After Paul applies monergistic doctrine to the lives of people—insisting that Christians always consider others to be more important than themselves, do not seek retribution, but love and serve even their enemies, I’m sure there are some questions. There are questions when I teach those principles in our own day. What about justice? Are we supposed to let people walk all over us? In anticipation of questions like these, Paul introduces the government. Rome is a corrupt government that itself persecutes Christians as Paul is writing. What Paul writes about the government, here, applies to both healthy and corrupt governments on this earth.

First, since life is not about entitlement or sordid gain, every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. Why? Since God is in control of everything, no authority exists unless it is given by God. Even corrupt rulers have no power unless God establishes them according to His own will. There are quite a few people telling others that countries get off course by electing ungodly leadership and, somehow, get outside the will of God. I have this comfort for you. Read the Scriptures. God establishes every authority, and no authority exists unless it is established by God alone. He has a plan and knows what He is doing–even when there is a bad authoritative figure according to our perception.

Therefore, because God is in control, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God. Those who reject what God has established will receive condemnation upon themselves–probably in the form of undue persecution from the state. If we are well behaved, a respectable part of society, we have no reason to fear the rulers of our day. When we do what is good in the eyes of the state, we will be a people praised by the authorities set over us by God.

What if the government is corrupt and unjust and a persecutor of good? Paul does not apply the truth of God’s sovereignty without placing responsibilities upon the state. The authorities are ministers of God to their people for good (v. 4). The word, minister, there is the Greek word “deacon,” which means servant. The biblical view of any worldly authority places that authority as servant to its people–not lord over them. So, the government sincerely serves its people, and its people subject themselves to the authority of the government. According to this text, part of the government’s responsibility to the people is to keep the peace and exercise justice on God’s behalf. 

People pay taxes in order to fund the governments service to the people. Being servants of their people, governments devote themselves to serving, keeping the peace, and exercising justice. 

There are always many questions about a person’s biblical relationship to the government and the government’s role biblically when we read passages like this. What if a government is not submitting to God or doesn’t serve its people? Are we obligated to subject ourselves? Paul is under a corrupt government that persecutes Christians. Still he writes what he does. He breaks Roman Law by preaching Christ and Christ crucified and is eventually beheaded under Nero. Our being in subjection to the governing authorities, then, does not mean we must keep every rule or even stay silent when it comes to injustices perpetrated by a government established by God. It does mean that we should be prepared to suffer the consequences of our actions with honor, loving those who persecute us enough to show them Christ. When we act and speak, we do so with gentleness and respect, not drawing greater punishment than we need. Many people just ask for trouble, and we don’t need to do that. We must, though, honor God and hold the governments, given to serve, responsible when they become anything other than servants upholding the peace and exercising justice in the name of God.

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