Bible Guys Classics: Romans 13

Well, Wesley, if you know me, you know that I

love to follow rules. I am not a rule breaker.

I am a real follower.

To the tea, I'm going to lean over, so I

don't get light. I'm Wesley. This is Chris, and this

is the Daily Bible GUIDs. Well.

Hey, the reason why we talked about that is because

today we're talking about respect for authority. Right, That's the

reason why I talked about the rule. Yes, but we'll

get to that in just a minute. But today we're

going to get have a little fun with this segment

called the Babylon B. Now you know that we love

good resources for good news, right, and the Babylon B

is of course just satire. Yeah, but I love the

segment because as long as you understand the culture, and

if you live in church world and you know you

grew up in church and all these different kind of things,

this is absolutely hilarious. So this is how the headline reads.

Scholars theorize Disciples were Chick fil A workers as they

distributed food to five thousand in record times. That is

the title. So it says this is written in Israel.

It says scholars now believe that the Disciples who handed

out the food so aptly to the five thousand may

have been in fact Chick fil A employees. These guys

handled a lunch rush of five thousand people and with

just a twelve man crew. Question mark who else could

pull that off besides Chick fil A workers. A New

Testament scholar Dean Arrington said, that's slinging food with the

big boys. Chick fil A has been reportedly done its

own study on the Disciples of Actions following Jesus Miracle,

hoping to learn their secrets. Did they have one lane

or two separate teams? Separate teams for fish and bread,

asked the current Chick fil A operator, Jared Higgins. These

are things we could learn from now. They didn't have

the same saucee that we carry, but it's still quite

a feat. Isn't that funny that estimates place the Disciples

order to food time at approximately ninety seconds per family

union per unit, placing them amongst the fastest in the industry.

That's the sort of talent we recruit here at Chick

fil A, said mister Higgins. Very few people on this

planet are capable of achieving our standards. But the Apostles

might have been some of them. Scholars became less sure

of their new theory after further evidence emerged that the

disciples forgot to say on several occasions, it's my pleasure.

That's so fun, isn't it good? Of course, Chick fil

a is known for their customer service, right, And I

don't know if you guys any of our listeners have

Chick fil A's, because a lot of people listening who

are out of the United States. But Chick fil A's

are incredibly efficient and they're the only ones, aren't they

with people who actually they walk to your car and

they take your order. They don't wait for you to

get to the drive through windows.

A personal customer service experience.

Yes, yeah, so the time you pull in and you

may be in line, and the Chick fil across from

our church has on the average about what a forty

five minute wait.

It's it's packed whenever you go.

Yeah, so there's no less than usually would I would

say eighty percent of the time there's at least fifty

cars or more and people pull through. And the funny

thing is if it's only like thirty cars, you're out

in like ten minutes. Yeah, like you know, or you know,

maybe maybe fifteen or twenty at the maximum. But I've

pulled into Arby's before there's only been three cars ahead

of me, right, and it's been longer than twenty minutes.

Because they were making it fresh just for you, Chris.

Whatever I mean, it's been. It's been everywhere. But I'll

tell you what Chick fil A is definitely the pride

and joy of customer service. I love Chick fil A

like more than life itself.

Yeah, they've got good customer service. Yeah, although my daughter

one day said it would be so nice, you know,

it's almost like something's off a little bit.

I'll tell you this for thirty seconds. I grew up

in Youngstown, Ohio, which is a really rough area, and

I remember the day that Chick fil A opened in

Youngstown because it took a while for Chickfilate to go north,

and when Youngstown finally got one, I actually said to

my wife, I said, there is no way that I'm

going to hear a Youngstown teenager say it's my pleasure, Like,

there is no way. If you know the culture of

this area, there's no way. And I remember going there

and I remember, you know, waiting for it, and then

you know, here's this kid of sixteen. He's like, it's

my pleasure, and I was like, miracles do happen? Right?

Chick Flake can even convert people from Youngstown, which is amazing.

It's really funny. So all right, well listen, let's dive in.

