Basically, there are three main social structures that impact our lives. These are the family, the church and the state or the government. To each of these divinely ordained institutions we owe respect and submission. It is a sign of the times that each of these institutions is going through a serious crisis. Our generation is characterized by lack of respect for author­ity. Disrespect and disobedience begins in the family and from there it spreads to the church, to the workplace and to the government. The sad thing is that the virus of disrespect has infected also many Christians. Apparently this was already a problem in New Testament times. The apostle Peter found it necessary to remind his fellow believers not only to fear God but also to “honour the king” (1 Pet. 2:17). Paul, in his letter to the Romans, includes a substantial section dealing with the responsibilities Christians have toward “the powers that be” (Rom. 13:1-7). The apostolic teaching on this subject is as relevant today as it was back then.

The Divine Origin of Government⤒🔗

Relations between church and state have always been tense and fraught with difficulties. One major reason for this is man’s instinctive reluctance to submit to the gov­ernment under which he lives. Moreover, the word sub­mission has a negative connotation for many people. It conjures up images of slavish allegiance of wives to their husbands and of citizens groveling before rulers and em­ployers.

But this is not what Paul has in mind. Paul is encouraging his Christian audience to willingly place themselves un­der the authority of the civil government. He begins by showing that submission to the government is reason­able because God has instituted it. He writes, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers (governing authorities). For there is no authority but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1).

Although God possesses supreme authority over all per­sons and possessions, He does delegate authority to cer­tain people and institutions. When Paul refers to gov­erning authorities, he is not just talking about heads of state; he is referring to all levels of authority, all the way down from the president or prime minister to the police officer on his beat. These are the powers that be, or the authorities that exist. He tells us that all people, but cer­tainly Christians, must recognize that governments and those who serve in them are appointed by God Himself.

Which form of government is the best? We in the West tend to think that democracy is superior to all other types of government. But Scripture does not seem to favour one over the other. In New Testament times be­lievers in Christ found themselves living under various systems of government, monarchies, oligarchies (rule by a few), republics, dictatorships and in very few cases, democracies. Whatever form of government it may be, God is involved both in its rise and fall. Not only Paul in the New Testament, but also Daniel in the Old, tes­tify to this. In Daniel 2 we find the prophet standing be­fore Nebuchadnezzar, one of the most powerful tyrants of all time, and he says to him, “God changes times and seasons, He removes kings, and raises up kings.” God is very much involved in human affairs, including the ever-changing forms of governments.

When Paul wrote this letter to the Roman Christians, they were living in the capital of the empire. By this time Rome had already passed through several forms of government. It had been a monarchy, a republic, and now it was an empire. Nero had just begun his reign as the fifth emperor of Rome. What Paul is saying, there­fore, is that no matter what kind of government we may live under, God has ordained it. Not only are the forms of government brought into being by God, but God puts the people who occupy government offices there also.

In 2008 many Americans hoped that John McCain would win the presidency but what they got instead was Barack Hussein Obama. This was not their will, I am sure, but it was God’s will, difficult as it was for many to accept this outcome. Scripture teaches that God not only sends us good leaders in His favour but sometimes He will also give us tyrants to punish or discipline us. In that case we deserve what we get. Therefore, when Hit­lers, Stalins, and other ruthless individ­uals – think of Sadam Hussein – come to power, God has put them there because He uses all of them as instruments to further His cause on earth.

But if God sets up governments, does this mean that He is responsible for their poli­cies and the conduct of their leaders? No, absolutely not! With great authority also comes great responsibility. And with sinful people the possibility for the abuse of author­ity is high. When Jesus stood before Pilate, our Saviour said to him, “You would have no authority over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11). Pilate abused his God-given authority by condemning a sinless man to death. Pilate is responsible for his use of authority. So are all others who misuse the authority God delegated to them.

