Romans 13 Libertarianism
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 4.47 pm
Q. Hello (: I have two questions: My fiance and I have been getting into arguments lately about libertarianism and the Bible. He thinks that by allowing or being supportive of gay rights and drug legalization that we’re being lukewarm (Rev. 3:16). I’ve tried explaining to him that by allowing other people to make their own decisions that we aren’t necessarily encouraging it or believing it to be morally acceptable, but he just doesn’t seem to get it. So I was wondering what your thoughts were on that.
Also, what is your take on Romans 13:2 – “Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” – when applied to our government today?
Lastly, I want to thank you for being so helpful with sharing your opinions. It’s really refreshing to know that there’s someone that believes the way I do and is also rational about the way the world is today (: — Chelsea, from tumblr.
A. This is such an awesome question, because I’ve recently been reading a lot about Romans 13 after hearing a rather troubling sermon on it. I can’t say that I’ve got it all figured out, of course, but I do think I’ve got some good ideas going and am happy to have an opportunity to develop them in writing.
But first things first: Can Christians take the libertarian position on issues like gay rights and drug legalization and still remain committed to God in a relationship grounded in sound, biblically faithful theology? I say the answer is emphatically “yes.” I’ve written about this before, so I’m going to link you to several of those posts. They better address the issue of gay rights and marriage than they do drug legalization, but I’d say the same general arguments apply. Here are the posts:
- “Improving on Christ’s Methods?”
- “Resolved: The Libertarian Philosophy Is Compatible with Christianity”
- “Christianity and Nock’s Government/State Dichotomy”
- “Privatize Marriage?”
- “Jesus was a radical social activist…”
Now, on to the new stuff: Romans 13, the great bane of libertarian Christians’ existence. This is the chapter any Christian who expresses serious disagreement with their government will eventually have thrown in their direction, and I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a tricky one. I can’t deny that it this passage has seriously troubled me in the past in light of my own political beliefs and the assurance with which many prominent Christians have used it to support very, very different politics from my own. At first glance, the language seems pretty clear and, if isolated from its context, pretty damning for libertarianism, anarchism, and quite a lot of other political philosophies to which I’m sympathetic. But is it really?
My answer here is as emphatic a “no” as it was a “yes” to the previous question.
Chapter and verse divisions are clearly very useful, as the Bible’s kind of a big book, but sometimes they’re more trouble than they’re worth. This is one of those times. If we take the beginning of Romans 13 as the start of Paul’s thought process, then yeah, we might come to the conclusion that he’s saying nothing more than that Christians should submit to their governments because God put the government there — end of story. But if we look at it in the context of chapter 12 and the rest of chapter 13, the picture is really different.
Romans 12 begins by urging the Christian to present ourselves entirely allegiant to God, and to avoid being conformed to this world (Rom. 12:1-2). This bit alone seems to indicate that a simplistic, isolated reading of the first part of chapter 13 is inaccurate given the gospels’ teaching that Satan controls the kingdoms of this world, but let’s continue.
Paul then enumerates and discusses various spiritual gifts, urging willing service and humility throughout this section (Rom. 12:3-8). The last 13 verses of chapter 12 discuss the Christian’s preeminent duty to love as Christ loves, and details what that looks like in practice. Interestingly, this format of writing about spiritual gifts, urging humility and service in their use, and then emphasizing the extreme importance of love closely parallels the better-known text of I Corinthians 12 and 13.
Now, in this latter part of Romans 12, the context of Paul’s statement on government is very important (and recall, of course, that there would be no chapter divisions in the original). As Greg Boyd puts it:
In these passages [at the end of Romans 12] Paul tells Kingdom people they are to love and serve their enemies and never exact vengeance on them. Rather, we are to leave all judgment to God. Then, beginning in Romans 13, Paul tells us one of the ways God exacts vengeance on people: he uses governments.
The fact that God uses governments, though, doesn’t mean that He approves of them or wishes us to be conformed to their way of doing things. Boyd adds:
Paul says God “establishes” governments. The Greek here can simply imply that God uses governments as he finds them. In this case, Paul says, he uses them to punish wrong doers. But this doesn’t mean God approves of them. Throughout the Bible, God uses governments he clearly doesn’t approve of (e.g. Assyria in Isa. 10).
To better clarify this point, let me quote a largish chunk of the passage itself, sans chapter and verse division:
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.
