In Part 1, Paul commanded us to be in submission to our rulers because they are God’s servants for our good. To disobey is to incur God’s wrath. This is hard to swallow when rulers turn bad, yet there is no authority except from God, and the existing authorities have been installed by God – for better or for worse.
But we must focus on obeying laws with good conduct to honor God.
Paul continues in Part 2 with a different spin on what it means to obey:
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:8-10).
This is fascinating – to the Jews, “the law” is the Law of Moses in the Old Testament. But upon the arrival of Jesus, “the law” means loving your neighbor even when your neighbor doesn’t love you!
So there is a major difference between obeying the letter of a ruler’s law, like a governor’s decree, which we must do to please God, and obeying the law of love which sums up all the commandments of God and of Jesus. Yet we must do both! Paul explains why this is so important:
“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:11-14).
It is true that we are in occupied territory when we must obey authorities who are not followers of God, but who have been appointed by God. But Paul raises us up to a higher standard, not only the law of love, but the “time of day” in the sense of our approaching salvation through Jesus when he returns to take us home.
The law of love is on a higher plane.
The law of love is replacing our sinful skin with Jesus, himself – our King and true ruler.
When we are in the “occupied territory” of the resurrected Christ, we need only practice good behavior for our earthly rulers, even if that is difficult at times like these.
In Part 3, we will see how our tendency to judge one another does not make our armor of light fit very well!