Submission to Governing Authority
Romans 13:1-7
The passage this evening takes us into a little bit of a shift, starting
in Romans 13:1. Now some commentators, usually of a liberal persuasion and by
liberal I mean they don't take the Word of God to be inerrant or infallible,
question whether this was originally written by the Apostle Paul because it
doesn't seem to fit the context. However that has been demonstrated to be false
by a number of other scholarly studies. One issue here, though, is why does
Paul suddenly shift his thinking to government and submission to governing
authorities? I think it grows out of what he has just said at the end of
chapter 12 where he has been dealing with specific issues related to Christians
and how they relate to other Christians.
The last part of chapter 12 deals with seeking vengeance or justice for those
who have treated them in an unjust or disrespectful manner. I think the segue
here is to deal with the proper role of government. That is covered in just the
first seven verses of chapter 13 before he returns to the theme of loving one
another when we get to verse 8. So the focus tonight, and this will take us
several weeks to go through this section, has to do with submission to
governing authorities. Let me just read through and point out a few things on
the first seven verses. This is a nice interrelated section here.
"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those, which exist,
are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the
ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon
themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.
Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have
praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you
do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it
is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices
evil." Notice that picks up that theme of vengeance from the last three
verses of chapter 12. Romans 13:5 continues "Therefore it is necessary to
be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience'
sake. For because of this you also pay taxes…" I thought that was a
timely verse to focus on since April 15 is next Tuesday. Let me read that again
in case you missed it, "For because of this you also pay taxes, for
{rulers} are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to
all what is due them: tax to whom tax {is due;} custom to whom custom; fear to
whom fear; honor to whom honor is due."
Let's just make a couple of observations as we go through this
particular passage. This passage has become somewhat debated, especially among
certain branches of conservative politics in recent years because a lot of
conservatives and the conservative wing of the Libertarian Party have a problem
with a fact that the administration now in place seems to be off the rails in
terms of its constitutional mandates. They are violating the U.S. Constitution.
This has led to some very interesting and wrong exegesis of this particular
passage. But we have to work through this very carefully to see what the
Scriptures are teaching and what they are not teaching.
Unfortunately, there are in some circles too many Christians who are so
bent on justifying their own political theory that they read their political
theory into the Scripture instead of actually doing the kind of work they need
to, to study the text and let the text tell them what their political theory should
be. I have one of two acquaintances that just absolutely drive me nuts because
they are typically spiritually blind Christians. They are so well read on
political history and political theory that they do not know how to read the
Bible and derive from the text what the principles of government should be. All
they want to do is use the Bible to validate their political theory. They read
their political views into the Scripture.
What I find to be consistent with people of this kind is that they have
a real hard time submitting to the authority of a pastor who develops an
exegetical theology from the Scripture. I have watched some of these
individuals over years that I have known them church hop because as soon as a
pastor starts teaching something that challenges their basic presupposition in
these areas they decide he doesn't really know what he's talking about so they
go to the next church. This becomes a pattern for them. What it shows is that
not only do they have a problem with the authority of a pastor but also it
shows they basically have a problem with authority in general. Their problem is
with the authority of the government when they disagree with it. The problem is
with their pastor when they disagree with him and this brings us to the real
problem in this whole issue.
That is when the Scripture teaches us, and talks about submitting to an
authority, whether it's as individual believers submitting to Christ or whether
it's wives submitting to their husbands or whether it's church members
submitting to the leaders in the church. When it comes to submission it's easy
to submit to someone when we agree with him or her. When the authority is
asking us to do what we want to do and it doesn't really challenge us in terms
of our own agenda, it's really easy. But where submission becomes real
submission is when the person or the institution in authority is asking us to
do something we disagree with. If the person, the individual, or the
institution that is in authority over us is asking something we don't think is right,
then we have problems.
I'm making a distinction between what the Scriptures say to be right. We
all understand when any authority asks us to do something that violates the
direct command of Scripture then that, as Peter says in Acts 5, "We obey
God rather than men." But we have too many people who think that their
opinion is Scriptural and therefore they don't think the person in authority
can ask them to do something because in their opinion that violates their
Christian ethic. It probably doesn't. It just violates their opinion. It comes
down to humility.
I think this is one of the most difficult areas of all Scripture. The
last couple of weeks when we were talking about impersonal love we saw that's a
really hard topic for most of us, to treat other believers in genuine
impersonal love. Or just to treat other people with whom we disagree or dislike
with genuine impersonal love. But I think another area that rally challenges
every one of us when you come right down to it is when someone in authority
over us demands that we do something that we really disagree with and we really
don't want to do it. I'm not talking about an absolute disagreement over
eternal truth. When somebody wants us to do something that we don't want to do,
an employer, the government and that's what real submission is, when we humble
ourselves and submit to that authority. So that's the real issue underlying
this.
I find that this happens in politics. I know most people in this room
and I know where most of us think politically. Most of us are pretty much in
agreement on most things. We understand there are many things happening under
this administration but they're been happening for the last thirty or forty
years under various other administrations that have eroded the authority of the
Constitution as we understand it. This creates a great problem for us and this
isn't going to change. So the question we have to understand is, "How does
this apply to us in terms of our own thinking?" So as we look at this
passage I just want to point out some structural things in the whole paragraph
that helps us see how it hangs together.
First of all, there's a command: that every person [every soul] be
subject to the governing authorities. Then there's an explanation. Whenever you
see a "for" it's usually a reason or a cause for what was just said.
So the reason he makes this command is that there is no authority except from
God. The authorities that exist are appointed by God. Now I read someone at
some time who said the ultimate authority of government in the United States is
the Constitution. So he read this as if it were written this way, "Let
every soul be subject to the Constitution for there is no Constitution except
from God and the Constitution that exists was appointed by God."
Now that is just such an aberration of the text. The word authority is
plural in places. It not only relates to the ultimate authority in any national
entity but to the whole chain of command from the highest authority all the way
down to the lowest, from Federal government all the way to down the local
precinct government. Every authority is involved in this, not just the ultimate
authority. That was an example of someone reading their political philosophy
into the text to try to make the text validate their view rather than let their
view be shaped by Scripture.
Romans 13:2 reads, "Therefore whoever resists authority resists the
authority of God." So there's a conclusion from that. If the authority is
established from God and you're resisting that authority then you're resisting
God Himself and God's ordinance or command. Then there's another explanation
for why this would be true. Romans 13:3 says, "For rulers are not a cause
of fear for good behavior." I can see some of you saying, "Now wait a
minute. We've got a lot of court cases going on right now because there are
different people, different levels of government such as individuals in the
military, individuals in other institutions in our country that are specifically
going after Christians.
There's a case going on right now that involved a cadet at the United
States Air Force Academy who had written a Bible verse on the dry erase board
on his room. He was ordered to take it down. They came in and forcibly erased
it and immediately the lawyers from Liberty Institute went out there to take
this case for him. So what do you mean that the rulers are not a cause of fear
for good behavior when that kind of thing is going on? Well this is the kind of
thing we have to work through because this is written as a universal principle.
It was also written at a time when Nero who was evil and wicked was Caesar in
Rome. So it's not written under an ideal form of government.
Romans 13:4 goes on, "For it is a minister [the authority] of God
for good." Then Romans 13:5 draws another conclusion, "Therefore it
is necessary to be in subjection…" This takes us right back to the
original command so the structure is that when Paul gives the command, he gives
the implication of the command in verse 2. He explains what is really going on
ultimately in terms of universal principles in verses 3 and 4 and then he gives
a conclusion that takes us back to the original command. In verses 6 and 7 he
applies this to the payment of taxes. Where did that come from? Well, I've got
a suggestion for this. So this gives us an overview of the passage.
Now the issue that's raised here is one that's becoming more and more of
a significant issue in American politics. We're a little myopic, though. If you
go to other areas of the world where they have much more tyrannical and corrupt
governments, what we're getting our panties in a knot over, is not quite as
severe as what you have in other places. Take Ukraine for example. I've spent
some time going over there in the last ten or eleven years and have seen how
corrupt that government is. Of course all of this came boiling to a head about
ten years ago, in 2004-2005 in what they call the Orange Revolution, which was
a precursor to what just happened. In the Orange Revolution there was one man
running for president by the name of Yushchenko and his opponent was
Yanukovych, the man who just was thrown out of power. Yanukovych rigged that
election in 2004.
He had also probably been responsible for poisoning Yushchenko. I don't
know if you remember that but he was slipped something and they showed a lot of
pictures by him side-by-side where his face was all scarred from the effect of
this poison. The people took to the streets because they knew that this was a
corrupt election. They called for a new election and Yushchenko won that
election. But Yushchenko is saddled with a totally corrupt bureaucracy, one
that is influenced by these obscenely wealthy oligarchs who are using their
money to influence what is going on. You really couldn't change anything.
