Romans Chapter 13

The Christian’s Responsibility to Government

 

These days we are hearing a lot about the relationships between government and religion. Recently the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding whether or not it is unconstitutional for the Ten commandments to be displayed in various court houses around the country. This raises a lot of feelings and questions for Christians who wonder to what degree we are to be involved in the government of our country. Paul has some words for us on this matter in Romans chapter 13. Let us begin our study of Romans 13 by reading the first 7 verses which will give us a flavor of what this chapter is all about. Romans 13:1-7 NLT:

1 Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God.
2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow.
3 For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well.
4 The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong.
5 So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience.
6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid so they can keep on doing the work God intended them to do.
7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and import duties, and give respect and honor to all to whom it is due.

The whole world lives under one type of government or another. Paul has outlined for us in these first seven verses the Christian’s responsibility to government. This is an important topic for Christians because over the centuries they have found themselves living under conditions representative of every kind of government and every kind of ruler. 

Today, in the United States of America we are living in a post-Christian culture and our government no longer considers the Bible to be the standard for truth and behavior. Does that give Christians the right to defy the laws of the nation that we know contradict what the Bible teaches? Should churches become politically active in order to effect changes in the way the nation is governed? These are very sticky questions and Christians are very much divided as to how these questions should be answered. They are not easy questions with an absolutely right answer under all circumstances. We do not know of anywhere in Scripture that suggests Christians are to be active in civil change. That does not mean, however, that we should not participate as citizens but rather it is a question of priorities.

Yet, individual Christians are not necessarily to abandon taking part in government. In choosing a career, God may lead some to seek careers in government service. Those with skills as secretaries, accountants, etc., may well find jobs for their skills in the government. Others with gifts and skills of leadership and administration may become mayors, senators, representatives, governors, or even president. But their challenge in these roles is to live as dedicated Christians, not as power hungry politicians.

If all the citizens in our country lived as fully devoted followers of Christ, most of our current political battles and challenges could be eliminated. An added bonus would be to eliminate all the spin doctors in the news media along with all the yelling, screaming, and name calling that has developed over the past ten to fifteen years. Fifty years ago we had many fine statesmen serving in the Senate and House of Representatives. They would debate government policy during the day and then go out and enjoy dinner together in the evening. They saw their responsibility to be that of doing what is best for the country. Today Democrats and Republicans are locked in personal name calling. Senator Robert Byrd sank to an all time low by referring to the Republicans as Nazis. 

Listen to what God says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 NAS:

We can look to Christ once again for the perfect example of how we should conduct ourselves. He came into a pretty interesting world. He came upon the scene when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power. Under the Roman government slavery flourished. There were approximately 3 slaves for every free man. Christ came into a world of absolutism ( a political theory that absolute power should be vested in one or more rulers). Rulers were absolute monarchs. They had control of every function of government. It was absolutely one-man rule. And those who governed the provinces as the emperor’s governors had in their regions the same kind of absolute authority in their own little world. No one held them accountable.[fn]

The world Jesus entered was one in which taxes were extraordinarily high. Those who worked as tax collectors sold themselves to the Roman government and had the authority to increase the government’s required tax by whatever amount they could collect for their own profit. In other words if you made the equivalent of $100 per week and the Roman government demanded a tax of $50 per week, the tax collector could add another $25 to your tax bill for himself. There were all kinds of injustices.

Jesus’ people, the Jews, were an oppressed minority under Roman rule. And what did Jesus tell them? “Give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God” (Luke 20:25). Jesus did not come as a conquering military hero to overthrow the Roman government. He did not seek social change or attempt to eliminate slavery. He did not come with a political or economic agenda. Those things were not his concern. He did not come to bring democracy. His purpose was to change the hearts of the people. He did not tell them about their rights. He did not emphasize the injustice that was so prevalent among the Roman rulers. Jesus came to bring a Gospel of salvation. A Gospel promising that when a person’s heart is right with God, it does not much matter what the government is like. Jesus was not interested in a new political order but in a new spiritual order. He expected His Church to carry on the same kind of ministry. He knew if they did that they would soon begin to draw people within the government to the Christian faith. In that way the government itself would change for the better. A government would develop which was just and which would honor God.[fn]

What are we called to do in the age in which we are living? What rights does the government have regarding our conduct and what is our conduct to be in response to those rights? The truth be told, Christians need not make political, economic, and social issues their primary concern. The primary concern of Christians should be reaching unsaved people with the message of the Gospel. Is that your primary concern? I am not as concerned that everyone be happy and healthy and wealthy as I am that they be saved. We need not be as concerned about the physical conditions in the world as we need be about where a person is going to spend his/her eternity.

What has God called us to do. The first thing we should do is in verse 1: “Obey the government.” The second thing is in verse 6: “Pay your taxes.” That is all there is to it. Obey the government and pay your taxes. That is what Jesus meant when he said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” What did Caesar want? Obedience and money. That is still our basic duty to the government. Beyond that we need to focus our attention on people who are not yet unsaved. And we are not going to be effective in doing that if all we do is just meet with a bunch of other church members an hour or two on Sunday morning and then go home to attend to the secular necessities of our lives. Our focus should be on the unsaved when we are on the job, on the train, at the PTA, at the ballgame, or at the grocery store. There are opportunities everywhere you go to spread the message of the Gospel.

Let us pause here to consider some things for a minute.  There are different kinds of governments. In the Old Testament the children of Israel were originally to operate under what is called a theocracy. In a theocracy God was the head of the government. In our modern world the most prominent kinds of governments include: monarchy, dictatorship, and democracy. I am not aware of any current theocracies in operation in the world, at least among the major governments.

Now it is important when interpreting this passage to keep in mind the differences between the Roman government of Paul’s day and the American government under which we live. Paul stressed those two duties because that was all that was expected of citizens under Caesar: to obey and pay taxes. We live under a democracy. If Paul were writing directly to us today, he might include some other things: obey the laws, pay your taxes, vote, and communicate with your lawmakers to let them know what you believe is right and wrong. Our constitutional and representational form of government provides for these actions. Indeed a democracy cannot continue without them. So in our culture, “obey the government” includes voting and letting your voice be heard.

We have another responsibility to the government, which is extremely important. 1 Timothy 2:12:
“Pray . . . for kings and all who are in authority.”

If I were to ask how many of you obey laws and pay taxes, probably 99%-100% of you would raise your hand. If I were to ask how many of you vote regularly, probably 50-60% of you would raise your hand. If I ask how many write your legislators, maybe there would be 1-2% who would respond. I wonder what percentage of us pray daily for our President and others in government?

How does chapter 13 fit in with the first eleven chapters of Romans that we studied? Let us look at that. The first 11 chapters of Romans tell us how to be justified (saved) through faith. Paul describes what it means to be a Christian. Then in chapter 12 we are told what to do with this gift of salvation. Our response in verse 1 of chapter 12 is to give our body as a living sacrifice to God. We are to give Him all that we are. Here we see the concept of self-sacrifice. We are to give ourselves completely to God.

The result of doing that will be a right relationship with God. You will know and prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). So if you respond to the salvation God has given you by giving Him everything, you are going to have a right relationship with Him. You are going to know His will and you are going to live within that will. In verses 3-13, Paul says that by doing this you will also have a proper relationship with the family of God, other believers. From verse 14-21, Paul says that if you give your life to God, you will also have right relationships with your non-Christian friends as well as your enemies. If you want to have healthy relationships with other people, first get your relationship right with God. And it simply follows as we get into chapter 13 that if you have a life dedicated to Jesus Christ you will not only have a right relationship with God, other Christians, outsiders, and enemies, but you will have a right relationship with the governmental authorities as well.

In Romans 12:14-21 Paul told us that we are not to retaliate when an injustice is done to us. We are to return love for hate and good for evil. So no matter what the government does, we are obedient and we pay our taxes. We are not violent, we are not terrorists or subversives. We are not suicide bombers. What did Paul say in Romans 12:18? “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Do not break the peace with anyone including the government. God will take care of that according to Romans 12:19. However, if someone cheats, harms, or injures you in any way, you do have protection under the law in this country so that you can request the government to provide help in whatever way possible to right the wrong that was done to you. You have a right to attempt to get just compensation for your loss, but you do not have the right to turn around and sue the other party for far more than your actual loss in a vengeful law suit.

Vengeance is not the role of the individual in chapter 13, it is the role of the government. The government is given the responsibility for making things right. In the Old Testament the principle of an “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life” is a principle of government and not personal vengeance.

The Jews constantly rebelled against Roman control. They did not want to be under the control of anyone. In spite of that kind of behavior, however, the Jews received a lot of privileges from the Romans. In fact the Roman Empire that demanded the worship of Caesar as a god, allowed the Jews to worship their own God. They were quite tolerant of the faith of the Jews in spite of their attitude.

Among the Jews was a group called the Zealots. They defied the Roman government in every way. They refused to be obedient to the government and they refused pay taxes. They were murderers and assassins, and I might go so far as to say the terrorists of Israel. As a matter of fact when they saw the power that Jesus had, they immediately wanted to make Him king because they thought He would lead them in overthrowing Roman rule. This attitude eventually led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews from Israel in 70 A.D. The Romans killed over a million Jews in that holocaust.[fn] They decided to put a stop once and for all to the constant revolts of the Jewish people. Remember what we read earlier about Jesus’ instructions: “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” and that is what Paul meant when he said: “Be at peace with all men.” People of God are not to consider government issues to be our priority. We are to live godly lives and be the conscience of a nation by preaching and teaching the Word of God.

Now when Jesus came along and began teaching the Gospel, the Romans saw Christianity as a spin off of Judaism, so Jesus and the apostles were allowed the same freedom as the Jews were given. But at the same time they saw Christianity as a religion in which Jesus had been proclaimed a king and a rival to Caesar, so they kept a close eye on the Christians. In spite of this, however, they were surprisingly tolerant of Christianity.

A Christian has a duty to his/her nation even if their ruler is a Stalin or a Hitler. Peter shares the same attitude as Paul when he is writing to a group of Christians who are right on the verge of a major persecution. He is encouraging them to be ready to face what they are about to face. 1 Peter 4:12-15 NLT:

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.
13 Instead, be very glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world.
14 Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you.
15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs.

Peter is saying to get ready because they are going to suffer. Peter is writing to Christians who are living in a time of persecution. He is telling them they need to be prepared to handle that persecution. How? 1 Peter 2:12 NLT:

How are you going to live in a society that always accuses you of doing what is wrong, and how are they going to then recognize what you do to be honorable? 1 Peter 2:13-15 NLT:

13  For the Lord’s sake, accept all authority—the king as head of state,
14  and the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish all who do wrong and to honor those who do right.
15  It is God’s will that your good lives should silence those who make foolish accusations against you.

Foolish people are always looking for something to criticize and your lack of good citizenship and obedience to the government will give them a valid reason to criticize you. Then verse 16 tells us:

16 You are not slaves; you are free. But your freedom is not an excuse to do evil. You are free to live as God’s slaves. (NLT)

We are not free to disobey the laws of the land. We are to honor all people, love one another, fear God, and honor both God and Christ. 1 Peter 2:17-20 NLT:

17 Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God. Show respect for the king.
18 You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters. Do whatever they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are harsh.
19 For God is pleased with you when, for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment.
20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you.

So Peter is telling this persecuted group of people to accept the persecution, to accept the suffering, and obey the authorities. You are to be obedient to all the laws in your nation, even if you are living under communism or some other form of dictatorial rule. The only exception to this is where you are told you cannot worship or obey the Scripture. If you are persecuted or killed it should be because of your faith in Jesus Christ, not because you disobeyed the law. Christians in any society who are willing to obey the laws and submit to those laws will have fewer problems. Christians should not criticize those in authority. We should speak out against sin, injustice, evil and immorality, but still honor those who are in authority over us. This applies to every nation, not just America. As you know America did not even exist when this was written.

