Romanschapter 13
14 verses · BSBRomans book hub →
Speaks with:Galatians 5×3Ephesians 5×3Matthew 22×41 Peter 2×3Romans 13×2Titus 3×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. Ordained of God for good. Render to all their dues. The one debt that remains is love; love is the fulfilling of the law. Awake, for the night is far spent and the day is at hand. Cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ; make no provision for the flesh. JFB notes the practical scope. Conscience-rule for Christians under Caesar, rooted in God's ordering of authority.
Context
Epistle · Paul — Romans overview
- A. 1–7 Be Subject to the Higher Powers
- B. 8–10 Love Is the Fulfilment of the Law
- C. 11–14 The Night Is Far Spent: Put Ye On the Lord Jesus
The outline
A.Be Subject to the Higher Powersvv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.Love Is the Fulfilment of the Lawvv. 8 to 10
Read vv. 8 to 10 →C.The Night Is Far Spent: Put Ye On the Lord Jesusvv. 11 to 14
Read vv. 11 to 14 →
The world behind this chapter
Romans 13The history
Taxes were a live grievance exactly when this letter was written. The historian Tacitus reports that in AD 58 public anger at the tax contractors was so intense that Nero considered abolishing indirect taxes altogether. Paul's specific mention of paying tribute and customs lands in that atmosphere.
Indirect taxes were farmed out: the state sold the right to collect, and the collectors made their profit on top. That system produced the hatred attached to tax collectors throughout the New Testament, and it made "pay what you owe" a harder instruction than it sounds.
Christians in Rome were vulnerable. They were a small, unlicensed movement associated in official minds with recent Jewish disturbances, meeting privately at night in a city that distrusted private associations. A reputation for sedition would have been fatal — and within a decade the accusation of hatred of the human race would be used against them.
The chapter's ending, with night nearly over and armour to be put on, uses the ordinary rhythm of a city that shut down after dark. Roman moralists themselves treated night as the time of carousing and quarrels.
What it meant to them
The first hearers were told that the governing authority, whatever its character, held its position under God and served a purpose in restraining evil — and that this obligation stopped short of anything resembling worship.
Then Paul cancels the debt list with one exception. Owe no one anything except to love one another, because love does no wrong to a neighbour and so fulfils the Law. Taxes get paid; love never gets finished.
Sources cited
- Tacitus, The Annals
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Romans 13. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.