Romans 13:1-10
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.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, September 10, is from Romans chapter 13, verses one through 10. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exists have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resist what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but too 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 and 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 owned, 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 commandments 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. He runs the reading. So the beginning piece of this reading is interesting about the perspective Paul has about the Roman authorities. Now, as we consider this, I think many of us have, in our background, this idea of the separation of church and state, and it seems obvious to us that Christians should be like we have our thing in religion, and on the other side is the state. And that's a totally different sphere of influence. Now, that's not quite what Romans chapter 13 is saying. What it's saying is, is that God is in charge of everything. And God has appointed certain people for the public good. That is the leaders. These leaders are God's ministers to bring about order in society. They are there to punish evil, and carry out God's wrath on the evil door, as it says, quote, for he is the servant of God and Avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Now, this is easy when you have good leaders, and even easier for Christians to imagine when we have Christian leaders. But I think it's also important to remember Paul is saying this about the Roman rulers who were persecuting Christians who would very soon kill Christians and throw them into the arena. This is not so much the situation that we have in the United States. It's more like what's going on in Iran, or North Korea. We have leaders who are well, they're those leaders are kind of crazy. And they do some really mean things, but they're still they're appointed by God for good. This doesn't mean they do a great job. In fact, many of them violate the rules that God has set up for them and don't do justice. But it makes them no less God's servants for the good of the people. In the end, Paul is just telling the Roman Christians, not to rebel against these appointed leaders, the servants of God, but to live life in humility and peacefulness. The next section, he says, Oh, no one anything except to love one another. For the for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. This points back to what he was talking about at the end of 12, where he's talking about gives you a grab bag of love ideas, that begins with Let love be genuine. and love your neighbor as yourself is the kind of thing that should run a Christian's life. We love each other, the way we ought to love ourselves. And that means that we care for each other. We correct each other when we're going wrong. We help each other and we hold each other up. This is the summary of God's law. And we see it especially in Jesus Christ, who loved to us so much that He gave up his life for us and spoke to us to reveal the will of his Father to us so that all of us can be saved that's the end of Romans chapter 13 We'll see you on Sunday bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai