We can’t disobey rulers without disobeying God except when we must obey God rather than man (cf. Acts 5:29). Rulers, however, often walk contrary to the very reasons God gave them authority, punishing the righteous and rewarding the wicked. No surprises there, for Paul’s Gospel explication includes rulers when he indicts the entire human race before God – no one is righteous, throats are open sepulchers, feet swift to shed blood, etc. (Rom. 3:10, 13, 15).

Romans 13:1-5 and Acts 5:29 together teach fundamental Christian civic duty. We cannot disobey rulers without disobeying God, unless they command us to disobey God.

We do not always agree, however, when obedience to man constitutes disobedience to God. Perhaps we can fine-tune our deliberations with a fresh look at why God gave rulers authority?

An initial word of warning: I well remember the foolish, destructive bromides “Resist authority!” and “Never trust anyone over thirty!” from the late 1960s. Nearly sixty years later, we disrespect authority in all spheres – civil government (especially police), church, family, and school. An overarching disrespect for the Bible, both within and without the church, accompanies our slouch towards national suicide. Furthermore, it does not help that many of our institutions have lost their credibility, tempting us all the more to defy them.

Christians who, as lights of the world, would resist wicked rulers in this rebellious generation must demonstrate their own obedience to lawful government rule and abhorrence of lawlessness. Only then can they credibly call for proper civil disobedience.

Why submit to authority?

Paul in Romans 13:1-5 arguably presents Scripture’s clearest distillation of why God gave us government. For clarity’s sake, I have underlined the repeated word “for” (boldface added below):

For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. (v. 1)

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. (v. 3)

For he is the minister of God to you for good. (v. 4)

For he bears not the sword in vain. (v. 4)

For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil. (v. 5)

God instituted rulers to punish evil and reward good. Paul spends more time making this point than he does telling us that God vested rulers with authority. I am reminded that, “Because I am your mother!” is generally appropriate with a four-year-old but likely will provoke a fourteen-year-old, who is capable of understanding explanations. This calls for mature thinking.

Gospel explained and Gospel applied; Comparing Romans 2:8-10 with Romans 13:1-5 

Romans 13:1-5 is part of Paul’s Gospel application (Rom. 12:1-15:13) that immediately follows his Gospel explication (Rom. 1:16-11:36). I cite a text from that explication, boldfacing the same words that I boldfaced above:

[Rom. 2:8]…for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 

[9] There will be tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

[10] but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.” KJV, emphasis added)

I note also that Romans 13:1-5 begins with πᾶσα ψυχὴ (every soul”, KJV). We find these same two words in Romans 2:9 cited above. The Epistle has no other such occurrence.[1]

Paul commands “every soul”, then, to Gospel application: submit to God’s magistrates. Why? Among other things, rulers remind us of Paul’s earlier Gospel explication (2:8-10) that God will distribute eternal rewards and punishments to “every soul” when heaven and earth pass away. Meanwhile, God raises up rulers to represent and imitate Him by distributing temporal rewards and punishments to the good and evil on earth (13:3-4). The magistrate, as God’s servant, executes His temporal wrath (13:5). Arguably foreshadowing God’s eternal wrath?

When rulers violate God’s purpose for them

As stated already, we can’t disobey rulers without disobeying God except when we must obey God rather than man (cf. Acts 5:29). Rulers, however, often walk contrary to the very reasons God gave them authority, punishing the righteous and rewarding the wicked. No surprises there, for Paul’s Gospel explication includes rulers when he indicts the entire human race before God – no one is righteous, throats are open sepulchers, feet swift to shed blood, etc. (Rom. 3:10, 13, 15).

Before we consider resisting a tyrant, however, we need to remember that Paul taught the ruler is “…God’s servant, an avenger to execute wrath on evildoers” (Rom. 13:4, emphasis added). What if God’s servant is executing wrath not only on criminals but Christians? Was Paul recalling Jeremiah, who called wicked King Nebuchadnezzar God’s “servant” to destroy Jerusalem and the surrounding nations and make them “…an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations” (Jer. 25:9). Moreover, Jerusalem and those nations were to obey Nebuchadnezzar “my servant” or face “sword, famine, and pestilence” (Jer. 27:6, 8).

Since Romans 13 does not address wicked rulers, it alone cannot guide us in how to respond to them.

What about 1 Peter 2:13-15?

Like Paul, Peter commands submission to rulers. He says they were sent by God to punish the wicked and praise the righteous (cf. 1 Peter 2:13-15). In addition to Paul, he teaches that a default submission “may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (v. 15). Unlike Paul, he does not invite a connection between human temporal judges and God, the eternal Judge.

This magistrates passage is the first of three that address submission (1 Pet. 2:13-3:6). The second pertains to slaves submitting to their masters (2:18-25), and the third, wives submitting to their husbands (3:1-6).

We also notice this entire discourse begins with the command to submit “for the Lord’s sake”. Each submission scenario instructs us in seeking God’s glory, not our preferences.

Moreover, Peter commands submission even to ungodly masters and husbands. He does not, however, command submission to wicked rulers. Why the difference? Here are some considerations:

1) A Christian’s submission to his master, or a wife’s to her husband, is a far simpler interpersonal construct than a whole church community’s submission to multiple magistrates.

