Revering the Word
Romans 13 Discerning how far to go in honoring government.
Good morning, everyone. This morning, we're in Romans 13 and Romans 13 is a challenging passage To interpret or to interpret rightly Let's just dig into it right away Every person is to be in subjection to the government governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those Which exists are established by God therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God and They who have opposed will receive Condemnation upon themselves for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior But for evil do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same for it as a minister? Of God to you for good But if you do what is evil be afraid for it does not bear the sword for nothing For it is a minister of God an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection not only because of wrath, but for also for conscious sake Or no, we'll stop there in verse verse 5 well, we're gonna get into the taxes in a moment, but This is a very interesting passage and it's really important that we put it in a context first of all This was written by the Apostle Paul in the mid-50s AD and it was after that that heavier persecution for those who are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ occurred the heavy persecution really began more in the early to mid to even late 60s and that's where you saw the Apostle Paul and Peter and the other apostles Lose their lives for the sake of the gospel at this point Paul in writing to Rome is not experiencing the same level of persecution and wrote what he wrote I Believe from that context. I also think what he's largely referring to in this passage is that You know, don't do evil because rulers are there to punish evil and if you do it's good Then you're not gonna get in trouble and and you should honor the authorities because they're looking to punish evil But the question would be what if the authorities are against God or what if the authorities are doing evil that would be a different situation so it's really important that when we When we look at scripture, you could make all of your doctrine based on one verse or one chapter But we have to see how things fit into the whole council of God's word in order to rightly discern and rightly divide the word of God so in in large part I would say that what Paul is saying here is true that we should honor the Authorities that we should do what's right when you get pulled over by an officer You should be respectful and you should honor the officer You should honor the rules established by our government in large part. That's what we should do and I think it's really good advice, you know show to be honorable Good people not doing evil but doing what's right and honoring the rules and the laws now What if though the government is? Completely anti-Christian what if they're anti-God? What if they're promoting things themselves that are evil? Then what are we to do is this a blanket? Passage that we should put over any and all situations and over any and all governments. I think not in acts chapter four Peter and John were beginning to proclaim the gospel this actually was earlier on and that you know Christianity was pretty new at this time and They get arrested for proclaiming the gospel and they get warned to no longer speak about Jesus In fact, I can pick it up in acts chapter four Verse 17 it says but so that it will not spread any further among the people Let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name in the name of Jesus And when they had summoned them Peter and John and they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus But Peter and John answered instead of them whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you Rather than to God you be the judge for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard and when they had threatened them Further then they let them go finding no basis on which to punish them on account of the people because they were all Glorifying God for what had happened for the man They healed a man for the man was more than 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed And when they had been released they went on their own they went to their own Companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them and when they heard this They lifted up their voices to God with one accord and said oh Lord It is you who made the heaven and the earth and the seeing all that is in them and who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our Father David your servant said So I'm gonna fast forward a little bit in the passage and if we go To verse 31 and you know Actually they were filled with the Holy Spirit and let me read this to you in verse 31 of chapter four And when they had prayed the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the Word of God with boldness so here they did not stop speaking and they Even said to now this was religious authorities that they were arrested by but they said you you be the judge if we're Should obey you or whether or should we obey God? We can't stop but proclaim. So It's interesting. I think that we have to be very discerning and I think in large part Our automated response is that we honor our government and honor the authorities. However When they become evil and when they become anti-God We need to really pray about our response and there are times when we're gonna need to resist authority in order to obey God You know, I can think of a instance where about a year ago we went to a pride fest to protest and It was really a shameful event. You know, there was a There was a drag show. So you had these really skinny men who You know decorated themselves and dulled themselves up to look like women and they definitely did I mean the way that they dressed and they are wearing all tight clothes and I Don't know what they put in for Brass or whatever they did, but they I mean they were like and it is really you kind of can picture a drag show I mean they all the makeup and just everything they did and then they gathered children around for a reading time and then they read a book to these children basically normalizing their shameful behavior in front of children and you know the parents were there and brought their kids to hear this and I was Talking to one of the leaders about this and saying you think this is appropriate like this This is like don't you realize that this is not of God? This is not of the Bible and she was kind of claiming to be some type of I don't know what she believed But Christian of some kind very compromised and she had no idea what the Bible said I was speaking to her about it But there were some younger people that were there when I say younger like maybe 16 17 18 19 years old And they were there to protest as well and they stood up and and kind of got loud and said Is this all right with you like teaching children about this so they got very vocal about it and that the people had a permit? to be there so like this was allowed this is in Watertown and they They had a permit to do what they're doing. So the officers that were there as well allowed us to be there to protest however, when it became disruptive of a Permitted event then they dragged these people off. I don't think they gave them a ticket, but they dragged them away from where the Drag show was taking place and you know, I I'm really glad that that young man said something and said something Verbally the kids looked at him like