The document discusses the biblical imperative for Christians to submit to governing authorities, as these powers are established by God. It addresses the complexities faced by early Christians in a pagan society and emphasizes the principle that obedience is required as long as it does not contradict God's laws. The author warns against rebellion unless rulers act contrary to their constitutional obligations, advocating for a respectful stance towards authority while maintaining moral integrity.

1. ROMA S 13 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Submission to the Authorities
1Everyone 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.
BAR ES, "Let every soul - Every person. In the seven first verses of this chapter,
the apostle discusses the subject of the duty which Christians owe to civil government; a
subject which is extremely important, and at the same time exceedingly difficult. There
is no doubt that he had express reference to the special situation of the Christians at
Rome; but the subject was of so much importance that he gives it a “general” bearing,
and states the great principles on which all Christians are to act. The circumstances
which made this discussion proper and important were the following:
(1) The Christian religion was designed to extend throughout the world. Yet it
contemplated the rearing of a kingdom amid other kingdoms, an empire amid other
empires. Christians professed supreme allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ; he was their
Lawgiver, their Sovereign, their Judge. It became, therefore, a question of great
importance and difficulty, “what kind” of allegiance they were to render to earthly
magistrates.
(2) The kingdoms of the world were then “pagan” kingdoms. The laws were made by
pagans, and were adapted to the prevalence of paganism. Those kingdoms had been
generally founded in conquest, and blood, and oppression. Many of the monarchs were
blood-stained warriors; were unprincipled men; and were polluted in their private, and
oppressive in their public character. Whether Christians were to acknowledge the laws of
such kingdoms and of such men, was a serious question, and one which could not but
occur very early. It would occur also very soon, in circumstances that would be very
affecting and trying. Soon the hands of these magistrates were to be raised against
Christians in the fiery scenes of persecution; and the duty and extent of submission to
them became a matter of very serious inquiry.
(3) Many of the early Christians were composed of Jewish converts. Yet the Jews had
long been under Roman oppression, and had borne the foreign yoke with great
uneasiness. The whole pagan magistracy they regarded as founded in a system of
idolatry; as opposed to God and his kingdom; and as abomination in his sight. With
these feelings they had become Christians; and it was natural that their former
sentiments should exert an influence on them after their conversion. How far they
should submit, if at all, to heathen magistrates, was a question of deep interest; and

2. there was danger that the “Jewish” converts might prove to be disorderly and rebellious
citizens of the empire.
(4) Nor was the case much different with the “Gentile” converts. They would naturally
look with abhorrence on the system of idolatry which they had just forsaken. They would
regard all as opposed to God. They would denounce the “religion” of the pagans as
abomination; and as that religion was interwoven with the civil institutions, there was
danger also that they might denounce the government altogether, and be regarded as
opposed to the laws of the land,
(5) There “were” cases where it was right to “resist” the laws. This the Christian
religion clearly taught; and in cases like these, it was indispensable for Christians to take
a stand. When the laws interfered with the rights of conscience; when they commanded
the worship of idols, or any moral wrong, then it was their duty to refuse submission. Yet
in what cases this was to be done, where the line was to be drawn, was a question of deep
importance, and one which was not easily settled. It is quite probable, however, that the
main danger was, that the early Christians would err in “refusing” submission, even
when it was proper, rather than in undue conformity to idolatrous rites and ceremonies.
(6) In the “changes” which were to occur in human governments, it would be an
inquiry of deep interest, what part Christians should take, and what submission they
should yield to the various laws which might spring up among the nations. The
“principles” on which Christians should act are settled in this chapter.
Be subject - Submit. The word denotes that kind of submission which soldiers
render to their officers. It implies “subordination;” a willingness to occupy our proper
place, to yield to the authority of those over us. The word used here does not designate
the “extent” of the submission, but merely enjoins it in general. The general principle
will be seen to be, that we are to obey in all things which are not contrary to the Law of
God.
The higher powers - The magistracy; the supreme government. It undoubtedly here
refers to the Roman magistracy, and has relation not so much to the rulers as to the
supreme “authority” which was established as the constitution of government; compare
Mat_10:1; Mat_28:18.
For - The apostle gives a “reason” why Christians should be subject; and that reason
is, that magistrates have received their appointment from God. As Christians, therefore,
are to be subject to God, so they are to honor “God” by honoring the arrangement which
he has instituted for the government of mankind. Doubtless, he here intends also to
repress the vain curiosity and agitation with which men are prone to inquire into the
“titles” of their rulers; to guard them from the agitation and conflicts of party, and of
contentions to establish a favorite on the throne. It might be that those in power had not
a proper title to their office; that they had secured it, not according to justice, but by
oppression; but into that question Christians were not to enter. The government was
established, and they were not to seek to overturn it.
No power - No office; no magistracy; no civil rule.
But of God - By God’s permission, or appointment; by the arrangements of his
providence, by which those in office had obtained their power. God often claims and
asserts that “He” sets up one, and puts down another; Psa_75:7; Dan_2:21; Dan_4:17,
Dan_4:25, Dan_4:34-35.
The powers that be - That is, all the civil magistracies that exist; those who have the
“rule” over nations, by whatever means they may have obtained it. This is equally true at
all times, that the powers that exist, exist by the permission and providence of God.
Are ordained of God - This word “ordained” denotes the “ordering” or

3. “arrangement” which subsists in a “military” company, or army. God sets them “in
order,” assigns them their location, changes and directs them as he pleases. This does
not mean that he “originates” or causes the evil dispositions of rulers, but that he
“directs” and “controls” their appointment. By this, we are not to infer:
(1) That he approves their conduct; nor,
(2) That what they do is always right; nor,
(3) That it is our duty “always” to submit to them.
Their requirements “may be” opposed to the Law of God, and then we are to obey God
rather than man; Act_4:19; Act_5:29. But it is meant that the power is intrusted to them
by God; and that he has the authority to remove them when he pleases. If they abuse
their power, however, they do it at their peril; and “when” so abused, the obligation to
obey them ceases. That this is the case, is apparent further from the nature of the
“question” which would be likely to arise among the early Christians. It “could not be”
and “never was” a question, whether they should obey a magistrate when he commanded
a thing that was plainly contrary to the Law of God. But the question was, whether they
should obey a pagan magistrate at “all.” This question the apostle answers in the
affirmative, because “God” had made government necessary, and because it was
arranged and ordered by his providence. Probably also the apostle had another object in
view. At the time in which he wrote this Epistle, the Roman Empire was agitated with
civil dissensions. One emperor followed another in rapid succession. The throne was
often seized, not by right, but by crime. Different claimants would rise, and their claims
would excite controversy. The object of the apostle was to prevent Christians from
entering into those disputes, and from taking an active part in a political controversy.
Besides, the throne had been “usurped” by the reigning emperors, and there was a
prevalent disposition to rebel against a tyrannical government. Claudius had been put to
death by poison; Caligula in a violent manner; Nero was a tyrant; and amidst these
agitations, and crimes, and revolutions, the apostle wished to guard Christians from
taking an active part in political affairs.
CLARKE, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers - This is a very
strong saying, and most solemnly introduced; and we must consider the apostle as
speaking, not from his own private judgment, or teaching a doctrine of present
expediency, but declaring the mind of God on a subject of the utmost importance to the
peace of the world; a doctrine which does not exclusively belong to any class of people,
order of the community, or official situations, but to every soul; and, on the principles
which the apostle lays down, to every soul in all possible varieties of situation, and on all
occasions. And what is this solemn doctrine? It is this: Let every soul be subject to the
higher powers. Let every man be obedient to the civil government under which the
providence of God has cast his lot.
For there is no power but of God - As God is the origin of power, and the
supreme Governor of the universe, he delegates authority to whomsoever he will; and
though in many cases the governor himself may not be of God, yet civil government is of
him; for without this there could be no society, no security, no private property; all
would be confusion and anarchy, and the habitable world would soon be depopulated. In
ancient times, God, in an especial manner, on many occasions appointed the individual
who was to govern; and he accordingly governed by a Divine right, as in the case of

4. Moses, Joshua, the Hebrew judges, and several of the Israelitish kings. In after times,
and to the present day, he does that by a general superintending providence which he
did before by especial designation. In all nations of the earth there is what may be called
a constitution - a plan by which a particular country or state is governed; and this
constitution is less or more calculated to promote the interests of the community. The
civil governor, whether he be elective or hereditary, agrees to govern according to that
constitution. Thus we may consider that there is a compact and consent between the
governor and the governed, and in such a case, the potentate may be considered as
coming to the supreme authority in the direct way of God’s providence; and as civil
government is of God, who is the fountain of law, order, and regularity, the civil
governor, who administers the laws of a state according to its constitution, is the
minister of God. But it has been asked: If the ruler be an immoral or profligate man,
does he not prove himself thereby to be unworthy of his high office, and should he not be
deposed? I answer, No: if he rule according to the constitution, nothing can justify
rebellion against his authority. He may be irregular in his own private life; he may be an
immoral man, and disgrace himself by an improper conduct: but if he rule according to
the law; if he make no attempt to change the constitution, nor break the compact
between him and the people; there is, therefore, no legal ground of opposition to his civil
authority, and every act against him is not only rebellion in the worst sense of the word,
but is unlawful and absolutely sinful.
Nothing can justify the opposition of the subjects to the ruler but overt attempts on his
part to change the constitution, or to rule contrary to law. When the ruler acts thus he
dissolves the compact between him and his people; his authority is no longer binding,
because illegal; and it is illegal because he is acting contrary to the laws of that
constitution, according to which, on being raised to the supreme power, he promised to
govern. This conduct justifies opposition to his government; but I contend that no
personal misconduct in the ruler, no immorality in his own life, while he governs
according to law, can justify either rebellion against him or contempt of his authority.
For his political conduct he is accountable to his people; for his moral conduct he is
accountable to God, his conscience, and the ministers of religion. A king may be a good
moral man, and yet a weak, and indeed a bad and dangerous prince. He may be a bad
man, and stained with vice in his private life, and yet be a good prince. Saul was a good
moral man, but a bad prince, because he endeavored to act contrary to the Israelitish
constitution: he changed some essential parts of that constitution, as I have elsewhere
shown; (see the note on Act_13:22); he was therefore lawfully deposed. James the
Second was a good moral man, as far as I can learn, but he was a bad and dangerous
prince; he endeavored to alter, and essentially change the British constitution, both in
Church and state, therefore he was lawfully deposed. It would be easy, in running over
the list of our own kings, to point out several who were deservedly reputed good kings,
who in their private life were very immoral. Bad as they might be in private life, the
constitution was in their hands ever considered a sacred deposit, and they faithfully
preserved it, and transmitted it unimpaired to their successors; and took care while they
held the reins of government to have it impartially and effectually administered.
It must be allowed, notwithstanding, that when a prince, howsoever heedful to the
laws, is unrighteous in private life, his example is contagious; morality, banished from
the throne, is discountenanced by the community; and happiness is diminished in
proportion to the increase of vice. On the other hand, when a king governs according to
the constitution of his realms and has his heart and life governed by the laws of his God,
he is then a double blessing to his people; while he is ruling carefully according to the
laws, his pious example is a great means of extending and confirming the reign of pure

5. morality among his subjects. Vice is discredited from the throne, and the profligate dare
not hope for a place of trust and confidence, (however in other respects he may be
qualified for it), because he is a vicious man.
As I have already mentioned some potentates by name, as apt examples of the
doctrines I have been laying down, my readers will naturally expect that, on so fair an
opportunity, I should introduce another; one in whom the double blessing meets; one
who, through an unusually protracted reign, during every year of which he most
conscientiously watched over the sacred constitution committed to his care, not only did
not impair this constitution, but took care that its wholesome laws should be properly
administered, and who in every respect acted as the father of his people, and added to all
this the most exemplary moral conduct perhaps ever exhibited by a prince, whether in
ancient or modern times; not only tacitly discountenancing vice by his truly religious
conduct, but by his frequent proclamations most solemnly forbidding Sabbath-breaking,
profane swearing, and immorality in general. More might be justly said, but when I have
mentioned all these things, (and I mention them with exultation; and with gratitude to
God), I need scarcely add the venerable name of George the Third, king of Great Britain;
as every reader will at once perceive that the description suits no potentate besides. I
may just observe, that notwithstanding his long reign has been a reign of unparalleled
troubles and commotions in the world, in which his empire has always been involved,
yet, never did useful arts, ennobling sciences, and pure religion gain a more decided and
general ascendancy: and much of this, under God, is owing to the manner in which this
king has lived, and the encouragement he invariably gave to whatever had a tendency to
promote the best interests of his people. Indeed it has been well observed, that, under
the ruling providence of God, it was chiefly owing to the private and personal virtues of
the sovereign that the house of Brunswick remained firmly seated on the throne amidst
the storms arising from democratical agitations and revolutionary convulsions in Europe
during the years 1792-1794. The stability of his throne amidst these dangers and
distresses may prove a useful lesson to his successors, and show them the strength of a
virtuous character, and that morality and religion form the best bulwark against those
great evils to which all human governments are exposed. This small tribute of praise to
the character and conduct of the British king, and gratitude to God for such a governor,
will not be suspected of sinister motive; as the object of it is, by an inscrutable
providence, placed in a situation to which neither envy, flattery, nor even just praise can
approach, and where the majesty of the man is placed in the most awful yet respectable
ruins. I have only one abatement to make: had this potentate been as adverse from War
as he was from public and private vices, he would have been the most immaculate
sovereign that ever held a scepter or wore a crown.
But to resume the subject, and conclude the argument: I wish particularly to show the
utter unlawfulness of rebellion against a ruler, who, though he may be incorrect in his
moral conduct, yet rules according to the laws; and the additional blessing of having a
prince, who, while his political conduct is regulated by the principles of the constitution,
has his heart and life regulated by the dictates of eternal truth, as contained in that
revelation which came from God.
GILL, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,.... The apostle having
finished his exhortations to this church, in relation to the several duties incumbent upon
both officers and private Christians, as members of a church, and with reference to each
other, and their moral conduct in the world; proceeds to advise, direct, and exhort them

6. to such duties as were relative to them as members of a civil society; the former chapter
contains his Christian Ethics, and this his Christian Politics. There was the greater
reason to insist upon the latter, as well as on the former, since the primitive saints
greatly lay under the imputation of being seditious persons and enemies to the
commonwealth; which might arise from a very great number of them being Jews, who
scrupled subjection to the Heathen magistrates, because they were the seed of Abraham,
and by a law were not to set one as king over them, that was a stranger, and not their
own brother, and very unwillingly bore the Roman yoke, and paid tribute to Caesar:
hence the Christians in common were suspected to be of the same principles; and of all
the Jews none were more averse to the payment of taxes to the Roman magistrates than
the Galilaeans; see Act_5:37. And this being the name by which Christ and his followers
were commonly called, might serve to strengthen the above suspicion of them, and
charge against them. Moreover, some Christians might be tempted to think that they
should not be subject to Heathen magistrates; since they were generally wicked men,
and violent persecutors of them; and that it was one branch of their Christian liberty to
be freed from subjection to them: and certain it is, that there were a set of loose and
licentious persons, who bore the name of Christians, that despised dominion, and spoke
evil of dignities; wherefore the apostle judged it advisable especially to exhort the church
of Rome, and the members who dwelt there, where was the seat of power and civil
government, so to behave towards their superiors, that they might set a good example to
the Christians in the several parts of the empire, and wipe off the aspersion that was cast
upon them, as if they were enemies to magistracy and civil power. By "the higher
powers", he means not angels, sometimes called principalities and powers; for unto
these God hath not put in subjection his people under the Gospel dispensation; nor
ecclesiastical officers, or those who are in church power and authority; for they do not
bear the temporal sword, nor have any power to inflict corporeal punishment: but civil
magistrates are intended, see Tit_3:1; and these not only supreme magistrates, as
emperors and kings, but all inferior and subordinate ones, acting in commission under
them, as appears from 1Pe_2:13, which are called "powers", because they are invested
with power and authority over others, and have a right to exercise it in a proper way, and
in proper cases; and the "higher" or super eminent ones, because they are set in high
places, and have superior dignity and authority to others. The persons that are to be
subject to them are "every soul"; not that the souls of men, distinct from their bodies, are
under subjection to civil magistrates; for of all things they have the least to do with
them, their power and jurisdiction not reaching to the souls, the hearts, and consciences
of men, especially in matters of religion, but chiefly to their bodies, and outward civil
concerns of life: but the meaning is, that every man that has a soul, every rational
creature, ought to be subject to civil government. This is but his reasonable service, and
which he should from his heart, and with all his soul, cheerfully perform. In short, the
sense is, that every man should be subject: this is an Hebraism, a common way of
speaking among the Jews, who sometimes denominate men from one part, and
sometimes from another; sometimes from the body or flesh, thus "all flesh is grass", Isa_
40:6, that is, all men are frail; and sometimes front the soul, "all souls are mine", Eze_
18:4, all belong to me; as here, "every soul", that is, every man, all the individuals of
mankind, of whatsoever sex, age, state, or condition, ecclesiastics not excepted: the
pope, and his clergy, are not exempted from civil jurisdiction; nor any of the true
ministers of the Gospel; the priests under the law were under the civil government; and
so was Christ himself, and his apostles, who paid tribute to Caesar; yea, even Peter
particularly, whose successor the pope of Rome pretends to be. "Subjection" to the civil
magistrates designs and includes all duties relative to them; such as showing them
respect, honour, and reverence suitable to their stations; speaking well of them, and

7. their administration; using them with candour, not bearing hard upon them for little
matters, and allowing for ignorance of the secret springs of many of their actions and
conduct, which if known might greatly justify them; wishing well to them, and praying
constantly, earnestly, and heartily for them; observing their laws and injunctions;
obeying their lawful commands, which do not contradict the laws of God, nature, and
right reason; and paying them their just dues and lawful tribute, to support them in their
office and dignity:
for there is no power but of God; God is the fountain of all power and authority; the
streams of power among creatures flow from him; the power that man has over all the
creatures, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea, is
originally of God, and by a grant from him; the lesser powers, and the exercises of them,
in the various relations men stand in to one another, are of God, as the power the
husband has over the wife, parents over their children, and masters over their servants;
and so the higher power that princes have over their subjects: for it is the God of heaven
that sets up kings, as well as pulls them down; he is the King of kings, from whom they
derive their power and authority, from whom they have the right of government, and all
the qualifications for it; it is by him that kings reign, and princes decree justice.
The powers that be are ordained of God. The order of magistracy is of God; it is of
his ordination and appointment, and of his ordering, disposing, and fixing in its proper
bounds and limits. The several forms of government are of human will and pleasure; but
government itself is an order of God. There may be men in power who assume it of
themselves, and are of themselves, and not of God; and others that abuse the power that
is lodged in them; who, though they are by divine permission, yet not of God's
approbation and good will. And it is observable, that the apostle speaks of powers, and
not persons, at least, not of persons, but under the name of powers, to show that he
means not this, or the other particular prince or magistrate, but the thing itself, the
office and dignity of magistracy itself; for there may be some persons, who may of
themselves usurp this office, or exercise it in a very illegal way, who are not of God, nor
to be subject to by men. The apostle here both uses the language, and speaks the
sentiments of his countrymen the Jews, who are wont to call magistrates, "powers";
hence those sayings were used among them; says Shemaiah (t),
"twvrl edwtt la, "be not too familiar with the power".''
that is, with a magistrate, which oftentimes is dangerous. Again,
"says (u) Rabban Gamaliel, ‫ברשות‬ ‫זהירין‬ ‫,היו‬ "take heed of the power" (i.e. of magistrates),
for they do not suffer a man to come near them, but in necessity, and then they appear as
friends for their own advantage, but will not stand by a man in the time of distress.''
Moreover, after this manner they explain (w) Pro_5:8,
""remove thy way far from her", this is heresy; "and come not nigh the door of her
house", ‫הרשות‬ ‫,זו‬ "this is the power". The gloss on it is, magistrates, because they set their
eyes upon rich men to kill them, and take away their substance.''
And a little after it is observed,

8. ""the horse leech hath two daughters, crying, give, give", Pro_30:15, it is asked, what is
the meaning of give, give? Says Mar Ukba, there are two daughters which cry out of hell,
and say in this world, give, give, and they are heresy, ‫,והרשות‬ "and the civil power".''
The gloss on this place is,
"Heresy cries, bring a sacrifice to the idol; "Civil Power" cries, bring money, and gifts,
and revenues, and tribute to the king.''
Nevertheless, they look upon civil government to be of divine appointment. They say (x),
that
"no man is made a governor below, except they proclaim him above;''
i.e. unless he is ordained of God: yea, they allow (y) the Roman empire to be of God,
than which no government was more disagreeable to them.
"When R. Jose ben Kisma was sick, R. Chanina ben Tradion went to visit him; he said
unto him, Chanina, my brother, my brother, knowest thou not that this nation, (the
Romans) ‫המליכוה‬ ‫השמים‬ ‫,מן‬ "have received their empire" from God? for it hath laid waste
his house, and hath burnt his temple, and has slain his saints, and destroyed his good
men, and yet it endures.''
Nay, they frequently affirm (z), that the meanest office of power among men was of
divine appointment. This is the apostle's first argument for subjection to the civil
magistrate.
HE RY, "We are here taught how to conduct ourselves towards magistrates, and
those that are in authority over us, called here the higher powers, intimating their
authority (they are powers), and their dignity (they are higher powers), including not
only the king as supreme, but all inferior magistrates under him: and yet it is expressed,
not by the persons that are in that power, but the place of power itself, in which they are.
However the persons themselves may be wicked, and of those vile persons whom the
citizen of Zion contemneth (Psa_15:4), yet the just power which they have must be
submitted to and obeyed. The apostle had taught us, in the foregoing chapter, not to
avenge ourselves, nor to recompense evil for evil; but, lest it should seem as if this did
cancel the ordinance of a civil magistracy among Christians, he takes occasion to assert
the necessity of it, and of the due infliction of punishment upon evil doers, however it
may look like recompensing evil for evil. Observe,
I. The duty enjoined: Let every soul be subject. Every soul - every person, one as well
as another, not excluding the clergy, who call themselves spiritual persons, however the
church of Rome may not only exempt such from subjection to the civil powers, but place
them in authority above them, making the greatest princes subject to the pope, who thus
exalteth himself above all that is called God. - Every soul. Not that our consciences are to
be subjected to the will of any man. It is God's prerogative to make laws immediately to
bind conscience, and we must render to God the things that are God's. But it intimates
that our subjection must be free and voluntary, sincere and hearty. Curse not the king,
no, not in thy thought, Ecc_10:20. To compass and imagine are treason begun. The
subjection of soul here required includes inward honour (1Pe_2:17) and outward

9. reverence and respect, both in speaking to them and in speaking of them - obedience to
their commands in things lawful and honest, and in other things a patient subjection to
the penalty without resistance - a conformity in every thing to the place and duty of
subjects, bringing our minds to the relation and condition, and the inferiority and
subordination of it. “They are higher powers; be content they should be so, and submit
to them accordingly.” Now there was good reason for the pressing of this duty of
subjection to civil magistrates, 1. Because of the reproach which the Christian religion
lay under in the world, as an enemy to public peace, order, and government, as a sect
that turned the world upside down, and the embracers of it as enemies to Caesar, and
the more because the leaders were Galileans - an old slander. Jerusalem was represented
as a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, Ezr_4:15, Ezr_4:16. Our Lord Jesus
was so reproached, though he told them his kingdom was not of this world: no marvel,
then, if his followers have been loaded in all ages with the like calumnies, called factious,
seditious, and turbulent, and looked upon as the troublers of the land, their enemies
having found such representations needful for the justifying of their barbarous rage
against them. The apostle therefore, for the obviating of this reproach and the clearing of
Christianity from it, shows that obedience to civil magistrates is one of the laws of
Christ, whose religion helps to make people good subjects; and it was very unjust to
charge upon Christianity that faction and rebellion to which its principles and rules are
so directly contrary. 2. Because of the temptation which the Christians lay under to be
otherwise affected to civil magistrates, some of them being originally Jews, and so
leavened with a principle that it was unmeet for any of the seed of Abraham to be subject
to one of another nation - their king must be of their brethren, Deu_17:15. Besides, Paul
had taught them that they were not under the law, they were made free by Christ. Lest
this liberty should be turned into licentiousness, and misconstrued to countenance
faction and rebellion, the apostle enjoins obedience to civil government, which was the
more necessary to be pressed now because the magistrates were heathens and
unbelievers, which yet did not destroy their civil power and authority. Besides, the civil
powers were persecuting powers; the body of the law was against them.
II. The reasons to enforce this duty. Why must we be subject?
1. For wrath's sake. Because of the danger we run ourselves into by resistance.
Magistrates bear the sword, and to oppose them is to hazard all that is dear to us in this
world; for it is to no purpose to contend with him that bears the sword. The Christians
were then in those persecuting times obnoxious to the sword of the magistrate for their
religion, and they needed not make themselves more obnoxious by their rebellion. The
least show of resistance or sedition in a Christian would soon be aggravated and
improved, and would be very prejudicial to the whole society; and therefore they had
more need than others to be exact in their subjection, that those who had so much
occasion against them in the matter of their God might have no other occasion. To this
head must that argument be referred (Rom_13:2), Those that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation: krima lēpsontai, they shall be called to an account for it. God will
reckon with them for it, because the resistance reflects upon him. The magistrates will
reckon with them for it. They will come under the lash of the law, and will find the
higher powers too high to be trampled upon, all civil governments being justly strict and
severe against treason and rebellion; so it follows (Rom_13:3), Rulers are a terror. This
is a good argument, but it is low for a Christian.
2. We must be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake; not so much
formidine poenae - from the fear of punishment, as virtutis amore - from the love of
virtue. This makes common civil offices acceptable to God, when they are done for
conscience' sake, with an eye to God, to his providence putting us into such relations,

10. and to his precept making subjection the duty of those relations. Thus the same thing
may be done from a very different principle. Now to oblige conscience to this subjection
he argues, Rom_13:1-4, Rom_13:6,
(1.) From the institution of magistracy: There is no power but of God. God as the ruler
and governor of the world hath appointed the ordinance of magistracy, so that all civil
power is derived from him as from its original, and he hath by his providence put the
administration into those hands, whatever they are that have it. By him kings reign,
Pro_8:15. The usurpation of power and the abuse of power are not of God, for he is not
the author of sin; but the power itself is. As our natural powers, though often abused and
made instruments of sin, are from God's creating power, so civil powers are from God's
governing power. The most unjust and oppressive princes in the world have no power
but what is given them from above (Joh_19:11), the divine providence being in a special
manner conversant about those changes and revolutions of governments which have
such an influence upon states and kingdoms, and such a multitude of particular persons
and smaller communities. Or, it may be meant of government in general: it is an instance
of God's wisdom, power, and goodness, in the management of mankind, that he has
disposed them into such a state as distinguishes between governors and governed, and
has not left them like the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less. He did
herein consult the benefit of his creatures. - The powers that be: whatever the particular
form and method of government are - whether by monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy -
wherever the governing power is lodged, it is an ordinance of God, and it is to be
received and submitted to accordingly; though immediately an ordinance of man (1Pe_
2:13), yet originally an ordinance of God. - Ordained of God - tetagmenai, a military
word, signifying not only the ordination of magistrates, but the subordination of inferior
magistrates to the supreme, as in an army; for among magistrates there is a diversity of
gifts, and trusts, and services. Hence it follows (Rom_13:2) that whosoever resisteth the
power resisteth the ordinance of God. There are other things from God that are the
greatest calamities; but magistracy is from God as an ordinance, that is, it is a great law,
and it is a great blessing: so that the children of Belial, that will not endure the yoke of
government, will be found breaking a law and despising a blessing. Magistrates are
therefore called gods (Psa_82:6), because they bear the image of God's authority. And
those who spurn at their power reflect upon God himself. This is not at all applicable to
the particular rights of kings and kingdoms, and the branches of their constitution; nor
can any certain rule be fetched from this for the modelling of the original contracts
between the governors and governed; but it is intended for direction to private persons
in their private capacity, to behave themselves quietly and peaceably in the sphere in
which God has set them, with a due regard to the civil powers which God in his
providence has set over them, 1Ti_2:1, 1Ti_2:2. Magistrates are here again and again
called God's ministers. he is the minister of God, Rom_13:4, Rom_13:6. Magistrates are
in a more peculiar manner God's servants; the dignity they have calls for duty. Though
they are lords to us, they are servants to God, have work to do for him, and an account to
render to him. In the administration of public justice, the determining of quarrels, the
protecting of the innocent, the righting of the wronged, the punishing of offenders, and
the preserving of national peace and order, that every man may not do what is right in
his own eyes - in these things it is that magistrates act as God's ministers. As the killing
of an inferior magistrate, while he is actually doing his duty, is accounted treason against
the prince, so the resisting of any magistrates in the discharge of these duties of their
place is the resisting of an ordinance of God.
(2.) From the intention of magistracy: Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to
the evil, etc. Magistracy was designed to be,

11. [1.] A terror to evil works and evil workers. They bear the sword; not only the sword of
war, but the sword of justice. They are heirs of restraint, to put offenders to shame;
Laish wanted such, Jdg_18:7. Such is the power of sin and corruption that many will not
be restrained from the greatest enormities, and such as are most pernicious to human
society, by any regard to the law of God and nature or the wrath to come; but only by the
fear of temporal punishments, which the wilfulness and perverseness of degenerate
mankind have made necessary. Hence it appears that laws with penalties for the lawless
and disobedient (1Ti_1:9) must be constituted in Christian nations, and are agreeable
with, and not contradictory to, the gospel. When men are become such beasts, such
ravenous beasts, one to another, they must be dealt with accordingly, taken and
destroyed in terrorem - to deter others. The horse and the mule must thus be held in
with bit and bridle. In this work the magistrate is the minister of God, Rom_13:4. He
acts as God's agent, to whom vengeance belongs; and therefore must take heed of
infusing into his judgments any private personal resentments of his own. - To execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil. In this the judicial processes of the most vigilant
faithful magistrates, though some faint resemblance and prelude of the judgments of the
great day, yet come far short of the judgment of God: they reach only to the evil act, can
execute wrath only on him that doeth evil: but God's judgment extends to the evil
thought, and is a discerner of the intents of the heart. - He beareth not the sword in
vain. It is not for nothing that God hath put such a power into the magistrate's hand; but
it is intended for the restraining and suppressing of disorders. And therefore, “If thou do
that which is evil, which falls under the cognizance and censure of the civil magistrate,
be afraid; for civil powers have quick eyes and long arms.” It is a good thing when the
punishment of malefactors is managed as an ordinance of God, instituted and appointed
by him. First, As a holy God, that hates sin, against which, as it appears and puts up its
head, a public testimony is thus borne. Secondly, As King of nations, and the God of
peace and order, which are hereby preserved. Thirdly, As the protector of the good,
whose persons, families, estates, and names, are by this means hedged about. Fourthly,
As one that desires not the eternal ruin of sinners, but by the punishment of some would
terrify others, and so prevent the like wickedness, that others may hear and fear, and do
no more presumptuously. Nay, it is intended for a kindness to those that are punished,
that by the destruction of the flesh the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
JAMISO , "Rom_13:1-14. Same subject continued - Political and social relations -
Motives.
Let every soul — every man of you
be subject unto the higher powers — or, “submit himself to the authorities that
are above him.”
For there is no power — “no authority”
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God — “have been ordained of
God.”
HODGE, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. The expression every soul is
often used as equivalent to every one; it is at times, however, emphatic, and such is
probably the case in this passage. By higher powers are most commonly and naturally
understood those in authority, without reference to their grade of office, or their
character. We are to be subject not only to the supreme magistrates, but to all who have
authority over us. The abstract word powers or authorities ( εξουσίαι) is used for those
who are invested with power, Luke 12:11; Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10, etc. etc. The
word ( υπερέχων) rendered higher, is applied to any one who, in dignity and authority,

12. excels us. In 1 Peter 2:13, it is applied to the king as supreme, i.e. superior to all other
magistrates. But here one class of magistrates is not brought into comparison with
another, but they are spoken of as being over other men who are not in office. It is a very
unnatural interpretation which makes this word refer to the character of the magistrates,
as though the sense were, ‘Be subject to good magistrates.' This is contrary to the usage
of the term, and inconsistent with the context. Obedience is not enjoined on the ground
of the personal merit of those in authority, but on the ground of their official station.
There was peculiar necessity, during the apostolic age, for inculcating the duty of
obedience to civil magistrates. This necessity arose in part from the fact that a large
portion of the converts to Christianity had been Jews, and were peculiarly indisposed to
submit to the heathen authorities. This indisposition (as far as it was peculiar) arose
from the prevailing impression among them, that this subjection was unlawful, or at
least highly derogatory to their character as the people of God, who had so long lived
under a theocracy. In Deuteronomy 17:15, it is said, "Thou shalt in any wise set him king
over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou
set king over thee; thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." It
was a question, therefore, constantly agitated among them, "Is it lawful to pay tribute
unto Caesar, or not?" A question which the great majority were at least secretly inclined
to answer in the negative. Another source of the restlessness of the Jews under a foreign
yoke, was the idea which they entertained of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom. As
they expected a temporal Prince, whose kingdom should be of this world, they were
ready to rise in rebellion at the call of every one who cried, "I am Christ." The history of
the Jews at this period shows how great was the effect produced by these and similar
causes on their feelings towards the Roman government. They were continually breaking
out into tumults, which led to their expulsion from Rome,‹68› and, finally, to the utter
destruction of Jerusalem. It is therefore not a matter of surprise, that converts from
among such a people should need the injunction, "Be subject to the higher powers."
Besides the effect of their previous opinions and feelings, there is something in the
character of Christianity itself, and in the incidental results of the excitement which it
occasions, to ACCOUNT for the repugnance of many of the early Christians to submit to
their civil rulers. They wrested, no doubt, the doctrine of Christian liberty, as they did
other doctrines, to suit their own inclinations. This result, however, is to be attributed
not to religion, but to the improper feelings of those into whose minds the form of truth,
without its full power, had been received.
For there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. ου γάρ
εστιν εξουσία ει µη απο θεου. This is a very comprehensive proposition. All authority is
of God. No man has any rightful power over other men, which is not derived from God.
All human power is delegated and ministerial. This is true of parents, of magistrates, and
of church officers. This, however, is not all the passage means. It not only asserts that all
government ( εξουσία, authority) is ( απο θεου) derived from God, but that every
magistrate is of God; that is, his authority is jure divino. The word εξουσία is evidently,
in this connection, used in a concrete sense. This is plain from the use of the word in the
other clauses of the verse. "The higher powers," and "the powers that be," are concrete
terms, meaning those invested with power. Compare Romans 13:3, Romans 13:4, where
"rulers" and "ministers" are substituted for the abstract "powers." The doctrine here
taught is the ground of the injunction contained in the first clause of the verse. We are to
obey magistrates, because they derive their authority from God. Not only is human
government a divine institution, but the form in which that government exists, and the
persons by whom its functions are exercised, are determined by his providence. All
magistrates of whatever grade are to be regarded as acting by divine appointment; not

13. that God designates the individuals, but it being his will that there should be
magistrates, every person, who is in point of fact clothed with authority, is to be
regarded as having a claim to obedience, founded on the will of God. In like manner, the
authority of parents over their children, of husbands over their wives, of masters over
their servants, is of God's ordination. There is no limitation to the injunction in this
verse, so far as the objects of obedience are concerned, although there is as to the extent
of the obedience itself. That is, we are to obey all that is in actual authority over us,
whether their authority be legitimate or usurped, whether they are just or unjust. The
actual reigning emperor was to be obeyed by the Roman Christians, whatever they might
think as to his title to the sceptre. But if he transcended his authority, and required them
to worship idols, they were to obey God rather than man. This is the limitation to all
human authority. Whenever obedience to man is inconsistent with obedience to God,
then disobedience becomes a duty.
CALVI , "1.Let every soul, (399) etc. Inasmuch as he so carefully handles this
subject in connection with what forms the Christian life, it appears that he was
constrained to do so by some great necessity which existed especially in that age,
though the preaching of the gospel at all times renders this necessary. There are
indeed always some tumultuous spirits who believe that the kingdom of Christ
cannot be sufficiently elevated, unless all earthly powers be abolished, and that they
cannot enjoy the liberty given by him, except they shake off every yoke of human
subjection. This error, however, possessed the minds of the Jews above all others;
for it seemed to them disgraceful that the offspring of Abraham, whose kingdom
flourished before the Redeemer’ coming, should now, after his appearance, continue
in submission to another power. There was also another thing which alienated the
Jews no less than the Gentiles from their rulers, because they all not only hated
piety, but also persecuted religion with the most hostile feelings. Hence it seemed
unreasonable to acknowledge them for legitimate princes and rulers, who were
attempting to take away the kingdom from Christ, the only Lord of heaven and
earth.
COFFMA , "The great need of Paul's revelation of the proper Christian attitude
toward the secular state derived from a number of very important considerations.
The whole Jewish nation groaned under the yoke of Roman tyranny, longed to
escape it, and had participated in a number of bloody insurrections against Roman
authority. Barabbas, who had come into conspicuous view at the time of Jesus'
crucifixion, was a revolutionary, many others having preceded him. Further, at the
very moment Paul was writing Romans, practically the whole Jewish nation was
preparing its final insurrection which was destined to culminate only a few years
later (70 A.D.) in the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus. The
widespread Jewish attitude toward Rome was well known in Paul's day, and there
can be little doubt that practically all of the Christians sympathized with it and were
strongly tempted to aid the Jewish cause. To all such persons, the question of
submission to a government like Rome Was the most burning question of the day.

14. Furthermore, the Christians themselves were widely regarded as a Jewish sect, were
known to acknowledge supreme allegiance to the Messiah, and were easily confused
with the extreme nationalistic movement among the Jews. Paul himself was
mistaken for the leader of an insurrection by the military tribune himself (Acts
21:38); and thus, it was extremely important that Christian behavior should
conform to a strict pattern of respect and submission to the lawful government.
Otherwise, the whole Christian movement might have been swallowed up in the
overwhelming destruction of Israel, then impending, and so soon to be
accomplished.
Also, there were certain Christian practices which might have led them easily to
despise the state. In all legal and disputes, Christians were encouraged to bypass the
pagan courts of justice and settle, as far as possible, all such questions among
themselves (1 Corinthians 6:1ff). They did not participate in the public festivals and
ceremonies given over to the deification of the emperor, and might, therefore, have
been suspect as enemies of the government. Even beyond all this was the evil nature
of the Roman government itself, enjoying at the moment the relative tranquillity of
the quinquennium of ero, but despite that, almost U IVERSALLY hated for its
pitiless institutions of imperial power. To the gentle, Spirit-filled Christian, Rome
must certainly have appeared to be the seat of Satan himself, an impression that
would have been "proved" in their view by the murders and debaucheries which
occurred so soon thereafter, drowning ero's administration in blood and shame.
It is such a background, therefore, which dramatizes Paul's instructions to
Christians in this thirteenth chapter. Some have expressed wonder at Paul's
sandwiching such commandments as these in between two tender and beautiful
admonitions on love; but Paul knew what he was doing, and did it in such a manner
that none could mistake his intention or misunderstand his commands. The
"beseeching" attitude of the previous chapter gives way in this one to the majestic
authority of the apostolic command which seems to say, "Make no mistake about it;
this is an order!"
Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of
God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. (Romans 13:1)
The state itself, no less than God's church, is a divine institution, existing by God's
permission and authority, and absolutely necessary for the CO TI UITY of the
race of people upon the earth; and it is the unqualified duty of the Christian to
submit to it, except in whose situations where doing so would break the

15. commandments of God. This cannot mean that the shameful deeds, of evil rulers are
ever in any manner approved of God. It is not any particular implementation of the
state's authority which is "ordained of God," but the existence of such an authority.
Without such constituted authority, the whole world would sink in me chaos and
ruin. Unbridled human nature is a savage beast that lies restless, and uneasy under
the restraint imposed by the state, being ever ready, at the slightest opportunity, to
break its chains and ravage the world with blood and terror.
Civilization itself is but the ice formed in process of ages over the turbulent stream
of unbridled human passions. To our ancestors, that ice seemed SECURE and
permanent; but, during the agony of the great war, it has rotted and cracked; and in
places the submerged torrent has broken through, casting great fragments of our
civilization into collision with one another, and threatening by their attrition to
break up and disappear altogether.[1]
Thus, Stanley Baldwin described the disastrous effects which always accompany the
dissolution of states and the breakdown of authority. Paul's revelation that the state
is "ordained of God" and an effective instrument of the holy will is not a new
doctrine invented by him to ease the Christian community through a difficult
political period, but it is essential element of Jesus' teachings. In this connection, a
little further attention to Christ's teachings in this sector is helpful.
CHRIST A D THE STATE
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). His kingdom lies, for
the most part, within a sector totally removed and separated from the secular state,
that institution being also "ordained of God" but charged with a different function,
that of preserving order upon earth. Christ himself honored God's ordained
institution, the state, ordered the payment of TAXES to Caesar (Matthew 22:21),
declared that the authority of the procurator, Pontius Pilate, was given to him
"from above" (John 19:11), prophetically identified the armies of Vespasian and
Titus as those of God himself sent for the purpose of destroying those evil men and
burning their city, the city of Jerusalem (Matthew 22:7), submitted to arrest, even
illegal and unjust arrest (Matthew 26:47-56), refused to allow Peter to defend with
the sword against such an outrage, and meekly accepted the death penalty itself,
which the state unjustly exacted, and which Christ had ample means of avoiding
(Matthew 26:53), but did not.
Christ never led a riot, organized an underground, criticized the government, or
took the part of the Jews against Rome. He did not offer himself as an advocate
against society on behalf of any so-called victim of social injustice; and, once, he

16. even refused to aid a man who claimed that he had been robbed of his inheritance
(Luke 12:13). Jesus Christ was not a revolutionary in any sense of that word today.
Although it is true that his holy teachings had the profoundest influence upon the
course of history, it was always as leaven and not as dynamite that his influence
worked.
Some of Jesus' parables had as their significant and active premises the institutions
of government, as exemplified by the "king" who stood for God (Matthew 22:2), the
legal contract of the householder who let out his vineyard, and even the
"unrighteous judge" who granted the plea of the importunate widow, his
unrighteousness in no way preventing his appearance in the parable as analogous
with God! Had the state and its institutions been otherwise than "ordained of God,"
it is unthinkable that Christ would have borrowed such illustrations and made them
analogies for the conveyance of eternal truth. Christ's usage of such terms as the
officer, the judge, and the prison, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:25) also
fits this conclusion.
All of the apostles understood and reiterated' Jesus' teaching in this field. Both Paul
(here) and Peter (1 Peter 2:13-17) emphatically underscored this teaching. ot
merely those laws of the state conceived of as "just laws" are to be obeyed; but, as
Peter said, "every ordinance of man" was to be obeyed. In the ew Testament, there
was never any hint of Christians organizing any kind of campaign to change or
nullify laws. That some laws were unjust was clear to all; but Paul sent a runaway
slave back to his Christian master (Philemon 1:1:17), and provided specific
instructions to both masters and slaves in his epistles to Ephesus and Colossae.
There is no suggestion here that the evil laws of Rome may be justified, nor the evil
laws of any other state; but, in the light of Christian acceptance of such laws under
the direct guidance of Christ and the apostles, the conclusion is demanded that the
constituted government must be viewed as "ordained of God" and entitled to
Christian obedience. Over and above all this, there stands the commandment of the
apostles that the public prayers of Christians should constantly be directed to God
upon the behalf of the state and its lawful representatives, on behalf of "kings and
all that are in high place" (1 Timothy 2:1,2), to the intent that Christians might be
permitted to "lead a tranquil life in all godliness and gravity," thus, by implication,
making the provision of such privilege for Christians being the state's intended
function.
To those persons, present in every age, who reject the meek and submissive attitude
of Christ regarding earthly governments, and prefer instead the belligerent posture
of the aggressive revolutionary, it should be pointed out that this is not a new

17. attitude but an old and discredited one. It existed contemporaneously with Christ
and the apostles. The Jewish people preferred Barabbas the seditionist to the gentle
Jesus; but it must be added that when they finally got the revolution they wanted, it
terminated in a situation far worse than what existed previously. The tragic results
of taking the route of Barabbas, instead of the way of Christ, may serve as a
classical example of the superiority of Jesus' way. In our own beloved America
today, those people who are flirting with revolutionary schemes, if they should ever
have their way, shall certainly overwhelm themselves and their posterity with
sorrows, and far from attaining any worthy goals, will reap a gory harvest of
tragedy and disappointment.
Then, may it never be overlooked that the established order in the civilized world, in
spite of its deficiency, despite the inequalities and injustices, despite its halting and
stumbling, is still far better than anarchy; and that, even if some complete
overthrow of established institutions should occur, the new order, judged in the
light of what history invariably discloses, would be no better than the old and would
probably be much worse, especially when contrasted with the magnificent and
benevolent policies already existing in our own beloved United States.
To that affluent host of Christians in present-day America, let it be thundered that
they must not now allow the submerged torrent of blood, lust, and anarchy to break
through. This may be prevented by their love, support, honor, and prayers for the
present government, and by the necessity of their voting in a manner consistent with
their prayers, to the end that the government may be able to survive the assaults
being made upon it by forces of evil; and may their diligence in this be stimulated by
the thought that if a breakthrough against the government succeeds, none will
survive it, least of all, those who sought the tranquil life as God directed.
Present-day Christians are the privileged heirs of the greatest earthly inheritance
ever known in the history of the world, a fact that angers Satan. Don't throw it
away, or allow some revolutionary to rape you intellectually and rob you of it. And
if, through indifference or tacit support, you should ever contribute to the
overthrow of present institutions, and if you should live for a single day without the
legacy you now hold in your hands, an ocean of tears could not ease your
heartbreak or give you another inheritance like the one in which you now stand
SECURE. Keep it! We currently pass through an era that glorifies the extremist; the
seductive voices of the far left are calling; stop your ears and bind yourselves to the
mast, like the sailors of Ulysses. Death and destruction shall reward you if you turn
your back upon the teachings of the Saviour and cast in your destiny with the
seditionists. The Marxists, revolutionaries, Rousseauists, and screaming agitators
are not the friends of the people but enemies. To trust them is to have your throats
cut and to lose your souls also.

18. Take up the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against all the fiery
darts of the evil one, and having done all, STA D (Ephesians 6:13f).
Reject every form of extremism, and heed the apostolic injunction to "Let your
moderation be known unto all men" (Philippians 4:5).
Implications of the Christian attitude toward the state are far-reaching and include
the deduction that Christians may serve in military or political capacity, vote, and
engage freely in the participation allowed and encouraged by the state itself, the
only restriction being that conscience, being under God above all, should not be
defiled. It is a comment upon the extreme worthiness of our own government, as
compared to other worldly states, that many Christians do share in the management
of its institutions and hold offices of public trust, the nation being far better off for
the presence of such citizens within the structure of its political and institutions.
E D OTE:
[1] Sir Stanley Baldwin, Address: Truth and Politics, delivered at Edinburgh
U IVERSITY, ovember 6,1925. Modern ESSAYS of Various Types ( ew York:
Charles E. Merrill Company, 1927), p. 213.
By these reasons, as it is probable, Paul was induced to establish, with greater care
than usual, the authority of magistrates, and first he lays down a general precept,
which briefly includes what he afterwards says: secondly, he subjoins an exposition
and a proof of his precept.
He calls them the higher powers, (400) not the supreme, who possess the chief
authority, but such as excel other men. Magistrates are then thus called with regard
to their subjects, and not as compared with each other. And it seems indeed to me,
that the Apostle intended by this word to take away the frivolous curiosity of men,
who are wont often to inquire by what right they who rule have obtained their
authority; but it ought to be enough for us, that they do rule; for they have not
ascended by their own power into this high station, but have been placed there by
the Lord’ hand. And by mentioning every soul, he removes every exception, lest any
one should claim an immunity from the common duty of obedience. (401)

19. For there is no power, etc. The reason why we ought to be subject to magistrates is,
because they are constituted by God’ ordination. For since it pleases God thus to
govern the world, he who attempts to invert the order of God, and thus to resist God
himself, despises his power; since to despise the providence of him who is the
founder of civil power, is to carry on war with him. Understand further, that powers
are from God, not as pestilence, and famine, and wars, and other visitations for sin,
are said to be from him; but because he has appointed them for the legitimate and
just government of the world. For though tyrannies and unjust exercise of power, as
they are full of disorder, ( ἀταξίας)are not an ordained government; yet the right of
government is ordained by God for the wellbeing of mankind. As it is lawful to repel
wars and to seek remedies for other evils, hence the Apostle commands us willingly
and cheerfully to respect and honor the right and authority of magistrates, as useful
to men: for the punishment which God inflicts on men for their sins, we cannot
properly call ordinations, but they are the means which he designedly appoints for
the preservation of legitimate order.
(399) “Anima ,” ψυχὴ not only the Hebrews, (see Gen_14:21,) but the Greeks also
designate man by this word. Man is sometimes designated by his immaterial part,
soul, and sometimes by his material part, flesh, or body, as in Rom_12:1. One
author says that the word soul is used here in order to show that the obedience
enforced should be from the soul, not feigned, but sincere and genuine. Let every
soul, that is “ one,” says [Grotius ], “ apostles, prophets, and bishops.” — Ed.
(400) “Potestates supereminentes — pre-eminent powers.” [Hammond ] renders the
words ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις supreme powers, meaning kings, and refers to
ἄρχοντες in Rom_13:3, as a proof; but this word means magistrates as well as kings.
See Luk_12:58. The ruling power as exercised by those in authority is evidently
what is meant here, without any reference to any form of government. Of course
obedience to kings, or to emperors, or to any exercising a ruling power, whatever
name they may bear, is included. — Ed
(401) [Grotius ] qualifies this obedience by saying, that it should not extend to what
is contrary to the will of God. But it is remarkable, that often in Scripture things are
stated broadly and without any qualifying terms, and yet they have limits, as it is
clear from other portions. This peculiarity is worthy of notice. Power is from God,
the abuse of power is from what is evil in men. The Apostle throughout refers only
to power justly exercised. He does not enter into the subject of tyranny and
oppression. And this is probably the reason why he does not set limits to the
obedience required: he contemplated no other than the proper and legitimate use of

20. power. — Ed.
BARCLAY, "Rom. 13:1-7Let everyone render due obedience to those who occupy
positions of outstanding authority, for there is no authority which is not allotted its
place by God, for the authorities which exist have been set in their places by God. So
he who sets himself up against authority has really set himself up against God's
arrangement of things. Those who do set themselves against authority will receive
condemnation upon themselves. For the man who does good has nothing to fear
from rulers, but the man who does evil has. Do you wish to be free of fear of
authority? Do good and you will enjoy praise from authority, for any servant of God
exists for your good. If you do evil, then you must fear. For it is not for nothing that
the man set in authority bears the sword, for he is the servant of God, and his
function is to vent wrath and vengeance on the man who does evil. So, then, it is
necessary for you to submit yourself, not because of the wrath, but for the sake of
your own conscience.
For this same reason you must pay your taxes too; for those set in authority are the
servants of God, and continue to work for that very end. Give to all men what is due
to them. Give tribute to those to whom tribute is due; pay taxes to those to whom
taxes are due. Give fear to those to whom fear is due. Give honour to those to whom
honour is due.
At first reading this is an extremely surprising passage, for it seems to counsel
absolute obedience on the part of the Christian to the civil power. But, in point of
fact, this is a commandment which runs through the whole ew Testament. In
1Tim. 2:1-2, we read: "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and for all who are in high positions;
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way." In
Tit. 3:1 the advice to the preacher is: "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and
authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work." In 1 Pet. 2:13-17 we
read: "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to
the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do
wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is Gods will that by doing right you
should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.... Honour all men. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor."
We might be tempted to argue that these passages come from a time when the
Roman government had not begun to persecute the Christians. We know, for
instance, in the Book of Acts that frequently, as Gibbon had it, the tribunal of the
pagan magistrate was often the safest refuge against the fury of the Jewish mob.
Time and again we see Paul receiving protection at the hands of impartial Roman
justice. But the interesting and the significant thing is that many years, and even
centuries later, when persecution had begun to rage and Christians were regarded

21. as outlaws, the Christian leaders were saying exactly the same thing.
Justin Martyr (Apology 1:17) writes, "Everywhere, we, more readily than all men,
endeavour to pay to those appointed by you the taxes, both ordinary and
extraordinary, as we have been taught by Jesus. We worship only God, but in other
things we will gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men, and
praying that, with your kingly power, you may be found to possess also sound
judgment." Athenagoras, pleading for peace for the Christians, writes (chapter 37):
"We deserve favour because we pray for your government, that you may, as is most
equitable, receive the kingdom, son from father, and that your empire may receive
increase and addition, until all men become subject to your sway." Tertullian
(Apology 30) writes at length: "We offer prayer for the safety of our princes to the
eternal, the true, the living God, whose favour, beyond all other things, they must
themselves desire.... Without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray
for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection for the imperial house;
for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest--whatever, as
man or Caesar, an emperor would wish." He goes on to say that the Christian
cannot but look up to the emperor because he "is called by our Lord to his office."
And he ends by saying that "Caesar is more ours than yours because our God
appointed him." Arnobius (4: 36) declares that in the Christian gatherings "peace
and pardon are asked for all in authority."
It was the consistent and official teaching of the Christian Church that obedience
must be given to, and prayers made for, the civil power, even when the wielder of
that civil power was a ero.
What is the thought and belief at the back of this?
(i) In Paul's case there was one immediate cause of his stressing of civil obedience.
The Jews were notoriously rebellious. Palestine, especially Galilee, was constantly
seething with insurrection. Above all there were the Zealots; they were convinced
that there was no king for the Jews but God; and that no tribute must be paid to
anyone except to God. or were they content with anything like a passive resistance.
They believed that God would not be helping them unless they embarked on violent
action to help themselves. Their aim was to make any civil government impossible.
They were known as the dagger-bearers. They were fanatical nationalists sworn to
terrorist methods. ot only did they use terrorism towards the Roman government;
they also wrecked the houses and burned the crops and assassinated the families of
their own fellow-Jews who paid tribute to the Roman government.

22. In this Paul saw no point at all. It was, in fact, the direct negation of all Christian
conduct. And yet, at least in one part of the nation, it was normal Jewish conduct. It
may well be that Paul writes here with such inclusive definiteness because he wished
to dissociate Christianity altogether from insurrectionist Judaism, and to make it
clear that Christianity and good citizenship went necessarily hand in hand.
(ii) But there is more than a merely temporary situation in the relationship between
the Christian and the state. It may well be true that the circumstances caused by the
unrest of the Jews are in Paul's mind, but there are other things as well. First and
foremost, there is this--no man can entirely dissociate himself from the society in
which he lives and has a part. o man can, in conscience, opt out of the nation. As a
part of it, he enjoys certain benefits which he could not have as an individual; but he
cannot reasonably claim all the privileges and refuse all the duties. As he is part of
the body of the Church. he is also part of the body of the nation; there is no such
thing in this world as an isolated individual. A man has a duty to the state and must
discharge it even if a ero is on the throne.
(iii) To the state a man owes protection. It was the Platonic idea that the state existed
for the sake of justice and safety and secured for a man security against wild beasts
and savage men. "Men," as it has been put, "herded behind a wall that they might
be safe." A state is essentially a body of men who have covenanted together to
maintain certain relationships between each other by the observance of certain laws.
Without these laws and the mutual agreement to observe them, the bad and selfish
strong man would be supreme; the weaker would go to the wall; life would become
ruled by the law of the jungle. Every ordinary man owes his security to the state,
and is therefore under a responsibility to it.
(iv) To the state ordinary people owe a wide range of services which individually
they could not enjoy. It would be impossible for every man to have his own water,
light, sewage, transport system. These things are obtainable only when men agree to
live together. And it would be quite wrong for a man to enjoy everything the state
provides and to refuse all responsibility to it. That is one compelling reason why the
Christian is bound in honour to be a good citizen and to take his part in all the
duties of citizenship.
(v) But Paul's main view of the state was that the Roman Empire was the divinely
ordained instrument to save the world from chaos. Take away that Empire and the
world would disintegrate into flying fragments. It was in fact the pax Romana, the
Roman peace, which gave the Christian missionary the chance to do his work.
Ideally men should be bound together by Christian love; but they are not; and the

23. cement which keeps them together is the state.
Paul saw in the state an instrument in the hand of God, preserving the world from
chaos. Those who administered the state were playing their part in that great task.
Whether they knew it or not they were doing God's work, and it was the Christian's
duty to help and not to hinder.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For
there is no power but of God.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers
I. Every soul, or man (Exo_12:4; Gen_46:27).
1. Secular person.
2. Ecclesiastical or religious.
II. The object. “The higher powers,” or chief magistrates established in each nation.
1. To see that God be rightly worshipped (2Ch_14:2; 2Ch 14:4; 2Ch 17:6; 2Ch 17:9).
2. To preserve peace (1Ti_2:2; Psa_72:7).
3. To execute justice (Psa_72:2; Rom_13:4).
III. The act. “Be subject.” We owe them—
1. Prayers (1Ti_2:1).
2. Fear (Pro_24:21; 1Pe_2:17).
3. Not to speak evil of him (Ecc_10:20; 2Pe_2:10; Jud_1:8).
4. Dues (Rom_13:7).
5. Subjection and obedience (Tit_3:1).
(1) Otherwise the magistrates’ power is in vain.
(2) The public good depends upon our obedience.
(3) We are bound to obey for fear (Rom_13:2; Rom 13:5).
(4) For the Lord’s sake (Rom_13:5).
(5) He that resisteth, resisteth the ordinance of God.
IV. The reason of the command. “All power is of God.” This appears—
1. From Scripture.
(1) Every power is ordained of God (Rom_13:1-2).
(2) The magistrate is the minister of God, Λειτουργᆵν (Rom_13:4).
(3) By God kings reign (Pro_7:15-16).
(4) They judge under Him (2Ch_19:5-7).
(5) He sets up kings (Dan_2:21; Dan 2:37; Dan 5:21).
(6) God first ordained the power of the sword in the hand of men (Gen_9:6).

