Good Christians can humbly disagree about the extent of the Government’s role in America and in the World. But we have to start from the same foundation. So let’s check the text.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For 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 will receive his approval, for he 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, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay 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.
Romans 13:1-7
Paul writes to the people of Rome (the capital city of one of the most powerful governments in history) to remind them of their duty as Christians: submit to the authorities. He then goes on to put the Government’s authority in the proper context (given to them by the ultimate authority, God) and the proper parameters.
The first part of his argument is the reason that Christians have historically taken seriously their duty to be good citizens: God has put the government in charge, so the buck stops with Him. To dishonor or disrespect the government is to dishonor or disrespect God. Christians should *submit* to the authorities, with the exception being if we are asked to do something that violates God’s commands (something that, in this structure, they have no right to do anyway); Christians should *willingly* pay their taxes, because this is akin to financing ministry. (This doesn’t mean that we can’t vote for tax reductions or work to get them; it just means that whatever we end up owing, we pay with the conviction of knowing that they wouldn’t have authority if it weren’t for God and we understand that they are on an assignment from God that needs to be financed.)
The second part of the argument has to do with the parameters of the Government. Although there is undoubtedly more that could be said about the things the Government can or should oversee (that is, Paul is not necessarily giving an exhaustive description of the parameters), at very least it is absolutely clear that a chief role of the government is to carry the sword of God’s vengeance towards injustice and evil. The apostle Peter agrees that the role of the government is to “punish those who do evil and praise those who do good.” (1 Peter 2:14) Punishment of evil and praise of good also includes an element of protection as the the implicit rationale.
In other words, the mandate of the government is to *protect* our ability to do good by ensuring that evil is kept at bay. Christians should agree on at least that much. What we can humbly disagree on, however, is the extent to which the God-given mandate of the government extends beyond the national boundaries of the United States.
First, through the use of the sword. Is the United States government obligated to punish the evildoers in the rest of the world, risking the lives of it’s citizens and spending it’s finances? Or does the mandate for punishing evil and wrong-doing end outside of the national boundaries of the United States and it’s citizens? Christian’s can humbly disagree about that question, although I would submit that they *should* agree that the answer is going to be needed on a case-by-case basis.
Second, through the call to protection. Is the United States government obligated to protect the people of another nation, by allowing them to enter into into it’s territory uninhibited, or by going to war with the enemies of a foreign nation who is under attack? What if doing so would conflict with it’s ability to protect the area and people it clearly has been mandated to oversee: that is, it’s national boundary and citizenship? Christians can humbly disagree about the proper response to those questions.
In both cases, we should remember that the vast majority of us are not called to make those decisions, so the best approach is to pray that the people who do have to make them are making the most God-honoring decisions they can as they carry out the mandate.
Yet here is something that Christians should be clear on: The Government’s role is *not* to carry out the mandate of the church. God gives a lot of commands to Christian people, and consequently to the church, that he expects to be carried out by Christians and the church. They are not mandates of justice; they are mandates of mercy and grace. Help the downtrodden. Work for the poor and oppressed. God calls weary people to himself; the church should be reaching out to those weary people to help. These are commands for Christian people in the church, who are consistently called to live as citizens of another kingdom altogether. To apply those commands to the earthly Governments around us is to misunderstand the role that God has given the government in the world. Protection from and punishment of evil are their chief mandate; figuring out how to have mercy in the midst of that as not as simple as throwing around easy Christian platitudes, no matter how passionate about them we are.
We ought to be careful that we don’t demand that the government conform to Christian ethics of mercy and grace and hold that up as their chief mandate. Although we are clearly not doing it with violence, when we do demand that the government conform to our ethics, we are unwittingly doing the same thing that many Muslim’s are doing by declaring that sharia law must be the rule of the land. Our intention is that *divine law* be enforced.
One day there *will* be a government that is tasked with carrying out *only* the mandate of the church, and Jesus sits on the throne of that government. But that day is not today, and America is not the church. The Government’s mandate is to protect their citizens from harm, protect their ability to do good, and carry out the swift hand of justice against those who would do evil. All Christians should pray that they fulfill that mandate well.