On Governing Authorities

A Breakdown of Romans 13

Romans 13 

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities 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. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 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. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

Photo by tommao wang on Unsplash

Here we have, perhaps, the second most abused piece of scripture within the modern Church. Often, the entirety of the necessary text isn’t even quoted when being deconstructed, thereby leaving out critical context. Romans 13 does not mean what you’ve likely been told it means, and I will provide the full treatment to demonstrate why, beyond any rational doubt, this is the case.

First, let’s set apart some terms that I do not want to get confused, and so, for the purpose of this article, they will not be used interchangeably as synonyms. It does not matter whether or not they actually are synonymous in typical usage – for our purposes we could just as easily insert “X” and “Y,” but to stick with the scriptural “authorities” will be easier to track. The not-synonymous-for-our-purposes word that will be used separately from “authorities” is “government.”

Next, we affirm the standard understandings and beliefs of scripture – most importantly the inerrancy thereof. Then, we will move on to examining the text, and breaking out small portions to deep dive on (no, it will not be eisegesis).

Let us examine the assertion, “3 For rulers [authorities] 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, 4 for he is God's servant for your good.” Now, it is important to note that this is, in fact, an assertion. It is not speculatory, nor wavering. It does not couch itself in obfuscatory language, nor is it particularly nebulous. It can be simply, and accurately summarized “authorities are servants of God who do no harm to he who does good, but punish the wicked.”

Now, to return to our prior affirmation of inerrancy, because this is an assertion of Truth within scripture – the breathed word of our good Lord who is incapable of contradiction – this must be upheld by our observations of reality. But, is it? For those who would assert that all government is authority, i.e. all those who wield stately power over those subject to it are to be properly called an authority, you must then account for some damnable repayment of good works by governments unto their subjects.

We could examine this contradiction in the context of the early Church, and those Christians persecuted and executed for good works - those fed to lions in the colosseum for instance - or to the modern world in, most obviously, nations such as North Korea, China, the Soviet Union under Stalin and Lenin, Germany under Hitler, and so on. Would you really give me an apologia (a reasoned defense) of these governments and powerful men not violating this premise (of being “no terror to good conduct”) when they deliver death and destruction on the back of good deeds? I would welcome you to try, but it would clearly be absurd in the extreme.

We all know that such governments bring much cause for fear onto those who would do good. This brings a serious problem for those who assert that all government is authority from God: it’s either this interpretation or the inerrancy of scripture that will stand – it cannot be both. You simply cannot say that “all government is ordained by God as his servants, they are of no terror to those who do good, but also sometimes they murder the innocent and partake in other grievous sin.” Clearly, then, we see that the only tenable position to hold at this point is that not all governments, nor men of power, represent true Godly authorities – that “authorities” has some meaning that is, in this case, not universally synonymous with civil government.

What else can we look to for guidance? “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” is a good place to go to next. All authority flows from God. There is no authority outside that which God has ordained. Now look to “[authorities are] the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.” So, we see that the authority is to perform Gods justice on earth. Two important points to keep in mind as we move forward.

Last, let’s look to the opening line, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” Slight confusion in terms aside, clearly, here, the Christian is to make themselves subject to authority, as is ordained by God, and all authority is of God.

So, what government is authority ordained by God? The only reasonable answer is that this text we now analyze is precisely the guide to answering that very question: an authority is that which behaves in accordance with Romans 13 – it is not a terror to good, it carries the sword against evil, and it acts as a servant of God. (Though not the purpose of this article, that last part sounds a lot like legitimate government is to submit to Christ). That is the sort of government that the Christian is conscience-bound to be subject to – not just any government, and, quite arguably, not this government we now find ourselves under the boot of in this burgeoning tyranny. This is the purpose of Romans 13: to properly guide both the actions of the civil government and those of the Christian in relation to the civil government, for better or worse, and between the extremes of subjection and rebellion.