Romans 13

13:1Are there times when we should not obey the government? We should never allow government to force us to disobey God. Jesus and his apostles never disobeyed the government for personal reasons; when they disobeyed, it was in order to follow God’s morat standards. Their disobedience was not cheap: They were threatened, beaten, thrown into jail, tortured, or executed for their convictions. Like them, if we are compelled to disobey. we must be ready to accept the consequences.

13:3,4Willingly or unwittingly, people in authority are God's servants. They are allowed their positions in order to do good. When authorities are unjust, however, upright people are afraid. When authorities are just, people who are doing right have nothing to fear. This provides our principal motivation to pray for our leaders. Praying for those in authority over us will also mean that we will watch them closely. If we pray diligently for our leaders, we will be functioning as God’s sentinels.

13:9Somehow many of us have gotten the idea that self-love is wrong. But if this were the case, it would be pointless to love our neighbors as ourselves. But Paul explains what he means by self-love. Even if you have low self-esteem, you probably don’t willingly let yourself go hungry. You take care of your body and may-even exercise. You clothe yourself reasonably well. You make sure there’s a roof over your head. You try not to let yourself be cheated OF injured. This is the kind of love we need to have for our neighbors. Do we see that others are fed, clothed. and housed as welt as they can be? Are we concerned about issues of social justice? Loving others as ourselves means actively working to see that their needs are met. Interestingly, people who focus on others rather than on themselves rarely suffer from low self-esteem.

13:11Christians understand Romans 13 in different ways. All Christians agree that we are to live at peace with the state as jong as the state allows us to live by our religious convictions. For hundreds of years, however, there have been at least three interpretations of how we are to do this: (1) Some Christians believe that the state is so corrupt that Christians should have as little to do with it as possible. Although they should be good citizens as long as they can do so without compromising their beliefs, they should not work for the government, vote in elections, or serve in the military. (2) Others believe that God has given the state authority in certain areas and the church authority in others. Christians can be loyal to both and can work for either. They should not, however, confuse the two. In this view, church and state are concerned with two totally different spheres—the spiritual and the physical—and thus complement each other but do not work together. (3) Still others believe that Christians have a responsibility to make the state better. They can do this politically, by electing Christian or other high-principled leaders. They can also do this moraily, by serving as an influence for good in society. in this view, church and state ideally work together for the good of ail. None of these views advocate rebelling against or refusing to obey the government’s laws or regulations unless those laws clearly require you to violate the moral standards revealed by God. Wherever we find ourselves, we must be responsible citizens, as well as responsible Christians.

13:12-14The “night” refers to the present evil time. The “day” fefers to the time of Christ's return. Some people are surprised that Paul lists fighting and jealousy with the gross and obvious sins of drunkenness and immorality. Like Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Paul considers attitudes as important as actions. Just as hatred leads to murder, so jealousy leads to strife and lust to adultery. When Christ returns, he wants to find his people clean on the inside as well as on the outside.

13:14How do we clothe ourselves with the presence of the LORD Jesus Christ? First, we identify with Christ by being baptized (Galatians 3:27). This shows our solidarity with other Christians and with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Second, we exemplify the qualities Jesus showed while he was here on earth (love, humility, truth, service). In a sense, we roleplay what Jesus would do in our situation (see Ephesians 4:24-32; Colossians 3:10-17). We also must avoid those situations that open the door to gratifying sinful desires.

13:40Christians must obey the law of love, which supersedes both religious and civit laws. How easy it is to excuse our indifference to others merely because we have no legal obligation to hetp them and even to justify harming them if our actions are technically legal! But Jesus does not leave loophoies in the law of fove. Whenever love demands it, we are to go beyond human legal requirements and imitate the God of love. See James 2:8, 9; 4:11 and 1 Peter 2:16, 17 for more about this law of love.