter of very serious inquiry.
(3) Many of the early Christians were composed of Jewish converts. Yet the Jews had long been under Roman oppression, and had borne the foreign yoke with great uneasiness. The whole pagan magistracy they regarded as founded in a system of idolatry; as opposed to God and his kingdom; and as abomination in his sight. With these feelings they had become Christians; and it was natural that their former sentiments should exert an influence on them after their conversion. How far they should submit, if at all, to heathen magistrates, was a question of deep interest; and there was danger that the Jewish converts might prove to be disorderly and rebellious citizens of the empire.
(4) Nor was the case much different with the Gentile converts. They would naturally look with abhorrence on the system of idolatry which they had just forsaken. They would regard all as opposed to God. They would denounce the religion of the pagans as abomination; and as that religion was interwoven with the civil institutions, there was danger also that they might denounce the government altogether, and be regarded as opposed to the laws of the land,
(5) There were cases where it was right to resist the laws. This the Christian religion clearly taught; and in cases like these, it was indispensable for Christians to take a stand. When the laws interfered with the rights of conscience; when they commanded the worship of idols, or any moral wrong, then it was their duty to refuse submission. Yet in what cases this was to be done, where the line was to be drawn, was a question of deep importance, and one which was not easily settled. It is quite probable, however, that the main danger was, that the early Christians would err in refusing submission, even when it was proper, rather than in undue conformity to idolatrous rites and ceremonies.
(6) In the changes which were to occur in human governments, it would be an inquiry of deep interest, what part Christians should take, and what submission they should yield to the various laws which might spring up among the nations. The principles on which Christians should act are settled in this chapter.
Be subject – Submit. The word denotes that kind of submission which soldiers render to their officers. It implies subordination; a willingness to occupy our proper place, to yield to the authority of those over us. The word used here does not designate the extent of the submission, but merely enjoins it in general. The general principle will be seen to be, that we are to obey in all things which are not contrary to the Law of God.
The higher powers – The magistracy; the supreme government. It undoubtedly here refers to the Roman magistracy, and has relation not so much to the rulers as to the supreme authority which was established as the constitution of government; compare Mat 10:1; Mat 28:18.
For – The apostle gives a reason why Christians should be subject; and that reason is, that magistrates have received their appointment from God. As Christians, therefore, are to be subject to God, so they are to honor God by honoring the arrangement which he has instituted for the government of mankind. Doubtless, he here intends also to repress the vain curiosity and agitation with which men are prone to inquire into the titles of their rulers; to guard them from the agitation and conflicts of party, and of contentions to establish a favorite on the throne. It might be that those in power had not a proper title to their office; that they had secured it, not according to justice, but by oppression; but into that question Christians were not to enter. The government was established, and they were not to seek to overturn it.
No power – No office; no magistracy; no civil rule.
But of God – By Gods permission, or appointment; by the arrangements of his providence, by which those in office had obtained their power. God often claims and asserts that He sets up one, and puts down another; Psa 75:7; Dan 2:21; Dan 4:17, Dan 4:25, Dan 4:34-35.
The powers that be – That is, all the civil magistracies that exist; those who have the rule over nations, by whatever means they may have obtained it. This is equally true at all times, that the powers that exist, exist by the permission and providence of God.
Are ordained of God – This word ordained denotes the ordering or arrangement which subsists in a military company, or army. God sets them in order, assigns them their location, changes and directs them as he pleases. This does not mean that he originates or causes the evil dispositions of rulers, but that he directs and controls their appointment. By this, we are not to infer:
- That he approves their conduct; nor,
- That what they do is always right; nor,
- That it is our duty always to submit to them.
Their requirements may be opposed to the Law of God, and then we are to obey God rather than man; Act 4:19; Act 5:29. But it is meant that the power is intrusted to them by God; and that he has the authority to remove them when he pleases. If they abuse their power, however, they do it at their peril; and when so abused, the obligation to obey them ceases. That this is the case, is apparent further from the nature of the question which would be likely to arise among the early Christians. It could not be and never was a question, whether they should obey a magistrate when he commanded a thing that was plainly contrary to the Law of God. But the question was, whether they should obey a pagan magistrate at all. This question the apostle answers in the affirmative, because God had made government necessary, and because it was arranged and ordered by his providence. Probably also the apostle had another object in view. At the time in which he wrote this Epistle, the Roman Empire was agitated with civil dissensions. One emperor followed another in rapid succession. The throne was often seized, not by right, but by crime. Different claimants would rise, and their claims would excite controversy. The object of the apostle was to prevent Christians from entering into those disputes, and from taking an active part in a political controversy. Besides, the throne had been usurped by the reigning emperors, and there was a prevalent disposition to rebel against a tyrannical government. Claudius had been put to death by poison; Caligula in a violent manner; Nero was a tyrant; and amidst these agitations, and crimes, and revolutions, the apostle wished to guard Christians from taking an active part in political affairs.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 13:1-7
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers
I. Every soul, or man (Exo 12:4; Gen 46:27).
1. Secular person.
2. Ecclesiastical or religious.
II. The object. The higher powers, or chief magistrates established in each nation.
1. To see that God be rightly worshipped (2Ch 14:2; 2Ch 14:4; 2Ch 17:6; 2Ch 17:9).
2. To preserve peace (1Ti 2:2; Psa 72:7).
3. To execute justice (Psa 72:2; Rom 13:4).
III. The act. Be subject. We owe them–
1. Prayers (1Ti 2:1).
2. Fear (Pro 24:21; 1Pe 2:17).
3. Not to speak evil of him (Ecc 10:20; 2Pe 2:10; Jud 1:8).
4. Dues (Rom 13:7).
5. Subjection and obedience (Tit 3:1).
(1) Otherwise the magistrates power is in vain.
(2) The public good depends upon our obedience.
(3) We are bound to obey for fear (Rom 13:2; Rom 13:5).
(4) For the Lords sake (Rom 13:5).
(5) He that resisteth, resisteth the ordinance of God.
IV. The reason of the command. All power is of God. This appears–
1. From Scripture.
(1) Every power is ordained of God (Rom 13:1-2).
(2) The magistrate is the minister of God, (Rom 13:4).
(3) By God kings reign (Pro 7:15-16).
(4) They judge under Him (2Ch 19:5-7).
(5) He sets up kings (Dan 2:21; Dan 2:37; Dan 5:21).
(6) God first ordained the power of the sword in the hand of men (Gen 9:6).
(7) God gave particular direction for choosing most of the kings of Israel; as Saul, David, Jehu: and so now.
2. From reason.
(1) He is the first cause of all things (Joh 19:11).
(2) All power depends on Him (Act 17:28).
(3) As the stream from the fountain.
3. All power in men is Gods power in their hands (2Ch 19:6).
4. Power is good and necessary: therefore from God (Jam 1:17).
5. It is part of the law of nature (Rom 2:14-15). (Bp. Beveridge.)
Subjection to the higher powers
I. The duty.
1. Respects all legitimately constituted authority.
2. Extends to all persons, without distinction.
3. Requires submission in all matters not affecting conscience.
II. Its foundation. Power is–
1. Derived from God.
2. Is an ordinance of God.
3. Is established by the providence of God. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Obedience to law
I. Subjection to the higher powers. Not abject subjection to governments, whatever their character; but intelligent, manly subordination to a divinely ordered arrangement–the social framework and the national dominion. Many are the corruptions and oppressions of rulers and the imperfections and perversions of constitutions. Nevertheless there is a Divine ordination, as of marriage and home, so of nationality. Per se, government is essential to the perfection of human life, and so far as it does not hinder our obedience to God as the direct Sovereign of our souls, we are properly obligated to obey it. Divine Providence may have so ordered our lives that we may be overshadowed by pagan authorities. While we approve not the perversions of depraved legislators–their intemperance, Sabbath desecration, profanity, luxury and ambition–we can, notwithstanding, hold ourselves in dignified yielding to normal law. When the corruptions or misapplications of government become glaring and intolerable, the right of revolution is rightly appealed to, and then may God speed the right.
II. Spiritual authority. Aside from references to political governments, the whole paragraph may have a truer application to spiritual authority. Rank pharisaic ecclesiasticism and Papal domination are extremely abhorrent to every soul whom the truth and grace of God have made free. But Church officers and institutions founded on the gospel are the reflex of the Lords own kingdom. These powers are ordained of God–apostles, deacons, elders; with regulations for Sabbath observance, public worship, evangelistic progress. That one or more persons should, therefore, in any community decry creeds, church association, ministerial functions and labours, etc., must be a grievous evil. Satan can quickly divide and scatter the fold by such disorganisers and malcontents if the least heed be paid them. At suitable public anniversaries we should look into the Magna Charta of our Christian rights and experiences. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The duty and obligations of civil obedience
I. The duty which we owe to civil governors.
1. Submission. This injunction is given to every soul. And with regard to its extent, Peter says, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. If anything, indeed, were enjoined on us inconsistent with Gods will, we are to obey God rather than man, as did the three Hebrew youths, Daniel, and Peter. For the commands of the greatest potentates in the world are of no weight against the paramount authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords. When, however, they are not at variance with the law of God, the Scriptures expressly enjoin an unreserved obedience.
2. Support (verse 6, 7). Expenses must be incurred, both in carrying on affairs and in supporting the dignity and remunerating the labours of the officers of state. Hence there must be taxes, tribute and custom. Hence all shrinking from bearing our proportional weight of the public burdens is not only against the law of the land, but the Word of God. Christ Himself paid taxes from which He was properly exempt.
3. Respect. Fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour, i.e., reverential homage due to kings and principal rulers, and the respect due to all who are in authority. Here, then, is forbidden everything that is disrespectful either in manner or language. The blazoning abroad the faults of our rulers, so as to degrade them in the eyes of others, is an offence against God. When Korah, etc., gathered themselves together against Moses, you know how God expressed His indignation against these contemners of constituted authority. The Scriptures regard it as a daring thing to speak evil of dignities, to despise dominion.
II. The grounds on which our obligation rests.
1. The penalty which those incur who transgress. A law becomes a dead letter, unless its penalties are enforced: and it is the duty of such as are in authority to be a terror to evil works, and not to bear the sword in vain, for they are appointed as the ministers of God, as revengers to execute wrath on him that doeth evil. Yea, it is said that they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation. We acknowledge this is a low motive. Still, low as it is, we fear, so great a lack of higher principle prevails amongst us, that, were it not employed, such a thing as obedience would hardly be known. Each would be an Ishmael.
2. The advantage we derive from civil government (verses 3, 4). So appalling is the evil of the want of a regular government, that the very worst government is better than no government at all (see Jdg 18:1-31). We have so long enjoyed the blessings of an equitable government, in which even the king dare not, if he would, invade the rights of the beggar, and in which every crime is prosecuted, and, in consequence, we have been so long privileged to sit each one under his vine and under his fig-tree, none daring to make us afraid, that we seem almost to forget that we owe this happy security, not to any improvement in man himself, but to a well-ordered government. It might help us to realise these advantages if we were to suppose for a time, a suspension of the laws throughout the land; and that every one was left to follow the full bent of his own will, without fear.
3. The consideration of the authority wherewith they are invested (verse 1). This applies to all that hold legitimate authority. It is not necessary, in order to make any power the ordinance of God, that it should be nominated by God Himself: as Moses, and Saul, and David were, for instance. For the apostle is speaking of the Roman emperors, who were elected by the army. It is mutual consent and contract that makes two persons man and wife; and yet matrimony is Gods ordinance; and the subjection under which the wife is required to be unto her own husband in everything arises not just from mutual contract, but from Gods appointment. Again, one becomes master, and another servant, by consent and covenant: but the masters authority over the servant is derived, not simply from the covenant entered into, but from the ordinance of God. Hence, when Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, Moses says to them, Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. And, moreover, when Israel rejected Samuel as their ruler God regarded it as a rejection of Himself. (J. Sandys, A.M.)
Christian duties towards civil rulers
These duties are enforced on two grounds–
I. That they are ordained of God, and therefore ought to be obeyed as a matter of conscience. This implies–
1. That it is according to Gods purpose that society should be organised into self-governing communities for–
(1) Protection against aggressions from without.
(2) For the restraint of wrong-doing and the promotion of prosperity within.
2. That government must assume some form. The administration cannot be left to chance. There must be a constitution, clearly defined, and generally known and approved. The first form of government was that of the family. But, as families multiplied, each having a variety of rights, out of which would arise differences not to be easily settled, some more general form became necessary. Government by patriarchy having fallen through, many other forms are possible, and have become actual. Which then is the one ordained of God? This does not concern the apostle. The general rule assumed seems to have been that, as every community is likely to secure for itself that form of government which is best suited to it, at any period of its development, so that form of government actually existing is the one which is of Gods ordination for that people at that time. For the apostle speaks not of what ought to be, but of the powers that be.
3. That there must be powers, i.e., living persons invested with both authority and power to administer government, and that to these the Christian must render conscientious obedience. But it does not follow that he is to take no part in insisting that the ruling powers exercise their proper functions legitimately. For the governors have no more right Divine to do wrong than have those who are governed. Only this was a matter in which Christians had at that time no special concern, and in respect to which it was no part of the apostles purpose to give instructions.
4. That, whatever the form of government, the real Divine purpose is for the punishment of evildoers, and for the good of them that do well. The government is made for the people, and not the people for the government. To the masses it matters little what form of government obtains, but it matters much indeed whether the government rules according to wise or unwise principles. Yet, after all, any government at all is better than none, and none is possible if no obedience is to be secured.
5. That each ought to be subject and to render respectful obedience out of conscience towards God. Of course, there are limits to obedience (Act 4:17-19). When Rome required of the Christians to render homage to an idol, they were under imperative obligation not to obey. And so, while it is incumbent upon every one to render to all officials their due, we are not bound in conscience to render that which is not due. If any state functionary should oppressively demand illegal taxes or service for illegal purposes, the duty of obedience has no place. If, indeed, the service is not in itself immoral, it may be found to be a matter of prudence to submit; but a man is not morally bound thereto: his conscience leaves him free to refuse. But, with such obvious exceptions, the duty of submission is universal.
II. That they have the right power, and will to punish those who disobey. Obedient subjects have nothing to fear. The magistrate is the minister of God to them for good; and those who do good shall have protection and praise of the same. But he has been entrusted also with the sword, the right and power to punish, even unto death, those who disobey. That this motive of fear should be urged appears somewhat strange. Any who were disposed to refuse obedience must have known that they did it at the risk of punishment. But some may have been fanatic enough to persuade themselves that a heathen power could have no moral right to enforce obedience, and that God would hold them harmless for their disobedience. Such are reminded that God, under whom these very rulers were marshalled, was on their side, and would sustain them in the enforcement of subjection and obedience. Therefore, if you cannot be moved to obedience on any higher ground, yet do learn obedience through fear. Even of the wrath of God, who will sustain by His almighty arm the just authority of these powers which are of His own ordination and appointment. (W. Tyson.)
The Christian view of the State
What has our religion to say to our patriotism? What is the final meaning of our relation to the State under which we live?
I. To begin with, the Bible teaches us to take a far higher view of the nation than any we are accustomed to hear. In Gods Word, the State is not a mere machine for keeping order and peace. The nation is not profane, but sacred; not secular, but Divine. The government derives its sanctions not merely from expedience or convenience, but from the appointment of God. You know how elaborately this idea is wrought out in the Old Testament. Jehovah is the actual, almost visible King of the Hebrew commonwealth. He establishes His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He it is that leads the nation out of bondage into freedom. No matter who sits upon the throne, at Jerusalem, or in Samaria, whether it be David or Saul, an Ahab or a Hezekiah, still Jehovah is their true King. From Him cometh promotion; in His name prophets speak; by Him princes rule, and kings decree judgment. But some one says, all this may be true of Israel. It is easy enough to see Gods hand there. But here is our new nineteenth century, where nothing is sacred, how shall we recognise the Divine? In authorities, chosen as ours are, out of the seething cauldron of our practical politics, how can we feel that the powers that be are ordained of God? The man who does not see Gods hand in our nations past history has read its records to very small purpose. Upon every shining page rests the finger of God as truly, if not as visibly, as in Judaea. You may see, if you will, nothing but a happy combination of chances–a happy chance that placed the fairest portion of the Western Continent in the hands of the progressive AngloSaxon race; a happy chance that wafted to our shores the Pilgrims and the Cavaliers, the high-spirited Huguenot, and the thrifty German. In the providence of God, says Charles Sumner–and a truer student of history never lived–there are no accidents. He who sees Gods hand in history at all, must be blind indeed if he does not see His guiding in our nations story. If the Lord Himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say, if the Lord Himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us.
II. Nor is it only a question of the past: God is now in the nations midst. Gods hand is still leading. Thus the state, in its own place, and for its own work, is as divine as the Church herself. Nor is this all. Just as individuals are sent into the world with a calling from God to do some great work, so nations may have a mission. Was not the Hebrew nation called of God to keep alive in the world the knowledge and the worship of the one true God? Was not the Greek nation sent by God to spread broadcast its golden wealth of culture and civilisation? Was not the Roman nation sent to impart its iron strength, its splendid instinct of law and order to the barbarian hordes of Central and Northern Europe? Was not the English people chosen to colonise and settle the new worlds, and to pave the way for this marvellous nineteenth century of ours? Such a mission, such a calling impose upon each of us a mighty responsibility–a responsibility which not a few of us are all too willing to shirk These earthly powers speak to us of a higher sovereignty which we must acknowledge. They point us to a King, eternal, immortal, invisible, to whom we all owe allegiance. There is one will that we wish to be done, on earth as in heaven, in the State as in the Church, in politics as in religion, and that is the will of Him who rules in righteousness. And now what is this again but to say that righteousness must rule? For the will of God is the supremely righteous will. Nor is this all. For our countrys sake, for our Kings sake, let us be good men and true. Thoreau well says, It matters not half so much what kind of a vote you drop into the ballot-box once a year, as what kind of a man you drop out of bed into the street every morning. (L. R. Dalrymple.)
Governors and subjects
I. With respect to governors. The apostle declares–
1. That they are ordained of God (verse 1); that their authority is the ordinance of God (verse 2); that they are the ministers of God (verse 4, 6). Not that these expressions signify that God had appointed one particular form of government, all deviations from which are unlawful. There is not the least ground for such an opinion from history, or the reason of the thing. Can any one imagine that Paul intended to declare that the Roman emperors, who manifestly usurped and maintained their authority by force of arms, had their commission immediately from God? or that he would not have said the same things had the republic continued?
2. That the sole business of all governing power is to consult the good of society by maintaining peace and virtue in it (verses 3, 4, 6). Governors are not persons exalted by Heaven to a height above their neighbours, to be arbitrators, at their own pleasures, of the lives and fortunes of their fellow-creatures, and to receive the servile homage of whole nations, but persons called by the providence of God to a laborious task; not to live in ease, but to watch day and night for the good of that society in which they preside. Their office, indeed, is a glorious office; but the glory of it doth not consist in the outward majesty of the governor, and the servility of the subject, but in the happiness derived from the labours of the supreme head to all the members of the body politic. And that governor who contradicts the character here laid down, who is not a terror to evil works but to good, is not the governor to whom Paul presses obedience. And much less if he manifestly act contrary to the only end of his institution. And this may serve to explain yet farther in what sense these higher powers are from God, viz., as they act agreeably to His will, which is, that they should promote the good of society, which St. Paul all along supposes them to do. And consequently, when they do the contrary they cannot be said to be from God, or to act by His authority.
II. With respect to subjects.
1. The duty of submission and non-resistance is laid down in such absolute terms, that many have been induced from hence to think that the Christian religion denies the subject all liberty of redressing grievances. And yet methinks if the apostle had done nothing but enforced the duty of obedience it would be reasonable to judge from the nature of the thing and the absurdities of the contrary, that he meant this only as a general rule rather than to imagine that he should absolutely conclude whole nations under misery without hopes of redress.
2. But the apostle so explains his own doctrine by the reasons he gives for this obedience, and the account he gives of the duty of governors, as to leave subjects all the liberty they can reasonably desire. For though he doth at first press upon them, in unlimited words, an obedience and non-resistance to the higher powers, yet he manifestly limits this obedience to such rulers as truly answer the end of their institution (verses 3-5). As far as they deflect from Gods will, so far they lose their title to these declarations, so far are they excluded from Pauls argument. These persons are the ministers of God for the good of society; therefore they must be obeyed. But it will not follow from hence that obedience is due to them, if they ruin the happiness of society. And therefore to oppose them in such cases cannot be to oppose the authority of God. Nay, tamely to sit still and see the happiness of society entirely sacrificed to the irregular will of one man seems a greater contradiction to the will of God than any opposition can be. For it is a tacit consent to the misery of mankind. Whilst he commands submission, he puts no case of princes acting contrary to the purpose of their institution, much less of princes who make an express contract with their people and afterwards break it. Nor doth he mention anything of a passive submission in such cases, but plainly leaves nations to the dictates of common sense and the law of self-preservation. But some may say, Where, then, is the great virtue of submission to governors, if it is to be practised towards none but such as answer the ends of their institution? But it is easy to reply, That there is an indispensable duty upon all, subjects as well as others, to regard the public interest; and if their submission help to destroy and ruin that, their submission cannot be a virtue. The great objection against this is that it may give occasion to subjects to oppose their superiors. But a rule is not bad because men may mistake in the application of it to particular instances, or because evil men may satisfy their own passions under its supposed sanction. The contrary doctrine we know by an almost fatal experience may be very much abused. The truth ought not to be concealed, or to suffer in the opinions of men for the sake of accidental inconvenience. Conclusion: It is highly requisite that all in authority should–
1. Be happy in a public spirit, and a true regard to the public interest.
2. Have a deep sense of religion, of the great importance of virtue, and of the bad influence and malignity of vice and immorality.
3. Have a great love to justice, and regard to peace.
4. Show a blameless example. (Bp. Hoadley.)
Human magistracy
Note–
I. That human magistracy of some kind or other Is of Divine appointment. Taking the word ordained in the sense of permit, all the governments of the world, good or bad, aye, all things, even the most sinful, are ordained of God (Dan 4:32; Deu 2:21; Joh 19:11). But taking the word in the sense of decreed it means that the principle of civil government is of Divine appointment.
1. Mans social tendencies indicate this. Some men are royal in their instincts and powers, and are evidently made to rule; others are servile, feeble in faculty, and made to obey. There is a vast gradation of instinct and power in human society, and it is an eternal principle in Gods government that the lesser shall serve the greater.
2. Mans social exigencies indicate it. Every community, to be kept in order, must have a recognised head. Hence, man in his most savage state has a chief.
II. That the human magistracy which is of Divine appointment is that which promotes good and discourages evil. The Divinely appointed rulers of whom the apostle speaks are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. They are those who praise the good; those that are ministers of God for good. To determine, therefore, what kind of civil government is really of Divine appointment, and that is to be obeyed, you must ascertain what is the good which it is to promote, and the evil which it is to discourage. What is good? Obedience to the Divine will. The standard of virtue is not the decree of an autocrat, nor public sentiment, even when organised into constitutional law; but the will of God. Whether it be right in the sight of God, etc. The civil government, therefore, that does not harmonise with this is not the government of which the apostle is speaking. We may infer–
1. That the infringement of human rights is not in accordance with the will of God, and therefore not good.
2. The promotion of injustice, impurity, and error, is not according to the will of God, and therefore not good. Opposition to governments is sometimes a duty. Daniel, etc.
III. That the human magistracy which promotes the good and discourages the evil is authorised to enforce obedience and support (verse 4). The magistrate is Divinely authorised to punish transgressors and rebels. But coercion has its rules and limitations.
1. The sword should never be used but from benevolent desires. The new commandment is the law of humanity; nothing can justify its violation. Punishment should not be inflicted for the sake of giving pain and gratifying revenge, but for the sake of doing good and serving the criminal.
2. The sword should not be used for the purpose of taking life. The advocates of capital punishment and war insist that the sword is used here as the emblem of destruction, whereas it is the emblem of righteous coercion.
IV. That such obedience and support are binding upon all classes of the community. Disobedience to such a government is–
1. Impious. To resist it is to resist the ordinance of God. Rebellion against a righteous human government is rebellion against God.
2. Self-injurious. A righteous ruler is the minister of God to thee for good. He aims at thy good. To resist him, therefore, is to wrong thyself. Conclusion: This passage does not teach that we are bound to obey laws that are not righteous, to honour persons that are not honour-worthy. If we are commanded to honour the king, the precept implies that the kings character is worthy of his office. Some kings it is religious to despise. The obligation of obedience is ever-dependent upon the righteousness of the command. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Earthly citizenship
(election sermon):–
1. Government is a Divine institution for the preservation of society and the happiness of mankind. As to the substance,the powers that be are ordained of God; as to the form, they are left to the decision of each country and age, and areordinances of man; but whether under the name of monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, governments equally claim reverence as the depositaries of authority and the conservators of order.
2. In the duties enumerated in the previous chapter there is this–He that ruleth (let him do it) with diligence. By the British constitution the people are the ultimate despositaries of power. Every ordinance of man which is to be obeyed for the Lords sake is such as the people, by their representatives, make it. Every elector is, therefore, in some measure responsible for the framing of those ordinances, and should therefore labour with diligence that they be in accordance with truth and justice, for the good of men and the glory of God.
3. There cannot be a greater mistake than that on becoming Christians we escape from our obligations as citizens. Religion was designed to train us for heaven, not by unfitting us for the duties of earth, but by enabling us to perform them rightly. Religion would be an injury to the world if it withdrew the best men from it. True piety is nurtured and developed, not by avoiding any portion of our duties as men, but by diligently performing them.
4. Politics is the science and practice of legislation for the public good. Rightly to be political is the same thing as to promote the welfare of the people and the peace of the world. Christianity does indeed condemn the bitterness, the factious spirit, the selfish ambition which have too often disgraced political life; but Christianity, instead of, on this account, excusing its votaries from their duties as citizens, calls upon them all the more to sanctify politics by the nobler aspirations and purer motives of religious faith. What, then, is the duty of a Christian elector?
I. To ascertain who amongst the candidates are, on the whole, most suited for the office of representative. Not wealth, rank, personal friendship, nor any favour received or hoped for, should determine his choice, but fitness, both by character and opinions, to promote the public good.
II. To give effect to his conviction by endeavouring to bring his fellow-electors to the same opinion with himself. But in so doing he will avoid all unfairness in speech and conduct. As an employer, as a customer, it will never occur to him to urge his appeal. His only weapon will be rational persuasion. He will never become a mere partisan. Firmly holding his own opinions, he will do nothing opposed to the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
III. So quietly and seriously, but promptly and resolutely, tender his vote. He will not allow personal convenience, indolence, or fear to prevent the discharge of his duty to his country, and the exercise of that solemn function as one of Gods ministers to which he has been ordained, but the opportunity for which so seldom occurs. Conclusion: Let all of us, then, do our duty to our God and our country.
1. Zealously.
2. Patriotically.
3. Charitably.
4. Prayerfully. (Newman Hall, D.D.)
Human authority
I. Is derived.
II. Is limited.
1. To restrain evil.
2. To encourage good.
III. Is vested with the power of reward and punishment.
IV. Ministers to the general welfare.
V. Demands respect. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The Christians political relations
I. The origin and need of civil government. If the powers that be (civil government) are ordained of God, we infer that civil society itself is ordained of God. This will be manifest when we consider–
1. Mans natural impulses for society. The instincts of our nature dispose us to live in society, and to seek sympathy and assistance from others. Solitary confinement is one of the most terrible punishments which can be inflicted.
2. Mans natural position and circumstances. By means of society the race is preserved, and civilisation developed. If human beings were completely isolated, the race would degenerate and become extinct. Man needs the aid of civil authority to protect his life and property from the malice and power of the evilly-disposed.
II. The obligation of obedience to civil authority. In civil society laws are enacted and governments appointed to enforce the right and put down the wrong. And all rightly disposed persons willingly subject themselves to this authority. This must needs be–
1. As a matter of duty, not of fear only. The fear of punishment is a check upon evil-doers, and thus, in a measure, prevents lawlessness. With evildoers obedience is a matter of compulsion or of expediency. But there is another standard, that of duty, which some take who are not disposed to admit that the powers that be are ordained of God.
2. As a matter of conscience towards God. No human government is infallible. But the Christian, from love and conscience towards God, yields a cheerful obedience to the powers that be, so long as the civil laws do not conflict with the Divine.
III. The duty of reverence to official dignity.
1. As to our dues to the public revenue. The language implies that we are not to regard the levied rates as gifts to the government, but as debts.
2. As to our respect for official distinction. Fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour (2Pe 2:10). In no society or government shall we find matters exactly agreeable. But we must remember that the basis of society is mutual forbearance and self-sacrifice for mutual benefit. Our dislikes, then, should not prevent us from rendering due reverence to official dignity, as well as to rank, talent, and all true worth. The whole of the apostles teaching shows that we are bound to render obedience on the ground that government is an ordinance of God. But this implies that the government shall not enact, nor its authorities seek to enforce anything that would require disobedience to the will of God. Hence we conclude–
1. That this precludes all illegal action against government on the part of Christians.
2. That it permits all legal means for the redress of any real injustice.
3. That the obligation of obedience is ever dependent on the righteousness of the command. (J. W. Kaye, M.A.)
The effect of religion on a nations grandeur
1. Religion secures subordination.
2. Subordination law.
3. Law freedom.
4. Freedom fame.
5. Fame respect and power. (G. Croby, LL.D.)
St. Pauls respect for Roman law
The warmth with which the apostle speaks of the functions of civil governors may, at first sight, seem surprising, when we remember that a Helius was in the Praefecture, a Tigellinus in the Praetorium, a Gessius Florus in the provinces, and a Nero on the throne. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that the Neronian persecution had not yet broken out; and that the iniquity of individual emperors and governors, while it had free rein in every question which affected their greed, ambition, or lust, had not as yet by any means destroyed the magnificent ideal of Roman law. If there were bad rulers, there were also good ones. A Cicero as well as a Verres had once been provincial governors; a Barea Soranus as well as a Felix. The Roman government, corrupt as it often was in special instances, was yet the one grand power which held in check the anarchic forces which but for its control were nursing the impatient earthquake. If now and then it broke down in minor matters, and more rarely on a large scale, yet the total area of legal prescriptions was kept unravaged by mischievous injustice. St. Paul had himself suffered from local tyranny at Philippi, but on the whole, up to this time, he had some reason to be grateful for the impartiality of Roman law. At Corinth he had been protected by the disdainful justice of Gallio, at Ephesus by the sensible appeal of the public secretary; and not long afterwards he owed his life to the soldier-like energy of Lysias, and the impartial protection of a Festus and even of a Felix. Nay, even at his first trial his undefended innocence prevailed not only over all the public authority that could be arrayed against him by Sadducean priests and a hostile Sanhedrin, but even over the secret influence of an Aliturus and a Poppaea. It is obvious, however, that St. Paul is here dealing with religious rather than political prejudices. The early Church was deeply affected by Essene and Ebinotic elements, and St. Pauls enforcement of the truth that the civil power derives its authority from God, points to the antithesis that it was not the mere vassallage of the devil. It was not likely that at Rome there should be any of that fanaticism which held it unlawful for a few to recognise any other earthly ruler besides God, and looked on the payment of tribute as a sort of apostasy. It is far more likely that the apostle is striving to counteract the restless insubordination which might spring from regarding the civil governor as a spiritual enemy rather than a minister of God for good. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
Obedience to legal authority
Whilst commanding the allied army in Portugal, the conduct of the native population did not seem to Wellington to be either becoming or dutiful. We have enthusiasm in plenty, he said, and plenty of cries of Viva. We have illuminations, patriotic songs, and fetes everywhere. But what we want is, that each in his own station should do his duty faithfully, and pay implicit obedience to legal authority.
Law is the shadow of Gods justice
Law is a great and sacred thing. It is nothing less than a shadow upon earth of the justice of God. The forms which surround it, the rules which govern it, the dignity and honour which belong to its representatives are all the outworks of a thing in itself entitled to our reverence. But when the machinery of law is tampered with, as was now the case by Jezebel, when a false witness or a biassed judge contributes to a result which, if legal, is not also moral, then law is like an engine off the rails, its remaining force is the exact measure of its capacity for mischief and for wrong. Then, indeed, if ever, summum jus is summa injuria. (Canon Liddon.)
Reverence for law
So it is with loyalty, the reverence for order and law incarnated in a man, reverence for the king, as Gods vicegerent and visible symbol. With their politics I have no sympathy, but for the loyalty of the old Cavaliers to Charles I have intense admiration. He stood to them not merely as the man Charles Stuart, but as the embodiment of Law, Order, Divinity; hence they were willing to lay down all they had for his sake, to peril life and limb in defence of his rights. Who can read the tale of that heroic woman who, when the life of her beloved queen and mistress was sought, bravely made her own frail white arm a bolt across the door to guard her from danger, and held it there until the shattered bone refused longer to obey her will, without saying that she did this, not as friend for friend, but as subject for queen? If we are not loyal now, it is because loyalty lacks objects on which to bestow itself, not because the deep perennial feeling of the heart is less strong than it was of old. (George Dawson.)
Civil government an ordinance of God
It seems very plainly and explicitly taught here, that civil government is an ordinance of God, and that obedience to our lawful rulers is a Christian duty. We say again, God does not ordain any particular form of government, but He does ordain government. He does not say you must be ruled by an emperor, a king, a generalissimo, or a president. But He does say you must have a ruler and administrators of law. They must exist and administer in the form best adapted to secure the highest good of the people. God does not say you must have a king, and the king can do no wrong. But He says government must exist, and be respected and obeyed, so long as it subserves its true end–the general good. If it fails to do this, you must not run into anarchy and chaos, but wisely and firmly, in proper ways, reform or revolutionise, and establish a better system, or choose better men. The Protectorate under Cromwell was a revolutionary measure, but it was justifiable because the monarchy under Charles had failed to secure the true end of government–the good of the people. But it was only a temporary measure, and prepared the way for what came at last, an admirable system of constitutional government, under which England has steadily and increasingly prospered for two hundred years. (E. P. Rogers, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIII.
Subjection to civil governors inculcated, from the consideration
that civil government is according to the ordinance of God; and
that those who resist the lawfully constituted authorities
shall receive condemnation, 1, 2.
And those who are obedient shall receive praise, 3.
The character of a lawful civil governor, 4.
The necessity of subjection, 5.
The propriety of paying lawful tribute, 6, 7.
Christians should love one another, 8-10.
The necessity of immediate conversion to God proved from the
shortness and uncertainty of time, 11, 12.
How the Gentiles should walk so as to please God, and put on
Christ Jesus in order to their salvation, 13, 14.
NOTES ON CHAP XIII.
To see with what propriety the apostle introduces the important subjects which he handles in this chapter, it is necessary to make a few remarks on the circumstances in which the Church of God then was.
It is generally allowed that this epistle was written about the year of our Lord 58, four or five years after the edict of the Emperor Claudius, by which all the Jews were banished from Rome. And as in those early times the Christians were generally confounded with the Jews, it is likely that both were included in this decree.
For what reason this edict was issued does not satisfactorily appear. Suetonius tells us that it was because the Jews were making continual disturbances under their leader Christus. (See Clarke on Ac 18:2.) That the Jews were in general an uneasy and seditious people is clear enough from every part of their own history. They had the most rooted aversion to the heathen government; and it was a maxim with them that the world was given to the Israelites; that they should have supreme rule every where, and that the Gentiles should be their vassals. With such political notions, grounded on their native restlessness, it is no wonder if in several instances they gave cause of suspicion to the Roman government, who would be glad of an opportunity to expel from the city persons whom they considered dangerous to its peace and security; nor is it unreasonable on this account to suppose, with Dr. Taylor, that the Christians, under a notion of being the peculiar people of God, and the subjects of his kingdom alone, might be in danger of being infected with those unruly and rebellious sentiments: therefore the apostle shows them that they were, notwithstanding their honours and privileges as Christians, bound by the strongest obligations of conscience to be subject to the civil government. The judicious commentator adds: “I cannot forbear observing the admirable skill and dexterity with which the apostle has handled the subject. His views in writing are always comprehensive on every point; and he takes into his thoughts and instructions all parties that might probably reap any benefit by them. As Christianity was then growing, and the powers of the world began to take notice of it, it was not unlikely that this letter might fall into the hands of the Roman magistrates. And whenever that happened it was right, not only that they should see that Christianity was no favourer of sedition, but likewise that they should have an opportunity of reading their own duty and obligations. But as they were too proud and insolent to permit themselves to be instructed in a plain, direct way, therefore the apostle with a masterly hand, delineates and strongly inculcates the magistrate’s duty; while he is pleading his cause with the subject, and establishing his duty on the most sure and solid ground, he dexterously sides with the magistrate, and vindicates his power against any subject who might have imbibed seditious principles, or might be inclined to give the government any disturbance; and under this advantage he reads the magistrate a fine and close lecture upon the nature and ends of civil government. A way of conveyance so ingenious and unexceptionable that even Nero himself, had this epistle fallen into his hands, could not fail of seeing his duty clearly stated, without finding any thing servile or flattering on the one hand, or offensive or disgusting on the other.
“The attentive reader will be pleased to see with what dexterity, truth, and gravity the apostle, in a small compass, affirms and explains the foundation, nature, ends, and just limits of the magistrate’s authority, while he is pleading his cause, and teaching the subject the duty and obedience he owes to the civil government.”-Dr. Taylor’s Notes, page 352.
Verse 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.] This is a very strong saying, and most solemnly introduced; and we must consider the apostle as speaking, not from his own private judgment, or teaching a doctrine of present expediency, but declaring the mind of God on a subject of the utmost importance to the peace of the world; a doctrine which does not exclusively belong to any class of people, order of the community, or official situations, but to every soul; and, on the principles which the apostle lays down, to every soul in all possible varieties of situation, and on all occasions. And what is this solemn doctrine? It is this: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. Let every man be obedient to the civil government under which the providence of God has cast his lot.
For there is no power but of God] As God is the origin of power, and the supreme Governor of the universe, he delegates authority to whomsoever he will; and though in many cases the governor himself may not be of God, yet civil government is of him; for without this there could be no society, no security, no private property; all would be confusion and anarchy, and the habitable world would soon be depopulated. In ancient times, God, in an especial manner, on many occasions appointed the individual who was to govern; and he accordingly governed by a Divine right, as in the case of Moses, Joshua, the Hebrew judges, and several of the Israelitish kings. In after times, and to the present day, he does that by a general superintending providence which he did before by especial designation. In all nations of the earth there is what may be called a constitution-a plan by which a particular country or state is governed; and this constitution is less or more calculated to promote the interests of the community. The civil governor, whether he be elective or hereditary, agrees to govern according to that constitution. Thus we may consider that there is a compact and consent between the governor and the governed, and in such a case, the potentate may be considered as coming to the supreme authority in the direct way of God’s providence; and as civil government is of God, who is the fountain of law, order, and regularity, the civil governor, who administers the laws of a state according to its constitution, is the minister of God. But it has been asked: If the ruler be an immoral or profligate man, does he not prove himself thereby to be unworthy of his high office, and should he not be deposed? I answer, No: if he rule according to the constitution, nothing can justify rebellion against his authority. He may be irregular in his own private life; he may be an immoral man, and disgrace himself by an improper conduct: but if he rule according to the law; if he make no attempt to change the constitution, nor break the compact between him and the people; there is, therefore, no legal ground of opposition to his civil authority, and every act against him is not only rebellion in the worst sense of the word, but is unlawful and absolutely sinful.
Nothing can justify the opposition of the subjects to the ruler but overt attempts on his part to change the constitution, or to rule contrary to law. When the ruler acts thus he dissolves the compact between him and his people; his authority is no longer binding, because illegal; and it is illegal because he is acting contrary to the laws of that constitution, according to which, on being raised to the supreme power, he promised to govern. This conduct justifies opposition to his government; but I contend that no personal misconduct in the ruler, no immorality in his own life, while he governs according to law, can justify either rebellion against him or contempt of his authority. For his political conduct he is accountable to his people; for his moral conduct he is accountable to God, his conscience, and the ministers of religion. A king may be a good moral man, and yet a weak, and indeed a bad and dangerous prince. He may be a bad man, and stained with vice in his private life, and yet be a good prince. SAUL was a good moral man, but a bad prince, because he endeavoured to act contrary to the Israelitish constitution: he changed some essential parts of that constitution, as I have elsewhere shown; (See Clarke on Ac 13:22😉 he was therefore lawfully deposed. James the Second was a good moral man, as far as I can learn, but he was a bad and dangerous prince; he endeavoured to alter, and essentially change the British constitution, both in Church and state, therefore he was lawfully deposed. It would be easy, in running over the list of our own kings, to point out several who were deservedly reputed good kings, who in their private life were very immoral. Bad as they might be in private life, the constitution was in their hands ever considered a sacred deposit, and they faithfully preserved it, and transmitted it unimpaired to their successors; and took care while they held the reins of government to have it impartially and effectually administered.
It must be allowed, notwithstanding, that when a prince, howsoever heedful to the laws, is unrighteous in private life, his example is contagious; morality, banished from the throne, is discountenanced by the community; and happiness is diminished in proportion to the increase of vice. On the other hand, when a king governs according to the constitution of his realms and has his heart and life governed by the laws of his God, he is then a double blessing to his people; while he is ruling carefully according to the laws, his pious example is a great means of extending and confirming the reign of pure morality among his subjects. Vice is discredited from the throne, and the profligate dare not hope for a place of trust and confidence, (however in other respects he may be qualified for it,) because he is a vicious man.
As I have already mentioned some potentates by name, as apt examples of the doctrines I have been laying down, my readers will naturally expect that, on so fair an opportunity, I should introduce another; one in whom the double blessing meets; one who, through an unusually protracted reign, during every year of which he most conscientiously watched over the sacred constitution committed to his care, not only did not impair this constitution, but took care that its wholesome laws should be properly administered, and who in every respect acted as the father of his people, and added to all this the most exemplary moral conduct perhaps ever exhibited by a prince, whether in ancient or modern times; not only tacitly discountenancing vice by his truly religious conduct, but by his frequent proclamations most solemnly forbidding Sabbath-breaking, profane swearing, and immorality in general. More might be justly said, but when I have mentioned all these things, (and I mention them with exultation; and with gratitude to God,) I need scarcely add the venerable name of GEORGE the Third, king of Great Britain; as every reader will at once perceive that the description suits no potentate besides. I may just observe, that notwithstanding his long reign has been a reign of unparalleled troubles and commotions in the world, in which his empire has always been involved, yet, never did useful arts, ennobling sciences, and pure religion gain a more decided and general ascendancy: and much of this, under God, is owing to the manner in which this king has lived, and the encouragement he invariably gave to whatever had a tendency to promote the best interests of his people. Indeed it has been well observed, that, under the ruling providence of God, it was chiefly owing to the private and personal virtues of the sovereign that the house of Brunswick remained firmly seated on the throne amidst the storms arising from democratical agitations and revolutionary convulsions in Europe during the years 1792-1794. The stability of his throne amidst these dangers and distresses may prove a useful lesson to his successors, and show them the strength of a virtuous character, and that morality and religion form the best bulwark against those great evils to which all human governments are exposed. This small tribute of praise to the character and conduct of the British king, and gratitude to God for such a governor, will not be suspected of sinister motive; as the object of it is, by an inscrutable providence, placed in a situation to which neither envy, flattery, nor even just praise can approach, and where the majesty of the man is placed in the most awful yet respectable ruins. I have only one abatement to make: had this potentate been as adverse from WAR as he was from public and private vices, he would have been the most immaculate sovereign that ever held a sceptre or wore a crown.
But to resume the subject, and conclude the argument: I wish particularly to show the utter unlawfulness of rebellion against a ruler, who, though he may be incorrect in his moral conduct, yet rules according to the laws; and the additional blessing of having a prince, who, while his political conduct is regulated by the principles of the constitution, has his heart and life regulated by the dictates of eternal truth, as contained in that revelation which came from God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The former chapter is called by some St. Pauls ethics, and this his politics. He having said, in the latter end of the foregoing chapter, that Christians must not avenge themselves, but refer all to God, who says, that vengeance is his, and he will repay it; some might infer from hence, that it was not lawful for magistrates to right the wronged, and avenge them of their adversaries; or for Christians to make use of them to such a purpose; therefore, to set us right in this matter, he falls into the following discourse. Others think, that the apostle having spoken in several places concerning Christians liberty, lest what he had said should be misconstrued, as if he meant that Christians were freed from subjection to the powers that were over them, he seasonably insists upon the doctrine and duty of obedience to authority; which point is more fully handled in this context than in any other place besides.
Let every soul; i.e. every person. In the first verse of the foregoing chapter the body was put for the whole man; here, the soul; and when he says every person, it is plain that ecclesiastical persons are not exempted.
Be subject: he doth not say, be obedient, but be subject; which is a general word, (as some have noted), comprehending all other duties and services. This subjection must be limited only to lawful things; otherwise, we must answer as they did, Act 4:19; or as Polycarpus did; when he was required to blaspheme Christ, and swear by the fortune of Caesar, he peremptorily refused, and said: We are taught to give honour to princes and potentates, but such honour as is not contrary to true religion.
Unto the higher powers: though he speaks of things, he means persons; and he calls them rulers in Rom 13:3, whom he calls powers in this verse. So in Luk 12:11, Christ tells his disciples, they should be brought before magistrates and powers; it is the same word, and it is plain he means persons in power. Chrysostom notes, that he rather speaks of our subjection to powers, than persons in power; because, that howsoever their power be abused, their authority must be acknowledged and obeyed. He speaks of powers, in the plural number, because there are divers sorts and kinds thereof, as monarchy, aristocracy, democracy: under which soever of these we live, we must be subject thereunto. By higher powers, he means the supreme powers; so the word is rendered, 1Pe 2:13. To them, and to those that are authorized by them, we must submit, for that is all one as if we did it to themselves, 1Ti 2:2; 1Pe 2:14. There are other inferior powers, which are also of God, as parents, masters, &c.; but of these he doth not speak in this place.
For there is no power but of God: this is a reason of the foregoing injunction: q.d. That which hath God for its author, is to be acknowledged and submitted to; but magistracy hath God for its author: ergo. He speaketh not here of the person, nor of the abuse, nor of the manner of getting into power, but of the thing itself, viz. magistracy and authority: and he says, it is of God; he instituted the office, and he appointeth or permitteth the person that executes it. This clause is attested and illustrated by Pro 8:15; Dan 4:32; Joh 19:11.
The powers that be are ordained of God: this passage is an exemplification of the former. Erasmus thinks it was inserted by some interpreter, by way of explanation; but it is found in all ancient copies, therefore that conceit of his is without foundation. The emphasis of this sentence seems to lie in the word ordained; power and civil authority is not simply from God, as all other things are, but it is ordained by him. This word (as one observes) implieth two things; invention, and ratification. God invented and devised this order, that some should rule, and others obey; and he maintaineth and upholdeth it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. Let every soulevery manof you
be subject unto the higherpowersor, “submit himself to the authorities that areabove him.”
For there is no power“noauthority”
but of God: the powers thatbe are ordained of God“have been ordained of God.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,…. The apostle having finished his exhortations to this church, in relation to the several duties incumbent upon both officers and private Christians, as members of a church, and with reference to each other, and their moral conduct in the world; proceeds to advise, direct, and exhort them to such duties as were relative to them as members of a civil society; the former chapter contains his Christian Ethics, and this his Christian Politics. There was the greater reason to insist upon the latter, as well as on the former, since the primitive saints greatly lay under the imputation of being seditious persons and enemies to the commonwealth; which might arise from a very great number of them being Jews, who scrupled subjection to the Heathen magistrates, because they were the seed of Abraham, and by a law were not to set one as king over them, that was a stranger, and not their own brother, and very unwillingly bore the Roman yoke, and paid tribute to Caesar: hence the Christians in common were suspected to be of the same principles; and of all the Jews none were more averse to the payment of taxes to the Roman magistrates than the Galilaeans; see Ac 5:37. And this being the name by which Christ and his followers were commonly called, might serve to strengthen the above suspicion of them, and charge against them. Moreover, some Christians might be tempted to think that they should not be subject to Heathen magistrates; since they were generally wicked men, and violent persecutors of them; and that it was one branch of their Christian liberty to be freed from subjection to them: and certain it is, that there were a set of loose and licentious persons, who bore the name of Christians, that despised dominion, and spoke evil of dignities; wherefore the apostle judged it advisable especially to exhort the church of Rome, and the members who dwelt there, where was the seat of power and civil government, so to behave towards their superiors, that they might set a good example to the Christians in the several parts of the empire, and wipe off the aspersion that was cast upon them, as if they were enemies to magistracy and civil power. By “the higher powers”, he means not angels, sometimes called principalities and powers; for unto these God hath not put in subjection his people under the Gospel dispensation; nor ecclesiastical officers, or those who are in church power and authority; for they do not bear the temporal sword, nor have any power to inflict corporeal punishment: but civil magistrates are intended, see Tit 3:1; and these not only supreme magistrates, as emperors and kings, but all inferior and subordinate ones, acting in commission under them, as appears from 1Pe 2:13, which are called “powers”, because they are invested with power and authority over others, and have a right to exercise it in a proper way, and in proper cases; and the “higher” or super eminent ones, because they are set in high places, and have superior dignity and authority to others. The persons that are to be subject to them are “every soul”; not that the souls of men, distinct from their bodies, are under subjection to civil magistrates; for of all things they have the least to do with them, their power and jurisdiction not reaching to the souls, the hearts, and consciences of men, especially in matters of religion, but chiefly to their bodies, and outward civil concerns of life: but the meaning is, that every man that has a soul, every rational creature, ought to be subject to civil government. This is but his reasonable service, and which he should from his heart, and with all his soul, cheerfully perform. In short, the sense is, that every man should be subject: this is an Hebraism, a common way of speaking among the Jews, who sometimes denominate men from one part, and sometimes from another; sometimes from the body or flesh, thus “all flesh is grass”, Isa 40:6, that is, all men are frail; and sometimes front the soul, “all souls are mine”, Eze 18:4, all belong to me; as here, “every soul”, that is, every man, all the individuals of mankind, of whatsoever sex, age, state, or condition, ecclesiastics not excepted: the pope, and his clergy, are not exempted from civil jurisdiction; nor any of the true ministers of the Gospel; the priests under the law were under the civil government; and so was Christ himself, and his apostles, who paid tribute to Caesar; yea, even Peter particularly, whose successor the pope of Rome pretends to be. “Subjection” to the civil magistrates designs and includes all duties relative to them; such as showing them respect, honour, and reverence suitable to their stations; speaking well of them, and their administration; using them with candour, not bearing hard upon them for little matters, and allowing for ignorance of the secret springs of many of their actions and conduct, which if known might greatly justify them; wishing well to them, and praying constantly, earnestly, and heartily for them; observing their laws and injunctions; obeying their lawful commands, which do not contradict the laws of God, nature, and right reason; and paying them their just dues and lawful tribute, to support them in their office and dignity:
for there is no power but of God; God is the fountain of all power and authority; the streams of power among creatures flow from him; the power that man has over all the creatures, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea, is originally of God, and by a grant from him; the lesser powers, and the exercises of them, in the various relations men stand in to one another, are of God, as the power the husband has over the wife, parents over their children, and masters over their servants; and so the higher power that princes have over their subjects: for it is the God of heaven that sets up kings, as well as pulls them down; he is the King of kings, from whom they derive their power and authority, from whom they have the right of government, and all the qualifications for it; it is by him that kings reign, and princes decree justice.
The powers that be are ordained of God. The order of magistracy is of God; it is of his ordination and appointment, and of his ordering, disposing, and fixing in its proper bounds and limits. The several forms of government are of human will and pleasure; but government itself is an order of God. There may be men in power who assume it of themselves, and are of themselves, and not of God; and others that abuse the power that is lodged in them; who, though they are by divine permission, yet not of God’s approbation and good will. And it is observable, that the apostle speaks of powers, and not persons, at least, not of persons, but under the name of powers, to show that he means not this, or the other particular prince or magistrate, but the thing itself, the office and dignity of magistracy itself; for there may be some persons, who may of themselves usurp this office, or exercise it in a very illegal way, who are not of God, nor to be subject to by men. The apostle here both uses the language, and speaks the sentiments of his countrymen the Jews, who are wont to call magistrates, “powers”; hence those sayings were used among them; says Shemaiah t,
“twvrl edwtt la, “be not too familiar with the power”.”
that is, with a magistrate, which oftentimes is dangerous. Again,
“says u Rabban Gamaliel, , “take heed of the power” (i.e. of magistrates), for they do not suffer a man to come near them, but in necessity, and then they appear as friends for their own advantage, but will not stand by a man in the time of distress.”
Moreover, after this manner they explain w Pr 5:8,
“”remove thy way far from her”, this is heresy; “and come not nigh the door of her house”, , “this is the power”. The gloss on it is, magistrates, because they set their eyes upon rich men to kill them, and take away their substance.”
And a little after it is observed,
“”the horse leech hath two daughters, crying, give, give”,
Pr 30:15: it is asked, what is the meaning of give, give? Says Mar Ukba, there are two daughters which cry out of hell, and say in this world, give, give, and they are heresy, , “and the civil power”.”
The gloss on this place is,
“Heresy cries, bring a sacrifice to the idol; “Civil Power” cries, bring money, and gifts, and revenues, and tribute to the king.”
Nevertheless, they look upon civil government to be of divine appointment. They say x, that
“no man is made a governor below, except they proclaim him above;”
i.e. unless he is ordained of God: yea, they allow y the Roman empire to be of God, than which no government was more disagreeable to them.
“When R. Jose ben Kisma was sick, R. Chanina ben Tradion went to visit him; he said unto him, Chanina, my brother, my brother, knowest thou not that this nation, (the Romans) , “have received their empire” from God? for it hath laid waste his house, and hath burnt his temple, and has slain his saints, and destroyed his good men, and yet it endures.”
Nay, they frequently affirm z, that the meanest office of power among men was of divine appointment. This is the apostle’s first argument for subjection to the civil magistrate.
t Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 10. u Ib. c. 2. sect. 3. w T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 17. 1. x In Buxtorf. Florileg. Heb. p. 178. y T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 18. 1. z T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 51. 1. Bava Bathra, fol. 91. 2. Jarchi in 1 Chron. xxix. 11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Obedience to Magistrates Enforced. | A. D. 58. |
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
We are here taught how to conduct ourselves towards magistrates, and those that are in authority over us, called here the higher powers, intimating their authority (they are powers), and their dignity (they are higher powers), including not only the king as supreme, but all inferior magistrates under him: and yet it is expressed, not by the persons that are in that power, but the place of power itself, in which they are. However the persons themselves may be wicked, and of those vile persons whom the citizen of Zion contemneth (Ps. xv. 4), yet the just power which they have must be submitted to and obeyed. The apostle had taught us, in the foregoing chapter, not to avenge ourselves, nor to recompense evil for evil; but, lest it should seem as if this did cancel the ordinance of a civil magistracy among Christians, he takes occasion to assert the necessity of it, and of the due infliction of punishment upon evil doers, however it may look like recompensing evil for evil. Observe,
I. The duty enjoined: Let every soul be subject. Every soul–every person, one as well as another, not excluding the clergy, who call themselves spiritual persons, however the church of Rome may not only exempt such from subjection to the civil powers, but place them in authority above them, making the greatest princes subject to the pope, who thus exalteth himself above all that is called God.–Every soul. Not that our consciences are to be subjected to the will of any man. It is God’s prerogative to make laws immediately to bind conscience, and we must render to God the things that are God’s. But it intimates that our subjection must be free and voluntary, sincere and hearty. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, Eccl. x. 20. To compass and imagine are treason begun. The subjection of soul here required includes inward honour (1 Pet. ii. 17) and outward reverence and respect, both in speaking to them and in speaking of them–obedience to their commands in things lawful and honest, and in other things a patient subjection to the penalty without resistance–a conformity in every thing to the place and duty of subjects, bringing our minds to the relation and condition, and the inferiority and subordination of it. “They are higher powers; be content they should be so, and submit to them accordingly.” Now there was good reason for the pressing of this duty of subjection to civil magistrates, 1. Because of the reproach which the Christian religion lay under in the world, as an enemy to public peace, order, and government, as a sect that turned the world upside down, and the embracers of it as enemies to Csar, and the more because the leaders were Galileans–an old slander. Jerusalem was represented as a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces,Ezr 4:15; Ezr 4:16. Our Lord Jesus was so reproached, though he told them his kingdom was not of this world: no marvel, then, if his followers have been loaded in all ages with the like calumnies, called factious, seditious, and turbulent, and looked upon as the troublers of the land, their enemies having found such representations needful for the justifying of their barbarous rage against them. The apostle therefore, for the obviating of this reproach and the clearing of Christianity from it, shows that obedience to civil magistrates is one of the laws of Christ, whose religion helps to make people good subjects; and it was very unjust to charge upon Christianity that faction and rebellion to which its principles and rules are so directly contrary. 2. Because of the temptation which the Christians lay under to be otherwise affected to civil magistrates, some of them being originally Jews, and so leavened with a principle that it was unmeet for any of the seed of Abraham to be subject to one of another nation–their king must be of their brethren, Deut. xvii. 15. Besides, Paul had taught them that they were not under the law, they were made free by Christ. Lest this liberty should be turned into licentiousness, and misconstrued to countenance faction and rebellion, the apostle enjoins obedience to civil government, which was the more necessary to be pressed now because the magistrates were heathens and unbelievers, which yet did not destroy their civil power and authority. Besides, the civil powers were persecuting powers; the body of the law was against them.
II. The reasons to enforce this duty. Why must we be subject?
1. For wrath’s sake. Because of the danger we run ourselves into by resistance. Magistrates bear the sword, and to oppose them is to hazard all that is dear to us in this world; for it is to no purpose to contend with him that bears the sword. The Christians were then in those persecuting times obnoxious to the sword of the magistrate for their religion, and they needed not make themselves more obnoxious by their rebellion. The least show of resistance or sedition in a Christian would soon be aggravated and improved, and would be very prejudicial to the whole society; and therefore they had more need than others to be exact in their subjection, that those who had so much occasion against them in the matter of their God might have no other occasion. To this head must that argument be referred (v. 2), Those that resist shall receive to themselves damnation: krima lepsontai, they shall be called to an account for it. God will reckon with them for it, because the resistance reflects upon him. The magistrates will reckon with them for it. They will come under the lash of the law, and will find the higher powers too high to be trampled upon, all civil governments being justly strict and severe against treason and rebellion; so it follows (v. 3), Rulers are a terror. This is a good argument, but it is low for a Christian.
2. We must be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience’ sake; not so much formidine pn–from the fear of punishment, as virtutis amore–from the love of virtue. This makes common civil offices acceptable to God, when they are done for conscience’ sake, with an eye to God, to his providence putting us into such relations, and to his precept making subjection the duty of those relations. Thus the same thing may be done from a very different principle. Now to oblige conscience to this subjection he argues, Rom 13:1-4; Rom 13:6,
(1.) From the institution of magistracy: There is no power but of God. God as the ruler and governor of the world hath appointed the ordinance of magistracy, so that all civil power is derived from him as from its original, and he hath by his providence put the administration into those hands, whatever they are that have it. By him kings reign, Prov. viii. 15. The usurpation of power and the abuse of power are not of God, for he is not the author of sin; but the power itself is. As our natural powers, though often abused and made instruments of sin, are from God’s creating power, so civil powers are from God’s governing power. The most unjust and oppressive princes in the world have no power but what is given them from above (John xix. 11), the divine providence being in a special manner conversant about those changes and revolutions of governments which have such an influence upon states and kingdoms, and such a multitude of particular persons and smaller communities. Or, it may be meant of government in general: it is an instance of God’s wisdom, power, and goodness, in the management of mankind, that he has disposed them into such a state as distinguishes between governors and governed, and has not left them like the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less. He did herein consult the benefit of his creatures.–The powers that be: whatever the particular form and method of government are–whether by monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy–wherever the governing power is lodged, it is an ordinance of God, and it is to be received and submitted to accordingly; though immediately an ordinance of man (1 Pet. ii. 13), yet originally an ordinance of God.–Ordained of God—tetagmenai; a military word, signifying not only the ordination of magistrates, but the subordination of inferior magistrates to the supreme, as in an army; for among magistrates there is a diversity of gifts, and trusts, and services. Hence it follows (v. 2) that whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. There are other things from God that are the greatest calamities; but magistracy is from God as an ordinance, that is, it is a great law, and it is a great blessing: so that the children of Belial, that will not endure the yoke of government, will be found breaking a law and despising a blessing. Magistrates are therefore called gods (Ps. lxxxii. 6), because they bear the image of God’s authority. And those who spurn at their power reflect upon God himself. This is not at all applicable to the particular rights of kings and kingdoms, and the branches of their constitution; nor can any certain rule be fetched from this for the modelling of the original contracts between the governors and governed; but it is intended for direction to private persons in their private capacity, to behave themselves quietly and peaceably in the sphere in which God has set them, with a due regard to the civil powers which God in his providence has set over them, 1Ti 2:1; 1Ti 2:2. Magistrates are here again and again called God’s ministers. He is the minister of God,Rom 13:4; Rom 13:6. Magistrates are in a more peculiar manner God’s servants; the dignity they have calls for duty. Though they are lords to us, they are servants to God, have work to do for him, and an account to render to him. In the administration of public justice, the determining of quarrels, the protecting of the innocent, the righting of the wronged, the punishing of offenders, and the preserving of national peace and order, that every man may not do what is right in his own eyes–in these things it is that magistrates act as God’s ministers. As the killing of an inferior magistrate, while he is actually doing his duty, is accounted treason against the prince, so the resisting of any magistrates in the discharge of these duties of their place is the resisting of an ordinance of God.
