Paul says in Romans 13 that we need to obey our local government authorities. But what does that actually mean when you put it back in its original context? Do we have to blindly obey what the government tells us to do? Well, we're going to break it all down and put it right back into its original context. So stay with me. We're going to get into it right after this. Hello everyone, Jim Staley, Passion for Truth Ministries, and welcome to today's broadcast. Today we are picking up where we left off, Romans chapter 13. We have gone through 12 chapters in Romans uncovering incredible nuggets original perspective of Paul which was all Jewish all Hebrew and we've discovered that there is a big gap between 21st century western perspective and the original first century Hebrew perspective we do what we believe my friends which is why this ministry is so important or I should say the the message behind this ministry is so important which is what does the Bible mean when it's put in its original context? What did Paul mean when he said what he said? In order to do that, we have to know the players of the first century. We have to know what they believed. We have to know what the arguments are. We have to know what the questions were and the problems that were in the original churches that he's writing to or we're flat out just going to read into it what we already believe. And that's called is Jesus where we read into the scriptures something we already believed rather than exoggetically pulling from the scriptures what the author intended. And so that's what we do here at this ministry. We are digging into the scriptures from the original Hebrew perspective and letting the Bible just come alive and then we apply it to our life based on what we now know it says. And unfortunately the difference between 21st century Grecoman perspective and first century is a giant gap. But we are making the gap smaller each and every week as we walk through here. So without further ado, if you can do me a favor, if this is the kind of content you're looking for, hit the subscribe button and hit like. If you've been a part of our channel for a while, we certainly appreciate that. And uh let's dive in right now. Turn over with me to Romans chapter 13 and let's find out what Paul's really saying when he tells us to be subject to the governing authorities. It says this, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Although I think a lot of people would disagree with that. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscious sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For they are God's ministers, attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due. Taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. All right. Well, we're going to walk back through this up in verse one. And I first of all want to say that there's a group of people that do believe that this is talking not about the governing authorities of Rome, but actually the temple authorities or the synagogue authorities and that that's what he's talking to. I don't believe that. I don't think the the context suggests that at all. Uh but I do understand how some groups would like to turn and bend in that direction, but I don't believe that's exactly what it's saying. It's talking about governing authorities. It is what it is. And uh and this is our issue. The word here in some of the translations in English says obey. That is not a good translation. So if you have a translation that says obey, uh that's not a good translation. The right word here is subject. There is a difference between subject yourselves to authorities and obey your governing authorities. What's the difference? Obey has the connotation of you do what they say. Okay? Subjection is the idea that they are over you. So you're subjecting to the overarching idea that you're under their authority. In Greek, this word is hypotaso. And hypotaso uh means to submit oneself to authority or control. So you're submitting yourself. For instance, if you come to the United States and you become a citizen, you're submitting yourself to the authority of the government of the United States. It does not mean that you're obeying everything that they tell you to do. Okay? It doesn't mean to blindly obey. Should Christians have obeyed Hitler? Should the Jewish people have just done everything that Hitler told him to say or do? Of course not. Should you take a governmentmandated jab that contains poison just because they say so. Eventually, my friends, the government will mandate that you take the mark of the beast as well. So, if someone takes the position that we have to obey the government authorities and everything that they say and do, then in the end times, you'll have to take the mark of the beast because they're going to require it or you're not going to be able to buy or sell. I'm going to suggest to you that this is not at all what Paul is saying. There is a cultural situation that's happening here. And I'm going to explain to you exactly why. It's imperative that we know when he wrote this and what the cultural situation is, the year that he wrote this, so you can understand what's going on. