David Bahn – Reflections

Romans 13:1-9

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 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.

Not many people these days have a high opinion of the government. The old saying, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,” is immediately recognized as a satyrical dismissal of the government’s ability to do anything of real help. One friend of mine used always to say, “Pray for gridlock.” His thought was that if the government did nothing that was better than any other course of action they could take.
Add to our disdain for and little trust of government the current controversies swirling in the halls of both the legislative and judicial branches – gay marriage, public prayer, gun rights, health care, and abortion to name but a few, and one could easily conclude that no government would be better than the one we have now.
That, however, is not God’s conclusion. Government is God’s idea. Jesus taught it: “Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s” (Matthew 22:21-22). Paul confirms it here in Romans, while having spent significant time in prison or custody of the governing authorities. Both Jesus and Paul were treated as puppets by the governing authorities. But both were used by God for the most powerful impact anyone could imagine. Whether planting new churches or saving the world, neither Paul nor Jesus counted on the government to do anything for their cause. The most Paul ever did to uphold his cause was to use his citizenship and appealing to the governing authorities for fair treatment.
Not once did Jesus or Paul try to change laws or overthrow governments, though they would have had cause to do so. Not once did Jesus teach that the key to the future of the church was good government or even just laws. They simply allowed the laws to stand and subjected themselves to them.
Neither Jesus nor Paul campaigned for good or bad candidates (the thought was virtually unknown at their time anyway). What they did was to entrust themselves to God, realizing that God would settle accounts in due time. In fact they saw any punishment of evil to be an extension of God’s judgment and desire for justice. One might think that if the only experience Paul had with the government was that of imprisonment, or house arrest, he would counsel followers of Jesus to ignore the government or even rebel against it. The greed and corruption of that day was rampant. Instead, however, followers of Jesus are to obey the governing authorities in the confidence that God is over all, and that he will ultimately put things right – all under his Son, Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords, forever to be praised! Amen