Romans 13

I suggested in chapter 12 that Paul outlined four basic relationships: 

1.   To God, 

2.   To ourselves, 

3.   To one another, 

4.   To our enemies. 

In chapter 13 three other relationships are offered: 

1.   To the state (the conscientious citizen), 

2.   To the law (loving your neighbor being its fulfillment), 

3.   And to the day of the Lord’s return (living in the “already” and the “not yet”). 

This chapter has, quite frankly, troubled people for centuries regards their relationship to the state. And so it is to this subject I turn.

In this first half of 2020, our world is experiencing a global pandemic. We are inundated with all sorts of data, messages, direction, and government orders. All of it comes with a point-of-view. Much of it is well-intentioned. Some of those points-of-view have agendas—agendas that grate at me.

To control the spread of the infection, government measures have been deployed, and, depending on the country you live in, those measures bump into (and perhaps run over) constitutional rights of citizens.

What is our response as followers of Jesus? 

Please note the inherent distinction between that of a follower of Jesus, and that of a citizen of the state.

This reflection is the first of a three-part series regards this question for followers of Jesus. It seeks to establish my thought-process, and then follow-on actions.

Some read chapter 13 as suggesting we passively submit to the state. Since the birth of Christianity relations between church and state have been notoriously controversial. John Stott describes four patterns (p.339):

1.   The Constantine method, where the state favors the church and the church accommodates the state in order to retain its favor. 

2.   A Theocracy, where the church controls the state. 

3.   The model where the state controls the church (think, for example, Nazi Germany) 

4.   The Partnership model where each—church and state— recognizes the other’s God-given responsibilities. 

This current pandemic has led more of Jesus’ followers to ask, “What is my duty to the state?” 

The answer to this question is highly informed by what “state” (country) you live in.

Yet there is something up-stream—it is an answer to the question, “What are our foundational principles?”

Our foundational principle is clear and from God: the Great Commandment—Love God and love neighbor.

Loving God and loving neighbor is the essence of witnessing the Gospel. Therefore “how” we witness the Gospel in the country and system of government we find ourselves becomes the question. 

Consider, in this chapter Paul is writing to a people from a context where the Jewish people wanted to literally overthrow the Roman authorities and set up a theocracy—where the church controls the state. 

This was the focus of many in Jesus’ day. In fact, many Jewish people could not accept that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah because he was doing the exact opposite. 

I am not saying we should sacrifice ourselves on the “altar of the state”. Rather, I am saying that we should, as Jesus did, “Love God and love neighbor. 

In the first century, when Christianity was not legal, we know that first century Christians took in widows (without a male provider they had few options—prostitution or slavery). 

In the first century, Christians took in babies left on the streets to die, orphans. 

In the Letter to James we read that “true religion is to care for widows and orphans.” (cf. 1:27) 

My point in this example is quite simple; these Christians lived in a state where widows and orphans were viewed as less-than-human. 

Christians treated them as God would have us treat others created in His image. 

The macro-result is that people came to believe Jesus is real, and more people came to hear the story of God come to earth, and were saved, all because the early Christians “put on Christ.”

This is not the end of my answer to the Question, “What is my duty to the state?” It is the beginning.

Answering this question, for me, is not necessarily easy. 

Therefore, it is tremendously helpful to establish my Foundational Principles.

In the next post, there is another Foundational Principle, but for now, let me ask you:

Do you think this way? If you were, what would be your first foundational principle?