24. (7) God gave particular direction for choosing most of the kings of Israel; as
Saul, David, Jehu: and so now.
2. From reason.
(1) He is the first cause of all things (Joh_19:11).
(2) All power depends on Him (Act_17:28).
(3) As the stream from the fountain.
3. All power in men is God’s power in their hands (2Ch_19:6).
4. Power is good and necessary: therefore from God (Jas_1:17).
5. It is part of the law of nature (Rom_2:14-15). (Bp. Beveridge.)
Subjection to the higher powers
I. The duty.
1. Respects all legitimately constituted authority.
2. Extends to all persons, without distinction.
3. Requires submission in all matters not affecting conscience.
II. Its foundation. Power is—
1. Derived from God.
2. Is an ordinance of God.
3. Is established by the providence of God. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Obedience to law
I. Subjection to the higher powers. Not abject subjection to governments, whatever their
character; but intelligent, manly subordination to a divinely ordered arrangement—the
social framework and the national dominion. Many are the corruptions and oppressions
of rulers and the imperfections and perversions of constitutions. Nevertheless there is a
Divine ordination, as of marriage and home, so of nationality. Per se, government is
essential to the perfection of human life, and so far as it does not hinder our obedience
to God as the direct Sovereign of our souls, we are properly obligated to obey it. Divine
Providence may have so ordered our lives that we may be overshadowed by pagan
authorities. While we approve not the perversions of depraved legislators—their
intemperance, Sabbath desecration, profanity, luxury and ambition—we can,
notwithstanding, hold ourselves in dignified yielding to normal law. When the
corruptions or misapplications of government become glaring and intolerable, the right
of revolution is rightly appealed to, and then may “God speed the right.”
II. Spiritual authority. Aside from references to political governments, the whole
paragraph may have a truer application to spiritual authority. Rank pharisaic
ecclesiasticism and Papal domination are extremely abhorrent to every soul whom the
truth and grace of God have made free. But Church officers and institutions founded on
the gospel are the reflex of the Lord’s own kingdom. These powers are “ordained of
God”—apostles, deacons, elders; with regulations for Sabbath observance, public

25. worship, evangelistic progress. That one or more persons should, therefore, in any
community decry creeds, church association, ministerial functions and labours, etc.,
must be a grievous evil. Satan can quickly divide and scatter the fold by such
disorganisers and malcontents if the least heed be paid them. At suitable public
anniversaries we should look into the Magna Charta of our Christian rights and
experiences. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The duty and obligations of civil obedience
I. The duty which we owe to civil governors.
1. Submission. This injunction is given to “every soul.” And with regard to its extent,
Peter says, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man.” If anything, indeed, were
enjoined on us inconsistent with God’s will, “we are to obey God rather than man,” as
did the three Hebrew youths, Daniel, and Peter. For the commands of the greatest
potentates in the world are of no weight against the paramount authority of the King
of kings and Lord of lords. When, however, they are not at variance with the law of
God, the Scriptures expressly enjoin an unreserved obedience.
2. Support (verse 6, 7). Expenses must be incurred, both in carrying on affairs and in
supporting the dignity and remunerating the labours of the officers of state. Hence
there must be taxes, “tribute” and “custom.” Hence all shrinking from bearing our
proportional weight of the public burdens is not only against the law of the land, but
the Word of God. Christ Himself paid taxes from which He was properly exempt.
3. Respect. “Fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour,” i.e., reverential homage
due to kings and principal rulers, and the respect due to all who are in authority.
Here, then, is forbidden everything that is disrespectful either in manner or
language. The blazoning abroad the faults of our rulers, so as to degrade them in the
eyes of others, is an offence against God. When Korah, etc., gathered themselves
together against Moses, you know how God expressed His indignation against these
contemners of constituted authority. The Scriptures regard it as a daring thing to
“speak evil of dignities, to despise dominion.”
II. The grounds on which our obligation rests.
1. The penalty which those incur who transgress. A law becomes a dead letter, unless
its penalties are enforced: and it is the duty of such as are in authority to be “a terror
to evil works,” and not to “bear the sword in vain,” for they are appointed “as the
ministers of God, as revengers to execute wrath on him that doeth evil.” Yea, it is said
that they that resist, “shall receive to themselves damnation.” We acknowledge this is
a low motive. Still, low as it is, we fear, so great a lack of higher principle prevails
amongst us, that, were it not employed, such a thing as obedience would hardly be
known. Each would be an Ishmael.
2. The advantage we derive from civil government (verses 3, 4). So appalling is the
evil of the want of a regular government, that the very worst government is better
than no government at all (see Jdg_18:1-31). We have so long enjoyed the blessings
of an equitable government, in which even the king dare not, if he would, invade the
rights of the beggar, and in which every crime is prosecuted, and, in consequence, we
have been so long privileged to “sit each one under his vine and under his fig-tree,
none daring to make us afraid,” that we seem almost to forget that we owe this happy
security, not to any improvement in man himself, but to a well-ordered government.

26. It might help us to realise these advantages if we were to suppose for a time, a
suspension of the laws throughout the land; and that every one was left to follow the
full bent of his own will, without fear.
3. The consideration of the authority wherewith they are invested (verse 1). This
applies to all that hold legitimate authority. It is not necessary, in order to make any
power the ordinance of God, that it should be nominated by God Himself: as Moses,
and Saul, and David were, for instance. For the apostle is speaking of the Roman
emperors, who were elected by the army. It is mutual consent and contract that
makes two persons man and wife; and yet matrimony is God’s ordinance; and the
subjection under which the wife is required to be unto her own husband in
everything arises not just from mutual contract, but from God’s appointment. Again,
one becomes master, and another servant, by consent and covenant: but the master’s
authority over the servant is derived, not simply from the covenant entered into, but
from the ordinance of God. Hence, when Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron,
Moses says to them, “Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.”
And, moreover, when Israel rejected Samuel as their ruler God regarded it as a
rejection of Himself. (J. Sandys, A.M.)
Christian duties towards civil rulers
These duties are enforced on two grounds—
I. That they are ordained of God, and therefore ought to be obeyed as a matter of
conscience. This implies—
1. That it is according to God’s purpose that society should be organised into self-
governing communities for—
(1) Protection against aggressions from without.
(2) For the restraint of wrong-doing and the promotion of prosperity within.
2. That government must assume some form. The administration cannot be left to
chance. There must be a constitution, clearly defined, and generally known and
approved. The first form of government was that of the family. But, as families
multiplied, each having a variety of rights, out of which would arise differences not
to be easily settled, some more general form became necessary. Government by
patriarchy having fallen through, many other forms are possible, and have become
actual. Which then is the one ordained of God? This does not concern the apostle.
The general rule assumed seems to have been that, as every community is likely to
secure for itself that form of government which is best suited to it, at any period of its
development, so that form of government actually existing is the one which is of
God’s ordination for that people at that time. For the apostle speaks not of what
ought to be, but of “the powers that be.”
3. That there must be powers, i.e., living persons invested with both authority and
power to administer government, and that to these the Christian must render
conscientious obedience. But it does not follow that he is to take no part in insisting
that the ruling powers exercise their proper functions legitimately. For the governors
have no more right Divine to do wrong than have those who are governed. Only this
was a matter in which Christians had at that time no special concern, and in respect
to which it was no part of the apostle’s purpose to give instructions.

27. 4. That, whatever the form of government, the real Divine purpose is for the
punishment of evildoers, and for the good of them that do well. The government is
made for the people, and not the people for the government. To the masses it matters
little what form of government obtains, but it matters much indeed whether the
government rules according to wise or unwise principles. Yet, after all, any
government at all is better than none, and none is possible if no obedience is to be
secured.
5. That each ought to be subject and to render respectful obedience out of conscience
towards God. Of course, there are limits to obedience (Act_4:17-19). When Rome
required of the Christians to render homage to an idol, they were under imperative
obligation not to obey. And so, while it is incumbent upon every one to render to all
officials their due, we are not bound in conscience to render that which is not due. If
any state functionary should oppressively demand illegal taxes or service for illegal
purposes, the duty of obedience has no place. If, indeed, the service is not in itself
immoral, it may be found to be a matter of prudence to submit; but a man is not
morally bound thereto: his conscience leaves him free to refuse. But, with such
obvious exceptions, the duty of submission is universal.
II. That they have the right power, and will to punish those who disobey. Obedient
subjects have nothing to fear. The magistrate is the minister of God to them for good;
and those who do good shall have protection and praise of the same. But he has been
entrusted also with the sword, the right and power to punish, even unto death, those
who disobey. That this motive of fear should be urged appears somewhat strange. Any
who were disposed to refuse obedience must have known that they did it at the risk of
punishment. But some may have been fanatic enough to persuade themselves that a
heathen power could have no moral right to enforce obedience, and that God would hold
them harmless for their disobedience. Such are reminded that God, under whom these
very rulers were marshalled, was on their side, and would sustain them in the
enforcement of subjection and obedience. Therefore, if you cannot be moved to
obedience on any higher ground, yet do learn obedience through fear. Even of the wrath
of God, who will sustain by His almighty arm the just authority of these powers which
are of His own ordination and appointment. (W. Tyson.)
The Christian view of the State
What has our religion to say to our patriotism? What is the final meaning of our relation
to the State under which we live?
I. To begin with, the Bible teaches us to take a far higher view of the nation than any we
are accustomed to hear. In God’s Word, the State is not a mere machine for keeping
order and peace. The nation is not profane, but sacred; not secular, but Divine. The
government derives its sanctions not merely from expedience or convenience, but from
the appointment of God. You know how elaborately this idea is wrought out in the Old
Testament. Jehovah is the actual, almost visible King of the Hebrew commonwealth. He
establishes His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He it is that leads the nation
out of bondage into freedom. No matter who sits upon the throne, at Jerusalem, or in
Samaria, whether it be David or Saul, an Ahab or a Hezekiah, still Jehovah is their true
King. From Him cometh promotion; in His name prophets speak; by Him princes rule,
and kings decree judgment. But some one says, all this may be true of Israel. It is easy
enough to see God’s hand there. But here is our new nineteenth century, where nothing
is sacred, how shall we recognise the Divine? In authorities, chosen as ours are, out of

28. the seething cauldron of our practical politics, how can we feel that the powers that be
are ordained of God? The man who does not see God’s hand in our nation’s past history
has read its records to very small purpose. Upon every shining page rests the finger of
God as truly, if not as visibly, as in Judaea. You may see, if you will, nothing but a happy
combination of chances—a happy chance that placed the fairest portion of the Western
Continent in the hands of the progressive AngloSaxon race; a happy chance that wafted
to our shores the Pilgrims and the Cavaliers, the high-spirited Huguenot, and the thrifty
German. “In the providence of God,” says Charles Sumner—and a truer student of
history never lived—“there are no accidents.” He who sees God’s hand in history at all,
must be blind indeed if he does not see His guiding in our nation’s story. “If the Lord
Himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say, if the Lord Himself had not been
on our side, when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick, when they
were so wrathfully displeased at us.
II. Nor is it only a question of the past: God is now in the nation’s midst. God’s hand is
still leading. Thus the state, in its own place, and for its own work, is as divine as the
Church herself. Nor is this all. Just as individuals are sent into the world with a calling
from God to do some great work, so nations may have a mission. Was not the Hebrew
nation called of God to keep alive in the world the knowledge and the worship of the one
true God? Was not the Greek nation sent by God to spread broadcast its golden wealth of
culture and civilisation? Was not the Roman nation sent to impart its iron strength, its
splendid instinct of law and order to the barbarian hordes of Central and Northern
Europe? Was not the English people chosen to colonise and settle the new worlds, and to
pave the way for this marvellous nineteenth century of ours? Such a mission, such a
calling impose upon each of us a mighty responsibility—a responsibility which not a few
of us are all too willing to shirk These earthly “powers” speak to us of a higher
sovereignty which we must acknowledge. They point us to a “King, eternal, immortal,
invisible,” to whom we all owe allegiance. There is one will that we wish to be done, on
earth as in heaven, in the State as in the Church, in politics as in religion, and that is the
will of Him who rules in righteousness. And now what is this again but to say that
righteousness must rule? For the will of God is the supremely righteous will. Nor is this
all. For our country’s sake, for our King’s sake, let us be good men and true. Thoreau well
says, “It matters not half so much what kind of a vote you drop into the ballot-box once a
year, as what kind of a man you drop out of bed into the street every morning.” (L. R.
Dalrymple.)
Governors and subjects
I. With respect to governors. The apostle declares—
1. That they are ordained of God (verse 1); that their authority is the ordinance of
God (verse 2); that they are the ministers of God (verse 4, 6). Not that these
expressions signify that God had appointed one particular form of government, all
deviations from which are unlawful. There is not the least ground for such an
opinion from history, or the reason of the thing. Can any one imagine that Paul
intended to declare that the Roman emperors, who manifestly usurped and
maintained their authority by force of arms, had their commission immediately from
God? or that he would not have said the same things had the republic continued?
2. That the sole business of all governing power is to consult the good of society by
maintaining peace and virtue in it (verses 3, 4, 6). Governors are not persons exalted
by Heaven to a height above their neighbours, to be arbitrators, at their own

29. pleasures, of the lives and fortunes of their fellow-creatures, and to receive the
servile homage of whole nations, but persons called by the providence of God to a
laborious task; not to live in ease, but to watch day and night for the good of that
society in which they preside. Their office, indeed, is a glorious office; but the glory
of it doth not consist in the outward majesty of the governor, and the servility of the
subject, but in the happiness derived from the labours of the supreme head to all the
members of the body politic. And that governor who contradicts the character here
laid down, who is not a terror to evil works but to good, is not the governor to whom
Paul presses obedience. And much less if he manifestly act contrary to the only end
of his institution. And this may serve to explain yet farther in what sense these
higher powers are from God, viz., as they act agreeably to His will, which is, that they
should promote the good of society, which St. Paul all along supposes them to do.
And consequently, when they do the contrary they cannot be said to be from God, or
to act by His authority.
II. With respect to subjects.
1. The duty of submission and non-resistance is laid down in such absolute terms,
that many have been induced from hence to think that the Christian religion denies
the subject all liberty of redressing grievances. And yet methinks if the apostle had
done nothing but enforced the duty of obedience it would be reasonable to judge
from the nature of the thing and the absurdities of the contrary, that he meant this
only as a general rule rather than to imagine that he should absolutely conclude
whole nations under misery without hopes of redress.
2. But the apostle so explains his own doctrine by the reasons he gives for this
obedience, and the account he gives of the duty of governors, as to leave subjects all
the liberty they can reasonably desire. For though he doth at first press upon them,
in unlimited words, an obedience and non-resistance to the higher powers, yet he
manifestly limits this obedience to such rulers as truly answer the end of their
institution (verses 3-5). As far as they deflect from God’s will, so far they lose their
title to these declarations, so far are they excluded from Paul’s argument. These
persons are the ministers of God for the good of society; therefore they must be
obeyed. But it will not follow from hence that obedience is due to them, if they ruin
the happiness of society. And therefore to oppose them in such cases cannot be to
oppose the authority of God. Nay, tamely to sit still and see the happiness of society
entirely sacrificed to the irregular will of one man seems a greater contradiction to
the will of God than any opposition can be. For it is a tacit consent to the misery of
mankind. Whilst he commands submission, he puts no case of princes acting
contrary to the purpose of their institution, much less of princes who make an
express contract with their people and afterwards break it. Nor doth he mention
anything of a passive submission in such cases, but plainly leaves nations to the
dictates of common sense and the law of self-preservation. But some may say,
Where, then, is the great virtue of submission to governors, if it is to be practised
towards none but such as answer the ends of their institution? But it is easy to reply,
That there is an indispensable duty upon all, subjects as well as others, to regard the
public interest; and if their submission help to destroy and ruin that, their
submission cannot be a virtue. The great objection against this is that it may give
occasion to subjects to oppose their superiors. But a rule is not bad because men may
mistake in the application of it to particular instances, or because evil men may
satisfy their own passions under its supposed sanction. The contrary doctrine we
know by an almost fatal experience may be very much abused. The truth ought not to
be concealed, or to suffer in the opinions of men for the sake of accidental

30. inconvenience. Conclusion: It is highly requisite that all in authority should—
1. Be happy in a public spirit, and a true regard to the public interest.
2. Have a deep sense of religion, of the great importance of virtue, and of the bad
influence and malignity of vice and immorality.
3. Have a great love to justice, and regard to peace.
4. Show a blameless example. (Bp. Hoadley.)
Human magistracy
Note—
I. That human magistracy of some kind or other Is of Divine appointment. Taking the
word “ordained” in the sense of permit, all the governments of the world, good or bad,
aye, all things, even the most sinful, are ordained of God (Dan_4:32; Deu_2:21; Joh_
19:11). But taking the word in the sense of decreed it means that the principle of civil
government is of Divine appointment.
1. Man’s social tendencies indicate this. Some men are royal in their instincts and
powers, and are evidently made to rule; others are servile, feeble in faculty, and made
to obey. There is a vast gradation of instinct and power in human society, and it is an
eternal principle in God’s government that the lesser shall serve the greater.
2. Man’s social exigencies indicate it. Every community, to be kept in order, must
have a recognised head. Hence, man in his most savage state has a chief.
II. That the human magistracy which is of Divine appointment is that which promotes
good and discourages evil. The Divinely appointed rulers of whom the apostle speaks are
not “a terror” to good works, but to “the evil.” They are those who “praise “ the “good”;
those that are “ministers of God for good.” To determine, therefore, what kind of civil
government is really of Divine appointment, and that is to be obeyed, you must ascertain
what is the “good” which it is to promote, and the “evil” which it is to discourage. What
is “good”? Obedience to the Divine will. The standard of virtue is not the decree of an
autocrat, nor public sentiment, even when organised into constitutional law; but the will
of God. “Whether it be right in the sight of God,” etc. The civil government, therefore,
that does not harmonise with this is not the government of which the apostle is
speaking. We may infer—
1. That the infringement of human rights is not in accordance with the will of God,
and therefore not “good.”
2. The promotion of injustice, impurity, and error, is not according to the will of
God, and therefore not “good.” Opposition to governments is sometimes a duty.
Daniel, etc.
III. That the human magistracy which promotes the “good” and discourages the “evil” is
authorised to enforce obedience and support (verse 4). The magistrate is Divinely
authorised to punish transgressors and rebels. But coercion has its rules and limitations.
1. The sword should never be used but from benevolent desires. “The new
commandment” is the law of humanity; nothing can justify its violation. Punishment
should not be inflicted for the sake of giving pain and gratifying revenge, but for the
sake of doing good and serving the criminal.

31. 2. The sword should not be used for the purpose of taking life. The advocates of
capital punishment and war insist that the sword is used here as the emblem of
destruction, whereas it is the emblem of righteous coercion.
IV. That such obedience and support are binding upon all classes of the community.
Disobedience to such a government is—
1. Impious. To resist it is to resist “the ordinance of God.” Rebellion against a
righteous human government is rebellion against God.
2. Self-injurious. A righteous ruler is “the minister of God to thee for good.” He aims
at thy good. To resist him, therefore, is to wrong thyself. Conclusion: This passage
does not teach that we are bound to obey laws that are not righteous, to honour
persons that are not honour-worthy. If we are commanded to honour the king, the
precept implies that the king’s character is worthy of his office. Some kings it is
religious to despise. The obligation of obedience is ever-dependent upon the
righteousness of the command. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Earthly citizenship
(election sermon):—
1. Government is a Divine institution for the preservation of society and the
happiness of mankind. As to the substance,”the powers that be are ordained of God”;
as to the form, they are left to the decision of each country and age, and are”
ordinances of man”; but whether under the name of monarchy, aristocracy, or
democracy, governments equally claim reverence as the depositaries of authority and
the conservators of order.
2. In the duties enumerated in the previous chapter there is this—“He that ruleth (let
him do it) with diligence.” By the British constitution the people are the ultimate
despositaries of power. “Every ordinance of man” which is to be obeyed “for the
Lord’s sake” is such as the people, by their representatives, make it. Every elector is,
therefore, in some measure responsible for the framing of those ordinances, and
should therefore labour “with diligence” that they be in accordance with truth and
justice, for the good of men and the glory of God.
3. There cannot be a greater mistake than that on becoming Christians we escape
from our obligations as citizens. Religion was designed to train us for heaven, not by
unfitting us for the duties of earth, but by enabling us to perform them rightly.
Religion would be an injury to the world if it withdrew the best men from it. True
piety is nurtured and developed, not by avoiding any portion of our duties as men,
but by diligently performing them.
4. Politics is the science and practice of legislation for the public good. Rightly to be
political is the same thing as to promote the welfare of the people and the peace of
the world. Christianity does indeed condemn the bitterness, the factious spirit, the
selfish ambition which have too often disgraced political life; but Christianity,
instead of, on this account, excusing its votaries from their duties as citizens, calls
upon them all the more to sanctify politics by the nobler aspirations and purer
motives of religious faith. What, then, is the duty of a Christian elector?
I. To ascertain who amongst the candidates are, on the whole, most suited for the office
of representative. Not wealth, rank, personal friendship, nor any favour received or

32. hoped for, should determine his choice, but fitness, both by character and opinions, to
promote the public good.
II. To give effect to his conviction by endeavouring to bring his fellow-electors to the
same opinion with himself. But in so doing he will avoid all unfairness in speech and
conduct. As an employer, as a customer, it will never occur to him to urge his appeal. His
only weapon will be rational persuasion. He will never become a mere partisan. Firmly
holding his own opinions, he will do nothing opposed to the meekness and gentleness of
Christ.
III. So quietly and seriously, but promptly and resolutely, tender his vote. He will not
allow personal convenience, indolence, or fear to prevent the discharge of his duty to his
country, and the exercise of that solemn function as one of “God’s ministers” to which he
has been “ordained,” but the opportunity for which so seldom occurs. Conclusion: Let all
of us, then, do our duty to our God and our country.
1. Zealously.
2. Patriotically.
3. Charitably.
4. Prayerfully. (Newman Hall, D.D.)
Human authority
I. Is derived.
II. Is limited.
1. To restrain evil.
2. To encourage good.
III. Is vested with the power of reward and punishment.
IV. Ministers to the general welfare.
V. Demands respect. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The Christian’s political relations
I. The origin and need of civil government. If “the powers that be” (civil government)
“are ordained of God,” we infer that civil society itself is ordained of God. This will be
manifest when we consider—
1. Man’s natural impulses for society. The instincts of our nature dispose us to live in
society, and to seek sympathy and assistance from others. “Solitary confinement” is
one of the most terrible punishments which can be inflicted.
2. Man’s natural position and circumstances. By means of society the race is
preserved, and civilisation developed. If human beings were completely isolated, the
race would degenerate and become extinct. Man needs the aid of civil authority to
protect his life and property from the malice and power of the evilly-disposed.
II. The obligation of obedience to civil authority. In civil society laws are enacted and
governments appointed to enforce the right and put down the wrong. And all rightly

33. disposed persons willingly subject themselves to this authority. This must needs be—
1. As a matter of duty, not of fear only. The fear of punishment is a check upon evil-
doers, and thus, in a measure, prevents lawlessness. With evildoers obedience is a
matter of compulsion or of expediency. But there is another standard, that of duty,
which some take who are not disposed to admit that “the powers that be are
ordained of God.”
2. As a matter of conscience towards God. No human government is infallible. But
the Christian, from love and conscience towards God, yields a cheerful obedience to
“the powers that be,” so long as the civil laws do not conflict with the Divine.
III. The duty of reverence to official dignity.
1. As to our “dues” to the public revenue. The language implies that we are not to
regard the levied rates as gifts to the government, but as debts.
2. As to our respect for official distinction. “Fear to whom fear; honour to whom
honour” (2Pe_2:10). In no society or government shall we find matters exactly
agreeable. But we must remember that the basis of society is mutual forbearance and
self-sacrifice for mutual benefit. Our dislikes, then, should not prevent us from
rendering due reverence to official dignity, as well as to rank, talent, and all true
worth. The whole of the apostle’s teaching shows that we are bound to render
obedience on the ground that government is an “ordinance of God.” But this implies
that the government shall not enact, nor its authorities seek to enforce anything that
would require disobedience to the will of God. Hence we conclude—
1. That this precludes all illegal action against government on the part of Christians.
2. That it permits all legal means for the redress of any real injustice.
3. That the obligation of obedience is ever dependent on the righteousness of the
command. (J. W. Kaye, M.A.)
The effect of religion on a nation’s grandeur
1. Religion secures subordination.
2. Subordination law.
3. Law freedom.
4. Freedom fame.
5. Fame respect and power. (G. Croby, LL.D.)
St. Paul’s respect for Roman law
The warmth with which the apostle speaks of the functions of civil governors may, at
first sight, seem surprising, when we remember that a Helius was in the Praefecture, a
Tigellinus in the Praetorium, a Gessius Florus in the provinces, and a Nero on the
throne. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that the Neronian persecution had
not yet broken out; and that the iniquity of individual emperors and governors, while it
had free rein in every question which affected their greed, ambition, or lust, had not as
yet by any means destroyed the magnificent ideal of Roman law. If there were bad rulers,

34. there were also good ones. A Cicero as well as a Verres had once been provincial
governors; a Barea Soranus as well as a Felix. The Roman government, corrupt as it
often was in special instances, was yet the one grand power which held in check the
anarchic forces which but for its control were “nursing the impatient earthquake.” If now
and then it broke down in minor matters, and more rarely on a large scale, yet the total
area of legal prescriptions was kept unravaged by mischievous injustice. St. Paul had
himself suffered from local tyranny at Philippi, but on the whole, up to this time, he had
some reason to be grateful for the impartiality of Roman law. At Corinth he had been
protected by the disdainful justice of Gallio, at Ephesus by the sensible appeal of the
public secretary; and not long afterwards he owed his life to the soldier-like energy of
Lysias, and the impartial protection of a Festus and even of a Felix. Nay, even at his first
trial his undefended innocence prevailed not only over all the public authority that could
be arrayed against him by Sadducean priests and a hostile Sanhedrin, but even over the
secret influence of an Aliturus and a Poppaea. It is obvious, however, that St. Paul is here
dealing with religious rather than political prejudices. The early Church was deeply
affected by Essene and Ebinotic elements, and St. Paul’s enforcement of the truth that
the civil power derives its authority from God, points to the antithesis that it was not the
mere vassallage of the devil. It was not likely that at Rome there should be any of that
fanaticism which held it unlawful for a few to recognise any other earthly ruler besides
God, and looked on the payment of tribute as a sort of apostasy. It is far more likely that
the apostle is striving to counteract the restless insubordination which might spring
from regarding the civil governor as a spiritual enemy rather than a minister of God for
good. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
Obedience to legal authority
Whilst commanding the allied army in Portugal, the conduct of the native population did
not seem to Wellington to be either becoming or dutiful. “We have enthusiasm in
plenty,” he said, “and plenty of cries of ‘Viva.’ We have illuminations, patriotic songs,
and fetes everywhere. But what we want is, that each in his own station should do his
duty faithfully, and pay implicit obedience to legal authority.”
Law is the shadow of God’s justice
Law is a great and sacred thing. It is nothing less than a shadow upon earth of the justice
of God. The forms which surround it, the rules which govern it, the dignity and honour
which belong to its representatives are all the outworks of a thing in itself entitled to our
reverence. But when the machinery of law is tampered with, as was now the case by
Jezebel, when a false witness or a biassed judge contributes to a result which, if legal, is
not also moral, then law is like an engine off the rails, its remaining force is the exact
measure of its capacity for mischief and for wrong. Then, indeed, if ever, summum jus is
summa injuria. (Canon Liddon.)
Reverence for law
So it is with loyalty, the reverence for order and law incarnated in a man, reverence for
the king, as God’s vicegerent and visible symbol. With their politics I have no sympathy,
but for the loyalty of the old Cavaliers to Charles I have intense admiration. He stood to
them not merely as the man Charles Stuart, but as the embodiment of Law, Order,
Divinity; hence they were willing to lay down all they had for his sake, to peril life and

35. limb in defence of his rights. Who can read the tale of that heroic woman who, when the
life of her beloved queen and mistress was sought, bravely made her own frail white arm
a bolt across the door to guard her from danger, and held it there until the shattered
bone refused longer to obey her will, without saying that she did this, not as friend for
friend, but as subject for queen? If we are not loyal now, it is because loyalty lacks
objects on which to bestow itself, not because the deep perennial feeling of the heart is
less strong than it was of old. (George Dawson.)
Civil government an ordinance of God
It seems very plainly and explicitly taught here, that civil government is an ordinance of
God, and that obedience to our lawful rulers is a Christian duty. We say again, God does
not ordain any particular form of government, but He does ordain government. He does
not say you must be ruled by an emperor, a king, a generalissimo, or a president. But He
does say you must have a ruler and administrators of law. They must exist and
administer in the form best adapted to secure the highest good of the people. God does
not say you must have a king, and “the king can do no wrong.” But He says government
must exist, and be respected and obeyed, so long as it subserves its true end—the general
good. If it fails to do this, you must not run into anarchy and chaos, but wisely and
firmly, in proper ways, reform or revolutionise, and establish a better system, or choose
better men. The Protectorate under Cromwell was a revolutionary measure, but it was
justifiable because the monarchy under Charles had failed to secure the true end of
government—the good of the people. But it was only a temporary measure, and prepared
the way for what came at last, an admirable system of constitutional government, under
which England has steadily and increasingly prospered for two hundred years. (E. P.
Rogers, D.D.)
Romans 13:3-6
For rulers are not a terror to good works.
The duties of rulers and subjects
I. Of rulers.
1. To protect the good.
2. To restrain the evil.
3. To reward merit.
II. Of subjects.
1. To respect authority.
2. To do good.
3. And thereby merit praise. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Do that which is good, and thou shall; have praise of the same.—

36. Conscientiousness
When the Emperor Nicholas was in England, in 1844, industry in Russia could hardly be
said to exist, and the Czar was extremely anxious to introduce machinery of all sorts into
his arsenals, so as to become independent of foreign makers. With this object he visited
a number of large establishments in the Midland Counties and the North; and one
Sunday morning Mr. James Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam hammer, and proprietor
of large works at Patricroft, was much surprised at the appearance in his garden of an
officer in a carriage and a gorgeous uniform, whose chasseur, still more gorgeous than
his master, was sent up to disturb the old gentleman’s Sabbath rest by loudly
announcing, “Prince K—.” The prince himself walked in, smoking a cigarette, and
informed Mr. Nasmyth in good English that the Czar intended to honour the Patricroft
works with a visit on that afternoon. “Indeed! “ replied their owner, “I regret that his
majesty will not see much, as it is Sunday.” “But it would be easy,” rejoined the aide-de-
camp, coolly helping himself to a bon-bon which his chasseur handed him out of a
handsome box, “to start the works for a few hours. Mr. Nasmyth might be sure of his
majesty’s favour.” “Sir,” replied Mr. Nasmyth, “the favour of my God is more important
to me than that of your master. And if I were inclined to break the Sabbath for him, my
men would not. “Would you not start the works for Queen Victoria on Sunday?” asked
the astonished aide-de-camp. “Her Gracious Majesty,” replied the old Briton, “would
never suggest such a thing.” The Czar did not visit Patricroft.
For he is a minister of God to thee for good.—
The ministry of civil rulers
The civil ruler is—
I. A minister of God.
1. Paul does not say he ought to be so, or it would be well if he would consent to be
so, but that “he is.” It is not in his pleasure not to be so. He must be so, if he rebel
against it ever so fiercely. Nero’s will might be devilish; every power which he
wielded was Divine. He had been appointed to rule the world which he tormented by
Him who loved that world.
2. How would such a doctrine affect the Roman Christians? They could not confound
vital power with those outside accidents of it which our vulgar nature prompts us to
admire when they recollected from whom it came, and they must have hated every
wanton exercise of it. The effect of regarding Nero as a minister of God was, no
doubt, to make them patient under his government, and afraid to engage in any mad
schemes for subverting it. But this faith gave strength to their cries that the earth
might be delivered from all her oppressors, assured them that those cries would not
be in vain, and made them welcome their own sufferings as steps towards the
redemption.
3. Those who attempt to find apologies for tyranny in Scripture, sometimes ask, “If
Nero’s power was ordained by God, what subjects can pretend that the powers which
are over them have some lower origin?” I answer, “Certainly none.” And subjects
would be most unwise if they wished otherwise. For it imports that every power is a
trust, and implies responsibility to a judge whom the greatest criminal cannot
escape. Read Roman history in the light of St. Paul’s sentence. Every sting of
conscience which visited Nero that night when he knew himself to be his mother’s
murderer was a message to him, “Thou art God’s minister, and thou hast used His
“sword against thy own flesh and blood.” The assassin by whom he fell at last was

37. saying, “Thou art God’s minister; and so am I, guilty like thyself, but ordained to call
thee to His judgment-seat.”
4. Surely, if rulers and people believed this, it would be something more than the
notion that they may be brought to the bar of “public opinion.” But let those who
confess the power of public opinion ask themselves whether it requires any more
credulity to acknowledge the presence of a living, personal ruler?
II. A minister of God to thee.
1. A strange assertion! A minister of God to the Roman world the emperor might be,
however little he fulfilled his ministry. But a minister of God to some individual
member of the Roman Church, who must have counted it the best privilege of his
obscurity that the emperor would never hear of him, never inquire after him, how
could he be such to that man? In this way: When a man was taken into the Christian
Church, he contracted affinities and obligations to Jew and Greek, barbarian and
Scythian, bond and free. But he might easily forget these, and fancy that the Church
was an isolated body. The fact of being under a common civil ruler deepened and
expanded the doctrine. Nor was the benefit destroyed by the character of the ruler. If
he was an oppressor, there was more necessity of falling back on the Source from
which his authority proceeded, in prayer that His will might be done on earth as it is
in heaven.
2. But I am far more desirous to assert the truth in reference to those rulers who
confess their calling and try to fulfil it. So far as they contribute to the health and
growth of the body politic, so far they must be ministers of God to each one of us
personally. For are they not quickening our hearts and hopes, and enabling us to
enter more truly the kingdom of God? It is impossible that all true human rule
should not be like the Divine rule in this, that it is most minute when it is most
comprehensive; that it calls for the most personal loyalty when it is most generally
even and just.
III. “A minister of God to thee for good.”
1. St. Paul writes this to men who might, in a short time, be lighting the city as
torches to cover the guilt of him who set it on fire. Well! and was he not, and was not
Charles IX in France, and Philip II in the Netherlands? Were they not ministers of
God for good to those whom they sent beyond the reach of their crimes, to cry
beneath the altar for the day when the earth should no more conceal her blood or
cover her slain? And it will be known, some day, to how many men, governments the
most accursed have been ministers of good, by leading them from trifling to
earnestness, by changing them from reckless plotters into self-denying patriots, by
turning their atheism or devil-worship into a grounded faith in the God of Truth.
Many such, I fear, will rise up in judgment against those who live in happier
circumstances.
2. But the apostle was enabled to proclaim this principle on other grounds. As he
believed Christ to be the King of men, he could not help believing that all human
society was organised according to the law which He embodied. “The Chief of all is
the servant of all.” He could not doubt that if the emperor believed this he would be a
blessing to the world; that he was a curse to it because he thought the world was to
minister to him, and not he to it. He could not doubt that every Christian ought to
maintain the truth which Nero set at naught, and that if he did, it would prove itself
in his case—Nero would be a minister of God for good to him.

38. 3. How did the faith that there is a constitution for nations, which kings did not
create, work itself into the heart of modern Europe? When a mediator between God
and man is rejected, you must have an absolute caliph or sultan, and a government
carried on by mere officials; you cannot have the confession of a relationship
between the sovereign and his subjects, involving mutual obligation. This is involved
in the faith of a Son of God and a Son of Man. Whatever has suffocated that faith—be
it ecclesiastical pretension, or revolt against that pretension, be it the worship of
money, or the worship of a tyrant instead of a father—undermines constitutional
liberty. To bring forth that faith in its fulness before the nations which nominally
confess it, is to help them to break their political fetters. (F. D. Maurice, M.A.)
The functions of the ruler
I. To maintain law and order.
1. As the minister of God.
2. For the benefit of man.
II. To punish crime.
1. For this purpose he is invested with the power of life and death.
2. Must use it righteously.
3. As responsible to God.
4. For the suppression of evil. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The relative duties of rulers and subjects
I. The nature of civil government.
1. The events of the seventeenth century, which changed the form of government and
placed its institutions on a new footing, naturally gave rise to searching inquiries into
the origin of lawful authority.
(1) Filmer maintained that kings had a Divine hereditary right to their thrones in
virtue of Adam’s absolute and arbitrary dominion over his offspring. But we read
of no grant of any such dominion which, had it existed, would have rendered
slavery coeval with the first human family, and would nullify the claims of all
monarchs excepting the true heir of Adam, if he could be found.
(2) Sidney and Locke endeavoured to base the relation between rulers and
subjects on the supposition that an agreement was originally entered into by the
first founders of a state, which involved a tacit compact between all succeeding
members of it. But we have no evidence of any such social compact having ever
been made.
(3) It seems more satisfactory to regard government as arising from the nature
of man, though still having its first elements in the relation between the head of a
family and the children. The idea of authority on the one hand, and of
submission on the other, thus gained, would easily prepare the way for the union
of a number of families under one head.

39. 2. Reason cannot fail to discern the importance cf civil government to save society
from a disorder which must soon have issued in its dissolution, if not in the
destruction of the very race itself. Accordingly, in the Scriptures, we find civil
government very clearly recognised as a Divine institution; and the general
obligation to obedience is enforced under penalty of the consequences of resisting an
ordinance of God. But though God has given His own sanction to the institution we
have no evidence that any one particular form has been prescribed, or even that
uniformity in this respect would be a good. When it is said, “the powers that be are
ordained of God,” the meaning is, that as government is designed for the security
and happiness of society, every government, whatsoever its form, which in any
particular country promotes this end, is agreeable to the will of God. Until Saul
reigned, the human form of the theocratic government had been substantially a sort
of republic. The monarchy, however, after it became established, received the Divine
sanction.
II. The ties which severally attach to the governing power and the governed.
1. The duties of rulers.
(1) To remember their responsibility to God. “He that ruleth over men must be
just, ruling in the fear of God.” When it is considered that the happiness of
millions is entrusted to them, how deeply should they feel that they have a
“Master in heaven!”
(2) To act exclusively for the public good. Not only does the text describe the civil
ruler as a “minister of God for good,” but pagan sages; Aristotle defines a king as
“one who governs for the good and profit of his people, and not for his own
ends.” The doctrine that a ruler has a right to hold power merely for his own sake
is a monstrous perversion of the useful principle of hereditary or vested right.
Happily, this doctrine has been repudiated in our own country by the revolution
of 1688. Memorable examples of the same principle have occurred in Trance and
Belgium.
(3) To exercise their high function so as to make the civil government a moral
power and influence. A military despotism may be obeyed because it cannot be
resisted; a government which seeks to gain its ends chiefly by a system of
espionage; bribing may be equally dreaded, but such governments will never be
respected.
(4) To create the persuasion of general good and benevolent intention on their
part. Rulers may often commit errors, but these will be viewed patiently if
uprightness of intention is manifest; but not the most splendid talents nor even
great services will compensate for the want of sincerity. Not, however, that a
statesman may not modify his opinions from conviction; but how many pledges
have been made on the hustings only to be broken when some prospect has
dazzled the vision! Either let such pledges never be made, or let them be kept, or
let those who cannot keep them retire from the scene. This uprightness of
intention must be shown especially in appointments to places of trust and profit.
(5) To be well informed on the main topics with which they are called to deal.
Want of enlarged views and ignorance of men and things may lead to reckless
and sudden changes for which the mind of a nation is not prepared, and indeed
has often produced revolutions.
(6) To see that the laws are impartial, and that they are impartially administered.

40. It is the dictate, both of Scripture and of reason, that there should not be one law
for the rich and another for the poor. The same principle of impartiality might be
applied to the economy of trade, of education, and even of religion.
(7) To set a good example. If rulers are profligate, what readier way to the
demoralisation of a people! The morals of the higher classes tend to become
more and more an index to those of the people.
(8) To be patriotic. His country claims the statesman’s highest aims and best
services. He should be, then, a man of peace. Of all the calamities that can befal
nations, war is by far the greatest. Peace furnishes upright and wise rulers the
opportunity of domestic improvement.
2. The duties of subjects.
(1) To obey the laws, or else the very design of civil government and the plain
injunctions of Scripture go for nothing. Of course we ought to “obey God rather
than men,” but we should remember that this was said by those who, as inspired
men, could not mistake as to what is obedience to God. Before, therefore, we
resist the ordinance of man, let us be sure that it really does clash with the plain
ordinance of God. The supremacy of the law implies that the subject surrenders
the right of redressing his private wrongs to the political society of which he is a
member, otherwise offences would often not be punished at all, for the aggressor
might be the stronger; or, if not, the aggressor might be punished from revenge.
Besides, one retaliation would lead to another, and there would be no end to this
reciprocal brute force, but in the destruction of one or both of the parties. Still it
must be admitted that if a robber or a murderer were to attack us we should
certainly be justified in repelling him, in self-defence, because we cannot at the
moment command the protection of society.
(2) To honour his rulers, but not by insincere flattery, and servile fawning for the
sake of advantage. To reverence the Sovereign, in whom the dignity and power of
the state is embodied, is a natural sentiment as well as a religious duty; while
“despising government” is strongly condemned (2Pe_2:10). Still as it would be
irrational to suppose that rulers are infallible, it cannot be wrong, on certain
occasions, to find fault with their public acts. Our Saviour and the apostles did
so, but censures should be tempered with the recollection that nothing is more
easy than to sit in judgment on men’s motives only because we ourselves may be
of a different opinion. Much more has been effected towards the removal of bad
laws by sober and persevering remonstrance than by unmeasured abuse. The
Christian law of courtesy has as much claim to operation here as in any of the
other intercourses of life.
(3) To pray for them. In thus doing we are praying for the community at large,
and for the whole world, the interests of which are affected by the international
measures of rulers, and especially of our own, whose policy is felt over the globe.
(4) To pay the taxes. The machine of government must always, in a state of
society like our own, be expensive; but the complaint respecting taxation has too
often been well- grounded in consequence of the self-interest and extravagance of
rulers themselves. Again; a tax may have a wrong object, or it may be so levied as
to bear disproportionably on the relative means of those who have to pay it. But
still, when it is imposed constitutionally, it must be submitted to.
(5) To do all in their power to exert a salutary influence over their rulers, so as to

41. render the machine of government as perfect an instrument as possible for
promoting the freedom and happiness of the governed. If rulers ever forget this
high and religious destination and enact tyrannical laws, and if no milder
measures avail to remedy intolerable oppressions, subjects are justified in
resisting these encroachments. But usually the best and most direct means of
exercising a salutary influence on public affairs is the election of such men for
members of parliament as are likely, from their character and principles, to seek
the general good. Hence it is one of the most incumbent duties of subjects to use
uprightly and with an enlightened mind the elective franchise. Few notions have
less foundation in reason, or in Scripture, than that “religion has nothing to do
with politics.” That a passion for party politics may injure the spirit of religion is
not to be doubted; but this only proves that what is even obligatory may be
engaged in with a wrong state of mind, and thus become evil. (J. Hoppus, LL.D.)
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in
vain—
Duty of the magistrate
I. We must place the sword and fasten it, too, in its proper place, the hand of the
magistrate.
1. God giveth the power, the magistrate hath it: God lendeth the sword, the
magistrate bears it. And though ambition hath presented this power under divers
forms of popularity, aristocracy, and monarchy, yet the commission and seal is still
the same. The king’s broad seal, what is it? The matter is wax; a small piece of money
will buy a greater quantity: but having the image and superscription of my prince, it
is either my pardon, or my liberty, or my charter, or my possessions. So the
magistrate, what is he? My fellow, dust and ashes, nay, a sinful man. And yet, as “the
minister of God,” he is sealed, and hath the image and superscription of the Deity.
2. But though God hath conveyed His power, yet He hath not done it to every man
upon the same terms; not to Joab the captain as to David the king; not to Shaphan
the chanceller as to Josiah on the throne; not to Gallio the deputy as to Caesar the
emperor; not to the under-officers as to the judge; not to the judge as to the king. No
private man may be a swordsman. If Peterer will be drawing to lop off an ear he must
hear, “They that use the sword,” etc. (Mat_26:52).
3. As God hath given the sword to the magistrate, so hath He fastened it to his hand.
No discontent shall move it, no argument stir it, no murmuring sheath it; no time, no
calling, no liberty free or privilege from the power of it. Behold St. Paul here,
upholding that sword which he was to feel, adoring that power he sunk under, and
bowing to majesty when the throne was Nero’s.
II. We must now place the “non frustra” upon the sword. “Wherefore the sword?
wherefore authority?” “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and
honesty” (1Ti_2:2); that every man may sit under his own vine, and under his own fig-
tree; that the poor man may keep his lamb, and the jawbone of the oppressor be broken;
that peace may shadow the commonwealth and plenty crown it. Authority is not only
“not in vain,” but “profitable” and necessary. God could have governed us without a
sword, but it was not good for men to be so governed. We love and fear at a distance.
And as the object is either nigh or remote, so it either affects or frights us. “We fear man

42. more than God,” and the shaking of his whip than the scorpions of a Deity.
1. The magistrate, like God Himself, “governs us by that which is adverse to us,”
curbeth the transgressor by the execution of penal laws.
2. No magistrate doth simply will the affliction of the offender, or punish only to
show his authority, but for the amendment of the offender and the peace of the
commonwealth. You who are invested with this power remember the end.
Remember you were placed with a sword to pursue the wicked, to run after the
oppressor, and take the prey out of his mouth. And in doing this you defend and
safeguard the innocent. The death of one murderer may save a thousand lives. The
neglect hereof heaps injury upon injury.
(1) The first lights upon God Himself, of whose Divine power this power is a very
beam. By injustice men undervalue Him, and put Him below His vassal, as if His
omnipotency were weaker than man, His honour cheaper than a fee, heaven at a
lower price than a bribe, and Christ Himself not worth forty pieces of silver.
(2) From God the injury descends to the commonwealth. It brings in that which
it should cast out. Sin unpunished makes a greater breach than sin committed.
For adultery, murder, drunkenness, deceit, may give the blow, but injustice
wounds.
(3) Many times the injury falls upon the offender, whose greatest punishment it
is that he is so much wronged as to be befriended, and so much favoured as to be
unpunished.
(4) But the wrong rests and dwells in the magistrate, who in a manner abjures
his office, degrades himself by his connivance, and makes the sword less terrible
by not using it; the not executing the law upon the greatest working a secret and
reserved contempt thereof in the meanest. (A. Farindon, D.D.)
Mistaken clemency in courts of justice
Mirabeau once said, “We live in an age where wrong constantly triumphs over right, and
where justice itself is a lie.” There can be no greater curse to a nation than a corrupt
judge and a perjured juror, and the Bible distinctly declares that God will call all such to
a terrible account. It has ever been the case that where wholesome and just laws have
failed to be strictly administered lawlessness and crime have abounded. Mercy to a great
criminal often means cruelty and injustice to the people. This mistaken clemency leads
to serious evils.
1. It confuses the public conscience as to the distinction between right and wrong.
2. It undermines respect for law and rulers.
3. It tends to anarchy, mob, and lynch law.
4. It jeopardises the securities and rights of society, and is subversive of morality and
order. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The sword the symbol of righteous authority
The sword is not only the breaker, it is more constantly the preserver of national peace.

43. Physical force in quiescence is like a sentinel, guarding our liberties and our laws. The
magistrate, as well as the soldier, bears not the sword in vain. Though it be seldom
drawn from its sheath, it is the commanding symbol of righteous authority. (E. Johnson,
M.A.)
Wherefore ye must needs be subject … for conscience’ sake.—
The Christian’s subjection to the civil authority is
I. Necessary. Because—
1. It is a Divine ordinance.
2. Essential to the general good.
II. Obliging.
1. Not only for wrath,
2. But conscience’ sake.
III. Complete. Because it is—
1. Willing.
2. Sincere.
3. Conscientious. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Subjection for conscience’ sake
Our notions about public duty are low altogether, because we often look upon civil
society either as a matter of mutual convenience only 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 as Christ has ennobled and sanctified the dearest of our domestic
relations, that of marriage, by comparing it to the tender and affectionate care with
which He watches over those who are united in one body to Him as the Head, so are our
public relations raised by being equally connected with the service of our Lord. Laws and
governments are His ordinance, just as marriage is His ordinance, or the relations
between parents and their children. They are His ordinance, because He knew that
without them we should be in a state hardly better than that of beasts; because He willed
that some image of His own just government, however faint, should exist in the world;
some power that should put down the most violent forms of evil, even though it could
not touch those which lurk within the heart, nor reward the virtue of the good. And
hence “laws are entitled to our obedience, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’
sake; that is, not only because we may incur a penalty if we disobey them, but because,
whether we do or no, we are certainly, by disobeying them, doing that which is
displeasing in the sight of God.” (T. Arnold, D.D.)
For this cause pay ye tribute also.
Why shall we pay taxes

44. ?—Because—
1. Government must be supported.
2. The governor as well as the labourer is worthy of his hire.
3. The governor is God’s minister.
4. It is a conscientious duty. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Render therefore to all their dues.—We owe—
I. To god—
1. Fear (Mat_10:28). By reason of—
(1) His sovereignty (Mal_1:6).
(2) His justice.
(3) His power (Jer_5:22).
2. Love (Deu_6:5); for—
(1) His excellency in Himself (Son_5:16).
(2) His love to us (1Jn_4:10-11).
3. Desires (Psa_73:25). Because He is—
(1) The ocean of happiness in Himself (Mat_19:17).
(2) The fountain of it to us (Psa_36:9).
4. Faith in what He saith (1Jn_5:10).
(1) Because of His own veracity (Heb_6:18).
(2) The certainty of the revelations confirmed by miracles (2Pe_1:18-19).
5. Trust on what He promises (Pro_3:5; Rom_4:20). Because of—
(1) His freedom in making them.
(2) His faithfulness in keeping them (Deu_7:9).
6. Thankfulness (1Th_5:18). Because—
(1) We are unworthy of any mercy (Gen_32:10).
(2) It is all we can return (Mic_6:8).
7. Obedience (1Sa_15:22).
(1) Which should be—
(a) Sincere (Rom_6:17).
(b) Universal (Luk_1:6; Psa_119:6).
(c) Constant (Luk_1:75).
(2) This we owe, by reason of our—
(a) Creation.

45. (b) Preservation (Act_17:28).
(c) Redemption (1Co_6:20).
(d) Vow in baptism.
(e) Our profession of the Christian religion (2Ti_2:19).
8. Honour and adoration (Mal_1:6).
(1) Of His wisdom (Rom_11:33).
(2) Omniscience (Psa_147:5).
(3). Omnipresence (Psa_139:5; Psa 139:7).
(4) Omnipotence (Mat_19:26).
(5) Mercy (Exo_34:6).
(6) Justice.
(7) Eternity (Exo_3:14).
9. Then render unto God His dues. Consider—
(1) Otherwise you rob God (Mal_3:8).
(2) You rob yourselves, your happiness consisting in obeying God. You rob
yourselves—
(a) Of the comforts of a good conscience (2Co_1:12).
(b) Of joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom_14:17).
(c) Of the favour of God (Isa_59:2).
(d) Of a blessing here (Deu_28:1).
(e) Of happiness hereafter (Heb_7:14).
(3) By paying Him His due you secure yourselves—
(a) From present curses (Mal_2:2; chap. 8:28).
(b) Future torments (2Th_1:8-9).
(4) He will call you to account (2Co_5:10).
(5) Render His due, and He will render to you His promise in heaven (Mat_
25:46).
II. To men.
1. Superiors, civil, ecclesiastical, economical.
(1) Subjection (Rom_5:1; Tit_3:1).
(2) Tribute (Mat_17:24-27).
(3) Custom.
(a) We ought to have a care of the public good.
(b) It is a debt of gratitude for the benefits we receive from the magistrate.
(c) A debt of justice for his trouble in the management of public affairs

46. (Rom_13:6).
(4) Fear (Pro_24:21).
(5) Honour (1Pe_2:17).
(a) So as to acknowledge them to be ordained of God.
(b) Love them for their office sake.
(c) Be thankful for the benefits we receive from them.
(d) Fidelity and allegiance (2Sa_20:2).
(e) Entertain no ill thoughts of his person or actions (Ecc_10:20).
2. Inferiors (Job_31:13-15).
(1) Humility and respect (Php_2:3).
(2) Charity and relief (1Ti_6:17; Job_31:16-21). Consider—
(a) He that pities the poor, lends to God (Pro_19:17).
(b) This is the only way to lay up our treasures in heaven (Mat_6:19-20).
III. To all.
1. Love (verse 8).
(1) This is Christ’s special command (Joh_13:34).
(2) Without this we have no love for God (1Jn_4:20-21).
2. Honour (1Pe_2:17). Because—
(1) None but excel us in some things (Php_2:3).
(2) All are made in the image of God (Gen_1:26).
(3) We are all professors of the Christian religion (Mar_9:41; 1Pe_3:7).
3. Charitable thoughts (1Co_13:5).
(1) We know not others’ hearts (1Co_2:11).
(2) Nor God’s intentions towards them (Jas_4:12).
4. Do good to all (Gal_6:10).
(1) Hereby we imitate God (Mat_5:44-45).
(2) Give glory to God (Mat_5:16).
5. Speak well of all (Jas_4:11).
6. Pray for all (1Ti_2:1; Mat_5:44), for their—
(1) Temporal good.
(2) Spiritual (1Ti_2:4).
7. Be just and honest to all (Mat_7:12; 1Th_4:6); otherwise, if we defraud others, we
can get no good by it (Pro_10:22), but much hurt (Hag_1:6).
8. Render to all their dues. Consider—
(1) Unless we render them to men we cannot to God.

47. (2) Unless we do this we sin against the very light of nature.
(3) God will bring us into judgment for all unjust dealings. (Bp. Beveridge.)
Our debts
It is one degree of thrift to bring our debts into as few hands as we can. Our debt here we
cannot bring into fewer than these three:
I. Our debts to God. Consider them to be our sins, and we dare not come into reckoning
with Him, but we discharge ourselves entirely on our Surety, Christ; but yet of that debt
we must pay an acknowledgment, an interest, as it were, of praise for all we would have
and prayer for all we would have.
II. Our debts to man. Our creditors are—
1. Persons above us. To these we owe in matter of substance, tribute, and custom;
and in matter of ceremony, fear, and honour.
2. Persons below us to whom we owe counsel to direct them and relief in compassion
of their sufferings.
III. Our debts to ourselves.
1. Some of these are to be tendered at noon, i.e., to be paid in our best strength and
prosperity in the course of our lives.
2. Others are to be tendered at night at our deaths.
Conclusion: Render therefore to all their dues.
1. For your debt to God we bring you to Church. This is no place to arrest in, but yet
the Spirit of God calls upon you for these debts. Praise Him in His holy place, and
pray to Him in His house, which is the house of prayer.
2. For your debts to man we send you to court to pay those owing to superiors; to
hospitals and prisons to pay those owing to inferiors. And though courts and prisons
be illpaying places, yet pay your debts of substance and ceremony, of tribute and
honour, at court; and your debts of counsel and relief to those who need them in the
darkest corners.
3. For your debts to yourselves, make even with yourselves all the way in your lives,
lest your payment prove too heavy, and you break, and your hearts break when you
come to see that you cannot do that upon your death bed. (J. Donne, D.D.)
The rights of the ruler
are here—
I. Defined.
1. Support.
2. Submission.
3. Respect.

