1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
from the Orthodox Study Bible: Paul calls Christians to submit to good government, to obey both God and man. The Kingdom of Heaven and earthly kingdoms are called to work together. The Church and state for Paul are certainly distinct, but they are not separated or isolated from one another. On the other hand, a government that upholds evil, forcing it on her people, is an abusive authority and in such cases, “we ought to obey God rather than men.”
This is a rather unpopular statement, especially for the Kingdom of Heaven and earth to work together. I’m not sure that the commentator is talking about the separation of Church and state, but I’m going to talk about that a little. I think there might be a problem when people start to think of their country as a representation of the Kingdom of Heaven. Certainly people thought that about the Byzantine empire, and some even of the Russian empire, at least before the rise of communism and marxism. It might not be such a good thing to equate your national status with the Church. We’ve seen this happen in the Byzantine empire, the Russian state, Greek Churches, etc. One needs to be able to distinguish between Church and state so that when another country attacks another for non-religious reasons, you won’t take it as an attack on your entire way of life. The Mongols, for example, were pretty tolerant of Christianity when they were taking what are now Russian lands, even though they were Muslim. The Greek civil war, from what I understand, had a lot to do with the Church and a lot of people in the Church were killed during that time. In America, it’s easier for Orthodox Christians to not identify the Church with the state because it’s pretty secular in the first place. However, this is a real danger for protestant christians. Pray, take heed that you avoid civil religion. Indeed, take heed that you know what is good and what is evil… as the government seems to not know…. and obey God rather than men. Don’t take your cues for what to do in the church from advertising or legislation, but rather from the word of God and from Christian history.
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,”[a] “You shall not covet,”[b] and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[c] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
This is very difficult to do, and I make no pretentions to say much about this. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
This is an amazing application of the principle of theosis. How indeed can salvation be nearer than when we first believed? It’s because salvation is a process. We need to continually put on Christ. Sometimes we forget and we sin and we don’t act like Christ, but it is time (indeed it’s always time) to repent and walk as Christ walked. Let us become like Christ by grace through working out our salvation with fear and trembling.
