Government - Part 8: Civil Government - Purposes & Responsibilities
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[00:00:00] Romans chapter 13. Again, as like last week, we're gonna read the first 10 verses. Again, if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word, and please hear this for what it truly is: truth, absolute truth, the words of the living God. Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse one. Every soul is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God. And they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority?
Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he [00:01:00] is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake.
For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
For this, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "You [00:02:00] shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to His Word.
Please be seated
Kids, just a reminder, I've included this on your outline as well, uh, and that is the sermon outline. But, uh, number one on your sermon outline, and if you open up your bulletins you'll, you'll find your sermon outline. It's a half-sheet of paper. On one side it's the fill-in-the-blank sermon outline. On the other side there's some Bible verses and some principles that we'll look at in just a minute.
But number one is simply a recap. And if you're visiting today, we have been doing a series. Today is, uh, kind of the last day, although I am gonna deal with a hot topic next week. But, uh, today is the end of our series, and we've been looking at [00:03:00] the various governments that God has ordained. And kids, this is in your handout and you'll wanna fill this in, but God has ordained self-government, God has ordained the family as a sphere of authority or government, God has ordained the church as a sphere of authority, and God has ordained civil government.
And this is week two on civil government, and we're gonna be looking at purpose and responsibilities. What is the purpose of the civil magistrate? What is, what are his responsibilities and what are our responsibilities? So last week when we looked at this, uh, the first week that we looked at it, I gave you four principles, and if you look on the half-page handout in your bulletin, I've got those principles listed and I simply wanna reread them to you and add just a few words of maybe clarification.
I was asked a variety of questions this week, so just make sure we're on the same page. But the first principle is this, and maybe the most important, all spheres of human government, [00:04:00] the self, the family, the church, the civil government, all spheres of human authority must submit to God or they will fail.
They will fail, utterly fail apart from a bent knee to Christ Jesus. Number two, the good of civil government is wholly dependent upon the first three spheres Self, family, and ecclesiastical governments, if those are weak, Leviathan results. And my point there, and if you're taking notes, you might want to write it down, if you want a good civil government, it starts from the bottom up.
It starts with self-control and submission to Christ Jesus. It starts with, uh, fathers being the leader of their household, teaching their household, teaching them the scriptures, discipling their family, with wives submitting to their husbands, loving and respecting and supporting him, with husbands and wives working as a team.
From there it goes to the church with strong [00:05:00] elders, with the Word of God being unashamedly preached and proclaimed and explained. Only then does it reach the civil level. The civil government is wholly dependent upon the first three, and if we have... If the first three are weak, Leviathan results. And that was one of the questions I received.
And Leviathan is used in scripture in a number of different ways. It's only used five times, a couple of times in Job, a couple of times in Psalm, and once in Isaiah. But Leviathan was a sea creature, maybe a sea monster. It's, uh, hard to identify exactly. Don't know if Leviathan still exists, but in scripture it was a real creature.
But it was also used to speak of chaos. It was also used to speak of hostile power. It was also used in Isaiah, I believe, to describe Satan, and that's what I mean by if we have a weak citizenry, if the first three spheres of government are weak, the civil [00:06:00] government becomes evil, becomes Leviathan. Number three, civil government came into existence because of a breakdown in the self, the family, and the church.
Civil government exists because of sin. Let me say that one more time. Civil government exists because of sin, and we will explore that more today. Now, what I didn't do last week, and I just want to clarify, is I didn't hypothe... I, I'm not even gonna try. I didn't guess at whether or not civil government would have formed apart from sin What would it have looked like?
What would civil government look like in a world where every single human being loved his neighbor as himself? Where every single human being loved the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind. So I, I just... I didn't go there. I'm not saying it wouldn't have happened. I just didn't go there.
I tried to follow the biblical account, and the biblical account, I believe, is clear. [00:07:00] Civil government exists because of sin, because of a breakdown in the first three spheres. And number four, finally, civil government in submission to God is a human good. And let me put it differently, because we live in a time and an age and quite frankly an area, uh, an area where we see everything the government does as evil.