So the people out of frustration that if Yushchenko can't change
anything then the next election in 2008-2009, they voted for Yanukovych. You
know if you go with one side and he can't solve your problems then go to the
other side. But Yanukovych was worse. You're basically choosing between one
form of evil and another form of evil. Neither side is really good. There's not
a culture in Ukraine that understands what we would think of as divine
institutions. It's a totally corrupt culture that goes back through a century
of corruption under the Soviet block or Empire and before that you had all the
horrors of corruption under the Czars. There's never been a solid biblical
foundation for thinking through the institutions of government.
So Yanukovych became president and corruption just went on steroids and
he spent billions and billions of dollars on his own personal real estate
purchase and he built a mansion worth several billion dollars and many other
things clearly outside of the law. Finally the economy gets so bad that the
people took to the streets again and last November when he broke the treaty
with the EU, but he was being blackmailed by Russia. Putin was saying if you
don't break your relations with the EU and join with us I'm going to triple the
cost of natural gas. All of their natural gas comes from Russia so Yanukovych
was being blackmailed. It's just an absolutely obscene web of corruption and
blackmail and personal power politics, as bad as it can get.
So what should a Christian do when you're looking down at almost 100,000
people down in the Maidan Square and they're setting up this demonstration
against the government? Where should you be? That was a tough question. When I
was over there in January this was a topic that Jim was teaching from the
pulpit of the church. It was a topic I touched on in what I was teaching. There
were many Christians in the church who recognized that it wasn't their
responsibility to overthrow the government. But it was their responsibility to
evangelize and to pray and they were involved with various Christian groups
that were camped out down in the Maidan. They were passing out tracts and other
things like that.
It really hit me when I was there that I hear a lot of conservative
Christians in America thinking that theoretically what if the government
becomes more and more tyrannical. What's the breaking point? I was watching a
scenario in real time when I was in Ukraine where that was exactly where they
had arrived. Let me tell you that we're about a hundred miles in the air above
the depths where they had gone. We think we have it bad. Let me tell you. We
only think we have it bad. You may disagree with me. You may think it's
terrible but it's so much worse in Ukraine. When you have people who on the
average can only make about four or five or six hundred dollars a month and
they're living in government subsidized housing, then you see the problem.
The government is in such debt. I read a report this morning that they're
going to have to default on all their loans. That's just going to plunge them
into an even worse case scenario. So if we keep doing what we're doing we're
heading in the same direction. We're just not nearly as far down the road as I
think some people think we are. But we have to think through our role as
citizens. This is another factor I think it's important to think through, that
the government that we have and the Constitution we have is a totally different
scenario than the one in Ukraine. It's a totally different scenario than the
one in the Roman Empire.
What we are legally permitted to do, what our legal rights are in the
United States enables us to do things that citizens in other nations can't do
because it's prohibited by their law. A lot of these applications are relative
to what is legal, what is constitutional in these different situations and
different governments. First of all, what we have to do is understand what Paul
is saying to the Roman believers who are a mix of Messianic Jews who have
accepted Jesus as Messiah and Gentiles. So we have to work our way through this
particular question, which is obedience to government authority.
Some of the questions we need to address include the following. Does the
believer have the right to disobey government authority at any point? How do we
define that point? If we are able to disobey government, what are the
parameters, the guidelines for determining when it is right for the individual
to disobey a legitimate governing authority? This applies not only to civil
authority but it applies across the board to any authority, whether it's the
authority of a coach over an athletic team, the authority of a commissioned or
non-commissioned officer in the military, the authority of a teacher or a
professor in the classroom, the authority of a husband over a family, the
authority of parents over children. The fundamental principle here is the
governing authority and the role of submission to that authority.
This is a problem that is not just limited to us but was very much a
problem at that time. As I said just a moment ago, the Roman church was
comprised of both Gentile believers and Jewish believers. Now Jewish believers
had a particular problem with a Gentile governor. Deuteronomy 17:15 says,
"When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in
it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around
me,' you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, {one} from among your countrymen
you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over
yourselves who is not your countryman." So there was a large segment of
Jews who refused to give any submission to a Gentile government. They thought
that was wrong based on that particular passage.