I personally struggle with this passage. I know what I should do but so often I become so angry at the injustices the government is imposing on our nation, and I am ready for a good fight. I must frequently be pulled back by fellow Christians to whom I hold myself accountable. I must frequently be reminded to stay within the will of God while still being Ron, rather than expecting God to go along with the will of Ron while still being God. I have every opportunity to effect change within the system while maintaining my cool. It simply does not seem to come to me easily.

Let us now take a look at the first principle that Paul gives us in Romans 13:1: “Obey the government.” This is an unconditional statement. It applies to everyone everywhere. The NAS translation says: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” You will note there is no distinction here between good governments and bad governments, fair laws and unfair laws. The obedience of Christians to unjust rulers of the Roman Empire, the obedience of Christians through persecution, brought about tolerance, acceptance, and eventually Christianity itself to that same Empire. I like what Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 NLT:

1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks.
2 Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity.
3 This is good and pleases God our Savior,

God wants us to live a peaceful life. We are to make peace and not trouble. We are to live quiet, peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty. We affect the society from the inside by changing hearts not the government. If all people came to believe in Christ because of the behavior of Christians, the whole country would certainly be changed for the better because everyone would be living according to the will of God. In his letter to Titus, Paul writes, Titus 3:1,2 NLT:

1 Remind your people to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good.
2 They must not speak evil of anyone, and they must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.

There is only one limitation to our submission to the governing rulers, and to better understand that let us go to Acts 4:13-17 NLT, where we find that Peter and John have just been put in prison by the Jewish leaders for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.
14 But since the man who had been healed was standing right there among them, the council had nothing to say.
15 So they sent Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.
16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We cannot deny they have done a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it.
17 But perhaps we can stop them from spreading their propaganda. We’ll warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.”

So the Jewish leaders decided that they would just tell Peter and John that they cannot say such things anymore. They commanded them to no longer speak or teach in the name of Jesus, Acts 4:18,19 NLT:

18 So they called the apostles back in and told them never again to speak or teach about Jesus.

Now things are getting a little tense. Jesus Christ had instructed Peter and John to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Now the authorities tell them they are not to preach. In Acts 4:20, Peter and John answer:

20 We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we have seen and heard.   (NLT)

Those are things for which God has given us specific instructions. And it is at those times that we speak clearly about why we are taking such a stand. What did Peter and John do? Acts 4:21-31 NLT.

21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they did not know how to punish them without starting a riot.
23 As soon as they were freed, Peter and John found the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said.
24 Then all the believers were united as they lifted their voices in prayer:
They prayed:
“For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.
28 In fact, everything they did occurred according to your eternal will and plan.
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give your servants great boldness in their preaching.
30 Send your healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Pentecost)[fn]. And they preached God’s message with boldness.

We get further confirmation of this in Acts 5 when the apostles are again arrested and jailed, Acts 5:27-32 NLT:

27 Then they brought the apostles in before the council.
28 “did not we tell you never again to teach in this man’s name?” the high priest demanded. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about Jesus, and you intend to blame us for his death!”

30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by crucifying him.
31 Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this to give the people of Israel an opportunity to turn from their sins and turn to God so their sins would be forgiven.
32 We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.”

We have been privileged in this country to live under the best government that has ever probably existed in all of history. God has blessed this country for over 200 years, and do you want to know one of the reasons? The United States has been the primary source of missionaries for the world. Now a change is occurring. There are other countries that are taking the lead in sending out missionaries.

If our time is up as a nation and one day our government changes in a major way, we are still to be models of obedience and honor those who are in authority so that the name of Christ may not be associated with any form of reckless behavior whatsoever. But if we want to hold on to the blessings of living “in the land of the free and the home of the brave,” remember how God has told us we can insure that to happen, 2 Chronicles 7:14:

14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

Now we will take a look at the six reasons that Paul gives as to why we should submit and be obedient to authority.

 

Are You a Christian? Then Honor Those In Authority

Romans 13:1-8 NLT:
1 Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God.
2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow.
3 For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well.
4 The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong.
5 So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience.
6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid so they can keep on doing the work God intended them to do.
7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and import duties, and give respect and honor to all to whom it is due.
8 Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God’s law.

Before we continue I would like you to consider for a moment how you would describe Christianity to an unbeliever or to someone who thinks they are a Christian but obviously are not. Christianity is a total life experience. It is not something you add to your life like your career or jogging. Nothing about a person is left unchanged when they accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Being a Christian cannot be separated from any part of living. If you read Ephesians 5 and 6 you will readily see that every relationship is to be touched by the Spirit of God in the life of a believer. If you look at Colossians 3 you will see the very same thing. We would ask you further to consider what Paul writes to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:1 NLT:

1 Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You are doing this already, and we encourage you to do so more and more.

Paul says you ought to live according to what you know to be right through the teaching of Jesus. You ought to live according to your faith. Verses 2-8 NLT:

2 For you remember what we taught you in the name of the Lord Jesus.
3 God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.
4 Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor—
5 not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and his ways.
6 Never cheat a Christian brother in this matter by taking his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before.
7 God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives.
8 Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Verses 11, 12 NLT:
11 This should be your ambition: to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we commanded you before.
12 As a result, people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others to meet your financial needs.

In Romans 13 Paul says that our Christianity affects those in authority over us, government leaders on both a local or national level. We are given clear direction as to how we should relate to the government which is over us.

We have experienced some serious examples of people deciding to take the law into their own hands. You may remember the news story about the disgruntled citizens who felt the legal system failed them. The one decided to kill a judge who ruled against him and wound up actually killing members of the judge’s family. The other shot the judge who was presiding over his trial in court. This behavior is the exact opposite of what Paul calls Christians to do.

We would now like you to take a look at another passage, 1 Timothy 2:1-4 where Paul is writing to Timothy with instructions for the church:

1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks.
2 Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity.
3 This is good and pleases God our Savior,
4 for he wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.   (NLT)

We are to pray and give thanks to God for kings and all who are in authority in order that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. If we want to live a quiet and peaceful life, if we want to live as God wants us to live, our approach should be to pray for those in authority over us. If we feel the government or legal system has been unfair to us, God wants us to remember that all vengeance belongs to Him. We do not do our leaders any good by protesting, by disobedience, by revolution or civil conflicts, but rather by prayer. First of all we pray. In Jeremiah 29:7 NLT we read:

7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

This is a message to the Jews who have just been captured by the Babylonians and taken off to captivity in Babylon. In other words the Jews had just been defeated in battle and conquered by the Babylonians. God tells them to seek the peace and prosperity of their captors while they are prisoners, and to pray to God for it. In 1 Corinthians 10:3, 4 NLT, Paul says:

3 We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods.
4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds.

The most powerful weapon we have as believers to knock down the Devil’s strongholds is prayer.  When you wonder what to do about political and governmental issues, pray. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance for the government leaders. Pray according to God’s Word about the specific issues when they are something that is specifically contained in the Bible. (For instance, the courts’ decisions and legislatures’ laws about abortion or euthanasia.) When we conduct ourselves like this, we will have the opportunity to see men and women saved and come to knowledge of the truth. We pray also that God will allow us the privilege of living a peaceable and quiet life, reflecting the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

The second most powerful weapon we have to defeat Satan’s strongholds is love. Listen to Romans 18:8, NLT:

Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God’s law.

Under normal circumstances, love breaks down barriers that rebellion or violence cannot touch. Love can speak loudly to our enemies. We are to love them and to love each other. Again, listen to what Paul writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 10-12 (NRSV):

10 and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more,
11 to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you,
12 so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Just like the prophet, Amos; just like the prophet, Nahum; just like the prophet Malachi. We have every right to confront the sins of our society from the viewpoint of the Word of God, but we are not to engage in political acts of violence, protest, or revolution against the government. So Romans 13:1 NLT has told us:

1 Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God.

Now you may remember that there is only one reason for not obeying the government. That is when the government demands we do something that God says we should not do, or tells us we should not do something that God commands us to do. God is always the ultimate authority. Let us look at an example from Scripture concerning this issue. Daniel 1, beginning with verse 8 NLT:

8 But Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief official for permission to eat other things instead.

Here we have an occasion where Daniel is instructed by the Babylonian monarch to take the food given him and eat it. To do that, however, would have been to violate strict dietary laws that God placed on the Jews. Daniel would not allow himself to do this. Yet, you will note in Daniel’s attitude a spirit of submission to the government. Daniel asks permission to try a test. Verses 9-14 NLT:

9 Now God had given the chief official great respect for Daniel.
10 But he was alarmed by Daniel’s suggestion. “My lord the king has ordered that you eat this food and wine,” he said. “If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded for neglecting my duties.”
11 Daniel talked it over with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief official to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
12 “Test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said.
13 “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s rich food. Then you can decide whether or not to let us continue eating our diet.”
14 So the attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days.

This was a wonderful way for Daniel to seek to obey God without offending this man who was carrying out orders from his king. And look what happened, verses 15-20 NLT:

15 At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.
16 So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the rich foods and wines.
17 God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for learning the literature and science of the time. And God gave Daniel special ability in understanding the meanings of visions and dreams.

A bit later in the book we see in chapter 3 that Daniel’s three friends refused to bow down to the idol image as commanded by the king.

Daniel 3:17, 18 NLT:
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your Majesty.
18 But even if he doesn’t, your Majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

Now before continuing in Romans, let us summarize what Daniel has taught us:

1) Normally we obey, respect, and do everything we can to please those in
authority. We are not only obedient outwardly but also obedient in spirit.

2) We resist and disobey only when we are commanded to do something the
Word of God forbids or are forbidden to do what the Word of God
commands.

3) Even when government and the Word of God conflict, we should not disobey
until we have done all we can do to try and resolve the conflict peacefully.

4) If after all of this, disobedience is necessary, we must be willing to suffer the
consequences. We must be ready to quietly and peaceably accept the
punishment, just as Daniel was willing to do when he was placed in the lions’
den.

This kind of behavior reflects the core and integrity of the Christian faith. Christianity is not a political viewpoint. It is a matter of obeying the one and only true God.

Now as we go back to Romans 13, we will see that Paul gives seven reasons why we are to behave like this and we find the first reason in the last half of Romans 13:1 NRSV:

For there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

We may conclude from this verse that government is ordained by God. Civil authority of any kind comes directly from God. Just as God designed marriage, God designed civil authority (governments). Just as the Church is an institution of God, so is government. Psalm 62:11 NLT says:

11 God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you.

Now it is just a matter of time before someone is going to ask, “Do you mean that this applies to communist China and North Korea and countries like that?” The answer is “yes.”  I believe Paul speaks to this question in his sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17:26 NLT:

26 From one man he (God)[fn] created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.

God is the one who created all nations. No tyrant ever seized power without God permitting it. How can we say God has ordained abusive forms of governments such as the Nazis of Hitler and the Iraq of Hussein? Those questions are way over my head. I cannot second-guess God. I do not know His master plan. But I do know He is a just God and because I know what I know about Him from the rest of the Bible, I can accept that He would allow corrupt governments for an even better good that none of us can see on the surface.

However, let me add that the abuses of government are not a reflection of God’s nature. The abuses of government are no more a reflection of God’s holy nature than divorce is a reflection of God’s will for marriage. And even though there are many abuses in the Church, the Church is still an institution ordained by God. The abuses are not a reflection of the nature of God. In fact men and women abuse all of God’s gifts. The bottom line here, and perhaps those of us who get to Heaven will be given an explanation of it then, is that God has designed a reason for every government that has existed and will exist on the face of the earth. We submit to the government because the government is there by the decree of God.

The second reason Paul gives for submitting to the governmental authorities is found in Romans 13:2 NLT:

2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God.

