In the Holy Bible, there are no scriptures which create more dissension, disagreement, and controversy than Revelation and Romans 13. These two stand head and shoulders over everything else in the ability to get believers, students, and pontificators riled up against those who read from a different viewpoint. It is debatable which of these two holds the top spot. We are not concerned with that here.

I have been engaged in a discussion with a friend of mine who does not see eye to eye with me on the function (or necessity) of government and when she challenged me about the meaning of Romans 13:4, I decided to reply by means of this article. This is not meant to be the last word on the subject, but is intended to spark conversation about it, including opposing perspectives, so that all of us can advance closer to the truth of the matter. At the top of this page is a Comment button, which you can click if you want to join the discussion and put in your own two cent’s worth. If you think your insight on this subject is worth promoting, now is your chance.

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What is Romans 13, anyway? This is the question which must be answered before any significance can be attached to its message and meaning. “Context, context, context” is the continual refrain from those who attempt to understand this, yet so many forget all that in considering this passage by lifting it out from the rest of the book.

Written originally by the Apostle Paul, there were no chapters and no verses. It was simply one long letter from him to the Roman Christians and they were expected to consider the whole without trying to separate it into various parts. The chapter and verse organization was added centuries later to facilitate the finding of a specific section of Scripture and, unfortunately, has created chaos in many circles, this being one of them. Nothing in it can be distinctly separated from the whole to stand alone as its own separate doctrine. Unfortunately, many Christians tend to forget this and elevate certain sections, e.g., Chapter 13, above all else. This is a major error and ought to be repented of.

Enough of that. Let’s dig into it.

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“Let every soul be subject 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 judgement on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” (Romans 13:1-4, NKJV)

What a mouthful!

“Let every soul be subject to the …” This is where the problems begin. If you go to your web browser and type in the search term “Romans 13:1”, it will return this link, https://biblehub.com/romans/13-1.htm, which will give an extensive list of translations, all of which name this as “governing authorities”, “higher powers”, “those above you”, those who have authority”, etc., except two, which read as follows:

GOD’S WORD® Translation
Every person should obey the government in power. No government would exist if it hadn’t been established by God. The governments which exist have been put in place by God.

Good News Translation
Everyone must obey state authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God…

Imagine that! Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin is the government in power. What are you going to do?

Out of the many translations I saw, only these two translate the “higher power who has authority over him” as “government”, and the Good News Translation goes so far as to name this “state authority”. The reality, however, is that there are multiple authorities over persons starting with parents and progressing from there. Many spring to mind: the husband/wife relationship, church authority, employer/employee, civil governments, creditor/debtor, coach/athlete, headmaster/student, etc., and some you can probably think of which are not listed here. There is absolutely no justification for twisting this particular passage to mean that the ONLY authority is that of the State, unless you are advocating for the supremacy of the State and its total authority over you and everyone else.

Disclaimer: I am not a scholar. Greek is Greek to me, as is Hebrew. I have never studied them and do not claim to speak as an expert nor even with some knowledge of the languages and words. That being said, I recommend you read this clear, well-written article in which the author DOES dig into the meanings of the Greek words used and explains how they relate to the topic in question.

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We simply cannot assume that Romans 13:1 refers to state (civil) government exclusively. Like the so-called “balance of power” implied by the Constitution of the United States, authority must also be spread out among many competing “authorities”, and there is no one single man-centered authority which controls all others, no “One Ring to rule them all.” Instead, the “authorities”, each of which has their own place within society, is meant to enhance and advance the rights and well-being of their subordinates, not to rule over them. Good parents raise their children in order to turn them loose on the world in the hopes that they will be able to function as competent adults in their own right. ALL authorities should operate in the same manner.

Authority is meant to complement. It is designed to bring out the best in persons. It is not supposed to be a system of control, of rule. All the “governing authorities” mentioned in Romans 13:1 are meant to operate for the good of those who are in the subordinate role, to bring them to a higher position and perhaps even so they can act as authority figures themselves.

And all of that (barely scratching the surface) in v.1, but my sparring partner’s concern was with v. 4.

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“For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”

It seems evident that this verse is addressing civil government or at least a system of legal justice against criminal behavior and I do not have a problem with that. If you read RMB’s article linked to above, you would already have this understanding, as no other “authority” exercises the power of the sword legitimately in the way the civil authority does. Without a clear sense of justice, however, the sword can and does represent naked power and the ability to force others to conform to a “rule of law”, in which whatever the government decides and enacts becomes law, whether it is beneficial or harmful to the society under it. Simply passing a law does not create justice and expecting that everyone become obedient to the law passed BECAUSE it is the law is ludicrous on its face. Should Christians (or anyone else, for that matter) rat out their neighbors to the ruling “authorities” because the law proclaimed that all Jews must wear a yellow star sewed onto their clothing? To ask the question is to answer it. Obviously, there must be a way to allow for government and law, but also a means of resistance to it should it become demanding, overbearing, and evil.

