Thoughts from Romans 13 (part 5)
So if you’re still with me, we just finished answering the accusation that Paul was simply naïve, believing that the government was not so bad. Clearly, that was not the case.
And so we know that Peter and Paul both want us to “be subject” to governing authorities – and we also know that there are cases in which we should not obey (and of course we’ll talk more about that later).
So today we’re going to look at the wider context of the parallel passages in Titus and 1 Peter, and then more of the context in Romans 13. Bear with me, you will see why this is very important.
Peter moves on from the government to slaves and masters. And once again, it’s “be subject”:
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
1 Peter 2:18
And in Titus:
Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative…
Titus 2:9
It’s the same term in both cases in the Greek. And so we get a bit of a feel for the word here. Respect, even in the case of unjust masters. We are not to be constantly complaining. It’s a matter of attitude.
And I think that it is appropriate to apply this to employers and employees as well. We must be subject to our employers.
But we really have to start with the family, as we did in Genesis 1 (see part 3). There is a structure of authority given by God in the family (Ephesians 5:22-6:4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Peter 3:1-7). Then we have employers and employees (a principle from masters and slaves) (1 Peter 2:18; Titus 2:9; Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-25). And believers to the leaders of the local church (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; 1 Peter 5:1-3). And all are subject to the government.
And in every case, the human authority is established by God. And in every case, we are to be subject and to act with respect.
In fact, Paul even tells us to pay our taxes!
For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Romans 13:6-7
It’s hard to read this without thinking about what Jesus said about taxes. All the synoptic Gospels include the story, but let’s read it from the pen of the tax collector himself, Matthew.
So you may remember that the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus by asking tricky questions. And this time they had come up with a yes or no question – either way, someone was going to be upset with Jesus:
And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
Matthew 22:16-21
But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
They said, “Caesar’s.”
Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
“The coin for the tax” – that’s a technical term for a Roman coin that was used for the tax. Trust Matthew to notice that detail – it’s only in his Gospel!
Jesus’ answer is not yes or no – instead, he says, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The Jews would not have been happy with the “likeness” or “inscription” on this coin. An image of Caesar, with an inscription declaring his deity – the coin itself would be considered idolatrous! But Jesus still says “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”. Look, maybe we shouldn’t be so anxious to hang on to the things of this world. Maybe we should be far more interested in our obedience to God.
As has often been said, in paying taxes (whether to Israel or Rome) Jesus would be funding the system that put him on the cross. It’s an interesting thought.
And I really think that there is an echo of Jesus’ teaching in Paul’s writing. “Listen”, says Paul. “We pay taxes to the government, a government which punishes the evil and approves the good. No government does that perfectly all the time. But in almost every case that is part of what they’re doing. So – pay what is owed to them.”
And then of course Paul gives more general instructions:
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Romans 13:7
There’s something interesting here that you actually can’t see clearly in the ESV. The word “respect” is actually the word “fear” – it’s the same word we see in verse 3 (“Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good…). Yes, Paul just finished telling us that we should not fear authority (assuming we do what is good!), and now he’s telling us to fear.
Now I think that this is an echo of what Jesus was saying. These are general instructions that include the fear of God. In your life, if you owe something, pay it! Taxes? Pay your taxes. Revenue? (This may be talking about what we might call “duty” that you pay at a border.) Pay it! Fear? Well, whom should we fear? The ultimate authority, of course. God Himself. Honour? Give honour to whom you should honour. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
This reminds me of the wicked judge in Jesus’ parable – “who neither feared God nor respected man” – similar wording (Luke 18:2). Fear God, honour the authorities – “Fear God. Honor the emperor” 1 Peter 2:17. We often see this pairing of our response to human authority and our fear of the Lord.
And so, finally, Romans 13:8 – “Owe no one anything, except to love each other…” When the bill comes due, pay it! If you are an employer and you need to pay your employee, pay the salary! If you borrowed money from a friend, pay it back! This doesn’t necessarily mean we will never have debts, but when you have a contract, or you have given your word that you will pay back a certain amount, do it. And do it on time.
But we will always owe more love. You can never repay enough love. And we’ll talk more about that later.
So hopefully we’ve covered some important ground today. First, we’ve seen that the concept of “being subject” applies to other human authorities, not just to various levels of government. It has a lot to do with attitude – respect and honour. And we must fear the Lord above all.
We’ve also seen the example of something physical – paying taxes. And again the concept applies not just to government, but to every area of life.
And now we’ve come to love.
Next time we’ll start to apply the principles we’ve learned, and we’ll take a closer look at what Paul says about love, which is a lot more interesting than you may think. [Edit: Actually, I’m going to hold off on the “love” topic a little longer – we’ll get back to it eventually!]