48. II. Enforced.
1. As due.
2. As recognised by God.
3. As imperative on all Christians. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom.—
Tribute and custom
There is some difficulty about the distinctive signification of φόρος (tribute), and τέλος
(custom). By some the former is regarded as a tax upon land; by others, as upon
property generally, whether movable or immovable. Those critics who give to φόρος the
wider signification, limit τέλος to a capitation tax; and those who confine φόρος to a tax
upon land give τέλος a larger meaning, as signifying a tax upon merchandise as well as
upon persons. Judging from the apostle’s use of the word, φόρος was the general term
for all contributions, and was used in the same way that the word “taxes” is sometimes
largely used; and in its limited sense it applies to all burdens upon landed or personal
property; while τέλος was a capitation tax which Christ told Peter to pay for himself and
his Lord. (J. Knight.)
Honour to whom honour.—
Honour to whom honour is due
Lord Dartmouth is the person to whom Newton’s Letters “in the Cardiphonia” to a
Nobleman, are addressed, and to whom Cowper alludes, “And one that wears a coronet
and prays.” It is said that after the prince came to the throne, on a public day Lord
Dartmouth appeared at the levee, when one of the attendant noblemen said, “I’ll bet
Dartmouth has been at prayer to-day.” “Yes, and please your majesty,” said Lord
Dartmouth, “I thought it right first to pay my duty to my God and then to my king.”
“Well said, Dartmouth,” replied his majesty, “and like yourself.” (Scottish Christian
Herald.)
EBC, "CHRISTIAN DUTY; IN CIVIL LIFE AND OTHERWISE:
A NEW topic now emerges, distinct, yet in close and natural connection. We have been
listening to precepts for personal and social life, all rooted in that inmost characteristic
of Christian morals, self-surrender, self-submission to God. Loyalty to others in the Lord
has been the theme. In the circles of home, of friendship, of the Church; in the open field
of intercourse with men in general, whose personal enmity or religious persecution was
so likely to cross the path-in all these regions the Christian was to act on the principle of
supernatural submission, as the sure way to spiritual victory.
The same principle is now carried into his relations with the State. As a Christian, he
does not cease to be a citizen, to be a subject. His deliverance from the death sentence of
the Law of God only binds him, in his Lord’s name, to a loyal fidelity to human statute;

49. limited only by the case where such statute may really contradict the supreme divine law.
The disciple of Christ, as such, while his whole being has received an emancipation
unknown elsewhere, is to be the faithful subject of the Emperor, the orderly inhabitant
of his quarter in the City, the punctual taxpayer, the ready giver of not a servile yet a
genuine deference to the representatives and ministers of human authority.
This is he to do for reasons both general and special. In general, it is his Christian duty
rather to submit than otherwise, where conscience toward God is not in the question.
Not weakly, but meekly, he is to yield rather than resist in all his intercourse purely
personal, with men; and therefore with the officials of order, as men. But in particular
also, he is to understand that civil order is not only a desirable thing, but divine; it is the
will of God for the social Race made in His Image. In the abstract, this is absolutely so;
civil order is a God-given law, as truly as the most explicit precepts of the Decalogue, in
whose Second Table it is so plainly implied all along. And in the concrete, the civil order
under which the Christian finds himself to be is to be regarded as a real instance of this
great principle. It is quite sure to be imperfect, because it is necessarily mediated
through human minds and wills. Very possibly it may be gravely distorted into a system
seriously oppressive of the individual life. As a fact, the supreme magistrate for the
Roman Christians in the year 58 was a dissolute young man, intoxicated by the discovery
that he might do almost entirely as he pleased with the lives around him; by no defect,
however, in the idea and purpose of Roman law, but by fault of the degenerate world of
the day. Yet civil authority, even with a Nero at its head, was still in principle a thing
divine. And the Christian’s attitude to it was to be always that of a willingness, a purpose,
to obey; an absence of the resistance whose motive lies in self-assertion. Most assuredly
his attitude was not to be that of the revolutionist, who looks upon the State as a sort of
belligerent power, against which he, alone or in company, openly or in the dark, is free to
carry on a campaign. Under even heavy pressure the Christian is still to remember that
civil government is, in its principle, "of God." He is to reverence the Institution in its
idea. He is to regard its actual officers, whatever their personal faults, as so far dignified
by the Institution that their governing work is to be considered always first in the light of
the Institution. The most imperfect, even the most erring, administration of civil order is
still a thing to be respected before it is criticised. In its principle, it is a "terror not to
good works, but to the evil."
It hardly needs elaborate remark to show that such a precept, little as it may accord with
many popular political cries of our time, means anything in the Christian but a political
servility, or an indifference on his part to political wrong in the actual course of
government. The religion which invites every man to stand face to face with God in
Christ. to go straight to the Eternal, knowing no intermediary but His Son, and no
ultimate authority but His Scripture, for the certainties of the soul, for peace of
conscience, for dominion over evil in himself and in the world, and for more than
deliverance from the fear of death, is no friend to the tyrants of mankind. We have seen
how, by enthroning Christ in the heart, it inculcates a noble inward submissiveness. But
from another point of view it equally, and mightily, develops the noblest sort of
individualism. It lifts man to a sublime independence of his surroundings, by joining
him direct to God in Christ, by making him the Friend of God. No wonder then that, in
the course of history, Christianity, that is to say the Christianity of the Apostles, of the
Scriptures, has been the invincible ally of personal conscience and political liberty, the
liberty which is the opposite alike of license and of tyranny. It is Christianity which has
taught men calmly to die, in face of a persecuting Empire, or of whatever other giant
human force, rather than do wrong at its bidding. It is Christianity which has lifted
innumerable souls to stand upright in solitary protest for truth and against falsehood,

50. when every form of governmental authority has been against them. It was the student of
St. Paul who, alone before the great Diet, uttering no denunciation, temperate and
respectful in his whole bearing, was yet found immovable by Pope and Emperor: "I can
not otherwise: so help me God." We may be sure that if the world shuts the Bible it will
only the sooner revert, under whatever type of government, to essential despotism,
whether it be the despotism of the master, or that of the man. The "individual" indeed
will "wither." The Autocrat will find no purely independent spirits in his path. And what
then shall call itself, however loudly, "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," will be found at last,
where the Bible is unknown, to be the remorseless despot of the personality, and of the
home.
It is Christianity which has peacefully and securely freed the slave, and has restored
woman to her true place by the side of man. But then, Christianity has done all this in a
way of its own. It has never flattered the oppressed, nor inflamed them. It has told
impartial truth to them, and to their oppressors. One of the least hopeful phenomena of
present political life is the adulation (it cannot be called by another name) too frequently
offered to the working classes by their leaders, or by those who ask their suffrages. A
flattery as gross as any ever accepted by complacent monarchs is almost all that is now
heard about themselves by the new master section of the State. This is not Christianity,
but its parody. The Gospel tells uncompromising truth to the rich, but also to the poor.
Even in the presence of pagan slavery it laid the law of duty on the slave, as well as on his
master. It. bade the slave consider his obligations rather than his rights; while it said the
same, precisely, and more at length, and more urgently, to his lord. So it at once avoided
revolution and sowed the living seed of immense, and salutary, and ever-developing
reforms. The doctrine of spiritual equality, and spiritual connection, secured in Christ,
came into the world as the guarantee for the whole social and political system of the
truest ultimate political liberty. For it equally chastened and developed the individual, in
relation to the life around him.
Serious questions for practical casuistry may be raised, of course, from this passage. Is
resistance to a cruel despotism never permissible to the Christian? In a time of
revolution, when power wrestles with power, which power is the Christian to regard as
"ordained of God"? It may be sufficient to reply to the former question that, almost self-
evidently, the absolute principles of a passage like this take for granted some balance
and modification by concurrent principles. Read without any such reserve, St. Paul
leaves here no alternative, under any circumstances, to submission. But he certainly did
not mean to say that the Christian must submit to an imperial order to sacrifice to the
Roman gods. It seems to follow that the letter of the precept does not pronounce it
inconceivable that a Christian, under circumstances which leave his action unselfish,
truthful, the issue not of impatience, but of conviction, might be justified in positive
resistance; such resistance as was offered to oppression by the Huguenots of the
Cevennes, and by the Alpine Vaudois before them. But history adds its witness to the
warnings of St. Paul, and of his Master, that almost inevitably it goes ill in the highest
respects with saints who "take the sword," and that the purest victories for freedom are
won by those who "endure grief, suffering wrongfully," while they witness for right and
Christ before their oppressors. The Protestant pastors of Southern France won a nobler
victory than any won by Jean Cavalier in the field of battle when, at the risk of their lives,
they met in the woods to draw up a solemn document of loyalty to Louis XV; informing
him that their injunction to their flocks always was, and always would be, "Fear God,
honour the King."
Meanwhile Godet, in some admirable notes on this passage, remarks that it leaves the
Christian not only not bound to aid an oppressive government by active cooperation, but

51. amply free to witness aloud against its wrong; and that his "submissive but firm conduct
is itself a homage to the inviolability of authority. Experience proves that it is in this way
all tyrannies have been morally broken, and all true progress in the history of humanity
effected."
What the servant of God should do with his allegiance at a revolutionary crisis is a grave
question for any whom it may unhappily concern. Thomas Scott, in a useful note on our
passage, remarks, that perhaps nothing involves greater difficulties, in very many
instances, than to ascertain to whom the authority justly belongs Submission in all
things lawful to the existing authorities’ is our duty at all times and in all cases; though
in civil convulsions there may frequently be a difficulty in determining which are "the
existing authorities." In such cases "the Christian," says Godet, "will submit to the new
power as soon as the resistance of the old shall have ceased. In the actual state of matters
he will recognise the manifestation of God’s will, and will take no part in any reactionary
plot."
As regards the problem of forms or types of government, it seems clear that the Apostle
lays no bond of conscience on the Christian. Both in the Old Testament and in the New a
just monarchy appears to be the ideal. But our Epistle says that "there is no power but of
God." In St. Paul’s time the Roman Empire was in theory, as much as ever, a republic,
and in fact a personal monarchy. In this question, as in so many others of the outward
framework of human life, the Gospel is liberal in its applications, while it is, in the
noblest sense, conservative in principle.
We close our preparatory comments, and proceed to the text, with the general
recollection that in this brief paragraph we see and touch as it were the cornerstone of
civil order. One side of the angle is the indefeasible duty, for the Christian citizen, of
reverence for law, of remembrance of the religious aspect of even secular government.
The other side is the memento to the ruler, to the authority, that God throws His shield
over the claims of the State only because authority was instituted not for selfish, but for
social ends, so that it belies itself if it is not used for the good of man.
Let every soul, every person, who has "presented his body a living sacrifice," be
submissive to the ruling authorities; manifestly, from the context, the authorities of the
state. For there is no authority except by God; but the existing authorities have been
appointed by God. That is, the imperium of the King Eternal is absolutely reserved; an
authority not sanctioned by Him is nothing; man is no independent source of power and
law. But then, it has pleased God so to order human life and history, that His will in this
matter is expressed, from time to time, in and through the actual constitution of the
state. So that the opponent of the authority withstands the ordinance of God, not merely
that of man; but the withstanders will on themselves bring sentence of judgment; not
only the human crime of treason, but the charge, in the court of God, of rebellion against
His will. This is founded on the idea of law and order, which means by its nature the
restraint of public mischief and the promotion, or at least protection, of public good.
"Authority," even under its worst distortions, still so far keeps that aim that no human
civic power, as a fact, punishes good as good, and rewards evil as evil; and thus for the
common run of lives the worst settled authority is infinitely better than real anarchy. For
rulers, as a class, are not a terror to the good deed, but to the evil; such is always the fact
in principle, and such, taking human life as a whole, is the tendency, even at the worst, in
practice, where the authority in any degree deserves its name. Now do you wish not to be
afraid of the authority? do what is good, and you shall have praise from it; the "praise,"
at least, of being unmolested and protected. For God’s agent he is to you, for what is
good; through his function God, in providence, carries out His purposes of order. But if

52. you are doing what is evil, be afraid; for not for nothing, not without warrant, nor
without purpose, does he wear his sword, symbol of the ultimate power of life and death;
for God’s agent is he, an avenger, unto wrath, for the practiser of the evil. Wherefore,
because God is in the matter, it is a necessity to submit, not only because of the wrath,
the ruler’s wrath in the case supposed, but because of the conscience too; because you
know, as a Christian, that God speaks through the state and through its minister, and
that anarchy is therefore disloyalty to Him. For on this account too you pay taxes; the
same commission which gives the state the right to restrain and punish gives it the right
to demand subsidy from its members, in order to its operations; for God’s ministers are
they, His λειτουργοί, a word so frequently used in sacerdotal connections that it well may
suggest them here; as if the civil ruler were, in his province, an almost religious
instrument of divine order; God’s ministers, to this very end persevering in their task;
working on in the toils of administration, for the execution, consciously or not, of the
divine plan of social peace.
This is a noble point of view, alike for governed and for governors, from which to
consider the prosaic problems and necessities of public finance. Thus understood, the
tax is paid not with a cold and compulsory assent to a mechanical exaction, but as an act
in the line of the plan of God. And the tax is devised and demanded, not merely as an
expedient to adjust a budget, but as a thing which God’s law can sanction, in the
interests of God’s social plan. Discharge therefore to all men, to all men in authority,
primarily, but not only, their dues; the tax, to whom you owe the tax, on person and
property; the toll, to whom the toll, on merchandise; the fear, to whom the fear, as to the
ordained punisher of wrong; the honour, to whom the honour, as to the rightful
claimant in general of loyal deference.
Such were the political principles of the new Faith, of the mysterious Society, which was
so soon to perplex the Roman statesman, as well as to supply convenient victims to the
Roman despot. A Nero was shortly to burn Christians in his gardens as a substitute for
lamps, on the charge that they were guilty of secret and horrible orgies. Later, a Trajan,
grave and anxious, was to order their execution as members of a secret community
dangerous to imperial order. But here is a private missive sent to this people by their
leader, reminding them of their principles, and prescribing their line of action. He puts
them in immediate spiritual contact, every man and woman of them, with the Eternal
Sovereign, and so he inspires them with the strongest possible independence, as regards
"the fear of man." He bids them know for a certainty, that the Almighty One regards
them, each and all, as accepted in His Beloved, and fills them with His great Presence,
and promises them a coming heaven from which no earthly power or terror can for a
moment shut them out. But in the same message, and in the same Name, he commands
them to pay their taxes to the pagan State, and to do so, not with the contemptuous
indifference of the fanatic, who thinks that human life in its temporal order is God-
forsaken, but in the spirit of cordial loyalty and ungrudging deference, as to an authority
representing in its sphere none other than their Lord and Father.
It has been suggested that the first serious antagonism of the state towards these
mysterious Christians was occasioned by the inevitable interference of the claims of
Christ with the stern and rigid order of the Roman Family. A power which could assert
the right, the duty, of a son to reject his father’s religious worship was taken to be a
power which meant the destruction of all social order as such; a nihilism indeed. This
was a tremendous misunderstanding to encounter. How was it to be met? Not by
tumultuary resistance, not even by passionate protests and invectives. The answer was to
be that of love, practical and loyal, to God and man, in life and, when occasion came, in

53. death. Upon the line of that path lay at least the possibility of martyrdom, with its lions
and its funeral piles; but the end of it was the peaceful vindication of the glory of God
and of the Name of Jesus, and the achievement of the best security for the liberties of
man.
Congenially then the Apostle closes these precepts of civil order with the universal
command to love. Owe nothing to anyone; avoid absolutely the social disloyalty of debt;
pay every creditor in full, with watchful care; except the loving one another. Love is to be
a perpetual and inexhaustible debt, not as if repudiated or neglected, but as always due
and always paying; a debt, not as a forgotten account is owing to the seller, but as
interest on capital is continuously owing to the lender. And this, not only because of the
fair beauty of love, but because of the legal duty of it: For the lover of his fellow (τόν
έτερον, "the other man," be he who he may, with whom the man has to do) has fulfilled
the law, the law of the Second Table, the code of man’s duty to man, which is in question
here.
He "has fulfilled" it; as having at once entered, in principle and will, into its whole
requirement; so that all he now needs is not a better attitude, but developed information.
For the, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not steal,
Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet," and whatever other
commandment there is, all is summed up in this utterance. "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself." (Lev_19:18) Love works the neighbour no ill; therefore love is the
Law’s fulfilment.
Is it a mere negative precept then? Is the life of love to be only an abstinence from doing
harm, which may shun thefts, but may also shun personal sacrifices? Is it a cold and
inoperative "harmlessness," which leaves all things as they are? We see the answer in
part in those words, "as thyself." Man "loves himself" (in the sense of nature, not of sin),
with a love which instinctively avoids indeed what is repulsive and noxious, but does so
because it positively likes and desires the opposite. The man who "loves his neighbour as
himself" will be as considerate of his neighbour’s feelings as of his own, in respect of
abstinence from injury and annoyance. But he will be more; he will be actively desirous
of his neighbour’s good. "Working him no evil," he will reckon it as much "evil" to be
indifferent to his positive true interests as he would reckon it unnatural to be apathetic
about his own. Working him no evil, as one who loves him as himself, he will care, and
seek, to work him good.
"Love," says Leibnitz, in reference to the great controversy on Pure Love agitated by
Fenelon and Bossuet, "is that which finds its felicity in another’s good." Such an agent
can never terminate its action in a mere cautious abstinence from wrong.
The true divine commentary on this brief paragraph is the nearly contemporary passage
written by the same author, 1Co_13:1-13. There, as we saw above, the description of the
sacred thing, love, like that of the heavenly state in the Revelation, is given largely in
negatives. Yet who fails to feel the wonderful positive of the effect? That is no merely
negative innocence which is greater than mysteries, and knowledge, and the use of an
angel tongue; greater than self-inflicted poverty, and the endurance of the martyr’s
flame; "chief grace below, and all in all above." Its blessed negatives are but a form of
unselfish action. It forgets itself, and remembers others, and refrains from the least
needless wounding of them, not because it wants merely "to live and let live," but
because it loves them, finding its felicity in their good.
It has been said that "love is holiness, spelt short." Thoughtfully interpreted and applied,

54. the saying is true. The holy man in human life is the man who, with the Scriptures open
before him as his informant and his guide, while the Lord Christ dwells in his heart by
faith as his Reason and his Power, forgets himself in a work for others which is kept at
once gentle, wise, and persistent to the end, by the love which, whatever else it does,
knows how to sympathise and to serve.
HAWKER 1-10, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no
power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. (2) Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt
thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise
of the same: (4) For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which
is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a
revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (5) Wherefore ye must needs be
subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. (6) For this cause pay ye tribute
also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. (7) Render
therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear
to whom fear; honor to whom honor. (8) Owe no man anything, but to love one another:
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. (9) For this, Thou shalt not commit
adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (10) Love
worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The obedience which the Apostle enforceth to the civil powers, is abundantly heightened
in the consideration, that what Paul here recommended to the Church then at Rome, of a
peaceable submission to the higher powers, which were heathens; comes home with
double argument, considered as to Christian Princes. And, indeed, the motives which the
Apostle adopts in recommending those duties, are in themselves unanswerable. All
government must be the result of divine ordination. And the Lord’s design in that
ordination is gracious. His Church cannot but derive blessedness from it, however it may
be administered, agreeably to that comprehensive promise, Rom_8:28. And, if the Lord
enjoined his Church, as he did, when going into captivity, to seek the peace of the city,
whither they were carried, and to pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof, they
should have peace; how much more under the fostering care of a Christian government,
are those duties enforced? Jer_29:7.
MEYER, " RENDERING “TO ALL THEIR DUES”
Rom_13:1-7
Human government, like the existence of the family relationship, is a divine institution.
It is part of the order of the world and rooted in the original conception of the race. It
was never intended that we should live as individual units, but as members of family and
state. It is evident, therefore, that the authority which is wielded by the ruler expresses,
generally speaking, a divine principle. The comfort and well-being of society are better
attained in that way than in any other, and the recognition of this principle carries with
it the assent of our intuitive convictions. We must render therefore to all their dues.

55. But it must be acknowledged, also, that there are limits beyond which imperial or
legislative authority may not go. When Nero, according to tradition, bade the Apostle to
abandon his faith as the condition of liberty, Paul did not hesitate to say that the
emperor was intruding on a province to which he had no claim, and that he must obey
God rather than man. So far as our life in a community goes, there must be some form of
government, which may be modeled according to the varying opinions of men, whether
monarchical or republican, autocratic or socialistic; but when once it has been agreed
upon, it must be obeyed, unless it forfeits confidence, in which case a new order becomes
necessary.
2Consequently, he who rebels against the
authority is rebelling against what God has
instituted, and those who do so will bring
judgment on themselves.
BAR ES, Whosoever therefore resisteth ... - That is, they who rise up against
“government itself;” who seek anarchy and confusion; and who oppose the regular
execution of the laws. It is implied, however, that those laws shall not be such as to
violate the rights of conscience, or oppose the laws of God.
Resisteth the ordinance of God - What God has ordained, or appointed. This
means clearly that we are to regard “government” as instituted by God, and as agreeable
to his will. “When” established, we are not to be agitated about the “titles” of the rulers;
not to enter into angry contentions, or to refuse to submit to them, because we are
apprehensive of a defect in their “title,” or because they may have obtained it by
oppression. If the government is established, and if its decisions are not a manifest
violation of the laws of God, we are to submit to them.
Shall receive to themselves damnation - The word “damnation” we apply now
exclusively to the punishment of hell; to future torments. But this is not necessarily the
meaning of the word which is used here κρίµα krima. It often simply denotes
“punishment;” Rom_3:8; 1Co_11:29; Gal_5:10. In this place the word implies “guilt” or
“criminality” in resisting the ordinance of God, and affirms that the man that does it
shall be punished. Whether the apostle means that he shall be punished by “God,” or by
the “magistrate,” is not quite clear. Probably the “latter,” however, is intended; compare
Rom_13:4. It is also true that such resistance shall be attended with the displeasure of
God, and be punished by him.

56. CLARKE, "Whosoever resisteth the power - ᆍ αντιτασσοµενος, He who sets
himself in order against this order of God; τᇽ του Θεου διαταγᇽ, and they who resist, οᅷ
ανθεστηκοτες, they who obstinately, and for no right reason, oppose the ruler, and strive
to unsettle the constitution, and to bring about illegal changes,
Shall receive to themselves damnation - Κριµα, condemnation; shall be
condemned both by the spirit and letter of that constitution, which, under pretense of
defending or improving, they are indirectly labouring to subvert.
GILL, "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power,.... The office of magistracy,
and such as are lawfully placed in it, and rightly exercise it; who denies that there is, or
ought to be any such order among men, despises it, and opposes it, and withdraws
himself from it, and will not be subject to it in any form:
resisteth the ordinance of God, the will and appointment of God, whose pleasure it
is that there should be such an office, and that men should be subject to it. This is not to
be understood, as if magistrates were above the laws, and had a lawless power to do as
they will without opposition; for they are under the law, and liable to the penalty of it, in
case of disobedience, as others; and when they make their own will a law, or exercise a
lawless tyrannical power, in defiance of the laws of God, and of the land, to the
endangering of the lives, liberties, and properties of subjects, they may be resisted, as
Saul was by the people of Israel, when he would have took away the life of Jonathan for
the breach of an arbitrary law of his own, and that too without the knowledge of it, 1Sa_
14:45; but the apostle is speaking of resisting magistrates in the right discharge of their
office, and in the exercise of legal power and authority:
and they that resist them, in this sense,
shall receive to themselves damnation; that is, punishment; either temporal, and
that either by the hand of the magistrate himself, who has it in his power to punish
mutiny, sedition, and insurrection, and any opposition to him in the just discharge of his
duty; or at the hand of God, in righteous judgment, for their disobedience to an
ordinance of his; as in the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who opposed themselves
both to the civil and sacred government of the people of Israel, Num_26:9; and were
swallowed up alive in the earth, Num_26:10, or eternal punishment, unless the grace of
God prevents; for "the blackness of darkness is reserved for ever", Jud_1:13, for such
persons, who, among other of their characters, are said to "despise dominion, and speak
evil of dignities", Jud_1:8. This is another argument persuading to subjection to
magistrates.
HE RY, "The reasons to enforce this duty. Why must we be subject?
1. For wrath's sake. Because of the danger we run ourselves into by resistance.
Magistrates bear the sword, and to oppose them is to hazard all that is dear to us in this

57. world; for it is to no purpose to contend with him that bears the sword. The Christians
were then in those persecuting times obnoxious to the sword of the magistrate for their
religion, and they needed not make themselves more obnoxious by their rebellion. The
least show of resistance or sedition in a Christian would soon be aggravated and
improved, and would be very prejudicial to the whole society; and therefore they had
more need than others to be exact in their subjection, that those who had so much
occasion against them in the matter of their God might have no other occasion. To this
head must that argument be referred (Rom_13:2), Those that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation: krima lēpsontai, they shall be called to an account for it. God will
reckon with them for it, because the resistance reflects upon him. The magistrates will
reckon with them for it. They will come under the lash of the law, and will find the
higher powers too high to be trampled upon, all civil governments being justly strict and
severe against treason and rebellion; so it follows (Rom_13:3), Rulers are a terror. This
is a good argument, but it is low for a Christian.
2. We must be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake; not so much
formidine poenae - from the fear of punishment, as virtutis amore - from the love of
virtue. This makes common civil offices acceptable to God, when they are done for
conscience' sake, with an eye to God, to his providence putting us into such relations,
and to his precept making subjection the duty of those relations. Thus the same thing
may be done from a very different principle. Now to oblige conscience to this subjection
he argues, Rom_13:1-4, Rom_13:6,
(1.) From the institution of magistracy: There is no power but of God. God as the ruler
and governor of the world hath appointed the ordinance of magistracy, so that all civil
power is derived from him as from its original, and he hath by his providence put the
administration into those hands, whatever they are that have it. By him kings reign,
Pro_8:15. The usurpation of power and the abuse of power are not of God, for he is not
the author of sin; but the power itself is. As our natural powers, though often abused and
made instruments of sin, are from God's creating power, so civil powers are from God's
governing power. The most unjust and oppressive princes in the world have no power
but what is given them from above (Joh_19:11), the divine providence being in a special
manner conversant about those changes and revolutions of governments which have
such an influence upon states and kingdoms, and such a multitude of particular persons
and smaller communities. Or, it may be meant of government in general: it is an instance
of God's wisdom, power, and goodness, in the management of mankind, that he has
disposed them into such a state as distinguishes between governors and governed, and
has not left them like the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less. He did
herein consult the benefit of his creatures. - The powers that be: whatever the particular
form and method of government are - whether by monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy -
wherever the governing power is lodged, it is an ordinance of God, and it is to be
received and submitted to accordingly; though immediately an ordinance of man (1Pe_
2:13), yet originally an ordinance of God. - Ordained of God - tetagmenai, a military
word, signifying not only the ordination of magistrates, but the subordination of inferior
magistrates to the supreme, as in an army; for among magistrates there is a diversity of
gifts, and trusts, and services. Hence it follows (Rom_13:2) that whosoever resisteth the
power resisteth the ordinance of God. There are other things from God that are the
greatest calamities; but magistracy is from God as an ordinance, that is, it is a great law,
and it is a great blessing: so that the children of Belial, that will not endure the yoke of
government, will be found breaking a law and despising a blessing. Magistrates are
therefore called gods (Psa_82:6), because they bear the image of God's authority. And

58. those who spurn at their power reflect upon God himself. This is not at all applicable to
the particular rights of kings and kingdoms, and the branches of their constitution; nor
can any certain rule be fetched from this for the modelling of the original contracts
between the governors and governed; but it is intended for direction to private persons
in their private capacity, to behave themselves quietly and peaceably in the sphere in
which God has set them, with a due regard to the civil powers which God in his
providence has set over them, 1Ti_2:1, 1Ti_2:2. Magistrates are here again and again
called God's ministers. he is the minister of God, Rom_13:4, Rom_13:6. Magistrates are
in a more peculiar manner God's servants; the dignity they have calls for duty. Though
they are lords to us, they are servants to God, have work to do for him, and an account to
render to him. In the administration of public justice, the determining of quarrels, the
protecting of the innocent, the righting of the wronged, the punishing of offenders, and
the preserving of national peace and order, that every man may not do what is right in
his own eyes - in these things it is that magistrates act as God's ministers. As the killing
of an inferior magistrate, while he is actually doing his duty, is accounted treason against
the prince, so the resisting of any magistrates in the discharge of these duties of their
place is the resisting of an ordinance of God.
JAMISO , "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power — “So that he that
setteth himself against the authority.”
resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation — or, “condemnation,” according to the old sense of that
word; that is, not from the magistrate, but from God, whose authority in the magistrate’s
is resisted.
CALVI , "2.And they who resist, etc. As no one can resist God but to his own ruin,
he threatens, that they shall not be unpunished who in this respect oppose the
providence of God. Let us then beware, lest we incur this denunciation. And by
judgment, (402) I understand not only the punishment which is inflicted by the
magistrate, as though he had only said, that they would be justly punished who
resisted authority; but also the vengeance of God, however it may at length be
executed: for he teaches us in general what end awaits those who contend with God.
(402) “Judicium ,” κρίµα some render it “” [Beza ], “” The word is used in both
senses: but according to the tenor of the former part of the verse, it seems that the
Apostle means that which is inflicted by God. — Ed.
HODGE, "Whoso, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.
This is an obvious inference from the doctrine of the preceding verse. If it is the will
of God that there should be civil government, and persons appointed to exercise
authority over others, it is plain that to resist such persons in the exercise of their
lawful authority is an act of disobedience to God.
And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. This also is an obvious
conclusion from the preceding. If disobedience is a sin it will be punished. The word
( κρίµα) rendered damnation, means simply sentence, judicial decision; whether

59. favorable or adverse, depends on the context. Here it is plain it means a sentence of
condemnation. He shall be condemned, and, by implication, punished. As the word
damnation is by modern usage restricted to the final and eternal condemnation of
the wicked, it is unsuited to this passage and some others in which it occurs in our
version; see 1 Corinthians 11:29. Paul does not refer to the punishment which the
civil magistrate may inflict; for he is speaking of disobedience to those in authority
as a sin against God, which he will punish.
It is clear that this passage (Romans 13:1, Romans 13:2) is applicable to men living
under every form of government, monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical, in all
their various modifications. Those who are in authority are to be obeyed within
their sphere, no matter how or by whom appointed. It is the οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι, the
powers that be, the de facto government, that is to be regarded as, for the time
being, ordained of God. It was to Paul a matter of little importance whether the
Roman emperor was appointed by the senate, the army, or the people; whether the
assumption of the imperial authority by Caesar was just or unjust, or whether his
successors had a legitimate claim to the throne or not. It was his object to lay down
the simple principle, that magistrates are to be obeyed. The extent of this obedience
is to be determined from the nature of the case. They are to be obeyed as
magistrates, in the exercise of their lawful authority. When Paul commands wives to
obey their husbands, they are required to obey them as husbands, not as masters,
nor as kings; children are to obey their parents as parents, not as sovereigns; and so
in every other case. This passage, therefore, affords a very slight foundation for the
doctrine of passive obedience.
COFFMA , "Therefore, he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of
God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment.
ot merely sedition and violent opposition to human government are proscribed for
the child of God, but "resistance" which is inclusive of all forms of opposition and
disobedience. Jesus Christ our Lord never disobeyed any law, nor did he ever
advocate disobedience, or any other kind of disobedience. As he said, "I came not to
destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). This verse teaches that breaking the laws of
human governments is equivalent to breaking God's laws, because such laws are
also of God's will and authority. The "judgment" in this place refers primarily to
the legal punishment of violators of the state's laws; but the displeasure of God
regarding such violations implies that there will also be an eternal ACCOU TI G
to God for such sins. As Moule said,
This is founded on the idea of law and order, which means by its nature the
restraint of public mischief and the promotion of, at least the protection of, the
public good. "Authority," even under its worst distortions, still so far keeps that aim
that no human power punished good as good, or rewards evil as evil; and thus, for
the common run of lives, the worst settled authority is infinitely better than real
anarchy.[2]

60. E D OTE:
[2] H. C. G. Moule, The Epistle to the Romans (London: Pickering and Inglis), p.
254.
3For 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.
BAR ES, "The minister of God - The “servant” of God he is appointed by God to
do his will, and to execute his purposes. “To thee.” For your benefit.
For good - That is, to protect you in your rights; to vindicate your name, person, or
property; and to guard your liberty, and secure to you the results of your industry. The
magistrate is not appointed directly to “reward” people, but they “practically” furnish a
reward by protecting and defending them, and securing to them the interests of justice.
If thou do that ... - That is, if any citizen should do evil.
Be afraid - Fear the just vengeance of the laws.
For he beareth not the sword in vain - The “sword” is an instrument of
punishment, as well as an emblem of war. Princes were accustomed to wear a sword as
an emblem of their authority; and the “sword” was often used for the purpose of
“beheading,” or otherwise punishing the guilty. The meaning of the apostle is, that he
does not wear this badge of authority as an unmeaningful show, but that it will be used
to execute the laws. As this is the design of the power intrusted to him, and as he will
“exercise” his authority, people should be influenced “by fear” to keep the law, even if
there were no better motive.
A revenger ... - In Rom_12:19, vengeance is said to belong to God. Yet he “executes”
his vengeance by means of subordinate agents. It belongs to him to take vengeance by
direct judgments, by the plague, famine, sickness, or earthquakes; by the appointment of
magistrates; or by letting loose the passions of people to prey upon each other. When a
magistrate inflicts punishment on the guilty, it is to be regarded as the act of God taking
vengeance “by him;” and on this principle only is it right for a judge to condemn a man
to death. It is not because one man has by nature any right over the life of another, or
because “society” has any right collectively which it has not as individuals; but because
“God” gave life, and because he has chosen to take it away when crime is committed by

61. the appointment of magistrates, and not by coming forth himself visibly to execute the
laws. Where “human” laws fail, however, he often takes vengeance into his own hands,
and by the plague, or some signal judgments, sweeps the guilty into eternity.
To execute wrath - For an explanation of the word “wrath,” see the notes at Rom_
1:18. It denotes here “punishment,” or the just execution of the laws. It may be remarked
that this verse is an “incidental” proof of the propriety of “capital punishment.” The
sword was undoubtedly an instrument for this purpose, and the apostle mentions its use
without any remark of “disapprobation.” He enjoins subjection to those who “wear the
sword,” that is, to those who execute the laws “by that;” and evidently intends to speak of
the magistrate “with the sword,” or in inflicting capital punishment, as having received
the appointment of God. The tendency of society now is “not” to too sanguinary laws. It
is rather to forget that God has doomed the murderer to death; and though humanity
should be consulted in the execution of the laws, yet there is no humanity in suffering
the murderer to live to infest society, and endanger many lives, in the place of his own,
which was forfeited to justice. Far better that one murderer should die, than that he
should be suffered to live, to imbrue his hands perhaps in the blood of many who are
innocent. But the authority of God has settled this question Gen_9:5-6, and it is neither
right nor safe for a community to disregard his solemn decisions; see “Blackstone’s
Commentaries,” vol. iv. p. 8, (9.)
CLARKE, "For rulers are not a terror to good works - Here the apostle shows
the civil magistrate what he should be: he is clothed with great power, but that power is
entrusted to him, not for the terror and oppression of the upright man, but to overawe
and punish the wicked. It is, in a word, for the benefit of the community, and not for the
aggrandizement of himself, that God has entrusted the supreme civil power to any man.
If he should use this to wrong, rob, spoil, oppress, and persecute his subjects, he is not
only a bad man, but also a bad prince. He infringes on the essential principles of law and
equity. Should he persecute his obedient, loyal subjects, on any religious account, this is
contrary to all law and right; and his doing so renders him unworthy of their confidence,
and they must consider him not as a blessing but a plague. Yet, even in this case, though
in our country it would be a breach of the constitution, which allows every man to
worship God according to his conscience, the truly pious will not feel that even this
would justify rebellion against the prince; they are to suffer patiently, and commend
themselves and their cause to him that judgeth righteously. It is an awful thing to rebel,
and the cases are extremely rare that can justify rebellion against the constituted
authorities. See the doctrine on Rom_13:1.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? - If thou wouldst not live in fear of
the civil magistrate, live according to the laws; and thou mayest expect that he will rule
according to the laws, and consequently instead of incurring blame thou wilt have praise.
This is said on the supposition that the ruler is himself a good man: such the laws
suppose him to be; and the apostle, on the general question of obedience and protection,
assumes the point that the magistrate is such.
GILL, "For rulers are not a terror to good works,.... That is, to them that do good

62. works in a civil sense; who behave well in the neighbourhoods, towns, cities, and
countries where they dwell. The apostle seems to anticipate an objection made against
governors, as if there was something very terrible and formidable in them; and which
might be taken up from the last clause of the preceding verse; and which he removes by
observing, that governors neither do, nor ought to inject terror into men that behave
well, obey the laws, and keep a good decorum among their fellow subjects, not doing any
injury to any man's person, property, and estate. The Jews (a) have a saying,
"that a governor that injects more fear into the people, than is for the honour of God,
shall be punished, and shall not see his son a disciple of a wise man.''
But to the evil; to wicked men, who make no conscience of doing hurt to their fellow
creatures, by abusing their persons, defrauding them of their substance, and by various
illicit methods doing damage to them; to such, rulers are, and ought to be terrors; such
are to be menaced, and threatened with inflicting upon them the penalty of the laws they
break; and which ought to be inflicted on them by way of punishment to them, and for
the terror of others. R. Chanina, the Sagan of the priests (b), used to say,
"pray for the peace of the kingdom, for if there was no ‫,מוראה‬ "fear", (i.e. a magistrate to
inject fear,) one man would devour another alive.''
Wilt thou not then be afraid of the power? of the civil magistrate, in power and
authority, to oppose him, to refuse subjection to him, to break the laws, which,
according to his office, he is to put in execution.
Do that which is good: in a civil sense, between man and man, by complying with the
laws of the land, which are not contrary to the laws of God; for of doing good in a
spiritual and religious sense he is no judge:
and thou shalt have praise of the same; shall be commended as a good neighbour,
a good citizen, and a good commonwealth's man; an honest, quiet, peaceable man, that
does not disturb the peace of civil society, but strengthens and increases it.
HE RY, "A praise to those that do well. Those that keep in the way of their duty shall
have the commendation and protection of the civil powers, to their credit and comfort.
“Do that which is good (Rom_13:3), and thou needest not be afraid of the power, which,
though terrible, reaches none but those that by their own sin make themselves
obnoxious to it; the fire burns only that which is combustible: nay, thou shalt have
praise of it.” This is the intention of magistracy, and therefore we must, for conscience'
sake, be subject to it, as a constitution designed for the public good, to which all private
interests must give way. But pity it is that ever this gracious intention should be
perverted, and that those who bear the sword, while they countenance and connive at
sin, should be a terror to those who do well. But so it is, when the vilest men are exalted
(Psa_12:1, Psa_12:8); and yet even then the blessing and benefit of a common
protection, and a face of government and order, are such that it is our duty in that case
rather to submit to persecution for well-doing, and to take it patiently, than by any
irregular and disorderly practices to attempt a redress. Never did sovereign prince
pervert the ends of government as Nero did, and yet to him Paul appealed, and under
him had the protection of the law and the inferior magistrates more than once. Better a

63. bad government than none at all.
JAMISO , "For rulers are not a terror to good works — “to the good work,” as
the true reading appears to be
but to the evil.
HODGE, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. This verse is not to be
connected with the second, but with the first, as it assigns an additional reason for the
duty there enjoined. Magistrates are to be obeyed, for such is the will of God, and
because they are appointed to repress evil and promote good. There is a ground,
therefore, in the very nature of their office, why they should not be resisted.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shall have
praise of the same. That is, government is not an evil to be feared, except by evil doers.
As the magistrates are appointed for the punishment of evil, the way to avoid suffering
from their authority is not to resist it, but to do that which is good. Paul is speaking of
the legitimate design of government, not of the abuse of power by wicked men.
CALVI , "3For princes, etc. He now commends to us obedience to princes on the
ground of utility; for the causative γὰρ, for, is to be referred to the first proposition,
and not to the last verse. ow, the utility is this, — that the Lord has designed in this
way to provide for the tranquillity of the good, and to restrain the waywardness of
the wicked; by which two things the safety of mankind is SECURED: for except the
fury of the wicked be resisted, and the innocent be protected from their violence, all
things would come to an entire confusion. Since then this is the only remedy by
which mankind can be preserved from destruction, it ought to be carefully observed
by us, unless we wish to avow ourselves as the public enemies of the human race.
And he adds, Wilt not thou then fear the power? Do good. By this he intimates, that
there is no reason why we should dislike the magistrate, if I DEED we are good;
nay, that it is an implied proof of an evil conscience, and of one that is devising some
mischief, when any one wishes to shake off or to remove from himself this yoke. But
he speaks here of the true, and, as it were, of the native duty of the magistrate, from
which however they who hold power often degenerate; yet the obedience due to
princes ought to be rendered to them. For since a wicked prince is the Lord’ scourge
to punish the sins of the people, let us remember, that it happens through our fault
that this excellent blessing of God is turned into a curse.
Let us then CO TI UE to honor the good appointment of God, which may be
easily done, provided we impute to ourselves whatever evil may accompany it.
Hence he teaches us here the end for which magistrates are instituted by the Lord;
the happy effects of which would always appear, were not so noble and salutary an

64. institution marred through our fault. At the same time, princes do never so far
abuse their power, by harassing the good and innocent, that they do not retain in
their tyranny some kind of just government: there can then be no tyranny which
does not in some respects assist in consolidating the society of men.
He has here noticed two things, which even philosophers have considered as making
a part of a well-ordered ADMI ISTRATIO of a commonwealth, that is, rewards
for the good, and punishment for the wicked. The word praise has here, after the
Hebrew manner, a wide meaning.
COFFMA , "For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And
wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have
praise from the same.
It is a comment upon the effectiveness and success of the state as God's ordained
institution that such a statement as this stands as truth. Aberrations may be
catalogued and failures noted; but, in the principal part, and in the overwhelming
number of examples afforded by history, Paul's language here must stand as
unchallenged truth. There has hardly been a state in history where the private
exercise of Christian faith has been the object of governmental hatred and
punishment. The glaring exception to this is in the ruthless Marxist governments
which have appeared in the present century; and, should that type of government
gain ascendancy in areas populated by Christians, there could well be another age
of martyrs like that which descended upon the first century, shortly after these
noble words were penned. The truth of Paul's words here is not contravened, either
by the persecutions of the first century or the threat of persecutions now.
4For 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.
BAR ES, The minister of God - The “servant” of God he is appointed by God to do
his will, and to execute his purposes. “To thee.” For your benefit.
For good - That is, to protect you in your rights; to vindicate your name, person, or
property; and to guard your liberty, and secure to you the results of your industry. The
magistrate is not appointed directly to “reward” people, but they “practically” furnish a
reward by protecting and defending them, and securing to them the interests of justice.
If thou do that ... - That is, if any citizen should do evil.

65. Be afraid - Fear the just vengeance of the laws.
For he beareth not the sword in vain - The “sword” is an instrument of
punishment, as well as an emblem of war. Princes were accustomed to wear a sword as
an emblem of their authority; and the “sword” was often used for the purpose of
“beheading,” or otherwise punishing the guilty. The meaning of the apostle is, that he
does not wear this badge of authority as an unmeaningful show, but that it will be used
to execute the laws. As this is the design of the power intrusted to him, and as he will
“exercise” his authority, people should be influenced “by fear” to keep the law, even if
there were no better motive.
A revenger ... - In Rom_12:19, vengeance is said to belong to God. Yet he “executes”
his vengeance by means of subordinate agents. It belongs to him to take vengeance by
direct judgments, by the plague, famine, sickness, or earthquakes; by the appointment of
magistrates; or by letting loose the passions of people to prey upon each other. When a
magistrate inflicts punishment on the guilty, it is to be regarded as the act of God taking
vengeance “by him;” and on this principle only is it right for a judge to condemn a man
to death. It is not because one man has by nature any right over the life of another, or
because “society” has any right collectively which it has not as individuals; but because
“God” gave life, and because he has chosen to take it away when crime is committed by
the appointment of magistrates, and not by coming forth himself visibly to execute the
laws. Where “human” laws fail, however, he often takes vengeance into his own hands,
and by the plague, or some signal judgments, sweeps the guilty into eternity.
To execute wrath - For an explanation of the word “wrath,” see the notes at Rom_
1:18. It denotes here “punishment,” or the just execution of the laws. It may be remarked
that this verse is an “incidental” proof of the propriety of “capital punishment.” The
sword was undoubtedly an instrument for this purpose, and the apostle mentions its use
without any remark of “disapprobation.” He enjoins subjection to those who “wear the
sword,” that is, to those who execute the laws “by that;” and evidently intends to speak of
the magistrate “with the sword,” or in inflicting capital punishment, as having received
the appointment of God. The tendency of society now is “not” to too sanguinary laws. It
is rather to forget that God has doomed the murderer to death; and though humanity
should be consulted in the execution of the laws, yet there is no humanity in suffering
the murderer to live to infest society, and endanger many lives, in the place of his own,
which was forfeited to justice. Far better that one murderer should die, than that he
should be suffered to live, to imbrue his hands perhaps in the blood of many who are
innocent. But the authority of God has settled this question Gen_9:5-6, and it is neither
right nor safe for a community to disregard his solemn decisions; see “Blackstone’s
Commentaries,” vol. iv. p. 8, (9.)
CLARKE, "For he is the minister of God to thee for good - Here the apostle puts
the character of the ruler in the strongest possible light. He is the minister of God - the
office is by Divine appointment: the man who is worthy of the office will act in
conformity to the will of God: and as the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his
ears open to their cry, consequently the ruler will be the minister of God to them for
good.
He beareth not the sword in vain - His power is delegated to him for the defense
and encouragement of the good, and the punishment of the wicked; and he has authority

66. to punish capitally, when the law so requires: this the term sword leads us to infer.
For he is the minister of God, a revenger - Θεοሞ διακονος εστιν εκδικος, For he is
God’s vindictive minister, to execute wrath; εις οργην, to inflict punishment upon the
transgressors of the law; and this according to the statutes of that law; for God’s civil
ministers are never allowed to pronounce or inflict punishment according to their own
minds or feeling, but according to the express declarations of the law.
GILL, "For he is the minister of God to thee for good,.... He is a minister of
God's appointing and commissioning, that acts under him, and for him, is a kind of a
vicegerent of his, and in some, sense represents him; and which is another reason why
men ought to be subject to him; and especially since he is appointed for their "good",
natural, moral, civil, and spiritual, as Pareus observes: for natural good, for the
protection of men's natural lives, which otherwise would be in continual danger from
wicked men; for moral good, for the restraining of vice, and encouragement of virtue;
profaneness abounds exceedingly, as the case is, but what would it do if there were no
laws to forbid it, or civil magistrates to put them in execution? for civil good, for the
preservation of men's properties, estates, rights, and liberties, which would be
continually invaded, and made a prey of by others; and for spiritual and religious good,
as many princes and magistrates have been; a sensible experience of which we have
under the present government of these kingdoms, allowing us a liberty to worship God
according to our consciences, none making us afraid, and is a reason why we should
yield a cheerful subjection to it:
but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid: of the punishment of such evil
threatened by law, and to be inflicted by the civil magistrate;
for he beareth not the sword in vain. The "sword" is an emblem of the power of life
and death, the civil magistrate is invested with, and includes all sorts of punishment he
has a right to inflict; and this power is not lodged in him in vain; he may and ought to
make use of it at proper times, and upon proper persons:
for he is the minister of God; as is said before, he has his mission, commission,
power and authority from him; and is
a revenge to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil; he is a defender of the
laws, a vindicator of divine justice, an avenger of the wrongs of men; and his business is
to inflict proper punishment, which is meant by wrath, upon delinquents.
HE RY, "From the intention of magistracy: Rulers are not a terror to good works, but
to the evil, etc. Magistracy was designed to be,
[1.] A terror to evil works and evil workers. They bear the sword; not only the sword of
war, but the sword of justice. They are heirs of restraint, to put offenders to shame;
Laish wanted such, Jdg_18:7. Such is the power of sin and corruption that many will not
be restrained from the greatest enormities, and such as are most pernicious to human
society, by any regard to the law of God and nature or the wrath to come; but only by the

67. fear of temporal punishments, which the wilfulness and perverseness of degenerate
mankind have made necessary. Hence it appears that laws with penalties for the lawless
and disobedient (1Ti_1:9) must be constituted in Christian nations, and are agreeable
with, and not contradictory to, the gospel. When men are become such beasts, such
ravenous beasts, one to another, they must be dealt with accordingly, taken and
destroyed in terrorem - to deter others. The horse and the mule must thus be held in
with bit and bridle. In this work the magistrate is the minister of God, Rom_13:4. He
acts as God's agent, to whom vengeance belongs; and therefore must take heed of
infusing into his judgments any private personal resentments of his own. - To execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil. In this the judicial processes of the most vigilant
faithful magistrates, though some faint resemblance and prelude of the judgments of the
great day, yet come far short of the judgment of God: they reach only to the evil act, can
execute wrath only on him that doeth evil: but God's judgment extends to the evil
thought, and is a discerner of the intents of the heart. - He beareth not the sword in
vain. It is not for nothing that God hath put such a power into the magistrate's hand; but
it is intended for the restraining and suppressing of disorders. And therefore, “If thou do
that which is evil, which falls under the cognizance and censure of the civil magistrate,
be afraid; for civil powers have quick eyes and long arms.” It is a good thing when the
punishment of malefactors is managed as an ordinance of God, instituted and appointed
by him. First, As a holy God, that hates sin, against which, as it appears and puts up its
head, a public testimony is thus borne. Secondly, As King of nations, and the God of
peace and order, which are hereby preserved. Thirdly, As the protector of the good,
whose persons, families, estates, and names, are by this means hedged about. Fourthly,
As one that desires not the eternal ruin of sinners, but by the punishment of some would
terrify others, and so prevent the like wickedness, that others may hear and fear, and do
no more presumptuously. Nay, it is intended for a kindness to those that are punished,
that by the destruction of the flesh the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
JAMISO , "he beareth not the sword in vain — that is, the symbol of the
magistrate’s authority to punish.
HODGE,"For he is the minister of God to thee for good, etc. This whole verse is but an
amplification of the preceding. ‘Government is a benevolent institution of God, designed
for the benefit of men; and, therefore, should be respected and obeyed. As it has,
however, the rightful authority to punish, it is to be feared by those that do evil.' For
good, i.e. to secure or promote your welfare. Magistrates or rulers are not appointed for
their own honor or advantage, but for the benefit of society, and, therefore, while those
in subjection are on this ACCOUNT to obey them, they themselves are taught, what
those in power are so apt to forget, that they are the servants of the people as well as the
servants of God, and that the welfare of society is the only legitimate object which they
as rulers are at liberty to pursue.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is
the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath ( εις οργήν, i.e. for the purpose of
punishment) upon him that doeth evil. As one part of the design of government is to
protect the good, so the other is to punish the wicked. The existence of this delegated
authority is, therefore, a reason why men should abstain from the commission of evil.
He beareth not the sword in vain, i.e. it is not in vain that he is in vested with authority
to punish. The reference is not to the dagger worn by the Roman emperors as a sign of
office, µάχαιρα in the New Testament always means sword, which of old was the symbol
of authority, and specially of the right of life and death. As the common method of

68. inflicting capital punishment was by decapitation with a sword, that instrument is
mentioned as the symbol of the right of punishment, and, as many infer from this
passage, of the right of capital punishment. "Insignis locus ad jus gladii comprobandum;
nam si Dominus magistratum armando gladii quoque usum illi mandavit, quoties sontes
capitali poena vindicat, exercendo Dei ultionem, ejus mandatis obsequitur. Contendunt
igitur cum Deo qui sanguinem nocentium hominum effundi nefas esse putant." —
Calvin.
CALVI , "4.For he is God’ minister for good, etc. Magistrates may hence learn
what their vocation is, for they are not to rule for their own interest, but for the
public good; nor are they endued with unbridled power, but what is restricted to the
wellbeing of their subjects; in short, they are responsible to God and to men in the
exercise of their power. For as they are deputed by God and do his business, they
must give A ACCOU T to him: and then the ministration which God has
committed to them has a regard to the subjects, they are therefore debtors also to
them. And private men are reminded, that it is through the divine goodness that
they are defended by the sword of princes against injuries done by the wicked.
For they bear not the sword in vain, etc. It is another part of the office of
magistrates, that they ought forcibly to repress the waywardness of evil men, who
do not willingly suffer themselves to be governed by laws, and to inflict such
punishment on their offenses as God’ judgment requires; for he expressly declares,
that they are armed with the sword, not for an empty show, but that they may smite
evil-doers.
And then he says, An avenger, to execute wrath, (404) etc. This is the same as if it
had been said, that he is an executioner of God’ wrath; and this he shows himself to
be by having the sword, which the Lord has delivered into his hand. This is a
remarkable passage for the purpose of proving the right of the sword; for if the
Lord, by arming the magistrate, has also committed to him the use of the sword,
whenever he visits the guilty with death, by executing God’ vengeance, he obeys his
commands. Contend then do they with God who think it unlawful to shed the blood
of wicked men.
(404) Vindex in iram , ἔκδικος εἰς ὀργὴν “ revenger to execute wrath,” Com. VER.,
[Doddridge ]; “ revenger for wrath,” [Hammond ]. Wrath is here taken to mean
punishment, by [Luther ], [Beza ], [Grotius ], [Mede ], etc. see Rom_2:5; Rom_3:5;
Rom_4:15. The phrase then might be rendered, “ to punishment the doer of evil.”
There is a contrast between “ wrath” and “ good” at the BEGI I G of the verse.
— Ed.

69. COFFMA , "For he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which
is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an
avenger of wrath to him that doeth evil.
The word rendered "he" in this verse could be translated "it"; but the translators
are correct in making it personal, for only a person could be spoken of as bearing
the sword. The person in view, therefore, is the policeman, the legally constituted
arm of human government, making the law-enforcement men of cities, states, and
nations to be every whir as much "ordained of God" as any minister of the gospel. A
gutless namby-pambyism has come to characterize far too many Christians of this
age, who naively and stupidly suppose that police departments are dispensable, that
love can just take everything, and that our own enlightened (?) age does not need the
old fashioned relics of barbarism, such as policemen and jails. Let all hear it from
the word of God, if they are so blind as to be unable to read it in history, that the
policeman also is God's man, and that without him there is nothing. The writer once
invited two ew York policemen into his living room, gave them a cup of coffee, and
read this chapter to them, with the same exposition as here. Their astonishment and
gratitude were nearly incredible. One of them reached for the ew Testament to
read it himself and said, "I do wish that everyone knew this." The other spoke up
and said, "Well, it would help a lot if all the clergymen in our city knew it!" We say
the same. Much of the vilification, harassment, and warring against policemen in
the current era has blinded some good people to the absolute indispensability of
governmental authority, including an effective police establishment.
Capital punishment is clearly allowed to be a legitimate prerogative of human
government, by Paul's statements here. Those states which have yielded to the naive
"do-gooder-ism" of the present era by abolishing the capital penalty will eventually
pay the price of their foolishness. Present-day lawgivers are not wiser than God who
laid down such penalties and enforced them in the Old Testament dispensation.
True, the Decalogue says, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13); but the same God
who said that also said, "Thou shalt surely kill him" ( umbers 15:35). These
commandments do not nullify each other, because they speak of different things.
Moffatt's translation made the difference clear, thus:
Thou shalt do no murder (Exodus 20:13).
The man must certainly be put to death ( umbers 15:35).SIZE>
Moffatt took ACCOU T of the essential difference in two Hebrew words,
[~ratsach] and [~harag], the latter meaning "put to death," the other meaning
"murder." Murder is, of course, forbidden; but the imposition of the death penalty
by government is not forbidden. Humanity will never find a way to eliminate such a
penalty completely, because it is the threat of death alone which enables policemen

70. to apprehend and capture perpetrators of crime. Taking the gun out of the
policeman's hands is the surest way to make all people victims of the lawless.
5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the
authorities, not only because of possible
punishment but also because of conscience.
BAR ES, Wherefore - διό dio. The “reasons” why we should be subject, which the
apostle had given, were two,
(1) That government was appointed by God.
(2) That violation of the laws would necessarily expose to punishment.
Ye must needs be - It is “necessary” ᅊναγκή anagkē to be. This is a word stronger
than what implies mere “fitness” or propriety. It means that it is a matter of high
obligation and of “necessity” to be subject to the civil ruler.
Not only for wrath - Not only on account of the “fear of punishment;” or the fact
that wrath will be executed on evil doers.
For conscience’ sake - As a matter of conscience, or of “duty to God,” because “he”
has appointed it, and made it necessary and proper. A good citizen yields obedience
because it is the will of God; and a Christian makes it a part of his religion to maintain
and obey the just laws of the land; see Mat_22:21; compare Ecc_8:2, “I counsel them to
keep the king’s commandments, and “that in regard of the oath of God.”
CLARKE, "Ye must needs be subject - Αναγκη, There is a necessity that ye should
be subject, not only for wrath, δια την οργην, on account of the punishment which will be
inflicted on evil doers, but also for conscience’ sake; not only to avoid punishment, but
also to preserve a clear conscience. For, as civil government is established in the order of
God for the support, defense, and happiness of society, they who transgress its laws, not
only expose themselves to the penalties assigned by the statutes, but also to guilt in their
own consciences, because they sin against God. Here are two powerful motives to
prevent the infraction of the laws and to enforce obedience.
1. The dread of punishment; this weighs with the ungodly.
2. The keeping of a good conscience, which weighs powerfully with every person who
fears God. These two motives should be frequently urged both among professors

71. and profane.
GILL, "Wherefore ye must needs be subject,.... To the higher powers, to the civil
magistrates; there is a necessity of it, because magistracy is God's ordinance, it is for the
good of men; and such that oppose it will severely smart for it: but subjection to it from
Christians should be,
not only for wrath; through fear of punishment, and for the sake of escaping it; either
the wrath of men or of God, in this or the other world:
but also for conscience sake: to keep conscience clear, to exercise a good one void of
offence towards God and men; for natural reason, conscience itself, dictates that there
ought to be such order among men, that civil government should take place, and ought
to be submitted to.
JAMISO , "Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath — for
fear of the magistrate’s vengeance.
but also for conscience’ sake — from reverence for God’s authority. It is of
Magistracy in general, considered as a divine ordinance, that this is spoken: and the
statement applies equally to all forms of government, from an unchecked despotism -
such as flourished when this was written, under the Emperor Nero - to a pure
democracy. The inalienable right of all subjects to endeavor to alter or improve the form
of government under which they live is left untouched here. But since Christians were
constantly charged with turning the world upside down, and since there certainly were
elements enough in Christianity of moral and social revolution to give plausibility to the
charge, and tempt noble spirits, crushed under misgovernment, to take redress into their
own hands, it was of special importance that the pacific, submissive, loyal spirit of those
Christians who resided at the great seat of political power, should furnish a visible
refutation of this charge.
COFFMA , "Whereofore ye must needs be in subjection, not merely because of the
wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
There are twin reasons for the Christian's observance of society's laws: first, as a
matter of conscience, it is a sin for him to break the law; and second, in order that
he might not incur the legal penalty of lawbreaking. The preeminent consideration
is that of pleasing God, as Peter expressed it, "Obey every ordinance of man, for the
Lord's sake" (1 Peter 2:13).
CALVI , "5.It is therefore necessary, etc. What he had at first commanded as to the
rendering of obedience to magistrates, he now briefly repeats, but with some
addition, and that is, — that we ought to obey them, not only on the ground of
necessity arising from man, but that we thereby obey God; for by wrath he means
the punishment which the magistrates inflict for the contempt of their dignity; as

72. though he had said, “ must not only obey, because we cannot with impunity resist
the powerful and those armed with authority, as injuries are wont to be borne with
which cannot be repelled; but we ought to obey willingly, as conscience through
God’ word thus binds us.” Though then the magistrate were disarmed, so that we
could with impunity provoke and despise him, yet such a thing ought to be no more
attempted than if we were to see punishment suspended over us; for it belongs not to
a PRIVATE individual to take away authority from him whom the Lord has in
power set over us. This whole discourse is concerning civil government; it is
therefore to no purpose that they who would exercise dominion over consciences do
hence attempt to establish their sacrilegious tyranny.
6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities
are God's servants, who give their full time to
governing.
BAR ES, For this cause - Because they are appointed by God; for the sake of
conscience, and in order to secure the execution of the laws. As they are appointed by
God, the tribute which is needful for their support becomes an act of homage to God, an
act performed in obedience to his will, and acceptable to him.
Tribute also - Not only be subject Rom_13:5, but pay what may be necessary to
support the government. “Tribute” properly denotes the “tax,” or annual compensation,
which was paid by one province or nation to a superior, as the price of protection, or as
an acknowledgment of subjection. The Romans made all conquered provinces pay this
“tribute;” and it would become a question whether it was “right” to acknowledge this
claim, and submit to it. Especially would this question be agitated by the Jews and by
Jewish Christians. But on the principle which the apostle had laid down Rom_13:1-2, it
was right to do it, and was demanded by the very purposes of government. In a larger
sense, the word “tribute” means any tax paid on land or personal estate for the support
of the government.
For they are God’s ministers - His servants; or they are appointed by him. As the
government is “his” appointment, we should contribute to its support as a matter of
conscience, because we thus do honor to the arrangement of God. It may be observed
here, also, that the fact that civil rulers are the ministers of God, invests their character
with great sacredness, and should impress upon “them” the duty of seeking to do his
will, as well as on others the duty of submitting to them.
Attending continually - As they attend to this, and devote their time and talents to
it, it is proper that they should receive a suitable support. It becomes then a duty for the
people to contribute cheerfully to the necessary expenses of the government. If those
taxes should be unjust and oppressive, yet, like other evils, they are to be submitted to,
until a remedy can be found in a proper way.

