July 1, 2018
As citizens of heaven, Christians should be exemplary earthly citizens, engaging meaningfully in the privileges and responsibilities of dual citizenship. Since all government is God’s design, under His sovereign rule we are to view authorities as occupying the position in which God has placed them. Consequently, rather than rebelling against leadership, Alistair Begg reminds us to honor our leaders as servants of God, to pray for them, and to submit to them for our well-being and God’s glory.
1Let every person pbe subject to the governing authorities. For qthere is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you rwill receive his approval, 4for she is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, tan avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also ufor the sake of conscience. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7vPay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.