(2.) From the intention of magistracy: Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil, c. Magistracy was designed to be,
[1.] A terror to evil works and evil workers. They bear the sword not only the sword of war, but the sword of justice. They are heirs of restraint, to put offenders to shame; Laish wanted such, Judg. xviii. 7. Such is the power of sin and corruption that many will not be restrained from the greatest enormities, and such as are most pernicious to human society, by any regard to the law of God and nature or the wrath to come; but only by the fear of temporal punishments, which the wilfulness and perverseness of degenerate mankind have made necessary. Hence it appears that laws with penalties for the lawless and disobedient (1 Tim. i. 9) must be constituted in Christian nations, and are agreeable with, and not contradictory to, the gospel. When men are become such beasts, such ravenous beasts, one to another, they must be dealt with accordingly, taken and destroyed in terrorem–to deter others. The horse and the mule must thus be held in with bit and bridle. In this work the magistrate is the minister of God, v. 4. He acts as God’s agent, to whom vengeance belongs; and therefore must take heed of infusing into his judgments any private personal resentments of his own.–To execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. In this the judicial processes of the most vigilant faithful magistrates, though some faint resemblance and prelude of the judgments of the great day, yet come far short of the judgment of God: they reach only to the evil act, can execute wrath only on him that doeth evil: but God’s judgment extends to the evil thought, and is a discerner of the intents of the heart.–He beareth not the sword in vain. It is not for nothing that God hath put such a power into the magistrate’s hand; but it is intended for the restraining and suppressing of disorders. And therefore, “If thou do that which is evil, which falls under the cognizance and censure of the civil magistrate, be afraid; for civil powers have quick eyes and long arms.” It is a good thing when the punishment of malefactors is managed as an ordinance of God, instituted and appointed by him. First, As a holy God, that hates sin, against which, as it appears and puts up its head, a public testimony is thus borne. Secondly, As King of nations, and the God of peace and order, which are hereby preserved. Thirdly, As the protector of the good, whose persons, families, estates, and names, are by this means hedged about. Fourthly, As one that desires not the eternal ruin of sinners, but by the punishment of some would terrify others, and so prevent the like wickedness, that others may hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. Nay, it is intended for a kindness to those that are punished, that by the destruction of the flesh the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
[2.] A praise to those that do well. Those that keep in the way of their duty shall have the commendation and protection of the civil powers, to their credit and comfort. “Do that which is good (v. 3), and thou needest not be afraid of the power, which, though terrible, reaches none but those that by their own sin make themselves obnoxious to it; the fire burns only that which is combustible: nay, thou shalt have praise of it.” This is the intention of magistracy, and therefore we must, for conscience’ sake, be subject to it, as a constitution designed for the public good, to which all private interests must give way. But pity it is that ever this gracious intention should be perverted, and that those who bear the sword, while they countenance and connive at sin, should be a terror to those who do well. But so it is, when the vilest men are exalted (Psa 12:1; Psa 12:8); and yet even then the blessing and benefit of a common protection, and a face of government and order, are such that it is our duty in that case rather to submit to persecution for well-doing, and to take it patiently, than by any irregular and disorderly practices to attempt a redress. Never did sovereign prince pervert the ends of government as Nero did, and yet to him Paul appealed, and under him had the protection of the law and the inferior magistrates more than once. Better a bad government than none at all.
(3.) From our interest in it: “He is the minister of God to thee for good. Thou hast the benefit and advantage of the government, and therefore must do what thou canst to preserve it, and nothing to disturb it.” Protection draws allegiance. If we have protection from the government, we owe subjection to it; by upholding the government, we keep up our own hedge. This subjection is likewise consented to by the tribute we pay (v. 6): “For this cause pay you tribute, as a testimony of your submission, and an acknowledgment that in conscience you think it to be due. You do by paying taxes contribute your share to the support of the power; if therefore you be not subject, you do but pull down with one hand what you support with the other; and is that conscience?” “By your paying tribute you not only own the magistrate’s authority, but the blessing of that authority to yourselves, a sense of which you thereby testify, giving him that as a recompence for the great pains he takes in the government; for honour is a burden: and, if he do as he ought, he is attending continually upon this very thing, for it is enough to take up all a man’s thoughts and time, in consideration of which fatigue, we pay tribute, and must be subject.”–Pay you tribute, phorous seleite. He does not say, “You give it as an alms,” but, “You pay it as a just debt, or lend it to be repaid in all the blessings and advantages of public government, of which you reap the benefit.” This is the lesson the apostle teaches, and it becomes all Christians to learn and practise it, that the godly in the land may be found (whatever others are) the quiet and the peaceable in the land.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Every soul ( ). As in Rom 2:9; Acts 2:43. A Hebraism for (every man).
To the higher powers ( ). Abstract for concrete. See Mr 2:10 for . H is an old verb to have or hold over, to be above or supreme, as in 1Pe 2:13.
Except by God ( ). So the best MSS. rather than (from God). God is the author of order, not anarchy.
The powers that be ( ). “The existing authorities” (supply ). Art ordained ( ). Periphrastic perfect passive indicative of , “stand ordained by God.” Paul is not arguing for the divine right of kings or for any special form of government, but for government and order. Nor does he oppose here revolution for a change of government, but he does oppose all lawlessness and disorder.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Every soul. Every man. See on ch. Rom 11:3.
Higher powers [ ] . Lit., authorities which have themselves over. See on Mr 2:10; Joh 1:12.
The powers that be [ ] . Lit., the existing. Powers is not in the text, and is supplied from the preceding clause.
Are ordained [ ] . Perfect tense : Have been ordained, and the ordinance remains in force. See on set under authority, Luk 7:8.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 ) “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,” (pasa psuche eksousiais huperchousais hupotassestho) “Let every soul, every living person, be subject to superior authorities;” In every orderly government or society every living person has someone to whose authority he is to be subject, in some things, so long as he lives, without exemption of church or ministers of the gospel too. This refers to all established orders of civil authorities, Pro 24:21; Tit 3:1; 1Pe 2:13-16.
2) “For there is no power but of God;” (ou gar estin eksousia me hupo theo) “For or because there exists no authority except by, from, or of God;” God’s provision, sanction by direct or permissive will. All civil authorities are answerable to God for their decisions and actions, as well as to men, Mat 22:21. In proper establishment and administration there should be harmony in, and no conflict between, civil law, and divine worship, and obedience to God.
3) “The powers that be,” (hai de ousai) “And those (authorities) that exist,” that have positions of organized and deputized authority and function; civil powers should not attempt to regulate worship and divine service of the church. It is then only that God is to be obeyed, precedent to wicked impositions of civil rulers, Act 5:29; Dan 3:11-18. In all other matters of civil life, whether regulations are good or bad, they are to be respected, until altered by proper redress of grievance procedures in civil law, 1Pe 2:13-18.
4) “Are ordained of God,” (hupo theou tegagmenai eisin) “Are ordained or set in organized function, by, from, or of God’s direct or permissive will; Pro 8:15-16; Dan 2:21; Joh 19:11; Joh 18:3; Joh 18:28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Let every soul, (399) etc. Inasmuch as he so carefully handles this subject in connection with what forms the Christian life, it appears that he was constrained to do so by some great necessity which existed especially in that age, though the preaching of the gospel at all times renders this necessary. There are indeed always some tumultuous spirits who believe that the kingdom of Christ cannot be sufficiently elevated, unless all earthly powers be abolished, and that they cannot enjoy the liberty given by him, except they shake off every yoke of human subjection. This error, however, possessed the minds of the Jews above all others; for it seemed to them disgraceful that the offspring of Abraham, whose kingdom flourished before the Redeemer’s coming, should now, after his appearance, continue in submission to another power. There was also another thing which alienated the Jews no less than the Gentiles from their rulers, because they all not only hated piety, but also persecuted religion with the most hostile feelings. Hence it seemed unreasonable to acknowledge them for legitimate princes and rulers, who were attempting to take away the kingdom from Christ, the only Lord of heaven and earth.
By these reasons, as it is probable, Paul was induced to establish, with greater care than usual, the authority of magistrates, and first he lays down a general precept, which briefly includes what he afterwards says: secondly, he subjoins an exposition and a proof of his precept.
He calls them the higher powers, (400) not the supreme, who possess the chief authority, but such as excel other men. Magistrates are then thus called with regard to their subjects, and not as compared with each other. And it seems indeed to me, that the Apostle intended by this word to take away the frivolous curiosity of men, who are wont often to inquire by what right they who rule have obtained their authority; but it ought to be enough for us, that they do rule; for they have not ascended by their own power into this high station, but have been placed there by the Lord’s hand. And by mentioning every soul, he removes every exception, lest any one should claim an immunity from the common duty of obedience. (401)
For there is no power, etc. The reason why we ought to be subject to magistrates is, because they are constituted by God’s ordination. For since it pleases God thus to govern the world, he who attempts to invert the order of God, and thus to resist God himself, despises his power; since to despise the providence of him who is the founder of civil power, is to carry on war with him. Understand further, that powers are from God, not as pestilence, and famine, and wars, and other visitations for sin, are said to be from him; but because he has appointed them for the legitimate and just government of the world. For though tyrannies and unjust exercise of power, as they are full of disorder, ( ἀταξίας) are not an ordained government; yet the right of government is ordained by God for the wellbeing of mankind. As it is lawful to repel wars and to seek remedies for other evils, hence the Apostle commands us willingly and cheerfully to respect and honor the right and authority of magistrates, as useful to men: for the punishment which God inflicts on men for their sins, we cannot properly call ordinations, but they are the means which he designedly appoints for the preservation of legitimate order.
(399) “ Anima,” ψυχὴ, not only the Hebrews, (see Gen 14:21,) but the Greeks also designate man by this word. Man is sometimes designated by his immaterial part, soul, and sometimes by his material part, flesh, or body, as in Rom 12:1. One author says that the word soul is used here in order to show that the obedience enforced should be from the soul, not feigned, but sincere and genuine. Let every soul, that is “every one,” says [ Grotius ], “even apostles, prophets, and bishops.” — Ed.
(400) “ Potestates supereminentes — pre-eminent powers.” [ Hammond ] renders the words ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις, supreme powers, meaning kings, and refers to ἄρχοντες in Rom 13:3, as a proof; but this word means magistrates as well as kings. See Luk 12:58. The ruling power as exercised by those in authority is evidently what is meant here, without any reference to any form of government. Of course obedience to kings, or to emperors, or to any exercising a ruling power, whatever name they may bear, is included. — Ed
(401) [ Grotius ] qualifies this obedience by saying, that it should not extend to what is contrary to the will of God. But it is remarkable, that often in Scripture things are stated broadly and without any qualifying terms, and yet they have limits, as it is clear from other portions. This peculiarity is worthy of notice. Power is from God, the abuse of power is from what is evil in men. The Apostle throughout refers only to power justly exercised. He does not enter into the subject of tyranny and oppression. And this is probably the reason why he does not set limits to the obedience required: he contemplated no other than the proper and legitimate use of power. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRIME AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Rom 13:1-5.
AMERICA has seldom been treated to such an uproar as has preceded the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolmeo Vanzetti, who have just paid the penalty of an atrocious crime. There is a possibility that one of these men was innocent, as his dying protest affirmed; but it is difficult for any keen observer upon the protest movement to escape the conviction that the revolt against this execution was rather in the interest of anarchy than of justice, an interest in which Christianity can little sympathize. Concerning each the teachings of its great Text-Book are comparatively clear. Six thousand years ago Cain killed Abel, and the question of what to do with a murderer has been a prominent one since the blood of that innocent brother cried from the very ground for some adequate judgment.
In approaching this theme this morning I have no disposition to rely upon personal wisdom. More than thirty-five years ago, when a student at college, I won the debate against my opponents by opposing capital punishment. The books studied then and the arguments, framed and delivered, sufficed to prejudice my thinking. To that prejudice my natural disposition added acquiescence; but the more recent and careful study of the Word has convinced me of the error of those and similar arguments in favor of the abolition of capital punishment.
We fall back this morning upon the one Book 183, which I believe to be the guide of life in all affairs, and I am going to contend that capital punishment, for certain crimes, is the plain teaching of Gods Word.
To the text, three suggestions: 1. Capital punishment is a divinely appointed penalty for certain crimes. 2. The purpose of capital punishment is for the restraint of certain evils. 3. The executioner of the law is a minister of righteousness.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS A DIVINELY APPOINTED PENALTY FOR CERTAIN CRIMES
It was first enacted in the days of Noah. When Cain killed Abel, no such law; existed and no such penalty was executed. Cain did not have to answer to law for his conduct, but to the God of love who set upon him a brand and let him live. That custom of dealing with the most criminal of men God continued until the result of mercy made society to reek with sin and crime, and necessitated universal judgment, for
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,
And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth (Gen 6:5-7).
In other words, the Scriptures are our authority for the statement that unpunished crimes saved the lives of the criminals at the expense of all society.
Noah, having found grace in the sight of the Lord, and having been made the head of a new race, was promised against possible repetition of that putrid state of society necessitating the flood, capital punishment for murder. Whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed, and the reason was assigned, for in the image of God made He man.
When God changes any custom of His, there is occasion. Had the moral management of the world been possible without the death penalty for the murderer, God would have forever delayed that judgment.
The death penalty was repeated in the Mosaic law. It is a significant thing that while we have in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, the decalog, the Sixth Commandment of which is, Thou shalt not kill, we have in the twenty-first chapter the very next, the Law of the Lord for him who breaks the Sixth Commandment, and murders his fellow,
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die.
And he that smiteth his father or his mother, shall be surely put to death (Exo 21:14-15).
This is not a single announcement, found only in one chapter of the great library, that makes up Gods Book; but it is a law repeated as often as occasion demanded.
In Lev 24:17 we read: And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death, while in Deu 21:22-23; If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled.
There are many men who will tell us this was the Law, and we are not now under the Law, but under Grace. Certainly! But murderers are not under Grace! They have spurned the Grace of God and have made the Law their master instead. The New Testament, however, knows no repeal of this Old Testament Law.
In the Christian Scriptures, the death penalty is approved. Christ not only did not speak against it, but quoting the Scriptures that involved it, presented no objections. When He seemed to reverse the Law, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, He was inveighing against individual revenge and not against just judgment of murder. On the contrary, concerning that very Law He went beyond Moses teaching,
Ye have heard it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire (Mat 5:21-22).
Again, Jesus Christ gave the Book of Revelation to John, and in that it is written, He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Paul speaks of certain sins as worthy of death, and confesses that if he is guilty of one of them, he is ready to meet the laws demands; and in the text before us today, a man who executes the death penalty when justly deserved, is a minister of God to thee for good.
The State of Iowa some years since dispensed with capital punishment. Crimes increased and the State was compelled to reverse itself and renew the severer judgment to save its society. The first sheriff called upon to execute the new law was a minister of the Gospel. Newspapers of the country were universally amazed that a minister could bring himself to spring the trap that sent a murderer before God to answer for the deeds done in the body. It must have been both an encouragement and a consolation to that unhappy minister-sheriff to read from the Apostle Paul the language of our text, He is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
There isnt a man who is truly human, and certainly not one who has any touch of the Divine Spirit, who doesnt revolt from the death penalty. However there is one thing from which our souls still more revolt, and that is the crime which necessitates it. I saw one man publicly executed. I grew sick as I looked, and regretted my presence, and have never again sought the place of such penal judgment, nor shall I ever. There is one thing, however, upon which my soul would look with infinitely greater loathing, and that is the murderers workthe innocent, bleeding, dying or dead victim of some heart of fire or hand of hell that smites and takes away that which only God can give the most precious thing in the universeLife!
It is because that deed is of such enormity that this terrible penalty was ever invoked, and now remains a necessity. When one studies society and finds that that crime increases, he is compelled to justify God and His Word regarding limitations upon conduct, even to the point of telling them that a life thus taken will necessitate the loss of the murderers own life. Unjust? No! The gross injustice, the grossest injustice was in the murder, not in the penal judgment. Inhuman? No! The inhumanity was the act that necessitated this social judgment; and our text tells us the further meaning of the penalty itself.
THE PURPOSE OF THE PENALTY IS RESTRAINT OF EVIL
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of Cod; the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil (Rom 13:1-3).
The teaching is plain!
The death penalty seeks the good of the tempted one. The difficulty with the young man of the present Minnesota is that when tempted to enter the profession of highwayman and take his chances against being killed and killing some one in order to acquire a livelihood without industry, he may reason, Well, the most that can happen to me is the penitentiary, with a good prospect of either breaking jail and getting away, or a reprieve by the Board of Pardons.
The mental vision of a gallows only a few weeks distant would naturally have a deterrent effect, and God, who knows what is in man, best understood how to save him from himself.
Four attempts were made on the life of Queen Victoria during the first year of her reign. The English Parliament met and passed a law, prescribing the death-penalty for an attempt upon the life of its sovereign. From the day of that decision, though her reign was a long and notable one, no man had the hardihood to risk his own life in an endeavor to take hers away. Only a few months since, in our own city, Edward Helms, an honest grocer, was shot down and left dying in his own store, because, being slightly deaf, he put his hand to his ear when the command, Hands up was given in order to catch the meaning of the words, instead of lifting both hands over his head. I confess very frankly that my deepest sympathy goes out to the parents of such boys and my heart breaks with sorrow over the thought they have to face such consequences and innocently suffer for such a deed, but I have little doubt that those same parents had exhausted all mental and moral resources to keep those very lads from coming to this end, and when the Board of Pardons dismisses them, as it doubtless will, judging by precedent, the Helms family will still be without a head, and the hearts of that home will go their way to their graves in grief. Tell me that a few months in prison suffice for such a total disregard of human life? I answer, Not in the judgment of God and His great Word. It might have been the salvation of those very boys, had the state law retained its death penalty, rather than the effeminate and softened sentence with which that penalty was displaced.
Our text further emphasizes the justice of severe judgment. According to Gods laws, judgment is measured by the degree of the crime committed. Mans laws are not always after this manner. There used to be 160 or more sins punishable by death in Englandthe man who let fish out of the hatchery; the man who owed a debt and did not meet it promptly, etc. Gods Word never approved the death penalty for minor offenses, but it reckoned murder chief among the crimes, and grave judgment against it both righteous and godly.
Think of the men at Herrin, ILL., who shot down thirty or forty of their fellows, because, forsooth, they had dared to take the places these same men had repudiated. Think of the anarchistic foreigners at Gary, Ind., who derailed a train and sent scores of innocent men, women and children to a tangled and mangled heap of dead and dying, and tell me that the death penalty is unjust or inhuman!
Think of that colored brute (no worse because of his color) who literally tore to pieces a baby girl of three years in our own fair city only a few months since, and tell me whether a precarious life sentence that may be escaped by killing his jailor and walking out; that may be escaped by connivance with other criminals to saw their way through, under cover of darkness; that may be escaped by an over compassionate Board of Pardons, and tell me whether such a man is not so great a menace to society that his speedy removal is not only desirable but divinely approved.
Only recently in a state where no capital punishment was possible, a white brute dared to pick up a beautiful little girl of eleven years, carry her to the heart of a forest and keep her for two days and nights, only releasing his hold when she had slipped his hand and escaped him under cover of the darkness, to carry an enfeebled mind and a shattered body the rest of her days. Do you wonder that the citizens of that state were only restrained with the greatest difficulty and the most careful maneuvering, from mob law? There was a universal feeling that such a fiend was unfit to longer cumber society with his criminal presence.
Expunge from your state law the death penalty for some iniquities and the people will reinstate it without the formality of State legislatures. No matter what imprecations are uttered against mob law, such moral outrages will make men lawless in their very indignation against lack of more exacting law.
Capital punishment looks also to the conservation of society. It is a bit difficult to determine how effective it is as a restraining measure. Either men have gone to different sources for their information, or they have carried into their articles such prejudices as made their statements irresponsible. I have read from a number of pens that declare that crime decreased in the states where the death penalty was abrogated. On the other hand, the most startling figures are stated to prove that when the ban of death is lifted from murderous deeds, a veritable holocaust of crime ensues. Here is a table compiled by the Civic Alliance Bulletin a few years since. The state of Maine abolished capital punishment in 1887 and Rhode Island in 1852. There were 77 per cent more murders in Maine than in Massachusetts, 92 per cent more murders in Maine than in Vermont, 109 per cent more murders in Maine than in Connecticut, 360 per cent more murders in Maine than in New Hampshire. Combining Maine and Rhode Island, 173 per cent more murders in the two than in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Italy, 1888, abolished capital punishment forever, but the Camorrist crimes and the 3800 homicides in a single year, among one-third as many people as there were in the United States, not to take into account the great number of murders there were in America by Italian immigrants, put Italy at the head of the murderous countries of the world, and doubtless accounts for the restriction of immigration from that land. The conservation of society is, after all, the greatest objective of corrective laws; and it was that thought that led Governor Burnquist to urge that the State of Minnesota make a careful study of the subject of capital punishment in the deterring of crime. Of that plea, the Journal editorially said: Such a study would no doubt be well, in view of the tension, license and abnormality that have followed in the wake of war. And continued, It is evident that mild punishment has utterly failed to stem the tide. Murder is all too often followed by easy escape and comparative safety. The very frequency of homicidal crimes furnish strong ground for restoring the death penalty in this State. The present regime of soft punishment and easy pardons has proved entirely inadequate to deter men from crimes of the most serious nature. And there exists the stern necessity of protecting society. Switzerland, which abolished capital punishment in 1874, has restored it, owing to the increase of murders under the easier system. There are only ten states in America clinging to life imprisonment as the extreme penalty for murder. Thirty and more other States have tried the milder forms of punishment and abandoned them for the death penalty.
That editorial of the Journal leads me to remark that in almost every State where they have turned to man-made laws instead of the laws of God, bitter experience has led them to turn back to Gods Law.
THE EXECUTIONER OF LAW IS THE MINISTER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Laws are a necessity to the life of any land. The regard shown for them measures the advance of civilization. Five years ago Russia was looked upon as a half civilized folk. Today they are not even held in that high regard for the simple reason that the laws of the land have been largely set aside and the Government is dominated by the law of individuals rather than by that social consensus of opinion which men call law. France, one hundred and fifty years ago, passed through a kindred experience; the laws of restraint were flung to the winds, and the French Revolution, with its baptism of blood, and its holocaust of crimes quickly followed. Truly, law in itself is just and good. It is capable of abuse, to be sure. Bad laws may even be enacted, and foully executed, but no social state ever exceeds in iniquity a state of lawlessness. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. If thou do that which is evil be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Regard for the law is a Christ-like sentiment also. When, some months ago, in taking you through the Old Testament Scriptures, I became thoroughly convinced that capital punishment was the teaching of the Book, I did not at all know the common position of the great Bible expositors of America. I have learned since that most of my brethren who are with me in the Fundamentals Association hold a kindred faith on that subject. The Sunday School Times is a magazine in which the orthodox of the world may well delight, the teachings of which may be trusted. Recently there was put into that paper the question: Does Gen 9:6 command capital punishment for murder? If so, is the abolishment of the death penalty in our States the abolishment of Gods plans and the substitution of mans? And the answer is, Yes; God did command capital punishment for murder in Gen 9:6, and that command has never been repealed. We hear our Lord specifying to the rich young ruler as one of the commandments which he should keep, Thou shalt do no murder.
The Times then recites the instance of Cains murder and that of Lamechs, and shows that neither of them having been punished by the death penalty, murder became common. The whole world was under its curse. Quoting from Dr. C. I. Scofield, these words, The highest function of government is the judicial taking of life. All other governmental powers are implied in that. Satan no doubt thought he had entrapped God in one of His own laws when he saw the death penalty unjustly inflicted upon the Son of God Himself; but He must have been appalled when, on that glorious third day, he discovered that God had loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. In his Christian Workers Commentary Dr. James M. Gray quotes from Pratts Genesis as follows: The death penalty has been abused in almost all the countries of the world, but this does not justify its abolition in cases of premeditated homicide; and unwillingness to apply to the criminal the pain of death ordained by God himself, the Author of life, always tends to the increase of crime and gives loose rein to personal vengeance. The inviolability of human life means that the life of a human being is a thing so sacred that he who takes it without just cause must pay for it with his own in amends to outraged justice, both human and Divine. The article concludes, When therefore, law-makers abolish the death penalty for capital crimes, they strike a blow at the very source and center of real God-ordained government, and transgress an unrepealed law of God for the good of the race.
Finally, The end of the Law is the answer of a good conscience. Strange to say, this remark applies here as elsewhere. If a man for murder must meet death, he is in all probability the one murderer who is most likely to see God in peace. The very severity of his punishment will suffice, if anything under heaven can accomplish it, for his conviction of sin, his contrition for his deed, and his possible pardon through the Grace of God. A man who has to count his days and hours upon earth, facing, while he reckons them, the gallows, the building of which is sounding in his ears, is not likely to put in his time planning how to escape jail, even though he have to murder the keeper to make that possible, nor concocting schemes of new iniquity when once the Board of Pardon shall be moved to tenderness in his behalf; or by the aid of other culprits make good his escape. On the contrary, he commonly spends those hours in planning to meet God, or pleading for pardon, and that gives hope, for he reasons, and I think logically, that while atonement is in Christ, and Christ alone, so far as human restitution is possible, by surrendering up that which he took from another, he is making atonement. Young Richeson, producing the poison that effected the death of the girl who trusted him with her all, when convicted of the crime, and sentenced to die, accepted the sentence as just, and said that the only reason he desired to live beyond the day of the death penalty was, that by continued anguish, he might in some measure atone for his own iniquities; but hoped that when his own life was laid down on the gallows, accompanied, as his going to that gallows was, by deep contrition over his terrible crime, God, in His infinite mercy, might forgive.
Some hope is justified by the Scriptures themselves. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. The thief at Gods right hand was doubtless a murderer; and yet, in deep penitence he made his plea, and the Son of God heard and said, To day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. There are people who seem to think there is an utter inharmony between the death penalty and a possible repentance of the man involved; that, in fact, the gallows or chair of execution cuts off his opportunity to weep his way into the Divine heart again. On the contrary, I believe it accentuates it and sends a man in penitent prayer before God as no other experience that ever looms in life could possibly accomplish. I am not hopeless of the final salvation of a penitent murderer, but I am convinced that the laws of God, and the interests of Society demand the restoration of the death penalty for the perpetration of that crime of all crimesthe premeditated or malicious taking of human life.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 13:1.Let every one submit to the authorities that are over him. A precept made remarkable by the time in which it was written. , every soul; every office-bearer as well as member of the Church. is authority, distinguished from , power or force, and may exist where there is no authority, and even in opposition to it. If any earthly authority command anything that is contrary to the will of God, the apostles have taught us to say, We ought to obey God rather than man (Wordsworth). Authority used for human magistrates. In Peter Rom. 3:22 denotes rather angelic powers. Of or from God; mediately through men. By divine permission; divine appointment. Form of government left to human discretion.
Rom. 13:2.Origen having cited this and the previous verse in his dissertation against Celsus, confesses it is a place capable of much disquisition, by reason of such princes as govern cruelly and tyrannically, or who, by reason of their power, fall into effeminacy and carnal pleasures. He says this is not to be understood of persecuting powers, for in such cases that of the apostle takes place, We must obey God rather than man, but of those powers which are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. It is a contradiction to the holiness, justice, and goodness of God to say that He has given princes any power to do any injury to their subjects. Non-resistance of the Greek commentators is the non-performance of subjection and obedience to commands. We cannot be obliged from conscience towards God to be subject to them in those things which they have no authority from God to require, and for refusal of obedience to which we have Gods authority.
Rom. 13:3. For rulers are not a terror.He is speaking of what is commonly the case, of what may fairly be expected to be the case. And even the worst authority is better than mere force.
Rom. 13:4. is not here a dagger, but gladius. The Roman power is symbolised in the Apocalypse with the great sword. Symbol of magistrates power to punish.
Rom. 13:5. , for conscience sakebecause of Gods institution and command.
Rom. 13:6.Revenues of the Roman empire consisted chiefly:
1. Of the rents of public lands farmed by the publicans, and collected by tax-gatherers employed by themthe publicans of our version;
2. Customs or taxes on goods;
3. Tithes;
4. Pasturage, etc.;
5. Poll or personal tax;
6. Property tax;
7. Army tax paid as capitation money according to census, paid on any other account; the former paid on things immovable, the latter on things which may be conveyed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 13:1-6
True subjection.There are many powers in the worldmaterial, social, intellectual, and moral. Above all powers is the supreme Power. God ordains all powers. Man must recognise his inferiority. How the infinite Spirit directs material powers we cannot tell. There must be a way, though we cannot comprehend. But as man by the greater force of his intellectual power rules the brute creation and makes vast material changes, so God by His infinitely vast nature must have a marvellous method of controlling all powers. There are men who resist the highest ordering power. They reject God or relegate Him to some remote corner of His own universe. Such shall receive to themselves condemnation. Resistance of the supreme power leads to other resistance, engenders anarchy, and produces disaster. Mans power of resistance, though often futile, speaks of mans dignity and mans great responsibility. Mans wisdom is seen in learning the lesson of subjection. Man, sooner or later, falls by rebellion. Man rises by subjection.
I. True subjection is inward.The subjection of the brute is outward; he is not a consenting party. The subjection of material forces is an affair of material pressure; when that is removed or becomes weak the material force revenges the restraint by destructive leaps and bounds. The subjection of the man is inward; with his soul he places himself beneath the higher powers. The motive force of true subjection is conscience. Thus the man who has the spirit of true subjection is ennobled and not degraded by the process. Nobility is seen in recognising human limitations and working in harmony with divine order. Greatness sees its own littleness, does not parade a fancied largeness, and thus attains to highest dignity.
II. True subjection is upward.Some take downward glances; their range of vision is contracted; they resist, and that resistance binds them with galling fetters. Others take upward glances; their range of vision is large. They see a divine force beyond and above human forces. They submit, and by their very submission are elevated. The humble are exalted somewhere, somehow; all the powers are moving towards the exaltation of the souls that look upward. The recognition of a higher power is the exaltation in measure and degree of the recognising being. Thus to bend low is to rise high.
III. True subjection works outwardly from the inward.The earth subject is a time-server. He works through pressure. He submits to law and pays tribute; but he is subject only for wrath, so that if he can break the law without punishment he is not averse, if he can shirk the tribute or defraud he is not indisposed. The good subject works through pressure, but it is an inward pressure. He pays tribute conscientiously. The only resistance he knows is that which is induced by an enlightened conscience, and so careful is he not to go wrong that he rather suffers wrong than be found guilty of doing wrong. The citizens of heaven are the best citizens of earth. Eternal laws are the best basis for time laws. The powers that be will find it safest and wisest to recognise the supreme Power and to foster in the nation all God-fearing spirits.
IV. True subjection is beneficial; it benefits the individual, for it scatters fear.The sword does not appal when goodness emboldens. Judicial pomp does not affright when good works are maintained.
1. It secures praise. If it do not always secure the praise of men, it must meet with the praise of God. In lowly spheres we cannot always obtain the plaudits of the higher powers. We cannot all do some great deed which may blazon our name into the ears of the world. Westminster Abbey could not find room for monuments to be erected to all faithful subjects. Most can only tread the lowly pathway to heavens immortality. The trivial round, the common task, is the obscure way of the majority. Better and more enduring than the praise of fallible men is the praise of God. Sweet as may be the voice of the approving power, sweeter is the voice of an approving conscience. Royalty itself has no gifts so rich as those which a conscience royally kept can bestow. Let us be true to its claims; let us see that it moves along right lines; let us be subject to the highest Power, that ordains all higher powers.
2. It benefits the nation. The individual is helped to the performance of his duty by regarding himself as an important factor in the nations welfare. If we consider ourselves as parts of the national fabric, we feel our importance and rise up to the proper sense of our duty. The claims of self should be subordinated to the claims of the state in the consideration of the Christian patriot. The nation is strong as its good men are increased. When virtue is triumphant, the nation is victorious and prosperous. Let us work to the increase of good men; and to this end let each man begin to improve himself. Good men are the seed-germs out of which other good men grow. The sword may rust in the sheath when good men abound. The executors of wrath have no functions to discharge when evildoers cease from the land. Material wealth engenders selfishness, licentiousness, and corruption. Moral wealth promotes benevolence, purity, and all things that are grandly noble. The increase of material wealth is often promotive of national decline. The increase of moral wealth tends to the larger growth and the more permanent establishment of the nation.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 13:1-6
Universal necessity of government.Human society is so constituted that the instinct of self-preservation compels men to set up a form of governmenti.e., to commit to some men power over the rest. Every one knows that a bad government is almost always better than none at all. The universality and the universal necessity of government prove it to be Gods will that men live under rule. But God has not prescribed a definite form of rule. Consequently the universal principle of government assumes an infinite variety of forms. We also notice that nearly always opposition to the men actually in power tends to weaken and destroy the principle of government and leads towards anarchy. How frequently the murder even of a bad ruler has been followed by utter lawlessness and by infinite loss to the nation! Consequently opposition to the individuals in power is practically, with few exceptions, an opposition to the divine principle of government. Observing this, and remembering that nothing takes place without foresight and permission of God, we may say, as Paul says, that the existing rulers, by whatever steps they mounted the throne, have been put on it by God. For God created that felt necessity for government which was their real stepping-stone to power. And He did so in full view of the persons into whose hands, throughout the ages of the world, the power would fall. We notice further that all bad conduct tends to weaken and good conduct to strengthen a government. Consequently rulers are compelled, for the maintenance of their position, to favour the good and oppose the bad. We cannot doubt that this necessity comes from the Ruler of the race. Therefore God, who has laid upon mankind the necessity of appointing rulers, has laid upon rulers the necessity of rewarding the good and punishing the bad; and has done this in order to make rulers the instruments of carrying out His own purpose of kindness to the good and punishment to the wicked. Thus rulers are, perhaps unconsciously, ministers of God, doing Gods work. These considerations are an abundant reason for obedience to civil authority. Since rulers are compelled by their position to favour the good and punish the bad, resistance to them generally proves that we are in the wrong, and will be followed by the punishment which they cannot but inflict on evildoers. Hence the motive of fear should lead to obedience. And since resistance to existing rulers tends to weaken and destroy that principle of government which God has set up for the good of the race, we ought to submit to them for conscience sake. That we feel ourselves morally bound to pay the taxes imposed without our consent or in opposition to our judgment, and that all admit the right of the ruler to enforce payment, also confirms the divine origin of his authority.Beet.
How far should a Christian resist?But for the very reason of this precept it is asked, If it is not merely the state in itself which is a thought of God, but if the very individuals who possess the power at a given time are set up by His will, what are we to do in a period of revolution when a new power is violently substituted for another? This question, which the apostle does not raise, may, according to the principles he lays down, be resolved thus: The Christian will submit to the new power as soon as the resistance of the old shall have ceased. In the actual state of matters he will recognise the manifestation of Gods will, and will take no part whatever in any reactionary plot. But should the Christian support the power of the state even in its unjust measures? No; there is nothing to show that the submission required by St. Paul includes active co-operation; it may even show itself in the form of passive resistance; and it does not at all exclude protestation in word and even resistance in deed, provided that to this latter there be joined the calm acceptance of the punishment inflicted. This submissive but at the same time firm conduct is also a homage to the inviolability of authority; and experience proves that it is in this way all tyrannies have been morally broken and all true progress in the history of humanity effected.Godet.
Religious feeling required in governors and governed.He who does not bring into government, whether as governor or subject, some religious feeling, some higher motive than expediency, is likely to make but an indifferent governor or an indifferent subject: without piety there will be no good government.Sir Arthur Helps.
Corruption of an institution does not disprove divine origin.The fact that an earthly government may be corrupt and tyrannical does not disprove the divine origin of government, any more than the fact that parents may be unfaithful to their duties proves that the family is not divinely originated, or the fact that a particular Church may become corrupt proves that the Church is not divine in its source. St. Paul, however, does not teach here that any degree of tyranny whatever is to be submitted to by a Christian. If the government attempt to force him to violate a divine commandfor example, to desist from preaching the gospel or to take part in pagan worshiphe must resist even unto death. Most of the apostles suffered martyrdom for this principle.Shedd.
The wide sway of law.Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and in earth do her homage; the very least is feeling her care, and the greatest is not exempted from her power: both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.Hooker.
God uses all nations.For each of the nations God had an office; for each He had appointed a beginning and an end. One by one, in orderly succession, those stupendous kingdoms of the East, Babylonian and Persian, Egyptian and Greek, God had required their armies; He had His hand upon their captains; Assyria was His hammer, Cyrus was His shepherd, Egypt was His garden, Tyre was His jewel; everywhere He was felt; everywhere the divine destiny directed and controlled. The shuttle of God passes in and out, weaving into its web a thousand threads of natural human life. All history is put to the uses of Gods holier manifestations; He works under the pressure laid upon Him by the wants and necessities of social and political progress.Canon Holland.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.Archbishop Ussher, in his treatise on the Power of the Prince and the Obedience of the Subject, quotes the following admirable paraphrase, by Primasius, of the above clause: Either thou dost justly, and the just power will praise thee; or, thus doing justly, although the unjust power should condemn thee, the just God will crown thee.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Rom. 13:1-2. Condescension.The following simple story illustrates a trait in the character of our Queen which explains much of the feeling of fond regard entertained for her by all classes of her subjects. One year, when the Court was at Balmoral, her Majesty made a promise to Jennythe daughter of a humble Balmoral neighbour, but who was an especial favourite with her Majestysaying, Ill bring a pretty toy for you when we come back next year. The Court went, and the promise was thought little more ofat least on one side. Her Majesty went that year to Paris to visit the emperor of the French. Amid all the pomp and style of royalty and imperiality, there was enough in the events of the year generally to drive many others besides the peasant child from the thoughts of the sovereign of Great Britain. Well, next season came, and with it the Court returned to Balmoral. The Queen, in making her rounds, soon called on her little protge, and, with a Now, I havent forgotten you, exhibited the promised present. While Queen Victoria was in the French capital, amid all the din and distraction of French state pageantry, she found time to think of the little Highland girl on the banks of the Dee, and then and there bought an article to please and gratify the little child. Royal courtesy.Frederick II., king of Prussia, made it a point to return every mark of respect or civility shown to him in the street by those who met him. He one day observed at table that whenever he rode through the streets of Berlin his hat was always in his hand. Baron Polintz, who was present, said that his Majesty had no occasion to notice the civility of every one who pulled his hat off to him in the streets. And why not? said the king, in a lively tone. Are they not all human beings as well as myself?
Rom. 13:5-6. New experiments in government.It is a dangerous thing to try new experiments in a government; men do not foresee the ill consequences that must happen when they go about to alter the essential parts of it upon which the whole frame depends; for all governments are artificial things, and every part of them has a dependence one upon another. And it is with them as with clocks and watchesif you should put great wheels in place of little ones, and little ones in the place of great ones, all the movement would stand still: so that we cannot alter any part of a government without prejudicing the motions of the whole.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text
Rom. 13:1-7. Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Rom. 13:2 Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment. Rom. 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same: Rom. 13:4 for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. Rom. 13:5 Wherefore ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience sake. Rom. 13:6 For this cause ye pay tribute also; for they are ministers of Gods service, attending continually upon this very thing. Rom. 13:7 Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
REALIZING ROMANS, Rom. 13:1-7
546.
Are we not a bit hasty in referring to the higher powers as the government? Why not think of the higher powers as the power of God instead of man?
547.
God is not the author of confusion, war, etc. Is God the one behind all types of government? Explain Rom. 13:1.
548.
Remember that Paul was writing under the Roman government. Is he saying that disobedience to Roman law was disobedience to God?
549.
God has placed rulers as a means of terror to evil. Explain.
550.
We should respect the powers that be. Why?
551.
The policeman is a minister of God. In what way?
552.
There are two reasons for obeying the laws. Give them. Does this apply to driving over the speed limit?
553.
Suppose we are charged an exorbitant amount of tax. Should we pay it?
554.
In what other area of living could we apply the principle of Rom. 13:1-7?
Paraphrase
Rom. 13:1-7. Let every man, whatever his office in the church or his spiritual gifts are, be subject to the established government. For there is no power of government but from God; and the governing powers in all countries are subordinate to, and useful for carrying on Gods benevolent government of the world.
Rom. 13:2 Wherefore, he who opposeth government, by disobeying its wholesome laws, or by attempting the lives of the governors, or by obstructing the due execution of their office, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they who do so shall be punished
Rom. 13:3 For rulers are appointed not to terrify those of the citizens who do good works, but who do evil. Wouldst thou then live happily in any country, without being afraid of the magistrates and the laws, carefully do the good actions which they enjoin, and thou shalt have protection and favor from the same.
Rom. 13:4 For the ruler, according to the true design of his office, is a servant of God, appointed to make thee and the rest happy, by maintaining all in their just possessions. But if thou do evil, if thou are rebellious, impious, injurious, or addicted to any vice inconsistent with the peace of society, be afraid of the magistrate, because the power of punishing is not committed to him by God and the people in vain: for he is a servant of God, appointed to avenge the community by punishing evil doers.
Rom. 13:5 For these reasons, it is necessary for you to be obedient to the laws and rulers of the countries where ye live, not only from the fear of punishment, but also from a principle of conscience.
Rom. 13:6 From the same principle, pay ye taxes also to the magistrates, because they are public ministers, appointed by God to attend continually to the affairs of government, and to the distribution of justice, that the people may live in peace.
Rom. 13:7 Render, therefore, to all, without fraud, what is due by law. To whom tax is due, tax: to whom custom for merchandise is due, custom: to whom fear is due, as having the execution of the laws in their hands, fear: to whom outward respect is due on account of their office or rank, outward respect.
Summary
All civil governments derive their origin and authority from God, and when doing right, have his sanction. He therefore requires his children to be obedient to them; where they fail, they resist not merely the government but him. Civil officers, too, are designed to be for good to Gods children, and not a source of fear. Neither, therefore, must they be resisted. Consequently, there are two reasons why we should obey the constituted authorities of the State: first, that we may avoid being punished, and, second, that we may not violate our conscience. Moreover, for these same reasons we pay tax, customs, etc. Besides, whenever it may be necessary, we must go farther and even honor those in authority. By all these acts we shall please God and promote our own happiness.
Comment
Duties to the Civil Government. Rom. 13:1-7
Law and order are principles which come from God. The condition of a people governed by law and the resulting order originated in the mind of God. Here is a general principle which must be heeded without question, as long as the authorities do not demand of us anything inconsistent with our Christian profession. There is no authority but from God. God is the original source of all powernot that he ordains power to do wrong, but he does originate the power of authority, and sets it into operation through civil government.
To the Jew it would be no light thing to ask him to submit to the government of Rome as being ordained of God. Paul goes farthernot only is government ordained of God, but whoever resists, resists God. It would not always be easy or convenient, but the true Christian has no choice if he is to obey God.
The Christian has no need to fear the rulers of a land whose laws do not conflict with the Word of God, and no terror need rise in the heart of that child of God when he sees a policeman. The Christian is in subjection to Gods more perfect revelation through Christ; such makes him the very finest of the States citizens. To be free from the fear of government interference, we of the free world do that which is good. We as Christians will be honored by God because of our exemplary conduct.
343.
Must we always be in subjection to the higher powers?
344.
What divine reason is given for submitting to the government?
345.
We need never fear the appearance of a policeman. Why?
346.
Give the twofold obligation of the Christian to the government.
Those in power are to be obeyed because they are Gods servants and are so serving to do us good. There are always some so-called free spirits who want to throw off all restraining influences and live by their own rules; even among Christians this is true. To such, the words of Paul have particular force, an avenger for anger upon him who does evil.
The Christian has a twofold obligation to the governmentnot only because he naturally fears the just anger of those in power, but for a much higher motive: his conscience has been educated by the Word of God, and upon such a basis he obeys.
An application of the above truths could be: pay your taxes. When we fail to comply with those who collect taxes, we are disobeying God. This is a very pointed, up-to-date application in light of much loose thinking and acting on such matters today.
Verse seven is a generalization and conclusion of all that has been said in the previous verse (Rom. 13:1-6):
Pay dues on exports and imports, and all other legal dues.
Pay your taxes; they are your legal, as well as divine obligation.
Pay proper respect to authorities.
Pay with honest commendation those who serve well in public office.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Every soul.A Hebraism for every person, though at the same time here, as in Rom. 2:9, there is a slight stress upon the fact that man is a conscious and intelligent being, capable of moral relations, and it is especially with reference to these relations that the phrase is used.
Higher powers.Authorities, i.e., magistrates, the abstract for the concrete.
There is no power.It is strange that the Apostle seems to go almost out of his way to include even usurped and tyrannical power. He is, however, evidently speaking of the magistracy in its abstract or ideal form. It is the magistrate qu magistrate, not qu just or unjust magistrate. In this sense, not only is the human system of society a part of the divinely-appointed order of things, but it partakes more especially in the divine attributes, inasmuch as its object is to reward virtue and to punish vice. It discharges the same functions that God himself discharges, though in a lower scale and degree. Hence Bishop Butler feels himself justified in taking the principles which regulate civil society as an analogy for those which will regulate the ultimate divine disposition of things. It is necessary to the very being of society that vices destructive of it should be punished as being sothe vices of falsehood, injustice, crueltywhich punishment, therefore, is as natural as society; and so is an instance of a kind of moral government, naturally established, and actually taking place. And, since the certain natural course of things is the conduct of Providence or the government of God, though carried on by the instrumentality of men, the observation here made amounts to this, that mankind find themselves placed by Him in such circumstances as that they are unavoidably accountable for their behaviour, and are often punished and sometimes rewarded under His government in the view of their being mischievous or eminently beneficial to society. In other words, the machinery of civil society is one of the chief and most conspicuous instruments by which God carries out His own moral government of mankind in this present existence. It may be said to be more distinctly and peculiarly derived from Him than other parts of the order of nature, inasmuch as it is the channel used to convey His moral approbation, or the reverse.
The powers that be.Those that we see existing all around us.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
XIII.
(1-7) Subject unto the higher powers.Looking impartially at the passage which follows, it would seem at first sightand perhaps not only at first sightthat the Apostle distinctly preaches two doctrines, both of which are now discredited, the doctrines of divine right and of passive obedience. The duty of obedience is grounded upon the fact that the power wielded by the magistrate is derived from God, and that duty itself is stated without qualification.
What are we to understand by this? Are we to say, for instance, that Hampden was wrong in refusing the payment of ship-money? Or if he was not wrongand the verdict of mankind has generally justified his actwhat are we to think of the language that is here used by St. Paul?
1. In the first place it should be noticed that though the duty of obedience is here stated without qualification, still the existence of qualifications to it is not therefore denied or excluded. Tribute is to be paid to whom tribute is due. But this still leaves the question open, whether in any particular case tribute is rightfully due or not. There may possibly be a conflict of rights and duties, and the lower may have to yield to the higher. All that is alleged is that, prim facie, the magistrate can claim the obedience of the subject. But supposing the magistrate calls upon the subject to do that which some other authority co-ordinate with that of the magistrate forbidssupposing, for instance, as in the case of Hampden, under a constitutional monarchy, the king commands one thing, and the Parliament anotherthere is clearly a conflict of obligations, and the decision which accepts the one obligation is not necessarily wrong because it ignores the other. There will always be a certain debatable ground within which opposite duties will seem to clash, and where general principles are no longer of any avail. Here the individual conscience must assume the responsibility of deciding which to obey.
We are not called upon to enter into the casuistry of the subject. It may only be well to add one caution. Any such seemingly direct collision of duties must be at the very lightest a most serious and difficult matter; and though the burden of deciding falls ultimately on the individual, still he must be careful to remember that his particular judgment is subject to that fallibility to which, all individual judgments are liable. Where the precept is appealed to, Render to Csar the things that are Csars, and to God the things that are Gods, one man will say that the particular point in question comes under the first head, another that it comes under the second. In either case a great responsibility is assumed, and it is especially desirable that the judgment of the individual should be fortified by the consent of others, if possible by the suffrages of the majority of those who are in a position to judge. It is one thing to say that a conflict of duties may arise, and that the higher is to be obeyed. It is another thing to say that in a certain given case such conflict has arisen, and that the duty which commends itself to the individual is the higher of the two. Whatever the decision arrived at, it ought not to be made in a spirit of levity, nor ought it to be supposed that the dictum of the single conscience bears anything like the same validity as the universal principles of morals. And there will be the further drawback, that in such cases the individual usually acts as judge in his own cause, where his conscience is pretty sure to be biased. There is therefore a very strong onus probandi thrown upon the person who takes upon himself to overrule what is in itself a clear obligation.
2. But the question of political obedience cannot be rightly considered without taking into account the relation of Christianity to political life generally, neither can this isolated passage in an Epistle of St. Pauls be considered apart from other teaching upon the same subjects in the rest of the New Testament. Very similar language, it will be remembered, is found in 1Pe. 2:13-17. And going back to the fountain-head of Christian doctrine, we find, indeed, no express statements, but several significant facts and some important intimations. When He was arrested by the civil power, and unjustly tried and condemned, our Lord made no resistance. Not only so, but when resistance was made on His behalf, He rebuked the disciple who had drawn the sword for Him. When the didrachma was demanded of Him, which it was customary for the Jew to pay towards the repair and maintenance of the Temple, He, though as Lord of the Temple He claimed exemption, nevertheless, for fear of putting a stumbling-block in the way of others, supplied the sum required by a miracle. On another occasion, when a question was asked as to the legitimacy of the Roman tribute, He replied in words already quoted, Render to Csar the things which are Csars, and to God the things which are Gods. And, lastly, when appeal was made to Him to settle a disputed inheritance, He refused, saying to His petitioner, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? Here we have really the key to the whole question. So far as His practice was concerned, our Lord pursued a course of simple obedience; into the theory of political or civil obligation He absolutely refused to enter. The answer, Render to Csar, &c., left matters precisely as they stood, for the real question was, What was Csars, and what was not? The ambiguity of the reply was intended. It was practically a refusal to reply at all.
The significance of this comes out very strikingly when it is contrasted with the state of feeling and opinion current among the Jews at the same time. With them politics and religion were intimately blended. They carried into the former sphere the fanaticism natural to the latter. Their religious hopes took a political form. The dominion of the Messiah was to be not a spiritual, but a literal dominion, in which they, as a people, were to share.
Clearly, the relations which our Lord assumed towards politics had especial reference to this attitude of the Jews. He wished to disabuse His disciples once and for all of this fatal confusion of two spheres in themselves so distinct. He wished to purify and to spiritualise their conception of the Kingdom of Heaven, which He came to found. And, lastly, He finally submitted to the civil power, as the instrument divinely employed to inflict upon Him those sufferings which were to be the cause of our redemption. Vicit patiendo.
It would seem as if by some intuitive perception the disciples entered into the intention of their Master. Towards the civil power they maintained an attitude of absolute submission. They refused to avail themselves of the elements of fanaticism which existed wherever there were Jews, and at the head of which they might easily have placed themselves. Instead of this, they chose to suffer and die, and their sufferings did what force could never have donethey leavened and Christianised the world.
3. It is an expression of this deliberate policy (if by that name it may be called) which we find in these first seven verses of Romans 13. At the same time, the Apostle may very well have had a special as well as a general object. The Church at Rome was largely composed of Jews, and these would naturally be imbued with the fanatical spirit of their countrymen. The very mention of the Messiah would tend to fan their smouldering passions into flame. The Apostle would be aware of this. His informants at Rome may have told him of excitement prevailing among the Jewish portion of the community. His experience in Palestine would tell him to what unscrupulous acts of violence this might lead. And he forestalls the danger by an authoritative and reasoned description of the attitude which the Christian ought to assume.
It does not necessarily follow that precisely the same attitude is incumbent upon the Christian now. In this section of Christian teaching there was something that was temporary and local, and that had reference to conditions that have now passed away. And yet as a general principle, the injunctions of the Apostle entirely hold good. The exceptions to this principle are few and far between. And he who would assert the existence of such an exception must count the cost well beforehand.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 13
THE CHRISTIAN AND THE STATE ( Rom 13:1-7 )
13:1-7 Let everyone render due obedience to those who occupy positions of outstanding authority, for there is no authority which is not allotted its place by God, for the authorities which exist have been set in their places by God. So he who sets himself up against authority has really set himself up against God’s arrangement of things. Those who do set themselves against authority will receive condemnation upon themselves. For the man who does good has nothing to fear from rulers, but the man who does evil has. Do you wish to be free of fear of authority? Do good and you will enjoy praise from authority, for any servant of God exists for your good. If you do evil, then you must fear. For it is not for nothing that the man set in authority bears the sword, for he is the servant of God, and his function is to vent wrath and vengeance on the man who does evil. So, then, it is necessary for you to submit yourself, not because of the wrath, but for the sake of your own conscience.
For this same reason you must pay your taxes too; for those set in authority are the servants of God, and continue to work for that very end. Give to all men what is due to them. Give tribute to those to whom tribute is due; pay taxes to those to whom taxes are due. Give fear to those to whom fear is due. Give honour to those to whom honour is due.
At first reading this is an extremely surprising passage, for it seems to counsel absolute obedience on the part of the Christian to the civil power. But, in point of fact, this is a commandment which runs through the whole New Testament. In 1Ti 2:1-2, we read: “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and for all who are in high positions; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way.” In Tit 3:1 the advice to the preacher is: “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work.” In 1Pe 2:13-17 we read: “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 wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is Gods will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men…. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor.”
We might be tempted to argue that these passages come from a time when the Roman government had not begun to persecute the Christians. We know, for instance, in the Book of Acts that frequently, as Gibbon had it, the tribunal of the pagan magistrate was often the safest refuge against the fury of the Jewish mob. Time and again we see Paul receiving protection at the hands of impartial Roman justice. But the interesting and the significant thing is that many years, and even centuries later, when persecution had begun to rage and Christians were regarded as outlaws, the Christian leaders were saying exactly the same thing.
Justin Martyr (Apology 1: 17) writes, “Everywhere, we, more readily than all men, endeavour to pay to those appointed by you the taxes, both ordinary and extraordinary, as we have been taught by Jesus. 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.” Athenagoras, pleading for peace for the Christians, writes (chapter 37): “We deserve favour because we pray for your government, that you may, as is most equitable, receive the kingdom, son from father, and that your empire may receive increase and addition, until all men become subject to your sway.” Tertullian (Apology 30) writes at length: “We offer prayer for the safety of our princes to the eternal, the true, the living God, whose favour, beyond all other things, they must themselves desire…. Without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection for the imperial house; for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest–whatever, as man or Caesar, an emperor would wish.” He goes on to say that the Christian cannot but look up to the emperor because he “is called by our Lord to his office.” And he ends by saying that “Caesar is more ours than yours because our God appointed him.” Arnobius (4: 36) declares that in the Christian gatherings “peace and pardon are asked for all in authority.”
It was the consistent and official teaching of the Christian Church that obedience must be given to, and prayers made for, the civil power, even when the wielder of that civil power was a Nero.
What is the thought and belief at the back of this?
(i) In Paul’s case there was one immediate cause of his stressing of civil obedience. The Jews were notoriously rebellious. Palestine, especially Galilee, was constantly seething with insurrection. Above all there were the Zealots; they were convinced that there was no king for the Jews but God; and that no tribute must be paid to anyone except to God. Nor were they content with anything like a passive resistance. They believed that God would not be helping them unless they embarked on violent action to help themselves. Their aim was to make any civil government impossible. They were known as the dagger-bearers. They were fanatical nationalists sworn to terrorist methods. Not only did they use terrorism towards the Roman government; they also wrecked the houses and burned the crops and assassinated the families of their own fellow-Jews who paid tribute to the Roman government.
In this Paul saw no point at all. It was, in fact, the direct negation of all Christian conduct. And yet, at least in one part of the nation, it was normal Jewish conduct. It may well be that Paul writes here with such inclusive definiteness because he wished to dissociate Christianity altogether from insurrectionist Judaism, and to make it clear that Christianity and good citizenship went necessarily hand in hand.
(ii) But there is more than a merely temporary situation in the relationship between the Christian and the state. It may well be true that the circumstances caused by the unrest of the Jews are in Paul’s mind, but there are other things as well. First and foremost, there is this–no man can entirely dissociate himself from the society in which he lives and has a part. No man can, in conscience, opt out of the nation. As a part of it, he enjoys certain benefits which he could not have as an individual; but he cannot reasonably claim all the privileges and refuse all the duties. As he is part of the body of the Church. he is also part of the body of the nation; there is no such thing in this world as an isolated individual. A man has a duty to the state and must discharge it even if a Nero is on the throne.
(iii) To the state a man owes protection. It was the Platonic idea that the state existed for the sake of justice and safety and secured for a man security against wild beasts and savage men. “Men,” as it has been put, “herded behind a wall that they might be safe.” A state is essentially a body of men who have covenanted together to maintain certain relationships between each other by the observance of certain laws. Without these laws and the mutual agreement to observe them, the bad and selfish strong man would be supreme; the weaker would go to the wall; life would become ruled by the law of the jungle. Every ordinary man owes his security to the state, and is therefore under a responsibility to it.
(iv) To the state ordinary people owe a wide range of services which individually they could not enjoy. It would be impossible for every man to have his own water, light, sewage, transport system. These things are obtainable only when men agree to live together. And it would be quite wrong for a man to enjoy everything the state provides and to refuse all responsibility to it. That is one compelling reason why the Christian is bound in honour to be a good citizen and to take his part in all the duties of citizenship.
(v) But Paul’s main view of the state was that the Roman Empire was the divinely ordained instrument to save the world from chaos. Take away that Empire and the world would disintegrate into flying fragments. It was in fact the pax Romana, the Roman peace, which gave the Christian missionary the chance to do his work. Ideally men should be bound together by Christian love; but they are not; and the cement which keeps them together is the state.
Paul saw in the state an instrument in the hand of God, preserving the world from chaos. Those who administered the state were playing their part in that great task. Whether they knew it or not they were doing God’s work, and it was the Christian’s duty to help and not to hinder.
THE DEBTS WHICH MUST BE PAID AND THE DEBT WHICH NEVER CAN BE PAID ( Rom 13:8-10 ) 13:8-10 Owe no man anything, except to love each other; for he who loves the other man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, You must not commit adultery, You must not kill, You must not steal, You must not covet, and any other commandment there may be, are all summed up in this saying–You must love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbour. Love is, therefore, the complete fulfilment of the law.
The previous passage dealt with what might be called a man’s public debts. Rom 13:7 mentions two of these public debts. There is what Paul calls tribute, and what he calls taxes. By tribute he means the tribute that must be paid by those who are members of a subject nation. The standard contributions that the Roman government levied on its subject nations were three. There was a ground tax by which a man had to pay, either in cash or in kind, one-tenth of all the grain, and one fifth of the wine and fruit produced by his ground. There was income tax, which was one per cent of a man’s income. There was a poll tax, which had to be paid by everyone between the ages of fourteen and sixty five. By taxes Paul means the local taxes that had to be paid. There were customs duties, import and export taxes, taxes for the use of main roads, for crossing bridges, for entry into markets and harbours, for the right to possess an animal, or to drive a cart or wagon. Paul insists that the Christian must pay his tribute and his taxes to state and to local authority, however galling it may be.
Then he turns to private debts. He says, “Owe no man anything.” It seems a thing almost unnecessary to say; but there were some who even twisted the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” into a reason for claiming absolution from all money obligations. Paul had to remind his people that Christianity is not an excuse for refusing our obligations to our fellow men; it is a reason for fulfilling them to the utmost.
He goes on to speak of the one debt that a man must pay every day, and yet, at the same time, must go on owing every day, the debt to love each other. Origen said: “The debt of love remains with us permanently and never leaves us; this is a debt which we both discharge every day and for ever owe.” It is Paul’s claim that if a man honestly seeks to discharge this debt of love, he will automatically keep all the commandments. He will not commit adultery, for when two people allow their physical passions to sweep them away, the reason is, not that they love each other too much, but that they love each other too little; in real love there is at once respect and restraint which saves from sin. He will not kill, for love never seeks to destroy, but always to build up; it is always kind and will ever seek to destroy an enemy not by killing him, but by seeking to make him a friend. He will never steal, for love is always more concerned with giving than with getting. He will not covet, for covetousness (epithumia, G1939) is the uncontrolled desire for the forbidden thing, and love cleanses the heart, until that desire is gone.
There is a famous saying, “Love God–and do what you like.” If love is the mainspring of a man’s heart, if his whole life is dominated by love for God and love for his fellow men, he needs no other law.
THE THREAT OF TIME ( Rom 13:11-14 ) 13:11-14 Further, there is this–realize what time it is, that it is now high time to be awakened from sleep; for now your salvation is nearer than when you believed. The night is far gone; the day is near. So, then, let us put away the works of darkness, and let us clothe ourselves with the weapons of light. Let us walk in loveliness of life, as those who walk in the day, and let us not walk in revelry or drunkenness, in immorality and in shamelessness, in contention and in strife. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ as a man puts on a garment, and stop living a life in which your first thought is to gratify the desires of Christless human nature.
Like so many great men, Paul was haunted by the shortness of time. Andrew Marvell could always hear “time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” Keats was haunted by fears that he might cease to be before his pen had gleaned his teeming brain. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:
“The morning drum-call on my eager ear
Thrills unforgotten yet; the morning dew
Lies yet undried along my fields of noon.
But now I pause at whiles in what I do
And count the bell, and tremble lest I hear
(My work untrimmed) the sunset gun too soon.”
But there was more in Paul’s thought than simply the shortness of time. He expected the Second Coming of Christ. The Early Church expected it at any moment, and therefore it had the urgency to be ready. That expectancy has grown dim and faint; but one permanent fact remains–no man knows when God will rise and bid him go. The time grows ever shorter, for we are every day one day nearer that time. We, too, must have all things ready.