73. CLARKE, "For this cause pay ye tribute also - Because civil government is an
order of God, and the ministers of state must be at considerable expense in providing for
the safety and defense of the community, it is necessary that those in whose behalf these
expenses are incurred should defray that expense; and hence nothing can be more
reasonable than an impartial and moderate taxation, by which the expenses of the state
may be defrayed, and the various officers, whether civil or military, who are employed
for the service of the public, be adequately remunerated. All this is just and right, but
there is no insinuation in the apostle’s words in behalf of an extravagant and oppressive
taxation, for the support of unprincipled and unnecessary wars; or the pensioning of
corrupt or useless men. The taxes are to be paid for the support of those who are God’s
ministers - the necessary civil officers, from the king downwards, who are attending
Continually on this very thing. And let the reader observe, that by God’s ministers are
not meant here the ministers of religion, but the civil officers in all departments of the
state.
GILL, "For, for this cause pay you tribute also,.... To show that we are subject to
the higher powers, and as a proof and evidence of our subjection to them, we do and
ought to pay tribute to them, to support them in their office and dignity; and this is done
not for fear of trouble, of distress on goods and estate, or imprisonment of person, but
for conscience sake: payment of taxes is not a mere matter of prudence, and done to
avoid dangerous consequence, but is and ought to be a case of conscience; whatever is
anyone's due, and of right belongs to him, conscience dictates it ought to be paid him; as
therefore it tells a man, that whatever is God's should be rendered to him, so whatever is
Caesar's, should be given him; and indeed to do otherwise, to refuse to pay tribute, or by
any fraudulent means to deprive the civil magistrate of his due, is not only to do an
injury to him, but to the whole body politic, which has a greater concern therein than he
himself; and such a person forfeits all right and claim to his protection:
for they are God's ministers. This is another reason why tribute should be paid
them, not only to testify subjection to them, and keep conscience clear, but because they
are called unto, and put into this high office by God; for promotion to such honour and
high places comes not from east, west, north, or south; but is by the providence of God,
who puts down, and sets up at pleasure; they are his vicegerents, they act under him, are
in his stead, and represent his majesty; and therefore, in some sort, what is done to them
is done to him:
attending continually upon this very thing; not of laying, collecting, and receiving
tribute, but of service and ministry under God, for the welfare of their subjects; for
rightly to administer the office of magistracy requires great pains, care, diligence, and
assiduity; and as great wisdom and thoughtfulness in making laws for the good of the
body, so a diligent constant concern to put them in execution, to secure the lives of
subjects from cut throats and murderers, and their properties and estates from thieves
and robbers; and they are not only obliged diligently to attend to such service at home,
but to keep a good lookout abroad, and penetrate into, and watch the designs of foreign

74. enemies, to defend from their invasions, and fight for their country; that the inhabitants
thereof may live peaceable and quiet lives, enjoying their respective rights and
privileges; and since therefore civil government is a business of so much care, and since
our rulers are so solicitous, and constantly concerned for our good, and which cannot be
done without great expense, as well as diligence, we ought cheerfully to pay tribute to
them.
HE RY, " From our interest in it: “He is the minister of God to thee for good. Thou
hast the benefit and advantage of the government, and therefore must do what thou
canst to preserve it, and nothing to disturb it.” Protection draws allegiance. If we have
protection from the government, we owe subjection to it; by upholding the government,
we keep up our own hedge. This subjection is likewise consented to by the tribute we pay
(Rom_13:6): “For this cause pay you tribute, as a testimony of your submission, and an
acknowledgment that in conscience you think it to be due. You do by paying taxes
contribute your share to the support of the power; if therefore you be not subject, you do
but pull down with one hand what you support with the other; and is that conscience?”
“By your paying tribute you not only own the magistrate's authority, but the blessing of
that authority to yourselves, a sense of which you thereby testify, giving him that as a
recompence for the great pains he takes in the government; for honour is a burden: and,
if he do as he ought, he is attending continually upon this very thing, for it is enough to
take up all a man's thoughts and time, in consideration of which fatigue, we pay tribute,
and must be subject.” - Pay you tribute, phorous teleite. He does not say, “You give it as
an alms,” but, “You pay it as a just debt, or lend it to be repaid in all the blessings and
advantages of public government, of which you reap the benefit.” This is the lesson the
apostle teaches, and it becomes all Christians to learn and practise it, that the godly in
the land may be found (whatever others are) the quiet and the peaceable in the land.
HODGE, "For, for this cause, pay ye tribute also. This verse may be connected, by the
words ( δια τουτο) rendered for this cause, with the preceding, thus, ‘Wherefore (i.e., for
conscience' sake) ye should pay tribute also.' But it is better to consider this clause as
containing an inference from the foregoing exhibition of the nature and design of civil
government: ‘Since civil government is constituted for the benefit of society, for the
punishment of evil doers and for the praise of those that do well, ye should cheerfully
pay the contributions requisite for its support.'
For they are the ministers of God, attending continually on this very thing. This clause
introduces another reason for the PAYMENT of tribute. They, not the tax-gatherers, but
οι αρχοντες, the rulers, to whom the tribute is due. Magistrates are not only appointed
for the public good, but they are the ministers of God, and consequently it is his will that
we should contribute whatever is necessary to enable them to discharge their duty. The
word ( λειτουργοί) rendered ministers, means public servants, men appointed for any
public work, civil or religious. Among the Greek democratical states, especially at
Athens, those persons were particularly so called, who were required to perform some
public service at their own expense. It is used in Scripture in a general sense, for
Servants or ministers, Romans 15:16; Hebrews 1:7; Hebrews 8:2. The words εις αυτο
τουτο, to this very thing, may refer to tax-gathering. The magistrates are divinely
commissioned, or authorized to collect tribute. This is necessary to the support of
government; and government being a divine institution, God, in ordaining the end, has
thereby ordained the means. It is because magistrates, in the collection of TAXES, act as
the λειτουργοι θεου, the executive officers of God, that we are bound to pay them. Others

75. make the αυτο τουτο refer to the λειτουργία, or service of God, which is implied in
magistrates being called λειτουργοί. ‘They are the ministers of God attending constantly
to their ministry.' The former interpretation is the more consistent with the context.
COFFMA , "For this cause ye pay tribute also; for they are ministers of God's
service, attending CO TI UALLY upon this very thing.
Thus, all that was said of policemen in Romans 13:1-5 is likewise applied here to all
servants and officers of the secular state. Being part of the institution "ordained of
God," which is the state, they partake of the dignity and authority pertaining to it,
and are entitled to obedience, respect, courtesy, honor, and the cooperation of all
Christians, who, in the discharge of such obligations, are doing so "as unto the
Lord," and not "as unto men," for such is the commandment of the scriptures.
CALVI , "6.For this reason also, etc. He takes occasion to introduce the SUBJECT
of tributes, the reason for which he deduces from the office of magistrates; for if it
be their duty to defend and safely preserve the peace of the good, and to resist the
mischievous attempts of the wicked, this they cannot do unless they are aided by
sufficient force. Tributes then are justly paid to support such necessary expenses.
(406) But respecting the proportion of TAXES or tributes, this is not the place to
discuss the subject; nor does it belong to us either to prescribe to princes how much
they ought to expend in every affair, or to call them to an account. It yet behooves
them to remember, that whatever they receive from the people, is as it were public
property, and not to be spent in the gratification of private indulgence. For we see
the use for which Paul appoints these tributes which are to be paid — even that
kings may be furnished with means to defend their subjects.
(406) The words “ this very thing ,” εἰς αὐτὸ τούτο seem to be an instance of
Hebraism, as ‫,זאת‬ “” in that language is both singular and plural, and means “” or
“” ACCORDI G to the context. “ these very things,” before mentioned as to the
works and duties of magistrates, appears to be the meaning here: and so the words
are rendered in the Syriac and Ethiopic versions. A singular instance is found at the
beginning of Rom_13:9, “ this ,” τὸ γὰρ and then several commandments are
mentioned; “ this” is the law, says [Stuart ]; but the word for “” is of a different
gender. What we would say in English is, “ these,” etc. It is a Hebrew idiom
transferred into Greek. — Ed.

76. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe
taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if
respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
BAR ES, "Render therefore ... - This injunction is often repeated in the Bible;
see the notes at Mat_22:21; see also Mat_17:25-27; 1Pe_2:13-17; Pro_24:21. It is one of
the most lovely and obvious of the duties of religion. Christianity is not designed to
break in upon the proper order of society, but rather to establish and confirm that order.
It does not rudely assail existing institutions: but it comes to put them on a proper
footing, to diffuse a mild and pure influence over all, and to secure “such” an influence in
all the relations of life as shall tend best to promote the happiness of man and the
welfare of the community.
Is due - To whom it properly belongs by the law of the land, and according to the
ordinance of God. It is represented here as a matter of “debt,” as something which is
“due” to the ruler; a fair “compensation” to him for the service which he renders us by
devoting his time and talents to advance “our” interests, and the welfare of the
community. As taxes are a “debt,” a matter of strict and just obligation, they should be
paid as conscientiously and as cheerfully as any other just debts, however contracted.
Custom - τέλος telos. The word rendered “tribute” means, as has been remarked, the
tax which is paid by a tributary prince or dependent people; also the tax imposed on land
or real estate. The word here translated “custom” means properly the revenue which is
collected on “merchandise,” either imported or exported.
Fear - See Rom_13:4. We should stand in awe of those who wear the sword, and who
are appointed to execute the laws of the land. Since the execution of their office is suited
to excite “fear,” we should render to them that reverence which is appropriate to the
execution of their function. It means a solicitous anxiety lest we do anything to offend
them.
Honour - The difference between this and “fear” is, that this rather denotes
“reverence, veneration, respect” for their names, offices, rank, etc. The former is the
“fear” which arises from the dread of punishment. Religion gives to people all their just
titles, recognizes their rank and function, and seeks to promote due subordination in a
community. It was no part of the work of our Saviour, or of his apostles, to quarrel with
the mere “titles” of people, or to withhold from them the customary tribute of respect
and homage; compare Act_24:3; Act_26:25; Luk_1:3; 1Pe_2:17. In this verse there is
summed up the duty which is owed to magistrates. It consists in rendering to them
proper honor contributing cheerfully and conscientiously to the necessary expenses of
the government; and in yielding obedience to the laws. These are made a part of the duty
which we owe to God, and should be considered as enjoined by our religion.
On the subject discussed in these seven verses, the following “principles” seem to be
settled by the authority of the Bible, and are now understood,
(1) That government is essential; and its necessity is recognised by God, and it is
arranged by his providence. God has never been the patron of anarchy and

77. disorder.
(2) Civil rulers are dependent on God. He has the entire control over them, and can set
them up or put them down when he pleases.
(3) The authority of God is superior to that of civil rulers. They have no right to make
enactments which interfere with “his” authority.
(4) It is not the business of civil rulers to regulate or control religion. That is a distinct
department, with which they have no concern, except to protect it.
(5) The rights of all people are to be preserved. People are to be allowed to worship
God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and to be protected in those
rights, provided they do not violate the peace and order of the community.
(6) Civil rulers have no right to persecute Christians, or to attempt to secure
conformity to their views by force. The conscience cannot be compelled; and in the
affairs of religion man must be free.
In view of this subject we may remark,
(1) That the doctrines respecting the rights of civil rulers, and the line which is to be
drawn between their powers and the rights of conscience, have been slow to be
understood. The struggle has been long; and a thousand persecutions have shown the
anxiety of the magistrate to rule the conscience, and to control religion. In pagan
countries it has been conceded that the civil ruler had a right to control the “religion” of
the people: church and state there have been one. The same thing was attempted under
Christianity. The magistrate still claimed this right, and attempted to enforce it.
Christianity resisted the claim, and asserted the independent and original rights of
conscience. A conflict ensued, of course, and the magistrate resorted to persecutions, to
“subdue” by force the claims of the new religion and the rights of conscience. Hence, the
ten fiery and bloody persecutions of the primitive church. The blood of the early
Christians flowed like water; thousands and tens of thousands went to the stake, until
Christianity triumphed, and the right of religion to a free exercise was acknowledged
throughout the empire.
(2) It is matter of devout thanksgiving that the subject is now settled, and the principle
is now understood. In our own land (America) there exists the happy and bright
illustration of the true principle on this great subject. The rights of conscience are
regarded, and the laws peacefully obeyed. The civil ruler understands his province; and
Christians yield a cheerful and cordial obedience to the laws. The church and state move
on in their own spheres, united only in the purpose to make men happy and good; and
divided only as they relate to different departments, and contemplate, the one, the rights
of civil society, the other, the interests of eternity. Here, every man worships God
according to his own views of duty; and at the same time, here is rendered the most
cordial and peaceful obedience to the laws of the land. Thanks should be rendered
without ceasing to the God of our fathers for the wondrous train of events by which this
contest has been conducted to its issue; and for the clear and full understanding which
we now have of the different departments pertaining to the church and the state.
CLARKE, "Render therefore to all their dues - This is an extensive command. Be
rigidly just; withhold neither from the king nor his ministers, nor his officers of justice
and revenue, nor from even the lowest of the community, what the laws of God and your

78. country require you to pay.
Tribute to whom tribute - Φορον· This word probably means such taxes as were
levied on persons and estates.
Custom to whom custom - Τελος· This word probably means such duties as were
laid upon goods, merchandise, etc., on imports and exports; what we commonly call
custom. Kypke on this place has quoted some good authorities for the above distinction
and signification. Both the words occur in the following quotation from Strabo: Αναγκη
γαρ µειουσθαι τα τελη, φορων επιβαλλοµενων· It is necessary to lessen the Customs, if
Taxes be imposed. Strabo, lib. ii., page 307. See several other examples in Kypke.
Fear to whom fear - It is likely that the word φοβον, which we translate fear,
signifies that reverence which produces obedience. Treat all official characters with
respect, and be obedient to your superiors.
Honour to whom honor - The word τιµην may here mean that outward respect
which the principle reverence, from which it springs, will generally produce. Never
behave rudely to any person; but behave respectfully to men in office: if you cannot even
respect the man - for an important office may be filled by an unworthy person - respect
the office, and the man on account of his office. If a man habituate himself to disrespect
official characters, he will soon find himself disposed to pay little respect or obedience to
the laws themselves.
GILL, "Render therefore to all their dues,.... To all princes, magistrates, and
officers, that are placed over us, from the supreme governor to the lowest officer under
him, should we render as a due debt, and not as a mere gift, whatever belongs to them,
or is proper for them for the due discharge of their office, to encourage in it, and support
the dignity of it, whether external or internal:
tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom. These two words
include all sorts of levies, taxes, subsidies, &c. and the former may particularly design
what is laid on men's persons and estates, as poll money, land tax, &c. and the latter,
what arises from the exportation and importation of goods, to and from foreign parts:
fear to whom fear; not of punishment; for a good subject has no reason to fear the
civil magistrate in this sense, only the man that does evil, the malefactor; as for the good
neighbour, citizen, and subject, he loves the magistrate the more, the more diligent he is
in putting the laws in execution against wicked men; but this is to be understood of a
fear of offending, and especially of a reverence bore in the mind, and expressed by
outward actions, and such as has going with it a cheerful obedience to all lawful
commands:
honour to whom honour; there is an honour due to all men, according to their
respective rank and station, and the relation they stand in to each other; so servants are
to honour their masters, children their parents, wives their husbands, and subjects their
princes; all inferior magistrates are to be honoured in their place, and more especially
the king as supreme, in thought, word, and gesture; see 1Pe_2:17.

79. HE RY, "We are here taught a lesson of justice and charity.
I. Of justice (Rom_13:7): Render therefore to all their dues, especially to magistrates, for
this refers to what goes before; and likewise to all with whom we have to do. To be just is
to give to all their due, to give every body his own. What we have we have as stewards;
others have an interest in it, and must have their dues. “Render to God his due in the
first place, to yourselves, to you families, your relations, to the commonwealth, to the
church, to the poor, to those that you have dealings with in buying, selling, exchanging,
etc. Render to all their dues; and that readily and cheerfully, not tarrying till you are by
law compelled to it.” He specifies, 1. Due taxes: Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom
to whom custom. Most of the countries where the gospel was first preached were subject
at this time to the Roman yoke, and were made provinces of the empire. He wrote this to
the Romans, who, as they were rich, so they were drained by taxes and impositions, to
the just and honest payment of which they are here pressed by the apostle. Some
distinguish between tribute and custom, understanding by the former constant standing
taxes, and by the latter those which were occasionally required, both which are to be
faithfully and conscientiously paid as they become legally due. Our Lord was born when
his mother went to be taxed; and he enjoined the payment of tribute to Caesar. Many,
who in other things seem to be just, yet make no conscience of this, but pass it off with a
false ill-favoured maxim, that it is no sin to cheat the king, directly contrary to Paul's
rule, Tribute to whom tribute is due. 2. Due respect: Fear to whom fear, honour to
whom honour. This sums up the duty which we owe not only to magistrates, but to all
superiors, parents, masters, all that are over us in the Lord, according to the fifth
commandment: Honour thy father and mother. Compare Lev_19:3, You shall fear
every man his mother and his father; not with a fear of amazement, but a loving,
reverent, respectful, obediential fear. Where there is not this respect in the heart to our
superiors, no other duty will be paid aright. 3. Due payment of debts (Rom_13:8): “Owe
no man any thing; that is, do not continue in any one's debt, while you are able to pay it,
further than by, at least, the tacit consent of the person to whom you are indebted. Give
every one his own. Do not spend that upon yourselves, which you owe to others.” The
wicked borroweth, and payeth not again, Psa_37:21. Many that are very sensible of the
trouble think little of the sin of being in debt.
JAMISO , "Render therefore to all their dues — From magistrates the apostle
now comes to other officials, and from them to men related to us by whatever tie.
tribute — land tax.
custom — mercantile tax.
fear — reverence for superiors.
honour — the respect due to persons of distinction.
COFFMA , "Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due: custom to
whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
Had there been any doubt, up to here, that the total establishment of human

80. government is to be honored, respected, and obeyed by Christians, upon pain of
God's displeasure if they fail, it would have been effectively removed by this blanket
inclusion of "all." Peter's words, already referred to, are:
Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king as
supreme; or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for
praise to them that do well. For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your freedom for a
cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. Honor all men. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God, Honor the king (1 Peter 2:13-17).
Before leaving this section of Romans which details the relationship of the Christian
to his government, one other consideration needs emphasis. Such is the
attractiveness to the masses of mankind of the idea of overthrowing governments
which they consider unjust or oppressive, that even Christian ministers sometimes
make a distinction between obeying "good" governments and "bad" governments,
actually suggesting in their specious logic that it is all right for conscientious and
well-intentioned activists to go forth and pull down the government if they think it is
bad. o. A Christian is prohibited from any such role, nor may he even "resist"
(13:2), a conclusion that is based not alone on what Paul wrote here, but also upon
the fact that no Christian of the apostolic age ever did anything remotely akin to
pulling down a government.
The great apostle Paul was proud of his Roman citizenship, invoked its protection,
and refused to pay a bribe to Felix, despite the fact that a bribe was solicited and
would have procured his release from prison. As just noted, Paul commanded
Christians to obey laws, honor policemen as ministers of God, pray for the
establishment, and insisted that the total arm of human government be respected,
honored, and obeyed.
Paul spent many years in prison, being hailed before many judges; but there is no
record that he was ever required to be bound and gagged to preserve order in the
courtroom. o Christian, much less an apostle, ever organized an underground for
runaway slaves, edited a radical newspaper, bombed the baths of the emperor,
scrawled obscene slogans on the walls of the palace (even though it was ero's
palace), nor disturbed the public peace. Was it because they did not care for
injustices under such evil rulers as ero? o, I DEED. one ever cared as much as
they; but, inspired men of God, they K EW that extremist methods would have
done no good, but would have, on the other hand, done much harm in the
multiplication of human misery and sorrow.

81. Thus, the conclusion must be allowed, that if one considers the vice, wickedness, and
terror of that age, the consummate wickedness of human government under the
control of men like ero, Caligula, etc., coupled with the government's support of
such institutions as human slavery, witchcraft, and prostitution - that if one
considers all this, along with the Christian community's total refusal to engage in
any actions of opposition or subversion against such a government, and if it be
further understood that the Christian's refusal to obstruct or oppose such a regime
was due to reasons of doctrine and conscience, honoring the commandments of
Jesus and the apostles - then the conclusion is inevitable and must be received as
binding that it is a sin for a Christian to engage in the projected overthrow of an
earthly government, despite any faults or injustices that might either correctly or
falsely be ascribed to the state they would overthrow.
The problem of military service and participation as a soldier in any kind of a war is
also related to the questions in focus here; and those desiring to know further
scriptural teaching in that sector are referred to "The Ten Commandments,
Yesterday and Today," chapter 8.
CALVI , "7.Render then to all what is due, etc. The Apostle seems here summarily
to include the particulars in which the duties of SUBJECTS towards magistrates
consist, — that they are to hold them in esteem and honor, that they are to obey
their edicts, laws, and judgments, — that they are to pay tributes and customs. By
the word fear, he means obedience; by customs and tributes, not only imposts and
TAXES, but also other revenues. (407)
ow this passage CO FIRMS what I have already said, — that we ought to obey
kings and governors, whoever they may be, not because we are constrained, but
because it is a service acceptable to God; for he will have them not only to be feared,
but also honored by a voluntary respect.
(407) The distinction commonly made between the two words is this , — φόρος “” is
a tax on the person or on lands, and τέλος “” is what is levied on merchandise. —
Ed.
Love, for the Day is ear
8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the
continuing debt to love one another, for he who

82. loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
BAR ES, Owe no man anything - Be not “in debt” to anyone. In the previous
verse the apostle had been discoursing of the duty which we owe to magistrates. He had
particularly enjoined on Christians to pay to “them” their just dues. From this command
to discharge fully this obligation, the transition was natural to the subject of debts “in
general,” and to an injunction not to be indebted to “any one.” This law is enjoined in
this place:
(1) Because it is a part of our duty as good citizens; and,
(2) Because it is a part of that law which teaches us to love our neighbor, and to “do no
injury to him,” Rom_13:10.
The interpretation of this command is to be taken with this limitation, that we are not
to be indebted to him so as to “injure” him, or to work “ill” to him.
This rule, together with the other rules of Christianity, would propose a remedy for all
the evils of bad debts in the following manner.
(1) It would teach people to be “industrious,” and this would commonly prevent the
“necessity” of contracting debts.
(2) It would make them “frugal, economical,” and “humble” in their views and manner
of life.
(3) It would teach them to bring up their families in habits of industry. The Bible often
enjoins that; see the note at Rom_12:11; compare Phi_4:8; Pro_24:30-34; 1Th_4:11;
2Th_3:10; Eph_4:25.
(4) Religion would produce sober, chastened views of the end of life, of the great
design of living; and would take off the affections from the splendor, gaiety, and
extravagances which lead often to the contraction of debts; 1Th_5:6, 1Th_5:8; 1Pe_1:13;
1Pe_4:7; Tit_2:12; 1Pe_3:3, 1Pe_3:5; 1Ti_2:9.
(5) Religion would put a period to the “vices” and unlawful desires which now prompt
people to contract debts.
(6) It would make them “honest” in paying them. It would make them conscientious,
prompt, friends of truth, and disposed to keep their promises.
But to love one another - Love is a debt which “can” never be discharged. We
should feel that we “owe” this to all people, and though by acts of kindness we may be
constantly discharging it, yet we should feel that it can “never” be fully met while there is
opportunity to do good.
For he that loveth ... - In what way this is done is stated in Rom_13:10. The law in
relation to our neighbor is there said to be simply that we do no “ill” to him. Love to him
would prompt to no injury. It would seek to do him good, and would thus fulfil all the
purposes of justice and truth which we owe to him. In order to illustrate this, the
apostle, in the next verse, runs over the laws of the Ten Commandments in relation to
our neighbor, and shows that all those laws proceed on the principle that we are to
“love” him, and that love would prompt to them all.

83. CLARKE, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another - In the preceding
verses the apostle has been showing the duty, reverence, and obedience, which all
Christians, from the highest to the lowest, owe to the civil magistrate; whether he be
emperor, king, proconsul, or other state officer; here he shows them their duty to each
other: but this is widely different from that which they owe to the civil government: to
the first they owe subjection, reverence, obedience, and tribute; to the latter they owe
nothing but mutual love, and those offices which necessarily spring from it. Therefore,
the apostle says, Owe no man; as if he had said: Ye owe to your fellow brethren nothing
but mutual love, and this is what the law of God requires, and in this the law is fulfilled.
Ye are not bound in obedience to them as to the civil magistrate; for to him ye must
needs be subject, not merely for fear of punishment, but for conscience sake: but to these
ye are bound by love; and by that love especially which utterly prevents you from doing
any thing by which a brother may sustain any kind of injury.
GILL, "Owe no man anything,.... From the payment of dues to magistrates the
apostle proceeds to a general exhortation to discharge all sorts of debts; as not to owe
the civil magistrate any thing, but render to him his dues, so to owe nothing to any other
man, but make good all obligations whatever, as of a civil, so of a natural kind. There are
debts arising from the natural and civil relations subsisting among men, which should be
discharged; as of the husband to the wife, the wife to the husband; parents to their
children, children to their parents; masters to their servants, servants to their masters;
one brother, friend, and neighbour, to another. Moreover, pecuniary debts may be here
intended, such as are come into by borrowing, buying, commerce, and contracts; which
though they cannot be avoided in carrying on worldly business, yet men ought to make
conscience of paying them as soon as they are able: many an honest man may be in debt,
and by one providence or another be disabled from payment, which is a grief of mind to
him; but for men industriously to run into debt, and take no care to pay, but live upon
the property and substance of others, is scandalous to them as men, and greatly
unbecoming professors of religion, and brings great reproach upon the Gospel of Christ.
But to love one another. This is the only debt never to be wholly discharged; for
though it should be always paying, yet ought always to be looked upon as owing. Saints
ought to love one another as such; to this they are obliged by the new commandment of
Christ, by the love of God, and Christ unto them, by the relations they stand in to one
another, as the children of God, brethren, and members of the same body; and which is
necessary to keep them and the churches of Christ together, it being the bond of
perfectness by which they are knit to one another; and for their comfort and honour, as
well as to show the truth and reality of their profession. This debt should be always
paying; saints should be continually serving one another in love, praying for each other,
bearing one another's burdens, forbearing each other, and doing all good offices in
things temporal and spiritual that lie in their power, and yet always owing; the
obligation to it always remains. Christ's commandment is a new one, always new, and
will never be antiquated; his and his Father's love always continue, and the relations
believers stand in to each other are ever the same; and therefore love will be always
paying, and always owing in heaven to all eternity. But what the apostle seems chiefly to
respect, is love to one another as men, love to one another, to the neighbour, as the
following verses show. Love is a debt we owe to every man, as a man, being all made of

84. one blood, and in the image of God; so that not only such as are of the same family, live
in the same neighbourhood, and belong to the same nation, but even all the individuals
of mankind, yea, our very enemies are to share in our love; and as we have an
opportunity and ability, are to show it by doing them good.
For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law; that is, not who loves some one
particular person, but every other person besides himself, even his neighbour, in the
largest sense of the word, including all mankind, and that as himself; such an one has
fulfilled the law, the law of the decalogue; that part of it particularly which relates to the
neighbour; the second table of the law, as the next verse shows: though since there is no
true love of our neighbour without the love of God, nor no true love of God without the
love of our neighbour; and since these two involve each other, and include the whole law,
it may be understood of fulfilling every part of it, that is, of doing it; for fulfilling the law
means doing it, or acting according to it; and so far as a man loves, so far he fulfils, that
is, does it: but this is not, nor can it be done perfectly, which is evident, partly from the
impotency of man, who is weak and without strength, yea, dead in sin, and unable to do
any thing of himself; and partly from the extensiveness of the law, which reaches to the
thoughts and desires of the heart, as well as to words and actions; as also from the
imperfection of love, for neither love to God, nor love to one another, either as men or
Christians, is perfect; and consequently the fulfilling of the law by it is not perfect: hence
this passage yields nothing in favour of the doctrine of justification by works; since the
best works are imperfect, even those that spring from love, for love itself is imperfect;
and are not done as they are, in a man's own strength, and without the Spirit and grace
of God. Christ only has fulfilled the law perfectly, both as to parts and degrees; and to
him only should we look for a justifying righteousness.
HE RY, "Of charity: Owe no man any thing; opheilete - you do owe no man any thing;
so some read it: “Whatever you owe to any relation, or to any with whom you have to do,
it is eminently summer up and included in this debt of love. But to love one another, this
is a debt that must be always in the paying, and yet always owing.” Love is a debt. The
law of God and the interest of mankind make it so. It is not a thing which we are left at
liberty about, but it is enjoined us, as the principle and summary of all duty owing one to
another; for love is the fulfilling of the law; not perfectly, but it is a good step towards it.
It is inclusive of all the duties of the second table, which he specifies, Rom_13:9, and
these suppose the love of God. See 1Jo_4:20. If the love be sincere, it is accepted as the
fulfilling of the law. Surely we serve a good master, that has summed up all our duty in
one word, and that a short word and a sweet word - love, the beauty and harmony of the
universe. Loving and being loved is all the pleasure, joy, and happiness, of an intelligent
being. God is love (1Jo_4:16), and love is his image upon the soul: where it is, the soul is
well moulded, and the heart fitted for every good work.
JAMISO , "Owe no man anything, but to love one another — “Acquit
yourselves of all obligations except love, which is a debt that must remain ever due”
[Hodge].
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law — for the law itself is but love
in manifold action, regarded as matter of duty.
HODGE, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another, etc. That is, acquit
yourselves of all obligations, except love, which is a debt that must remain ever due. This

85. is the common, and considering the context, which abounds with commands, the most
natural interpretation of this passage. Others, however, take the verb ( οφείλετε) as in
the indicative, instead of the imperative mood, and understand the passage thus: ‘Ye owe
no man any thing but love, (which includes all other duties,) for he that loves another
fulfills the law.' This gives a good sense, when this verse is taken by itself; but viewed in
connection with those which precede and follow, the common interpretation is much
more natural. Besides, "the indicative would require ουδενι ουδέν, and not µηδενι
µηδέν. The use of the subjective negative shows that a command is intended." Meyer.
The idea which a cursory reader might be disposed to attach to these words, in
considering them as a direction not to contract pecuniary debts, is not properly
expressed by them; although the prohibition, in its spirit, includes the incurring of such
obligations, when we have not the certain prospect of discharging them. The command,
however, is, ‘Acquit yourselves of all obligations, tribute, custom, fear, honor, or
whatever else you may owe, but remember that the debt of love is still unpaid, and
always must remain so; for love includes all duty, since he that loves another fulfills the
law.'‹69› He that loveth another hath fulfilled ( πεπλήρωκε) the law. It is already done.
That is, all the law contemplated, in its specific commands relating to our social duties,
is attained when we love our neighbor as ourselves.
COFFMA , "Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his
neighbor hath fulfilled the law.
Greathouse understood the first clause here as the negative statement of the first
clause in Romans 13:7, thus referring it to the obligations of custom, tribute, honor,
etc. He said:
This means, do not CO TI UE in a state of owing any of the obligations referred to
in Romans 13:7, but fulfill them and discharge them. There is only one debt of
which you can never get rid - the debt of love.[3]
The discharge of all debts and the keeping of all commandments is summed up in
the one word of a man's loving others as he loves himself. This applies to all
commandments of a social or man-ward nature. There are other commands which
spring out of the love of God, this dual direction of human obligation being
demonstrated in the fact of there having been two tables of the Decalogue. Paul
made this nice distinction by QUOTI G only man-ward obligations in his next
statement.
E D OTE:
[3] William M. Greathouse, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City, Missouri:
Beacon Hill Press, 1969), p. 253.

86. CALVI , "8.To no one owe ye, etc. There are those who think that this was not said
without a taunt, as though Paul was answering the objection of those who contended
that Christians were burdened in having other precepts than that of love enjoined
them. And I DEED I do not deny, but that it may be taken ironically, as though he
conceded to those who allowed no other law but that of love, what they required,
but in another sense. And yet I prefer to take the words simply as they are; for I
think that Paul meant to refer the precept respecting the power of magistrates to the
law of love, lest it should seem to any one too feeble; as though he had said, — “ I
require you to obey princes, I require nothing more than what all the faithful ought
to do, as demanded by the law of love: for if ye wish well to the good, (and not to
wish this is inhuman,) ye ought to strive, that the laws and judgments may prevail,
that the administrators of the laws may have an obedient people, so that through
them peace may be SECURED to all.” He then who introduces anarchy, violates
love; for what immediately follows anarchy, is the confusion of all things. (408)
For he who loves another, etc. Paul’ design is to reduce all the precepts of the law to
love, so that we may know that we then rightly obey the commandments, when we
observe the law of love, and when we refuse to undergo no burden in order to keep
it. He thus fully CO FIRMS what he has commanded respecting obedience to
magistrates, in which consists no small portion of love.
But some are here impeded, and they cannot well extricate themselves from this
difficulty, — that Paul teaches us that the law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor,
for no mention is here made of what is due to God, which ought not by any means to
have been omitted. But Paul refers not to the whole law, but speaks only of what the
law requires from us as to our neighbor. And it is doubtless true, that the whole law
is fulfilled when we love our neighbors; for true love towards man does not flow
except from the love of God, and it is its evidence, and as it were its effects. But Paul
records here only the precepts of the second table, and of these only he speaks, as
though he had said, — “ who loves his neighbor as himself, performs his duty
towards the whole world.” Puerile then is the gloss of the Sophists, who attempt to
elicit from this passage what may favor justification by works: for Paul declares not
what men do or do not, but he speaks hypothetically of that which you will find
nowhere accomplished. And when we say, that men are not justified by works, we
deny not that the keeping of the law is true righteousness: but as no one performs it,
and never has performed it, we say, that all are excluded from it, and that hence the
only refuge is in the grace of Christ.
(408) The debt of love is to be always paid, and is always due: for love is ever to be

87. exercised. We are to pay other debts, and we may pay them fully and finally: but the
debt of love ever CO TI UES, and is to be daily discharged. — Ed.
BARCLAY, "THE DEBTS WHICH MUST BE PAID A D THE DEBT WHICH
EVER CA BE PAID
Rom. 13:8-10
Owe no man anything, except to love each other; for he who loves the other man has
fulfilled the law. The commandments, You must not commit adultery, You must not
kill, You must not steal, You must not covet, and any other commandment there
may be, are all summed up in this saying--You must love your neighbour as
yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbour. Love is, therefore, the complete
fulfilment of the law.
The previous passage dealt with what might be called a man's public debts. Rom.
13:7 mentions two of these public debts. There is what Paul calls tribute, and what
he calls taxes. By tribute he means the tribute that must be paid by those who are
members of a subject nation. The standard contributions that the Roman
government levied on its subject nations were three. There was a ground tax by
which a man had to pay, either in cash or in kind, one-tenth of all the grain, and one
fifth of the wine and fruit produced by his ground. There was income tax, which
was one per cent of a man's income. There was a poll tax, which had to be paid by
everyone between the ages of fourteen and sixty five. By taxes Paul means the local
taxes that had to be paid. There were customs duties, import and export taxes, taxes
for the use of main roads, for crossing bridges, for entry into markets and harbours,
for the right to possess an animal, or to drive a cart or wagon. Paul insists that the
Christian must pay his tribute and his taxes to state and to local authority, however
galling it may be.
Then he turns to private debts. He says, "Owe no man anything." It seems a thing
almost unnecessary to say; but there were some who even twisted the petition of the
Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," into a reason for
claiming absolution from all money obligations. Paul had to remind his people that
Christianity is not an excuse for refusing our obligations to our fellow men; it is a
reason for fulfilling them to the utmost.
He goes on to speak of the one debt that a man must pay every day, and yet, at the
same time, must go on owing every day, the debt to love each other. Origen said:
"The debt of love remains with us permanently and never leaves us; this is a debt

88. which we both discharge every day and for ever owe." It is Paul's claim that if a
man honestly seeks to discharge this debt of love, he will automatically keep all the
commandments. He will not commit adultery, for when two people allow their
physical passions to sweep them away, the reason is, not that they love each other
too much, but that they love each other too little; in real love there is at once respect
and restraint which saves from sin. He will not kill, for love never seeks to destroy,
but always to build up; it is always kind and will ever seek to destroy an enemy not
by killing him, but by seeking to make him a friend. He will never steal, for love is
always more concerned with giving than with getting. He will not covet, for
covetousness (epithumia) is the uncontrolled desire for the forbidden thing, and love
cleanses the heart, until that desire is gone.
There is a famous saying, "Love God--and do what you like." If love is the
mainspring of a man's heart, if his whole life is dominated by love for God and love
for his fellow men, he needs no other law.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Owe no man anything.
Owe no man anything
This precept may signify either to leave not our debts unpaid, or never get into debt. It
may be looked to as a repetition of “Render unto all their dues” (debitum, debt). Be in no
man’s books. If he be an individual with whom you are dealing, pay when you buy. Or if
it be the government, pay the tax when it becomes due. The injunction in this latter or
more rigorous meaning of it is far from being generally adhered to. Perhaps it may not at
all times suit the conveniences or even the possibilities of business, that each single
transaction should be a ready-money transaction. Perhaps even in the matters of family
expenditure it might save trouble to pay at certain terms. There can be no doubt,
however, that in the first interpretation of it, it is a matter of absolute and universal
obligation. Though we cannot just say that a man should never get into debt, we can feel
no hesitation in saying that, once in, he should labour most strenuously to get out of it.
For—
1. In the world of trade one cannot be insensible to the dire mischief that ensues
from the spirit of unwarrantable speculation. The adventurer who trades beyond his
means is often actuated by a passion as intense and as criminal as the gamester. But
it is not the injury alone which is done to his own character that is to be deprecated,
nor the ruin that bankruptcy brings upon his own family. Over and above these evils
there is a far heavier disaster to the working classes, gathered in hundreds around
the mushroom establishment, and then thrown adrift in utter destitution on society.
This frenzy of men hasting to be rich, like fever in the body natural, is a truly sore
distemper in the body politic.
2. If they who trade beyond their means thus fall to be denounced, they who spend
beyond their means, and so run themselves into debt, merit the same condemnation.
We can imagine nothing more glaringly unprincipled and selfish than the conduct of
those who, to uphold their place in the fashionable world, build or adorn or entertain
at the expense of tradesmen, whom they hurry on to beggary with themselves.

89. 3. But there is another and more interesting application of this precept, one which, if
fully carried out, would tell more beneficially than any other on the greatest
happiness of the greatest number, viz., that men in humble life should learn to find
their way from the pawn office to the savings bank—so that, instead of debtors to the
one, they should become depositors in the other. That it is not so is far more due to
the want of management than to the want of means; and it needs but the kindness
and trouble of a few benevolent attentions to put many on the way of it. (T.
Chalmers, D.D.)
Debt
I. Is a common and serious evil.
1. It robs the creditor of his right, and often involves him in serious perplexity and
trouble.
2. It robs the debtor of his independence, and not unfrequently of his moral
principle.
II. Is, when voluntarily incurred, a breach of Christian consistency. It implies—
1. A defective morality.
2. A want of love to our neighbour.
3. A blinded conscience.
III. Should be carefully avoided.
1. By living within our income.
2. By cutting off all unnecessary expenses.
3. By incurring no liabilities which we have not a reasonable prospect of meeting.
4. By the utmost economy. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The guilt and folly of being in debt
I. The propriety of the direction in the text.
1. To be in debt will expose us to defraud others of their just due.
2. Is injurious to the general interests of society.
3. Involves whole families in suffering.
4. Subjects us to great sacrifices.
5. Is prejudicial to our improvement in useful knowledge.
6. Is unfavourable to religion.
7. Is in direct opposition to God’s command.
II. Some considerations to aid a strict compliance with it.
1. Debt, however long foreborne, will one day be required.
2. Remember the worth of time.

90. 3. Avoid luxury.
4. Never exceed your income.
5. Never despise honest labour.
6. Avoid depending on speculation and artifice.
7. Never neglect the duties of religion. (J. W. Cannon, M.A.)
Owe no man anything
I. The most likely means of paying what we owe.
1. The first mean is diligence in business. Make no unnecessary delay, nor set about
it with a slack or unskilful hand.
2. The second mean is frugality, or the avoiding of expense whenever it can properly
be avoided.
3. A third mean is exactness. “Put all in writing,” says the son of Sirac, “that thou
givest out or receivest in.” Punctual payment is material. The last effect of exactness
is to ensure the payment of what we owe at death. It is the concluding evidence of an
honest man to leave his affairs in order.
II. The sacrifices which must sometimes be made to justice.
1. One must sometimes bear the reproach of selfishness in order to pay debt or keep
out of it.
2. Fashion must often be quitted for the sake of justice. In order to perceive and obey
this call, consult your own understanding. What is the consequence of being
unfashionable? I am censured, and ridiculed, and despised. But what is the
consequence of being unjust? My own heart condemns me.
3. Vainglory must be checked for the sake of justice. The pleasure in sumptuous
possessions is slight, “beholding them with the eye.” If they be unpaid, looking at
them calls up the painful remembrance.
4. Generosity must be checked when it would encroach on justice. The parting with
money inconsiderately, so far from being approved, is become a proverbial folly.
Some make a flash of affected generosity who are not very scrupulous in paying what
they owe, nor about fraudulent courses provided they be gainful.
5. Compassion must be bounded by justice. We are required to do justly and to love
mercy. Let the love of mercy be cherished, and, when justice permits, let its dictates
be obeyed. Still it is the part of a wise man to examine the claims that are made on
his compassion. By rejecting false ones he can indulge compassion with more effect,
and it partakes more of the nature of virtue.
6. Friendship may prompt a man to involve himself by loan or suretyship.
7. The dictates of natural affection must be checked when they encroach on justice.
Let a man reveal to his family his real circumstances, and establish an order
conformed to them.
8. Pleasures innocent in themselves may prove too costly. From that moment they
cease to be innocent.

91. 9. An immoderate desire of wealth leads to injustice. What is the consequence, for
example, of adventuring in trade beyond what your capital admits of and justifies?
10. Sloth must be conquered. It is fatal to justice as well as to every other virtue.
“The slothful is brother to him that is a great waster.” He is equally exposed to
poverty, and to all the temptations the poor are under, to be unjust.
11. False shame must be combated.
12. Restitution is the last sacrifice to be made to justice. There are two cases, the case
of things found, and of things acquired unjustly.
III. Such are the sacrifices to be made to justice. They are costly; but the blessings are in
proportion great.
1. To be out of debt is accounted a part of happiness.
2. Peace at the latter end is the portion of the upright. The pleasures of iniquity are
but for a moment. The splendour of extravagance fades. To live and die an honest
man is a worthy object of ambition. (S. Charters.)
Avoidance of debt
Owe no man anything. Keep out of debt. Avoid it as you would avoid war, pestilence, and
famine. Hate it with a perfect hatred. Dig potatoes, break stones, peddle in tinwares, do
anything that is honest and useful, rather than run into debt. As you value comfort,
quiet, and independence, keep out of debt. As you value good digestion, a healthy
appetite, a placid temper, a smooth pillow, pleasant dreams and happy wakings, keep
out of debt. Debt is the hardest of all taskmasters; the most cruel of all oppressors. It is
as a millstone about the neck. It is an incumbus on the heart. It spreads a cloud over the
whole firmament of man’s being. It eclipses the sun; it blots out the stars; it dims and
defaces the beautiful blue sky. It breaks the harmony of nature, and turns to dissonance
all the voices of its melody. Ii furrows the forehead with premature wrinkles; it plucks
the eye of its light. It drags the nobleness and kindness out of the port and bearing of a
man; it takes the soul out of his laugh, and all stateliness and freedom from his walk.
Come not, then, under its crushing dominion. But to love one another.
Honesty and love
I. Honesty gives every one his due.
II. Love does more, it gives itself, and thus fulfils the whole law. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Honest dealing and mutual love
These two things are closer together than we are wont to imagine. Said a foremost
physician not long ago, when asked how far the facility with which American
constitutions break down was occasioned by overwork, “It is not overwork either on the
part of the people who work with their brains, or with their hands. The most fruitful
source of physical derangement and mental and nervous disorders are pecuniary
embarrassments and family dissensions.” The two things lie close together. The father,
crowded beyond endurance by the strain to maintain a scale of living long ago pitched
too high, the mother consciously degraded by the domestic dishonesty that draws money
for marketing and spends it for dress; the sons and daughters taught prodigality by

92. example, and upbraided for it in speech—what can come to such a home but embittered
feeling? How can love reign in a household where mutual confidence and sacrifices,
where the traits that inspire respect and kindle affection are wanting? Not to pay one’s
debts is as sure and as short a road as can be found to the extinction of confidence, the
destruction of respect, and the death of love. Where now shall we look for a corrective? I
answer, in a higher ideal of the true wealth and welfare of the nation, and so of the
individuals who severally compose it. It was Epictetus who said, long ago, “You will
confer the greatest benefit upon your city, not by raising the roofs, but by exalting the
souls of your fellow-citizens, for it is better that great souls should live in small
habitations than that abject slaves should burrow in great houses.” Let us then pay every
debt but the debt which we can never wholly pay, whether to God or our neighbour,
which is the debt of love. But let us gladly own that debt, and be busy every day of our
lives in making at least some small payment in account. As we gather about the family
board let us remember the homeless and unbefriended, and be sure that we have done
something to make sunshine in their hearts, no matter what gloom may reign without.
(Bp.H. C. Potter.)
The debt of Christian love
I. The affectionate exhortation. This calls upon us to endeavour to be always out of debt,
while always in debt. Some, indeed, read the text as a doctrinal statement. “Ye owe no
man anything but to love one another”; all that I would inculcate is reducible to this:
obey the law of love to others, in all its branches, and then you will “render to all their
dues.” But there is sufficient reason to interpret our text according to our present
translation. Thus interpreted—
1. It does not mean—Ye sin if ye ever contract debt, or do not discharge it the
moment it is contracted. On this principle, commerce would be almost annihilated;
many a conscience would be continually fettered; and the precept itself would be
found impracticable. But it insists on the punctual and conscientious payment of all
lawful debts, which indeed is required by common honesty. “The wicked borroweth,
and payeth not again.” “Woe unto him,… that useth his neighbour’s service without
wages, and giveth him not for his work.”
2. But it means more. Ye owe duties to every one, and these you are to fulfil. In every
relationship of life you have dues to render, and all your various duties to man result
from your supreme duty to God. You are a debtor first and above all to God Himself,
owing Him ten thousand talents and more, and having nothing wherewith to pay.
That debt Christ has paid for you. Believe ye this? Then God, for Christ’s sake, has
freely forgiven you. From being His debtors as to guilt, ye become His debtors as to
gratitude, and this debt He would have you pay in charity to all mankind. Would ye,
then, be honest in the full Christian sense? “Owe no man anything.” Be ever
discharging the obligations under which God has graciously laid you, to love Him,
and to love your brother also.
3. And yet ye must ever be in debt. We can never do enough in serving God and
benefiting man. When all pecuniary debts are paid, this debt of love to one another
remains, and is still binding.
4. But whence our means of paying this great debt of love? By having the love of God
continually shed abroad in the heart. The more we receive, the more we are in debt to
God; and hence the more we do, the more we may do in carrying out love to God and

93. man, in all the relationships of life.
II. The comprehensive motive. “For he that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law.” “But
we are not under the law, but under grace.” True, but for what object? “That we should
serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” Thus is the believer not
without law to God, but under the law to Christ. All whom the Spirit leads to Christ for
pardon, He forgives freely, and then consigns them back to the training of the Holy
Spirit, who writes the law of God upon the heart, and enables them to write it out in the
life. And that law is love; “love is the fulfilling of the law.” None obey the law of God as
those who look to Christ as “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth.” (J. Hambleton, M.A.)
The debt of love to our neighbour
I. This is a debt which every man owes. There are relations in which men seem slow to
recognise dues and obligations. They recognise the relation between the ordinary
creditor and debtor, master and servant, as well as the obligations founded upon it. They
forget that the very existence of certain relations involves a corresponding obligation,
whether we have voluntarily assumed them or not. The child enters into relations with
its parents without any act of its own; and yet the child is bound to render filial honour,
obedience, and love. The highest relation man can have is to God. This exists before the
act of any recognition on the part of the creature; but it imposes certain obligations
which the creature is bound to meet. In the preceding verses Paul speaks of the relation
of the subject to the ruler; the citizen to the state. Our birth introduces us to the rights of
citizenship, but we are born to duties just as much as to rights; and as long as we remain
under the protection of the State, we are bound to render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s, just as we are bound to render unto God the things that are God’s; and that, as
Paul informs us, “for conscience’ sake.” The debts we owe the State are just as binding as
any debts we voluntarily contract. And these dues (Rom_13:7) lead Paul to speak of that
greatest debt, loving one another. Although you may say with a feeling of independence
and superiority, “I do not owe a dollar to any man,”here is a debt you owe to every man.
“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God”; and the same spirit spoke through
Cain—“Am I my brother’s keeper?” The atheist denies his relation to God and the
obligation which it involves; the spirit of selfishness refuses to recognise its relation to
its neighbour; but the Spirit of Christ teaches a different lesson. It is not left to my choice
or caprices—it is a debt. I owe it not to a select number of men, but to every man, for
every man is my neighbour. According to Paul this debt is love (Mat_22:36-38).
II. What are we to do with this debt?
1. We must pay this debt as every other. The Lord is not satisfied with our
recognition of the duty, for He says, “Thou shalt love.” We must pay it—
(1) By scrupulously abstaining from doing any evil to our neighbour, for “love
worketh no ill to his neighbour.”
(2) By doing all the positive good to him we can.
2. And yet this is the one great debt which we are always to owe. Love is the
inexhaustible fountain out of which all words and deeds of kindness flow. That
fountain must ever remain open and full. Without such a fountain all the streamlets
would fail. Let a man love, and he will strive to render unto all their dues, and to owe
no man anything. The absence of love makes cruel creditors and unprincipled

94. debtors. Love is indeed “the fulfilment of the law,” and the unfulfilled law
everywhere reveals the absence of love. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and of this
great sin, too, that we owe this great debt of love, and have become great debtors by
not paying it. But the law is also “our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” We shall
never be able to pay this greatest of all debts until we have become the pardoned
debtors of our Heavenly Father. The love of God begets our love. He alone can enable
us to be diligent in paying a debt that can never be entirely paid off. (G. F. Krotel,
D.D.)
The debt of love
1. As private persons, in your mutual traffic with one another, it will necessarily
happen that, whatever your stations in life are, you must incur debts, and stand
accountable to one another for certain goods and commodities received, for labour
done, or for money borrowed. When St. Paul therefore directs you to owe no man
anything, he only means that you are not to incur debts wantonly, nor keep in debt
needlessly. But there is one debt which, he says, you can never discharge. This debt is
the debt of Christian love.
2. Examine into the reasons on which it is founded, and why this exertion of
Christian love is a debt of that kind, which can never be paid so fully as to absolve us
from any further payment of it.
(1) The first reason is founded on the relation in which we stand to Almighty
God. The innumerable benefits which we daily and hourly receive at His hands
demand the constant tribute of love and gratitude; but we have no way of
expressing this affection so effectually as by acts of kindness to our
fellowcreatures.
(2) The force of the next reason depends on the frame and constitution of human
nature, which is so replete with wants and weaknesses, consisting indeed of
various kinds, yet distributed in pretty equal proportion among the species, that
it is, morally speaking, impossible for us to be independent one of another.
(3) The last reason consists in the very nature of the principle itself, and of those
intrinsic properties, without which it ceases to be the thing which we mean by the
terms we use to define it. Now, were benevolence a passive principle that
contented itself with being, what the word imports, only a well-wishing, not a
well-doing quality, it might not be required to be in constant use and exertion.
But when used to denote Christian love and charity, and to have the same
meaning with these terms, it implies a strenuous and unwearied exercise of one
of the most active faculties of the human soul, which is better, perhaps,
expressed by the term beneficence. Our charity must therefore be commensurate
with our life; it must act so long as we act, for if it ever faileth it ceaseth to be
charity, because we see that the apostle tells us it is one of its essential properties
never to fail or cease from acting.
3. On these three reasons we build this conclusion that the debt of charity or
benevolence to our neighbour is a debt which we must take all opportunities of
paying him, and of which we must only close the payment when death closes our
eyes. May we not assure ourselves that a soul actuated by so Divine a principle here
on earth, must, of all other things, be best prepared to participate the joys of heaven?
(W. Mason, M.A.)

