A question that Christians have been asking for two thousand years is to what degree a Christian must obey the government. There has not been a consistent answer, and there is still a broad disagreement over the question. But of course, like everything in life, the question itself is not actually as simple as it sounds and is, in fact, a great deal more nuanced, which I will bring out in a moment. But if we can simplify the question for a moment, I think it comes down to this: are there times when a Christian should disobey the government.

The short answer is that I think there are times when Christians not only can but must disobey and resist a government. I’m going to explain why that is.

I will look at Romans 13, the great text usually used to try and make Christians obey the government and present it in its context to show it does not necessarily mean what people have assumed.

Then, I will present an interpretation of that text as part of a broader theology for what authority and power look like and why Christians are sometimes called to resist that power.

I’ll finish by suggesting how a church can be a place which resists the kinds of power deployed by the state.

Why Is This Even A Question?

This is a question because sometimes the government, or people in positions of power more generally, do things against the Gospel. Sometimes, the government or people in positions of power legislate or regulate or require people to act in a way that goes against the Gospel.

In those times, Christians had to decide what they should do. Are they required to obey the authorities of the government regardless of what they require, or is there a more negotiated sense of allegiance to those powers and authorities?

When must the church say no?

There are times throughout history where, for better or worse, Christians and churches have decided that they must resist or oppose the powers of the state and its representatives, whether directly or indirectly. However, there have also been times where, again, for better or worse, Christians and churches have felt that they owed obedience to the authority of the state and its representatives regardless of what it did or required of its subjects and citizens.

Today, there are Christians who live in countries where Christianity is officially and actively persecuted by the authority of the state. There are Christians who live in countries whose governments and the policies of those governments seem to contradict the Gospel and seek to confound the specific role and function of the Church.

Then there are Christians who live in countries where the government and the authority of the state claims for itself divine authority or a particular blessing or vocation from God for its authority and function.

There are some Christians who say that regardless of how the world is ordered or what the state might do, Christians should not get involved in the affairs of the world but should withdraw, focus on the world to come and develop their inner assurance of salvation whilst helping the people around them as best they can.

But making this choice is still to engage in the question of the relationship between Christians and the authority of the state. Not to make a choice is to make a choice. Not to act is to favour the status quo. To withdraw is to abandon space in the public square.

This is a question because Christians and churches need to understand their relationship to the countries where they live and to what extent they are free to negotiate that relationship based on their primary allegiance to Christ and the Gospel. I think the first place to start in answering that question is to actually look at the Bible.

Romans 13: 1-7

Romans 13, particularly verses 1-7, are the verses most frequently drawn upon to try and define the relationship between the Christian and those in ‘authority.’ Let’s see what the verses actually say:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

At first, this passage, which says to submit to the governing authorities, seems clear and straightforward. But I think there is more going on. To understand this text and what it might actually mean, it’s important to go down to the roots of the context in which Paul is writing.

Paul’s Context – Reading The Text

The Wider Argument of Paul’s Discussion – Romans 12:1 – Romans 13:14

These seven verses of Romans 13 need to be understood as part of a larger unified unit within Paul’s writing.

Paul did not write Romans 13:1-7 on their own. They are part of a whole text, and within that wider letter, a sub-section that begins with Romans 12 and runs through to Romans 13:14. We must remember that verses and chapters were not introduced until centuries after Paul had written his letters.

Paul did not write in chapters and verses. It is easy to make the mistake of thinking that the chapters in the Bible are distinct sections from each other as if we were reading a modern novel or textbook. They are, at best, an attempt to help people to read the Bible. At worst, they get in the way.

Romans 12:1 – 13:10

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. ³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸ the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. ⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ ²⁰ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; ⁴ for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. ⁶ For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.  ⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ 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, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Some of the most distinctive elements of Paul’s worldview are obvious in chapters 12 and 13.

Throughout this section, Christians are called to ‘non-conformity’ with the world and to an all-encompassing, self-sacrificial and suffering love for their neighbours, enemies, fellow believers and everyone else as well.

Do Not Conform to the World

In Romans 12:1-2 Paul gives a radical and quite startling call to resist any sense of conformity to the methods and ways of ‘this age.’ Paul is writing to people living right at the centre of a powerful, oppressive, and ruthless empire which is as quick to crucify as it is to install central heating in a bathhouse.

