Early voting has already begun here in Texas, where I live. On November 3, Americans will return to the ballot box for the midterm elections. For some of us, this is an energizing time. We love doing our part to participate in our republic and choose our leaders. For others, it is the most unpleasant experience of your year. You despise politics and politicians. You find the whole experience of voting for the least bad candidate distasteful. You lament the deep divisions in our society that track along political lines. And the biggest upside of the election is that, once it’s over, at least you can go back to watching pharmaceutical commercials instead of attack ads.
But the most difficult part about politics is what happens after the elections. In Romans 13:1, God calls us to be subject to these governing authorities—to obey the laws they pass, to show them honor and respect, to give them our hard-earned money by paying taxes. Voting is one thing, but submitting my life to a politician, showing respect to that guy, paying taxes to those people—even the people I didn’t choose? That’s not so easy.
We should be comforted in knowing this isn’t a new problem. It’s an issue God’s people have always faced. The Jewish exiles from the Promised Land wrestled with how to live under Babylonian rule (Jer. 29). The Maccabees led a revolt in the second century B.C. against their pagan overlords. The Pharisees questioned Jesus about whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. God’s people have always wondered how to relate to civil authorities, particularly civil authorities who did not share their religious convictions.
In Romans 13:1–7, Paul gives us three reasons why Christians must be subject to the governing authorities.
1) Because of how they got there
We should be subject to the governing authorities because of how they got there. Right after the command in verse 1 to be subject to the governing authorities, Paul claims that all authority comes from God himself and that the authorities that do exist have been instituted by God. The civil authorities to which Paul is referring occupy that position of power because God put them there. The governing authorities in Rome—including the emperor—believed their power to rule came from other Roman institutions like the Senate and was exercised through military power. They also believed the gods gave them some measure of their authority. But Paul makes the claim that every authority, from the emperor down to the local governors, ultimately comes from God. That doesn’t mean God necessarily approves of every action these rulers take. But it does mean he has given them their authority. And Christians owe these rulers their subjection because God is the one who put them there.
There are two implications of that truth. First, it means the authority these rulers have is a legitimate authority. It’s divinely instituted and therefore it’s genuine, even if the ruler is not a very good person. If God instituted them, then they have not only the right, but a duty to exercise that authority. It’s real power. It’s real authority. Paul says he has given them a sword—a symbol of that power. It should be noted here that Nero was emperor at the time Paul is writing this letter. Now, Nero reigned for 14 years and it wasn’t until close to the end of that time that things got really bad and he murdered his mother and his sister and started burning Christians. Paul here is writing at the beginning of that time when things were more politically stable. Nevertheless, Paul acknowledges that even Nero has legitimate, God-ordained authority.
But second, it means their authority is a limited authority. Their authority is limited to the area of responsibility God has given them. During the Reformation, Martin Luther used the metaphor of God’s two hands to describe the way he rules his creation. His right hand was the government he exercised over the church. His left hand was the government he exercised over the civil authorities. Both were God-ordained but they were limited to their respective jurisdictions, which means there are certain things that fall outside the jurisdiction of the civil authorities—certain things they don’t have the authority to command or control. And, likewise, certain things fall outside the jurisdiction of the church’s area of responsibility. So there exists a tension. We are to be subject to these authorities because they are legitimate, God-ordained rulers; but we must also know the limits of that authority.
We see this tension worked out in the life of the early church. Think about Acts 4–5 when Peter and John are hauled before the Sanhedrin after healing the lame man in the temple. The authorities forbid them from preaching Christ. And listen to their response: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). And in the next chapter they famously say, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Notice how they recognize the legitimate authority of the Sanhedrin to judge them. You must judge, they say. They don’t say, You have no right to tell me what I can and can’t say. But they also recognize that even though their authority is legitimate, it has limits. They can’t forbid them from doing something God has commanded them. Not because they have no right to judge, but because this falls outside their jurisdiction.
