Lawlessness in the United States Today
Romans 13:1-7
RO166-01

We have learned thus far that civil government is not a human invention, but a divine institution. We have also learned that government at all levels is supposed to preserve an orderly society, and to preserve personal freedom without general chaos. The governing authorities are ultimately brought to power by God, and they remain in power only at His pleasure. Satan, of course, is always trying to pervert human government to serve his evil objectives of sin and of human good.

A political leader who is under the divine institution of government is therefore to abide by biblical moral principles because that's what that divine institution is built upon. That political leader is obliged before God to limit government to its divinely appointed role of acting as the umpire in society; to execute justice; and, to keep fairness for all the citizens in all the life that they live under that government. No one has the right to exercise governmental authority who does not recognize that he and the citizens he serves are under God. Liberalism and humanism reject this divine authority. When a society does not understand this, they will elect political leaders whose philosophies are in direct violation of the divine institution of human government. That society invites grief and disaster to itself.

To the extent that the United States has drifted from a strict interpretation of its Constitution, socialism and poverty have replaced free enterprise and prosperity, and tyranny has stifled individual freedom. To the extent that the United States has drifted from a strict interpretation of its Constitution and subjection to God's higher law in Scripture, the disastrous consequences have come.

Political leaders, we must remember, who themselves will spend eternity either in the lake of fire or, if they are Christians, because they are disoriented from the Word of God, will enter heaven with very minimal rewards. These are the people that we have permitted to change the intended meaning and use of our Constitution, and to establish the evil delusions of humanism as the law of the land. And I say that that's crazy – to let somebody who's headed for the lake of fire to change the intentions of God as if they could bring us to something better. Sadly enough, our court system has often been detached both from the Constitution and Scripture, so that judges rule with arbitrary law, since they have no anchor in the internal realities of God's Word.

We now look at Romans 13:3, where the apostle Paul says, "For." And with that word, he introduces an explanation of what he has told us in verses 1 and 3 about the fact that God puts into power governmental systems, and God puts into power governmental authorities (rulers), and that, therefore, citizens, both Christian and non-Christian, are obliged under the divine institution of human government to be in subjection to those governmental authorities, and not to resist them as they execute their divine mission.

Those who do Good

Those who do Evil

So, government rulers are not to be feared by those who are doing things that are good because they're beneficial, and because they're lawful. But they are only to be feared by those who are doing things that are evil (that are not beneficial, because they're unlawful). Government authorities are only a terror to those who are doing evil.

So, in this simple statement at the beginning of verse 3, what the apostle Paul is really telling us under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is the prerogatives that belong to civil rulers to impose punishment on lawbreakers. This is the result of the divine institution of human government. Political authorities (magistrates) have the right to punish law breakers. His power is based on the fact that he was appointed to this office by God through some human means. He has the power to punish. Now that creates fear in evildoers, and it inhibits law-breaking. When the policeman is sitting there in his car, you take a look at how fast you're driving as you pass and see him sitting around the corner. He inhibits you because he has the authority to punish you if you break the law.

However, as governing authorities and judges fail to impose punishment, something else happens. If you discover that you can keep breaking the law with impunity, then you will feel easier to break the law. If you can get away with stealing without any consequences, you will keep doing it. But if you anticipate being punished, then and you give it a second thought.

So, governing authorities are breaking their responsibility before God when they do not punish crime and criminals. Wat happens? Well, then crime and criminals increase in a society. Civil rulers, then, from the Bible point of view, are, first of all, to maintain an orderly, safe society for citizens. They are to protect their freedom. They are not here to protect your right to do what is evil. They're not here to protect your right to license. So, we have a lot of immoralities for which we are being demanded protection. But if you follow God's law, you do not have the right to have what is immoral protected by law. That violates God's order. Government is for the administration of justice. And it condemns itself when it degenerates into injustice.

The world is clearly full of evil people, because everybody has a sin nature. So, God has provided government to restrain them. The way people are restrained by getting burned. If you don't get burned for your evil, you'll keep doing it. When you get burned, you stop doing it. People who would not pay attention to the moral laws of God relative to homosexuality, and have been thumbing their nose at God and demanding civil protection and political protection for a moral evil condemned in the Scriptures, are now suddenly listening to God. They're listening to God, not because government has done what it should have done in the first place in restricting this moral evil, but because of the disease consequences that have the kiss of death upon them. Suddenly, God has their attention, and He has their obedience. God Himself is illustrating that when crime is punished, the results are obedience to the laws.