Government as it exists in any situation is for the purpose of God in that situation. Resistance against that government is resistance against God. Do you remember David’s dilemma when he had occasion to kill Saul? 1 Samuel 24:9-12 NLT:

9 Then he (David)[fn] shouted to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?
10 This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm him—he is the Lord’s anointed one.’
11 Look at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of your robe! I cut it off, but I did not kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me.
12 The Lord will decide between us. Perhaps the Lord will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.

David could not harm Saul because God had made it clear to Him that he was to honor those in authority.

Paul gives a third reason for obeying those in authority and we also find this in verse 2:

Those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

If you resist the government, you are going to be punished. The fourth reason is in verse 3:

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.

That tells us that we are to submit to the government because government serves to restrain evil. Do you know that even the Chinese communist government restrains evil? There is no government on the earth that will punish you for not robbing a bank. Maybe I should repeat that in a little different format. There is not a government anywhere that will send someone to your door and say, “You’re under arrest for not robbing the First National Bank.” Even the worst kinds of government deal rightly with most matters involving right and wrong.

Ethiopia is a government in extreme political turmoil and it has been that way for some time. There was a missionary who reported  a while back about a rape in Ethiopia. He said it happened three years earlier and there had not been one since. Perhaps the reason for that is that the day following the rape the guy who committed it was hanging in the market place. The crime rate in this country is very low and it is because the government imposes strict and immediate penalties for crime. You may think the government corrupt, but they still protect people from such things as rape, theft, and murder. In fact you are probably safer on the streets of Iran at night than you are on the streets of Chicago. So even though for the most part we would not want any part of such governments, they do have some understanding of right and wrong.

Now if you are already a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, you are aware that although you live in the world, you are not of the world. Our true citizenship is in Heaven. Our allegiance is to Jesus Christ. But at the same time we have to exist on this earth and thus have a certain citizenship responsibility here as well. We are to be a community within a community. We need to function within that community even though our priorities may not be the same as those of the larger community. We should live to serve Jesus Christ and the instructions given to us in the Bible.

Unfortunately Christians in the United States of America seem to have lost their sense of uniqueness, and are simply drifting along as if on a cloud. Christians in our country seem to be just as preoccupied with a materialistic lifestyle as non-Christians. This country has provided us the potential of a self-indulgent existence that is based on what we can have for ourselves and Christians have become so caught up in this that they have lost their sense of eternal values. They are exchanging these eternal values for earthly things. Christians seem to be buying the whole American dream of moropia, a most contagious mental process that concludes, If some is good, more is better. This is a condition that is created and spread by people who make a lot of money by convincing other people of how many unnecessary things they need to buy so that they can be happy. We have so-called Christians in our country who are living an over-indulgent life that is exactly opposite to what Christ teaches in the New Testament. That does not mean it is wrong for a Christian to be rich, but it is wrong to squander and waste what God gives you on selfish and meaningless pursuits.

Christians also seem to be getting entirely too occupied with politics. We are concerned not about people supporting a certain position or candidate, or someone writing their senator or representative expressing their feelings on issues. Those are things we are supposed to do. I am concerned about the battle lines that are forming between evangelical Christians and liberals in the red and blue states. I think many people have lost sight of the fact that the two colors represent Republicans and Democrats and now see them as states where either Christian values are supported or rejected. Christians walk a fine line here and we need to be careful not to cross it. When we start feeling hatred and animosity towards those that do not share our political beliefs, we lose sight of what we are to be doing as Christians. Further, as good stewards of God’s money, we need to remember that it is one thing to give our money to support interest groups that are trying to promote Christian value but it is quite another thing for God’s money to be spent on securing political power alone.

During this past presidential election I believe a lot of fortresses were built on the political battlefield and now the issues between the two parties are not so much determined by what is best for the country but by how one side can show the other who has control. There is hatred in the Congress among Republicans and Democrats and Christians cannot allow themselves to be pulled into that kind of quagmire. We need to focus our energies on placing the message of the Gospel before both Republicans and Democrats because they both need it.

What is going on now in our country between opposing political points of view is totally contrary to the tradition of the Church. The Church has always had a sense of stewardship that its resources be used for the glory of God, not for personal causes. The Church is not an expression of political power but spiritual power. The Church can do more for the nation by praying for its leaders and its general welfare than it can by sponsoring political candidates and getting involved in political debates. Paul gives us the formula for Christian behavior within a government in 1 Timothy 2:1-10, and I really like the translation of these verses from The Message:[fn]

You might find it interesting to learn, as I did, that the early Christians who were persecuted by the Roman Emperor Nero, were not executed for their religious beliefs but rather because they did not fit in with the rest of society and of course proved to be a convenient group of people for Nero to blame for the burning of Rome. They set themselves apart from the common ways of life. They were executed because they refused to adapt to the system.[fn] There would probably be very few Christians executed in our world today if circumstances were similar because most people who call themselves Christians today do not have that kind of courage.

These early Christians were very unique from the rest of society. Tertullian commented that early Christianity was an association not devoted to political maneuvering but to communicating moral principles to its members and training people to live virtuously. So their preoccupation was living a virtuous or ethical life, a godly life, serving the Lord, and committing themselves to the work of the Kingdom of God. And according to Tertullian they were executed for their anti-social tendencies.[fn]

The point of all of this is to understand that the members of the early church, who served in all walks of life, some as government workers, some as soldiers, some as businessmen, or whatever, were not perceived as a group concerned with civil government, wealth, or materialism. Rather they were considered to be preoccupied with things that were considered eternal and spiritual. It is our concern that when the history is written about our generation it will say something very different about our form of Christianity.

What Might Jesus Say To The United States?

We have already learned from Paul that unless the government instructs us to do something that is specifically forbidden by God, or tells us not to do something that is specifically commanded by God, we are to be submissive to that government, which has been ordained by God for the protection of life and property. We may not like what the government does and because we live in a democracy we have the right to express our feelings in a variety of ways, but the bottom line is that we are still to be submissive. Paul goes on to tell us why we should be submissive to the government. The first reason is found in Romans 13:1. Government has been ordained by God. In other words it is by divine decree. If government is by divine decree, then point number two in Romans 13:2 follows logically:

2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow.

Resistance to obeying government is therefore the same thing as resistance to obeying God. Those who rebel against the government will be punished, not only by the government but by God as well.

We have been and are discussing the fourth reason Paul has given us for being obedient to government authority, which we found in Romans 13:4: “For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities?” Do what is right, and they will honor you. Government exists to restrain evil. Therefore, to resist the government is to resist the restraint of evil.

Now every man and woman that comes into this world has a basic knowledge of good and evil, every individual has a conscience according to Romans 2:14,15 NLT, where Paul writes:

14 Even when Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong.
15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right.

Everybody knows the difference between good and evil, but unfortunately because of Satan’s ability to deceive, far too many choose evil, including rulers. But the fact still remains that no society can function if its population is going around stealing other peoples’ property or injuring other people. The basic purpose of government is for the protection and preservation of mankind. Can you imagine what would happen in a society where no one was in control? If it was not for government restraining the willful lusts and evil desires of mankind, one would probably be better off living among the beasts in the forest.

Now let God give us a little insight into how a government is to function. And we need to remember that our study involves God’s role for government not individuals. Scripture clearly separates the role of government from the way individuals are to treat one another. We are to treat one another with love and compassion. God has assigned a different set of rules for government to keep order and provide for the protection of life and property. It would be a grave mistake for any of us to confuse or misunderstand this difference. With that disclaimer in mind let us first look to Deuteronomy 19:13 NLT, where we learn that government is to act against disobedience with firmness:

13 Do not feel sorry for that murderer! Purge the guilt of murder from Israel so all may go well with you.

Before going on we need to make another important distinction here. The passages in the Bible that command the penalty for murder to be death refer to what we would call premeditated or intentional murder. There was a provision of mercy for unintentional killings that were not the result of hatred and it is found in Deuteronomy 19. But where a murder is committed as the result of hatred, the government is to do to the murderer what he/she has done to his/her victim and therefore put away the guilt of the innocent blood that was shed. If the government does not do that, things will not go well with them.

Why does God insist that this be done? Deuteronomy 19:20 NAS:

People will have a fear of doing evil if the law punishes such evil acts according to God‘s Law. If you would like further documentation regarding how God expected governments to handle serious crimes, you might read Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:14; Numbers 35:16, 17, 18, 20, 21; Deuteronomy 19:11,12.

Now let us go back even a little further to Deuteronomy 13 and we will find another command for how the government should express its leadership. It is not only to deal harshly with those who commit serious crimes such as murder but also to act by God’s design without partiality. No one is to receive any special consideration because of who they are or the situation they find themselves in. Deuteronomy 13:6-8,11 NLT:

6 “Suppose your brother, son, daughter, beloved wife, or closest friend comes to you secretly and says, ‘Let us go worship other gods’—gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known.
7 They might suggest that you worship the gods of peoples who live nearby or who come from the ends of the earth.
8 If they do this, do not give in or listen, and have no pity. Do not spare or protect them.

It does not matter who it is, there is no partiality involved in carrying out the Law of God. If government would act with consistency and without partiality, it would go a long way toward convincing criminals to change their ways. Now let us jump forward to the twenty-fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 25:1-3 NLT:

1 “Suppose two people take a dispute to court, and the judges declare that one is right and the other is wrong.
2 If the person in the wrong is sentenced to be flogged, the judge will command him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate to the crime.
3 No more than forty lashes may ever be given; more than forty lashes would publicly humiliate your neighbor.

Such punishment may seem severe but we would like you to consider God’s concern for innocent victims. What about the wife and family of a man who is murdered at the hands of a thief? What about the woman who has to live the rest of her life remembering the psychological horror she suffers because she was raped? What about the child who was physically, emotionally, or sexually abused by an adult? These lives are seriously damaged by those who prefer evil over good.

As is consistent throughout Scripture, the punishment is to fit the crime. Verse 3 makes it clear that punishment should not be unreasonably severe. However, when the person is found guilty by the court, they are to be punished immediately. Government is to act consistently, without partiality, and without delay. Ezra 7:26 NKJV says:

26 Whoever will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily on him, whether it be death, or banishment, or confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.

You might be thinking to yourself, “What about the trial process, the gathering of evidence, and the trial itself?” Our answer would be that if we were faithful to the system of law that God has outlined for us we would not have more crime in this country than the courts have capacity to deal with. The United States is the world leader in violent crime, and the reason for that is that our legal system provides too many loopholes for the criminal. Otherwise we could process these trials expeditiously.

The Bible tells us to make the punishment fit the crime and implement it immediately. Is that what we do in our criminal justice system here in the United States? No it is not. We hear a lot of human cries in this country to pity the criminal and I can understand that, and I can understand the need for mercy in certain situations. But I also know what happens when that attitude becomes the norm and everybody thinks they can do whatever they want and escape judgment. Then there are the situations where we see certain people being given partiality and receiving a much lesser punishment than someone else who committed the same type of crime. Then we also see how long punishment can be delayed in our system.

However, in spite of the government’s flaws the Bible is clear that we are still to submit to God’s ordination of government. To rebel against government is to resist God, and to resist God is to result in punishment. Now let us go back to Romans 13:3 where we saw the fourth reason as to why we should be submissive to the government, and that is that government promotes good.

Do what is good and those who are in authority will give you praise. Christ gave us an excellent example of this principle in The Sermon on the Mount. Let us look at some of it and imagine how it could not only apply to those we encounter every day but also in our relations with the government. Matthew 5:38-43 NLT:

38 “You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘If an eye is injured, injure the eye of the person who did it. If a tooth gets knocked out, knock out the tooth of the person who did it.’
39 But I say, don’t resist an evil person! If you are slapped on the right cheek, turn the other, too.
40 If you are ordered to court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too.
41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.
42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
43 “You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.
44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

I would like to share with you something I read regarding verse 41: “If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.” Roman soldiers would often stop people on the road and it was expected that they would carry the soldier’s gear for one mile. But Jesus said, “Don’t just go the one mile with the soldier. Show him how special Christians can be and offer to go the extra mile.” It is my understanding that many Roman soldiers became Christians themselves because of such behavior. Makes sense. Can you imagine the reaction of a person who is in financial need and they ask you for $10 and you give them $50. That is the type of behavior that reflects the light of Christ to the world.