The last verses of this passage must be forever famous, for it was through them Augustine found conversion. He tells the story in his Confessions. He was walking in the garden. His heart was in distress, because of his failure to live the good life. He kept exclaiming miserably, “How long? How long? Tomorrow and tomorrow–why not now? Why not this hour an end to my depravity?” Suddenly he heard a voice saying, “Take and read; take and read.” It sounded like a child’s voice; and he racked his mind to try to remember any child’s game in which these words occurred, but could think of none. He hurried back to the seat where his friend Alypius was sitting, for he had left there a volume of Paul’s writings. “I snatched it up and read silently the first passage my eyes fell upon: ‘ Let us not walk in revelry or drunkenness, in immorality and in shamelessness, in contention and in strife. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man puts on a garment, and stop living a life in which your first thought is to gratify the desires of Christless human nature.’ I neither wished nor needed to read further. With the end of that sentence, as though the light of assurance had poured into my heart, all the shades of doubt were scattered. I put my finger in the page and closed the book: I turned to Alypius with a calm countenance and told him.” (C. H. Dodd’s translation.) Out of his word God had spoken to Augustine. It was Coleridge who said that he believed the Bible to be inspired because, as he puts it, “It finds me.” God’s word can always find the human heart.
It is interesting to look at the six sins which Paul selects as being, as it were, typical of the Christless life.
(i) There is revelry (komos, G2889) . This is an interesting word. Originally komos ( G2889) was the band of friends who accompanied a victor home from the games, singing his praises and celebrating his triumph as they went. Later it came to mean a noisy band of revellers who swept their way through the city streets at night, a band of roysterers, what, in Regency England, would have been called a rout. It describes the kind of revelry which lowers a man’s self and is a nuisance to others.
(ii) There is drunkenness (methe, G3178) . To the Greeks drunkenness was a particularly disgraceful thing. They were a wine-drinking people. Even children drank wine. Breakfast was called akratisma, and consisted of a slice of bread dipped in wine. For all that, drunkenness was considered specially shameful, for the wine the Greek drank was much diluted, and was drunk because the water supply was inadequate and dangerous. This was a vice which not only a Christian but any respectable heathen also would have condemned.
(iii) There was immorality (koite, G2845) . Koite ( G2845) literally means a bed and has in it the meaning of the desire for the forbidden bed. This was the typical heathen sin. The word brings to mind the man who sets no value on fidelity and who takes his pleasure when and where he will.
(iv) There is shamelessness (aselgeia, G766) . Aselgeia ( G766) is one of the ugliest words in the Greek language. It does not describe only immorality; it describes the man who is lost to shame. Most people seek to conceal their evil deeds, but the man in whose heart there is aselgeia ( G766) is long past that. He does not care who sees him; he does not care how much of a public exhibition he makes of himself; he does not care what people think of him. Aselgeia ( G766) is the quality of the man who dares publicly to do the things which are unbecoming for any man to do.
(v) There is contention (eris, G2054) . Eris ( G2054) is the spirit that is born of unbridled and unholy competition. It comes from the desire for place and power and prestige and the hatred of being surpassed. It is essentially the sin which places self in the foreground and is the entire negation of Christian love.
(vi) There is envy (zelos, G2205) . Zelos ( G2205) need not be a bad word. It can describe the noble emulation of a man who, when confronted with greatness of character, wishes to attain to it. But it can also mean that envy which grudges a man his nobility and his preeminence. It describes here the spirit which cannot be content with what it has and looks with jealous eye on every blessing given to someone else and denied to itself.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
3. Subjection to government as to a divinely established authority , Rom 13:1-7 .
To the young Christian Church it could not but occur as a very momentous and very doubtful question, What are we to do with the governments of the world? They are all in pagan hands, with despots for their heads. In the Old Testament the visions of Daniel describe them as beasts. Christ is our true king, and we know not how soon he may appear to overthrow all existing despotism and establish a universal reign of righteousness.
Paul here furnishes the divine reply. Bad as human governments are, brutal and ferocious as is often their spirit, there is a benign and beneficial side to them. Government is ordained of God. Society is not formed by a fabled social compact. On the contrary, God has formed man for society, and government is the form into which he has obliged society to throw itself for its own peace and conservation. Hence, at all times, every government that truly is a government is ordained of God and entitled to our obedience.
The exceptions to this normal law, and its limitations, the apostle does not discuss. That an authority which commands us to violate the law of God should not be obeyed, he would, of course, not only have admitted, but affirmed. Had the emperor with all his powers required him to abjure Christ, he would have promptly disobeyed and suffered the result. Why? Because government, if ordained by God, is limited by the law of God. And if it oversteps the law of God, it oversteps the boundary line of its authority, and ceases to be a government, and has no title to be obeyed. Cesar, then, is no longer Cesar, but, so far, simply a private man. If the President of the United States orders his general to overthrow the Constitution he acts outside his office, and on that outside ground he is not President, and can claim no rightful obedience. What a legitimate government is the apostle does not here discuss. Nor does he raise the question of the right of revolution. The only question before him is, What is the duty of the Christian to a government which he acknowledges to be the government? (See note on Act 4:19.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. Every soul A term of solemn universality; every human being needs the government and should obey it.
Higher powers The apostle uses the abstract, and not the concrete. It is the government that is of God, not necessarily the particular governor.
No power but of God Nor is it said that there is no usurper who is of the devil. But as government is ordained of God, so every admitted government must be attributed to God.
It has often been the case in human history that conscientious Christians have been doubtful what, or which, is the true government, the government entitled to their Christian obedience. When the popish tyrant, James II., was driven from the throne of England, and a constitutional sovereign substituted in his place, a large class of conscientious thinkers continued for near half a century sincerely to believe that James and his heirs were their true and lawful sovereigns. So believing, they thought it their duty to withhold their allegiance from the reigning authority. They believed that there is no power but of God; but they also believed that the new king was, in the apostle’s sense, not a power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God.’
‘Every soul’ simply means ‘everyone.’ Thus everyone is to be subject to ‘the higher powers’, that is the appointed governors and their staff. And this is because men cannot come to power except God allows it, and thus those who do come to power are to be seen as ordained of God. This view is in accord with Scripture, for in Dan 4:17; Dan 4:25; Dan 4:32 we read, ‘the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever He will’, something which presumably Jesus had in mind when He said, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’ (Mat 22:21). He saw it as Caesar’s due that he be rightfully treated in secular matters.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Christian’s Attitude Towards The State (13:1-7).
Having called on Christians ‘not to be conformed to this world’ (Rom 12:2), and having indicated that vengeance for wrongdoing lay in God’s hands (Rom 12:19 – notice the use of ‘the wrath’ in Rom 12:19 and Rom 13:5), and that Christians should be concerned to be at peace with all men (Rom 12:18), Paul now feels constrained both to affirm the need to conform with the systems of justice that were in place (as he had never intended otherwise), and to assure Christians that God was controlling justice through ‘God-appointed’ justices. ‘Not being conformed to this world’ must not therefore be seen as meaning that we are free from all the world’s restraints. Indeed it rather means that we will see the authorities as have been placed there by God. For it is by them that God’s present wrath is executed, and through them that the societies that they represent would know peace.
It is noteworthy that Paul nowhere else deals with this question. (Compare, however, where Peter does in 1Pe 2:13 ff; 1Pe 4:15 ff). That may have been because here he sees the church in Rome as at the hub of the Roman Empire, so that their attitude towards the government might be crucial in relations between church and state. Or it may be because he was aware of rumblings in Rome against the current political leadership, and did not want Roman Christians to succumb to them, with its consequent effect on the attitude of the authorities towards Christianity. The reference to paying taxes to whom taxes are due may suggest a connection with the tax rebellion by the inhabitants of Rome which, according to Tacitus, occurred in the middle 50s AD. But however that may be Paul, clearly considers it important to lay down advice on how to react to the Roman authorities.
Christianity at this stage mainly enjoyed the protection of Rome because it was seen as a branch of Judaism and thus as a religio licita, a religion whose rights were protected by the Roman Empire. This had been so from the mid 1st century BC when the Jews had been seen as allies of Rome, and not as a conquered people. They were thus free to practise their peculiarities (e.g. the Sabbath) without hindrance, protected by the Law. Christians, therefore, at this stage mainly enjoyed the same protection. (Even Caligula, although under strong pressure from advisers, forbore setting up his image in the Jerusalem Temple). It would only be later that the Roman authorities, sadly egged on by Jews, differentiated Christianity from Judaism thereby making Christianity a religio illicita, an unofficial religion that enjoyed no protection and that could be persecuted at any time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1). Christian Living (12:1-13:14).
In this passage Paul calls on God’s people so to present their bodies as a living offering to God, through their having died with Christ and risen with Him (Rom 6:1-11), that they live lives of total purity and goodness. This is then spelled out in detail, first in relation to the church, and then in relation to the world. And he concludes the section with the requirement that they ‘put on the LORD Jesus Christ’, and make no provision for the flesh.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
A Call To Make Real In The Church And In The World The Righteousness Which They Have Received (12:1-15:33).
This section moves from the indicative to the imperative. Having outlined the ways of God in salvation:
in applying to His people the righteousness of Christ (Rom 3:24 to Rom 4:25),
in uniting them with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom 6:1-11),
in making them righteous within by His Spirit (Rom 8:1-18),
and in having demonstrated God’s sovereign activity in the world which has resulted in a new olive tree composed of both Jews and Gentiles (Rom 9:6 to Rom 11:32),
Paul now calls on all Christians as a consequence (‘by the mercies of God’) to totally consecrate themselves to God’s service. It is an urgent call to action in response to what God has done for them. He is calling on them to live out the ‘newness of life’ (Rom 6:3) that they have received, something which will result in:
their consecration of themselves to God (Rom 12:1-2).
their commitment to help each other (Rom 12:3-8).
their living of a consistent Christian life before outsiders (Rom 12:9-21).
their having a right attitude towards the powers that be (Rom 13:1-7).
their responsibility to reveal the love of Christ through them (Rom 13:8-10).
and their living in the light of the urgency of the times (Rom 13:11-14).
We must not see these chapters as simply moral instruction added on to the main letter, but as in integral part of the letter. They describe the behaviour that will result from following the mind of the Spirit. Without them that would have been incomprehensible to many of them. And we should note how similar exhortation has been made earlier (Rom 6:12-23). Here, however, that is expanded on.
The section may be divided up as follows:
1). Christian Living (12:1-13:14).
A call to total consecration (Rom 12:1-2).
Each member to play his appropriate part in building up Christ’s body (Rom 12:3-8).
A call to fulfil the Law of Christ (Rom 12:9-21).
The Christian’s attitude towards the state (Rom 13:1-7).
The Christian’s responsibility to love (Rom 13:8-10).
Living in crisis days (Rom 13:11-14).
2). Christian Freedom And Consideration For The Views Of Others (14:1-15:6).
Christian freedom to be tempered by consideration for the brethren with regard to food fetishes and sabbath observance (Rom 14:1-23).
The strong should help the weak, and unity must be foremost (Rom 15:1-6).
3). The Ministry Of The Messiah Is To Both Jews And Gentiles (15:7-33).
Christ made a minister of circumcision in order to confirm the promises to the Jews and reach out with mercy to the Gentiles (Rom 15:7-13).
The extent and focal point of Paul’s own ministry to the Gentiles as a minister of the Messiah Jesus to the Gentiles (Rom 15:14-21).
His aim to visit Rome after he has ministered to Jewish believers in taking the contributions of the Gentile churches to the churches in Jerusalem, in view of which he requests prayer that he may be delivered form the hands of antagonistic Jews (Rom 15:22-33).
4). Final Greetings (16:1-27).
Final greetings and exhortations (Rom 16:1-16).
Exhortation to beware of those who divide the church and of the need to be wise to what is good, with the assurance that God will cause them to triumph against Satan’s deceitfulness (Rom 16:17-20).
Greetings from fellow-labourers in the Gospel (Rom 16:21-23).
Final ascription of praise to God for His faithfulness and ability to establish His people in the light of the mystery of the Gospel now revealed (Rom 16:24-27).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Gospel in Relation to Civil Duties Rom 13:1-7 deals with submission to authorities. The Church is also related to the government of that society. Therefore, it has civil duties in relation to its leaders (Rom 13:1-7). Paul knew that the Romans were not pleased with the ways that the Jews were conducting themselves in Rome. He was very aware of how Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome in A.D. 50, just seven years earlier (Act 18:2). Therefore, Paul takes time in his epistle to exhort the believers in Rome to honor those in authority. Paul did not want them to partake of civil rebellions in the Capitol.
Act 18:2, “And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.”
Historical Background – Suetonius speaks of such a banishment of all the Jews from Rome by the emperor Claudius (A.D. 41 to 54) during the years A.D. 49 or 50.
Seutonius writes, “Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.” (Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Claudius 25.4) [213]
[213] Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, trans. Joseph Gavorse, in The Modern Library of the World’s Best Books (New York: The Random House, 1931), 226.
Scholars believe that this Latin author is most likely referring to the same incident that is mentioned in Scripture. It is suggested that the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah so incited the Jewish population of Rome that their disturbance caused their expulsion. (According to Dio Cassius, Claudius did not expel all Jews but forbade all meeting together. [214] )
[214] Dio Cassius writes, “As for the Jews, who had again increased so greatly that by reason of their multitude it would have been hard without raising a tumult to bar them from the city, lie did not drive them out, but ordered them, while continuing their traditional mode of life, not to hold meetings.” ( Roman History 60.6.6) See Dio’s Roman History, vol. 7, trans. Earnest Cary, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1955), 383.
The classical writes reveal the distain that the Romans had for Christians. Tacitus (A.D. 56-117) says the Christians had a “hatred of the human race” ( Annals 15:44). [215] Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-122) calls Christianity “a vicious and extravagant superstition.” ( Letters 10.97) [216] Suetonius (A.D. 70-130) refers to the Christian religion “a new and mischievous superstition.” ( Life of Nero 16.2) [217] as “a class of men given to a pernicious and baneful class of people.” Therefore, Paul felt there was a great need to teach Christians to learn submission to their government leaders in order to show themselves worthy citizens of Rome. Eventually, when the great fire of Rome took place in A.D. 64, Nero directed the blame on this unpopular group, [218] which was accused of incest and cannibalism. [219] This became the first large-scale persecution of the Church by the Roman Empire (A.D. 64-68).
[215] Tacitus writes, “Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue. First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race.” ( Annals 15.44) See Tacitus: The Histories, vol. 4, trans. Clifford H. Moore, and The Annals, trans. John Jackson, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1952), 283-284.
[216] Pliny the Younger, The Letters of Pliny the Younger, trans. John Delaware Lewis (London: Trubner and Co., 1879). 379.
[217] Suetonius writes, “Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.” See Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, trans. Joseph Gavorse, in The Modern Library of the World’s Best Books (New York: The Random House, 1931), 250.
[218] Tacitus writes, “Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians.” ( Annals 15.44) See Tacitus: The Histories, vol. 4, trans. Clifford H. Moore, and The Annals, trans. John Jackson, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1952), 283.
[219] Athenagoras writes, “Three things are alleged against us: atheism, Thyestean feasts, Oediopdean intercourse.” ( A Plea for the Christians 3) ( ANF 2)
In addition, John Chrysostom notes that every form of civil disobedience and plots to usurp the throne came against the Emperor during his day. Thus, Christians were to stand above constant corruption and ill will towards their civil leaders as good citizens and examples of God’s love.
“Just reflect then what a word St. Paul hath uttered about the faithful, and those who are truly crucified, such as not even the Emperor with his diadem can achieve. For against him there are abundance of barbarians that arm themselves, and of enemies that invade, and of bodyguards that plot, and of subjects many that oftentimes are ever and anon rebelling, and thousands of other things. But against the faithful who taketh good heed unto God’s laws, neither man, nor devil, nor aught besides, can raise opposition!” [220] ( Commentary on Romans Homily 15)
[220] John Chrysostom, The Homilies of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, Translated, with Notes and Incides, in A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, vol. 7, ed. E. B. Pusey (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841), 266-267.
With this setting in mind regarding Rom 13:1-7, we must not forget that the contents of the epistle to the Romans is a systematic delivery of the Gospel message that Paul has been preaching for years. Thus, this passage is written so that it is relevant to all Christians in every city. Note similar passages that teach Christians on submission to government authorities:
1Ti 2:1-4, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
Tit 3:1, “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,”
1Pe 2:13-14, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.”
Rom 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:1
Rom 13:1 “the powers that be are ordained of G For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” Comments – Someone might say, “If God has ordained all powers, then why should we go out and vote for political candidates, if God has already decided beforehand who should hold office?” The answer lies in a story found in the Old Testament. When the children of Israel wanted a king, Samuel took their petition, or vote, to the Lord. Because this is the way the children of Israel voted, God gave them what they wanted.
The lesson is that we should always exercise our God-given right to vote for a candidate, knowing that this is the method that God has ordained for civil authorities to be placed in office.
Rom 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Rom 13:3 Rom 13:4 Rom 13:5 Rom 13:5
Rom 13:6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Rom 13:6
Mat 17:24-27, “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.”
Rom 13:7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
Rom 13:7
Mat 22:21, “They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Practical Applications of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Our Everyday Lives After Paul declares the Gospel in the first eleven chapters, he devotes rest of the chapters to the practical application of the Gospel in the life of the individual. This two-fold aspect of doctrinal and practical teachings is typical of the Pauline epistles. Rom 1:16-17 serves as a summary of the Gospel of Jesus, which Paul spends much of this Epistle expanding upon. These are the key verses of the book of Romans in which Paul declares the power of the Gospel, revealing God’s plan of redemption for mankind. The Almighty God will affect His purpose and plan for man through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He will spend the first eleven chapters show to us God’s role in bringing about this Plan of Redemption to mankind. He will take the rest of his Epistle teach us our role in supporting this plan in the societies that each of us live in, as we apply the Gospel to our relationships with others.
Paul explains how believers, both Jews and Gentiles, are united as one body in Christ (Rom 12:1-8). The Church is also united within a society, so that this obligates us to social duties with our fellow man (Rom 12:9-21). The Church is also related to the government of that society. Therefore, it has civil duties in relation to its leaders (Rom 13:1-7). These civil duties do not conflict with the Mosaic Law found within Scripture. In fact, these principles are found within the Law (Rom 13:8-10). Paul then exhorts the church at Rome to treat one’s fellow believer with love as an example to the society and government in which they live (Rom 13:11 to Rom 15:13). Christ’s eminent return is reason enough to follow Paul’s exhortations (Rom 13:11-14). He takes a special problem, which is foods, to show the believers how to work together despite their differences (Rom 14:1 to Rom 15:13). Thus, we see in a nutshell how to apply the Gospel in our relationship to the Church, to society in general, to governmental authorities, and finally to individual believers. We see that the Church is structured within the society, which is structured under a ruling government. Within this structure, the believers are to be an example of love in how they treat one another so that the society of unbelievers may see the love of God. This is how the Gospel is taken to a nation, which is the third and supporting theme of Romans.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Gospel in Relation to One Body in Christ Rom 12:1-8
2. The Gospel in Relation to Social Duties Rom 12:9-21
3. The Gospel in Relation to Civil Duties Rom 13:1-7
4. The Gospel in Relation to the Law Rom 13:8-10
5. The Gospel in Relation to Other Believers Rom 13:11 to Rom 15:13
Application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Living Sacrifices – Paul now leaves the doctrinal teachings found in the first major part of this epistle (1-11) and moves into exhortations on how to apply these divine doctrines to daily life (12-15). After having explained how God is still working in the nation of Israel as well as the Church to fulfill all things according to His election through divine foreknowledge, Paul first calls them all, both Jewish and Gentile converts in the church at Rome, to unity in the body of Christ (Rom 12:1-8). They are also to conduct themselves in the love of God towards the society in which they live (Rom 12:9-21), knowing that they are a light to the world and God wants to redeem all men. Although the Jews in Rome as well as in Palestine were considered troublesome by Roman officials, Paul exhorts the Church at Rome to set themselves as examples of respectable citizens by being submission to government authority (Rom 13:1-7). In doing this, they are not breaking the Mosaic Laws, but rather fulfilling them (Rom 13:8-10). Paul then writes a lengthy passage to the church at Rome discussing particular issues that explain how to walk in love among themselves, in light of the fact that the Day of the Lord’s Return is near (Rom 13:11 to Rom 15:13).
Since Rom 12:1-2 command us to give ourselves to God as a servant, the following passages show us how to give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. Rom 13:14 seems to summarize these two verses, since it is a closing verse to these two chapters.
Rom 13:14, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Romans 12-15 serve to show how the believers in Rome could offer themselves as a living sacrifice; in their relationships with one another, with society and under government authorities.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Of Obedience to the Government, Love toward One’s Neighbor, and the Walk in the Light.
Government powers of God:
v. 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.
v. 2. Whosoever, therefore, resists the power resists the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
v. 3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou, then, not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same;
v. 4. for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. The apostle now, in his exhortation, shows the duties which every person owes the government, and in which the Christians will lead all others with a cheerful sense of duty. Since this is the only place in which Paul treats at greater length of the duties toward civil authorities, it is probable that circumstances made it necessary for him to include this information at this point, either to curb the spirit of the Jewish Christians or to prepare all the Christians of Rome for the treatment which they afterward received at the hands of the tyrant Nero. Paul’s statements are very general, and find their application in all ages of the world; they indicate exactly the divine right and the divine dignity of the government, but, at the same time, limit the functions of the civil authorities to matters pertaining to this world, to the physical well-being of the subjects and to the duties of citizenship.
The apostle’s words are all-inclusive: Let every soul subject itself to authorities existing above it. Every person, without exception, within a community, state, or country is spoken of and addressed in this command. He should be subject to, submit himself willingly, without the application of force or restraint, to the existing powers or authorities, to the persons that are invested with power, to the incumbents of the governmental office. The governmental powers vested in these people by virtue of God’s providence or permission gives them a position in which they excel us in dignity and authority; they are our superiors in the sense of the Fourth Commandment. This is expressly brought out: For there does not exist an authority except by God; but those that exist are ordained by God. If a government is actually in power, whether tyrannical or otherwise, its existence cannot be explained but by the assumption that it is due to God’s establishment, either by His providence or by His permission. It would be impossible for any government to keep evil in check if the almighty hand of God were not the sustaining power. “Not only is human government a divine institution, but the form in which that government exists, and the persons by whom its functions are exercised, are determined by His providence. All magistrates of whatever grade are to be regarded as acting by divine appointment; not that God designates the individuals, but that, it being His will that there should be magistrates, every person who is in point of fact clothed with authority, is to be regarded as having a claim to obedience, founded on the will of God. ” (Hodge.) This being the case, therefore, whosoever, everyone that, resists the power resists the institution of God. If any person refuses obedience to the government to which he is subject in any point left free by God’s express command or prohibition, he rebels, not only against the lawful authority of the government, but incidentally against God Himself, who established government. And they that resist will receive to themselves judgment, the sentence of condemnation. Not only will they make themselves liable to prosecution and punishment on the part of the government, but they will be looked upon and treated as rebels by God, who will not have the authority vested by Him disregarded. History shows that the visitations of God upon rebellious peoples have been very severe.
The apostle now brings another reason for the duty enjoined in the first verse: For the authorities, those that rule, are a terror, a cause for fear, not to the good work, but to the evil. That is the purpose for which God has established government: it is to be a matter of fear, its power is to strike terror into the hearts of the rebellious, just as its dignity is to cause reverence and respect in the minds of all subjects. It is only he that does evil who must fear the civil authorities, not he that does good. He that transgresses the laws of the country, and refuses to live in accordance with the demands of civil righteousness, must expect to be treated as his behavior merits. If, then, a person does not want to live in continual fear of the government in the rightful discharge of its duties, he should be concerned about doing good, about living up to the laws of the country, about doing his duty as a citizen. Then he will have praise from the authority, or government; he will be recognized and treated as a good, dutiful citizen. For the magistrates, the persons in authority that are actually conscious of the responsibility and power vested in them, will then act so that the government will be the servant of God to every good citizen for good. For that purpose the government is established and upheld by God, for the benefit of the citizens that are law-abiding, to protect and defend them against wrong, to seek the welfare of society in every way. But if someone will do wrong, will deliberately transgress the laws of the city, state, or country in which he lives and whose protection he enjoys, then he should fear. Far the government nowhere bears the sword, the symbol of authority, in vain; it is not for nothing that the civil authorities are invested with the right to punish, if necessary, by administering the condemnation of death upon the transgressors of the law. God’s minister the government’s power is, both in protecting and in punishing, and, in the latter case, avenging unto anger, manifesting and exercising revenge and wrath upon him that makes it a practice to do evil. Thus the government, according to God’s will, is the guardian of law and order, including external morality. And this reason is sufficient to keep the Christians peaceful and law-abiding, no matter under what form of government they are living, no matter if the persons in authority are morally corrupt. If the members of God’s kingdom can but lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty and build up the Church of Christ, they are duly thankful to God. And if a hostile government uses tyrannical measures to suppress the work of the Church, Christians will not assume a rebellious attitude, but will try to gain their object by legitimate means, by invoking the statutes and the constitution of their state or country. It is only when the government demands anything plainly at variance with the revealed will of God that the Christians quietly, but firmly refuse to obey, Act 5:29.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Rom 13:1-8
From admonitions to keep peace, if possible, with all men, whether or not within the Christian circle, and to act honourably and benevolently towards all, the apostle now passes to the duty of Christians towards the civil government and the laws of the country in which they lived. It is well known that the Jews were impatient of the Roman dominion, and that some held it to be unlawful, on religious grounds, to pay tribute to Caesar (Mat 22:17). Insurrections against the government had consequently been frequent. There had been the notable one under Judas the Gaulonite of Gamala (called , Act 5:37), who left followers behind him, called Gaulonites, and to whose tenets Josephus attributes all subsequent insurrections of the Jews (‘Ant.,’ 18.1. 1). Recently one had broken out in Rome, which had caused Claudius to order the expulsion of all Jews from the city (Act 17:2; cf. Suetonius, ‘Claud.,’ 25; Din Cassius, 60.6). The Christians, being regarded as a Jewish sect, and known for their acknowledgment of a Messiah and their refusal to comply with heathen usages, were not unnaturally confounded with such disturbers of the peace (cf. Act 17:6, Act 17:7; Act 21:37). It was, therefore, peculiarly needful that the Christian communities should be cautioned to disprove such accusations by showing themselves in all respects good, law-abiding subjects. They might easily be under a temptation to be otherwise. Feeling themselves already subjects of Christ’s new kingdom, and regarding the second advent as probably near at hand, they might seem to themselves above the powers and institutions of the unbelieving world, which were so soon to pass away. St. Paul himself condemned resort to heathen tribunals in matters which Christians might settle among themselves (1Co 6:1, etc.); and many might go so far as to ignore the authority of such tribunals over the saints at all. Peter and John had at the first defied the authority even of the Sanhedrin in matters touching conscience (Act 4:19); and many might be slow to distinguish between temporal and spiritual spheres of jurisdiction. St. Paul, therefore, lays down the rule that the civil government, in whatsoever hands it might be, was, no less than the Church, a Divine institution for the maintenance of order in the world, to be submitted to and obeyed by Christians within the whole sphere of its legitimate authority. He does not refer to cases in which it might become necessary to obey God rather than man: his purpose hero does not call on him to do so; nor were the circumstances so far such as to bring such cases into prominence; for he was writing in the earlier part of Nero’s reign, before any general persecution of Christians had begun. Nor does he touch on the question whether it may be right in some cases for subjects to resist usurped power or tyranny, or to take part in political revolutions, and even fight for freedom. Such a question was apart from his subject, which is the general duty of obedience to the law and government under which we are placed by Providence. This is the only passage in which he treats the subject at length and definitely. In a doctrinal and practical treatise like this Epistle, addressed as an apologia pro fide sua to the metropolis of the world and the seat of government, it was fitting that he should express clearly the attitude of the Church with regard to the civil order. But his teaching in other Epistles is in accordance with this; as where (1Co 7:21) he bids slaves acquiesce in the existing law of slavery, and (1Ti 2:1, etc.) he desires especially prayers to be made in behalf of kings and rulers. And he himself notably carried out his principles in this regard (cf. Act 23:1-35. 5; Act 25:8-11). There is a closely similar passage in the First Epistle of St. Peter (1Pe 2:12-18).
Rom 13:1
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of (rather, from) God: the powers that be are ordained of God. It is of God’s ordering that there should be human governments and human laws. Without them there could be no order, security, or progress among mankind. Imperfect as they may often be, and in some instances oppressive and unjust, still they exist for a purpose of good, and form part of the Divine order for the government of the world. In this sense all are from God, and ordained of God; and in submitting to them we are submitting to God.
Rom 13:2-5
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they which withstand shall receive to themselves condemnation (i.e. really God’s, operating through the human “power;” not meaning damnation in the common sense of the word). For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. It is the theory of the laws of all civilized governments to uphold justice, and only to punish what is wrong; and in the main they do so. The principles of the Roman law were just, and Paul himself found protection from its officers and tribunals, whose fairness he had, and had reason to have, more confidence in than in the tender mercy of either Gentile or Jewish zealots (cf. Act 19:35, seq.; Act 21:31, seq.; Act 22:30; Act 24:10; Act 25:10, Act 25:11; Act 26:30, seq.). As has been observed already, the Neronian persecutions had not yet begun. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wrath here expresses the familiar idea of the Divine wrath against evil-doing, for the execution of which, in the sphere of human law, the magistrate is the appointed instrument (see note on Rom 12:19). Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. Not only for fear of penal consequences, but because it is your duty, whatever might ensue, to submit to the ordinance of God. Similarly, in 1Pe 2:13, submission to every ordinance of man is enjoined “for the Lord’s sake ( ).”
Rom 13:6
For for this cause ye pay. And what the apostle means may be that the same principle on which they paid their taxes extended to all legal requirements) tribute also: for they (i.e. the officers who exact tribute) are God’s ministers (not, as in Rom 13:4, , but . This word, with its correlatives, is used in the New Testament especially with reference to the ceremonial services of the temple, and to their counterpart in Christian devotion; but not exclusively so (see Rom 15:27; Php 2:25). In classical Greek it denotes peculiarly persons performing public duties, or works of public use. This well-known use of the word may have suggested it here, the apostle meaning to say that such as in any such way served the state were in fact serving God), attending continually upon this very thing; i.e. on for God.
Rom 13:7
Render to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Whatever, either by law or by the constituted order of society, may be due to any, in the way of deference and honour, as well as payments, Christians, as members of society, are bound to render.
Rom 13:8-10
From specific admonitions on this subject, the apostle passes naturally to the principle which, in these regards as well as others, should inspire all our dealings with our fellow-men. Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another (literally, the other, meaning the same as his neighbour) hath fulfilled law. here is anarthrous, denoting law in general, not the Mosaic Law in particular, though the instances of transgression that follow are from the Decalogue. The idea of the passage is but a carrying out of our Lord’s saying, Mat 22:39, Mat 22:40. We find it also in Gal 5:14 more shortly expressed. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended (or, summed up) in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of law.
Rom 13:11-14
There is now interposed among the particular admonitions a call to watchfulness, with a view to holiness in all relations of life, on the ground that the day is at hand. There can be little, if any, doubt that the apostle had in view the second coming of Christ, which he with others supposed might be close at hand, Our Lord had said that of that day none knew but the Father, and that it would come unexpectedly. Further, in the same addresses to the disciples before his death in which these things were said, he seems to have disclosed a vista of the future, after the manner of the ancient prophets, in which more immediate and more distant fulfilments of the prophetic vision were not clearly distinguished; so that words which we now perceive to have pointed to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was typical of the final judgments, might easily have been understood as referring to the latter. Such are, “This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled”. Hence it was natural that the apostolic Church should regard the second advent as probably imminent. We find in the apostolic Epistles several intimations of this expectation (cf. 1Th 4:13, seq.; 2Co 5:2-5; Php 4:5; Heb 10:25; 1Pe 4:7; 1Jn 2:18, 1Jn 2:28; Rev 22:20); and though it was not realized in the event, the authority of the apostles as inspired teachers is not thus disparaged, this being the very thing which Christ had said must remain unknown to all. Nor does their teaching, enforced by this expectation, lose its force to us; for, though “the Lord delayeth his coming,” and may still delay it, yet to each of us at least this present world is fast passing away, and the Lord may be close at hand to call us out of it. The duty of watchfulness and preparedness remains unchanged. The Parousia or, as it is called in the pastoral Epistles, the Epiphany (in 2Th 2:8, ) of Christ is here, as elsewhere, presented under the figure of the day appearing (cf. 1Co 3:13; Eph 5:14; l Thessalonians Eph 5:4; Heb 10:25; 2Pe 1:19), the previous ages of the world being regarded as the time of night. The figure is found in the prophets with reference to that daythe coming day of the Lord (cf. e.g. Isa 9:2; Isa 60:1-3; Mal 4:2), But though the day has not yet come, Christians are viewed as already in the radiance of its dawn, in which they can walk as children of the day, and be on the watch, and not be surprised asleep, or doing the deeds of darkness, when the full daylight bursts upon them. For in the first advent of Christ the day dawned, though, to those who loved darkness rather than light, but as a light that shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not (Joh 1:5, seq.; Joh 3:19, seq.; cf. 2Pe 1:19; 1Jn 2:8; and also Luk 1:78, seq.; Luk 2:32).
Rom 13:11, Rom 13:12
And that (for a similar use of , or , cf. 1Co 6:8; Eph 2:8; Php 1:28; Heb 10:25; Heb 11:12), knowing that it is high time for you to awake out of sleep (more literally, that it is the hour for you to be already roused out of sleep); for now is our salvation nearer (or, now is salvation nearer to us. The salvation here meant is “the restitution of all things” (Act 3:21), the “manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom 8:19), “the regeneration” (Mat 19:28), the “gathering together in one of all things in Christ,” (Eph 1:10), which is yet to come) than when we believed (i.e. than when we first became believers; cf. Act 19:2; 1Co 3:5; 1Co 15:2; Gal 2:16. Time has been gradually advancing since then, bringing the consummation we look for ever nearer). The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Former habits of life are here, as elsewhere, regarded as clothing once worna man’s habitual investment, though not part of his real selfwhich is to be put off (cf. Eph 4:22; Col 3:8, Col 3:9); instead whereof are to he put on, as a new investment, the graces and virtues, supplied to us from the region of light, which constitute the Christian character (cf. 1Th 5:8; 2Co 6:7; Eph 6:11, seq.). In all these passages the new clothing to be put on is designated as armour, the idea being carried out in detail in Eph 6:11, etc.; and thus the further conception is introduced of Christians being as soldiers on the watch during the watches of the night, awaiting daybreak, equipped with arms of heavenly proof, careful not to sleep on their post, or to allow themselves in revelry or any deeds of shame, such as are done in the night under the cover of darkness.
Rom 13:13, Rom 13:14
As in the day, let us walk honestly, and of the things done in secret of which it is a shame to speak; cf. Eph 5:11, Eph 5:12); not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying (rather, jealousy, denoting jealous wrath, cf. Act 13:45). But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. The figure of a new investment being renewed from Eph 5:12, it is here Christ himself who is to be put on. So also Gal 3:27. For the idea implied, of. Eph 4:23, Eph 4:24; Col 3:12; ch. 8:9, 10; 1Co 6:15, 1Co 6:17. “Induere autem Christum hic significat virtute Spiritus ejus undique nos muniri, qua idonei ad omnes sanctitatis partes reddamur. Sic enim instauratur in nobis imago Dei, quae unicum est animae ornamentum” (Calvin). It may be observed that in Gal 3:27 Christians are said to have already put on Christ in their baptism; here they are exhorted still to do so. There is no real contradiction; they are but exhorted to realize in actual life the meaning of their baptism. And make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof (literally, unto lusts).
HOMILETICS
Rom 13:1-7
Loyalty,
There was danger, in the first age of Christianity, lest the nature of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus should be misunderstood even by its subjects, and misrepresented by those without. A spiritual empire was a new conception, and carnal minds were prone to confound the dominion over souls with civil and political authority. Hence the importance and appropriateness of the admonitions so emphatically addressed by the apostle to the Christians of Rome.
I. THE INSPIRED CONCEPTION OF CIVIL AUTHORITY. By this the apostle understood the actually constituted power of the state. The Roman emperor was the head and chief of the greater part of the population of the then known world, and Rome was the centre of political rule and authority. The proconsuls and propraetors represented in the provinces the imperial majesty and sway of senate and of emperor. But it is evident that the view of civil power taken by the apostle was equally applicable to monarchies and to republics. Whatever the form of government, whatever the designation of the ruler, whatever the rank of the administrator of the law, authority was recognized as of Divine origin and right. It has sometimes been deemed a reproach to the apostle that he should have written thus when Nero was on the throne. But this fact rather emphasizes the principle that the authority is Divine, although the person or persons who wield it may be unworthy of the trust. Nero was at this time under the influence of the wise and moderate counsels of Seneca and of Burrhus, yet this language which Paul employed would probably have been unaltered had the apostle been writing during the subsequent and infamous period of the tyrant’s sway. It would be straining this passage to deduce from it
“The right Divine of kings to govern wrong,”
and it would be unjust to argue from it that it is always unlawful to resist and to dethrone a tyrant. But we may learn to regard subordination, rule, subjection, loyalty, as all part of a Divine order imposed upon human society by the Lord of all.
II. THE SCOPE OF LOYALTY.
1. Respect and honour are due from the governed to the governor. Even where there is a lack of those qualities which command personal respect, honour may be rendered to the office which is held, and the duties of which are faithfully fulfilled.
2. The payment of taxes and tributes is required. In this precept Paul followed the teaching of his Master, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Subjects are not responsible for the use made of the money which is exacted from them by just authority. When a king who has no constitutional right to levy taxes without the consent of a parliament demands money upon his own authority, such a demand may be refused without disobedience to the injunction of the text.
3. Obedience and subjection are enjoined. The extent and range of this injunction are very large. “Every soul”every intelligent member of societyis under an obligation to obey; and resistance to the ruler is resistance to God, and entails just punishment and retribution.
4. Virtue generally is commended as contributive to the well-being of society. Good works are to evince the sincerity of the Christian’s faith. The Roman law was the highest expression the ancient world attained of justice in the relations subsisting between man and man. It has been the foundation of the codes of many civilized Christian nations in modern times. Obedience to the law was the duty of every good citizen, every well-wisher of society, every true member of the human family. For the law was the sanction of virtue and righteousness. Doubtless there have been and are unjust laws; yet it is the duty of the citizen to obey them when obedience does not come into conflict with the higher duty to God.
III. THE GROUNDS OF LOYALTY. These, as adduced by St. Paul, are two.
1. Personal considerations are advanced. The wrath of the magistrate is to be feared; rulers are a terror to the evil; they that resist shall receive retribution; the ruler bears not the sword in vain. Such motives are almost the only motives to which the coarse and vicious are accessible. They are motives to which none are altogether superior. The consequences of injustice have to be borne in mind by those who are liable to the passions of cupidity or of revenge
2. Religious motives are presented. Government is an ordinance of God, and rulers are the ministers of God. A had subject, then, cannot be a good Christian. In our own days, individualism is carried to such an extent that authority is often disdained and defied, even by those who are by no means the dregs of society, who make pretensions to intelligence and virtue. It is well, therefore, that the inspired teaching should be pondered which attaches importance so great to order, patriotism, and loyalty.
Rom 13:8-10
Love and law.
To the unthinking, and at first sight, there seems a contradiction between law, which expresses authority, and is sanctioned by force, and love, which is spontaneous, and is of the heart. Christ himself, however, brought the two into harmony when he said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments;” and the apostle, in this passage, shows that, really and essentially, the two are one.
I. THE TRUE PRINCIPLE OF SOCIAL LIFE IS LOVE. The new commandment which Christ gave was, “Love one another;” and his peculiar canon of conduct was, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Of this principle we may remark that:
1. It is in harmony with our own constitution. Our true nature is to live in mutual affection and confidence; it is the depraved nature that develops hatred, malice, and uncharitableness.
2. It is imposed and sanctioned by the Divine Head of the new humanity, the Lawgiver of the spiritual kingdom.
3. It provides the radical cure for human ills.
4. It has not only a negative, it has also a positive virtue; it is the proper and natural origin of the several virtues, supplying their motive, prompting to their exercise.
II. THE APPLICATION OF THIS PRINCIPLE IN PRACTICE. The apostle, whose mind was as thoroughly ethical and practical as it was theological and doctrinal, traced the working of this principle of love, in preserving human nature and protecting human society from the vices, crimes, and sins which have cursed the world. In this passage he teaches us that love must act in keeping Christians from wronging their neighbours. He whose heart is filled with true love will neither covet nor steal his neighbour’s goods, nor take his neighbour’s life, nor make inroads upon his neighbour’s domestic happiness, nor in any way inflict injury upon his neighbour’s interests, or deprive him of his rights. For to love our fellow-men is to count their welfare our own, and to do go them as we would they should do to us.
III. THE ACQUISITION OF THIS PRINCIPLE. It may be argued that the counsels of the apostle are unpractical; that whilst love is a cure for human ills, it is not shown how love may be acquired, any more than it is how sin may be avoided. But the fact is that revelation links together the love of man and the love of God, and teaches us that the one way to the cherishing of Divine love is the reception of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Manifestation of Divine love to human hearts. “We love him, because he first loved us;” “He that loveth God loveth his brother also.”
Rom 13:11-14
A startling summons.
The admonition of this passage is especially addressed to Christians; yet to Christians who stand peculiarly in need of a rousing appeal and summons, to call them to a more spiritual and a more watchful life.
I. THE CRISIS OF LIFE.
1. The night is well-nigh gone. Between our Lord’s first and second comings stretches the dawn of the world. Behind his first coming lay the night of humanity. Beyond his second advent the daylight beams, with the brightness of knowledge, of holiness, of happiness, of glory.
2. Salvation is nearer than ever. In one sense, indeed, salvation is a present blessing; for we are delivered from condemnation if we are in Christ Jesus. In another sense it is future; for we shall hereafter receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. It is something to be looked forward to with keenest joy of hope, something the prospect of which may well inspire us to endurance and to toil.
II. THE SUMMONS OF GOD.
1. To spiritual energy. To such a period, drowsy, slumberous inactivity is utterly inappropriate.
2. To the renunciation of all that interferes with the fulfilment of our calling and the realization of our hope.
3. To a spiritual warfare and campaign.
4. To purity of body and of mind, as those who are in their whole nature redeemed, that in their whole nature they may be consecrated.
Rom 13:11-14
Night and day.
Christian motives are brought forward to incite to moral duties. We are called upon to do right, not only by the voices of expediency and of authority, but by the voice of revelation. Christians are addressed as those who know the seasons, who discern the signs of the times, who regard the present as a period of probation, of discipline, of education, and whose gaze is ever forwards, whose hope is in their Lord’s return to judge and to save.
I. THE RETROSPECT OF THE PAST. “The night is far spent.”
1. The spiritual night of the world is passing away. The true Light is shining, and the radiance of his beams is illumining the darkest and most distant shores.
2. The night of time is departing, and eternity, resurrection, the new heavens and the new earth, are about to dawn.
3. The night of life is nearly spent, and the day of immortality approaches. If this is the case with all, how manifestly is it so with the aged!
II. THE PROSPECT OF THE FUTURE.
1. “The day is at hand.” So far as the opportunity for labour is concerned, we may admit that the night cometh, when no man can work.” But, in another sense, it is a welcome truth that “the day dawns, and the shadows flee away.” Full light shall soon be shed upon our intellectual and spiritual darkness. The fears, the ignorance, the doubts of the present shall cease to be; we shall see Christ as he is, and we shall know even as we are known.
2. “Salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed” A fortress is beleaguered by the forces of the foe. The garrison, long besieged, is feeble, weary, and all but exhausted, ill supplied with provisions and ammunition, and in great straits. But relief is planned, and is approaching. At night the prospect seemed dark. But now, when the morning breaks, the besieged, looking from their walls, behold the banners of the deliverer drawing near, and hear the welcome music of his march. Salvation is at hand! It is in this light that we are encouraged to look at life, at time. Now we are besieged by our spiritual foe, and our condition is often apparently desperate. But our redemption draweth nigh, and our salvation is nearer. The perfection of our salvation, the fulfilment of the promise of victory,this is in the future.
III. THE DUTY OF THE PRESENT. This is not the time to indulge mere sentiment, whether of retrospect or of anticipation. The living present demands all our energy.
1. “It is time to awake out of sleep;” to arouse ourselves from indifference to concern, from half-belief to earnest faith, from inactivity to zeal.
2. To “cast off the works of darkness.” By the clothing, the impediments thus designated, we understand the negligences, the sins, which are inconsistent with true spirituality.
3. To “put on the armour of light.” Holiness and diligence, patience and devotedness,these are the spiritual exercises appropriate to those who have a hope so glorious and promises so sure as ours. Let the soldier see to his weapons, the servant to his work, the steward to his trust!
APPLICATION. Every crisis of human life, of Church history; every day which tells of the flight of time; every instance of human mortality,speaks loudly to us, summoning us, as children of the day, to live as in anticipation of the Divine Deliverer’s speedy and welcome approach.
Rom 13:11-14
Awake and arm!
It is strange that, at the very commencement of a new dispensation, the prospect of its close should be so often presented to the view. No sooner had Christ’s first coming ended, than his people were taught to anticipate his second coming. Thus the thoughts and affections of Christians are clustered around their Lord, and the revelation of the past suggests the approaching epiphany. The contrasts of this passage are very striking. When carefully analyzed, they appear
I. As applied to CONDITION.
1. The night of danger is nearly over. This applies to the individual, to any community, to the whole Church.
2. The morning of deliverance is dawning. An inspiration and comfort to the pilgrims, the soldiers, who are often oppressed by the gloom of the present perils.
II. As applied to CHARACTER.
1. The works of night are to be abandoned. These belong to the era which now lies in the remote distance, and from which Christ has emancipated his people.
2. The life of the spiritual day is to be adopted. If the flesh and its lusts are to be crucified, what is to be crowned? The Lord Jesus is to be “put on,” the armour of light is to be taken and worn; and the Christian soldier is to go forth to meet the coming day, with his face towards the rising sun, with his heart bounding with delight at his great Captain’s long-expected appearance.
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN
Rom 13:1-7
The Christian as citizen.
The duty of Christians as citizens is in our day not sufficiently recognized. Many Christians keep aloof from public life and the duties of citizenship because of the political corruption and party strife which are so common. Others, again, enter into public duties, but seem to leave their religion behind them. The result is a sad want of Christian statesmanship and of Christian legislation.
I. THE CHRISTIAN RECOGNIZES THE NECESSITY OF GOVERNMENT. “There is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom 13:1). This is not to be understood as meaning that every individual ruler is ordained of God. That would make the Divine Being responsible for many acts of despotism and oppression. We might as well say that every minister of religion who had received the form of ordination was therefore chosen of God, no matter what his personal character might be. The meaning rather is that government is an ordinance of Godthat God has ordained or appointed it, that there should be authority and rulers. Government is necessary:
1. For the protection of life and property.
2. For the repression of crime. “Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil” (Rom 13:3). Governors, says St. Peter, are appointed “for the punishment of evil-doers” (1Pe 2:14).
3. For the rewarding and encouraging of virtue. “Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same” (Rom 13:3). So St. Peter also speaks of governors as “a praise to them that do well.” Wise rulers will not only repress crime, but they will seek to encourage well-doing. They will show special favour to those who, by their own character and efforts, promote morality and temperance and honesty, and thus help to make government easy. How often do rulers forget this! How often the Christian people of a nation are ignored or even discouraged, while the godless and the immoral are high in place and favour!
II. THE CHRISTIAN RECOGNIZES THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF RULERS. Rulers are here called “ministers of God” (Rom 13:4, Rom 13:6). Our sovereign entitles herself “Victoria, by the grace of God.” All who are concerned in government have a solemn responsibility, whether they be kings or queens, ministers of state, members of the legislature, judges, magistrates, or jurymen. All must appear one day before a higher tribunal. Then the judge will be asked, “Have you done justice as between man and man?” The juryman will be asked, “Have you rendered a verdict according to the evidence?” The sovereign will be asked. “Have you been faithful to your coronation vows?” Therefore the Christian should pray for rulers. “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1Ti 2:2). The Christian should do all he can to secure good rulers. What we need in our day is less of party politics, and more of Christian polities. Christian people, Christian Churches, should band themselves together, laying aside all political and all ecclesiastical differences, to secure Christian representatives, Christian law- makers for our professedly Christian nation.
III. THE CHRISTIAN RECOGNIZES HIS OWN RESPONSIBILITY. There are two duties distinctly specified here for the Christian citizen.
1. Obedience. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers” (Rom 13:1); “Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God” (Rom 13:2); “Wherefore ye must needs be subject” (Rom 13:5). If the law is to be upheld, there must be an obedient and submissive spirit on the part of every good citizen. Yet there are limits to all this. We are to interpret this passage in the light of other Bible teaching and the examples which it sets before us. The Bible does not teach the doctrine of passive obedience or non-resistance. At Babylon, Daniel resisted the reigning power. The royal mandate was issued, but Daniel did not obey it. “He kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.” The Apostles Peter and John declined to obey the Jewish council at Jerusalem when they were commanded to speak no more in the Name of Jesus. They boldly answered, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot, but speak the things which we have seen and hear. Where the law of a nation or the command of an earthly ruler conflicts with the law of God, then it is clearly the Christian’s duty to obey God rather than men. The English people in their past history have acted upon this principle. Twice under the reign of the Stuart sovereigns the subjects of the realm asserted, on conscientious grounds, their right of revolution and resistance. So also did the Covenanters of Scotland. Yet resistance to constituted authority should ever be a last resort, and is only to be resorted to when all more peaceful means have utterly failed to obtain justice and redress of wrongs.
2. Taxation. “For this cause pay ye tribute also” (verse 6). This also was the teaching of Christ. No government can be maintained without expense. National defences, public institutions, all of which have for their object the protection and the well-being of all the citizens, require to be kept up. Every citizen is responsible for bearing his share in meeting expenditure for the common good. He may not approve of every item of expenditure, but that is no valid reason for refusing to contribute his share of taxation, where the representatives of the nation have decreed that the expenditure is wise and necessary. This rule, of course, has its exception also in the case of any expenditure which would do violence to the individual conscience.
3. There are other practical duties. The Christian will ever cooperate with rulers in securing and promoting peace and temperance, morality and honesty, truthfulness and justice. All these virtues are necessary to national well-being. Government would be easy if every citizen was a Christian, and if every Christian would realize his duties as a citizen. The words of Sir Arthur Helps (‘Friends in Council’) may be fittingly quoted here: “He who does not bring into government, whether as governor or subject, some religious feeling, some higher motive than expediency, is likely to make but an indifferent governor or an indifferent subject Without piety there will be no good government.”C.H.I.
Rom 13:11-14
The Christian’s duty in the present age.
The Christian is not to be insensible to the movements of the world. “Knowing the time,” says the apostle (Rom 13:11). Mr. Spurgeon says he reads the newspapers to see how God is governing the world. It is well for us to know what are the current beliefs and motives of our fellow-men.
I. THE CHRISTIAN‘S CONFIDENCE.
1. “The night is far spent.“
(1) The forces of evil are far spent. Some Christians are always looking on the dark side of things. They see no traces of the breaking day. With them it is always night. They would have us believe, with Canon Taylor, that missions are a failure. They would have us believe, with Lord Wemyss, that prohibition of the liquor traffic is a failure. They would have us believe that Sunday closing is a failure. But it is those who want such movements to fail that usually originate such a cry. There is no failure in the forces of right. Failure is written on the forces of sin. Its night is far spent.
(2) The clouds of mystery will soon be lifted. There are difficulties in reconciling religion and science. Yet the. difficulties are only apparent. They are only temporary clouds. There are difficulties in God’s providence that we cannot understand. But by-and-by they will all be made plain. Every mystery will be solved. “Now we know in part; but then shall we know even as also we are known.”
(3) The dark hours of pain and sorrow will soon be over. How dark is the hour of sickness! how dark the hour of bereavement! What shadows disappointment causes to pass over our lives! But the night is far spent. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
2. “The day is at hand.“ The day of our Saviour’s coming is rapidly drawing nearer. Already we may hear the sound of his chariot-wheels. Gradually his kingdom has been making progress in the earth, his truth has been gaining the victory over error. The Reformation shook off the dust of centuries from the Word of God. The discovery of printing had already prepared the way for the spread of the emancipated Bible. Old kingdoms that encouraged error and fostered ecclesiastical despotism have been falling. New nations have arisen to sway the destinies of the worldthe nations of the Bible-loving, liberty-loving, Anglo-Saxon race. Old wrongs have been redressed. Our King is coming. “The day is at hand.”
II. THE CHRISTIAN‘S CALL.
1. A call to activity. “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom 13:11). It is plain that this exhortation is addressed to Christians, for the writer adds, “for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Many Christians are asleep. They are inactive and idle, and are doing nothing to prepare the way of the Lord. It may be addressed also to the unconverted. This very passage, the closing part of this thirteenth chapter, was the means of converting St. Augustine.
2. A call to amendment. “Let us cast off the works of darkness” (Rom 13:12). Some works are literally works of darkness, as for example those specified in the thirteenth verse. Drunkenness and impurity are most practised in the night. “They that be drunken are drunken in the night.” But “works of darkness” may be regarded as including all sinful works. Sin loves concealment. The Christian is to cast off everything that will not bear the light, to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. “The day is at hand.” How shall we abide the day of our Lord’s coming if we do not, by Divine help, separate ourselves from sin?
3. A call to conflict. “Let us put on the armour of light” (Rom 13:12). We are to wage war with our own temptations, and with the evil that is in the world. Let our armour be the armour of light. Let us not fight the world with its own weaponswith hatred, or bitterness, or deceit. Let our weapons be good weaponsthe weapons of truth, justice, love. They will conquer. Let us never do evil that good may come.
4. A call to Christ-likeness. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14). That is to say, “Be clothed with his spirit.” This is the secret of strength. Like Sir Galahad, whose strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure, the man who is Christ-like in spirit will overcome all temptations, and will grapple victoriously with all difficulties. This is emphatically a call which the Christian needs to hear in the present age, when there is so much in the Church as well as in the world that is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Let us, then, hear the trumpet-call of duty, and, as we go forth, let us brace up our spirits with the inspiring thought that “the night is far spent, and the day is at hand.”C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY T.F. LOCKYER
Rom 13:1-7
Christian submission.
We now pass from ecclesiastical to civil relations. Because the Christian has entered upon a new brotherhood in Christ, he does not cease to belong to the old brotherhood of natural society. And as in the spiritual brotherhood humility and love are the twin principles that should regulate all our conduct, so in the natural commonwealth of the state there should be, analogously, submission towards the powers, and a love-inspired justice towards private members of the same. In these verses is inculcated the duty of conscientious submission to state authorities.
I. THE REASONABLENESS OF SUBMISSION. The submission to authority is spoken of as of a twofold natureobedience to law generally, and payment of all dues. And the spirit in which such obedient and loyal conduct should be exercised is the spirit of reverence and honour. For even in state duties the heart should be concerned equally with the life.
1. It is reasonable, then, that we:
(1) Obey the laws in general well-doing. For viewed merely as a human institution of a utilitarian nature, the authority of law is for our good, if we obey. “Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same.”
(2) And is it not equally reasonable that we pay the dues to constituted authorities?tribute, custom. For here again we are only contributing towards the expenses of our own protection.
2. But our obedience and payment of dues will only be properly rendered by us, and will only tend to the proper rendering of the same by others, if our heart go with our deed. Let there then, as is reasonable, be fear, let there be honour, towards those to whom fear, to whom honour is due.
I. THE RIGHTNESS OF SUBMISSION. The natural man, on the grounds of mere reason, then, should submit to authority, with deed and with heart. But surely the Christian man should submit on some higher ground than this? It is not only reasonable, it is divinely right, that such submission be rendered to the powers.
1. It is right that we:
(1) Obey law. For the authority which gives the law is not arbitrarily instituted by man; it is of God’s appointment. Generally: for “there is no power but of God;” i.e. whenever the exigencies of society demand that one shall exercise power over others, these very exigencies show that the exercise of some such power is divinely purposed. Specially: for in his providential governance of the world he has foreseen and ordained the exercise of the power by these very individuals who for the time have authority committed to them. And can a Christian resist God’s’ ordinance? In so doing he will not merely be punished by man, but judged by God. The sword is God’s sword; the wrath, God’s wrath.
(2) And so of tribute and custom. This is not merely a payment because of personal interest accruing, but in recognition of their high office as “ministers of God’s service.” They fulfil a Divine vocation, and, like the priests in the temple, must be supported as servants of God.
2. So the spirit in which we obey and pay tribute is to be one of reverence and honour, not only on the lower ground of the reasonableness of the same, but because in these human powers we discern God.
Here, then, as in the whole of life, the religious penetrates and sanctifies the natural. There is to be a perpetual transfiguration, in our eyes, of the human with the Divine. This is but an application of the injunction, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”T.F.L.
Rom 13:8-10
Christian righteousness.
We here pass from public to private relations. Still in the civic sphere, viewing men as men, not as Christian brethren. And reminded by thought just advanced, the thought of tribute, custom, etc., as being “due” to those in power, that there are dues also which we owe each one to his neighbour. And it is of the very essence of justice that we “render to all their dues;” or, in the words of the eighth verse, that we “owe no man anything.” Here, then, we may consider the justice which binds together human society; and the love by which the justice is fulfilled.
I. JUSTICE. Justice is the bond of human society. To do to others as we may reasonably expect them to do to us is indeed the golden rule which conserves all security and peace among men. To be just towards them is to respect their rights, And what are the rights of man? God has set them forth strongly, in their essentials, in that Decalogue which was the Divine code of justice for a barbarous nation. Think of themrights without which life amongst others would be intolerable.
1. The right of life. “Thou shalt not kill.” Sacredness of existence; but frailty. So precious, and yet so easily destroyed. And in wantonness, or in malice, man may destroy his brother-man. But the “Thou shalt not kill” sounds in his ears, a spoken law of God: the right of life must be conserved.
2. The right of sacred relationship, dearer than the right of life. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Organic union of men. Relationships interwoven into human nature husband and wife, parent and child, brother and brother. The conjugal relation the foundation of the rest. Any tampering with this relation is, in its degree, adultery, and loosens the whole relational fabric; any violation of the sacrament of this relation, “They twain shall be one flesh,” is in the highest degree adultery, and goes far to destroy the whole relational fabric. But the “Thou shalt not commit adultery” sounds in our ears, a spoken law of God: the rights of sacred relationship must be conserved.
3. The right of property. “Thou shalt not steal.” An instinctive acquisitiveness in man; he lords it over the world. This acquisitiveness sanctioned by God: “have dominion.” Same acquisitiveness, perverted from its proper use, may lead us to acquire that to which we have no right, to “steal” the property of our brother. But the “Thou shalt not steal” sounds in our ears: God utters his sanction of the sacredness of property.
4. Fundamental to all these main rights of man is the right to be secure from even the unlawful desire of a brother. “Thou shalt not covet.” For “out of the heart proceed,” etc. (Mat 15:19). So to covet another’s life, or wife, or property, even in the first faint beginning of desire, is to allow the lust from which all evil flows; and, as against “sin in its beginning,” the “Thou shalt not covet” of God is uttered with solemn emphasis as the last commandment.
II. LOVE. The last commandment? Nay, for Christ has said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another.” We have seen how this is the bond of the new brotherhood in Christ; it is set forth here as the Christian’s own safeguard of the rights of man. As a man amongst men you must respect the rights of men, i.e. you must fulfil the law; as a Christian amongst men you must love them for the Lord’s sake, and so you assure your respect for all their rights, for “love is the fulfilment of the Law.” Need this be proved? Law says sternly, “No ill to one’s neighbour;” love says, “Give all good.” Ah! here is a yet Diviner impulse, and covering a broader ground. And the Christian will be content with nothing less than this Diviner impulse and broader ground. But if there be the higher impulse, the lower shall be secure; if there be the wider range, the narrower shall be covered. Yes; love men, and you will work no ill.
The importance of justice amongst men demands that, as good citizens, we see to it that justice is everywhere advanced; hence our parliaments, our courts. But that justice may be advanced, to say nothing of yet higher ends, let us, as Christians, cherish this principle which constitutes the second great commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”T.F.L.
Rom 13:11-14
The day breaketh!
“And this”the work of progressive sanctification, in all its aspects and relationsthis surely claims our strong attention now, when the day of God is nigh unto dawning! For, visibly to us, the shadows pass and the morning breaks. It is the night-watch still, but the day is at hand. We have here to considerthe nearness of the day of God; our full awaking.
I. THE DAY OF GOD. In and through all the declarations of the Scriptures there mingles this warning notethe day of God will come! Men seem to have their day, and work their will; God will have his day, and will work his will. We must not narrow the meaning of this presentment of the Scriptures: whenever God interferes amid the doings of men to show forth his power, his day has come. In our individual life-histories, in the histories of nations, as well as in the larger history of the race, God has come, does come, many times and in many ways. For mercy? Yes; to deliver those who trust in him and seek to work his will. And for judgment: for “wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” But amid these many manifestations of God’s power, there are some which stand out conspicuously, like the mountain-peaks among the lower hills. Such was the advent of the Christ, looming large before the vision of Old Testament seers. Such is the second advent of the Christ, looming large to the view of the apostles and to us. For mercy and for judgment was the former; for mercy and for judgment shall be the latter. To the Christian believer, for fall salvation! Oh, what a hope is this! It has glowed before us as we have traced God’s purposes declared in foregoing chapters; Paul would have it burn as our beacon-light, ever brighter and more near! A beacon-light? Nay, rather it is the dawn of the new day, when the shining of God’s full-orbed love shall scatter for ever all the lingering shades of night.
II. OUR FULL AWAKING. But what shall be our attitude in view of such a daybreak? We must surely be watchers for the morning, children of light! The very regeneration of those to whom he writes was truly an awaking out of sleep; but there might be need still for a more thorough arousal and readiness. Nay, is there not, in each one, this need? The works of darkness will cling to us, if we do not ever resolutely cast them off. We may forget that the day is shining, and sink back into our sleep.