This is interesting that the apostle Paul should be the one who is saying this, because I remind you that Paul himself experienced mistreatment at the hands of the Roman government itself. We have an example of that that illustrates this, and puts this into perspective. And I think it's important to do this because I'm finding Christians who think that government is not acting like it should. They say, "Therefore, I will take the law into my own hands, and I'll beat the government out of what it is trying to do, and what it's trying to impose upon me. I'll do it by subterfuge. I will break the law around the corner, and get back at the government.

Now the apostle Paul says that government is to be respected, and it should be recognized as an institution of God. And when government steps out of line, then you must take recourses (whatever are available in your particular society and your particular structure) to try to correct that. But you don't go for revolution, and you don't go for violence and disobedience.

Here's the example. In Acts 16:19, the apostle Paul has healed a girl who had the capacity to tell fortunes. She really could tell your fortune. She really could tell you things about yourself. She really could tell what was going to happen to you, because she was demon-possessed. And demons have a great deal of information, plus demons can make things happen. When she became a believer and was born-again, the spirit of the demon had to move out. He was evicted by God the Holy Spirit. Now God the Holy Spirit is in this girl's body, and she can no longer tell fortunes. Her masters are infuriated because she has been the source of a great deal of income, and they turned their rage upon Paul and Silas, who brought this message of the gospel.

Verse 19: "And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers." These are the same people we're talking about here – these who rule (these governmental authorities). They bring them up to the governmental authorities (to the magistrates): "And they brought them to the magistrates saying, 'These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.'" And what they're doing is giving a racial approach here. They're saying these people are Jews. They come into our gentile-cultured, Greek city, and they're causing a lot of trouble: "And they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans." What customs? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." That's not our custom.

You know, it really makes my skin creep, and I get a little impatient when I'm hearing Christians (and I mean even prominent Christian leaders) who, when they are defending a position of righteousness, will defend it on the basis of their tradition. They will say, "Well, we believe. . . Our church believes. . . Our institution believes." And I'm wondering why it has never occurred to them, that who cares what your church believes? Who cares what your institution believes? Who cares what your tradition has always taught? Tell us what God's Word says. Say: "I take this position because this is what the Bible teaches." This is what these Roman businessmen we're arguing here: "They're giving us a view of God that is not in keeping with our tradition." Does that make it wrong? You can't tell somebody that, "We believe", meaning your Christian group or your church believes, and that you therefore have some authority. That doesn't mean anything. You must say, "God's Word says." Now you have spoken with authority, and they can't give you the back of a hand as readily. These people were doing exactly what many Christians do. These were pagans. They were arguing their case on the basis of their traditions.

Verse 22: "And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded to beat them." Now here you have a classic example of political leadership – judges who are violating the divine institution of government. I need not explain to you that, obviously, what these judges should have done immediately was said, "Bring Paul and Silas here to us so that we can question them." The judges didn't even talk to the prisoners. They didn't even say, "Do you hear this accusation? What do you have to say about this?" Instead, the judges said, "You are nuts. You can't be serious. You mean they did that? I want you to beat those guys up." That was their immediate decision.

How many times has somebody come to you with some hot scoop, and you have believed them? Boy, when I look into the eyes of a person who's giving me some information about somebody else, or about some situation in life, or some conclusion – I look at those eyes, and I look into that soul, and I peek into that old sin nature, and I ask myself, "Do I really want to commit myself to this sin nature? Am I going to listen to this person, and just sop it up, and accept, and believe? How do I know that they are not slanting this? How do I know they don't have the facts twisted? How do I know that they just don't know what they're talking about? You have to verify. You have to confirm.

The First Thing you do is Nothing

This magistrate (this judge) just expressed his indignation, and they gave the order that these men should be beaten. He made a very serious blunder, as will come back to haunt him now, because under Roman law, you can't whip a Roman citizen. You can beat up slaves; you can beat up Jews; you can do the pagans; and, you can beat up foreigners, but you can't whip a Roman citizen. That was a very serious breach of the magistrate's authority.

