Romans 13 Are we ruled by intimidation or inspiration?

Summary: A verse by verse examination of what the book of Romans in the Bible teaches. This message covers Romans 13 being in subjection to rulers.

Bible References:

Romans 13:1-14 ( KJV ) ¹Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.  ²Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.  ³For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:  ⁴For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.  ⁵Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.  ⁶For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. ⁷Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.  ⁸Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.  ⁹For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  ¹⁰Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. ¹¹And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.  ¹²The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  ¹³Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.  ¹⁴But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

James 5:16-20 ( KJV ) ¹⁶Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  ¹⁷Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.  ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.  ¹⁹Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;  ²⁰Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 2:13-25 ( KJV ) ¹³Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;  ¹⁴Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.  ¹⁵For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:  ¹⁶As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.  ¹⁷Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.  ¹⁸Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.  ¹⁹For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.  ²⁰For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.  ²¹For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:  ²²Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:  ²³Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:  ²⁴Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.  ²⁵For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

James 1:21-27 ( KJV ) ²¹Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.  ²²But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  ²³For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  ²⁴For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  ²⁵But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.  ²⁶If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.  ²⁷Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 ( KJV ) ³Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;  ⁴Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.  ⁵Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?  ⁶And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.  ⁷For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.  ⁸And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:  ⁹Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,  ¹⁰And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  ¹¹And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:  ¹²That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Ephesians 4:17-25 ( KJV ) ¹⁷This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,  ¹⁸Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:  ¹⁹Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.  ²⁰But ye have not so learned Christ;  ²¹If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:  ²²That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;  ²³And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;  ²⁴And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  ²⁵Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.