The main problem I have is the tendency within Christian circles to simply submit, conform to, and obey the law as proclaimed by the modern State, as if it were God Himself. Remember COVID and the “suggestion” that churches cancel Easter service in 2020? After all, Romans 13 teaches us that we are to subject ourselves to it, doesn’t it? How did the world move forward without the application of the modern State to rule over us, dictating every little “jot and tittle” to us, and expecting that we would observe every facet of that?

In other words, without government, we are lost. In a society and culture where power over others has become the goal and government has become God, this is the logical end of such a belief.

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What then are we to make of this? What is the relevance of Romans 13 to us today? How are we meant to respond to its message? What does it really mean? Perhaps this is a good time to bring in some other voices and opinions, not necessarily expert, but certainly authoritative in their own right.

• https://anarcholife.blogspot.com/2009/01/christianity-and-state.html?m=1
• https://mises.org/podcasts/radio-rothbard/should-christians-hate-state
• https://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2018/07/christians-and-government.html
• https://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2022/08/to-whom-is-apostle-writing.html
• https://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2020/05/enough-with-romans-13.html (I made several extensive comments on this post in which my viewpoint is quite clearly stated. Scroll down until you find them.)

As I see it, government authority is to be one authority among others. It is not meant to be The Authority over all other authorities. Certainly, government is not meant to be the State as we know it today. If there is a compelling political authority in the United States, it would have to be the Constitution, which all civil government, including the federal government as personified in the president, Donald J. Trump, is sworn to uphold and defend. Politicians raise their right hand, place their left hand on the Bible (except DJT), and swear to this, right? Yet, how much of what we see today is subject to the Constitution and how much would have to change to bring our situation back to alignment with it? This is not to say that the Constitution is The Authority, as it should be clear that even the Constitution is subordinate to a “higher power”, which is the Word of God. In other words, there are layers and layers of authority and none of them, except the Word of God, reigns supreme over all the others.

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Authority is an inescapable concept. There is authority. It is not a question of authority vs. no authority, but rather a question of whose authority, which authority. I understand this and do not dispute it. Where I draw the line is that real authority cannot be gained by the use of force and power. It cannot be legislated. It cannot be imposed by an outside force, but must rather be recognized and accepted by all concerned. Real authority is based on a system of trust, with the subordinate party believing that the authority over him has his best interests at heart. Such is not the case in the State/citizen relationship today. We cannot trust that the State, which seeks to gain all power and control, will do right by us. In fact, we know this to be true because we go through the gyrations of “free and fair elections” every election cycle in order to correct our situation, believing that if only we can install the right man or woman into office, justice will have been achieved and we will be set free from all the fears that plague us. Nothing could be further from the truth. True authority does not appear by virtue of the ballot box.

Does any of this mean that Romans 13:4 is irrelevant to today’s society or that we can simply ignore it? Hardly, as there will always be a need for someone, some authority, to exercise judgment and justice on wrongdoing and criminal behavior. We may be individual persons living out our own lives as we see fit, but we are also part of the community surrounding us and it is within that community that we must live in cooperation with the other members. At some time or another, there will arise a situation where the community must come together to “execute wrath on him who practices evil”. How is this to be done? What defines evil? Who does the defining? There are only two answers: an organic approach fostered from within the community itself OR a “solution” imposed from above and outside the community. Either the answer comes from within us as we understand the truth or it will be forced on us by others who have the power to compel our obedience and subjection.

“He (the civil authority) is God’s minister to you for good.” Keep that in mind as you explore all the ways in which the modern State government does NOT minister to us for good. The dilemma here is that the modern way of thinking is to legislate, pass a law which will solve the problem, but which creates more problems, all of which need to be corrected by passing even more laws. In this, today’s government is similar to the pharmaceutical response to poor health and disease: pop a pill, and if that creates side effects, take another drug to counter that. There is never any effort made to find the root of the problem, only to address the symptoms, which is then pawned off as a cure, and which results in the patient (citizen, society) getting sicker and weaker all the time. There is no money to be made in keeping people healthy and there is no benefit, at least for the State, to making society responsible for itself.