-16-
Motivation?
Romans 13
1 – 7 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 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.
As this chapter opens, what meets our eyes immediately is the Apostle Paul dealing with the kind of behavior and responses of Christians toward authorities that must become our Christian norm. He is talking about attitudes that are quite different from the way that average citizens might behave. Paul (the Holy Spirit) has three reasons for giving these instructions.
First is the very fact that we need to hear it. Having the right attitude does not come automatically for a Christian. You would think it should, but it doesn't. I think the reason is simply because we all live in a world that is mostly made up of unbelievers and it is all too easy to hear the negative attitudes being expressed, and if we don't stop ourselves, we find ourselves agreeing and joining in. If we were conscious of what our Christian attitude should be, we likely would be more careful. So that is what this section is given for … to increase our consciousness of how Christians should regard secular authority.
And His second reason for giving us these attitude-forming directions would be one that goes back to his previous discussion. We recall that Israel, as God's truth-bearing agency, just like bad branches, have been broken off. There were a number of reasons they were broken off. The main one is that they did not recognize nor believe that Jesus was the predicted Messiah. So for 'unbelief' they lost the agency. So now the New Testament gentile church has been given the commission. Paul wants to make sure we don't get broken off as well. The world needs to see the beautiful gospel. We make the gospel ugly by poor behavior. Paul is dealing with a very visible area of life. If we Christians have a poor attitude regarding government, it taints the testimony of Christians and discredits our message. In that case we would be no better of a Truth-bearing-agency than Israel was just before they were broken off.
And thirdly, Paul makes the statement that governing authority itself is an invention of God. It is a necessary evil in the sense that man left to his own devices ends up in total selfish anarchy. If Adam had never sinned, authority would not have been necessary. So God established authority so that fallen man would not annihilate himself.
So let's take a look at what our Christian attitude toward secular authorities ought to be.
First Paul says, “Be subject to them”. This means that is not our place to rally a group of people and stage a demonstration. This a a bit difficult to address because Christians do demonstrate and for good causes. Some stand in front of, or near to hospitals with pro-life banners and signs. I have done it myself. Is this anti-government? I think it is borderline. When Christians rent space on a highway bill-board and post something like, “Thou shalt not kill” and in the background show an image of an unborn baby … I think that is powerful and great.
The world needs to know what God's standard of right and wrong is. I think we can let the world know what God says about certain things without becoming political. What is wrong with becoming political? I would like to comment on that a bit later.
First we want to go back and look at these opening verses and recognize that all authority is God-ordained. In verse 4 Paul says that “They are God's servants ...”. As Paul penned these words, the government that was in power in the entire known world was Roman. The Romans had some good qualities and that is what Paul is looking at. Stealing, rape, and lawlessness was punishable by law. The Romans were quite strict about that. Did the Roman authorities think of themselves as “God's servants”? I doubt it. But Paul tells us that they were.
Did the Romans have any bad qualities? The Jews certainly thought so. They resented paying huge taxes to Rome. But Paul acknowledges that taxes are essential for the government to provide law and order.
Governments can become quite 'anti-Christian'. Nero blamed the burning of Rome on Christians. It was the Roman government that was responsible for beheading Paul. If Paul had known what was coming, would he have have still penned these words in Romans 13?
I think, Yes. I believe that Paul understood the difference between law and order … and politics.
Governments not only create laws for the purpose of creating order, goverments also have policies based on beliefs. Their policies can be good or they can be greedy. Rome had a policy regarding real estate. It was simply … grab it all. Germany had a similar one during Hitlers reign. His belief, and the one he tried to force upon all Germans, is that they were a superior people in every respect. It was out of that belief that he would try to rule the world. It was out of that belief that he would try to destroy the people that he saw as worthless.
Christians living in Germany had to stand against the beliefs and policies of Germany. How, by staging rallies? No, there is another way.
Jesus talked about the Christian's place in the world. When we understand what Jesus taught … and then bring that to Romans 13 we will see things in a better light.