If you enjoy a quiet, peaceful life and you are not a trouble maker, you will find that you receive praise and you will find what is written in verse 4:

4 for it (the government)[fn] is God’s servant for your good.

So government is not only to punish criminals consistently but to help and praise those who live their lives doing good. The President of the United States is a servant of God. The senators, congressman, judges, governors, mayors, etc. are all servants of God. Unfortunately far too many of them are not aware of that fact. Yet they are the government and we who call ourselves evangelical Christians are to be the models of what a citizen should be in a society. Those that hold government offices should see in us something that makes the country a better place and that they would like to see in all the citizenry.

If we are dissatisfied with the conduct of our government leaders, we have the opportunity in a democracy to express our views by insuring that those we vote for share our values. We can write our representatives expressing our opinions. But there is one way to change things that is far better than any of those and it is guaranteed by God to produce results. We find it again in 2 Chronicles 7:13,14 NLT:

Do you know who God’s people are? Those who believe Jesus Christ is their Savior and their Lord. They can bring about a healing of the country if they pray seeking God’s will and do what is right. I am not quite sure how to bring that about, but if we could get the word out and believers would respond accordingly, God would bring about the necessary changes to heal the United States.

When you see a coup in a country or a revolution and the government is overturned, it will not be the elimination of government but only the exchange of government because humanity cannot exist without some form of government.

A fifth reason for obeying government is that rulers are empowered by God to inflict punishment, including capital punishment. Romans 12:4 NRSV:

If you do what is evil, you have every reason to be afraid. Government is given the authority to exercise capital punishment. Leviticus 20 gives us a detailed description of punishment for serious crimes, including the death penalty. It was not reserved for murder, but was also meted out for striking a parent, for blasphemy, for witchcraft, for dabbling in the occult, for false prophecy, rape, homosexuality, and idolatry. That is how serious God considered these violations to be to the well-being of the nation. Individuals are not given this right but governments are.

Go with us if you will back to Genesis 4, verses 9-11 NRSV, where Cain has just killed Abel:

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!

When Cain killed Abel, Abel’s blood cried out to God. So in Genesis 9:6 NRSV, God says:

Murder is wrong because it is a sin against God and the human made in God’s image. Although God did not take Cain’s life immediately, He sent him out as a wanderer and vagabond in an agrarian society where it was very possible he himself would be murdered (Genesis 4:14). It is also true that God had not yet clearly established the penalty for taking a life. One more verse we need to understand here is Ezekiel 7:23 NLT:

23 “Prepare chains for my people, for the land is bloodied by terrible crimes. Jerusalem is filled with violence.

One of the reasons that God brought judgment on the nation of Israel and sent them into captivity in Babylon was because the nation was full of bloody crimes. In other words murder for which there had been no punishment. The blood of the people who had been murdered without punishing the murderer was crying out to God. Show me a place where they do not deal with murderers and they do not execute those that commit severe crimes and I will show you a place full of violence. That is exactly what Ezekiel saw. Then he writes in verse 27 NLT:

God warns that He is going to bring a severe judgment on the Jewish people because their land is filled with bloody crimes that go unpunished. Why is God going to do this? Does He do it because He enjoys punishing people? No. He does it because He knows that where such punishment is administered justly, the thought of the punishment becomes frightening to those who would do such things and prevents them from going ahead with such crimes. There is no doubt that such restraints are necessary because so many people will follow their evil thoughts and desires if there is no deterrent in place (Romans 1:24ff).

God requires the death penalty so no one will have to die, so that there are no victims and no criminals. If we were to make our laws in this country in accordance to the Law of God and enforce those laws according to God’s commands, there would be few criminals and few victims because fear of the penalties would prevent the acts. But where there is violence, bloodshed, and disobedience with no corresponding penalty, evil will prevail.

Listen to Numbers 35:33 NLT:

33 This will ensure that the land where you live will not be polluted, for murder pollutes the land. And no atonement can be made for murder except by the execution of the murderer.
34 You must not defile the land where you are going to live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord, who lives among the people.

If you occasionally ask yourself why the United States is in the mess that it is in, I could give you a number of answers, and one that would be near the top of the list would be that this nation is under the judgment of God for unrequited blood. The ground of the United States cries out for God to punish murder as well as those other crimes that God considered worthy of death. Do you remember them? We listed them earlier: murder, cursing or striking a parent, blasphemy, witchcraft, dabbling in the occult, false prophecy, rape, homosexuality, and idolatry. Were these offenders properly dealt with it would reduce the number of such crimes committed. But instead we do the very opposite and our land is blood guilty.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Jeremiah 1:5 NLT:
5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.”

Isaiah 49:1 NLT:
1 Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands! The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.

Luke 1:15,44 NLT, referring to John the Baptist:

15 for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or hard liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.
44 When you came in and greeted me, my baby jumped for joy the instant I heard your voice!

There are literally millions of women who have allowed their unborn children to be murdered for their own individual convenience or because they allow others to talk them into it. There are thousands of abortion doctors who have callously committed those murders. There are judges who established laws to protect these murderers, and a government that allows them to continue without taking steps to stop it. The blood of these victims is crying out to God for justice and none is being administered, so the nation as a whole is under God’s judgment. This is reason enough for God to bring judgment against America even as He did Israel, for we have become a land full of bloody crimes, a land filled with violence. Just look at television shows, movies, internet, music, and the evening news.

The murder of Terry Schiavo, which according to most polls was supported by seventy percent of the people in this country, can only bring further judgment on our nation as a whole.

Few of them understand the Bible and the greatest majority of them have no idea that it is God’s instruction manual for living. So as long as the people of this country are willing to embrace and support this kind of leadership, we had better prepare ourselves to live under the judgment of God. I believe it is every Christian’s duty to make their feelings known in a courteous manner about such atrocities to every government official they can contact, and even though those leaders may scoff at it, to make reference to this  text. And you have our permission to use any or all of this material in your correspondence. The complete message is always available for anyone to download from our website. www.villagechurchofwheaton.org

In conclusion, the sixth and final reason for submitting to the government is for conscience sake, Romans 13:5 NLT:

5 So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience.

You need to obey the government not only because you fear God as God acts through the government, but also for the sake of a clear conscience. You do it not only because you fear the consequences but because you know what is the right thing to do. We as Christians should consider our highest motivation to do what we know God would want us to do. Yes, there has to be a fear factor, a judgment factor, a vengeance factor; and yes, there has to be punishment with consistency, without partiality, and without delay. And yes, each crime is to have an appropriate punishment so that the guilty will not go unpunished and be given an open door to commit the same crime over and over again. Yes, we are to conform because we fear punishment for not conforming, but what a much more noble motive it is to conform for the sake of our conscience by doing what we know to be right, because we have a conscious regard of love for the law, because we have a conscious commitment to obey God. As Christians we are to live lives of obedience and to doing what we know to be right (Ephesians 4:22-28; I Corinthians 6:9-11).[fn] This is what Peter meant in 1 Peter 2:13-25 NLT:

13 For the Lord’s sake, accept all authority—the king as head of state,
14 and the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish all who do wrong and to honor those who do right.
15 It is God’s will that your good lives should silence those who make foolish accusations against you.
16 You are not slaves; you are free. But your freedom is not an excuse to do evil. You are free to live as God’s slaves.
17 Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God. Show respect for the king.
18 You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters. Do whatever they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are harsh.
19 For God is pleased with you when, for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment.
20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you.
21 This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps.
22 He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone.
23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.
24 He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds!
25 Once you were wandering like lost sheep. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

 

Does God Think We Should Pay Taxes?

We will continue our study in verse 6, but first let us review the first 5 verses of chapter 13 to get the flow of the message.

Romans 13:1-7 NRSV:
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval;
4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.
6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing.
7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Do any of you like to pay taxes? You know we pay taxes all the time, not just on April 15. Every time you buy gasoline, groceries, or clothing, you pay taxes. In fact most of us probably pay some form of tax every day. And I would not be surprised if the largest number of crimes committed in the United States fell into the category of taxes. The government employs thousands upon thousands of people for the sole purpose of trying to find the people who cheat on their taxes. So we live in a country that does not like to pay taxes.

What then should the attitude of a Christian be toward paying taxes? After all is there not a lot of waste in government? We have all heard about such things as the $600 toilet seats at the pentagon and other such unjustifiable expenses. Why should Christians support that kind of waste when they could spend that money taking care of the poor? But the Bible is very explicit about this matter. It says to pay your taxes. The circumstances make no difference.

You might find it interesting to know that the first tax system instituted by a government was implemented by a servant of God. You may remember that when Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, Joseph eventually became prime minister under Pharaoh. You may also remember that Pharaoh had a dream and Joseph was the only one able to interpret the dream which foretold of a seven year famine that would come upon Egypt. Genesis 41:34-36, tells us what God’s servant, Joseph, recommended the nation do in order to prepare for the famine:

34 Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years.
35 Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.
36 That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.” (NRSV)

Joseph was the one responsible for implementing a 20% tax for a period of seven years. Then if we go forward a few pages to Genesis 47:26, we will see that the tax was so successful in dealing with the famine that:

26 Joseph then made it a law throughout the land of Egypt—and it is still the law—that Pharaoh should receive one-fifth of all the crops grown on his land. But since Pharaoh had not taken over the priests’ land, they were exempt from this payment. (NLT)

Joseph made the 20% tax a permanent part of Egyptian life. So we see God’s servant, Joseph, establishing the first governmental tax system. I bet you never thought that taxes were ordained by God. God was setting a pattern for future governments whereby they could take the resources from the people who had them and distribute them back to the people when they were needed.

Now when God established the nation of Israel, did He have a tax system? Go to Leviticus 27:30-32 NLT:

30 “A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.
31 If you want to redeem the Lord’s tenth of the fruit or grain, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent.
32 The Lord also owns every tenth animal counted off from your herds and flocks. They are set apart to him as holy.

They were to give a tenth of everything each year. This was called the Lord’s tithe. This tithe was given to the Levites. We see that in Numbers 18:21,24 NLT:

21 As for the tribe of Levi, your relatives, I will pay them for their service in the Tabernacle with the tithes from the entire land of Israel.
24 because I have given them the Israelites’ tithes, which have been set apart as offerings to the Lord. This will be the Levites’ share. That is why I said they would receive no inheritance of land among the Israelites.”

Now who are the Levites? Levi was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and when the land was divided among the tribes of Israel, the Levites did not receive any land because they were not to be farmers and herdsmen. They were to be priests and tend to the matters of worship. So they were supported by the people. These priests were the functioning rulers, judges, and leaders of the nation. You will remember during Christ’s ministry that it was the chief priests who were in charge. If one did not give this 10% tithe it was a serious sin according to Malachi 3:8-10 NKJV:

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.

10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse (treasury),[fn] That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.”

God says that if you rob Him, you have cheated yourself out of His blessing. Keep in mind that the Old Testament tithe had nothing to do with free-will giving, giving a gift to God out of the generosity of your heart. It was a tax. Now let us take a look at Deuteronomy 12:10,11,17 NLT:

10 You will soon cross the Jordan River and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession. When he gives you rest and security from all your enemies,
11 you must bring everything I command you—your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your special gifts, and your offerings to fulfill a vow—to the place the Lord your God will choose for his name to be honored.
17 “But your offerings must not be eaten at home—neither the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, nor the firstborn of your flocks and herds, nor an offering to fulfill a vow, nor your freewill offerings (in addition to the tithe), nor your special gifts.
18 You must eat these in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose. Eat them there with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns, celebrating in the presence of the Lord your God in all you do.