And I will grant you, our government has grown into Leviathan. Nevertheless, biblically speaking, civil government should be a human good. Civil government does not have to be Leviathan. But what we need to admit in terms of a church and in terms of the people of God is our culpability. You see, to be a country, to be a nation is a corporate thing.
To be a country, to be a nation, believe it or not, is a covenantal thing. And I've said this before, and I think there's only very little hyperbole in this statement, but all [00:08:00] of the woes of our country is the fault of the church. All of the rampant sin and the perversion in our country can be traced back to the church not doing her job.
The civil government ought to be a human good. Number two on your outline, and kids, you can fill this in. Number two, purpose and responsibility of civil government. And hopefully you're still in Romans. If you're not, go back to Romans chapter 13, and we'll start in verse one But number two on your outline, purpose and responsibility of civil government.
And I'm going to say something now. I will come back to it at the end of our sermon. This is not a full-blown treatise. There are things that are not addressed by Paul here. I will mention some of them towards the end of the sermon. This, I believe, and I'll try to demonstrate it in verse 1, this is an ideal presentation of what civil government should look like.
In [00:09:00] fact, that is why we read what we read at the beginning of our sermon today. We read, uh, Deuteronomy 17 because it presents an ideal picture of a king, a king in submission to Jesus Christ, a king who would literally write out God's law so he would know how to rule and reign. It was a picture of an ideal king.
And then we read, uh, 2 Kings because it was a picture of Hezekiah. It was actually an example of what a good king looks like. It was an example of a good king in submission to God and how he lived his life, 2 Kings 18. So that's why we read what we read. And so Paul presents an ideal picture here. So look at chapter 13 verse 1.
Every soul, every soul is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. And I just-- I want to unpack that because I think it's important. First of all, again, in the original, it is every soul. And the idea [00:10:00] there is everyone, believer and unbeliever. What Paul is writing here applies to everyone because all of us, whether we admit it or not Ought to be in submission to God.
All of us are in covenant with God. We either relate to God as a covenant breaker in Adam or a covenant keeper in Christ, but we're all related to God. Whether I like it or not, I must submit to God. Paul doesn't care at what point he's writing. Most of you probably know this. Maybe you've asked this question.
Nero is the Roman Empire, emperor during this time. Now interesting, this is early in Nero's reign. He hasn't turned ugly yet, but it doesn't matter to Paul. In fact, Peter's gonna write about 10 years later, maybe a little less, and Nero is still in charge, and Nero has become a monster. And I'll read you Peter's words in a minute, but Peter's gonna pretty much say exactly what Paul says.
This is an ideal presentation, and it [00:11:00] applies to every man, woman, and child, believer or non-believer, and we are to be in subjection to the governing authorities. And this word used of subjection is the same word used for wives in Colossians and Ephesians, but it literally... It's a military term, and it means to line up under.
There's a sense of willingness in subjection. We should be willingly subject to our government. And I've said many times before, it also includes obedience. There are times when, because we've lined up under, because we're willingly submitting to our government, that we have to obey things that we may not want to obey as long as they're not immoral.
Again, I'll touch on that later. But there may be things our government does that you don't like, but it's not immoral, it's not violating the law of God, and we must obey. We must submit. Every person, every soul must be in subjection to the governing authorities. And this is an interesting word because when you break down the Greek, it's basically the authorities that have [00:12:00] power over you is the idea, the authorities who have been placed above you.
And as we look at this passage and we unpack it, it is God who placed them above us. It is God who designed this system of civil government. And yes, He's given freedom. You can have a king. You can have a parliament. You can have a king and parliament. You can have a democracy. You can have a republic. You can have a president.
There's freedom in this, but God is the one who has designed this idea of authority and a state in charge of a citizenry. Every soul is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God. Government only makes sense in terms of a Christian worldview.
For you philosophers out there, what Paul gives us here, there's no authority except from God and all those which exist are established by God. It's the metaphysics of [00:13:00] authority, okay? And if you're not a philosopher, don't, don't worry about it. Metaphysics is the study of reality, okay? Things like authority, morality, logic, laws of science, laws of nature, consciousness, ideas, human rights, they're not physical, but they're real.
