|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 13 Submission
To Authorities (ch. 13:1 –
7) In
chapter 13 Paul continues on with the practical outworking of our faith in
the world around us. In verse
1 He says “to submit” yourselves to the governing authorities.
The Greek word “hupotasso” is a military word that means to
“rank under”, thus to submit or subject oneself to another. For
interest sake, in Eph. 5:21 Paul says “to submit to one another”. Then
in Eph. 5:22 he says “wives, submit to your husbands”.
In both cases the Greek word “hupotasso”, to rank under, is
used. I need to qualify this "ranking under" at this point.
I said it was a military word, and that is right, but if you look
at the context where Paul uses this word, especially when it comes to
church and family relationships, you will clearly see that Paul wasn't
thinking militarily. He was
thinking of mutual submitting out of love, respect, and great concern for
the other people involved. Let
us look at some history around the time Paul wrote these words.
Around 49 AD, about 8 years before Paul wrote Romans,
Claudius, Emperor of the Roman Empire, began to expel Jews from
Rome, whether they were Christian Jews or non-Christian Jews.
Some non-Christian Jews were trying to mount an insurrection
against Rome. This is one reason why Claudius wanted the Jews out of Rome. The
raging debate between Christian and non-Christian Jews over the
resurrection of Jesus bothered Claudius as well.
He was so bothered that he passed a law saying that no one could
tamper with a grave. He did
this because of the non-Christian Jews.
They were still spreading the erroneous news that the disciples
took Jesus’ body from the grave and then claimed that He rose from the
dead. Claudius was concerned
about grave tampering, thus made it a crime, with great punishment for
those caught tampering with any grave.
There
was also some false teaching being spread within the Christian community
saying that Christians did not have to submit themselves to the civil
authority since they had already submitted themselves to Jesus, the King
of all authority. This also
was displeasing to Claudius. So
you can see that both Christian and non-Christian Jews were under great
stress from the Roman authorities, giving them good reason in their eyes
to rebel against and fear Claudius and his government.
When
Paul wrote these words Nero was Emperor of the Roman Empire.
He was a very mean and vicious person, which makes what Paul says
here more interesting. Paul was telling these Christians to submit to this
tyrant. Paul,
who had already been persecuted by the Roman government clearly says to
submit to that same government because it has been established by God.
The NIV uses the word "establish" in verse 1.
The Greek word that is translated as "established" means,
"to appoint, set in order, place in order …"
Paul says that there is no authority other than what God has
appointed. Paul's belief in
the sovereignty of God is strong. He even believes that God has set
dictators in places of authority. This
is important to know when Christians complain about their government.
God clearly set Rome in authority in those days to fulfill a
certain purpose, and that was probably the destruction of Jerusalem in 70
AD. In
verse 2 Paul goes on to say, “if you rebel against the authorities, then
you are rebelling against that which God has set up and therefore you will
duly receive your punishment”. Therefore government is an earthly entity
authorized by God Himself to keep justice and peace on earth”.
Now this does not mean that government is always right.
God also gave Adam dominion over the earth to rule over it, and he
did not use his authority properly. So
just because certain men have authority, does not mean all they do is
godly. If
you read Old Testament Jewish history, one thing you will notice is that
God sets up kingdoms for a specific reason and He cuts them down for
specific reasons. For example,
God caused Babylon to rise to power so that she could overcome Israel and
take Israel captive, which was God's intent in the judgment of Israel.
Later God punished Babylon for doing His will in capturing Israel
by having the Persian empire overcome them.
The Roman government in Paul's day was clearly an empire like
Babylon and Persia. God would
use Rome, not too many years after Paul wrote these words to judge Israel
again. This judgment is seen
when Rome demolished Jerusalem and caused the Jews to flee throughout the
world. Many Jews were killed
trying to flee. So in this
sense of the word, the Roman government that Paul speaks of here was put
their by God Himself. In
verse 2 Paul states that the one who rebels will receive due judgment.
I think the judgment spoken of here is from the government, not
God. That only makes sense in
this context. If you disobey
the government, that same government will judge you for that.
So, in those times when Christians had to obey a higher power,
meaning Jesus, and disobey a lower power, in the state, the Christians
should realize they would be judged by the state.
Peter and John in the book of Acts are examples of this.
They had to disobey their authorities in order to obey Jesus, and
they were punished for their disobedience.
They willingly suffered this punishment for the sake of the gospel.
In
verse 3 Paul says that if you do right, then you won't have to worry about
the government judging or punishing you.
You will not have to live in fear of the government.
He then says that if you do wrong, then you will have to live in
fear of the government. Again,
there is more to the story than what Paul says here.
He presupposes that you understand that you must first obey God,
rather than man. I also think
that the good spoken of here by Paul means simple and logical good things
of the law. He's not talking
about particular things that pertain to the gospel.
The
authorities, as Paul puts it in verse 4, are there to punish those who do
wrong. Therefore if you do
good, then you should not fear them. The
authorities are “God’s agents” on earth to punish the wrongdoer.
