Sun 10May09: Romans 13:1 - 7
On the occasion of my eldest son's arrest and detention by police last Thursday night, and his subsequent release on the afternoon of the next day.
Our heartfelt thanks to our pastor and church members' prayerful concern, to many friends in Penang and all over the country who stood by him in the darkest hour of his participation in social activism, and especially to Mdm W who vouched for his cooperation and bailed him out.
And last, but not least, our grateful appreciation to the friendly lawyer Mr T, who went out of his way to pay several visits to the police station in the early hours of the morning, keeping in touch with a chief inspector, and eventually making it a point to attend to his release on police bail. Mr T has insisted that he should not be rewarded! May God bless him for his sacrificial kindness.
This post is a reproduction of a sermon which I had preached recently on 22Mar09 in a small church in Ipoh, which I strongly feel is relevant in reminding ourselves how Christians should exercise self-control in the matter of submission to authorities, at a time when we hear so many outcries against perceived injustice all around us.
Introduction
Civil society is largely a result of people obeying authorities. When my daughter visited Nagoya and Hammamatsu, Japan last year, she was impressed by the peaceful society there, particularly by how civic-minded and law-abiding the people were in those cities. Traffic was very orderly. Bus drivers were courteous and patient. Public facilities were maintained in tip-top condition. People queued up for almost everything, including waiting for the lift at the lobby! They would leave their purses, bags, phones etc at their tables and walk away to buy food at cafeteria counters. The Japanese were almost always proud of their obedient and civil way of life.
Similarly, when my wife and I paid a short visit to Hong Kong back in autumn of 2004, we found out that Hong Kong was one of the safest cities in the world for tourists to visit. We walked up and down Nathan street and Jordan Road in Kowloon. We visit night markets. We took countless train rides and a couple of ferry trips to Hong Kong Island. People waited for pedestrian lights to turn green before crossing roads. Like Japan, but perhaps in a very different manner, Hong Kong was, to us, a largely law-abiding civil society.
I am also reminded of remarks made by a former colleague back in 1996 after he returned from a business trip to Oman and Abu Dhabi. He was very impressed by public safety in those Muslim countries and cities he visited. People didn't even lock the doors of their homes at night! Burglaries were virtually unheard of, something which my friend attributed to the harsh punishments meted out under the Islamic Laws of those places.
Of course, I must not forget to mention our very own next door neighbour, Singapore - a "fine" country - where citizens or foreigners alike get fined, and even jailed, for any offence committed. Trying to bribe a policeman would appear to be a very foolish thing to do indeed in Singapore! As a result, we can allow our daughter to study there and stay alone in a rented room on her own, with very few friends and relatives, without having to worry much over her safety.
Dear Christians, when civic minded people in society obey authorities, and when civil servants who hold authoritative office enforce the law justly, the likely result is a civil society, as opposed to anarchy. This morning's scripture passage asks for our attention, and our devotion, to this area of Christian living - our lives with respect to Government authorities and their governing officers.
1. Authorities are Ordained by God
Consider verses 1, 2: In the first part of verse 1, Paul calls on every soul (Gr. psuche = being) to subject (Gr tasso = submit) himself to authorities, while in the second part he asserts that all authorities are appointed, or ordained, by God, and on the basis of this assertion, he makes his call for Christian submission to governing authorities. As such, he adds, those who resist (Gr antitassetha = "anti-submit") authorities are virtually resisting God's ordinance, and consequently bring judgment on themselves. Note the tone of Paul's words: he used the third person plural, referring to people collectively, rather than any person individually. By implication, he appears to be calling the Christian church to avoid becoming "one of those" people.
Please allow me to explain what I have gathered about the historical background surrounding the apostle's words, in the course of preparing this sermon on Romans 13:
1.1 A Historical perspective
It is believed by many that, in this passage, the apostle Paul was giving pastoral advice to the Jewish Christians in Rome, telling them not to withhold taxes or to be involved in anti-Roman protests in sympathy with Palestinian Jewish nationalism brewing back in their homeland.
