The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 407

,ers. 1-,.-Giti.zenship. From the admirable spirit which Christianity infuses into society, the apostle next takes us to the spirit which should regulate the believer's relations to the ci,il m&gistrat.e. It is most important that Christianity should leaven all these r<'lations to the powers that be. "I could not," says Dr, Arnold, "name ea....Uy any branch of human conduct from which the influence of the gospel has been more o..>mpletely shut out than this; ,my one on which worldly motives are avowed more boldly and more exclusively. In fact, many men seem to have vaguely con- founded the gospel and the clergy in their notions about these matters; and because clergymen, like other men, have often interfered in them in the worst possible spirit, not sett.ing an example of Christian conduct, but plunging into the lowest motives of passion or int.arest by which other men a.re actuated, there seems a sort of fear that the gospel itself will t.ea..ch something mischievous to the public welfare or liberty. But, indeed, in all moral wisdom, in all duty, whether as private men or citizens, there is but one Master, even Christ, from whom we can draw nothing but what is pure and upright." 1 It is most important, then, to see how the gospel handles the question of citizenship. I. C= GOVEro..u:~--r 1s AN ORDINANCE OF GoD. (Ver. 1.) We are tempted, in thinking on civil society, to look upon it "either as a matter of mutual convenience between man and man, or else as an injustice and encroachment made by the rich and powerful on the rights and welfare of others." But in this we are mistaken. It has grown up as a Divine ordinance, and we are not in right relation to it until we recognize this. And this is true not merely of the Jewish commonwealth, where Divine ideas were more or less regarded and embodied, but also of the other nations of the world. They have organized themselves and performed a certain mission, and passed, it may be, from the stage, in fulfilment of a Divine purpose. For each of these nations, as it has been recently said, " he had an office ; for each he had appointed a beginning and an end. One by one they rose in orderly succession, those stupendous kingdoms of the East. Babylonian and Persian, Egyptian and Greek, God had required their armies; he had la.id his hand upon their captains; Assyria was his hammer, Cyrus was his shepherd, E,,,aypt was his garden, Tyre was his jewel; everywhere he was felt; every- where the Divine destiny directed and controlled; . . . the shuttle of God passes in and out, weanng into its web a thousand threads of natural human life. All history is put to the uses of God's holier manifestation; he works under the pressure laid upon him by the wants and necessities of social and political progress." 1 Of course, this does not imply that we are calmly to accept of all a government chooses to inflict ; but simply that, speaking generally, civil society and civil government are ordained of God to prevent us de.c,·nding to beastly levels a.gain. II. CrVIL GOVEBlillENT 18 ESTABLISHED AS A TERROR TO EVIL-DOERS. (Vere. 2, 3.) This is the rough yet ea.lut.ary morality it undertakes. If we will only consider what a state of society we should have if there were no public government to punish crimes, we can have no difficulty in recognizing in it a Divine institution. The arrangement about the manslayer in the olden time was to reinforce the rude justice of the early age before public justice had grown up into the recognized power which in civil government it h.aB now BS81lmed.• We thus see that civil government is an institution which pro- fesses to favour morality, and, if it professed anything else, it would break down, It may not always succeed, but this is its profession. We are bound to give it e. loyal trial, and to submit to it, so far as it does not dictate anything to its subjects contrary to the clear command of God. "The fact that an earthly government may be corrupt and tyrannical does not disprove the Divine origin of government; e.ny more thau the fact that _parent.s may be unfaithful to their duties proves that the family is not divinely originated; or the fact that a particular Church may become corrupt proves that the Church is not Divine in its source. St. Paul, however, does not teach here that any degree of tyranny whatever is to be submitted to by a Christian. If the government attempt t,o force him to violate a Divine command-for example, to desist from preaching I ' SermODI c,a Jnierpretation of Scripture,' p, 534, • Bee Oanon Holland's eennon on "The Powers that be," in his 'Logic and Life,' pp. 2il, 242. 1 Of. Mazie,ts • Raling ldeaa in EarlT Agee : ' "The Law of Betaliatlon," 11,11cl " Th9 Law~GoeL - tllt. xtu.1-14.J THE lCPlS't.LE or PAtrL 'l'O THE ROMANS. 405