Submit and Clothe Yourselves with Christ

Romans 13:1-14

Welcome back to our study of Romans, as we look at chapter 13 today. It might feel like we are on the downhill side of this book now, heading toward the conclusion. In the first 11 chapters we climbed a long, steady theological mountain. Paul was step by step making his case about the universal need for salvation and the fact that Jews and Gentiles alike can only be reconciled to God by his grace through faith in the work of Jesus to pay the price for our sin. We reached the top of the mountain, the climax of the book in chapter 12, verse 1: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” God in his mercy has provided this wonderful way of salvation – now what are we are supposed to do with it? The other side of the mountain, the remainder of this book, is about our response, motivated and empowered by grace. What does it mean to live a life of worship as a living sacrifice? These are very practical chapters that bring us down to earth in our spiritual walk. Paul describes how our thoughts and behavior should be different from “the pattern of this world,” mentioned in 12:2. What does transformation by the renewing of our minds actually look like in daily life?

Chapter 13 starts out with an exhortation to submit to authority, as part of the way we should live as believers.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. – Romans 13:1-2

I’ll admit that submission is an area that I struggle with. I think many of us do. Ephesians 5 tells us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Submission means being willing to follow someone else’s leadership, giving up our own right to be in control, to have things our way, to have the last word. Some people are easier to submit to than others, aren’t they? Leaders who love us, who genuinely want the best for us, the ones we feel are competent and worthy of our respect – these are easy to submit to. But these verses say that we need to submit to all authorities.

What kind of authorities were around in Paul’s day? Religious leaders who hated him for being a follower of Jesus. Corrupt military and political leaders who were part of a pagan Roman government. At the time this book was written the emperor was probably Nero, known for his tyranny and cruelty, including the intense persecution of Christians. He murdered his mother and his final marriage was to one of this male slaves. He was likely the emperor who would eventually order the execution of Paul himself. How could Paul suggest that Christians be subject to authorities like these?

We are blessed not to live under the rule of Emperor Nero, but we may still struggle with what it means to submit ourselves to authority. Sometimes we think we know better than the people in charge, don’t we? The authorities that exist have been established by God? They don’t seem very godly sometimes. Our federal government right now seems to lurch from one political mess to another. It’s easy to become cynical about what motivates our leaders.

And some of the rules that we are supposed to live under don’t seem to make much sense either. I was thinking about this the other day when I was hiking with my son and our dog Rikka on the Foothills Trail, which winds between South and North Carolina. We were doing about 50 miles of it, through some of the most remote, mountainous parts of these states. In two and a half days we saw just 6 other people who were actually hiking the trail. We came across more people at some of the more accessible landmarks, like Sassafras Mountain, the highest point in South Carolina, but we were completely alone the vast majority of the time.

At one of the state border crossings, out in the middle of nowhere on Day 2, we were informed by a sign that we were entering a North Carolina state park. One of the rules listed was that dogs needed to be kept on a leash at all times. We had a leash along, but Rikka had been walking right with us for more than a day already. Did we put her on the leash? No. I’m afraid I did not submit to the governing authorities on that one. We walked for several hours, all the way through that section of state park without seeing a road or another person. It seemed like a crazy, irrelevant rule, and so we rationalized not obeying it. How often do you do that?

So what do we do with these verses? What is a reasonable interpretation of what it means to submit? If we drive 5 miles per hour over the speed limit are we rebelling against an authority that God has instituted? If we drive too fast, of course, we are likely to bring judgment on ourselves in the form of a speeding ticket. Let’s carry on a bit further:

 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. – Romans 13:3-5

It appears that Paul is addressing a situation where Christians were considering themselves above the law simply because they followed a different religion.  Perhaps they had heard of what Peter had told the Sanhedrin early on in defense for witnessing about Jesus after he and the other apostles were commanded not to. He said that they would need to obey God rather than man. Perhaps these other believers, on hearing that story, had taken this principle too far, assuming that their freedom in Christ allowed them do as they pleased, even in matters unrelated to conscience. On the contrary, Paul says here. Our default position needs to be to consider people in authority to be God’s servants for our good. We need to have a very good reason not to submit to them.

You may recall a few weeks ago when I talked about the three uses of the law, identified by Martin Luther. The first use of God’s law is as the foundation for civil law. We see this throughout scripture. Society needs rules to function well, to keep people from hurting each other, to allow the economy to run smoothly, to protect people’s rights, to punish wrongdoers, and so on. These things find their source in the principles that God has established since the creation of the world. There may be human rules or expectations that we cannot go along with as believers, if they are in direct violation of God’s law, but our orientation needs to be to live within the existing framework of civil laws and norms as much as possible.

Paul wants us to consider why we are following the rules. Making decisions on the basis of avoiding punishment is called preconventional morality. You probably have heard that term if you ever studied psychology. It is assumed to be the first stage of development that children go through as they begin to develop a sense of right and wrong. The next level up, conventional morality recognizes that rules are necessary for relationships in society to function well. However this is still an external motivation for following the rules. Conventional morality asks questions like, what would other people think of me if I disobey the law? Alternatively, at this level we make decisions based on what works best for the entire population. What would happen if everyone felt free to bend the rules? That would be chaos. The highest level is called postconventional morality. People operating on this level are internally motivated, pursuing right and avoiding wrong on the basis of principles and values. It allows someone to choose to do what is right even if everyone around is against them. This is the level that God wants us to operate at.

Paul makes this contrast between obedience because of fear of punishment (preconventional morality) and obedience as a matter of conscience (postconventional morality). Psychologists recognize that no one operates at the highest level consistently, and some people never reach it at all. In addition, as the idea of objective, absolute truth falls further and further out of fashion, postconventional morality appears more and more unrealistic or unattainable, and most of society becomes stuck at a conventional level where all rules are decided by negotiation and social contract, following the desires of the majority or perhaps even just the loudest and most persistent voices.

Paul was not a psychologist, but he did identify different levels of moral reasoning, and he would recognize that each of us is inconsistent in where we operate in that regard. In myself, for example, I see how I will generally slow down in a school zone, as a matter of principle, even if I suspect that no children are likely to be around. But on the other hand I will drive at 75 on I-285 around Atlanta if everyone else is going that fast.

There is a somewhat parallel passage in 1 Peter 2 that will help us understand and apply these verses in Romans.

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. – 1 Peter 2:11-17

The motivation for submitting to human authority is clear at the beginning here. We are aliens in the world, standing out because of our allegiance to Jesus. Unbelievers want to be able to point out what we are doing wrong; we need to minimize any way that they can accuse us. Our desire should be for people to glorify God for the good deeds that we do, not for them to focus on where we are breaking the rules of society. Their overall perception should be that we “live good lives.” By doing good, it says, we will silence the ignorant talk of foolish people who might see Christianity as a curse rather than a blessing for society. Unfortunately that sentiment is becoming more and more common in America and many other places around the world.

Part of living a good life is to abstain from sinful desires. We will read this at the end of Romans 13 as well. Sinful desires not only wage war against our soul, trying to destroy the life and fruit of the Holy Spirit in us, but sin can also negate the witness that we have before other people, the ones that we want to be glorifying God because of our behavior. The solution is to live as God’s slaves, free yet completely under his control. If we submit to him first, then we will be able to properly submit to earthly authorities. The freedom we have in Christ does not remove this need for submission, as we read earlier.

The matter of respect mentioned here is very important, too. Peter says that we are to show proper respect to everyone: this means to God, to fellow believers, to earthly authorities, and to our neighbors. What does it mean to be respectful in traffic? Do we let people cut in front of us? Do we gladly share the road with cyclists, or are we impatient to get past them? I might even suggest that sometimes it is not respectful to drive under the speed limit. Are we annoying other people by following the letter of the law? Or there may be times when we need to apply our postconventional morality to do the right thing as a matter of principle, regardless of what other people think. Our overall purpose should be to glorify God and give others the opportunity to do so, too.