Because of the context within which the readers of the letter to the Romans are living and because of the history of Jewish armed and violent revolt against occupying powers, some of Paul’s readers may have assumed that resisting being conformed to this age meant freedom from the need to obey the state at all. This is a point that Paul will address in Romans 13.

Romans 12 finishes with a strident call to overcome evil with good through love, mercy and forgiveness. Throughout Romans, there is the call to love everyone, especially enemies, and the refusal to do evil in return for evil. Romans 12 merely emphasises this point.

But just as Romans 13 is a corrective to those who think resisting conformity means freedom to disregard the role of the government entirely, so too does Romans 13 explain who it is that we are to overcome with Good. Those same authorities are clearly also our enemies as much as they may produce some good.

The section finished with the advice to owe no one anything except to love one another. This statement should guide and inform how we interpret the preceding verses, especially the command to pay to all what is due to them.

The section starts with the call to resist conformity to this age, explains that non-conformity is a matter of resistance by overcoming evil with good, and then develops the point that the same authorities that we should resist are also the authorities that we need to, at least in some sense, submit to, and finishes with the reminder that what we owe to each other is love.

When we seek to interpret Romans 13:1-7, we need to be mindful of Paul’s broader argument in the wider section. It is part of a whole and shouldn’t be removed from that wider context to make it say something it is not actually saying.

Romans 13:1 – Be Subject

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

…be subject…

A key place to begin with is what it means for a person to be subject to the governing authorities. The word translated as ‘be subject’ is hypotassethai. However, that translation is a bit misleading.

The word is better translated as ‘to subordinate oneself.’ Paul emphasises that the action of submission is one Christians must choose for themselves. It is not forced on them from above. The authorities are not to subjugate, the Christian is to submit themselves.

Significantly, the ‘root’ of the word – the word that this word comes from – is tagma, which has strong connotations of ‘order’ in the sense of God ordering reality by indirectly and providentially shaping it through the systems and structures of the world.

This term includes a sense of social orderliness. God desires order, not chaos, and so utilises the authorities of the world to bring that about within a limited framework. When Paul calls us to submit ourselves to the authorities, this is done in the sense of recognising the place of those authorities within God’s order and respecting that role rather than in the sense of being obedient or simply doing as you are told, which is often how the word is translated.

Subordination does not simply equal obedience.

Perhaps most significantly, this is the word that is also used in Ephesians 5:22 to encourage husbands and wives to be subject to one another. There is no sense of command to be obedient. It is voluntary and mutual self-submission to one another.

There is another Greek word – hypokouo – which is generally translated as ‘obey’ as in to conform, follow a command, or give obeisance to authority. Paul could have used this word. He did not.

Hypokouo is used twenty-one times in the New Testament and always carries with it a hierarchical meaning. Paul did not use the word for obey. He used the word which means to voluntarily submit oneself.

…authorities…

The word translated as ‘authorities’ is exousiais which is the plural of a word that can mean power, force, or mastery. The word is only used a few times in the New Testament and on every occasion it is (Except Titus 3:1 which is paralleled to Romans 13:1 and so shares its meaning) the word is clearly used in reference to the ‘powers and principalities.’

There is the suggestion that because that is how Paul normally uses this word, the deployment of it here means that Paul is identifying the governing authorities with the principalities and powers against which we are to contend. The governing authorities are part of that strange, shadowed, spiritual reality that governs the world for good or for ill.

While such an interpretation cannot be proven, it seems likely since Romans was Paul’s last letter to be written, and he uses a word he has used previously. Also, the broader context of Romans 12 and of the second half of Romans 13 suggests that he is using the word ‘authorities’ here as part of the broader understanding of ‘principalities and powers.’

Part of the purpose of governing authorities is to order creation so that human life can function in an ordered way without falling into the harm and destruction which emerges from chaos. The governing authorities are part of the same social structures as the law, money, or the state itself. They are not inherently evil but are intended to serve a positive function.

However, like all ‘powers and principalities,’ they have been corrupted and become sinful. They tend to try to usurp God’s position and authority to become gods, demanding worship for themselves and becoming oppressive and idolatrous rather than creating good order and allowing human flourishing.