For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. We nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near.
You’ve no doubt noticed that the discussion of love doesn’t stop at the beginning of the discussion of government. The central teaching here is not on government at all, but rather on how we are to work out our love in daily life to advance the kingdom of God.
So here’s the (kind of) short version of what I understand Paul as saying: We as Christians are called to love, and here are some specifications of what that looks like in practice (Rom. 12:9-16). Part of it is not extracting our own vengeance, because vengeance is God’s prerogative (Rom. 12:17-20). Sometimes, God uses governments to extract His vengeance or otherwise execute His will. Thus, to the extent that governments have authority over Christians, the authority they wield is delegated by God to them to punish wrongdoing (Rom. 13:1-4). Of course, if we are living in Christ’s love, we will have fulfilled all just laws, so we need not fear that authority (Rom. 13:3-4-10).
Nonetheless, it is important that we remember that our primary allegiance is to God, and that we must never rest in spreading His kingdom (Rom. 12:1-2, 13:11-12). Because of this, while we are certainly to resist evil (even evil governments, for if a government does evil it is not acting on God’s authority, for His authority is only specifically delegated to do His good will), our primary calling is not to fix or rebel against the government (Rom. 12:1-2, 21, 13:1-2).
So as much as it is possible without doing wrong, cooperate with the government so that you may peacefully do God’s will (Rom. 12:18, 21, 13:1-5). As Jesus put it in His “render unto Caesar” dialogue, the government made the money, so if they want some if for taxes, then you should probably just give it to them (Rom. 13:6-7).* It’s not wrong to have an opinion about those taxes or the government in general, of course,** but don’t focus on it to the extent that it hinders you in your devotion to God (Rom. 12:1-2). Thus we are to give taxes to whom taxes are due and honor to whom honor is due (Rom. 13:6-7). But to whom is honor due? Clearly to God, and to Him alone, for we are also to render unto God what is God’s. We aren’t called to make the great focus of our lives political trouble-making; but we are called to remember that all real authority comes from God, and it is only to Him that we owe final obedience.
This is basically the essence of Christian anarchy, which I’ll let Boyd explain as well:
The Kingdom Jesus established is anarchistic in that it recognizes God alone as the arche (supreme power). It thus lives free from all other powers (an-arche [anarchy] means without authority). Governments are part of the fallen, oppressed world system that has been done away with in Christ.
[Christian anarchy argues that] it’s not appropriate for Kingdom people to either support or revolt against governments. This gives them too much credit. Rather, following the example of Jesus, we should ignore them as much as possible, put up with them as much as we need to, and stay focused on living out the radical Kingdom. If we do this, then we, like Jesus, will find ourselves revolting against the government (and culture). We are, most fundamentally, called to be non-conformists. Our service to the world is the way our counter-cultural lives expose the invalidity of all forms of government by manifesting the reign of God.
From a book appropriately titled Christian Anarchy (which I would like to read but haven’t yet), Boyd quotes this interpretation of the beginning of Romans 12, which is a lot like a shorter version of what I said above:
Be clear, any of those human arkys [governmental authorities] are where they are only because God is allowing them to be there. They exist only at his sufferance. And if God is willing to put up with a stinker like the Roman Empire, you ought to be willing to put up with it, too. There is no indication God has called you to clear it out of the way or get it converted for him. You can’t fight the Roman Empire without becoming like the Roman Empire; so you had better leave such matters in Gods’ hands where they belong
In the end, the point of this oft divisive passage “is not to inform us that we have a ‘divided allegiance.’” We already know that isn’t possible for the Christian. Instead, it’s to emphasize yet again the New Testament’s central theme of love, and to clarify that government “is simply not worth bucking against if we don’t have to because it will distract us from doing our Christian duty of manifesting the Kingdom and spreading the Gospel.”
So there’s no reason why a Christian can’t be a libertarian. Just make sure to be a Christian first.
*Surely this is especially true with our fiat currency system, no?
**Indeed, the apostle Simon was a “zealot,” which means he undoubtedly had very strong opinions on Roman taxes, while the apostle Matthew was a tax collector. They were at the opposite ends of the political spectrum of first century Israel. But that really didn’t matter in the least once Jesus came into the picture.
Thank you for writing this. This is a a question I have been wrestling with as well and I came the roughly the same conclusion although not so eloquently. I will definitely use some of the information you gave in my defense next time I am forced to.