This is known as The Festival Tithe, another annual tax of 10% of grain, wine, oil, first born of the herds and flocks, etc. So they have to give another tenth. A tenth to be taken down to Jerusalem to be eaten by their family and the Levites. It was kind of like a national pot-luck dinner. They would have these festivals several times a year, the purpose of which was to support national worship and bring about national unity.[fn]

28 “At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in the nearest town.
29 Give it to the Levites, who have no inheritance among you, as well as to the foreigners living among you, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, so they can eat and be satisfied. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work.

This is a third tax for a tenth and this one was on their crops and they had to pay at the end of every third year. So in effect they had to pay about 23.5% of their income in taxes each year. Very similar to the tax Joseph initiated in Egypt. This could be classified as The Welfare Tithe because it took care of the poor, orphans, and widows.[fn]

Now there were some other provisions made for sharing so that the nation might be able to enjoy its life together. Leviticus 19:9,10 NLT:

9 “When you harvest your crops, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop.
10 It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners who live among you, for I, the Lord, am your God.

This was to provide for the very poor who had very little and needed food to keep from starving. Then in Exodus 23:10,11 we see even yet another provision for the poor:

10 “Plant and harvest your crops for six years,
11 but let the land rest and lie fallow during the seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest any volunteer crop that may come up. Leave the rest for the animals to eat. The same applies to your vineyards and olive groves. (NLT)

Every seventh year they were to let the land rest and not plant a crop. Have you ever seen a field or even a garden that was planted year after year and then one year was not planted? What happens? Very often things come up here and there anyway. And what the poor did not take the animals could have. It was yet another way for those who God gave much to share with those who did not have the means of providing for their basic needs. So the Jews were taxed what averaged to be approximately 25% of their income.

Now when we get into the New Testament we find Jesus upholding the same standard. Look at Matthew 17:24. Jesus and His disciples have just come to the town of Capernaum, where Peter lived. The tax collectors came to Peter and asked him if his master paid taxes. Now in the previous 2 verses, Jesus had told the disciples that He was going to die.

Matthew 17:22-23NLT:
22 One day after they had returned to Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed.
23 He will be killed, but three days later he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples’ hearts were filled with grief.

How is He going to die? Well, Jesus told them that back in  Matthew 16:21. The elders, chief priests, and scribes are going to kill Him. So they know that Jesus is going to be killed by the Jewish leaders. Now here come these very same leaders asking for money. And what they are looking for here is the Temple Tax. They are not asking Him to support the Roman government. This is not the Roman taxation system. Here are men collecting money to put into the Temple treasury. Thirty pieces of silver will be paid to Judas out of this treasury to betray Christ Himself. So I do not think you could find a better reason for why someone would not want to pay a tax. Here Jesus is being asked to contribute money to an organization that will ultimately lead the charge to execute Him, and for a temple which He knows will soon be destroyed. What would you do? Well let us see how much like Jesus you are. Remember that every Jew was required to pay a half shekel temple tax, about the equivalent of two days wages. So when these tax collectors come and ask Peter if Jesus’ pays the temple tax, what did Peter say? Verses 25 and 26 NRSV:

25 He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?”
26 When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free.”

Jesus is saying that the children are free from taxation. You are going to love this logic from the only perfect mind ever to walk the earth in the form of a man. The issue here is the Temple Tax and the Temple was supposed to be the House of God, and Jesus is the Son of God, so God would not tax Jesus. Nor would God tax any of His own children. Jesus is saying that as children of God we are free because we are in His family and as God’s children we would not have to pay this tax. But in verse 27 Jesus says:

However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.” The coin was a shekel, one-half for Jesus Tax and one-half for Peter’s tax.

Jesus was giving His money to an organization that should have been representing God, but did not, which ultimately would execute Him; to a place that held public services that were a mockery to God, and a place that was nothing more than a collection of self-serving criminals who used their positions of power to abuse those whom they should have been serving. Almost sounds like a description of our government, does it not?

But because taxation was designed by God, Jesus was not about to start a tax revolt that would anger the Jewish leaders. That would draw attention away from His primary mission. So He paid the tax. Christians today as well are to be seen by the world as followers of Christ conducting themselves in the same manner that Christ did. Yes, we have the right and obligation in a free democracy to make our feelings known to our government leaders as to what we believe to be right or wrong, but we are to pay our taxes and at the same time try to win the tax collector over to Jesus and do it by not offending him/her. Let our focus, our purpose, and our message always be clear by everything we do and say.

Just because we pay the tax does not mean we cannot speak against the abusive uses of the tax. We live in a democracy and are guaranteed that right. We pay it and then say what needs to be said at the right place and at the right time and in the right way. Now look at Matthew 22:15,16. Jesus is in the Temple during Passion Week and the Pharisees are confronting Him:

15 Then the Pharisees met together to think of a way to trap Jesus into saying something for which they could accuse him.
16 They decided to send some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to ask him this question:  (NLT)

The Pharisees and supporters of Herod hated each other with a passion. Those who were loyal to Herod supported the Roman government and the Jews detested the Roman government. But there was one thing on which they agreed. They both wanted Jesus out of the way. If the government of Herod could get Jesus to affirm that He was protesting taxation and would not pay His taxes because He did not think that Rome should be acknowledged, then the Herod’s people could go to the Romans and report it. If the Pharisees went to the Romans and reported it the Romans would think it was some kind of trick. The Pharisees would not normally want to tell the Romans anything that would help them. But Herod’s people would. So the Jews plot to use Herod to try and trap Jesus in His words. So they come to Jesus with all this flattery and say, continuing in verse 16:

“Teacher, we know how honest you are. You teach about the way of God regardless of the consequences. You are impartial and don’t play favorites.    (NLT)

They really lay on the flattery and then tell Him that because he is so wonderful they would like to know His opinion about paying taxes. Verse 17:

17 Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?”    (NLT)

The Jews would answer this question by saying, “Absolutely not! Don’t pay Rome your tax because that is putting money into the Roman government. They say Caesar is a god and that is idolatry. It isn’t right to pay taxes to Caesar.” They hoped Jesus would say the same thing so that they could report Him to Herod. The Jews of the first century were often involved in tax revolts and such a report involving Jesus would most likely be believed by Herod, who represented the Roman Empire in this part of the world. In fact there were all kinds of tax revolts by the Jews during the first century and that was part of the reason the Romans came in and destroyed the entire city in 70 AD. So they ask Jesus the question that they hope will trap Him into being regarded one who is encouraging a revolt against the Roman government, and in that way get rid of Him. But Jesus knew what they were trying to do. Verses 18-21:

“You hypocrites!” he said. “Whom are you trying to fool with your trick questions?
19 Here, show me the Roman coin used for the tax.” When they handed him the coin,
20 he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God.”

Now with all the problems that exist in our country we have a number of people who think they have solutions to these problems. For the most part they consider the causes of these problems to be political or economic or social or whatever. They feel that if these problems were corrected we would all find ourselves in a happier condition. But the truth of the matter is that all of our problems stem basically from two things: sin and Satan. We learned in Romans 1-3 that mankind is totally engulfed in sinfulness and people do the things they do because of that sinfulness. Satan is the one who promotes the sin because he has a way of stimulating the senses in such directions. I think we find confirmation of this in Ephesians 2:1-3 NLT:

1 Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins.
2 You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
3 All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else.

Satan is in charge of the kingdoms of the world and has the power to give them to whomever he chooses according to John 12:30,31. We want to keep this in mind because it is closely connected with Romans chapter 13. Satan is the world power influencing individuals and governments. Now here is where we have been heading. National governments, while ordained by God (Romans 13:1), are nonetheless expressive of and infiltrated by Satan’s system of influence and activity. All governments are filled with demonic activity. It is kept in bounds by those governments because of certain regulations but yet the governments themselves are under some control by Satan’s legions. It almost seems contradictory, does it not? God has ordained government for the protection of mankind. But because mankind is basically evil, the governments of mankind are evil as well, and Satan is often a major influence in how those governments govern. However, he is limited by God who has the final Word in how all governments govern, as well of course as the outcome of history. The bottom line here is that government is an institution ordained by God to basically confine the activity of sin in mankind and the activity of Satan in terms of their potential for evil.[fn]

6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing.
7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

In verse 6 we see again that those who serve in government are God’s servants. They are serving God. That does not mean they are all Christians but in God’s design of government they serve a divine purpose. Robert Culver has said this:

“Where theistic religion grows weak, that is where religion related to God grows weak and justice will weaken. Crimes then are defined as anti-social activity which in turn then is merely what the majority says it is. Then punishment seems to be the result of the majority ganging up on the minority. This in turn seems inconsistent with democratic feelings. The result is a decline in uniform application of penalty for crimes, resultant miscarriages of justice, trampling on the rights of law-abiding people, together with an increase in what ought to be called crime.[fn]

Culver is absolutely right. As soon as government separates itself from God and is no longer regarded as a God-ordained responsibility, then the law looses much of its effectiveness. We are seeing that right now in our country. Instead of being considered crimes, many crimes are now seen as anti-social behavior, or resulting from need and want, or perhaps a rough childhood, or emotional problem of some sort. The excuse list could cover pages. It is no longer a question of guilt but it is now a question of whether you were psychologically sound when you did it. The Bible says that if you commit a crime, you pay a penalty. We no longer have God behind our laws in the United States. As a result, as Culver said, “Punishment seems to be the result of the majority ganging up on the minority and then everybody wants to fight for the rights of the criminal.” All of a sudden there are miscarriages of justice and an increase in crime. We are living in a day and time when this is happening all around us.

In spite of all this, however, our orders remain the same. We are to submit to and support the government with our taxes. Christians are bound together by a common commitment to be models of order and peace. And in the early Church they were. In spite of governments that persecuted them, Christians maintained a testimony of integrity in submitting to the government and paying their taxes. We give our worship to God and support the government. But it is time government wake up to what its calling is, which is a divinely appointed representation of God in human society. All rulers have authority delegated from God. That is a heavy responsibility. Romans 13:6 (NLT) said:

For the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing.

What thing? The service of ruling, the service of leading people, protecting them, collecting their taxes. They are to be attending to all the civil matters for the public good. that is what they should be attending to. Look at Daniel 4:17 NLT:

17 For this has been decreed by the messengers; it is commanded by the holy ones. The purpose of this decree is that the whole world may understand that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses—even to the lowliest of humans.”

And the Bible has a lot to say about their part of the responsibility as well. Based on many of the passages which are repeated over and over in the Scripture, let us give you a list of what God requires of the rulers of nations:

If anyone would like a list of passages covering these principles we can provide one for you.[fn] However, with a little effort and a good Concordance, this might provide you with a good personal Bible study.

7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Pay your debt to the government. Taxes are debts due. Do not owe anybody anything. Pay all the different kinds of taxes required. Have a healthy respect for those who collect the taxes. As a matter of fact respect all those in authority. Do all these things because it is the right thing to do and it will please God. What better motivation could any believer have? So when you send in your taxes, instead of grumbling, whisper a prayer of thanksgiving and pray for the government leaders to use the money appropriately and wisely. Take heart that you are being obedient to the will of God.

 

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Romans 13:8-10 NRSV:

9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Perhaps the best course to take in beginning our discussion of love would be to try and define it. We have borrowed some definitions from some excellent sources.

The Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines love as a:

“strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties, such as the maternal love for a child (2) : attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3) : affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests, such as love for one’s old schoolmates. (4) : unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another, such as the fatherly concern of God for humankind, or brotherly concern for others, or even a person's adoration of God.”