This principle of respect is closely connected with honor, if we consider morality from an honor-shame perspective. As we have said before, this would have been the dominant lens for early readers of the Bible. It does not negate the guilt-innocence aspects of morality, but it balances them. Doing the respectful thing is very useful in a variety of situations. It might even let me off the hook there at the border of the state park. I was not showing disrespect by walking with my dog off the leash. She was extremely unlikely to bother any person or wildlife. If we had somehow come across a park ranger who took issue with her, we would have respectfully put her on the leash for as long as necessary.

Well, I don’t claim that this is the last word on this subject. You may see things differently. We have a responsibility to exhort each other – and receive correction – within the Body on how each of us is making moral decisions. Our mutual goal should be to glorify Christ and present a good witness to the world by the way we live. Let’s go back to Romans 13:

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13:6-10

This confirms the importance of respect. Love is the fulfillment of the law. It needs to be the unselfish foundation for all our relationships. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor. Love, respect, and honor are closely linked. We can show that we love someone by honoring them before others. We have a debt to love each other because of the love that we have received from God. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” What is included in this “because”? God provides us the example of how to love, the reason for loving, and the ability for us to love as we ought. We love because he first loved us. The debt to love one another will never be paid off, because we are continuing to receive love from God, as he graciously forgives us, guides us, and provides for us. As freely as we have received, we are free to give.

Jesus taught his disciples to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” This is mentioned in all three synoptic gospels. Jesus made this statement in response to a question concerning the morality of paying taxes to what was considered a reprehensibly pagan and oppressive government. The poll tax was considered by many to symbolize enslavement by the Roman occupiers. But was it against God’s will for the Jews to pay taxes to Caesar? Jesus does not actually give a direct answer. Allegiance to God was clearly more important, but earthly authorities would also have to be respected – and obeyed, as long that that did not mean disobeying God.

Love does no harm to a neighbor, it says here in verse 10. What if we see our tax money being used to harm people? War tax resistance by Christians has been a topic of heated debate at various times in history. People generally go along with paying taxes into a system that they receive some benefit from, but Christian pacifists have found war to be morally repugnant. How could war be considered a loving response to aggression? How could a Christian justify helping to pay for a war or contribute to it in any way? This is just one example of where Christians have disagreed on what things are rightfully Caesar’s and where our love for God limits what we should render to Caesar. We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit in deciding where to draw this boundary. When do we say we can’t go along with an unjust government anymore or an authority that wants to involve us in opposing God? This is an important question and one that we need to answer unselfishly. We have two principles to apply from our study today: 1) Love as the fulfillment of the law, and 2) Living what others would consider a “good life” for the glory of God. We now come to the final section of our chapter:

 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. – Romans 13:11-14

We need to understand the present time, the world the way it is. There are some things that I would rather just not know too much about. Perhaps you feel that way too, at times. There is so much bad news, so much suffering, so many predictions of impending disaster of one kind or another. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just shut all that out and create a small, cozy existence where we feel peaceful and secure? The problem is, God has told us that our peace and security need to come from him, not from some comfortable mini-world that we create for ourselves. We need to understand the present time to be able to fulfill the command to love our neighbor. And considering the present state of the world should give us a sense of urgency in the calling that God has given us. This is no time for taking it easy, Paul says. Our salvation is coming. We are about to be delivered. The day is almost here. We need to live in expectation of the Lord’s return or of our meeting him before that. It could happen anytime. We need to avoid all the distractions and diversions that Satan will try to put in our way. Paul lists here the deeds of darkness that we need to put aside. It sounds a lot like present-day college life, unfortunately: carousing and drunkenness, sexual immorality and debauchery, dissension and jealousy. We need to pray for God’s light to shine on all our college campuses around this country, that the next generation can be warriors for him, wearing his armor of light.

We need to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we will not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul, as Peter put it in the passage we looked at earlier. What does it mean to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus? I mentioned this verse when we were back in chapter 6, considering how to avoid letting sin reign in our mortal bodies. I noted the importance of being baptized into Christ; being clothed in his righteousness; putting on a right attitude of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. This is how we are supposed to be dressed. This is what people around us should see when they look at us.

I would like to read this final section again from the Message. It emphasizes the urgency of our being engaged for God right now.

But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!