What does this mean for us? I imagine many of us find it fairly easy to be subject to the authorities we like and agree with—the ones who see the world like we do, who make decisions we would make, who stay out of our way and don’t require much of us. We will gladly honor them. But what about authorities you don’t agree with—who you find morally reprehensible, who hold views deeply at odds with your Christian convictions, who are self-serving, arrogant, ignorant, foolish, incompetent, or corrupt? Do you still have to be subject to them? Depending on your political leanings, different people may come into your mind as you read those adjectives. And whoever you’re picturing, the answer is: Yes, we are required to be subject to them. You don’t have to admire them. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t have to emulate them. (In fact, in many cases you should not emulate them.) But the authorities that exist—even those authorities—have been instituted by God. God doesn’t give us the option to calibrate our subjection based on the moral rectitude or wisdom of the ruler. We honor them because of God. So regardless of who wins, our duty to be subject to the governing authorities will not change. The man or woman in office may change, but the God who appoints them remains the same.
So here’s a test. Let’s imagine your man or woman loses the election. You're speaking to colleagues at work the next day about the winning candidate. Based on the way you speak about them, would your colleagues be able to tell that you believe that person has been instituted by God and deserves your subjection? What about if your person does win the election? Would the way you speak about them reveal your belief that they, too, are subject to God, instituted by God, and that you do not put your trust in them?
2) Because of what they do
We must also be subject to the governing authorities because of what they do. In Romans 13, Paul also explains why God has given authority to these rulers. He hasn’t given them authority over everything. Rather, he has given them a specific job to do. He has given them a jurisdiction to preside over. Just as your boss has given you a job description that gives you authority over a certain part of the business and defines your responsibilities, here we see the job God has given to civil government.
In Romans 13:3–4, Paul says:
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
What job has God given to these civil rulers? Their job is to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. When sinful people live together in societies, conflict is inevitable. We hurt each other, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident. God has given us a civil government to provide order and peace to our societies, to strike terror into the hearts of people who want to hurt or kill or steal and discourage them from doing those things, to protect the weak and vulnerable, and to encourage people to do good to their neighbors—to incentivize diligence, respect, loyalty, and generosity.
Notice why God instituted this order. Paul says that these leaders are “God’s servants for your good” (v. 4). God’s servants! It’s the same word he uses for pastors elsewhere. When they do this job like they’re supposed to, that’s good for you. It serves you. Think of Paul in Acts 21–23. He arrives in Jerusalem and a mob gathers to try to kill him. Soldiers come in and arrest and save him from the mob. Then a group secretly plots to assassinate him and Paul’s nephew informs the magistrate of the plot, so the Roman governor arranges for him to be escorted to Caesarea, because even he recognizes it would be unjust to let this man be killed by vigilantes. This guy wasn’t a Christian. He didn’t care about advancing the gospel one bit. In fact, he was a representative of the government that would ultimately execute Paul! But the civil government preserved Paul’s life.
So we should be subject to the civil government, not only because their authority comes from God but because God has given them a job to do that serves us. When those civil authorities operate within the jurisdiction God has granted them by passing laws, rendering judgments, and so forth, we as Christians have an obligation to obey their lawful commands. For example, civil governments have a rightful responsibility to regulate activity on public roads. So they impose speed limits, require drivers to obey traffic signals, and mandate basic standards of vehicle safety features (e.g., working turn signals and head lights). Even though the Bible nowhere commands Christians not to exceed 20 MPH in a school zone or to make sure their brake lights function properly, being subject to the civil authorities means obeying in these instances when the civil government is doing its rightful job.
I imagine many of us read these verses and think, Yes, God needs to punish all those people who break the law. Justice must be done to all the cheaters and thieves and corrupt people out there. And yet, at the same time we are also quick to make exceptions for our own disobedience. We give ourselves a pass for those laws we may judge to be minor or annoying. We may excuse a false adjustment on our tax returns because we don’t trust the government to spend our resources wisely. We may shoot off an email from our phone while driving down a busy street to meet an important deadline. We cannot demand that everyone else be held to the standards of the law while we ourselves disregard them when it’s inconvenient. We need to hold ourselves to the same standard of obedience to which we expect our leaders and fellow citizens to be held.
