A Clear Conscience

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

A CLEAR CONSCIENCE

Rom 13:1-5

13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

NIV

We think it would be good to first establish the concept that without some order of authority, in the civil sense, the world would be in absolute chaos, living in a lawless condition with no civil order whatsoever. This then would result in people doing whatever they desired. There would be no personal property, no security, no sanctity of life, with each person taking whatever they wanted from another person without any consequences. Of course, as believers, we want to look to God as our supreme authority,  governing our lives in accordance with his rule. Paul tells us now that if God established civil authority in order there would be order in society. We do know that over the centuries there have been and continue today civil authorities that would be considered pagan, and in some cases downright evil. Yet here we are with this instruction to not rebel against the authority that God has established for the good of society in this world. Although the times are different than when Paul was inspired to write this, as he lived in a time when the Roman Caesars ruled with an iron fist, and under Claudius, Jews were expelled from Rome. As far as Rome was concerned there was not any distinction between Christian Jews and Jewish Jews. Thus this charge to obey this civil authority. For us it is not any different in the sense we live in a society made up of many different religious backgrounds and in our country, our forefathers established the separation of church and state, which keeps the government out of the affairs of the church, whatever religion that would be. In order words unlike in the time of Paul when Caesar had the right to declare a state religion, our government cannot not, thus all citizens of this country are free to worship in whatever manner they desire. However, we are not free to live outside the civic laws established by the government authorities of this country. Paul says that we have nothing to fear from civil authorities unless we break the laws of our land. The most common example of this would be on our highways. The only reason we would be concerned there would be a police car with radar is if we were speeding, breaking the laws of the road. If we contained our autos within the speed limit, we would have no concern about a police car sitting alongside the road. We know that is a minor issue, but nevertheless, as a Christian is it alright for us to ignore that authority. We know they will not stop us if we just speed five mph over the limit, but how does God see that? Are we obeying the civil authority he established or are we defying that authority? It is not about punishment, as in we might get a ticket, but it is about our conscience. Are we doing right or wrong? Let us not be remiss in doing right, so that our conscience is clear.