what is this guy doing? You know and they didn't know what to make of it But I'm glad in front of those parents in front of those kids I hope they have a Remembrance of someone standing up and protesting something. That's very vile shameful Inappropriate and should not even be allowed in our country I just very sad about about it, but there's an example of I Think someone, you know doing what is right protesting something that is evil so that people know because you know what if no one ever says anything People are going to continue to normalize immoral indecent ungodly Behavior and indeed that movement is about all of those things Now moving on in verse six it says for because of this You also pay taxes for rulers our servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing render to All what is do them? Tax to whom taxes do custom be whom custom and fear to whom fear and honor To whom honor and I think in large part, that's very good advice. I mean we we got to pay our taxes. We should honor honor guy. We should be honest about our taxes and You know, I think honor is good. We saw that in chapter 12 It said lead the way in showing honor to one another and we live in a very honorless culture today a very honorless society Um, we we kind of learn not to show honor and I think there should be more honor in our culture verse 8 oh nothing to anyone except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law For this you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet And if there is any other commandment it is summed up in this saying you shall love your neighbor as yourself Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law And paul is giving us a great reminder that we are to love one another the problem That I have not with paul's words, but with our interpretation of what that means um in Ephesians chapter For towards the end of that chapter it says we are to speak the truth with love in like protesting a gay pride thing or a a uh, what did I call it drag show I think that's speaking the truth with love. I think that's actually loving Uh everyone who's there Even those who are opposed to it because they need to know what they're doing is wrong And if no one tells them they're on a path a deadly path. They're on a path to hell And if someone doesn't tell them that's not love let letting people just Think sin is appropriate and not speaking up and just letting them live that way And then one day they're gonna die and wake up in hell. That's not love. That is not love Uh god is love and god's truth is love And now there's ways that we can do it in love but um Today we have this definition of love That seems to be Approve of me no matter what I do Approve of what I believe Regardless of whether the bible says it's right or wrong or whether god says it's right or wrong And that is love simply just to endorse everything that I want to do or I want to believe And that's not love that's not love to your children If your kid wants to do something that's destructive and you discipline them or stop them from doing that You're loving them and caring about them and protecting them Uh just to to permit them to do things that are destructive is not caring about them That's not love. So There's nothing wrong with what paul is saying here is that we shall love our neighbor as yourself And love does no wrong and love is a fulfillment of the law The problem is not with paul's words. The problem is with our interpretation of those words to Just be okay with sin Sinfulness Anti-god things and allowing people to just go down a trail Towards hell and not saying anything and thinking that that's loving That's the problem our definition of love is the problem. Not the actual guidance to love Verse 11 do this knowing the time That it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep For now salvation is near to us Than when we believed the night is almost gone and the day is near Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light Let us behave properly as in the day Not in crowsing and drunkenness not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality Not in strife and jealousy But put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust What isn't that interesting? Right here in this chapter when we're talking about Honoring authorities and when we're talking about what love is then it goes on as it's time to wake up and start behaving Properly and not living in darkness and sensuality And making no provision for the loss of this world But putting on the lord jesus christ and so there you have it. I mean, you know You could um You could read into this the first part of this chapter and feel like well We should just you know what the government says that you know We can celebrate gay pride and we can have drag shows for children and therefore the government says it We should all endorse it. We should all just love everyone and just be happy what they're doing it But we wouldn't be looking at it in context and reading the rest of the patch Uh passage he said lay aside the deeds of darkness realize that salvation is near now than it was before Don't live in sexual promiscuity and sensuality and what is a drag show? What is a pride thing? It's celebrating immoral indecent Acts between men and men and women and women and men dressing as women and pretending there's something that they're not I mean Make no provision for the flesh in regards to its loss. I mean It's very clear, you know, what's right and what's wrong. Remember, I think the large context of this passage was You know what if you do evil the government's going to punish you for it So don't do evil and you've got nothing to worry about well today Unfortunately at times our government's promoting and celebrating evil. So we live in a different standpoint and you know if paul Could rewrite this In 80 65 when he was imprisoned and ultimately martyred for his faith It'd be interesting to see what other paragraph he would write About this. I think in large part many of what he would say he would still say the way it is because I do think our first Base is to honor the governing authorities But I think he would have a different case is that when they're trying to silence the gospel of jesus christ Which is what we need in order to go to heaven and escape hell and also In order to have the holy spirit live it inside of us to live for him now And he is king of kings and lord of lords and he's our reason for being Uh, I don't think paul would say we'll just clam up and say nothing and we know that's not the case because He was willing to be martyred for his faith or was martyred for his faith and he never denied You know living for the christ all the way to his death. So Um, what we need is we need the holy spirit and we need guidance and I think in large part We should honor our The governing authorities honor the laws Um, but there are times that we're going to have to seek guys discernment on when to resist And run to proclaim the truth even amidst the government and admits diversity So we need god's guidance hallelujah Aren't you grateful for the whole council of god? Aren't you grateful to be able to balance scripture with scripture instead of just taking something And looking at it in isolation and then making our entire doctrine after one set of passages So I praise god for this passage. I think it's very useful and helpful Um, but may we balance it with the the whole of scripture Thank you for listening and God bless you all.