1. The works of darkness? Yes, such works as pertain to the corruption of the night-time of the worldbase revelry, impure pleasures, passion, and strife. The works of the flesh, which are manifest (Gal 5:19-21). And oh, what a night-time the world has had! what a night-time has been ours! We have loved the darkness, because our deeds were evil.
2. But we, as children of light, are to put on the armour of light, to walk honestly, as in the day. The gleam of that dayspring has already caught our vision and lit up our brow; it is to irradiate all our path. We are to walk as though the cloudless eternity were about us now. Your citizenship is in heaven! So then, while the children of the darkness “make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,” seek ever to gratify their low desires, and make their whole life subservient to this, we are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” He is to be our clothing and adornment; the pure, spiritual nature which he showed to the world is to be our arraying for the new sunrise, bringing the world’s new year!
And that glorious goal of our best hopes, “salvation” in its fullest scope and working, is “nearer to us than when we first believed.” Let us gladden our hearts and rekindle all our longings. We are not to be ever battling, weary, sad; but he whom we look for shall come; yes, “the second time, unto salvation!”T.F.L.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE
Rom 13:1-6
Submission to constituted authority.
The reception of a new truth requires its adjustment to previously accepted truths. The introduction of a new system like Christianity necessitated an examination of its relationship to existing systems of government. There was a danger of Jewish fanaticism being fanned into heated sedition in Jewish converts to the gospel by the very joy of finding the Messiah and of hopes concerning a literal temporal kingdom. And the novelty of the views opened up before Gentile converts might easily beget in them a feeling of freedom from and superiority to all law and custom. Yet the advice to such, in order to be practical and effective, must be simple and concise. The apostle, therefore, enunciates a principle, and leaves its limitations to be afterwards discovered.
I. THE DIVINE FOUNT OF AUTHORITY. Government is traced to its source in God. “Order is Heaven’s first law.” Where no order reigns, there is no security, no progress to better things. Absolute equality is impossible amongst men; society has no safeguards, no cohesion, without a recognized tribunal of authority. Whether this authority is taken and exercised as a matter of course by the wisest or strongest, or is the acknowledged result of station conferred by the community, the necessity for such leadership and oversight manifests the will of God, and authority as such is seen to emanate from him. The Creator controls the works of his hands. The camp of Israel maintained a certain disposition of tents and tribes at rest and on the march, because of a Divine ordinance. Disorder would ill have befitted the presence of the Monarch Jehovah. Whatever the forms which government assumes, we are compelled to ascend in thought by rising steps and hierarchies up to him who sitteth on the great white throne, the mighty Arbiter of all events, the Judge of quick and dead. Recall the majestic passage from Hooker: “Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.”
II. THE HUMAN ADMINISTRATORS OF JUSTICE. “The powers that be are ordained of God.” Not that he has placed each ruler in office or assents to each judicial function. But the leaders of human society represent the authority of God on earth. They are the “ministers” of God, acting in subordination to him; at least this is the fundamental idea of their position, however overlooked in practice. “They bear the sword” for God, are his vicegerents, and herein lies the honour and accountability of their decisions. Let them recollect that “One higher than the highest regardeth.” “He that ruleth over men righteously, ruling in the fear of God, he shall be as the sunny light of a cloudless morning.” Cf. Samuel’s account of his judgeship, that he had defrauded none, oppressed none, nor taken a ransom from any. As families are governed by their natural head, the father, so is the universal family named after and ruled by the great Father in heaven, whom earthly parents are to copy. The fact that parents use delegated authority lends weight and responsibility to their behaviour. For the superintendence of Israel the seventy elders received a special donation of the spirit of Moses. How needful that rulers in Church and state, in households and in municipalities, should seek wisdom from him that giveth to all men liberally! Many a riotous subject has become a thoughtful, self-restrained governor when realizing the momentous grandeur and obligations of his office.
III. THE GENERAL RULE OF OBEDIENCE. Submission follows the recognition of the Divine authority at the back of magistrates. To rebel, to disobey, is to cast off allegiance to God. Even the apostle, smarting under the illegal order of Ananias, regretted his strong language when informed that he had reviled the high priest. To refuse due honour to rulers and parents is to demoralize society. The Saviour resisted not the officers of justice, though he was unjustly condemned to death. The apostle urged slaves to be quiet, and subject to their froward masters, that by well-doing they might silence malicious accusers of Christianity. This did not signify that the gospel sanctioned slavery and despotism when the time arrived for their peaceful overthrow. Submission to persecution has been mightier, more lasting in its effects than an armed resistance, for it enlightens public opinion without kindling strife, and prepares for a change that shall be virtually unanimous. The two sanctions of the magistrate’s authority are mentioned in Rom 13:5, viz. “wrath,” that is, punishment, and “conscience,” that is, the assurance which the peaceable subject has that he has acted in accordance with the mind of God.
IV. PARTICULAR EXCEPTIONS. No public edict has a right to coerce any man’s conscience. Let the ruler attempt to promulgate a law that sins against morality, and obedience must be refused at all hazards. When Caesar steps out of his province into the realm of religion, no regard for the “powers that be” can for a moment be suffered to suspend compliance with the felt dictates of the Almighty. The proclamations of Nebuchadnezzar commanding to worship the golden image, and of Darius prohibiting prayer to any save the king, were rightly unheeded by God-fearing men. But let each protester take great care to have his conscience illumined, lest he erect his individual judgment into a law of God. Again, when a government has shown itself incapable of protecting the good and punishing the transgressors, and is notorious for its reversal of the true principles which should guide its action and for its forgetfulness of the intent of its functions, it has put itself outside the pale of respect and submission; it may lawfully be overthrown and another substituted. Allowance must, however, be made for the human infirmities even of kings and councillors. In modern states agitation can effect needed reforms in public administration. It behoves each citizen to think, speak, and vote as he deems will best promote the interests of the state. Indifference, on whatever spiritual grounds, to evils which he can remedy, carelessness respecting the general welfare,this is a crime. It is a refusal to employ a talent which Providence has committed to his care. Modern legislation does not hesitate to withdraw children from the custody of parents who act with cruelty or surround their offspring with deleterious influences.S.R.A.
Rom 13:8-10
Love, the fulfilment of the Law.
The Lord’s Prayer speaks of forgiving “our debtors.” But it is the bounden duty of every man to strive to discharge his pecuniary obligations, otherwise he is guilty of living contentedly on stolen goods. The command, “Owe no man anything,” if obeyed, would hinder many a bankruptcy and prevent many a business scandal. The apostle proceeds, with one of his skilful turns of thought, to speak of that debt which never can be entirely liquidateda debt under which we must be content to rest, paying portions of it as opportunity occurs; only to discover, and that with gladness, that the obligation magnifies with every attention to it. Could a man by love so serve his neighbour as not to owe him any more love, then might he feel free to disregard in future the interests of his neighbour, and he would thus sin against the second table of the Law. Love alone fulfils the Law, yet never exhausts the Law’s requirements.
I. OFFENCES AGAINST OUR NEIGHBOURS ARE VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW OF LOVE. The ten commandments are mainly prohibitory. The Levitical statutes, however, enjoined many kindly and beneficent acts, these positive precepts filling up the outline thundered forth from the mount. The Saviour educed from the lawyer the statement that the Mosaic Law clearly enunciated the one principle underlying every regulation of social conduct, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” God has committed to each man specially the care of himself, to preserve and develop his various faculties. And just as no sane man voluntarily injures himself, so must he guard against damaging the well-being of his fellows. Cynicism, greed, tyranny, cannot survive the entrance of this humanizing agent, love, which evokes compassion, benevolence, philanthropy, as set forth so beautifully in 1Co 13:1-13. Adultery, murder, coveteousness, in all degrees of desire and behaviour, imply that men are careless of another’s happiness if they can secure some additional gratification for themselves.
II. CONTRAST LOVE AS A MOTIVE WITH A SENSE OF DUTY. The only answer to the question, “Why should altruism be a regulating principle in my life?” is that God has made us “members one of another;” that he has implanted in our nature, together with the instinct of self-preservation, certain affections towards others; that God’s intention is thus plainly indicated in our constitution; and that experience shows that to make self the sole factor in our consideration is to rend the ties of society, and ultimately to ruin our own welfare and enjoyment. Congregation, not segregation, is the law of human life. Nevertheless, even this conviction, “I ought to pay respect to my neighbour’s interests and needs,” may stop far short of that proper care for others which the perfect law expects. The house of duty is a dark temple if unlit by the Shechinah of love. Obligation may lead some citizens to pay the taxes claimed; it never suggests willing offers of further help to the body politic to which they belong. Duty draws rigid lines, examines each article of a bond for fear of excess. Love delights in all extra occasions of service. Duty is cool and calculating; love rises to boiling pitch, and its energy longs for work, like the pressure of steam. Duty moves with measured tread; love runs upon its errands, takes pleasure in obedience, whereas duty is glad when the business is accomplished. The law of obligation is a huge skeleton; love clothes it with flesh and sinew, endues it with life and beauty.
III. THE STRENGTH WHICH JESUS CHRIST HAS GIVEN TO THE LAW OF LOVE. He has furnished a unique example of love in his incarnate condescension, in his words and deeds of grace, helping and healing men, and like a good Shepherd yielding up his own life to save his flock. His miracle of love sheds love abroadlove to God and man, in the hearts of his disciples. Gratitude to Christ fills the soul with generous emotion. A spark of Divine generosity is sufficient to kindle the inflammable material in the human heart, diffusing light and warmth. Christ has emphasized the worth of humanity. He came to redeem not a particular race or sect, but men. He despised none, taught the salvability of all except wilful rejectors. How can we treat contemptuously the “brother for whom Christ died”? Under the dark skin of the negro, under the barbarous superstition of the African, under the stolid impassiveness of the Chinaman, under the rags of the English beggar, love discerns a possible regenerated member of the Christian family, a child of God, a jewel in the Saviour’s crown. Christ has exalted self-sacrifice into a heroism that charms the beholder, as he realizes the true glory of an intelligent will, that wins life by losing it, and imparts instead of egoistic happiness a Divine blessedness.S.R.A.
Rom 13:11-14
The approach of day.
Sin has been defined as “an act or state inconsistent with the relations” in which we stand. To act as our position demands is to act rightly. The apostle appeals to Christians as reasonable individuals desiring to behave as befits their condition. Incongruities excite ridicule, as when the sailor walks on land as if he had to steady himself against the tossing of his ship. Who has not dreamed of being found in daylight in the street attired in the garments of sleep, and felt the peculiar shame of such an incident? How different the decorations that look well enough by gaslight appear when the scene is surveyed in sunshine! the tinsel and gaudy brilliancy disgust a healthy eye.
I. A CRITICAL SEASON. The daybreak is at hand, when the labourer should be found at work, the soldier engaged in conflict, and the traveller started on his journey. Night is the time in which Christianity has to struggle for existence, its adherents sometimes forced to resort to obscurity for fear of persecution. Christ’s departure was the setting as his advent shall be the rising again of the sun; the interval is summer night. Our salvation is nearer than when we began to believe. Faith commenced the process of sanctification, ushered us into that kingdom of God on earth, whose consummation, whose outward triumph and glory, are approaching. The apostle may have deemed Christ’s appearance nigh. Like the ancient seers, he viewed coming events in a picture, where the distinction could not always be accurately perceived between the background and the foreground. He knew, however, that certain occurrences must precede the Parousia. Surely this incentive to vigilance should be operative with us, to whom later centuries have rolled. Who shall say when the cry may resound, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh”? No doubt, too, that the apostle foresaw a rapid extension of evangelistic endeavours. The nearing downfall of Jewish hopes would cause many to turn to the gospel as the only possible fulfilment of their Messianic aspirations. Such times of potency are ever occurring to us individually and collectively. Like ardent men of business, we should be on the look-out to seize our opportunities. Both at home and abroad this is an unequalled season for missionary effort; doors are being opened on every side. To spend the night in rioting is to slumber during the day: the morning will find us heavy-eyed and dull of brain. And to each one the day of death is drawing neara day of deliverance, of full salvation to the faithful. Who would indulge the ambition of standing before the blaze of glory from the throne in filthy garments, with marks of sin upon the brow, and defiling stains upon the person? This night is our earthly day of service and opportunity. The day of heaven closes for ever the night of earth. The remembrance of wasted moments will diminish the splendour of the heavenly reward. “Work, for the day is coming!” The anticipation of such a season of disclosure is calculated to melt the stoniest heart into contrition. All deeds will stand confessed.
“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale.”
II. THE CONDUCT REQUISITE IN SUCH A CRISIS.
1. Cultivate a spirit of wakefulness. “When the sun ariseth, man goeth forth to his labour.” Those who sleep heavily, like the drunken, know nothing of the signs of dawn, and are surprised that the morning could come without their noting its approach. “Awake thou that sleepest,” for thy sleep is that of death! His voice sounding through the cavern shall give thee strength to arise, and in his light thou shelf see all things clearly. It is death to the sentinel to sleep at his post. The lover cannot rest when he pictures the joy of the morrow, and the bride of Christ may well watch with intense delight the multiplying tokens of her Lord’s arrival.
2. Indue the appropriate attire. This involves, first, the “casting off” of the vestments of the night, and secondly, the “putting on” of the costume of day. The works of darkness are like an infected garment, which the instructed wearer throws aside as worse than no covering at all. The panoply of light, the faith, hope, and love in which Christ arrays his followers,this is the armour which will bear the scrutiny of the Captain, and prove a sure defence against the powers of evil. This negative and positive preparation is in essence one and the same, as the entrance of light scatters the darkness. Armour was the favourite dress of Romans, and though they would doff it for night revels, they would scorn to lack their accoutrements in the daytime. The cross of Christ is the tiring-room of his servants; there they die to sin and live unto righteousness; there they “put on Christ,” imbibe his spirit, and receive his colours. The Northumbrian earl, conscious of the advent of death, desired to be clothed in the suit of mail in which he had won so many fights; but the eye became glazed, the nerveless hand could not grasp the spear, the ashen hue of mortality overspread his face. The Christian dons his equipment, never to lay it aside; in it he shall join the throng of those who have overcome.
3. Exert a decorous activity. Avoid evil by pursuing good. “Walk honestly,” not indulging in intemperance, impurity, and discord, but leading a righteous, sober, godly life. Deeds of darkness are condemned by the light, revealing their hideousness, whilst habits of integrity and virtue shrink not from any scrutiny; they shine most lustrous in the brightest rays. Attain “to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” “growing up into him who is the Head in all things.” We are now weaving and sewing and donning the vestments that shall be our glory or our shame through eternity.S.R.A.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Verse 17
Citizenship.
From the admirable spirit which Christianity infuses into society, the apostle next takes us to the spirit which should regulate the believer’s relations to the civil magistrate. It is most important that Christianity should leaven all these relations to the powers that be. “I could not,” says Dr. Arnold, “name easily any branch of human conduct from which the influence of the gospel has been more completely shut out than this; any one on which worldly motives are avowed more boldly and more exclusively. In fact, many men seem to have vaguely confounded the gospel and the clergy in their notions about these matters; and because clergymen, like other men, have often interfered in them in the worst possible spirit, not setting an example of Christian conduct, but plunging into the lowest motives of passion or interest by which other men are actuated, there seems a sort of fear that the gospel itself will teach something mischievous to the public welfare or liberty. But, indeed, in all moral wisdom, in all duty, whether as private men or citizens, there is but one Master, even Christ, from whom we can draw nothing but what is pure and upright.” It is most important, then, to see how the gospel handles the question of citizenship.
I. CIVIL GOVERNMENT IS AN ORDINANCE OF GOD. (Rom 13:1.) We are tempted in thinking on civil society, to look upon it “either as a matter of mutual convenience between man and man, or else as an injustice and encroachment made by the rich and powerful on the rights and welfare of others.” But in this we are mistaken. It has grown up as a Divine ordinance, and we are not in right relation to it until we recognize this. And this is true not merely of the Jewish commonwealth, where Divine ideas were more or less regarded and embodied, but also of the other nations of the world. They have organized themselves and performed a certain mission, and passed, it may be, from the stage, in fulfilment of a Divine purpose. For each of these nations, as it has been recently said, “he had an office; for each he had appointed a beginning and an end. One by one they rose in orderly succession, those stupendous kingdoms of the East. Babylonian and Persian, Egyptian and Greek, God had required their armies; he had laid his hand upon their captains; Assyria was his hammer, Cyrus was his shepherd, Egypt was his garden, Tyre was his jewel; everywhere he was felt; everywhere the Divine destiny directed and controlled; the shuttle of God passes in and out, weaving into its web a thousand threads of natural human life. All history is put to the uses of God’s holier manifestation; he works under the pressure laid upon him by the wants and necessities of social and political progress.” Of course, this does not imply that we are calmly to accept of all a government chooses to inflict; but simply that, speaking generally, civil society and civil government are ordained of God to prevent us descending to beastly levels again.
II. CIVIL GOVERNMENT IS ESTABLISHED AS A TERROR TO EVIL–DOERS. (Rom 13:2, Rom 13:3.) This is the rough yet salutary morality it undertakes. If we will only consider what a state of society we should have if there were no public government to punish crimes, we can have no difficulty in recognizing in it s Divine institution. The arrangement about the manslayer in the olden time was to reinforce the rude justice of the early age before public justice had grown up into the recognized power which in civil government it has now assumed. We thus see that civil government is an institution which professes to favour morality, and, if it professed anything else, it would break down. It may not always succeed, but this is its profession. We are bound to give it a loyal trial, and to submit to it, so far as it does not dictate anything to its subjects contrary to the clear command of God. “The fact that an earthly government may be corrupt and tyrannical does not disprove the Divine origin of government; any more than the fact that parents may be unfaithful to their duties proves that the family is not divinely originated; or the fact that a particular Church may become corrupt proves that the Church is not Divine in its source. St. Paul, however, does not teach here that any degree of tyranny whatever is to be submitted to by a Christian. If the government attempt to force him to violate a Divine commandfor example, to desist from preaching the gospel, or to take part in pagan worshiphe must resist even unto death (see Act 4:19; Act 5:29). Most of the apostles suffered martyrdom for this principle” (so Shedd, in loc.).
III. THE BELIEVER IS EXPECTED TO BE LOYAL TO THE EXISTING GOVERNMENT AS A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE. (Rom 13:5.) We have already seen where the duty of resistance to the civil magistrate comes inwhere he interferes with God’s province and assumes the lordship of the conscience. But when he keeps clear of this we are to yield him obedience as a matter of conscience, and not as a matter of fear. Treason is a business outside a believer’s functions altogether. His simple duty is submission; under protest, sometimes, it may be; but he should not incur the curse of taking the sword and perishing by it. “In respect to things pertaining only to this life,” says Dr. Shedd, “and in cases in which the rights of conscience and religious convictions are not infringed upon, both Christ and his apostles taught that injustice, and even tyranny, should be submitted to, rather than that revolutionary resistance be made. And this, because merely earthly liberty, and the rights of property, are of secondary consideration. The same rule applies to the relation of the individual to the state, in this case, that applies to the relation between man and man. If a Christian is defrauded of his property by a fellow-believer, he ought to “take the wrong, and suffer himself to be defrauded,” rather than “go to law one with another” (1Co 6:7). In like manner, in regard to merely worldly good, the Christian should forego his rights, and allow himself to be ill treated even by the government under which he lives, rather than organize a rebellion and bring on war with its untold evils.”
IV. TAXATION IS THE SUPPORT OF A DIVINE ORDINANCE.
All are to get their due, whether direct taxes, or duties of excise, or fear and honour; for these arrangements of state are, as a rule, favourable to good morals, and deserve to be respected. Now, there are one or two objections to the principle of Christian citizenship as here laid down which, before concluding this homily, we may dispose of.
1. How about a state when it proceeds to persecution and injustice? Answer: The believer in such a case must protest against the injustice, and patiently bear it, while he respects the Divine principle embodied in the persecuting state. He avoids disloyalty, yet advocates reform.
2. Is the Church to be the tool of the state? Answer: By no means. They have distinct spheres. It is as false to put the Church against the state, as to confound the Church and the state. The Church recognizes the state as a moral institution for securing justice, and the state should recognize the Church as a Divine institution for securing love. The state enforces justice by penalties; the Church promotes love by persuasion. There need be, and should be, no confusion between them.R.M.E.
Rom 13:8-14
Christ-likeness.
From citizenship, which is disposed of in the preceding verses, the apostle passes on to the Christian spirit as manifested in neighbourly relations. He here enters into the very spirit and essence of God’s law, showing it to be love. And here we have
I. THE DEBT WHICH CAN NEVER BE DISCHARGED. (Rom 13:8.) We may pay all other debts, and should owe no man anything; but love is a debt that can never be discharged, an obligation which abides, a blessed law laid on us in perpetuity. All the commandments of the second table are covered by this one law of love. No one in his senses would ever seek discharge from such a law. Could it be a privilege to hate one’s neighbour? “Good haters,” as they are pleased to call themselves, are usually public nuisances. We are under this law of love for ever, because we are under grace. It is here that our Divine sonship is realized; it is here that Christ-likeness begins. God is love; and in proportion as we are loving are we like Christ and his Father above.
II. WITH THE CHRIST–LIKE LIFE HAS CEASED TO BE A DREAM. (Rom 13:11.) This is the case with the worldly; they fancy they are “wide awake,” and yet they are asleep so far as eternal realities are concerned. How time slips through their fingers, as it does with those in sleep! Life is not in earnest; they have pillowed themselves upon success, and are dead to things Divine. But when Christ comes, then we awake and find ourselves in the morning hours. That Sun of Righteousness arises and our dream and night are over, and the activities of the new day are come. The Christ-like feel that life is earnest, and no time should be lost in dreams. As Feuchtersleben has pointedly said, “Life is no dream. It only becomes so by the fault of man, and when his mind disobeys the summons to awake.”
III. THE WORKS OF DARKNESS AND THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH ARE OUT OF DATE. (Rom 13:12-14.) While life is only a dream, while the night of indifference and neglect is around the soul, indulgence will he tolerated and provision made for the lusts of the flesh. Pleasure will be the pole-star of life, and decency will not deter the soul from its satisfactions. Of course, the primitive Church had to deal more with the lusts of the flesh than we have; or perhaps they went more thoroughly into the morals of their members. “The primitive Church,” it has been said, “was more under the influence of the ‘lust of the flesh’ than of the ‘pride of life; ‘the modern Church is more under the influence of the ‘pride of life ‘ than of the ‘lust of the flesh.’ But pride is as great a sin, in the sight of God, as sensuality. This should be considered in forming an estimate of the modern missionary Church” (Shedd, in loc.). But the soul which has awaked through the advent of Jesus regards these deeds of darkness as out of date. They would be anachronisms of the day. The light has come and put to flight the darkness.
IV. THE ARMOUR OF LIGHT ALONE BEFITS THE DAY. (Rom 13:12, Rom 13:13.) Now, it is wonderful what a protection light, even in its physical form, is against pollution. There are deeds which can only be done in darkness. Turn the light upon them, and they are annihilated through sheer shame. In the same way, when the full spiritual light which Jesus Christ, our Sun, embodies, plays upon our life, we are instantly aroused and elevated, and the tone of life improves. This is our panoply in the morning hours. Christ with us, near us, observing us, encircling us with his light, becomes our great protection.
V. CHRIST–LIKENESS THROUGH CLOTHING OURSELVES WITH HIM IS THE GREAT SECRET OF A USEFUL AND HAPPY LIFE. (Rom 13:14.) As the Sun of Righteousness shines around us we contract a luminosity like his. We get sanctified through contemplating him. The same image that is in him becomes ours from glory to glory, as with unveiled face we behold the face of God (2Co 3:17). It is this likeness to our Lord which makes us increasingly earnest and useful and happy in life’s young day. We feel that salvation, in all its length and breadth, is Hearer realization than when we first believed. The morning hours give promise of the perfect day. As one has well put it, “The pilgrims of the dawn tolerate nothing in themselves that the light of day would rebuke. Hence it is the counterpart of this that they make no provision for the flesh; whatever provision they take for their heavenly journey, the flesh has no share in it. The sin adhering to their nature, the old man not yet dead, is an enemy whose hunger they do not feed, to whose thirst they do not administer drink, whose dying solicitations they regard not, but leave him to perish by the way. But the supreme preparationuniting all others in oneis the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ. In him alone the dignity and the purity of our nature meet; transformed into his character, we need nothing more to fit us for the holiest heavens; but nothing less will suffice his expectation at his coming. He will come to be glorified in his saintsalready the likeness in ten thousand reproductions of himself; and they shall in turn be glorified in him. Hence the great business of the pilgrims is to occupy the precious moments of the morning in weaving into their nature the character of Christ as the apparel of the eternal day. And if in faith that worketh by lovethe love that fulfilleth the Lawthey diligently co-operate with the Holy Spirit, it will be his blessed function to see to it that before the Bridegroom cometh, his bride, and every individual soul that makes up her mystical person, shall be found clothed in his spiritual perfection as with a garment without seam, woven from the top throughout. Beyond this we cannot go. This is the close and the secret of the whole exhortation to the pilgrims of the dawn. They have come up out of the night at the sound of his awakening voice, and have left their Egyptian darkness for ever. They are wrestling with the dangers of the morning, rejoicing in its partial satisfactions. But supremely and above all they are intent upon the coming day; in their pathway there is no death, but they wait for the more abundant life; they are full of trembling and solemn expectation of all that the day will pour out of its unfathomable mysteries. But the end of all their expectation is the Person of their Lord. And to prepare for him by being like himself is the sum of all their preparation.” May we all thus put on Christ and be like him!R.M.E.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Rom 13:1. This epistle was written about the fourth year of the emperor Nero, about six years after Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome. It is not improbable, that, as Suetonius relates in the Life of Claudius, this was occasioned by the tumultuous disposition of the Jews, in one shape or other; whether upon a civil or religious account, is not easy to determine. However, we know that they had notions relating to government favourable to none but their own; and it was with great reluctance that they submitted to a foreign jurisdiction. The Christians, under a notion of their being the people of God, and the subjects of his kingdom, might be in danger of being infected by those unruly and rebellious sentiments: therefore the Apostle here points out their duty to the civilmagistrate. To understand him right, we must consider these two things: First, That these rules are given to Christians, who were members of the heathen commonwealth,to shew them that, by being made Christians, and subjects of Christ’s kingdom, they were not, through the freedom of the Gospel, exempt from any tiesof duty or subjection which by the laws of the country wherein they lived they were bound to observe,from paying all due obedience to the government and magistrates, though heathens, in the same manner as was done by their heathen subjects. But on the other side, these rules did not tie them up, more than any of their fellow-citizens who were not Christians, from any of those due rights which by the law of nature, or the constitution of their country, belonged to them. Whatever any other of their fellow-subjects, being in a like station with them, might do without sinning, of that they were not abridged, but might still do the same, being Christians; the rule here being the same with that given by St. Paul, 1Co 7:17. As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. The rules of civil right and wrong, whereby he is to walk, are to him the same that they were before. Secondly, We must consider, that St. Paul, in this direction to the Romans, does not so much describe the magistrates who were then in Rome, as relate whence they, and all magistrates every where, derive their authority; and for what end they have, and should use it: and this he does as becomes his prudence, to avoid bringing any imputation on the Christians from heathen magistrates; especially those insolent and vicious ones of Rome, who could not brook any thing to be told them as their duty, and so might be apt to interpret such plain truths, laid down in a dogmatical way, into sedition or treason;a scandal cautiously to be kept off from the Christian doctrine. Nor does he, in what he says, in the least flatter the Roman emperor: for he speaks here of the higher powers, that is, the supreme civil power, which is in every commonwealth derived from God, and is of the same extent every where; that is, is absolute and unlimited by any thing, but the end for which God gave it; namely, the good of the people, sincerely pursued according to the best skill of those who share that power; and so is not to be resisted. But how men come by a rightful title to this power, or who has that title, the Apostle is wholly silent: to have meddled with that, would have been to decide of civil rights, contrary to the design and business of the Gospel, and the example of our Saviour. If the reader is attentive, he must be pleased to see in how small a compass, and with how much dexterity, truth, and gravity, the Apostle affirms and explains the foundation, the nature, ends, and just limits of the magistrate’s authority, while he is pleading his cause, and teaching the subject the duty and obedience due to governors. See Locke.
Let every soul “Every one, however endowed with miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, or advanced to any dignity in the church of Christ:” for that these things were apt to make men overvalue themselves, is obvious from what St. Paul says to the Corinthians, 1 Ep. 12: and to the Rom 12:3-4. But, above all others, the Jews were apt to have an inward reluctancy and indignation against the power of any heathen over them, taking it to be an unjust and tyrannical usurpation uponthem, who were the people of God, and their betters. These the Apostle thought it necessary to restrain, and therefore says, “Every soul, that is, every person among you, whether Jew or Gentile, must live in subjection to the civil magistrate.” We see by what St. Peter says on the like occasion, that there was great need that Christians should have this duty inculcated upon them, lest any among them should use their liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, or misbehaviour, 1Pe 2:13-16. The doctrine of Christianity was a doctrine of liberty. Hence mistaken men, especially Jewish converts, impatient, as we have observed, of any heathen dominion, might be ready to infer, that Christians were exempt from subjection to the laws of heathen governments. This he obviates by telling them, that all other governments derived the power they had from God, as well as that of the Jews, though they had not the whole frame of their government immediately from him, as the Jews had. Whether we take the powers here, in the abstract, for political authority, or in the concrete for the persons de facto exercising political power and jurisdiction, the sense will be the same; viz. that Christians, by virtue of being Christians, are not any way exempt from obedience to the civil magistrates, nor ought by any means to resist them; though by what is said, Rom 13:3 it seems that St. Paul meant here magistrates having and exercising a lawful power. But whether the magistrates in being were or were not such, and consequently were or were not to be obeyed, that Christianity gave them no peculiar power to examine. They had the common right of others their fellow-citizens, but had no distinct privilege as Christians; and therefore we see, Rom 13:7 that where he enjoins the payingof tribute, custom, &c. it is in these words: Render to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute, honour to whom honour, &c. But who it was to whom any of these, or any other dues of right belonged, he decides not; for that he leaves them to be determined by the laws and constitutions of their country. Instead of ordained of God, we may render the original , by disposed, or established. See Act 13:48. Divine Providence ranges, and in some sense establishes, the various governments of the world; they are therefore under the character of governments in the general to be revered: but this cannot make what is wrong and pernicious in any peculiar forms, sacred, divine, andimmutable; any more than the hand of God in a famine or pestilence, is an argument against seeking proper means to remove it. See Locke, Doddridge, and Mintert.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 13:1 . ] In the sense of every man , but (comp. on Rom 2:9 ) of man conceived in reference to his soul-nature, in virtue of which he consciously feels pleasure and displeasure (rejoices, is troubled, etc.), and cherishes corresponding impulses. There lies a certain pathos in the significant: every soul , which at once brings into prominence the universality of the duty. Comp. Act 2:43 ; Act 3:23 ; Rev 16:3 .
.] magistrates high in standing ( without the article). . (see Wis 6:5 ; 1Pe 2:13 ; 1Ti 2:2 ; 2MMal 3:11 ) is added, in order to set forth the .
and being correlative as corresponding to the standpoint of the magistracy itself (comp. the German: hohe Obrigkeiten ); the motive of obedience follows.
There is no magistracy apart from God expresses in general the proceeding of all magistracy whatever from God , and then this relation is still more precisely defined, in respect of those magistracies which exist in concreto as a divine institution , by . ; comp. Hom. Il . 2:204 ff., ix. 38, 98; Soph. Phil . 140, et al. ; Xen. Rep. Lac . 15. 2. Thus Paul has certainly expressed the divine right of magistracy, which Christian princes especially designate by the expression “by the grace of God” (since the time of Louis the Pious). And , the extant , actually existing , allows no exception, such as that possibly of tyrants or usurpers (in opposition to Reiche). The Christian, according to Paul, ought to regard any magistracy whatever, provided its rule over him subsists de facto , as divinely ordained, since it has not come into existence without the operation of God’s will; and this applies also to tyrannical or usurped power, although such a power, in the counsel of God, is perhaps destined merely to be temporary and transitional. From this point of view, the Christian obeys not the human caprice and injustice, but the will of God, who in connection with His plan of government inaccessible to human insight has presented even the unworthy and unrighteous ruler as the , and has made him the instrument of His measures. Questions as to special cases such as how the Christian is to conduct himself in political catastrophes, what magistracy he is to look upon in such times as the , as also, how he, if the command of the magistrate is against the command of God, is at any rate to obey God rather than men (Act 5:29 ), etc.
Paul here leaves unnoticed, and only gives the main injunction of obedience, which he does not make contingent on this or that form of constitution. By no means, however, are we to think only of the magisterial office as instituted by God (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, and others), but rather of the magistracy in its concrete persons and members as the bearers of the divinely-ordained office. Comp. , Rom 13:3 , and Rom 13:4 ; Rom 13:6-7 ; Dion. Hal. Antt . xi. 32; Plut. Philop . 17; Tit 3:1 ; also Martyr. Polyc . 10.
Observe, moreover, that Paul has in view Gentile magistrates in concreto; consequently he could not speak more specially of that which Christian magistrates have on their part to do, and which Christian subjects in their duty of obedience for God and right’s sake are to expect and to require from them, although he expresses in general by repeatedly bringing forward the fact that magistrates are the servants of God (Rom 13:3-4 ), indeed ministering servants of God (Rom 13:6 ) the point of view from which the distinctively Christian judgment as to the duties and rights of magistrate and subject respectively must proceed.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rom 13:1-7 . The proud love of freedom of the Jews (see on Joh 8:33 ; Mat 22:17 , and their tumultuary spirit thereby excited, which was peculiarly ardent from the time of Judas Gaulonites (see Act 5:37 ; Josephus, Ant . xviii. 1. 1) and had shortly before broken out in Rome itself (Suetonius, Claud . 25; Dio Cassius, lx. 6; see Introd . 2, and on Act 18:2 ), redoubled for the Christians among whom, indeed, even the Gentile-Christians might easily enough be led astray by the Messianic ideas (theocracy, kingdom of Christ, freedom and of believers, etc.) into perverted thoughts of freedom and desires for emancipation (comp. 1Co 6:1 ff.) the necessity of civil obedience, seeing that they, as confessing the Messiah (Act 17:6-7 ), and regarded by the Gentiles as a Jewish sect, were much exposed to the suspicion of revolutionary enterprise. The danger thus lay, not indeed exclusively (Mangold, Beyschlag), but primarily and mostly , on the side of the Jewish-Christians, not on that of the Gentile-Christians, as Th. Schott, in the interest of the view that Paul desired to prepare the Roman church to be the base of operations of his western mission to the Gentiles, unhistorically assumes. And was not Rome , the very seat of the government of the world, just the place above all others where that danger was greatest, and where nevertheless the whole Christian body, of the Jewish as well as of the Gentile section, had to distinguish itself by exemplary civil order? Hence we have here the in the Pauline epistles unique detailed and emphatic inculcation of obedience towards the magistracy , introduced without link of connection with what precedes as a new subject. Baur, I. p. 384 f., thinks that Paul is here combating Ebionitic dualism , which regarded the secular magistrate as of non-divine, devilish origin. As if Paul could not, without any such antithesis, have held it to be necessary to inculcate upon the Romans the divine right of the state-authority! Moreover, he would certainly not merely have kept his eye upon that dualism in regard to its practical manifestations (Baur’s subterfuge), but would have combated it in principle , and thereby have grasped it at the root.
The partial resemblance, moreover, which exists between Rom 13:1-4 and 1Pe 2:13-14 is not sufficient to enable us to assume that Peter made use of our passage, or that Paul made use of Peter’s epistle; a view, which has been lately maintained especially by Weiss, Petrin. Lehrbegr . p. 416 ff., and in the Stud. u. Krit . 1865, 4; see, on the other hand, Huther on 1 Pet. Introd . 2. Paul doubtless frequently preached a similar doctrine orally respecting duty towards the heathen magistracy. And the power of his preaching was sufficiently influential in moulding the earliest ecclesiastical language, to lead even a Peter, especially on so peculiar a subject, involuntarily to echo the words of Paul which had vibrated through the whole church. Compare the creative influence of Luther upon the language of the church.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Third Section.Christian universalism (Roman Catholicism in Pauls sense) in proper conduct toward the civil Government (the heathen State), which has a diaconal and liturgical service in the household of God. The office of civil Government defined
Rom 13:1-6
1Let every soul be subject [submit himself] unto the higher powers [to the authorities which are over him].1 For there is no power [authority] but of [except from]2 God: the powers that be are [those which exist3 have been]ordained of [by] God. 2Whosoever therefore resisteth the power [So that he who setteth himself against the authority], resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that [those who] resist shall receive to themselves damnation [condemnation].3For rulers are not a terror to good works [the good work],4 but to the evil, Wilt thou then not [Dost thou then wish not to] be afraid of the power [authority]? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of [from]the same: 4For he is the minister of God [Gods minister] to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth [weareth] not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God [Gods minister], a revenger to5execute wrath upon [an avenger for wrath to] him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs5 be subject [submit yourselves], not only for [because of the]6wrath, but also for conscience sake. For, for this cause pay ye [ye pay] tribute also: for they are Gods ministers [the ministers of God],6 attending continually upon this very thing.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
General Remarks.As, in chap. 12, ecclesiastical duties are supplemented by personal duties, so here, in chap. 13, civil duties are supplemented by duties toward the world in general.According to Tholuck, the passive conduct in relation to private injuries, in Rom 12:19-21, has led to this exhortation. Yet this would be too accidental an occasion. The thought of the transition is, that, even in the heathen State, evil must be overcome with good. But the possibility of this conquest lies in the necessity of the Christians recognizing something good even in the large State, as well as in the personal opponent. Chrysostom held that this section has the apologetical design of showing that Christianity does not lead to the dissolution of the State, and of the social legal relations (comp. 1Ti 2:1; Tit 3:1; 1Pe 2:13-14). According to Calvin, and others, the occasion lay in the fact that the Jews were inclined to resistance to heathen government, and that also the Jewish Christians often became subject, with them, to suspicions of the same disposition.7 As might be expected, Baur finds the key for the solution of this question also in the Clementines. On these and other hypotheses, particularly those of Neander and Baumgarten-Crusius, see further details in Tholuck, pp. 678 ff. The same author says: If the Epistle was written in the year 58, then it follows that Neros five mild years terminated in the following year. In view of the universal character of this Epistle, even on its practical side, the Apostle must have felt the necessity of defining, from his principle, the relation of duty in which Christians stood to the State, without his having been led to it by this or that circumstance.
Rom 13:1. Let every soul, . Every man; yet with reference to the life of the soul, whose emotions in relation to the government come into special consideration (Act 2:43; Act 3:23; Rev 16:3).Submit himself, . Voluntarily subjecting himself to authority. [The reflexive form describes the obedience as of a rational, voluntary, principled character, in distinction from blind, servile subjection.P. S.]To the authorities which are over him [ ]. In are comprised both the magistracy and their power (potestas). , Vulgate: sublimiores. Tholuck: The high, those high in authority, with a reference to 1Ti 2:2. [Philippi and Meyer refer to the German phrase: Die hohe Obrigkeit, but there seems to be no reference to the higher grade of rulers. The rendering given above is sufficiently explicit.It must be noticed how general the injunction isevery soul, and whatever powers are set over him. Wordsworth: He does not say obey, but submit. On the limitations, see below, and Doctr. Notes.R.]
Except from God [ . See Textual Note2. The proposition is universal, its application follows. Wordsworth remarks that , force, does not occur throughout.R.] Gods sovereignty is, in the general sense ( ), the causality of magisterial power.
Those which exist [ . See Textual Note3.] According to Erasmus and Schmidt, the Apostle understands by the , the rightful powers; with reference to Joh 10:12, , qui verus pastor est. According to Meyer, and Tholuck, there is no difference whatever. [The words mean simply this: all existing civil authorities, de facto governments. This doubtless includes temporary and revolutionary governments, although nothing is said on this point. Of course, there has been much casuistry in the discussions as to what constitutes the existence, , of the authority.R.]
The general definition, , for which Codd. A. B.2, and others, would read ., is more specifically defined by the , have been ordained by God, which denotes Divine appointment.8 The Apostle, however, seems desirous of making a distinction, yet not between the rightful and illegal authorities, but between the actual appearance of the authorities and their ideal and essential ground of life, whose validity should also undoubtedly be recognized in the actual authorities, because of their permanent destination. In harmony with this distinction, Chrysostom, and others, have distinguished between the magisterial office itself and its accidental incumbents. Yet we must hold that the Apostle not only enjoins obedience toward the ideal institution of the authorities, but also toward their empirical appearance. But he will establish the requirement of this obedience by reference to the ideal institution and design of the authorities. This arises clearly from what follows.
Rom 13:2. So that he who setteth himself against, &c. [ , … Notice the recurrence of in various forms and combinations.R.] Whoever becomes against the actual authorities, becomes also the resister of the ordinance of God. The denotes, primarily, military pposition, the array of a hostile order of battle; but it has also a more general sense. Its meaning, over against the authorities, in every case must be that of resistance; and Tholuck makes an arbitrary limitation when he says: Neither the armed opposition of the individual, nor of many, as in insurrection, is meant here; it rather appears, from Rom 13:7, what kind of opposition is meant, namely, that of refusal to pay taxes. Besides, Rom 13:7 is the beginning of another section. [The more general sense is usually accepted, as in the above rendering: He who setteth himself against, which is adopted to bring out the reflexive force of the original.R.] As related to the Divine appointment (, here = ), this resistance becomes a spiritual resistance. This is the rule; and, according to this rule, it is said of those who resist the Divine ordinance:
Those who resist shall receive to themselves condemnation [ ]. Meyer properly remarks, that a condemnation by God is meant, as it is produced by their resistance of Gods ordinance, but that the are regarded as executing this sentence; therefore Paul does not mean eternal (according to Reiche, and most commentators), but temporal punishment. Yet these executioners are not always the ; for it is well known that revolution very often devours its own children, and that the sorest punishments come from anarchy. [The next verse seems to point to the rulers as the instruments in inflicting the Divine punishment (Tholuck, Alford), yet there is no necessity for this limitation, in the face of the fact that punishment often comes by other hands. Though the punishment comes from God, condemnation is preferable to damnation, since the latter refers now to eternal punishment alone, which is not the meaning here.On Rom 13:1-2, Dr. Hodge remarks: The extent of this obedience is to be determined from the nature of the case. They are to be obeyed as magistrates, in the exercise of their lawful authority. This passage, therefore, affords a very slight foundation for the doctrine of passive obedience.R.]
Rom 13:3. For rulers are not [ ]. It may be asked here, what the is designed to establish? According to Meyer, it explains the modality of the condemnation: they shall receive condemnation in so far as the civil authority is its executioner. But Tholuck and Philippi very properly suggest, that the in Rom 13:3 cannot mean merely resistance to civil authority. If the civil authority exists merely for the quelling of resistance, the whole State would be a mere circle, or the civil authority would be an absolute despotism. According to Calvin and Bucer, Rom 13:3 should connect with Rom 13:1, and prove the utilitas of the Divine ordinance of civil authority.9 But the refers simply to the idea of absolute punishment in the condemnation in Rom 13:2. In Tholuck there is a similar, and perhaps somewhat more general, reference to Rom 13:2. God punishes insurrection, because it is designed to shake a legal ordinance, existing for the protection of the good and the punishment of the bad. All those are guilty of this misconception of all the moral powers of existing order, who, in their abstract worship of a pure fancy, oppose the best form of government, and therefore finish their labors by perverting existing order to a moral chaos. Now, the limitation of the strict requirements of the Apostle lies in the definition of the civil authority, which he gives in this and the following verses.
A terror, . For terror, formidandi. Princes are not formidable to the good work, but to the evil.[To the good work, but to the evil, , . See Textual Note4.R.]
Dost thou then wish not to be afraid of the authority? [ ; Although it is not necessary to retain the interrogative form, yet it will express sufficiently the hypothetical force, which most commentators find here.R.] These words are a hypothetical premise, and not a question, as Griesbach, and others, would construe them.Thou shalt have praise [ ]. Commendations by the magistrates, in opposition to punishments, were common even in ancient times. Origen, on the contrary, says, that it is not the custom of rulers to praise the non peccantes. To this, Pelagius says: Damnatio malorum laus est bonorum. Meyer says: Grotius, moreover, properly says: Cum hc scriberet Paulus, non sviebatur Rom in Christianos? It was still the better period of Neros government. Tholucks view is similar. Yet the written words of the Apostle have been of perfect application subsequently, even down to the present day. The Apostle sets up an ideal, by which the ruler also can and shall be judged. We must hold:
1. That he portrays obedience to authority as an obedience for the Lords sake (comp. Eph 6:5-6). This secures the sphere: Render to God the things that are Gods; bondage under religious and conscientious despotism is excluded.
2. The definition of what is good works and what are evil works, abides by the decision of Gods word, of Christian faith, and of conscience, but is not dependent on the ruler.
3. This also indicates that every power shall become weakness, when the poles of sword-bearing shall be so absolutely transposed that the sword becomes a terror to good works; but that it is a matter of the Divine government to prove that weakness, which lies in the fact that an actual government has absolutely dropped off from the idea of its design.[10]
Rom 13:4. For he is Gods minister [ ]. The of Rom 13:4 brings out the ground of the declaration in Rom 13:3. The rule of the magistracy as a terror to the evil, and for the praise and encouragement of those who do good, is explained by its character, its essential design, to be Gods servant.[To thee for good, .] But he is Gods minister for the good of man; see Book of Wis 6:4. [While rulers are of God, it is for the benefit of the ruled. A repetition of what precedes, and suggesting the same limitations.R.]
He weareth not the sword in vain [ ]. He weareth it ( is stronger than ) as the symbolical token, insignia, of his governing and judicial sovereignty; but he does not wear it merely as a symbol, without reason, and for show. He makes use of it because he is Gods minister, as the punitive executioner of His wrath. The addition: for wrath, , expresses the fact that even in the State and municipal court there is the authority of something higher than merely human justice, namely, the Divine retribution of wrath upon offenders.
On the different antiquarian interpretations of the , particularly as the dagger which the Emperor carried at his side, see Tholuck, p. 690. Tholuck and Meyer decide for the sword, because . in the New Testament always means this, and because everywhere in the provinces it was borne by the highest officers of military and criminal affairs, as the sign of the jus gladii. Nevertheless, the dagger of the Emperor, and of his representative, the Prfectus Prtorii, belongs under the symbolical description. After all, in an abstract and real direction, we would otherwise have to think only of the executioners sword. [It requires some ingenuity to escape the conviction that this passage implies a New Testament sanction of the right of capital punishment. At all events, the theory of civil penalties here set forth is in direct opposition to that so constantly upheld nowadays, that the end is simply the reformation of the offender. See Doctr. Note 6.R.]
Rom 13:5. Wherefore ye must needs, &c. [, …] For the reason stated, it was not merely the duty of prudence, but also a religious and moral duty of conscience, to be subject. When the Apostle says, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience sake, he denotes thereby the antithesis of the servile fear of the external infliction of punishment, and of inward and free obedience, in the knowledge and reverence of the Divine order in the civil affairs of men.11 Comp. 1Pe 2:13.
Rom 13:6. For, for this cause ye pay tribute also [ . The question of connection has been much discussed. Calvin, De Wette, Alford, and many others, make parallel with (Rom 13:5), as another inference from Rom 13:1-4. Meyer, however, connects immediately with Rom 13:5, finding here an inference from the necessity there described, as well as a confirmation of it. He thinks the other construction passes over Rom 13:5 arbitrarily. But if the verses are taken as parallel, this difficulty is not of much weight. See his notes for other views; Stuart takes as a strengthened causal particle, and the verb as imperative.R.] The must not be read as imperative (Heumann, Morus [Stuart, Hodge], and others); but the [ with the imperative would have been more natural] and the imperative in Rom 13:7 are against this. The payment of tribute declares a recognition of the State, also according to our Lords own declaration (Mat 22:21). But by means of paying tribute, the subject himself takes part in the government of the magistracy. He actually takes part in the support of the administration, which, consciously or unconsciously, is, in the highest sense, a servant of the kingdom, and, in the widest sense, is a servant [Liturg] of God, analogously to the servant of the temple. Olshausen, and others, erroneously construe as subject.
[For they are the ministers of God, . See Textual Note6. The subject is (supplied in thought); is predicate (Meyer, Philippi, and most). See Philippi on the distinction between and . He bases upon the former, which, he claims, applies to one engaged in a practical, external service, as well as on the concrete plural (instead of the abstract ), the reference to the collection of tribute in . But it is better, with Tholuck, Wordsworth, and others, to find here the idea of servants ministering to God in representation of the people.R.]
Attending continually upon this very thing [ ]. Philippi12 explains : for this very purpose, viz., the payment of tribute. But then that would mean: they receive taxes in order that they may exact more taxes. The purpose is the fundamental thought of the whole section: The State is the State of the police, of rectitude, and of civilization. Therefore the is undoubtedly meant (Tholuck, and others) in the very sense in which the section has described it.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As chap. 12. has defined the conduct of Christians toward the Church and the personal departments of life, so does chap. 13 define their conduct toward the State and the world. The Apostle has therefore very forcibly regarded the sphere of personal life as the atmosphere of the Church, and then the sphere of the world as the atmosphere of the State.[13]
2. In reference to the civil authority, the Apostle evidently makes the following distinctions: (1) The actual existence of the civil powers, which are in every case an ordinance of Gods providence [not of a social contract, nor simply by the will of the people.R.]; and the ideal and real existence of the civil power, which is not merely providentially , but is also, by creation and institution, fundamentally an ordinance . (2) He distinguishes between social opposition to the civil power, and the spiritual opposition to Gods institution which is comprised therein. (3) He also distinguishes between the power of the State itself and its incumbents, the rulers, by which designation he expresses the possibility of different political forms.[14] (4) He finally distinguishes between the actual appearance and its ideal destination, according to which the should be a and administrator of Divine right, and the should prove themselves as .
3. The following distinctions with reference to duty toward the State clearly appear:
A. The submission is of necessity (), Rom 13:5; (1) Because of the wrath. Since Divine providence has its wise purposes even in raising up, and permitting to exist, severe and despotic powers, so long as they are really State powers, , so, in this relation, is the a sin against wisdom; the revolter draws upon himself the for his want of judgment, his presumption, and his wicked encroachment and invasion. The same which makes the State pass over from an institution of Divine mercy to a phenomenon of Divine wrath, and which makes use of the despotic tool as an axe to be cast aside in due season (Isa 10:15), and which oppresses a people to its own chastisement, crushes, first of all, the individual anarchical despots of revolution, who, in excessive self-estimation, would cure the relative evil of despotism by the absolute evil of anarchy. (2) Although this folly itself must be avoided for conscience sake, there is added a specific obedience for conscience sake, which is unfettered respect for the ideal splendor of the Divine institution, joy at an existence protected by the laws and civilization of the State, gratitude for the moral blessings which humanity possesses in civil life; but, in one word, the knowledge of the Divine, which shines clearly enough even through the imperfect phenomenon of civil life.
B. The submitting, , excludes the resisting, ; but it by no means excludes it from Gods word and from conscience, nor from judgment (dependent on an existing power) on what is good and what is evil, and what is just and what is unjust; for it is only in consequence of this judgment that there can be a candid conviction that the higher powers, really as Gods servant, exercise the right of the sword for a terror to evil works and protection to good works. Consequently, judgment on the actions of the State within the purely ethical department, and the limits and legality of wisdom, is also unfettered.
C. According to the Apostle, the mark of voluntary obedience consists in not fearing the civil powers, in assuming their existence according to the idea in Rom 13:3-4, and not according to their accidental errors. This fearlessness may not only be united with the respect required by Rom 13:7, but is inseparably connected with it (see Tholuck, p. 692). As one has the right and duty to expect of the Christian that he will act in a Christian way, so has one the right and duty to expect of the State that it be clothed with the ideal principles of the State.
D. The Apostle says: Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; as if he would say that, by this voluntary act, you participate in the civil government, and pledge your obedience to it. But, in Rom 13:7, he characterizes the same act as indebtedness. The solution of this apparent antinomy has been given by our Lord himself, Mat 22:21 (see the Commentary on Matthew, pp. 396, 397). The individual has the right to emigrate when an extraneous power arises. But if, with the use of the coin of the country, he enjoys the profit, protection, and authority of the country, there arises the duty of paying the tribute required by the united life and necessities of the State. And he who pays tributethat is, renders allegiancewith one hand, but with the other rises in revolution, is not only guilty of resistance, but also of self-delusion and self-contradiction.These are the principal features; they may also be found in Eph 6:5; 1Ti 2:2; 1Pe 2:13. The application of them to the individual cases and questions arising here, has been committed by Gods word to the development of the Christian spirit. We are convinced that this spirit, and its foundation, can be misapplied by impure minds, when, on the one hand, Byzantine adulterers make the gospel of truth a gospel of absolute despotism, and, on the other, fanatical and hierarchical mutineers make it a gospel of revolutionary terrorism, as was the case with the Jewish Zealots, and appears now as secret political justice [Vehmjustiz] (practised in Westphalia in early times), now as brigandage, and now as Fenianism. In both respects the Old Testament is a commentary, rich in illustrations, on the sense of the New, Neither Pharaoh nor Korahs company, neither Rehoboam nor Jeroboam, neither Nebuchadnezzar nor the adversaries of Jeremiah, escaped the condemnatory judgment of the Spirit recorded on the pages of Holy Writ. But in the Jewish war, when the fanaticism of power and the fanaticism of an enthusiastic fancy for freedom contended together for the Holy City, the Christians emigrated to Pella. The light and right of the Christian consist in the incapacity of any earthly power to intervene between his heavenly King and his conscience. When it is therefore imputed to him that his conscience is stained by falsehood, injustice, cowardice, or partiality, and that he has become faithless to his heavenly King, he knowsfor he must knowthat his inward life stands or falls with his fidelity to his Lord, it matters not from what side the imputation may come. He must likewise refute the imputation that he employs his whole life in political law questions; for there are other things to be attended to in religious, ecclesiastical, moral, and social life, than contending for the most perfect political and social forms. The same fanatical externalization, which in the Middle Ages took pleasure in absolute ecclesiasticism, can become absolute politicalism in modern society. But if conditions arise in the life of nations in which the Apostles definition is not of absolute application to the civil power, when the sword is a terror to the good, then does the definition cease to be of application at its time to . But even in such a case God could make a Russian winter do more for Germany, than man, alienated from God, could do for France by a series of revolutions. Of course, freedom never takes place without enthusiastic liberators, who know how to distinguish Gods fiery sign from human incendiarism. But every one must know for himself what his duty is in his particular calling. [The positions of Dr. Lange are justly taken, but may require some modification for a region where the civil power is more directly formed and sustained by the individual members of the State. In that case, the personal responsibility in political affairs is, of course, largely augmented; to the duty of obedience and tribute, that of political knowledge and prudence is added. The ideal must be formed by Christian reflection, and by Christian effort we must seek to make it a reality. The abstract right of revolution, which Dr. Lange himself does not deny, will be the more an abstraction as lawful means are at hand to alter the organic law of the State. Thus popular government, when, and only when, the people are permeated by Christian principle, contains in itself the preventive of revolutionary excess. How insupportable it can become when this condition is wanting, history tells plainly enough.R.]
4. From the experience through which the Apostle had previously passed, he had been often protected by the sword of the Roman authorities against the mutinies of Jewish fanaticism. Learned people have observed, that he has written these exhortations to Rome although Nero was Emperor there. Other scholars have remarked, on the other hand, that the five good years of Neros reign had not yet come to an end. But it is certain that, in the ordinance of the State for posterity, as well as in the institution of the Church, the Apostle perceives the historical opposition to the germinating antichristianity in the world, according to 2 Thessalonians 2. But he did not regard his liberty of judgment thereby bound (see 2Ti 4:17).
5. To what extent is the State a Divine institution? Elaborate discussions on this question are summed up and deliberated upon by Tholuck, pp. 681689. According to the principles of Romanism, the State is merely a human ordinance (see Tholuck, p. 684; Gieseler, Kirchengesch., ii. 2, pp. 7, 108).The germ of the Divine institution of the State lies in the Divine institution of the family, in the authority of the head of the family in particular, as well as in the substantial relations of humanity. But as the Old Testament gift of the law is the institution of a theocracy, which still embraces in common the twin-offspring of State and Church, so is there contained also in the Old Testament a Divine sanction of the Statea sanction which pledges the future sanctified State to reciprocity with the future Church. And this presages that it is just as destructive to make the State the servant of the Church, as to make the Church the bondwoman of the State.
[The Scylla and Charybdis of European Christianity, as related to the State, are: Romanism, which subordinates the State to the Church, and Erastianism, which subordinates the Church to the State. The American theory is: that both are cordinate, the State protecting the Church in civil rights, the Church sustaining the State by its moral influence. Yet even here it is questioned whether this is the correct theory. It is an experiment, fraught with great blessings indeed, but, as yet, only an experiment. The dangers here are similar: (1) Romanism, which would make its Church the State; in a popular government, as really as in a despotism, and even more fatally, since the genius of the Church must then become that of the Statewhat that is, is obvious. (2) On the other hand, we find the theocratic tendency of Puritanism manifesting itself continually. This would identify Church and State, rather by making the State the Church, pressing upon it the duty of legislating men into morality, and even holiness. Here we must class the politico-religionism, which has become so common during the last ten years.Still, the constant tendency of Christendom to make a practical synthesis of Church and State, is an unconscious prophecy of an era when both shall be united in a christocracy.R.]
6. On the right of the death-penalty with reference to the sword of authority, sec Tholuck, p. 691. We must, of course, distinguish between the right of using the sword and the duty of its use. [Admitting that the Apostle is describing an ideal of civil government, we still find here the right of capital punishment. Of course, just in so far as the actual government has been below this ideal, has this right been abused. Still, the right remains justified by the theory of punishment here advanced, by the necessities of self-preservation on the part of society represented by the punishing power. The right to punish also implies the right to pardon; and the measure of the right (i. e., the conformity to the ideal here presented) will be also the measure of the sense of responsibility, both as to the punishing and pardoning power. The usual objections to capital punishment misapprehend (a.) the nature of punishment in general; (b.) the Divine authority in civil government.R.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Obedience toward the powers that be is every Christians duty. 1. Without difference of possessions; 2. Of position; 3. Of culture; 4. And of confession (Rom 13:1).In how far are there no powers that are not ordained by God? 1. So far as God himself is a God of order, who will therefore have order in civil affairs; 2. So far as God is also a God of love, who designs to do good for us by the powers which He has ordained (Rom 13:1-4).Resistance to the powers that be, regarded as resistance to Gods ordinance (Rom 13:2).To do good is the best protection against all fear of civil authority (Rom 13:3).Praise from the civil magistrates. 1. Who shall obtain it? Every one who does goodthat is, every one who, a. does not submit slavishly; but, b. obeys the laws of the country by voluntary obedience. 2. In what should it consist? a. Not so much in showy medals and ribbons, for which many are so eager, as, b. in the simple recognition of the faithfully discharged duty of the citizen (Rom 13:3).The civil authorities should likewise serve: 1. God; 2. Men (Rom 13:4).The holy judicial office of the magistracy. 1. From whom is it derived? From God, who is a righteous God, and to whom no wicked person is pleasing (Psa 5:4). 2. What belongs to it? The exercise of penal judgment, and, above all, the right of life and death. 3. How should they exercise it? In the ennobling, but also humiliating, consciousness that they are Gods ministers (Rom 13:4).
Luther: Worldly power is for the sake of temporal peace; therefore the conscience is bound, by dutiful love, to be subject to it (Rom 13:5).See how good it is to pay taxes and be obedient; for you thereby help to protect the pious and punish the wicked. Therefore do not be provoked at it (Rom 13:6).
Starke: If persons in authority would attract their subjects to obedience, they should administer their office well, and, to that end, should remember: 1. That they are by nature no better than other men; 2. That they will therefore die, just as all others; 3. That they will have to give a far greater account than their subjects before Gods judgment-bar, because of their official prerogatives and government (Rom 13:1).Lange: When those in authority read and hear that their station is from God, they should examine themselves as to whether they are to their subjects what the head is to the body and its members (Rom 13:1).Hedinger: The powers that be, Gods minister! How much is expressed by this! Therefore there are no masters above God. He will hereafter hold to account, and throw aside, all titles of honor (Rom 13:4).Ye subjects, give freely your possessions and blood, but not your conscience (Rom 13:6).
Gerlach: Though the office be divine, the incumbent may possess it illegally, and abuse it (Rom 13:1).Needs here means not external compulsion, but the inward necessity of being obedient to God (Rom 13:5).
Lisco: The believers holy love is the fulfilment of the law; first of all, in relation to the powers that be (Rom 13:1 ff.).Obedience is a matter of conscience with the Christian; it is an inward and sincere obedience (Rom 13:5).
Heubner: The Christian attitude toward the authorities (Rom 13:1 ff.).The limits of obedience toward the powers that be are defined by conscience, faith, and Gods commandment; Act 5:29 (Rom 13:1).The Christian mode of obedience is free, pure, conscientious, and not from compulsion or fear (Rom 13:5).
Schleiermacher: On the proper relation of the Christian to his ruler. 1. How utterly improper it is for the Christian to be subject merely to avoid punishment; 2. How natural and necessary it is for him to be subject for conscience sake (preached in January, 1809); Rom 13:1-5.