Then in the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary,  edited by Merrill Tenney,  we find the following (pp. 493-494):

“Love: presented in Scripture as the very nature of God (1 John 4:8, 16) and the greatest of the Christian virtues.  It receives definition in Scripture only by a listing of its attributes (1 Cor 13:4-7).  . . . . . . . .

“All human love, whether Godward or manward, has its source in God. Love in its true reality and power is seen only in the light of Calvary (1 John 4:ff) Love is created in the believer by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 NLT:

Galatians 5:22 NLT:
22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.

Still quoting from the Zondervan Dictionary”:

“It is the Holy Spirit’s job to help us love both God and man (2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 John 4:20-21). Love finds its expression in service to our fellow-men (Gal 5:13) and is the chief test of Christian discipleship (John 13:35; Luke 14:26; 1 John 3:14). Love is vitally related to faith; faith is basic (Heb. 11:6; John 6:29), but a faith that does not manifest itself in love both toward God and man is dead and worthless (James 2:17-26; Gal. 5:6, 13). James 2:17 says: “So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.

“The Christian must love God supremely and his neighbor as himself (Matt. 22:37-39).  He must love his enemy as well as his brother (Matt. 5:43-49; Rom. 12:19-20; 1 John 3:14). Our love must be “without hypocrisy” (Rom. 12:9, ASV) and be “in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Love is the bond uniting all the Christian virtues (Col. 3:14).”

And finally Fausset’s Bible Dictionary [p. 439: (grammar updated)]:

“Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:8, 10), the prominent perfection of God (1 John 4: 8, 16), manifested to us (1 John 4:10) when we did not love Him (John 3:16). Passing our powers of knowledge (Eph. 3:19), everlasting (Jer. 31:3), free and gratuitous (Hos. 14:4), enduring to the end (John 13:1).”

Would you agree if we were to make the general Statement that, “Desire is easier than obedience?” I believe Paul would agree because back in Romans 7, Paul said in verses 15,18,19 NRSV:

15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

No matter how much we want to obey, we sometimes find it hard to do that. No matter how eager we are to do the will of God, we find ourselves bound to our humanness and unable to fulfill all of the good that we desire to do in our hearts. However, as difficult as it is, obedience is still essential for the believer. Obedience means to follow the truth, Spirit, and Word of God. Without obedience to God we cannot experience the true power, blessing, and joy that can come from God alone.

In our culture the word, obedience, is far from being a popular word. To a child, obedience is a very threatening word. It is a word that forces them to go from doing what they most want to do to the thing that they least want to do. Some of that childhood reluctance to obedience carries on into adulthood, does it not? To a person who does not know God, there is no desire to obey God or the Word of God. The unbeliever does exactly what he/she wants to do. But a believer has, according to Romans 7 that we just read, a great desire to obey God. The difference between a true Christian and one who is a Christian in name only, is a true desire to obey. In  Psalm 119, we find the greatest statement or series of statements ever made by any child of God relative to the desire for obedience. Psalm 119, selected verses NRSV:

10 With my whole heart I seek you; do not let me stray from your commandments.
16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
20 My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
24 Your decrees are my delight, they are my counselors.
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.
35 Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
44 I will keep your law continually, forever and ever.
47 I find my delight in your commandments, because I love them.
48 I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
54 Your statutes have been my songs wherever I make my home.
70 Their hearts are fat and gross, but I delight in your law.
72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my misery.
97 Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation.
111 Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.
115 Go away from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
127 Truly I love your commandments more than gold, more than fine gold.
128 Truly I direct my steps by all your precepts; I hate every false way.
129 Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.
140 Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.
143 Trouble and anguish have come upon me, but your commandments are my delight.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.
164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous ordinances.
165 Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.
167 My soul keeps your decrees; I love them exceedingly.
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight.

There you have the true hunger of a believing heart. David was of course the Psalmist who wrote these verses, and we know that David did not always do what he said he wanted to do in the Psalms. Actually David was not able to live up to the love he claimed to have for God. But it is the mark of genuine salvation to have a passion for obedience; to love the Law of God to the point of desiring to obey it. This marks the attitude of a true child of God; a spirit that is willing to obey, not out of fear but out of love. In the New Testament we find in 1 Peter 1:1, 2 NRSV:

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance.

The sanctifying work of the Spirit of God is at work unto obedience. It produces an obedient heart. It produces what Paul was talking about in Philippians 2:12 when he said:

12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; (NRSV)

Maintain your obedience so you create on the outside the salvation that is on the inside. In the last chapter of Romans, Romans 16:19, Paul says:

19 But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to see clearly what is right and to stay innocent of any wrong.

22 I love God’s law with all my heart.

Now what does obedience involve? If a true Christian has a heart that longs to obey, what does it involve? Simply, as we saw in Psalm 119, to keep God’s Word. The heart of obedience says that the consuming passion of my life is to obey God’s Word. Now someone is going to come along and say, “If we’re saved by grace through faith and are no longer under the Law as Romans 6 indicated, then is it not so that we are no longer bound to the Law?” That is true in one sense and not true in another. We are no longer going to be judged for not obeying the Law. In other words after we are saved the Law has no power to condemn us to Hell. But we are expected to keep the intent of the Law, which is to do what is right. For God does not give up His expectation of us to obey the laws as written, His standards of morality and His standards of truth just because someone has been saved by His grace. It says in Romans 8:1, that, “ there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” The Law no longer has any power to condemn anyone whose sins are now covered by the blood of Jesus. The Law cannot execute a penalty against us as verse 2 says:

The Law no longer has the ability to judge us guilty of sin and sentence us to an eternal life in Hell after death. Verse 3:

Because of the sacrifice of Christ the Law can no longer condemn us. He died in our place as the penalty for our sins and after He died for those sins, He arose from the dead to eternal life. Therefore, we too who believe in what Jesus did for us, will arise from death to eternal life as well. However, even though we have been redeemed and although we are no longer under the Law’s power and penalty, we are told the purpose of our redemption in verse 4:

Now that we walk in the Spirit we now have the capacity and ability to fulfill the Law. We are free from the Law only in the sense of its power to dominate and condemn us and to sentence us to eternal death. We are not free from the Law as to its teaching. We are still called and commanded to a life of obedience to the revealed Word of God.

Now the question arises, “How are we going to keep the Law?” Yes, believers have the power of the Holy Spirit within them. But we also see that we still have within us that sinful nature that continually is calling us not to do the right thing, not to be obedient to the will of God. Therein is the battle. So we have the sin principle in our humanness warring against a heart of obedience, and every Christian fights that battle. The more one fights the battle the more victorious they will be.

So all of us have a heart that seeks after obedience if we are truly Christians. We have a longing to do what is right, but it is sometimes difficult to do what is right because of our humanness. Can we overcome that? Is there a formula we can follow for obedience? We suggest the answer is in Romans chapter 13. Beginning in chapter 12 of Romans, we get into the practical part of the epistle (letter). Paul is talking about those things that will result from our salvation. A right relationship with God is discussed in verse 1. A right relationship to the world is found in verse 2 of chapter 12. A right relationship to the church is found in verses 3-8. A right relationship with everyone comes in verses 9-21. A right relationship with the government appears in Romans 13:1-7. A right relationship to society in general will now be dealt with in verses 8-10. This is just another dimension of life that is affected by a person’s salvation. Salvation affects everything. It affects how we relate to God, to the world around us, to the church, to people in general, to the government, and to society.

Paul says in verses 8-10 that the key thing in your relationships within society is the word, love. And you will see as we study this passage further that love is the key to obedience. We have tried to say already that it is obedience in our hearts that we seek to accomplish, and we are trying to get a handle on how to do it, and the key to understanding that is to understand love because as Paul says twice in the passage this is, “the fulfilling of the whole Law.”

Paul says in Romans 13:8: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”

What does Paul mean by “Owe no one anything?” He has just been talking about paying your taxes is verses 6 and 7. Now Paul is talking about not only paying your taxes but paying all your debts. This verse applies to every single debt we might have in our relationships. No believer is to have unpaid debts. Do not owe anybody anything. Does this mean that we are not to be allowed credit, that we are not to borrow money on the basis of interest, that we are not to have any financial obligations at all. Does this mean that we must pay cash for everything we buy?

Let us go back to Exodus 22: 25.We see here in Exodus where God is laying down some societal rules and principles. Verse 25 NLT:

25 “If you lend money to a fellow Hebrew in need, do not be like a money lender, charging interest.

The original word used in the King James translation for interest was usury and the original word in the Hebrew meant “excessive interest,” interest that is unfair. The assumption of verse 25 is that it is okay to lend money. The other assumption is that if it is alright to lend it then it must be okay to borrow it. Remember this applies to a person who is in need, who has to have it. So if you lend such a person money, you are not to charge an unreasonably high rate of interest. In Deuteronomy 15:7-11, we get some additional instruction on this subject:

7 “But if there are any poor people in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.
8 Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need.
9 Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year of release is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the Lord, you will be considered guilty of sin.

Lending was a very important thing. If a farmer’s crop did not turn out right, or he made an unwise investment, or was robbed or whatever might have caused his poverty, we are to lend to those people. Lending is approved by God as long as there is not an exorbitant rate of interest. And we see that it should be done with a willing heart. Look to Psalm 37:26. Here we see a commendation of a righteous and good man:

26 The godly always give generous loans to others, and their children are a blessing.

It is a blessed thing to lend to those in need. And look at what Proverbs 19:17 tells us:

When you lend money to someone who is in need you are lending to God, and you do not have to worry about whether the person will pay you back, because in one form or another God will repay you for doing what is right. Look at what Jesus had to say in the New Testament. Matthew 5:42 NLT:

42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.

So both the Old and New Testament of Scripture consistently tell us to lend to those in need, that lending should be done without a high rate of interest, that it be done with a willing heart, a spirit that says, “I am lending to the Lord,” and it should be done with the assurance of receiving a reward from God. However, We need to add that the Scripture says nothing about lending or borrowing for things that are not related to need. Scripture certainly does not teach that we should get into debt in order to satisfy desires for things we simply want, or to live in luxury. Someone has said that people today buy things they do not need with money they do not have from people they do not like. It is one of those things you need to think about for a while to get the full impact of the meaning.

But the Lord sees the need in certain cases for people to borrow money. In Matthew 25:26,27, Jesus is highly critical that His servant did not at least put the money he was given in the bank so that it would earn interest. Wise investment of God’s resources is considered good stewardship by Jesus. Certainly certain of us could not own businesses if we were unable to borrow money. But because we can borrow money to make the business prosper, we can earn an income to support our families, our church, and those in the community who are in need. Few of us could afford to own our own homes if we could not borrow money to buy it. But keep this in mind. The borrower is the servant to the lender. So you want to be very careful how much you borrow because if you overextend yourself, it will cause you unnecessary stress and misery, as many people in our society are acutely aware. But remember what Romans 13:7 told us. We are to pay all our debts, and not to pay everything that we owe is unacceptable to God. Look what He tells us in Psalm 37:21 NLT:

21 The wicked borrow and never repay.

That is not acceptable to God. Pay your debts, and this also tells us that we are not to declare bankruptcy. Owe no one anything and do not allow any debts to be outstanding and overdue. Then Paul makes a tremendous transition going into verse 8 of chapter 13 NLT:

8 Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that!

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

44 Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!
45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. (Matthew 5:44-45 NLT).

Now what is love? How do you demonstrate love? Biblically, love is teaching others about the truth of God. We can see this in Ephesians 4:15,16 NRSV:

15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Love involves teaching others what needs to be taught, what they need to know to go to Heaven. It is not a feeling, it is an act. Secondly, it involves ministering to the needs of others, giving them personal help. Thirdly, love is serving one another in a way that causes them to grow because of your behavior. In other words, setting an example. Love sets a positive example of walking with the Spirit so that people can grow from it. Love is an act of cautious behavior that stimulates someone else’s growth rather than retarding it. It is the kind of life that leads others toward God and not toward sin. Love also covers the sins of others.[fn] 1 Peter 4:8 NLT:

8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
1 Follow God’s example in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
2 Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him.

