1Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their places of power. 2People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished. 3Rulers are a threat to evil people, not to good people. There is no need to be afraid of the authorities. Just do right, and they will praise you for it. 4After all, they are God's servants, and it is their duty to help you.
If you do something wrong, you ought to be afraid, because these rulers have the right to punish you. They are God's servants who punish criminals to show how angry God is. 5But you should obey the rulers because you know it is the right thing to do, and not just because of God's anger.
6You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God's servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters. 7Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.
We live in a democracy (well, representative republic). We don't freely subordinate ourselves to anybody. We are a government of the people, by the people and for the people...
This does fly in the face of biblical responsibility...even makes it a little confusing at times. "Obey the rulers who have authority over you" is sort of an anachronistic notion since we elect our authorities. They aren't appointed. This tends to breed a certain amount of contempt for authority with whom we disagree. After all, "my vote counts and I didn't vote for you!"
We put them in office...we can take them out!
The enigma is clear. Our leaders are a reflection of us. In america we get what we ask for. If we don't like our elected leaders we have only ourselves (collectively) to blame. We can't really blame the leader and we certainly can't blame God. We are the ones who stood in the voting booth and pulled the lever. To paraphrase a classic line..."we have met our leader and he is us".
So, we don't like our president?...he is us! Only in a democracy must we proclaim "we have a bad leader and it's our fault". Are we unhappy with our leaders? Then let's not look at them, but let's look into our own hearts and ask how we put him there...
Not honest? He's us...
Not fiscally responsible? She's us...
Not competent? They are us...
If, as Paul suggests, "we let God change the way we think", we might be thinking about choosing different leaders. And in America we have the great privilege and responsibility to do this every 2-4 years. Until we do, we owe obedience to the ones we have chosen.
Live boldly out there today...
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