PAUL’S LETTER TO THE CHRISTIANS IN ROME

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Verses 1-7: The Christian and those who rule.

There is a change here in what Paul writes about. Yet we can see why he moves on like this. At the end of Chapter 12 he spoke about those who do what is wrong. God will judge them at the last great day. Yet human judges may judge those who do wrong before this. This judgment may not have to wait until God’s great day.

Paul lived in the Roman Empire. Caesar ruled the Empire. When Paul wrote this letter, the Caesar was a man called Nero. He ruled Rome from 54-68 AD. At first, he listened to wise men, and ruled well. We remember that it was about 56 AD when Paul wrote this letter. Later Nero became bad in every way. The Caesars sent men out to the various parts of the Empire to rule them for him. Then some of the great cities like Ephesus had some freedom and they made their own laws. Some parts of the Empire had kings like the Herod family who did what the Romans wanted them to do. Verse 6 shows that people had to pay money to Caesar and to other rulers. See the teaching of Jesus in Mark 12:17.

So in verse1, Paul says that we should honour those who rule us. God has given their power to them, as Jesus teaches in John 19:17. You can see teaching like this in Titus 1:3 and 1 Peter 2:13 and 14.

Of course we think that Paul sent several copies of this letter to Rome. He was wise to put this teaching in. The Christians in Rome would know that Paul was often in trouble with the Roman law. Paul wanted the Christians to know that he was not a trouble maker. Many Jews who hated the Romans did want to make trouble.

Now all through these verses, Paul speaks about good government. We know that by the end of his life, Paul was on trial in Rome. Maybe 2 Timothy 4:17 and 18 show that at the end of his life Paul no longer thought in the same way. John wrote the Book of Revelation about 40 years after Paul wrote Romans. By that time, many Christians had to suffer for their faith. John cannot say all that he thinks. Yet it is clear enough that he sees that the Roman state is really bad.

Christian people do not agree as to how we should understand these verses. [13.1] In many countries, the people choose their rulers in elections. Such governments are only as good as the people who serve in them. They will be no better than the people who vote for them. We should not think that ‘democracy’ is in some way ‘Christian’. And we should ask whether an elected government is still set up or ‘established’ by God.

It must surely always be right for Christians to work to make bad governments better. Paul teaches us to pray for all rulers. See 1 Timothy 2:1 and 2. [13.2] Again, Christian people do not all agree on another matter. A Christian who has a place of power in government may be able to do much good. He will also be tempted in many special ways. There are some Christians who think that we should not do such work.

Verses 8-14: The Coming Day

Some people think that verse 8 belongs with verses 1 to 7. We can see that Paul moves on from what we pay in taxes. Now in verse 8 he talks about what we pay to other people. It is never good to borrow money from other people. We should pay off our debts as soon as we can. We should only borrow money if we really have to. Christians who have more money than they need should think about poor Christians who are in debt. The rich may be able to pay off the debts of the poor. A Christian should only lend to others what he would be willing to give away. Otherwise, the person who lends will feel bitter if the borrower does not pay off the debt. See the teaching of Jesus in Luke 6:34 and 35. ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be’ is a wise saying.

We should not owe any money to other people, then. Yet there is a much more important debt than money. We do owe a debt of love to other people. It is not enough to do what is right. We must have the right reason for what we do, and that reason is love to others. In verse 9 Paul uses some words from Leviticus 19:18. These set out some of the main points in God’s law. They tell us what we must not do. The law of love tells what we must do. The law of love will always work for the good of other people. (Verse 10) If we truly love others as we should, we shall never do anything bad to them. Love fills the law right up.

We called these verses ‘The Coming Day’. A Christian should know that he is not alone when he keeps the Law of love. God is with him. God will bless what he does. (Verse 11) It is not clear that Paul writes here about the coming in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He may rather mean that the light which comes with the Good News brings a new day. In a hot country, the hour or two after the sun rises is a good time to work. This may be what Paul means here. God’s new day for the world is a time for Christians to be busy. ‘Our salvation’ here means more than the time when we first believed in the Good News about Jesus. Rather Paul thinks about the time when God will keep all His good promises to us.

In the second part of verse 12, Paul starts to speak about the Christian life in another way. He talks as though we take off one lot of clothes and then put on another lot. Now we know that God looks at our hearts. He sees what we are really like inside. So the Good News must change us inside. Paul only uses a picture of this change when he talks about clothes. Other people may take note of a change in our clothes. Still, God does not. Yet the picture is one that we often find in the Bible. [13.3]

In Genesis 2:27 Adam and Eve are naked and they do not feel any shame. In 3:6 they sin: in 3:7, they feel shame. So they twist together fig leaves to cover themselves. That was no good! So in 3:27 God makes clothes for them to wear from animal skins. Only God can cover our sin and our shame. Joseph starts with the honour of the clothes which his father gave him (Genesis 37:3) He changes these for the rags which a slave wears. (37:6) Then he has good clothes in a place of honour. He is still a slave (39:2). In verse 20, he is in prison clothes. In 41:10, his prison clothes go. Now the Egyptians dress him to stand in front of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. In vers 42, Joseph has yet another even finer set of clothes. There are many more examples in the Old Testament. There are several in the Book of Esther. In the New Testament Luke 15:22 is only one verse among many.

So Paul tells us to ‘take off’ our sins, and to ‘put on’ the Lord Jesus. We take off one lot of sins. These are to do with drink and sex. Then we find that there is another lot of sins. These are to do with anger and envy. Sin is like that. So we must ‘put on’ the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and we must ‘put on’ all that He is. Jesus is the Saviour that God has given to us. All we need to ‘cover’ us is there in Jesus.

In the last words of verse 13, Paul warns us about a real danger. The ‘flesh’ here means more than just the body. Even though we ‘put on Christ’, wrong desires will still be at work in us. Even when we ‘put on the Lord Jesus’, part of our mind may be at work. It may say: ‘I will find a way so that I can stil enjoy those wrong desires.’ We shall feel those wrong desires and we shall have to fight them. So we should not think about them before it happens. We must not work out new ways to give in to our bad desires.

So far, Paul has written about things on which Christians would all agree. We know what is right. We know what is wrong. But there are other matters about which Christians do not agree. When we move on to Chapter 14 Paul starts to write about some of these things. He takes only a few examples. There may be many others. They are things about which Christians do not have to agree with each other. Christians are free. There are many matters about which we have no law to obey. Many people who become Christians find this hard in our day. In Paul’s time Jews who became Christians left behind the Law of Moses, as the Jews kept it. They would find this freedom hard. Christians do have a law. Christians need that law when they use the freedom which God gives to them. This is because we use that freedom in different ways. It is not enough to ask what my freedom does to me. I must ask what it does to other people too.