…except from God…

Here is the part of the verse that often grabs people’s attention and makes them think that all sources of authority are ordained and chosen by God. To say that there is no authority except from God makes it seem that all authority is there because God wants it to be there. However, that is not necessarily how the text should be translated.

The word for ‘from’ is hypo, better translated as ‘under’ or ‘below.’ There is a great difference between ‘no authority except from God’ and ‘there is no authority except under God.’ The option we choose should be consistent with Paul’s assertions that Jesus is the Lord (such as Romans 6:23; 10:9).

N. T. Wright says this assertion is a direct confrontation with the ‘powers and principalities’ which claim that which properly belongs to Christ alone. To say that Jesus is Lord denies any ultimate loyalty to anyone other than Jesus, including Caesar.

The authority of the authorities is relative to the authority of Jesus. Jesus is the only ultimate authority. All human authorities are subject to the authority of God. Human authority is limited and boundaried. This was itself quite a subversive claim.

It undermined the totalitarian claims of pagan empire and was one of the reasons why Paul and many other early Christians were killed. Not simply because they believed in Jesus – all kinds of people believed all kinds of things in the empire – but because they claimed that Jesus was Lord and, therefore, Caesar was not.

Romans 13:2 – Judgement

Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement.

Paul does not say in this verse that Christians must not disobey the state. Nor does he say Christians should not resist the state in the sense of active opposition.

He is saying that Christians should not act in a way which seeks to undermine or destroy the role of the state in the ordering of creation. Christians may oppose and resist the authority to the extent that they respect the role of that authority even as they disobey the exercise of that authority by those in positions of power.

This means allowing oneself to be subject to the punishments of the state in response to resisting the use of their power.

Again, the sense that God has appointed or ordained this authority does not relate directly to specific governing bodies or political actors. Rather, it relates to the general sense that God has providentially organised the world to be subject to order rather than chaos.

As such, the role of the authorities in bringing order, and thus creating the safety to allow humans to flourish, is part of their vocation under God. However, this does not mean that an individual government or political leader is in their role because God wants them there. God does not ordain an individual or a government – God has ordained that there will be governance.

Therefore, the kind of resistance that Paul is saying Christians should not do is one which prevents the government from functioning and performing its vocation to bring about order.

Christians may disobey the governing authorities in their decisions, and they may resist and actively oppose the individual government in their actions and choices.

However, they must not act in a way which would make it impossible for someone to exercise the vocational authority to bring order out of chaos – whether that is an individual, an elected government, or a collective. Judgement is reserved for those who bring chaos instead of order or prevent the authority of governance from being employed.

This can also mean those people who have claimed or been granted governing authority for themselves but fail to fulfil the divine vocation that God gives to order creation for human flourishing. They will be subject to God’s judgement for resisting the vocation given to those who take up the responsibility of the governing authority.

In those cases, resisting false governance is not resisting God’s ordained authority but is instead seeking to bring about God’s desire for the ordering of creation.

Romans 13:3 – Do What is Good

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval

The word translated as ruler here is different from what Paul has used so far in this chapter for governing authorities.

The word for ruler used here is archontes, which means a ruler, leader, or someone exercising the power of control over others. It comes from the word archon, which was used throughout the Roman and Greek world to refer to chief magistrates or senior military commanders, while in Judea, it was used for members of the Sanhedrin or the chief priest. Paul also uses the word elsewhere to refer to ‘powers and principalities’ (1 Corinthians 2:6-8) and Satan (Ephesians 2:2).

Paul distinguishes between the governing authority, which is subject to God and has the vocation of ordering creation, and the person exercising that authority, the ‘ruler.’

There is an irony here in what Paul is saying, given that he has himself been beaten and flogged under the Roman Empire for what they consider to be bad conduct but which was obedience to Christ. Given the context within which Paul is writing and the broader message of this section, we should not read this verse as a direct endorsement of the powers of rulers. Scripture is filled with warnings about rulers and powers.

This verse says that if you do what the rulers say is good, you do not need to be scared of those rulers. You will receive the ruler’s approval when you do what they say is good and when you make them happy.

Of course, as we will see later, approval by a ruler is very different from approval by Christ.

There is one way in which we should see this verse as saying that we should not be scared of rulers: a ruler who properly fulfils their responsibility to the vocation God gives to all those who exercise governing authority is one who is not a terror. But we will return to this later.