Now in the early years of the church, Christians and Jews were viewed as one group by the Roman Imperial government. Born within the Jewish synagogues in Rome, the church had enjoyed the status of religio licita (literally meaning lawful religion) within the fold of Judaism. But, in response to their perceived civil disobedience, the Emperor Claudius had in AD49 issued an edict ordering these Jews/Jewish Christians, to be exiled from Rome. As a result, many of these exiles were forced to go back to their homeland in Palestine.
Around the time when Paul wrote this epistle, these exiles had been allowed to return to Rome again and it was likely that, through their family and business relationships with people back home, the Jewish Christians might have got themselves involved in anti-Roman activism being promoted by the Palestinian Jews. One of their aims was to fight for the removal of Roman gentile rule over the Jews, the people of God in Palestine. In addition, during the early years of Emperor Nero, AD65 - 58, there was a popular outcry against taxation by two prominent Roman historians: Suetonius and Tacitus.
Now the church in Rome had a significant number of Jewish Christians and this was most probably a cause for much concern for the apostle Paul, for there appeared to be a real risk of these church members falling headlong into anti-Gentile and anti-Roman sentiments and activism. In fact, this could be seen as a significant part of the circumstances surrounding Paul's command to the Roman church to renew their minds, and not to conform to the world around them (Rom 12:2) and his subsequent teaching in Rom 13 about the hazards of disobeying authorities ordained by God.
1.2 Its Implication
From the historical perspective briefly discussed above, it can be seen that the apostle Paul wanted the Christians in Rome to refrain from anti-government protests and activism on the basis of verse 2, that, despite many injustices and shortcomings, the Roman Imperial government remained an authority ordained by God and as such, the Roman rulers were to be regarded as ministers of God.
Likewise, today, we must conscientiously call upon Christians everywhere to exercise self-control and refrain from anti-government sentiments and stay away from participating in demonstrations, particularly in rioting and violence. In other words, Paul's assertion in verses 1 and 2 implies that Christians must avoid attempts at defying or resisting authorities, i.e. "anti-tassetha" or anti-submission.
Of course, we do not ignore the cries of innocent and often helpless victims of social injustice, usually at the hands of cruel and corrupt government officials. One must bear in mind, however, that the officials of the Roman empire were no less corrupt than what we see around us today. Think of tax-collectors like Zaccheus who cheated so many people, and of Pontius Pilate who washed his hands in a bowl of water. And the Roman Emperors were no angels either!
Thus, it is obvious that, like the Jewish Christians of the early church in Rome, Christians today are called to live out a paradox - to regard authorities as ordained by God, to submit to them and not to resist them, despite the obvious evils inherent in those very authorities. Indeed, it is a heavy cross for Christians to carry in our pilgrimage through this world.
Christians, let us regard government as authorities ordained by God.
2 Rulers are ministers of God
In verse 3, Paul tells us that rulers, the people who govern, are a "terror", a source of fear if you like, to those who do evil. "Do good, and you will have praise from the authorities", he says. He tells Christians to avoid living in fear of punishment all the time. And the basis here, is that rulers are ministers "from God" - sent to avenge wrongdoing, to execute his wrath on those who practice evil (verse 4).
I must hasten to point out at this juncture, that I am surprised at these words - because they are coming from the apostle Paul - a person who had been badly treated on many occasions by rulers and officials, both Jewish and Gentile. Let us consider briefly an account of some of his bad experiences, in 2Cor 11, at the hands of government officials:
2.1 In spite of Paul's experiences of injustice
In 2 Cor 11:23 - 26, we read that Paul was flogged with 39 stripes on five occasions at the hands of the Jews. He was beaten with rods three times by the Romans.
Once he was stoned.
And he was often living in peril of plots to destroy him - by his countrymen and by foreigners. He also lived in danger of robbers and from false brethren. And he was often put in prison.
