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Mark 12:13–17
“Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’” (v. 17).
What kind of submission does the Christian owe to the civil government? Some professing believers might find that to be an odd question because they read Peter’s words in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men,” as if the Apostle meant that we have no duty to obey any human being. Considering Peter’s statement in context and in light of the entire teaching of Scripture, however, we see that he could not have been counseling us to ignore human rulers. After all, as we see in today’s passage, Jesus said that we are to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). Jesus understood that the emperor—the civil ruler—is due some things.
To understand what things are due to the emperor—what kind of submission God would have us show to the civil magistrate—we need to review the authority structures that He has established. The Lord Himself is the ultimate Ruler over all, but He has established subordinate authorities to govern people in specific spheres. In the sphere of the family, God gives husbands and fathers to lovingly lead their wives and children to glorify Him (Eph. 5:22–6:4). Over the sphere of the church, God ordains elders to preach His Word, administer sacraments, exercise church discipline, and care for His sheep (1 Tim. 3:1–7). Finally, God puts the civil magistrate over the sphere of civil society to punish evildoers and approve those who do good (Rom. 13:1–7). Consequently, the leaders whom God has established—husbands/fathers, elders, civil magistrates—have a delegated authority, not an absolute authority, and we owe these rulers our obedience whenever they do not command us to do what God forbids or forbid us from doing what God commands. To disobey the lawful rules of these delegated authorities is to disobey the Lord Himself because their proper exercise of authority reflects the rule of God, the ultimate and absolute authority. This is Paul’s point in Romans 13:1–7.
As noted, God’s authority alone is absolute. Therefore, we owe only Him obedience in every circumstance. That does not mean that we can ignore delegated authorities, for in most cases Christians are obligated to obey governing authorities. The Apostles told Christians living under pagan civil rulers to obey those rulers as part of their obedience to the Lord. Cases can arise in which obeying God requires disobeying ordained human authorities, but for most of us those cases will be few and far between.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Obeying the leaders to whom God has delegated authority in each sphere of our lives is an important part of Christian discipleship. The Lord has structured His creation in such a way that to disobey the lawful direction of lawful authorities is ultimately to disobey God Himself. None but God has absolute, unquestionable authority, but that does not mean that others cannot have legitimate authority.
For further study
- Exodus 20:12
- 1 Peter 2:13–17
The bible in a year
- Ezekiel 13–15
- Hebrews 11:17–40
- Ezekiel 16–20
- Hebrews 12–13