Romans 13 is a passage that has been used and abuse to say that Christians are obligated to obey the state no matter what. Is this true? Was Paul saying that a Christian had to obey Nero no matter what? I have had that addressed to me at different times in my ministry and have personally struggled with that issue.
It is interesting if you look at the Declaration of Independence, this question was in view when the founding fathers of our nation succeeded from England. The King of England was a big fan of Romans 13 meaning that a Christian was obligated to give unlimited submission to the state. The Colonist were writing a document from the belief that the King of England in the Abuse of his power had abdicated his right to rule.
I believe that this question is relevant today because there is the idea present that “The Church and the State should be separated” and that the Church really has nothing to say to the state. Religious ideas in some circles are not welcome in the state and there is a concerted effort to say that only secular ideas are welcomed.
This of course is not what the Constitution means, The meaning of the first amendment was to keep the government from establishing religion, not from keeping religious ideas out of the state. It seems to me that this current interpretation actually is the violation of the Constitution because it establishes secularism as the official religion of the state and secularism is a religion that is in direct opposition to Christianity.
What is the obligation of the state according to Romans 13? It is good that we start there because if we do not have a firm understanding of this we can not accurately understand the obligation of the Christian in relationship to the state. The purpose of the state is to encourage right and punish evil (Romans 13:3-5). In other words the state has the obligation to protect individuals from Evil and to encourage them to do good.
What is good and what is evil according to God? You would have to go back to the 10 commandments for this definition if you really want to know what is good and what is evil. The first 4 of the commandments relate to God and the second 6 are related to man. So good is, faith in God, and evil would be to hinder religion or promote secularism. Then as far as it goes in relationship to man, you have the other six commandments what is good according to the commandments: obedience to parents, respect for life, respect for morality in Marriage, respect of private property, promoting the truth, contentment with what you have. We can see that a good government promotes family, protects life, this includes the unborn, promotes morality in marriage, protects private property, and promotes truth rather than lies and propaganda.
So if government becomes opposed to these things: faith in God, the family and marriage, does not protect life, takes away and no longer protects private property, and promotes lies rather than the truth. Isn’t it ceasing to serve its God given function? If the government passes laws that are in opposition to what is right, are we as Christians obligated to obey those laws? The answer is no! In fact a Christian is obligated to disobey those laws.
In Acts 5 we have the incident recorded of Peter and the Apostles being told that they can not preach in Jesus’ name and their response is to disobey the government, why because the government had overstepped its God given authority and had become opposed to God. During the Nazi occupation of Holland Christians hid Jews from the Nazis because God’s law was higher than mans and saving life is the most important thing that we can do.
If the government orders Pastors to perform Homosexual marriages we must decline because that would be a violation of God’s law and we must obey God rather than man. If Doctors are forced to commit Abortion they should refuse even if they lose their medical license because they must obey God rather than man. If parents are told that they must not teach there kids about God we must disobey these laws because God’s law is higher.
The point that I am making is that, God’s law is highest and all human laws must be subject to God’s laws or Christian should not obey them. Human government is limited by God, God has not given the state unlimited power to abuse it citizens or to hinder their relationship with Him. So were our founding fathers of America wrong in Rebelling against the King of England? No they listed his abuses and then established a new government that would encourage the right and punish evil doers
Blessings Pastor Wenner
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