[Henry: Magistrates act as Gods ministers: 1. In the administration of public justice; 2. The determining of quarrels; 3. The protecting of the innocent; 4. The righting of the wronged; 5. The punishing of offenders; 6. And the preserving of national peace and order, that every man may not do right in his own eyes.Waterland: It is the duty of those in authority: 1. To correct those that needlessly and causelessly disturb the public tranquillity; 2. To remove those that libel the established religion, without offering any better, or an equivalent; 3. To curb the insolence and humble the pride of such as fly in the face of authority, and pretend, without commission or qualifications, to instruct, and, under that color, to insult their superiors.Scott: As to the efforts which are anywhere made by those on whom trusts constitutionally devolve, to preserve, increase, or assist the real liberty of mankind, personal, civil, or religious, or to check the career of despotism or oppression over men of any climate, complexion, or religion: let us zealously forward them with our prayers, and by every mean consistent with the peace and good order of the community; and, if we would enjoy the blessing of good government, we should pray earnestly and constantly for our rulers, and all in authority; else we have no just cause to complain of any real or supposed grievances to which we may be subjected by them.Clarke: When a ruler governs according to the constitution of his country, and has his heart and life governed by the laws of God, he is a double blessing to his people; while he is ruling carefully according to the laws, his pious example is a great means of extending and confirming the reign of pure morality among those whom he governs.J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[1]Rom 13:1.[The word , rendered power in the E. V., has, as its German equivalent: Obrigkeit. Dr. Lange expands into: den Obrigkeiten, den ihn berragenden Mchten. The rendering above is partly from Noyes, partly from the revision of Five Ang. Clergymen. Both of these versions substitute throughout, authority for power (E. V., Amer. Bible Union). The change is a happy one, since authority has both an abstract and a personal force, corresponding to that of . Civil authority is, of course, intended.
[2]Rom 13:1.[. A. B. D3. L., some fathers, read ; adopted by Lachmann. D1. E1. F., Origen, ; which is adopted by modern editors (except Tregelles), since it might readily be changed on account of the immediately following, and also because the other reading would be tautological.
[3]Rom 13:1.[The Rec. inserts after , with D3. L., some versions and fathers. It is omitted in . A. B. D1. F., most versions and fathers. Later editors reject it. It would easily be written as an explanation. The Rec., also inserts before , on very insufficient authority.
[4]Rom 13:3.[Instead of , (Rec., D3. L., some fathers, Scholz), the reading: , is supported by . A. B. D1. F., many versions and fathers, Lachmann, Tischendorf, De Wette, Meyer, Philippi, Alford, Tregelles. Stuart and Hodge do not notice the correct reading, which was doubtless altered into that of the Rec., for the sake of supposed grammatical accuracy.
[5]Rom 13:5.[In D. F., and a few minor authorities, is omitted, and the infinitive altered into the imperative . The Vulgate follows the reading . So Luther.
[6]Rom 13:6.[The E. V. has here, Gods ministers, and in Rom 13:4, the minister of God. The expressions are altered in both verses in the version of Five Ang. Clergymen, which I have followed, for this reason, that, in Rom 13:4, the idea of serving on behalf of God is implied in ; while here, that of serving or ministering to God, on behalf of the people ( ) seems to be included also. It were perhaps still better to render , servant, and reserve the word minister for this verse, as Noyes has done. We could not vary the English rendering of and , except by introducing some word like officer, which would have had an awkward sound (Five Ang. Clergymen).R.]
[7][This exhortation was probably occasioned by the turbulent spirit of the Jews in Rome, who had been on this account banished from the city for a time by the Emperor Claudius (A. D. 51). Their messianic expectations assumed a carnal and political character, and were directed chiefly toward the external emancipation from the odious yoke of the heathen Romans. A few years after the date of the Epistle to the Romans, the spirit of revolt burst forth in open war, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem (A. D. 70). The Jewish, and even the Gentile Christians, might readily be led away by this fanaticism, since the gospel proffered liberty, and they might not understand that it was mainly spiritualmoral freedom from the slavery of sin, out of which, by degrees, in the appointed way, a reformation and transformation of civil relations should proceed. Such mistakes have been common; e.g., the Peasants war, the Anabaptist tumults in the time of the Reformation, and many revolutions since the latter part of the last century. The attitude of Christ, His Apostles, and His Church down to the time of Constantine, toward the civil government, is truly sublime. They recognized in it an ordinance of God, despite its degeneracy, yielding to it, in all legitimate affairs, a ready obedience, despite the fact that they were persecuted by it with fire and sword. It should be remembered that this exhortation was addressed to the Romans, when the cruelties and crimes of a Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius were in yet fresh remembrance, and when the monster Nero sat on the imperial thronethe same Nero who, a few years later, wantonly and mercilessly persecuted the Christians, condemning the Apostles Paul and Peter to a martyrs death. It was, however, by just such Christian conduct, in contrast with such cruelty, that Christs Church won the moral victory over the Roman Empire and heathendom. Under the influence of such precepts, the early Church was great in deeds, greater in sufferings, greatest in death, for the honor of Christ and the benefit of generations to come; thus she was enabled to overcome evil with good.P. S.]
[8][Without anticipating the discussion in the Doctrinal Notes, it may be well to remark here, that while this phrase has been used very frequently in the interest of the divine right of kings, such an application is rather an accident than a necessary inference from the Apostles proposition. The theologians of Germany are apt to turn this against the revolutionary tendencies of Europe, &c.; but should the government under which they live in any way become republican, or ultra-democratic, then consistency must lead them to concede to such authorities also the jus divinum. The simple, pellucid meaning of the Apostle is, that civil government is necessary, and of Divine appointment. We infer that anarchy is as godless as it is inhuman; that magistrates are not the servants of the people, nor do they derive their authority from the people, but from God, even though chosen by the people; that republican officials, no less than the hereditary monarchs, can subscribe themselves, by the grace of God. Unless the principle be of universal implication, anarchy will be justified somewhere. This principle, moreover, respects the office, not the character of the magistrate; not the abstract authority, indeed, but the concrete rulers, whatever their character. If it be deemed too sweeping, then its self-imposed limitation has been overlooked. For as the obedience is demanded because of Gods appointment, then it is not demanded in matters contrary to Gods appointment. When the civil power contradicts Gods Word and His voice in our conscience, then it contradicts and subverts its own authority. Herein the superior wisdom of Christian ethics is manifest. Human self-will leads to anarchy, human power to despotism; but obedience to de facto rulers as a Christian duty has led, and must lead, to true civil freedom, since it alone makes the individual truly free, and, by asserting the higher law as the basis of the lower authority, ever elevates the lower authority nearer the Divine Law. For, as Alford observes of the duty here laid down: To obtain, by lawful means, the removal or alteration of an unjust or unreasonable law, is another part of this duty; for all powers among men must be in accord with the highest power, the moral sense. And the elevation of the moral sense of individuals will accomplish more than revolutions, however justifiable and necessary.R.]
[9][The view of Calvin, Philippi, Hodge, Alford, and others, that this verse gives an additional ground for obedience, viz., that magistrates, besides being ordained of God, are appointed for a useful and beneficent purpose, has much to commend it. Dr. Lange seems to be led toward such exclusive references as bear against revolution.R.]
[10][In thus presenting an ideal of civil government (as most commentators suppose), the Apostle gives both the reason for obedience to rightful authority, and makes room for resistance to rulers who utterly and entirely depart from this ideal. Wordsworth, however, takes decided ground against any right of insurrection, and adds: But even suppose a Nero, and a Nero persecuting the Church; yet even then you may have praise therefrom. You may overcome his evil by your good; you may be more than conqueroryou may derive glory from it. For though it is unjust and condemns you, yet God is just and will reward you. He will crown you for acting justly, and for suffering unjustly. Therefore hold fast your justice, and whether the power acquits or condemns you, you will reap praise from it. If you die for the faith from its hand, you will reap glory from its fury. Augustine (Serm. 13:302). Yet even this author admits that the Apostle charitably presumes rulers to be what, being Gods ministers, they ought to be. This is virtually the presentation of an ideal, the non-realization of which implies certain limitations to absolute submission.R.]
[11][Melanchthon thus strongly puts the case: Nulla potentia humana, nulli exercitus magis muriunt imperia, quam hc severissima lex Dei: necesse est obedire propter conscientiam.R.]
[12][The original says Meyer, but gives the very words of Philippi; while Meyer (4th ed., without any indication of change of view) defends the wider reference, among other reasons, because the verb, which includes a moral idea, would be inapplicable to the mere collection of taxes. The great thought, ministers of God, seems to be the controlling one. Stuart, Hodge, and the older commentators, prefer the other reference, which, perhaps, to a certain extent, implies this.R.]
[13][Jowett escapes all the difficulties of this section, by intimating that the Apostles exhortation has a reference only to the Roman Christians in their then circumstances. He thinks many a scriptural precept is abused because not thus limited, and adds, respecting the Apostle: It never occurred to him that the hidden life, which he thought of only as to be absorbed in the glory of the sons of God, was one day to be the governing principle of the civilized world. It is not likely to be so long, if all its professed possessors pare down the scriptural precepts in this fashion.R.]
[14][From the expression, Gods minister to thee for good, the relative excellence of the different forms of government must be determined, since this is the only rule laid down, and an empirical one at best. So long as a popular government best fulfils this Divine purpose, so long will men gladly lay down their lives, that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth (Pres. Lincoln at Gettysburg Cemetery.R.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1911
DUTY TO CIVIL GOVERNORS
Rom 13:1-7. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are Gods ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
THE office of ministers is, to preach the Gospel of Christ. But whilst they preach the doctrines of the Gospel, they must not overlook its duties; nor, in stating its duties, must they pass by those which pertain to us as members of a civil community, any more than those which concern us in any other station or relation of life. On the contrary, St. Paul gave to Titus, and in him to all other ministers, this express injunction: Put them (the professors of Christianity) in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, and to obey magistrates [Note: Tit 3:1.]. In this also St. Paul himself has set us an example; and that too with a fulness and minuteness far beyond what he had resorted to on any other branch of Christian morals. There was perhaps a reason for his doing this in his Epistle to the Romans, rather than in any other of his epistles. Rome was the seat of the imperial government; and there, for a very long period, the Jews had been in bad repute, as a rebellious people. Nor was this without reason: for the Jews had an idea that they ought not to submit to any other governor than one raised up from among their own brethren: and from hence they were frequently led to resist the civil magistrates; especially at those seasons when the revenue was collected [Note: Act 5:37 and Luk 13:1.]. In these sentiments the Christians also were supposed to participate. It was desirable therefore that the Apostle should put them on their guard; because, if they should indeed be found enemies to the government under which they lived, they would furnish the heathen with an unanswerable argument against them, and would, in fact, arm all the civil powers for their destruction. On the other hand, if the Christians at Rome should shew themselves peaceable and obedient subjects, they would conciliate the regard of their governors, and recommend a similar conduct in all other places.
In the passage before us, the Apostle shews us,
I.
In what light civil magistrates should be viewed
By whatever name the ruling powers are designated among men, they are to be regarded as,
1.
Governors for God
[God is the Governor of all the earth: and, as all power is derived from him, so all power is delegated by him; the possessor of it being his representative and vicegerent. Even in heaven he has established different ranks and orders among the angels [Note: Eph 1:21. Jude, ver. 9.]: and on earth also he has seen fit that a similar order should be maintained. Nay, when there were yet but two people upon the earth, he ordained that one should rule the other [Note: Gen 3:16.]. From that time the parents were the natural governors of their children: and, as successive families were formed, the rising generations continued under the same head, as branches from the same root. When these families became a tribe, the original parent was still the head of that tribe. Thus as mankind were multiplied upon the face of the earth, the different nations, too numerous and widely spread to be governed by one man, had their respective governors, some in one way, and some in another. Whatever shape the different governments assumed, monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical, still the power was Gods, in whomsoever it was vested: and, as his representatives, they possessed and exercised a portion of his authority: There is no power, but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God: the pillars of the earth are the Lords; and he hath set the world upon them [Note: 1Sa 2:8.].]
2.
Benefactors from God
[The office of magistrates is to do all in their power for the suppression of iniquity, and for the promotion of universal happiness. It is for these ends alone that power is put into their hands. They are to be a terror to the workers of iniquity, and not to bear the sword in vain: but to all others they are ministers for good, protecting them in the peaceful enjoyment of every earthly blessing. Would we conceive aright of the benefits we derive from our government, let us imagine such a state of things existing amongst us as occasionally existed in the land of Israel, when there was no king in Israel, and every one did what was right in his own eyes [Note: Jdg 17:6; Jdg 21:25.]: what enormities would be committed in every quarter of the land! If for the space of three days only all the functions of government were suspended, and all were left at liberty to perpetrate whatever came into their hearts, we should soon see how much we have been indebted to the legislature for enacting wholesome laws, and to the magistracy for enforcing them. To the government we owe it, that our persons are safe from injury, and our property from the depredation of lawless violence: and whilst we sit, each under his own vine and fig-tree, none making us afraid, we should feel our obligations to those, who, by Gods ordinance, have been, and continue day by day to be, the means and instruments of all our comfort. What Tertullus said in a way of flattery to Felix, we may, with the strictest truth, say respecting our governors, that by them we enjoy great quietness, and by their providence very worthy deeds are done to our whole nation [Note: Act 24:2.].]
From this view of their character, we are prepared to hear,
II.
What regard should be paid to them
The relation of ruler and subject necessarily brings with it corresponding duties. Whilst they are caring and labouring for us, it is our duty,
1.
To honour their persons
[God says, respecting himself, If I be a Father, where is my honour? if I be a master, where is my fear? A portion of the same regard is due to magistrates also, as his representatives and vicegerents upon earth. Hence, in reference to them, it is said in our text, Render unto all their dues; fear, to whom fear is due; and honour to whom honour. To speak harshly or contemptuously of them is highly unbecoming. To despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities, are among the leading features of many who are a scandal to the Christian name [Note: Jude, ver. 8.]. We should consider, that they are necessitated to see with other eyes, and to hear with other ears, than their own: that, for what they do they may have many reasons, which we are not acquainted with: that, if in any thing they err, it may be with the best intentions. In a word, we should form the most favourable judgment of all that they do, and give them credit for their motives, where we cannot altogether approve their actions. If we cannot praise, we should at least abstain from uttering against them any complaints and murmurs, or from speaking of them in disrespectful terms. What shame did Paul take to himself for uttering a reproachful word against his unjust and persecuting judge! he confesses that in so doing he had violated an express command, which says, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people [Note: Act 23:2-5.].
We should guard against an acrimonious sentiment arising in our hearts [Note: Ecc 10:20.]: and even when we are constrained to disapprove their conduct, instead of reviling them, we should cast a veil over their faults, as a duteous child would do over the faults of his parent.]
2.
To submit to their authority
[If a ruler enjoin any thing that is manifestly contrary to an express command of God, or forbid any thing which God has clearly enjoined, we are then to obey God rather than man. The Hebrew Youths did right in refusing to fall down before the golden idol; as did Daniel also in continuing to offer supplications before his God. The commands of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, though the greatest potentates on earth, were of no weight against the paramount authority of God. But where the laws that are enacted by human authority are not contrary to the revealed will of God, they must be obeyed; and that too, whether the authority that enforces them be subordinate or supreme: for thus says the Apostle Peter; Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well: for so is the will of God [Note: 1Pe 2:13-15]. And this allegiance is due from all persons, whatever he their rank, or age, or occupation; Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: and, if any take upon themselves to resist the power, they shall receive to themselves damnation; they shall be condemned before an earthly tribunal for violating the established laws; and they shall be yet further visited with Gods indignation in another world, for having set at nought his ordinances, and opposed themselves to his authority [Note: See 2Pe 2:10; 2Pe 2:13 and Jude, ver. 8, 13.]. We must therefore be subject to the magistrate, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.]
3.
To support his office
[Where power is vested for the public good, there must also expense be, to defray the charges of the dignity attached to it. All the functions of government also must of necessity be attended with expense, which the public of course must support. Hence there must be taxes of different kinds, some stated, as tribute, and some occasional, as custom, upon articles of commerce. These are due to the civil magistrate, and must be paid with cheerfulness and punctuality. There must be no endeavour, no wish, to evade any tax whatever. To defraud the revenue, is to defraud not the government only, but every person that contributes to the support of government; since, if the imposts that are laid on, prove inadequate to the necessities of the state, other taxes must be levied to supply the deficiency; and thus the honest must be burthened to pay what has been withheld by the dishonest. This is thought by many to be a light matter: and persons who are well able to pay their quota to the public purse, are not ashamed to defraud the revenue; yea, they will even boast of it, when they might with as much propriety boast of the most disgraceful actions they could possibly commit. Our blessed Lord, when, strictly speaking, he was not bound to pay a tax that was levied, chose to pay it, and even wrought a miracle in order to pay it; because he would not offend the collectors, who would have been unable to appreciate the grounds whereon he might have claimed an exemption [Note: Mat 17:24-27.]. Thus should we do: we should rather exceed on the side of liberality, than fall short through a want of integrity, or of zeal for the public service. To grudge such payments is most unreasonable and wicked. What would be thought of a man who should employ a watchman to protect his property, and then rob the watchman of his hire? Yet this is what we do, when by any means whatever we defraud the revenue: for rulers and magistrates are ministers of God, attending continually upon this very thing: their time is occupied in the discharge of their high office; and they have a claim upon us for whatever is necessary for the maintenance of their dignity, and the execution of their trust. We must therefore render to all their dues; tribute, to whom tribute is due; and custom, to whom custom; and, if in any respect or degree we withhold it from them, we differ but little from him who plunders their house, or robs them on the highway.]
We conclude with adding such advice as the occasion requires
1.
Be thankful for the constitution under which you live
[It is generally agreed by those who have studied the constitution of Britain, that it is the most perfect of any upon earth. In no other state under heaven is there a greater measure of liberty combined with the same measure of security and strength. The extent of our civil and religious liberties is justly the boast of all who have the happiness to live in our favoured land. How different is our condition from that of the Roman empire in the time of Nero, the time when St. Paul wrote this epistle! How different also we may add from the situation of our own country in the days of Mary, when so many of the excellent of the earth were burnt to death, for worshipping God according to their conscience! In our happy land, the poorest man amongst us is as much protected in his person and property as the richest; nor can the king himself oppress him contrary to law. Let us then be thankful for these mercies; and Jet us rally round the Constitution, to support it against all the devices of the disaffected, and the conspiracies of wicked men [Note: Preached Feb. 9, 1817, on occasion of the assault made upon the Prince Regent, and of the proofs of conspiracies submitted to both the Houses of Parliament a few days before.]. If Christians under such a government as that of Nero were so strictly enjoined to approve themselves loyal and faithful, much more it is our duty to be so under such a government as ours.]
2.
Walk worthy of that better kingdom of which you profess to be subjects
[This improvement of our subject is suggested by our Lord himself; who, on a question being put to him respecting the payment of tribute to the Roman governor, answered, Render unto Csar the things that are Cars, and unto God the things that are Gods [Note: Mat 22:17-21.]. God, as we have before said, is the great Governor of all the earth; and he has established a kingdom, even the kingdom of his dear Son, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. Now, as Christians, you profess to be the subjects of Christ; and you owe an unreserved obedience to all his commands. Under him you enjoy the most perfect liberty and protection, from sin and Satan, death and hell. For every act of fidelity towards him, you shall have an appropriate measure of praise; nor have you the smallest reason to fear his wrath, if you yield a prompt obedience to his commands. The approbation of earthly princes, and the rewards conferred by them, pertain to this life only; but those which our blessed Lord will confer, extend also to the life to come. Be strong, therefore, and very courageous to observe and do all that he commands [Note: Jos 1:7.]. Honour him in your hearts: labour to advance also his interests in the world: account no sacrifice painful that he requires at your hands: but be ready, if need be, to lay down your lives for his sake. Be faithful unto death, and he will give you a crown of life.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
Here are various Directions concerning Christian Graces, And the Chapter concludes with an affecting call of the Apostle from the shortness of Life, to be always clothed with Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. (2) Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: (4) For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (5) Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. (6) For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. (7) Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. (8) Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. (9) For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (10) Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The obedience which the Apostle enforceth to the civil powers, is abundantly heightened in the consideration, that what Paul here recommended to the Church then at Rome, of a peaceable submission to the higher powers, which were heathens; comes home with double argument, considered as to Christian Princes. And, indeed, the motives which the Apostle adopts in recommending those duties, are in themselves unanswerable. All government must be the result of divine ordination. And the Lord’s design in that ordination is gracious. His Church cannot but derive blessedness from it, however it may be administered, agreeably to that comprehensive promise, Rom 8:28 . And, if the Lord enjoined his Church, as he did, when going into captivity, to seek the peace of the city, whither they were carried, and to pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof, they should have peace; how much more under the fostering care of a Christian government, are those duties enforced? Jer 29:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rom 13
Mr. Seebohm, in The Oxford Reformers, tells us that when Dean Colet was expounding this chapter, he used to ‘take down his Suetonius in order to ascertain the state of society at Rome and the special circumstances which made it needful for St. Paul so strongly to urge Roman Christians to be obedient to the higher powers and to pay tribute also’.
Rom 13:1
Meseemeth (if I may speake boldly) that it argueth a great self-love and presumption for a man to esteeme his opinions so far, that for to establish them a man must be faine to subvert a publike peace, and introduce so many inevitable mischiefes, and so horrible a corruption of manners as civill warres and alterations of a state bring with them, in matters of such consequence, and to bring them into his own countrie…. Christian religion hath all the markes of extreme justice and profit, but none more apparent than the exact commendation of obedience due unto magistrate, and manutention of policies: what wonderfull example hath divine wisdom left us, which, to establish the welfare of humane kinde, and to conduct this glorious victorie of here against death and sinne, would not do it but at the mercy of our politik order, and hath submitted the progresse of it, and the conduct of so high and worthie effect, to the blindenesse and injustice of our observations and customes?
Montaigne (Florio).
References. XIII. 1. Bishop Potter, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 24. G. Bellett, Parochial Sermons, p. 283. John Watson, The Inspiration of Our Faith, p. 239. C. J. Ridgeway, The King and His Kingdom, p. 91. XIII. 1-3. H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxix. p. 85; see also The Guardian for 3rd February, 1911. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 106. XIII. 1-7. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ii. pp. 71, 261. XIII. 2. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 41.
Rom 13:4
Paul’s ‘craving for some closer bond with the Gentile world, for some affinity with the keen philosophical intellect of the Greeks, and the stately jurisprudence of Rome, is shown in a hundred passages,’ especially in Act 17 , ‘and not less certainly in that earnest respect for Roman legislation, which made him inculcate on the Roman Church the Divine sanction of all secular government, and speak to them of rulers as ministers of God, not bearing the sword in vain ‘.
R. H. Hutton.
References. XIII. 4. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 81. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 137.
Rom 13:7
In Boswell’s Johnson it is told how the Doctor, when in Wiltshire, ‘attended some experiments that were made by a physician at Salisbury, on the new kinds of air. In the course of the experiments, frequent mention being made of Dr. Priestley, Dr. Johnson knit his brows, and in a stern manner inquired, “Why do we hear so much of Dr. Priestley?” He was very properly answered, “Sir, because we are indebted to him for these important discoveries”. On this Dr. Johnson appeared well content; and replied, “Well, well, I believe we are; and let every man have the honour he has merited”.’
References. XIII. 7. Bishop Alexander, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 401. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. i. p. 125. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 86. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 403.
Our Rights and Duties
Rom 13:7-8
I. Rights and duties spring up first in the family, and in the family the Commandments first treat of them. ‘Honour’ is the child’s duty and the parents’ right. Then from the family the Commandments pass on to lay down our duties and rights in the commonwealth. It is our God-ordained duty to respect the families of others, the lives of others, the reputation of others, the property of others. Thou shalt not kill, or commit adultery, or steal, or bear false witness, or covet; and as members of the commonwealth we obtain the same dues as we pay namely, the right to be shielded from the adulterer, the murderer, the thief or covetous man, and the false witness. In all civilised states these laws of God, set out in the second table of the Mosaic decalogue, have been made part of the law of the land. They stand as the firm basis of our civilisation. And because they are derived directly from the law of God we speak of them as ‘sacred’; each of us, however humble or exalted, claims these sacred rights at our neighbours’hands, the right to life, the right to family honour, the right to preserve our character uninjured, the right to keep our own property.
II. Let us now go on to ask what difference the Christian religion has made to these rights and duties. In the first place, Christianity here, as always, goes beneath the external action to the motive from which it springs, and dares to lay its command upon the human will. ‘A new Commandment I give unto you,’ said Christ, ‘that ye love one another.’ It is your duty to love one another. The duties you have already learned not to steal, or murder, or lie are only particular instances of this one great principle. If you love you will fulfil them all, inevitably and instinctively. ‘He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.’ And then, secondly, Christianity supplies the reason for what would else have to be learned merely as a rule. Why should we love our parents or our neighbour? Because man is the child of God, and God is Love. By loving you are fulfilling the true law of your nature, and acting like your Father. You are made to love. And not only does Christianity give us the reason for this duty of loving, it supplies us also with its true measure. ‘A new Commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye love one another.’ The love we owe to each other is love like Christ’s it cannot be fully paid till we are like Christ, and have the perfect love of God.
III. But the question will present itself, Is it not also true that our rights under Christianity increase, as well as our duties? Is not this universal debt of love owed by others to us as well as by us to others? May I not claim the love I pay? Certainly. And yet you will notice that the New Testament even more than the Old lays its stress upon our duties rather than our rights, and it gives us the reason for so doing that God loves whether He is loved or not; ‘He is kind to the unthankful and evil’. And, therefore, ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive,’ more Godlike to do our duty than claim our right. And being more Divine, is it not also more successful? You think, perhaps, your child or your husband is ungrateful for all your care? You have a right to their affections. Indubitably; but will you extort them by rehearsing your sacrifices? Love on and love ever unselfishly, wisely, prayerfully in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and you will have your reward. For true love begets true love in return.
IV. Let me turn once more from our rights to our duties. In the passage before us the Apostle speaks of our duty to the State of which we are members. He did not consider it the duty of the Christian Church in his day to upset the existing State and frame another on a new model and no one today who prefers a Socialistic State to that under which we at present live has a right to appeal to Christianity in support of his preference. I do not say he has not a right to his preference, but that he must not appeal to Christianity in support of it. The expression ‘Christian Socialism,’ though familiar enough, is as unmeaning as Christian individualism. But whatever our State is, the Apostle bids us render to all its members their dues. If we are under a foreign yoke, he bids us pay tribute; if we are self-governing, he bids us pay the customary taxes ‘Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom’, And St. Paul is following here the express commandment of His Master. We cannot forget how in that last week of His life He finally alienated the people’s goodwill, and changed their ‘Hosannas’ into cries of ‘Crucify!’ by the commandment to give tribute to Csar. Brethren, it is hard to enjoy paying taxes; we much prefer that other people should pay them. But it is not really harder than to pay with a glad heart and ready will the other duties we owe our fellow-citizens. I venture to say that no one can pay his taxes in a Christian spirit whose active duty towards his country is restricted to paying taxes, Our national duties, like our family and social duties, require for their right performance that spirit of love which looks not only to its own satisfaction and profit, but also to those of others; they require that touch of unselfish imagination which enables us to realise our kinship and common interests. Render therefore to all their dues; owe no man anything but the debt of love which, though you always pay it, you can never pay in full; and, in order that you may do this, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its selfish lusts.
H. C. Beeching, The Guardian, 17th February, 1911.
Reference. XIII. 7, 9. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi, p. 46.
Fulfilling the Law
Rom 13:8
The Apostle gives us brotherly love as the solution of all the problems of human life.
I. Christian Principle. In the Christian code ‘Love one another’ is seen to be a fundamental principle. It is no mere precept of morality. Love is the fountain-head of all the virtues. We recall to mind the Master’s words, ‘A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples.’ No duty is plainer than this duty of brotherly love. Love is the spiritual nature of God Himself. Nothing could be simpler in theory. As a matter of abstract morality all this is plain sailing. As St. Paul says in the text, we owe each other one duty only, that of brotherly love. But it is a duty almost without limit: it is coextensive with the whole of humanity, and it is bounded only in duration by the length of our own earthly life.
II. Christian Practice. But here in this matter as in most others theory and practice are widely divergent. They do not run smoothly together. It is easy to learn that our Christian duty is to love our neighbour, but it is extremely difficult at times to do so. We find that individually the general run of our fellow-men have so many faults, so many objectionable features most of which we no doubt possess ourselves, although we are not conscious of the fact that we find it difficult to love them at all in any real sense. That is to say, without considering for one moment the defects of our own character, such as selfishness, which may make it for the time being almost impossible for us to love anything or anybody but ourselves, we find that our neighbour has so many objectionable traits that it is difficult to extend to him any true feeling of brotherly love.
III. The Example of Jesus Christ. From the point of view of the unsightly defects in others, we must turn to the teaching of Jesus Christ for inspiration and spiritual advice. What are His words on this point? He says, Love even your enemies, bless even them that curse you, do good even to them that hate you, and pray even for them that despitefully use you, that you may be children of your Father which is in heaven. Strong words indeed! God, we must remember, hates only the sin and loves the sinner. We must endeavour to draw the same distinction, remembering at the same time the words, ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’. We do not know what another man’s temptations may be, nor how we might fare if we had them to face ourselves. But we do know that all men are tempted to sin, and that few indeed consciously and wilfully sin with deliberate intent. Let us therefore strive to see our fellow-men as God sees them. While hating their sins as we hate our own, let us learn to love them as precious souls, for whom the Lord of glory died.
Rom 13:8
‘His economical maxims,’ says Sir George Trevelyan of Lord Macaulay, ‘were of the simplest: to treat official and literary gains as capital, and to pay all bills within the twenty-four hours. “I think,” he says, “that prompt payment is a moral duty; knowing, as I do, how painful it is to have such things deferred.”‘
‘Such is the charity of the Jesuits,’ said Thomas Fuller, ‘that they never owe any man any ill-will making frequent payment thereof.’
How little we pay our way in life! Although we have our purses continually in our hand, the better part of service goes still unrewarded.
R. L. Stevenson, An Inland Voyage.
‘Duty’ and ‘debt’ are the same word differently written, and both mean that which is ‘owed’. I ought’ is the preterite of ‘I owe’. The French devoir is applied to pecuniary debt and moral duty. In Greek and show the same association of ideas. Now what do we mean by a sense of duty, except a recognition of the claims of others, of neighbours, family, society, or God? In no respect do men differ more than in this sense of duty.
J. Cotter Morison.
Rom 13:8
But though the two who looked down on the scene neither knew it nor thought of it, with them in their little hollow was a power mightier than any, the power that in its highest form does indeed make the world go round; the one power in the world that is above fortune, above death, above the creeds or shall we say, behind them? For with them was love in its highest form, the love that gives and does not ask, and being denied loves. In their clear moments men know that this love is the only real thing in the world; and a thousand times more substantial, more existent than the things we grasp and see.
Stanley Weyman, The Abbess of Vlaye, p. 208, describing Bonne and her crippled brother looking down upon the Peasants’ Camp.
Let our one unceasing care be to better the love we offer to our fellows. One cup of this love that is drawn from the spring on the mountains is worth a hundred taken from the stagnant wells of ordinary charity.
Maeterlinck, in Wisdom and Destiny.
References. XIII. 8. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 36. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 72. XIII. 8-10. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 135.
Rom 13:9
At a time when the Divine Commandment, Thou shalt not steal, wherein truly, if well understood, is comprised the whole Hebrew Decalogue, with Solon’s and Lycurgus’s Constitutions, Justinian’s Pandects, the Code Napoleon, and all codes, Catechisms, Divinities, and Moralities whatsoever, that man has hitherto devised (and enforced with Altar-fire and Gal low-ropes) for his social guidance; at a time, I say, when this Divine Commandment has all but faded away from the general remembrance; and, with little disguise, a new opposite commandment, Thou shalt steal, is everywhere promulgated it perhaps behoved, in this universal dotage and deliration, the sound portion of mankind to bestir themselves and rally.
Sartor Resartus, book ii. x.
References. XIII. 9. Bishop Butler, Human Nature and other Sermons, pp. 116, 139. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 277.
Rom 13:10
Bishop King of Lincoln, in his paper on Clerical Study, has the following passage on the development of natural gifts: ‘I might give you an example of what I mean from the life of Von Moltke, one of the greatest characters, I venture to think, of this century. It was, if I remember rightly, from the oration delivered at his funeral that I got my information. The key to his mind, the preacher said, was an aptitude for topography; he had an eye for the lie of the ground; hills, rivers, woods, whatever was visible, he seemed to take them all in. This led him to practise sketching, and sketching accurately; this to studying surveying; while at Constantinople he made what we should call an ordnance survey of the country all round Constantinople for the Sultan; while at Rome, in attendance on one of the German Princes, he surveyed all the Campagna, and made maps and plans. This led him to notice any peculiar objects, an old tower or bridge, then he wanted to know who built it, where the people came from. This led him to read history and to consider the relation and connection of nations. This led him to study the languages of the different nations, of which he knew five, including Russian. Hence, when the French and German War broke out, Von Moltke knew the lie of the country, its resources, its history, the character of the people. And 1 cannot help reminding you how with all this accumulation of knowledge he preserved his magnificent simplicity and self-effacement, and tenderness of heart. On the wall of the little chapel, which he built in his grounds at Kreisau, over against his own coffin and the coffin of his dear wife, is a beautiful crucifix, and above it is the text, “Love is the fulfilling of the law”. On the blank leaf at the end of his wife’s German copy of the New Testament, which Von Moltke always kept on his dressing-table since his wife’s death, he wrote his six favourite texts; the first and the sixth are the same, “My strength is made perfect in weakness!” Such was the inner tenderness of this outwardly iron man!’
The Love and Wisdom of God, pp. 341, 342.
References. XIII. 10. R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons, pp. 108, 122. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 250.
Knowing the Time
Rom 13:11
The Greek word here for knowing implies that it is not the knowing of intuition; it is the knowing of instruction. Knowing the time comes by the Word of God, as we read it in the Bible The one purpose for which this Bible is with us is just this, that we may see how seasons succeed seasons, until the final consummation, and so you will find, all through the Scriptures, references to the time. Learn this lesson, then, first of all.
I. The Time is kept in Heaven. God is watching. Things are not happening by chance. Everything is ordered, everything is prompt, and punctual, and exact. God’s watch keeps strict time Time seems to go very slowly; it seems as though God’s clock went very slowly. In the days before the first Advent, when religion was at its very ebb, and Roman cohorts were stationed on the very threshold of the Temple area, and faint-hearted people of God began to fear that God had forsaken His people and forgotten His promises, even then there were a few who knew the time. There were Simeon and Anna looking for the consolation of Israel, the redemption of Israel, the kingdom of God, and, though the clock seemed to go very slowly, when the hour struck, when the time was fulfilled, God sent forth His Son. That was the first Advent And perhaps the time seemed to go very quickly during the days of Israel’s visitation. Keep your eye on the clock of heaven, as far as it is revealed to us, and know the time as God reckons it. So we are told the time.
II. The Night is far Past, the Day is at Hand. That is the time. Did you ever realise what a daring statement this was? It seems completely in contradiction to the Apostle’s own teaching on other occasions, and the teaching of our blessed Lord. Compared with the old Jewish Covenant this is day and that was night, but a yet more glorious day is coming. If you think of that glorious day when we shall see His wonderful face, in comparison to the brightness of that day, this is only night. The day is coming. We see the day approaching. The streaks of dawn are in the sky. The absolutely new awakening of national life amongst the Jews, the marvellous swelling of missionary enterprise, the casting aside of denominational bonds, the longing to gather together in one all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, these are some of the rosy streaks of dawn. But there are heavy black shadows still on the horizon, reminding us that the night is not yet past. God has His eye upon the clock. When the fulness of time is reached and the hour strikes, we shall see that the delay, however trying, has not been wanton or unnecessary; we shall find the fulfilment is punctual and exact. And so I ask you to learn to know the time. The Lord has left this earth, He is coming again, He is very near, the day is approaching.
III. What is the Time?
a. For Satan and the host of darkness, it is the time of license.
b. For the Gentile nations it is a time of ascendency.
c. For the Church it is a time of testing.
d. For the world at large it is the accepted time.
Rom 13:11
By ‘sleep,’ in this passage, St. Paul means a state of insensibility to things as they really are in God’s sight. When we are asleep, we are absent from this world’s action, as if we were no longer concerned in it It goes on without us, or, if our rest be broken and we have some slight notion of people and occurrences about us, if we hear a voice or a sentence, and see a face, yet we are unable to catch these external objects justly and truly; we make them part of our dreams, and pervert them till they have scarce a resemblance to what they really are; and such is the state of man as regards religious truth.
J. H. Newman.
Rom 13:11
See Keble’s Christian Year, on ‘The First Sunday in Advent’.
References. XIII. 11. A. T. Pierson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 328. R. W. Dale, The Epistle of James, p. 302. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 857, and vol. xxiv. No. 1445. J. C. Lees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 27. Penny Pulpit, No. 1642, p. 177. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 208. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 1. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v. p. 15. Bishop Creighton, University and other Sermons, p. 62. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 221. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 101. XIII. 11, 12. W. C. E. Newbolt, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p. 948. XIII. 11-14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1614.
The Second Advent (For Advent Sunday)
Rom 13:11-14
The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is set before us in these words. Observe, first, the practical character of the doctrine. It is sometimes said ‘Of what practical use is this doctrine?’ It is here, as everywhere, set before us as one of the most practical doctrines of God’s Word: ‘knowing the time’; ‘the day is at hand’; ‘therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, let us put on the armour of light; let us walk honestly as in the day’. Again, not only is it practical, but it is here put before us as a motive for holiness of life. If you knew the Lord would appear next week how would you spend the intermediate time? How holy, how prayerful, how watchful would you be! This is the view in which the Apostle sets this doctrine before us in these words. Again, it is clearly implied that we should inquire into and know the character of the days in which we live, and their bearing on the future: ‘knowing the time’; ‘for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed’.
I. What is the Night. The present time is called night, and for three principal reasons:
(a) We see so little now ‘through a glass darkly’; there is mystery in everything. All our knowledge is a groping after light. All our helps in this direction are but dim tapers.
(b) All wickedness is done in the darkness. For this reason men ‘love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil’. Because we have not light to discover men’s evil deeds and motives, we wait for ‘the day’ to declare them.
(c) The influence of ‘this present world’ on the spiritual nature of man is to make him sleep, to distract his thoughts and affections from eternal things, and to fix them on what is unreal or transitory. The relation the present time bears to the future is the same as that of the night to the day. All wickedness, all uncertainty, all drowsiness, respecting Divine things, will end in the holiness, and clearness, and devotedness that will then characterise that time.
II. The Approach of the Day. The expression of the Apostle would also seem to show the nearness of the event ‘it is high time to awake out of sleep’. The streaks of morning already skirt the dark horizon. Its language is that of a man already awake calling out to his fellow-man who is lying asleep next to him: ‘Up, the morning sun is beginning to dawn!’ What is the ‘salvation’? There are two spoken of in Scripture continually. Salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by which a sinner is saved, is not the meaning here. This a true believer has already. But this passage speaks of a salvation coming, ‘Now is our salvation nearer’. This is salvation from the presence of sin, as the other is salvation from the guilt and condemnation of sin.
The Armour of Light
Rom 13:12
The whole verse is suggestive of and intended as an incentive to transparency and sunny openness and candour. ‘Let us walk honestly as in the day’ facing the sunshine and fearing nothing 1 And accordingly the idea of the text would appear to be that in this same qualification or grace we shall find our best defence against many things. Perfect truthfulness, the Apostle seems to say, is the grand protection for the soul. On such armour, impalpable as it seems, what is hurtful strikes in vain.
I. In trying to illustrate this, let us begin at the centre of our life and work outwards. I believe then that it is a comparatively rare thing to find a man perfectly honest and true with himself. Anyone who wishes may find abundant examples of this in the ordinary life around him. How often, for instance, men contrive to misjudge themselves as to the work they should attempt and the place they should aspire to in the world. But it is even more important that we should notice how the tendency I am speaking of is too deep-seated in human nature to be confined to the ordinary life of men. It goes on with them into the life of faith as well too often to blight and mar everything there. By far the saddest instance is seen where men refuse altogether to be true to the light that is in them.
II. Turn now to our relations with other men. Here, too, of course a Christian is called to be true: and if he is so he may expect to find himself protected against various ills not otherwise to be avoided. This is one of the most obvious of duties, not to say Christian duties; and as for the man who can easily and wilfully lie, I suppose we all feel that he must be capable of anything. Short of such deliberate untruth, however, who does not know how marvellously easy it is to be untrue? Do you not often, for instance, find it very difficult to convey by words exactly what you intend? And sometimes, too, your very silence may be misconstrued. Add to this that there are natures which have the misfortune to be constitutionally unveracious. In the midst of all this, now, how the genuine Christian character should gleam out upon men clothed in the armour of light!
III. And this leads us, finally, to think of the highest of all our relations, that, namely, with God. Here also the armour of light is our sole defence against any ill and all the ill that otherwise might overtake us. Is it not clear that some sort of defence is necessary for any one who will venture into the presence of the Eternal Purity? The Father He is, but also He is a ‘consuming fire’. How shall sinful men like you and me ‘dwell with these everlasting burnings? By wearing always ‘the armour of light’ not otherwise.
A. Martin, Winning the Soul, p. 149.
Rom 13:12
‘In order that passion may do us no harm,’ says Pascal, ‘we should act as though we had but a week to live.’
Reference. XIII. 12. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher’s Year, p. 1. T. F. Crosse, Sermons, p. 21. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 114. F. de W. Lushington, Sermons to Young Boys, p. 1. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 249. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Notes of Sermons for the Year, pt. i. p. 1. XIII. 12-14. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 149.
Rom 13:13
In the tenth chapter of Eothen, Kinglake describes a visit he paid to the Franciscan Convent at Damascus. ‘Very soon after my arrival I asked one of the monks to let me know something of the spots that deserved to be seen. I made my inquiry in reference to the associations with which the city had been hallowed by the sojourn and adventures of St. Paul. “There is nothing in all Damascus,” said the aged man, “half so well worth seeing as our cellars;” and forthwith he invited me to go, see, and admire the long range of liquid treasure that he and his brethren had laid up for themselves on earth. And these, I soon found, were not as the treasures of the miser that lie in unprofitable disuse; for day by day and hour by hour, the golden juice ascended from the dark recesses of the cellar to the uppermost brains of the friars.’
Rom 13:13
Dr. Arnold of Rugby, says Dr. Stanley, used to point out to his boys the distinction ‘between mere amusement and such as encroached on the next day’s duties, when, as he said, it immediately becomes what St. Paul calls revelling’.
This was the passage which led to Augustine’s conversion. In chapter 12 of the eighth book of his Confessions he describes himself as seated under a fig-tree in the garden, miserable and tearful, when the voice of a boy or girl was heard crying, ‘Take and read, take and read!’ Augustine interpreted this as ‘a divine command to open the book’ of Paul’s Epistles which he had laid down not far away, ‘and to read the first chapter I could find. I seized the book, opened it, and read in silence the first passage on which my eyes lighted. It was: Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. No further would I read, nor was ought else needed. At once, as it were, at the end of the sentence, my heart was flooded with the light of peace, and all the shades of doubt removed. Then, putting my finger in the place or some other mark, I shut the book and told Alypius quietly what had occurred. Whereupon he informed me of what had happened to himself, of which I was ignorant; and he did so as follows. Asking to see what I had read, he went past my passage which I showed him, to the following words: Him that is weak in faith, receive ye. This he applied to himself, and told me all.’
Putting on Christ
Rom 13:14
Dress and character being closely connected, it was inevitable that men should use the one metaphorically of the other, and speak of God being clothed with majesty,’ or of clothing themselves with humility. When so used no one has any difficulty in apprehending what is meant. In the Early Church, when a heathen professed faith in Christ and desired baptism he laid aside his ordinary clothing to signify his ‘putting off the old man,’ and, having passed through the cleansing water of baptism, he assumed a white garment to symbolise his putting on the new man. His former friends, who had been accustomed to recognise him by his dress, might now have passed him by and taken him for a stranger; and so were they to be at a loss to recognise in this man, clothed with meekness and temperance, their former acquaintance who had been wont to wear a haughty look, and had ‘suited’ himself in intemperate habits. The obvious meaning, therefore, of the words, ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,’ is, Assume the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. The putting on the new man is the counterpart of the putting off the old man, and what that is Paul explains when he says, ‘that ye put off concerning the former conversation that is, concerning your former way of life the old man, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.’ Our old ways and character are to be laid aside, and therefore to put on the new man is to assume a new character and new ways. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is to make our own His character.
But is such a thing possible? Can a man alter the character with which he is born? Are we not as helpless as the clay in the hands of the potter; and the shape given us at our birth, must we not retain throughout life? Certainly there is much that seems to argue the impossibility of altering our nature; enough, at all events, to make it worth our while to look closely into the matter, lest we spend a vast amount of hope and effort on what is really unattainable.
I. And first of all it will at once be recognised that there is in every human being something that does not change. What we call the man’s individuality abides unalterably his from first to last.
One man’s natural qualities may be much higher and stronger than another man’s, and religion does not bring these two men to an equality. The one remains of inferior quality, the other of superior, but each uses his nature for the best purposes. The one is clay, the other gold; and the material cannot be changed, although the form into which it is thrown may, and the use to which it is put. The clay may be fashioned into as exquisite a form, and it may be as serviceable in its own place, but clay it remains.
We know that bad men are changed. New motives and new aims present themselves to men; their whole character is altered by coming into contact with persons who influence them powerfully; they seem to derive a strength from these persons which was not theirs before, and they become to all intents and purposes new men. That men do thus change is matter of everyday observation, and they change by some new persons or ideas entering their life. And there is no influence of this kind comparable to that which Christ exerts upon us.
II. If, then, it is possible to assume a character different from our present or original character, how can we do so? How can we put on the Lord Jesus Christ? For experience tells us that mere imitation of Christ does not come to much. It must be an imitation rooted in conviction and prompted by love and hope.
The grand peculiarity of Christ is that He demands our personal allegiance. He does not throw out doctrine and let who will receive it; He does not utter His views of things and leave them to work in men’s minds. He forms a society, He calls men to Himself, and invites their trust, their love, their service. And experience tells us that until we give Him this, we give Him too little; too little for our purposes as well as for His.
We all need to put on Christ: our own character is not sufficient; the character of Christ is sufficient Going into the world with our natural character uncorrected, we are unjust to God, to our fellows, and to ourselves. For a better thing is possible to us. What doth it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And how do you lose your own soul? by making no effort to cleanse it. You lose your life by spending it on ends which prevent you from attaining the highest end. Other things you can afford to neglect: but be sure you are really gaining in likeness to Christ. That is the real prize of life. You do not know how much you miss by neglecting to cultivate some one grace; you do not know what new views of life you would have, what new strength for doing good, what new attachment to Christ, if only you set yourself resolutely to conform in every particular to the character of Christ Not without self-control and self-knowledge, not without pain, not without striving and sacrifice, can we make that character our own; but that character satisfies all the requirements of God and human life, and to be without it is to miss the chief end of our being.
Marcus Dods, Christ and Man, p. 74.
References. XIII. 14. T. Binney, King’s Weigh-Home Chapel Sermons (2nd Series), p. 166. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvi. No. 2132. H. Bushnell, Christ and his Salvation, p. 371. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 199. XIV. 4. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 137.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Ideal Society
Rom 13
This is rough reading for the nineteenth century. It was not written in this century, or under the circumstances which constitute the aspect and responsibility of this age. It may be none the less applicable. It is the glory of the Bible that it contains principles which know nothing about time or space as constituting limit. On the other hand, we must read the Bible in the light of current necessity, established history, enlightened reason, and sensitive and active conscience. What application these words had to the people to whom they were written would be evident to themselves. It is perfectly certain that this passage is not to be taken literally and absolutely, but spiritually, and according to the religious conscience and understanding of men.
“Let every soul” ( Rom 13:1 ). That is a Hebraism. “Let every person” would amply express the apostolic idea. The Hebrew is fond of the word “soul.” When men go in companies they say there were so many hundred souls; when the census was taken in the olden time the return was given in souls. Yet we must not reduce this wholly to a letter. A religious meaning may be hidden even in this word “soul.” Yet let us not overstrain the emphasis. The word “soul” ought, indeed, to be its own emphasis, touching as it does all that is highest and noblest in the constitution of human nature. Yet the appeal is to the soul, and the soul must not be treated as dead, irresponsible, irrational, and as having no voice in the matter. It is the peculiarity of the soul, as we understand that term, that it can ask questions, reason, compare, conduct retrospective inquiry, and look at all things in a large, moral, and philosophic light. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” This is ideal. This is not actual, but this is what ought to be. In properly constituted society there will be sovereignty; not always personal sovereignty; sometimes the sovereignty may be democratic, that is to say, it may represent the reason, the conscience, and the will of the whole people. The whole people constitute themselves into a sovereignty, and they must obey themselves as so constituted. There is a point at which we lose our individuality; we become merged into the larger life, the commonwealth, and it is at that point of merging that we must be morally alert and sensitive. There are some who like to give their individuality away, because they know they are making a small donation to the common good. There are those whose individuality has made society possible under God. There are men amongst us who ought to be very careful how they seek to reduce even the aggressiveness of some sorts of individuals. There is an indifference that would be only too glad to keep its head upon its downy pillow, and to murmur there under the warm and comforting clothing This belongs to everybody; let them do it: I do not care to obtrude my individuality upon the commonwealth. Such slumberers never made history. They have made history difficult; they have enfeebled many an effort made by the spirit of progress. That there is an individualism too aggressive, too self-assertive, may be granted, but we owe much to the individualism which has insisted upon the right of private judgment, the right of conscience, the liberty of the soul; and we owe much to that individuality which has said, even to the State, We only obey you as we see God in you.
The Apostle is careful in all this reasoning to introduce the word “God” at four points. If the argument is a geometric structure, then at every corner there is God. You must not debase God by putting up a drunken magistrate, and calling him the vice-regent of heaven. Because God is in the text all the powers will fall into right relation and perspective. This is a committee of the whole nation, with God at the head of it; as is the head, so must be the members: we must not have a head of light and a body of darkness, a head of spiritual loveliness and a body corrupt and given over to work all uncleanness with eagerness. The Apostle is conducting an argument in which he can familiarly use the word God. Some terms clear a space for themselves, define the application of the whole of the remainder of the argument. This is emphatically a case of this sort. The rulers ought to be appointed by the people. When the Lord has sent a man to lord it over the people, he has sent him to punish, not to bless the nation. The people had no business to ask for a king, and thus to heathenise themselves, in the olden time; but the Lord said, “Yes” to their ignorant and selfish prayer. The Lord granted the petition of their vanity. Sometimes the Lord grants us our request, and sends leanness into our hearts. We have no king but Christ, we have no sovereign but God. We have no hierarchy but the High Priest himself who is entitled to his hierarchic glory because of his human suffering: he has won the throne by the Cross: honour and majesty and dominion and power be unto him who sitteth upon the throne; for a throne sits upon the Cross. If the powers that be are ordained ideally by God, people should be very careful how they constitute those powers. Never let us believe that anybody will do for prime minister or judge or magistrate or leader or president. He who is at the head should be at the head in every sense intellectually, religiously, sympathetically should entitle himself to be at the head, not by some vote which means success of partisanship, but by the right eternal of superior mind and superior character. That is the tendency of all society under Christian inspiration. That tendency cannot realise its issue all at once. History requires plenty of elbow-room. We must not be impatient with venerable, solemn, slow-going history. History rubs nothing out. They who want to write fluently and dashingly may have a good deal of obliteration and interlineation to do, but grim, solemn, majestic, wrinkled history never erases, but keeps on the record, and says, To the record must be your appeal. Yet there is a spirit in society and civilisation, called tendency. The tendency may be upward and may require almost mathematical investigation to detect its inclination; sometimes the tendency may be downward, and so minutely and microscopically downward, that there may be contention as to its trend: but the Lord is seeing to it that the tendency of things is towards the consolidation, the purity, and the consequent sovereignty of manhood. Jesus Christ was the Son of man: every woman was his mother; every man his brother. If the Jew was ever on him it was but for a moment, it fell off, and he stood up, in the garment that vindicated the election of God, to be the true and eternal Adam of the new race. The time must not be forced. It is written in the books that the day shall dawn when we shall have no king but Christ, when every man will be king over himself because he has been crucified with Christ; when there will be no need to cry Order, for the spirit of order will be in the human mind and the human heart, and every man will anticipate every other man in actions of peacefulness, harmony, and practical music. We should insult some magistrates if we told them they were appointed of God. They would know that we were not serious. We know how they were appointed, but for want of frankness we allow them to sit out their little twelvemonth and quietly vanish among the shadows. It would distress our reason, not to say our conscience, to recognise in some men true kings, true judges, and true leaders of the world. Sometimes we are driven to think that there must be some little mischievous grinning sprite that throws out offices and dignities, never imagining that certain men will have the ineffable impudence to take them up. Yet there is before us the ideal picture of divinely-constituted and divinely-ruled society.
When there is a bad law, what have we to do? We have first to try to amend it; secondly, we have to try to amend it; thirdly, we have to try to amend it; and fourthly, failing, we have to break it. But if the great men of the Church say it is the law, what have we then to do? To break it. Not at first, not wantonly, not violently, not foolishly. No great purpose is ever served by mere wantonness and defiance, but there comes a time when men must go to prison rather than obey certain laws; and if certain men had not gone to prison certain other men never could have gone to church. It is a misconception of history which leads us to think that our privileges have come to us by chance. If we have any liberties, other men secured them for us. We dishonour the dead if we do not live in the spirit of their heroism. We may not be able to exemplify it under the same conditions or on the same scale: but a man can be a hero if he wants to be one in the conquest of his temper, in the sovereignty of his passions, in the conquest of himself in matters of taste, so that he shall go in many directions which would have ruffled him so long as he was of the earth earthy, and of the flesh fleshly. Every man has opportunity to show that he has in him at least the making of a hero, and Christ so judges mankind, that if he sees anybody who would have been a hero if he could, he will give him a hero’s heaven. There are some so dainty that they will not break a law. The only law that is not to be broken is the eternal law. Laws of human kind, laws as constituted by Plato, and as suggested by the founders of society, were temporary, relative, excellent for the time, or the only possible thing that could have been done at the time; all such laws must “widen with the process of the suns”; such laws were made for man; man was not made for such laws. If there is any law that hinders Christian brotherhood, amend it; failing to amend it, trample it under foot: but if that should involve loss of living, blessed be. God for such poverty, it is the true wealth.
What remains, then, as the perpetual law? That is stated: “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another.” The meaning is, Though you have rendered tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, honour to whom honour, there is something over and above that fills up all the interstices; and that surplus divinest something is love. You could not shut up the action of love in Rom 13:7 . That verse is arithmetical, statistical; it is a kind of pence-table of the time. “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.” A pagan could have written that programme; it required a Christian to write this supplement Owe no man any thing but love. And love is a debt you can never discharge. When you have paid it you have only acknowledged it; when you have strained yourself to love some other human creature you have only begun to realise the meaning of the Divine sovereignty. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” his love, not a little surface rain that sprinkled the leaves and stems of things, but a plentiful baptism of the heart that went down to springs and roots, filling and reviving and blessing all. Nor must this be regarded as mere sentiment. Mere sentiment is never found in the Gospel of Christ. A religion founded on a Cross soon puts an end to all mere sentiment. It is the Cross that determines the quality of all that follows. If any man bring his little offering of sentiment the Lord will say to him, One thing thou lackest Crucifixion.
See how wide is the application of this great principle of owing every man love. It means that the strong owe their strength to the weak. When a man is very strong he by his very strength says to all weak people: Draw upon me: so long as I have a pulse left no man shall hurt you without at least protest from me. If any man have the gift of speech, he owes it to the dumb. Make the dumb understand that when eloquence is needed they can call upon you; you will open your mouth for the dumb, and plead the cause of those who have no words. If any man have wealth, he holds it as a trustee for the needy and honourable poor. If any man has influence, he says to those who are honestly seeking to live in the world an honourable life, What influence I have belongs to you: call upon me: I owe you this, not as a patronage, but as a duty: I hold it for another. When the Christian realises that spirit and assumes that attitude we shall know the meaning of apostolic usages, especially the usage which is described as having all things common, not in some little narrow arithmetical and changeable sense, in which life shall become a scramble and strength shall be only wanton might, but in the sense of brotherhood, sympathy, rejoicing with those who do rejoice, and weeping with those who weep, and carrying half the burden of the man who is overloaded. “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” That application is so wide that it can scarcely be described in words. The Apostle clusters the commandments “Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment [if there be any other mechanical stipulation, any other requirement of decency and good behaviour], it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” ( Rom 13:9 ). Some men cannot attack the commandments one by one. Other men can do nothing else; they are great at commandment-keeping. One young man said, “All these” throwing a sort of frivolous emphasis into the word “these” “have I kept from my youth up”: I am a respectable young man. The Master said, Thou hast not begun to keep any one of them yet. Other men come into the sanctuary through great emotional experiences; they are, so to say, borne in upon a flood of noblest feeling, holiest sense of obligation and brotherhood, and they begin to keep the Commandments from the other end. The action need not be reversed or interrupted or criticised in a hostile spirit. Every man must work according to his own gift, and according to his own faculty and temperament, and opportunity: the one thing to be attended to is this, that every effort must end in holiness.
The Apostle was great when he touched the subject of love. He outran John, and John was no slow runner in this garden of love. But when you get a great intellect really fired nothing can love like it. It begins argumentatively and massively, and reasons and analyses and combines and protests; but let it go on; the more it prays the nearer it is coming to the burning point: another vision of Christ, and that great, stupendous intellect shall become a fountain of tears, and Paul shall write the anthem of Christian love. John shall talk about it on his level, in a sweet, tuneful, flowery way, but when the Apostle, the sovereign Apostle, comes to take it up, his anthem will silence for the time all other music.
Paul could not conclude this chapter without a grand religious exhortation, and that religious exhortation explains all he has been talking about:
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” (Rom 13:11 , Rom 13:12 .)
Let there be no chaffering about magistracies, let there be no debate and controversy about mere matters of detail: this is not the time, the Apostle would have said, to be rearranging judicial benches and magisterial appointments, and inquiring into mere matters of adjustment and detail: Brethren, he would say, why talk upon these subjects? The day is at hand, already the silver light is on the eastern hills; an hour more and the King will be here. This was the apostolic music always. They all expected the Lord coming instantaneously as it were. There are annotators upon the Scriptures who want to make out a contrary view, and I cannot follow them; and I make no attempt to represent them, but to represent my own thought. It seems to me that the Apostles expected the Lord every moment, he will be here presently, so let all little subjects alone, “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying” ( Rom 13:13 ), but let us get our clothes on, the robe of beauty, for the Lord has already taken the first step out of heaven, and he will be here before you get your garments on if you do not make haste. “But put ye on the Lord Jesus”: garb yourselves in the raiment of heaven, for Christ will be here presently to claim us and to announce the festival. The Apostles were, in detail, wrong; they were, in principle, right.
There are persons who are now expecting the Lord coming in a kind of handbill way, so they are announcing “The Second Coming of the Lord: Lecture in The Back Street at eight o’clock, by ” I forget whom. Ah me! that is not the Lord’s way. O fools, and slow of heart! he has come, he is coming, he is always coming. I saw him this morning; I spoke to him not a minute ago; he is with us now. Such is the mystery of the kingdom of God. It cometh not by observation; it is not a great caravan shaped in clouds, that some clever man will first see, and announce to other clever men, that they may get ready while all the sinners are scourged down to hell. That is not our Christ. The dear Lord came when the sun rose this morning. Nay, he was here, or the sun would not have risen; he never went away during all the cold and fog of the night; he glittered in every star, he looked down upon us from every height; he laid his fingers upon our eyelids and gave his beloved sleep. In every noble impulse, in every yearning after immortality, in every pang of soul-hunger that calls for the bread of life, he came, and is coming: we have but to say to him, Lord, abide with us I to find him house-room, find him a guest-chamber in the heart. They who take this view never can be inactive, never can be worldly, selfish, paltering in their policy; because they know that they are entertaining a Guest whose presence makes every chamber in the heart-house a sanctuary. Even so, Lord Jesus come quickly!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XX
THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION BY GRACE APPLIED TO PRACTICAL LIFE
Rom 12:1-16:27
The prevalent characteristic of all Paul’s teachings concerning the gospel is the unfailing observance of the order and relation of doctrine and morals. He never “puts the cart before the horse,” and never drives the horse without the cart attached and following after. He was neither able to conceive of morals not based on antecedent doctrine, nor to conceive of doctrine not fruiting in holy living. He rigidly adhered to the Christ-idea, “First make the tree good, and then the fruit will be good.” His clear mind never confounded cause and effect. To his logical and philosophical mind it was a reversal of all natural and spiritual law to expect good trees as a result of good fruit, but rather good fruit evidencing a good tree. So he conceived of justification through faith, and regeneration through the Spirit as obligating to holy living. If he fired up his doctrinal engine it was not to exhaust its steam in whistling, but in sawing logs, or grinding grist, or drawing trains.
The modern cry, “Give us morals and away with dogma,” would have been to him a philosophical absurdity, just as the antinomian cry, “faith makes void the law let us sin the more that grace may abound,” was abhorrent and blasphemous to him.
A justification of a sinner through grace that delivered from the guilt of sin was unthinkable to him if unaccompanied by a regeneration that delivered from the love of sin, and a sanctification that delivered from the dominion of sin.
He expected no good works from the dead, but insisted that those made alive were created unto good works. His philosophy of salvation, in the order and relation of doctrine and morals, is expressed thus in his letter to Titus: “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.” “But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and his love toward man appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men” (Tit 2:11-15 ; Tit 3:4-8 ).
So in every letter there is first the doctrinal foundation, and then the application to morals. But as in this letter we have the most complete and systematic statement of the doctrines of grace as a foundation (Romans 9-11) so in this, the following section (Romans 12-15), we have the moat elaborate superstructure of morals.