As Christ loved us and gave His life for us, you are to love others and give yourself for them. As Christ loved us and forgave us, you love others and forgive them as well.

2 Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

Love also sacrifices for others as John tells us in John 15:12-15 NLT:

12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.
13 And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.

Love is not a question of how you feel emotionally. We owe these things to people. Doing these things we have just discussed is the kind of behavior that attracts the world. Before a person is a believer in Jesus as Lord and Savior, he/she does not have the ability to do these things. But once you have that relationship, Romans 5:5 tells us just how we can love like that:

5 And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

How can we love like that? Because the love of God has been placed within us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have a new resource in order to love the way we ought to love. A love beyond description is given to us. So our prayer for each of you is the same as Paul asked for those in Ephesus. Ephesians 3:18-20 NLT:

18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.

The abundance of God’s love is always there so you may love in the manner we have discussed today. But you must be willing to submit to the Holy Spirit now living within you. You must turn over the control factor of your life to the Holy Spirit. You can carry your bitterness, anxiety, hatred, animosity, revenge and vengeance on your own, or you can yield them to the Spirit of God who will then take over the spirit of your life, at which time bitterness is replaced by love, vengeance is replaced by affection. 1 Thessalonians 4:9 NLT:

9 But I don’t need to write to you about the Christian love that should be shown among God’s people. For God himself has taught you to love one another.

22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control.

Love is the first fruit produced by the Holy Spirit. Then if we look to 1 Peter 1:22, we see a tremendous truth:

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. (NKJV)

Now you are not going to be able to exercise the debt of love until you have dealt with the sin in your life. Until you see your bitterness as sin, your vengeance as sin, your anger as sin, your hostility as sin. You need to purify your heart of your sin in order to love as Jesus loves.[fn] And while we are in 1 Peter, let us look at 1 Peter 4:7,8 NLT:

7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

There is an urgency to loving because the end of all things is at hand. It is time for us to live the way we ought to live and attract people as they ought to be attracted. You might think that this statement was written almost two thousand years ago and all things have not ended yet. But I suggest you think about what happens when a person dies. All things certainly come to an end then. And anyone of us could die at any moment.  Now let us look to Colossians 3:14 NLT:

14 And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony.

This tells us that love is a conscious choice. You choose to love. Train yourselves to love. In those moments when you feel like being angry, asserting your rights, when you feel you have been deprived, when you are interrupted, when you have been treated badly and insulting words have been said, you must train yourselves to make a conscious choice to love. And do it no matter what the cost may be to your own ego. You choose to love. You choose to make peace. You choose to forgive. And you learn to do these things by training your mind under the power of the Holy Spirit.

Another important discipline for learning to love is to spend your time with believers. You are going to find a hard time doing these things if you are sitting alone in your living room watching television. Hebrews 10:24 NRSV:

24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

There is a stimulation to love that occurs in the dynamic of Christian fellowship and the accountability it brings to bear in our lives. If there is going to be love in the fellowship we have to be pre-occupied with others and not us. Also consider the results of living a life of love. If you love others, you are going to be loved yourself.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT:
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.
6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13 is, of course, the classic description of agape love, of the pure love that God has for us and which we are to show to others as Christ commanded. You will notice that what is described in these verses is actions and behavior. There is no mention of that warm, glowing feeling that we often tend to equate with love. True biblical and godly love is not a feeling, it is a behavior. That is where we often get hung up when Christ commands us to love our enemies. We do not have to necessarily take them in our arms and embrace them, but we are being commanded to be patient and kind with them, and not to keep a ledger of their offenses.

So, we believe we could say this about love: “Love is not only a feeling but also an attitude and an action.”

We in this day and age are inclined to label a call to obedience as a call to legalism and place it opposite love, making two poles of love versus legalism. But Paul is saying they are not opposites. He is saying that they actually are manifestations of each other.

Without obedience there is no power, no blessing, and no joy. And certainly there is no love. Obedience without love is meaningless. Obedience without love is legalism.[fn] It is what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 as “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

C.S. Lewis  wrote a book, The Four Loves, that describes his understanding of the variations in quality of the various kinds of love. Probably a book well worth reading.

We believe we would all agree that if we say we have any or all of these feelings of love in our heart and do not act on them, not only is something seriously wrong in our spiritual walk, but it is very possible that we are not actually saved. Because if we are truly saved, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in our heart and we cannot keep from activating such love if we are submitting our lives to Him.

We would also suggest that after looking at all of these definitions of love, there is no way that anyone can adequately put the love of God into words. there is a hymn by F. Lehman, the words to which go something like this:

“If I were a scribe (a writer) and the whole sky was my parchment (paper), there still wouldn’t be enough room to write about the ways God loves us.”

You may remember also the passage in Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT, which says:

14 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.
17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.
18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
21 May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.

Also 1 John 2:1-11 NRSV:
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.
4 Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist;
5 but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him:
6 whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8 Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9 Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.
10 Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.
11 But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

If you were to study the Bible from cover to cover and even memorized every verse, having total recall of every Word of God, and just sat in your easy chair in your living room reciting all that head knowledge, your knowledge would be worthless. Without allowing it to change your life, knowledge is useless. You must put that knowledge to use by letting it change your life and then putting it into action. It seems to us that is the way God’s love is. You will experience it and be able to give it to others if you allow it to change your life, and you do that by submitting every thought and action to the Holy Spirit. When you do that you are on auto-pilot. You are doing the work but you are allowing the Holy Spirit to work the controls.

I find it incredibly interesting that Christianity is really the only religion that portrays the Supreme Being (God) as love. The gods of other religions are angry gods demanding that you do various works in order to earn their approval. God is love and offers His approval as a free gift. Let us look together at 1 John 4:12-16 NLT:

12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 All who proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

‍God is love; ‍God is light‍; ‍God is Spirit‍. Spirit and light are expressions of God’s basic nature. Love is the outward expression of God’s personality that makes evident that basic nature. It is the nature of God to love. Just how to define or describe the love of God may be difficult if not impossible.

It is Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, who is the Special Object of God’s love according to Matthew 3:17. Jesus Christ shares the love of the Father in a special way, just as He is His Son in a special way. Because Jesus did the will of God perfectly He became the special object of the Father’s love.
Those who believe in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, are therefore also loved by God in a special way. John 16:27 NLT:

Do we really believe these words? We are not on the outskirts of God’s love, but right in the middle of it. There stands Christ right in the center of that circle of the Father’s love; He then invites us to that same spot where we also stand surrounded by the same love that God has for His Son.

God’s love also welcomes the ungodly. Romans 5:8: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life,” was something Nicodemus had difficulty understanding. God did not just love the Jews, but He loved the Gentiles as well;[fn] not just a part of the world of humankind, but every man and woman in it without regard for his/her moral character. The love of God is broader than any mind can understand. God desires the salvation of all people. Timothy wrote about it in‍1 Timothy 2:4 NLT:

Now we are going to see how the love of God makes itself known. The love of God makes itself known by providing the ultimate sacrifice for the salvation of humankind. 1 John 4:9,10 NLT:

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
The love of God also makes itself known by offering a full pardon for the person who feels true sorrow for their sins. Isaiah 38:17 NLT:

17 Yes, it was good for me to suffer this anguish, for you have rescued me from death and have forgiven all my sins (past, present, and future)[fn].
In Ephesians 2:1-5 (Message) Paul writes:

It was not so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God did not lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ.
Verses 1–3 show people rushing headlong toward destruction. When all help for the human race fails, then God steps in, and by His mercy, which springs from “‍His great love,‍” redeems fallen humanity, and gives them not only pardon, but a position in His heavenly kingdom by the side of Jesus Christ. All of this was to satisfy “His great love.,” because God must love in such a way to express His basic nature.
Lastly, the love of God makes itself known by remembering believers in all the different situations of life. Isaiah. 63:7-9 NLT:

7 I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love. I will praise the Lord for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted according to his mercy and love.
8 He said, “They are my very own people. Surely they will not be false again.” And he became their Savior.
9 In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

Here the prophet, Isaiah, is looking back over the history of the Jewish people. He thinks of all the trials and suffering Israel has gone through and recalls how God’s interests have been tied to theirs. He was not their enemy, but rather a caring, loving friend. He suffered right along with them. ‍Isaiah 49:13-16 NLT:

13 Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their sorrow.
14 Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”
15 “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!
16 See, I have written your name on my hand.
It was the custom in those days to trace on the palms of one’s hands the outlines of any object of affection, which would often be the name of a person’s god. The object of God’s affection was Israel. So God could not act without being reminded of Israel.
Hopefully we now all have not only a much better sense of what the love of God is like, but how essential it is for us to allow this incredible love to flow through us and out to a world that so desperately needs it.

Now that we have thoroughly examined what love is we can begin to look at the different ways you can demonstrate love. How do you demonstrate love? In thousands of ways. Let us look at a few.

One of the ways we described love was that it includes teaching others about the truth of God. We can see this in Ephesians 4:15,16 NRSV:

15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Love involves teaching others what needs to be taught, what they need to know to go to Heaven.

Secondly, love involves ministering to the needs of others, giving them personal help.

Thirdly, love is serving one another in a way that causes people to grow because of your careful behavior. In other words, setting an example. Love sets a positive example of spiritual life so that people can grow from it. Love is a behavioral act that stimulates someone else’s growth rather than retarding it. It is the kind of life that leads others toward God and not toward sin.

Love also covers the sins of others. 1 Peter 4:8 (Amplified Bible):

True godly love forgives others, just as God has forgiven us.

Ephesians 4:32-5:2 NLT:
32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
1 Follow God’s example in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
2 Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him.

Your sacrifice of loving when the going gets rough or when the person you are trying to love is an enemy or a difficult person will also be like a sweet perfume to God. As Christ loved us and gave His life for us, you are to love others and put them before yourself. As Christ loved us and forgave us, you are to love others and forgive them as well.

Ephesians 4:2 NLT:
2 Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

Love also sacrifices for others as John tells us in John 15:12,13 NLT:

12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.
13 And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.

Each of the specific commandments mentioned in Romans 13:9, is a reflection of love:

9 For the commandments against adultery and murder and stealing and coveting—and any other commandment—are all summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  (NLT)

1. If you love someone you will not steal from them.
2. If you love someone you will not murder them.
3. If you love your spouse you will respect your marriage vows. Adultery is not only an unloving act toward the spouse; it is also a lack of respect for the partner in the affair.
4.  Lack of respect is being unloving. Verse 10 of Romans 13 sums it up nicely: “Love does no wrong to anyone.”

Love is not only a matter of how you feel emotionally. It is a way people deserve to be treated. Doing these things we have just discussed is what attracts the world to Christ. It is love that sends doctors to set up clinics in the jungle so people can be healed physically and spiritually. It is love for people who have never heard the Word of God that leads people to spend twenty-five to thirty years translating the Bible into a native tongue so God’s love can be communicated. Before a person is a believer in Jesus as Lord and Savior, he/she does not have the ability to do these things. But once you have that relationship, Romans 5:5 tells us just how we can love like that:

5 And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

How can we love like that?

We have a new resource in order to love the way we ought to love. A love beyond description is given to us. The abundance of God’s love is always there so you may love in the manner we have discussed. But you must be willing to submit to the Holy Spirit now living within you. You must turn over the control factor of your life to the Holy Spirit. You can carry your bitterness, anxiety, hatred, animosity, revenge and vengeance on your own, or you can yield them to the Spirit of God who will then take over the spirit of your life, at which time bitterness is replaced by love, vengeance is replaced by affection. In 1 Thessalonians 4:9, Paul writes:

9 But I don’t need to write to you about the Christian love that should be shown among God’s people. For God himself has taught you to love one another.  (NLT)

Then if we look to 1 Peter 1:22, we see a tremendous truth :

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Holy  Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.  (NKJV)

So, yes, love is all you need—when you correctly define love.  It starts with God, who is Himself Love. I John 4:16-17 NIV:

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

When we have a right relationship with the God who is love, His love comes to live in us and then we share that love with those around us. There are also some side effects of living a life of love. If you love others, you are going to be loved yourself. .

