Romans: Faith and Powers

Faith and powers

Text: Romans 13:1-7

Structure:

a. 13:1, authorities are from God

 b. 13:2, resistance

  c. 13:3a, rules are a cause of fear for evil

   d. 13:3b, do you wish to have no fear?

    e. 13:3c, do what is good

    e’, 13:4a, servants of God for your good

   d’. 13:4b, if you do evil, be afraid

  c’. 13:4c, wrath on evildoers

 b’. 13:5, to be subject

a’. 13:6-7, authorities are from God

 

Commentaries:

This is a very uneasy subject. There are two extremes: (1) to see the authorities as the projections of God. (2) to submit to authorities as long as they are “godly,” while the level of godliness is identified by us.

St. Paul presents a middle/balanced view, as usual. To begin with, we need to note that he writes to a congregation in Rome. So, what authorities ruled the capital of the Empire at that time? Ceasar, and he considered himself a “half-deity.” Julius Caesar was deified postmortem in 42 BC by the Senate. This gave a strong precedent for all the subsequent emperors to be recognized as gods. And yet, the apostle takes the authority of the Caesar as instituted by God – he appeals to the authority of Caesar in his defense trial.

Reflecting on this passage in discussing the question of church and civil authorities, the Augsburg Confession says: For civil government deals with other things than the Gospel does. Civil rulers do not defend minds, but bodies and bodily things against obvious injuries. They restrain people with the sword and physical punishment in order to preserve civil justice and peace (AC XXVIII:11).      

Even though, apparently (see 2 Timothy 4:6-8), he was not satisfied 5)with the imperial court ruling of his case, he never encourages “peaceful” protests – he directs our attention to the things that are above (Colossians 3:1-2).

While we walk our earthly lives, we are to be subjects of earthly powers that God placed above us – be it an emperor, monarch, president, etc. We are to obey not only fearing the wrath of God but for our own consciousness (Romans 13:5).

He even goes into a question of taxation – we ARE to pay them, taxes to whom taxes are owed (Romans 13:6-7). In this way St. Paul resembles what our LORD Jesus taught, see an attempt to entangle Jesus in His own words concerning taxes (Matthew 22:15-22).

The rule of authorities also goes to the point of capital punishment. It is not a popular idea in our world, but the apostle reflecting on possible disobedience of the citizens says that the civil servant does not bear the sword in vain (Romans 13:4). Swords in the Ancient World were not used for spanking… Sword was and is a lethal weapon that should not be treated lightly. This gives a great responsibility to the government – for sure, it can be abused. That’s why the civil justice went a long way from Ancient forms to the currant ones, being based on Biblical principles.