Sometimes it's argued that the Jews in Rome were particularly
disobedient. There were riots about eight or nine years earlier due to
conflicts in the Jewish community over the identity of one "Crestes".
Many people believe this was a fraternal battle and fight among the Jews that
became violent over the issue of Jesus Christ. Claudius expelled all of the
Jews from Rome according to Acts 18:2. That took place about four years before
they began to come back.
We also have the example of the Zealots in Judea who would recognize no
king but God and they would not pay taxes. They did not think it was right for
any Jew to pay a tax to a Gentile government. The people who thought like that
were also in Rome so this was part of the background. I believe that's one of
the reasons why Paul addresses the issue of taxation in Romans 13: 6-7. But
this isn't the only passage that addresses this. There are a number of passages
which address the mandate of the Christians submission to government.
In Mark 12:17 the religious leaders tried to corner Jesus and they asked
him about the tax to Caesar. He said, "Well whose image is on the
coin?" Of course they were trapped and they said, "Caesar."
"Well, render to Caesar what is Caesar's," Jesus answered. Jesus
validated the taxes. He doesn't question whether it is just or unjust, whether
it's an overburdening system. He doesn't address the percentages. He just said
they were to give to Caesar what is Caesar's. He validates the authority of the
Roman Empire's laws regarding taxation.
In 1 Timothy 2:1-3 we're told, "First of all, then, I urge that
entreaties {and} prayers, petitions {and} thanksgivings, be made on behalf of
all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil
and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the
sight of God our Savior," We are to pray for our political leaders so that
we may have peace, so we may go about evangelism and the training of believers
without government interference. In Titus 3:1, "Remind them to be subject
to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good
deed," It's the same verb used here as in Romans 13:1.
In 1 Peter 2:13-17 using again the same verb Peter says, "Submit
yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as
the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of
evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of
God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. {Act} as
free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but {use it} as bond
slaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the
king." There are other passages that give examples in relation to how
believers are to handle the situation when they are under the authority of a
corrupt, pagan government. So we're going to go into some of the examples,
especially in Daniel.
Let's begin by just breaking down Romans 13:1-2. It's just one sentence
in the Greek as opposed to three sentences that you'll see in your KJV or NKJV. Verses 1 and 2 represent one
sentence in the original Greek. So Paul begins with a command addressed to
every soul, which means every person. This is a typical Jewish form of
expression. "Let everyone be submissive to the governing
authorities." The Greek word for be subject is HUPOTASSO. It's a present middle imperative. One of the uses of
the middle voice is that it adds emphasis. This is a present imperative so that
indicates this is to be a normal operating procedure in every believer's life.
You can either restate it as a present imperative or an aorist imperative. The
aorist imperative would say, "Make this a priority." Present imperative
emphasizes to make it a standard operating procedure in your life. The verb HUPOTASSO means to subject yourself to an authority, to submit
to an authority.
The word for governing here is actually a present participle used as an
adjective and it means something that excels or something that is higher than
something or something that is superior to something else. So Paul is saying to
let every person submit themselves, or subject themselves, or be subject to the
governing authorities. I like using it in the active sense of subjecting
yourselves. It picks up that middle voice nuance. It's up to your volition to
be submissive to the government and to submit to government authorities. The
word for authority here is EXOUSIA, which means authority or power. It
refers ultimately to authority that is God-given. "So be subject to
governing authorities," means to those who rule over the people. Now we
have TASSO, which is the idea that the
authorities are all appointed by God. So we see that there is a relationship
there to something that is appointed and we are be subordinate and submit to
that which is appointed.
Paul explains that the reason he makes the command is that there is no
authority except from God and that the authorities that exist are appointed by
God. That's making a pretty strong point here. As we read this we have lots of
questions. What Paul is basically teaching is that God controls history and
that no one secures a position of authority or rises to a position of
leadership in government, whether it's lower or higher, apart from God. It may
be God's permissive will but no one gets there apart from God's governance. The
institution of government is not something just developed by mankind but it is
a divine institution established by God. Therefore, human government, in and of
itself, is good.
Now some of my acquaintances that tend to be of a more libertarian
persuasion have really surprised me. They ought to know better; they've been
taught better. I've heard them say that government is bad or government is
evil. Well, you just called God a liar. Government in and of itself exists in
the Trinity. There is a governing relationship of authority there. God
established human government in order to restrain and restrict evil. Government
in and of itself is not evil. There can be evil people who govern who have
positions of authority and can make government abusive. But government is a
righteous institution having been established by God.