Verse 23: "And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely." These guys had their backs shredded; the flesh was peeled; the blood was soaking through their clothes; and, they were hurting: "Who, having received such a charge, the jailer thrust them into the inner person, and lay their feet fast in stocks." As if they weren't painfully treated enough, now they can't even move around the cell because they're pinned down by their feet in stocks.

So, here is the apostle Paul, talking about judges and human government: "Pay attention. Obey it." And here he is a Roman citizen, and not by naturalization. Some of these people were citizens by being naturalized, but Paul was a citizen because he inherited this from his Roman father by birth.

Well, you know the story of that night. While Silas and Paul are there singing praises to God, an earthquake busts the prison open; knocks the stocks off their feet; they stand up; and, they're free. And the jailer runs in in horror thinking that he has lost prisoners, which means that he will be executed. Paul reassures him, and tells him, "Don't do any harm yourself. We're all here, and we're not going anywhere. You're safe." And the man realizes that he is in the presence of some tremendous power in this universe. And he finds out what it is from the apostle Paul. And the result is that he is saved. And the first thing he does as a jailer, quite properly, is to start making correction and restitution for what his own judges have done.

The Bible tells us, in verse 33, that he washed their stripes. The same hour of the night after he was born again – after he received joyfully that sweet Word of the gospel, he immediately said, "Now I've got to start straightening out some things that I have done wrong, and that I've been a part of." And immediately he gave medication to their wounds, and then brought them home; set a meal before them; and rejoiced that night in the salvation that he and other members of his family then entered into.

Now it's the next morning. Notice verse 35: "And when it was day, the magistrate sent the sergeant saying, "Let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, 'The judges have sent to let you go. Now, therefore, depart and go in peace.'" I don't know why the judges made this decision, but for some reason they said, 'Let them go now," the next morning: But Paul said unto them, 'They have beaten us openly, and uncondemned, being Romans.'" Paul said, "He never questioned us. He never confirmed the facts. He took the misinformation of the crowd. They are representatives of the living God, because they are part of the divine institution of human government, and God has placed them in that authority, and they abuse it, and they violated their responsibility. They violated their authority:" "They have cast us into prison, and we are Romans citizens. And now do they thrust us privately? No, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out."

Paul says, "We're going to get this straightened out. Now they have come to their senses. After they thought it over, they really had no reason to throw us in here. They had no reason to beat us. And now they want us just to drift out – just float out, and cover up the fact that they've made a serious error."

It was like a man I saw the other day on a talk show on TV who was a UPS driver. He found a pouch lying on the sidewalk; opened it up; and, it had $40,000 in it. Now he had to make a decision. In the middle of the night, I've often dreamed about finding a suitcase by the side of the road with a million bucks in it to solve some of these problems around here. And I've gone through, in my mind's eye, just how I will see that thing, and back up my car, and open up that suitcase, and say, "Look at this – hundreds." Then I close it up. What am I going to do with it? It's an interesting moral question. This driver saw the name of the bank; took it to the bank; brought it up to the teller; and said, "I found this lying out on the sidewalk. It obviously dropped off the collection truck." She reached over and said, "Thank you. Next." She never said a word about it. She never said, "Hey, I want you to come and talk to the president of the bank." The bank never rewarded him, and never sent him a letter of appreciation. They just sent him out.

Well, I knew immediately, as they then confirmed in further discussion, what they were doing. Banks don't like to admit they make mistakes. Banks are like doctors who like to cover up their mistakes. Banks don't want to admit that they have made a mistake. They don't like people to think that they drop $40,000 at a time on bags on sidewalks. So, that clerk was trying to just low-key this thing. And everybody in that audience was horrified. Some of them thought he was dumb to ever turn it back in, and to give it up. And even when it became public knowledge in the newspapers, the bank did not want to admit and to correct its mistakes, and at least thank this man, which they certainly should have rewarded.

So, here these authorities want to cover up that they have made a terrible mistake. But then they find out that these men are Romans citizens. Verse 38: "And the sergeants told these words until the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city." And you may be assured that the judges came very quickly. They apologized, and they said, "Here, we'll give you this little conveyance here. You can get out of the city very quickly here." And that's what they wanted to do: get them out of town, because they did not want to face the terrible consequences of having beaten up a Romans citizen.

The apostle Paul could have taken much more severe action here. But what did he do? He saw that justice was exercised – that these men were confronted with the evil things they had done, because they had violated God's authority that they possessed. And after that, he went on.

