“Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” -Romans 13:2
From the time Israel first became a tribute nation (subservient to Gentile nations) to the time of Paul’s writing, there have always been zealots who’s goal was to raise enough support to overthrow the occupying armies. Further, in Jewish teaching, Gentile magistrates were seen as illegitimate leaders of God’s chosen people. Consider the second Psalm of David:
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”” -Psalm 2:1–6
Even during Jesus’s earthly ministry, many thought of Messiah in terms of a military and political leader in the way of Judas Maccabeus who led the Maccabean Revolts in the second century B.C. Simon was called a Zealot by Luke (Luke 6:15) and in 66 A.D., the Jewish Zealots would revolt against the Romans leading to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.
Paul’s exhortation that the followers of Christ be subject to the ruling authorities is given in this context. He establishes the authority of his exhortation by reminding them that by resisting the civil authorities they were resisting what God had appointed and they would certainly incur judgment for doing so. We must remember that God is the author of authority and in his sovereignty, he raises one up and puts another down.
Paul’s exhortation is a universal principle based on Jesus’s teaching that we are to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17). That makes it a precept to be applied in all times, by every generation of believers. It also means there are qualifications to the precept—that it is not without its restrictions. We are to give to Caesar what is Caesar but we are not to give to Caesar what is the Lord’s.
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