1 Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities
that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore
whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist
will incur judgment. 3 For
rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no
fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval;
4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is
wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain!
It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be
subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay
taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is due
them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to
whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due (NRSV).
The mainstream interpretation of this often occurs in one of
two ways. The first is that all
governments are a Godly entity which one should blindly follow because, after
all, they are God’s authority used for “sword-wielding” (i.e. wrathful)
purposes. This is obviously problematic
because it has given rise to the Constantines, Crusaders, Nazis and other
likeminded regimes that would use this verse to justify total allegiance to governing
tyrants.
The second way of looking at Romans
13 has been to attempt a “reasonable” approach that says one should then only submit
to moral governments and vehemently revolt against the immoral
governments. However, we are then faced
with the dilemma of not only deciding at what point of immoral a government
should become disqualified, but now distinctions are being made about governments
which are obviously not even conceptualized within Paul’s thinking.[1]
So allow me to suggest a third view.
John Howard
Yoder makes, what I believe, to be an indisputable observation about the text.
This is that Romans 13 cannot be read apart from Romans 12 because they were
composed as a literary whole. Leading up to these chapters Paul is explaining
God’s mercy bestowed on the Gentiles (1-5), then the unearned renewal of the
“body through the Spirit” (6-8) and followed by the continuation of unmerited
redemptive concern that God maintains for Israel (9-11). Then in Romans 12 Paul
is suggesting that God’s mercies on humankind should elicit the human response
of non-conformity to the world, suffering love, abandoning vengeance and
overcoming evil with good(specifically by those who have responded to and
accepted God’s redemptive mercies). This extended from Paul’s understanding
that God’s victorious progress is moving from merciful past to triumphant
future.[2] How does this line up with the previous
interpretations of chapter 13? Well, it
doesn’t.
Perhaps when we read 12 and 13
together Paul is making a moral statement on Christian conduct rather than a
metaphysical one about government (metaphysical meaning that God is creator or the
initial causation of governmental powers).
Rather, Paul seems to suppose that mankind took that initiative upon
himself and now God merely ordered them as if Sovereignly allowing governments
to have a place within the created order of the universe. The fact remains that hierarchy, power
struggles and disregard for human dignity, both violent and non-violent, has
been at work since the dawn of human-sin.
So, this does not mean that God approves of every government or that
what they do is good human behavior, but they at the moment do have a place and
God will use them for what good he can so to maintain some amount of societal
order (and yes I am making this statement from the belief that we are to some extent free-agents and God does not force or coerce creation). Nevertheless, this is not instruction for
Christians to assert themselves in that role.[3]
If anything there is a
contrariness that separates government from Christianity. Christians exist in a
time between times (i.e. the time before God sets all things to right once and
for all) and are thereby subject to the world’s systems and social-orders as is.
The sword-bearing secular government creates some order by means of force and self-preservation
while the Christian seeks God's way of peace and altruism as the means to restore
God’s intended order. It is no mistake
that between Paul’s instruction for Christian life and service (Rom.12:1-21),
& his desire to apply the law of love for others (13:8-14), that he place
his appeal to submit to government. He
is essentially telling the Christian-Jews of his present time, who were being
oppressed by their anti-Semitic Roman government, to become nonresistant. This does not mean that they are to submit in
a way that will carryout the evil of the government, but they were never to
respond to the government’s evil, violence and force with their own versions of
evil, violence and force (Rom. 12:17; Matt. 5:39). To return to the eye-for-eye tactics is to do
exactly what Paul warns against and conform to the world’s behavior (Rom.12:2). Why would God bestow mercy so that we could continue
down the same path and in the manner that human trajectory has long been on? So also, what is the foremost mark that God has
given his Spirit if not a transformed character of person and thus a renewed way
of living in the world?
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