As a result of that, what Paul is saying is that the servants of
God, those who are believers, should submit to its laws. He doesn't regard
rulers as some kind of autonomous groups that just takes power apart from
governance of God. Now that's a strong position. There are a number of people
who want to challenge that because they see this as some sort of blank check
for any tyrant to come along and say that no one has a right to check the
authority of any tyrant. In answer to that we have to remember several things.
First of all, Paul is writing in terms of general principles. He is not writing
to deal with every particular situation that a person might find himself in. He
doesn't address or resolve the problem of is it ever right to rebel against
unjust tyranny. Or to what degree do you allow tyranny to be unjust before you
do something? He doesn't address the issue of what to do when there are rival
claimants to the crown or when there are conflicts between civil and religious
authorities. He doesn't distinguish between legitimate and usurped authority
nor does he go into when a successful rebel may be held to have become the
legitimate ruler.
Paul doesn't talk about the situation when the state demands the citizen
do something against the law of God. These are something we have to work out
comparing Scripture with Scripture and evaluating different examples in the
Scripture. The one thing that is clear is that all the New Testament writers
are clear that we must obey God rather than man. God's Word has more authority
than any human government. We get into the sticky wicket of "what does the
Scripture actually mean?" You see it's that bothersome thing of
hermeneutics that I talk about so much.
We have the same problem on the political side of the fence. What does
the Constitution actually mean? You may not agree with a ruling from the
Supreme Court but according to the law of our land the Supreme Court's ruling
on how something is to be interpreted is the last and final say on that. You
may even disagree that that's true but that's the way things are. That's what's
accepted in the legal community today and whether we like it or not, that's
where the structure it is, and that's what the authority says. That's why
submission is difficult. Someone is asking you to do something you don't like.
You think they're wrong and you disagree with them. If submission were easy, it
wouldn't be a real conflict. But that's where the real problem lies. So we have
to spend a lot of time talking about this.
Now in the next verse which continues the thought of the first Paul works
out the implications of it when he says in Romans 13:2, "Therefore whoever
resists authority has opposed [resists] the ordinance of God…" The word
translated resists is the Greek word ANTITASSO. Notice the word is from TASSO and now ANTITASSO to resist or to oppose. What does it mean to oppose
the authority? Does that mean to go marching against the government and throw
Molotov cocktails at government forces or does that mean you can't even speak
out against them in the public square? See we have to define what these
concepts mean.
"Whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God."
The word translated resists the second time is the Greek word ANTHISTEMI, which is a different verb. In the English here they
don't vary the verb, which they should have so you understand that a different
word is used in the Greek. This word also means to oppose or to withstand.
"Therefore whoever resists the ordinance of God…" The Greek word for
ordinance is DIATAGE meaning a decree or an ordinance or
a command. This is how God has established things. So this is saying that
whoever resists the institutions of God, that is the divine institution of
government, and those who resist will bring judgment or condemnation upon
themselves. This is referring to divine discipline brought upon themselves.
Now as we see going through these first two verses the fundamental issue
here that we have to wrestle with is the issue of submission. Whether it's the
government or whether in the family or the place of employment, it's still
submission. Let me tell you, if you have a problem with authority in one area
it's going to show up in other areas of life. People who have problems
submitting to authority don't just have trouble submitting to authority in one
area. They have problems in other areas.
There are many people who lack the humility to submit to authority
because they always know what's right. Now that's an extreme view. There are a
lot of people in the contemporary political arena who are trying to figure out
where does the submission stop and where does holding people accountable begin?
That's a legitimate question but some people just basically have problems with
authority. So let's start with understanding what the Scriptures teach about
submission.
First of all, God is the ultimate authority over His creation.
Therefore, we are all as God's creatures required to submit to God's authority.
This is seen in passages like Hebrews 12:9, "Furthermore, we had earthly
fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be
subject to the Father of spirits, and live?" This is teaching authority
orientation in the home. This passage is drawing a correlation between a
submission to a human father and submission to God the Father.
James 4:7 states it very briefly: "Submit therefore to God, resist
the Devil and he will flee from you." He goes on to say we are to submit
to God and humble ourselves. Now as the ultimate authority in the universe God
the Father will bring all things in subjection to Himself. There's the issue of
rebellion here, which ties us back to the angelic conflict that Satan has
rebelled against God so the ultimate and fundamental sin in the universe is
rebellion against authority. Now that's what's important for us to pay
attention to. That's why authority is such an important issue because the sin
of rebellion is the sin of Satan.