They exist. They're real. Authority is real, and it exists, and it comes from God, and God is the one who has established it. And so children, you need to obey your parents because God has established that authority. Moms and dads, we need to obey police officers because they are an extension, an arm of the civil government, and God has established that authority.
Authority comes from God. Listen to the words of Peter. Before we get to verse two, I want you to listen to the words of Peter. And as I said, Paul wrote somewhere in the late '50s, Peter wrote in the mid-'60s. So it's five to 10 years after Paul wrote, [00:14:00] depending where you date things. And in First Peter chapter two, verse 13, Peter says this: "Submit yourselves because of the Lord to every human institution."
And contextually, he's talking about the government. Contextually, he's using the same word as Paul is using, to submit, to line up under, to obey, to do it willingly and volun- voluntarily, recognizing because of the Lord, recognizing that God has established this system. "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right."
Again, Peter's actually using the same words that Paul will be using later. "For such is the will of God." It is God's will that we submit to our governing authorities. "For such is the [00:15:00] will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as slaves of God.
Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God, and honor the king." You're going to hear these words echo in Paul. Look again at chapter 13, verse two
Let me know if I read this correctly. "Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the authority." Is that what your Bible says? Listen to it again. "Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God." When we resist our government, we're not so much opposing the government, we are sinning against God.
Again, I will deal with exceptions at the end of the sermon. And I realize that our government may be doing some things that aren't [00:16:00] nice, aren't right. They're exceeding their powers. But guess again whose fault that is? We've allowed it to happen Whoever resists, whoever stands opposed. And this word is used of opposition to the gospel.
This word is used of God being opposed to the proud. So we know what it means. We stand against the government, and when we do that, we're opposed. We're actually against the ordinance of God, the command, the law of God. And it's not a good place to be. Paul continues, "They who have opposed... And they who have opposed will receive judgment," literally, "upon themselves."
And contextually, this is a condemnatory judgment that they will receive. We are to submit to our authorities. I'm gonna give you a silly example, but maybe it's one that applies to you. But when I go home, I have to go down Alderson Lane and up Paradise Valley, and the speed limit there is 20 miles an [00:17:00] hour, and it makes no sense to me.
And I have a really hard time, you can ask Stacy, I have a really hard time slowing down to 20 miles an hour because it makes absolutely no sense. It should be 30, maybe more. What should I do? Submit to the government. I should submit to the leaders. A- and whoever said that, you're absolutely right. I should go 20 miles an hour.
Or how about the school zone that goes down the entirety of Main Street when there's only a handful of schools? Now, I don't think that's wise. I don't think that's... But what should I do? Submit to the government. Why? Because in submitting to the government authorities, I submit to the ordinance of God. I submit to the rule of God, and that is what we are called to do.
Verse three, "For rulers," literally authorities, those in charge, those who hold, literally the word, those who hold first place. [00:18:00] "Rulers," authorities, "are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil." Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. So we learn one thing that the government is supposed to do.
Well, actually, two of the main points here. Government is supposed to suppress evil, and if you're afraid of the government, you're doing something wrong. You're doing something evil because if you're simply behaving in a good moral fashion, you should not have to fear the government. Again, this is an ideal presentation because the government is to put down evil, and if you're performing evil, you should be afraid.
But if you're doing good, you should receive praise, and the word literally means approval or admiration from the governing authorities. And our government actually does that. We have, I forget, I think I counted 15 different citizen awards that the government will occasionally give out, and the, apparently the highest award that the government gives [00:19:00] out is the Presidential Medal of Freedom And it's to those who have contributed to the good of the nation.
A man by the name of Welles Crowther received it in September of 2026. He was a firefighter at 9/11, and apparently he saved multiple lives before he was killed in the carnage. Charlie Kirk received the award on October 14th, 2025. We also have what's called the Congressional Gold Medal, and interestingly enough, you might remember the, the movie Miracle On Ice.