Now, to be clear, there are real limits to the authority of civil government. If they command us to sin, or if they forbid us from doing something God commands us to do, we must refuse to obey them and accept whatever consequences disobedience may bring. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who refused to worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar and were thrown into the fiery furnace for their “disobedience,” Christians must refuse to obey unlawful commands even when they come from legitimate authorities. There may also be circumstances in which the civil government exceeds its God-ordained bounds and seeks to regulate areas of our lives over which God has not given them authority. For example, in 2011 the city of San Juan Capistrano fined a couple for hosting Bible studies in their home without a conditional use permit required for private gatherings of more than three people. In these (rare) cases, being subject to the governing authorities may require respectful, orderly challenges to that particular instance of government overreach without challenging their rightful authority.
God has given us civil government for our good. And despite its inevitable failures and excesses at times, we enjoy tremendous blessings because of it. My family lived in Colombia for two years where large swaths of the country are still “governed” by armed guerilla groups and narcoterrorists. Even in our relatively safe neighborhood in Bogota, violent crime, robbery, and theft were not uncommon. Our church even suffered under a lack of good government when the person who originally sold the property to the congregation decided to sell the same piece of land owned by the church to another party 10 years later. The conflicting deeds weren’t caught until after the new “owner” built an apartment building on the church’s land! Americans should give thanks that we live in a place where police respond to calls within minutes, where courts uphold property rights, where criminals are brought to justice. Give thanks to God for civil government.
3) Because of who you are
Finally, we must be subject to civil government because of who we are. Did you notice what seems like a passing comment Paul makes in verse 5? He says, “Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.” What is he getting at here?
He’s saying that as Christians we should be subject to the governing authorities not only because they can punish us if we disobey, but because it is an act of obedience to the God who has redeemed us. That’s what Paul means by “for the sake of conscience.” The conscience is that internal barometer that evaluates our actions before the face of God and before his law. It’s that sense that reminds you when you’ve done something wrong or done something right even if no one else saw it. He’s saying, for the Christian, there is a higher motivation for this kind of subjection than just avoiding punishment.
If we choose only to obey the law to avoid the punishment, then if we think we can get away with something, we will. We will do the right thing when people are watching but when there’s no danger of being caught, we’ll do what we want. After all, if the police officer doesn’t see me run that red light in the middle of the night, no worries. If mom and dad never find out, I’m good. As long as I don’t get audited, I’m fine.
But as a Christian, you subject yourself to the governing authorities because you know your heavenly Father always sees, you know that no matter how wicked the ruler in power that your Father can remove him like that if he wants, you can trust him that even unjust, cowardly, foolish, corrupt, and greedy rulers he will employ for your good. So you can be subject to them whether people are watching or not.
How can you know that? How can you subject yourself to the civil authorities when you know those authorities are human just like you? When you’re aware of the limitations and failures of government? When you don’t trust their judgments? Consider the fact that the same Roman government to which Paul commands subjection here is the same government that just twenty years earlier conducted a trial in Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate—a trial compelled by an angry mob under the cover of night. The government put in place by God to reward the good and punish the wicked set a murderer free and punished, in the most horrific way, the only truly good man who ever lived—who crucified Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And through what seemed to be a colossal perversion of justice, God’s mercy for sinners was on full display. Christ suffered for our sins under that government so that lawbreakers like us might go free.
Christ has set you free to live for God. He’s restored your conscience by giving you a new heart and spiritually raising you from the dead. That’s why you can be subject to any earthly ruler, you can pay taxes even if you know the government isn’t going to spend them wisely, you can show honor even to those who may personally be dishonorable, because you answer to a higher authority, you belong to both an earthly and a heavenly government, and you look for the day when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and he will be all in all. Until that day, let’s honor God by honoring the earthly rulers he has given us for our good.
