November 2, 2003

 

The Epistle to the Romans

Chapter 13 – Study Questions

 

1.      Is our obedience to the government to be absolute? Are there any exceptions to what Paul says in verses 1 – 7?

In our discussion of the topic of our obedience to the civil government we established a few important premises.  For the sake of the completeness of the answer, I believe it is important to mention those premises here.  They were the following:

To answer our questions, the answer to the first question is no (which might have been indicated by the way it was asked).   The second question affords the opportunity to give examples of what the exceptions might be and show what support is there in the Word of God for these exceptions.

 

So, are we always to submit to government? Short answer, no.  There are times when we are called to be outright rebellious.   You might be thinking that Paul does not leave a great deal of room for such behavior.   However, notice the phrases that he uses to refer to government: “God’s minister to you for good” and “God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil”.  What if the civil government forbids what God requires or requires what God forbids? I do believe that in this case, the civil government might still maintain its role in punishing evil but has completely lost the required allegiance of Christians. Disobedience in such cases is inescapable.  We have a couple of famous examples of civil disobedience in Acts 4:18-31 and 5:17-29.   In these texts, the apostles clearly assert that they obey a higher authority.  That is true for us today.  If the government that rules over us is outspokenly (or silently) pagan and bases its principles on everything but God’s Word, our only alternative as believers is to disobey.  We have telling examples in the lives of Christians in first centuries of the Christian era.  The dictate of the civil authority at the time (the Roman Empire) was that everybody should worship the Caesar.  Now, obedience, in this case would have obviously contradicted God’s Word which repeatedly prohibits worshipping anyone or anything but God.  We see that our obedience (or total allegiance) is conditioned by the nature of the government. We are not going to support and submit to a government that has shown itself an enemy to God’s Word and an enemy to His children.  We are accountable to a higher authority and the will of this Higher Authority is given to us in His Word.

 

The same is true about taxes.  The valid purpose that Paul gives here for raising taxes is the role of the government in enforcing the laws.  If we look around us, we will see that the percentage used for that from our taxes is probably quite small compared to other duties that the government has taken on such as welfare, school lunch programs, regulatory activities, and others that you can probably come up with yourselves.  It is true that the fact that the government does these things shows a failure on the side of the Church, but it does not mean that it (the civil government) is mandated to do these things.

 

In conclusion, as Christians we are called to urge governments to fulfill their proper role.  We are to pray for, obey (with the qualifications mentioned), and yet watch over civil governments, reminding them that God ordained them to rule, protect, and keep order. (NGSB)  As an overarching principle, we are to analyze our allegiance through the prism of God’s Word and be ready to give it as long as it does not conflict with our allegiance to the Greater Authority.

 

 

2.      Why does Paul say that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (v. 10)?

Love is the fulfillment of the Law because love (agape) prompts us to behave towards others (neighbors, eteros) just as the Law instructs to do.  How do you go about showing this love? Well, not writing cards or giving away candy, that’s for sure. (The latter is permissible and encouraged in small groups such as this one. J)  The outward manifestation of our love towards others is the fact that we obey the law towards them by not stealing from them, by not committing murder against them, by not bearing false witness against them, and so on and so forth.   Our love is manifested in these ways. 

 

There is one aspect that I would like to bring up. Calvin in his commentary on Romans 13 makes an interesting observation.  He says that Paul’s saying that loving our neighbor is the fulfillment of the law should not be taken to mean that our loving our neighbor fulfills the entire law.  You cannot claim that by loving your neighbor you have fulfilled all of God’s requirements and you should be okay with God.  Notice that the commandments that Paul mentions are from the “second tablet” which contains the commandments that deal with relationships between people.  There is still the “first tablet” that deals with our relationship with God. Remember what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in Matthew 22:37-40: 37Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The order of the commandments is very important here.  The order is not only conditioned by priority, but also by causality.  In other words, if you love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, you will love those around you as well, who are His creatures.

 

 

3.      What is Paul’s exhortation to his readers in verses 11 – 14?

The exhortation is very straightforward.  Verses 11-14 are a call to us as Christians to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”  We are called to walk properly as one would do during the day, not in sin as one would try to do under the cover of darkness.  We are to avoid not just obvious sins such as drunkenness and promiscuity, but also sins of the mind such as envy and strife.  Moreover, we are not only called not to do certain things, but go beyond that and instead of doing the works of darkness we are called to develop positive spiritual graces (“put on the armor of light”). (NGSB)  We must live a life that will show forth that we are the children on the King.

 

Thanks be to God!

 

Sorin Voicu-Comendant

Dallas, TX

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 


[1] The New Geneva Study Bible.  The motto of the NGSB is “[To] bring the light of the Reformation to Scripture”.  The first Geneva Study Bible was published in 1560 and contained marginal notes based on Reformed principles, which were provided by reformers like John Knox and John Calvin.  The New Geneva Study Bible was published in 1995 and contained marginal notes based on the same principles, which were provided by today’s Reformed theologians such as R. C. Sproul and James Boice.