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BOOK 45 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

Romans 13

Romans book home•Chapter 13 of 16•14 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Romans 13 Overview

Paul commands believers to be subject to governing authorities because civil power is ordained by God for order and the punishment of wrongdoing. Christians should pay tribute, custom, fear, and honor where due. Paul then says believers should owe no continuing debt except love, because love fulfills the neighbor-directed commandments. Knowing the time, believers should wake from spiritual sleep, cast off works of darkness, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.

RomansBook
13Chapter
14Verses
Pauline EpistlesDivision

Before you read Romans 13

Coming from

Paul appeals to believers by God’s mercies to present their bodies as a living sacrifice and to be transformed by renewing the mind rather than conformed to the world. He calls for humility within one body, faithful use of differing gifts, unfeigned love, diligence, hospitality, prayer, generosity, peace, and refusal of personal vengeance. The chapter ends with the command not to be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good.

In this chapter

Romans 12 ended by forbidding personal vengeance and reserving vengeance to God. Romans 13 immediately explains one ordained social instrument through which wrongdoing can be punished: civil authority.

Leads into

Romans 14 addresses disagreements among believers over food and days, calling the church to welcome one another, avoid contempt, act in faith, and refuse to destroy fellowship over disputable matters.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Paul’s teaching concerns the legitimacy of civil authority as an institution; it does not make every governmental command morally righteous or require obedience when rulers directly command sin. Acts itself records apostles obeying God rather than prohibitions against preaching.

The command to love fulfills the law toward one’s neighbor; it does not mean love can be defined against God’s moral truth. Paul immediately names commands against adultery, killing, stealing, false witness, and coveting.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Civil order is part of God’s providential arrangement

Government is tasked with restraining wrongdoing and honoring good.

Christians should meet lawful obligations

Taxes, customs, respect, and honor are treated as ethical duties.

Love seeks a neighbor’s good and does no ill

It fulfills rather than abolishes moral responsibility toward others.

Christian living has eschatological urgency

The approaching day motivates wakefulness and rejection of darkness.

Believers are to put on Christ

Sanctification is framed as conscious identification with the Lord rather than provision for fleshly lusts.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Acts 4:18–20; 5:29

Apostolic refusal to stop preaching shows the limit when civil commands directly conflict with God.

Exodus 20:13–17

Paul cites neighbor-related commandments as examples fulfilled by love.

Matthew 22:37–40

Jesus likewise summarizes the law through love of God and neighbor.

1 Peter 2:13–17

Peter also commands submission and honor within civil structures while keeping fear directed toward God.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use Romans 13 to demand unconditional obedience to every government order

Biblical submission has limits where authorities command disobedience to God.

Do not use Christian liberty as an excuse for tax fraud or contemptuous lawlessness

Paul explicitly requires paying what is due.

Do not define love as mere affirmation regardless of truth

Paul ties love to doing no ill and cites concrete moral commandments.

Do not make moral obedience in this chapter the basis of justification

The audience is already justified believers being instructed how to live.

Read Romans 13 watching for…

The stated purpose of civil rulers.

The vocabulary of due obligations.

The debt of love.

The commandments Paul uses to define neighbor-love.

The sleep/day/night imagery.

The commands to put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline3 sections
1-7Believers are told to submit to governing authorities and pay what is due8-10Love fulfills the law’s commands toward one’s neighbor11-14Believers should awake, cast off works of darkness, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ
1

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3

For 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:

4

For 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.

5

Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

6

For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

7

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

8

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

9

For 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.

10

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

11

And 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.

12

The 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.

13

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

14

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.