We are in Roman chapter thirteen. Paul's talking about respect

for authority, hence my joke at the beginning, and Wesley,

we're going to read the whole chapter, verses one through fourteen.

Here we go thirteen Romans thirteen, Verse one, New Living Translation.

Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes

from God, and those in positions of authority have been

placed thereby God. So anyone who rebels against authority is

rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.

For the authorities do not strike fear in people who

are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong.

What do you like to live without fear of the authorities?

Do what is right and they will honor you. The

authorities are God's servants sent for your good. But if

you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid

or they have the power to punish you. They are

God's servants sent for the very purpose of punishing those

who do what is wrong. So you must submit to them,

not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a

clear conscience. Your taxes too, for these same reasons. For

government workers need to be paid. They are serving God,

and what they do give to everyone what you owe them,

and your taxes in government fees to those who collect them,

and give respect and honor to those in authority. Verse eight.

Owe nothing to anyone except for your obligation to love

one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill

the requirements of God's law. For the commandments say you

must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must

not steal, you must not covet. These and other such

commandments are summed up in this one commandment. Love your

neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to others, so

fulfills the requirements of God's law. This is all the

more urgent for you know how late it is. Time

is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer

now than when we first believe. The night is almost gone.

The day of salvation will soon be here. So remove

your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the

shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day,

we must live decent lives for all to see. Don't

participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or

in sexual promiscuity and in moral living, or in quarreling

in jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and don't let yourself think about ways

to indulge your evil desires.

Yeah, so Paul again is sort of shifting from the

first chapters of the Book of Romans about theology. Again,

just keep in mind, he's writing to a church in

Rome that he is not yet visited. They have heard

about him, because everybody's heard of Paul. He's sort of

the you know, a person who's carrying the message to

the gentiles, and so he's introducing himself. But also he's

laying theological ground. And now in Roman chapter twelve, just

one chapter ago, he shifted gears to the more practical. Well,

this is definitely practical. So he starts off and it

really feels like two categories. He's talking about, you know,

all about authority, governments, right, obying government and respecting them.

And then he sort of shift gears, and he covers

the blanket by saying, you know, you were treat them

by loving your neighbor as yourself. But then he sort

of blankets that with other commandments like, hey, you know,

just love everyone and then also understand that you know,

salvation is near, don't behave wild parties, don't behavior morally

just in general, which is sort of outside the realm

of government. Right, So anyway, let's let's talk about this

because I think that for a lot of people, especially

those who are political right, they're the ones who you know,

just love to just on social media, just go forever

right on political parties, they're the ones that get really

hyped this passage.

Yeah, but here's the interesting thing that I think it

directly ties into a biblical concept. Isn't it funny how

when the people that we like are in power, we're

for them, But when there's someone that we feel who

is in power that we don't like, oh, that's terrible,

that's horrible, it's bad. It's kind of going back a

couple of days ago when we were talking about the

sin in our own lives. When we sin, Oh, that's it.

So it's just a little small sin, that's a little lie.

But when Chris does it, oh crucify, I'm that is

horrible and terrible. It's just interesting to me politically how

it is. When it's your side and power, you overlook

the sins and the faults. But when it's the other

people that's crucified them, and that goes both ways up down,

backwards forwards. Not talking about any particular group, I'm just

saying in general, that's a concept.

Yes, I'll tell you my whole view of the idea

of obeying government and everything else. A government that you

don't agree with, government that you think are corrupt, government

that you think that you don't believe in, all of

it's changed in my mind in a significant way when

I understood. I heard a message one time by one

of my favorite pastors, and Any Stanley, and he talked

about how God uses even the most corrupt of governments

to put forth his will in big ways. God's moving

the chess pieces both through evil people and good And

if you think about that concept, that is not only

true for government, that is true for our own lives.