These words are somewhat hard to understand.
Paul simply says that even a dictatorial government is God's agent.
God uses both good and bad governments to punish blatant wrong doers.
One thing we should note here is that God will also, by His own
means, punish governments who act inappropriately.
Remember, it is God that does the punishing, not us.
Vengeance belongs to God alone in these cases, something we see
very clearly in the Old Testament. Paul
adds another reason in verse 5 as to why we should submit to government
authorities. He says we should
submit “for the sake of our conscience.”
I believe this means that we submit to the government as if we are
submitting to God Himself, and in so doing, our consciences will be clean
before the Lord. In present
day, one example of submission to government is not to cheat on your
taxes. If for conscience sake
you feel that you should hold back from paying certain taxes, you then
tell the government that you are withholding a certain percentage of
taxes. You also specify the
reasons, and you happily pay the consequences.
Too many people don't pay all their taxes and they say they are
doing so for conscience reasons, but they don't tell the government.
I call that cheating. If
you sign the tax form, and say what you have reported is correct when it
isn't, then you lie. If you
sign the form and tell them exactly what you have done and why, then there
is no lie. Verse
6 tells us that the reason why we pay taxes is to pay the government for
what they do. That being said,
in our day, we pay taxes for more reasons than that, and some of our taxes
may even go for immoral things. If
this is so, then we add an element to submission to authority that Paul
does not talk about here. Thus,
there is more to this subject that what Paul speaks of here.
In
verse 7 Paul closes this section by saying that we should pay our taxes,
give honour and respect and whatever else is due to the governing
officials, or really, any other person. Yet
with all that we have just said there are instances in the Bible where
some did not always obey the governing agents.
In Acts 4 Peter and John were told by the authorities not to speak
in the name of Jesus any longer. What
was their response? “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s
sight to obey you rather than God. For
we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard”. (Acts 4:19)
I believe Paul would do the same.
Paul would pay taxes and give to the government what was due them.
Yet he would not forsake the gospel.
Where the two clashed, he would be on the side of the gospel.
So the conclusion to be made here is to obey the authorities, but
when the authorities step beyond their God given sphere of responsibility,
and demand you to do something that is against God’s rule, then at that
point you respectfully disobey and pay the consequences.
If you obey the authorities “in good conscience” as long as you
can, then when you need to disobey, you will be able to disobey “in good
conscience” as well. Love
For The Day Is Near (ch. 13:8 – 14) Romans
13:8 in the KJV says, “owe no man anything”.
The NIV puts it this way, “let no debt remain outstanding”.
I like the way the NIV puts it.
The KJV seems to suggest that you should not owe any man anything
at all. Many over the years
have seemed to relate this to money, and as a result say that we
are not to owe anyone money. I
feel the point goes far beyond just money. Verse
8 must be understood in light of verse 7, where Paul tells us to pay our
taxes, and to give respect and honour to whom it may be due.
With this in mind we can see that we need to pay those we owe money
to, give honour to those we need to honour, and respect those we need to
respect. We are not to fall
behind in any of these areas, as well as other areas.
Paul is talking about more than just money.
That being said, when it comes to money and debt, debt is like sin.
It is a heavy burden. If
we restrict verse 8 to just money, and understand it in light of how the
KJV may seem to suggest, that is, “owe no man any money”, or
“don’t borrow money”, then any of us who have a mortgage or a credit
card is in sin. Does this verse really say, not to borrow money?
The NIV says, “let no debt remain outstanding”.
This is a different point altogether.
What I believe Paul is saying is, if we have borrowed money, then
pay it back. If we have
borrowed anything, then give it back.
Therefore if we have borrowed $30,000.00 to buy a house and agree
to pay $300.00 a month until it is paid back, then we are doing nothing
wrong. If we get behind in our
monthly payments, then we are “letting our debt be outstanding”, and
that is where Paul’s words come in.
He says not to let that happen.
If for some reason we fall into hard times, to keep the spirit of
these words, we do not ignore our debt, we communicate with our debtor and
try to make other arrangements. Is
the Bible against borrowing money? What
did Jesus say? In Mat. 5:42 Jesus says, “do not turn away from the one
who wants to borrow from you”. Therefore
Jesus is not against the idea of lending money.
If He is not against lending money, He can't be against borrowing
money. Another interesting verse is found in Ex. 22:25 where it says,
“if you lend money to one of my people who is needy, do not be like the
money lenders, charge him no interest”.
Here we see what God’s command to the Jews was.
Here we see something of the nature of God as well.
That is, if you lend to the poor, then show love towards him by
charging no interest. So by
these two scriptures we can see that the Bible does not say we should not
borrow or lend money. Romans
13:8 does not tell us not to lend or borrow money. It tells us not to get
behind in our obligation to others, whether it be financially or in any
other way. There
is one debt that Paul tells us to have though, and it is the continuing
debt to love. If we do that,
then you have fulfilled the underlying reason for the Law.