Here are some references I want to look at:
When Jesus was on Trial before Pilate, the night before His death:
John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
The previous day:
Lu 22:36 “He said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
Lu 22:38 And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough."
An hour or so later ...
Lu 22:50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.
Lu 22:51 But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him.
Mt 26:52 Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
John 18:11Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"
This sequence of events is bound to raise the question, 'Why did Jesus tell the disciples to buy a sword if He were only going to scold them for using it?' And how does this jive with the following scripture?
2Co 10:3,4 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Jesus mentioned some things in His prayer that John recorded for us, things that could have been very difficult for a Jewish Christian to accept.
We often hear an acquaintance or friend make reference to 'the Old Country'. Usually that would be coming from someone who had emigrated from Europe or the UK. They live here in Canada, but a part of their heart is connected to the Old Country. I guess we could call it 'Roots'.
But I can't think of another nationality that would have stronger roots than a Jew. They would have more reasons than any other group of people, to cling to those roots. For one, they had been settled in their promised land since the days that they came out of Egypt. For another, their claim was that God gave them that piece of geography through father Abraham. And besides this, they were told by God through Moses that they were God's people, in God's country, commissioned to share the testimony of God to the world around them.
What was it that Jesus said in His prayer that would be so hard for them to take? It is this statement that will involve his disciples' renouncing the hold that their Jewish roots had on them. This is part of the prayer of Jesus:
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:13
The disciples apparently heard this prayer. I can imagine the questions that came to their minds. Like, We are not part of this world? In what ways exactly? We were born here. We are Jews. This is our promised land, what does He mean, we are not part of this world?
Did the disciples get any answers? Apparently not. Jesus was crucified the next day. A month and half later Jesus is about to ascend up to heaven and the disciples ask: Acts 1.6 “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom?”
They really did not get it. If the Lord had said, “Yes, the time is just about here. Go wait in Jerusalem. I will be right back.” Then the disciples would have gone on thinking, 'We are Jews. Jesus is coming back right away. He will put the Romans in their place and Israel will once again be the worlds leading nation to which everyone will have to bow'.
They did not understand that Jesus came to be the Savior of the world, not the Savior of Israel. As Paul has pointed out, the culmination of the age results in Jesus coming back to both Jews and Gentiles grafted into the same stock, which is the kingdom of God (Jesus).
So Paul is dealing with present day secular authorities and what the Christian's responsibility is toward them.
Just over 50 years ago I spent 5 years in the USA. As a Canadian 'citizen' I discovered some rather evident things. Number one, just because I was not an American citizen it did not give me the right to ignore the law - Traffic laws, laws involving behavior etc. I had to obey the law or suffer the consequences. But I discovered that in my seminary classes were a number of student ministers who were there to avoid being drafted to serve in Vietnam. As a visitor from Canada I would never be given a draft notice. Why? In a very simple sense … Vietnam was not Canada's fight, it was a fight that the USA as involved in. I was not one of them. I was a visitor. According to the USA embassy that I visited to arrange for my student visa, I was called and 'alien'.
The apostle Peter addresses this:. “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul”. 1 Peter 2:11
The writer of the book of Hebrews said, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” Heb 11:13 He was referring to the long list of individuals from the beginning of time who lived lives of faith while they were on this earth. He uses the words foreigners and strangers …. on earth. As believers, we are from another planet. We don't belong here. Our citizenship is somewhere else. Paul wrote to the Philippians: But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Php 3:20
Technically we, as believers in Jesus, hold dual citizenship. There is no way that any one on earth would ever be called a citizen of nowhere. The world does not recognize that citizenship in heaven is an option, so from their perspective, we must be citizens of somewhere. It is up to us to adopt a right attitude regarding citizenship. Only on one occasion do we read about Paul appealing to the government on the basis that he was a Roman citizen. And even in that instance, I am not so sure that he was on solid Christian ground in doing so.
