Romans 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul tells the believers in Rome to submit to the governing authorities, since God has put those authorities in place, and those who resist bring judgment on themselves. He explains that rulers punish wrongdoing and serve God's purposes, so people should pay taxes and give respect and honor where they are owed. He then says the only lasting debt is love for one another, because loving your neighbor fulfills the law. He closes by urging them to wake up, drop the deeds of darkness, and clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, because salvation is nearer now than when they first believed.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities.
   • There is no authority except from God.
   • The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.
2. 13:2
   • Whoever resists the authority resists what God has ordained.
   • Those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3. 13:3
   • Rulers are not a terror to good work, but to evil work.
   • Paul asks whether the reader wishes not to fear the authority.
   • Paul commands the reader to do what is good.
   • The one who does good will receive praise from the authority.
4. 13:4
   • The ruler is God's servant to the reader for good.
   • If the reader does evil, he should be afraid.
   • The ruler does not bear the sword in vain.
   • The ruler is God's servant.
   • The ruler is an avenger who executes wrath on the one who does evil.
5. 13:5
   • It is necessary to be subject.
   • Subjection is required not only because of wrath.
   • Subjection is also required because of conscience.
6. 13:6
   • For this reason the readers also pay taxes.
   • The authorities are God's ministers.
   • The authorities devote themselves continually to this very thing.
7. 13:7
   • Paul commands them to pay to all what is owed.
   • Tax is to be paid to the one to whom tax is owed.
   • Revenue is to be paid to the one to whom revenue is owed.
   • Fear is to be given to the one to whom fear is owed.
   • Honor is to be given to the one to whom honor is owed.
8. 13:8
   • They are to owe no one anything.
   • The one exception is the debt to love one another.
   • The one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9. 13:9
   • The commandment says not to commit adultery.
   • The commandment says not to kill.
   • The commandment says not to steal.
   • The commandment says not to bear false witness.
   • The commandment says not to covet.
   • Any other commandment that exists is included as well.
   • All these commandments are summed up in one saying.
   • That saying is: love your neighbor as yourself.
10. 13:10
    • Love does no evil to its neighbor.
    • Love is therefore the fulfilling of the law.
11. 13:11
    • They are to do this knowing the time.
    • It is already the hour for them to be awakened out of sleep.
    • Their salvation is nearer now than when they believed.
12. 13:12
    • The night is far advanced.
    • The day has drawn near.
    • Paul calls them to cast off the works of darkness.
    • Paul calls them to put on the armor of light.
13. 13:13
    • They are to walk decently, as in the daytime.
    • They are not to walk in carousing and drunkenness.
    • They are not to walk in sexual immorality and sensuality.
    • They are not to walk in strife and jealousy.
14. 13:14
    • They are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
    • They are not to make provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

"Higher powers" and "the powers that be" are not supernatural forces. The Greek word means governing authorities: magistrates, governors, tax officials, the emperor's administration. "Every soul" is a Hebrew-flavored way of saying every person, the whole self, not the soul as opposed to the body. Paul is writing to people living in Rome itself, the administrative center of the empire.

13:2

"Damnation" in 1611 English meant a sentence of condemnation, a judgment passed against someone. It had not yet narrowed to mean eternal punishment. The Greek word is likewise the ordinary one for a judicial verdict, and readers have long differed over whether the verdict in view is God's or the magistrate's; the wording leaves both open. "Ordinance" means an arrangement or institution, something set in place, from the same root as "ordained" in verse 1.

13:3

"Thou shalt have praise of the same" means you will receive approval from that authority. In Roman cities, publicly commending citizens who had benefited the community was a formal practice, recorded in inscriptions and voted by local councils, so the phrase suggests official recognition rather than private compliments.

13:4

"Minister" here does not mean a clergyman. The Greek word is the ordinary term for a servant or attendant, someone who carries out another person's business. "He beareth not the sword in vain" refers to the sword as the standing symbol of a magistrate's power to punish, up to and including execution. "A revenger to execute wrath" means an agent who carries out retribution on behalf of the state, not a person taking private revenge.

13:5

"Ye must needs be subject" is old English for "it is necessary to submit." "Not only for wrath" means not merely to avoid punishment; "wrath" here is the penalty the authority inflicts, carrying over the word used in verse 4.

13:6

"For for this cause" is not a misprint. The first "for" ties the sentence to what came before, and the second belongs to the phrase "for this cause," meaning on account of this. "Tribute" is the direct tax, assessed on land and on persons, that Rome levied on its subject populations. Taxation was a live grievance in Rome in these years, and resentment of the men who collected it was widespread.

13:7

The King James distinguishes two kinds of payment. "Tribute" is direct tax, assessed on land and persons. "Custom" is indirect tax: tolls, duties and levies on goods moved or sold, collected at ports, bridges and city gates by contractors who took a cut. "Dues" simply means what is owed. "Fear" here is the deference owed to someone holding power over you, not fright.

13:8

"Owe no man any thing" keeps the accounting language of verse 7 going: the verb is the ordinary commercial one for standing in debt, matching "dues" in the previous verse. The sentence turns that image around, setting one obligation against all the others.

13:9

The commands quoted are from the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5). "Thou shalt not kill" translates a Hebrew verb meaning unlawful killing, murder; it is not a blanket word covering every kind of killing. "Covet" means to set your desire on what belongs to someone else. "Briefly comprehended" means summed up, gathered into a single statement. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" is quoted from Leviticus 19:18, where "neighbour" means a fellow member of your community, anyone you have dealings with, not merely the person living next door.

13:11

"Knowing the time" uses the Greek word kairos, which means a decisive moment or season, the critical or opportune time, rather than time as duration on a clock. "High time to awake out of sleep" draws on the ordinary picture of a household being roused at daybreak.

13:12

"Far spent" means nearly over, and "at hand" means close, about to arrive. "Cast off" and "put on" are words for undressing and dressing: the picture is of someone getting up at dawn, shedding night clothes and putting on the day's. "Armour" turns that daytime clothing into a soldier's equipment, the kit a man buckles on at the start of his watch.

13:13

"Walk" is a standard biblical idiom for the way you conduct your life. "Honestly" in 1611 meant decently, respectably, in a manner fit to be seen in public; it did not mean truthfully. "Rioting" translates a Greek word for a drunken revel, the noisy procession through the streets after a feast. "Chambering" is the translators' euphemism for sexual intercourse, built on "chamber," meaning a bedroom; the Greek word is a plain term for sexual acts. "Wantonness" means unrestrained, shameless indulgence, behavior with no sense of limit.

13:14

"Put ye on" is the same clothing word as in verse 12: put Christ on the way you put on a garment. "Make not provision" uses a word for planning ahead and laying in supplies, as in provisioning a household or an army for what it will need. "The flesh" is Paul's regular term for human nature as it works against God; it does not simply mean the body or physical life.