The analysis and order of thought in this great section are
1. Salvation by grace through faith obligates the observance of all duties toward God the Father on account of what he does for us in the gift of his Son, in election, predestination, justification, and adoption (Rom 12:1 ).
2. It obligates the observance of all duties toward God the Holy Spirit for what he does in us in regeneration and sanctification (Rom 12:2 ).
3. It obligates the observance of all duties toward the church, with its diversity of gifts in unity of body (Rom 12:3-13 ).
4. It obligates the observance of all duties toward the individual neighbor in the outside world (Rom 12:14-21 ).
5. It obligates the observance of all duties to the neighbors, organized as society or state (Rom 13:1-13 ).
6. It obligates the observance of all duties arising from the Christian’s individual relation to Christ the Saviour (Rom 13:14 ; Rom 14:7-12 ).
7. It obligates the observance of all duties toward the individual brother in Christ (Rom 14:1-15:7 ).
8. The last obligation holds regardless of the race distinctions, Jew and Gentile (Rom 15:8-24 ), and includes the welcome of the apostle to the Gentiles, prayer for the welcome and success of his service toward the Jewish Christians in their need (Rom 15:25-29 ) and prayer for his deliverance from unbelieving Jews (Rom 15:30-33 ).
As to the sum of these obligations
1. They cover the whole scope of morals, whether in the decalogue, as given to the Jews, or the enlarged Christian code arising from grace.
2. They conform to relative proportions, making first and paramount morals toward God, whether Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, not counting morals at all which leave out God in either his unity of nature, or trinity of persons, and making that second, subordinate and correlative which is morals toward men.
The duty toward God the Father, in view of what he has done for us in grace and mercy, is to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1 ) and respect his prerogative (Rom 12:19 ) which is illustrated by Paul elsewhere. He says, “I die daily,” meaning that though alive his members were on the rack of death all the time. He says, “I mortify my members,” and, “I keep my body under,” i.e., he kept his redeemed soul on top, dominating his body. He made his body as “Prometheus bound” on the cold rock of Caucasus, vultures devouring his vitals every day as they were renewed every night, a living death.
Our duty toward God, the Holy Spirit, in view of what he graciously does in us is found in Rom 12:2 : Negatively Let not the regenerate soul be conformed with the spirit and course of this evil world, whether in the lust of the eye or pride of life. Positively Be transformed in continual sanctification in the renewing of the mind. That is, working out the salvation which the Spirit works in us, as he, having commenced a good work in us (regeneration) continues it (through sanctification) until the day of Jesus Christ. Or, as this apostle says elsewhere, Christ, having been formed in us the hope of glory, we are changed into that image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The duties toward the church are found in Rom 12:3-13 :
1. Not to think more highly of one’s self in view of -the other members of the church. Here are a lot of people in one church; now let not one member put himself too high in view of the other members of that church.
2. To think only according to the proportion of faith given to him for the performance of some duty. If I am going to put an estimate upon myself in the relation to my church members, a standard or estimate should be, What is the proportion of faith given to me? Say A has so much, C has so much, D has so much, and E has least of all; then E ought not to think himself the biggest of all. The standard of judgment is the proportion of faith given to each member.
3. He must respect the unity of the church as a body. In that illustration used the church is compared to a body having many members. The hand must not say, “I am everything,” and the eye of the body must not say, “I am everything,” nor the ear, “I am everything,” nor the foot, “I am everything.” In estimating we have to estimate the function of each part, the proportion of power given to that part and it is always not as a sole thing, but in its relation to every other part that is a duty that a church member must perform. Sometimes a man easily forgets that he is just one of many in the organism.
4. He must respect its diversity of gifts. That is one part of it that I comply with. If there is anything that rejoices my heart, it is the diversity of gifts that God puts in the church. I never saw a Christian in my life that could not do some things better than anybody else in the world. I would feel meaner than a dog if I didn’t rejoice in the special gifts of any other member in the church. What a pity it would be if we had just one kind of a mold, and everybody was run through like tallow so as to make every candle alike. The duty of the church is to respect the unity of the body, and its diversity of gifts.
5. Each gift is to be exercised with its appropriate corresponding limitation.
The duties to the individual neighbor of the outside world, even though hostile to us, are found in Rom 12:14-21 :
1. To bless him when he persecutes.
2. To be sympathetic toward him, rejoicing in his joy) and weeping in his sorrow.
3. Several Christians should not be of different mind toward him. The expression in the text is to be like-minded. What is the point of that? We are dealing now with individuals outside. Here is A, a Christian; B, a Christian; G, a Christian; and the outsider is watching. A makes one impression on his mind, B makes a different one, and G makes still a different one. The influence from these several Christians does not harmonize; it is not like-minded; but if he says that A, B, G, all in different measures perhaps, be every one of the same mind, then he sees that there is a unifying power in Christians. How often do we hear it said, “If every Christian were like you, I would want to be one, but look yonder at that deacon, or at that sister.” We should be like-minded to those outside so that every Christian that comes in may make a similar impression for Christ’s sake.
4. We should not, in dealing with him, respect big outsiders only, but condescend to the lowly to men of low-estate. Some of them are very rich, some of them are influential socially, some of them are what we call poor, country folk. We should not be high-minded in our dealings with these sinners, but condescend to men of low estate. Let them feel that we are willing to go and help them.
5. We should not let our wisdom toward him be self-conceit, i.e., let it not seem to him that way.
6. When he does evil to us, we should not repay in kind.
7. We should let him see that we are honest men. Ah me, how many outsiders are repelled because all Christians do not provide things honest in the sight of the outside world!
8. So far as it lieth in us we should be peaceable with him. That means that it is absolutely impossible to be peaceable with a man that has no peace in him. He wants to fuss anyhow, and goes around with a chip on his shoulder. He goes around snarling and showing his teeth. There are some people that are not peaceable, but so far as our life is concerned, we should be peaceable with them.
9. We should not avenge on him wrongs done us by him. Vengeance belongs to God; we should give place to God’s wrath.
10. We should feed him if hungry, and give him drink if thirsty.
11. We should not allow ourselves to be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. We should not get off when we come in contact with evil people, but just hang on and overcome evil with good.
The duties to the state are as follows:
1. Be subject to higher powers, and do not resist them, for (1) God ordained them. (2) Makes them a terror to evil works. (3) God’s minister for good. (4) And for conscience sake we must respect the state.
2. Pay our taxes.
3. Whatever is due to each office: “Render honor to whom honor is due.”
4. Keep out of debt: “Owe no man anything but good will.”
5. Keep the moral code: “Do not steal; do not commit adultery; do not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s, and thus love thy neighbor.”
6. Avoid the world’s excesses, revels, and such like.
The duties toward God the Son, in view of what he has done for us and in view of our vital union with him, are set forth in Rom 14:7-12 :
1. Negatively: Live not unto self.
2. Positively: Live unto Jesus, respecting his prerogatives and servants.
Let us now look at the duties to individual Christians. We have considered the Christians as a body. What are the duties to individual Christians? Rom 14:1-15:7 contains the duty to individual Christians. Let us enumerate these duties somewhat:
1. Receive the weak in faith. We have a duty to every weak brother; receive him, but not to doubtful disputations. If we must have our abstract, metaphysical, hair-splitting distinctions, let us not spring them on the poor Christian that is Just alive.
2. We should not judge him censoriously, instituting a comparison between us and him; we should not say to him, “Just look at me.”
3. We should not hurt him by doing things, though lawful to us, that will cause him to stumble. The explanation there is in reference to a heathen custom. The heathen offered sacrifices to their gods, and after the sacrifice they would hang up the parts not consumed and sell as any other butchered meat. Could we stand up like Paul and say, “It won’t hurt me to eat that meat, but there is a poor fellow just born into the kingdom, and he is weak in the faith. He sees me eating this meat that has been offered in sacrifice to idols, and he stumbles, therefore I will not eat meat”? He draws the conclusion that if a big fellow can do that he can too, and he goes and worships the idols. The strong) through the exercise of his liberty that he could have done without, caused his fall into idolatry. That is what he meant when he wrote, “Do not hurt him; do not cause him to stumble.” He gives two reasons why we must not cause him to stumble on account of a little meat. He says, (a) “Because the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (b) If we consider this weak brother, our consideration will be acceptable to Christ, and approved of men, but if we trample on the poor fellow that is weak in the faith, Christ won’t approve of it, and men won’t approve of it.”
4. Follow the things that make for peace. It is individual Christians that we are talking about, and we come in contact with them where we have A, B, G, D, and E, and the first thing we know a little root of bitterness springs up among them and stirs up a disagreement. The point is that we should follow the things that make for peace, just as far as we can, and sometimes that will take us a good ways. He gives this illustration where he says, “If my eating meat offered to idols causes my brother to stumble, then I am willing to take a total abstinence pledge.” Then he extends it: “Nor drink wine, nor do anything whereby my brother is caused to stumble.” There is meat other than that which is offered to idols.
5. Bear his infirmities. One man said, “There is much of human nature in the mule, but more of the mule in human nature.” The best man I ever knew had some infirmities, and I can see some of mine with my eyes shut, and I believe better with them shut than with them open. We all have infirmities in some direction or another,
6. We should seek to please him rather than to please ourselves. We are not to sacrifice a principle, but if we can please him without sacrificing a principle, rather than please ourselves, why not do it? Let us make him feel good if we can. This is the duty to the individual Christian.
The duties of Christian Jews to Gentile neighbors are found in Rom 15:8-24 . There they are all elaborated. Even in the Jew’s Bible, all through its parts, it is shown that God intended to save the Gentiles. The duty of Gentile Christians to the Jews is found in Rom 15:27 , showing that there is a debt and that it ought to be paid.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the prevalent characteristics of all Paul’s teachings concerning the gospel? Illustrate.
2. What is Paul’s attitude toward the modern cry, “Give us morals and away with dogma,” and how does he express his conviction on this subject elsewhere?
3. How is this thought especially emphasized in this letter?
4. What is the analysis and order of thought in this letter in Romans 12-15?
5. What may we say as to the sum of these obligations?
6. What is the duty toward God the Father, in view of what he has done for us in grace and mercy?
7. What is the meaning of “living sacrifice”? Illustrate.
8. What are our duty toward God the Holy Spirit, in view of what he graciously does in us?
9. What are our duties toward the church?
10. What are our duties to the individual neighbor of the outside world, even though hostile to us?
11. What are our duties to the state?
12. What are our duties toward God the Son, in view of what he has done for us and in view of our vital union with him?
13. What are the duties to individual Christians?
14. What are the duties of Christian Jews to Gentile neighbors?
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Ver. 1. Let every soul be subject ] In things lawful only; for else we must answer as those apostles did, Act 4:29 , and as Polycarp, who being commanded to blaspheme Christ, and to swear by the fortune of Caesar, peremptorily refused, and said, We are taught to give honour to princes and potentates, but such honour as is not contrary to God’s religion.
Ordained of God ] In regard of its institution, though for the manner of its constitution it is of man.
1 7 .] The duty of cheerful obedience to the powers of the state . It has been well observed (Calv., Thol., De Wette. See Neander, Pflanzung u. Leitung, &c. 4th ed. p. 460 ff.) that some special reason must have given occasion to these exhortations. We can hardly attribute it to the seditious spirit of the Jews at Rome , as their influence in the Christian Church there would not be great; indeed, from Act 28 the two seem to have been remarkably distinct. But disobedience to the civil authorities may have arisen from mistaken views among the Christians themselves as to the nature of Christ’s kingdom and its relation to existing powers of this world. And such mistakes would naturally be rifest there, where the fountain of earthly power was situated: and there also best and most effectually met by these precepts coming from apostolic authority. The way for them is prepared by Rom 12:17 ff. of the foregoing chapter. 1Pe 2:13 ff. is parallel: compare notes there.
1. ] , see 1Co 16:16 , is reflective, subject himself , i.e. ‘be subject of his own free will and accord.’
For there is no authority (in heaven or earth no power at all) except from God: and (so , 2Co 6:15-16 . It introduces a second clause as if had stood in the first) those that are (the existing powers which we see about us), have been ordained by God . We may observe that the Apostle here pays no regard to the question of the duty of Christians in revolutionary movements. His precepts regard an established power , be it what it may. It , in all matters lawful, we are bound to obey . But even the parental power does not extend to things unlawful. If the civil power commands us to violate the law of God, we must obey God before man. If it commands us to disobey the common laws of humanity, or the sacred institutions of our country, our obedience is due to the higher and more general law, rather than to the lower and particular. These distinctions must be drawn by the wisdom granted to Christians in the varying circumstances of human affairs: they are all only subordinate portions of the great duty of obedience to LAW. To obtain, by lawful means, the removal or alteration of an unjust or unreasonable law, is another part of this duty: for all authorities among men must be in accord with the highest authority, the moral sense. But even where law is hard and unreasonable, not disobedience , but legitimate protest , is the duty of the Christian.
Rom 12:1 to Rom 15:13 .] PRACTICAL EXHORTATIONS FOUNDED ON THE DOCTRINES BEFORE STATED. And first, ch. 12 general exhortations to a Christian life .
Rom 13:1 . is a Hebraism; cf. Act 2:43 ; Act 3:23 , and chap. Rom 2:9 . For cf. Luk 12:11 : it is exactly like “authorities” in English abstract for concrete. describes the authorities as being actually in a position of superiority. Cf. 1 P. Rom 2:13 , and Mal 3:11Mal 3:11 ( ). : is the correct reading ( [32] [33] [34] ), not . Weiss compares Bar 4:27 . . It is by God’s act and will alone that there is such a thing as an authority, or magistrate; and those that actually exist have been appointed set in their place by Him. With the Apostle passes from the abstract to the concrete; the persons and institutions in which for the time authority had its seat, are before his mind in other words, the Empire with all its grades of officials from the Emperor down. In itself, and quite apart from its relation to the Church, this system had a Divine right to be. It did not need to be legitimated by any special relation to the Church; quite as truly as the Church it existed Dei gratia .
[32] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[33] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
[34] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Romans Chapter 13
The apostle next enters on the relation to worldly authority of the saints, after treating of their attitude toward all men as the witnesses of the good they had learnt in Christ, where God overcame all evil with His good, and privileges us as partakers of it both to be active in it and to suffer for it.
“Let every soul be subject to authorities in power. For there is no authority save from God, and those that exist are ordered by God: so that he that setteth himself against the authority resisteth the ordinance of God, and those that resist shall receive judgment for themselves. For rulers are not a fear for the good work but for the evil.* Dost thou wish then not to be afraid of the authority? Do good, and thou shalt have praise from it; for it is God’s servant to thee for good; but if thou do evil, fear; for not in vain doth it wear the sword; for it is God’s servant, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. Wherefore [it is] needful to be subject not only on account of wrath but also on account of conscience. For on this account ye pay tribute also; for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.” (Ver. 1-6.)
*So it is in A B D F G P, and other authorities, instead of the common . . . . .
The holy wisdom of the exhortation is as worthy of God, as the suitability of all that is taught is apparent for those who, though not of the world, yet have relative duties in it, as they wait for the Lord and are called to do the will of God meanwhile. By a gradual transition we are brought from not avenging ourselves, and overcoming evil with good, as becomes the children of God, to our relation to the authorities in the world whose office it is to avenge evil, punishing evil-doers, and praising those that do well. It was pre-eminently in place from the apostle writing to the saints in the great metropolis of the Gentile world, imperial Rome. No otherwise had the apostle of the circumcision exhorted the christian Jews scattered over the East. The falsehood, the folly, the impurity, the abominations of the Gentiles would naturally expose those who mingled their idolatries with the civil power to find the latter jeoparded when souls discerned and rejected the former in the light of Christ. Hence the exceeding moment of pressing the place which worldly authority should have in the conscience of the saints from among either Jews or Gentiles as of God, spite of the heathenism of those who were in possession of it. “Let every soul” is more comprehensive (and I cannot doubt so intended of the Spirit) than every saint. No position exempts. The household too ought to feel it, children or other dependent relations and servants, as well as believers. It is laid down purposely in the broadest terms: compare Rom 2:9 . If the verb be regarded as in the middle voice, it would express the willingness of the subjection so much the more strongly: just as the other side, “he that sets himself against,” is seen in verse 3.
Again, “authorities in power” ( ) is an expression that embraces every form of governing power, monarchical, aristocratic, or republican. All cavil on this score is therefore foreclosed. The Spirit insists not merely on the divine right of kings but that “there is no authority except from God.” Nor is there an excuse on this plea for change; yet if a revolution should overthrow one form and set up another, the Christian’s duty is plain: “those that exist are ordained by God.” His interests are elsewhere, are heavenly, are in Christ; his responsibility is to acknowledge what is in power as a fact, trusting God as to the consequences and in no case behaving as a partisan. Never is he warranted in setting himself up against the authority as such; for this were to resist the ordinances of God, and those that resist shall receive judgment for themselves. For it is by no means “damnation,” but “sentence,” or the charge for which he is condemned. Scripture is ever sober, as the apostle said he was, for our sakes: if he were ecstatic, it was for God, as it might well be. Other scriptures show that, where the authority demands that which is offensive to Him, as for instance that an apostle should speak no more of Jesus or that a Christian should sacrifice to an idol or an emperor, we must obey God rather than man, but suffering, not resisting, if we cannot quietly leave the scene of persecution. For it is evident that it is impossible to plead God’s authority for obeying a command which dishonours and denies Him. Every relation has its limits in conduct which virtually nullifies it; and that is a requirement which undermines its own authority by antagonism to Him who set it up. But Calvin seems to speak unwarrantably when he goes so far as to say that tyrannies are not an ordained government;* and those who listened to him or shared his thoughts have proved that they did not count it beneath Christians to take an active part in overthrowing what they considered tyrannical.
* Nam etsi tyrannides ac dominationes inustae, quum plenae sint , non sunt ex ordinata gubernatione: ipsum tamen ius imperii in humani generis salutem a Deo ordinatum est. Itaque quum et bella arcere et caeteris noxiis remedia quaerere liceat, Apostolus magistratuum ius et imperium tanquam humano generi utile, sponte et libenter a nobis suspici et coli iubet. Quas enim Deus infligit poenas hominum peccatis, non proprie ordinationes vocabimus, sed quae consulto media statuit ad legitimum ordinem servandum.” (Comment. in loco, i. 173.)
It is a wholly inadequate apprehension to regard the magistrate on the side of man only. Not that he may not be chosen in ever so various a form by man, but that he is God’s servant, as here repeatedly said. He is His servant for good, not for evil. but if you practise evil, what then? Fear; for not in vain does he wear the sword; for he is God’s servant, an avenger for wrath to him that does evil. To see God in the magistrate brings in conscience. Wherefore one must need be subject not only on account of wrath (this would be merely a question of consequences from man), but also on account of conscience. “For on this account also ye pay tribute.” This is connected with the foregoing exhortation as to magistrates, and prepares the way for more general relationships in the world. “For they are God’s ministers [or officers], attending diligently unto this very thing,.” Thus they are designated God’s and also His , the one as doing the work prescribed to them in keeping the order of the world in obedience to the laws, the other as public functionaries or officially appointed to it. The payment of was for the administation of government, a tribute or tax on persons or property or both, as was on merchandize and therefore fairly translated “custom.” Hence the apostle (ver. 7) exhorts, “Render to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour.” The greater and the lesser are thus taken in, each in its just measure; which the Christian can heartily say, inasmuch as he is entitled to acknowledge God in all without seeking anything for himself. For we are here occupied with what is of God in the repression of evil, and hence external to the proper sphere of christian life, save as honouring God in every respect,
But next we enlarge yet more. “Owe no one anything except to love one another; for he that loveth the brother [i.e. his neighbour] hath fulfilled law. For Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if [there be] any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to the neighbour: love therefore [is] law’s fulfilment.” (Ver. 8-10.) Thus the debt of love is the only one which is legitimate and in honour, good among men and acceptable to the Lord; the debt we should ever be paying, but never can pay off. Grace alone gives the power, but law is fulfilled thereby and indeed only thus. Law had continually claimed but never found it. Those under the law were under obligation but were wholly unable to make it good. Grace revealing Christ not only shows us His perfection and fulness but forms the heart accordingly. The commandments manwards are comprehended in loving one’s neighbour; so are those Godward in loving God. Thus, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; in order that the righteous demand of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. (Rom 8:3 , Rom 8:4 .)
There is another powerful motive for the believer, the nearness of that day when all that is not of Christ must be detected and pass away. “And this, knowing the meet time, that already [it is] time for you to be aroused out of sleep; for now [is] our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, and the day is drawn nigh.* Let us cast away therefore the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. As in daylight let us walk becomingly, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and lasciviousness, not in strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and take no forethought for the flesh for lusts.” (Ver. 11-14.) For the earth the Sun of righteousness is not yet risen; for it the believer, though he has Christ the true light for himself, knows that it is night still. Yet daylight has dawned and the morning star arisen in his heart. Hence he sleeps not as do others; or, if he should, judges it as sin, for he is in the secret of the Lord and is charged with the gravest mission of love and holiness in the witnessing of His name as he passes through the world. Man slumbers heedless of danger, spite of solemn and reiterated warning. His evil conscience forbids his crediting the grace which is in God; his self-complacency blinds him to the moral beauty of the dependent and obedient Man, as well as to his own need of such a Saviour and such a salvation as God urges on him; and so he sleeps on till he perishes, waking up too late to the truth he has rejected and the grace he has slighted irreparably then. The believer with his soul saved already looks for a salvation worthy of Christ and of His redemption at His coming; and, though the interval may seem long sometimes, he knows that it is ever growing nearer. The works of darkness are therefore wholly incongruous and must be cast away. In such alas! the Gentiles used to walk when they lived in them; even as the Jews under the law occupied themselves with dead works. But now, dead to them, Christians would put on the armour of light; and though the day be not yet, they as children of it would walk comelily as in its light. What have such to do with revels and drinking bouts, with ways of lewdness and lasciviousness, with strife and envy? Are they not the blessed saints of God in full view of the speedy coming and day of the Lord? How suitable the call to put on the Lord Jesus Christ! As we have Him inwardly our life, may we wear Him outwardly, cherishing Him as our all, and make no provision for the flesh with a view to lusts. This were to revive the old man already crucified, to have believed and to hope in vain.
*Calvin (in loco) understands by “night” ignorance of God, in which lie the unbelieving, insensible to His truth and will; by “light” the revelation of divine truth by which Christ rises like the sun on us “Porro quoniam hic allegorica est, notare operae pretium est quid singulae partes significent. Noctem vocat ignorationem Dei, qua quicunque detinentur, veluti in nocte errant ac dormiunt. Duobus enim istis malis laborant infideles, quia caeci sunt ac stupidi stuporem vero istum paulo post per somnum designat qui est (ut ille dicit) imago mortis. Lucem nominat divinas veritatis revelationem, per quam sol iustitiae Christus nobis exoritur:” but the context proves that “night” here means the dark condition of the world while Christ is absent, “day” when He shall appear the second time for salvation. For the believer it is no longer night in the sense of ignorance of God, for him the light of day already shines: so it is seen in the sense of realizing the heavenly hope. 2Pe 1:19 .
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 13:1-7
1Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
Rom 13:1 “Every person is to be in subjection” This is (1) a present passive imperative meaning, “continue to be made submissive” or (2) present middle imperative, “submit himself/herself” (cf. Tit 3:1; 1Pe 2:13). “Submit” was a military term used to describe a chain of command. Paul is addressing all believers. Paul asserts that believers should be subject to one another (cf. Eph 5:21).
In our day submission seems like a negative term. It is a word that depicts both a humility and a profound understanding of God’s world and our place in it. Jesus was said to be submissive to (1) His earthly parents (cf. Luk 2:51) and (2) His heavenly Father (cf. 1Co 15:28). He is our guide in this area!
See Special Topic: Submission at Rom 10:3.
“to the governing authorities” Although Paul used this word (exousia) in other contexts to refer to angelic powers, primarily demonic (cf. Rom 8:38; Col 1:16; Col 2:10; Col 2:15; Eph 1:21; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12), here the context demands “civil authorities” (cf. 1Co 2:6; 1Co 2:8; Tit 3:1; 1Pe 2:13). The Bible seems to imply that there are angelic authorities behind human governments (Daniel 10 and the LXX of Deu 32:8, “When the Most High divided the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” See Oscar Cullman, Christ and Time and Hendrikus Berkhof, Christ and the Powers). But still governing authorities function under God (cf. Rom 13:1 b,4a, and 6). See Special Topic following.
SPECIAL TOPIC: AUTHORITY (EXOUSIA)
SPECIAL TOPIC: HUMAN GOVERNMENT
NASB”those which exist are established by God”
NKJV”that exist are appointed by God”
NRSV”that have been instituted by God”
TEV”have been put there by God”
NJB”have been appointed by God”
This is a periphrastic perfect passive participle. This grammatical form asserts that God is behind all human authority (cf. Joh 19:11; Dan 2:21; Dan 4:17). This does not refer to “the divine right of Kings,” but to the divine will for order. This is not asserting a specific type of government, but government itself. Civil order is better than chaos (cf. Rom 13:6).
Rom 13:2 “whoever resists authority” This is a present middle participle. This refers to a personal habitual rebellion against an established order, literally, “to set one’s self in opposition” (cf. Act 18:6; Jas 5:6). In Mar 12:17, Jesus clearly stated the realm for both government and church. In Act 5:25-32 we see what happens when authorities overstep their bounds.
“has opposed. . .have opposed” This is a perfect active indicative and a perfect active participle. These speak of a settled or established rebellion. God has provided for order in this fallen world (cf. Rom 13:4; Rom 13:6). To oppose order is to oppose God, unless the civil authorities step beyond their God given bounds. The real spiritual issue is submission to authority. Fallen humanity wants autonomy!
“will receive condemnation to themselves” The KJV translates “condemnation” as “damnation.” This word has intensified its meaning in English since A.D. 1611. The NKJV translates it as “judgment.” In context this could refer to (1) God’s judgment or (2) civil punishment (cf. Rom 13:4). These people bring judgment on themselves by their attitudes and actions against authority (cf. Joh 3:17-21).
Rom 13:3 See parallel comment in 1Pe 2:14.
“rulers” See Special Topic: Arch at Rom 8:38.
“authority” See special Topic at Rom 13:1.
Rom 13:4 “for it is a minister of God to you for good” The governmental authorities act against civil evil-doers whereas the believer is restricted in his personal retaliation (cf. Rom 12:17-19). Martin Luther stated “God’s way to control bad men is to put bad men in control.”
“if” This is a third class conditional sentence which means possible future action.
NASB”for it does not bear the sword for nothing”
NKJV”for he does not bear the sword in vain”
NRSV”for the authority does not bear the sword in vain”
TEV”their power to punish is real”
NJB”it is not for nothing that they symbol of authority is the sword”
The word “sword” (machaira) refers to the small Roman sword used in capital punishment (cf. Act 12:2; Rom 8:35). This passage and Act 25:11 give the New Testament basis for capital punishment , while Gen 9:6 clearly states the Old Testament perspective. Fear is one effective deterrent to chaos!
“for it is a minister of God, an avenger” The term for avenger (ekdikos) is used several times in the OT. It is even used in the first part of Lev 19:18. In the OT if a person killed another person, even accidently, that person’s family had the right to exercise the “eye-for-an-eye” vengeance (the blood avenger). Paul seems to be relating the OT custom to the authority of civil government.
In 1Th 4:6 God is said to be the avenger, which follows Rom 12:19. Both of these refer to Deu 32:35 (cf. Heb 10:30).
Rom 13:5 “it is necessary to be in subjection” There are two reasons stated (1) to escape punishment, either God’s or the governing civil authorities and (2) for the believers’ conscience.
“for conscience sake” There is not an OT counterpart to the Greek term “conscience” unless the Hebrew term “breast” implies a knowledge of self and its motives. Originally the Greek term referred to consciousness related to the five senses. It came to be used of the inner senses (cf. Rom 2:15). Paul uses this term twice in his trials in Acts (i.e., Act 23:1 and Act 24:16). It refers to his sense that he had not knowingly violated any known religious duties toward God (cf. 1Co 4:4).
Conscience is the developing understanding of believers’ motives and actions based on
1. a biblical worldview
2. the indwelling Spirit
3. a lifestyle knowledge based on the word of God
It is made possible by the personal reception of the gospel.
Rom 13:6 “because of this you also pay taxes” This is a present active indicative, although in form it might be a present active imperative (cf. JB). This is one example of a Christian’s responsibility to civil authorities precisely because the government authorities are God’s servants (cf. Rom 13:1-2).
Rom 13:7
NASB”Render to all what is due them: tax. . .; custom. . .; fear. . .; honor”
NKJV”Render therefore to all their due; taxes. . .; customs. . .; fear. . .; honor”
NRSV”pay to all what is due them-taxes. . .; revenue. . .; respect. . .; honor”
TEV”Pay, then, what you owe them; pay them your personal and property taxes, and show respect and honor for them all”
NJB”Pay every government official what he has a right to ask-whether it be direct tax or indirect, fear or honor”
This could refer to two separate groups of civil authorities (cf. RSV), but probably what is meant is that Christians are to give both taxes and respect to civil authorities because they function as God’s ministers (cf. Rom 13:1; Rom 13:4 [twice],6; Mat 22:15-22).
The two terms, “tax” and “custom” are used synonymously here (although TEV makes a distinction). If analyzed etymologically (the original meaning), the first referred to taxes paid by a conquered nation (cf. Luk 20:22) and the second to personal taxes (cf. Mat 17:25; Mat 22:17; Mat 22:19).
CONTEXTUAL INSIGHTS TO Rom 13:8-14
A. It is possible to understand Rom 13:1-7 as a self-contained literary context. However, the subject of “owing” in Rom 13:7 seems to be continued in a different sense in Rom 13:8. Believers owe an obligation to the state; believers also owe an obligation to other human beings.
B. Rom 13:8-10 are a unified thought, as are Rom 13:11-14. They continue the discussion from Romans 12 of the Christian’s responsibility to love others.
C. Paul’s use of the OT Decalogue as a moral guide to New Covenant believers shows the continuing relevance of the OT in the area of godly living (sanctification), not salvation (justification, cf. Galatians 3). It seems that Paul has combined several sources to construct his ethical guidelines:
1. the words of Jesus
2. the guidance of the Spirit
3. the Old Testament
4. his rabbinical training
5. his knowledge of the Greek thinkers (especially the Stoics)
This characterized the “law of love”- love for God, love for humanity, service to God, service to humanity!
D. Rom 13:11-14 have an eschatological (end of time) orientation. The contrast of darkness and light was characteristic of Jewish literature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is also common in the writings of John and Paul. “The already” versus “the not yet” tension of the Christian life is the stimulus for godly living. The “new age” (Kingdom of God) has been inaugurated and will soon be consummated. This passage is very similar to 1Th 5:1-11.
E. Rom 13:13-14 had a life-changing affect on Augustine in the summer of A.D. 386. He says, in his Confessions Rom 8:29, “No further would I read, nor had I any need; instantly at the end of this sentence, a clear light flooded my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”
soul. App-110.
be subject. See Rom 8:7.
unto = to.
higher = supreme. Greek. huperecho. Here, Php 1:2, Php 1:3; Php 3:8; Php 4:7. 1Pe 2:13.
powers. App-172.
but = if (App-118) not (App-105).
of. App-104. but the texts read “under”, App-104.
God. App-98.
ordained. See Act 13:48.
1-7.] The duty of cheerful obedience to the powers of the state. It has been well observed (Calv., Thol., De Wette. See Neander, Pflanzung u. Leitung, &c. 4th ed. p. 460 ff.) that some special reason must have given occasion to these exhortations. We can hardly attribute it to the seditious spirit of the Jews at Rome, as their influence in the Christian Church there would not be great; indeed, from Acts 28 the two seem to have been remarkably distinct. But disobedience to the civil authorities may have arisen from mistaken views among the Christians themselves as to the nature of Christs kingdom and its relation to existing powers of this world. And such mistakes would naturally be rifest there, where the fountain of earthly power was situated: and there also best and most effectually met by these precepts coming from apostolic authority. The way for them is prepared by Rom 12:17 ff. of the foregoing chapter. 1Pe 2:13 ff. is parallel: compare notes there.
Shall we turn in our Bibles to Rom 13:1-14 .
As Christians, what should be our attitude towards government? Paul declares,
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: and the powers that be are ordained of God ( Rom 13:1 ).
The Bible does not allow for civil disobedience. For we are commanded by the scriptures to be in obedience to those governing bodies that are over us. Paul wrote this at the time in which Nero was ruling in Rome. And we oftentimes, say, “Well, you know, we should be in obedience as long as we agree with what is being legislated.” I do feel that there are rare occasions where the law of God does supercede the law of man, and on those occasions I must be obedient to God. In this period of the early church, when they were required to declare that Caesar was lord or be executed, they chose death by martyrdom rather than acknowledging the lordship of Caesar. When Peter was ordered by the magistrates, or by the council, actually, of the Jews not to speak anymore in the name of Jesus, he said, “Whether it is right to obey God or man, you judge, we know that we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard” ( Act 4:19-20 ). And so when it becomes a matter of my conscience, then I must be obedient to God. But for the most part I am to be obedient to those governmental forces over me. I am to obey the law. Being a Christian does not give me an immunity from the law, for the powers that be are ordained by God.
Now this is a issue that we sometimes are prone to question. Did God ordain this particular government? The Bible tells us that the powers that exist are ordained by God. It is interesting to me that Nebuchadnezzar challenged that truth. When he was told by Daniel, who was interpreting his dream, that the great image that he saw was the ruling empires that would govern the world, and he said “Thou, O Nebuchadnezzar, are the head of gold, but your kingdom is going to be replaced by an inferior kingdom, the shoulders and the chest of silver. And that will be replaced by yet an inferior kingdom, the stomach of brass and that by a kingdom of iron, the legs.” Nebuchadnezzar turned right around and made an image ninety feet high of all gold and demanded that the people worship it, which was open defiance to the declaration that your kingdom is going to replaced by the Medo-Persian Empire. And as a result of this defiance of God by Nebuchadnezzar, because of his pride, the Lord allowed him insanity until seven seasons had passed over him, until he knew that the Most High God ruled in the governments of man and set over them those whom He would. That was the lesson that God was teaching him during that period of insanity, where he went out and lived with the animals in the fields and ate grass with the oxen. The purpose of that was that he might recognize that God rules, and God establishes those on the throne whom He will, and he was only on the throne of Babylon by the divine decree of God. And after his insane period he acknowledged that the God of heaven ruled, and those who exalt themselves, He is able to abase. For he had surly been abased, but he recognized that God is the one who establishes the kingdoms and the thrones of man.
Why does God, then, allow evil men to reign if God is the one who establishes it? Basically, because men want evil men to reign over them, and in order that they might be brought to judgment, God will allow those evil rulers to lead the people in order that they might receive that rightful judgment of God. But I am told here as a child of God to be subject unto those higher powers because they have been established there by God.
Whosoever therefore is resisting the power is resisting the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation [or condemnation] ( Rom 13:2 ).
That is, you will be brought into judgment and thrown in jail, is actually what he telling us here.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Will thou then be afraid of the powers? do that which is good, and you will have praise of the same ( Rom 13:3 ):
In other words, be a decent law-abiding citizen and you don’t have to worry about the authorities. The only time I worry when I see a black and white is when I am exceeding the speed limit. You know, if I’m going the speed limit or under I don’t worry when I see the highway patrol go by. But if I’m exceeding the speed limit, then I think, “Oh, Oh.” You know, you look in your rear view mirror and see the thing down a mile or so with the lights flashing, and the first thing you do is look at your speed and see how fast you’re going. And if I’m exceeding the speed limit, I think, “Oh, oh”, you know, and I sort of ease back to the speed limit and stay in my lane and cruise along. And breathe a great sigh of relief when he goes shooting past. But for a little bit my heart begins to beat, but if look down and I see that I’m in the speed limit, I think, “Oh, that’s great, he’s not after me.” They’re only a terror to the evildoers, not to the good. And thus, if you are living a good life, you need not be terrorized or be in terror of the authorities.
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if you are doing that which is evil, then be afraid; for he bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that is doing evil. Wherefore ye must needs subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake ( Rom 13:4-5 ).
So as a child of God I am to be an obedient citizen and a subject, an obedient subject to the authoritative government over me.
For this cause pay taxes also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually on this very thing ( Rom 13:6 ).
I agree with that, they’re attending continually on this very thing.
Render therefore to all their dues: the taxes to whom the taxes are due, custom to whom the custom; fear to whom fear; and honor to whom honor is due ( Rom 13:7 ).
Render to each one their due. We are not to try to escape our taxes, nor are we to try to smuggle Rolex watches into the United States that we bought overseas. Pay the custom to whom the custom is due. This is something that the scripture commands us to be faithful and obedient, not to cheat on your tax report. Fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false witness, Thou shall not covet; and if there is any other commandment, it’s briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law ( Rom 13:8-10 ).
Jesus was asked one day, “What is the greatest commandment?” And He answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” Then He said, “The second is likened to the first, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself, and in these two you have all the law and the prophets.” Everything that God has commanded man, how we ought to live in relationship to God and the relationship to each other, is all summed up in these two: love God supremely, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. And if you do that, you will be doing all that God requires of you. Love is the fulfilling of the law. And so it is interesting that the law was placed, really, for the most part, in the negative; thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill, thou shall not bear false witness, thou shall not covet, and so forth, and it was mainly placed in negative, but Jesus turned around and put it in the positive. And Paul here follows the example of Jesus Christ and he too puts it in the positive. And he says, “Look, all of these commandments, not commit adultery, not kill, not steal, they’re all summed up in this saying, namely: thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.” That’s the summation of it. For love will not work ill to his neighbor. If I’m loving him, I’m not going to be lying, stealing, cheating or whatever from him. Especially if I love him as I love myself. So love is the fulfilling of the law.
And that, [he said,] knowing the time ( Rom 13:11 ),
God expects us to be aware of the time in which we live and of the time of God’s working. For this purpose God gave us prophecy, which is history in advance, so that we would be alerted and aware of the days in which we live. Knowing the time, we are not ignorant of the time, nor should we be. For we are not the children of darkness, that the day of the Lord should catch us as a thief, but we are children of the light, and therefore knowing the time,
it is high time that we wake up from our sleep ( Rom 13:11 ):
I believe that, for the most part, the church is in a general state of lethargy. I think that it is indeed tragic that men are so concerned with their scholarly research to determine whether or not there were two authors of the book of Isaiah or perhaps three, and their concern of the authorship of Isaiah is so great they don’t pay any attention to what Isaiah said. I think it is tragic when a man becomes so scholarly that he thinks that he is smart enough to challenge the Word of God, or to challenge the writer of the Word of God. And I think that it borders on blasphemy for a man to suggest from his position of scholarly achievement to suggest that Matthew was embellishing his account of the story of the life of Christ. And that he actually inserted things that really did not happen in order to make the story more exciting. And he does this in the name of Biblical scholarship in an evangelical college. Sad indeed!
The people are sleeping today, because this kind of scholarship will put you to sleep. It is high time that we awake out of this lethargy. I do not know how we seem to just be sleeping when all of these decisions were being made by the Supreme Court, putting prayer out of school, the favorable mention of God out of our schools. How we were sleeping when the humanists took over the public school system.
My wife ordered some of the McGuffie Readers this last week. They came yesterday. And she started reading me some of the things out of the McGuffie Readers. These are the reading textbooks that the children used to have here the United States, stories that had a moral to them, stories that extolled the virtues of honesty, and of goodness. Teaching the children as they were reading that they don’t have to fear, God is watching over, and He is near, and they can call upon Him. Now what’s so wrong about teaching morality and honesty and trusting God to a child? What is so criminal about that, that it has become against the law of our land? Where were we when this was going on? The church was sleeping! And while we slept, the flood tide of evil was open, and now such a flood of pornography has filled our nation and we are not alone in this. If fact, we are probably a step behind some of the European nations. In that horrible “anything goes” attitude. The West has been totally demoralized and totally immoral. You go to Europe and you actually feel that you are in a post-Christian era. For the most part the church is dead in Europe and you can feel it. Walking down the street you can sense that spirit of anti-christ that is everywhere.
And we slept, the church was sleeping, but it is high time that we awake out of our sleep.
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent ( Rom 13:11-12 ),
I really cannot see how we can sink much lower. I really cannot see how we can go on much longer. How many more years can we exist adding a hundred and ninety two billion dollars to a federal debt? How much longer can the banks keep holding Brazil and Mexico and these other countries that are unable to pay their debt? Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent,
but the day is at hand ( Rom 13:12 ):
The Bible does face reality, and it does see the darkness of the night, but thank God the Bible does give us a hope in Jesus Christ. After the dark night is over a new day is going to dawn, the day of God’s glory that is going to cover the earth. And that hope sustains us in the dark night.
but let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting [or revelry] not in drunkenness, not in immorality and shamelessness, not in strife or in envy ( Rom 13:12-13 ):
These are all a part of the flesh, and the life after the flesh.
But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof ( Rom 13:14 ).
I believe that today there is an evil spirit that has invaded the land, this evil spirit operating through the pornography. I believe that people can become addicted to pornography just as much as they can become addicted to alcohol or to drugs. And it has the same powerful hold over their lives as does alcohol or drugs. They are drawn to it. They are attracted by it. And when they get away from it, they say, “I’ll never do that again,” and they are ashamed by what they’ve done. But somehow they seemed to be lured and drawn back to it again. And it can get hold on a person’s life and he can become a slave to this spirit and power that is there. Operating through this it can get a hold on a person’s life and you can become a victim, desiring more and more and more and different types of pornography. It seems to be a progressive thing like drugs and all, where you have to go deeper and deeper and more and more.
There are many homes today being destroyed because of pornography. Because of the, what Paul called here, chambering, or immorality, the Greek, koite, the desire for the forbidden bed. Many marriages being destroyed today because of incest. Many marriages being destroyed today because of the pornography and these things. And it is tragic to see a person that is a victim of these things. I believe that it is a work of Satan in the last days, and I believe that our only power against it is prayer. I believe that it is definitely a spiritual battle and the Bible says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy” ( 2Co 10:4 ). But I think we have to use spiritual weapons. I don’t think that just nagging a person or getting on a person’s case for it is going to do it. That’s using carnal methods. It is a spiritual battle and we must combat it with the spiritual weapons that God has given to us, and in this case, that weapon of prayer and intercessory prayer.
Paul tells us that we might take them from the captivity of the enemy who is holding them captive against their will. If a person opens his mind and opens the door to these kind of things, it can actually get a hold on that person’s life.
We have an interesting case in the Old Testament, where Amaziah had sent his troops against the Edomites and he had experienced a victory against the Edomites. And so he wrote to the king of Israel in the north, Jehoahaz, and he challenged him to come out and fight. And Jehoahaz sent back a message and said, “Look, you went down and you had victory over the Edomites, stay home and enjoy the victory. Why should you meddle to your own hurt?” But Amaziah, flush with the victory over the Edomites, said, “Come on out, you chicken, and face me, you know.” And so Jehoahaz came out with troops and they defeated the troops of Amaziah. They came to the city of Jerusalem and it says, “And they took many captives and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem and they carried away the treasure out of the temple.” Why? Because he did not have enough sense not meddle to his own hurt. To meddle in places where he had no business being.
And there is a lot of meddling that is going on, as a person begins to meddle with things that he has no right to meddle with as a child of God. And when you do, it is always to your own hurt, and even as they tore down the walls at Jerusalem so that he lost his defenses, so Satan will tear down your walls and you will begin to lose your defenses against him and you will find that you don’t have any defenses when he comes attacking again. You have meddled around and now you have been defeated and the walls are down and you have no real defenses against the enemy anymore. You’re a victim, and he is holding you captive. But we are told that we are to take them from the captivity of the enemy who is holding them captive against their will. How do we do that? Through prayer.
Satan is holding many people’s lives today as captives, captives of their own lusts. But God has ordained that you be the instrument through which God delivers them from that captivity. And it comes by intercessory prayer. Holding that person before the Lord and binding the power of Satan that is holding them captive.
We have the authority in the name of Jesus over all the principalities and powers, for they are subject unto Him. And when we come against them in the name of Jesus, they must yield. And thus, through the power of the name of Jesus, we can set people free from the captivity of Satan. We can set free from that binding force that he is exercising over them, that blinding influence that he has. Because people who are being held captive by Satan are also blinded and they don’t even realize their problem many times. “For the God of this world,” the scripture says, “has blinded their eyes and they cannot see the truth” ( 2Co 4:4 ). So through prayer I can bind that work of Satan so that their eyes can be opened. Through prayer I can set them free from the power of Satan that is holding them, that influence that is keeping them a slave and captive to those things. And I need to exercise this intercessory prayer in delivering them from the power of the enemy that they might come unto the glorious liberty and freedom in Jesus Christ.
Therefore because we’re living in a dark world and the night is far spent, the only way we are going survive is by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and not making any provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. It is a heavy spiritual warfare, and it is becoming heavier every day, and is going to continue heavier every day until the Lord snatches us out. Things are not going to ease up. Evil days, the scripture says, “shall wax worse and worse.” Jesus said, “Because the iniquities of the world will abound, the love of many shall wax cold” ( Mat 24:12 ), talking about the time of His coming. In fact, He said, “When the Lord comes will He find faith?” Yes, He will, if we will be determined to walk and to live after the Spirit and put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for our flesh to fulfill the lust of them. How opposite that is from the world today where the doors have been opened for man to live after his flesh in any matter that his mind can imagine. We think of the words of Jesus concerning His coming, “and as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.” And one of those conditions of the days of Noah said, “And every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” They didn’t restrain themselves from anything. We are living in that kind of an age today where there seems to be no restraints. Men living after the flesh. “
Rom 13:1. , every) The apostle writes at very great length to the Romans, whose city was the seat of empire, on the subject of the magistracy, and this circumstance has all the force of a public apology for the Christian religion. This, too, may have been the reason why Paul, in this long epistle, used only once, and that too not until after this apology, the phrase, the kingdom of God, on other occasions so customary with him; Rom 14:17, for, instead of the kingdom, he calls it the glory; comp., however, Act 28:31, note. Every individual should be under the authority of the magistrate, and be liable to suffer punishment, if he has done evil, Rom 13:4.-, soul) He had said that their bodies ought to be presented to God, ch. Rom 12:1, presupposing that the souls would be; now he wishes souls to be subject to the magistrate. It is the soul, which does either good or evil, ch. Rom 2:9, and those in authority are a terror to the evil work, i.e. to the evil doer.-A mans high rank does not exempt him from obedience.- ) from , from ; being is before having: contains the aetiology [end. Be subject to the powers because they are : the cause or reason], 1Pe 2:13, Fr. Souverain, Sovereign.-) The antithesis to this is , Rom 13:2. The Conjugates are , . Let him be subject, an admonition especially necessary to the Jews.-, power) , denotes the office of the magistrate in the abstract; , Rom 13:2, those in authority in the concrete, therefore is interposed, [forming an Epitasis, i.e. an emphatic addition to explain or augment the force of the previous enunciation.-Appen.]. The former is more readily acknowledged to be from God than the latter. The apostle makes an affirmation respecting both. All are from God, who has instituted all powers in general, and has constituted each in particular, by His providence,- ) See Appendix. crit. Ed. ii. ad h. v.[133]
[133] G Orig. D corrected later, read . But AB read . Vulg. fg and Iren. have the transl. Lat. a.-ED.
Jerome omits from to . But ABD()G Vulg. Memph. fg Versions, Iren. 280, 321, retain the clause, omitting, however, : which word is retained by Orig. and both the Syr. Versions and Rec Text.-ED.
Rom 13:1
Rom 13:1
Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers:- Many hold that this passage refers to church authorities, but this application involves difficulties to my mind inexplicable. So I believe that higher powers here refers to civil government. To be in subjection is to come under the will of another, to subject oneself, to obey. The same relation is expressed in the following: Put them in mind to be in subjection to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready unto every good work (Tit 3:1); and, Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake: whether to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well (1Pe 2:13-14). The term bears no idea of participation or rule, but of subjection to anothers power. The extent of this submission to human governments is clearly defined by Jesus and the apostles. When there was contention as to who should be greatest, he said unto them: The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them; and they that have authority over them are called Benefactors. But ye shall not be so. (Luk 22:25-26). His disciples certainly could not serve in the earthly kingdom, where the principles of service were in direct antagonism to the principles that must govern his servants in his kingdom. He places in contrast to the earthly kingdom this kingdom he appoints to them, as his Father had appointed to him. This kingdom would be governed by the principles he proclaimed. When the apostles had been imprisoned in Jerusalem for preaching the gospel and were brought before the council charged with disobedience to the command not to preach in the name of Jesus, Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men (Act 5:29): and as the two governments were in conflict, they chose to obey God and suffer the consequences.
for there is no power but of God;-All power is by the will of God. He permits it. An example of this is given in 1Sa 8:1-22. The Israelites demanded a king. God testified that in demanding it they rejected him. Yet he ordained that they should have their desire. This he did to punish them for their rebellion against him.
and the powers that be are ordained of God.-When men refuse to be governed by God, they must be governed by some power, and God ordains other governments to punish them for refusing his. So all power, even this Roman government, was of God. The powers that be, including this idolatrous government persecuting the church of Christ, were ordained of God. They were ordained to punish evildoers and to take vengeance” on those who wronged his people. This did not imply that the Christians should participate in the management of them. Indeed, Paul had just said (Rom 12:19) that Christians must not take vengeance on evildoers, that God will avenge their wrongs. The higher powers are immediately introduced to execute wrath on evildoers-that is, the civil officer is Gods appointed agent to do what he says the Christian cannot do. Gods order is to use persons to do work who in character are suited to it. He uses the wicked to inflict punishment upon the wicked. He uses the devil to punish the obdurately wicked in the world to come, and so orders affairs that in punishing others he, as the chiefest sinner, will be the recipient of the severest punishment. The fact that God ordains human government is no evidence that it is good for Christians to participate in its administration; but it does indicate that it is good for the purpose for which he ordained it, and is to be submitted to by Christians.
The apostle now showed what attitude the believer will take toward the world. The first thing dealt with is submission to authority. These powers are of God. The believer’s submission to the will of God is manifested in the world by his obedience to properly constituted authority. The very statement of the case, however, inferentially reveals another side of the question. The believer subjects himself to the power when he fulfils the true intent of his calling and office. Paul’s own case will give examples of rebuking rulers.
Again, abandonment to the will of God is evidenced before the world by the discharge of all just debts. This is summed up in the first injunction, “Owe no man anything save to love one another.” Always to owe love is to render it impossible to defraud in matters of purity, of life, of property. Thus, as the apostle declares, “Love, therefore, is the fulfilment of the law.”
Thus ends the section dealing specifically with the requirement of the Christian’s submission to God, personal humility in love, relative submission to love. These are the true credentials of the life abandoned to God in spirit, soul, and body.
The apostle then declared what is the perpetual incentive to realization of the abandonment of life, in both its inner and its outward manifestations. Darkness is everywhere. The children of the Lord are to walk as in the day, even though as yet the night is round about them. They already feel the breath of the morning moving through the darkness, and, casting off the garments of the night, they are to clothe themselves with the armor of light and watch for the first gleam of the breaking dawn.
ON OBEDIENCE TO RULERS
13:1-7. The civil power has Divine sanction. Its functions are to promote well-being, to punish not the good but the wicked. Hence it must be obeyed. Obedience to it is a Christian duty and deprives it of all its terrors.
So too you pay tribute because the machinery of government is Gods ordinance. In this as in all things give to all their due.
13. The Apostle now passes from the duties of the individual Christian towards mankind in general to his duties in one definite sphere, namely towards the civil rulers. While we adhere to what has been said about the absence of a clearly-defined system or purpose in these chapters, we may notice that one main thread of thought which runs through them is the promotion of peace in all the relations of life. The idea of the civil power may have been suggested by ver. 19 of the preceding chapter, as being one of the ministers of the Divine wrath and retribution (ver. 4): at any rate the juxtaposition of the two passages would serve to remind St. Pauls readers that the condemnation of individual vengeance and retaliation does not apply to the action of the state in enforcing law; for the state is Gods minister, and it is the just wrath of God which is acting through it.
We have evidence of the use of vv. 8-10 by Marcion (Tert. adv. Marc. v. 14) Merito itaque totam creatoris disciplinam principali praecepto eius conclusit, Diliges proximum tanquam te. Hoc legis supplementum si ex ipsa lege est, quis sit deus legis iam ignoro. On the rest of the chapter we have no information.
1. : cf. 2:9. The Hebraism suggests prominently the idea of individuality. These rules apply to all however privileged, and the question is treated from the point of view of individual duty.
: abstract for concrete, those in authority cf. Luk 12:11; Tit 3:1. who are in an eminent position, defining more precisely the idea of : cf. 1Pe 2:13; Wisdom 6:5.
. Notice the repetition of words of similar sound, and cf. 12:3.
… The Apostle gives the reason for this obedience, stating it first generally and positively, then negatively and distributively. No human authority can exist except as the gift of God and springing from Him, and therefore all constituted powers are ordained by Him. The maxim is common in all Hebrew literature, but is almost always introduced to show how the Divine power is greater than that of all earthly sovereigns, or to declare the obligation of rulers as responsible for all they do to One above them. Wisdom 6:1, 3 , , , : Enoch xlvi. 5 And he will put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms, because they do not extol and praise him, nor thankfully acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them: Jos. Bell. Jud. II. viii. 7 , . St. Paul adopts the maxim for a purpose similar to that in which it is used in the last instance, that it is the duty of subjects to obey their rulers, because they are appointed and ordained by God.
The preponderance of authority ( A B L P and many later MSS., Bas. Chrys.) is decisive for . The Western reading was a correction for the less usual expression (D E F G and many later MSS., Orig. Jo.-Damasc.). The reading of the end of the verse should be A B D F G.
2. … The logical result of this theory as to the origin of human power is that resistance to it is resistance to the ordering of God; and hence those who resist will receive -a judgement or condemnation which is human, for it comes through human instruments, but Divine as having its origin and source in God. There is no reference here to eternal punishment.
3. . The plural shows that the Apostle is speaking quite generally. He is arguing out the duty of obeying rulers on general principles, deduced from the fact that the state exists for a beneficent end; he is not arguing from the special condition or circumstances of any one state. The social organism, as a modern writer might say, is a power on the side of good.
: cf. 2:7 . In both passages is used collectively; there it means the sum of a mans actions, here the collective work of the state. For the subject cf. 1Ti 2:1, 1Ti 2:2: we are to pray for kings and all in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
The singular is read by A B D F G P, Boh. Vulg. (boni operis sed mali), Clem.-Alex. Iren.-lat. Tert. Orig.-lat. Jo.- Damasc. Later MSS. with EL, Syrr. Arm., Chrys. Thdrt. read . Hort suggests an emendation of Patrick Young, , which has some support apparently from the Aeth. ei qui facit bonum: but the antithesis with makes this correction improbable.
; The construction is more pointed if these words are made a question.
As the state exists for a good end, if you lead a peaceable life you will have nothing to fear from the civil power.
4. . Fem. to agree with , which throughout is almost personified. , for thee, ethical, for thy advantage. , for the good, to promote good, existing for a good end.
. The sword is the symbol of the executive and criminal jurisdiction of a magistrate, and is therefore used of the power of punishing inherent in the government. So Ulpian, Digest, i. 18. 6. 8; Tac. Hist. iii. 68; Dio Cassius, xlii. 27.
, inflicting punishment or vengeance so as to exhibit wrath, namely the Divine wrath as administered by the ruler who is Gods agent (cf. ver. 2 and 12:19). The repetition of the phrase with both sides of the sentence emphasizes the double purpose of the state. It exists positively for the well-being of the community, negatively to check evil by the infliction of punishment, and both these functions are derived from God.
5. : rulers, because as Gods ministers they have a Divine order and purpose, are to be obeyed, not only because they have power over men, but also because it is right, (cf. 2:15, 9:1).
6. , sc. : and it is for this reason also. St. Paul is appealing to a principle which his readers will recognize. It is apparently an admitted rule of the Christian communities that taxes are to be paid, and he points out that the principle is thus recognized of the moral duty of obeying rulers. That he could thus appeal to a recognized practice seems to imply that the words of our Lord (Luk 20:20-25) had moulded the habits of the early Church, and this suggestion is corroborated by ver. 7 (see the longer note below).
, Gods ministers. Although the word is used in a purely secular sense of a servant, whether of an individual or of a community (1Ki 10:5; Ecclus. 10:2), yet the very definite meaning which had acquired (Ecclus 7:30; Heb 8:2; see especially the note on Rom 15:16) adds emphasis to St. Pauls expression.
must apparently be taken absolutely (as in Xen. Hell. VII. v. 14), persevering faithfully in their office, and gives the purpose of the office, the same as that ascribed above to the state. These words cannot be taken immediately with , for that verb, as in 12:13, seems always to govern the dative.
7. St. Paul concludes this subject and leads on to the next by a general maxim which covers all the different points touched upon: Pay each one his due.
, sc. . is the tribute paid by a subject nation (Luk 20:22; Luk_1 Macc. 10:33), while represents the customs and dues which would in any case be paid for the support of the civil government (Mat 17:25; Mat_1 Macc. 10:31).
is the respectful awe which is felt for one who has power in his hands; honour and reverence paid to a ruler: cf. 1Pe 2:17 .
A strange interpretation of this verse may be seen in the Gnostic book entitled , p. 294, ed. Schwartze.
The Church and the Civil Power
The motive which impelled St. Paul to write this section of the Epistle has (like so many other questions) been discussed at great length with the object of throwing light on the composition of the Roman Church. If the opinion which has been propounded already in reference to these chapters be correct, it will be obvious that here as elsewhere St. Paul is writing, primarily at any rate, with a view to the state of the Church as a whole, not to the particular circumstances of the Roman community: it being recognized at the same time that questions which agitated the whole Christian world would be likely to be reflected in what was already an important centre of Christianity. Whether this opinion be correct or not must depend partly, of course, on our estimate of the Epistle as a whole; but if it be assumed to be so, the character of this passage will amply support it. There is a complete absence of any reference to particular circumstances: the language is throughout general: there is a studied avoidance of any special terms; direct commands such as might arise from particular circumstances are not given: but general principles applicable to any period or place are laid down. As elsewhere in this Epistle, St. Paul, influenced by his past experiences, or by the questions which were being agitated around him, or by the fear of difficulties which he foresaw as likely to arise, lays down broad general principles, applying to the affairs of life the spirit of Christianity as he has elucidated it.
But what were the questions that were in the air when he wrote? There can be no doubt that primarily they would be those current in the Jewish nation concerning the lawfulness of paying taxes and otherwise recognizing the authority of a foreign ruler. When our Lord was asked, Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or no? (Mat 22:18 f.; Luk 20:22 f.), a burning question was at once raised. Starting from the express command thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, which is not thy brother (Deu 17:15), and from the idea of a Divine theocracy, a large section of the Jews had refused to recognize or pay taxes to the Roman government. Judas the Gaulonite, who said that the census was nothing else but downright slavery (Jos. Ant. XVIII. i. 1), or Theudas (ibid. XX. v. 1), or Eleazar, who is represented as saying that we have long since made up our minds not to serve the Romans or any other man, but God alone (Bell. Jud. VII. viii. 6), may all serve as instances of a tendency which was very wide spread. Nor was this spirit confined to the Jews of Palestine; elsewhere, both in Rome and in Alexandria, riots had occurred. Nor again was it unlikely that Christianity would be affected by it. A good deal of the phraseology of the early Christians was derived from the Messianic prophecies of the O. T., and these were always liable to be taken in that purely material sense which our Lord had condemned. The fact that St. Luke records the question of the disciples, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? (Act 1:6) seems to imply that such ideas were current, and the incident at Thessalonica, where St. Paul himself, because he preached the kingdom, was accused of preaching another king, one Jesus, shows how liable even he was to misinterpretation. These instances are quite sufficient to explain how the question was a real one when St. Paul wrote, and why it had occupied his thoughts. It is not necessary to refer it either to Ebionite dualistic views (so Baur), which would involve an anachronism, or to exaggerated Gentile ideas of Christian liberty; we have no record that these were ever perverted in this direction.
Two considerations may have specially influenced St. Paul to discuss the subject in his Epistle to the Romans. The first was the known fact of the turbulence of the Roman Jews; a fact which would be brought before him by his intercourse with Priscilla and Aquila. This may illustrate just the degree of local reference in the Epistle to the Romans. We have emphasized more than once the fact that we cannot argue anything from such passages as this as to the state of the Roman community; but St. Paul would not write in the air, and the knowledge of the character of the Jewish population in Rome gained from political refugees would be just sufficient to suggest this topic. A second cause which would lead him to introduce it would be the fascination which he felt for the power and position of Rome, a fascination which has been already illustrated (Introduction, 1).
It must be remembered that when this Epistle was written the Roman Empire had never appeared in the character of a persecutor. Persecution had up to this time always come from the Jews or from popular riots. To St. Paul the magistrates who represented the Roman power had always been associated with order and restraint. The persecution of Stephen had probably taken place in the absence of the Roman governor: it was at the hands of the Jewish king Herod that James the brother of John had perished: at Paphos, at Thessalonica, at Corinth, at Ephesus, St. Paul had found the Roman officials a restraining power and all his experience would support the statements that he makes: The rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil: He is a minister of God to thee for good: He is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. Nor can any rhetorical point be made as has been attempted from the fact that Nero was at this time the ruler of the Empire. It may be doubted how far the vices of a ruler like Nero seriously affected the well-being of the provincials, but at any rate when these words were written the world was enjoying the good government and bright hopes of Neros Quinquennium.