It becomes a matter where we consciously 'renounce' our earthly citizenship and consider ourselves as strangers, foreigners, and aliens. I do not mean that we contact our Canadian government and tell them that we are no longer considering ourselves to be Canadians. No, this should be something of a commitment that you make in your heart between you and God. How far can we go with this? It is your individual decision. In the next chapter Paul will talk about Christians in church who hold opposing ideas - and it's totally okay. Personally, I no longer vote. When the province in which I live (as a long term visitor) has an election for Premier … I don't vote. When the results come in I think, “So, you people in BC have got yourselves a ______(party)___ for the next four years. I hope it goes well with you. As for myself, I am just a visitor and have no say in it.”
Our opening verses in this chapter clearly say that governing authority is from God. Even visitors to a country have to respect that country's authority. But how does this look if the government of the place where we are living forces us to do questionable things? What is the Christian's response? Here is a biblical example of how the early church in the book of Acts dealt with it: Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. Ac 5:26 -29
Is it better to obey God or man? The answer should be obvious. So the bottom line is … respect authority, it comes from God. Obey them in all matters that do not conflict with what God has called on us to do. When there is a conflict between what the government is calling on us to do … versus the bible … be prepared to take the consequences when you take your Christian stand.
Paul has completed his subject of obeying God with reference to governing authorities … because it is our duty. He moves from duty, as being our motivator, to love. Love is a superior motivating force to duty.
Ro 13:7-10 Pay to 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. 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the 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."
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
So the community in which we live should see us Christians as respectful, law-abiding, kind, giving kind of people. They think that we are good citizens … we know better, we are trying to be Godly respectful visitors until God calls us to our real home.
Paul begins the next verse with “And do this, understanding the present time ...”
He began with doing that which it is our duty to do. He moved to, let genuine love motivate you to do right. Now he moves to … and look at the calendar … time is running out. Let the fact that you have limited time in which to serve God impress upon you some urgency.
11-14 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Paul does not say that he KNOWS of some 'sleeping' Christians in the Roman church. But he knows human nature. If a call to obey God doesn't work, if exhorting us to let love motivate us in all things … does not work, then maybe this will.
Jesus is coming back. We don't know when. We can look at the signs and say, things don't look so good out there … Jesus is coming soon.
Jesus recognized that, even as born again believers with a brand new nature, we still carry the old nature in our bodies. He gave us the parable of the 'Ten Virgins'. In His parable these ten young women are waiting to welcome the bridegroom when he comes to the wedding site. There may be some unanswered questions if we look at the details of this parable … such as … are these ten virgins all going to marry this guy? Is Jesus promoting polygamy? Of course not. Whatever this custom was, it teaches us simply … be ready to meet Jesus … at any moment. In the parable a cry goes out “He's coming! We just saw him coming in to town!” So five of the virgins add spare oil to their lamps and they take their positions. Five of them had no spare oil and found themselves in an embarrassing situation.
So the message from Jesus is … waiting for His return is not a time of waiting around doing nothing. It is to be a time of preparedness. Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. John 9:4
Here are a few other similar warnings to 'give it all you've got' while you can.
Ec 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
Eph 5:16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Col 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Paul is calling on us to 'understand the time'. Is he asking us to listen to and watch the news so as to be aware of signs preceding the Lord's return? I don't think so. I think he is calling on us to get used to thinking in terms of eternity. This life is temporary … for you, and for your family, neighbors and friends. Your days are numbered and so are theirs.
So Paul is saying, understand the time … time is not permanent. It runs out. A lot of your time may have already slipped by … have you been using it to shine as a Christian? Have you been using the time to warn others that their time is coming to an end?
Paul says it is time to put on the uniform if you have not already done so. Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. Is that possible? Can we really mingle with people and, after we have left, leave them with the feeling that they have just had a Jesus encounter?
I will close off this chapter with a few passages that will remind us how dark the world is … and how bright we should be.