Right like God has moved the chess pieces of evil

and good people in our own lives to bring about

his will. And so in the example that he used

was at Christmas time where it says, the only reason

why Caesar Augustus is even popular is because he's included

in the story of Jesus. But if you would rewind

two thousand years ago, everybody knew Caesar Augustus's name, and

nobody knew who Jesus was. Right, But now Caesar Augustus

has not become a footnote in Jesus' story. So out

of absolute greed and unfair taxation, Caesar Augustus has a

decree that the whole world should have a census for taxes. So,

because of his motivation, it accomplished the purposes of the prophets,

for Joseph and Mary travel all the way down to

Bethlehem from Nazareth for Jesus to be born there to

fulfill the prophecies. In other words, it's pretty clear that

God is going to use those who are even corrupt

and in power to accomplished as will. Another segment of

the same message that I heard was how when they

came up to Jesus and they said, hey, should we

pay taxes or not? And then remember when Jesus says

go catch a fish, and he said, you're going to

find a coin in that fish's mouth, and whatever coin

that it'll be enough to pay your taxes and eye taxes,

to go pay them. And he did that, and he says, render,

he's whose face is on the coin, but Caesar's. And

he says, well, then give to Caesar. What is Caesar's right,

And don't worry about it. Now, think about this. All

the way through woven and history and woven and biblical history,

we absolutely know for a fact that everybody was taxed unjustly. Right.

It was the very nature of the tax collectors. You

know that that Roman that Rome hired within the Jewish

population because Matthew wanted the disciples, he was a tax collector,

but he was also a Jew, and he was hired

as a henchman from the Romans themselves. And those tax

collectors would not only betray their own people just you know,

for a job, but they would also betray their own

people because they could determine whatever tax they wanted for themselves.

So essentially they were making a little profit margin yeah

or a lot. Yeah, may have had a rate. They

would go and try to collect above that rate and

then they had a little profit in there.

Right, and even a lot of profit. You remember zach

Kius was a tax collector and he said, if I

have wronged anybody, I will pay them back. And everybody,

you know, it was surprised that Jesus said, I'm going

to love you and have dinner in your house and

your honored guests and everything else. And so my whole

point is this that there is no shortage of evidence

that the government was corrupt. The Jewish people lived in oppression, right,

and an occupied territory where they where they wanted to

be delivered in a military fashion from Jesus from this

oppression that they were under. So there is no shortage

of unfairness in the first century here. And yet both

Jesus multiple times and Paul says submit to the authority,

not because the authority deserves it, but because you're somebody

says do it is right. He's saying do it is

right for you and your character. And when he says

do it is right, he's not saying do it is

right because the government is right.

That's true.

So let me read something here that I found in

my footnotes. We Love the Life Application Study Bible and

this is talking about that. Here's what he says. It

says some Christians believe that the state is so corrupt

that Christians should have as little to do with it

as possible, although they should be good citizens as long

as they can do so without compromising their beliefs that

they should not work for the government, they should not

vote in their elections, and they should not even serve

in the military. Number two. Others believe that God has

given the state authority in certain areas and the Church

authority in others. Christians should be loyal to both and

can work for either. They should, not, however, infuse the two.

In this view, church and state are concerned with two

totally different sphears, the spiritual and the physical, and thus

compliment each other but do not work together. Number three. Still,

others believe that Christians have responsibility to make the state better.

They can do this by politically. They can do this

politically by electing Christians or other high principle leaders. They

can do this by morally, by serving and an influencing

a good society. In this view, church and state ideally

should work together for the good of all. And then

it says this, and this is really the key to

the whole thing. None of these views advocate rebelling against

or refusing to obey the government's laws or regulations unless

those laws clearly require the believer to violate the moral

standards revealed by God. Wherever we find ourselves, we must

be responsible citizens as well as responsible Christians. Yeah, I

think it's a great summary.

Yeah, it's a great summary.

Yeah.

Again, it goes back to that fact that I was

trying to point out of submitting and obeying government, whether

you agree with them or not, whether it's the person

that you like in power or not, we're required by

God to submit to them in accordance with the Holy scriptures.

Because again, like you pointed out, God is moving the

chess pieces on the table. We don't know how God

is moving, who God is moving through in that given moment.

So we need to make sure that we're being obedient

to God's word and doing what God. God's word says,

He'll take care of the government and all the other

you know things out there. We just need to make

sure that we are obedient in that regard.

Yeah. So it also depends how everybody's wired as well.

