Romans 13:1,2 - Let every person be subject to the government

13:1

Remember the chapter divisions and verses were a much later addition, they were not put there by Paul. So what we read in Chapter 13 follows on from what Paul has said in Chapter 12, where he has just been saying that we must not seek vengeance, but instead should seek to overcome evil with good. It is a natural human desire to want to rebel against governments, to have a rebellious attitude. That is a fruit of our rebellion against God. Instead we are to “be subject to the governing authorities”. “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God”. Now this leads to important questions. Is every government instituted by God? Do we obey the government in all cases? The rough answer to the two questions is yes to the former, no to the latter. What if the government is seriously evil? Extreme examples would be the Nazis in Germany, or various communist governments, Stalin being an extreme example. These governments were utterly evil. We would have been absolutely right to pray to God for their removal. But what about present Western governments? They are implementing, and have implemented, various evil policies, but we must respect them as governments. However, we should not always obey. For instance, various governments are, to varying degrees, more or less prohibiting Biblical teaching on sex, marriage and gender. We must speak the word of God. The issue is that righteous rebellion can often be a product of our flesh, not the Spirit. So we need to exercise extreme caution, and guard our hearts. Paul's teaching is aimed primarily at a rebellious heart attitude.

13:2

So having a rebellious attitude which manifests itself in resisting authorities exercising their proper function are resisting God. They are acting in disobedience to the Lord.  For they are resisting God’s chosen authority. Remember how reluctant David was to do anything against Saul, even though David had been anointed as king. Daniel is an excellent example. He respected the various kings he served under, but also obeyed God rather than the king when ungodly edicts were given.