Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. (Romans 13:1-7)1
Reason #6
The Government Depicted by the Apostle Paul, Which Does Good to the Righteous and Deters the Wicked, Does to Continually
Proskarterio
For he is the minister of God to thee for good … a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake … for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. (Romans 13:4-6)
The government depicted by the Apostle Paul is not one that rarely or even occasionally fulfills its mandate. Rather, it fulfills the mandate during the entirety of its existence.
James Strong defines the Greek word proskarterio translated “attending continually”:
[T]o be earnest towards, to persevere, be constantly diligent….2
The New American Standard Bible translates proskarterio as “devoting themselves to this very thing”—that is, to doing good to the righteous and constraining the wicked. This is only possible from a government devoted to Yahweh’s3 immutable moral law.4 This eliminates any possibility Paul is referring to government not devoted to God and His law (aka, a secular government):
Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! (Isaiah 10:1-2)
The best one can hope for from a secular government, based upon finite man’s fickle edicts, is that it occasionally punishes the wicked and does good to the righteous. Without Yahweh’s immutable law as his standard, it is impossible for man to sustain righteous government on any consistent basis.
This is but one of many reasons why God’s law order is imperative under the New Covenant5 and why every Christian should be promoting it as government and society’s standard.
Fickle traditions
The following exposes the inherent volatile nature of man’s ever-changing standard and why secular government can never be counted on to do what’s right:
Two people could have walked down any U.S. street in 1930—one with a bottle of whiskey under his arm and one with a bar of gold in his pocket, and the one with the whiskey would have been a criminal whereas the one with the bar of gold would have been considered a good law abiding citizen. If the same thing happened in any U.S. city in 1970, the one with the whiskey would be the law abiding citizen and the one with the gold bar would be the criminal.6
In a mere forty-year period, man’s standard had completely reversed itself.7 The United States Supreme Court reversed itself in 219 cases in its first 212 years.
The same transposition of ethics has occurred innumerable times under all governments based upon the fickle traditions of man. There’s no enduring continuity in such capricious traditions. They provide a never-ending cycle of volatility.
Moreover, whenever a biblical government ceases to perform in the fashion Paul details, it ceases to be the government depicted in Romans 13. It has ceased to uphold what made it a biblical government—that is, its devotion to God’s law. It then becomes a secular government, based upon man’s capricious edicts—the polar opposite of the government described in Romans 13.
Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?… Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, … in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines [and, in many instances, legislating] the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:6-9)
To claim Paul was promoting secular government in Romans 13 is to make him complicit in the type of government condemned by Christ. It would, in effect, make Paul a Pharisee all over again.
No moral vacuums
There are no moral vacuums. Thus, there are no constitutions or procedural manuals void of their own inherent ethics. These procedural ethics are either moral or immoral depending upon whether or not they’re established upon God’s moral law.8 Government either promotes Yahweh’s morality as reflected in His triune moral law9 or it promotes finite man’s immorality as reflected in man’s surrogate edicts.10
Unless government is established to perform Yahweh’s will as reflected in His law and persists in the same, it is not the government to which Paul declares we’re obligated to submit ourselves.
Stay tuned for Part 8.
Related posts:
Christian Duty Under Corrupt Government: A Revolutionary Commentary on Roams 13:1-7
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
1. Christian Duty Under Corrupt Government: A Revolutionary Commentary on Roams 13:1-7
2. James Strong, “Dictionary of the Greek Testament,” The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, s.v. “proskarterio” (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990) p. 61.
3. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”
4. A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
5. For more on how Yahweh’s moral law applies and should be implemented today, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
See also series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes, and judgments, beginning with Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
6. W.W. Turner, The Amazing Story of the British Sovereign (Nashville, TN: 1970) p. 4.
7. Under biblical law, neither the bottle of whiskey nor the bar of gold is unlawful.
8. A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
9. “[H]e [Yahweh] declared unto you his covenant [law], which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments…. And Yahweh commanded me [Moses] at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.” (Deuteronomy 4:13-14)
10. The United States Constitution is a perfect example of a procedural manual rife with man-made decrees, which, in turn, created a secular government. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
What makes government secular is its rejection of Yahweh as its sovereign and thus His moral law as society’s standard.
A not for all: There is a difference between Exousia (Authority) and Dumanis (Power), and Luke 10:19 makes that very clear.
Gregory, thanks. I had not seen this previously. Lord willing, I’ll be adding Luke 10:19 to Part 3.