The commandment may be “don’t kill, or don’t covet”.
Whatever the command, it is all summed up in, “love your
neighbour as yourself”. In
verses 9 and 10 Paul says “love your neighbour as yourself”.
Is Paul telling us here that we need to love ourselves before we
can love our neighbour? Is he
encouraging us to love ourselves? No.
He’s certainly not. Paul
knows that it is human nature to love ourselves.
He knows that we think of ourselves first, as selfish as that might
be. He is saying, we should
love others as we love ourselves. We
should put others first, because we normally put ourselves first.
Another way to say this is simple.
In the way you love yourself, in that same way, love others.
The teaching that seems so prevalent today that says we need to
learn to love ourselves first before we can love others is hardly what the
Bible says. It is human nature
to love and think of ourselves first.
It is not human nature to lay aside our own selfishness to love
another, but that is what Paul is telling the Romans to do.
There is no hint in the Bible that we should have all of our
“self help” classes to improve our own self awareness.
Jesus, in Mark 8:35 tells us that whoever will save his life will
loose it, but whoever loses
his life will save it.
Also
in n verses 9 and 10 Paul once again says that if you love, you will
fulfill the Law because you won’t do things like killing and stealing
that hurt others. At this
point he is not trying to take sides between the Law and love.
He is just saying, if you love, you won’t need to worry about the
Law because you will be fulfilling it.
Note the four commands that Paul quotes.
They're all relational, don't covet, don't commit adultery, don't
steel, and don't murder. These
commands would never be broken if you love.
In
verse 11 Paul says that “it is time to wake up … for our salvation is
nearer now than when we first believed”.
There is a lot said in this short sentence.
Paul is saying that we can be saved Christians but also be in a
state of slumber when it comes to our faith.
It is clear that there were some sleepy Christians in Rome.
Might I suggest that we have a lot of sleepy Christians today.
Though some Christians may be sleepy, they are still Christians.
Paul says, “wake up from your slumber”.
Why? Because our
salvation is closer now than when we first came to Jesus.
We got saved when we came to Jesus, yet we are in the process of
being saved as well. Still,
when Jesus returns, we will be fully saved.
Thus the three aspects to salvation, we got saved, we are being
saved, and we will be saved. Paul
also says in verse 11 to "understand the present times".
This is very important. When
we study the Bible, we often think of past events because the Bible was
written so long ago. We need
to know what the Bible says in light of the day in age in which we live.
Especially today, as we draw near to the end of this age, we need
to understand the times. We
cannot bury our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening in the
world around us. We must know
what is going on in the world, and we must understand what is going on in
light of Biblical truth. In
verse 12 Paul says that "the night is nearly over, the day is at
hand." Paul is saying
that this present age is like night. It
is like night because this present age is full of sin.
The early Christians felt that the world, the present age in which
they lived was evil, and something that should be escaped from.
The early Christians had a distaste for the world and the world
system that few Christians have today.
We love the world way too much.
Paul compared this present age to night, and in the Bible, night is
seen as sin. The day, the
light of day, is the day that Jesus returns to earth and makes all things
new. So Paul encourages
the Roman Christians to put off the deeds of darkness.
Paul would not have had to tell these Christians to put off the
deeds of darkness if they did not have sin
in their lives. Christians
do still sin, and some sin more than others,
Whatever the case, we are to stop living in sin.
Paul
also says in verse 12 to put on the "armor of light".
I don't know for sure if you can compare this armor to the armor
spoken of in Eph. 6 or not. I'm
sure some people might say this is what Paul had in mind, and they might
be right. I just can't say for
sure. The point is that
Christians do have protection from sin and this present evil world if we
decide to use it. Armor is
defensive. We need to defend
ourselves from the attack of the enemy and the world, but once again, most
modern Christians don't view the world as our enemy and therefore don't
think in terms of armor, and defending ourselves from the world.
We tend to be on the same side as the world, whether we admit it or
not. In
verse 13 Paul lists some pretty serious sins we should not be involved in.
I would suggest that if these Christians were not involved in some
of these sexual sins, Paul would not have had to point them out.
So, a Christian can commit a sexual sin, and it appears from what
the text says, the person has not lost his salvation.
Note the last sin. It
is the sin of jealousy. Many
of us would think jealousy is not as bad as committing adultery, but Paul
lists it with that bad sins. Jealousy
is alive in well in many parts of the church today.
In
verse 14 Paul says to put on Jesus. That's
just another way to say keep giving more of you life to Jesus so you won't
"gratify the sinful nature'. We
always need to understand that we do not get rid of our sinful nature.
It will be with us to the day we die.
Christians should be always fighting against the sinful nature.
I suggest if you are not involved in this fight, then you have
given into your sinful nature, else you would be struggling with sin right
now. It is simple.
If we still have a sin nature, then we will have to fight against
it. If we no longer had a
sinful nature, then there would be no fight. So it is clear to me, since
the day has not yet come when our sinful nature is laid to rest, we either
fight against it or give in to it and not fight.
|