From the body offered to God, chapter 12 moved outward to love among believers; chapter 13 moves outward again, to the world the church actually has to live inside — a government it did not choose, debts it owes its neighbors, and a clock running down toward a morning nearer than anyone quite realizes. The chapter that opens with Caesar’s own authority closes with putting on Christ Himself.
A study in Romans 13 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
Ordained Of God
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.”
Romans 13:1-2
“‘The powers that be are ordained of God’ (Romans 13:1), but we are not to obey them contrary to God’s law.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 719
This study’s own source anchors that limit in a hard case, not a hypothetical — Joab, obeying David’s own order to abandon Uriah in the thick of battle. David’s own royal authority was real and God-given, and Joab’s obedience to it was still sin, because a delegated authority never outranks the One who delegated it.
A Terror Not To Good Works
“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good.”
Romans 13:3-4
Paul describes government functioning as it was designed to function, restraining evil rather than committing it — a description, not a blank check, and every reader of this letter already knows from Roman history how quickly a ruler can stop matching this picture.
“But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”
Romans 13:4-5
“For conscience sake” is the deeper of the two reasons Paul gives — a believer submits not merely because resistance carries a penalty, but because an ordered society genuinely serves a good the believer also wants, peace, protection, roads that get built and criminals who get restrained.
“For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”
Romans 13:6-7
Paul’s own list moves from the material to the personal — tribute and custom are debts of money, but fear and honour are debts of the heart, and he expects both kinds to be genuinely paid, not merely tolerated.
Owe No Man Any Thing
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”
Romans 13:8
“Those who make any pretensions to godliness should adorn the doctrine they profess and not give occasion for the truth to be reviled through their inconsiderate course of action. … You ought now, my brother, to take hold earnestly to correct your habits of indolence, redeeming the time. Let the world see that the truth has wrought a reformation in your life.”
Ellen G. White · Testimony Treasures, vol. 2, p. 49
Paul is not forbidding every loan or mortgage here — the one debt he insists can never be marked “paid in full” is the debt of love, which by its very nature keeps renewing itself the moment it’s discharged, unlike money owed to a bank.
Love Is The Fulfilling Of The Law
“For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Romans 13:9
Paul reaches for five commandments from the second table of the law here, all of them prohibitions — and shows that each one, read rightly, was never really an arbitrary restriction but simply love wearing the shape of a specific “thou shalt not.”
“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Romans 13:10
“The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable. It is a revelation of the will and the character of its Author. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and love to man.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 467
This is the same verse chapter 12’s own quoted source leaned on for its very first practical instruction, and it functions here as this chapter’s own hinge — every specific command Paul has just listed, and every instruction still to come about rulers and neighbors, collapses back into this single word.
The Night Is Far Spent
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
Romans 13:11-12
“God’s people should place themselves where they will grow in grace, being sanctified, body, soul, and spirit, by the truth. When they break away from all health-destroying indulgences, they will have a clearer perception of what constitutes true godliness.”
Ellen G. White · Counsels on Health, p. 579
“Nearer than when we believed” turns the passage of ordinary time itself into an argument — every year that goes by without incident does not make the promise less likely, only closer, and Paul expects that nearness to sharpen urgency rather than dull it with familiarity.
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.”
Romans 13:13
Paul’s list pairs an obvious vice with a quieter one in each phrase — drunkenness beside rioting, envy beside open strife — a reminder that the sins done in full daylight, in full view of the neighbors, are not the only ones this armor of light is meant to expose.
Put Ye On The Lord Jesus Christ
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Romans 13:14
“Day by day put on Christ, and in the brief season of your test and trial here below maintain your dignity in the strength of God, as co-workers with the highest agencies of heaven.”
Ellen G. White · Counsels to Teachers, p. 103
“Put ye on” is the same garment language chapter 6’s own baptism section already used for the old man crucified and the new man raised — not a single decision made once but daily clothing, chosen again each morning, the practical answer to a body already offered as a living sacrifice back in this section’s own opening chapter. Chapter 14 will now take this same renewed mind into the church’s own internal disputes over disputable things.
