Relating To God's "other" Ministers Series

How are we Christians to relate to human government and governing authorities?

This morning we come to the ultimate passage in the New Testament which addresses this issue, which is relevant nearly every day of our lives. We face this issue every time we drive some place, whether we obey traffic laws or speed limits. It is also an issue nearly every time we buy something as we pay sales taxes. Our relationship to government and civil authorities is a daily experience for almost every one of us.

But it has never been more relevant to us than it is now. And never more controversial. These past few years we have all experienced some unprecedented events in the United States of America regarding how Christians ought to be relating to our governing authorities.

For instance, for the first time in American history, that I know of, state, city and county governments passed laws or issued edicts that prevented Christian churches from meeting, period. As we all know and experienced, there was a period of months when Christian churches could not meet legally in Nevada. In some states, I know Christian churches which were not allowed to meet for more than a year. At one time, this would have been unthinkable, but now it has happened. How, should we as Christians, respond?

Another unprecedented event occurred with respect to our federal government—depending on our perspective, either a political protest went out of control or there was an armed insurrection that intended to overthrow our election process and negate the official results of a presidential election in our country. Yes, I’m talking about the events of January 6th. And as most of us know, front and center in many of the photos and videos of that day was the display of Christian flags and symbols which represented at least some of the beliefs of those who participated. Again, is this legitimate political discourse, an appropriate way of dealing with our governing authorities when we disagree with an outcome?

And then there has been the great social unrest of the past couple years, beginning with the killing of George Floyd—an event that first spawned a surge of sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement that then subsequently morphed into the “Defund the Police” movement. This led to a number of west coast cities permitting anarchist groups to destroy property in riots in those cities for months. It led to a reduction of police forces and police morale. It gave credibility to a movement for liberal district attorneys and public prosecutors who refuse to prosecute crimes in their counties, thus violating their oaths to uphold the law, which then led to massive crime sprees in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles in which drug stores and major retailers were overwhelmed by whole groups of thieves who repeatedly pillaged their stores for whatever they pleased with apparent impunity. Again, how should believers respond to all this?

All this leads to many questions: What are Christians to do with respect to governing authorities? Whom do we honor and support? Do we submit? When do we submit? Do we ever revolt?

And Romans 13 provides us with some surprising answers to these questions.

It tells us, on the whole, that every soul should submit & respect governing authorities as unto God. Let me repeat that: “Every soul should submit & respect governing authorities as from God and as unto God.

As we’ve read from Romans 13 this morning, it is important for us to remember the cultural situation that faced the Apostle Paul as he was writing this letter. It was 57 A.D. He was writing to the Christian church in Rome, the seat of authority for the entire Roman Empire. On the throne in Rome was Nero, now infamous as one of the most evil and craziest of world leaders of all time, who would, in a few short years become on the greatest persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ in history. He who would throw thousands of Christians to the lions. He would execute the Apostle Peter as well as the very writer of this letter, the Apostle Paul.

The Romans government was full of corrupt individuals, and Roman emperors were notorious for being corrupt, Nero being just one of a number who were infamous for their perverted character and behavior. More than that, the regime promoted idolatry, namely emperor worship, a religion absolutely contradictory to both Jewish and Christian belief. In addition, the Apostle Paul was writing to a group of Christians in Rome wjp consisted of a significant Jewish population, and the Jews were known for mounting insurrections against the Romans continually. The previous Emperor Claudius had even ordered the Jews out of Rome in 49 A.D. because to their riotous behavior, and the Romans would eventually destroy the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and then all of Jerusalem and send the Jews into exile because of their seditious ways.