That's why all through the Scripture an issue is made out of obedience
to authority. It's not ultimately what we think about the authority but it's
whether we are willing to obey that authority. If you have a problem with
authority orientation in the home, in the workplace, the changes are you've got
a problem with authority orientation to God. And it works both ways. So God
will bring all things into submission to Himself, which is His working through
history. 1 Corinthians 15:28, "When all things are subjected to Him, then
the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to
Him, so that God may be all in all." The first "Him" here is God
the Father. The second "Him" is God the Son. See, even Jesus Christ
who was perfect is in a position of submission to God the Father. So this issue
of submission, whatever sphere you're in, is related to the attitude of the
individual and not always to the righteousness or the authority over them.
Jesus has to be subordinate to the Father. Another verse is in 1
Corinthians 15:27, "For HE HAS PUT
ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET." This is also indicated in
Hebrews, that the Father not only brings all of creation to submission to His
authority but then He places that under the authority of the Son. It goes on to
say that the Father is the exception. He is not placed under the authority of
the Son. All of the words about subjection in these verses are the Greek word HUPOTASSO here. In verse 28 we again see that God the Son is
subordinate to the authority of God the Father. The third point is that Christ,
Himself, submits Himself to the authority of the Father.
So being submissive to an authority over you is not making yourself into
a doormat. It's not somehow reducing your personhood. It's not somehow giving
up something. This is sort of the mantra of the feminist movement and every
other revolutionary movement in the twentieth century is that submission
somehow makes the person who is submissive less equal to the authority. But
Jesus is never less equal to the Father. He is equal in every aspect to the
Father. He has equal attributes of Deity. When He submits to the Father it
doesn't make Him less of a person, less significant. That's the line of the
whole women's equal rights movement. It's to submit to a husband makes you less
of a person. That's such a crock of biblical SKUBALON, or horse manure, in the Greek.
Point four is that all things will be subject to Christ and brought into
His authority. This is seen in passages like Philippians 3:21, "That He is
able to subdue all things unto Himself." Hebrews 2:8, "YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET." For in subjecting all things
to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see
all things subjected to him." 1 Peter 3: 22 talking about the Ascension,
"Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels
and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him". So everything is
brought under the authority of the Son eventually. Now that's in terms of
subordination to the authority of God.
Point five is submission in relation to being a believer. Believers are
to submit to the authority of human governing authorities. This isn't just in
Romans 13. We see this all through the epistles from numerous writers. In Titus
3:1 Paul is writing to Titus and says, "Remind them to be subject to
rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed,"
That's the same verbiage. The same verb there, HUPOTASSO to be subject to rulers and authorities.
Notice both words are in the plural. So it's not just restricted to the
ultimate authority, just the American Constitution. We all know that the ultimate
body of law in the U.S. is the Constitution. Everyone from
the president down to the lowest citizen is accountable to the Constitution but
the Constitution delegates and defines the role and authority of each member of
government and limits their authority. But we are to submit to rulers and
authorities. They're multiple. There are many different rulers and many
different authorities. Not just the ultimate authority but everyone that is
established by the Constitution. We are under local government all the way up
to federal government. 1 Peter 2:13 says, "Submit yourselves for the
Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in
authority."
We have to remember here that there are exceptions. This is what happens
when Peter and John are told not to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. They
say, "We can't do that because we have to obey God rather than men."
So there are exceptions so even though this passage looks like we ought to obey
every law, that's not right. We don't. There are exceptions and we're going to
see how to handle that as we go through this study.
Point six says we're supposed to submit to the authority of Jesus
Christ. Our ultimate authority is Jesus Christ. If you're a believer your
ultimate authority isn't the U.S. Constitution, as near and dear as that is to
us. Our authority is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We're here as an
ambassador for Christ to serve with a mission. That doesn't negate our
individual citizenship. We have responsibilities as citizens that we have to
perform. We have to be involved with government at every level and to whatever
degree we can.
There's nothing wrong with political activism. Daniel and his friends
were politically active to the degree that they could. We'll see that when we
get to Daniel one and Daniel two. They didn't just sit on their hands and pray.