Eph 5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
1Th 5:5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
1Jo 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
1Jo 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Eph 6:12 For 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.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
1Th 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
As this chapter opens, what meets our eyes immediately is the Apostle Paul dealing with the kind of behavior and responses of Christians toward authorities that must become our Christian norm. He is talking about attitudes that are quite different from the way that average citizens might behave. Paul (the Holy Spirit) has three reasons for giving these instructions.
First is the very fact that we need to hear it. Having the right attitude does not come automatically for a Christian. You would think it should, but it doesn't. I think the reason is simply because we all live in a world that is mostly made up of unbelievers and it is all too easy to hear the negative attitudes being expressed, and if we don't stop ourselves, we find ourselves agreeing and joining in. If we were conscious of what our Christian attitude should be, we likely would be more careful. So that is what this section is given for … to increase our consciousness of how Christians should regard secular authority.
And His second reason for giving us these attitude-forming directions would be one that goes back to his previous discussion. We recall that Israel, as God's truth-bearing agency, just like bad branches, have been broken off. There were a number of reasons they were broken off. The main one is that they did not recognize nor believe that Jesus was the predicted Messiah. So for 'unbelief' they lost the agency. So now the New Testament gentile church has been given the commission. Paul wants to make sure we don't get broken off as well. The world needs to see the beautiful gospel. We make the gospel ugly by poor behavior. Paul is dealing with a very visible area of life. If we Christians have a poor attitude regarding government, it taints the testimony of Christians and discredits our message. In that case we would be no better of a Truth-bearing-agency than Israel was just before they were broken off.
And thirdly, Paul makes the statement that governing authority itself is an invention of God. It is a necessary evil in the sense that man left to his own devices ends up in total selfish anarchy. If Adam had never sinned, authority would not have been necessary. So God established authority so that fallen man would not annihilate himself.
So let's take a look at what our Christian attitude toward secular authorities ought to be.
First Paul says, “Be subject to them”. This means that is not our place to rally a group of people and stage a demonstration. This a a bit difficult to address because Christians do demonstrate and for good causes. Some stand in front of, or near to hospitals with pro-life banners and signs. I have done it myself. Is this anti-government? I think it is borderline. When Christians rent space on a highway bill-board and post something like, “Thou shalt not kill” and in the background show an image of an unborn baby … I think that is powerful and great.
The world needs to know what God's standard of right and wrong is. I think we can let the world know what God says about certain things without becoming political. What is wrong with becoming political? I would like to comment on that a bit later.
First we want to go back and look at these opening verses and recognize that all authority is God-ordained. In verse 4 Paul says that “They are God's servants ...”. As Paul penned these words, the government that was in power in the entire known world was Roman. The Romans had some good qualities and that is what Paul is looking at. Stealing, rape, and lawlessness was punishable by law. The Romans were quite strict about that. Did the Roman authorities think of themselves as “God's servants”? I doubt it. But Paul tells us that they were.
Did the Romans have any bad qualities? The Jews certainly thought so. They resented paying huge taxes to Rome. But Paul acknowledges that taxes are essential for the government to provide law and order.
Governments can become quite 'anti-Christian'. Nero blamed the burning of Rome on Christians. It was the Roman government that was responsible for beheading Paul. If Paul had known what was coming, would he have have still penned these words in Romans 13?
I think, Yes. I believe that Paul understood the difference between law and order … and politics.
Governments not only create laws for the purpose of creating order, goverments also have policies based on beliefs. Their policies can be good or they can be greedy. Rome had a policy regarding real estate. It was simply … grab it all. Germany had a similar one during Hitlers reign. His belief, and the one he tried to force upon all Germans, is that they were a superior people in every respect. It was out of that belief that he would try to rule the world. It was out of that belief that he would try to destroy the people that he saw as worthless.
Christians living in Germany had to stand against the beliefs and policies of Germany. How, by staging rallies? No, there is another way.
Jesus talked about the Christian's place in the world. When we understand what Jesus taught … and then bring that to Romans 13 we will see things in a better light.
