Romans 13:1-14
Submission to Governing Authorities
1 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. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 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. 4 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. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 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.
Love Fulfills the Law
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
The Day Is Near
11 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. 12 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. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
The relationship between the eternal Kingdom of God and earthly governments is fundamentally anchored in the reality of Divine Sovereignty, as most clearly articulated in Romans 13 by St. Paul...This pivotal chapter reminds us that all human authority is a delegated power, asserting that there is no governing body except that which has been established by God Himself...By recognizing civil leaders as "ministers of God," we see that the state is intended to function as a logistical necessity for maintaining order and justice in a fallen world...Therefore, our submission to earthly laws is not merely a civic duty, but a spiritual recognition of the One who stands above all thrones, ensuring that while we live as citizens of this world, our ultimate allegiance remains to the King of Kings...
The tension between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men and their governments is a theme that runs through the entirety of Scripture, starting with Jesus’ clever response regarding Caesar’s coin.. The point about the logistical necessity of freedom is grounded in a very human reality; after all, a locked door usually signifies a halt in progress...However, when we look at the spread of the Gospel, we often see that God operates on a level that defies human political logic...While we can believe that imprisonment limits physical movement, the history of the early Church suggests that God often used the chains of His apostles as a megaphone rather than a muffler...Consider Paul’s time in a Roman prison, where he wrote the very epistles that form the bedrock of our faith today...If Paul had been free to travel those years, he might have reached more villages in person, but he might not have felt the need to pen the letters that have reached billions of people over two millennia...In this sense, what seemed like a "slow down" by the government was actually God’s way of ensuring the Word was preserved in writing for all future generations...
Jesus was never vague about the cost of following Him; He explicitly warned His disciples that the world would hate them because it first hated Him...In the Gospel of John, He reminded them that "no servant is greater than his master," and if they persecuted Him, they would certainly persecute His followers...He prepared them for the reality of being dragged before governors and kings for His sake, and even predicted a time when those who killed them would think they were offering a service to God...This sobering prophecy found its first vivid fulfillment in the life of Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit...As the first martyred Christian, Stephen was stoned to death by the religious authorities for his bold testimony about Jesus as the Righteous One...Even in his final moments, his death mirrored the crucifixion as he cried out for God to forgive his executioners, proving that the persecution Jesus spoke of was not a sign of defeat, but a testament to the power of the Word...This sacrifice serves as the ultimate illustration of Jesus' command for His followers to take up their cross daily and follow Him, regardless of the high cost...He made it clear that to save one's life is to lose it, but to lose one's life for His sake is to find it, emphasizing that the path of true discipleship is paved with a self-denial that counts the earthly cost as nothing compared to the Glory of the Kingdom...
The harvest is plentiful when followers are free to talk, yet the paradox of Christianity is that it has often grown fastest under the heat of intense persecution...Before Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, the Church was an underground movement, yet it grew from a small group in an upper room to a force that the Roman Empire could no longer ignore...The "wrongful intervention" of man, such as the martyrdom of Stephen or the imprisonment of Peter, often served as the wind that blew the seeds of the Gospel to distant lands...When the government tried to contain the "Way" in Jerusalem through force, the believers scattered, taking the Message with them to Samaria and beyond...This suggests that while government leaders may believe they are slowing down progress, they are often inadvertently acting as the catalyst for a more robust and resilient faith...God’s progress is not measured by the ease of the journey, but by the transformation of the heart, which often shines brightest when the world attempts to dim it...God has His Ways and as Gamaliel said in the Acts when the apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest...“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this Name,” he said...“Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”...Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!...The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging Him on a cross...God exalted Him to His Own right hand as Prince and Savior that He might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins...We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”...So when the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death...But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while...Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men...Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him...He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing...After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt...He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered...Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone!...Let them go!...For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail....But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”...His speech persuaded the Sanhedrin to let them go...They called the apostles in and had them flogged...Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go...Again, in this sense of persecuting and flogging, what seemed like a "slow down" by the Sanhedrin was actually God’s way of ensuring the Word was preserved in writing for all future generations...
When we examine the top governments of the world throughout history, from the ancient Babylonian and Persian Empires to the modern global powers like the United States, China, and the European Union, we see a recurring pattern of secular authority grappling with the Absolute Truth...In the early centuries, the Roman government—the "superpower" of its day—initially viewed Christianity as a threat to the social order and the divinity of the Emperor...However, the early leaders eventually realized that the Word of God was a Truth that could not be suppressed by iron bars or executions...This realization culminated in a dramatic shift when the Roman state finally acknowledged that the stability and morality found in Christ’s teachings were superior to pagan traditions...By the time of the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, the government recognized that allowing the Truth to be spoken freely actually strengthened the fabric of the empire, proving that even the most powerful human institutions eventually bend to the spiritual reality of the Gospel...