Romans 13:4 – Wrath on the Wrongdoer

for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.

The ruler or rulers exercising God’s authority do so as a servant of God for the sake of those under their responsibility.

We need to read this verse in light of verse one. The ruler is subordinate to God. The ruler’s authority is not their own but God’s, which they are called to use for the sake of human flourishing by ordering creation. A good ruler exercises their power for the good and flourishing of those responsible. Their power gives them responsibility.

In this case, the sword should not be understood as capital or corporal punishment. This is not a point of contention that is raised at any other point in the Pauline writing, and given the preferred method of execution was either beheading or, in the case of rebels, crucifixion, it is unlikely that the sword would have been the chosen metaphor for capital punishment.

Rather, the sword the ruler utilises is the state’s coercive power, as seen in the law and the military. Christians did not utilise such methods because they belonged to rulers. Law is a part of bringing about order, and the enforcement of law is part of the ordering.

However, as has already been said, the creation of order is for the good and flourishing of humanity. If it was used for another purpose, it no longer fulfils the vocation God gave to those who exercised governing authority.

As such, it becomes invalid, loses its authority and is open to being resisted. The rulers who exercise governing authority are to bring about justice within their limited capacity and, most importantly, always subject to God. The ruling powers are subordinate to God and are not given the same authority or rights as God, and as such, do not have the power or right to kill. That belongs to God alone.

There is a role for the ruler to play, but it is one which Romans 12 reminds us that we should not conform to the ways of this world. This resonates deeply with 1 Samuel 8, in which God warns the Israelites what a king would do when they acted like other kings. Namely, terrorise them for the benefit of the King and not the people.

Rulers inevitably end up ruling using the ways of the world – namely, the sword – even when they claim to be subject to the rule of God. This is why God’s law was to be higher in authority than the King; the King was to be subject to the Law.

Now, Christians are to be subject to God before they are to rulers, and rulers are subject to the Law of Christ above their own power and position. The existence of a nation-state and the power and prestige of a country are not the ultimate concerns of rulers. Obedience to the duties of love is.

Romans 13:5 – Subject by Conscience

Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.

To subject oneself to God is not undertaken to avoid the anger and punishment of the state. Rulers will do what they will. They will bring wrath and punishment to those who oppose them and reward those who support and please them.

In a good ruler, this is because they are following their divine vocation. In a bad ruler, this is for their own good or for the good of their friends and family over others. But to subject yourself to the governing authority out of wrath is not a free choice – it is coerced. This is how rulers exercise their power.

However, the governing authority is not the ruler but the power that the ruler exercises as part of their vocation to order creation for the good and flourishing of other people.

We freely subject ourselves to that authority in good conscience because we recognise that God desires that there will be governance of society for the sake of good order. It is out of conscience, our desire to be obedient to God, that we do not seek to destroy or overturn the underpinning vocation and authority which rulers exercise.

But a ruler who coerces obedience and subjugates those under their power has been conformed to the ways of the world and has failed to exercise the divine vocation of rulership.

They have been corrupted and become part of the fallen ‘powers and principalities’ against which we are to strive and contest. Our conscience means that we will not only be willingly subject to governing authority, but we will also resist those who falsely exercise that authority.

Romans 13:6 – God’s Servants

For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing.

It is also out of conscience and free submission to God’s governing authority that we pay taxes to the rulers who are fulfilling the divine vocation of ordering creation. Those taxes pay for the methods by which the ruler will order creation.

The word used in this for taxes is the word for “direct” taxes levied by the Emperor on Roman provinces. Christians were known for not resisting this tax and willingly paid it. Paul is saying that paying taxes is part of the relationship between the subject and ruler to support the role of the authority in fulfilling its divine purpose.

The state needs resources to function at all. To refuse to provide those would be to give a fundamental “no” to the state as such, an act that would directly oppose not the ruler themselves, but the enactment of the divine authority for governance more generally. Paul is telling Christians not to participate in a tax revolt but to recognise the role of taxes.

Paying taxes is a way for Christians to support the vocation to order creation, which is itself a command to be a steward of creation, as given in Genesis. In this sense, rulers are God’s servants when they exercise governing authority to order creation for the good of others.