That's what a lot of Christians think, "All we have to do is just pray
about it." Well, you don't just sit and pray that your car will get
repaired. You don't just sit and pray that the grass will get cut. We pray and
then we have to act. We have to do what we're expected to do. We don't just
fold our hands and pray and expect something to happen.
Daniel and his three friends when they were told they had to eat a diet
that violated the Mosaic Law didn't say, "Okay we're going to hold a
sit-in and we're not going to do anything." That's not the option they
took. They didn't say, "Okay, we're going to pray about it and just let
God handle it." No, they didn't take that action. Because they were
slaves, and of course, U.S. citizens are not slaves so it's a different
situation, but there are principles here we can apply. Because they were slaves
their options were very limited and they had to think creatively about how to
handle the situation. So they handled it by going to the authority and
presenting them with a proposal that would allow them to violate the diet the
Babylonians king wanted them to be on. So they challenged the law and they were
active, by analogy politically active. They just didn't sit on their folded
hands. They got involved within the system trying to change the system.
Our system's different. It allows a lot more action than they were
allowed. But the authority that governs all of that is going to be the
authority of God as Church Age believers subject to Christ. We're also to be
subject to one another. Ephesians 5:21, "And be subject to one another in
the fear of Christ." That doesn't mean we spend all of our time just being
obsequious and saying, "Oh we'll do it your way." But we don't try to
fight to get our own way all the time. It's not about us. We understand it's
ultimately about glorifying God and so we're not out just to get our own way.
Point eight is that slaves are to be submissive to their masters.
There's application there. It's not a one-to-one scenario but there's
application there to employees and employers. I know there are some employees
who feel like they're slaves but each employment situation is a different
culture. Slaves in those days were to submit to their master. It doesn't say,
"Submit to your master when they're good. " It doesn't say,
"Submit to your master when you agree with them." It doesn't say,
"Submit to your master when they're nice and when they treat you
right." It just says to submit to your masters. Titus 2:9, "{Urge} bond
slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing,
not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will
adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect." This means not to
be a problem or a smart mouth. Don't always verbally challenge the authority of
your boss. 1 Peter 2:18 says, "Servants, be submissive to your masters
with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those
who are unreasonable."
Now that has great application to understanding submission when it comes
to marriage. That's tough for a lot of wives to submit to their husbands. The
other side of it is that it's really hard for some husbands to love their wives
as Christ loved the church. It's not dependent upon the individual. Wives are
to submit to their husbands. Ephesians 5:24 says, "But as the church is
subject to Christ, so also the wives {ought to be} to their husbands in
everything." If you look around us today on a scale of one to ten, one
being completely rebellious, and ten being completely submissive, how
submissive is the Church to Christ? Probably about a four or three. Guess what?
That's probably about the same number I would give to Christian wives being
submissive to Christian husbands. Do you think there's a relationship? If you
can't submit to Christ you're not going to submit to your husband.
We've got a real problem in marriages and authority in marriages in the
Church today but it's just a manifestation of the fact that women can't submit
to authority. I'm not picking on women. The men can't submit to authority
either. They've got their own authority sphere. So Colossians 3:18,
"Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord." 1
Peter 3:1, "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands
so that even if any {of them} are disobedient to the word, they may be won
without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and
respectful behavior." It doesn't promise that they will be won. It's the
old saying that "you attract more flies with sugar than with
vinegar". Wives, if you're not submissive to your husband, you're going to
have a much more difficult time ever communicating the gospel to them than if
you are submissive. Titus 2:4-5, "So that they may encourage the young
women to love their husbands, to love their children, {to be} sensible, pure,
workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of
God will not be dishonored."
Then finally in 1 Peter 5:5, "You younger men, likewise, be subject
to {your} elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility. That's the
real bottom line issue, "For GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE". If you can't learn to submit
to the right sphere of authority around you then that's because you've got a
problem with humility and you think you know more than the person in authority.
You think you know more than God because you're going to say, "God that's
great for everybody to obey authority but you didn't really mean it in my case
because if you knew what a loser this person is you wouldn't be asking me to
submit to him. If you really understood how evil this Obama administration is
you wouldn't be telling me to submit to it. If you really understood the
horrible things that happened under the Bush administration, you wouldn't be
telling me to submit to that authority." But these commands are not
qualified. We're to be an example of authority orientation and humility to the
angels and to man. We'll come back and look at his more in the coming weeks.