Secular authorities

(Rom. 13:1-7)

Introduction: Last Sunday’s sermon title was ‘Christians’ social life’ based on Rom. 12:14-21. Those who believe in Jesus and receive eternal life serve brothers and sisters in the church and have peaceful attitude toward other people in the society. Believers have a joyful life because they know they have eternal life in Christ. They also have a positive attitude. They rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. That is a humanistic and warm attitude toward human beings and will lead us to a life style for overcoming evil with good. Today’s passage is Rom. 13:1-7. We will learn what kind of attitude we should have toward secular authorities.

1) Authority by God (1-2): When Paul wrote this letter, the Roman Empire was governed by a bad emperor named Nero who killed many people. Still Paul teaches the believers to submit themselves to the authority because all authorities are given by God. Thus, if we rebel against the authority, we are rebelling against God and will be punished for that. It does not mean we should be intimidated by any authoritative figures; we should express ourselves with courtesy as a free citizen. We can find a good example from Jesus in front of Pilate as we can see in John 19:7-11. When Pilate asked an irrelevant question to Jesus, He did not even answer Pilate. If a leader leads us well according to the principles of the Bible and with good will, we should obey his leadership. If a leader becomes a tyrant and is against the principles of the Bible, we should legitimately resist his or her commands, and even start a process of changing the leader. When the leader asks us to do something for the common good for the country, we must follow the leader. The reason for this obedience is to have a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and holiness (I Tim. 2:1-2). When we live a peaceful and quiet life, we can worship God peacefully and preach the gospel freely. That is why we need to submit ourselves to the authorities in this world.

2) The qualification of the leader (3-5): Considering the situation in Rome in those days we can see that Paul is indirectly describing the qualification of the leader. If he did it directly, he could have been killed by the bad Emperor. The leader should be a servant of God who does good for the people. He should not be fearful to good citizens but should punish the criminals. The leader must commend and praise those who do right things. Then we the people should submit ourselves to the authorities not because of fear but because of our conscience as Christians.

 
3) Our duties (6-7): Christians should pay due taxes and revenues to the government, and the government should use them for the well-being of the people. We should respect those who deserve respect and should honor those who deserve honor. This topic of authority would have not been an issue if we were in heaven where everyone is perfect and God has the sole authority. Since we live in this imperfect world, we need to follow these principles as believers. Thank you and God bless you.