However, there is also a time when a ruler ceases to fulfil God’s vocation to exercise governing authority. The governing authority must still be respected and understood as God’s desire for creation to be governed and ordered. Still, the person who carries out the governing has ceased to be recognised as someone fulfilling that authority.

But even in that case, the taxes that are paid are not for the sake of the ruler but are for the sake of those who are subject to the ruler’s authority.

But when those taxes are being used for a purpose opposed to the good ordering of creation, the Christian is entitled to refuse to pay them, but in doing so, must continue to recognise the governing authority of God as such and thus submit themselves to the punishment which comes from resisting the ruling power.

Romans 13:7 – Give What is Due

Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

This verse, finishing the run of Romans 13:1-7, is perhaps the second most important verse in the section.

Verse 7 puts the final spin on the verses that have gone before. The key part of verse 7 is ‘pay to all what is due to them’ with the emphasis on what is due to them. Taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

If you take verses 1-7 on their own, this verse seems to say that rulers and governors should be given that which is due to them through their position and power.

But we must remember that verses 1-7 are part of a wider section.

Romans 13:8 is absolutely essential for making sense of verse 7.

Romans 13:8 says – Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. So Romans 13:7 says to pay or give to all what is due to them, and Romans 8 explains what that is. Owe no one anything except the duty to love one another.

The only thing that anyone is due or deserves from Christians is love. So the question then becomes what is due to that person under the obligation of love?

The claims of rulers, governments, people with power, and those exercising the vocation of governing authority are measured by whether those claims are part of the obligation of love.

Just as in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives us the beautiful prose to explain what love looks like, in Romans 13:10, Paul gives us a somewhat more prosaic definition of what Christian love means – Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Love does no wrong to a neighbour. If something wrongs a neighbour, then it is not love. This matters for us when considering what a person is due from us. What does it mean to love a person, or indeed to love a ruler or a government?

Perhaps the debt of love owed to a state can be understood as the honour given to them. To honour authorities, we take them seriously in their role within the divine vocation to order creation through the action of governing authority.

Honouring an authority in this manner might mean taking it more seriously than they have taken themselves because we are holding them to a higher standard. To give love to the state can also mean resisting and disobeying the state as a way of calling them back to their proper vocation and seeking their salvation.

Power Dynamics – Interpreting The Text

How do we understand the whole text today? We shouldn’t imagine that Paul intended these seven verses to be taken out of context and used to construct some kind of comprehensive political theology or to provide the foundation for unnegotiated obedience to any kind of authority. In this section, I’m going to try to provide an overview or summary of what I think Paul is trying to teach in Romans 12:1 – 13:10.

What Does Paul Mean by Authority?

What does Paul actually regard as ‘authority?’ We must begin by distinguishing between the rulers who use authority and authority itself, which is the delegated capacity to exercise the divine vocation of ordering creation.

The governing authority that rulers use is part of humanity’s original vocation to be stewards of vocation. Part of that stewardship includes ordering creation to ensure the good of creation and of humanity and to promote humanity’s flourishing.

This is the duty of love that a ruler has to those over whom they rule. Any ruler, whether elected, appointed, or even one who holds their position through coercive force, is subject to judgement under the divine vocation of loving stewardship.

A ruler, therefore, participates in that divine vocation, but, and this is important, they are not personally invested with that power by God. The divine ordination for authority comes through God’s providential intention that there should be good governance, not that any one person or government should carry out the governing.

God ordains that creation is ordered. God does not choose and appoint or ordain the person who will do that ordering. If that person fails to fulfil their vocation, then they are no longer due the honour normally due to anyone who exercises the governing authority of God.

Dangerous Divine Government

This must be understood. Because if God chooses specific people or forms of government to fulfil God’s plans, then we must also accept that horrific, totalitarian, and destructive states such as Apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, or indeed Caligula or Nero, were chosen by God and had God’s authority.

The function of governance was ordained by God. The people who do that governing are not God. The actual authority of a ruler is limited to their capacity to fulfil the divine vocation of loving stewardship.

The danger of all kinds of rulers and authorities is that they tend to desire to usurp God and seek worship for themselves. They crave ultimacy and absolute obedience. Even in democracies. But they are not and cannot be God nor can they take the place of God.