Specific governmental officials were used by God to legally pave the way for the Word to flourish without the threat of death and this lessened the persecutions of Christian believers...Constantine the Great was a pivotal figure who legalized Christianity through the Edict of Milan, effectively ending centuries of official state-sponsored persecution and allowing believers to worship and build churches openly...Following him, the shift toward the Truth became even more absolute in 380 CE when Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica...This decree made Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire, marking a historic turning point where Christianity became the only legal religion for all Roman subjects...This significance cannot be overstated, as Theodosius' actions led to the restriction of pagan practices and the elevation of Christian doctrine and liturgy throughout the vast reaches of the empire...These leading officials, and those who followed their path, helped transition the Word from a persecuted minority faith into the dominant cultural and spiritual force of the Western world...
So the "official recognition" by Emperor Theodosius I in 380 CE marked the moment the Roman government formally accepted the Nicene Creed as the absolute religious Truth for all its subjects...This was a monumental change, as it moved the Word from the shadows of catacombs into the light of the public square and the halls of power...While this helped the legalization of Jesus' message, it would spread faster across the known world with it now being legal, and it also serves as a reminder that God’s Word does not require a government's "permission" to be True...Truth is Truth no matter what type of government Christianity or God is in...In the modern era, governments that prioritize religious freedom often see the harvest thrive through open mission work, while those that restrict the Word often inadvertently cause the faith to grow more intense and resilient underground...Whether through the "top" world powers of today or the ancient rulers of the past, God has consistently shown that He can use any political structure—whether helpful or hostile—to ensure His Word reaches the ends of the earth...
Regarding the legalization by Constantine and the official mandate by Theodosius I, these were undoubtedly turning points in history that allowed for mass evangelization...However, many theologians and historians argue that when the Church became the "official state religion," it gained political power but risked losing its spiritual saltiness...When Caesar and God are merged into one state entity, the "Absolute Truth" of the Word can sometimes become a tool for political control rather than a message of personal salvation...This is why Jesus was so careful to separate the two; He knew that His Kingdom was not of this world and that its power did not depend on the endorsement of a throne...While the Edict of Thessalonica made it easier to build cathedrals and hold councils, it also brought in many whose hearts were not truly converted, leading to a period where the "Way" became more about ritual than the relationship described in John 14...
God would have made it work regardless of man’s intervention as Gamaliel points out...This answer lies in His ultimate sovereignty over all of the universe and all of history...God does not "wait" for a government to give Him permission to move; He moves the hearts of the leaders themselves to accomplish His ends, as Proverbs 21:1 tells us the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD...If the Roman Empire had never legalized Christianity, the Holy Spirit would have found another path, perhaps one that remained purer and more focused on the humble service of the Sermon on the Mount...We know we are to wait upon the LORD...So the "slow downs" we perceive are often God’s timing at work, ensuring that the roots of the faith are deep enough to survive the storms of power and wealth...Even today, in places where the government strictly forbids the Word, the Church is growing at a rate that puts the free world to shame...
Regarding the state of the world today, persecution is still a very physical and deadly reality in many nations where Bibles are confiscated and believers are imprisoned or executed for their faith...However, in many Western societies, persecution has taken on a more social and psychological form...While we may not face the lions of the Colosseum, Christians often face the "persecution of words," being labeled as "Bible Thumpers" or "narrow-minded" simply for wanting to share the life-saving message of Jesus...This modern-day mockery is intended to silence the Gospel through shame rather than force...Whether it is the physical suffering found in closed countries or the social exclusion found in secular cultures, the underlying spirit is the same—a rejection of the Absolute Truth that people work so hard to share to others sometimes gets mocked ...These different types of persecutions are a powerful reminder that while the methods of the world change, the message about Jesus that we share remains the same...
In the end, while human leaders like Theodosius I may think they are the ones "establishing" the faith, they are merely bit players in a much larger divine drama...The Great Commission was not a suggestion dependent on Roman law, but a command backed by the authority of the One who is the Creator of all things and holds the keys to life and death...Whether in a prison cell or a palace, the Word of God is never chained, as Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 2:9...The early apostles and also the later ones show patience an diligence every day—they can use the tools and the freedom they have to reflect His Light, but even if those tools were taken away, the Truth in our hearts would find a way to shine...God’s Plan is never late and never hindered; He simply uses the "wrongful interventions" of man to prove that His power is made perfect in weakness...The harvest remains plentiful because the LORD of the Harvest is not bound by the edicts of men, but by His own eternal promise to never leave us nor forsake us...