The Blessings Governments Bring Us←⤒🔗

These are all temporal blessings, i.e., blessings for this life, but they are important and certainly Christians should appreciate them. Why does the Lord set up governments and appoint rulers over us? One purpose is to preserve law and order in society. It is better to have even a bad government than no government at all, for that means anarchy, lawlessness.

Twice in these verses, government authorities are re­ferred to as “God’s ministers” or “servants” (vv. 4, 6) The Greek word for minister is a word from which we get our word deacon. So we are to look upon government au­thorities as deacons or servants whom God uses to bless Christians and non-Christians alike. These servants are to carry out two main functions. First, they are God’s servants to us “for good” and second, they are God’s ser­vants to “execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (v. 4).

Thus the primary responsibilities of the state are to pro­mote the good and restrain the evil. In telling us that governments “do not bear the sword in vain,” Paul is making a biblical case for capital punishment. In Paul’s time, the sword was the symbol of power over life and death. In restraining evil, even to the point of death, government allows those who live uprightly to live at peace. Generally speak­ing, most governments in the world seek to carry out these two functions. Some do it better than others, certainly, but in most cases governments won’t bother citizens who are minding their own business. Each form of government seeks to keep order and punish those who are set on doing evil against oth­ers and against the state.

For Christians a stable government is essential for doing the Lord’s work. That’s why Paul urges Timothy to teach believers to offer “supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks for all men, but particularly for kings and for all that are in authority.” Why? In order that “we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 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” (1 Tim. 2:1-4). In other words, God wants His Gospel to go out. And the best way to do that is to create conditions that help promote the work of the church. One of those favourable conditions is to live under a government that guarantees freedom of reli­gion and the right to propagate the Christian religion.

Good government means having opportunities to pro­mote the cause of the Gospel. For most people, however, it seems that the primary job of the government is to create jobs and stimulate the economy and keep taxes low. Christians appreciate these things too, of course, and they may legitimately criticize the government for failing to make this a priority, especially in a time of high unemployment. After all, serving the Lord and support­ing various Gospel ministries requires good jobs and ad­equate wages.

Because good governments bring real benefits it is wrong and dangerous to oppose civil authorities. Look back at verse 2, “Whoever therefore resisteth the power (or authority) resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation (or judgment).”

We Must Meet all Legitimate Requirements of the Government←⤒🔗

Since God has ordained, instituted and given authority to governments, resisting that authority is tantamount to resisting God. All citizens, therefore, but especially Christians, are duty bound to meet the legitimate re­quirements of the government.

We have seen that one of the most important functions of government is to protect its citizens from evil. They are to protect us from enemy attacks from without and criminal activities from within. To do this, governments need to maintain armies and police forces and courts of justice. Of course, all this costs money – lots of it. That is where another function of the government comes in, namely raising taxes. “For this cause,” Paul says in verse 6, “pay ye tribute (or taxes) for they are God’s ministers attend­ing continually upon this very thing.”

Of course, the government provides many other servic­es that are not mentioned by Paul, such as mail service, utilities (water, sewage), schools, relief agencies, etc. These are all proper functions of government agencies, all of which cost money and therefore as citizens we are required to pay our share of taxes. On the other hand, there are also things and areas that governments have no right to get into. What those things are Jesus tells us in that famous incident when He was asked about paying taxes. He took a coin and held it up and said, “Whose im­age and inscription is this?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” So He said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Cae­sar’s; and to God the things that are God’s (Matt. 22:20).

By this Jesus clearly indicated that there are limits to the power of government. Caesar has his image on certain things; therefore they belong to him – and rightfully so – Jesus is saying. By implication He extends this to the whole realm of temporal things. Governments have au­thority over what we do with our proper­ty, meeting safety standards, for instance, and how we behave toward one another. But our Lord clearly indicates they have no right to touch things on which God has put His image Thus Caesar has no right to tell us how or even whether to worship God or to interfere with our obedience to the Word of God and the requirements of His law.