It was the American hockey team that, that beat the Russians, and it was a ti- it was a time during the Cold War where Americans were down, and it really did boost American spirits. They received the Congressional Gold Medal. So the job of the government is to promote goodness and to suppress evil, and our government has done that.
I'm not saying they're consistent at it. I'm-- I already told you I think they're Leviathan But if you don't want to fear government, do what's [00:20:00] right. Verse four. In verse four, kids, this is in your handout, verse four, you can fill in the Bible verse, but verse four is a summary of what Paul has said. So again, listen to Paul's words.
"For he," referring to the governing authority, "he is a minister of God for you. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing." The King James says he does not bear the sword in vain. "For he is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."
Now, there's a couple of things I want to note about this passage, and the first thing I want to note are the descriptive titles. I think it's important that we don't downplay these deta- these titles. Twice in this verse, he is called a minister or a servant of God, and the literal word in the Greek text is he is a deacon of God.
He is a servant of God. And then in [00:21:00] verse six that we'll get to momentarily, he's... Paul uses a different word. It's a word that means an administrative leader, but also a cultic leader, and we'll, we'll... I'll unpack that a little bit more in a minute, but again, he is a servant of God, and the fact that he is an avenger is tied to the fact that he is a servant of God.
And what I want to point out is these are religious titles. The job may be different, but the responsibility is the same. And even if you want to take these in a total secular way, and I don't think Paul is using these words by accident, I believe that the job of the civil, civil magistrate is a religious service to God.
Why does our president, why do our judges, why do all our officials swear an oath on Scripture when they come into office? They may not mean it. It may simply be ceremony in terms of today's culture, but it started with the founding of [00:22:00] our nation, and it was a reminder that the civil magistrate, the judge, the governor, the mayor, whomever it may be, was serving God first and foremost.
They are ministers of God, servants of God, and in part of their service, they bring forth wrath. They bring forth, they avenge wickedness, and this word means they punish wickedness, and they do it without mercy. And that's part of the problem with our legal system today. We've allowed too much mercy to creep in when God's law is very clear.
Justice is done without mercy. God's law provides plenty of mercy But you all know the big case in the news today. I won't even rehearse it because of the kids in the crowd
What happened to justice [00:23:00] in our country? What happened to recognize, recognizing that the civil magistrate is an avenger who brings forth wrath? And the second thing I want to point out here is he bears a sword, and a sword means exactly what a sword means. A sword speaks of capital punishment. All the way back to Genesis 9, man was given permission.
Man was... Not even permission, man was instructed that there are certain crimes that true justice demands the life of the criminal, and the civil magistrate bears the sword, and I believe it refers to capital punishment. It also refers to just war. Paul doesn't get into it, but the civil magistrate is also tasked with defending his citizenry, defending the nation, and so the civil magistrate can engage in war.
But here's something interesting about the word. There's two common Greek words for sword in the Bible, and one of them refers to a very big... Usually, it's viewed as an offensive [00:24:00] weapon, and the other one is a smaller sword. You can even translate it dagger, and some would argue it's more of a defensive weapon.
Paul uses the small sword in this passage. I think the context is clear, capital punishment, just war, but he uses the small sword, and why might he do that? Because there are constraints on the civil magistrate. The civil magistrate is a servant of God, and therefore he is constrained, and he cannot simply wield his sword any way he wants.
Again, our government recognized that in the early days. Our government basically said only Congress can declare war. Now, we've gotten around that, but in our original documents, that's what it said because that was many men coming together and deciding. It was a, a reigning in of the president's authority, and I think it's pictured here with this small sword.
The other thing that I would point out, because you can read a lot about this, but one of the primary arguments [00:25:00] against capital punishment is it doesn't deter crime. Yes, it does. I mean, that's an easy one to prove, and the text proves it. The sword does one of two things. It's an avenger of wrath. It issues punishment or justice, or it causes fear so that people don't sin, so that people don't break the law.
So the threat of capital punishment does provide a restraint, and biblically speaking, that's what Paul is talking about here And we need to preach this. This is one of those things I've said before, I haven't given too many examples, but the various spheres of government, there are some walls between the spheres.
