“Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Pay to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” Romans 13:1-10
This won’t be one of my most popular posts, but we have to get real about where we are in God’s timeline and our responsibility in His plan. And make no mistake; His plan has been proceeding the way He knew it would since before the foundations of this world.
So, who are you voting for? This is a rhetorical question; I don’t need an answer. I know who the better candidate is who aligns closer to our values as Christians, but he’s not perfect, and we will never have a perfect candidate to choose from. And for those reading this outside of the United States, this lesson also applies to you.
So, let’s jump into the main point of this post: If you are a Christian and you are hanging all of your hopes and dreams on the outcome of a political election, you are poorly misguided. Mys suggestion would be to drop on your knees and pray to God that He guides your heart back to the one we should be hanging all of our hopes on, and that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
We cannot be naive about this. God establishes all authority that is in place. Yes, for those countries that have elections, He gives us the ability to vote, and we absolutely should be involved in the election process, voting for the candidate who best reflects the value of our Christian beliefs.
But we shouldn’t look to that governing authority to do what we should be doing as Christians. It is easy to look at the place that we send our tax dollars to for solutions. We work hard for that money, and it should be used responsibly. But here’s a clue for you: They don’t spend our money responsibly. And I am going to tell you another thing about that: It is our fault that this happened. More on that later.
Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a servant of God to you for good.
There is only one situation in which we should resist the governing authority, and that is when they take away our right to worship God in the way He has called us to worship Him. We will look at two ways of dealing with situations with the governing authority from the Book of Daniel.
“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials. The commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my Lord the king, who has allotted your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking gaunt in comparison to the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please put your servants to the test for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.” So he listened to them in this matter, and put them to the test for ten days. And at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better, and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.” Daniel 1:8-16
Here, we find Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah taken from their country. They are found to have value in their new rulers’ eyes. However, they are asked to eat food that goes against the dietary restrictions of their faith. So what did they do? Did they protest in the streets, start riots, and loot?
No, it says that Daniel “sought permission.” He made a reasonable request to eat a diet that aligned with their faith, promising the official that he would not be disappointed with the results that Daniel knew God would supply through their faithfulness to the prescribed diet.
“Nebuchadnezzar began speaking and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden statue that I have set up? Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe, and all kinds of musical instruments, to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can rescue you from my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”” Daniel 3:14-18
In this example, we find that King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made of himself, and he forced everyone subject to him to bow down to this idol. Their faith, like our faith, called for us to have no idols in front of God.
So they resisted by not bowing before this idol. They were called before the king, who ended up throwing them into the fiery pit, where they were spared by God for their faithfulness. They also had a visitor in the fire; some commentary will say that it was Jesus who met them in the fire.
There is one more example in the Book of Daniel, where a government official had the king make a decree that prayer could not be conducted in the open. Daniel did not comply and was put in the lion’s pit, where God again spared him due to his faithfulness.
A great lesson here is that even when the government conspires against our faith, God will always stand for us, not against us.
I believe that through the faithfulness of Daniel, there will be two foreign Kings that will be in heaven because they observed the faithfulness of believers.
But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Pay to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor.
Here’s a wake-up call! I believe that if we, as Christians, did what the Lord asked us to do, we would not be in the predicament we find ourselves in today. Anything we don’t do that the Lord asks us to do is evil.
He calls us to take care of each other. He calls us to carry each other’s burdens. When we don’t do this, God will work through the governing authority to do it. When you deal with government, we are dealing with levels of bureaucracy, things are slow to get done, and the money we send to the government through our taxes may return to our area or maybe it won’t; that will depend on the ability of our local politicians to prove the case for that money.
If and when it returns to the area, it is pennies on the dollar.
But when we take care of those around us, the need for outside help decreases, and the need for that governing authority diminishes.
There is a section here that I would like to address as well: Pay to all what is due to them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor.
When we break this section down, it would look something like this:
Tax: would be an income tax depending on where you come from. In the US, some states also collect income taxes, as does the US government.
Custom: would refer to a sales tax
Respect & Honor: This section needs a little addressing. I’ve noticed over the last 10 years or so that people believe that they are only to respect or honor those who do the same to them.
As Christians, we must treat others respectfully and honorably because God asks us to. Period.
There is no grey area here. In our faith, we should not regard ourselves as above others. When it comes to governing authority, and this would include your bosses or managers, it is God’s hand that places these people in those spots, and when we don’t respect or honor this, we are not honoring or respecting God.
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God, that by doing right you silence the ignorance of foolish people. Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-servants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are harsh. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person endures grief when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.” 1 Peter 2:13-20
In step with the Spirit, Peter would concur with what Paul writes in the Book of Romans. Peter would take it a step further and say, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are harsh. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person endures grief when suffering unjustly.”
There will be times when we suffer unjustly, but this suffering finds favor with God. I don’t understand this, but when we look at what happened to Jesus, the only perfect, sinless human being to walk on the earth, and his willingness to suffer for our sakes, this is the attitude that He calls us to have.
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.”
“Owe nothing to anyone” does not mean that we don’t take loans for our homes, automobiles, or business ventures. What this means is paying what you owe when you owe. If it’s due on the 15th, make sure it’s there on the 15th. That money is used to pay others and the other obligations that the lender has.
“But John, their interest rates are through the roof, and they have too many fees.”
Here’s what I say to that: If you don’t like that setup, then don’t sign the loan. Don’t buy the car or house; save your money and pay cash. Other than that, our banking system is highly regulated by our government to help protect others.
But understand this: It is our desires and unwillingness to wait that puts us in bad financial situations. If we could control our desires, we would be better off financially. The rest of this will be covered in another post.
“And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”” Matthew 22:37-40
When we prioritize our lives correctly, God works everything out. He calls us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. He should be in the forefront of every decision we make and present in our minds at all times.
And He calls for us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
These two things are tied together and cannot be separated. We cannot love God if we don’t love others, and we cannot love others without loving God.
The love we are called to is selfless love, putting others before ourselves with confidence that God will meet our needs. For most of us, we live transactionally. We have a scorecard in our heads that says, “I did something good for that person, and now they owe me.”
That is flawed thinking, Jesus took our sin with Him on the cross. There is nothing we can do for what He did for us. We can only acknowledge with our hearts what He did for us and live our lives following what He calls us to do. And He gives us that guidance in Matthew 6:31-34.
“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:31-34
When we put God first in everything we do, it doesn’t matter who is in the White House because Jesus is on the throne. His plan is being executed. We must ask ourselves what we are doing to expand the Kingdom of God.
If we are constantly focused on what is happening in Washington, a place we have no control over, it takes away from focusing on those around us who need our help. But when we do focus on those around us, this spills over into the community and beyond. If we were to do this with all of our heart, soul, and mind, we could render the governing body obsolete.
However, this requires us as individuals to participate within our churches, help each other grow in grace and faith, and extend that grace into our communities.
Heavenly Father, Help us to understand that You are in control. That Jesus is in the most powerful position on the throne of heaven.
Help us to realize that we are powerfully equipped to help those around us with the grace, mercy, and forgiveness that You have bestowed upon us. And that it is this grace, mercy and forgiveness that You want us to bring into our communities.
Help us understand that by living as You call us to through scripture, we can bring heaven to earth.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen and Hallelujah! 🙏🏻❤️