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But first of all, listen. I am so grateful that the mother of Moses did not obey the decree of Pharaoh or the midwives. Check this out. In Exodus 1 17, it says this, "But the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them. But they let the boys live. All right? And so you see this all over the place. You see Paul disobeyed uh the Romans and he was killed for it. Steven disobeyed and he was stoned. Daniel was put in the lion's den. Shadrach, Meach, Abedneo, Esther, on and on they go. You see these incredible men and women of God who chose to absolutely buck the governmental system when the government said, "Do this." and they said, "Nope, that goes against my God. I'm not doing that." There are countless examples in scripture of men and women that are disobeying the government. How can those people disobey the government? But Paul tell us that everybody needs to just obey the government. As a matter of fact, I remember during the pandemic of 20 and 21, I was in a church and the pastor, everybody had masks on and I was the only guy that didn't have a mask on in this church. And the pastor called me out in front of his entire congregation. He began to preach directly at me. It was incredibly awkward. People were turning around and he made the comment and quoted Romans chapter 13 as proof text of why I was out of alignment for not obeying the local governments. And he clearly did not belong in the pulpit. He had no idea what he was talking about. That's not what Paul was saying. And if I ask the simple question, well, if you believe that we should obey the local governments at every cost, then that means when they tell you to take uh the mark of the beast, you're going to have to do that, pastor. And he probably would have uh changed his theology instantaneously. But, you know, to that pastor's credit, maybe he didn't think all the way through it. But this is something that's important. When we don't know the original context, if we don't know the players that are on the stage that day and we don't know the things that are happening in the newspaper that day, we can often times read into it something that doesn't exist. For instance, we know from the Roman historian Tacitus in 58 AD. It just so happens to be the year that Paul wrote the book of Romans somewhere in that time period. In the anal's book 13 chapter 50 there were persistent he says there persistent public complaints about the excessive greed of the revenue farmers. What were the revenue farmers? Basically the IRS the companies responsible for collecting indirect taxes. It was such a big deal that year that Nero suggested that maybe they should get rid of the indirect tax completely. But his adviserss told him no, you don't need to do that. That would us financially. probably because they were taking a lot of the taxes for themselves. Maybe they needed Doge at some point back then in the first century. At the end of the day, the reality is is there was a massive massive debate on taxes and whether or not they should people should pay the taxes, this indirect tax or not. And remember, they had this is less than a decade um after all the Jews have been kicked out of Rome. And so now that they are back in Rome and the previous emperor died, there is a lot of uh religious turmoil in the communities, especially the communities of believers to figure out, well, how do we live in Rome? Because they just kicked this out less than 10 years ago. Now we can come back. What does this look like? Do we pay the tax? Do we not pay the tax? The entire context I'm going to suggest to you here of this opening chapter is not about whether you should obey the authorities blindly, but it's all about taxes. And quite frankly, when has it ever not been about taxes? In every generation, people complain about paying their taxes. And so, let's take a look at this and you'll see exactly what this is. So, the truth is, let's go back to uh Romans chapter 13, is that the first line is the giveaway. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. And specifically, they know he's talking about taxes. He's going to make it very clear in the examples that he gives. He's talking about taxes. People weren't sure if they should submit to them or not. And he says, "Yes, you need to do that for there's no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God." Now, whether or not the authority knows it or not, appointed means that God is allowing that authority. God is the one, he says, that pulls up people to make them kings and he pulls down the kings. There's not a king, there's not an authority in place that God hasn't ordained or I should say allowed for his purpose. Even if it's an evil king, God is so good at using evil kings to accomplish his ways. Uh, and here we look at it and complain that the president of the United States, we don't like this president, we don't like that president. But the reality is God is the one that places them in authority or allows them to be in that authority and he can use them. Doesn't matter who who ends up in that particular role. All right? And so he's saying, I want you to just subject yourself to those authorities. If you're living in Spain, subject yourself to the authorities. Don't buck the system. Don't uh go against the law. Pay your taxes. Do the right thing. as long as it comes in alignment with scripture, you need to move in alignment with that government. Otherwise, they hold the sword. And there's a lot of things they can do with that sword. And that's why when you get down to verse six, it says, "For because of this, because of what? Because of the authorities, you pay taxes. But they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs are due, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. In other words, move through life, be at peace with all men, do righteousness in the land, have a good reputation. If it all depends if it at all depends on you, do so. And then allow God to raise you up or to lower you down depending on who he wants you to minister to. You know, many of us uh we look at life and we try to have our purpose in life and and our