So for instance, as a minister, I can teach you about discipline. I can teach you what the Bible says about how we ought to discipline our children, what tools we have available. I can't come into your home and discipline your child And as a church, we should [00:26:00] be preaching these things to the civil magistrate.
We should be reminding him that he is a servant of God. We should be reminding him that there are constraints on his authority. And next week, we're gonna deal with an issue that actually addresses that very thing, and if you look in your bulletin, there's a, a paper with some red on it, and I'd like you to get it out 'cause I want to read a portion of it to you, and this is what we're gonna unpack next week.
But it's a solemn call to the citizens of Idaho, and these are the things we need to preach to our civil magistrates. These are the things we need to stand firm on. A solemn call to the citizens of Idaho from the church leaders in Boundary County, Idaho, who desire the glory of God alone. I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but I do want to read this first paragraph.
"As individuals accountable to God Almighty, the sovereign Creator and sustainer of all human life, we solemnly proclaim our sacred [00:27:00] duty to walk in humble obedience to His divine commandments for His glory alone. Idaho's Proposition 1, under the guise of promoting healthcare, represents a grave offense against the Lord's moral law by seeking to establish a legal right to murder the preborn through all nine months of pregnancy while systematically stripping away parental responsibilities and removing God-given parental authority.
Because great-- sacred Scripture affirms that every preborn chil- child is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, true faithfulness requires us to stand unyielding against the destruction of innocent life and the erosion of the family. Therefore, out of a deep reverence for God's supreme authority and a sincere commitment to His truth, we call upon all citizens to obey God rather than man and vote no [00:28:00] on Proposition 1."
That is what we are to preach to the governing authorities. That is where we should str- stand strong and firm. And you'll note on the bottom of it, there's a handful of, uh, minister signatures and more are being added by the day
Number three on your outline, purpose and responsibility of citizens Purpose and responsibility of citizens. What is a good citizen? What is a good citizen? And Christianity has had a view of this for a very long time. Back in the late second, early third century, a man by the name of Tertullian wrote what he labeled an apology, and basically he wrote to the emperor of the time, and he was basically writing a defense of Christians.
Christians were being persecuted. Christians were being hated. [00:29:00] Christians were being called bad citizens, and Tertullian was writing to explain to the emperor, "How can you call this bad?" Now, just so you know, I want to lay e- everything on the table, Tertullian took an odd turn toward the end of his life.
But the beginning of his life and his early writings are sound. And I'm just gonna give you the highlights and one or two quotations, but Tertullian's argument, he, he writes this in his Apology, and you can find it in chapters 30 through 42 if you wanna look it up. But he writes it in his Apology, and basically he begins with, "Christians pray for their leaders."
Christians pray for their governing leaders, and that's something we need to start doing here. We need to include our governing leaders in our opening prayers. But do you personally take time to pray for your leaders? Did you ever pray for Joe Biden when he was president? Tertullian argues we pray for our leaders.
He cites Matthew [00:30:00] 5:44, 1 Timothy 2 as arguments for why we do that. But he, he couches it with, he says, "Christians acknowledge God's sovereignty while honoring their leaders, and that's why we'll never call Caesar God, because that's actually an insult. That actually ridicules Caesar." But he also says this, and this may be the most famous line in the book, and it's kind of tongue in cheek, but I like it.
He writes, "I might say Caesar is more ours than yours, for our God has appointed him." A clear reflection of Romans chapter 13. He later says, "Christians are loyal to the state. We're chaste. We're sober. We live our lives with virtue. We do goodness." He again goes on and he says that, "Christians love their enemies and help those who are in need."
He talks about a collection being taken every Sunday, and he says, "We use it to support and bury poor people, sup- to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and [00:31:00] parents, and of old persons confined now to their houses." And here's the kicker. In chapter 42, he writes, "Christians pay their taxes."
In fact, he takes a jab at the emperor, and he, he reminds the emperor that you're losing money at your temples because people aren't paying the temple taxes. But you actually... Uh, he writes these words, "You actually owe a debt of gratitude to Christians, for we pay our taxes." That's a description from the ancient church of what a good citizen was.