Here are some references I want to look at:
When Jesus was on Trial before Pilate, the night before His death:
John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
The previous day:
Lu 22:36 “He said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
Lu 22:38 And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough."
An hour or so later ...
Lu 22:50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.
Lu 22:51 But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him.
Mt 26:52 Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
John 18:11Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"
This sequence of events is bound to raise the question, 'Why did Jesus tell the disciples to buy a sword if He were only going to scold them for using it?' And how does this jive with the following scripture?
2Co 10:3,4 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Jesus mentioned some things in His prayer that John recorded for us, things that could have been very difficult for a Jewish Christian to accept.
We often hear an acquaintance or friend make reference to 'the Old Country'. Usually that would be coming from someone who had emigrated from Europe or the UK. They live here in Canada, but a part of their heart is connected to the Old Country. I guess we could call it 'Roots'.
But I can't think of another nationality that would have stronger roots than a Jew. They would have more reasons than any other group of people, to cling to those roots. For one, they had been settled in their promised land since the days that they came out of Egypt. For another, their claim was that God gave them that piece of geography through father Abraham. And besides this, they were told by God through Moses that they were God's people, in God's country, commissioned to share the testimony of God to the world around them.
What was it that Jesus said in His prayer that would be so hard for them to take? It is this statement that will involve his disciples' renouncing the hold that their Jewish roots had on them. This is part of the prayer of Jesus:
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:13
The disciples apparently heard this prayer. I can imagine the questions that came to their minds. Like, We are not part of this world? In what ways exactly? We were born here. We are Jews. This is our promised land, what does He mean, we are not part of this world?
Did the disciples get any answers? Apparently not. Jesus was crucified the next day. A month and half later Jesus is about to ascend up to heaven and the disciples ask: Acts 1.6 “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom?”
They really did not get it. If the Lord had said, “Yes, the time is just about here. Go wait in Jerusalem. I will be right back.” Then the disciples would have gone on thinking, 'We are Jews. Jesus is coming back right away. He will put the Romans in their place and Israel will once again be the worlds leading nation to which everyone will have to bow'.
They did not understand that Jesus came to be the Savior of the world, not the Savior of Israel. As Paul has pointed out, the culmination of the age results in Jesus coming back to both Jews and Gentiles grafted into the same stock, which is the kingdom of God (Jesus).
So Paul is dealing with present day secular authorities and what the Christian's responsibility is toward them.
Just over 50 years ago I spent 5 years in the USA. As a Canadian 'citizen' I discovered some rather evident things. Number one, just because I was not an American citizen it did not give me the right to ignore the law - Traffic laws, laws involving behavior etc. I had to obey the law or suffer the consequences. But I discovered that in my seminary classes were a number of student ministers who were there to avoid being drafted to serve in Vietnam. As a visitor from Canada I would never be given a draft notice. Why? In a very simple sense … Vietnam was not Canada's fight, it was a fight that the USA as involved in. I was not one of them. I was a visitor. According to the USA embassy that I visited to arrange for my student visa, I was called and 'alien'.
The apostle Peter addresses this:. “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul”. 1 Peter 2:11
The writer of the book of Hebrews said, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” Heb 11:13 He was referring to the long list of individuals from the beginning of time who lived lives of faith while they were on this earth. He uses the words foreigners and strangers …. on earth. As believers, we are from another planet. We don't belong here. Our citizenship is somewhere else. Paul wrote to the Philippians: But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Php 3:20
Technically we, as believers in Jesus, hold dual citizenship. There is no way that any one on earth would ever be called a citizen of nowhere. The world does not recognize that citizenship in heaven is an option, so from their perspective, we must be citizens of somewhere. It is up to us to adopt a right attitude regarding citizenship. Only on one occasion do we read about Paul appealing to the government on the basis that he was a Roman citizen. And even in that instance, I am not so sure that he was on solid Christian ground in doing so.
It becomes a matter where we consciously 'renounce' our earthly citizenship and consider ourselves as strangers, foreigners, and aliens. I do not mean that we contact our Canadian government and tell them that we are no longer considering ourselves to be Canadians. No, this should be something of a commitment that you make in your heart between you and God. How far can we go with this? It is your individual decision. In the next chapter Paul will talk about Christians in church who hold opposing ideas - and it's totally okay. Personally, I no longer vote. When the province in which I live (as a long term visitor) has an election for Premier … I don't vote. When the results come in I think, “So, you people in BC have got yourselves a ______(party)___ for the next four years. I hope it goes well with you. As for myself, I am just a visitor and have no say in it.”
Our opening verses in this chapter clearly say that governing authority is from God. Even visitors to a country have to respect that country's authority. But how does this look if the government of the place where we are living forces us to do questionable things? What is the Christian's response? Here is a biblical example of how the early church in the book of Acts dealt with it: Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. Ac 5:26 -29
Is it better to obey God or man? The answer should be obvious. So the bottom line is … respect authority, it comes from God. Obey them in all matters that do not conflict with what God has called on us to do. When there is a conflict between what the government is calling on us to do … versus the bible … be prepared to take the consequences when you take your Christian stand.
Paul has completed his subject of obeying God with reference to governing authorities … because it is our duty. He moves from duty, as being our motivator, to love. Love is a superior motivating force to duty.
Ro 13:7-10 Pay to 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. 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the 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."
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
So the community in which we live should see us Christians as respectful, law-abiding, kind, giving kind of people. They think that we are good citizens … we know better, we are trying to be Godly respectful visitors until God calls us to our real home.
Paul begins the next verse with “And do this, understanding the present time ...”
He began with doing that which it is our duty to do. He moved to, let genuine love motivate you to do right. Now he moves to … and look at the calendar … time is running out. Let the fact that you have limited time in which to serve God impress upon you some urgency.
11-14 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Paul does not say that he KNOWS of some 'sleeping' Christians in the Roman church. But he knows human nature. If a call to obey God doesn't work, if exhorting us to let love motivate us in all things … does not work, then maybe this will.
Jesus is coming back. We don't know when. We can look at the signs and say, things don't look so good out there … Jesus is coming soon.
Jesus recognized that, even as born again believers with a brand new nature, we still carry the old nature in our bodies. He gave us the parable of the 'Ten Virgins'. In His parable these ten young women are waiting to welcome the bridegroom when he comes to the wedding site. There may be some unanswered questions if we look at the details of this parable … such as … are these ten virgins all going to marry this guy? Is Jesus promoting polygamy? Of course not. Whatever this custom was, it teaches us simply … be ready to meet Jesus … at any moment. In the parable a cry goes out “He's coming! We just saw him coming in to town!” So five of the virgins add spare oil to their lamps and they take their positions. Five of them had no spare oil and found themselves in an embarrassing situation.
So the message from Jesus is … waiting for His return is not a time of waiting around doing nothing. It is to be a time of preparedness. Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. John 9:4
Here are a few other similar warnings to 'give it all you've got' while you can.
Ec 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
Eph 5:16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Col 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Paul is calling on us to 'understand the time'. Is he asking us to listen to and watch the news so as to be aware of signs preceding the Lord's return? I don't think so. I think he is calling on us to get used to thinking in terms of eternity. This life is temporary … for you, and for your family, neighbors and friends. Your days are numbered and so are theirs.
So Paul is saying, understand the time … time is not permanent. It runs out. A lot of your time may have already slipped by … have you been using it to shine as a Christian? Have you been using the time to warn others that their time is coming to an end?
Paul says it is time to put on the uniform if you have not already done so. Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. Is that possible? Can we really mingle with people and, after we have left, leave them with the feeling that they have just had a Jesus encounter?
I will close off this chapter with a few passages that will remind us how dark the world is … and how bright we should be.
Eph 5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
1Th 5:5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
1Jo 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
1Jo 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Eph 6:12 For 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.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
1Th 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.