purpose in life tends to be I need to have a million subscribers or I need to have more influence or I I need to be part of this ministry or I want to share God with this many people. But the truth is is that God is has a completely different idea of what purpose is. Your purpose might be the doors stop on the door. And you might think, well, all my purpose is is to hold this door open. But it might be holding the door open for the king. We don't know. So it is not about what we think our mission in life is or what our purpose is that that we imagine in our head. The truth is is are we playing exactly what God wants for today. And if we just get busy with the work of the gospel today and love people where we're at, which is the golden rule, ladies and gentlemen, love Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. What we'll discover is that you'll automatically end up where you're supposed to be. I know that I did not have any idea that when I was 12 years old and I'm playing baseball 59 60 games a year, uh, and I was all into to uh, you know, sports and soccer and basketball and baseball. I had no idea I was going to be a preacher. I had no idea I was going to be a Bible teacher. It happened accidentally through youth ministry through a course of events where a youth minister said, "Hey, I think you should give the sermon this week to the youth." And I did and I wrote it out and I read every single word. I never looked up from my notebook. It was the first message I ever gave. Little did I know, God was prophetically saying, "This is the direction that you're going." Someone saw it in me, even though I didn't see it. And years and decades later, here I am ministering to people online and people in counseling and so on and so forth. Sometimes we just have to walk in life and we end up exactly where we're supposed to be. And this relates to the government is in this way. The government at some point is going to tell us to do things that we don't believe are ethical. Then don't do it. This is why you stand up for righteousness. You can absolutely stand for what you believe if it goes against scripture, but pick your battles wisely, says the Lord. Some battles are not worth going to prison for, and some absolutely are. It's our responsibility to do what's right. As a matter of fact, let's go back to the scriptures talking about loving people. Verse eight, it says, "Owe no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. And if there's any other commandment, all are summed up in this same, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Now, let's talk about this for a second. Love is the fulfillment of the law because this has been taken out of context in a radical way. Why? Because some will interpret this as if you just love then there is no law. It's the fulfillment of the law. So there are no laws as long as you love. The problem with that is it doesn't make sense. You can't have circular reasoning. In other words, if we get rid of the law, then what defines what love is? Because love is defined by the law of God. And so if you just say, "Oh, we just need to love everybody." Well, love unfortunately is not is not defined as a man who loves and and and lays with a man or a woman with a woman. That is an abomination, says the Lord. So loving someone is telling them the truth whether they want to hear the truth or not, but you do it in love. Love is loving the way God defi defines love. So fulfilling the law doesn't mean that we get to do whatever we want or that we just accept people for where they're at. No, fulfilling the law means that it's the entire purpose of the law. We learned in Romans chapter 10:4 that the point or the end, the telos of the law is righteousness. In other words, the point or the endgame of the law is righteousness. It doesn't mean that the only thing in the law is righteousness. It means that the point of it is to become righteous before God through the blood of Christ and through our obedience. James says it this way, "Show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by what I do." So Paul is simply remembering that this these two groups, the Gentile Romans and the Jewish Romans that are trying to live together and they're having all kinds of problems, all kinds of issues because they come from two completely different backgrounds. They're judging one another. The Jews are judging the Gentiles because they don't know the law. The Gentiles are judging the Jews because they're too legalistic. And Paul is saying, "Stop judging everyone. The law is going to judge everyone. What you need to do is focus on yourself. Focus on loving your neighbor as yourself because love is the point of all of this, you guys. That's what he would say in today's language. He's not saying love ends the law. No, love is the point of the law, guys. So, as you're doing all the commandments, that's why he says if there are all these commandments, if there's all these commandments, the greatest thing is to love because it fulfills all of them. It completes all of the commandments. If you don't have love, you're a clanging symbol and everything you do there will be no credit for on judgment day. That's his point. That's what he's trying to say. Let's go back to the scriptures. All right. Verse 11. And do this knowing the time that now is high time to wake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, my friends, as in the day, not in rely and drunkenness, not in lwdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. I could preach for an hour straight on this. This is literally one of my favorite passages in all of Romans where Paul gets away from the teaching. He just flat