10.15.25 – Romans 13

SPEAKER 01 : 0:08

Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:23

Today brings us to Romans chapter 13. Let’s listen to Faith Comes By Hearing’s recording of the 14 verses of Romans 13. Romans 13

SPEAKER 02 : 0:36

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. 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. Owe no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments… You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

SPEAKER 03 : 2:58

Yesterday I shared that I read Romans 12 in Maui, Hawaii. And so we’re still in Hawaii, so we might as well take another tour trip through Maui. My journal entry says, “…drove to Hana yesterday.” In our convertible. Wow, how cool was that? We rented a convertible in Hawaii. So drove to Hana yesterday in our convertible. It was spectacular. A 12-hour trip through rainforests, waterfalls, desert, mountains, lava, black sand, beaches, flowers. Very, very pretty. Before heading out on that road to Hana, I had my quiet time with the Lord and I’d read Romans 13. And I wrote this. How to live in society. Be subject to governing authorities. Do what is good. Pay taxes. Love one another. Love is fulfillment of the law. Behave properly. Make no provision for the lusts of the flesh. So that was my summary of Romans 13 in Maui, Hawaii, 1994. In 2001, I focused on a different aspect of Romans 13. I focused on verse 7, and I wrote, Render therefore to all their due, honor to whom honor. And I wrote, It is okay to honor people. Some may believe a standing ovation for a person is wrong. I think this passage says it’s okay to honor people. And in 2013, I took a little bit different take on this chapter, probably the more famous part of this chapter, when I wrote, according to verse 1, does God select political leadership in every country? People say God must have wanted, quote, Obama or Bush or whoever to be president. I don’t think this verse says that. Israel wanted a king. God didn’t. He gave them one because it is what they wanted. If we elect Bush or Obama, we get what we want. God may or may not want them. Yet he is not surprised by who we elect, and they are not there without his allowance. And I continued, government is for our good. Without it, there’s conflict or anarchy. Not good. We are to pay our taxes, according to verse 6, and pay respect and honor to those in authority over us. The chapter continues, love one another, love fulfills the law, put on Jesus, make no provision for the flesh, refuse the flesh, check it, and take in Jesus. So let’s go back to the very first couple of verses of chapter 13. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Well, that’s controversial sometimes in Christianity, so I appreciate the footnote in my English Standard Version Study Bible. So let me read that. It says this passage addresses the responsibility of Christians to governing authorities. They are to be subject to, which generally means to obey, the government because it has been ordained by God. Paul is speaking here of the general principle of submission to government. Several other passages show that God approves of Christians disobeying government, but only when obedience to government would mean disobeying God. It continues by saying there were even times when God raised up leaders to rebel against the government and deliver the people from evil rulers. My study Bible footnotes continue with some notes on verse 1 itself. It says, Do I believe in living under the authority of the government? Absolutely. Do I believe that God ordains or selects every president of the United States or the leaders of every country? Absolutely not. As I mentioned in my journal, Israel wanted a king. God did not want Israel to have a king, but God gave them the desire of their heart. And so if the political system, regardless of which country, offers us a couple of candidates, and we have to select from one of those candidates, does the election of one of those people mean that that was what God wanted? I don’t believe so. I think often God gives us the desire of our heart in our elected leadership. For example, I believe that God would always put people in leadership who would follow Him and His laws. But that is not the case in many countries and many places on earth. So what’s my responsibility as a Christian? Generally, it is exactly what this verse tells us. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. Verse 3 says, Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. So as long as I’m behaving under the authority of the government, I should be just fine. And verse 4 says though, But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. Now there are a few verses in here that I wish all of our politicians would abide by. For example, verse 4 says, For he is God’s servant for your good. I wish all of our politicians were God’s servant. Verse 6 says, For the authorities are ministers of God. Oh, how I would love that to be true. That everybody in authority was a minister of God. And this chapter does tell Christians to pay our taxes. Verses 6 and 7 say, 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. So our life application out of Romans 13 is to be subject to the governing authorities, as long as they are not overtly disobeying God, and joyfully pay our taxes. Well, maybe not joyfully, but pay our taxes. And even go so far as to respect those in authority over us. On a happier note, verse 9 basically gives us the golden rule. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, or do unto others as you would want done unto you. By loving others, we fulfill the law of Christ. The chapter closes with a few other instructions. Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. And finally, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Lord, help me understand from this chapter that you do put people in authority over us. You allow everyone a leadership position wherever they are. But that doesn’t mean it’s your choice. Those people are your choice of who you would have govern over us. But it’s our responsibility to respect authority, to be subject to authority, and to pay our taxes to keep law and order in our country and in our lands. Our job is to love our neighbor as ourself, to love one another, and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and deflect the desires of the flesh. Lord, it’s easy to read, but it’s hard to do. Strengthen us to do these very things and be a testimony for you. In your name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day, neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. but God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf, get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. I know you’re going to like it and want to share it with others.