The true relations of Christianity to the civil power had been laid down by our Lord when He had said: My kingdom is not of this world, and again: Render unto Caesar the things that be Caesars and to God the things that be Gods. It is difficult to believe that St. Paul had not these words in his mind when he wrote ver. 7, especially as the coincidences with the moral teaching of our Lord are numerous in these chapters. At any rate, starting from this idea he works out the principles which must lie at the basis of Christian politics, that the State is divinely appointed, or permitted by God; that its end is beneficent; and that the spheres of Church and State are not identical.
It has been remarked that, when St. Paul wrote, his experience might have induced him to estimate too highly the merits of the Roman government. But although later the relation of the Church to the State changed, the principles of the Church did not. In 1Ti 2:1, 1Ti 2:2 the Apostle gives a very clear command to pray for those in authority: I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men: for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity; so also in Tit 3:1 Put them in mind to be in subjection to rulers, to authorities. When these words were written, the writer had to some extent at any rate experienced the Roman power in a very different aspect. Still more important is the evidence of 1 Peter. It was certainly written at a time when persecution, and that of an official character, had begun, yet the commands of St. Paul are repeated and with even greater emphasis (1Pe 2:13-17).
The sub-Apostolic literature will illustrate this. Clement is writing to the Corinthians just after successive periods of persecution, yet he includes a prayer of the character which he would himself deliver, in the as yet unsystematized services of the day, on behalf of secular rulers. Give concord and peace to us and to all that dwell on the earth while we render obedience to Thine Almighty and most excellent Name, and to our rulers and governors upon the earth. Thou, Lord and Master, hast given them the power of sovereignty through Thine excellent and unspeakable might, that we, knowing the glory and honour which Thou hast given them, may submit ourselves unto them, in nothing resisting Thy will. Grant unto them therefore, O Lord, health, peace, concord, stability, that they may administer the government which Thou hast given them without failure. For Thou, O heavenly Master, King of the ages, givest to the sons of men glory and honour and power over all things that are upon the earth. Do Thou, Lord, direct their counsel according to that which is good and well-pleasing in Thy sight. Still more significant is the letter of Polycarp, which was written very shortly after he had met Ignatius on his road to martyrdom; in it he emphasizes the Christian custom by combining the command to pray for rulers with that to love our enemies. Pray also for kings and powers and princes and for them that persecute and hate you and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest among all men that ye may be perfect in Him. (Clem. Rom. 60, 61; Polyc. ad Phil. xii.)
It is not necessary to give further instances of a custom which prevailed extensively or universally in the early Church. It became a commonplace of apologists (Just. Mart. Apol. i. 17; Athenagoras, Leg. xxxvii; Theophilus, i. 11; Tertullian, Apol. 30, 39, ad Scap. 2; Dion. Alex. ap Eus. H. E. VII. xi; Arnob. iv. 36) and is found in all liturgies (cf. Const. Ap. viii. 12).
One particular phase in the interpretation of this chapter demands a passing notice. In the hands of the Jacobean and Caroline divines it was held to support the doctrine of Passive Obedience. This doctrine has taken a variety of forms. Some held that a Monarchy as opposed to a Republic is the only scriptural form of government, others that a legitimate line alone has this divine right. A more modified type of this teaching may be represented by a sermon of Bishop Berkeley (Passive Obedience or the Christian Doctrine of not resisting the supreme power, proved and vindicated upon the principles of the law of nature in a discourse delivered at the College Chapel, 1712. Works, iii. p. 101). He takes as his text Rom 13:2 Whosoever resisteth the Power, resisteth the ordinance of God. He begins It is not my design to inquire into the particular nature of the government and constitution of these kingdoms. He then proceeds by assuming that there is in every civil community, somewhere or other, placed a supreme power of making laws, and enforcing the observation of them. His main purpose is to prove that Loyalty is a moral virtue, and thou shalt not resist the supreme power, a rule or law of nature, the least breach whereof hath the inherent stain of moral turpitude. And he places it on the same level as the commandments which St. Paul quotes in this same chapter.
Bishop Berkeley represents the doctrine of Passive Obedience as expounded in its most philosophical form. But he does not notice the main difficultySt. Paul gives no directions as to what ought to be done when there is a conflict of authority. In his day there could be no doubt that the rule of Caesar was supreme and had become legitimate: all that he had to condemn was an incorrect view of the kingdom of heaven as a theocracy established on earth, whether it were held by Jewish zealots or by Christians. He does not discuss the question, if there were two claimants for the Empire which should be supported? for it was not a practical difficulty when he wrote. So Bishop Berkeley, by his use of the expression somewhere or other, equally evades the difficulty. Almost always when there is a rebellion or a civil war the question at issue is, Who is the rightful governor? which is the power ordained by God?
But there is a side of the doctrine of Passive Obedience which requires emphasis, and which was illustrated by the Christianity of the first three centuries. The early Christians were subject to a power which required them to do that which was forbidden by their religion. To that extent and within those limits they could not and did not obey it; but they never encouraged in any way resistance or rebellion. In all things indifferent the Christian conformed to existing law; he obeyed the law not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience sake. He only disobeyed when it was necessary to do so for conscience sake. The point of importance is the detachment of the two spheres of activity. The Church and the State are looked upon as different bodies, each with a different work to perform. To designate this or that form of government as Christian, and support it on these grounds, would have been quite alien to the whole spirit of those days. The Church must influence the world by its hold on the hearts and consciences of individuals, and in that way, and not by political power, will the Kingdom of God come.
LOVE THE FULFILMENT OF ALL LAW
13:8-10. There is one debt which the Christian must always be paying but never can discharge, that of love. All particular precepts are summed up in that of love, which makes injury to any man impossible.
8. St. Paul passes from our duties towards superiors to that one principle which must control our relations towards all men, love. In 12:9 the principle of love is introduced as the true solution of all difficulties which may arise from rivalry in the community; here it is represented as at the root of all regulations as to our relations to others in any of the affairs of life.
must be imperative as the negatives show. It sums up negatively the results of the previous verse and suggests the transition, Pay every one their due and owe no man anything.
: Let your only debt that is unpaid be that of love-a debt which you should always be attempting to discharge in full, but will never succeed in discharging. Permanere tamen et nunquam cessare a nobis debitum caritatis: hoc enim et quotidie solvere et semper debere expedit nobis. Orig. By this pregnant expression St. Paul suggests both the obligation of love and the impossibility of fulfilling it. This is more forcible than to suppose a change in the meaning of : Owe no man anything, only ye ought to love one another.
… gives the reason why love is so important: if a man truly loves another he has fulfilled towards him the whole law. is not merely the Jewish law, although it is from it that the illustrations that follow are taken, but law as a principle. Just as in the relations of man and God has been substituted for , so between man and man takes the place of definite legal relations. The perfect implies that the fulfilment is already accomplished simply in the act of love.
9. St. Paul gives instances of the manner in which love fulfils law. No man who loves another will injure him by adultery, by murder, by theft, &c. They are all therefore summed up in the one maxim thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, as indeed they were also in the Old Covenant.
The AV. adds after in this verse from the O. T. with P &c., Boh. &c., as against A B D E F G L &c., Vulg. codd. and most Fathers. before is omitted by B F G. For of the older MSS. ( A B D E), later MSS. read , both here and elsewhere. In late Greek became habitually used for all persons in the reflexive, and scribes substituted the form most usual to them.
The order of the commandments is different from that in the Hebrew text, both in Exo 20:13 and Deu 5:17, namely, (6) Thou shalt do no murder, (7) Thou shalt not commit adultery, (8) Thou shalt not steal. The MSS. of the LXX vary; in Exodus B reads 7, 8, 6, A F 6, 7, 8; in Deut. B reads 7, 6, 8 (the order here), A F 6, 7, 8. The order of Romans is that also of Luk 18:20; Jam 2:11; Philo De Decalogo; Clem.-Alex. Strom. vi. 16.
shows that St. Paul in this selection has only taken instances and that he does not mean merely to give a summing up of the Jewish law.
: a rhetorical term used of the summing up of a speech or argument, and hence of including a large number of separate details under one head. As used in Eph 1:10 of God summing up all things in Christ it became a definite theological term, represented in Latin by recapitulatio (Iren. III. xxii. 2).
. Taken from Lev 19:18 where it sums up a far longer list of commandments. It is quoted Mat 22:39; Mar 12:31; Luk 10:27; Gal 5:14; Jam 2:8 where it is called .
10. . Love fulfils all law, because no one who loves another will do him any ill by word or deed. These words sum up what has been said at greater length in 1Co 13:4-6.
, complete fulfilment. The meaning of . here is given by ver. 9 He that loveth his neighbour has fulfilled () law, therefore love is the fulfilment () of law.
The History of the word .
There are three words in Greek all of which may be translated by the English love, , , . Of these with its cognate form was originally associated with the sexual passion and was thence transferred to any strong passionate affection; was used rather of warm domestic affection, and so of the love of master and servant, of parents and children, of husband and wife; in Homer, of the love of the gods for men. is combined with and contrasted with as in Xen. Hier. xi. 11 . One special use of and must be referred to, namely, the Platonic. The intensity and strength of human passion seemed to Plato to represent most adequately the love of the soul for higher things, and so the philosophic was used for the highest human desire, that for true knowledge, true virtue, true immortality.
The distinction of and much resembled that between ame and diligo. The one expressed greater affection, the other greater esteem. So Dio Cassius xliv. 48 ; and Joh 21:15-17 , , ; , , … (see Trench, Syn. xii). It is significant that no distinction is absolute; but occasionally, still more rarely , are both used incorrectly of the sexual passion. There is too close a connexion between the different forms of human affection to allow any rigid distinction to be made in the use of words.
When these words were adopted into Hellenistic Greek, a gradual change was made in their use. and its cognates are very rarely used, and almost invariably in a bad sense. In the N. T. they do not occur at all, the word being employed instead. Yet occasionally, even in biblical and ecclesiastical Greek, the higher sense of the Platonic finds a place (Pro 4:6; Wisdom 8:2; Justin, Dial. 8, p. 225 B; Clem.-Alex. Coh. ii, p. 90; see Lightfoot, Ignatius ad Rom. vii. 2). Between and a decided preference was shown for the former. It occurs about 268 times (Hatch and Redpath) in a very large proportion of cases as a translation of the Hebrew ; about twelve times (Trommius), excluding its use as equivalent to osculor. This choice was largely due to the use of the Hebrew word to express the love of God to man, and of man to God (Deu 23:5; Deu 30:6; Hos 3:1); it was felt that the greater amount of intellectual desire and the greater severity implied in fitted it better than for this purpose. But while it was elevated in meaning it was also broadened; it is used not only of the love of father and son, of husband and wife, but also of the love of Samson for Delilah (Jud 1:16:4) and of Hoseas love for his adulterous wife (Hos 3:1). Nor can there be any doubt that to Hebrew writers there was in a pure love of God or of righteousness something of the intensity which is the highest characteristic of human passion (Isa 62:5). in the LXX corresponds in all its characteristics to the English love.
But not only did the LXX use modify the meaning of , it created a new word . Some method was required of expressing the conception which was gradually growing up. had too sordid associations. was tried (Wisdom 7:14; 8:18), but was felt to be inadequate. The language of the Song of Solomon created the demand for . (2Ki_1 or 2 times; Ecc_2; Canticles 11; Wisdom 2; Ecclus. 1; Jer_1; Ps. Son_1.)
The N. T. reproduces the usage of the LXX, but somewhat modified. While is used 138 times, is used in this sense 22 times (13 in St. Johns Gospel); generally when special emphasis has to be laid on the relations of father and son. But the most marked change is in the use of . It is never used in the Classical writers, only occasionally in the LXX; in early Christian writers its use becomes habitual and general. Nothing could show more clearly that a new principle has been created than this creation of a new word.
In the Vulgate is sometimes rendered by dilectio, sometimes by caritas; to this inconsistency are due the variations in the English Authorized Version. The word caritas passed into English in the Middle Ages (for details see Eng. Dict. sub voc.) in the form charity, and was for some time used to correspond to most of the meanings of ; but as the English Version was inconsistent and no corresponding verb existed the usage did not remain wide. In spite of its retention in 1Co_13. charity became confined in all ordinary phraseology to benevolence, and the Revised Version was compelled to make the usage of the New Testament consistent.
Whatever loss there may have been in association and in the rhythm of well-known passages, there is an undoubted gain. The history of the word is that of the collection under one head of various conceptions which were at any rate partially separated, and the usage of the N. T. shows that the distinction which has to be made is not between , and , but between and . The English language makes this distinction between the affection or passion in any form, and a purely animal desire, quite plain; although it may be obliterated at times by a natural euphemism. But setting aside this distinction which must be occasionally present to the mind, but which need not be often spoken of, Christianity does not shrink from declaring that in all forms of human passion and affection which are not purely animal there is present that same love which in its highest and most pure development forms the essence and sum of the Christian religion. This affection, however perverted it may be, Christianity does not condemn, but so far as may be elevates and purifies.
The Christian Teaching on Love
The somewhat lengthy history just given of the word is a suitable introduction to the history of an idea which forms a fundamental principle of all Christian thought.
The duty of love in some form or other had been a common-place of moral teaching in times long before Christianity and in many different places. Isolated maxims have been collected in its favour from very varied authors, and the highest pagan teaching approaches the highest Christian doctrine. But in all previous philosophy such teaching was partial or isolated, it was never elevated to a great principle. Maxims almost or quite on a level with those of Christianity we find both in the O. T. and in Jewish writers. The command Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself is of course taken directly from the O. T., and is there used to sum up in one general principle a long series of rules. Sayings of great beauty are quoted from the Jewish fathers. Hillel said, Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and bringing them nigh to the Torah (Pirq Aboth i. 13); or again, What is hateful to thyself do not to thy fellow; this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary; go study, also ascribed to Hillel. It is however true in all cases that these maxims, and all such as these, are only isolated instances, that they do not represent the spirit of earlier institutions, and that they form a very insignificant proportion compared with much of a different character.
In Christianity this principle, which had been only partially understood and imperfectly taught, which was known only in isolated examples, yet testified to a universal instinct, was finally put forward as the paramount principle of moral conduct, uniting our moral instincts with our highest religious principles. A new virtue, or rather one hitherto imperfectly understood, had become recognized as the root of all virtues, and a new name was demanded for what was practically a new idea.
In the first place, the new Christian doctrine of love is universal. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; and a very definite reason is given, the universal Fatherhood of God. This universalism which underlies all the teaching of Jesus is put in a definite practical form by St. Paul, In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. As it is summed up in a well-known work. The first law, then, of the kingdom of God is that all men, however divided from each other by blood or language, have certain mutual duties arising out of their common relation to God (Ecce Homo, chap. 12).
But secondly, the Christian doctrine of love was the substitution of a universal principle for law. All moral precepts are summed up in the one command of love. What is my duty towards others? Just that feeling which you have towards the persons to whom you are most attached in the world, just that you must feel for every one. If you have that feeling there will be no need for any further command. Love is a principle and a passion, and as such is the fulfilment of the Law. Christ declared an ardent, passionate, or devoted state of mind to be the root of virtue; and this purifying passion, capable of existing in all men alike, will be able to redeem our nature and make laws superfluous.
And thirdly, how is this new Christian spirit possible? It is possible because it is intimately bound up with that love which is a characteristic of the Godhead. God is love. A new commandment I give to you, that ye should love one another as I have loved you. It is possible also because men have learnt to love mankind in Christ. Where the precept of love has been given, an image must be set before the eyes of those who are called on to obey it, an ideal or type of man which may be noble and amiable enough to raise the whole race, and make the meanest member of it sacred with reflected glory. This is what Christ did for us.
These three points will help to elucidate what St. Paul means by . It is in fact the correlative in the moral world to what faith is in the religious life. Like faith it is universal; like faith it is a principle not a code; like faith it is centred in the Godhead. Hence St. Paul, as St. John (1Jn 3:23), sums up Christianity in Faith and Love, which are finally, united in that Love of God, which is the end and root of both.
THE DAY IS AT HAND
13:11-14. The night of this corrupt age is flying. The Parousia is nearing. Cast off your evil ways. Gird yourselves with the armour of light. Take Christ into your hearts. Shun sin and self-indulgence.
11. The Apostle adds a motive for the Christian standard of life, the nearness of our final salvation.
, and that too: cp. 1Co 6:6, 1Co 6:8; Eph 2:8, &c.: it resumes the series of exhortations implied in the previous sections; there is no need to supply any special words with it.
: used of a definite, measured, or determined time, and so almost technically of the period before the second coming of Christ: cf. 1Co 7:29 ; Mar 1:15; and so (Heb 9:9).
… with . The time of trial on earth is looked upon as a night of gloom, to be followed by a bright morning. We must arouse ourselves from slumber and prepare ourselves for the light.
… For our completed salvation, no longer that hope of salvation which sustains us here, is appreciably nearer for us than when we first accepted in faith the Messianic message. refers to the actual moment of the acceptance of Christianity. The language is that befitting those who expect the actual coming of Christ almost immediately, but it will fit the circumstances of any Christian for whom death brings the day.
In ver. 11 the original ( A B C P, Clem.-Alex.) has been corrected for the sake of uniformity into (c D E F G L, &c., Boh. Sah.). In ver. 13 is a variant of B, Sah., Clem.-Alex. Amb. In ver. 14, B, and Clem.-Alex. read , which may very likely be the correct reading.
12. , has advanced towards dawn. Cf. Luk 2:52; Gal 1:14; Jos. Bell. Jud. IV. 4:6; Just. Dial. p. 277 d.
The contrast of , , and with and finds many illustrations in Christian and in all religious literature.
. The works of darkness, i.e. works such as befit the kingdom of darkness, are represented as being cast off like the uncomely garments of the night, for the bright armour which befits the Christian soldier as a member of the kingdom of light. This metaphor of the Christian armour is a favourite one with St. Paul (1Th 5:8; 2Co 6:7; Rom 6:13; and especially Eph 6:13 f.); it may have been originally suggested by the Jewish conception of the last great fight against the armies of Antichrist (Dan_10; Orac. Sib. 3. 663 f.; 4 Ezra 13:33; Enoch xc.16), but in St. Paul the conception has become completely spiritualized.
13. . The metaphor of conduct is very common in St. Pauls Epistles, where it occurs thirty-three times (never in the Past. Epp.); elsewhere in the N. T. sixteen times.
, rioting, revelry (Gal 5:21; 1Pe 4:3). the drunkenness which would be the natural result and accompaniment of such revelry.
, unlawful intercourse and wanton acts. , , , . Euthym.-Zig.
14. . Christ is put on first in baptism (6:3; Gal 3:27), but we must continually renew that life with which we have been clothed (Eph 4:24; Col 3:12).
with : the word is thrown forward in order to emphasize the contrast between the old nature, the flesh of sin, and the new, the life in Christ.
On this passage most commentators compare St. Aug. Confess. 8:12, 23 Arripui, aperui et legi in silentio capitulum, quo primum coniecti sunt oculi mei: Non in conversationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et aemulatione: sed induite Dominum Iesum Christum, et carnis providentiam ne feceritis in concupiscentiis. Nec ultra volui legere, nec opus erat. Statim quippe cum fine huiusce sententiae quasi luce securitatis infusa cordi meo, omnes dubitationis tenebrae diffugerunt.
The early Christian belief in the nearness of the .
There can hardly be any doubt that in the Apostolic age the prevailing belief was that the Second Coming of the Lord was an event to be expected in any case shortly and probably in the life-time of many of those then living; it is also probable that this belief was shared by the Apostles themselves. For example, so strongly did such views prevail among the Thessalonian converts that the death of some members of the community had filled them with perplexity, and even when correcting these opinions St. Paul speaks of we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of our Lord; and in the second Epistle, although he corrects the erroneous impression which still prevailed that the coming was immediate and shows that other events must precede it, he still contemplates it as at hand. Similar passages may be quoted from all or most of the Epistles, although there are others that suggest that it is by his own death, not by the coming of Christ, that St. Paul expects to attain the full life in Christ to which he looked forward (1Co 7:29-31; Rom 13:11, Rom 13:12; Php 4:5; and on the other side 2Co 5:1-10; Php 1:23; Php 3:11, Php 3:20, Php 3:21; see Jowett, Thessalonians, &c., i. p. 105, who quotes both classes of passages without distinguishing them).
How far was this derived from our Lords own teaching? There is, it is true, very clear teaching on the reality and the suddenness of the coming of Christ, and very definite exhortation to all Christians to live as expecting that coming. This teaching is couched largely in the current language of Apocalyptic literature which was often hardly intended to be taken literally even by Jewish writers; moreover it is certainly mingled with teaching which was intended to refer to what was a real manifestation of the Divine power, and very definitely a coming of the Lord in the O. T. sense of the term, the destruction of Jerusalem. All this language again is reported to us by those who took it in a literal sense. The expressions of our Lord quoted as prophetic of His speedy return are all to a certain extent ambiguous; for example, This generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled, or again There be some of them here who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of man coming with power. On the other side there is a very distinct tradition preserved in documents of different classes recording that when our Lord was asked definitely on such matters His answers were ambiguous. Act 1:7 It is not for you to know times and seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority. Joh 21:23 This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, that he should not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Moreover he affirmed that He Himself was ignorant of the date Mar 13:32; Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.
In the face of these passages it is reasonable to believe that this ignorance of the Early Church was permitted and that with a purpose. If so, we may be allowed to speculate as to the service it was intended to fulfil.
In the first place, this belief in the nearness of the second coming quickened the religious and moral earnestness of the early Christian. Believing as intently as he did that the fashion of this world passeth away, he set his affection on things above; he lived in the world and yet not of the world. The constant looking forward to the coming of the Lord produced a state of intense spiritual zeal which braced the Church for its earliest and hardest task.
And secondly, it has been pointed out very ably how much the elasticity and mobility of Christianity were preserved by the fact that the Apostles never realized that they were building up a Church which was to last through the ages. It became the fashion of a later age to ascribe to the Apostles a series of ordinances and constitutions. Any such theory is quite inconsistent with the real spirit of their time. They never wrote or legislated except so far as existing needs demanded. They founded such institutions as were clearly required by some immediate want, or were part of our Lords teaching. But they never administered or planned with a view to the remote future. Their writings were occasional, suggested by some pressing difficulty; but they thus incidentally laid down great broad principles which became the guiding principles of the Church. The Church therefore is governed by case law, not by code law: by broad principles, not by minute regulations. It may seem a paradox, but yet it is profoundly true, that the Church is adapted to the needs of every age, just because the original preachers of Christianity never attempted to adapt it to the needs of any period but their own.
The relation of Chaps. 12-14 to the Gospels
There is a very marked resemblance between the moral teaching of St. Paul contained in the concluding section of the Epistle to the Romans, and our Lords own words; a resemblance which, in some cases, extends even to language.
Rom 12:14.Mat 5:44.
, . , .
Rom 13:7. Mat 22:21.
… , .
Rom 13:9. Mat 22:39, Mat 22:40.
, , . , . .
To these verbal resemblances must be added remarkable identity of teaching in these successive chapters. Everything that is said about revenge, or about injuring others, is exactly identical with the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount; our duty towards rulers exactly reproduces the lesson given in St. Matthews Gospel; the words concerning the relation of love to law might be an extract from the Gospel: the two main lines of argument in ch. xiv, the absolute indifference of all external practices, and the supreme importance of not giving a cause of offence to any one are both directly derived from the teaching of Jesus (Mat 18:6, Mat 18:7, 15:Mat 18:11-20). This resemblance is brought out very well by a recent writer (Knowling, Witness of the Epistles, p. 312): Indeed it is not too much to add that the Apostles description of the kingdom of God (Rom 14:17) reads like a brief summary of its description in the same Sermon on the Mount; the righteousness, peace, and joy, which formed the contents of the kingdom in the Apostles conception are found side by side in the Saviours Beatitudes; nor can we fail to notice how both St. Matthew and St. Luke contrast the anxious care for meat and drink with seeking in the first place for the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Nor must it be forgotten that Pauls fundamental idea of righteousness may be said to be rooted in the teaching of Jesus.
It is well known that there are definite references by St. Paul to the words of our Lord: so 1Th 4:15 = Mat 24:31; 1Co 7:10 = Mar 10:9; 1Co 9:14 = Luk 10:7; as also in the case of the institution of the Last Supper, 1Co 11:24. Reminiscences also of the Sermon on the Mount may be found in other Epistles, e. g. Jam 4:9 = Mat 5:4; Jam 5:12 = Mat 5:33; 1Pe 3:9 = Mat 5:39; 1Pe 4:14 = Mat 5:11, Mat 5:12, and elsewhere. The resemblances are not in any case sufficient either to prove the use of any document which we possess in its present form, or to prove the use of a different document (see below); but they do show that the teaching of the Apostles was based on some common source, which was identical both in substance and spirit with those words of our Lord contained in the Gospels.
They suggest further that even in cases where we have no direct evidence that Apostolic teaching is based on the Gospel narrative it does not follow that our Lord Himself did not originate it. For Christianity is older than any of its records. The books of the N. T. reflect, they did not originate, the teaching of early Christianity. Moreover, our Lord originated principles. It was these principles which inspired His followers; some of the words which are the product of and which taught those principles are preserved, some are not; but the result of them is contained in the words of the Apostles, which worked out in practical life the principles they had learnt directly or indirectly from the Christ.
A much more exact and definite conclusion is supported with very great industry by Alfred Resch in a series of investigations, the first of which is Agrapha, Aussercanonische Evangelien-fragmente in Texte und Untersuchungen, 5:4. He argues (pp. 28, 29) that the acquaintance shown by St. Paul with the words and teaching of Jesus implies the use of an Urcanonische Quellenschrift, which was also used by St. Mark, as well as the other N. T. writers. It would be of course beside our purpose to examine this theory, but so far as it concerns the passages we are considering it may be noticed: (1) That so far as they go there would be no reason why all St. Pauls teaching should not have been derived from our present Gospels. He does not profess to be quoting, and the verbal reminiscences might quite well represent the documents we possess. (2) That it is equally impossible to argue against the use of different Gospels. The only legitimate conclusion is that there must have been a common teaching of Jesus behind the Apostles words which was identical in spirit and substantially in words with that contained in our Synoptic Gospels. Some stress is laid by Resch (pp.245, 302 ff.) on passages which are identical in Romans and 1 Peter. So Rom 12:17 = 1Pe 3:9; Rom 13:1, Rom 13:3 = 1Pe 2:13, 1Pe 2:14. The resemblance is undoubted, but a far more probable explanation is that 1 Peter is directly indebted to the Romans (see Introduction 8). There is no reason to cite these as Words of the Lord; yet it is very probable that much more of the common teaching and even phraseology of the early Church than we are accustomed to imagine goes back to the teaching of Jesus.
Tert. Tertullian.
Jos. Josephus.
Cod. Sinaiticus
A Cod. Alexandrinus
B Cod. Vaticanus
L Cod. Angelicus
P Cod. Porphyrianus
Bas. Basil.
Chrys. Chrysostom.
Orig. Origen.
D Cod. Claromontanus
F Cod. Augiensis
G Cod. Boernerianus
Boh. Bohairic.
Vulg. Vulgate.
Clem.-Alex. Clement of Alexandria.
Orig.-lat. Latin Version of Origen
Syrr. Syriac.
Arm. Armenian.
Aeth. Ethiopic.
Eus. Eusebius.
&c. always qualify the word which precedes, not that which follows:
AV. Authorized Version.
E Cod. Sangermanensis
codd. codices.
Sah. Sahidic.
Amb. Ambrose.
Euthym.-Zig. Euthymius Zigabenus.
Aug. Augustine.
Rendering to All Their Dues
Rom 13:1-7
Human government, like the existence of the family relationship, is a divine institution. It is part of the order of the world and rooted in the original conception of the race. It was never intended that we should live as individual units, but as members of family and state. It is evident, therefore, that the authority which is wielded by the ruler expresses, generally speaking, a divine principle. The comfort and well-being of society are better attained in that way than in any other, and the recognition of this principle carries with it the assent of our intuitive convictions. We must render therefore to all their dues.
But it must be acknowledged, also, that there are limits beyond which imperial or legislative authority may not go. When Nero, according to tradition, bade the Apostle to abandon his faith as the condition of liberty, Paul did not hesitate to say that the emperor was intruding on a province to which he had no claim, and that he must obey God rather than man. So far as our life in a community goes, there must be some form of government, which may be modeled according to the varying opinions of men, whether monarchical or republican, autocratic or socialistic; but when once it has been agreed upon, it must be obeyed, unless it forfeits confidence, in which case a new order becomes necessary.
Lecture 11 – Romans Chapters 13-16
The Will of God as to the Believers Relation to Government and to Society; and the Closing Sections
Chapters 13-16.
The position of the Christian in this world is necessarily, under the present order of things, a peculiarly difficult and almost anomalous one. He is a citizen of another world, passing as a stranger and a pilgrim through a strange land. Presumably loyal in heart to the rightful King, whom earth rejected and counted worthy only of a malefactors cross, he finds himself called upon to walk in a godly and circumspect way in a scene of which Satan, the usurper, is the prince and god. Yet he is not to be an anarchist, nor is he to flaunt the present order of things. His rule ever should be: We must obey God rather than man. Nevertheless he is not to be found in opposition to human government, even though the administrators of that government may be men of the most unrighteous type. As we come to the study of this thirteenth chapter, it is well for us to remember that he who sat upon the throne of empire when Paul gave this instruction concerning obedience to the powers that be, was one of the vilest beasts in human form whoever occupied a throne-a sensuous, sensual brute, who ripped up the body of his own mother in order that he might see the womb that bore him-an evil, blatant egotist of most despicable character, whose cruelties and injustices beggar all description. And yet God in His providence permitted this demon-controlled wretch to wear the diadem of the greatest empire the world had yet known. Paul himself designates him elsewhere as a savage beast, when he writes to the young preacher Timothy, God delivered me out of the mouth of the lion. While the powers of the emperor were more or less circumscribed by the laws and the Senate, nevertheless his rule was one that could not but spell ruin and disaster for many of the early Christians. What faith was required on their part to obey the instruction given by the Spirit of God in the first seven verses of this chapter! And if under such government Christians were called upon to be obedient, surely there is no place for sedition, or rebellion, under any government. The potsherds of the earth may strive with the potsherds of the earth, and one government may be overthrown by another; but whichever government is established in power at a given time, the Christian is to be subject to it. He has the resource of prayer if its edicts are tyrannous and unjust, but he is not to rise in rebellion against it. This is a hard saying for some of us, I know, but if any be in doubt let him read carefully the verses now before us. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God (Ver. Rom 13:1).
This is not to seek to establish the doctrine of the divine right of kings, but it simply means this: That God, who sets up one man and puts down another for His own infinitely wise purpose, ordains that certain forms of government or certain rulers shall be in the place of authority at a given time. As the book of Daniel tells us, He sets over the nations the basest of men at times as a punishment for their wickedness; but in any case, there could be no authority if not providentially permitted and therefore recognized by Himself. To resist this authority, the second verse shows us, is to resist a divine ordinance. But it would certainly be far-fetched to say that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation, if by damnation we mean everlasting punishment. The word here, as in 1Corinthians Chapter 11, means judgment, but not in the sense of eternal judgment necessarily. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Even a Nero respected such as walked in obedience to the law. The reason he persecuted the Christians was that they were reported to be opposed to existing institutions. He, then, who would not be afraid of those in authority is called upon to walk in obedience to the law- to do good, and thus his righteousness will be recognized; for, after all, the ruler is the minister of God to each one for good. But he who does evil, violating the institutions of the realm, may well fear, for into the magistrates hand has been committed by God Himself, the sword, which he does not bear in vain, and he is set by God to be His minister in the government of the world and to execute judgment upon those who act in a criminal way. So, then, the Christian is called upon to be subject to government, not only to avoid condemnation, but also that he may himself maintain a good conscience toward God. Let him pay tribute, even though at times the demands may seem to be unrighteous, rendering to all their dues, paying his taxes honorably, and thus showing that he desires in all things to be subject to the government.
It will be observed that all the instruction we have here puts the Christian in the place of subjection, and not of authority; but, if in the providence of God, he be born to the purple, or put in the place of authority, he, too, is to be bound by the word of God as here set forth.
The balance of the chapter has to do with the Christians relation to society in general, and that in view of the coming of the Lord and the soon-closing up of the present dispensation. He is to maintain the attitude not of a debtor but a giver; to owe no man anything, but rather to let love flow out freely to all. For every moral precept of the second table of the law, which sets forth mans duty to his neighbor, is summed up in the words: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. He who thus loves could, by no possibility, ever be guilty of adultery, murder, theft, lying, or covetousness. It is impossible that love should be manifested in such ways as these. Love work-eth no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. It is in this way that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, as we have already seen in looking at Chapter Rom 8:1-4.
Every passing day brings the dispensation of grace nearer to its end and hastens the return of the Lord. It is not for the Christian, then, to be sleeping among the dead, but to be fully awake to his responsibilities and privileges, realizing that the salvation for which we wait-the redemption of the body-is nearer now than when we believed. The night when Satans sway bears rule over the earth has nearly drawn to its close. Already the light of day begins to dawn. It is not, therefore, for those who have been saved by grace to have aught to do with works of darkness, but rather, as soldiers, to have on the armor of light, standing for that which is of God, living incorruptly as in the full light of day, not in debauchery or wantonness of any kind, neither in strife and envying; but having put on the Lord Jesus Christ, having confessed themselves as one with Him, to take the place of death with Him in a practical sense, thus making no provision for the indulgence of the lust of the flesh. It was these two closing verses of this thirteenth chapter that spoke so loudly to the heart of Augustine of Hippo when, after years of distress, he was fearful to confess Christ openly, even when intellectually convinced that he should be a Christian, lest he would find himself unable to hold his carnal nature in subjection, and so might bring grave discredit upon the cause with which he thought of identifying himself. But as he read the words: Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof the Spirit of God opened his eyes to see that the power for victory was not in himself, but in the fact that he was identified with a crucified and risen Saviour.
As he gazed by faith upon His blessed face and the Holy Spirit showed him something of the truth of union with Christ, he entered into the assurance of salvation and realized victory over sin. When in an unexpected way he came face to face with one of the beautiful but wanton companions of his former days, he turned and ran. She followed, crying, Austin, Austin, why do you run? It is only I. He replied as he sped on his way, I run, because it is not I! Thus he made no provision for the flesh.
Rom 13:1
The Principles and Method of Christian Civilisation.
I. It may not be certain that this Epistle was written at one of the worst moments of Roman tyranny. It may possibly belong to that short interval of promise which preceded the full outburst of Nero’s natural atrocity. But the character which the empire had assumed must have been perfectly well known to St. Paul. It could have been no surprise to him that within a few years the Christians whom he was addressing should be called to expiate the emperor’s own crime by frightful tortures, or that he himself should be one of the victims. He wrote to prepare them for such events. And yet he says, “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for they are ordained of God.”
II. We lose, it seems to me, much of the Apostle’s meaning, and pervert it to a purpose the most opposite to that which he contemplated, while, at the same time, we weaken the obligation which is laid upon us, if we do not perceive that these words contain the most strong and effectual protest ever made against the tyranny which they command Christian men patiently to endure. The very reason upon which St. Paul rests his exhortation to the Roman Christians is the reason which proves all such oppression as the Roman emperors were guilty of to be a false and hateful thing, a contradiction so gross and monstrous, that it can last only for a short time. “There is no power but of God.” If the powers that be are ordained of men, they may be used according to the pleasure of men. It is merely a conflict between this form of self-will and that; between a despotism that exists and a despotism that is struggling to exist. If the powers that be are ordained of God, they must be designed to accomplish the good pleasure of God, all self-will must be at strife with a perfect will which is working continually for good. All efforts at absolute dominion must be a daring outrage upon Him who alone is absolute, and such struggles and such outrages, though they may be permitted a while for the fuller manifestation of that purpose which shall be accomplished in spite of them, have a lying root, and must at last come to nought.
F. D. Maurice, Christmas Day and Other Sermons, p. 393.
I. This text is a good illustration of the manner in which Christian doctrine is ever made by the apostles the ground of Christian duty. They do not often teach us new duties-in fact, there are very few duties in any part of the New Testament which were not either recognised in the Old, or else perceived to be duties by the light which is naturally in the human mind; but the great feature of the New Testament teaching is this, that all duties whatever are put upon a higher ground than they occupied before. What Christ has done for us is made the measure of what we should do and the argument why we should do it; and Christians are regarded not so much in the character of men who know more than their fellows, as in the character of men who feel themselves bound by the mercies of God and the love of Christ to offer themselves up a living sacrifice.
II. Note two or three reasons why we might have expected that the teaching of Christ’s disciples would not omit to lay stress upon the duty of honouring and submitting to the Queen. (1) In the first place, the general spirit of gentleness and longsuffering which belonged to all the teaching of Christ would suggest that quiet submission to authority was the right course for Christians. (2) Again, it is not to be forgotten that Christ Himself was declared to be a King, and that all Christians become by their profession subjects of this new kingdom. And in this kingdom submission was to be unlimited and obedience complete; the very lesson which all Christians had to learn was that they were bound to give themselves up with all their power and all their might to be a living sacrifice to Him who redeemed them, and to do His will with all their soul and strength. Hence, to a Christian the name of King was sanctified by its having been assumed by Christ, and the relation of people to king was hallowed. (3) Once more, the example of our Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh would have a great effect in enforcing such duties as those which the text contains. He who would not allow Himself to be made the means of insurrection when the people would take Him by force and make Him a King, and who paid the tribute to avoid giving offence, and who permitted Himself to be given up to the rulers and to be tried and condemned, would certainly have given His sanction to the doctrine of the text.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, vol. iv., p. 227.
References: Rom 13:1.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 88; C. Kingsley, National Sermons, p. 32. Rom 13:1-7.-Homilist, new series, vol. i., p. 141.
Rom 13:4
I. In the chapter from which my text is taken St. Paul speaks of civil rulers as ministers of God. He does not limit or soften his language to suit the circumstances of his own time. Nero’s will might be devilish; every power which he wielded was Divine. He had been appointed to rule the world which he tormented by Him who loved the world. He was the steward of His treasures even by, if he spent them in making those miserable whom they were intended to bless.
II. But St. Paul says further-“He is a minister of God to thee.” A strange assertion. The emperor’s existence was a testimony to the poor Christian that he belonged to the great Roman world, that he was concerned, whether he was citizen or slave, in its welfare and its misery. That was a great step in his education, in his moral and spiritual education.
III. “He is a minister of God to thee for good.” St. Paul writes this to men who might, in a short time, be lighting the city as torches to cover the guilt of him who set it on fire. Well! and was he not a minister of God to them for good if he was the instrument of inflicting that torture? The Apostle could venture the daring sentiment. He knew that by some means God would prove it to be true, for that generation and for all generations. And it will be known, some day, to how many men governments the most hypocritical and accursed have been ministers of good, by leading them from trifling to earnestness, by changing them from reckless plotters into self-denying patriots, by turning their atheism or devil-worship into a grounded faith in the God of truth. As Paul believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the King of men, he could not help believing that all human society was organised according to the law which He expressed in words, which He embodied in His incarnation and death-“The chief of all is the servant of all.” He could not doubt that every Christian ought to maintain the truth which Nero set at naught, and that if he did, it would prove itself in his case-Nero would be a minister of God for good to him.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 81.
Reference: Rom 13:4, Rom 13:5.-W. F. Fremantle, Church of England Pulpit, vol. i., p. 91.
Rom 13:7
The Doctrine of Obedience. Note:-
I. As suggested by the passage generally, the breadth and largeness of the gospel precepts. The broad principle is stated: obedience to lawful power. The application of it is left to reason, to conscience, to the inward guidance of the Holy Spirit.
II. The wholesomeness of the gospel teaching. There is nothing morbid in the Bible. Every one of Christ’s precepts, this one most of all, tends to make earth a scene of order and tranquillity in the very same degree in which it teaches men to regard earth as a small and insignificant portion of the whole of their space and the whole of their time.
III. Notice a few practical suggestions upon the principle here laid down. (1) Among these I must place foremost the charge to carry it out consistently in all departments of life. (2) If it is the duty of one to obey reverently, it must be the duty of another to rule well. Whatever be our position, however humble it may be in some aspects, yet so far as it is one of authority, if it be but over a few servants, each one of us is, in the sense here designed, “a minister of God,” an “officer of God.” (3) We must act upon the charge before us in small details. Such as (a) cheerfulness in bearing the burdens imposed on us for the state-service; (b) respectful language at all times about those in authority. (4) Once more, we are bound at all times to cherish, and from time to time more earnestly to express, a spirit of thankfulness to God Himself for His gift to us of government. (5) We should take a more lively interest than is, I fear, common amongst us, in those parts of our public worship which have a direct reference to the persons of our rulers and to the deliberations of our legislature.
C. J. Vaughan, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter, p. 39.
Rom 13:10
I. The law being an expression of the mind and will of God, we have only to study the character of God more closely to interpret more correctly the spirit and intention of the law. The character of God is known to us by His works, His providences, His revelations of Himself by prophets and saints, to whom He has made Himself known. Now, the confluence of all these streams of knowledge, derived from what He has said and done, issues in the revelation of a God of love. To begin with, the act of creation is a work of Almighty love. So it has been said with reason that if a man should realise his existence as a creature, he would be urged by his own consciousness to live a perfect life of love. But to come nearer than creation, to come to our personal contact with God, what is it that we find? The life we now enjoy rises in an ascending scale from peace and friendship and fellowship in work with God, to hope and promises beyond, from a seedtime of manifold experiences here to a harvest of immortality hereafter.
II. Consider some of the features of love. (1) In its aspect towards God, love has this note of encouragement, namely, that every movement of your love towards Him, though it be shortlived, intermittent and frail under temptation, is yet a witness to a certain congeniality and conformity of your nature to the nature of God. (2) Again, love is a motive which leads to imitation; you desire to grow like the one you love. (3) It is love that gives unity of design to the whole mechanism of the Catholic Church-its creeds, its sacraments, its ritual, its seasons, its festivals, its fasts, its penitences, and its joys. Just as the master-mind and the genius of one architect give order and harmony to the almost infinite details and creations of a Gothic church, so does love give system and symphony to the infinite varieties of the Christian life.
C. W. Furse, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 129.
Reference: Rom 13:10.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 28.
Rom 13:11
The Sleep of the Church.
There are many thoughts crowded together here, but each is necessary to the other. They will not bear to be separated, but we must disentangle them by considering how each of them bears on our own life and practice.
I. It is clear that the sleep or torpor which the Apostle speaks of is not one into which Jews or heathens had fallen. He was not writing to them. He was writing to a society of men confessing the faith of Jesus Christ, declaring Him to be the Image of God and the head of men. How could the Apostle think that such a society should fall into sleep? Because he knew what the temptation to it was in himself. He knew that he, who had been called by Christ Himself, who had had visions and revelations, who had been in the third heaven, might sink into indifference and listlessness.
II. A society is sleeping a death-sleep when its love becomes stagnant, when it is not a vigorous operative power. Now, St. Paul knew that no circumstances imparted this love to him; that if he depended on circumstances it perished. From personal experience he could testify that love to man might be as much killed by frosts as by suns; that if it is not kindled from within, everything from without may be fatal to it.
III. And how does he ward off the danger from himself? What contrivance does he use to wake them out of their slumbers? He reminded them that this indifference, lovelessness, this contention, self-seeking, was the accursed state out of which Christ came to redeem them. It was this hell into which He found His creatures sinking. It was to rescue them from this hell that He took flesh and dwelt among them and died on the cross and rose again and ascended on high. They had received the first pledges of this Redemption, of this Salvation. They had been enabled to feel and suffer for others, to desire their good, to love them as themselves. It was but a beginning; the glimpse of a Paradise; a first taste of the Tree of Life. They had a natural gravitation to self-indulgence, a preference for self-will, a desire for self-glory. These tendencies were always threatening to become supreme. Therefore St. Paul bids them think of the salvation which Christ had promised as something yet to come, as a blessing yet to be attained. This salvation from all which clogged their progress and hindered them from seeing things as they were-this salvation from lies, from hatred, from indifference-was all contained in the promise that He in whom is light and no darkness at all should be fully manifested. Every day and every hour was hastening on this manifestation, and therefore this salvation.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v., p. 15.
Rom 13:11
Self-denial the Test of Religious Earnestness.
I. By “sleep” in this passage St. Paul means a state of insensibility to things as they really are in God’s sight. When we are asleep we are absent from this world’s action as if we were no longer concerned in it. It goes on without us, and if our rest be broken and we have some slight notion of people and occurrences about us, if we hear a voice or a sentence and see a face, yet we are unable to catch these external objects justly and truly; we make them part of our dreams, and pervert them till they have scarcely a resemblance to what they really are: and such is the state of men as regards religious truth. Many live altogether as though the day shone not on them, but the shadows still endured; and far the greater part of them are but very faintly sensible of the great truths preached around them. They see and hear as people in a dream; they mix up the Holy Word of God with their own idle imaginings; if startled for a moment, still they soon relapse into slumber; they refuse to be awakened, and think their happiness consists in continuing as they are.
II. If a person asks how he is to know whether he is dreaming on in the world’s slumber, or is really awake and alive unto God, let him first fix his mind upon some one or other of his besetting infirmities. Many men have more than one, all of us have some one or other, and in resisting and overcoming such self-denial has its first employment. Be not content with a warmth of faith carrying you over many obstacles even in your obedience, forcing you past the fear of men and the usages of society and the persuasions of interest; exult not in your experience of God’s past mercies, and your assurance of what He has already done for your soul, if you are conscious you have neglected the one thing needful,-daily self-denial.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 57.
I. The text tells us what we are. St. Paul is addressing Christians, yet even they are asleep. Sleep is a torpor of the powers. The more complete the suspension of the energies, whether of brain or muscle or limb, the deeper, the sounder, the more thorough is the sleep. If the Christian man is spoken of as sleeping, it must be with reference to the inactivity, to the torpor, of his characteristic activities. St. Paul does not say that we sleepers may not be dreamers, may not be imaginers, may not be somnambulists. This would be just his idea of the Christian sleeper. The children of light, living like children of the world,-what are we, while this is true of us, but sleeping men, haunted by phantoms, disquieted by night’s illusions, and traversing (candle in hand) the chambers and halls and gardens of earth, with eyes closed and sealed to the light of an immortal day?
II. To awake out of sleep-what is it? There are acts of the soul as well as of the life. There are critical moments and there are decisive actions in the history of man’s spirit. St. Paul knew this-knew it in himself. A moment changed him from an enemy to a friend. He never looked back. It has been thus in ten thousand lives. St. Paul seems to recommend this kind of transaction-a transaction between a man and his soul, between a man and his life-in the short sharp watchword of the text.
III. The text adds a motive. “It is high time to awake.” The nearness of the Advent is the motive for the awaking. It is a gratuitous supposition that St. Paul positively expected the Advent within the lifetime of the then living. St. Paul knew who had said, “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man,” and yet had coupled with it the warning, “Therefore, be ye always ready.” Each generation-the first not least-each successively until the latest-should live in the expectation, gilding the darkness of death by the brightness of the coming. Happy they to whom it can be said, Christians, awake, for your salvation draweth nigh. This is the motive of the text.
C. J. Vaughan, Sundays in the Temple, p. 1.
References: Rom 13:11.-E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, p. 373; H. J. Wilmot Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 1; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 1st series, p. 1; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 286; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vii., p. 282; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College, p. 481; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2893. Rom 13:11, Rom 13:12.-G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons, p. 1; Homilist, new series, vol. ii., p. 456.
Rom 13:12
Inducements to Holiness.
I. The argument which is drawn from the greater nearness of death (for this is evidently the argument here employed) is not of the same urgency when applied to the believer as to the unbeliever. If I ply the unbeliever with the fact that he is approaching nearer and nearer destruction, I just tell him that he has less time in which to escape and therefore less likelihood of obtaining deliverance. He must do it before daybreak, and the night is far spent. But when I turn with a like argument to the believer, and bid him cast off the works of darkness because the day is at hand, there is by no means the same appearance of force in the motive. “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed”; and if a man be secure of salvation, so that his attainment of it does not depend on his striving for the rest of his life, to tell him that the end is at hand does not look like plying him with a proof of the necessity of exertion. But it is no Scriptural, and therefore no legitimate, feeling of security which can engender or excuse sluggishness. The only Scriptural certainty that a man will be saved is the certainty that he will struggle. Struggling is incipient salvation. Christ died to save us from our sins, and therefore the more striving there is against sin the more proportion is there of salvation. The Christian’s life is emphatically a life of labour. Ought not then this well-ascertained principle-the principle that the consciousness of the greater nearness of the end of a task generates fresh strength for the working it out-ought not this thoroughly to convince us that to remind a man of there being less time for toil should urge him to toil with more energy?
II. And if this suffice not to explain why the day being at hand should animate the Christian to the casting off of the works of darkness, we have two other reasons to advance-reasons why the consciousness of having less time to live should urge a man who feels sure of salvation to strive to be increasingly earnest in all Christian duties. The first reason is, because there is less time in which to strive for a high place in the kingdom of God; the second, because there is less time in which to glorify the Creator and Redeemer. Let these reasons be well considered and pondered, and they will, we think, show that there is full motive to “the casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armour of light” in the announced fact that the “night is far spent, the day is at hand.”
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2286.
Rom 13:12
The Day of the Lord.
It is more than eighteen hundred years since the Apostle uttered this exulting cry. We cannot repeat it today when once more we come to our Advent time without some sense of hopelessness. For what has come of it? we ask; is the night gone, is the day at hand? Century after century, with the indestructible aspiration of the heart, has this note of joy been taken up. and the aspiration has been disappointed and the joy unreached. The drama of mankind has been charged with so much action, apparently wasted, and so much suffering, apparently squandered, on the ground of this incessant hope, and yet the great end seems no nearer. On and on, stumbling in the night with bleeding feet and wearied brain, the great world has struggled forward, hoping for the dawn. “There is no radiance,” it mutters, “on the mountains yet. I hope for ever, that is my doom; but the night is deep, and the day delays. Would God I could see the morning glow!”
I. St. Paul was wrong when he expected the final close in his own time; but he was right in this-that a new day was near at hand. We are wrong when we think we are near to the last great hour of time; but we are right when our heart tells us that God is coming to bring light to our own souls, to awaken our nation out of wrong into right, to set on foot new thoughts which will renew the life of mankind, for that is His continuous and Divine work. The reason, then, denies the nearness of the time when God will close this era of the world, and denies it on account of the slowness of God’s work. In reality God’s work is never slow or fast; it always marches at a constant pace; but to our sixty or seventy years it seems of an infinite tardiness. We live and grasp our results so hurriedly, and we have so short a time in which to work, that we naturally find ourselves becoming impatient with God. To work quickly seems to us to work well. But we forget how, even in our little life, we lose the perfection of results by too great rapidity. We seclude no hours of wise quiet, and our thought is not matured. God never makes these mistakes, the mistakes of haste. He never forgets to let a man, a nation, the whole of mankind rest at times, that they may each assimilate the results of an era of activity.
II. But though that great day is far away, the heart asserts, and truly, that when there is deepest night over nations and the world and men, a day of the Lord is at hand; that a dawn is coming-not the last day, not the final dawn, but the uprising of Christ in light, deliverance, knowledge, and love. The belief is born not only out of our natural hatred of evil and suffering and the desire to be freed, but out of actual experience. Again and again have these days of the Lord come, has the night vanished and the sunlight burst on the world, not only in religion, but in the regeneration of societies, in the revolutions of nations, in the rush of great and creative thoughts over the whole of the civilised world. Men sunk in misery, ignorance, and oppression cried to the watchers, and the prophets answered, “The night is far spent,” we see the coming day. And never has their answer been left unfulfilled.
S. A. Brooke, The Spirit of the Christian Life, p. 262.
References: Rom 13:12.-H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 1; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 271; A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 219. Rom 13:12-14.-E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 1. Rom 13:14.-Homilist, 3rd series, vol. vii., p. 96; Archbishop Maclagan, Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 273; F. W. Farrar, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 286; H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 371. Rom 13:14.-J. B. Mozley, University Sermons, p. 46.
CHAPTER 13
1. Obedience to Authorities. (Rom 13:1-7.)
2. Love the Fulfilling of the Law. (Rom 13:8-10.)
3. The Day is at Hand. (Rom 13:11-14.)
Rom 13:1-7
The children of God are strangers and pilgrims in the world. Our citizenship is in heaven. But what is the Christian to do as living under different forms of government? The Christian is to be in subjection to these, for the powers that exist are ordained by Him. Resisting these powers would mean resistance to God who has ordained them. They are Gods ministers to maintain order. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. If Christians had always obeyed these injunctions, how well it would have been. But often they are forgotten and an attempt is made to control the politics of this age and to rule.
Rom 13:8-10
Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. The first sentence does not mean that it is wrong to borrow money. The question is about paying. If a debt is due it should be paid exactly on time. Borrowing money in a reckless way, without any prospect of returning the amount, is sinful, and often great dishonor has been brought upon the name of our Lord on account of it. But there is another debt which always remains. The Christian owes the debt of love to all. And this love is the fulfilling of the law. Love does not work ill to his neighbor. The natural man may claim that he keeps the sum of the other commandments, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, but he cannot do it. Only one who is born again, in whose heart there is love, has the power to do this.
Rom 13:11-14
The Coming of the Lord is brought before us in these verses as a motive to holy living. The final salvation is nearing, for the night is far spent and the day is at hand. The blessed hope is to be always before the Christians heart; it is a purifying hope. He that hath this hope set upon him purifieth himself as He is pure. In view of that approaching day, when we shall see Him face to face and be with Him in glory, the exhortations are given to awake out of sleep, to cast off the works of darkness, to put on the armor of light, to walk becomingly as in the day, to abstain from the things of the flesh, putting on the Lord Jesus and making no provisions for the flesh. We are to walk in the light as the children of the day, with faces set towards the coming glory. And never before were those exhortations more needed than now. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. The signs of the end of the age are seen everywhere, and yet in these solemn days how few of Gods people walk as the children of the day in the path of separation.
every: Deu 17:12, Eph 5:21, Tit 3:1, 1Pe 2:13-17, 2Pe 2:10, 2Pe 2:11, Jud 1:8
there: 1Sa 2:8, 1Ch 28:4, 1Ch 28:5, Psa 62:11, Pro 8:15, Pro 8:16, Jer 27:5-8, Dan 2:21, Dan 4:32, Dan 5:18-23, Mat 6:13, Joh 19:11, Rev 1:5, Rev 17:14, Rev 19:16
ordained: or, order
Reciprocal: Deu 16:18 – Judges Deu 17:11 – According to Jos 1:16 – General Jos 1:18 – he shall be 1Sa 10:25 – General 1Sa 12:3 – his anointed 1Sa 15:28 – hath given 1Sa 24:6 – the Lord forbid 2Ki 11:17 – between the king 1Ch 28:21 – willing 1Ch 29:23 – all Israel 2Ch 19:5 – General Job 19:29 – ye afraid Job 36:22 – God Psa 101:6 – Mine Pro 24:21 – fear Ecc 8:2 – I counsel Ecc 8:4 – the word Jer 29:7 – seek Dan 5:19 – that he Mal 4:4 – the law Mat 23:3 – whatsoever Mat 26:43 – for Joh 10:33 – makest Joh 10:35 – unto Act 13:48 – ordained Act 27:37 – souls 1Ti 2:2 – for all
THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN
Let every soul be subject unto the higher power. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:1
St. Paul is enforcing obedience to authority as a duty owed to God, and doubtless he realised the deep importance of the advice he was giving.
He lays stress upon it for many reasons.
I. Because the Jews in Rome were, as a race, antagonistic to the authority under which they were living. Obedience to it seemed to them to be directly opposed to all the teaching they had inherited. Already once they had been expelled from the city on account of their turbulence and disaffection. And St. Paul would have the Jewish Christians show no sympathy with such a rebellious attitude, but be above suspicion, standing aloof in this respect from their kinsfolk after the flesh.
II. Because Christians belong to another Kingdom, the Divine Kingdom, and there was a danger lest they should suppose that they were thereby released from earthly obligations. Hence it was all-important that they should bear in mind that inheritors though they were of the Kingdom of Heaven, their duty to earthly rulers remained unchanged. Nay, they must place it on a higher level, for they must accept their authority as ordained of God. It was for them to conduct themselves as good and loyal citizens under whatever rule they might find themselves.
III. How wise and far-reaching is this advice as we look into it!
(a) It has to do with rulers. We lose much of the force of the words if we do not perceive in them a protest against the tyranny of rulers. There is no power but of God. He is speaking of the powers, not of the men who wield them.
(b) It has to do with the ruled. Obedience always brings its own reward. The man who obeys for conscience sake is doing a work which can never be thrown on one side or overthrown.
Bishop C. J. Ridgeway.
Illustration
Nero is Emperor at the time when this letter is written, a monster of cruelty, the incarnation of wickedness, even in days when cruelty, profligacy, abuse of power are rampant in high places. And yet it is Christians dwelling there the Apostle enjoins to be in subjection to the powers that be. It is important to bear in mind that this duty of obedience to authority is no new thing, demanded for the first time by the religion of Christ. What Christianity does is to place this, like other duties that have been in the past, upon a higher ground than before.
THE EARLIER EXHORTATIONS of chapter 12 had to do with our behaviour in the Christian circle. Then from verse Rom 13:14 to the end we were instructed how to behave in relation to the men and women of the world, it being plainly assumed that we shall find a good deal of hostility in that quarter. As we open chapter 13, we are instructed how to act in regard to the governments and authorities of this world. A very important point this for the early Christians, who were frequently undergoing persecution from the authorities; and for us, whose lot is cast in an age when authority is treated with scant respect.
The Christians attitude is to be, in one word-subjection. We are to avoid resisting the power, that is setting ourselves in opposition to it. The reason given for this must be carefully noted: the powers that be are a divine institution, and to set oneself in opposition is to oppose the God, whom they are intended to represent, and to merit judgment. In these verses (1-7) authorities are viewed in their proper character according to the divine intention, rather than as they often are in actual practice.
At once, therefore, we may call out as to the sad travesty of authority so frequently seen. But we must remember that, when these words were penned, Nero had just about ascended the imperial throne in Rome, and the man who wrote the words was soon to suffer grievous things at the hands of the religious authorities in Jerusalem. Read Act 23:5; Act 26:25, noting in these instances how effectively Paul practised what here he teaches us. Only one thing exempts us from the subjection here demanded, and that is when subjection to authorities would involve us in disobedience to God. Then we must be obedient to the highest Authority. As Peter said, We ought to obey God rather than man (Act 5:29).
If we merely think of government as it exists in the world today we must certainly be confused. In all directions there are overturnings, with power passing into the hands of strange people. Under the slogan of Liberty worse tyrannies and atrocities take place than those enacted under the despots of older times. But if we look away to God and His Word, all becomes simple. We are not set in the world to make governments or to alter governments, but to seek the interests of our Lord, while yielding all proper honour and subjection to governments, whatever they may be. The instructions apply to such matters as tribute and custom, as verse Rom 13:7 shows. We are to pay all that is due in the way of rates, and custom, as well as income tax. What the authorities may do with our money, when they get it, is their matter, not ours. In the mercy of God we are relieved of that heavy responsibility.
Verse Rom 13:8 extends the thought, of rendering what is due, far beyond governments to all men. The Christian is to be free of all debt, except the debt of love. That he can never fully pay. The object of infinite love himself, his attitude is to be love in this unloving world. In so doing he fulfils the law though he is not put under it, as we saw so clearly in chapter 6.
All the foregoing is confirmed and fortified by what we get in the closing verses of the chapter. We should be characterized by this subjection and love, because we are left in the world during the period of its night, in order that we may display the graces of the Lord Jesus Christ while we wait for the coming day. It is very easy to forget this and to settle down into a state of drowsy insensibility like the world. Hence the call to awake. The hour of our final salvation draws nearer!
We are certainly in the darkness. Do we not feel it? But the works of darkness we are to cast off, like filthy old clouts, and we are to put on the armour of light. We are to be enveloped in the light which belongs to the day, to which we belong. The believer is to be shining and luminous in the midst of the darkness, and the very light we wear will prove itself to be armour. The shining Christian is by his shining protected and preserved. In one word, we are to put on the character of the Lord Himself, instead of catering for the desires of the flesh.
With what power should these words come to us! And with what urgency! If the night was far spent and the day at hand when Paul wrote, how much more so today. It is indeed high time to awake out of sleep and array ourselves in our shining armour. Only we must always remember that the putting on, whether of verse Rom 13:12 or 14, is not the assuming of something wholly external to ourselves, but rather putting on something from within, rather as a bird puts on its feathers. We saw this in principle, when considering Rom 12:2.
3:1
Rom 13:1-2. Higher is from HUPER-ECHO, which Thayer defines at this place, “to be above, be superior in rank, authority, power.” Power is from EXOUSIA which the same author defines at this place, “one who possesses authority; a. ruler, human magistrate.” Be subject is from HUPOTASSO, and both Thayer and Strong define it in this passage, “to obey.” The sentence, then, means that every person must obey the rulers of human governments. The same command is given in direct terms in Tit 3:1 and 1Pe 2:13-14. Ordained is from TASSO, which Thayer defines here, “to place in a certain order, to arrange, to assign a place, to appoint,” and Paul says this is done of God. The Mosaic system was both religious and civil, or secular as a government. But when the New Testament age came in, the Lord dropped the civil use and ordered man to form his own government, with the understanding, of course, that he was not to pass any laws that would violate the religious principles of His law. That is why it is the same as resisting the ordinance of God for a man to disobey the laws of the land.
Rom 13:1. Let every soul; every human being, but with reference to the life of the soul, rather than of the spirit, the former being the common life of the subject of a state.
Submit himself. This rendering suggests that the obedience is of a voluntary and rational character, not a servile and blind subjection.
