Tag Archives: Romans 13

Abolish The Police, Theonomy

Romans 13 Abuse

It seems like almost every time I discuss what Christians should be doing about the terrible state of our country, they whip out the ridiculous interpretation of Romans 13 card.  You can see a few examples here, and here (where a pastor comes out saying that Romans 13 means they must rent their parking lot to the cops) as just a couple examples.

This is another egregious example from a conversation on Facebook. I posted a reasoned response to his original post, and his comeback is to type “Romans 13”. He didn’t offer any sort of interpretation. He just expects that Romans 13 just so obviously teaches blind obedience to government that just its mere utterance is adequate to win a debate, as if I’ve never read that before. It’s kind of funny, so I thought I’d post a picture of the conversation with the names removed.

r13convo

I’ve written about the proper interpretation of Romans 13 before, but here are some more thoughts.

Colossians 3:20 says, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:24 says, “But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.”

As you can see, children should obey their parents, without exception. Wives should submit to their husbands without exception.  No Christians take these verses to mean that children and wives obey no matter what. If a mother tells her kids to rob a convenience store, they should disobey. If a husband tells his wife to murder someone, she should disobey.

Those verses place no qualifications on the obedience of children and wives, but we still realize they’re not absolute. Romans 13 places qualifications on obedience to government (saying magistrates are ministers of God, and telling us their role is to punish evil), but so many Christians say we should shut up and obey.

And in case you think you should obey the government unless it tells you to sin, you’re being naive.

The Way Things Ought to Be

Does Romans 13:1-7 Teach Blind Obedience?

mayhewIn 1749, Pastor Jonathan Mayhew argued against the “blind obedience to the government” interpretation to Romans 13 that some Christians take when he proclaimed, “It is blasphemy to call tyrants and oppressors God’s ministers. They are more properly ‘The Messengers of Satan to buffet us.’ No rulers are properly God’s ministers, but such as are ‘just, ruling in the fear of God.’ When once magistrates act contrary to their office, and the end of their institution when they rob and ruin the public, instead of being guardians of its peace… they immediately cease to be the ordinance and ministers of God, and no more deserve that glorious character than common pirates and highwaymen.”

“Thus, upon a careful review of the apostle’s reasoning in this passage, it appears that [Paul’s] arguments to enforce submission are of such a nature as to conclude only in favor of submission to such rulers as he himself describes; i.e., such as rule for the good of society, which is the only end of their institution. Common tyrants and public oppressors are not entitled to obedience from their subjects by virtue of anything here laid down by the inspired apostle.”