Ted,
Contrasting this text with God’s earlier recorded revelations of Himself to Adam and Eve and to others is certainly very important to properly understand not only the full extent of His initial cultural mandate to us to co-rule in His image while we live here on earth, but also to later be prepared and properly equipped to live and rule in His heavenly Kingdom and/or on the New earth, or in the new Jerusalem (Heb12:14-13:14) for the rest of eternity. For while true believers will someday all be united and subjects of His sole and Divine rule to come, until then we are each planted temporarily in different earthly dominions and nations with clear instructions to not only be constantly in prayer and patiently awaiting for His Kingdom to come, but also to work for the good of each community, state or nation in which we are planted and at times to be prepared to even stand alone if necessary to oppose certain “satanic schemes” (Ephesians 6:10ff) “of evil men and earthly rulers, powers, forces of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness” made evident to us in those very same nation/states and at times even our own local county or municipal government or in our own families whenever in conflict of what God has clearly previously revealed and instructed us to do in the power of The Holy Spirit. Thus in addition to what God directed Paul to write to the Roman believers of his day, we must I think also purposefully review His previous revelations and covenants with the saints of old to understand the specifics conditions and circumstances of His individual covenants with them upon which His continued blessings or curses might fall from the reigns of Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:26-25ff to their descendants including His successive covenants with Noah in Genesis 6:1-10:32; with Abra(ha)m in Genesis 12:1-24:9, 25:1-11; then with his son Issac Genesis 21: 1-25:9-11, 19-26:25; and Issac’s blessings on Jacob (Genesis 27:1-30) and Esau (Genesis 27:30-41); as well as God’s own subsequent revelation of Himself and covenant with Jacob (whom God later renamed Israel in Genesis 35:9-15); and his 12 sons but particularly to and through his son Joseph in Canaan and Egypt; and later through Moses and Aaron and Joshua, the Judges, Eli, Samuel (especially in 1 Samuel 8-10 and 12); with Saul (1 Samuel 9ff), David, Solomon, the through the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel initially under Rehoboth and Jeroboam and a succession of others even after the fall of both kingdoms through the years of the Babylonian exile (Jeremiah 29ff), during the period of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple begun under Nehemiah and Ezra’s careful watch and instructions, until the time of the Macabbees and the later period of Roman occupation and destruction which includes the first coming of Jesus Himself with yet even newer instructions to and for us on how to live especially through the years of coming persecution(Mt 22:15-21) while we patiently await and look forward to His future return and summing up of all things in Himself and eternal establishment of His final universal and sovereign dominion.
Thanks for your input, Roger. Well done.
I would challenge you on one point–that is, the timing of the kingdom. For my thoughts (hopefully, with Scriptural authority), see free online book “Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant” at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/law-kingdomFrame.html.
Blessings to you!
Ted
Each time God has previously spoken and sovereignly preserved for generations a thorough written, inspired and inerrant record of what He has said through several centuries and what He promises is to come for those who will listen to His voice, hear, repent and otherwise positively respond to His Word we become “new creations” being daily transformed as long as we continue to abide in Him and His word and to willingly study, practice, apply and teach what He teaches us about serving Him and others, proclaiming His same gospel to those who do not yet know Him, and being His witnesses in a hostile world.
For this reason, I must confess, I am not sure I can yet fully agree with your perspective on whether Paul’s statements regarding governing authorities is meant to be interpreted solely as applying to those within the worldwide church of Christ or as I have previously read, interpreted and tried to apply this text (alongside others), as an actual reference to any other individual, local, or empirical element of government established by man. Either way may be correct regarding this passage in Paul’s epistle, but it will likely take me other Biblical evidence and illumination from the spirit of God to become more fully convinced.
This is why I specifically referred to the passages in 1 Samuel 8ff above, because in that text more than any other I can recall, God especially instructs Samuel that despite the fact that they both know “what (necessary) evil” and how financially burdensome civil government is, God directs Samuel to go along with the people’s demand for Samuel to appoint their nation’s first civil King to rule over them, to lead and fight the nation’s battles, and to otherwise provide, protect and preserve them as a people, even though God viewed their request not as a rejection of Samuel’s principled and faithful leadership, but as an outright rejection of Himself despite such mighty acts He had performed in the past and even more ironically with such little time even passing since God had judged Eli for allowing his own two corrupt sons to subvert justice in the land.
Initially, Saul was a God-ordained authority. Later in his career as king, he rebelled and was thus only a God-established power. I’ll even go so far as to say, he was the latter from the very beginning of his career and, as such, established as a judgment upon a rebellious people.
Don’t forget the question at hand is whether ROMANS 13 is talking about both God-ordained authorities and God-established powers or ONLY God-ordained authorities. In other words, it’s not a question as to whether there exists God-established powers. There are indeed–in fact, history proves more of them then there are God-ordained authorities. But the only thing I’m interested in in this series is whether Romans 13 has anything to do with God-established powers at all.
Is there ANYTHING in the text or context that identifies those to whom Paul is referring as God-ordained powers?
Have you read the previous parts of this series? If not, I would recommend that you do so. Everyone of the ten reasons and more prove that Paul is only concerned in Romans 13 with God-ordained authorities.
Another excellent article! It is vitally important to remember that Yahweh’s law, is his standard. Therefore, only the Divine Creator can come up with Divine moral laws. Yahweh’s law was perfect when He passed it down to Adam, and His law hasn’t changed much from that time, even up until now, the 21st century. I agree that this passage in Romans is talking about God established administrators, that is, ministers of Yahweh’s law within society; not pagan administrators of pagan laws for society (i.e. humanism). The moral code of the land will either be righteous (Only Yahweh’s law is righteous), or sinful (in violation of Yahweh’s law).