This claim to ultimacy is blasphemous and idolatrous and we must resist it. This is the limits of rulership and the limits of our responsibility to that authority.

What is a Christian’s Responsibility to Authority

There is a synergistic relationship between ruler and ruled. One that is rooted in the sinfulness and fallenness of the world.

If there was no sin the world, there would be no need for rulers to exercise authority as every person would freely live as loving stewards of their neighbour and the world would be perfectly ordered by love and consideration.

Because of the fall, God desires that creation be ordered and, through God’s beneficial providence, ordains that there will be governance. But that governance has a vocational responsibility, which, due to its inherent sinfulness, it frequently falls away from what it should be. As such, we should be careful about claiming that all state and civil powers are uncritically to be obeyed without question. There is a limit to the authority any ruler can claim.

Paul did not intend to convey any idea that we must obey the rules without question. This is particularly the case since he had already told the Corinthians to ignore the civil authorities when one believer had a matter against another (1 Cor. 6:1-3).

Paul has already made the case that there are times when the state simply doesn’t need to be involved in the lives of believers. The reach and authority of a ruler is not absolute.

There are clear examples within the Bible when the central protagonists in the story carry out what we might today call civil disobedience. This includes the midwives’ noncompliance in the face of Pharoah’s command to kill all the Israelite’s male children. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3, and Daniel himself in Daniel 6, refused to obey idolatrous laws.

Jesus commits acts of religious and civil disobedience by healing on the Sabbath, clearing the Temple in Jerusalem, and spending time eating with sinners.

In Acts 5, we get possibly the most famous act where the apostles defy the Sanhedrin and say they must obey God, not men. We cannot claim that the Bible says we must treat the governing authority of a ruler as absolute when there are so many examples of divinely inspired disobedience to sinful rulers.

Rulers may act to fulfil a vocation to govern the world and bring order out of chaos, but they do not possess ultimate authority. There is a limit to the authority of a ruler, which is marked by the responsibility to act lovingly for the good and flourishing of humanity.

Equally, the ruled has a limit of responsibility to the ruler, marked by what is due by giving love to others.

There comes a time when our responsibility to a ruler, as opposed to the governing authority behind that ruler, comes to an end. To be subject to the governing authority of God, there are times when we must resist a ruler who corrupts that governing authority with their sinful disregard of the love that is owed by them to those whom they rule.

When and How Should Christians Resist Authority and Power?

So, if there is a time when Christians must resist and disobey a ruler as part of their allegiance and submission to the divine governing authority, when is it? How does a person know when that time has come?

We have already seen examples of this. In the Bible, people have resisted and disobeyed the state when a ruler’s orders contradicted a person’s responsibility and obedience to God.

A person’s allegiance to the governing authority of God is more important than their responsibility to a ruler.

This is the first part of our answer. A Christian has a responsibility to resist and disobey a ruler when what they command contradicts our responsibility to God. This can look obvious, such as a command not to worship, not to pray, or not to preach. Or it could be a bit less obvious, such as a command not to help homeless people, not to feed the hungry, or perhaps not welcome strangers.

This takes us back to Romans 13:8-10. What is due from us is our love for the neighbour. If a ruler commands us to do anything which would do harm to a neighbour, whether directly or indirectly, then we have a responsibility to resist and disobey them out of our responsibility for loving the neighbour.

The command to love the neighbour is a higher priority than our responsibility to a ruler because the command to love the neighbour comes from God’s governing authority and not from the limited, temporal authority of a ruler.

Then there are times when the behaviour of a ruler so flatly contradicts the duty to love the neighbour and their vocation to order creation for the good of those they rule that it becomes the Christian’s prophetic duty and responsibility to resist and disobey that ruler. They have invalidated their rights as a ruler and our responsibility to them is ended.

What does such resistance and disobedience look like in practice?

There is a degree to which disobedience and resistance to rulers is actually a kind of submission to the greater governing authority of God. Principled civil disobedience seeks to call the ruler back to God and their ordained purpose. It also does not seek to escape the consequences of its actions. To resist and disobey the ruler means doing so in a way which is in keeping with the love that is due to a neighbour which does not harm one another.

This limits the Christians’ resistance to non-violent ways. Because of our willing submission to God’s providential governing authority, we do not seek to end the process of governance itself. A Christian could refuse to pay taxes, participate in protest marches, refuse orders and commands of the ruler or their representatives, and actively oppose the ruler by giving shelter and support to those oppressed by that ruler.

