Sacrificing to Government

This morning we are picking back up in our study of the book of Romans, and just to catch you back up, remember that we have been working through how we are to live as sacrifices to God in this present age. So, we’ve seen that we are to sacrifice by using our gifts and talents for the good of the church. We are also to sacrifice our priorities for the good of others, both believers and non-believers. Now we come to a wonderful passage from Rom. 13 in which Paul explains the ways that we live as a sacrifice towards our government. Now, to be honest, this passage often hits Americans pretty hard. By our very nature, we are an independent people who love our freedoms and don’t think the government is much good for anything. Even more so, we’ve been taught in Civics class that government gains its authority from the will of the governed, so any discussion of the authority of government beyond that is going to be pretty hard to swallow. Because of that, many American Christians come to our passage today and try to rationalize it. Or, we want to pick and choose Bible verses to endorse our form of government while condemning others. But, Americans need a passage like this. Christians should be model citizens. We should value order and justice. We should show due respect to authority. So, what is the relationship of the Christian to his or her government? Let’s read our passage together, and then I want to give you three questions that this text answers for us about our relationship to the government. 1) From where does government get its authority? 2) What authority dos government have? 3) What duties does the Christian have to his or her government?

So first, from where does government get its authority? We find that answer in verses 1-2. Put simply: “there is no authority except for God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Now, the word “authority” is translated from the Greek word “exousia”, which literally means “consisting of one’s own being.” It’s the idea of being free or having the authority of choice over a certain domain. A biblical view of authority deals with absolute dominion. In other words, when God grants authority to someone over a certain part of creation, they have full authority over it.

Understand that God grants authority over different aspects of this world. He has granted authority to angels and demons. Daniel 10 tells of a “prince of Persia”, which was an evil angel (a demon) who was given authority over the land of Persia. Satan is another example of this. He is called “the ruler of this world” in John 14:30. Husbands are given authority over the household. Parents are given authority over their children. And here we find that God has given authority to governments over a nation. This authority comes from God, so Paul says, in verse 2, that those who resist it are resisting God.

Second, we need to ask, what authority has God given to government? Paul answers this question in verses 3-4, and again it’s simple: government has been established by God to bring justice and punish evil. We find this all the way back in Genesis 9:6-7, where God first establishes government after the flood. He tells Noah, “if a man sheds blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” God gives this law to Noah in answer to the terrible violence that had arisen before the flood. So, to constrain evil, God gave the authority to man to govern other men and to exact punishment.

Finally, we need to ask, “what duties does the Christian have to his or her government?” We find that answer in verses 5-7. Paul says that we are to be “in subjection.” This word is the same Greek word used in Eph. 5:24 where Paul says, “now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” We know from that passage that this a willful submission that is meant to be an act of worship and obedience to God. So, when we submit to government, we do so willingly. We don’t do it out of coercion, but out of obedience to God. This is why Paul says that we should be subject “for the sake of conscience.” We should be obedient to government authorities because we want to do what is right and serve our fellow man. People that know me well accuse me of being a rule follower, and I am, to a fault. I mean, if someone puts up a rope barrier, I wouldn’t dare cross it, even if there is no one else in line and the person at the desk has to wait 3 minutes for me to navigate all those ropes. I get it. sometimes rules are just made to keep good order and they aren’t always necessary, but when it comes to government, we are to be obedient because we believe it is the right thing to do and we want to honor God.

Paul gives two specific duties that we have to our government. First, in verse 6, he says that we are to pay taxes. Ouch, right! But understand the reason Paul gives for saying this. He says we should pay taxes because government authorities are ministers of God. Catch this: he compares government workers to those who worked in the temple or to deacons in the church. They are doing God’s work in constraining evil, so we should be willing to fund them.

Second, in verse 7, Paul says we have a duty to show them honor and respect. The word “respect” literally means “fear” or “terror”. In other words, we should not treat the police or judges like any other man. We should be fearful of their authority. “Honor” means to rightly value someone. We should rightly value their positions and responsibilities.

So in the time we have left, I want to answer two important questions that linger from this passage. First, how do we do this in our modern, democratic republic? I think there are three basic ways we can be living sacrifices as citizens of this country. One, we can show our leaders due respect because we recognize that even though we elect them, their authority comes from God. It has become popular to say “that’s not my president” when the guy we didn’t vote for is elected. That attitude has gotten even worse lately as both sides have accused the other of stealing elections. Christians should live above that. Think about this: Paul is writing this passage at the height of the rule of Emperor Nero, a man who actively persecuted Christians. He was never elected, and he ruled as a dictator, and yet Paul commanded believers to show him due respect as a minister of God. Christians in America should do the same.

Two, we should pray for our leaders, regardless of who they are. Paul commands us to do that in 1 Tim. 2:2. And by pray, I don’t mean pray for their demise. I mean pray for their salvation. Pray for wisdom. Pray for a change of heart where they are wrong. Pray for understanding and compromise where it is possible.

Three, we should support good government with our money and our time. Now look, I am a conservative business owner who doesn’t want to pay anymore in taxes than I have to, but we have become so tax-averse in our country that in many cases the government can’t do the basic things that are its God-given authority (just ask Mrs. Kaye). We can’t fund a strong police force in this conservative county that rails against the “Defund the Police” movement because we don’t want our sales tax to go up half a cent. There are basic, God ordained responsibilities that government should provide, and we ought to be ready and willing to give to support that.

Finally, the last question we have to ask is, “so does this mean that I should obey the government, even if it commands me to do something evil?” The answer to that is simple: absolutely not! I can say that because there is one authority that I have not spoken of yet. Eph. 1:21 says that Jesus is above all rule and authority and power and dominion. That means that Jesus is our final and ultimate authority. We are submissive to these lesser authorities like parents and husbands and policemen because we want to be obedient to Christ. But, if those authorities contradict the authority of Christ, we have every right to disobey them so that we might remain obedient to Jesus. We see this in the lives of the apostles. In Acts 4, the Jewish authorities commanded Peter and John to stop preaching the Gospel, and they responded by saying, “we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

We must live with that same boldness, both in our willingness to obey government, and in our willingness to face persecution when that government contradicts Christ. As Paul says in 1 Tim 2, we should live peaceable lives in hopes that  peaceful nations will be seedbeds for the spread of the gospel.  May we leave this place ready to live as sacrifices in our civil obedience.