God's Deacons and Our Duties Text: Romans 13:1-7
Introduction: Anarchists for Jesus?
We live in a time of civic upheaval, a time when the relationship between the Christian and the state is a matter of constant, and often confused, debate. On the one hand, you have Christians who seem to treat Romans 13 as a divine gag order, a blank check for any and every government edict, no matter how foolish or tyrannical. Whatever the governor says, goes, and your only job is to salute smartly and comply. On the other hand, you have a different kind of Christian, often a well-meaning patriot, who seems to think that because the government is corrupt, his default setting should be a low-grade, simmering rebellion against all authority. They hate tyranny, but what they often really hate is the very idea of being told what to do.
Both of these positions are profoundly mistaken, and both are a dereliction of our Christian duty. The Bible does not teach us to be servile bootlickers, nor does it teach us to be revolutionary scofflaws. We are not anarchists. Civil government is a blessing from God, an institution He established for the good of mankind. But neither are we statists. The authority of the civil magistrate is a delegated authority, a limited authority, and an authority that is accountable to the God who gave it.
This passage in Romans 13 is one of the most foundational texts on Christian political theology in the entire Bible. And we must understand it in its context. Paul is writing to Christians in the heart of the Roman Empire, under the rule of the emperor Nero. And while Nero had not yet launched his most infamous persecutions when Paul wrote this, the apostle was under no illusions about the paganism of the regime. Yet, into this context, he lays down the fundamental principles that must govern our relationship to the state. He is not giving us a loophole to disregard God's law, but rather the very framework for obeying it in the public square. This passage is not a tranquilizer for the politically oppressed; it is a job description for the civil magistrate and a set of marching orders for the Christian citizen.
We must get this right, because if we don't, we will either abdicate our responsibilities and allow tyrants to run roughshod over God's law, or we will rebel in a lawless manner, becoming the very evildoers the magistrate is appointed to punish. We must learn to be the kind of citizens that a righteous ruler would love to have, and the kind of citizens a tyrannical ruler would have to reckon with.
The Text
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist have been appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists that authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of that authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for 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 in vain, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of that wrath, but also because of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
(Romans 13:1-7 LSB)
God's Ordained Authority (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the foundational principle of all civil order.
"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist have been appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists that authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves." (Romans 13:1-2)
Paul starts with a universal command: "Every person." This includes Christians. We are to be in subjection to the governing authorities. This is our default position, our factory setting. We are not to be naturally suspicious, cantankerous, or rebellious. Our fundamental demeanor should be one of honor and submission. Why? Because there is no authority except from God.
This is a staggering claim. The authority of your mayor, your governor, the president, the police officer, does not ultimately derive from the consent of the governed, or from the barrel of a gun, but from the throne of God Almighty. They are where they are because God put them there. This is true for good rulers and for bad rulers. God raises up a Cyrus to bless His people, and He raises up a Nebuchadnezzar to judge them. To resist the office, the institution of civil authority itself, is to resist God's ordinance.
But notice the careful language. The authority is from God. This means it is a delegated authority. It is not an absolute authority. A police officer has authority to give you a speeding ticket, but he does not have the authority to come into your home and tell you how to lead family worship. Why not? Because God has established three distinct governments: the family, the church, and the state. Each has its own sphere of authority, assigned by God. The state is God's ministry of justice. When it stays within that sphere, we are to submit. When it steps outside that sphere and tries to be the family or the church, it becomes tyrannical, and our duty is not to submit, but to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).
So, when Paul says that whoever resists authority opposes God, he is talking about resisting the lawful exercise of God-ordained authority. If an officer tells you to pull over, you pull over. If a judge orders you to appear in court, you appear. But if that same judge orders you to stop preaching the gospel, you respectfully inform him that you cannot, because he has no authority in that realm. You are not resisting his lawful authority; you are resisting his lawless usurpation of an authority that does not belong to him. You are actually upholding the rule of law by refusing an unlawful order.
The Job Description of the Magistrate (vv. 3-4)
Next, Paul gives us the divine job description for the civil ruler. This is the standard by which we are to measure their performance.