out starts preaching at the top of his lungs. Guys, the time is short. Now, in this time period, Paul thinks that Jesus is coming back soon. But hey, I'm glad that he did because he puts an emphasis and and a stress on his words that guys, we wake up, church. It's time to get back to doing Bible things in Bible ways. It's time to get back to what you first believed. Some of you that have been walking in the front of the book for so many years, even decades, you're so dry. Your sponge is dry because you've left your first love. The first love is not the Bible. The first love is not the word of God. The first love is not the Torah. The first love is not the Dead Sea Scrolls or Josephus or anything in between. The first love is Jesus Christ. There's no other first love. It's Yeshua, your Messiah, remembering what he did for you. That he bled for you. That he came to this earth and cloaked himself in humanity and was humiliated and slandered by all men for you and your sin. When we remember that, there's no way to point fingers. There's no way to to judge others. We love others where they're at. We speak the truth in love. We're gentle. We're kind. We're patient. All of the fruits of the spirit. We have self-control. We experience joy and love because the spirit of God is living in us. He says, "The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Cast off the works of darkness." If you have something in your life that you're struggling with, you need to get mad and get rid of it. Get mad at the devil for tripping you up and then do everything in your power to get rid of it. And if those of you that are struggling with whatever kind of addiction, whether pornography, whether it be lust, whether it be, you know, it doesn't matter what it is, smoking, alcoholism, uh drinking too much, whatever it might be, I'm going to give you the answer for everything that you could ever want right now. You want your spouse to change, you want a a better job position, you want to find your purpose with the Lord, I'm going to give you the secret right now. Are you ready? Get up and spend an hour and a half to two hours with the Lord every day. Fast and pray days on end. Eat in the evening when the sun goes down and then do 23-hour fast and get on your face before God because the only thing that you haven't done yet, and this is for somebody that's listening to this today, the only thing that you haven't done is intercede for the person that's hurting you. The only thing you haven't done is get on your face with great supplication before God. Praying throughout the day doesn't cut it. That's a that's maintenance. But if you really want the power of God to show up, you want visions, you want dreams, you want to hear his voice, you want to see things transformed, you want to things see things come to you instead of you go to them. If you really want to see living power and transformation in your life, you must spend time with God. You must. There's no way out of it. You can't go in and go out and have a 10-minute quiet time and it's going to change your life. A 10-minute quiet time ain't changing nobody. I'm just being real. It didn't change me, but hours a day does. So, I just want to encourage you at the end of this broadcast had no intention of going here at all. But I truly believe there are so many of you that are watching right now that you are looking for the breakthrough. You're wanting God to move in your life. You are asking God throughout the day. You're crying in the evening because of this and because of that. But I'm telling you, when you focus on your side of the street, when you absolutely lay down your life and you bathe yourself in his presence, you put on some worship music and you meditate and you pray and you read his word and you pray in the spirit, whatever you got to do, you just do it with everything in you. And you expect God to move and you don't stop until he does. You don't let go of the angel until he gives you a new name. That's when you'll see your breakthrough. Those are the warriors for Christ. Those are the ones, the Daniels that fasted for 21 days. They're the ones that meet Gabriel. That is the power formula for your life right now. And so, somebody needs to hear that. Well, my friends, we've come to the end of this chapter. It's a very short chapter. Next week is going to be incredibly controversial. You do not want to miss that. I'm really looking forward to next week, chapter 14. It's going to be very, very controversial. I can't wait to dive into that verse by verse. Until then, my friends, please, I encourage you, grab on to the hem of the garment, the zit seats, the tit of our rabbi Yeshua, and the power of the living God will flow out from him and into your life. My name is Jim Staley with Passionforruth Ministries. Thank you for spending time with us. Please go to passionforthruth.com right now and uh and check out all the videos that we have there. We have hundreds and hundreds of articles and videos. And if you don't have a local church, would you please consider joining our online community and uh and paying it forward for someone else by hitting the donate button at the very top? Very few people actually say thank you for us ministering to them. We know that God takes care of us and we're more grateful than anything that you just spend time with us and watching these and and praying for our ministry as we move forward into the nations. We love you guys. We pray that God will bless you and keep you. Let his face shine upon you. May his countenance be lifted up over you and may he give you shalom. I'm Jim Staley with Passion for Truth Ministries. I'll see you in the next video.