May Christians Ever Resist?←⤒🔗

What if governments go beyond their God-given rights and abuse those they govern? In that case citizens have the right to protest these abuses and to disobey human laws that clearly violate the higher laws of God. In the book of Exodus, when Pharaoh orders the Hebrew mid­wives to kill the newborn boys, we read that “the mid­wives ... feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them” (Ex. 1:17). They let the boys live because God’s law says, “Thou shalt not kill.” In the book of Dan­iel, when King Nebuchadnezzar orders all his subjects to bow down and worship his image of gold, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego do not obey because they knew God’s commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods be­fore me.” In Acts 4 and 5, the Sanhedrin told the apostles not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Jesus had told them just months earlier to go into all the world, preaching the gospel to every creature. So Peter and the other apostles simply replied: “We must obey God rather than men.”

In each of these cases the governmental authorities required something that directly contradicted the clear teaching of Scripture. If our government would forbid Christians from gathering for worship, it is our obliga­tion to disobey and hold services because God has told us that we should not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25). But if the government revokes the tax exemption for churches and religious ministries or revokes the deduction for charitable contributions made to a church, we would have a hard time finding a biblical mandate for resisting the government on that issue.

Clearly, there are times when civil dis­obedience is necessary. But this principle needs to be qualified. With few exceptions civil disobedience is to be non-violent and there has to be a willingness to accept the consequences of such action (see Dan. 3:17-18; Acts 5:40-42). When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego resisted the king’s decree, they did not orga­nize a revolution against Nebuchadnezzar. Instead, they entrusted themselves to God and accepted the consequences of their action – being thrown into a furnace of fire. When Daniel disobeyed, he did not stir up a rebel­lion; instead, he committed his life to God and accepted the consequences of his defiance, which in his case meant being thrown into a cave full of lions.

What about taking part in a tax revolt? Is that legiti­mate? It depends on what taxes are used for. But that is not always easy to determine. Most people feel that they are taxed far too much. We tend to agree with that feel­ing. But this gives us no right to object to the principle of taxation itself. Generally speaking, taxes are legitimate, and governments have levied them from time immemorial, and will no doubt continue to do so.

Paul makes clear that the government has the right to do so. Therefore Christians should pay them without complaining too much. To be continually grumbling about taxes is wrong because in so doing we are sinning against God. In verse 5, Paul mentions two reasons why we should submit to the government. The one is fear of punishment and the other is because of what conscience tells us. It is not enough for us to obey the law just be­cause we are afraid we are going to get caught. We should not keep to the speed limit just because there is a police car in sight. We are not to pay our income taxes just be­cause we know the government might review our records and order an audit. The Christian’s reason is that it is the right thing to do before God. Your conscience ought to be clear. Taxes ought to be paid because God says so, not because it is man’s idea.

The apostle leaves us very little leeway as to what we are to do. “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour” (v. 7). What Paul is saying comes down to this: We don’t have the right to withhold taxes even if the govern­ment doesn’t use them quite the way we think they should. Governments are made up of fallible men and women just like us, and we can’t demand that the government always handles everything perfectly. So Paul writes to these Romans Christians who most likely had the same problems we have with taxes, “If you owe taxes, pay them.” And whatever else the government asks of us that is legitimate, don’t refuse. To do so is to act just like the world and that is unacceptable behav­iour. Always remember that the basic principle is what Paul says in 12:2: “Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind...”

No government is perfect. Compared to many others in this world, ours is not too bad. Therefore we should make every effort we can, as good citizens, to improve the system and to protest when legislation is proposed and enacted that violates the Law of God. We also have access to the ballot box. We can vote out of office those we consider bad rulers and replace them with others who we can only hope and pray will do a better job.

Whatever we do, let us always act as Christians, with thankfulness for what we can do under God. Let us do so in such a way that people will see that there is something different about us. That’s how we commend ourselves to God and to a watching world.