Romans13

Romans 13  –  This chapter shows God’s  counsel to the human family – base is “love”…

Submission to the Authorities

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 Payto 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.

History of believers whose earthly role placed them in civil service.

Joseph in Egypt – Daniel in Babylon – Zaccheus was converted and became an honest tax collector – Cornelius, a Roman centurion and stayed in army – No confirmation that Sergius Paulus did not remain in his high civil office after salvation. 

Lucius Sergius Paulus or Paullus was a Proconsul of Cyprus under Claudius (1st century AD). He appears in Acts 13:6-13, where in Paphos Paul, accompanied by Barnabas and John Mark, overcame the attempts of Bar-Jesus (Elymas) “to turn the proconsul away from the faith” and converted Sergius to Christianity.  (Wikipedia)

There were merciless tyrants and murderous dictators everywhere along with human slavery.  Rome at this time had three slaves for every free person.

John 8:31-33(ESV)
³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 
³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 
³³They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

 Rome did permit the Jews a remarkable degree of religious freedom.  Free to maintain their priesthood and temple, even the authority of the Sanhedrin as they could punish – i.e. could execute a Gentile who entered the inner court of the temple. 

The early church was considered an extension of the sect ‘Judaism’ and was permitted the Jews’ religious freedoms.

Romans 1:1 – “..be in subjection..”  Hupotosso – to be submissive.

God has permitted the governments of the lands.  He also has permitted Satan to have vast but limited power over the world and the affairs of men.  

Satan does NOT have power to make men sin, but since ‘the garden’ he has every means at his disposal to entice men to indulge their sinful impulses.  To do thus would mean man has the ability to be in defiance of God.

The Christian to have an adjusted attitude toward public officials: 

1 – “fear to whom fear is due”   “respect to whom respect is owed”  –   (phobos) (reverence = fear)

2  – “honor to whom honor is owed” –   (time) honor (state)

 NIV reads:  ⁷ Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Romans 13:8-10(ESV)
⁸Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 
⁹The commandments, ^£“You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ^£“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 
¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Doing what is right – desire and outcome can be different – Paul confirms at Romans 7:

Romans 7:14-15(ESV)
¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 
¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 
Romans 7:19(ESV)
¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 

It can be said that obedience demands the exercise of will under the prompting and power of the Holy Spirit.   God demands ‘faith’ for receiving spiritual life. 

A child demonstrates frequently the conflict (frustration) between his desires to do what he wants and the restraint of his parent’s rules.  The struggle as the rule inhibits his own will and sense of independence.  As adults do we still not have these struggles of engagement between good and bad? 

The notion of submitting personal will to the will of someone else, even God—or rather, especially God—has always been abhorrent to us as we are in our fallen human nature. Was it not Adam’s and Eve’s action in placing their own wills above God’s that brought about the first sin?  Would it not be the same spirit of disobedience that has been at the heart of every sin since then?    The Bible warns us that sin is lawlessness and rebellion in its very nature. 

We fight against the desires of the flesh.  We have a conscious telling us what is right.  That speaking of our conscious is evidence of salvation as is the inner desire to do God’s will revealing to us in a most reliable evidence of our salvation.  It does not always comes easy, but God is there to help us.  We just need to surrender to Him.

The process of help given to us is called “the sanctification process”  or the ‘sanctifying work of the Spirit’ that enables us to ‘obey Jesus Christ’. 
1 Peter 1:2(ESV)
²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

It is acknowledged that the unsaved have no intense struggle because their sinful living is in harmony with their sinful desires.  Thus, as we struggle, that activity again provides confirmation to us that God is with us.

Verse 8 states that we owe nothing except a debt of love one another.   This does imply unbelievers as well as we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  (Matt. 5:44)  Godly love is characterized in different ways such as:  by our humble attitude and treatment of others, be being gentleness in manner and words,  to have patience toward others and a forbearance to not trample on another. 

Godly love would be to have a willingness to sacrifice our own needs and welfare for that of others.  What would that look like?  How might we demonstrate that?  How effective would that be in our homes, school and church?

What is means is that God’s love is a matter of choice, a willingness, a voluntary love that is pleasing to God.  This type of love can energize and unify the church.  Another way to say it would be that righteous love is reciprocal love. 

How do we discharge that love? 
Romans 13:9-10(ESV)
⁹The commandments, ^£“You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ^£“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 
¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:11-14 – Put on the Lord Jesus Christ
Romans 13:11-14(ESV)
¹¹Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 
¹²The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 
¹³Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 
¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Sanctification is being clothed with Christ.   There is a holiness that we already have and one that we should continue to pursue.  We have been made righteous and still we strive to live righteously.

Romans 13:11-12– Wake up!

Romans 13:11-12(ESV)
¹¹Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 
¹²The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 

We are never to stop offering our ‘bodies a living and hoy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship”  Romans 12:1

“Besides this you now the time (karos),”   This word karos is as an era, epoch, or age…   Louw-Nida sates that it means “point of time consisting of occasions for particular events – ‘time, occasion’. 

We are in the mist of the season.  The season is the ‘end times’. 

Jesus stressed to be aware of the seasons (karos) times and what “times” (karos) means.  Matthew 16:1-3says:

Matthew 16:1-3(ESV)
^1£And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 
²He answered them,^£ “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 
³And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times (karos). 

The people then were in the very mist of the season (karos) of redemption.   Some 2000 years later we need to be aware that we are even closer to ‘that day’.    “That day” is the day of the final dimension of redemption, namely glorification.    Sanctification refers to the lifelong process of the believer’s growing spiritually in practical righteousness.  Whereas ‘glorification’ refers to the believer’s ultimate perfection as a child of God.  

Today our action is to be the throwing off or laying aside the deeds of darkness….

Romans 13:12-13(ESV)
¹²The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 
¹³Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 

We are to lay aside the ‘old self’ and take on the ‘new self’ with God’s Holy Spirit helping us.  To help one needs to put on the ‘armor of light’.   How can we stand with anything less than the full armor of God.  (Eph. 6:11-18)…

Ephesians 6:11-18(ESV)
¹¹Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 
¹²For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 
¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 
¹⁴Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  ¹⁵and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 
¹⁶In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;  ¹⁷and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 
¹⁸praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,  …

Tomas Martin wrote:  “Every corruption has a vice, meaning that every sort of sin finds a way to bring itself to man’s mind and heart.”   As we feel the presence of sin it is evidence of that presence in us.  To fulfill that desire is evidence of the power of sin over us.  To resist is to throw ourselves on the mercies of God.  Be in His house of worship and constantly praying.