Page 90 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

In case they were still wondering what they ought to do Paul then repeated the command and added the
word “must” to it. The addition of that word in the text as he repeated the command is Paul’s way of
raising his voice in print. This command is not optional, it is essential to properly living out of the
command to present themselves to God as servants of His will. He says it this way, “Therefore one must
be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you
also pay taxes, the authorities are ministers of God.” 110

Paul is not asking them to do something that he does not himself do. In Acts 25 there is the account of
Paul standing before the Roman authorities in Caesarea after being accused by the Jews of crimes against
the state that deserve death.

Notice how he responded, Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against
the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.” But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor,
said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?” But Paul
said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong,
as you yourself know very well. If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I
deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one
can give me up to them, I appeal to Caesar.” 111

Such are the attitudes and actions that Paul commands the Roman believers to display because the
effectiveness of the gospel message in their community depends on them being obedient to this
instruction from God.

Your only debt should be to love one another. (13:8-10)

As Paul moved on, he stayed on the theme of debts. He has just told them to pay up all their debts. Now
he revealed the one debt that they were allowed to keep open. They were to live their lives with an
abiding responsibility to love one another. In other words, what is always owed in every situation in which
we find ourselves is acts of love toward the people who God brings into our lives. Paul strengthened his
point by referencing the Old Testament scriptures. In them God gave to his covenant people, Israel, a law.
Its main points were summarized in the Ten Commandments. 112 Here Paul quoted the second half of
those commandments — the ones that regulated relationships between people. Paul echoed both Moses
and Jesus as he summarized these commands in this way, “You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.” 113 Such is the abiding debt that everyone persistently owes. It is a debt that “does no wrong
to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” 114

The desperate nature of your current situation requires that you renounce darkness and live by the light
Jesus Christ provides. (13:11-14)

The final paragraph of this chapter shifts to a more abstract idea in that it addressed how the believer
ought to respond to the evil that pervades, invades and saturates the world in which they find themselves
living. He sets these instructions in the context of the coming return of Christ as he makes the transition
from the specific to the more abstract. “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.” 115

110 Romans 13:5-6, ESV.
111 Acts 25:8-11, ESV.
112 Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
113 Romans 13:9, ESV; see also Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39.
114 Romans 13:10, ESV.
115 Romans 13:11-12a, ESV.
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