Submit to Caesar?

The 13th chapter in the letter to the Romans has been a thorn in the side for many Christians. Did Paul really mean that Christians should blindly submit to any government? Answering that question requires a little background knowledge.

Roman law protected people and made it possible for them to travel freely within the empire, to possess property and conduct business, including preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus the Roman government in Paul’s mind was good, and with imminent return of Jesus, he believed that Christians should submit to Rome’s authority.

Paul did not know that the Roman Empire would cease to exist or that Jesus would still not have come back to the earth some 1,950 years after writing this epistle. The Bible tells us that no man can become king unless it has been decreed by God. Does that mean that Christians should submit to evil governments? No. Is it lawful to resist an evil government? Yes.

There are numerous examples where godly men resisted and rejected tyranny against the Word of God. This is precisely the reason why the American colonists declared independence from Great Britain in 1776.