As I’m writing this, I suddenly began to think about all the people that I know that are very uncomfortable with such terms as “religion,” “salvation,” “church,” “Jesus,” the “Bible,” and other topics that are related to these things. I know the frustration of listening to people who say things such as: “You can believe whatever you want about God, but I believe in Him in my own way. We all have that right.” Or, “The Bible is a book like any other book. It was written by men and women thousands of years ago and doesn’t apply to life today.”

As I meditated on those thoughts I could not help but think of the lasting eternal effect there will be on those who refuse to seek the God who created them. It is our prayer that He somehow would reveal Himself to them. There is a reality stated clearly in the Bible that many people never hear, even if they go to church every Sunday, and we would like to just take a few moments to address that reality.

We will be focusing on Romans 13:8-10 . But before doing that let us look at the context of the chapter by reading the first eight verses as well.

Romans 13:1-10 NLT:
1 Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God.
2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow.
3 For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well.
4 The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong.
5 So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience.
6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid so they can keep on doing the work God intended them to do.
7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and import duties, and give respect and honor to all to whom it is due.
8 Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God’s law.
9 For the commandments against adultery and murder and stealing and coveting—and any other commandment—are all summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of God’s requirements.

Paul tells us in the first seven verses of Romans 13 that we are to obey the government and pay all our debts. Then Paul makes an interesting comparison between debts and the subject of love which he is now turning to. And Paul tells us that love is a debt we owe to everyone. Paul really emphasizes this statement by saying that if we give our love to everyone we will fulfill all of God’s Law. Love is the only debt we will never pay off. And we do not want to pay this debt off because we have been given the same capacity to love as God loves according to Romans 5:5 NLT:

For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Any Christian who does not love like this is not drawing on the capacity God has given a true believer. In verses 9 and 10 of chapter 13 Paul describes what James calls the “royal law of love (James 2:8). If you have ever asked yourself how you could do everything that God commands, how you could keep His Law perfectly, the answer is to love everyone. In that way you will fulfill everything that God expects of a person. In that way you will fulfill all of God’s Ten commandments. Paul selects a sampling of the Ten Commandments in verse 9.

The point here is that the commandments are not really necessary for the person who loves in accordance with verse 8. You do not have to tell someone not to kill if they love people. You do not have to tell them not to steal from others if they love people. Love fulfills the whole Law. Love is obedience to the whole Law. And God is not just looking for outward obedience, but He is also looking into the heart, the way people feel, the way they think. That is what makes love the key ingredient for obeying the Law. If you love someone, you love them with your heart and mind, and then that love is demonstrated by the way a person treats the one they love.

This week Betty and I went to the funeral of our physician. He had died suddenly following some surgery. His death was a shock and he left behind his wife and four children between the ages of 16 and 21. There were hundreds of people at that funeral, possibly even a thousand. The tears flowed freely as people spoke of Jim and shared their memories of him. One theme came through loud and clear. Here was a loving man who prayed for and demonstrated the fruits of the Spirit in his life. He even asked others to pray that the fruits of the Spirit would be evident in him. He was a man of prayer, praying with a number of other men with whom he’d developed close friendships, praying for his children twice a day, praying for his marriage. He told the other men that was the best thing they could be doing. Many spoke of the compassion and love Jim had for his patients. His head nurse had often wondered why he was so frequently late for his first patients of the day until she learned that at the hospital he would stop and talk or pray with his patients. The nurses at the hospital spoke well of him and, if you know the medical field, that is a high endorsement. He often wrote his medical reports late at night because he wouldn’t miss any of his kids’ soccer games. One son tearfully spoke of how, when he had rejected his father for a period of time, his dad had still loved him and told him so. Jim wanted his children to have compassion on others in the world who were hurting and less fortunate, so he took each of them on medical mission trips with him. There were many photographs of Jim and his wife, and in every one of them he had his arm around her or was hugging her. You could tell it was spontaneous affection and not a pose. As his patients, we knew he was a Christian and we often sensed Jim’s gentleness and compassion. When we went to his funeral, we had concrete evidence of where it came from. Galatians 5:22-23 was the theme of his life and he truly exhibited the love of God to everyone who came in contact with him.

Keeping the commandments flows from a heart of love. The intention of the Law is to cultivate love from the heart. Matthew 22:37-40 says it all:

What a marvelous concept. Now we want to take you back to Exodus 20 to show you how the Ten Commandments are the law of love. The first four pertain to God and the next six to people. Exodus 20:3 NLT:

3 “Do not worship any other gods besides me.

This commandment tells us that love is loyal.

Exodus 20:4 NLT:
4 “Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish.

This commandment tells us that love for God is faithful, is devoted to the object of its love, and it obeys. This is yet another dimension of love.

Exodus 20:7 NLT:
7 “Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.

Love is reverent. If you love God, will you curse His name? If you love God will you be unfaithful to His Word? If you love God will you be disloyal to Him and tolerant of the gods of other religions?

Exodus 20:8 NLT:
8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today.

And this is the commandment that Jesus quoted in Matthew 22:37-40 that we read a few minutes ago. If I love God this way, am I going to have to worry about keeping the Law, the Ten Commandments? Love fulfills all the Law. It is that simple. Joshua, the man who took over after Moses died, made that very clear. Joshua 22:4,5 NLT:

4 And now the Lord your God has given the other tribes rest, as he promised them. So go home now to the land Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the east side of the Jordan River.
5 But be very careful to obey all the commands and the law that Moses gave to you. Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, be faithful to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”

The remaining six commandments address love towards other people. Exodus 20:12 NLT:

12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God will give you.

Love is respectful.

Exodus 20:13 NLT:
13 “Do not murder.

Love is protective. Life is sacred. Everyone created in the image of God is sacred. You do not murder God’s precious creations like Terry Schiavo, unborn babies, or young children. You do not deny the poor or the elderly adequate medical attention.

Exodus 20:14 NLT:
14 “Do not commit adultery.

Love is pure. Love does not defile other people.

Exodus 20:15 NLT:
15 “Do not steal.

Love does not take what belongs to someone else. Love gives rather than takes.

Exodus 20:16 NLT:
16 “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.

Love does not lie.

Exodus 20:17 NLT:
17 “Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbor owns.”

Love is content with what one has.

Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament says:

What is God saying in the Ten Commandments? He is saying, “Love Me, love people.” That is it. On that hang all the laws that God gave and all the teachings He gave to His prophets. Some people look at the Bible and wonder: “How can I know all that? How can I obey all those things that God wants?” It is simple.

If you are living according to this simple guideline, you will continually be doing what God wants you to do. And that is how the Law is fulfilled. If you do this, you will not want to steal. You will be protected. By what? By the Holy Spirit of God working in your heart to remove any desire to do such things.

Now what does Paul mean when he says, “Love your neighbor as yourself”? He is saying that most people will be most caring about themselves. So he tells us to think about and care for others just as much as we do for ourselves. Philippians 2:1-5 reminds us of this:

1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?
2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.
4 Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.
5 Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.  (NLT)

Now some people wonder who their neighbor is. Well it is anyone who crosses your path. It is anybody. Now if you want to know how love acts, read 1 Corinthians 13. Any one who crosses your path should feel your love and in that way you will fulfill the Law. You will never hurt anyone if all you do is love them in the manner described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Romans 13:8 literally says: “ For the one loving has fulfilled the other law.” You know what the other law is? It is the second part of that two part statement in Matthew 22: 39. The part that says: Love your neighbor as yourself.  (NLT)

That is the other law and the one who loves fulfills that law. Verse 10 of Romans chapter 13 tells us that love is the fulfillment of the Law. In the time of Christ a Pharisee was a legalist, someone who kept the Law of God out of fear, or pride, or self interest. We have a lot of people like that today too. Such a person can never fulfill the Law. You may be able to restrain yourself from murder or adultery, but you will never be able to fulfill the Law because that type of behavior is nothing more than a mask. It is pretending to be something outwardly that you are not inwardly. To fulfill the Law, the behavior has to come from the way you feel in your heart, a love that is a reality because of the work of Jesus. What does fulfill mean? It means “to develop the full potentialities of something.”[fn] Jesus would fulfill the Law by obeying it perfectly and would fulfill the prophets’ predictions of the Messiah and His kingdom.[fn] Jesus would obey the Law without a single mistake, without ever sinning. And He would be the One that showed the world He was the Messiah because in His life people would see happening what the Old Testament prophets had predicted hundreds of years earlier. Matthew 5:17 NLT says:

17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.

You can take that statement about Jesus fulfilling the Law in many ways. He fulfilled it by fulfilling the predictions (prophecy) of the Old Testament prophets perfectly, and He fulfilled it by being the perfect expression of love. So we too are called to love, and if we love we fulfill the whole Law. That is our living testimony to the people around us and the community in which we live. Let us go back to Romans 12:1 where all of this begins to take form. From Romans chapter three to chapter eleven the emphasis was on salvation and redemption. Then as we get into chapter 12 the emphasis shifts to those of us who are redeemed, that is, freed from the consequences of our sin. First we present our body as a living sacrifice to God and then we stop conforming ourselves to what we know to be evil in this world. After that we begin to use our God-given spiritual gifts as a living testimony of God’s righteous values to the world around us. We know that paying our taxes is the right thing to do, so we pay our taxes even if we do not like it. We know that loving all people is the right thing to do, so we love everyone. We read in John 13:34, 35 NLT:

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

The new commandment is love, and love alone will satisfy all of the commandments, that is, all of the Law. Love can be expressed in many ways. Love can be courageous, love can be courteous, love can be expressed in martyrdom (going to one‘s death in defending their religious faith). Sometimes love can be expressed in small ways, such as a kind word or a loving touch. Love is expressed in our attitude, speech, and action towards others.

We owe a debt and the debt we owe is to love. It is possible to pay that debt because we have a new capacity through the power of the Holy Spirit living within us. We have been given a new commandment. We are to fulfill the Law of God by demonstrating this love in every aspect of our lives.

There is a story about an elementary teacher that I saw on the internet some years ago. It touched me deeply and I think this would be an appropriate place to share it with you.

“This teacher’s name was Mrs. Thompson.  As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie.  Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she “loved them all the same.”  

“But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.

“Mrs. Thompson noticed that Teddy did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath, and Teddy could be unpleasant.  It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

“At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child’s past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.

“Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, ‘Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh.  He does his work neatly and has good manners.... he is a joy to be around.’

“His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."

“His third grade teacher wrote, ‘His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father does not show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps are not taken.’

“Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, ‘Teddy is withdrawn and does not show much interest in school.  He does not have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class.’

“By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem, and she was ashamed of herself.  She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, all wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's.  His present was clumsily wrapped in heavy brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.

“Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents.  Some of the other children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume.  But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.

“Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, ‘Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to.’  After the children left she cried for at least an hour.  On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic.  Instead, she began to teach children.

“Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy.  As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive.  The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded.  By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class, and despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."

“A year later, she found a note under her door from Teddy, telling her that she is the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.  Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy.  He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

“Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors.  He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.

“Then four more years passed and yet another letter came.  This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further.  The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had.  But now his name was a little longer, the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.

“The story does not end there.  You see, there was yet another letter that spring.  Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married.  He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom.  Of course, Mrs. Thompson did.

“Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back.  She said, ‘Teddy you have it all wrong.  You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I did not know how to teach until I met you.’"

What a difference love made in that little boy’s life! And what a difference it will make in the lives of the people with whom you have contact.

 

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


© Ron Teed - Used by permission. All rights Reserved.