2) Peter compares suffering under an unjust master to Christ’s example of suffering unjustly (1 Pet. 2:21-24). Such suffering, he explains is “for the Lord’s sake” because we honor God by imitating Christ Who suffered unjustly to save us. He then “likewise” commands the same to wives (1 Pet. 3:1).[2]

3) Christ bore up under wicked men to save us from our wickedness. Should we not bear up under God’s wicked “servant” tyrants when they chastise us for our wickedness?

4) What if, however, that wicked “servant” is mistreating my neighbor? Injustice towards others involves (or should involve) the church community, for God commands us to love our neighbor. Is that why Peter does not command us to submit to rulers even when they are wicked? Surely Peter expects us to resist a tyrant’s wickedness to our neighbor by prayer. Perhaps by action as well?

Love for neighbor is more fundamental than obeying tyrants.  Christ said all the law and the prophets hang on the two commands to love God and love neighbor (Mt. 22:40). Furthermore, returning to Romans 13:1-7, Paul states that all commands regarding treating our fellow man are summed up in “Love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 9) two verses after commanding submission to authorities!

When must we resist tyranny?

We cannot provide comprehensive answers, but I offer some starters:

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. (Prov. 17:15)

Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression (Is. 1:17a)

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness… (Is. 5:20a)

These apply to rulers and ruled alike. Scripture also addresses magistrates:

Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees… (Is. 10:1)

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. (Ps. 2:10-11)

Cleaning our own house first

We can’t expect God to bless Christians’ efforts to persuade rulers to obey God when our own obedience to Him falls short. I cite just two examples.

• How can we delight ourselves in the Lord and tread upon the high places of the earth (resist wicked rulers) if we don’t meet a key condition for such blessings, like calling the Sabbath (now, the Lord’s Day) a delight by observing it (cf. Is. 58:13-14)?
• How can men lead a robust church if they are whom C.S. Lewis called “men without chests”? We men must regain biblical authority in our families, which is essential if we are to properly serve them. We must also gently but firmly purge the church of female ordination. We men have imitated Adam in the garden by failing to prevent, sometimes by encouraging, female office holders, in defiance of 1 Tim. 2:12, which forbids female authority over men in the church.

John the Baptist’s core Gospel message

As we get our families and churches in order, let us review John’s core message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). He instructed many, including tax collectors and soldiers, how to prepare for the King’s arrival (Lk. 3:10-14), not exempting even his ruler Herod, but instead reproving him “for all the evils [he] had done” (Lk. 3:19, emphasis added).

When the King arrived, He added to John’s instructions for Kingdom living, notably the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7). Matthew records, however, that He repeated John’s core message verbatim (4:17).

Has our core message changed?

Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and sending the Holy Spirit have all added to our Gospel proclamation. But did the core message change? True, the King ascended into heaven and is no longer physically “at hand”. But is not the Kingdom of heaven still “at hand” through the descended Holy Spirit? Moreover, Christ said “When he comes to you…he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment” (Jn. 16:7b-8, emphasis added). Surely we are not mere spectators as the Holy Spirit undertakes this massive task. Are we not rather participants with Him? Is not our core message still “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”?

Interestingly, Mark’s recording of Christ’s core message adds urgency: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the Gospel” (Mk. 1:15, emphasis added). Revelation, written after the Ascension, is bookended with eschatological urgency: “The time is at hand” (Rev. 1:3, 22:10); or, as James puts it, “The Judge is at the door” (Jas. 5:9).

Wicked magistrates will, per Ezekiel 33:8, “surely die” if they do not repent. Who will tell that to our magistrates if we Christians don’t? Do we fail, as Peter did in Antioch, to walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel (Gal. 2:14) if we say, “This law is monstrous, but we must obey the authorities”? Moreover, rulers may not take our protests seriously unless we disobey them.

When did God’s default marching orders, “Seek justice, correct oppression” (Is. 1:17), change?[3] Certainly not at the Great Commission, when Christ claimed all authority in earth and heaven, and continued with “…therefore disciple every nation” (οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη). Did He really intend to limit that Gospel commission to winning individual souls in every nation?

Some will point out that the Apostles never sought to change human laws. That is true. Replacing wicked men at the ballot box or lobbying for better laws were totally unfeasible in their day. Yet the mob in Thessalonica gave Paul, Silas and Timothy (three men!) arguably the highest compliment unbelievers could by accusing them of “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Imagine what they could have done here, applying the Gospel to disciple our constitutional republic when Christianity was the dominant religion!

We must, to be sure, maintain reputations of obedience to rulers’, even tyrants’, lawful decrees; but let us be ready when love for neighbor requires us to actively resist tyrants and to rebut oversimplified appeals to Romans 13.

John E. Taylor is a lifelong Presbyterian, first by birth (to missionary parents in Japan), then by conviction. He currently is a member of Coddle Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mooresville, NC. He blogs at blog.thetaylorhome.org.

[1] Strong’s Online Concordance

[2] To be sure, searching the Scriptures may well indicate, after much deliberation and prayer, that more drastic measures may be necessary in a particular case.

[3] Christians may also be compelled to resist a government that demands we render to Caesar what is not Caesar’s (contra Mt. 22:21. In a constitutional republic such as ours, or wherever government’s powers are limited by law, this should be a viable biblical option, especially when a citizen swore an Oath to defend the Constitution against its enemies “foreign and domestic” – not to the government or the Flag.