95. Heaven’s cure for the plagues of sin
I. The nature of love. There are two kinds of affection that have this title. One is an
approbation and affection for a character that pleases us; the other is an ardent good-
will towards beings capable of happiness. Both of these affections are exercises of the
Divine mind. And both of them are enjoined upon man. God and angels and all holy
beings we are obligated to look upon with complacency, and towards all men we are
bound to exercise good-will. We may wish well to all men, and still be willing to see the
convict imprisoned and executed. This the good of the civil community demands, and
this benevolence assents to, nay, even requires.
II. How this affection will operate. Here the path of our thoughts is plain. Love worketh
no ill to his neighbour. It will neither kill, nor steal, nor covet, nor defraud, nor witness
falsely. It will lead to the discharge of every debt but one, and that one the debt of love; it
will delight to owe and pay, and still owe for ever. Those whom we love we wish happy;
and in proportion to the strength of that affection will be the energy exerted to
accomplish that object. If to be calm and content will render them happy, we shall be
reluctant to ruffle their temper or move their envy. If to be rich, and respected, and wise
will make them happy, we shall wish their success in business, their increased
respectability, and their advance in knowledge. If health, and ease, and long life, and
domestic friendship will add to their enjoyments, we shall wish them all these; and what
we wish for them we shall be willing, if in our power, to do for them. But if only the grace
of God can make them blessed, it will be our strongest wish and our most ardent prayer
that God would sanctify them.
III. The duty of benevolence. And here I would premise that the good-will which I urge
is to be exercised toward friend and foe. It is a pure and disinterested affection, hence is
the offspring of a heavenly temper. I would urge it upon myself and my fellow-men—
1. By the example of God. How constant and how varied are the operations of the
Divine benevolence! Life and health, and food and raiment are His gifts, and are
bestowed on His friends and His foes. Now the whole Bible just urges upon every
man this same expanded benevolence. You are required to be a worker together with
God.
2. We are urged to the same duty by the command of God. God does not exhibit His
example before us, and leave it to our option whether we will do like Him. “Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And the Scriptures teach us what the effect of
this love will be. It will lead to an affectionate deportment and a readiness to serve
each other. It begets a spirit of forbearance, of truth, of unanimity, of self-denial, of
meekness, and forgiveness.
3. Benevolence affords its possessor a permanent and high enjoyment. It is, in its
nature, a sweet and calm affection, has its origin in heaven, and exerts a sanctifying
influence upon every other exercise of the soul. If I know that I love my fellow-men, I
am conscious that I feel as God does, and as He commands me to feel. I see, in that
case, the image of my Creator in my heart. Hence it begets joy and hope. But this is
not all; a benevolent heart makes all the happiness it sees its own, and thus widens,
indefinitely, the sphere of its enjoyment. It has a real pleasure in another’s joy, and
still does not diminish the good on which it feeds and thrives.
IV. The happiness it communicates to others. I would then urge all the believers and the

96. unbelievers to love their fellow-men, from the fact that by putting forth this affection you
can create a world of happiness. In the first place, look about you and see what need
there is of more happiness than at present exists, what abundant opportunity there is for
your exertion. You cannot be ignorant that you live in a ruined world, where, if you are
disposed to be kind, you can find abundant employment. You can find misery in almost
every shape and shade. Would it not be desirable to apply a remedy if you might to this
complicated malady? Be willing, then, to practise the benevolence required, and the
remedy is applied and the cure effected. Can you quit the world peaceably till what you
can do has been done, to fertilise the moral waste over which you expect so soon to cast a
lingering, dying look?
V. The dying love of Christ. It was in the cure of this very same distress that He came in
the flesh and died on the tree. Enter, then, upon the work of making your fellow-men
happy, and you are in the very vineyard where the Lord Jesus laboured. He has already
rescued from the ruins of the apostasy a great multitude that no man can number. The
work is going on, and He invites your co-operation. Remarks:
1. In the want of this benevolence, how strong is the proof we have that men are
wholly depraved!
2. We see the necessity that men should be renewed. Place selfish hearts in heaven
and they would there be as fruitful as elsewhere in misery.
3. How pleasant is the prospect of a millennium! Then the benevolence we
contemplate will become general. Men will be employed in rendering each other
happy. (D. A. Clark.)
Love a debt to our neighbour
I. Exceedingly great. Because—
1. The creditors are so many.
2. Its liabilities are so numerous.
3. It can never be fully discharged.
II. Unspeakably sweet. Because—
1. Not lightly incurred.
2. It helps us to discharge all others.
3. It harmonises with God’s love.
4. Every attempt to discharge it is a source of plea-sure. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Love a debt due to all men
I. A great debt.
1. As due to so many—all men.
2. Requiring so much to pay it—sometimes our life (1Jn_3:16).
II. A lasting debt. Though always being paid, yet never discharged. The more that is paid
the more is felt to be due. The principle is deepened and made more active by the

97. practice.
III. A pleasant debt (Php_2:1). Every payment of it gladdens and enlarges the heart.
IV. An honourable debt.
1. Necessary to our moral nature.
2. It makes us Godlike and Christlike (Eph_4:32; Eph 5:1-2; 1Jn_4:8). (T. Robinson,
D.D.)
GTB, "Debt
Owe no man anything, save to love one another.—Rom_13:8.
1. There are several things in the verse from which the text is taken that are very
characteristic of St. Paul. First, there is the tendency to go off upon a word; the mention
of the word “love” seems to suggest to the Apostle’s mind his favourite thesis, “Love is
the fulfilling of the law.” This he pursues through several verses. Again, he uses the word
“owe” in two different ways: in the familiar signification of owing money, and also in the
sense of duty or obligation. As if he said, “Owe no man anything but that debt which you
must always owe and ought to be always paying, the endless debt of love.” Thirdly, there
is the tendency which we often observe in the writings of St. Paul to merge the particular
in the general, the moral in the spiritual. He is constantly going back to the first
principles of the love of God and of man.
2. St. Paul has spoken of the duties and the spirit befitting members of the body of Christ
in their association with one another in the intercourse of private life. He now comes by
a natural transition to speak of their attitude to the community at large, and especially to
the authorities, whether of the city or of the empire, under whom they found themselves.
That they were Christians was an additional reason why they should be good citizens.
The State, like the family or the Church, is of Divine origin and appointment, with claims
not to be set aside, demanding in some form the service, the support, the loyalty of all
who belong to it. The persuasion that each individual has a duty to the State, must hear
its call and give it his support, is not at liberty to uphold merely what is pleasing to
himself, to pay or not to pay according to his own whim and fancy, leads to the further
persuasion that each has a duty to each and all around. “For this cause pay ye tribute
also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render to
all their dues: tribute to whom tribute; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear;
honour to whom honour. Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that
loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law.” It is a principle of universal application. It
covers the vast field of mutual human obligation.
3. How Christians should behave in their relations to one another and to the world
around now becomes the burden of the Apostle’s counsel. Each man in the station in
which he is placed is to exercise the gifts with which he has been endowed. And each
man is bound to consider the rights of others. No man can live his life without learning
that he cannot follow his own inclinations to the uttermost without coming into contact
and conflict with inclinations different from his own. He must in some respects yield to
others, or others must yield to him. He has to do with kindred, or friends, or strangers,
with the sympathetic or the antagonistic, with superiors, inferiors, or equals; and the
manner in which he conducts himself towards them has much to do both with the
development of his own character and with the public weal.
St. Paul says, “Owe no man anything.” Let there be no man who has against thee a

98. legitimate claim which thou hast not fulfilled. The subject is Debt. Beginning with that
part of it which relates to money, let us proceed to moral debts, and end with the debt of
Love.
I
Money Debts
First, in its most prosaically simple form, “Owe no man anything” means, Have no
money duties which thou canst not pay. This is a homely and excellent rule which carries
us a long way in daily life. Debt is to be avoided. All money claims are to be honestly and
scrupulously met. And this is nearly always possible, as we shall see if we look into the
most common causes of “running into debt.”
Dr. Kidd had a great horror of debt. When parting with a friend whom he did not expect
to see for some time, he would exhort him to “Fear God, and keep out of debt.”1 [Note: J.
Stark, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen, 267.]
In addition to the heavy losses Lord Shaftesbury had sustained from his steward, he had
incurred enormous expenses—amounting to some thousands of pounds—in inevitable
lawsuits, civil and criminal, and the combination of circumstances against him produced
so much anxiety that he felt incapable of any prolonged energy. The dread of debt was a
“horror of great darkness” before him. “If I appear to fail in life and vigour, it is not for
the want of zeal,” he wrote to a friend, “but from that kind of Promethean eagle that is
ever gnawing my vitals. May God be with you, and keep you out of debt.” And in his
Diary, among many expressions of sadness and almost despair, he writes: “Our Blessed
Lord endured all the sorrows of humanity but that of debt.” Perhaps it was to exemplify
the truth, uttered afterwards by St. Paul, “Owe no man anything, but to serve him in the
Lord.” The subject was ever in his thoughts; it was “a dead weight on his back which
made him totter in every effort to go forward”; it haunted him night and day, and often,
in his Diary, he breaks out into a wail of lamentation: “My mind returns at every instant
to the modus operandi. How meet the demands that must speedily be made? How
satisfy the fair and righteous claims of those who only ask for their dues? How can I
pursue the many objects I have in view, with this anxiety at my heart? God alone can
deliver me.”2 [Note: F. Hodder, Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, 634.]
1. What are the common causes of “running into debt,” as we commonly understand the
phrase?
(1) Carelessness.—We all of us too easily slide into carelessness about money matters. In
the enjoyment of the present, the hour of reckoning is comparatively distant; almost
unconsciously to ourselves a certain amount of debt accumulates. While we are young
we are especially open to influence of this kind. And therefore early in life we should
acquire the habit of owing no man anything, and we should deal only with those who are
willing that we should owe them nothing. It is good to feel somewhat uneasy while a bill
remains unpaid. Every one can with a little trouble to himself see how he stands at the
end of each month or of each term. He has only to cast up a few figures, to compare what
he has received with what he has paid, and to satisfy himself that nothing has been
omitted. Unless he wishes to be deceived, as is the case with some persons who refuse to
look into their accounts, he can easily know the truth. And he is inexcusable who is
careless in a matter of such importance.
There is a power which may be easily acquired, but which some never acquire, and
others only by dear experience—the power of understanding and doing business. It is
hardly thought of by young men in comparison with intellectual gifts, and yet there is no

99. power which conduces more to happiness and success in life. It is like a steward keeping
the house in order. It is the power of managing and administering, whether in public or
in private life. To be called a thorough man of business is really very high praise. It
implies a clear head and mastery of details; it requires accuracy and constant attention
and sound judgment. Though it begins with figures of arithmetic, it ends with a
knowledge of the characters of men. It is that uncommon quality “common sense”
applied to daily life. And it runs up into higher qualities, uprightness, self-denial, self-
control; the honourable man of business is one of the noblest forms of English
character.1 [Note: B. Jowett.]
Let me tell you a story of one of the greatest heroes of last century. Never did any man
fight through a greater fight in the interest of his country and the world than Abraham
Lincoln. From his early years great imaginations were in his mind, but he did not neglect
plain duties. He was a postmaster in a very out-of-the-way district in Illinois. After a
time the central authority found that so little business was done there that the Post
Office was closed, and when it was closed, there was owing to the postal authority a sum
of seventeen dollars and some odd cents, and they forgot to claim it. The years passed
by, one year, two years, three years, and the money was still unclaimed. Meanwhile
Abraham Lincoln had been fighting a hard fight against poverty. He had found it very
hard to keep his head financially above water. It so happened that the omission was
discovered after this period, and the officers of the Post Office arrived and asked
Abraham Lincoln for the money which was still owing. A friend was in the room. He
knew Abraham’s hard circumstances. He supposed, as a matter of course, that the
money would have been appropriated. He called him out of the room, and offered to
lend it to him; but Abraham Lincoln smiled a little, then went up to his room and came
down and produced that money, not merely in the exact amount, but in the very little
coin in which it had been paid in by the village people when they bought their stamps.
Here is an example of honesty, the honesty which is at the root of a noble life, the simple,
central honesty about money without which, in its pure and simple detail, we can build
no building that in the sight of God will stand.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]
(2) The love of display.—The craving for luxuries, the passion for physical comforts, the
widespread disposition to make life more ornate and less rugged, more smooth and less
self-denying, are tendencies and desires concerning which at the present day there can
be no dispute or any serious question. In a community this means the growth of a
relaxed sense of individual honour and of common honesty. It means a disposition that
will have luxuries by paying for them if it can, but which will have them anyhow. To
think lightly of debt, and the personal and business discredit which comes or ought to
come with it, to be loose in matters of trust, and reckless or unscrupulous in dealing with
the interests of others, to maintain a scale of living which is consciously beyond one’s
means, and yet to go any length and run any risk rather than abridge or relinquish it,
these things are so frequent, if not so familiar, as almost to have lost the power to shock
us.
(3) Envy.—The emulation of richer neighbours and friends, the eagerness to have and
wear and eat and drink what one’s neighbours have to wear and eat and drink is another
potent factor. We know the story. It repeats itself very often; it repeats itself not least
among religious people. A young couple begin life with a small competence—enough if
they would be modest in their requirements. But they have richer friends, and they think
the good things of the world are meant for them too. Why should they not have them?
And so they find themselves by the end of the year living beyond their income—they are
in debt. There are bills they cannot pay, and there begins that long period of bondage, of
misery, which comes when we are not, and ought not to be, able to look people in the

100. face.
2. The results of this easy “running into debt” are always grave and often tragic.
(1) One result is loss of independence.—Not only are many enjoyments and comforts
dependent on the possession of some amount of wealth, but also many of the higher
goods of life. Often through extravagance in youth a man may be bound to some inferior
or mechanical occupation; he may be deprived of the means of study or education; he
may lose one of the best of all God’s gifts—independence.
(2) Over the miseries of debt there have been hearts broken—of parents suddenly
awakened out of the fool’s paradise in which they have been living, of children saddened
by the thought of the sorrow to others which their improvidence has caused. Every now
and then the community stands aghast at some tragedy of horror in which a poor
wretch, daring rather to face his Maker than his creditors, jumps off the dock or blows
his brains out. A dozen of his fellows, hastily gathered and as hastily dismissed, register
their verdict of “suicide occasioned by financial difficulties,” and the great wave of
human life rolls on and over, and the story is soon forgotten. Whereas, if we fairly
realized what such things meant, we would empanel as the jury every youth who is just
setting out in life, every husband who has just led home a young wife, every woman who
is a mother or a daughter in so many thoughtless house-holds, and cry to them, “See!
Here is the fruit of extravagant living and chronic debt. Here is the outcome of craving
for what you cannot pay for, and of spending what you have not earned. Would you be
free and self-respecting and undismayed, no matter how scanty your raiment or bare
your larder? Hear the Apostle’s words to that Rome which had such dire need to heed
them: ‘Owe no man anything, save to love one another.’ ”
Said a foremost physician in one of our foremost cities not long ago, when asked how far
the facility with which American constitutions break down was occasioned by overwork,
“It is not overwork that is killing the American people; neither the people who work with
their brains nor those who work with their hands. I see a great many broken-down men
and women. I am called to treat scores of people with shattered brains and nerves, but
they are not the fruits of overwork. The most fruitful sources of physical derangement
and mental and nervous disorders in America are pecuniary embarrassments and family
dissensions.”1 [Note: Bishop Potter.]
A question that Dr. Kidd often put to the bridegroom, immediately after the ceremony
was over, was, “What makes a good husband?” The answer expected was, “The grace of
God,” to which the minister sometimes added, “Yes, and keeping out of debt.” A young
man, wanting to be fully primed before he had to submit to the fiery ordeal of the
Doctor’s questioning, got the whole thing up in parrot-like fashion. The usual question
being put, “What makes a good husband?” the young fellow glibly blurted out, “The
grace of God, sir, and keeping out of debt.” The Doctor gave him a curious look, and
then, with a comical twinkle, added, “I see, sir, you have been ploughing with my heifer.”
2 [Note: J. Stark, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen, 166.]
II
Moral Debts
“Render to all their dues.” St. Paul does not disdain to urge upon his friends at Rome the
duty of common honesty in all matters of indebtedness to the State to which they
belonged. He would have them remember that the powers that be are ordained of God,
and that they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment, as in more spiritual
things, so in these secular things—judgment according to their neglect.

101. Money-making or money-saving is a great inducement to dishonour—though most
persons would indignantly deny that such a thing could be possible in their case. The
conferences and discussions of the passengers on an ocean liner about to land at an
American port, as they consider the matter of their customs declarations, form an
interesting illustration of this. It is so much easier to denounce the outrages of the use of
a secret spring by the Sugar Trust to defraud the United States of millions of dollars of
dodged duties than to admit that one is considering participation in just such dishonour
by “interpreting” the customs requirements rather broadly as to one’s personal effects.
The printed circular which is given to every passenger, explaining what is required by
law, is so explicit and simple that no intelligent child of twelve could readily
misunderstand it. It is plainly stated that every article obtained abroad, whether by
purchase or otherwise, and whether used or unused, must be declared, including all the
articles upon which an exemption of duty is allowed. Moreover, each person reporting
must sign his or her name to a statement declaring that every article brought from
abroad, whether on the person, or in the clothing, or in the baggage, is thus mentioned.
Yet the majority of otherwise reputable people on an incoming steamer, in the face of all
this, will discuss whether to declare this or that article, whether such a garment, having
been used, need be declared, whether this ring or pin, if worn, need be mentioned, and
the person who, preferring a literal honouring of the law to deliberate, written perjury,
declares everything he has, is looked upon with tolerant amusement as a rather weak-
minded fanatic. It is easier to condemn public graft than private. But public and general
standards of honour in any community will rise no higher than that of the majority of its
individuals.1 [Note: Sunday-School Times (Philadelphia).]
1. We owe a debt to society.—Not to do something good, not to have an honest trade, and
be making or producing something material and spiritual which is worth producing and
offering to mankind, is, in itself, a sort of stealing. We owe it to society that we should be
doing something worth doing. We may have means enough to be idle, as people say, but
that does not exempt us. No man is justified in living who is not performing something
for society.
Remember we are debtors to the good by birth, but remember we may become debtors
to the bad by life, and both sides of service and allegiance must be paid alike.2 [Note: Phillips
Brooks, Life, 76.]
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch’d
But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use.3 [Note: Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, I. i. 33.]
(1) The employer has a debt to the employed. In society we are members one of another,
and every member needs all the rest. As society is now constituted, our wealth may
generally command the service of others, but it does not make us independent of that
service. Inequality does not cancel obligation. For suppose that the poor and dependent,
for some reason or other, should refuse to render us the needful service. What becomes

102. of our independence then? Is the lady housewife less dependent on her cook than the
cook is on her?
(2) The employed has a debt to the employer. The responsibility is equally on this side.
God expects our best work; if it be only dusting a room, He expects that it shall be done
thoroughly. God’s eye sees our work, whether it is thorough, whether it is the best we
can give in small things or in great. Our obligation is not only to pass muster and get our
wages; our obligation is to do the best we can. That is what our duty is; that is our
obligation, whether the business in which we are employed is one which demands a
black coat and a smart dress, or one of a much lower kind. Everywhere God expects that
as we are receiving so we shall give of our best and to God “Owe no man anything.”
2. We owe a debt to those whom we can help.—The Day of Judgment will be a surprise
to us in regard to our relations to our fellow-men. You know how Christ depicts the
gathering of all nations before His feet. They are the nations, not the Jews; they are
those who had no special revelation from God; but He tests them by their conduct one to
another, by their mercifulness. And they are astonished when they find themselves
charged with having neglected Christ in His need. “Lord, when saw we thee poor, or sick,
or in prison, and ministered not to thee in thy necessity?” And the reply we know very
well: “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” It is the
surprise of the not specially enlightened multitude that they were neglecting anything
that Christ could care about in neglecting the poor and the oppressed. It is the surprise
continually for the enlightened consciences of us upon whom has shone the Sun of
Righteousness. It is the continued surprise that we who thought ourselves walking so
uprightly in the way of God were neglecting the plain and manifest duties, or duties that
ought to have been plain and manifest, towards our fellow-men.
It is no excuse that my conscience did not tell me to do such and such things. We live up
to our conscience, but it is a vastly important truth that we are expected to be
enlightening our conscience. Our conscience is not furnished without trouble from
ourselves any more than our intellect. We have to think, we have to fight out, to open our
conscience to the light of God; otherwise, like the Pharisee, like the Priest and the Levite,
we are continually passing by on the other side, our conscience making no particular
suggestion as to our duty towards this person or that person, our heart not awake to the
claims of neighbourliness, because we have been content to take the estimate of duty
which prevailed in the society about us. It is our duty not only to obey our conscience,
but before that to enlighten our conscience with the light of Christ.
If I can live
To make some pale face brighter, and to give
A second lustre to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e’en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some way worn soul in passing by;
If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious strain,

103. My life, though bare
Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us on earth, will not have been in vain.
The purest joy,
Most near to heaven, far from earth’s alloy,
Is bidding clouds give way to sun and shine,
And ’twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me: “She did her best for one of Thine.”
(1) It is our duty to be charitable, and to be liberal in our charity. We owe it to those who
are poorer than we are. Many would tell us that the less we give away in charity the
better; and such a maxim naturally falls in with the indolence or selfishness of mankind.
The reason is supposed to be that charity tends to destroy independence; men will not
do for themselves what others are willing to do for them. If aged persons are supported
by the parish they will often be neglected by their children; if education is free, if relief in
sickness is given, there will be some corresponding relaxation of duty: the family tie will
be weakened and the social state of the country will decline. Such is the argument, and
there is a great deal of truth in it. In works of charity I think we might fairly be required
to start with some such principle as this—that we should never relieve physical suffering
at the cost of moral degradation. But may there not be modes of charity which increase
the spirit of independence instead of diminishing it? A small loan of money given to a
person who is engaged in a hard struggle to keep himself or his children out of the
workhouse, for a purpose such as education, which is least liable to abuse, can scarcely
be imagined to do harm. It would be more satisfactory if the poor were able to manage
for themselves, and perhaps, when they have been educated for a generation or two, they
may be in a different position, and may no longer require the assistance of others. But at
present, and in this country, they must have some help from the classes above them;
they have no adequate sense of their own higher wants, of education, of sanitary
improvement, of the ordering of family life, and the like. We all know the difference
between the lot of a parish in one of our rural districts, which has been cared for by the
landlord and looked after by the ministers of religion, and one which has not. And
therefore it is that great responsibilities fall upon us who have money or education,
nothing short of the care of those who in the social scale are below us. Property has its
duties as well as its rights, but the sense of right is apt to be stronger in most of us than
the sense of duty. Instead of habitually feeling that the poor are our equals in the sight of
God, that “there is nothing which we have not received,” that our advantages, whatever
they may be—money, talent, social position—are a trust only; instead of rendering to
God the things which He has given, we claim and assert them for ourselves.
Let us start fairly with the great truth: for those who possess there is only one certain
duty, which is to strip themselves of what they have, so as to bring themselves into the
condition of the mass that possesses nothing. It is understood, in every clear-thinking
conscience, that no more imperative duty exists; but, at the same time, it is admitted
that this duty, for lack of courage, is impossible of accomplishment. For the rest, in the
heroic history of the duties, even at the most ardent periods, even at the beginning of
Christianity and in the majority of the religious orders that made a special cult of

104. poverty, this is perhaps the only duty that has never been completely fulfilled.1 [Note: Maurice
Maeterlinck, Life and Flowers, 65.]
(2) The Apostle commends hospitality; the bringing together of our friends to eat and
drink and converse, and not only those whose rank is equal to or higher than our own,
and who can ask us again, but those who are a little depressed in life, and who may be
said to correspond to the halt and maimed in the parable of the Marriage Supper.
Hospitality may do a great deal of good in the world. It binds men together in ties of
friendship and kindness; it draws them out of their isolation; it moulds and softens their
characters. The pulse seems to beat quicker, and our spirits flow more freely when we
are received with a hearty welcome; when the entertainer is obviously thinking not of
himself but of his guests, when the conversation has health and life in it, and seems to
refresh us after toil and work.
Let a man, then, say, My house is here in the country, for the culture of the country; an
eating-house and sleeping-house for travellers it shall be, but it shall be much more. I
pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me to get a rich dinner for this
man or this woman who has alighted at our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too
great a cost. These things, if they are curious in, they can get for a dollar at any village.
But let this stranger, if he will, in your looks, in your accent and behaviour, read your
heart and earnestness, your thought and will, which he cannot buy at any price, in any
village or city, and which he may well travel fifty miles, and dine sparely and sleep hard,
in order to behold. Certainly, let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the
traveller; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. Honour to the house
where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and
reads the laws of the universe, the soul worships truth and love, honour and courtesy
flow into all deeds.2 [Note: Emerson.]
Ye gave me of your broken meat,
And of your lees of wine,
That I should sit and sing for you,
All at your banquet fine.
Ye gave me shelter from the storm,
And straw to make my bed,
And let me sleep through the wild night
With cattle in the shed.
Ye know not from what lordly feast
Hither I came this night,
Nor to what lodging with the stars
From hence I take my flight.1 [Note: Cicely Fox Smith.]
(3) It is our duty to be friendly. Even a single person who has strong affection and
principle, and a natural gaiety of soul, may have a great influence for good; without
pretending to be wiser or better than others, he may have a form of character which
controls them. People hardly consider how much a little kindness may do in this
sometimes troubled world. When a man is a stranger in a strange place, a sympathetic

105. word, a silent act of courtesy makes a wonderful impression. The plant that was
shrinking into itself brings forth under these genial influences leaves and flowers and
fruit. There is probably no one who, if he thought about it, would not contribute much
more than he does to the happiness of others.
The Russian reformer, novelist and philanthropist, had an experience that profoundly
influenced his career. Famine had wrought great suffering in Russia. One day the good
poet passed a beggar on the street corner. Stretching out gaunt hands, with blue lips and
watery eyes, the miserable creature asked an alms. Quickly the author felt for a copper.
He turned his pockets inside out. He was without purse or ring or any gift. Then the kind
man took the beggar’s hand in both of his and said: “Do not be angry with me, brother; I
have nothing with me!” The gaunt face lighted up; the man lifted his bloodshot eyes; his
blue lips parted in a smile. “But you called me brother—that was a great gift.” Returning
an hour later he found the smile he had kindled still lingered on the beggar’s face. His
body had been cold; kindness had made his heart warm.2 [Note: N. D. Hillis, Investment of Influence,
41.]
In one of my earliest missions we were using the communion rail for seekers, and I was
much puzzled by the conduct of a middle-aged man in the second centre pew from the
front. I could see he was broken-hearted and sobbing, but he did not come out. When I
went to his side he said he wanted to be saved and was willing; but he would not stir.
Presently I looked at his boots and saw the reason. He mixed the plaster for some
builders, and had come to the service in a pair of big ugly plaster-covered boots, and was
ashamed to go to the front in them. I said to him, “Are those dirty boots your
hindrance?” And his answer was, “Yes, sir, they are.” “All right,” I said, “put mine on to
go forward in.” When he saw me begin to unloose my boots and realized that I was
willing to do this to help a stranger to Christ, he sprang to his feet, boots and all, and was
soon kneeling with others seeking the Lord. But my little act of helpfulness so completely
moved him that for two or three minutes he could do nothing but laugh and cry at the
same time. Ay, and he made a lot of us who were near join him in both.1 [Note: Thomas Waugh,
Twenty-Three years a Missioner, 220.]
III
The Debt of Love
“Owe no man anything, save to love one another.” St. Paul bids us avoid all debt save
this. This is a debt which we all owe, which we can never discharge, and which we must
always be seeking to pay.
1. It is unavoidable.—Owe nothing, do you say? Paid for all? You may pay your
tradesman for his wares, you may pay your tailor for your coat, your butcher and your
cook for your meals. But what have you paid Arkwright and Watt for your cotton? What
have you paid Kepler and Newton and Laplace and Bowditch for your ocean commerce?
What have you paid Sir Humphry Davy for your coal? You cannot stir without
encountering obligations which no conceivable amount of silver or gold can ever
compensate. And now let us mount from worldly and intellectual obligations to
spiritual—from that which is least to that which is highest. Who shall repay the prophets
and martyrs of sacred truths for the light they have shed on our mortal path, and for the
hope of immortality? Who shall satisfy the debt incurred by their testimonies and
sacrifices, the dangers braved, the pains endured in the cause of mankind? Whatever he
may think, every son of man is a debtor to his kind for the larger part of all that he
possesses, or can by any possibility acquire. A compound and accumulated debt has
devolved upon his head—a debt of which a fraction of the interest is all that with lifelong
effort he can hope to discharge; a debt contracted in part before he saw the light,

106. multiplied by all the years of childish imbecility and childish dependence, and
consummated by drafts on years to come. Past, Present, and Future are his creditors. It
needs another view than the mercantile, debt-and-credit theory of life and society to free
us from the weight of obligation, the overwhelming burden of indebtedness, which the
thoughtful and conscientious mind must feel, regarding the subject of benefits received
and ability to pay in that light.
Compared with that goodwill I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render
him seems small. When I have attempted to join myself to others by services, it has
proved an intellectual trick—no more. They eat your service like apples, and leave you
out. But love them, and they feel you, and delight in you all the time.1 [Note: Emerson, Essays, ii.
122.]
Love, work thy wonted miracle to-day.
Here stand, in jars of manifold design,
Life’s bitter waters, mixed with mire and clay,
And thou canst change them into purest wine.2 [Note: Hannah Parker Kimball.]
2. It is commendable.—The more we pay the more we have to contribute, and the greater
the capital from which to draw. But the recognition of the debt with the consequent
effort to liquidate it, though leaving us with the debt unpaid, fulfils the law of life. St.
Paul bids us lead a life of universal love. If we do that we shall not only be good citizens,
paying our taxes as law-abiding subjects should, but we shall be good neighbours, good
husbands, good parents, good children, good masters, good servants.
I often wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are. How much the world
needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly it is
remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back—for there is no debtor in the
world so honourable, so superbly honourable, as love.3 [Note: Henry Drummond.]
A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life, and know that it is always the part
of prudence to face every claimant and pay every just demand on your time, your talents,
or your heart. Always pay; for first or last you must pay your entire debt. Persons and
events may stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a postponement. You
must pay at last your own debt. If you are wise you will dread a prosperity which only
loads you with more. Benefit is the end of nature. But for every benefit which you
receive, a tax is levied. He is great who confers the most benefits. He is base—and that is
the one base thing in the universe—who receives favours and renders none. In the order
of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only
seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed,
cent for cent, to somebody. Beware of too much good staying on your hand. It will
corrupt and breed worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort.1 [Note: Emerson, Essays, i. 85.]
3. It is unpayable.—But the effort to discharge it cancels obligation. Wherever two
things are bound to each other by reciprocal, equal, and perfect love, all feeling of
obligation or indebtedness one to the other ceases; there is no question of claims or dues
between them, though all the giving, the technical, ostensible giving, has been confined
to one side of the union and all the apparent receiving to the other. In a case of
friendship, fervent and true, between two large-hearted men, if one happens to be in
want and borrows and the other happens to abound and lends, although there is a
technical and legal indebtedness of the borrower, there is no obligation between them,
or if any, it is the lender’s quite as much as the borrower’s.
The obligation of love to our neighbour can never be so fulfilled that one comes to an end

107. of it, but every fulfilment brings in its train the obligation of a new and yet higher
fulfilment of the duty. It is with charity as with a flame. The more the flame burns and
blazes, the more need there is of oil to feed it, and the more plentifully the oil is poured
upon the flame, so much the more actively it blazes, so much the more it demands fresh
nourishment. So they emulate each other, the flame and the oil, to the highest point of
light and heat. Even so it is with love of our neighbour. Love begets answering love, and
this answering love again demands fresh love, so that for neither is there limit or end.
That is the meaning of the apostolic saying: “Owe no man anything, save to love one
another.”
No man becomes independent of his fellow-men excepting in serving his fellow-men.1
[Note: Phillips Brooks, Addresses, 21.]
Dig channels for the streams of Love,
Where they may broadly run;
And Love has overflowing streams
To fill them every one.
But if at any time thou cease
Such channels to provide,
The very founts of Love for thee
Will soon be parched and dried.
For we must share, if we would keep,
That good thing from above;
Ceasing to give, we cease to have—
Such is the law of Love.2 [Note: R. C. Trench.]
MEYER, "LOVE FULFILLS THE LAW
Rom_13:8-14
The one debt which can never be discharged is love. Because we can never be out of debt
to God, we are called upon to show unending love to man. So long as we love we cannot
injure; and therefore the man who is always caring for others as much as, or more than,
he does for himself (and this latter is the Christian ideal) is fulfilling that ancient law.
We resemble soldiers slumbering in their tents while dawn is flushing the sky. Presently
the bugle rings out its awakening note. The long night of the world is ending, the dawn is
on the sky, and all the malignity of men and demons cannot postpone it by a single hour.
Let us put off the garments which only befit the darkness, and array ourselves in the
armor of the day! What is that armor? In a word, it is Jesus Christ-His character and
method, His unselfishness and purity-so that when men see us, they may involuntarily
turn to Him.

108. MACLAREN 8-14, "LOVE AND THE DAY
The two paragraphs of this passage are but slightly connected. The first inculcates the
obligation of universal love; and the second begins by suggesting, as a motive for the
discharge of that duty, the near approach of ‘the day.’ The light of that dawn draws
Paul’s eyes and leads him to wider exhortations on Christian purity as befitting the
children of light.
I. Rom_13:8 - Rom_13:10 set forth the obligation of a love which embraces all
men, and comprehends all duties to them.
The Apostle has just been laying down the general exhortation, ‘Pay every man his due’
and applying it especially to the Christian’s relation to civic rulers. He repeats it in a
negative form, and bases on it the obligation of loving every man. That love is further
represented as the sum and substance of the law. Thus Paul brings together two
thoughts which are often dealt with as mutually exclusive,-namely, love and law. He does
not talk sentimentalisms about the beauty of charity and the like, but lays it down, as a
‘hard and fast rule,’ that we are bound to love every man with whom we come in contact;
or, as the Greek has it, ‘the other.’
That is the first plain truth taught here. Love is not an emotion which we may indulge or
not, as we please. It is not to select its objects according to our estimate of their
lovableness or goodness. But we are bound to love, and that all round, without
distinction of beautiful or ugly, good or bad. ‘A hard saying; who can hear it?’ Every man
is our creditor for that debt. He does not get his due from us unless he gets love. Note,
further, that the debt of love is never discharged. After all payments it still remains
owing. There is no paying in full of all demands, and, as Bengel says, it is an undying
debt. We are apt to weary of expending love, especially on unworthy recipients, and to
think that we have wiped off all claims, and it may often be true that our obligations to
others compel us to cease helping one; but if we laid Paul’s words to heart, our patience
would be longer-breathed, and we should not be so soon ready to shut hearts and purses
against even unthankful suitors.
Further, Paul here teaches us that this debt (debitum, ‘duty’ ) of love includes all duties.
It is the fulfilling of the law, inasmuch as it will secure the conduct which the law
prescribes. The Mosaic law itself indicates this, since it recapitulates the various
commandments of the second table, in the one precept of love to our neighbour (Lev_
19:18). Law enjoins but has no power to get its injunctions executed. Love enables and
inclines to do all that law prescribes, and to avoid all that it prohibits. The multiplicity of
duties is melted into unity; and that unity, when it comes into act, unfolds into
whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. Love is the mother tincture which,
variously diluted and manipulated, yields all potent and fragrant draughts. It is the white
light which the prism of daily life resolves into its component colours.
But Paul seems to limit the action of love here to negative doing no ill. That is simply
because the commandments are mostly negative, and that they are is a sad token of the
lovelessness natural to us all. But do we love ourselves only negatively, or are we
satisfied with doing ourselves no harm? That stringent pattern of love to others not only
prescribes degree, but manner. It teaches that true love to men is not weak indulgence,
but must sometimes chastise, and thwart, and always must seek their good, and not
merely their gratification.

109. Whoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of working no ill to others, will
find it positive enough. We harm men when we fail to help them. If we can do them a
kindness, and do it not, we do them ill. Non-activity for good is activity for evil. Surely,
nothing can be plainer than the bearing of this teaching on the Christian duty as to
intoxicants. If by using these a Christian puts a stumbling-block in the way of a weak
will, then he is working ill to his neighbour, and that argues absence of love, and that is
dishonest, shirking payment of a plain debt.
II. The great stimulus to love and to all purity is set forth as being the near
approach-of the day (Rom_13:11 - Rom_13:14).
‘The day,’ in Paul’s writing, has usually the sense of the great day of the Lord’s return,
and may have that meaning here; for, as Jesus has told us, ‘it is not for’ even inspired
Apostles ‘to know the times or the seasons,’ and it is no dishonour to apostolic
inspiration to assign to it the limits which the Lord has assigned.
But, whether we take this as the meaning of the phrase, or regard it simply as pointing to
the time of death as the dawning of heaven’s day, the weight of the motive is unaffected.
The language is vividly picturesque. The darkness is thinning, and the blackness turning
grey. Light begins to stir and whisper. A band of soldiers lies asleep, and, as the twilight
begins to dawn, the bugle call summons them to awake, to throw off their night-gear,-
namely, the works congenial to darkness,-and to brace on their armour of light. Light
may here be regarded as the material of which the glistering armour is made; but, more
probably, the expression means weapons appropriate to the light.
Such being the general picture, we note the fact which underlies the whole
representation; namely, that every life is a definite whole which has a fixed end. Jesus
said, ‘We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh.’
Paul uses the opposite metaphors in these verses. But, though the two sayings are
opposite in form, they are identical in substance. In both, the predominant thought is
that of the rapidly diminishing space of earthly life, and the complete unlikeness to it of
the future. We stand like men on a sandbank with an incoming tide, and every wash of
the waves eats away its edges, and presently it will yield below our feet. We forget this for
the most part, and perhaps it is not well that it should be ever present; but that it should
never be present is madness and sore loss.
Paul, in his intense moral earnestness, in Rom_13:13, bids us regard ourselves as already
in ‘the day,’ and shape our conduct as if it shone around us and all things were made
manifest by its light. The sins to be put off are very gross and palpable. They are for the
most part sins of flesh, such as even these Roman Christians had to be warned against,
and such as need to be manifested by the light even now among many professing
Christian communities.
But Paul has one more word to say. If he stopped without it, he would have said little to
help men who are crying out, ‘How am I to strip off this clinging evil, which seems my
skin rather than my clothing? How am I to put on that flashing panoply?’ There is but
one way,-put on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we commit ourselves to Him by faith, and front
our temptations in His strength, and thus, as it were, wrap ourselves in Him, He will be
to us dress and armour, strength and righteousness. Our old self will fall away, and we
shall take no forethought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

110. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery,"
"Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not
covet,"[a] and whatever other commandment
there may be, are summed up in this one rule:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."[b]
BAR ES, For this - “This” which follows is the sum of the laws. “This” is to regulate
us in our conduct toward our neighbor. The word “this” here stands opposed to “that” in
Rom_13:11. This law of love would prompt us to seek our neighbor’s good; “that” fact,
that our salvation is near, would prompt us to be active and faithful in the discharge of
all the duties we owe to him.
Thou shalt not commit adultery - All the commands which follow are designed as
an illustration of the duty of loving our neighbor; see these commands considered in the
notes at Mat_19:18-19. The apostle has not enumerated “all” the commands of the
second table. He has shown generally what they required. The command to honor our
parents he has omitted. The reason might have been that it was not so immediately to
his purpose when discoursing of love to a “neighbor” - a word which does not
immediately suggest the idea of near relatives. The expression, “Thou shalt not bear false
witness,” is rejected by the best critics as of doubtful authority, but it does not materially
affect the spirit of the passage. It is missing in many manuscripts and in the Syriac
version.
If there be any other commandment - The law respecting parents; or if there be
any duty which does not seem to be “specified” by these laws, it is implied in the
command to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It is briefly comprehended - Greek, It may be reduced to “this head;” or it is
summed up in this.
In this saying - This word, or command,
Thou shalt love ... - This is found in Lev_19:18. See it considered in the notes at
Mat_19:19. If this command were fulfilled, it would prevent all fraud, injustice,
oppression, falsehood, adultery, murder, theft, and covetousness. It is the same as our
Saviour’s golden rule. And if every man would do to others as he would wish them to do
to him, all the design of the Law would be at once fulfilled.

111. CLARKE, "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery - He that loves another will
not deprive him of his wife, of his life, of his property, of his good name; and will not
even permit a desire to enter into his heart which would lead him to wish to possess any
thing that is the property of another: for the law - the sacred Scripture, has said: Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
It is remarkable that ου ψευδοµαρτυρησεις, thou shalt not bear false witness, is wanting
here in ABDEFG, and several other MSS. Griesbach has left it out of the text. It is
wanting also in the Syriac, and in several of the primitive fathers. The generality of the
best critics think it a spurious reading.
GILL, "For this, thou shalt not commit adultery,.... The apostle here reckons up
the several laws of the second table, with this view, that it might appear that so far as a
man loves his neighbour, whether more near or distantly related, he fulfils the law, or
acts according to it. He omits the first of these, the fifth commandment, either because
he had urged this before, so far as it may be thought to regard magistrates; or because,
according to the division of the Jews, who reckon five commands to each table, this
belonged to the first: and he puts the seventh before the sixth, which is of no great
moment; the order of things being frequently changed in the Scripture, and which is
often done by Jewish writers, in alleging and citing passages of Scripture; and with
whom this is a maxim, ‫בתורה‬ ‫ומאוחר‬ ‫מוקדם‬ ‫,אין‬ "that there is no first nor last in the law" (c);
that is, it is of no importance which stands first or last in it: it follows,
thou shall not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
thou shalt not covet; which are the sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth commands of the
decalogue, Exo_20:13,
and if there be any other commandment; of God, respecting the neighbour, either
in the decalogue, as there was the fifth, Exo_20:12, or elsewhere, the apostle repeating
this by memory:
it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shall love thy
neighbour as thyself; see Lev_19:18; this is the summary and epitome of them; so
Christ reduces the laws of the first table to the head of love to God, and those of the
second to the head of love to the neighbour, Mat_22:37, as the apostle does here, and in
Gal_5:14, and the Apostle James, in Jam_2:8.
HE RY, "Now, to prove that love is the fulfilling of the law, he gives us, 1. An induction
of particular precepts, Rom_13:9. He specifies the last five of the ten commandments,
which he observes to be all summed up in this royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself - with an as of quality, not of equality - “with the same sincerity that thou
lovest thyself, though not in the same measure and degree.” He that loves his neighbour

112. as himself will be desirous of the welfare of his neighbour's body, goods, and good name,
as of his own. On this is built that golden rule of doing as we would be done by. Were
there no restraints of human laws in these things, no punishments incurred (which the
malignity of human nature hath made necessary), the law of love would of itself be
effectual to prevent all such wrongs and injuries, and to keep peace and good order
among us. In the enumeration of these commandments, the apostle puts the seventh
before the sixth, and mentions this first, Thou shalt not commit adultery; for though
this commonly goes under the name of love (pity it is that so good a word should be so
abused) yet it is really as great a violation of it as killing and stealing is, which shows that
true brotherly love is love to the souls of our brethren in the first place. He that tempts
others to sin, and defiles their minds and consciences, though he may pretend the most
passionate love (Pro_7:15, Pro_7:18), does really hate them, just as the devil does, who
wars against the soul.
JAMISO , "For this, etc. — better thus: “For the [commandments], Thou shalt not
kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and
whatever other commandment [there may be], it is summed up,” etc. (The clause, “Thou
shalt not bear false witness,” is wanting in all the most ancient manuscripts). The apostle
refers here only to the second table of the law, as love to our neighbor is what he is
treating of.
COFFMA , "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, Thou
shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is
summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love
worketh no to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.
As noted above, Paul here adhered to the pattern of Jesus' summation of all the
Decalogue under the two headings of love to God, and love to people (Matthew
22:34-40; Mark 12:29-31), the latter division being the one considered here. The
Christian life is realized, not by an item tabulation of commandments kept or
broken, but by a conscious filling of the heart with love toward others, a fulfillment
being made possible only by the sacred enthronement within, of the Holy Spirit.
That Paul consciously followed the teachings of the Master throughout is observable
in several particulars, as noted by Lenski:
Already in connection with Romans 13:1-7, we noted that Paul is repeating the very
teachings of Jesus with regard to government and taxation; he certainly repeats the
Master's instructions here, ... has the same order of the commandments as that
found in Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20, where the sixth commandment is named before
the fifth.[4]

113. This passage does not teach that if one loves his neighbor he has license to break any
of the commandments, but that truly loving one's neighbor will positively restrain
from any sinful action against one's neighbor. This is profoundly true and means
that the first and uppermost concern of God is that human hearts should I DEED
overflow with love to mankind, such love making it impossible that specific evil
deeds in the social spectrum could be committed.
E D OTE:
[4] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1963), p. 799.
CALVI , "9.For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, etc. It cannot be from this
passage concluded what precepts are contained in the second table, for he subjoins
at the end, and if there be any other precept He indeed omits the command
respecting the honoring of parents; and it may seem strange, that what especially
belonged to his SUBJECT should have been passed by. But what if he had left it out,
lest he should obscure his argument? Though I dare not to affirm this, yet I see here
nothing wanting to answer the purpose he had in view, which was to show, — that
since God intended nothing else by all his commandments than to teach us the duty
of love, we ought by all means to strive to perform it. And yet the uncontentious
reader will readily acknowledge, that Paul intended to prove, by things of a like
nature, that the import of the whole law is, that love towards one another ought to
be exercised by us, and that what he left to be implied is to be understood, and that
is, — that obedience to magistrates is not the least thing which tends to nourish
peace, to preserve brotherly love.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Thou shalt not commit adultery … and if there be any
other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this … Thou shalt love thy neighbout
as thyself.
The comprehensiveness of love
It comprehends—
I. The whole law.
II. The letter and the spirit.
III. Our neighbour as ourselves. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The love of our neighbour
I. The object of the affection. Love of our neighbour, or benevolence, seeks the good of
others, and in its noblest form is the perfection of God.
II. Its proper extent. “As ourselves.” This implies—
1. That it is to be of the same kind. We have a common interest in others and in

114. ourselves.
2. That it is to bear a certain proportion to our love for ourselves. What this
proportion is to be is not easily decided, for affection is not easily measured; but as
to actions, the expression of affection, the more others occupy our thoughts the
better, provided we neglect not ourselves.
3. That it is to equal our love for ourselves, No ill consequences can ensue from this,
for—
(1) Men have other affections for themselves not felt for others.
(2) They are specially interested in themselves.
(3) They have a particular perception of their own interest, so that there is no
fear of self neglect.
III. Its influence on our general temper.
1. To produce all charitableness.
2. To fit men for every relation and duty.
3. To moderate party feeling.
4. To prevent or heal all strife.
IV. What it includes—all virtue. It prompts men—
1. To seek the greatest happiness of all, which is itself a discharge of all our
obligations.
2. To the practice of all personal virtues—temperance, etc., and certainly a neglect of
these virtues implies a deficiency of love to others. (Bp. Butler.)
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour.
The working of love
I. Love is essentially an active principle.
II. Works no ill.
1. In deed.
2. In word.
3. In thought.
III. Must work good.
1. Wherever it has opportunity.
2. To the extent of its ability.
IV. Is therefore the fulfilling of the law.
1. Negatively.
2. Positively. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

115. The work of low
The Arabian commentators of Mahomet attempted to make a law applicable to every
relation in life. They published, it is said, a code containing seventy-five thousand rules;
but cases soon arose to which none of these rules would apply. The New Testament
adopts another method. It deals in broad and fundamental principles capable of
universal application. It gives us in plain words a law of love. This suggests principles
which are universal and eternal. It gives a life rather than a rule.
I. “love worketh no ill to his neighbour.” This is a broad truth. One’s neighbour is
primarily the one near—the near dweller, any one with whom we have to do. Christ has
for ever answered the question, “Who is my neighbour?”
1. The spirit of this statement strikes a blow at all kinds of business which injure
one’s neighbour. It meets the servant and the master, the maid and her mistress; it
enters the counting-house and the workshop; it confronts the lawyer and his client,
the physician and his patient, the pastor and his people. It enters the social circle and
hushes the voice of the slanderer. It stands like an incarnate conscience across the
track of the vile wretch who would rob youth of purity and glory. It lifts a voice
against the man who destroys his neighbour with strong drink. It thunders its
condemnation in the ear of the gambler. It lifts before us the great white throne, and
enables us to anticipate its final decisions.
2. This law of love also opposes all forms of bad example. The man who desecrates
God’s day, disbelieves God’s book, and disobeys God’s Son, is an enemy to his
neighbour. No man has a right to set a bad example before men. The man who
misleads the young may blight the lives of coming generations.
3. This law reaches those who are only negatively good. No man has a right to
remain in that position. Your good name, while you remain in that attitude to God,
makes your influence the greater and your condemnation the heavier. Have you
accepted Christ as your personal Saviour? Then come to the Church. For the sake of
your neighbour come into the ranks. Confess Christ; march in line with His people.
Thus will you work no ill to your neighbour.
II. But it is clearly implied that love works well to one’s neighbour. This is a step in
advance. It cannot rest in the mere negative condition. Love does not simply do no ill; it
does well. It understands that to withhold good when it might be done, is as truly sin as
to devise evil. Paul (1Co_13:1-13.) shows that it is the principle without which all other
gifts are worthless. The Corinthian chapter is the inspired commentary on the Roman
text. What a world this would be if this love dominated all the actions of men! Social life
would be regenerated; commercial life be consecrated; heaven would be begun on earth.
(R. S. Macarthur, D.D.)
Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.—
Love the fulfilling of the law
Love is—
I. The best expositor of the law. It teaches us to keep it—
1. Conscientiously as in the sight of God.
2. Sincerely with the whole heart.

116. 3. Fully in every point.
4. Perfectly, not merely negatively.
II. The best keeper of the law. It fulfils it with—
1. Delight.
2. All its strength.
3. Constancy. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Love
I. Reaches the full extent of the law.
1. It keeps the whole law; not only its prohibitions, but also its precepts.
2. Keeps it perfectly, not only with the hands, but with the heart.
3. Is never weary.
II. Makes its performance easy.
1. It draws help from a Divine source.
2. Supplies Divine strength.
3. Guarantees the Divinest reward. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Love is the fulfilling of the law
Because it—
I. Teaches everything.
1. It unfolds the spirit of the law.
2. Strengthens the voice of conscience.
3. Resolves all difficult questions.
II. Does everything.
1. Is not contented with the appearance.
2. Does not stop short half-way.
3. Seeks not for reward.
III. Rewards everything.
1. The good intention.
2. The secret act.
3. The greatest sacrifice. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Love is the fulfilling of the law
Because the love of God and man is the soul of every outward duty, and a cause that will

117. produce these as effects. (R. Baxter.)
Love fulfils law
A religion which can announce this as its distinctive principle needs bring no further
credentials of its heavenly origin. Michael Angelo need not carve his name on his own
statuary, nor Raphael write his on his pictures. The song tells you what is the bird which
sings. And so our text is unlike the trees that spring out of merely human soil. Its
fragrance and its fruit announce it to be a slip from the tree that grows in the midst of
the Paradise of God, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
I. Love is the substance of the demands of the law; it is their very essence and
quintessence.
1. A tree may have a thousand branches, and ten thousand leaves, all of them having
a different direction and shape; but they all arise out of life. So all the
commandments are but the outward forms of an inward spirit, and that spirit is love.
2. Law does not fall so pleasantly on the ear as love. It is like a spiked wall between
us and tempting fruit; or like the warning guide-post, “No road this way,” precisely at
the spot where the path seems to lose itself in the most enchanting scenery. But this
is a false view of law. Love could not be the fulfilling of it if it were of this nature, but
the abolishing of it. For what is law? A wanton restraint, a needless burden, the
arbitrary exaction of a superior authority, and thus superfluous circumscription of
our liberty, and wilful limitation of our pleasures? No! It is but such a limitation and
restraint as secures for each man the largest sweep of liberty. It is true that if there
were no human laws, certain individuals would be able to indulge their wills and
passions over a much wider field; but what of the people generally? The man who
can go beyond his just bounds of right, can only do so by invading the bounds of
another. This is the essence of tyranny. Liberty can only live where law is the
supremest thing. No man resents a just law, but he who is at heart an enemy to the
righteous claims of his fellow-men. Law is a hedge; but no hedge is thorny and
repulsive to a man who does not wish to break through and trample upon the sacred
privileges of his neighbour.
3. Can you find a law of God which is in itself, and on all sides of it, a dark and
repulsive thing? I know of no law of His which has not in its very heart this
command, “Be happy.” This has ever been the view of good men. “Oh! how love! Thy
law! it is daily my delight.” “Great peace have they that love Thy law.” “Of law,”
Hooker has said, “there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom
of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her
homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her
power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in
differing sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother
of their peace and joy.”
II. Obedience is to arise from love.
1. There may be what men esteem the fulfilling of a law for which they have no
respect. There is the fulfilling—
(1) Which arises from fear, and despots may feel flattered and feel safer as they
see a population pale with terror at their power. But that power is always the
safest which inspires love. The law of God can never be obeyed through terror.

118. Only think of a man obeying God because he dreads Him. Think of him saying,
“If God were not as powerful as He is, I would set my heel upon His laws; but I
am no match for Him, and therefore I submit and obey.” Nay, you neither submit
nor obey. You might do this in the case of an earthly king, whose laws are
satisfied if they receive an external obedience. But God is a King and a Father,
who says, “Thou shalt love”; not, “Thou shalt dread the Lord thy God.” He is a
Monarch whose laws you cannot obey except by loving Him. He clearly
discriminates between what seems obedience and what is. “This people draweth
nigh unto Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” You fathers know
that it is not worth the name of obedience if your child serve you from dread of
consequences.
(2) Which is prompted by a mere sense of interest. This is little better than that
we have just considered. Of course obedience brings sooner or later its own
reward. But there is a great difference between pursuing a course which is
profitable, and pursuing it because it is profitable. A faithful servant of a
monarch may be paid for his service; but if he serves only for his pay, he is not a
faithful servant. Will it be said that this seems to strike against the promises of
the joys and glories of Heaven? No, they are far more gracious gifts than wages.
When Christ says, “I will make thee ruler over many things,” it is not because we
have deserved it. And hence the saints in heaven cast their crowns at the feet of
Him that sits upon the throne, saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord,” etc. And the
crowns are not given to those who have served for gain; they are given to those
who have served from love. The fulfilling of the law from love creates now its own
heaven within the man.
2. The law of service is the law of love. This was so with Christ. “I delight to do Thy
will, O God.” And the service we render to Christ must be like that. “Lovest thou
Me?” etc. And this truth applies equally to our relations to our fellow-men. “Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” There is far too much of the spirit, in these
times, which regards men as so many competitors on the great arena of life, each one
feeling that he loses what another gains, and that he must do the best for himself,
leaving the weaker to go unpitied to the wall. But Christ came to teach us a holier and
more blessed law, viz., that we are all brethren, brethren in nature, brethren in Him,
because He partook our nature, and “is not ashamed to call us brethren.” (E. Mellor,
D.D.)
Love the essence of obedience
I. The nature of true love. It is—
1. Universal, extending to being in general, or to God and all His creatures.
2. Impartial. It regards every proper object of benevolence according to its apparent
worth and importance in the scale of being.
3. Disinterested. Mercenary love can never form a virtuous character.
II. True love is the fulfilling of the law.
1. It conforms the heart to God. God is love. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.” If the moral perfection of man consists in
conformity to the moral perfection of God, and the moral perfection of God consists

119. in love, then love must be the fulfilling of the law.
2. It answers the full demand of the law. When a certain man asked our Saviour,
“Which is the great commandment in the law?” He replied, “Thou shalt love,” etc. So
Paul says, “The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart.” By this he
declares that charity or true love fully answers the spirit and design of the law.
3. It makes us feel and act in every respect just as God requires. So far as we possess
it, we shall both internally and externally obey every Divine command.
4. It restrains men from everything which God forbids. (N. Emmons, D.D.)
10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore
love is the fulfillment of the law.
BAR ES, Love worketh no ill ... - Love would seek to do him good; of course it
would prevent all dishonesty and crime toward others. It would prompt to justice, truth,
and benevolence. If this law were engraved on every man’s heart, and practiced in his
life, what a change would it immediately produce in society! If all people would at once
“abandon” what is suited to “work ill” to others, what an influence would it have on the
business and commercial affairs of people. How many plans of fraud and dishonesty
would it at once arrest. How many schemes would it crush. It would silence the voice of
the slanderer; it would stay the plans of the seducer and the adulterer; it would put an
end to cheating, and fraud, and all schemes of dishonest gain. The gambler desires the
property of his neighbor without any compensation; and thus works “ill” to him. The
dealer in “lotteries” desires property for which he has never toiled, and which must be
obtained at the expense and loss of others. And there are many “employments” all whose
tendency is to work “ill” to a neighbor. This is pre-eminently true of the traffic in “ardent
spirits.” It cannot do him good, and the almost uniform result is to deprive him of his
property, health, reputation, peace, and domestic comfort. He that sells his neighbor
liquid fire, knowing what must be the result of it, is not pursuing a business which works
no ill to him; and love to that neighbor would prompt him to abandon the traffic; see
Hab_2:15, “Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him,
and makest him drink also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness.”
Therefore ... - “Because” love does no harm to another, it is “therefore” the fulfilling
of the Law, implying that all that the Law requires is to “love” others.
Is the fulfilling - Is the “completion,” or meets the requirements of the Law. The
Law of God on this “head,” or in regard to our duty to our neighbor, requires us to do
justice toward him, to observe truth, etc. “All” this will be met by “love;” and if people
truly “loved” others, all the demands of the Law would be satisfied.
Of the law - Of the Law of Moses, but particularly the Ten Commandments.