Now listen to Paul's words in verse five. "Therefore, as a result, in conclusion to what I just said, as an, as, as an outworking of what I just said, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake." And what Paul is gonna do in the next several verses is he's going to keep upping the un- an- the ante.
The unbeliever, yeah, he can obey out of fear, but that is [00:32:00] not why a Christian ought to obey. A Christian ought never to fear a good government. A Christian ought never to fear a civil magistrate in submission to God. Even though a good government, a good governor may still make it a school zone down Main Street, may still make you go 20 miles an hour on a street that you gotta gain speed to go uphill, and we're to submit But we do it for conscience sake.
We do it out of a moral obligation. We do it, and this word conscience, and I've defined it for you before, it literally is a word that it- we see with. God has programmed us to have a conscience, and He programmed that conscience in Romans 2:14-15, which I think is a key verse. The law of God is written on the hearts of all men.
The Decalogue is written on our hearts, and that is what guides our conscience, and we can either suppress it or we can let it guide us. And [00:33:00] Paul says we should obey out of conscience sake, not out of fear. And verse 6 says this, "For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing."
Couple of things. I told you this was a different word for service. And again, again, I would argue it is a religious title because the civil magistrate, whatever city council person, governor, mayor, police chief, officer in the field, your primary boss is Jesus Christ, and the scriptures make that clear. And if you're not in submission to Christ, you're in disobedience.
And so he uses this word that is usually used of cultic ministers. In fact, it is the word that we get our word liturgy from. The word that Paul uses here is the word that comes into English as litur- liturgy, the way we format our service, the way we worship God. I [00:34:00] believe it is a religious term. And it says that they devote themselves to this very thing, and some people read this and what it's talking about contextually is they devote themselves to collecting taxes.
That's something the civil magistrate does, and we tend to think, "Oh, that's a bad thing." No. What Paul is trying to describe here is a means to the end-- to an end. Civil magistrates collect taxes so that they can use them in honor of God, that they can use those taxes in submission to God and suppress evil and promote good.
You see, a godly civil magistrate gives you protection. He gives you peace. He gives you wellness of mind. That's the ideal here For because of this you pay taxes. For rulers are servants of God, devoted, devoting themselves to this very thing. And then echoing Jesus' words in verse seven, he says this, [00:35:00] "Render to all what is due: Tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."
And the interesting thing here is he actually uses two words for tax. And the first word that in English is simply translated tax, believe it or not, this is a conquered tax, okay? Some people refer to it as a, uh, um- Yep, I lost my place. But anyway, it's, it's a tax and it refers to a conquered nation. Rome was made up of conquered nations.
And if you were a conquered nation, you owed a tax that Roman citizens didn't owe. And this is the tax that Paul is referring to. And Paul says, "Pay it And then the next word that he uses for tax, and, uh, the New American Standard translates it's custom. This is more of a poll [00:36:00] tax or a duty tax. This would be the kind of tax that we're familiar with.
This would be a tax on goods. This would be a tax on income. And Paul is-- he's not sparing words. Render to all what is due, and taxes are due to civil magistrate, and so we should pay our taxes. And I'm not saying that don't take advantage of the tax code that the civil magistrate wrote. I'm not saying don't do that.
Be wise. Be innocent as doves, but as shrewd as serpents, but pay your taxes. That's Paul's words, that's God's words, that's Jesus' words, not mine. Render all what is due. A conquered tax, an income tax. Fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. And this word for fear in this context means respect, and it's directed to the king.
And Peter makes it very clear in One Peter two, and I read it to you earlier, we are to honor the king. We are to honor our [00:37:00] governing authorities, even those we may not like. We are to give them honor that is due them. And as I said, Paul is echoing Jesus' words in Luke twenty-twenty-five. "And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'"
And then Paul ups the ante one more time in verse eight. "Owe nothing to anyone." And he's not talking about loans. He's not talking about whether you could-- should get a mortgage or anything. He's talking about personal relationships. He's talking about honor and respect. He's, as we'll see, he's talking about love and respect.
"Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another." And kids, there's a question on your handout, so I want you to follow the pattern. He says, "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." And I want you all to follow the pattern. Note the progression.[00:38:00]
Uh, we are to owe nothing to anyone except love. That means we're to love everyone, is the idea there. And then Paul narrows it down. To love one another, and this phraseology is used so often by Paul, it refers to believers. We're to love everyone, but there's a special sense in which we are to love fellow believers.
And then he goes back to our neighbor. We're back to everyone. And it's interesting because the word for neighbor here isn't even the regular word for neighbor. It's literally the other. Love the other. We are to love everyone, but there is a special sense, and it's found throughout scripture, that we love the body of Christ, and we serve the body of Christ, and we help the body of Christ.
That's where it begins, and then as the body of Christ, we reach out to others. We reach out to our neighbor. And there is multitasking going on here
But he says, "Owe nothing to anyone but love. Love is own- owed." And [00:39:00] he's going to, uh, explain love by citing the moral law in the very next verse. "For this, 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.'" Sixth, seventh, eighth, and 10th commandment. And Paul simply quotes enough to make his point, and then he uses the summary commandment of "Do not covet" to include the rest.
Obey the moral law. Obey these laws, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Verse 10, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." And this verse does several things. It instructs us in several ways.
First of all, how do we love our neighbors? How do we love somebody? Because let's face it, the unbeliever loves to use that verse. The unbeliever loves to throw that verse out at us when we stand [00:40:00] against abortion, when we stand against the transgender movement, when we stand against the LGBTQ plus movement.
The unbeliever will constantly throw that out. But Paul defines love here. How do we love one another? By treating people lawfully. You see, that's true love. We're fallen, and in and of ourselves, we don't know how to love properly. So God has instructed us. How do I love you? By loving God first. Stacy and I occasionally get the opportunity to do marriage counseling, and one of the things we always begin with is this very simple principle.
If you want your marriage to work, you need to love Jesus more than you love your spouse. If you want to work through any problem you're having, you need to love Jesus Christ more than you love each other. And it's the same principle here. We must love God, we must love His law, and we treat people lovingly by obeying the law, by obeying all the commandments of [00:41:00] Christ.
And one other thing, because it comes up all the time, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is not a commandment to love yourself. It is a recognition that you already do love yourself. And it is not a sin to love yourself in a biblical sense. It is a sin not to love your neighbor. It is not selfish to love yourself.
You're designed to love yourself. You're designed to take care of yourself. And again, God's law puts constraints on that self-love. So we love ourselves according to the law of God. But it is actually selfish to not love others. And so often we'll turn it around and we'll say, "Oh, it's selfish to love ourself."
Not really. It's selfish to not love others. Paul writes in Philippians chapter two, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty deceit, but with humility of mind. Regard one another as more important than yourselves. And do not merely look out for your own personal [00:42:00] interests, but also for the interests of others."
And again, if you follow that passage carefully, we're allowed to look out for our own interests. We have to take care of our-- I can't love my wife if I don't take, take care of myself. I can't love my children or my grandchildren if I let myself go. So there's got to be that self-love, that self-care. But we are to love others because love fulfills the law.
And as one commentator put it, he said, "Love gives to the law the full measure of its demand." Love fulfills the law But now a note of caution, because I told you Paul is not writing a treatise on civil government. Paul, I believe, is addressing the ideal responsibilities of our civil leaders, and the ideal responsibility of any civil leader at any level in government is to first bow the knee to Jesus Christ, which is why our government is wicked, which is why our government is a [00:43:00] Leviathan, because no one bows their knee to Jesus anymore.
But where does that start? Does it start with us preaching to the government? Not really. Uh, we should do that. There should... Like I said, multitasking. It starts in your own life. It starts with your own personal love and bowing the knee to Jesus, and then it bleeds into your family and you living the role that God has given you in the family, and then it bleeds into the church.
Do you serve the church? Do you know your elders? Would you be willing to submit to your elders? 'Cause if not, you shouldn't be here. And it all begins with submission to God Almighty, and then good civil government comes out of it. Paul is not writing a treatise on civil government Here are some things.
