Submitting to authority. It is a touchy subject for a lot of people. A wife submitting to her husband, children submitting to their parents, submitting to law enforcement, employees submitting to bosses, citizens submitting to their government…There are a lot of authorities in our lives and sometimes we struggle with when to obey them and when/if it’s okay not to.
“Let every soul submit himself to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” Romans 13:1-2
We seem to be hearing this passage thrown around a lot these days. A reason for why we should be obeying the government in all they proclaim and demand…as long as it doesn’t go specifically against scripture. But is that what Paul meant here? We must always obey the government’s every rule unless we can point to a passage in scripture that it defies?
The American Revolution – Disobedience?
Until recently, I did not realize just how many Christians believe that the actions of our forefathers was in direct violation of Romans 13. This shocked me. Was I upholding and believing in a lie all these years? Respecting men who directly violated scripture?
So I did a little digging and, of course, a lot of reading! Here is what I found, and this is the conclusion to which I came:
The Purpose of Government:
What is the purpose of government? And what did these men believe?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed: that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government…” (Thomas Jefferson)
“Government was instituted for the purpose of common defence…” (Samuel Adams)
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. For, were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver.” (Thomas Paine)
“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.” (Alexander Hamilton)
“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil…Do what is good and you will have praise from the same.” (Romans 13:3)
To protect, defend, judge evil and to give some structure and order to a sinful and chaotic world…this is the purpose of government. It is a necessary evil, a faulty system, led by sinful people, who fail us every day and in many ways, because…we would not choose to be governed by God:
“But they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7b)
But when the governing authorities reject that job, do not fulfill it, and seek only their own gain and desires…to the detriment of the people they are supposed to protect and look out for…what then?
Belief on Resisting Government:
Most Christian denominations during the the time of the American Revolution believed that, while they were forbidden to overthrow the institution of government and live in anarchy, they were not required blindly to submit to every law and policy. They understood that the institution of government was ordained by God and was not to be overthrown.
But that did not mean that God approved every specific government; God had ordained government instead of anarchy – He opposed rebellion, lawlessness, and wickedness and wanted civil government in society.
“But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.” (Psalm 11:5b)
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)
So now our founding fathers and the colonists had a decision to make: was their opposition to the government biblical? This is also where we must determine our country’s past…and our future: whether opposition to authority was simply to resist the general institution of government, or whether it was to resist tyrannical leaders who had themselves rebelled against God.
(This action is validated in scripture. We saw that God raised up leaders to resist and fight against tyranny and evil. Page after page tells the stories of Gideon, Ehud, Jephthah, Samson, Deborah, David and many others. These were leaders called by God to rise up and “resist the government”, and were praised in Hebrews 11 for their acts of faith.)
The institution of government is not to be opposed but tyranny is…this is the view I have found clearly held by these men in all of their writings.
Even some of those who supported the British could find no biblical grounds against the Americans:
“Inasmuch as all rulers are in fact the servants of the public and appointed for no other purpose than to be “a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well” [c.f., Rom. 13:3], whenever this Divine order is inverted – whenever these rulers abuse their sacred trust by unrighteous attempts to injure, oppress, and enslave those very persons from whom alone, under God, their power is derived – does not humanity, does not reason, does not Scripture, call upon the man, the citizen, the Christian of such a community to “stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ….hath made them free!” [Galatians 5:1] The Apostle enjoins us to “submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” but surely a submission to the unrighteous ordinances of unrighteous men, cannot be “for the Lord’s sake,” for “He loveth righteousness and His countenance beholds the things that are just.” (Reverend Jacob Duche)
But how do we interpret and apply Romans 13 to what we see going on in our country today?
Application
God’s word doesn’t change…We apply it in very much the same way they did in 1776. However, governments DO change. Each government throughout history works differently and the American government is unlike any other. Due to what they experienced and their knowledge of human nature, our founders had the foresight to put in safeguards and structure our government to provide for our security, happiness and wellbeing.
“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of those who do good.” (1 Peter 2:13-14)
“For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.” (Romans 13:5)
“Not that our consciences are to be subject to the will of any man, It is God’s prerogative to make laws immediately to bind conscience, and we must render to God the things that are God’s. But it intimates that our subjection must be free and voluntary, sincere and hearty. The subjection of soul here includes inward honor and outward respect. Obedience to their commands in all things lawful and honest.” – (Matthew Henry Commentary)
Does God want unthinking obedience from us simply because we are complying to something, or does He want us to think things through and submit because we KNOW fully it is the right thing to do? God wants us to think matters through and not merely to comply. We are to use our minds and decide to go in a chosen direction because we know, understand, and set our will to submit to what is right, good and true.
We are not to be violent, lawless, unruly or rude, but we are not commanded to follow blindly or allow unlawful acts by the authorities. God gave us a mind and conscience for a reason. The law does not dictate our ethics, God does. And there will be times when we, as followers of Christ, will be called to stand up in the face of evil and injustice. Romans 13 does NOT undermine that posture.
Esther 4:15-16 – Esther broke the law, ignored the authorities and confronted the king. She disobeyed those in authority to fight an unjust law and confront an evil man who would slay innocents.
We are called to love the things God loves and hate the things He hates. What does He hate? Proverbs 6:16-19 gives us 7 things. Do we see any of these being acted out by those in authority today? Should our response be to let it run rampant, or to take a stand against it?
We don’t always have to disobey authorities. Just as in Daniel 1:8, we also have avenues allowed in our government to request exemption. This is a legal avenue in our country, one that was valued highly by our founders, so that no man would be forced by the government to violate his God-given conscience. But what if that rule is broken? What should you do then?
Paul was not afraid to speak out and lecture authorities when they broke the law. When He and Silas were arrested and beaten in Philippi, did you know that the rulers there broke the law in doing so? In Acts 16:37 Paul called them out on their unlawful deed. He knew the law and his rights and knew that even the authorities had no right under law or God to break them and get away with it.
What so many who quote Romans 13 seem to have forgotten is that in just the next chapter…Romans 14:23b talks about ignoring our conscience. God gave you a conscience for a reason. It is to help guide you. In yelling at and condemning those who have chosen not to comply with certain orders from the government, we have forgotten that they have a conscience, too. We cannot tell someone else what their conscience is saying to them…so why do we act like we can?
James also touches on this subject. In James 4:17 he says the one who knows what is right and doesn’t do it, it is sin for him. It goes the same way if you know something is wrong and you do it. Now, I want to be clear that both of these passages are not talking about issues that God in His word has clearly called wrong. These are issues of conscience, the grey areas that so many Christians find hard to decipher.
If you find yourself in this position, where it’s not clearly written what you should do…then do some research. Read and study scripture, read up on the laws (NOT just what people say are laws, but the actual laws written in the American Constitution, State Constitutions, etc.), and pray for God to show you what to do. And after you have done all that, if you believe in your heart that something is wrong, you shouldn’t do it…and vise versa.
The end point is this: God did not leave us without an option. It is not in God’s character to leave us to submit unwaveringly to tyrannical and evil rulers. And our founding fathers new this…they also knew the way of human nature. So they gave us rights and avenues to avoid that. They are there, they are legal, and they are biblical. We just have to know them and use them. Standing up to tyranny, evil and wrongdoing in governing authorities is not wrong. In fact, it is necessary.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)
Preserving Foundations 
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