Properly: A Survey of Romans 13:1-14

Author’s note: This blog post is part of an ongoing series about the book of Romans. To see other Romans resources, click here.

How do Christians live out the paradigm of spiritual worship? At the beginning of chapter 12, Paul laid out this paradigm, showing that believers live a life of worship to God through their actions. He spelled out many of those practicalities already, and in chapter thirteen, he continues to show further applications of this paradigm, focusing on how to interact with the government, what it means to fulfill the law, and living in a different way from the world.

Subjection to Authorities (13:1-7)

Verse one starts with a simple command, very similar to the long list of such commands in chapter 12 – “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” But this command is different, because Paul goes into an extended explanation.

The reason why we are to be subject is because authority is sovereignly ordained by God. Paul looks at the particularities of life and sees God’s hand behind them, so that they are an indication of God’s will in the world. This makes subjection a Christian duty, and a way to practically acknowledge God’s sovereignty in setting up various governments.

Those who choose to resist the government are warned of consequences: they will incur ‘judgment.’ In the context of verse 3, this word refers to the judgment that the government can execute against those who resist it, rather than a spiritual judgment (though that may also be incurred). Judgment is not only possible, but deserved, since such resistance is against those who are involved in protecting good and punishing evil in the world.

At this point we must stop to acknowledge the fact that Paul is speaking of government in idealistic terms. Come on, Paul! Of course we would like the government to promote good and punish evil – but so often, this is not the case!

Paul was no stranger to government ineptitude and injustice. His life is a record of bad governance. However, Paul is describing the ideal government and the standard to which Christians are called. This is common throughout his epistles. Paul always begins his exhortations (to husbands and wives, to fathers and children, to masters and slaves) by describing the ideal relationships, and only then, sometimes, does he go on to describe aberrations of that relationship. We need to understand the ideal before we can discuss the abnormal.

Far from being a mere secular organization, government officials are actually described as “God’s servant.” Despite falling far from the ideal, they perform an important ‘ministry’ (the word refers to attendants, ministers, or those involved in any kind of service). This means that the ‘wrath’ which the government administers (capital punishment, imprisonment, or any other means of punishing evil) is, by implication, a temporal manifestation of God’s wrath.

Since taxes are necessary for the administration of the state, one implication of ‘subjection’ is the payment of taxes. This ties in (in verse 7) to a broader principle which extends beyond government: Christians ought to give to everyone what is their due, whether taxes or revenue (the words technically refer to two types of tax: taxes levied on foreign nations, and indirect taxes for everyone). Regardless of the form, Paul expects Christians to fulfill this obligation. Within and outside of government, we also have duties to respect and to honor certain individuals.

Fulfilling the Law through Love (13:8-10)

Speaking of obligations owed to others, the apostle encourages us to avoid unnecessary obligations, and to ground our relationships not on contractual obligations but on love. We all know that debts can affect relationships in negative ways. Love, however, is an ‘obligation’ which we owe everyone, an unending debt that should positively affect all of our interactions with others.

Love is central because it fulfills the law. The ‘law’ here is a reference to the Mosaic law (as seen in verse 9), and Paul asserts that the person who loves others is not going to run afoul of the law. While the law negatively forbids doing unkind things, love positively does more than required and avoids all unkindness. Law is helpful for believers, not as an obligation that they are under, but to provide clarity on how to love others. For example, coveting may seem harmless, but it is unloving in how it teaches us to think about other people.

All these commandments are summarized by Leviticus 19:18, which teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is similar to Jesus’ own teaching, where he summarized the law in this way (Matthew 22:39).

Since the positive side of ‘love’ more than fulfills the negative commands of the law, Paul can make the statement he does in verse 10 – “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Indeed, the first half of verse 10 sounds like a negative stating of the positive command of the Golden Rule – that we should do to others as we would have them do to us (Luke 6:31).

Living as in the Daytime (13:11-14)

All of the commands in chapters 12 and 13 are now pressed home in verse 11 – Do this! The command to ‘do’ is grammatically implied, and Paul now emphasizes that there is no time to waste in our execution of God’s will, since we are living in the ‘alarm clock hour.’ The end of the world, when we will be saved from God’s wrath and experience the fullness of ‘salvation’ is even closer today than it was when we first believed.

Paul does not say when this time will come, only that “the day is at hand.” While Paul certainly expected the end to occur within a very short time, church history shows that it has not been so soon as expected. This does not mean that it is far away. God expects us to live with the assumption that the end is just around the corner. Paul expected the gentiles to first come to faith in Christ, then the Jews to follow suit (Romans 11); now that we see the gospel spread to the farthest corners of the globe, we should be even more anticipatory!

While we live in the ‘night’ (the era of spiritual darkness), we recognize that the ‘day’ is near. We are called to walk ‘properly as in the daytime,’ since we are the ones who have the light. We are to ‘put on the armor of light.’ In short, the light of the future has been passed ‘backward’ to us, as its custodians, and we should live according to this high calling.

Paul mixes two analogies about time. On the one hand, unbelievers are those who are ‘asleep,’ and on the other hand, they are those who are doing the deeds of darkness during the night.’ Neither is to be true of the Christian.

Rejecting the deeds of the night, Christians are those who ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ.’ We are already ‘in Christ,’ but there is also a command: we should ‘put’ him ‘on,’ get in him, as it were, live out the reality that is already true. Such a lifestyle will by implication avoid the opposite – finding or making opportunities to indulge the sinful desires of the flesh.

In place of comments, I would love to hear from you personally. Please reach out to me via the Contact Page to share your thoughts and perspectives on this post!

Enjoying this content? Subscribe to receive it directly in your email, once a week.