"For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of that authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for 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 in vain, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil." (Romans 13:3-4)
Here we have the purpose of government in a nutshell. Rulers are established by God for a twofold purpose: to punish evil and to praise good. They are to be a terror to bad conduct, not good. If you are a law-abiding, honest, peaceful citizen, you should have nothing to fear from the authorities. In fact, you should receive their praise and protection.
Notice that Paul calls the ruler a "minister of God" three times in this short passage. The Greek word is diakonos, the same word used for a deacon in the church. The civil magistrate is God's deacon, God's servant. He has been given a task. He is on a short leash. And what is that task? To be an avenger who brings God's wrath on the one who practices evil. This is directly connected to the end of Romans 12, where Paul tells individual Christians not to take their own vengeance, but to leave room for the wrath of God. Romans 13 tells us how God executes that wrath in history: through the civil magistrate. When a murderer is executed, that is not state-sanctioned murder; it is God's delegated deacon justly administering wrath.
This provides us with the crucial criterion for our obedience. We are to obey the magistrate when he is doing his job. But what happens when the roles are reversed? What happens when the state begins to praise evil and punish good? What happens when it calls abortion a "right" and calls preaching against it "hate speech"? At that point, the state is in high revolt against its own charter. It has become a rebel against God. It is no longer functioning as God's deacon, but as Satan's. In such cases, our submission to God requires us to resist the lawless commands of the state. To obey a government that punishes righteousness is to become complicit in its rebellion against God.
Conscience, Taxes, and Dues (vv. 5-7)
Paul concludes this section by explaining the basis and the practical outworking of our submission.
"Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of that wrath, but also because of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." (Romans 13:5-7)
Our submission is not based merely on pragmatism, to avoid punishment ("wrath"). It is a matter of conscience. We obey the law, not simply because we might get caught, but because we know that God established the authority for our good. Our obedience is rendered to God first, and to the magistrate as God's servant. We obey for the Lord's sake (1 Peter 2:13).
Because the government has this legitimate, God-given function, we are to fund it. This is why we pay taxes. The rulers are "servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing" that is, the administration of justice. Lawful taxation is the means by which we pay for God's ministry of justice. Of course, this also implies that there is such a thing as unlawful taxation. When the state uses tax money for things God has not authorized it to do, when it uses our money to fund abortion mills or to promote sexual perversion in schools, that taxation becomes theft. This does not automatically mean we engage in a tax revolt, but it does mean we must work to hold the government accountable to its God-given charter.
The final verse is a masterpiece of summary. "Render to all what is due them." This is a principle of justice. We are to give what is owed. To the taxman, we owe taxes. To the customs official, we owe customs. But notice the last two items: fear and honor. "Fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." We are to show respect and honor to the office of the magistrate because it was established by God. This does not mean we must approve of the personal character of every officeholder. We can honor the office of the presidency while still pointing out the sinful behavior of the man in that office. We give them the respect their station requires, because it is a station ordained by God Himself.
Living as Citizens of Two Kingdoms
So what does this look like for us today? It means we are to be the best of citizens. We should be the ones who drive the speed limit, pay our debts, and treat the police officer with respect. We should not be looking for excuses to be lawless. We are to be subject.
But our subjection is not absolute, because the authority of the state is not absolute. We are citizens of an earthly republic, but we are first and foremost citizens of a heavenly kingdom. Our ultimate allegiance is to King Jesus, not to Caesar, not to a president, and not to the Constitution. And when the demands of the earthly kingdom conflict with the law of our heavenly King, our choice is clear. We must obey God.
In our American context, this has a unique application. Our "governing authority" is not a particular person, but a system of laws defined by the Constitution. When a president or a governor issues an unconstitutional order, he is the one who is being lawless. He is the one resisting the established authority. In such a case, to resist his unlawful order is not to be a rebel; it is to be a faithful citizen, upholding the true law of the land against a usurper. This is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate: when a higher authority issues an unjust or immoral law, the lower authority has a duty to refuse to enforce it.
We are to live as free men, not using our liberty as a cover-up for evil, but as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16). We honor the king, but we fear God. And because we fear God, there is a limit to our fear of man. We will give Caesar his due, his taxes and his honor. But we will not give him our conscience, we will not give him our worship, and we will not give him our children. Those belong to God. And when Caesar tries to claim what belongs to God, our duty is to stand our ground, respectfully, firmly, and without apology, and say, "No. Jesus is Lord."