120. CLARKE, "Love worketh no ill - As he that loves another will act towards that
person as, on a reverse of circumstances, he would that his neighbor should act towards
him; therefore, this love can never work ill towards another: and, on this head, i.e. the
duty we owe to our neighbor, love is the fulfilling of the law.
GILL, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour,.... That is, the man that truly loves
his neighbour, will contrive no ill against him, nor do any to him; he will not injure his
person, nor defile his bed, nor deprive or defraud him of his substance; or do hurt to his
character, bear false testimony against him, or covet with an evil covetousness anything
that is his; but, on the contrary, will do him all the good he is capable of:
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law: so far as a man loves his neighbour, he
acts agreeably to the law, and the particular precepts of it above mentioned: what the
apostle says of love to the neighbour, the Jews frequently say of love to God;
"he that loveth God (they say (d)) ‫אמירן‬ ‫עשר‬ ‫,מקיים‬ "hath fulfilled the decalogue", both
above and below.''
And again (e),
"there is no service like the love of God, R. Abba saith it is ‫דאורייתא‬ ‫,כללא‬ "the sum of the
law"; for the ten words of the law ‫אתכלילו‬ ‫,הכא‬ "are herein comprehended", or "fulfilled":''
and elsewhere (f) they observe,
"that ‫באהבה‬ ‫כלולה‬ ‫התורה‬ ‫,כל‬ "the whole law is comprehended", or fulfilled "in love".''
HE RY, "A general rule concerning the nature of brotherly love: Love worketh no ill
(Rom_13:10) - he that walks in love, that is actuated and governed by a principle of love,
worketh no ill; he neither practises nor contrives any ill to his neighbour, to any one that
he has any thing to do with: ouk ergazetai. The projecting of evil is in effect the
performing of it. Hence devising iniquity is called working evil upon the bed, Mic_2:1.
Love intends and designs no ill to any body, is utterly against the doing of that which
may turn to the prejudice, offence, or grief of any. It worketh no ill; that is, it prohibits
the working of any ill: more is implied than is expressed; it not only worketh no ill, but it
worketh all the good that may be, deviseth liberal things. For it is a sin not only to devise
evil against thy neighbour, but to withhold good from those to whom it is due; both are
forbidden together, Pro_3:27-29. This proves that love is the fulfilling of the law,
answers all the end of it; for what else is that but to restrain us from evil-doing, and to
constrain us to well-doing? Love is a living active principle of obedience to the whole

121. law. The whole law is written in the heart, if the law of love be there.
JAMISO , "Love worketh no ill to his — or, “one’s”
neighbour; therefore, etc. — As love, from its very nature, studies and delights to
please its objects, its very existence is an effectual security against our willfully injuring
him. Next follow some general motives to the faithful discharge of all these duties.
CALVI , "10.Love doeth no evil to a neighbor, etc. He demonstrates by the effect,
that under the word love are contained those things which are taught us in all the
commandments; for he who is endued with true love will never entertain the
thought of injuring others. What else does the whole law forbid, but that we do no
harm to our neighbor? This, however, ought to be applied to the present subject; for
since magistrates are the guardians of peace and justice, he who desires that his own
right should be SECURED to every one, and that all may live free from wrong,
ought to defend, as far as he can, the power of magistrates. But the enemies of
government show a disposition to do harm. And when he repeats that the fulfilling
of the law is love, understand this, as before, of that part of the law which refers to
mankind; for the first table of the law, which contains what we owe to God, is not
here referred to at all.
GTB, "Love and the Law
Love is the fulfilment of the law.—Rom_13:10.
1. “Of Law,” says Hooker, in the celebrated sentence with which he closes the first book
of his Ecclesiastical Polity,—“Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her
seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and
earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted
from her power; both Angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though
each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the
mother of their peace and joy.”
I cannot fancy to my self what the Law of Nature means, but the Law of God. How
should I know I ought not to steal, I ought not to commit Adultery, unless some body
had told me so? Surely ’tis because I have been told so? ’Tis not because I think I ought
not to do them, nor because you think I ought not; if so, our minds might change,
whence then comes the restraint? from a higher Power, nothing else can bind. I cannot
bind myself, for I may untye myself again; nor an equal cannot bind me, for we may
untye one another. It must be a superior Power, even God Almighty. If two of us make a
Bargain, why should either of us stand to it? What need you care what you say, or what
need I care what I say? Certainly because there is something about me that tells me Fides
est servanda, and if we after alter our minds, and make a new Bargain, there’s Fides
servanda there too.1 [Note: John Selden, Table Talk, 66.]
2. There is a law which men recognize always, even when they refuse to obey it. There is
a still, small voice that speaks within, which tells a man that the right is to be followed
and the wrong is to be shunned, which condemns a man when he has succumbed to the
wrong, and refused the right. To all mankind, said a pagan writer, the voice of

122. conscience is the voice of God. Things may fill us with amazement in this world of
perplexities and antitheses, but none of us will refuse to recognize that morality needs no
defence. For man, however imperfect his moral ideal may be, will recognize that if he
does not obey the voice of conscience, at any rate he ought to do so; and there is a power
within, higher than himself, nobler than himself, which speaks to him without the voice
of any preacher, “This ought ye to have done.”
3. The Jews designated by the term “law” the entire Old Testament, less in the literary
sense, according to which the “prophets” were added, to complete the idea of the
volume, than in the theological sense, all the other books being thus regarded as
corollaries of the Mosaic legislation. It may be boldly affirmed that in most of the
passages in which St. Paul makes use of the word law, it is in the historical or literary
sense; the allusion is to the Old Testament as a whole, not to the Pentateuch in
particular. On this account the term has most frequently that which was called in the old
theology the economic signification—that is, it stands for the entire Old Testament
economy.
4. But in the present passage, as often elsewhere in St. Paul’s Epistles, the word “law”
signifies purely and simply the Law of Moses as contained in the Pentateuch, or even
more particularly, the Ten Commandments. It is true that the word in the original is
without the article—“law” simply, not “the law”; and it is important to observe that
distinction generally. As Lightfoot says: “The distinction between “law” and “the law” is
very commonly disregarded, and yet it is full of significance. Behind the concrete
representation—the Mosaic Law itself—St. Paul sees an imperious principle, an
overwhelming presence, antagonistic to grace, to liberty, to spirit, and (in some aspects),
even to life—abstract law, which, though the Mosaic ordinances are its most signal and
complete embodiment, nevertheless is not exhausted therein, but exerts its crushing
power over the conscience in diverse manifestations. The one—the concrete and
special—is “the law”; the other—the abstract and universal—is “law.”1 [Note: Revision of the New
Testament, 110.]
But in spite of this, there is little doubt that in the present passage the Apostle’s thought
is of the Law of Moses, and that it is concentrated on that part of the Law of Moses
which we call the Decalogue. Not that we are bound to restrict the law which is fulfilled
by love to the Ten Commandments. While the argument of the passage is satisfied in
that way, love meets not only the negative demands of the Decalogue but also the
positive precepts of the Sermon on the Mount. For viewed in its idea and essence as a
revelation of God’s will, “law” requires for its fulfilment that we should not only cease to
do evil, but also learn to do well.
The subject is the fulfilment of the Law. Its fulfilment is to be contrasted with partial or
imperfect obedience to it. So we have these three divisions—
I. Obeying the Law.
II. Fulfilling the Law.
III. Love the Fulfilment of the Law.
I
Obeying the Law
There are ways in which the Law may be obeyed without being fulfilled.
1. The law may be obeyed through fear; or on account of the punishment which would
follow its violation. A person may pay his debts, for instance, because, if he does not, he

123. will go to prison. But you can never be quite sure that the law is really obeyed when you
appeal only to fear. If a man is a clever scoundrel he may avoid detection, or, if detected,
he may perhaps be able to make his escape before the punishment can be inflicted. And a
stupid scoundrel, probably not knowing that he is stupid, will often run a similar risk.
Thus, so long as the law depends solely upon fear for its fulfilment, however vigilant may
be our police, however upright our courts of justice, however severe may be the
condemnation of society, we have no security for its fulfilment, and as a matter of fact we
know that it is constantly being violated.
And certainly the law of God can never be obeyed through fear. Despots may feel
flattered as they see a population pale with terror at their power. They may think
themselves all the safer when their subjects quail before them. And they may not care
much, if only outward obedience is rendered, whether there be behind it a feeling of
loyalty or not. But we cannot submit to or obey God in any such manner. He is a King
and a Father who asks for love—asks for it because He gives His love to us. He says,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”; not, “Thou shalt dread the Lord thy God.” He is a
Monarch whose laws we cannot obey except by loving Him. If there are words we would
speak, but that we dread God, we have spoken them in our hearts. If there are deeds we
would do, but that we dread God, we have already done them in our hearts. He clearly
and strikingly discriminates between what seems obedience and what is. “This people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their
heart is far from me.”
Every father fathoms the secret of obedience. You know that it is not worth the name of
obedience if your child serves you from dread of consequences. You may have two
children, one of whom is self-willed and fulfils your commands only from fear. He may
fulfil them with strict literalness, doing exactly what you order, and no more. He may be
most careful not to be found wanting in any particular, but you have reason to know that
this is from no love of you or of your commands, but from dread of the consequences.
Another obeys because he loves; perhaps he is not quite so punctilious in his obedience
as the other; there may be occasional failure, occasional forgetfulness, blunders every
now and then; but you know that, under all, there is a real love which is never more
wounded than when you are wounded. Which of these two do you feel most fulfils your
law? which meets most your fatherly sense of what is due to you? in which of them have
you most confidence, not only when they are in your sight, but when they are out of your
sight? You do not hesitate about the answer; and if the first child were only to do some
act of obedience to you because he had begun to love you, you would feel that that one
act weighed more than all the deeds of hollow servility he had ever performed. You
would feel that love was the fulfilling of the law.1 [Note: E. Mellor.]
Fear acts chiefly as a restraint. It has checked many in a career of wickedness, and
brought a few, perhaps, to the scrupulous observance of some precepts. In all things
which are thought necessary to avert vengeance, it has often a strong influence, and its
effects may even seem greater for a time than that which better principles produce; but it
never yet brought a man with his whole heart into the service of Christ; nor does it lead
to anything from which we think we may with safety be excused. It neither sets the
affection on things above, nor kindles any zeal in the cause of the Redeemer. The dread
of God’s anger will not make us cheerfully submissive to His will, or cherish the gentler
graces which He requires from us to mankind.
While the law on stone is written,
Stone-like is the mighty word;

124. We with chilling awe are smitten,
Though the word is Thine, O Lord.
Firm it is as mountains old,
As their snowy summits cold.1 [Note: T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 29.]
2. The law may be obeyed from motives of self-interest; there is profit in obedience. To
serve for profit is only the other side of the same spirit that serves from fear. Obedience
is profitable. But there is a great difference between pursuing a course which is
profitable, and pursuing it because it is profitable. A faithful servant of a monarch may
be paid for his service; but if he serves only for his pay, he is not a faithful servant. The
obedience we render only for the sake of what it will bring, we should not render at all if
it brought us nothing; and in such a case the first and ruling motive is not service, but
pay.
We cannot in this spirit obey the law of God. The rewards of God, the promised joys and
glories of heaven, are far more than the wages of service. The crowns are not given to
those who have served for gain; they are given to those who have served from love, who
have found the service itself to be a joy, who would be content to serve for love for ever,
even if there were no other recompense.
We sometimes meet with men who never commit any punishable injury, but who are to
the last degree cold, callous, hard-hearted, and selfish. We are quite sure they would not
rob or murder us, but we are equally sure they would not move their little finger to do us
any good, would not raise their hand to save us from destruction. These men do
incalculable mischief, and that of the worst kind. They injure the moral nature of their
neighbours, whose best affections are dwarfed, or it may be destroyed, by their
inhumanity, just as fruit is blighted by the frost. They do all that in them lies to make
other men into moral pigmies like themselves. Hence, though they are not guilty of any
punishable breach of the law, they are guilty of violating it—they do ill to their
neighbours.1 [Note: A. W. Momerie.]
3. The law may be obeyed in the letter while its spirit is violated. The letter of the law is
enforced by the punishment of society, and just because it is so enforced it is of necessity
very limited in its scope. As Bentham explains in his principles of jurisprudence, the
written law only takes cognizance of vices which can be clearly defined and readily
distinguished. If it attempted to cover a larger area—if, for example, it endeavoured to
punish ingratitude or unkindness—it would do more harm than good. It is difficult, or
rather impossible, to find out when and to what extent such sins have been committed.
If, therefore, the law attempted to deal with them, it would be in constant danger of
punishing the less guilty or even the innocent, and of allowing the more guilty to get off
scot-free. And, further, this unjust administration of justice would involve an amount of
inquisitive surveillance which would be more hurtful to society than the evils which,
after all, it failed to prevent. For these reasons, then, the spirit of the law, which is “Thou
shalt do no ill to thy neighbour,” has to be narrowed in the letter, where we read only,
“Thou shalt not injure thy neighbour in a certain few definite ways.” From this, of
course, it follows that the man who is contented with keeping the letter of the law is most
undoubtedly guilty of violating its spirit. He goes but a little way along the path of duty.
This was the sin of the Pharisees, the class that Christ denounced most strongly, and the
only class that He did denounce. At the time when Jesus first began, with His Gospel of
repentance and of Divine love, to teach the simple fishermen of Galilee, scribes and
Pharisees had managed, by their interpretation of the law, which was at once a law of

125. religion and a law of righteousness, to bind heavy burdens upon men’s shoulders, and to
reduce the simple moral code to a series of minute ritual observances. He was held to
fulfil the law who could remember what to do ceremonially, and he was held to have
disregarded the law, however faithfully, kindly, and nobly he might be living, who had
forgotten or who never knew what the proper ritual was. Then came Jesus and swept it
all away; and, humanly speaking, He died for doing it. His protest was entered in the
name of religion against the burdensome ritual and minute useless observances with
which men were troubled in His day.
The Pharisees were active and zealous. The Gospel was an active religion, and
Pharisaism was an active religion; particular virtues were common to both. But the
Gospel was an active religion founded upon love, and Pharisaism was an active religion
founded upon egoism.
In our own day also a conscious obedience to particular laws of the Gospel determines
the lives of large numbers among us; we pray, we worship, we learn the knowledge of
Divine things, we give alms, we even fast, we follow the approved methods of
repentance, we practise intercession, we bring all our daily interests,—our politics, our
friendships, our households, to the feet of God in prayer; we could not be safe or happy
for half a day of our lives without God being in all our thoughts; yet when our work for
God is over, or even in the dread intervals of silence which stop the heart’s pulses in the
stir of work, there comes to all of us this question, “Have I, after all, any true love for
God? If God and I were alone in the world where would be my love for God? If there
were no work to be done—that work which I love—should I love God at all?”
I put a loaded gun in the corner of a room, and tell my child not to touch it. There is a
rule or maxim. Knowing nothing of the reason of my command, his plain duty as a child
is implicit servile obedience to my order; his conscience should be grieved if, even to
prevent its being broken by a fall, he is induced to touch it, because there is a harm in
doing it which is to him mysterious and unknown. But suppose him older, and suppose
him to understand by natural intelligence, that the reason of my prohibition was to
prevent the possibility of its exploding, and suppose him to see a sheet of paper fall from
the table on fire close to it, what would his duty be—to cleave to the maxim, or to cut
himself adrift from it? Surely to snatch up the forbidden gun directly. His first duty, in
point of time, is to obey the rule; his first in point of importance, is to break it. Indeed,
this is the very essence, according to St. Paul, of the difference between the legal and the
Gospel state. In the legal state we are under tutors, governors, and must not go beyond
rules; for rules are disciplining us to understand the principles of themselves. But in the
Gospel state we are redeemed from this bondage, serving in newness of spirit, and not in
the oldness of the letter. We discern principles, and are loyal to them; we use rules or
dispense with them, as they save or destroy the principle for which they exist.1 [Note: F. W.
Robertson, Life and Letters, 358.]
II
Fulfilling the Law
1. To fulfil a thing is to fill it full, so that no part of it is left void or empty. It is an image
taken from a cup filled to the brim, as full as it can hold; and it is applied to a number of
things both in Scripture and in common life. We read in the Book of Exodus, that
Pharaoh’s taskmasters compelled the children of Israel to fulfil their daily tasks of
making brick as heretofore, after they had taken away the straw from them. In other
words, they had to give in quite as many bricks as they had been accustomed to make
when the straw was duly supplied them. They were not to diminish the tale or quantity

126. of bricks demanded of them. And in the same way, to fulfil a promise is to keep it fully
and completely; and also if we fulfil a duty we discharge it fully and completely, leaving
no part of it unperformed.
Now this is what St. Paul means by “fulfilling the law.” He means that we should do to
the very utmost everything required of us. It is incumbent upon us to give in every single
one of the tale of bricks, or rather of the fine hewn stones, which God demands from us
towards building up the edifice of duty. We must not, we dare not, break, or neglect, or
overlook any part of any one of the commandments, for the reason that it is a little one,
or that it is a trifle, that it cannot signify, that there is no use in being too particular. We
are to remember the words of the Sermon on the Mount, where our Lord says that
whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments or shall teach men so,
shall be reckoned the least in the Kingdom of heaven.
Men are apt to think that they cannot have too much of a good thing—too much piety,
too much religious feeling, too much attendance at the public worship of God. They
forget the truth which the old philosophy taught, that the life of man should be a
harmony; not absorbed in any one thought, even of God, or in any one duty or affection,
but growing up as a whole to the fulness of the perfect man. That is a maimed soul which
loves goodness and has no love of truth, or which loves truth and has no love of
goodness. The cultivation of one part of religion to the exclusion of another seems often
to exact a terrible retribution both in individual characters and in churches. There is a
Nemesis of believing all things, or indeed of any degree of intellectual dishonesty, which
sometimes ends in despair of all truth.1 [Note: Benjamin Jowett.]
2. The fulfilling of the law, therefore, is keeping it in its fullest, its deepest, its most
spiritual meaning. Every angry feeling, every wanton thought, every uncharitable and
suspicious thought, every unfair advantage and dishonest trick, however it may be
allowed to pass free by human laws, and however customary in men’s dealings with each
other,—all these, and all manner of greediness after the things of this world, are
breaches of one or other of the commandments. Nothing short of perfect kindness,
perfect purity, perfect honesty, perfect truth, and perfect temperance will fulfil the law.
Nothing short of perfect kindness, because every degree of unkindness is forbidden by
the sixth commandment; nothing short of perfect purity, because all impurity is
forbidden by the seventh; nothing short of perfect honesty, because every kind of
dishonesty is forbidden by the eighth; nothing short of perfect truth, because all
falsehood is condemned by the ninth; nothing short of perfect temperance, because all
greediness and covetous desires are forbidden by the tenth commandment. Such are the
vast claims which God’s law has upon us, when taken in its full extent.
When Christ denounced the breaking of any of the commandments, He spoke on the
very point that St. Paul is speaking of. His subject was “fulfilling the law.” “Think not
that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, he shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you,”—I, the Eternal Word and
Infallible Truth—“that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Or we might
paraphrase it thus: “I am come to fulfil the law of Moses; I am come to show you the
exceeding depth of God’s commandments; I am come to show you how much they
require of every one, when they are taken in their full meaning. This is one object of My
mission. If any man, then, fancies that I am come to bring a licence for sinning—if a
person conceives he may continue in sin, because I have brought pardon and grace into
the world—he takes a mistaken view of the object of My coming. My Father sent Me not

127. to abolish holiness, or to diminish aught from its claims, but to place it on a firmer
foundation, and to give it its true scope; so that it shall embrace, not only the outward
actions of men, but their very thoughts and inmost wishes. I am not come to make the
law void, but to fill it up.”
III
How Love Fulfils the Law
“Love is the fulfilment of the law.” If we had perfect love for our neighbour we should
keep the commandments perfectly: and in proportion as love fills us, in the same
proportion shall we fulfil them. Love will enable us to keep the commandments. That is
the Apostle’s argument.
1. The love which is here spoken of, and which the writers of the New Testament set
before us on every occasion when they teach about the inner principle of Christianity, is
a reverent goodwill, not only from man to God, but from man to man. The very same
word which describes love to God is used by New Testament teachers, by the great
Apostle of the Gentiles, and by John the Divine, to describe the relations which should
exist between man and man. The same quality of reverent affection which is due from
man to God is due from man to man.
It is not easy for men to comprehend the full meaning of this term “love.” We identify it
with amiability and mildness and sentimentality. We confuse it with the petty standards
of love that are partial, weak, and blind: that limit their favours to one or two; that are
no more than a flush in the blood or a thrill along the nerves. Love as St. Paul means it,
love as it was newly and divinely characterized by the Saviour, is a broader and more
comprehensive thing than any of these,—rises higher, runs deeper, sweeps around larger
interests, includes nobler ideals. It is a feeling which pervades all conduct, governs all
motives, sustains every duty, extends to all souls. It is the kindliness which prompts to
courtesy, the sensitive fairness which insists on perfect equity, the sympathy which
reaches after the lost, the mercy which softens the doom of crime. And it is the strength
and the courage which dare to undertake severities which are destined to end in
blessings; to be a little hard in order to be very tender; and to go forth with the scourge
against offenders, and draw the sword of retribution against the oppressor and his hard-
hearted crew. And, over and above all these peculiarities, love rises above this earth and
the humanity it supports, and exalts the soul to heaven’s gates; reaches out for God, and
loses itself in the Being whence its holy impulse was derived. That is what Christianity
means by love.
Oh, there are moments in man’s mortal years,
When for an instant that which long has lain
Beyond our reach, is on a sudden found
In things of smallest compass, and we hold
The unbounded shut in one small minute’s space,
And worlds within the hollow of our hand,—
A world of music in one word of love,
A world of love in one quick wordless look,
A world of thought in one translucent phrase,

128. A world of memory in one mournful chord,
A world of sorrow in one little song.
Such moments are man’s holiest,—the full-orbed
And finite form of Love’s infinity.1 [Note: Henry Bernard Carpenter, Liber Amoris.]
2. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” St.
Paul seems to limit the action of love here to doing no ill. That is simply because the
commandments are mostly negative; and that they are is a sad token of the lovelessness
natural to us all. But do we love ourselves only negatively, or are we satisfied with doing
ourselves no harm? That stringent pattern of love to others prescribes not only degree,
but manner. It teaches that true love to men is not weak indulgence, but must sometimes
chastise, and thwart, and always must seek their good, and not merely their gratification.
Whoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of working no ill to others, will
find it positive enough. We harm men when we fail to help them. If we can do them a
kindness, and do it not, we do them ill. Non-activity for good is activity for evil.
Some years ago we were reading day by day of a murder that had been committed in the
swamps of Niagara, and such was the solidarity of the human race that that isolated
deed was discussed right round the globe. We saw it all enacted, like some stage drama,
before our very eyes. We saw this man, an Oxford graduate, a man of good family, a man
reared in honourable traditions, leading his victim on and on to some lonely spot in that
dismal swamp, and then the pistol shot rings, and without remorse he turns away,
leaving his victim—who has eaten with him, jested with him, trusted in him—to die
miserably and unpitied. We tried this man for murder, but that red blossom of murder
was only the outward sign of something else. Go deeper to the root, and you will see that
he wants to steal, and he covets, and he lies before he wants to murder. These were the
active causes of the crime; this was the black sap that fed the tree upon which this
hideous blossom of murder at last sprang into life. Reduce all these things to a sentence,
and you have said everything when you have said, “This man did not love.” If he had
loved his friend he would not have lied to him; if he had loved him he would not have
coveted his money; still less could he have pushed him out of life for the sake of paltry
gain, which—such is the irony of crime—he never even handled. For that unhappy youth
love would literally have been the “fulfilling of the law.”1 [Note: W. J. Dawson.]
3. Love fulfils the commandments. We may take the commandments one by one, and
apply this test to them, and we shall see at once that they would not have been needed if
only men had loved one another. Do we need to be told not to murder any one we love,
not to defraud him, not to covet his possessions, not to dishonour his home? Why, we
not only cannot do it, we simply cannot conceive the thought of doing it. If we have love,
we cannot help keeping the law. If we have love, we cannot help being moral. It may
seem but a scanty equipment to produce perfection, and so the seven notes of music may
seem to be a scanty equipment to produce the heaven-born melodies of a Handel or a
Beethoven. But see how they use them,—of what infinite and glorious combinations are
they capable! How the highest and deepest emotions of our nature find liberation and a
language as we thrill to the majestic strains which purify and exalt us, which give us
visions of truth, of self, of heaven, of God, and of the joy of God, which no speech could
utter and no articulate array of words could express. Yet there are but seven notes of
music in it all, something a child might learn in an hour, but which a Handel or a
Beethoven cannot exhaust in a lifetime. So it is with this supreme quality of love! It is
capable of all but infinite combinations and interpretations; it utters the grand music of
heroism and the soft lute-music of courtesy; it is patriotism, it is altruism, it is

129. martyrdom; it stoops to the smallest things of life and it governs the greatest; it controls
the temper and it regulates the reason; it extirpates the worst qualities and it develops
and refines the best; it reforms and transforms the whole man into the image of God, for
there is no height of character to which love cannot lift a man, and there is no height of
character possible without it. Love is character. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Love is so comprehensive a grace that it includeth all the rest; and so is in effect the
fulfilling of the whole law. There is a thread of love which runneth through all the
particular duties and offices of Christian life, and stringeth them like so many rich pearls
into one single chain.1 [Note: Bishop Sanderson.]
4. Love is the fulfilling of the law for three reasons:—
(1) It removes the bias of self-love that is in our nature.—That there is such a bias in our
nature is plain. Else why should we all be such unfair judges in our own case, and,
comparatively speaking, such fair judges in matters we are not concerned with? Any man
of common sense can see the rights of a case, where the question is between neighbour
and neighbour. Not one in ten, or in fifty, or in a hundred, can see the right of the case,
when the question is between his neighbour and himself. Where self is concerned, the
weight of self-love is sure to slip into one of the scales; and so they become uneven. Nor
is this to be remedied, except by putting into the opposite scale that love to our
neighbour which Christ commands us to cherish.
Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul;
Love is the only angel who can bid the gates unroll;
And when he comes to call thee, arise and follow fast;
His way may lie through darkness, but it leads to light at last.1 [Note: Henry van Dyke.]
(2) It gives us sympathy, and is the only effective principle of duty.—This love is far
more amenable to reason than the passion which goes by the same name. “We may set
ourselves,” as George Eliot has put it,—we may studiously set ourselves “to learn
something of the poetry and pathos lying in the experience of all human souls—poetry
and pathos that look out through dull grey eyes, and that speak in a voice of quite
ordinary tones.” We may know something of this if we will only think. And such
knowledge will inevitably give birth to sympathy.
If ever you see in your neighbour the downcast, suffering, timid look, that unmistakable
air which marks so often the first apprenticeship to hardness, the beginning of the death
of finer feelings, does it strike you to show kindness, to administer comfort or ensure
protection? Does it not sometimes rather happen that you help to break the bruised
reed, that you show contempt or indifference when you should show loving-kindness, or
that you even join in mocking or cruelty when you ought to have put your heel upon it?
“Do as you would be done by” is only a low form of practical maxim, but even this is very
often higher than our practice. Does it never happen that you get your pleasure out of
annoyance to another? Does it never happen that you allow this to be done by some one
near you? Does a stranger coming amongst us young, inexperienced, or it may be with
some peculiarity, never find his life made miserable by some cruel, or hard, or low-toned
neighbour?2 [Note: Bishop Percival, Some Helps for School Life, 175.]
Do thy day’s work, my dear,
Though fast and dark the clouds are drifting near,
Though time has little left for hope and very much for fear.

130. Do thy day’s work, though now
The hand must falter and the head must bow,
And far above the failing foot shows the bold mountain brow.
Yet there is left for us,
Who on the valley’s verge stand trembling thus,
A light that lies far in the west—soft, faint, but luminous.
We can give kindly speech
And ready, helping hand to all and each,
And patience to the young around by smiling silence teach.
We can give gentle thought,
And charity, by life’s long lesson taught,
And wisdom, from old faults lived down, by toil and failure wrought.
We can give love, unmarred
By selfish snatch of happiness, unjarred
By the keen aims of power or joy that make youth cold and hard.
And, if gay hearts reject
The gifts we hold, would fain fare on unchecked
On the bright roads that scarcely yield all that young eyes expect,
Why, do thy day’s work still.
The calm, deep founts of love are slow to chill;
And heaven may yet the harvest yield, the work-worn hands to fill.
(3) It springs from love to God.—There is no true love of man unconnected with the love
of God, nor any which does not originate there. The feeling which takes the name of
benevolence is too fickle in its nature, too narrow in its range, too easily checked and
extinguished, to fulfil, in any due degree, the duties with which God charges us towards
each other. To do this we must love each other for His sake after His pattern, and by
extending to them the love we bear to Himself. Then it becomes Christian charity, and is
equal to every precept. “Love worketh no ill” to our neighbour; it “thinketh” none. It
“suffereth long and is kind.” In no case “doth it behave itself unseemly.” It furnishes unto
all good works. It is a principle broad enough for the whole range of our duty; and to be
improving in every grace of the Gospel, we need only to be growing perfect in love.
He who loves his neighbour also fulfils the commandments written in the first table of
the law. Because he is God’s child and therefore must needs have loved God first, and

131. have thus conformed himself to the obligations of the whole law, he loves his neighbour
with a pure heart and true charity. He can, in point of fact, keep the commandments
which concern his neighbour only through love of God. For, as the law of Moses was
powerless to produce in the heart of the Jew that true love for his fellow-men, without
which the law itself could not be fulfilled, which is the effect only of grace, so only those
who are filled with the love of God, and possess the grace which grows from this love,
can really possess that true love to man which is the fulfilment of the law.
When thy heart, love filled, grows graver,
And eternal bliss looks nearer,
Ask thy heart, nor show it favour,
Is the gift or giver dearer?
Love, love on; love higher, deeper;
Let love’s ocean close above her;
Only, love thou more love’s keeper,
More, the love-creating lover.
5. Love not only fulfils the precepts of the law, it also completes and perfects the law
itself. No law can provide for all cases that may come before us in the course of life.
Every law can only lay down general principles and rules, and at the utmost can only
name some cases in particular. Much less can a lawgiver prescribe exactly the
application of his law to the individual case; for the application must necessarily differ
with the difference between men, their actions, and the accompanying circumstances.
Love alone can take account of all the cases that occur in human life, of all men and their
actions, all their surrounding circumstances and peculiarities, and provide completely
and suitably for all. In this sense love is not only the fulfilling, but also the fulness
(plenitudo), i.e. the completion and perfection of the law. Where love rules wholly and
perfectly, there the precepts of the law become superfluous, and the rule of love takes the
place of law; where love withdraws and becomes cold, there the machinery of the law
must come in, and the more love removes herself, so much the more must the legal
machinery rule until it sinks to the slavery of simple government by police.
A mightier church shall come, whose covenant word
Shall be the deeds of love. Not Credo then,—
Amo shall be the password through its gates.
Man shall not ask his brother any more,
“Believest thou?” but “Lovest thou?” and all
Shall answer at God’s altar, “Lord, I love.”
For Hope may anchor, Faith may steer, but Love,
Great Love alone, is captain of the soul.1 [Note: Henry Bernard Carpenter, Liber Amoris.]

132. 11And do this, understanding the present time.
The hour has come for you to wake up from your
slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than
when we first believed.
BAR ES, And that - The word “that,” in this place, is connected in signification
with the word ““this” in Rom_13:9. The meaning may be thus expressed: All the
requirements of the Law toward our neighbor may be met by two things: one is Rom_
13:9-10 by love; the other is Rom_13:11-14 by remembering that we are near to eternity;
keeping a deep sense of “this” truth before the mind. “This” will prompt to a life of
honesty, truth, and peace, and contentment, Rom_13:13. The doctrine in these verses
Rom_13:11-14, therefore, is, “that a deep conviction of the nearness of eternity will
prompt to an upright life in the contact of man with man.
Knowing the time - Taking a proper “estimate” of the time. Taking just views of the
shortness and the value of time; of the design for which it was given, and of the fact that
it is, in regard to us, rapidly coming to a close. And still further considering, that the
time in which you live is the time of the gospel, a period of light and truth, when you are
particularly called on to lead holy lives, and thus to do justly to all. The “previous” time
had been a period of ignorance and darkness, when oppression, and falsehood, and sin
abounded. This, the time of the “gospel,” when God had “made known” to people his will
that they should be pure.
High time - Greek, “the hour.”
To awake ... - This is a beautiful figure. The dawn of day, the approaching light of the
morning, is the time to arouse from slumber. In the darkness of night, people sleep. So
says the apostle. The world has been sunk in the “night” of paganism and sin. At that
time it was to be expected that they would sleep the sleep of spiritual death. But now the
morning light of the gospel dawns. The Sun of righteousness has arisen. It is “time,”
therefore, for people to cast off the deeds of darkness, and rise to life, and purity, and
action; compare Act_17:30-31. The same idea is beautifully presented in 1Th_5:5-8. The
meaning is,” Hitherto we have walked in darkness and in sin. Now we walk in the light of
the gospel. We know our duty. We are sure that the God of light is around us, and is a
witness of all we do. We are going soon to meet him, and it becomes us to rouse, and to
do those deeds, and those only, which will bear the bright shining of the light of truth,
and the scrutiny of him who is “light, and in whom is no darkness at all;” 1Jo_1:5.
Sleep - Inactivity; insensibility to the doctrines and duties of religion. People, by
nature, are active only in deeds of wickedness. In regard to religion they are insensible,
and the slumbers of night are on their eyelids. Sleep is “the kinsman of death,” and it is
the emblem of the insensibility and stupidity of sinners. The deeper the ignorance and
sin, the greater is this insensibility to spiritual things, and to the duties which we owe to
God and man.
For now is our salvation - The word “salvation” has been here variously

133. interpreted. Some suppose that by it the apostle refers to the personal reign of Christ on
the earth. (Tholuck, and the Germans generally.) Others suppose it refers to deliverance
from “persecutions.” Others, to increased “light” and knowledge of the gospel, so that
they could more clearly discern their duty than when they became believers.
(Rosenmuller.) It probably, however, has its usual meaning here, denoting that
deliverance from sin and danger which awaits Christians in heaven; and is thus
equivalent to the expression, “You are advancing nearer to heaven. You are hastening to
the world of glory. Daily we are approaching the kingdom of light; and in prospect of
that state, we ought to lay aside every sin, and live more and more in preparation for a
world of light and glory.”
Than when we believed - Than when we “began” to believe. Every day brings us
nearer to a world of perfect light.
CLARKE, "And that, knowing the time - Dr. Taylor has given a judicious
paraphrase of this and the following verses: “And all the duties of a virtuous and holy life
we should the more carefully and zealously perform, considering the nature and
shortness of the present season of life; which will convince us that it is now high time to
rouse and shake off sleep, and apply with vigilance and vigor to the duties of our
Christian life; for that eternal salvation, which is the object of our Christian faith and
hope, and the great motive of our religion, is every day nearer to us than when we first
entered into the profession of Christianity.” Some think the passage should be
understood thus: We have now many advantages which we did not formerly possess.
Salvation is nearer - the whole Christian system is more fully explained, and the
knowledge of it more easy to be acquired than formerly; on which account a greater
progress in religious knowledge and in practical piety is required of us: and we have for a
long time been too remiss in these respects. Deliverance from the persecutions, etc., with
which they were then afflicted, is supposed by others to be the meaning of the apostle.
GILL, "And that knowing the time,.... That it is day and not night, the Gospel day,
the day of salvation; in which the grace of God shines forth, like the sun in its meridian
glory; life and immortality are brought to light, righteousness and salvation are revealed;
and so a time not for sloth and sleep, but business; in which the saints should active in
the exercise of grace, and discharge, of duty; owing no man anything but the debt of
love; and that the dawn of grace, and day of spiritual light had broke in upon their souls,
and dispelled the darkness of sin, ignorance and unbelief; that the darkness was past,
and the true light shined, and the sun of righteousness was risen on them: all which they
full well knew and were conscious of, and therefore should observe,
that now it is high time for us to awake out of sleep; since sleep is for the night,
and not the day; the Alexandrian copy reads, "for you". This is to be understood, not of
the dead sleep of sin, in which unconverted persons are, to be awoke out of which is a
work of divine power; but of the carnal security and drowsy frame of spirit which
sometimes attend the churches and children of God, the wise as well as the foolish
virgins; and lies in grace being dormant in, the soul; in a backwardness to duty, and a

134. slothfulness in the performance of it; in resting in the outward duties of religion; in
lukewarmness about the cause of Christ; in an unconcernedness about sins of omission
and commission; and in a willingness to continue in such a sluggish frame: all which
arise from a body of sin and death, and an over anxious care for the things of the world;
from a weariness in spiritual exercises, and an abstinence from spiritual company and
ordinances and from outward peace and liberty: such a frame of spirit, when, it prevails
and becomes general is of bad consequence to the churches of Christ; the spirit of
discerning, care and diligence in receiving members, are in a great measure lost, and so
they are filled with hypocrites and heretics; Christ absents himself from them; leanness
of soul is brought upon them; and they are in danger of being surprised with the
midnight cry: the methods God takes to awaken his people out of such a sleep are
various; sometimes in a more gentle way, by the discoveries his love, which causes the
lips of those that are asleep to speak; sometimes by severe reproofs in the ministry of the
word; and sometimes by sharp persecutions in providence; and at last it will be done by
the midnight cry: the argument, showing the reasonableness of awaking out of sleep, and
that it was high time to do so, follows,
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed; by which is meant, not
temporal salvation, or a deliverance from the persecution the saints endured in Judea,
from their own countrymen, by the departure of them from Jerusalem, a little before its
destruction, by the destruction of that city, and the peaceful times of Vespasian; but a
spiritual and eternal salvation: not Christ the author of it, who was come to effect it; nor
that itself, as obtained, which was now done, finished, and completed; nor the
application of it to their souls, which also had been made; but the consummate
enjoyment of it in heaven, the salvation of their souls at death, and both of soul and body
at the resurrection; consisting in a freedom from every evil, and in a full possession of all
that is good and glorious: this is brought nearer to the saints, to their sight and view, as
their faith grows and increases; and they are nearer the enjoyment of that than when
they first believed; and which is a strong reason why a sluggish, slothful frame should
not be indulged; what, sleep, and heaven so near at hand! just at their Father's house,
ready to enter into the joy of their Lord, into his everlasting kingdom and glory, and yet
asleep!
HE RY 11-14, "We are here taught a lesson of sobriety and godliness in ourselves.
Our main care must be to look to ourselves. Four things we are here taught, as a
Christian's directory for his day's work: when to awake, how to dress ourselves, how to
walk, and what provision to make.
I. When to awake: Now it is high time to awake (Rom_13:11), to awake out of the
sleep of sin (for a sinful condition is a sleeping condition), out of the sleep of carnal
security, sloth and negligence, out of the sleep of spiritual death, and out of the sleep of
spiritual deadness; both the wise and foolish virgins slumbered and slept, Mat_25:5. We
have need to be often excited and stirred up to awake. The word of command to all
Christ's disciples is, Watch. “Awake - be concerned about your souls and your eternal
interest; take heed of sin, be ready to, and serious in, that which is good, and live in a
constant expectation of the coming of our Lord. Considering,” 1. “The time we are cast
into: Knowing the time. Consider what time of day it is with us, and you will see it is
high time to awake. It is gospel time, it is the accepted time, it is working time; it is a
time when more is expected than was in the times of that ignorance which God winked
at, when people sat in darkness. It is high time to awake; for the sun has been up a great
while, and shines in our faces. Have we this light to sleep in? See 1Th_5:5, 1Th_5:6. It is

135. high time to awake; for others are awake and up about us. Know the time to be a busy
time; we have a great deal of work to do, and our Master is calling us to it again and
again. Know the time to be a perilous time. We are in the midst of enemies and snares. It
is high time to awake, for the Philistines are upon us; our neighbour's house is on fire,
and our own in danger. It is time to awake, for we have slept enough (1Pe_4:3), high
time indeed, for behold the bridegroom cometh.” 2. “The salvation we are upon the brink
of: Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed - than when we first believed,
and so took upon us the profession of Christianity. The eternal happiness we chose for
our portion is now nearer to us than it was when we became Christians. Let us mind our
way and mend our pace, for we are now nearer our journey's end than we were when we
had our first love. The nearer we are to our centre the quicker should our motion be. Is
there but a step between us and heaven, and shall we be so very slow and dull in our
Christian course, and move so heavily? The more the days are shortened, and the more
grace is increased, the nearer is our salvation, and the more quick and vigorous we
should be in our spiritual motions.”
II. How to dress ourselves. This is the next care, when we are awake and up: “The
night is far spent, the day is at hand; therefore it is time to dress ourselves. Clearer
discoveries will be quickly made of gospel grace than have been yet made, as light gets
ground. The night of Jewish rage and cruelty is just at an end; their persecuting power is
near a period; the day of our deliverance from them is at hand, that day of redemption
which Christ promised, Luk_21:28. And the day of our complete salvation, in the
heavenly glory, is at hand. Observe then,”
1. “What we must put off; put off our night-clothes, which it is a shame to appear
abroad in: Cast off the works of darkness.” Sinful works are works of darkness; they
come from the darkness of ignorance and mistake, they covet the darkness of privacy
and concealment, and they end in the darkness of hell and destruction. “Let us therefore,
who are of the day, cast them off; not only cease from the practice of them, but detest
and abhor them, and have no more to do with them. Because eternity is just at the door,
let us take heed lest we be found doing that which will then make against us,” 2Pe_3:11,
2Pe_3:14.
2. “What we must put on.” Our care must be wherewithal we shall be clothed, how
shall we dress our souls? (1.) Put on the armour of light. Christians are soldiers in the
midst of enemies, and their life a warfare, therefore their array must be armour, that
they may stand upon their defence - the armour of God, to which we are directed, Eph_
6:13, etc. A Christian may reckon himself undressed if he be unarmed. The graces of the
Spirit are this armour, to secure the soul from Satan's temptations and the assaults of
this present evil world. This is called the armour of light, some think alluding to the
bright glittering armour which the Roman soldiers used to wear; or such armour as it
becomes us to wear in the day-light. The graces of the Spirit are suitable splendid
ornaments, are in the sight of God of great price. (2.) Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom_13:14. This stands in opposition to a great many base lusts, mentioned Rom_
13:13. Rioting and drunkenness must be cast off: one would think it should follows, but,
“Put on sobriety, temperance, chastity,” the opposite virtues: no, “Put on Christ, this
includes all. Put on the righteousness of Christ for justification; be found in him (Phi_
3:9) as a man is found in his clothes; put on the priestly garments of the elder brother,
that in them you may obtain the blessing. Put on the spirit and grace of Christ for
sanctification; put on the new man (Eph_4:24); get the habit of grace confirmed, the
acts of it quickened.” Jesus Christ is the best clothing for Christians to adorn themselves
with, to arm themselves with; it is decent, distinguishing, dignifying, and defending.
Without Christ, we are naked, deformed; all other things are filthy rages, fig-leaves, a

136. sorry shelter. God has provided us coats of skins - large, strong, warm, and durable. By
baptism we have in profession put on Christ, Gal_3:27. Let us do it in truth and
sincerity. The Lord Jesus Christ. “Put him on as Lord to rule you, as Jesus to save you,
and in both as Christ, anointed and appointed by the Father to this ruling saving work.”
III. How to walk. When we are up and dressed, we are not to sit still in an affected
closeness and privacy, as monks and hermits. What have we good clothes for, but to
appear abroad in them? - Let us walk. Christianity teaches us how to walk so as to please
God, whose eye is upon us: 1Th_4:1, Walk honestly as in the day. Compare Eph_5:8,
Walk as children of light. Our conversation must be as becomes the gospel. Walk
honestly; euschēmonōs - decently and becomingly, so as to credit your profession, and to
adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and recommend religion in its beauty to others.
Christians should be in a special manner careful to conduct themselves well in those
things wherein men have an eye upon them, and to study that which is lovely and of
good report. Particularly, here are three pairs of sins we are cautioned against: - 1. We
must not walk in rioting and drunkenness; we must abstain from all excess in eating and
drinking. We must not give the least countenance to revelling, nor indulge our sensual
appetite in any private excesses. Christians must not overcharge their hearts with
surfeiting and drunkenness, Luk_21:34. This is not walking as in the day; for those that
are drunk are drunk in the night, 1Th_5:7. 2. Not in chambering and wantonness; not
in any of those lusts of the flesh, those works of darkness, which are forbidden in the
seventh commandment. Downright adultery and fornication are the chambering
forbidden. Lascivious thoughts and affections, lascivious looks, words, books, sons,
gestures, dances, dalliances, which lead to, and are degrees of, that uncleanness, are the
wantonness here forbidden - whatsoever transgresseth the pure and sacred law of
chastity and modesty. 3. Not in strife and envying. These are also works of darkness;
for, though the acts and instances of strife and envy are very common, yet none are
willing to own the principles, or to acknowledge themselves envious and contentious. it
may be the lot of the best saints to be envied and striven with; but to strive and to envy
ill becomes the disciples and followers of the peaceable and humble Jesus. Where there
are riot and drunkenness, there usually are chambering and wantonness, and strife and
envy. Solomon puts them all together, Pro_23:29, etc. Those that tarry long at the wine
(Pro_23:30) have contentions and wounds without cause (Pro_23:29) and their eyes
behold strange women, Pro_23:33.
IV. What provision to make (Pro_23:14): “Make not provision for the flesh. Be not
careful about the body.” Our great care must be to provide for our souls; but must we
take no care about our bodies? Must we not provide for them, when they need it? Yes,
but two things are here forbidden: - 1. Perplexing ourselves with an inordinate care,
intimated in these words, pronoian mē poieisthe. “Be not solicitous in forecasting for the
body; do not stretch your wits, nor set your thoughts upon the tenter-hooks, in making
this provision; be not careful and cumbered about it; do not take thought,” Mat_6:31. It
forbids an anxious encumbering care. 2. Indulging ourselves in an irregular desire. We
are not forbidden barely to provide for the body (it is a lamp that must be supplied with
oil), but we are forbidden to fulfil the lusts thereof. The necessities of the body must be
considered, but the lusts of it must not be gratified. Natural desires must be answered,
but wanton appetites must be checked and denied. To ask meat for our necessities is
duty: we are taught to pray for daily bread; but to ask meat for our lusts is provoking,
Psa_78:18. Those who profess to walk in the spirit must not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,
Gal_5:16.

137. JAMISO , "And that — rather, “And this [do]”
knowing the time, that now it is high time — literally, “the hour has already
come.”
to awake out of sleep — of stupid, fatal indifference to eternal things.
for now is our salvation — rather, “the salvation,” or simply “salvation.”
nearer than when we — first
believed — This is in the line of all our Lord’s teaching, which represents the decisive
day of Christ’s second appearing as at hand, to keep believers ever in the attitude of
wakeful expectancy, but without reference to the chronological nearness or distance of
that event.
HODGE, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
for now is our salvation nearer than then we believed. From this verse to the end of the
chapter, Paul exhorts his readers to discharge the duties already enjoined, and urges on
them to live a holy and exemplary life. The consideration by which this exhortation is
enforced, is, that the night is far spent, and that the day is at hand, the time of
deliverance is fast approaching. The words ( και τουτο) rendered and that, are by many
considered as elliptical, and the word ( ποιειτε) do is supplied; ‘And this do.' The
demonstrative pronoun, however, is frequently used to mark the importance of the
connection between two circumstances for the case in hand, (Passow, Vol. 2., p. 319,)
‹71› and is, therefore, often equivalent to the phrases, and INDEED, the more, etc. So in
this case, ‘We must discharge our various duties, and that knowing,' etc., i.e., ‘the rather,
because we know,' etc.; compare Hebrews 11:12; 1 Corinthians 6:6; Ephesians 2:8.
Knowing the time, i.e. considering the nature and character of the period in which we
now live. The original word ( καιρός) does not mean time in the general sense, but a
portion of time considered as appropriate, as fixed, as short, etc. Paul immediately
explains himself by adding, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; it was the
proper time to arouse themselves from their slumbers, and, shaking off all slothfulness,
to address themselves earnestly to work. For now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. This is the reason why it is time to be up and active, salvation is at hand. There
are three leading interpretations of this clause. The first is, that it means that the time of
salvation, or special favor to the Gentiles, and of the destruction of the Jews, was fast
approaching. So Hammond, Whitby, and many others. But for this there is no
foundation in the simple meaning of the words, nor in the context. Paul evidently refers
to something of more general and permanent interest than the overthrow of the Jewish
nation, and the consequent freedom of the Gentile converts from their persecutions. The
night that was far spent, was not the night of sorrow arising from Jewish bigotry; and
the day that was at hand was something brighter and better than deliverance from its
power. A second interpretation very generally received of late is, that the reference is to
the second advent of Christ. It is assumed that the early Christians, and even the
inspired apostles, were under the constant impression that Christ was to appear in
person for the establishment of his kingdom, before that generation passed away. This
assumption is founded on such passages as the following: Philippians 4:5, "The Lord is
at hand;" 1 Thessalonians 4:17, "We that are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them to meet the Lord in the air;" 1 Corinthians 15:51, "We shall not all sleep, but

138. we shall all be changed," etc. With regard to this point, we may remark —
1. That neither the early Christians nor the apostles knew when the second advent of
Christ was to take place. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, nor the angels
of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the
Son of man be," Matthew 24:36, Matthew 24:37. "They (the apostles) asked of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto
them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his
own power," Acts 1:6, Acts 1:7. But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need
that I write unto you, for ye yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night," 1 Thessalonians 5:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:2.
2. Though they knew not when it was to be, they knew that it was not to happen
immediately, nor until a great apostasy had occurred. "Now we beseech you, brethren,
by (or concerning) the coming of the Lord Jesus, and our gathering together to him, that
ye be not soon shaken in mind … as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive
you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed," etc., 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; and 2 Thessalonians 2:5,
"Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?" Besides this
distinct assertion, that the second advent of Christ was not to occur before the revelation
of the man of sin, there are several other predictions in the writings of Paul, which
necessarily imply his knowledge of the fact, that the day of judgment was not
immediately at hand, 1 Timothy 4:1-3; Romans 11:25. The numerous prophecies of the
Old Testament relating to the future conversion of the Jews, and various other events,
were known to the apostles and precluded the possibility of their believing that the world
was to come to an end before those prophecies were fulfilled.
3. We are not to understand the expressions, day of the Lord, the appearing of Christ,
the coming of the Son of man, in all cases in the same way. The day of the Lord is a very
familiar expression in the Scriptures to designate any time of the special manifestation
of the divine presence, either for judgment or mercy; see Ezekiel 13:5; Joel 1:15; Isaiah
2:12; Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9. So also God or Christ is said to come to any person or
place, when he makes any remarkable exhibition of his power or grace. Hence the Son of
man was to come for the destruction of Jerusalem, before the people of that generation
all perished; and the summons of death is sometimes represented as the coming of
Christ to judge the soul. What is the meaning of such expressions must be determined by
the context, in each particular case.
4. It cannot, therefore, be inferred from such declarations as "the day of the Lord is at
hand;" "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh;" "the judge is at the door," etc., that those
who made them supposed that the second advent and final judgment were to take place
immediately. They expressly assert the contrary, as has just been shown.
5. The situation of the early Christians was, in this respect, similar to ours. They
believed that Christ was to appear the second time without sin unto salvation; but when
this advent was to take place, they did not know. They looked and longed for the
appearing of the great God their Savior, as we do now; and the prospect of this event
operated upon them as it should do upon us, as a constant motive to watchfulness and
diligence, that we may be found of him in peace.
There is nothing, therefore, in the Scriptures, nor in this immediate context, which
requires us to suppose that Paul intended to say that the time of the second advent was
at hand, when he tells his readers that their salvation was nearer than when they
believed.
The third and most common, as well as the most natural interpretation of this passage

139. is, that Paul meant simply to remind them that the time of deliverance was near; that the
difficulties and sins with which they had to contend, would soon be dispersed as the
shades and mists of night before the rising day. The salvation, therefore, here intended,
is the consummation of the work of Christ in their deliverance from this present evil
world, and introduction into the purity and blessedness of heaven. Eternity is just at
hand, is the solemn consideration that Paul urges on his readers as a motive for devotion
and diligence.
COFFMA , "And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to wake
out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed.
This is eternally true of them that sleep from either lethargy or sin, and it is
positively not required in understanding this verse to believe that Paul thought the
second advent of Christ was to be expected any day. True, he said the day is at hand
in the next verse; and from this, the commentators have jumped to the conclusion
that all the Christians of that era believed the end of the ages was upon them. Christ
so mingled his prophecies of his final coming and of the coming destruction upon
Jerusalem (Matthew 24) that it was nearly impossible to avoid thinking that the two
events would occur simultaneously, instead of being separated by many centuries.
"The day" in the sense of Christ's coming in judgment upon Jerusalem was
I DEED "at hand," and only a little over a decade removed from the time when
Paul wrote this letter. Paul used the words exactly as Jesus used them; and there is a
tremendous weight of material in Paul's writings that shows he did not fall into the
common error of confusing the two events as to their simultaneous occurrence. He
knew, for example, that his own death would precede the final judgment (2 Timothy
4:6), that a space of time sufficient to allow the revelation of the man of sin would
intervene before it (2 Thessalonians 2:3ff), and that the fullness of the Gentiles
would come in first (Romans 11:25), all of which knowledge on Paul's part made it
impossible for him to have considered the judgment day as being just around the
corner. His reference to Christ's coming, and such expression as "the day is at
hand," applied to the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the judicial coming
of Christ in that epic event. There is no ground for supposing that Paul was
ignorant to the point of confusing the judicial coming with the final coming.
CO CER I G SLEEP
Paul's mention here of a spiritual condition called "sleep," and his call for people to
awaken out of it, provide strong emphasis upon the dangers of such stupor. The
person who sleeps is in a state of insensibility, not knowing anything that is going
on. A fire may sweep through the city, a revolution rage in the streets, or a tornado
bear down upon him, but he knows it not. An assassin may slay him, a thief despoil
him, or any unexpected peril overcome him; and, regardless of what might occur, he

140. is vulnerable, asleep, in danger. It is also a state of inactivity. The sleeper is doing
nothing, all activity being suspended. Further, it is a state of illusion, the dreamer
and the sleeper being identical as to their state. Many a spiritual sleeper has
delusions of grandeur and glory which pertain not at all to him. Many a soul has
been lost while its possessor slept.
Illustration: On the night of September 2,1757, when the soldiers of the Marquis de
Montcalm, commandant of the French army of Quebec, retired to their tents, they
slept the sleep of insecurity. Only a few sentries were left to guard the heights
overlooking the mighty St. Lawrence river; but, while they slept, the soldiers of
General Wolfe scaled the heights of the river and defeated the French the next
morning on the plains of Abraham. The Dominion of orth America changed hands
while people slept! A thousand examples from history could be brought forward to
show what a disastrous thing sleep may be.
1. Some sleep the sleep of Jonah, an unrealistic sleep. He went aboard a ship putting
out to sea, descended into the hold of the vessel and went to sleep. ot even the
mighty storm which descended upon them aroused him. What a perfect picture is
that of a man who will not face reality! Many a sinner is sleeping the sleep of Jonah.
Sin is a roaring tornado all around. It reaches out to destroy; it tosses to and fro;
but people give no heed. They are asleep (Romans 13:11; Ephesians 5:14).
2. Some sleep the sleep of the weary, as did the disciples Peter, James and John in
the Garden of Gethsemane. They were tired. That tremendous week in Jerusalem
had been enough nearly to overwhelm them. The tired fishermen of Galilee were not
accustomed to being stretched out in such an endurance contest as that which
marked the Lord's final week in Jerusalem. They simply could not stand the strain
and went to sleep. The spiritual counterpart of this is seen everywhere. People tire of
the ceaseless struggle, become worn out with the dull routine, and, numbed by the
deadly monotony, they fall asleep; but, while they nod Judas is making a deal with
the high priest; and, in a little while, the soldiers will appear to lead the Lord away.
Of such, one can hear the Master say, "What, could ye not watch with me one
hour?"
3. Some sleep the sleep of presumption, like Samson upon the knees of Delilah.
There was a man who knew all the dangers, but slept anyway. He could always rise
to THE OCCASIO . He could always go out and "shake himself as at other times,"
so he thought and was therefore contemptuous of the danger. Many today sleep like
that. They know the folly and peril of the neglect of prayer, study, and worship;
they know how deadly is the sting of sin; but they sleep. "I know! I know the truth!"
they cry, but they sleep anyway; and, while they sleep, there comes inevitably the

141. hour when it is too late, and for them, as for Samson, they are led away to the
blinding irons and the mill and the work of an ass until life is ended. Why will not
people wake up!
4. Some sleep the sleep of the sluggard (Proverbs 24:30-34). These are they who are
going to be saved tomorrow, who plan to stir themselves in a convenient season, who
fully intend to obey the Lord, but not now.
5. Some sleep the sleep of Eutychus, the sleep of the injured. Eutychus fell out the
third-story window during one of Paul's sermons and was taken up for dead; but
Paul said, "His life is in him." Thus, it might be concluded that he was merely
unconscious due to the fall. It is of that kind of sleep that we speak. Spiritually, some
have sustained near-fatal injuries and CO TI UE in a state of sleep. Gross sin,
terrible disappointment, the traumatic experience of church division or some other
catastrophe has left them insensible through spiritual sleep, and they must be
aroused or perish.
6. Some sleep the sleep of the foolish, the negligent, or the careless. Jesus' parable of
the tares sown in the wheat emphasized that such a disaster took place "while men
slept" (Matthew 13:24,25). Someone just went to sleep when he should have been on
guard. Many sleep like that. Parents sleep while the devil is seducing their children.
Elders sleep while error is advocated in the church. Some young people sleep,
thinking that they have many years in which to make their peace with God; but,
while they sleep, they are taken away.
7. Still others sleep the sleep of spiritual death, as did certain Christians in Corinth.
"Some sleep ..." (1 Corinthians 11:30). This, of course, is a euphemism for death, the
sleep from which one does not awaken until the sound of the trumpet and the
gathering of the hosts for judgment. Some are already so far gone into such a fatal
sleep that they cannot hear the cries of loved ones, nor the message of the gospel, nor
the roar of the waves of Jordan. The sleep of those Christians had been induced by
their neglect of the Lord's Supper and public worship, which shows how easily
people may slip into such a deadly sleep.
May all the sleepers be aroused by the call of the apostle's words here. They ever
stand, electric, upon the sacred page:
Awake, thou that sleepest. Arise from the dead and Christ shall shine upon thee

142. (Ephesians 5:14).
earer than when we first believed ... is far from being a statement that it was, even
at that time, "near" in the sense of soon. This is invariably true of all, that salvation
is nearer than when we first believed. Every man's salvation is nearer as life
unfolds; and, for every man, it is sealed and assured, when his faithfulness has been
manifested even unto the end. Writing to Timothy, in the last of his apostolic
messages, Paul said,
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them that
have loved his appearing (2 Timothy 4:7,8).
Significantly, even in that last statement, Paul did not indicate that he expected the
immediate second coming of Christ. "That day ..." as discreetly used here, leaves the
time element of when it will occur absolutely out of sight.
CALVI , "11.Moreover, etc. He E TERS OW on another SUBJECT of
exhortation, that as the rays of celestial life had begun to shine on us as it were at
the dawn, we ought to do what they are wont to do who are in public life and in the
sight of men, who take diligent care lest they should commit anything that is base or
unbecoming; for if they do anything amiss, they see that they are exposed to the
view of many witnesses. But we, who always stand in the sight of God and of angels,
and whom Christ, the true sun of righteousness, invites to his presence, we I DEED
ought to be much more careful to beware of every kind of pollution.
The import then of the words is this, “ we know that the seasonable time has already
come, in which we should awake from sleep, let us cast aside whatever belongs to the
night, let us shake off all the works of darkness, since the darkness itself has been
dissipated, and let us attend to the works of light, and walk as it becomes those who
are enjoying the day.” The intervening words are to be read as in a parenthesis.
As, however, the words are metaphorical, it may be useful to consider their
meaning: Ignorance of God is what he calls night; for all who are thus ignorant go
astray and sleep as people do in the night. The unbelieving do indeed labor under
these two evils, they are blind and they are insensible; but this insensibility he
shortly after designated by sleep, which is, as one says, an image of death. By light
he means the revelation of divine truth, by which Christ the sun of righteousness
arises on us. (409) He mentions awake, by which he intimates that we are to be
equipped and prepared to undertake the services which the Lord requires from us.
The works of darkness are shameful and wicked works; for night, as some one says,
is shameless. The armor of light represents good, and temperate, and holy actions,

143. such as are suitable to the day; and armor is mentioned rather than works, because
we are to carry on a warfare for the Lord.
But the particles at the beginning, And this, are to be read by themselves, for they
are connected with what is gone before; as we say in Latin Adhoec — besides, or
proeterea — moreover. The time, he says, was known to the faithful, for the calling
of God and the day of visitation required a new life and new morals, and he
immediately adds an explanation, and says, that it was the hour to awake: for it is
not χρόνος but καιρὸς which means a fit occasion or a seasonable time. (410)
For nearer is now our salvation, etc. This passage is in various ways perverted by
interpreters. Many refer the word believed to the time of the law, as though Paul
had said, that the Jews believed before Christ came; which view I reject as
unnatural and strained; and surely to confine a general truth to a small part of the
Church, would have been wholly inconsistent. Of that whole assembly to which he
wrote, how few were Jews? Then this declaration could not have been suitable to the
Romans. Besides, the comparison between the night and the day does in my
judgment dissipate every doubt on the point. The declaration then seems to me to be
of the most simple kind, — “ is salvation now to us than at that time when we began
to believe:” so that a reference is made to the time which had preceded as to their
faith. For as the adverb here used is in its import indefinite, this meaning is much
the most suitable, as it is evident from what follows.
(409) The preceding explanation of night and day, as here to be understood, does
not comport with what is afterwards said on Rom_13:12. The distinction between
night and day of a Christian, ought to be clearly kept in view. The first is what is
here described, but the latter is what the passage refers to. And the sleep mentioned
here is not the sleep of ignorance and unbelief, but the sleep, the torpor, or inactivity
of Christians.
That the present state of believers, their condition in this world, is meant here by “”
and their state of future glory is meant by “” appears evident from the words which
follow, “ nearer now is our salvation than when we believed.” Salvation here, as in
Rom_8:24, and in 1Pe_1:9, means salvation made complete and perfect, the full
employment of all its blessings. Indeed in no other sense can what is said here of
night and day be appropriate. The night of heathen ignorance as to Christians had
already passed, and the day of gospel light was not approaching, but had appeared.

144. — Ed.
(410) The words καὶ τούτο ACCORDI G to [Beza ], [Grotius ], [Mede ] etc.,
connect what follows with the preceding exhortation to love, “ this do, or let us do,
as we know,” etc. But the whole tenor of what follows by no means favors this view.
The subject is wholly different. It is evidently a new subject of exhortation, as
[Calvin ] says, and the words must be rendered as he proposes, or be viewed as
elliptical; the word “ say,” or “ command,” according to [Macknight ], being
understood, “ also I say, since we know the time,” etc. If we adopt “ command,” or
“” as [Calvin ] does, it would be better to regard the participle εἰδότες as having the
meaning of an imperative , εστε being understood, several instances of which we
have in the preceding chapter, Rom_12:9. The whole passage would then read better
in this manner, —
11.Moreover, know the time, that it is even now the very time for us to awake from
sleep; for nearer now is our salvation than when we
12.believed: the night has advanced, and the day has approached; let us then cast
away the works of darkness, and let us put on the
13.armor of light; let us, as in the day, walk in a becoming manner, etc. — Ed.
BARCLAY, "THE THREAT OF TIME
Rom. 13:11-14
Further, there is this--realize what time it is, that it is now high time to be awakened
from sleep; for now your salvation is nearer than when you believed. The night is
far gone; the day is near. So, then, let us put away the works of darkness, and let us
clothe ourselves with the weapons of light. Let us walk in loveliness of life, as those
who walk in the day, and let us not walk in revelry or drunkenness, in immorality
and in shamelessness, in contention and in strife. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ
as a man puts on a garment, and stop living a life in which your first thought is to
gratify the desires of Christless human nature.
Like so many great men, Paul was haunted by the shortness of time. Andrew
Marvell could always hear "time's winged chariot hurrying near." Keats was

145. haunted by fears that he might cease to be before his pen had gleaned his teeming
brain. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:
"The morning drum-call on my eager ear Thrills unforgotten yet; the morning
dew Lies yet undried along my fields of noon. But now I pause at whiles in what I do
And count the bell, and tremble lest I hear (My work untrimmed) the sunset gun too
soon."
But there was more in Paul's thought than simply the shortness of time. He expected
the Second Coming of Christ. The Early Church expected it at any moment, and
therefore it had the urgency to be ready. That expectancy has grown dim and faint;
but one permanent fact remains--no man knows when God will rise and bid him go.
The time grows ever shorter, for we are every day one day nearer that time. We, too,
must have all things ready.
The last verses of this passage must be forever famous, for it was through them
Augustine found conversion. He tells the story in his Confessions. He was walking in
the garden. His heart was in distress, because of his failure to live the good life. He
kept exclaiming miserably, "How long? How long? Tomorrow and tomorrow--why
not now? Why not this hour an end to my depravity?" Suddenly he heard a voice
saying, "Take and read; take and read." It sounded like a child's voice; and he
racked his mind to try to remember any child's game in which these words
occurred, but could think of none. He hurried back to the seat where his friend
Alypius was sitting, for he had left there a volume of Paul's writings. "I snatched it
up and read silently the first passage my eyes fell upon: ` Let us not walk in revelry
or drunkenness, in immorality and in shamelessness, in contention and in strife. But
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man puts on a garment, and stop living a life in
which your first thought is to gratify the desires of Christless human nature.' I
neither wished nor needed to read further. With the end of that sentence, as though
the light of assurance had poured into my heart, all the shades of doubt were
scattered. I put my finger in the page and closed the book: I turned to Alypius with
a calm countenance and told him." (C. H. Dodd's translation.) Out of his word God
had spoken to Augustine. It was Coleridge who said that he believed the Bible to be
inspired because, as he puts it, "It finds me." God's word can always find the
human heart.
It is interesting to look at the six sins which Paul selects as being, as it were, typical
of the Christless life.
(i) There is revelry (komos, GS 2889). This is an interesting word. Originally

146. komos was the band of friends who accompanied a victor home from the games,
singing his praises and celebrating his triumph as they went. Later it came to mean
a noisy band of revellers who swept their way through the city streets at night, a
band of roysterers, what, in Regency England, would have been called a rout. It
describes the kind of revelry which lowers a man's self and is a nuisance to others.
(ii) There is drunkenness (methe). To the Greeks drunkenness was a particularly
disgraceful thing. They were a wine-drinking people. Even children drank wine.
Breakfast was called akratisma, and consisted of a slice of bread dipped in wine. For
all that, drunkenness was considered specially shameful, for the wine the Greek
drank was much diluted, and was drunk because the water supply was inadequate
and dangerous. This was a vice which not only a Christian but any respectable
heathen also would have condemned.
(iii) There was immorality (koite). Koite literally means a bed and has in it the
meaning of the desire for the forbidden bed. This was the typical heathen sin. The
word brings to mind the man who sets no value on fidelity and who takes his
pleasure when and where he will.
(iv) There is shamelessness (aselgeia). Aselgeia is one of the ugliest words in the
Greek language. It does not describe only immorality; it describes the man who is
lost to shame. Most people seek to conceal their evil deeds, but the man in whose
heart there is aselgeia is long past that. He does not care who sees him; he does not
care how much of a public exhibition he makes of himself; he does not care what
people think of him. Aselgeia is the quality of the man who dares publicly to do the
things which are unbecoming for any man to do.
(v) There is contention (eris). Eris is the spirit that is born of unbridled and unholy
competition. It comes from the desire for place and power and prestige and the
hatred of being surpassed. It is essentially the sin which places self in the foreground
and is the entire negation of Christian love.
(vi) There is envy (zelos). Zelos need not be a bad word. It can describe the noble
emulation of a man who, when confronted with greatness of character, wishes to
attain to it. But it can also mean that envy which grudges a man his nobility and his
preeminence. It describes here the spirit which cannot be content with what it has
and looks with jealous eye on every blessing given to someone else and denied to
itself.

147. HAWKER 11-14, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (12) The night is far spent,
the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the
armor of light. (13) Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. (14) But put ye on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.
There would be a considerable difficulty in the right apprehension of what the Apostle
here saith, of awakening out of sleep, if he had not in the preceding part of this Epistle
sufficiently shewn, that the Church was not only in an awakened state, but in a truly
converted and justified state before God. But, beheld in this point of view, all difficulty is
at once removed, and the words of the Apostle, in those few verses, appear in all the
loveliness of exhortation to the Church of God. The sleep which the Apostle had in view,
is that sleep too common among believers, to which God’s dear children are but too
much addicted. Not the sleep of death, for they have passed from death unto life. You
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: Eph_2:1. But it means a
sleepy, drowsy frame of mind, such as the Church complained of, and out of which the
Lord called her, Son_5:2, see Commentary there. The wise, virgins, as well as the foolish,
are described as fallen into a state of sleep while the bridegroom tarried, Mat_25:5, see
Commentary also. If I detain the Reader over the view of the Apostle’s words, it shall
only be to observe, that the Church of God in all ages bath been but too often discovered
in this state; and, perhaps, in none more than in the present. And, therefore, if with an
eye to the account, as here stated by the Apostle, we consider the high time Paul
mentions, of awakening out of sleep, as if personally directed by the Holy Ghost to each
child of God, to whom this Poor Man’s Commentary may come, I shall hope the Lord
will commission it to usefulness.
Every child of God, though in a justified state before God, in the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ, may be said to be in a sleepy, drowsy frame of soul, when grace is not in
lively exercise, and the goings forth upon the Person, and blood, and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ are not continual. Time was, when the Day-spring from on high
first dawned upon the soul, and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God first shone
in the face of Jesus Christ; that his name was as the richest ointment poured forth. The
soul ran, yea, fled to Christ, like as on the chariots of Amminadib. And the heart was
prompted to ask of ail we met, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? If this be not the case
now, is it not because a sleepiness is crept into the soul? If the bread of life is not daily
sought for with the same keen desire as before, can anything be plainer, than that the
appetite is wanting? Reader! what view have you of this state of the case? Certainly if you
and I do not feel our daily need of Jesus, yea, if a sense of our wants, and his all-
sufficiency to supply, do not make him increasingly precious, somewhat is sadly out of
tune in the heart. Though rooted in Christ, yet it is a wintry season, when the branches
have neither leaves nor fruit. This was the charge which the Lord brought himself
against his Church at Ephesus. Though the Lord knew her works, and her labor, and her
patience, and bore testimony to her as his; yet, Jesus charged her with coldness. She had
not lost all love to Him, but she had left her first love, Rev_2:1-7. Oh! my poor heart!
What reproach is it, that He to whom I owe so much, should have so little of my
affections! And, while I need him more, should manifest that love less! Reader! Is it your
case? If so, is it not as Paul saith, high time to awake out of sleep?
But let us go one step further. From whence doth this spring, and where is the seat of the

148. disease? Very plain it is, that the mind revolts at it, and the regenerated soul is
continually reproaching itself in consequence thereof. The child of God feels evident
principles of a different nature and tendency within him. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Like Paul, with the mind we serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin. So that there are two I’s in every renewed man’s nature.
There is the I which serves the law of God. And there is the I which serves the law of sin.
And painful and humbling as this review is, yet is it a blessed discovery, and which can
never be made but by the Spirit’s teaching. The carnal, unawakened, unregenerated man
knows it not; yea, indeed, it is impossible he should, for he feels it not, neither doth it
exist in him. His spiritual part is unawakened, but remains as he was born, dead in
trespasses and sins. So that there is no conflict in his heart. A dead soul can make no
opposition to a living body, wholly employed under one form or other, in making
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. It is only when by the quickening and
regenerating influences of the Holy Ghost, the soul, which by nature is dead in
trespasses and sins, is brought forth into life, that the warfare begins, and which never
ends until the body drops into the grave.
Reader! do not dismiss the subject without taking with you the suitable improvements
from it. There is much in it to humble the best and most faithful followers of the Lord.
And there are some things connected with it, which under grace, may lead to other
improvements. Let me beg my Reader’s indulgence to offer a few words upon each. In
the first place, there is much to humble the child of God, both before God, and to his
own heart, when he beholds in himself those remains of indwelling corruption, and that
he carries about with him such a body of sin and death, which harrass and afflict the
soul. What poverty, what leanness in spiritual enjoyments it occasions! How barren are
ordinances, when grace is low, and corruption high ? The heart is like a captive in prison,
when neither a sense of sin, nor of mercy, for the time, affects. A sense of want will
quicken the desire; and when God the Holy Ghost creates an hungering in the soul, and
spreads Jesus with his banquet open to view, everything is blessed then in the
enjoyment. But, when the Lord the Comforter is away, and the soul asleep; means of
grace, though still followed, degenerate into a mere form; and, however the shadow
remains, the substance is wanting. Moreover, the evil of this drowsiness is not confined
to the person of the child of God only, which is under its distressing influence, the whole
Church is injured by it, Christ is dishonored, and, not unfrequently, occasion is afforded
thereby for the enemy to blaspheme. While men slept, saith Jesus, (in that beautiful
parable of the good seed,) the enemy sowed tares. And to what cause so likely is it in the
present hour, that we can ascribe the awful heresies which have sprung up among us,
even to the denying of the Lord that bought them; as the lukewarm, indifferent spirit,
which hath been manifested in the Churches, to the great and distinguishing doctrines of
our most holy faith? That temporizing conduct, that wish to avoid giving offence, that
endeavour to make the iron and the clay join, in, bringing together men of the most
opposite principles, under the specious pretext of promoting the Lord’s glory, by
propagating his holy word; while concealing and keeping in the back ground an open
profession of some of his most blessed truths, which truly honor him; what are all these,
but some of the sad, sad consequences of a sleepy state of the Church, instead of casting
off, and having no fellowship with the works of darkness, but as true soldiers of Jesus
Christ, putting on the whole armor of light ?
But I said, there are some things connected with this view of a sleepy frame in the
Church, or in any individual of the Church, which, under grace, may lead to other
improvements. And I will beg to mention a few of them. And, first. Nothing can be more
evident, than that one gracious purpose, which the Lord intended from it is, to make sin

149. appear exceeding sinful No man, no angel, no, nor all the creatures of God, can tell, what
sin is; or have they any adequate conceptions of its awfulness. The child of God therefore
shall be taught, and feelingly taught too, somewhat of its dreadful nature, from the
remains of in-bred and in-dwelling corruption in himself; and as the Prophet saith, thine
own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know
therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord, thy
God, and that my fear in not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, Jer_2:19.
Secondly. This consciousness of a body of in-bred, in-dwelling sin, from which the soul,
though renewed by grace, cannot disentangle itself, neither will be able, until life is over,
serves, under grace, to keep open a constant spring of true sorrow and repentance in the
heart. Paul the Apostle, though he had been caught up to the third heaven, and was
himself a chosen vessel before God; yet was so sensible of this distressed state, that he
went in great mourning of heart. Oh! wretched man that I am, (said he,) who shall
deliver me from the body of this death ? Rom_5:21. It is very blessed to have the
sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which
raiseth the dead, 2Co_1:9.
Thirdly. Perhaps there is hardly a cause, which relates to the state of the redeemed soul,
groaning under the remains of corruption, more striking to shew, how the Lord
overrules evil for good, than when by this process the believer is divorced from all self-
righteousness. Nothing but the continual humblings of sin under grace, can accomplish
this blessed purpose. We are so wedded to some fancied goodness in our poor fallen
nature, that it requires frequent mortifications from human infirmities, to teach us what
we are. And very blessed it is, when humbled to the dust before God, to be rooted out of
it. The child of God is living nearer to the Lord, when humbled for some renewed
instance of infirmity, than when lifted up, in some fancied work of self-righteousness.
And far better is he that is made watchful and jealous over his own heart, by reason of
conscious sin, than he that is made proud and secure in fancying himself something
when he is nothing.
But fourthly, and above all. Whatever tends to endear Christ, and enhance to the soul the
preciousness of Jesus, must be blessed. And, what can accomplish this purpose more,
than a sense of our daily, momently need of him? Precious Lord! let me be anything, or
nothing, yea, worse than nothing, so that my soul be humbled and my God be exalted as
the Lord my righteousness! Oh! for grace to win Christ, and to be found in him: not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ; the righteousness which is of God by faith! Php_3:8-9.
Reader! it will be blessed, if your soul, and my soul, be taught, to mourn in secret, over a
nature, which in its highest attainments, is still the subject of sin. And do not forget, how
much we owe to grace, in thus having brought us acquainted with ourselves, to hide
pride from our eyes! And, how blessed it is in God, to give us grace, to acknowledge
before God, those remaining corruptions. And, let me beg the Reader to mark it down, as
an unerring rule of grace in the heart, when we are led to see our corruptions, and to
acknowledge them. But for grace, we should not have known them. Blessed be God! that
while we are led to see, and know, and feel, what poor creatures we are in ourselves; we
are led to see, and know, and enjoy also, our interest in Jesus. Oh! the preciousness of
that holy Scripture: Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound? that as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

150. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR 11-14, "And, knowing the time, that now it is high time
to awake out of sleep.
A call
I. To awake. Because—
1. It is high time.
2. The night of unbelief is past.
3. The day of salvation is at hand.
II. To duty.
1. To repentance—“Put off the works of darkness.”
2. To faith—“Put on the armour of light.”
3. To action—“Walk honestly,” etc.
4. To holiness—“Put on Christ”—the Source of new life. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Time closing in upon us
“The time is short,” or, as we might perhaps render it so as to give the full force of the
metaphor, the time is pressed together. It is being squeezed into narrower compass, like
a sponge in a strong hand. There is an old story of a prisoner in a cell with contractile
walls. Day by day his space lessens—he saw the whole of that window yesterday, he sees
only half of it to-day. Nearer and nearer the walls are drawn together, till they meet and
crush him between them. So the walls of our home (which we have made our prison) are
closing in upon us. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Knowledge of time
I. That knowledge of time which we should secure. We should know time in its—
1. Nature.
2. Use.
3. Value.
4. Management.
5. Termination.
II. The effects which it is calculated to promote.
1. Unfeigned gratitude to God.
2. Deep contrition of soul.
3. Fervent application to the throne of grace.
4. Sincere desires to live more fully unto the Lord. (Biblical Museum.)

151. Knowledge of time
We should know time in its—
I. Worth. Estimated at the value of—
1. Life. Time the measure of life of a being capable of thought, endowed with
conscience, gifted with immortality.
2. What able to be done during its progress. Speaking of W. Wilberforce, Sir James
Mackintosh said, “I am full of admiration that the short period of the life of one man,
well and wisely directed, can do so much and exert such influence. How precious is
time! How valuable and dignified human life, which in general appears so base and
miserable!” Illustrate with Howard, Raikes, etc.
II. Responsibilities. Our relation to God. Knowledge of salvation. Duties in our sphere of
life. Influence we exert. Ignatius when he heard the clock strike said, “Now I have one
hour more to account for.”
III. Uncertainty. Commercial institutions and projects abundantly prove this, but he
who counts on time presumes on probability that has even more impressively proved its
questionableness (Jas_4:13-14).
IV. Brevity., The years of Jacob wore an hundred and thirty, yet he says, “Few and evil,”
etc. Moses again, “Like the grass,” etc. When we look over the first chapters of
Chronicles, to read which is like entering a great world-cemetery, how we are struck with
the shortness of life at the best!
V. Powerlessness. It cannot destroy sin, or take away its guilt. It cannot act for us. It
cannot destroy the soul, though it ends the life.
VI. Irrevocableness. The wave that washes at your feet may return. The waters of the
river as they roll to the sea, caught up in mist, may again flow down the mountains into
its channel, but an hour once gone in the roll of millenniums shall never return. We can
recall a messenger, but not the last moment. One life here, only one, is given, how
precious should it be! (G. McMichael, B.A.)
Time to awake
I. The exhortation. These words are appropriate to the first Sunday in the year. When
the bells ring out the old year and ring in the new, they seem to chime, “Now it is high
time to awake out of sleep.”
1. St. Paul is speaking not to those who were asleep in sin, but to active Christians.
And there are few things in Scripture more striking than the remonstrances
addressed to such. Ordinarily little or no account seems taken of their progress, but
they are dealt with as having yet much to do. The nominal Christian ought to be
much struck with this. If he who has been long labouring is thus admonished, what
must be the state of those who have not yet taken the first steps in Christianity?
2. But the real Christian may also find cause for alarm, notwithstanding the
promises in his favour. And when we call to mind that in the parable all the virgins,
the wise as well as the foolish, slumbered, we cannot but conclude that there is no
privilege to godly men of dispensing with watchfulness. It is vigilance, not indolence,
to which believers are elected. The best proof that a man is not elect, is his making

152. election his pillow, and going to sleep upon his own predestination.
3. Our text, however, may be taken in comparative sense. The righteous may “not
sleep as do others.” Yet you may find so vast a disproportion between the energy
exerted and the energy demanded, that the actual wakefulness is practical
listlessness. Spiritual slumber is not necessarily the folding up of every power and
faculty, but the not developing them in the necessary degree. Some energy is still
torpid, some affection is still spellbound, and thus the whole man is not spiritually
roused. And over and above the slumber of certain faculties, those which are awake
are but half awake. Where is that struggling which would result from the
combination of an eye all faith and a heart all love?
II. The motive by which St. Paul strives to stir Christians from comparative indolence—
“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
1. This argument which is drawn from the greater nearness of death is not of equal
urgency when applied to believer and unbeliever. In applying it to the latter, I just
tell him that he has less time in which to escape, and therefore less likelihood of
obtaining deliverance. He must do it before daybreak, and “the night is far spent.”
But when I turn to the believer, there is by no means the same appearance of force in
the motive. If a man be secure of salvation, to tell him that the end is at hand does
not look like urging him to exertion. But here comes in that balancing of statements
which is discernible through the whole of the Bible. The only Scriptural certainty that
a man will be saved is the certainty that he will struggle. Struggling is incipient
salvation. It is an intenser struggle which marks a fuller possession. If, then, a man
would show that his salvation is nearer, he must also show that he is more wakeful,
more in earnest.
2. There are two reasons why the consciousness of having less time to live should
urge Christians to be increasingly earnest.
(1) There is much to strive for even if a man be secure of salvation. The degree of
our happiness in the next life will be mainly determined by our attainments in
holiness in this. We are here on a stage of probation, so that, having been once
recovered from apostasy, we are candidates for a prize and wrestlers for a crown.
Christianity does not allow the believer to imagine that everything is done when a
title to the kingdom is obtained. And if one man become a ruler over ten cities,
and another over five, and another over two, each receiving in exact proportion
to his improvement of talents, then it is clear that our strivings will have a vast
influence on our recompense. To tell the Christian, therefore, that his salvation is
nearer than when he believed, is telling the wrestler that his glass is running out,
and there is the garland not won; it is telling the warrior that the shadows are
thickening and the victory is not complete. Is it a time to sleep when each
moment’s slumber may take a pearl from the crown, a city from the sceptre?
(2) There remains less time in which to glorify God. If there were no connection
between what we do in this life, and what we shall receive in the next, it would
still be impossible for true Christians to be indolent. Forasmuch as faith makes
us one with Christ, there must be community of interest. And it is a spectacle
which should stir all the anxieties and sympathies of the believer—that the world
which has been ransomed by Christ’s blood is nevertheless overspread with
impiety. And over and above this dishonour to his Lord, there is the
wretchedness which an ungodly race is weaving for its portion; and he cannot fail
to long and to strive that he may be, in some degree, instrumental in the

153. salvation of his fellow-men. Where, then, can you find a stronger motive to
energy than is furnished by the shortness of the period during which we may
resist the progress of iniquity and win souls for Christ? And what, then, is the
text but an admonition that nerve and sinew, time and talent—all must be
centred more fixedly than ever in the service of Christ, lest we are summoned to
depart ere we have done the little which with all our strenuousness we might
possibly effect for the Lord and His kingdom? (H. Melvill, B.D.)
Time to awake
I. The condition supposed. One of—
1. Insensibility.
2. Inactivity.
3. Peril.
II. The admonition given. Awake to—
1. Consideration.
2. Action.
3. Diligent effort.
III. The motives suggested.
1. It is high time.
2. The crisis draws on.
3. You know it. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
High time to awake out of sleep
I. The state from which a change is desired. Sleep describes—
1. The state of unconverted men (1Th_5:4-8; 1Co_15:34). Sleep is a season of—
(1) Forgetfulness, and men by nature are forgetful of the ends of their being, of
their true character—of the awful attributes of eternity, etc.
(2) Ignorance, and the unconverted man has no discernment as to spiritual
things.
(3) Insensibility, and the natural man is unalarmed and secure amidst all the
danger by which he is surrounded. A man may be awake as to all the things of
time, and asleep as to all the concerns of eternity.
2. Of many who have made a profession of the gospel and felt its power. Once they
were roused from the slumbers of spiritual death, but they are gone back. Their
strong impressions have subsided, their souls have left their first love; they did run
well, but they have been hindered. In the world there is a constant influence to
produce this stupor. Worldly business, pleasure, honour and applause, become the
means of bringing us into a state of declension. How dreadful when the child of the
day thus goes back into darkness, and stretches out his form, asking for a little more

154. sleep and a little more slumber!
II. The nature of the change by which this state is to be reversed.
1. It is a change which produces a complete reverse. It is awaking out of sleep. This
change is called a being turned from darkness to light—a being quickened—becoming
children of the light and of the day, etc. The expression signifies that the
understanding receives a full impression of the reality of the world to come. The man
acts as though he believed that the true end of life is to glorify God; and hence he
seeks to obtain a change of heart and life—cultivates holy principles, practises holy
actions, and has respect in all things to the recompense of the reward.
2. The only way by which this change can be effected is by the powerful operation of
the Spirit on the mind. The slumber is so potent that none but He can awake from it.
The anodyne is so powerful that none but the great Physician can apply a suitable
remedy. Where He is not, there is dark midnight, or the light only of a phantom, or
the pale beams of the moon shining upon snow, displaying the very dreariness and
barrenness of nature!
3. Yet human instruments are employed. Those who are awakened to the sense of
the danger of their fellow-men are sent out by God to awaken others.
III. The motives which should induce you to awake.
1. Enough of your time has passed in an unaroused, unawakened state already.
2. The difficulty of awakening grows with the progress of delay. The sleep of the
body, indeed, becomes lighter as we approach the morning season. But this slumber
becomes deeper and heavier, till the individual sleeps the sleep of death. Every time
you hear in vain, you grow more sleepy, and the preacher’s voice becomes only as so
much music to lull you. You have so long listened to the rolling of the thunder that
your ears are now deaf to its sound. The Cross has so frequently been presented to
you that its brightness has no longer any attraction.
3. The uncertainty and speedy termination of life. Who is there that knows how long
he has to live? Can any of you say, “Go thy way for this time; when it is more
convenient, I will attend to these things”? You know not that you will live till to-
morrow. (J. Parsons.)
High time to awake
I. There is sometimes a tendency in Christians to sleep. How many settle down into
dreamy stationariness. This state—
1. Follows upon the religious life losing its first freshness and novelty.
2. Is induced by a false conception of the atonement and the nature of salvation. Men
have been taught to consider salvation bestowed in its completeness upon believing
that Christ is the sacrifice for the world’s sin, and all that thereafter remains is
heaven; whereas salvation simply begins then—nothing more.
3. Is encouraged by the worldly maxims and excitements, the spirit of mammonism,
amidst which so many live. God and duty, and all spiritual realities seem often to
fade away into mere phantoms in the clash and hurry of commerce. That only seems
real which is visible and present. And the result is that the soul passes by almost

155. imperceptible degrees into a state of moral slumber.
4. Comes through the growth of some moral weakness or sinful habit—covetousness,
love of pleasure, passionateness—that has not been controlled or weeded out of the
character at the beginning of the new life; or through the influence of companions of
a worldly type; or from the mind becoming unsettled on some of the questions of
theology and Biblical criticism. Many a man, tossed on a sea of doubt and
uncertainty concerning creeds and theological systems, gradually loses his former
spiritual intensity, and languidly suffers the work of salvation to remain stationary.
II. As a corrective of inaction and torpor, and to inspire once more with Holy enterprise
any who sleep, there is a twofold incentive.
1. “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This points to—
(1) The fact of the Christian life having been begun. It is a great point gained to
have made a definite beginning in a good work. After the first few stages there
begins to be accumulated a fund of experience; the sense of strangeness goes, and
the faculties begin to adapt themselves to the new mode of life, and the man soon
begins to have a foretaste of some of the fruits of his labour. Past conquests lend
a power for future triumphs. Attainment facilitates yet further attainment.
(2) The grand revelations of the other life, which are fast approaching. But the
measure of every one’s heaven hereafter depends upon the spiritual meetness
which has been developed in him here. And the time that remains to any of us for
casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armour of light is ceaselessly
gliding away, whether we use it or no. The opportunities with which each year
comes laden go into the grave of the past with it. The portals of the future are
coming fast into sight, and soon they will open for you to pass through. There is
no time to waste in dreamy indolence.
2. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” The present life is a time of shadow
and obscurity. Purposes, duties, attainments, are often misinterpreted, and mis-
valued. Now, in passing into the future we pass into the day. That is a world of light
in which we shall both know ourselves and be known as we really are. Therefore, be
ready for the time of revelation. Awake! put off the works of darkness; put on the
armour of light. Each fresh day should see us awake and diligent. For the most
Christ-like is never enough like Christ. (T. Hammond.)
Wake up! Wake Up!
I. Some professing Christians seem to be asleep with regard to others. Paul has been
bidding us to pay attention to relative duties, and exhorting us to keep the law of love,
which is the essence of law; and now he interjects this sentence. So he means that many
Christians are in a sleepy state with reference to their obligations to others. True
godliness makes a man look to himself, and feel his personal obligations and
responsibilities. But there is a danger lest a man should say, “Other people must see to
themselves, and I must see to myself.” The principle of individuality might be thus
pushed to an unwarrantable extreme. No man can compass the ends of life by drawing a
little line around himself upon the ground. There are outgoing lines of life that bind us
not only with some men, but, in fact, with all humanity. We are placed, therefore, in a
most solemn position; and it is with regard to this that it is high time that we should
awake out of sleep.

156. 1. Into what a deep slumber some professing Christians have fallen! How utterly
insensible they are to the sins and sorrows of those around them. They say, “What is
to be will be, and the Lord’s purpose will be fulfilled; there will be some saved and
others lost,” as coolly as if they were talking of a wasp’s nest. As for those that are
lost! They dare not injure their logic by indulging a little mournful emotion.
2. Others are prone to be overtaken with an oft-recurring sleep. I know a brother
who often takes forty winks in the day-time: you may nudge him, and he will wake
and listen to you, but he goes to sleep again in a few minutes if you let him alone.
Who can blame the sleeper when it is a question of infirmity or sheer exhaustion?
Well, without blaming any for the weakness of the flesh, I take this sleepy habit to be
a fit illustration of the state of some Christians. They have fits and starts of
wakefulness, and then off to sleep again. At that missionary meeting you woke up
when you heard the cry of the perishing heathen; but have you cared much about
China or India since then? You do at times get on fire with love for souls, but then
after the sermon, or the week of special services has ended, you go to sleep again.
Many Sunday-school teachers there are of that kind.
3. Others fall into a kind of somnambulistic state. If we judged them by their
outward actions we should think they were wide awake, and they do what they do
very well. Persons walk along giddy heights safely enough when fast asleep, where
they would not venture when wide awake. And we have known professors going on
very carefully, exactly where others have fallen, and have attributed it to the grace of
God, whereas in part it has been attributable to the fact that they were spiritually
asleep. It is possible to appear very devout, to sing hymns, to hear sermons, to teach
in the Sunday School, to pay your religious contributions punctually, maintain the
habit of prayer, and yet you may be a somnambulist.
4. A very large number of us are half asleep.
II. It is high time that they should awake. And why? Because—
1. What right have believers to be asleep at all? The Lord has saved us from the sleep
which is the first cousin to death—from indifference, unbelief, hardheartedness.
2. A great many opportunities have already slipped away. You who have been
converted, say these ten years, what have you done for Christ? You have been eating
the fat and drinking the sweet, but have you fed the hungry? If you have been saved a
week, and you have done nothing for Christ during that week, you have already
wasted more than enough.
3. There were so many people that had a claim upon us, who are beyond our power
now, even if we do wake! Have you ever felt the sadness of neglecting to visit a
person who was ill until you heard that he was dead? Many are passing away from us
and from the sphere of our influence. Your children, for instance. Parents, avail
yourselves of your opportunities.
4. We have plenty of enemies that are awake if we are not. Protestantism may
slumber, but Jesuitism never does. The prince of the power of the air keeps his
servants well up to their work.
5. It is daylight. The sun has risen. We are getting far into the gospel dispensation.
Can you sleep still?
6. Our Lord was awake. How did His eyes stream with tears over perishing
Jerusalem! The zeal of God’s house consumed Him. Ought it not to consume us?

157. 7. Our own day may be over within an hour or two. The preacher may be delivering
his last sermon. You may go home to-night to offer the last prayer at the family altar
which you will ever utter on earth. You may open shop to-morrow morning for the
last time.
III. There is something worth waking for. Paul does not say, “If you do not wake you will
be lost.” He speaks in a gospel tone, “Now is your salvation nearer than when you
believed.”
1. It is nearer in order of time. How long is it since you believed? Ten years? You are
ten years nearer heaven, then. Ought we not to be more awake? The farther we are
off from heaven, the less we may feel its influence. Some of you are sixty years nearer
to heaven than you were. Would you like to live those sixty years over again? Would
you like to go back and clamber again the Hill Difficulty, and slide down again into
the Valley of Humiliation, etc.? Rejoice that you are so much nearer heaven.
Therefore, keep wide awake, and looking out for it.
2. In point of preparation. If we are getting more ready for heaven, we ought to be
more awake, for sleepiness is not the state of heavenly spirits. If thou art more fit for
heaven thou hast more love, more pity; then reach out both hands to bring another
poor soul to Christ.
3. In point of clearness of realisation. If I can realise that in so short a time my
eternal salvation shall be consummated, I cannot any longer neglect a single
opportunity of serving my Master. Conclusion: Oh, ye unconverted men, must I read
the text as it would have to run if it were written to yon? “It is high time that you
should awake out of sleep, for now is your damnation nearer than when you first
heard the gospel and rejected it.” God grant you grace to take heed and to believe in
Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The wakeful Christian
I. The sleep. Sleep is a state which can only be declared of Christians. The unconverted
are dead, and require not an awakening, but a resurrection. What does this injunction
betoken? A state of—
1. Spiritual apathy. Sleep implies unconsciousness. There may be sublimities around
the sleeper, but he sees them not; harmonies, but he hears them not; dangers, but he
feels them not. So when Christians are asleep they are reduced to a state in which the
religious senses are untouched.
2. Religious inactivity. There is a spot in the Atlantic called the Saragossa Sea, which
is subject to long calms, and is covered with a thick, entangling seaweed; and nothing
of all he has to encounter on the wide ocean fills the experienced mariner with more
genuine dread than to be caught in the meshes of this region of dead calm and
entangling weeds. The religious life has its Saragossa Sea, in which individuals and
Churches too often lie becalmed and entangled in the weeds of conventional habits
and formalism.
3. Dalliance with sin. The context shows a sad state of things, the reason for which
was the recent conversion of the Roman Christians from heathenism, or the
prevalence of Antinomianism. And while there is not now “the same excess of riot,”
still there is considerable proneness to conform to the customs of irreligious people

158. in pleasure.
II. The call to awake. This state of wakefulness is a condition the very opposite of the
sleep referred to. It means, therefore—
1. Deep, intense religious consciousness.
2. Active, self-denying labour.
3. The mortifying of the flesh, and a clear, unmistakable protest against the evil ways
of the world.
III. The reasons for wakefulness.
1. The nature of the Christian profession. “Let us put on the armour of light.” Here
the Christian is presented to us as a soldier. One of the duties of his life, therefore, is
to fight. A work demanding real, earnest care and watchfulness, and calculated to
draw forth our utmost energies. A drowsy soldier is a contradiction. It follows, then,
from this symbol, that the Christian should not be asleep. We are now in the midst of
the fray; let us, then, be awake, “putting on the armour of light,” which alone will
secure us the victory in the conflict with darkness.
2. The closeness of the end. “For now is our salvation nearer,” etc. As the days slip
from our grasp, each remaining moment should become more intensely precious to
us.
3. The character of the times. “Knowing the time.” Never did any age since the
establishment of Christianity possess such claims upon the earnest, sober attention
of the Church as the present. Our age is one eminent for—
(1) Its secular activities in the direction of commerce, science, and education.
Shall the Church alone remain quiescent in the midst of this torrent of activity? It
is here, as it often is with travellers by train, which, by its very swiftness, lulls to
sleep, but as it slackens speed the sleeper wakens up and looks around. So the
rate at which the train of secular pursuits hurries Christians along and lulls them
into a state of obliviousness of spiritual things. Let us be as intrepid in the things
of God as we are in those of our own.
(2) Its activity in the dissemination of error. The two grand errors of the age are
priestism and scepticism—twin sisters, though not on very amicable terms with
each other.
(3) Its abounding wickedness. Here, then, is a powerful reason for wakefulness.
A living Church is the grand antidote to all the evils incidental to our civilisation.
It is its duty pre-eminently to seek to leaven this civilisation. (A. J. Parry.)
The sleeper aroused
I. The sinner’s sleep. A state of—
1. Forgetfulness.
2. Misapprehension.
3. Fancied security.
4. Fleshly delight.

159. II. The exhortation. It implies—
1. An altered view of things.
2. Voluntary effort.
3. Energy.
4. Compliance with terms.
III. The reason.
1. Life is fleeting.
2. Judgment is near.
3. God is calling. (W. W. Wythe.)
Sleep
And as it was with Jonah, so it is now with many a soul. In the midst of the waves and
storms of life, with only a short step between them and the world to come, they are
sleeping. They are wide awake as far as their temporal needs and pleasures are
concerned, but they are asleep to all spiritual interests. When we are asleep we are—
I. In darkness. The fairest sights may be around us, but, so long as we are asleep, for us
they do not exist. And so it is, sometimes, in spiritual sleep. This world in which we live
is instinct with the life of God. There is not a hill or valley, a wind or storm, a bird or
beast, a leaf or flower, but has something to say to us of God. And yet there are some
who say, “There is no God”: they are sleeping the death of infidelity. Now, though it is
not probable that any of you are sleeping this sleep of darkness, yet drowsiness generally
comes before sleep. Take care, then, you do not give way to the drowsiness that precedes
the slumber of infidelity. Do not encourage infidel thoughts. Beware of the beginnings of
doubts. As often as doubt assails you, fly in prayer to God for the strengthening of your
faith.
II. Doing nothing. A sleeping man is no better than a dead man, so far as present action
is concerned. And if the soul’s activity is intercourse with God, and work for God, is not
that soul asleep that does not care to speak to God, to work for God? Is it not wonderful
that God bears with our indifference? He is not indifferent towards us. Shall we, then,
dare any longer to sleep away our lives in inactivity?
III. Sometimes dream, and then we live amidst fancy forms. And it is possible to sleep
spiritually the sleep of delusion.
1. Formalism is the sleep of delusion. If we fancy that by the punctual performance
of the outward duties of religion we can save our souls, one day we shall wake up to
find ourselves the victims of a delusion. There is only One who can save us—Christ;
and unless we take Him to be our Saviour, Church ordinances avail us nothing.
2. Self righteousness is the sleep of delusion. How many fancy that it must be well
with them, because once they were “converted.” To rely on anything short of present
perseverance along the road which God has pointed out to us, is to trust to a
delusion.
IV. Sometimes people are put to sleep, by means of some drug. This sleep, however, has
not the restfulness of natural sleep. And it is possible to drug the soul to seeming sleep

160. by deliberate perseverance in any known sin. The conscience becomes hardened, and all
for a time seems peace. But it is not true peace. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked.” (J. Beeby.)
The peril of sleep
A short time ago a locomotive engine was speeding along the NorthWest line, whilst the
two men who were in it lay fast asleep. A sharp-eyed signalman, from his look-out, was
alert enough to see how matters stood, and without a moment’s delay telegraphed in
advance to lay a fog-signal on the line, that the detonation might rouse the sleepers.
Happily, it was done in time; and startled from what might have been a fatal slumber,
the men shut off steam, reversed the engine, and averted a terrible calamity. It is no
breach of charity to suspect that some of you are hasting on to destruction, but know it
not, for your conscience is asleep; and I would lay a fog-signal on the line that, ere you
pass another mile, the crashing sound may rouse you to your danger, as you hear the
voice of eternal truth declaring, “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die!” (T. Davidson.)
Beware of sleeping
John Bunyan tells us “that when Hopeful came to a certain country, he began to be very
dull and heavy of sleep. Wherefore he said, ‘Let us lie down here and take one nap.’ ‘By
no means,’ said the other, ‘lest sleeping, we wake no more.’ ‘Why, my brother? Sleep is
sweet to the labouring man; we may be refreshed if we take a nap.’ ‘Do you not
remember,’ said the other, ‘ that one of the shepherds bid us beware of the Enchanted
Ground? He meant by that, that we should beware of sleeping.’” “Therefore let us not
sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” Slumbering and backsliding are
closely allied.
The breaking day admonishes us—
1. To awake from sleep.
2. To contemplate the Sun of salvation.
3. To cleanse ourselves from the works of darkness.
4. To put on the clothing of light.
5. To betake ourselves to diligence and duty. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The dawn of the great day
St. Paul is here the watchman of the Church. Standing between night and day, he
proclaims “the time,” and announces the end of darkness and the approach of light. His
appeal regards the Church as being in a midway state between perfect night and perfect
day. The words “pilgrims” of “the dawn” borrowed from St. Peter help us to understand
Paul. Let us trace the effect of this keynote in the interpretation of the passage. The dawn
proclaims the end of night; it is only the mingling of darkness and light; but it is the sure
promise of a day that must reach its perfection, and upon which the shadows of evening
shall never fall.

161. I. Knowing the time.
1. The word carries us back to our Lord’s proclamation of the hour when the night of
death that had rested on mankind had ended, and the light cf eternal life began
(Joh_5:25). Doubtless the darkness that preceded Christ’s advent was not perfect
night. In the deepest midnight of heathenism some rays of truth and virtue struggled
with the darkness, and over one favoured land the moon and the stars shone
brightly. The earlier revelation was “a light shining in a dark place until the day
should dawn.” But Christ was Himself the dawn and the morning star of His own
coming day. And this day—the new era—is the time Christians know.
2. Knowing the time means experimental acquaintance with its privileges and
responsibilities. This knowledge is attained (Eph_5:14) when the Great Awakener
pours the light of conviction into the chambers where sinners sleep the sleep of
death, and gives them the light of life.
(1) They sleep no more. They have been plunged into the waters of spiritual
baptism which has awakened and invigorated them to the utmost, and there is an
expectation in the morning air that keeps every thought alert, and inspires
activity—viz., of Him who shall come in the broadening day.
(2) The guilty wakefulness of the night is also past. The morning reveals the
hidden things of night and makes them hateful. They have “cast off the works of
darkness,” detesting the habiliments of night in which they slept and sinned.
3. So far we have caught the appeal as expressing complete severance between night
and day. The light is divided from the darkness absolutely. In the New Testament
two states, and only two, are distinguished:there are “children of night” and
“children of the day.” But the peculiarity of this passage is that it gives prominence to
a certain interval of transition, which reality requires and the Scripture never denies.
The Christian state is at the best, in many respects, no better than the dawn.
II. The night is only “far spent” and the day only “at hand.”
1. It might be supposed from the watchman’s cry that the whole band were
slumbering, or at least only half awake. But the language is only general to find out
the individual. There is from age to age a faithful succession of watchers and holy
ones, and when the Bridegroom shall approach all will be wakeful enough; but till
then the pilgrim company shall never lack those who move “like men that dream.”
And it is the duty of all who know the time to echo the apostle’s cry. And here is the
everlasting argument, “It is high time … walk honestly as in the day.”
2. There is danger inseparable from the dawn. And when the apostle says, “Put on
the armour of light,” he suggests the whole mystery of evil that wars against the
pilgrims of the dawn. The powers of darkness are awakened into more malignant
activity by the morning light. Never did they so furiously rage as they did around
Him who ended their reign. But He did not banish them, and so they haunt the
travellers. They cannot retard the day, but they make its progress a perpetual
contest, so unlike the progress of the natural day in which dawn glows into morning,
and morning melts into midday, etc. Here the victory is the result of a desperate and
unremitting warfare. That victory will be the perfect light of holiness; the “armour”
that insures the victory is “light.”
3. It is characteristic of this midway state that the salvation,of the Christian company
is regarded as incomplete. The perfect day will bring a full salvation, but that is only
“nearer than when we believed.” The Church is only in the dawn of the day of

162. redemption. That day will be perfect when Christ shall come “without sin unto
salvation.”
III. The dawn is the promise of the coming day.
1. Knowing the time. The Church is appealed to as exercising a firm faith in the
gradual consummation of the dawn into day. The words remind these early travellers
of the great secret that the Lord is at hand, bringing with Him all that their hope can
conceive. But His coming will be to His Church the regular and peaceful
consummation of a day already begun. To the ungodly a catastrophe, to slumbering
Christians a sore amazement, it will be to those who “wait for His appearing” what
day is to the traveller who waits for the morning.
2. But knowing the time does not signify any precise knowledge of its future limits.
We are shut up to faith, which must in all things rule until the vision of Christ shall
begin the reign of sight. “All things continue as they were” is the cry of unbelief. “Lo
here is the promise of His coming, or lo there” is the cry of impatient credulity. But
simple faith waits on in hope that makes no calculation. Our Lord may brighten any
hour—from cock-crowing to the third hour and the sixth—into perfect day.
3. This being the common prospect it is not wonderful that the Christian state is that
of joyful hope. Nothing is more beautiful and more symbolical of eager expectation
than the dawn. True the individual Christian has cares, conflicts, fears to moderate
his joy. But he is to look over all these lower glooms to the brighter horizon into
which these things merge. He must lose his particular sorrow in the general joy. He
is one of the company that shall receive the Lord.
4. But the apostle reserves for the last his solemn exhortation to prepare. “The day is
at hand,” and the pilgrims are bidden to anticipate it in the holy decorum of their
lives, and to be clothed with the only garment worthy of the day, Christ Himself. (W.
B. Pope, D.D.)
Desidia and Alacritas
It is a merciful arrangement that we live by days, and are able to begin afresh every
twenty-four hours. The Christian life is an awaking—a dressing; and each morning’s
waking and dressing may recall to us its nature. Look at these verses carefully and you
will see the writer’s meaning, though, with a true delicacy, he only hints at it. When we
rise from our beds we are dishevelled, unpresentable: we cannot get about the duties of
the day until we have put off the dress of the night, until we have washed and combed
ourselves, and put on a more suitable attire. Thus there is a surprising difference, in any
nice and well-regulated person, between the night and the day appearance. The word
“honestly” should rather be “decently,” for it just expresses this difference. Here are
certain specimen words which describe that nocturnal condition of the soul. The
question hits us hard when we attempt to interpret them fairly. First, revellings and
drunkenness. This is not the boozing of the poor, who drink to forget their poverty and
benumb their pain. It is the self-indulgence of the well-to-do, of good food, the hours
spent over the pot or the decanter. It is the unhealthy occupation with gaieties which
prevent us from putting on Christ Jesus. Then chamberings and wantonness. These are
the thoughts of our chambers, the wanton imagination on our beds, the loose fancies,
the rein flung on the neck of passion. They are more important to mention than the overt
acts of vice, for they are the letting-out of waters. Given these, the rest will follow. These
are “the provision of the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof”; they are the steps down to the

163. gates of death. The last pair, strife and jealousy, are as fatal to the reclothing in the
Divine garment, Christ Jesus—as truly the unseemly dress of the night—as those more
scandalous faults which are called vices. These are poisons at the springs of life. They
prohibit the indwelling of the Spirit. These three couplets of evil are but specimen-
words—evil is manifold, ubiquitous—but they help us to answer the question, Have we
put off this “garment spotted by the flesh”? It was this searching passage that proved the
turning-point in the life of Augustine. By the grace of God it may fetch any of us off our
unhallowed couch and clothe us in the raiment of the day. It was at Milan where the
troubled spirit had come to seek help of the saintly Ambrose. He was with the brother
Alypius in the garden. They had been reading the Epistles of Paul. Augustine rose in
agitation and paced up and down, when he heard a clear child’s voice singing from a
house in the vicinity, “Take and read, take and read.” As if commanded from heaven he
hastened back to the seat, and took up the book which they had been reading together.
There was this verse staring him in the face. The Latin is “Not in feasts and tipplings, not
in chambers and immodesties, not in contention and emulation; but put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh in concupiscence.” The entrance of
the Word gave light. Presently, Alypius brought Augustine to Monica to tell her that the
mother’s prayer was answered. But assuming that we are in the great cardinal sense
awakened and reclothed, still there remains the daily renewal of it, the parable of our
diurnal round. Christ is a perfect garment, but it is necessary to put Him on afresh,
readjust, and with loving care fit Him on, as the mornings come round. But I can tell you
better about this if I draw the portraits of two friends of mine. Their names are Desidia
and Alacritas. The one dreams she is awake; the other is awake. Desidia is not at all
uncomely, but for a certain lethargic look in her eye and a drag in her gait. She begins
the day with a very ample attention to her person. The time she spends on her hair-
dressing and her toilet would make three of her devotions, Sundays included. And her
heart is in it, which I can hardly say about her devotions. Desidia has nothing particular
to do, which is fortunate, for she never has time to do anything. I asked her once to
undertake some work for her Saviour, which she refused so flatly that I ventured to
inquire if He were her Saviour. Alacritas, on the other hand, always fills me with
admiration; and I would gladly change my sex to be like her. She is never in a hurry, and
yet is always moving. She has so much merriment and gaiety of heart, that grave,
religious folk at first take exception to her, and question whether a true Christian could
ever have so exchanged the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. But I chance to
know that this sunshine comes from prayer, and it is like a good medicine in the house. I
should have thought it would take twice as long to get oneself up so charmingly as
Alacritas does, I mean as compared with the artificial fripperies of Desidia. Yet Alacritas
gets a good hour for prayer before breakfast; she does a great deal of household work,
she visits the poor, and her needle is busy for them; she never seems to miss a service at
the church. And yet she reads more good literature in a month than Desidia does in a
year. Desidia and others of her family pity Alacritas because she has little or nothing to
do with plays and dances. How dull it must he for her, they say! (R. F. Horton, D.D.)
Dressing in the morning
It is a great mistake for a man not to know the times in which he lives, and how to act in
them; and when he does not know the time as to the day of his own life, so as to apply his
heart unto wisdom. What is the time of day with the Christian? It is no longer the dead
of the night, “the day is at hand.” A little while ago the dense darkness of ignorance was
about us; but the gospel has made us light in the Lord. The day-star is shining upon us,

164. and we look for a perfect day. It is not as yet full day with us. The sun has risen, but it is
not yet noon. Note—
I. The morning call.
1. Awake—“It is high time to awake out of sleep.”
(1) Arise from the sleep of inaction. Do not let your religion consist in receiving
all and doing nothing.
(2) Leave also all lethargy behind you. At night a man may yawn and stretch
himself; but when the morning comes he should be brisk, for the day will be none
too long.
(3) Have done with dreaming. You who are not of the night must not dote on the
world’s shadows, but look for eternal realities.
2. Cast off your night clothes. “Cast off the works of darkness.” The man who is just
awakened shakes off his bed clothes and leaves them. The coverlet of night is not our
covering by day. Sins and follies are to be cast off when we put on the garments of
light. I have known a man profess to be converted, but he has merely put religion
over his old character. This will never do: Christ has not come to save you in but
from your sins.
3. Put on your morning dress. “Let us put on the armour of light.” Does not this
warn us that a day of battle is coming? Be wise, then, and dress according to what
you will meet with during the day. Young converts think that they have got to
heaven, or very near it; but the time is not yet. You are in an enemy’s country: put on
the armour of light. Perhaps before you get down to breakfast an arrow wilt be shot
at you by the great enemy. Your foes may be found in your own household, and they
may wound you at your own table. The Greek word, however, may be understood to
signify not only armour, but such garments as are fitted and suitable for the day’s
work. These should be put on at once, and our soul should be dressed for service.
Some people are too fine to do real service for the Lord. When the Duke of
Wellington asked one of our soldiers how he would like to be dressed if he had to
fight the battle of Waterloo again, he answered that he should like to be in his shirt
sleeves.
4. Walk forth and behave as in the light. “Let us walk honestly, as in the day,” let our
demeanour be such as becomes daylight. How should a child of light conduct
himself? “Honestly” may mean decently, with decorum and dignity. In the middle of
the night, if you have to go about the house, you are not particular as to how you are
dressed; but you do not go out to your business slip-shod, but arrayed according to
your station. Let it be so with you spiritually: holiness is the highest decency, the
most becoming apparel.
5. Renounce the deeds of darkness. If we have put on the garments of light, it
behoves us to have done with the things that belong to the night.
(1) Sensuality, “rioting and drunkenness.” If a drinking bout is held it is usually
at night.
(2) Impurity, “not in chambering and wantonness.” It is an awful thing when a
man calls himself by the name of Christian, and yet can be unchaste in
conversation, lascivious in spirit, wicked in life.
(3) Passion, “strife and envying.” Brawls are for the night.

