ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:1 Christians are to BE SUBJECT TO (which generally means to obey, see 1 Peter 3:5) the government because it has been put in place by God. Several other passages show that God approves of Christians disobeying government, but only when obedience to government would mean diso... [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:3 RULERS ARE NOT A TERROR TO GOOD CONDUCT, BUT TO BAD. Civil government in general is a great blessing from God. ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=0, len=images.length, img; i [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:4 Governing authorities are God’s servants, for they carry out his WRATH on evildoers, and they do so FOR YOUR GOOD. Even though Christians must not take personal revenge (Romans 12:17), it is right for them to turn punishment over to the civil authorities, who have the resp... [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:5 Christians should obey civil authorities to avoid GOD’S WRATH (coming through those authorities, v. Romans 13:4) and because their CONSCIENCE tells them to submit to the government (see note on vv. 1–7). ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=... [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:8 Verses Romans 13:8 focus on the Christian’s relationship to the Mosaic law. OWE NO ONE ANYTHING does not prohibit all borrowing. It means that one should always “pay what is owed” (see v. Romans 13:7), fulfilling whatever agreements have been made. ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = docu... [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:9 Paul cites several OT COMMANDMENTS regarding responsibility to others. All of these are summarized in the call to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF (Leviticus 19:18). ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=0, len=images.length, img; i [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:11 The final verses of this section (Romans 12:3) call Christians to action, given the shortness of the time before Jesus returns. ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=0, len=images.length, img; i [ Continue Reading ]
ROMANS—NOTE ON ROMANS 13:14 The metaphor of putting on clothing implies imitating Christ’s character and living in close fellowship with him. This requires denying the FLESH and refusing to GRATIFY ITS DESIRES. ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ var images = document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for (var i=0, len=images.length... [ Continue Reading ]