On one occasion in Damascus, the governor put the city under a curfew to arrest Paul, who had to escape by being let down in a basket through a window over the city wall (2 Cor 11: 32).
In spite of these traumatic experiences, it is remarkable that Paul did not harbour any bitterness against government officials, but instead he could tell the Christians at Rome that rulers are ministers from God, sent by God to carry out punishment on "him who practices evil".
2.2 Its Implication
Few, if not none, of us today have suffered such unjust punishments and terrifying experiences from authorities, as those experienced by Paul at the hands of corrupt Roman officials and of vengeful Jewish religious leaders. As such it should be considerably easier for Christians today to regard kings and ministers, governors and officials as people who administer God's punishment on law-breakers.
Note that Paul uses the term "good" to refer to lawful behaviour in this passage - in contrast to good works, good behaviour, good motives etc. Likewise, the term "evil" carries the meaning of law-breakers, the people who infringe laws are referred as those who do evil.
Brothers and sisters, let us do good by obeying the law. Like Paul, let us regard rulers as ministers of God.
3. Christians are Subjects of God
In verse 5, we read that we must be subject to authorities, not only because of punishment mentioned earlier in verses 3 and 4, but also because we want to maintain a clear conscience towards God.
"Therefore you also pay taxes", verse 6 goes on to tell us. In Greek, this sentence is written by Paul using the indicative, meaning "Therefore you also are paying (or you also have been paying) taxes", rather than the imperative which carries the meaning, "Therefore you also must pay taxes". This implies strongly that Paul knew, or at least he would have assumed, that the Roman Christians have been paying taxes all along - a big issue indeed, particularly for Jewish Christians involved in anti-Roman activism at that time!
And Paul follows on with his command "to render to all their dues": taxes (Gr phoros = direct tax), as well as customs (Gr telos = indirect tax). It reminds us of the reply that our Lord Jesus gave in Luke 20: 21-25 to those spies who were sent by the chief priests to ask Him the cunning question, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?".
"Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" - this saying continues to ring true among Christians today.
Note that the practice of rendering to all what is due to them had already existed within the temple courts of Jerusalem - where people changed their Roman coins at the money changers' tables for gold shekels (Hebrew "currency") to be used as offerings in the temple.
Remember also the difficult times surrounding the birth of our Lord Jesus, when Joseph and Mary had to obey the decree of Caesar Augustus (Luke 2) to return to their hometown Bethlehem, to register under a census taken throughout the Roman Empire. How they had to suffer - the long arduous journey, with Mary about to give birth and no rooms were available at the inns. Under such trying circumstances, they had to render to Caesar the fear and honour due to him as Emperor.
Then there was also a Roman Law that authorized a Roman soldier to stop any citizen in any place within the Empire and order the citizen to carry his armour for him - up to a journey of one mile. Obviously, this was a very unpopular law, and there could have been many Roman soldiers who abused this law, using it to extort favours from the Jews. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus taught, "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two." (Matt 5:41)
All in all, verses 5 - 7 seem to be telling us, "We are God's citizens. Therefore we do good by submitting to authorities ordained by God."
Conclusion
We obey authorities not because of their just and fair practices, but on the contrary, we do so in spite of injustices and cruelty on their part, regarding them as ordained by God.
We do our utmost to avoid breaking laws, and thus stay away from living in fear of punishment enforced by rulers, and governing officials, because we regard them as ministers of God.
And finally, we show the world that we are subjects of God's Kingdom, by submitting ourselves to worldly kings - a way of doing good in our Christian living. We subject ourselves to authorities and their officials not only because because of our fear of punishment, but also because of our yearning for a good conscience towards God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in these trying times in our country, when innocent people appear to be wrongfully arrested and locked up for speaking up in protest against perceived injustices and unlawful practices, let us exercise restraint and self-control. Let us heed the call of the Apostle Paul, in Romans 12:21,
Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.