So, it's important to keep in mind that when Paul is telling us to treat government and its rulers with respect, you're going to find some of those rulers are bums, and you're going to find that that government acts like a mindless beast sometimes. But that doesn't change the picture. Whether it's Nero or George Washington, you treat it with the same respect as the product of the hand of God. And God is working out as planned through both types.

So verse 3 goes on and says, "Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do you then, raising the question, not want to be afraid. The word "afraid" is "phobeo." What he is asking is: do you not want to have to fear punishment? Is this your purpose as an individual citizen?" And what he is asking is: do you not want to fear the power, meaning the authority, of the judge. So, what do you do? He says, "Take a course of action," and he uses the Greek word "poieo," which means "to do something." This is a word for a course of action. And this course of action, he commands. This in the imperative mood. He commands them to do things that are "agathos" (good – intrinsically beneficial).

Then he says, "When you do what is good (intrinsically beneficial), the result is that you will have praise" ("epainos"). "Epainos" means "commendation from the rulers." Freedom from fear of civil rulers comes through obeying the law and doing what is right. This same word is used as an expression of approval. You'll find it in 1 Corinthians 4:5, Philippians 4:8, and 1 Peter 2:14. This word is used when a person receives approval.

So, the apostle Paul says, "Those who are in governmental authority can be a source of fear to you. But they won't be if you do what is lawful, and if you do that which is beneficial (is morally right). Then those people will commend and praise you.

This raises a very significant question about what government can and cannot do. And that is that government cannot exercise its divine authority in a society of evildoers. Government cannot exercise its authority and do its job if most of the citizens are crooks. People who live in a culture which is detached from the moral laws of the Bible cannot be controlled by governing authorities. They simply overwhelm the police powers to enforce. Citizens who lack personal self-control from moral integrity create chaos and loss of freedom. When people go around stealing things faster than the police can stop them or recover, then somebody's freedom is going to be lost. When somebody steals your car, you've lost a great bit of your freedom. And when people are stealing what you have invested your life earning, you have lost a great deal of your freedom to do what you need to do with what you have earned.

The men who wrote the Constitution of the United States, interestingly enough, understood that it could only govern a society which was functioning on a belief in God, and was restrained by the morality of the Bible. Men like John Adams said that the Constitution, a splendid document, and, obviously, one that was the product of divine guidance, could not work in a society unless that society were made up of religious people. And, by religion, these men meant biblical Christianity. They knew it, and it is increasingly being demonstrated in our day. The Constitution cannot govern a nation of crooks. It needs a Christian culture for it to work.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, however, indicated that mankind is going to become increasingly lawless as His return comes nearer and nearer. The closer we are to the return of Christ, the more lawless mankind will become. Matthew 24:12 points this out, when Jesus said, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold." And He is referring here to the conditions at the time of His Second Coming.

Lawlessness

Drinking Parties

Today, Americans, I need not to look for a good time in the same way – sopping up booze and vomiting all over the place, in the pleasures of the moment, in a meaningless life. You can see this word used elsewhere in the Bible in Romans 13:13, Galatians 5:21, and 1 Peter 4:3. In each of those places, it means having a big, drunken orgy of a party.

Hatred

Breaking the law to express one's hatred is a common thing in our country today. This is where you get abuse. This is where you get violence. Here's a husband, and here's a wife. They don't like what each other is doing. So, they have a big argument. The level of their hatred rises. One of them goes in and gets a gun and blows the other's brains out. This is lawlessness, even though the law says, "You can't do that to people." It is lawlessness as the result of "echthra." You can find this word used in Luke 23:12, Romans 8:7, Galatians 5:20, Ephesians 2:15, and James 4:4. The quality of hatred in all these passages results in lawlessness.

Wastefulness

Have I ever seen people do this? From time to time, it has been my experience to be in close contact with people of great wealth, but of minimal spiritual maturity, or a maturity that fluctuated up and down. And I have seen people of great wealth who did all of these things. They hit the booze bottle to have a revelry. They were lawless when they were doing that. They had hatred against people, and they would do severe, ugly things to people that I don't even want to describe to you, and they're Christians. Because of their hatred, they're expressing lawlessness. And they are wasteful. These same people who had so much. They could have done so many great things that would have gone into eternity, only to see them wasting their treasures and their lives, and indeed to see those lives snuffed out – living for the moment at any cost with no thought of the future. That's "asotia," and it's an expression of lawlessness. You can find this word used in Ephesians 5:18, Titus 1:6, and 1 Peter 4:4.