To the authorities which are ever him. We substitute authorities for powers, both because it is a more exact rendering and accords better with the use of the singular in the next clause. Political rulers are undoubtedly meant, and most probably all such, of every rank; the exclusive reference to the higher class of rulers being very doubtful.
For there is no authority (of any kind, the proposition being universal) but of God. The preposition, according to the received reading is more exactly from; according to the better established text, by. The former indicates that there is no authority apart from Him as the source; the latter that authority is established by Him. This general proposition is applied in the next clause, which gives the motive for obedience to the preceding exhortation.
They that exist. The word authorities (E. V., powers) is not found in the best manuscripts and is rejected by modern editors. The reference here is to existing civil authorities, de facto governments, which the Apostle asserts, have been ordained of God. The simple, pellucid meaning of the Apostle, is that civil government is necessary, and of divine appointment. We infer that anarchy is as godless as it is inhuman; magistrates derive their authority from God, even when chosen by the people. This principle, moreover, respects the office, not the character of the ruler. But as the obedience is demanded because of Gods appointment, there inheres this limitation, that obedience is not demanded in matters contrary to Gods appointment. When the civil power is most directly under the control of the popular will, the personal responsibility of Christian citizens is greatest: to the duty of obedience are added those of political knowledge and prudence. Unfortunately the rights are too frequently recognized more clearly than the duties; and history proves plainly enough that popular government, when, and only when the people are permeated by Christian principle contains in itself the preventive of revolutionary excess.
Subdivision 2. (Rom 13:1-14.)
As strangers and pilgrims in the world.
1. Now we have the Christian attitude toward the outside world, to which we are not to be conformed. “Strangers and pilgrims” in it, we yet recognize, surely, all that is of God. Government is of God, not this or that form of it; there is no decision as to what is best or of any form being best. The world is outside of us and all that belongs to it, but God’s hand is in it and over it, and with a restraining power upon the evil, which is immense mercy to all. Government is of God, whatever exists, whatever we find practically in the place in which we are. We are only passing through, and it is not ours to meddle or make. Any form of government whatever is comparatively beneficial: think of what anarchy would mean. While all forms fail, as Daniel at large shows us, because the One who alone is capable of exercising perfectly righteous rule has not come. God’s mercy comes in everywhere to temper things; but the world is in opposition to God and therefore to us. As long as we are here, there will never be another condition of the world. Our place is in the world to come. There we shall reign with Christ, but now, if the apostle says to Christians, “Ye have reigned as kings,” it is plainly a reproach on his lips, and he adds “without us.” If they got reigning, they were out of communion with the apostles, clearly; they were more apt to be in a prison than on a throne; and, if we are to be in communion with the apostles, it must be so still with us. If we say times have changed and our conduct therefore must change with that, the world is still the world, if it is without God. If it is with God, it is not in the evil sense “the world”; but who will assert that, however Christianized it may apparently be, the mass is not truly the world any longer? If this shifts for us, if the world is gradually growing better and our position in it is to be affected by that, then we are without practical guidance in the word of God. The changed times would require a new Bible. The Lord’s prophetic words speak of His disciples being brought before rulers and kings for a testimony against them and the nations, nothing else. The apostle of the Gentiles is left at the close of the Acts in the Gentile prison; and, while we find in his epistles careful directions for Christians as subjects, there are plainly none for Christian kings or magistrates. We may say, perhaps, that there were none at that time, but that does not argue that there would be none; the coming king was provided for in Judaism long before he came, as well as the absolutely necessary law book in which he would find the divine laws which he was to execute. Think of Christian magistrates and kings to execute laws other than divine! Plainly, nothing of all this is given to us; and yet we accept the authorities that are as “ordained of God,” and “he who setteth himself against the authority, withstands the ordinance of God.” Thus, plainly, “he will receive to himself judgment.” Nothing that is of God can rightly be resisted, and on the whole, through His mercy, things are so ordered that rulers are still His ministers for good, not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Blessed it is to be able to realize how, through all that seems to be most opposed to Him, God nevertheless works, and thus we are to be in subjection for conscience, sake. How good to know that in every circumstance of this world through which we pass, while yet we are strangers in it, the world is not so strange but that we shall find God everywhere, and things that seem the most contrary, yet ordered by Him. If, indeed, the governments of the world yet require of us that which is in plain conflict with the word of God, we must obey Him rather than men, but in suffering, not resisting. This the apostle carries out to the smallest detail. We are to render to all their dues: “Tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor” also “to whom honor.” We are not permitted, even, to have freedom of speech against that which is of God’s institution.
2. Now comes the debt to all men. Here, it is not a question of loving the brethren merely. We are to owe no one anything save to love one another, and here it is pointed out that we have the fulfilment of that which the law sought, but could never obtain. Love is that which is the fulfilment of the law, or the whole of it, for if we love our neighbor as ourselves, love works no ill to one’s neighbor. The commandments give us only the prohibition of these various forms of ill. Love owns the debt to all men and pays it. “The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
3. We have now another thing. We are “children of the light and of the day.” We walk in the night and in the darkness, but the darkness is passing away. The hour of dawn is approaching. It is already time to be aroused out of sleep. Our salvation, final salvation of course, is getting ever nearer, but for us, already the light shines upon us. If it has not come for the world, for us it has come. We are in it in such sort that we should be reflecting it. Heaven is open to us, and the glory in the face of Christ already shines upon us. Practically to enjoy this is to manifest it and to manifest what we are. It is to put on the armor of light. Who is unaware of what a defence light is in itself in the midst of darkness? The evil deeds of men are done in the darkness. Light reproves them. How blessed to walk in the joy of that which manifests us for what we are, and which, by its presence in us, rebukes evil and breaks, as it were, the power of temptation; but we have, therefore, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in a practical way. It is, in fact, but to sit in the sun and the sun will make its mark upon us; but that means the heart laid hold of and therefore no thought of provision for the flesh, which, with its lusts, belong to the darkness.
Observe here, 1. The title given to magistrates, they are powers, higher powers, that is, persons invested with power, and placed in supreme authority over us. All mankind is not of one rank, doth not stand upon an equal level. Magistracy is an eminency or superiority of some persons above others.
Observe, 2. The original fountain from whence all power is derived from God, and is to be used for God; the magistrate acts by his authority, and consequently is to act for his interest, honour, and glory. It is agreeable to the will of God, that there should be such a thing as magistracy and government in the world; and it is his appointment that men should be governed by men deriving the power and authority from him: The powers that be are ordained of God.
Observe, 3. The apostle’s strict injunction for subjection unto magistracy, as a divine ordinance: Let every soul be subject, that is, every person, by he of what rank, or in what station he will, high or low, honourable or ignoble, rich or poor, clergy or laity, he must be subject to God’s ordinance.
Where note, That Christ is a friend to Caesar, and Christianity no enemy to loyalty: the best Christians are always the best subjects; none so true to their prince, as they that are most faithful to their God. Obedience to magistrates is both the duty of Christians, and the interest of Christianity.
Rom 13:1. From exhorting the believers at Rome to a life of entire devotedness to God, and the various duties of brotherly kindness, the apostle now proceeds to inculcate upon them that subjection and obedience which they owed to their civil rulers, and those duties of justice and benevolence which were due from them to all men. And as Rome was the seat of the empire, it was highly proper for the credit of Christianity, for which indeed it was, in effect, a public apology for him to do this when writing to inhabitants of that city, whether they were originally Jews or Gentiles. Let every soul Every person, of whatever state, calling, or degree he may be, however endowed with miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, whatever office he may sustain, or in what esteem soever he may be held in the church of Christ; (for that these things were apt to make some Christians overvalue themselves, is obvious from what St. Paul says to the Corinthians, first epistle, chap. 12.; and to the Romans, in the preceding chapter of this epistle;) be subject to the higher powers , the superior or ruling powers; meaning the governing civil authorities which the Divine Providence had established in the places where they lived: an admonition this peculiarly needful for the Jews. For as God had chosen them for his peculiar people, and, being their king, had dictated to them a system of laws, and had governed them anciently in person, and afterward by princes of his own nomination, many of them reckoned it impiety to submit to heathen laws and rulers. In the same light they viewed the paying of taxes for the support of heathen governments, Mat 22:17. In short, the zealots of that nation laid it down as a principle, that they would obey God alone as their king and governor, in opposition to Cesar and all kings whatever, who were not of their religion, and who did not govern them by the laws of Moses. And it is probable, as Locke and Macknight further observe, that some of the Jews who embraced the gospel, did not immediately lay aside this turbulent disposition, and that even of the believing Gentiles there were a few, who, on pretence that they had a sufficient rule of conduct in the spiritual gifts with which they were endowed, thought that they were under no obligation to obey ordinances imposed by idolaters, nor to pay taxes for the support of idolatrous governments. That some Christians were involved in this error, or at least were in danger of being involved in it, appears also from the caution which Peter gives the believers to whom he wrote, (first epistle, chap. 2.,) not to use their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness or misbehaviour. Now, as these principles and practices, if they should prevail, must, of necessity, cause the gospel to be evil spoken of, the apostle judged it necessary, in this letter to the Romans, to show that they had no countenance from the Christian doctrine, by inculcating the duties which subjects owe to magistrates, and by testifying that the disciples of Christ were not exempt from obedience to the wholesome laws, even of the heathen countries where they lived, nor from contributing to the support of the government by which they were protected, although it was administered by idolaters. For there is no power but of God There is no legal authority but may, in one sense or another, be said to be from God, the origin of all power. It is his will that there should be magistrates to guard the peace of societies; and the hand of his providence, in directing to the persons of particular governors, ought to be seriously considered and revered. The powers that be The authorities that exist, under one form or another; are ordained of God Are, in their different places, ranged, disposed, and established by God, the original and universal governor. So Dr. Doddridge renders the word , here used, thinking the English word ordained rather too strong. Compare Act 13:48. Divine Providence, says he, ranges, and in fact establishes the various governments of the world; they are, therefore, under the character of governments, in the general, to be revered: but this cannot make what is wrong and pernicious, in any particular forms, sacred, divine, and immutable, any more than the hand of God in a famine or pestilence is an argument against seeking proper means to remove it. But the expression, , might be rendered, are subordinate to, or orderly disposed under God; implying that they are Gods deputies, or vicegerents, and consequently their authority, being in effect his, demands our conscientious obedience. In other passages, says Macknight, , powers, by a common figure, signifies persons possessed of power or authority. But here, , the higher powers, being distinguished from , the rulers, Rom 13:3, must signify, not the persons who possess the supreme authority, but the supreme authority itself, whereby the state is governed, whether that authority be vested in the people or in the nobles, or in a single person, or be shared among these three orders: in short, the higher powers denote that form of government which is established in any country, whatever it may be. This remark deserves attention, because the apostles reasoning, while it holds good concerning the form of government established in a country, is not true concerning the persons who possess the supreme power, that there is no power but from God; and that he who resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. For, if the person who possesses the supreme power in any state, exercises it in destroying the fundamental laws, and to the ruin of the people, such a ruler is not from God, is not authorized by him, and ought to be resisted. The declaration, there is no power but of God, he thinks, was written to correct the pride of the Jews, who valued themselves exceedingly because they had received a form of government from God. The government of every state, whether it be monarchical, aristocratical, democratical, or mixed, is as really of divine appointment as the government of the Jews was, though none but the Jewish form was of divine legislation. For God having designed mankind to live in society, he has, by the frame of their nature, and by the reason of things, authorized government to be exercised in every country. At the same time, having appointed no particular form to any nation but to the Jews, nor named any particular person or family to exercise the power of government, he has left it to the people to choose what form is most agreeable to themselves, and to commit the exercise of the supreme power to what persons they think fit. And therefore, whatever form of government hath been chosen, or is established in any country, hath the divine sanction; and the persons who by choice, or even by the peaceable submission of the governed, have the reins of government in their hands, are the lawful sovereigns of that country, and have all the rights and prerogatives belonging to the sovereignty vested in their persons. The sum appears to be, the office of civil government is instituted by him, and the persons who exercise it are invested therewith by the appointment or permission of his providence.
Twenty-sixth Passage (13:1-10). The Life of the Believer as a Member of the State.
Meyer and many others find no connection whatever between the subject treated in this chapter and that of the foregoing. A new subject, says this author, placed here without relation to what precedes. It must be confessed that the connections proposed by commentators are not very satisfactory, and afford some ground for this judgment of Meyer. Tholuck says: The apostle passes here from private offences to official persecutions proceeding from the heathen state. But in what follows the state is not regarded as a persecutor; it is represented, on the contrary, as the guardian of justice. Hofmann sees in the legally-ordered social life one of the aspects of that good by which evil ought to be overcome (Rom 12:21). Schott finds the link between the two passages in the idea of the vengeance which God will one day take by the judgment (Rom 12:19), and which He is taking now by the power of the state (Rom 13:4). Better give up every connection than suppose such as these.
As for us, the difficulty is wholly resolved. We have seen that Paul, after pointing to the Christian consecrating his body to God’s service, places him successively in the two domains in which he is to realize the sacrifice of himself: that of spiritual life properly so called, and that of civil life. And what proves that we are really in the track of his thought, is that we discover in the development of this new subject an order exactly parallel to that of the preceding exposition. Paul had pointed to the Christian, first, limiting himself by humility, then giving himself by love. He follows the same plan in the subsequent passage. In Rom 13:1-7, he inculcates the duty of submission by which the believer controls and limits himself in relation to the state; then, in Rom 13:8-10, he enters into the domain of private relations, and points to the Christian giving himself to all in the exercise of righteousness. We therefore find here the counterpart of the two passages, Rom 13:3-14, the former of which presented the believer in his relations to the church as such; the latter, in his conduct in the midst of society in general.
If such is the nexus between the subjects treated in these two chapters, there is no necessity for seeking in the local circumstances of the church of Rome for a particular reason to explain this passage. Bauer, proceeding on the idea of a Judeo-Christian majority in this church, has alleged that the apostle meant here to combat the Jewish prejudice which held heathen authorities to be only delegates of Satan, as the prince of this world. But Hofmann justly remarks, that if such were the polemic of the apostle, he would have confined himself to proving that it is allowable for the Christian to submit himself to a heathen power, without going the length of making this submission a duty, and a duty not of expediency only, but one of conscience. Weizscker also replies to Baur, that if the matter in question were a Jewish prejudice to be combated, the apostle would require especially to remind his readers that the Christian faith does not at all imply, as the Jewish Messianic viewpoint did, the expectation of an earthly kingdom; whence it follows that nothing is opposed from this side to the submission of believers to the power of the state. It is in this line he argues, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Rom 7:21 et seq., when he shows that there is no incompatibility between the position of slave and Christian. Besides, we have seen the error of Baur’s hypothesis regarding the Judeo-Christian composition of the church of Rome too clearly to make it necessary for us to spend more time in refuting this explanation. If it were thought absolutely needful to find in the state of this church a particular reason for the following precepts, we should certainly have to prefer Ewald’s hypothesis. This critic thinks that the spirit of insubordination which broke out soon after in the Jewish nation in the revolt against the Romans, was already agitating this people, and making itself felt even at Rome. The apostle’s intention was therefore, he thinks, to protect the church of the capital from this contagion emanating from the synagogue. This supposition can no more be proved than it can be refuted by positive facts. All that we can say is, that it is not needed to explain the following passage. Expounding the gospel didactically, and the life which flows from it, the apostle must naturally, especially when writing to the church resident in the heart of the empire, develop a duty which was soon to become one of the most important and difficult in the conflicts for which it was necessary to prepare with the heathen power, that of submission to the state on the ground of conscience, and independently of the character of those who wield the power for the time. Weizscker thinks that all Paul says here to Christians supposes no persecution to have yet taken place. We think on this point he is mistaken, and that in any state of the case Paul would have spoken as he does. For, as we shall see, he treats the question from the viewpoint of moral principle, which remains always the standard for the Christian. And what is a clear proof of it is, that the course traced by him has been ratified by the conscience of Christians in all epochs, even in times of persecution. It was followed, in particular, by the whole primitive church, and by the Christians of the Reformed Church of France; and if there was a time when the latter, driven to extremity by extraordinary sufferings, deviated from this line of conduct, their action certainly did not turn out a blessing to them. Moreover, comp. the sayings analogous to those of Paul in Mat 26:52, Rev 13:10, and the whole of the First Epistle of Peter, especially chap. 2
We cannot help quoting here, as a specimen of Renan’s manner, the observation with which he accompanies the precept of the apostle: Paul had too much tact to be a mover of sedition. He wished the name of Christian to be of good standing (p. 477).
In Rom 13:1-7, the apostle points out the Christian’s duty in regard to the state (1a), and explains the ground of it (1b). He points out its penal sanction (Rom 13:2), and justifies it (Rom 13:3-4). Rom 13:5 draws the general consequence from these principles; finally, Rom 13:6-7 apply this consequence to the details of social life.
[Paul, having shown how the faith-life offers itself as a daily sacrifice of love in spiritual and social spheres, now gives an outline of the sacrifice of self which it is to make in civil and business affairs. This he does in two sections, the first of which sets forth the Christian’s relationship to government (Rom 13:1-7), and the second his civil relations to men, business, etc., under government (Rom 13:8-10) As in spiritual matters he was to first limit himself by humility (Rom 12:1-8) and then give himself in love (Rom 12:9-21), so he is here to limit himself by submission to the state (Rom 13:1-7), and then give himself in love to his fellow-citizens (Rom 13:8-10). But conditions at Rome made this instruction as to the Christian’s duty to be loyal and submissive to government particularly opportune, for (1) the Jew believed that, as a citizen of the Theocracy, it was at least derogatory to his character, if not an act of treason toward God, to acknowledge allegiance to any earthly government (Deu 17:15). This belief had already fomented that unrest in Palestine (Act 5:36-37; Josep. Ant. 8:1:1) which ten years later broke out in rebellion, and necessitated the destruction of Jerusalem. This unrest had already resulted in banishment of Jews and Christians from Rome about seven years before, in A. D. 51 (Act 18:2; Suet. “Claudius” c. 25; Dio Cassius 60:6). This unrest was sure to permeate the church (Ewald), for a considerable percentage of the churches, the world over, were Jews, and this influence in the church was great. There is nothing in Acts 28 to contradict the idea that there were Jews enough in the Roman church to have influence in it (contra, see Weiss and Alford). (2) The world generally looked upon the Christians as a mere Jewish sect, and the suspicions of disloyalty which attached to the Jews would readily attach to the Christians (Calvin). History confirms this. Nero had no difficulty in turning suspicion against them. How circumspectly, then, should they have walked. (3) Moreover, many Christians entertained notions similar to the Jews. They belonged to the new Theocracy, and held that loyalty to Christ absolved them from all allegiance to earthly government. Rome, as the center of the world-power, at once inspired and hindered the false dreams of well-intentioned but deceived disciples. History proves that the world-power of the Roman capital seduced Christians into attempting to form of Christ’s kingdom a temporal world-power like that of the Csars–viz., the Roman Catholic hierarchy–and Paul tells us that this evil influence was already at work, though hindered, in his day (2Th 2:6-12). (4) On general principles, the atrocities so soon to be perpetrated by Nero were apt to put revolutionary and even anarchistic ideas in the heads of the most staid and sober. Nero’s persecutions began about a year after this Epistle was written (Tholuck). These conditions made Paul’s words timely indeed, but they are not, however, to be regarded as savoring of the temporary. His words are abiding and eternal truth, and contain fundamental and organic instruction for all ages.] XIII. Let every soul [all humanity, whether in the church or not] be in subjection to the higher powers [Be subject to all civil powers–power higher than that of the common citizen, whether monarchic, oligarchal or republican. This injunction includes hot persons and offices, and asserts that there is no inherent and essential conflict between the claims of God and those of the state. One can render, and must render, what is due to each– Mat 22:21]: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. [Having asserted and commanded duty toward the state, the apostle next states the ground or reason of that duty, the justification of his command, in two heads: (1) Abstractly considered, governments are of divine origin; (2) concretely considered, God has ordained the present system of government, and has chosen the officers now in power; not directly, according to the exploded notion of the divine right of kings, but indirectly by the workings of governmental principles which God sanctions, by the operations of general providences of his ordering. Thus the government in force and the ruler in power in any country at any given time are, de facto, God-appointed. The apostle s first statement, that governments, viewed in general and abstractly, are ordained of God, is readily accepted as true; but this latter concrete statement, that each particular government and governor is also of divine appointment, is harder to receive. The reason is that God’s providences working evil to the evil, as well as good to the good, often place evil men in power as a cure to the evil in man which helped to place them there.]
Romans Chapter 13
Among themselves Christians are exhorted not to seek the high things of this world, but to walk as brethren with those of low degree: a precept too much forgotten in the assembly of God-to her loss. If the Christian of high degree requires that honour according to the flesh should be paid him, let it be done with good will. Happy he who, according to the example of the King of kings and to the precept of our apostle, knows how to walk in company with those of low degree in their journey through the wilderness. Now love is the fulfilling of the law; for love works no ill to his neighbour, and so fulfils the law.
Another principle acts also on the spirit of the Christian. It is time to awake. The deliverance from this present evil age, which the Lord will accomplish for us, draws nigh. The night is far spent, the day is at hand-God knows the moment. The characteristics which marked its approach in the days of the apostle have ripened in a very different way since then, although God, with a view to those whom He is gathering in, is still even now restraining them. Let us then walk as children of the day, casting off the works of darkness. We belong to the day, of which Christ Himself will be the light. Let our walk be in accordance with that day, putting on Christ Himself, and not being studious of that which is in accordance with the will and the lusts of the flesh.
CIVIL LOYALTY
1-7. Christianity is not calculated to bring upon the earth civil war and revolution, but on the contrary, it is the herald of peace, of peace on earth and good will to men. Nero, the Roman Emperor, who sat upon the throne of the world and ruled millions of people in Pauls day, was the most wicked, incarnate devil whose atrocious crimes have ever blackened the historic page. He filled Rome with innocent blood, ruthlessly slaying all the mighty men of state whose rivalry he suspected, murdering all his consanguinity and not even sparing his own mother. When I was there, my guide pointed me out the old tower on which Nero sat, played his fiddle and sang the destruction of Troy while an ocean of flame rolled over mighty Rome six days and seven nights, himself having ordered the conflagration, as all believed, but evading responsibility by charging it on the Christians, ordering the execution of the entire body. Pursuant to his cruel and bloody edict, Paul was beheaded, Peter crucified, and a general effort made to feed them all to the lions in the Coliseum, burning them at the stake and ruthlessly murdering them in every conceivable way. Even under this kind of government Paul enjoins non-resistance to authority, rendering faithful obedience to all civil officers, as the ministers of God, for such they are permissively and providentially if not volitionally and mandatorily, whenever we can do so conscientiously; on the contrary, patiently and unresistingly suffering persecution for Christs sake in whatsoever may accrue to us by way of retribution administered on their part, because of our delinquency, and, as they construe it, disobedience and even rebellion.
Rom 13:1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, of magistrates, governors, proconsuls, kings, and emperors. The christian finds them in power; they allow us to lock our doors at night, and their courts are open for redress of wrongs. These are the shields of heaven to which, under God, we owe our safety from anarchy. We are therefore bound to pray for kings; for in the splendour of the throne we have glory and defence, and by consequence, should cheerfully pay all just demands of taxes. The taxes bear no proportion to the plunder and requisition of an invading army. The christian must therefore shun the clubs of sedition and blasphemy, and shut his ears against their nefarious speeches. If the lawful taxes bear hard on any particular class, let them petition like Britons, and the ear of government will be open. Alas, what millions have perished, blindly seeking to overthrow the existing government of their country. This law, says Chrysostom, respects the clergy, as well as merchants. Then what become of the assumptions of the Popes? Bellarmines defence now sleeps in the dusty folios.
Rom 13:2. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, by whom kings reign and princes decree justice. As God is the origin of being, so he is the origin of power, and of all order in society. The regal authority of the holy patriarchs was hereditary. Others have succeeded to power by election, and by victory in war. Voltaire had the latter in his eye when he said, The first of kings was a fortunate soldier. Le premiere des rois etait un heureux soldat.
Be that as it might, it does not belong to the jackals to dispute the power of the lion. The question agitated with many is, whether all power does not originate with the people; and whether a government purely democratic be not the government most congenial to a nation? We do not deny the power of the people, and especially when they rise like a stormy ocean; but a democrasy is an uncertain form of government, and generally terminates in regal power. The democrasy of Greece, flourishing for awhile, ruined all her ablest generals by a single reverse in war; while on the contrary, democratic France ruined their generals for being victorious, lest a Dumourier, or a Pichegru should acquire too much power. In society there is age, honour, wisdom and property, as well as the mass of the people; and a well-constructed government must associate all those powers in one, as is the case with the natural body of man. By consequence, King, Lords, and Commons, the work of our fathers, is the happiest association of all those powers; and every wise man will rally round the throne. Under this shadow we have no fears, except from atheism, blasphemy, and oppression of the poor.
They that resist, by overt acts of high treason, rebellion, and war, shall receive to themselves damnation. , at human tribunals, is equivalent to the sentence of death for setting themselves in military array against the government. The penitent thief said, we are in the same condemnation. In many places the term signifies the final sentence of God in the day of judgment, and the condemnation of the devil. Act 24:25. Rom 2:2. 1Ti 3:6.
Rom 13:7. Tribute to whom tribute. , the general tax or national impost, which was paid by Joseph in Bethlehem. Luk 2:2.
Custom to whom custom. , a local or occasional tax, paid by our Saviour. Mat 17:24. What good is the farmers corn, and the merchants wealth, if they be not protected by the civil power. The seaman who holds the helm must be supported as well as the men before the mast. A contraband trade is injustice to the state, and also to the fair trader.
Rom 13:8. Owe no man any thing, except the debt of loving one another. The merchant must not take up goods without a probability of paying for them; and the poor man, in case of distress, had better beg than contract a debt he can never pay. The poor of England are generally as deeply in debt as the shops will let them be, and pawnbrokers do but augment their miseries.
Rom 13:10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Nothing, as regards God, can fulfil the law but righteousness; but as regards man, if we love God, we love our brother also. We cannot therefore designedly injure him in body or in mind, but must habitually exercise towards him all the kind offices of charity, benevolence, and goodwill. Charity is the bond of perfection, the consummation of every other grace.
Rom 13:11. Knowing the time, the last times, the evil times. After illuminating the Romans by doctrines, and prescribing the moral code, the apostle rings the alarum, and calls out that it is high time to awake, and not to sleep as do others. Let us cast off the works of darkness in balls, routes, theatres, taverns, and all nocturnal associations. Birds and beasts are here tutors to man, to enjoy repose in the silence and cold of night.
Rom 13:13. Not in chambering and wantonness, indulgence in bed to unseasonable and reproachful hours. These are effects of idleness and sloth, and let the effeminate remember that such shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Then follow strife and envying, court factions, commercial competitions and violence. In Boethiuss consolations of philosophy, (by which he means religion) we have beclouded portraits of the envious factions which existed in the Roman court; and such vices in the church spoil all the glory of the christian temper. Let us love with mutual affection, and forgive one another, even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us.
Rom 13:1-7. Order and Loyalty.On the turbulence of Roman Jews, see Introd. 3.
Rom 13:1 f. Let every soul be subordinate to superior authorities, a general maxim, with two reasons given: that authority is of Divine institution (cf. Joh 19:11, Psa 82:6, etc.), and that the existing authorities (of the Empire) are ordained by God, so that he who is insubordinate resists the ordinance of God and resisters will incur judgment. There is a play on the idea of order.In later and worse times Paul maintained the same attitude toward civil government; see 1Ti 2:1 ff., Tit 3:1, also 1Pe 2:13-17 (cf. pp. 774f.).
Rom 13:3 f. The state-rulers are ministers of Gods avenging anger (cf. Rom 12:19, Rom 1:18).
Rom 13:5. The Christian, moreover, is subject . . . for conscience sake.
Rom 13:6 f. On the same account taxes, direct or indirect, must be paid (cf. Mat 22:21), and along with them fear and honour wherever due. The state-servants are sacred-ministers (same word as in Rom 15:16; Rom 15:27) of God for the maintenance of civil society. Pauls urgency points to symptoms of Anarchism, as well as Antinomianism (cf. Rom 6:1).
Subjection to Proper Authority
This chapter is as clear as can be in its teaching: nothing but a spirit of rebellion could find difficulty with it – except possibly in the matter of how far this subjection to government is to extend. Plainly, if matters are simply governmental, even though their requirements are in our estimation unjust and discriminatory, detrimental to our personal comfort or welfare, the honorable Christian attitude is submission. Anything else is resistance of God’s established order, and we may expect to suffer for it. Everyone knows that the governments of the day, whatever form they may take, are not guided by pure truth, honesty, and fairness, but this is in no way to affect the Christian attitude of subjection. God has set up the authority – not the particular form of it, nor the abuses of it. The only alternative, if authority were removed, is an indescribable state of anarchy, every man free to indulge his evil will to the full. Which of us would choose this?
“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.” This is certainly the normal state. There is a point surely beyond which we must render no obedience either to rulers or anyone else except God. If they were to demand of us what is due only to God – worship, for instance, as in the case of Daniel with Darius, or his three friends with Nebuchadnezzar – we must firmly refuse. If they require us to definitely sin against God, it is for us to boldly use the language of Peter – “We ought to obey God rather than men.” But this is far different even than unjust statutes or practices that are hard and oppressive. So long as a good conscience toward God is not compromised, it is better that we suffer in subjection, and commit the keeping of our souls to God, as unto a faithful Creator. We must remember that “the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: He turneth it whithersoever He will.”
In general, however, if we do good, we find the authority God’s minister to us for good. He is but one of God’s means of recompensing on earth what we practice – good for good, evil for evil. 1Pe 3:13-14 brings together the two points – first, “who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” This is a normal condition of things contemplated. But verse 14 allows for the possibility of an abnormal state – “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be ye troubled.” Blessed to know that no circumstance, normal or abnormal, is beyond the power of the grace of God for maintaining a calm, steadfast testimony.
Subjection of the ungodly to authority is purchased only by fear of punishment. But fear of consequences is certainly not the only principle that should restrain the Christian from disobedience – “not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.” To maintain a good conscience toward God subjection to authority is a plain necessity. We may ourselves judge, that a certain act is not intrinsically evil, but if it controverts authority, it is indirect, but nonetheless definite disobedience to God.
The payment of taxes is directly connected with this. It is by this means that government is supported, and it is the plain responsibility of the believer to pay all that is required of him, in simple honesty. We partake of many advantages of government: why should we not be thankful to pay for them? If authorities are guilty of abusing their power, by wrong use of money, etc. for this they will have to answer to God; but it gives us no liberty to withhold what is due from us. If we would so excuse ourselves, this is but the subtle working of selfishness taking advantage of wrong to justify wrong. Whether then tribute, custom, fear, or honor – what is due we must render without regard to our thoughts of the person or persons who are in authority. It is the authority – not the person – to which we owe subjection.
Verses 8, 9, 10 give us, not simply authorities, but what is due to all men. “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” This is a debt that can never be fully paid up. Paul’s knowledge of the gospel and his love for men made him “debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians, both to the wise, and to the unwise,” and this is the case, in whatever measure, of all saints. But it is very clear that debts in temporal things are to be avoided. “The borrower is servant to the lender” is a truth to be well considered.
“Love is the fulfilling of the law.” It is the root principle from which all real obedience must stem. Law itself, however, while demanding obedience, did not supply the love to produce obedience: hence those who were under law were in a far less likely place for fulfilling the law than those who are not under law but under grace. For it is under grace that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us.” This simple yet blessed principle is clearly expressed in Rom 8:4 – “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
We have seen in verses 1 to 7 subjection to government; in verses 8 to 10 love to all men: now the chapter closes (vv. 11 to 14) with the armor of light. All of these things have a plain reference to testimony, and all are a decided protection for the saint. But subjection to authority or love to all men does not mean by any means the giving up of truth. The light of truth and honesty is to shine with undimmed brightness in all of this. If we are men who have any knowledge of the times, we know that it is high time to awake out of sleep. The world is in darkness, and utterly dead toward God. The believer is in the light, and is alive to God; but he may be sleeping – not using the light, yea hardly sensible of the infinite difference God has made between him and the world. But our salvation – that is, our deliverance out of the world, from the very sphere and presence of sin – is nearer than when we believed. If we were impressed with the realities of eternity when we first believed, how much more so ought we to be now, when we are nearer to the Lord’s coming than ever before!
We who believe have salvation of our souls now: but the salvation of our bodies is a different subject, and will be accomplished perfectly at the coming of the Lord. Are we sensible of what a tremendous change this will involve? It will be a transfer from the circumstances of “the night” to those of “the day.” For while we ourselves are not “of the night,” but “of the day,” yet we live in the world in its time of night and are surrounded by men of the world who are “of the night,” and whose delight is in “the works of darkness.” But these circumstances are most certainly not to govern us. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. “Do we therefore want anything to do with “the works of darkness”? Let us rather cast them off as a filthy garment, and put on the protective armor of light.
For the light is a decided protection against the subtle workings of evil. The brighter the light the more it will repel the predatory beasts of this world. Hence, let our lights shine brightly amid the darkness. Not that the Christian’s light is merely a protection: it is more than that: it is a testimony to the truth and righteousness of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. O that we might let the confession of Christ be constantly a shining light on all our path!
Verse 13 reminds us that this light means honest transparency of life and walk – no deceit or covering up – an affliction that we all too easily acquire and too proficiently dare to practice. But that is the very essence of the darkness, as are those vices immediately warned against in this verse – rioting and drunkenness, clambering (licentiousness) and wantonness, strife and envying.
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The context here clearly decides the meaning for us. There is another line of thought altogether in Gal 3:27, which tells us. “As many of us as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ.” Baptism thus is the putting on of Christ as an outward profession – the external assuming of His Name publicly. But here in Rom 13:14, it is no initial ordinance, but the putting on of Christ in the practical daily conduct of life. We have been told to cast off the works of darkness, then to put on the armor of light, and now to put on Christ. Is it not clear that this implies that to actually put on the armor of light we must put on Christ? Thus moral uprightness, honesty, kindness do not in themselves constitute the armor of light, for the vital centre of the whole matter is the confession of Christ. If the Lord Jesus is not seen to be the regulating power of the life, all apparent goodness and morality very soon find their level as mere self-righteousness, and are not the armor of light at all.
Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ then is the positive practical power for good. On the negative side we are told to “make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” How important a matter this is! It is not warfare or contending against the flesh. This would soil me as effectively as indulging the flesh. But I am not to feed it: make no provision for it whatever. It is there, and all my energy or zeal will never eradicate it. But let me turn away from it simply. If I do not feed it, it will not thrive; while the spiritual nature, being fed with the milk or meat of the Word, will be that which grows and thrives. Solemn for us to think that in whatever measure I make provision for the flesh, in the same measure will it cause me trouble. If we deliberately put temptation in the way of thieves and robbers, will they not take advantage of it? And there is no thief more despicable than the flesh.
Verse 1
Subject; obedient and submissive.–The higher powers; those of the civil government.
SECTION 41 OBEY THE RULERS OF THE STATE
CH. 13:1-7
Let every soul submit to the superior authorities. For there is no authority except ordained by God: and those that exist have been ordained by God. So that he who sets himself against the authority withstands the ordinance of God. But they who withstand will receive for themselves judgment. For the rulers are not a fear to the good work but to the evil. But dost thou wish not to fear the authority? Do the good; and thou wilt have praise from it. For he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou dost the evil, be afraid: for not in vain he bears the sword: for he is a minister of God, a minister of justice for anger to him who does the evil. For which cause it is necessary to submit, not only because of his anger but also because of conscience. For it is because of this that ye pay tribute. For they are public ministers of God, to this very thing: continually devoting themselves. Repay to all what ye owe; tribute, to whom ye owe tribute; custom, to whom custom; fear, to whom fear; honour, to whom honour.
Rom 12:1. Every soul: the submission must be inward, reaching down to the seat of life: cp. Rom 2:9; Act 2:43; Eph 6:6; Mat 22:37.
Superior authorities: another topic, the Christians duty to the civil power, specially important at Rome, the seat of empire. We must submit because civil rule is ordained by God, who has so constituted society that men are compelled to appoint rulers and thus create authority.
And those that exist etc.: a more definite statement. Not only is civil authority in the abstract a work of God, but the existing rulers have been put by God in their place of power. These unproved assertions will be discussed below.
Rom 12:2-4. Practical consequence of the foregoing.
Sets-himself-against: cognate to ordained and ordinance.
The authority has been set up by God: consequently he who sets himself against it withstands that which God has set up.
They who do this will receive judgment: sentence will be passed upon them, evidently a sentence of condemnation: same words in Jas 3:1.
For themselves: emphatic, as in Rom 2:5. A reason for this judgment is stated in Rom 13:3, viz. because the rulers are on the side of right and opposed to wrong.
A fear: an object inspiring fear, as in all languages: cp. Gen 31:53; 1Ti 1:1.
To the good work: action personified as if capable of fear.
Minister: see under Rom 12:7. In his office of civil ruler, he is doing the work of God.
To thee: set up by God to do thee good: cp. Rom 8:28. Dost the evil: other side of the alternative in Rom 13:3 a. Not in vain: the sword which he bears is no mere ornament.
For he is a minister of God: emphatic repetition word for word. Because the ruler is an officer appointed by God, as asserted in Rom 13:1, they who do right may expect from him praise and they who do wrong have reason for fear.
A minister-of justice: one who will inflict due punishment: cognate to words in Rom 12:19; see note.
For anger: in contrast to for good.
Rom 12:5. Practical result of the truth just stated. It is necessary to submit not only for fear of punishment but because of conscience: i.e. in order to have an inward assurance that we are doing right: cp. 1Co 10:25; 1Co 10:29; 1Pe 2:19.
Rom 12:6. Proof that our conscience binds us to submission. We actually pay tribute. Paul assumes, and all will admit, that we are under moral obligation to do so; and asserts that this admitted obligation involves submission.
Tribute: a tax on persons or subject states: same word in Luk 20:22; Luk 23:2; 1Ma 8:4; 1Ma 8:7.
Public minister: different from, and stronger than, minister in Rom 13:4, and denoting a public and sacred officer: e.g. in Exo 28:35; Exo 28:43, etc. for Aarons ministry at the altar. Same word in Rom 15:16; Rom 15:27; 2Co 9:12; Php 2:17; Php 2:25; Php 2:30; Heb 1:7; Heb 1:14; Heb 8:2; Heb 8:6; Heb 9:21; Heb 10:11; Luk 1:23; Act 13:2. Whether they know it or not, civil rulers, in proportion as they rule well, are performing and continually-devoting-themselves (same word in Rom 12:12) to a sacred ministration laid upon them by God. Paul argues that this admitted moral obligation proves that civil rulers are ordained by God.
Rom 12:7. Practical application of the foregoing.
Custom: a tax on goods: same word in Mat 17:25; 1Ma 10:31; 1Ma 11:35.
Fear: the reverence due to a ruler: cp. Eph 6:5; 1Pe 2:18.
Honour: outward recognition of worth of any kind: as in Rom 12:10; 1Ti 6:1; 1Pe 2:17; 1Pe 3:7. Appreciation of the dignity of office is independent of our estimate of the man who holds the office.
A very close parallel to Rom 13:1-7 is found in 1Pe 2:13-17.
We will now examine the unproved assertions on which the above argument rests, viz. that the abstract principle of government is from God and that the existing rulers have been put by God in their place of power.
Human society is so constituted that the instinct of self-preservation compels men to set up a form of government, i.e. to commit to some men power over the rest. Everyone knows that a bad government is almost always better than no government: and this proves that God wills men to live under rule. But God has not prescribed a definite form of rule: consequently the universal principle of government assumes an infinite variety of forms. We also notice that, nearly always, opposition to the men actually in power tends to weaken and destroy the principle of government and leads towards anarchy. How frequently the murder even of a bad ruler has been followed by utter lawlessness and by infinite injury to the nation! Consequently, opposition to the individuals in power is practically in most cases opposition to the divine principle of government. Observing this, and remembering that nothing takes place without the foresight and permission of God, we may say, as Paul does, that the existing rulers, by whatever steps they mounted the throne, have been put on it by God. For God created the felt necessity for government which was their real stepping-stone to power: and He did so in full view of the persons into whose hands, throughout all ages, the power would fall. Cp. Dan 2:37-38; 2Sa 12:8; Isa 37:26; Isa 45:1-5. We notice further that all bad conduct tends to weaken, and good conduct to strengthen, a government. Consequently, rulers are compelled, for the maintenance of their position, to favour the good and oppose the bad. This necessity must be from the Ruler of the world. We infer therefore that God, who has laid on men the necessity of appointing rulers, has laid on rulers the necessity of rewarding the good and punishing the bad; and has done this in order to make rulers instruments to accomplish His own purpose of kindness to the good and of punishment to the wicked. Thus rulers are, perhaps unconsciously, ministers of God.
These considerations are abundant reason for loyal obedience to civil authority. Since rulers are compelled by their position to favour the good and punish the bad, resistance to them generally proves that we are in the wrong; and will be followed by the punishment which they cannot but inflict on evil-doers. Hence the motive of fear should prompt obedience. And, since resistance to existing rulers tends to weaken and destroy that principle of government which God has set up for the good of the race, we ought to submit to them for conscience sake. That we feel ourselves morally bound to pay taxes imposed without our consent or in opposition to our judgment, and that all admit the right of the ruler to enforce payment, confirms further the divine origin of his authority.
The only case in which resistance to a ruler does not weaken the divine ordinance of government is that in which overthrow of one government is quickly followed by establishment of a better. The teaching of Rom 13:1-7 will make us very cautious in joining an attempt to effect such change, lest in overturning a bad ruler we overturn all rule. But where a government so far forgets its mission as to be no longer a praise to the good and a terror to the bad, and where its subjects are able to replace it by a better, Pauls words do not forbid them to do so, even by force of arms. By so doing, they do not overthrow, but defend from desecration, the ordinance of God. Such rulers cannot appeal to Pauls teaching: for they have put themselves outside the class he describes.
A similar exception occurs sometimes in the obligation (Col 3:20) of children to obey their parents. A child is sometimes bound to disobey and even resist a parent; but only when he fails to act a parents part. Such exceptions do not lessen the universal obligation to obedience. Nor does the occasional necessity to resist a government lessen our obligation to obey in all ordinary cases.
This section must have been written before the civil power began deliberately to oppose Christianity, as it did in the later years of Nero and at intervals afterwards. For, although the opposition of the State to Christianity did not altogether destroy the obligation to obedience, it introduced into the question difficulties which no writer on the subject could pass over in silence. This section is therefore a mark of the early date of the epistle, and thus confirms its genuineness.
This reference to the civil power may have been suggested to Paul by his readers nearness to the seat of imperial rule. But the immense importance of the subject sufficiently explains its mention in a letter which deals generally with the Gospel of Christ and the Christian life. It was needful to state clearly that loyalty to Christ involves loyalty to social order.
13:1 Let {1} every {a} soul be subject unto the higher {2} powers. {3} For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are {b} ordained of God.
(1) Now he distinctly shows what subjects owe to their magistrates, that is, obedience: from which he shows that no man is free: and the obedience we owe is such that it is not only due to the highest magistrate himself, but also even to the lowest, who has any office under him.
(a) Indeed, though an apostle, though an evangelist, though a prophet; Chrysostom. Therefore the tyranny of the pope over all kingdoms must be thrown down to the ground.
(2) A reason taken from the nature of the thing itself: for to what purpose are they placed in higher degree, but in order that the inferiors should be subject to them?
(3) Another argument of great force: because God is author of this order: so that those who are rebels ought to know that they make war with God himself: and because of this they purchase for themselves great misery and calamity.
(b) Be distributed: for some are greater, some smaller.
1. Conduct towards the government 13:1-7
Paul passed from a loosely connected series of exhortations in Rom 12:9-21 to a well-organized argument about a single subject in Rom 13:1-7 (cf. Mat 22:15-22; Mar 12:13-17; Luk 20:20-26; 1Pe 2:13-14).
"Forbidding the Christian from taking vengeance and allowing God to exercise this right in the last judgment [cf. Rom 12:19-21] might lead one to think that God was letting evildoers have their way in this world. Not so, says Paul in Rom 13:1-7: for God, through governing authorities, is even now inflicting wrath on evildoers (Rom 13:3-4)." [Note: Moo, p. 792.]
When Paul said "every person" (Gr. psyche) he probably had every Christian person in mind since he was writing to Christians. Nevertheless what he said about his readers’ conduct toward their civil government also applies to the unsaved. He was not legislating Christian behavior for unbelievers, but when unbelievers behave this way the best conditions prevail.
Subjection or submission involves placing oneself under the authority of another and doing or not doing what the authority requires. Paul did not say "obey." Submission includes obedience, but it also includes an attitude from which the obedience springs. Submission involves an attitude of compliance and deference that is not necessarily present in obedience. Submission is essentially support. The Christian may have to disobey his government (Act 5:29). Still in those cases he or she must still be submissive and bear the consequences of his or her disobedience (cf. Dan 4:17; Dan 4:25; Dan 4:32). "Governing authorities" is a term that embraces all the rulers who govern the citizen.
Every ruler exercises his or her authority because God has allowed him or her to occupy his or her position, even Satan (Luk 4:6). The Christian should acknowledge that the government under which he or she lives has received authority from God to govern regardless of whether it governs well or poorly.
God has established three institutions to control life in our dispensation: the family (Gen 2:18-25), the civil government (Gen 9:1-7), and the church (Acts 2). In each institution there are authorities to whom we need to submit for God’s will to go forward. Women are not the only people God commands to be submissive or supportive (Eph 5:22). Male and female children, citizens, and church members also need to demonstrate a submissive spirit.
Chapter 27
CHRISTIAN DUTY; IN CIVIL LIFE AND OTHERWISE:
Rom 13:1-10
A NEW topic now emerges, distinct, yet in close and natural connection. We have been listening to precepts for personal and social life, all rooted in that inmost characteristic of Christian morals, self-surrender, self-submission to God. Loyalty to others in the Lord has been the theme. In the circles of home, of friendship, of the Church; in the open field of intercourse with men in general, whose personal enmity or religious persecution was so likely to cross the path-in all these regions the Christian was to act on the principle of supernatural submission, as the sure way to spiritual victory.
The same principle is now carried into his relations with the State. As a Christian, he does not cease to be a citizen, to be a subject. His deliverance from the death sentence of the Law of God only binds him, in his Lords name, to a loyal fidelity to human statute; limited only by the case where such statute may really contradict the supreme divine law. The disciple of Christ, as such, while his whole being has received an emancipation unknown elsewhere, is to be the faithful subject of the Emperor, the orderly inhabitant of his quarter in the City, the punctual taxpayer, the ready giver of not a servile yet a genuine deference to the representatives and ministers of human authority.
This is he to do for reasons both general and special. In general, it is his Christian duty rather to submit than otherwise, where conscience toward God is not in the question. Not weakly, but meekly, he is to yield rather than resist in all his intercourse purely personal, with men; and therefore with the officials of order, as men. But in particular also, he is to understand that civil order is not only a desirable thing, but divine; it is the will of God for the social Race made in His Image. In the abstract, this is absolutely so; civil order is a God-given law, as truly as the most explicit precepts of the Decalogue, in whose Second Table it is so plainly implied all along. And in the concrete, the civil order under which the Christian finds himself to be is to be regarded as a real instance of this great principle. It is quite sure to be imperfect, because it is necessarily mediated through human minds and wills. Very possibly it may be gravely distorted into a system seriously oppressive of the individual life. As a fact, the supreme magistrate for the Roman Christians in the year 58 was a dissolute young man, intoxicated by the discovery that he might do almost entirely as he pleased with the lives around him; by no defect, however, in the idea and purpose of Roman law, but by fault of the degenerate world of the day. Yet civil authority, even with a Nero at its head, was still in principle a thing divine. And the Christians attitude to it was to be always that of a willingness, a purpose, to obey; an absence of the resistance whose motive lies in self-assertion. Most assuredly his attitude was not to be that of the revolutionist, who looks upon the State as a sort of belligerent power, against which he, alone or in company, openly or in the dark, is free to carry on a campaign. Under even heavy pressure the Christian is still to remember that civil government is, in its principle, “of God.” He is to reverence the Institution in its idea. He is to regard its actual officers, whatever their personal faults, as so far dignified by the Institution that their governing work is to be considered always first in the light of the Institution. The most imperfect, even the most erring, administration of civil order is still a thing to be respected before it is criticised. In its principle, it is a “terror not to good works, but to the evil.”
It hardly needs elaborate remark to show that such a precept, little as it may accord with many popular political cries of our time, means anything in the Christian but a political servility, or an indifference on his part to political wrong in the actual course of government. The religion which invites every man to stand face to face with God in Christ. to go straight to the Eternal, knowing no intermediary but His Son, and no ultimate authority but His Scripture, for the certainties of the soul, for peace of conscience, for dominion over evil in himself and in the world, and for more than deliverance from the fear of death, is no friend to the tyrants of mankind. We have seen how, by enthroning Christ in the heart, it inculcates a noble inward submissiveness. But from another point of view it equally, and mightily, develops the noblest sort of individualism. It lifts man to a sublime independence of his surroundings, by joining him direct to God in Christ, by making him the Friend of God. No wonder then that, in the course of history, Christianity, that is to say the Christianity of the Apostles, of the Scriptures, has been the invincible ally of personal conscience and political liberty, the liberty which is the opposite alike of license and of tyranny. It is Christianity which has taught men calmly to die, in face of a persecuting Empire, or of whatever other giant human force, rather than do wrong at its bidding. It is Christianity which has lifted innumerable souls to stand upright in solitary protest for truth and against falsehood, when every form of governmental authority has been against them. It was the student of St. Paul who, alone before the great Diet, uttering no denunciation, temperate and respectful in his whole bearing, was yet found immovable by Pope and Emperor: “I can not otherwise: so help me God.” We may be sure that if the world shuts the Bible it will only the sooner revert, under whatever type of government, to essential despotism, whether it be the despotism of the master, or that of the man. The “individual” indeed will “wither.” The Autocrat will find no purely independent spirits in his path. And what then shall call itself, however loudly, “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,” will be found at last, where the Bible is unknown, to be the remorseless despot of the personality, and of the home.
It is Christianity which has peacefully and securely freed the slave, and has restored woman to her true place by the side of man. But then, Christianity has done all this in a way of its own. It has never flattered the oppressed, nor inflamed them. It has told impartial truth to them, and to their oppressors. One of the least hopeful phenomena of present political life is the adulation (it cannot be called by another name) too frequently offered to the working classes by their leaders, or by those who ask their suffrages. A flattery as gross as any ever accepted by complacent monarchs is almost all that is now heard about themselves by the new master section of the State. This is not Christianity, but its parody. The Gospel tells uncompromising truth to the rich, but also to the poor. Even in the presence of pagan slavery it laid the law of duty on the slave, as well as on his master. It. bade the slave consider his obligations rather than his rights; while it said the same, precisely, and more at length, and more urgently, to his lord. So it at once avoided revolution and sowed the living seed of immense, and salutary, and ever-developing reforms. The doctrine of spiritual equality, and spiritual connection, secured in Christ, came into the world as the guarantee for the whole social and political system of the truest ultimate political liberty. For it equally chastened and developed the individual, in relation to the life around him.
Serious questions for practical casuistry may be raised, of course, from this passage. Is resistance to a cruel despotism never permissible to the Christian? In a time of revolution, when power wrestles with power, which power is the Christian to regard as “ordained of God”? It may be sufficient to reply to the former question that, almost self-evidently, the absolute principles of a passage like this take for granted some balance and modification by concurrent principles. Read without any such reserve, St. Paul leaves here no alternative, under any circumstances, to submission. But he certainly did not mean to say that the Christian must submit to an imperial order to sacrifice to the Roman gods. It seems to follow that the letter of the precept does not pronounce it inconceivable that a Christian, under circumstances which leave his action unselfish, truthful, the issue not of impatience, but of conviction, might be justified in positive resistance; such resistance as was offered to oppression by the Huguenots of the Cevennes, and by the Alpine Vaudois before them. But history adds its witness to the warnings of St. Paul, and of his Master, that almost inevitably it goes ill in the highest respects with saints who “take the sword,” and that the purest victories for freedom are won by those who “endure grief, suffering wrongfully,” while they witness for right and Christ before their oppressors. The Protestant pastors of Southern France won a nobler victory than any won by Jean Cavalier in the field of battle when, at the risk of their lives, they met in the woods to draw up a solemn document of loyalty to Louis XV; informing him that their injunction to their flocks always was, and always would be, “Fear God, honour the King.”
Meanwhile Godet, in some admirable notes on this passage, remarks that it leaves the Christian not only not bound to aid an oppressive government by active cooperation, but amply free to witness aloud against its wrong; and that his “submissive but firm conduct is itself a homage to the inviolability of authority. Experience proves that it is in this way all tyrannies have been morally broken, and all true progress in the history of humanity effected.”
What the servant of God should do with his allegiance at a revolutionary crisis is a grave question for any whom it may unhappily concern. Thomas Scott, in a useful note on our passage, remarks, that perhaps nothing involves greater difficulties, in very many instances, than to ascertain to whom the authority justly belongs Submission in all things lawful to the existing authorities is our duty at all times and in all cases; though in civil convulsions there may frequently be a difficulty in determining which are “the existing authorities.” In such cases “the Christian,” says Godet, “will submit to the new power as soon as the resistance of the old shall have ceased. In the actual state of matters he will recognise the manifestation of Gods will, and will take no part in any reactionary plot.”
As regards the problem of forms or types of government, it seems clear that the Apostle lays no bond of conscience on the Christian. Both in the Old Testament and in the New a just monarchy appears to be the ideal. But our Epistle says that “there is no power but of God.” In St. Pauls time the Roman Empire was in theory, as much as ever, a republic, and in fact a personal monarchy. In this question, as in so many others of the outward framework of human life, the Gospel is liberal in its applications, while it is, in the noblest sense, conservative in principle.
We close our preparatory comments, and proceed to the text, with the general recollection that in this brief paragraph we see and touch as it were the cornerstone of civil order. One side of the angle is the indefeasible duty, for the Christian citizen, of reverence for law, of remembrance of the religious aspect of even secular government. The other side is the memento to the ruler, to the authority, that God throws His shield over the claims of the State only because authority was instituted not for selfish, but for social ends, so that it belies itself if it is not used for the good of man.
Let every soul, every person, who has “presented his body a living sacrifice,” be submissive to the ruling authorities; manifestly, from the context, the authorities of the state. For there is no authority except by God; but the existing authorities have been appointed by God. That is, the imperium of the King Eternal is absolutely reserved; an authority not sanctioned by Him is nothing; man is no independent source of power and law. But then, it has pleased God so to order human life and history, that His will in this matter is expressed, from time to time, in and through the actual constitution of the state. So that the opponent of the authority withstands the ordinance of God, not merely that of man; but the withstanders will on themselves bring sentence of judgment; not only the human crime of treason, but the charge, in the court of God, of rebellion against His will. This is founded on the idea of law and order, which means by its nature the restraint of public mischief and the promotion, or at least protection, of public good. “Authority,” even under its worst distortions, still so far keeps that aim that no human civic power, as a fact, punishes good as good, and rewards evil as evil; and thus for the common run of lives the worst settled authority is infinitely better than real anarchy. For rulers, as a class, are not a terror to the good deed, but to the evil; such is always the fact in principle, and such, taking human life as a whole, is the tendency, even at the worst, in practice, where the authority in any degree deserves its name. Now do you wish not to be afraid of the authority? do what is good, and you shall have praise from it; the “praise,” at least, of being unmolested and protected. For Gods agent he is to you, for what is good; through his function God, in providence, carries out His purposes of order. But if you are doing what is evil, be afraid; for not for nothing, not without warrant, nor without purpose, does he wear his sword, symbol of the ultimate power of life and death; for Gods agent is he, an avenger, unto wrath, for the practiser of the evil. Wherefore, because God is in the matter, it is a necessity to submit, not only because of the wrath, the rulers wrath in the case supposed, but because of the conscience too; because you know, as a Christian, that God speaks through the state and through its minister, and that anarchy is therefore disloyalty to Him. For on this account too you pay taxes; the same commission which gives the state the right to restrain and punish gives it the right to demand subsidy from its members, in order to its operations; for Gods ministers are they, His , a word so frequently used in sacerdotal connections that it well may suggest them here; as if the civil ruler were, in his province, an almost religious instrument of divine order; Gods ministers, to this very end persevering in their task; working on in the toils of administration, for the execution, consciously or not, of the divine plan of social peace.
This is a noble point of view, alike for governed and for governors, from which to consider the prosaic problems and necessities of public finance. Thus understood, the tax is paid not with a cold and compulsory assent to a mechanical exaction, but as an act in the line of the plan of God. And the tax is devised and demanded, not merely as an expedient to adjust a budget, but as a thing which Gods law can sanction, in the interests of Gods social plan. Discharge therefore to all men, to all men in authority, primarily, but not only, their dues; the tax, to whom you owe the tax, on person and property; the toll, to whom the toll, on merchandise; the fear, to whom the fear, as to the ordained punisher of wrong; the honour, to whom the honour, as to the rightful claimant in general of loyal deference.
Such were the political principles of the new Faith, of the mysterious Society, which was so soon to perplex the Roman statesman, as well as to supply convenient victims to the Roman despot. A Nero was shortly to burn Christians in his gardens as a substitute for lamps, on the charge that they were guilty of secret and horrible orgies. Later, a Trajan, grave and anxious, was to order their execution as members of a secret community dangerous to imperial order. But here is a private missive sent to this people by their leader, reminding them of their principles, and prescribing their line of action. He puts them in immediate spiritual contact, every man and woman of them, with the Eternal Sovereign, and so he inspires them with the strongest possible independence, as regards “the fear of man.” He bids them know for a certainty, that the Almighty One regards them, each and all, as accepted in His Beloved, and fills them with His great Presence, and promises them a coming heaven from which no earthly power or terror can for a moment shut them out. But in the same message, and in the same Name, he commands them to pay their taxes to the pagan State, and to do so, not with the contemptuous indifference of the fanatic, who thinks that human life in its temporal order is God-forsaken, but in the spirit of cordial loyalty and ungrudging deference, as to an authority representing in its sphere none other than their Lord and Father.
It has been suggested that the first serious antagonism of the state towards these mysterious Christians was occasioned by the inevitable interference of the claims of Christ with the stern and rigid order of the Roman Family. A power which could assert the right, the duty, of a son to reject his fathers religious worship was taken to be a power which meant the destruction of all social order as such; a nihilism indeed. This was a tremendous misunderstanding to encounter. How was it to be met? Not by tumultuary resistance, not even by passionate protests and invectives. The answer was to be that of love, practical and loyal, to God and man, in life and, when occasion came, in death. Upon the line of that path lay at least the possibility of martyrdom, with its lions and its funeral piles; but the end of it was the peaceful vindication of the glory of God and of the Name of Jesus, and the achievement of the best security for the liberties of man.
Congenially then the Apostle closes these precepts of civil order with the universal command to love. Owe nothing to anyone; avoid absolutely the social disloyalty of debt; pay every creditor in full, with watchful care; except the loving one another. Love is to be a perpetual and inexhaustible debt, not as if repudiated or neglected, but as always due and always paying; a debt, not as a forgotten account is owing to the seller, but as interest on capital is continuously owing to the lender. And this, not only because of the fair beauty of love, but because of the legal duty of it: For the lover of his fellow ( , “the other man,” be he who he may, with whom the man has to do) has fulfilled the law, the law of the Second Table, the code of mans duty to man, which is in question here.
He “has fulfilled” it; as having at once entered, in principle and will, into its whole requirement; so that all he now needs is not a better attitude, but developed information. For the, “Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet,” and whatever other commandment there is, all is summed up in this utterance. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” {Lev 19:18} Love works the neighbour no ill; therefore love is the Laws fulfilment.
Is it a mere negative precept then? Is the life of love to be only an abstinence from doing harm, which may shun thefts, but may also shun personal sacrifices? Is it a cold and inoperative “harmlessness,” which leaves all things as they are? We see the answer in part in those words, “as thyself.” Man “loves himself” (in the sense of nature, not of sin), with a love which instinctively avoids indeed what is repulsive and noxious, but does so because it positively likes and desires the opposite. The man who “loves his neighbour as himself” will be as considerate of his neighbours feelings as of his own, in respect of abstinence from injury and annoyance. But he will be more; he will be actively desirous of his neighbours good. “Working him no evil,” he will reckon it as much “evil” to be indifferent to his positive true interests as he would reckon it unnatural to be apathetic about his own. Working him no evil, as one who loves him as himself, he will care, and seek, to work him good.
“Love,” says Leibnitz, in reference to the great controversy on Pure Love agitated by Fenelon and Bossuet, “is that which finds its felicity in anothers good.” Such an agent can never terminate its action in a mere cautious abstinence from wrong.
The true divine commentary on this brief paragraph is the nearly contemporary passage written by the same author, 1Co 13:1-13. There, as we saw above, the description of the sacred thing, love, like that of the heavenly state in the Revelation, is given largely in negatives. Yet who fails to feel the wonderful positive of the effect? That is no merely negative innocence which is greater than mysteries, and knowledge, and the use of an angel tongue; greater than self-inflicted poverty, and the endurance of the martyrs flame; “chief grace below, and all in all above.” Its blessed negatives are but a form of unselfish action. It forgets itself, and remembers others, and refrains from the least needless wounding of them, not because it wants merely “to live and let live,” but because it loves them, finding its felicity in their good.
It has been said that “love is holiness, spelt short.” Thoughtfully interpreted and applied, the saying is true. The holy man in human life is the man who, with the Scriptures open before him as his informant and his guide, while the Lord Christ dwells in his heart by faith as his Reason and his Power, forgets himself in a work for others which is kept at once gentle, wise, and persistent to the end, by the love which, whatever else it does, knows how to sympathise and to serve.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary