Day 12 Submit to the Governing Authorities
Everyone must subject himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Romans 13:1
Why does Paul insert a paragraph about submitting to authorities at this point in Romans? To some readers it seems out of place in the midst of chapters 12 and 13, interrupting Paul’s discussion of Christian love (12:9-21 and 13:8-10). Some have even questioned whether the paragraph was written and inserted into the body of the letter at a later time.
But we have no evidence that the letter of Romans was ever without it. In fact it contributes to Paul’s explanation of transformed living expected of believers in the new age of redemption in an important way. From the beginning of the church the radical demands of the gospel to avoid conformity to this world were taken too far by some. They thought the coming of the new age meant everything in the world was under judgement and to be avoided. They included in “the world” marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Timothy 4:3), sex (1 Corinthians 7) and the government (1 Timothy 2:2; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13,14).
The apostles had to combat this kind of extremism, pointing out that such activities were appointed by God for the good of human beings. Christians should never think of these institutions as evil. This helps us understand why Paul balanced his demand that believers not ‘conform [to] this world’ (12:2) with a reminder that governmental authorities were not necessarily part of ‘this world’ but were in fact servants of God doing His will.
There are additional reasons why 13:1-7 comes where it does. In 12:17-21 Paul urged believers not to take vengeance but to allow God to judge. One reason we can do this is because God has ordained government as the institution to carry out His judgement in this world. Paul may have been aware of further affairs in Rome that remain unknown to us but that made this exhortation needful.
‘Everyone must subject himself to the governing authorities’ (13:1). ‘Governing authorities’ refers to any person who represents the power of the state. In the past a popular belief was that Paul intended the word ‘authorities’ to refer both to human beings who exercised authority and to spiritual powers who, according to ancient ideas, stood behind those human authorities. But this view is now rightly rejected.
The word ‘submit’ in this opening verse literally means ‘to stand under’ and emphasises an attitude of heart more than an outward action (obedience). Paul is saying that all human authority is derived from God’s authority, so we can say to rulers what Jesus said to Pilate, ‘You would have no power [authority] over me if it were not given to you from above’ (John 19:11).