At all times, the Christian has a responsibility to act according to the principles of Christ which means acting without violence and without causing harm to others.

There is no acceptable justification for using violence in the cause of Christ.

To do so automatically invalidates the claim to be serving Jesus. The responsibility of a Christian to resist and disobey a ruler does not include the freedom to act against the law of Christ.

Further, in obedience to the principles of governing authority, Christians must also be be willing to accept the consequences of their actions. This demonstrates the difference between the governing authority and the ruler.

Though Paul, Peter and other followers of Jesus deliberately disobeyed laws that conflicted with God’s commands, they still submitted to the authorities by accepting the legal consequences of their actions. There is, in fact, a degree to which we must take this further.

In verse 3 we saw that the ruler will honour those who do good and punish those who do evil. But, as I said earlier, if we take this in a kind of theological ironic sense, then we might approach it more authentically. The ruler may well honour a person, but that honour will be shameful and offer only false security. The ruler may well punish a person, but their intended punishment will be praise before Christ.

This is rooted in Matthew 5:10-12, which states that those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ are the ones who are blessed. The person that the state honours may not be the kind of person who is following Christ. The one whom the state persecutes could be following Christ.

Someone following Christ should be suspicious of the honours and awards given out by rulers.

Communities of Resistance – Applying The Text

The Church can act as a source of strength for Christians when they are called to resist and disobey the ruling authority.

Churches can exert their public ministry in acts of mass defiance and disobedience on behalf not only of their members but also of those people whom they serve. The Church can remind the ruler that they are passing and temporary and support Christians in learning how to resist sinful rulers.

The church can create a community of resistance, not only to specific rulers but also to the culture that produces them. We are not to be conformed to the world, as Romans 12 puts it, but to resist that conformation and the rulers that encourage it by living out the radical commands of the Kingdom of God to love the neighbour.

In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus teaches us what a community which teaches us how to resist a sinful ruler should look like:

You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

The limit to Christian resistance and disobedience is not only part of our allegiance to the greater governing authority of Christ but is part of our proper respect for human authority. Namely, that it does not deserve that much respect.

To rebel and revolt and seek to overthrow a ruler by force gives them far too much credit. It takes them too seriously.

Following the example of Jesus, we should ignore them as much as possible, put up with them where we need to, and focus on living out the radical kingdom of God. When necessary, we act to resist the ruler’s oppression for the neighbour’s sake, but only as much as is necessary to safeguard their wellbeing and flourishing, and not in a way which goes against Christ’s teaching or is sinful.

When we live like this, we live in a constant state of rebellion and nonconformity to the culture and government of this world. By refusing to take the rulers of this world seriously, then, we are living out the counter-cultural expectations of the Gospel and exposing the invalidity of all forms of ruling authority under the ultimate authority of King Jesus.

Paul spent his entire life in rebellion against mortal rulers and governments. A rebellion which eventually cost him his life. Paul was constantly in and out of prison. He was flogged, beaten, and exiled from cities. But he did not stop preaching the Gospel, and he did not try and lead a revolt against Caesar.

Caesar was passing, and another sinner would always come along to replace him. The Kingdom of God was forever. You cannot fight Caesar without becoming Caesar.

You must resist Caesar by living like Christ.

The Everyday Revolution Of Discipleship

Simply following Jesus is a form of rebellion and revolution against the culture and power of the world and its rulers.

We do not need to be involved in huge political debates or be organisers of mass rallies to be involved in resisting a sinful state. Simply loving the neighbour, sharing what you have with those who do not have enough, and caring for those in need are already daily acts of resistance to sin and corruption.

Every Christian is called to obey God’s governing authority. Still, it is also a responsibility to resist and disobey the ruler when that ruler ceases to act according to their divine vocation to order creation as a steward for the good and flourishing of humanity.

In those cases, the Christian may act according to the duty of love to resist the state’s actions and disobey those commands which contradict the Gospel. Doing so demonstrates our loyalty and allegiance to the principles of good governance.

I hope this has got you thinking and maybe has helped make some sense of the difficult times that Christians have often had to face throughout the millennia. I’d love to know what you think about it.

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