{"id":555,"date":"2014-08-22T13:32:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T18:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focuspressblog.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2014-08-22T13:32:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T18:32:37","slug":"questionable-quotes-romans-13-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2014\/08\/22\/questionable-quotes-romans-13-says\/","title":{"rendered":"?Q: “Romans 13 Says…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is another installment of our Questionable Quotes (?Q)<\/a> series, where we aim to take popular, commonly used quotes about the church, God, and the Bible and put them under the microscope to see if they really hold up to the truth.<\/em>
\n\u201cRomans 13 says Christians shouldn\u2019t be involved in politics.\u201d
\nI don\u2019t know how many times I have heard someone give this misguided statement and leave it as an end-all argument. The truth is, that isn\u2019t what Romans 13 teaches. In fact, I could argue that it teaches pretty much the opposite. However, we aren\u2019t here to argue we are here to examine the Bible for what it says. After all, God said what He meant and He meant what He said. So let\u2019s just see what it says.
\nThe misguided statement that many flippantly throw around today about Romans 13 teaching we shouldn\u2019t be involved in politics comes from the first couple verse on government subjection.
\n\u201cLet every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.\u201d (Romans 13:1-2)
\nNotice what these verses are saying. We have an obligation to be obedient to the \u201cgoverning authorities\u201d because government is God-instituted for a purpose. There is nothing wrong with that, right? We are told in the second verse that we are not to resist the authorities, in other words, obey the law! This actually stays in line with everything else we have been taught in scripture concerning the rulers and rules of lands. The only time we have ever been given the authority by God to break or go against the law is when those laws or leaders require of us to go against the laws and commands of God. That is exactly what the governing authorities in Acts 5 asked of Peter and the apostles and it is in this inspired chapter that Peter asserts, \u201cwe ought to obey God rather than man.\u201d (Acts 5:29). So it\u2019s easy to see that so long as government is doing its job within the limits of righteousness we as Christians are required to obey and if we don\u2019t we will incur not only the judgment that comes from the law but ultimately the judgment of God.
\nNotice what this doesn\u2019t say. Did you read anything about not being allowed to participate in government? The next couple of verses discuss the role that government is to play by saying:
\n“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:3-4)
\nSo what does that mean for us? Does that mean I just need to be a follower of the law and nothing more? The text certainly doesn\u2019t say that. I don\u2019t even think it implies that. However, what I do see is an earnest charge of civic responsibility in a righteous manner. How, you ask? Well when you read this today from a stand point of government and modern application in our republican form government where it is up to the people to govern through elections and a system of checks and balances we have a say in who the \u201cGod\u2019s servant for your good\u2026[and] the servant of God\u2026who carries out God\u2019s wrath on the wrongdoer\u201d is.
\nMany times during election cycles you hear Christians murmur and complain about having to vote for the \u201clesser of two evils.\u201d Why? Because, there are not good solid Christian men and women of character on the ballot but imagine if there were. The questions of obedience to governing authorities that we have today would seemingly be non-existent. The questions that we have about the future of the church and impending Christian persecution would be mere water-cooler talk. I know that I what it sounds like I am describing is a Christian American Utopia. I also realize that this will probably never be completely true in such a wonderfully diverse melting-pot of people that is America.
\nEven still, this begs the question\u2026what would America look like with more true Christian leadership? The only way to find out is if more Christians step up and become actively involved in political participation and leadership. Romans 13 doesn\u2019t teach that we shouldn\u2019t be involved in politics: it instead opens the eyes of possibility for us who live in America to participate in the great experiment. We need more Christian leaders today\u2026is that you?
\nBy Andrew Chavarrilla<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is another installment of our Questionable Quotes (?Q) series, where we aim to take popular, commonly used quotes about the church, God, and the Bible and put them under the microscope to see if they really hold up to the truth. \u201cRomans 13 says Christians shouldn\u2019t be involved in politics.\u201d I don\u2019t know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,83,28],"tags":[176,141,87],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-government","category-questionable-quotes","tag-andy","tag-government","tag-politics","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n?Q: "Romans 13 Says..." - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2014\/08\/22\/questionable-quotes-romans-13-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"?Q: "Romans 13 Says..." - 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