The Civic Pew
Week 4 · Church & state

Romans 13: What Do We Owe the Government—and Where Does It End?

Taxes and honor, three young men before a furnace, apostles before the council, and the line Scripture draws between Caesar and God.

By The Civic Pew

Romans 13 gets pulled in two directions. Some quote it to say Christians must never resist anything a government does. Others treat it as an embarrassment and skip it. Both miss what Paul actually wrote—and what the rest of Scripture shows God’s people doing when rulers overstep.

The Bible teaches real, conscientious respect for civil authority. It also teaches that this authority has edges. Here is what we owe, and where it ends.

1. What we owe: subjection, taxes, and honor (Romans 13:1–7)

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” (Romans 13:1, NASB 1995)
NKJV: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”

Paul wrote this to believers in the capital of a pagan empire. He tells them to submit “not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake” (13:5), to pay taxes, and to “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor” (13:7). Peter says the same: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution” (1 Peter 2:13). And Paul urges prayers “for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:2).

That means ordinary obedience is part of Christian faithfulness: paying what we owe, keeping laws we find inconvenient, and speaking of officials with respect—including the ones we did not vote for.

2. Why we owe it: government is God’s servant for good (Romans 13:3–4)

Paul explains the purpose of civil authority: “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil” (13:3). Government “is a minister of God to you for good” and “an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” (13:4). Peter likewise says governors are “sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right” (2:14).

A purpose is also a boundary. Paul is describing what government is for. Rulers are servants of God, and a servant has no authority to command what his Master forbids. Romans 13 does not say rulers will always act justly; according to early Christian tradition, Paul himself was later executed under Nero. It tells us why we honor the office, and it gives us the standard by which every officeholder will be judged.

3. Where it ends: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 4:19–20; 5:29)

When the council in Jerusalem ordered the apostles “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18), Peter and John answered respectfully but plainly:

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19–20, NASB 1995)

Hauled back for disobeying, they said it again:

“We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29, NASB 1995)
NKJV: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

The Hebrew midwives in Egypt are an early example. Ordered to kill newborn boys, “the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live” (Exodus 1:17). Scripture records that God blessed them.

4. Faithful refusal looks like Daniel (Daniel 3 and 6)

When Nebuchadnezzar commanded everyone to bow to his golden image, three young Jewish officials refused. Their answer is a model of courage without contempt:

“our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17–18, NASB 1995)
NKJV: “But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

Years later, when a decree forbade prayer to anyone but King Darius, Daniel “continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously” (Daniel 6:10; 6:11 in the Aramaic text). He did not stage a protest. He did not hide. He kept being faithful and accepted the consequences, and God shut the lions’ mouths.

5. Caesar’s claim is real—and limited (Mark 12:17)

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17, NASB 1995)
NKJV: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Jesus did not say Caesar was owed nothing, and He did not say Caesar was owed everything. The coin bore Caesar’s “likeness” (Greek eikōn, “image,” 12:16); we bear God’s. Taxes, honor, and lawful obedience belong to Caesar. Worship, conscience, and our very selves belong to God.

What American history adds

In a constitutional republic the “governing authorities” include the Constitution itself, the courts, and the citizens who elect officials. Paul used the legal protections of his own day, declaring “I appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25:11). Americans have the same kind of tools: petitions, courts, elections, and a free press. Using them is not rebellion; it is citizenship.

The Declaration of Independence urged restraint even in a just cause: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” Believers in 1776 disagreed sharply over whether the break with Britain was justified, and many loyalists appealed to Romans 13. Faithful people have debated hard cases ever since.

In 1963, writing from a Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King Jr. drew on the same biblical tradition. “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws,” he wrote. “Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” But he insisted that “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty,” and he pointed to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused Nebuchadnezzar “on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake.”

So what does this look like in real life?

What do we owe the government? Respect, taxes, prayer, and willing obedience in all that is lawful. Where does it end? At the place where Caesar asks for what belongs only to God. Christians should be the best citizens in any land—and the last people on earth to bow to anything but Christ.

For reflection

  1. Is there a way you have treated government with less respect than Romans 13 calls for?
  2. How would you explain the difference between disagreeing with a law and being commanded to sin?
  3. What can you learn from the tone of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego’s answer to the king?

Peace and Love,
The Civic Pew

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