Like there are a lot of people who have an

easier time receiving something like this. You know, Jesus says, yeah,

give to Caesar with Caesar, and you know, there are

probably people who are wired to say, but it's wrong. Yeah, Like,

how can I give to Caesar what is Caesar's when

technically mine and he's over taxing us?

Yeah?

Like like, didn't you hear me, Jesus right, Like, it's wrong.

And I'm wired in such a way where that is

not okay with me. And then there are other people

who are wired sort of like me that say, yeah,

I one hundred percent agree it's wrong. But yet at

the same time, if God says this is what I'm

supposed to behave, I'm just gonna trust God, and especially

if it's an evil and corrupt administration, you know. And

I'm not sure that I would ever classify any of

the United States's administrations as corrupt or evil. But actually

that's not true. I think that there's corruption in every

administration to some degree, right, Yeah.

But I know the point, it's not like we have

and you think of the dictators down through history killed

millions of their own people or castro so we've never

had a person in power quite like that that's what.

I was meaning, I'm sort of stepping in it right now. Yeah. Yeah,

so I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily classify them among them.

But I do believe that there are a ton of

things that I don't agree with. But because I'm wired

the way that I am, I have faith and I

just believe. Okay, God, I'm going to try that You're

going to work your you know, your will in spite

of our government, not because of it, right, in spite

of who's in the office, not because of him or her.

So it's one of those things where faith is going

to dictate my actions because I'm just like God, I'm

going to do everything I can. So I'm a person

that believes, you know, we should vote, and in fact,

without voting in our family, if you miss a vote,

oh you're in trouble. Right. So I'm going to do

what I can. But at the same time, I'm going

to just trust God because God has blessed me with

the number one spiritual gift of faith. Yeah, so that's

the reason why it's easier for me to say, Okay, God,

move your chest pieces, do your thing, and I'm just

going to trust that You're going to be sovereign in

the midst of a broken world that is corrupt.

Now, the distinguishing factor here that you've already pointed out, Chris,

is that if a decree came down from the government

that from this day forward, you know, starting you know today,

you can no longer believe in Jesus Christ and can

no longer go to church. Now, that's different from what

what's being discussed here. If it's contrary to God's word,

that's a different story. The Bible isn't saying, comply with

that will today you've got to stop believing in g No,

that's not what the Bible is saying.

Yeah. Yeah, And it's the reason why we still ship

Bibles into Afghanistan.

Yeah.

So, and I remember smuggling bibles, literally smugging Bibles into Cuba.

So we're going against the authorities. We're going against the

government because we believe that it is going against what

we believe is God's word, according to our moral code,

according to what is right, you know. So it doesn't

if it's going to violate those things, and it's going

to ask me to do something that I believe is

absolutely biblically wrong, then I will have no hesitation at

all of bucking authority because quite honestly, I never have

any hesitation bucking authility, which is, you know, so especially

if they need to be bucked. Right, So I think

that I think that in those cases absolutely. I think

it's clear that our allegiance is to God first.

Right, But regardless of who's in office, whether we like

them don't like them.

That's right. It's always God first. The scripture is clear

about that.

Yeah.

And then and then as long as it's not violating

God's loss and then yeah, being a member of society.

And then Paul goes on and says, you know, I

love others like yourself. Don't be corrupt, don't be a

bad citizen, don't behave poorly, don't behave ungodly or sinfully,

because in this way then you can be a citizen

who still supports, you know, the authorities. And he calls

them God's servants, and and really what that means is

it doesn't mean that they're godly. I don't believe that

means that. I believe it means that God's going to

use them as his servants in the way that God's

going to use them.

That's what I believe it, and I've seen that happen

in so many people's lives where God used and this

is in a little different context, but God used their

enemy kind of as their footstool. God used the enemy

to elevate and promote them, and God can move. Here's

the thing, we don't know. We're not God. We don't

know how God's going to move, how he's what he's

going to do, and how he's going to do it.

That's why we just need to trust God. That's the

key there.

That's right. Well, listen, I think that's a great place

to end. I think we're in our time and so

hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,