The New Testament and Politics
When discussing a Biblical view of the state, it is very common for people to turn immediately to Romans 13:1-7 (“Everyone must submit to the governing authorities. . .”), as if this provides the basic and central summary of a New Testament view of politics. However, this is a mistake. The proper starting point for understanding a biblical view of politics is the New Testament’s message of the Lordship of Christ over all of creation and His victory over the powers and authorities of this world. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus established God’s Kingdom, dethroning the kingdoms of this world, and is now reigning as Lord of the whole world. This is the basic and central political message of the New Testament as a whole.
Given this, the basic New Testament message about the secular political powers of this world is that they have been delegitimized. Anyone who does not acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ, anyone who claims lordship for themselves, is in rebellion against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Any kingdom that sets itself up as a rival to God’s Kingdom is in rebellion against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Thus, at the basic level, the secular political powers of this world should be understood as lacking legitimate authority.
Thus, Paul’s call for Christians to be subject to the governing authorities is not his basic and central political message. His basic political message is that Jesus is Lord of all and that all people everywhere should submit to His Lordship. Romans 13:1-7, then, is a qualification or clarification of Paul’s political teachings, lest some Christians draw the wrong implications from those teachings and take them in some kind of anarchist direction.
Romans 13:1-7
In order to correctly understand what Paul is saying in Romans 13:1-7, it is important to read it within its context. The book of Romans was not addressed to governing authorities, in order to tell them what to do and to give approval to their actions. It was addressed to Christians, who had no political power, in order to tell them how to relate to the governing authorities. And this specific passage is embedded within a larger passage in which Paul commands Christians to love their neighbors (13:8-10) and enemies (12:20-21), not to take revenge (12:19), and to “live at peace with everyone” (12:18). Being subject to the governing authorities, then, is an example of how Christians are to live at peace with and show love to everyone.
“Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are put in place by God” (13:1). Paul’s statement here does not legitimate the actions of the governing authorities in the sense of giving moral approval to them as consistent with Christian ethics. Rather, what Paul is saying is that God, in His providence, has made it so that there are governmental structures in this Fallen world that use coercion and violence to hold back the greater evil of chaos and anarchy. It is a case of God using evil to hold back greater evil, similar to how in the Old Testament God used the evil pagan Babylonian Empire to punish His people Israel for their sin, and told them through the prophet Jeremiah to surrender to its rule. It is important to note that the “everyone” here refers to the Christian audience of the book of Romans; Paul is not saying that Christians should try to force non-Christians to submit to the governing authorities, and he is certainly not saying that Christians themselves should seize secular political power and use it to control others.
“So, then, the one who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who rebel will bring judgment on themselves” (13:2). The book of Acts tells us that the apostles frequently disobeyed authority figures, declaring, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Paul himself was eventually arrested and executed by the Roman Empire for his disobedience to it. Paul’s statement here, then, cannot be understood as an absolute legitimation of the authority of the state and its actions.
“For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (13:3-4). Here we see that Paul’s command to submit to the governing authorities only applies to cases when they are carrying out their divinely appointed task of punishing people for doing evil. If they step outside this role and punish people for doing good, Christians need not submit to them.
Rulers serve God by bearing the “sword” (the threat of violence) against evildoers. This does not mean, however, that their violent actions are morally legitimate; the New Testament clearly teaches that violence is always incompatible with the demands of Christian discipleship. Paul has just said that Christians should leave room for God’s wrath rather than taking revenge (12: 19), so he cannot mean here that it is acceptable for Christians to occupy the role of rulers who act as agents of wrath. In Isaiah, God calls the evil pagan Persian emperor Cyrus His “anointed one,” because he was the one God used to bring His people Israel back from exile. In the same way, rulers indirectly serve God by bearing the sword against evildoers. By holding back chaos and anarchy, they provide a space of relative security and order in which the church can proclaim the gospel and advance God’s Kingdom. This indirect service to the mission of the church is the only reason God allows these governing authorities to continue to exist, in spite of them being deligitimized by the establishment of God’s Kingdom.
“Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor” (13:5-7). Non-Christians may submit to the governing authorities merely out of fear of punishment, while disobeying them whenever they think they can get away with it. Christians, on the other hand, submit to the governing authorities as an act of Christian discipleship, out of a desire to “live at peace with everyone” (12:18). Obviously, if obedience to the governing authorities would in any way, shape, or form conflict with obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Christian’s conscience will tell them to disobey the governing authorities. Christians give taxes, respect, and honor to the governing authorities, not because Christians acknowledge them as having any legitimate lordship per se, but out of a desire to live at peace with everyone one and to “become all things to all people” (I Cor 9:22), for the sake of the advancement of the gospel.
Conclusion
Paul’s teaching in Romans 13:1-7 that Christians should be subject to the governing authorities, like Peter’s similar teaching in I Peter 2:13-17, does not teach that the violent, coercive actions of secular governments are morally legitimate. It does not teach that secular governments have any legitimate lordship and authority per se. Jesus alone has legitimate Lordship over the whole world, and the Kingdom He has established is the only truly legitimate kingdom. Yet God allows these worldly kingdoms to continue to exist. Why? Because, in the time in between Jesus’s First and Second Comings, these governments, when they carry out their divinely appointed task, can provide a certain amount of order and security that gives the church the opportunity to proclaim the gospel.
Paul commands Christians to pray “for kings and all those in authority — so that we may live tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim 2:1-4). Such prayer does not entail giving moral approval to the violent actions of the state. Rather, it is a prayer for rulers to have a relative measure of wisdom and justice in order to govern relatively well, so that the church may have peace. Christians should never stop hoping that these rulers will eventually repent of their sins (including government-sponsored violence), believe the gospel, and be saved.
In His providence, God has put the governing authorities in place in order indirectly to serve the advancement of His Kingdom in a Fallen world. Recognizing this, Christians should submit, insofar as their Christian conscience allows, to whatever de facto governing authorities (empire, tribe, nation-state, or otherwise) exist in the time and place they live. Yet Christians should never give their moral approval to any actions which are inconsistent with the demands of Christian discipleship, whether carried out by agents of the state or otherwise.