I'm just gonna talk about three things that were not addressed in Paul's words here. They are addressed in Scripture. We're not gonna cover them today, but they are addressed in Scripture. What about revolution? What about revolt? Is there ever a time when [00:44:00] it is both necessary and godly to take up arms against the state?
The simple answer is yes, but search the Scriptures. What about war? How do we fight wars? The Christian Church from the time of Augustine and even earlier has developed this doctrine known as just war theory, and I am convinced one of the major problems in our country is post-traumatic stress syndrome.
And so many of our veterans are coming back. I, I can't remember the numbers, but I know there are some men in this congregation that can share it with you, but large numbers of veterans are killing themselves on a daily basis. Why? Because we keep engaging in non-just wars. You don't read these things about David.
You don't read these things about David's mighty men. Why? Because they were only engaged in righteous wars Paul doesn't address just war here. And [00:45:00] the last thing that I'm gonna mention is civil disobedience. Paul does not address civil disobedience here, but hopefully all of you know that there are times to disobey.
And most of you will probably be familiar with this passage, Acts 5:27-29. When they, the Sanhedrin, the council, when they brought them, the apostles in context, when they brought the apostles, they stood them before the council. And the high priest, who was the ruler of Israel in the day, it would be like Trump is addressing them.
The high priest stands up and he questions them saying, "We gave you strict orders." And let's face it, they had the right to order citizens to do certain things. "We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name," the name of Christ, "and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us."[00:46:00]
But Peter and the apostles answered. So apparently in context, this was a group answer. It wasn't just Peter. Sometimes we think it's just Peter as the spokesman. No, it's all of the apostles spoke in unison. We must obey God rather than man. And there will be times when we will have to take the punishment because we will obey God rather than man.
But Paul doesn't discuss that in this passage because again, he is giving an ideal version of the civil magistrate. So I want to add two more principles to our opening four principles and we'll close with this. Principle number five is the purpose and responsibility of civil government. Number one, they are to serve God.
And when our civil government is not serving God, you can see the first problem. Number two, they are to punish evil and praise good. And number three, they are to collect taxes as a means to an end. That's it. [00:47:00] Now, I'm not saying that scripture doesn't address anything else. I'm not saying that as a citizenry, we can give the government more power.
I think it's a dangerous thing, but that's their role according to God. Sixth principle, what is the purpose responsibility of the citizens of you and I? We must submit and obey. When we can submit and obey in honor to God, in obeying him, in not sinning, then we must submit and obey even if we don't like it, even if we think it's unfair I think property taxes are unfair but it is the law of the land and so I pay them.
We are to do good and we are to pay our taxes and to include some of the things that Tertullian said, and this is just a reminder and it's as much a reminder to the elders of this church as to any of you, we are to pray for our leaders In as much as it is possible, we are to be loyal to our country. [00:48:00] We are to love our enemies and help those in need.
And again, exclamation point, we are to pay our taxes. Let's pray. Father in heaven, you probably don't hear these words from too many Americans. Thank you for civil government. Thank you specifically for our government. Thank you that though I think it's gotten out of control, there are still rules, there are still boundaries, there are still things that we as citizens can do.
We can stand up and we can make a difference. And Father, we have failed at that. We have failed at the simplest levels. We have failed in prayer alone. So Father, today we pray for President Trump. We pray, Lord, that he would truly come to know you. If he doesn't, I don't know his heart, Father, but we want him to truly know you.
We want him to truly bow the knee to you in a way that [00:49:00] becomes so visible and awe-inspiring. We pray for our Congress and our representatives. Father, we pray for our Supreme Court, that they would bow the knee to you, that they would make decisions based on your law, that they would understand that law comes from somewhere, and the only rationale for law is the Christian worldview.
Father, I pray that this ideal form of civil government would make its way back into our country, and that we could live peaceable lives, that we could live restful lives, that we could concentrate on the gospel and sharing the gospel. Father, help us, help us embrace the truth that this starts at the ground up.
And may we be faithful to you, Lord, in all that we do. For we ask all of this in the name of Christ Jesus, and all of God's people said, amen.