Lawlessness

Stealing

A prime example is the rapist. He is intense on fulfilling a desire, no matter what it costs someone else. "Anomia" is lawlessness in its widest sense. You find this word used in Matthew 24:12, Romans 6:19, Titus 2:14, and 1 John 3:4.

The Culture in a Society

A culture will certainly have a point of view concerning the family, and the lines of authority in the home, and lines of authority in the marriage. It will include an attitude toward the military forces. It will include the quality of education that the citizens have in general. And most certainly, a society's culture will include the attitude toward human life.

The Culture in the United States Today

Today, violation of God's sexual laws is condoned in our culture. What's the result? Fornication between unmarried people; adultery between married people; rape; homosexuality; lesbianism; bestiality; and, illegitimate pregnancies by the carloads, and all of this accompanied by disease. This is our culture. Don't kid yourself. You can watch any entertainment program. This is the culture of America toward sexual relations. American culture is degenerate in the spirit of state welfarism, and stealing has become the means for securing the necessities and the luxuries of life.

Government now shamelessly taxes hard-working people in order to indulge a court favor with the indolent; the deadbeats; and, the freeloaders. And our society is full of indolents; deadbeats; and, freeloaders.

Integrity

We have a government that shamelessly taxes its people so that it may indulge our immediate wants, not their needs, so that they may have immediate gratification. We have a government that curry favors with people who are deadbeats and freeloaders. We have people who are poorly educated. They don't read; they can't speak and write the English language; and, they gorge themselves on the mindlessness and the filth of television. That's part of our culture.

American cities today are polluted. They're in decay as people lacking self-respect live as pigs in government pigsties. That's our culture today.

We have political leaders that tell us, "If you put me in office, I'm going to tax you, so that I can create more of this culture for you." Violence fills our homes and our streets as the sin natures rage out of control.

I look back on the days of my teenage years, and think of the places I used to walk around late at night in the city of Chicago. There was just nobody else there, out in the streets where nobody would dare walk today, because of the terror and the violence of a culture that has lost control over its citizens.

Abortion

America's Christian Foundation

Gender Roles

Humanism

I will tell you that a basic principle. And don't come up and tell me that it has upset you. But I think it is a truth, and a fact of life, concerning a working mother. A mother can work, but she cannot rear her children. A mother can rear her children, but she cannot work. And you're crazy if you think you can do both. Some people may do it and get away with it, because they happen to have conditions that minimize the effect on the child who has to be shifted around to other people, instead of being able to be in the presence after school of the child's own mother.

So, single-parent homes are part of our culture. Americans are madly pursuing affluence and peace with no concern for God or His values based upon His word. Sensually obsessed society is indulging in drugs, tobacco, and alcohol while pretending to be refined people. We have come a long, long way from the tremendous society we once used to be. U.S. culture in the past used to reflect biblical principles, and we were a refined people. We were people with integrity which was based upon biblical moral code. We accepted delaying our gratification while we worked to earn our desires, and be able to pay for them, and not freeload off of other people. The family was the foundation of society, and there were distinct roles for husbands and wives.

We had limited government under a constitutional republic which restrained the courts, and the courts were exercising justice and not making laws as they do today. We had personal integrity which recoiled from criminal acts. Sexual morality was observed before marriage and after marriage. We rejected the abuse of the physical body with drugs and sexual perversions, and we were interested in good health, and doing the things that kept the body healthy. That used to be American culture. We were against abortion of human life, and we were in favor of capital punishment for those guilty of taking the life of an innocent person. We had a belief in God and in His sovereign authority over man. We respected a strong military establishment. On a local level, we took care of the aged; the orphan; the sick; and, the indigent as individual citizens, by these people that we were acquainted with that we lived close to. We were their families. We were their neighbors. We took care of them. And the government butted its nose out, and everybody was happier and better off.

Our culture is no longer that. So, how can we hope indeed to obey the laws that the apostle Paul is laying down here for government? It's harder now than ever before. This institution is real. We must respect it. But government, to perform its divine mission of keeping law and order in a society, and to preserve freedom and prosperity, is increasingly unable to do that in the United States because we have lost our Christian culture.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1988

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