165. II. The morning gospel. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In Christ there is—
1. Covering for nakedness. There is in Him a complete and suitable apparel for thy
soul, by which every blemish and defilement shall be put out of sight.
2. A garment suitable for everyday work. All the power to be holy, forgiving, heroic,
enthusiastic in the service of God, comes through Christ when we are in Him.
3. Apparel for dignity. God Himself asks no purer or more acceptable array. A seraph
wears nothing but created brightness, but a child of God clothed in Christ wears
uncreated splendour.
4. Armour for defence. The man that lives as Christ would live, is thereby made
impervious to the shafts of the enemy.
5. Raiment for all emergencies. This garment will never wax old; it will last you all
the desert through, and what is more, it is suitable for Canaan, and you shall keep it
on forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Present and future
I. Present state. Let us think how matters stand, and mend our ways.
1. We have time, i.e., season; a particular opportunity for preparation. Time is a
wonderful idea. Compared with eternity it is but a speck in the heavens, a grain of
sand on the shore, and yet it has given birth to creation, and its cycles have brought
wondrous revelations. The battlefield of good and evil is here. Time reached its
majority when the “fulness of time” came. “Millions of money for an inch of time,”
cried Queen Elizabeth on her death-bed. The bid was too low. Like Cassandra, there
was a warning in the voice. The woman in despair of her soul said, “Call back time
again, then there may be a hope for me: but time is gone for ever!” “Take time by the
forelock.”
2. We are too indifferent to the value of time. We turn the day into night by our
inactivity, and we sleep when we ought to work. The night means our indifference to
the illumination of the Word and Spirit. We see darkly through a glass. When the
final day breaks, we shall wonder at the beauties we might have seen before. The boy
who was born blind was cured. Some time after the operation he was led out of the
dark room, and the shade lifted. He exclaimed, “Why didn’t you tell me that the earth
was so beautiful?” When we see Jesus as He is, we shall put some such question.
Sleep indicates inactivity to make our election sure. We are like somnambulists,
walking among great realities without knowing it.
3. Nevertheless there are hopeful signs. Two words are used in contrast to the
above—believed and nearer. There is faith, we have believed in Jesus. By prayer we
have advanced some steps. Columbus and his men smelled the breeze before they
saw the land. We have a good hope through grace.
II. Future expectation. That is “the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
1. Freedom from sin.
2. Beyond care and anxiety. Providence to-day has its dark days, but there perpetual
light. No tears shall be shed, for no sorrow shall be felt.
3. In possession of immortality. Away with carelessness, and let us be earnest—

166. “Work, for the night is coming,” etc. (Weekly Pulpit.)
Preparation for Christ’s coming
I. A solemn responsibility. “Knowing the time.” Ignorance is a cause of sin, and is
sometimes a just excuse for it. A blind man may fall into a pit; a sleeper cannot be
blamed for his sleep. But it is different with these spiritual slumberers. The watchman’s
cry resounds (1Th_5:1-6). Taught from earliest infancy, instructed in schools, with God’s
Word open and preached, what can we urge as an excuse for indifference?
II. A condition of danger. “It is high time to awake out of sleep.” This sleep—
1. Is an infatuation of Satan. He lulls the soul into false security.
2. Comes from the weakness of our nature. Persons in bad health often sleep much.
3. Arises from our own sloth. Like a person sleeping in a house on fire, unless the
deadly charm is broken, we must be consumed.
III. An urgent duty. “To awake out of sleep.” The cry of the gospel trumpet is “Awake!”
As the captain said to Jonah, “What meanest thou, O sleeper?” so the Holy Spirit says to
the sinner. We have here—
1. Life depending on exertion. How many a man has saved his life, home, reputation,
by energy! It is so with eternal life.
2. Exertion depending on self-determination. It is for us to wake, and to do so
demands an effort.
IV. A solemn motive. “Now is our salvation nearer.” This may mean—
1. The advance toward final consummation. Every moment brings us closer to the
approach of judgment—that day which to the believer is the day of salvation. Each
throb of the heart and each beat of the pulse is the requiem of a departed moment.
2. The accumulation of privileges. When the apostle wrote, the good news had
advanced. It was easier to awake and believe. And if religion had advanced in those
early days, what is it now? Surely, salvation is nearer now; it is about us, in our
midst. Will you not awake and enter into the glorious rest of the Son of God? (D.
Thomas, D.D.)
The earthly and the heavenly state of the good
I. There is a vast contrast between the two.
1. Here salvation is in process, there in perfection. “Now is salvation nearer.”
2. Here existence, is night, there day. Life before death is night, suggestive of
imperceptibility. The Christian sees “through a glass darkly” now. His life after death
is “day.” Death opens the eyes on a bright universe.
II. The earthly state is rapidly expiring, the heavenly is about to dawn. “The night is far
spent, the day is at hand.” Whilst this is true, even of the youngest Christian, it is pre-
eminently true of those who are far advanced in life.
III. The expiring of the earthly, and the approach of the heavenly, are powerful

167. argument for spiritual earnestness. “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep.”
1. The work we have to do is most urgent.
(1) The renunciation of all evil. “Cast off the works of darkness.” Ignorance,
crime, etc.
(2) The adoption of all good. “Put on the armour of light” (Eph_6:2-17).
2. The time for accomplishing it is rapidly contracting. Let us awake therefore. The
lost years of your existence, the interests of truth, the value of souls calls on you to
awake. Sleep not on the shore while the mighty billows of eternity are approaching.
(D. Thomas, D.D.)
The need of special exertion
Consider—
1. The time.
2. Its claims.
3. Its duties.
4. Its incitements. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Sleeping Christians
I have lately read in the newspaper—I am sure I do not know whether to believe that it is
true—an account of a youth in France, twenty years of age, who has been lying sleeping
for a fortnight, nourished only upon a little gruel given with a spoon, and that he was in
the same state a year ago for nearly a month. Whether this has actually occurred to
anybody or not, I have known many cases of Christians who have laid like that
spiritually. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The nearness of salvation a motive to vigilance
It is a charge which has been sometimes brought against religion that it cherishes an
indolent spirit, and that the assurance of salvation which it gives tends to make men
careless about further attainments in excellence. Accusations of this nature are easily
repelled by exhibiting the spirit of the gospel, which is a spirit of active goodness, by a
reference to many of its precepts, and by detailing the strenuous efforts of its genuine
disciples to go on to perfection.
I. Let us attend to the view here given of the privilege of good men—“Now is their
salvation nearer than when they believed.”
1. This expression intimates that, in the day of believing, the soul’s connection with
salvation commences. It is at that happy season that a man is brought from a state of
condemnation into a state of acceptance, and that a principle of holiness is
implanted in the soul. Then the man begins that course which terminates in

168. everlasting life. The distance between faith and complete salvation has been in some
instances short. Quickly has the perfection of glory followed the formation of grace,
but in other cases there are many years betwixt them. It belongs to Him to regulate
this who is the Author and the Finisher of faith.
2. It is intimated that at death the believer’s salvation is completed.
3. Christians advanced in life are warranted to conclude that their salvation is very
near. How happily is this consideration adapted to lighten the infirmities of old age!
“Lift up your heads with joy, for your redemption draweth nigh.”
II. Let us attend to the view which is here given of the duty required of them.
1. It intimates that saints sometimes fall into a state of indolence and carelessness.
How cold and stupid are the hearts of saints in such circumstances when they engage
in prayer!
2. The text intimates that Christians ought to rouse themselves up to vigilance and
activity. Meditation, casual and unsettled, must give place to eager and fixed
contemplation; and with the feelings of a heart which regards Jesus Christ as all, we
must follow hard after Him.
3. It intimates that the consideration of our present circumstances will show us the
necessity of exciting ourselves to this vigilance and activity. It was peculiarly
unsuitable in the Romans to slumber, since the gospel of salvation had so lately
arisen on them with healing in its wings. Let it be considered, too, that the present is
a time marked by the peculiar activity of some in the cause of Christ. Can you
slumber while they thus hold forth the Word of life?
III. Let us now consider how you should be excited to this vigilance and activity by the
nearness of your salvation.
1. Here the appeal may be made to your gratitude. Think what God hath done and
what He still intends to do for you.
2. Consider how unsuitable sloth is to the prospects before you. You are soon to
associate with those who serve God day and night in His temple; and shall you now
slumber?
3. Consider how injurious to others your carelessness and sloth may be. If you,
whose age and attainments show that your salvation is so near, slumber, it must
damp the ardour of the young disciple.
4. Consider how detrimental indolence will be to your own interest and happiness. If
you slumber with salvation so near, you will provoke God to awaken you by a shock
dreadful and trying. There is another view which may be taken of this argument
which may add to its influence. As the ship which is within a few hours’ sail of the
haven has sometimes been driven out to sea to struggle for weeks with winds and
waves, till the crew are exhausted with hunger, fear, and toil, so has the indolence of
saints been punished by a prolonged stay in this scene of trouble, instead of having
an entrance ministered to them abundantly into the kingdom of the Saviour.
Conclusion:
1. How happy are they who have obtained precious faith through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!
2. Let saints be exhorted to use every means of excitement to this holy activity.

169. 3. Let the consideration of the nearness of salvation reconcile you to affliction and to
death.
4. Let the young be exhorted to activity in goodness and piety.
5. Finally, how solemn are the lessons suggested by this subject to unconverted men!
Salvation is far from the wicked; and what is most horrible, ye have put it from you,
and judged everlasting life unworthy of your acceptance. (H. Belfrage, D.D.)
Approaching salvation
It is the characteristic and the privilege of man that he lives not only in the present, but
is able to review the past, and anticipate the future. This faculty is connected with his
moral responsibility, and is a sign of his immortal existence. That he very imperfectly
employs it is a painful but unquestionable truth. Our contemplation is directed to—
I. An interesting period in the past—“when we believed.” There are few persons who
must not cherish some interesting remembrances. Some, of course, derive more
excitement from the past than others, but no remembrances can ever possess a charm to
be named with this. He who can look back to when he believed, looks back upon a period
of unparalleled moment and eternal influence. “When you believed.” Think of that event.
1. In the agency by which it was accomplished. Faith did not arise from the
spontaneous influence of your own mind, or from the influence of others. It was the
work of God wrought upon you by the ministry of His gospel, the private admonition
of a friend, the perusal of His Word, or by affliction. But, whatever the
instrumentality, faith is the gift of God.
2. In the influences by which it was attended. Then began feelings to which you were
before strangers: then arose penitence, impelling you to mourn over your vileness:
love, binding you in firm attachment to Him who died for you: hope, irradiating the
otherwise darkened future: holiness, beginning the grand process by which it world
refine every faculty by assimilating them to the Divine likeness. “When you believed,”
old things passing away and all things becoming new.
3. In the privileges to which it introduced you—pardon and reconciliation with God;
righteousness and full acceptance in the Beloved; liberty from the tyranny of sin and
of Satan, adoption into the Divine family, etc.
II. An infinite blessing which is future. “Our salvation” of final reward and happiness.
The apostle here—
1. Assumes that faith has an established connection with salvation. Revelation unites
in one solemn and most conclusive pledge, that having through grace believed, and
being by that grace in that faith preserved, we shall enjoy the delights which are
treasured up in the everlasting kingdom. Faith is the first step in the pilgrimage
which leads to the celestial rest; the first launch in the voyage which wafts to the
celestial haven; the first stroke in the conflict which issues in celestial triumphs.
2. Summons Christians to meditate upon their salvation. As they have been directed
to an exercise of memory, so they are directed to an exercise of anticipation. The
more you commune with the time when you believed, the more also you will
commune with the time when you shall be saved. Turn, then, as from the bud to the
flower, from the root to the tree, from the babe to the man, from the faint outlines to
the finished picture, from the first tremulous notes of the music to the sounding of

170. the full harmony of the spheres, from the streaks of the early dawn to the splendour
of the meridian day. Think of your coming victory over the last enemy, of the flight of
your spirit to paradise, of the resurrection of the body, of your public recognition and
welcome in your perfected nature by the Judge before the assembled universe, of
your enjoyment in that perfected nature of heaven. This is your salvation, and will
you not gladly retire from the vulgar objects of this perishing world, and ascending to
the summit of the Delectable Mountains, look through the clear azure upon the fair
and sublime inheritance which is reserved for you?
3. Urges Christians to recognise their own personal advance towards salvation. Some
amongst you are very near to salvation indeed. Your conversion is far back in the
distance. And as to those to whom the probabilities of prolonged life may seem
strong, how can they tell but that at this very moment they may be on the verge?
With every morning dawn, and evening shadow, there ought to be the renewed
reflection, “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
III. The practical results which a Christian reference to the past and the future must
legitimately secure. There ought to be—
1. The cultivation of Christian holiness. To secure and to advance in holiness was the
apostle’s prominent object. “Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness,” etc. If
there be any who imagine that the prospects indicated may lead to licentiousness, let
them receive their final refutation. Those who are entitled to anticipate salvation
must be holy.
(1) To evince the genuineness and reality of their faith. If faith does not purify, it
is a fiction.
(2) That they may be morally fitted for the world they have finally to inherit.
That world is consecrated to unsullied and universal holiness. Seeing ye look for
such things, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness?
2. The cultivation of Christian activity. “It is high time to awake out of sleep.” The
wakefulness and diligence here summoned has respect not only to our own salvation,
but also to the salvation of others. This must be, that the whole of Christian
character may be developed, and that the whole of Christian duty may be performed.
Earnest activity in this high vocation is urged by the nearness of our own salvation;
and because of the nearness of our own salvation therefore our opportunities for
usefulness are rapidly contracting. For this reason “it is high time to awake out of
sleep.”
3. The cultivation of Christian gratitude. Gratitude does indeed become us when we
consider the value of the blessings which are imparted, or the principle upon which
those blessings are secured and bestowed. (J. Parsons.)
Timely reflections
1. We commonly speak of “salvation” as the state into which the believer in Jesus is
introduced when he passes from death unto life; but here it means eternal glory.
2. Observe the date from which the apostle begins to reckon. He does not say our
salvation is nearer than when we were christened or confirmed, but than when we
believed. What could ever come of what is before believing? It is all death, and not

171. worth reckoning. But then we started on our voyage to heaven.
3. Between these two points we are now sailing; and at the close of the year it seems
meet just to note where we are, and to congratulate my fellow believers that we are
nearer the eternal port that when we first slipped our cable. In going to Australia it is
the custom to toast “Friends behind,” till they get half way; and then it changes,
“Friends ahead.” Note—
I. The things behind.
1. Recollect when you believed. Of all days that on which you first left shore was the
brightest of all; and you know that those who go to dwell on the other side of the
world look back with satisfaction at the day when they left.
2. Since then you have had a good number of storms. You have seen one washed
overboard that you thought very dear. You have yourselves suffered loss; happy were
you if by that you found peace and safety in Christ. You remember, too, when you
had to sail slowly in the thick fog, and keep the whistle sounding. You have been
nearly but not quite wrecked. Above all the billows Jehovah’s power has kept you.
3. You have had a great deal of fair weather, too, since you left port. We have sailed
along with a favouring breeze. Life is not the dreary thing that some men say it is.
4. Behind us, too, how many opportunities of service have we left? Many other ships
sailed with us, and some of these, alas! have been wrecked before our eyes; but we
had opportunities of bringing some of the shipwrecked ones to safety. Did we always
do it?
II. Things ahead.
1. More storms. It is not over yet; but they must be fewer than they were.
2. Fairer winds. Christ will be with us; our communion with Him shall be sweet.
There are these Sabbaths ahead, the outpourings of the Spirit, covenant blessings,
etc. Let us, then, be comforted, and pass on.
3. More opportunities—and you young people especially should be looking out. Do
not let us waste any more.
4. But looking still further ahead, when we remember we are nearer our salvation
think of what that salvation will be. First, we shall see Jesus. Oh, what a heaven to be
with Him! Then, next to Jesus, we shall be with all the bright spirits who have gone
before us. I do not think Rowland Hill was at all foolish when he said to an old
woman upon her dying bed, “As you are going first, take my love to the four great
Johns—John who leaned on Jesus’s bosom, and John Bunyan, and John Calvin, and
John Knox, and tell them poor old Rowly will be coming by and by.” I cannot doubt
but that the message was delivered. Conclusion: There are some of you who are not
nearer your salvation than when you believed; because, first, you never did believe;
and, secondly, that which you are nearer to is not salvation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Cause for spiritual rejoicing
The one reason here urged for spiritual activity and rejoicing is the near approach of the
day of complete redemption to the believer. Under the image of “night,” the apostle
represents the state of partial enlightenment and sanctification, and consequent fear and
conflict with evil. But “the night is far spent, the day is at hand.” “Now,” Paul exclaims, in

172. a transport of joy, “is our salvation nearer than when we believed”—nearer as to time
and space—nearer as it respects completion and reward. Both time and the Spirit’s work
have brought the great consummation nearer. And surely such a fact may well fill us
with rejoicing, and spur us on to redoubled efforts to make our calling and election sure.
I. Salvation is nigh.
1. Actually nigh. “The night is far spent.” Life here is short at best—death is nigh,
heaven but a little way off.
2. Relatively nigh.
(1) “Nearer than when we believed.”
(2) Nearer at the close of each year, each day. Every moment rolls on the
gladsome time!
3. Nearer as to the preparation for it. “ Salvation” is a life, a work, a growth, a
consummation, a progress from first principles to complete and glorious
development and crowning. The Christian is put to school at conversion, and year by
year he grows in grace and love and holiness, till his graduation day. His path is as
“the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
II. What follows?
1. “The night is far spent.”
(1) The night of spiritual conflict.
(2) The night of mystery—seeing things as through a glass darkly—will soon see
as we are seen, and know as we are known.
(3) The night of sin and suffering. The day that is coming will bring absolute
deliverance from evil in every form.
2. “The day is at hand.” Not only will the darkness be gone for ever, but the day of
perfect and eternal sunlight will have come. Not only will there be a deliverance, but
a crowning. The salvation will be a salvation from death to life; from sin to holiness;
from shame to glory, Divine and everlasting.
3. And this salvation is nearer the Christian’s grasp to-day than when he first
believed. Revolving suns bring it continually nearer. Great promises have already
been realised; great victories won; many a rough place passed over and many a weary
footstep measured off; many a Sabbath day’s journey made: and already the
“delectable hills” are in sight; angels are bending over the battlements of heaven to
welcome the approaching pilgrim; and soon the conflict will cease, and glory
immortal—so long contemplated by faith and longed for—will be a blessed
realisation. So near to heaven! So soon to be done with earth and sin and evil and
conflict! So soon to stand with the ransomed on the heights of glory and shout,
“Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
(Homiletic Monthly.)
EBC 11-14, "CHRISTIAN DUTY IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD’S RETURN
AND IN
THE POWER OF HIS PRESENCE
THE great teacher has led us long upon the path of duty, in its patient details, all

173. summed up in the duty and joy of love. We have heard him explaining to his disciples
how to live as members together of the Body of Christ, and as members also of human
society at large, and as citizens of the state. We have been busy latterly with thoughts of
taxes, and tolls, and private debts, and the obligation of scrupulous rightfulness in all
such things. Everything has had relation to the seen and the temporal. The teaching has
not strayed into a land of dreams, nor into a desert and a cell: it has had at least as much
to do with the market, and the shop, and the secular official, as if the writer had been
moralist whose horizon was altogether of this life, and who for the future was "without
hope."
Yet all the while the teacher and the taught were penetrated and vivified by a certainty of
the future perfectly supernatural, and commanding the wonder and glad response of
their whole being. They carried about with them the promise of their Risen Master that
He would personally return again in heavenly glory, to their infinite joy, gathering them
forever around Him in immortality, bringing heaven with Him, and transfiguring them
into His own celestial Image.
Across all possible complications and obstacles of the human world around them they
beheld "that blissful hope". (Tit_2:13) The smoke of Rome could not becloud it, nor her
noise drown the music of its promise, nor her splendour of possessions make its golden
vista less beautiful and less entrancing to their souls. Their Lord, once crucified, but now
alive for evermore, was greater than the world; greater in His calm triumphant authority
over man and nature, greater in the wonder and joy of Himself, His Person and His
Salvation. It was enough that He had said He would come again, and that it would be to
their eternal happiness. He had promised; therefore it would surely be.
How the promise would take place, and when, was a secondary question. Some things
were revealed and certain, as to the manner; "This same Jesus, in like manner as ye saw
Him going into heaven". (Act_1:11) But vastly more was unrevealed and even
unconjectured. As to the time, His words had left them, as they still leave us, suspended
in a reverent sense of mystery, between intimations which seem almost equally to
promise both speed and delay. "Watch therefore, for ye know not when the Master of the
house cometh"; (Mar_13:35) "After a long time the Lord of the servants cometh, and
reckoneth with them". (Mat_25:19) The Apostle himself follows his Redeemer’s example
in the matter. Here and there he seems to indicate an Advent at the doors, as when he
speaks of "us who are alive and remain". (1Th_4:15) But again, in this very Epistle, in his
discourse on the future of Israel, he appears to contemplate great developments of time
and event yet to come; and very definitely, for his own part, in many places, he records
his expectation of death, not of a deathless transfiguration at the Coming. Many at least
among his converts looked with an eagerness which was sometimes restless and
unwholesome, as at Thessalonica, for the coming King, and it may have been thus with
some of the Roman saints. But St. Paul at once warned the Thessalonians of their
mistake; and certainly this Epistle suggests no such upheaval of expectation at Rome.
Our work in these pages is not to discuss "the times and the seasons" which now, as
much as then, lie in the Father’s "power". (Act_1:7) It is rather to call attention to the
fact that in all ages of the Church this mysterious but definite Promise has, with a silent
force, made itself as it were present and contemporary to the believing and watching
soul. How at last it shall be seen that "I come quickly," and "The day of Christ is not at
(Rev_22:12; Rev_22:20, 2Th_2:2) were both divinely and harmoniously truthful, it does
not yet fully appear." But it is certain that both are so; and that in every generation of the
now "long time the Hope," as if it were at the doors indeed, has been calculated for
mighty effects on the Christian’s will and work.

174. So we come to this great Advent oracle, to read it for our own age. Now first let us
remember its wonderful illustration of that phenomenon which we have remarked
already, the concurrence in Christianity of a faith full of eternity, with a life full of
common duty. Here is a community of men called to live under an almost opened
heaven; almost to see, as they look around them, the descending Lord of glory coming to
bring in the eternal day, making Himself present in this visible scene "with the voice of
the archangel and the trump of God," waking His buried saints from the dust, calling the
living and the risen to meet Him in the air. How can they adjust such an expectation to
the demands of "the daily round"? Will they not fly from the City to the solitude, to the
hilltops and forests of the Apennines, to wait with awful joy the great lightning flash of
glory? Not so. They somehow, while "looking for the Saviour from the heavens," (Php_
3:20) attend to their service and their business, pay their debts and their taxes, offer
sympathy to their neighbours in their human sadnesses and joys, and yield honest
loyalty to the magistrate and the Prince. They are the most stable of all elements in the
civic life of the hour, if "the powers that be" would but understand them; while yet, all
the while, they are the only people in the City whose home, consciously, is the eternal
heavens. What can explain the paradox? Nothing but the Fact, the Person, the Character
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not an enthusiasm, however powerful, which governs
them, but a Person. And He is at once the Lord of immortality and the Ruler of every
detail of His servant’s life. He is no author of fanaticism, but the divine-human King of
truth and order. To know Him is to find the secret alike of a life eternal and of a patient
faithfulness in the life that now is.
What was true of Him is true for evermore. His servant now, in this restless close of the
nineteenth age, is to find in Him this wonderful double secret still. He is to be, in Christ,
by the very nature of his faith, the most practical and the most willing of the servants’ of
his fellow men, in their mortal as well as immortal interests; while also disengaged
internally from a bondage to the seen and temporal by his mysterious union with the
Son of God, and by his firm expectation of His Return. And this, this law of love and
duty, let us remember, let us follow, knowing the season, the occasion, the growing
crisis; that it is already the hour for our awaking out of sleep, the sleep of moral
inattention, as if the eternal Master were not near. For nearer now is our salvation, in
that last glorious sense of the word "salvation" which means the immortal issue of the
whole saving process, nearer now than when we believed, and so by faith entered on our
union with the Saviour. (See how he delights to associate himself with his disciples in the
blessed unity of remembered conversion; "when we believed.") The night, with its murky
silence, its "poring dark," the night of trial, of temptation, of the absence of our Christ, is
far spent, but the day has drawn near; it has been a long night, but that means a near
dawn; the everlasting sunrise of the longed for Parousia, with its glory, gladness, and
unveiling. Let us put off, therefore, as if they were a foul and entangling night robe, the
works of the darkness, the habits and acts of the moral night, things which we can throw
off in the Name of Christ; but let us put on the weapons of the light, arming ourselves,
for defence, and for holy aggression on the realm of evil, with faith, love, and the
heavenly hope. So to the Thessalonians five years before, (1Th_5:8) and to the
Ephesians four years later, (Eph_6:11-17) he wrote of the holy Panoply, rapidly
sketching it in the one place, giving the rich finished picture in the other; suggesting to
the saints always the thought of a warfare first and mainly defensive, and then aggressive
with the drawn sword, and indicating as their true armour not their reason, their
emotions, or their will, taken in themselves, but the eternal facts of their revealed
salvation in Christ, grasped and used by faith. As by day, for it is already dawn, in the
Lord, let us walk decorously, becomingly, as we are the hallowed soldiers of our Leader;

175. let our life not only be right in fact; let it show to all men the open "decorum" of truth,
purity, peace, and love; not in revels and drunken bouts; not in chamberings, the sins of
the secret couch, and profligacies, not-to name evils which cling often to the otherwise
reputable Christian-in strife and envy, things which are pollutions, in the sight of the
Holy One, as real as lust itself. No; put on, clothe and arm yourselves with, the Lord
Jesus Christ, Himself the living sum and true meaning of all that can arm the soul; and
for the flesh take no forethought lust-ward. As if, in euphemism, he would say, "Take all
possible forethought against the life of self (σάρξ), with its lustful, self-willed gravitation
away from God. And let that forethought be, to arm yourselves, as if never armed before,
with Christ."
How solemnly explicit he is, how plainspoken, about the temptations of the Roman
Christian’s life! The men who were capable of the appeals and revelations of the first
eight chapters yet needed to be told not to drink to intoxication, not to go near the house
of ill fame, not to quarrel, not to grudge. But every modern missionary in heathendom
will tell us that the like stern plainness is needed now among the new-converted faithful.
And is it not needed among those who have professed the Pauline faith much longer, in
the congregations of our older Christendom?
It remains for our time, as truly as ever, a fact of religious life-this necessity to press it
home upon the religious, as the religious, that they are called to a practical and detailed
holiness; and that they are never to ignore the possibility of even the worst falls. So
mysteriously can the subtle "flesh," in the believing receiver of the Gospel, becloud or
distort the holy import of the thing received. So fatally easy it is "to corrupt the best into
the worst," using the very depth and richness of spiritual truth as if it could be a
substitute for patient practice, instead of its mighty stimulus.
But glorious is the method illustrated here for triumphant resistance to that tendency.
What is it? It is not to retreat from spiritual principle upon a cold naturalistic
programme of activity and probity. It is to penetrate through the spiritual principle to
the Crucified and Living Lord who is its heart and power; it is to bury self in Him, and to
arm the will with Him. It is to look for Him as Coming, but also, and yet more urgently,
to use Him as Present. In the great Roman Epic, on the verge of the decisive conflict, the
goddess-mother laid the invulnerable panoply at the feet of her Aeneas; and the
astonished Champion straightway, first pondering every part of the heaven-sent
armament, then "put it on," and was prepared. As it were at our feet is laid the Lord
Jesus Christ, in all He is, in all He has done, in His indissoluble union with us in it all, as
we are one with Him by the Holy Ghost. It is for us to see in Him our power and victory,
and to "put Him on," in a personal act which, while all by grace, is yet in itself our own.
And how is this done? It is by the "committal of the keeping of our souls unto Him,"
(1Pe_4:19) not vaguely, but definitely and with purpose, in view of each and every
temptation. It is by "living our fife in the flesh by faith in the Son of God"; (Gal_2:20)
that is to say, in effect, by perpetually making use of the Crucified and Living Saviour,
One with us by the Holy Spirit, by using Him as our living Deliverer, our Peace and
Power, amidst all that the dark hosts of evil can do against us.
Oh, wonderful and all-adequate secret; "Christ, which is the Secret of God!" (Col_2:2)
Oh, divine simplicity of its depth.
"Heaven’s easy, artless, unencumber’d plan"!
Not that its "ease" means our indolence. No; if we would indeed "arm ourselves with the
Lord Jesus Christ" we must awake and be astir to "know whom we have trusted". (2Ti_
1:12) We must explore His Word about Himself. We must ponder it, above all, in the

176. prayer which converses with Him over His promises, till they live to us in His light. We
must watch and pray, that we may be alert to employ our armament. The Christian who
steps out into life "light heartedly," thinking superficially of his weakness, and of his
foes, is only too likely also to think of his Lord superficially, and to find of even this
heavenly armour that "he cannot go with it, for he hath not proved it". (1Sa_17:39) But
all this leaves absolutely untouched the divine simplicity of the matter. It leaves it
wonderfully true that the decisive, the satisfying, the thorough, moral victory and
deliverance comes to the Christian man not by trampling about with his own resolves,
but by committing himself to his Saviour and Keeper, who has conquered him, that now
He may conquer "his strong Enemy" for him.
"Heaven’s unencumbered plan" of "victory and triumph, against the devil, the world,
and the flesh," is no daydream of romance. It lives, it works in the most open hour of the
common world of sin and sorrow. We have seen this "putting on of the Lord Jesus
Christ" victoriously successful where the most fierce, or the most subtle, forms of
temptation were to be dealt with. We have seen it preserving, with beautiful persistency,
a lifelong sufferer from the terrible solicitations of pain, and of still less endurable
helplessness - every limb fixed literally immovable by paralysis on the ill-furnished bed;
we have seen the man cheerful, restful, always ready for wise word and sympathetic
thought, and affirming that his Lord, present to his soul, was infinitely enough to "keep
him." We have seen the overwhelmed toiler for God, while every step through the day
was clogged by "thronging duties," such duties as most wear and drain the spirit, yet
maintained in an equable cheerfulness and as it were inward leisure by this same always
adequate secret, "the Lord Jesus Christ put on." We have known the missionary who
had, in sober earnest, hazarded his life for the blessed Name, yet ready to bear quiet
witness to the repose and readiness to be found in meeting disappointment, solitude,
danger, not so much by a stern resistance as by the use, then and there, confidingly, and
in surrender, of the Crucified and Living Lord. Shall we dare to add with the humiliating
avowal that only a too partial proof has been made of this glorious open Secret, that we
know by experiment that the weakest of the servants of our King, "putting on Him," find
victory and deliverance, where there was defeat before?
Let us, writer and reader, address ourselves afresh in practice to this wonderful secret.
Let us, as if we had never done it before, "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Vain is our
interpretation of the holy Word, which not only "abideth, but liveth forever," (1Pe_1:23)
if it does not somehow come home. For that Word was written on purpose to come
home; to touch and move the conscience and the will, in the realities of our inmost, and
also of our most outward, life. Never for one moment do we stand as merely interested
students and spectators, outside the field of temptation. Never for one moment therefore
can we dispense with the great Secret of victory and safety.
Full in face of the realities of sin-of Roman sin, in Nero’s days; but let us just now forget
Rome and Nero; they were only dark accidents of a darker essence-St. Paul here writes
down, across them all, these words, this spell, this Name; "Put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ." Take first a steady look, he seems to say, at your sore need, in the light of God;
but then, at once, look off, look here. Here is the more than Antithesis to it all. Here is
that by which you can be "more than conqueror." Take your iniquities at the worst; this
can subdue them. Take your surroundings at the worst; this car, emancipate you from
their power. It is "the Lord Jesus Christ," and the "putting on" of Him.
Let us remember, as if it were a new thing, that He, the Christ of Prophets, Evangelists,
and Apostles, is a Fact. Sure as the existence now of His universal Church, as the
observance of the historic Sacrament of His Death, as the impossibility of Galilean or

177. Pharisaic imagination having composed, instead of photographed, the portrait of the
Incarnate Son, the Immaculate Lamb; sure as is the glad verification in ten thousand
blessed lives today of all, of all, that the Christ of Scripture undertakes to be to the soul
that will take Him at His. own terms-so sure, across all oldest and all newest doubts,
across all gnosis and all agnosia, lies the present Fact of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then let us remember that it is a fact that man, in the mercy of God, can "put Him on."
He is not far off. He presents Himself to our touch, our possession. He says to us, "Come
to Me." He unveils Himself as literal partaker of our nature; as our Sacrifice; our
Righteousness, "through faith in His blood"; as the Head and Lifespring, in an
indescribable union, of a deep calm tide of life spiritual and eternal, ready to circulate
through our being. He invites Himself to "make His abode with us"; (Joh_14:23) yea,
more, "I will come in to him; I will dwell in his heart by faith." (Rev_3:20, Eph_3:17) In
that ungovernable heart of ours, that interminably self-deceptive: heart, (Jer_17:9) He
engages to reside, to be permanent Occupant, the Master always at home. He is prepared
thus to take, with regard to our will, a place of power nearer than all circumstances, and
deep in the midst of all possible inward traitors; to keep His eye on their plots, His foot,
not ours, upon their necks. Yes, He invites us thus to embrace Him into a full contact; to
"put Him on."
May we not say of Him what the great Poet says of Duty, and glorify the verse by a yet
nobler application?-
"Thou who art victory and law When empty terrors overawe, From vain temptations dost
set free, And calm’st the weary strife of frail humanity!"
Yes, we can "put Him on" as our "Panoply of Light." We can put Him on as "the Lord,"
surrendering ourselves to His absolute while most benignant sovereignty and will, deep
secret of repose. We can put Him on as "Jesus," clasping the truth that He, our Human
Brother, yet Divine, "saves His people from their sins". (Mat_1:21) We can put Him, on
as "Christ," our Head, anointed without measure by the Eternal Spirit, and now sending
of that same Spirit into His happy members, so that we are indeed one with Him, and
receive into our whole being the resources of His life.
Such are the armour and the arms. St. Jerome, commenting on a kindred passage,
(Eph_6:13) says that "it most clearly results that by ‘the weapons of God’ the Lord our
Saviour is to be understood."
We may recollect that this text is memorable in connection with the Conversion of St.
Augustine. In his "Confessions" (8:12) he records how, in the garden at Milan, at a time
of great moral conflict, he was strangely attracted by a voice, perhaps the cry of children
playing: "Take and read, take and read." He fetched and opened again a copy of the
Epistles ("codicem Apostoli"), which he had lately laid down. "I read in silence the first
place on which my eyes fell; ‘Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and
wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh in its lusts.’ I neither cared, nor needed, to read further. At the
close of the sentence, as if a ray of certainty were poured into my heart, the clouds of
hesitation fled at once." His will was in the will of God.
Alas, there falls one shadow over that fair scene. In the belief of Augustine’s time, to
decide fully for Christ meant, or very nearly meant, so to accept the ascetic idea as to
renounce the Christian home. But the Lord read His servant’s heart aright through the
error, and filled it with His peace. To us, in a surrounding religious light far clearer, in
many things, than that which shone even upon Ambrose and Augustine; to us who quite
recognise that in the paths of homeliest duty and commonest temptation lies the line

178. along which the blessed power of the Saviour may best overshadow His disciple; the
Spirit’s voice shall say of this same text "Take and read, take and read." We will "put on,"
never to put off. Then we shall step out upon the old path in a strength new, and to be
renewed forever, armed against evil, armed for the will of God, with Jesus Christ our
Lord.
12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.
So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put
on the armor of light.
BAR ES, "The night - The word “night,” in the New Testament, is used to denote
“night” literally (Mat_2:14, etc.); the starry heavens Rev_8:12; and then it denotes a
state of “ignorance” and “crime,” and is synonymous with the word “darkness,” as such
deeds are committed commonly in the night; 1Th_5:5. In this place it seems to denote
our present imperfect and obscure condition in this world as contrasted with the pure
light of heaven The “night,” the time of comparative obscurity and sin in which we live
even under the gospel, is far gone in relation to us, and the pure splendors of heaven are
at hand,
Is far spent - Literally, “is cut off.” It is becoming “short;” it is hastening to a close.
The day - The full splendors and glory of redemption in heaven. Heaven is often thus
represented as a place of pure and splendid day; Rev_21:23, Rev_21:25; Rev_22:5. The
times of the “gospel” are represented as times of “light” (Isa_60:1-2; Isa_60:19-20, etc.);
but the reference here seems to be rather to the still brighter glory and splendor of
heaven, as the place of pure, unclouded, and eternal day.
Is at hand - Is near; or is drawing near. This is true respecting all Christians. The day
is near, or the time when they shall be admitted to heaven is not remote. This is the
uniform representation of the New Testament; Heb_10:25; 1Pe_4:7; Jam_5:8; Rev_
22:10; 1Th_5:2-6; Phi_4:5. That the apostle did not mean, however, that the end of the
world was near, or that the day of judgment would come soon, is clear from his own
explanations; see 1Th_5:2-6; compare 2 Thes. 2.
Let us therefore - As we are about to enter on the glories of that eternal day, we
should be pure and holy. The “expectation” of it will teach us to “seek” purity; and a pure
life alone will fit us to enter there; Heb_12:14.
Cast off - Lay aside, or put away.
The works of darkness - Dark, wicked deeds, such as are specified in the next
verse. They are called “works of darkness,” because darkness in the Scriptures is an
emblem of crime, as well as of ignorance, and because such deeds are commonly
committed in the night; 1Th_5:7, “They that be drunken, are drunken in the night;”

179. compare Joh_3:20; Eph_5:11-13.
Let us put on - Let us clothe ourselves with.
The armour of light - The word “armor” ᆋπλα hopla properly means “arms,” or
instruments of war, including the helmet, sword, shield, etc. Eph_6:11-17. It is used in
the New Testament to denote the “aids” which the Christian has, or the “means of
defense” in his warfare, where he is represented as a soldier contending with his foes,
and includes truth, righteousness, faith, hope, etc. as the instruments by which he is to
gain his victories. In 2Co_6:7, it is called “the armor of righteousness on the right hand
and on the left.” It is called armor of light, because it is not to accomplish any deeds of
darkness or of crime; it is appropriate to one who is pure, and who is seeking a pure and
noble object. Christians are represented as the “children of light;” 1Th_5:5; Note, Luk_
16:8. By the armor of light, therefore, the apostle means those graces which stand
opposed to the deeds of darkness Rom_13:13; those graces of faith, hope, humility, etc.
which shall be appropriate to those who are the children of the day, and which shall be
their defense in their struggles with their spiritual foes. see the description in full in
Eph_4:11-17.
CLARKE, "The night is far spent - If we understand this in reference to the heathen
state of the Romans, it may be paraphrased thus: The night is far spent - heathenish
darkness is nearly at an end. The day is at hand - the full manifestation of the Sun of
righteousness, in the illumination of the whole Gentile world approaches rapidly. The
manifestation of the Messiah is regularly termed by the ancient Jews ‫יום‬ yom, day,
because previously to this all is night, Bereshith rabba sect. 91, fol. 89. Cast off the works
of darkness - prepare to meet this rising light, and welcome its approach, by throwing
aside superstition, impiety, and vice of every kind: and put on the armor of light - fully
receive the heavenly teaching, by which your spirits will be as completely armed against
the attacks of evil as your bodies could be by the best weapons and impenetrable armor.
This sense seems most suitable to the following verses, where the vices of the Gentiles
are particularly specified; and they are exhorted to abandon them, and to receive the
Gospel of Christ. The common method of explanation is this: The night is far spent - our
present imperfect life, full of afflictions, temptations, and trials, is almost run out; the
day of eternal blessedness is at hand - is about to dawn on us in our glorious resurrection
unto eternal life. ‘Therefore, let us cast off - let us live as candidates for this eternal glory.
But this sense cannot at all comport with what is said below, as the Gentiles are most
evidently intended.
GILL, "The night is far spent,.... Not of Jewish darkness, which was gone, and was
succeeded by the Gospel day; nor of former ignorance in Gentilism and unregeneracy,
for that was past, and the true light shined; much less of security in the latter day, which
was not yet come on; rather of persecution and distress for Christ's sake; but it is best of
all to understand it of the present time of life; so it is called by the Jews (g), ‫דומה‬ ‫הזה‬ ‫העולם‬
‫,ללילה‬ "this world is like to the night": and which, in the best of saints, is attended with

180. imperfection and darkness, errors and mistakes, in principle and practice, in doctrine
and conversation; however, it is far spent, and in a little time will be over:
the day is at hand; not the Gospel day, for that was already come; nor the day of grace,
and spiritual light and comfort to their souls, for that also had taken place; nor the latter
day glory, which then was at a distance; rather the approaching day of deliverance from
present persecutions; but it is much better to understand it of the everlasting day of
glory, which to particular persons was then, and now is at hand; a little while, and the
night of darkness, affliction, and disconsolation will be over, and the day of glory will
succeed, when there will be no more night, no more darkness, no more doubts, fears,
and unbelief; but one continued series of light, joy, and comfort, and an uninterrupted
communion with Father, Son, and Spirit; and which is another reason why the saints
should not indulge themselves in sleep, but be active, since the halcyon days are at hand,
as well as a reason why they should attend to the following exhortations:
let us therefore cast off the works of darkness; as the apostle had made use of the
metaphors of night and day, and of sleep, and awaking out of sleep, and rising in the
morning to business, so he continues the same; and here alludes to persons throwing off
their bed clothes, and covering of the night, and putting on proper raiment for the day.
By "works of darkness" are meant evil works, which are opposite to the light; to God,
who is light itself; to Christ, the light of the world; to the word of God, both law and
Gospel, which is a light to our paths; to both the light of nature, and the light of grace:
and which spring from the darkness of the mind, and are encouraged to by the god of
this world, and by his angels, the rulers of the darkness of it; and which are generally
done in the dark, and are such as will not bear the light; and, if grace prevent not, will
end in outer darkness, in blackness of darkness, reserved by the justice of God, as the
punishment of them. "Casting them off" expresses a dislike of them, a displicency with
them, and an abstinence from them. Some copies read, "the armour of darkness", which
agrees with what follows:
and let us put on the armour of light; the whole armour of God, the use of which
lies in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty; particularly good works are designed
here, which though they are not the believer's clothing, his robe of justifying
righteousness, they are both his ornament and his armour; by which he adorns the
doctrine of Christ, and defends his own character and principles against the charges find
calumnies of then: these being performed aright, spring from the light of grace in a
regenerate man, and are such as will bear the light to be seen of men; and are the lights
which are to shine before men, that they beholding them, may glorify God; so virtue was
by Antisthenes (h), called αναφαιρετον οπλον, "armour which cannot be taken away": the
allusion is thought to be to the bright and glittering armour of the Romans; the
Alexandrian copy reads, "the words of light".
JAMISO , "The night — of evil
is far spent, the day — of consummated triumph over it
is at hand: let us therefore cast off — as a dress
the works of darkness — all works holding of the kingdom and period of darkness,
with which, as followers of the risen Savior, our connection has been dissolved.
and let us put on the armour of light — described at length in Eph_6:11-18.

181. COFFMA , "The night is far sent, and the day is at hand: let us cast off the works
of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Paul's imagery here still refers to sleepers waiting too long to rouse out of slumber.
They were such as had slept long past the normal time of awakening. It was not
merely dawn, but daylight had fully burst upon them. This metaphor applied with
specific force to the lifting of the long night of pagan darkness which had wrapped
the world in Woe. Paul was saying that darkness was lifted a generation ago; the
glorious daylight of the gospel is already shining. There are Christians, of all places,
in Rome itself! The old sins and debaucheries of the pagan darkness must be cast
off. The armor of light was available for all who would receive and wear it. That
such was actually Paul's meaning here is evident from a comparison with Ephesians
5:14, QUOTED under Romans 13:11, above, where "Christ will shine upon you,"
does not mean at the judgment, but right now! Thus, "day" in this passage, having
reference to the same time, means "at the present time, in the gospel age."
The armour of light ... is one of Paul's favorite metaphors for the gospel of Jesus
Christ, which he called the "whole armour" in Ephesians 6:13-17). In that
exceptional passage, Paul made the "whole armour" to be the truth, or the gospel of
salvation. Even in the piece-by-piece consideration of the armor, their intimate
connection with and identity with the word of God is evident.
CALVI , "12.The night has advanced, and the day, etc. This is the season which he
had just mentioned; for as the faithful are not as yet received into full light, he very
fitly compares to the dawn the knowledge of future life, which shines on us through
the gospel: for day is not put here, as in other places, for the light of faith,
(otherwise he could not have said that it was only approaching, but that it was
present, for it now shines as it were in the middle of its progress,) but for that
glorious brightness of the celestial life, the beginnings of which are now seen
through the gospel.
The sum of what he says is, — that as soon as God BEGI S to call us, we ought to
do the same, as when we conclude from the first dawn of the day that the full sun is
at hand; we ought to look forward to the coming of Christ.
He says that the night had advanced, because we are not so overwhelmed with thick
darkness as the unbelieving are, to whom no spark of life appears; but the hope of
resurrection is placed by the gospel before our eyes; yea, the light of faith, by which
we discover that the full brightness of celestial glory is nigh at hand, ought to
stimulate us, so that we may not grow torpid on the earth. But afterwards, when he

182. bids us to walk in the light, as it were during the day time, he does not CO TI UE
the same metaphor; for he compares to the day our present state, while Christ
shines on us. His purpose was in various ways to exhort us, — at one time to
meditate on our future life; at another, to contemplate the present favor of God.
HODGE,"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast of the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. The general sentiment of
this verse is very obvious. ight or darkness is the common emblem of sin and
sorrow; day or light, that of knowledge, purity, and happiness. The meaning of the
first clause therefore is, that the time of sin and sorrow is nearly over, that of
holiness and happiness is at hand. The particular form and application of this
general sentiment depends, however, on the interpretation given to the preceding
verse. If that verse refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, then Paul means to say,
that the night of persecution was nearly gone, and the day of peace and
PROSPERITY to the Gentile churches was at hand. But if Romans 13:11 refers to
final salvation, then this verse means, that the sins and sorrows of this life will soon
be over, and the day of eternal blessedness is about to dawn. The latter view is to be
preferred.
Paul CO TI UES this beautiful figure through the verse. Therefore let us cast off
the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. That is, let us renounce
those things which need to be concealed, and clothe ourselves with those which are
suited to the light. The works of darkness are those works which men are
accustomed to commit in the dark, or which suit the dark; and armor of light means
those virtues and good deeds which men are not ashamed of, because they will bear
to be seen. Paul probably used the word ( ὅπλα) armor, instead of works, because
these virtues constitute the offensive and defensive weapons with which we are here
to contend against sin and evil; see Ephesians 6:11. The words ἀποτίθεσθαι and
ἐνδύεσθαι suggest the idea of clothing. We are to cast off one set of garments and to
put on another. The clothes which belong to the night are to be cast aside, and we
are to array ourselves in those suited to the day.
13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in
orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality
and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
BAR ES, "Let us walk - To “walk” is an expression denoting “to live;” let us “live,”
or “conduct,” etc.
Honestly - The word used here means rather in a “decent’ or “becoming” manner; in
a manner “appropriate” to those who are the children of light.
As in the day - As if all our actions were seen and known. People by day, or in open

183. light, live decently; their foul and wicked deeds are done in the night. The apostle
exhorts Christians to live as if all their conduct were seen, and they had nothing which
they wished to conceal.
In rioting - Revelling; denoting the licentious conduct, the noisy and obstreperous
mirth, the scenes of disorder and sensuality, which attend luxurious living.
Drunkenness - Rioting and drunkenness constitute the “first” class of sins from
which he would keep them. It is scarcely necessary to add that these were common
crimes among the pagan.
In chambering - “Lewd, immodest behavior.” (Webster.) The Greek word includes
illicit indulgences of all kinds, adultery, etc. The words chambering and wantonness
constitute the “second” class of crimes from which the apostle exhorts Christians to
abstain. That these were common crimes among the pagan, it is not necessary to say; see
the Rom. 1 notes; also Eph_5:12 note. It is not possible, nor would it be proper, to
describe the scenes of licentious indulgence of which all pagans are guilty. Since
Christians were to be a special people, therefore the apostle enjoins on them purity and
holiness of life.
Not in strife - Strife and envying are the “third” class of sins from which the apostle
exhorts them. The word “strife” means “contention, disputes, litigations.” The
exhortation is that they should live in peace.
Envying - Greek, Zeal. It denotes any intense, vehement, “fervid” passion. It is not
improperly rendered here by envying. These vices are properly introduced in connection
with the others. They usually accompany each other. Quarrels and contentions come out
of scenes of drunkenness and debauchery. But for such scenes, there would be little
contention, and the world would be comparatively at peace.
CLARKE, "Let us walk honestly, as in the day - Let us walk, ευσχηµονες, decently,
from εν, well, and σχηµα, mien, habit, or dress. Let our deportment be decent, orderly,
and grave; such as we shall not be ashamed of in the eyes of the whole world.
Not in rioting, and drunkenness - Μη κωµοις και µεθαις· Κωµος, rioting, according
to Hesychius, signifies ασελγη ᇮσµατα, πορνικα συµποσια, ሩδαι, unclean and dissolute
songs, banquets, and such like. Μεθαις signifies drunken festivals, such as were
celebrated in honor of their gods, when after they had sacrificed (µετα το θυειν, Suidas)
they drank to excess, accompanied with abominable acts of every kind. See Suidas and
Hesychius, under this word.
Not in chambering - This is no legitimate word, and conveys no sense till, from its
connection in this place, we force a meaning upon it. The original word, κοιταις, signifies
whoredoms and prostitution of every kind.
And wantonness - Ασελγειαις, All manner of uncleanness and sodomitical practices.
Not in strife and envying - Μη εριδι και ζηλሩ, Not in contentions and furious
altercations, which must be the consequence of such practices as are mentioned above.

184. Can any man suppose that this address is to the Christians at Rome? That they are
charged with practices almost peculiar to the heathens? And practices of the most
abandoned and dissolute sort? If those called Christians at Rome were guilty of such
acts, there could be no difference except in profession, between them and the most
abominable of the heathens. But it is impossible that such things should be spoken to
the followers of Christ; for the very grace that brings repentance enables the penitent to
cast aside and abominate all such vicious and abominable conduct.
The advices to the Christians may be found in the preceding chapter; those at the
conclusion of this chapter belong solely to the heathens.
GILL, "Let us walk honestly as in the day,.... Being under the day of the Gospel
dispensation, and the day of grace having dawned, and the daystar of spiritual light and
knowledge being risen in our hearts, and we being exposed to the view of all men in
broad daylight, ought not to lie down and sleep, but to arise and be active, and walk
decently with the armour of light on us, as becomes the Gospel of Christ; not naked and
unclothed, which would expose us and the Gospel to shame and contempt:
not in rioting; the Syriac and Arabic versions read, "in singing", or "songs"; meaning
lewd ones, sung at riotous feasts and banquets, made not for refreshment, but for
pleasure and debauchery, what the Romans (i) call "comessations"; feasts after supper in
the night season, and design all sorts of nocturnal revels: "Comus", the word here used,
is with the Heathens the god of feasts, perhaps the same with "Chemosh", the god of the
Moabites, 1Ki_11:33.
And drunkenness; which always attended such unseasonable and immoderate
festivals:
not in chambering; in unlawful copulations, fornication, adultery, and all the
defilements of the bed:
and wantonness; lasciviousness, unnatural lusts, as sodomy, &c.
not in strife and envying; contention and quarrels, which are usually the
consequences of luxury and uncleanness.
JAMISO , "Let us walk honestly — “becomingly,” “seemingly”
as in the day — “Men choose the night for their revels, but our night is past, for we
are all the children of the light and of the day (1Th_5:5): let us therefore only do what is
fit to be exposed to the light of such a day.”
not in rioting and drunkenness — varied forms of intemperance; denoting revels
in general, usually ending in intoxication.
not in chambering and wantonness — varied forms of impurity; the one pointing
to definite acts, the other more general.
not in strife and envying — varied forms of that venomous feeling between man
and man which reverses the law of love.

185. HODGE, "Let us walk honestly as in the day: not in rioting and darkenness; not in
chambering and wantonness; not in strife and envying. This verse is an amplification of
the preceding, stating some of those works of darkness which we are to put off; as
Romans 13:14 states what is the armor of light which we are to put on. The word (
ευσχηµόνως) rendered honestly, means becomingly, properly. There are three classes of
sins specified in this verse, to each of which two words are appropriated, viz.,
intemperance, impurity, and discord. Rioting and drunkenness belong to the first. The
word ( κωµος) appropriately rendered rioting, is used both in reference to the disorderly
religious festivals kept in honor of Bacchus, and to the common boisterous carousing of
intemperate young men, (see Passow, Vol. 1, p. 924.)‹72› The words chambering and
wantonness, include all kinds of uncleanness; and strife and envying, all kinds of unholy
emulation and discord.
COFFMA , "Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in reveling and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.
Becomingly, as in the day ... suggests the beauty and adornment of Christian
behavior, which is of a kind not to be ashamed of in broad open daylight,
contrasting sharply with the Gentile debaucheries usually committed at night, and
therefore called the works of darkness (Romans 13:12). Deeds that are becoming to
Christians are those of virtue, integrity, faithfulness, purity, and love. It was
becoming of Christ to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). Even the discussion of
gross sins was forbidden to Christians upon the ground that such guarding of the
conversation "becometh saints" (Ephesians 5:3). A further glimpse of the meaning
of "becometh" is seen in the word chosen to replace it in the various translations.
"Worthy of" (Philippians 1:27) and "befitting" (Titus 2:1) are two examples.
Revelling and drunkenness ... refers to riotous and boisterous conduct, such as
undisciplined behavior that follows indulgence in alcoholic beverages. Anyone
familiar with this type of behavior will testify to its obscene, profane, and repulsive
nature.
Chambering and wantonness ... as retained in the English Revised Version from the
KJV, mean "debauchery and licentiousness" (RSV), or "debauchery and vice"
( ew English Bible).
Strife and jealousy ... refer to the animosities of men inflamed with liquor, sated
with vice, and living the lives of debauchees. To say that such conduct does not
become Christians must have been intended by the apostle as a meiosis, an
understatement for the sake of emphasis.
CALVI , "13. ot in reveling, etc. He mentions here three kinds of vices, and to
each he has given two names, — intemperant and excess in living, — carnal lust and
uncleanness, which is connected with it, — and envy and contention. If these have in

186. them so much filthiness, that even carnal men are ashamed to commit them before
the eyes of men, it behooves us, who are in the light of God, at all times to abstain
from them; yea, even when we are withdrawn from the presence of men. As to the
third vice, though contention is put before envying, there is yet. no doubt but that
Paul intended to remind us, that strifes and contests arise from this fountain; for
when any one seeks to excel, there is envying of one another; but ambition is the
source of both evils. (411)
(411) The case is the same with the two preceding instances; the vice which seems to
follow is placed first. Revelling is first mentioned, though drunkenness goes before
it; and “” or concubinage, or indulgence in unlawful lusts is first stated, though
lasciviousness or wantonness is the source from which it proceeds. It is an example
of the Apostle’ mode of writing similar to what we find in Rom_11:29, as to “ gifts
and calling of God,” and in Rom_11:33, as to “ wisdom and knowledge of God.” —
Ed.
14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the
desires of the sinful nature.[c]
BAR ES, But put ye on - Compare Gal_3:17. The word rendered “put ye on” is the
same used in Rom_13:12, and is commonly employed in reference to “clothing” or
“apparel.” The phrase to “put on” a person, which seems a harsh expression in our
language, was one not infrequently used by Greek writers, and means to imbibe his
principles, to imitate his example, to copy his spirit, to become like him. Thus, in
Dionysius Halicarnassus the expression occurs, “having put on or clothed themselves
with Tarquin;” i. e., they imitated the example and morals of Tarquin. So Lucian says,
“having put on Pythagoras;” having received him as a teacher and guide. So the Greek
writers speak of putting on Plato, Socrates, etc. meaning to take them as instructors, to
follow them as disciples. (See Schleusner.) Thus, to put on the Lord Jesus means to take
him as a pattern and guide, to imitate his example, to obey his precepts, to become like
him, etc. In “all” respects the Lord Jesus was unlike what had been specified in the
previous verse. He was temperate, chaste, pure, peaceable, and meek; and to “put him
on” was to imitate him in these respects; Heb_4:15; Heb_7:26; 1Pe_2:22; Isa_53:9;
1Jo_3:5.
And make not provision - The word “provision” here is what is used to denote
“provident care,” or preparation for future needs. It means that we should not make it an
object to gratify our lusts, or study to do this by laying up anything beforehand with

187. reference to this design.
For the flesh - The word “flesh” is used here evidently to denote the corrupt
propensities of the body, or those which he had specified in Rom_13:13.
To fulfil the lusts thereof - With reference to its corrupt desires. The gratification
of the flesh was the main object among the Romans. Living in luxury and licentiousness,
they made it their great object of study to multiply and prolong the means of licentious
indulgence. In respect to this, Christians were to be a separate people, and to show that
they were influenced by a higher and purer desire than this grovelling propensity to
minister to sensual gratification. It is right, it is a Christian duty, to labor to make
provision for all the real needs of life. But the real wants are few; and with a heart
disposed to be pure and temperate, the necessary wants of life are easily satisfied; and
the mind may be devoted to higher and purer purposes.
CLARKE, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus - This is in reference to what is said, Rom_
13:13 : Let us put on decent garments - let us make a different profession, unite with
other company, and maintain that profession by a suitable conduct. Putting on, or being
clothed with Jesus Christ, signifies receiving and believing the Gospel; and consequently
taking its maxims for the government of life, having the mind that was in Christ. The
ancient Jews frequently use the phrase putting on the shechinah, or Divine majesty, to
signify the soul’s being clothed with immortality, and rendered fit for glory.
To be clothed with a person is a Greek phrase, signifying to assume the interests of
another - to enter into his views, to imitate him, and be wholly on his side. St.
Chrysostom particularly mentions this as a common phrase, ᆇ δεινα τον δεινα ενεδυσατο,
such a one hath put on such a one; i.e. he closely follows and imitates him. So Dionysius
Hal., Antiq., lib. xi., page 689, speaking of Appius and the rest of the Decemviri, says:
ουκετι µετριαζοντες, αλλα τον Ταρκυνιον εκεινον ενδυοµενοι, They were no longer the
servants of Tarquin, but they Clothed Themselves with Him - they imitated and aped
him in every thing. Eusebius, in his life of Constantine, says the same of his sons, they
put on their father - they seemed to enter into his spirit and views, and to imitate him in
all things. The mode of speech itself is taken from the custom of stage players: they
assumed the name and garments of the person whose character they were to act, and
endeavored as closely as possible to imitate him in their spirit, words, and actions. See
many pertinent examples in Kypke.
And make not provision for the flesh - By flesh we are here to understand, not
only the body, but all the irregular appetites and passions which led to the abominations
already recited. No provision should be made for the encouragement and gratification of
such a principle as this.
To fulfill the lusts thereof - Εις επιθυµιας, in reference to its lusts; such as the
κωµοι, κοιται, µεθαι, and ασελγειαι, rioting, drunkenness, prostitutions, and uncleanness,
mentioned, Rom_13:13, to make provision for which the Gentiles lived and labored, and
bought and sold, and schemed and planned; for it was the whole business of their life to
gratify the sinful lusts of the flesh. Their philosophers taught them little else; and the
whole circle of their deities, as well as the whole scheme of their religion, served only to
excite and inflame such passions, and produce such practices.

188. I. In these four last verses there is a fine metaphor, and it is continued and well
sustained in every expression.
1. The apostle considers the state of the Gentiles under the notion of night, a time
of darkness and a time of evil practices.
2. That this night is nearly at an end, the night is far spent.
3. He considers the Gospel as now visiting the Gentiles, and the light of a glorious
day about to shine forth on them.
4.He calls those to awake who were in a stupid, senseless state concerning all
spiritual and moral good; and those who were employed in the vilest practices
that could debase and degrade mankind.
5. He orders them to cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor ᆇπλα, the
habiliments of light - of righteousness: to cease to do evil; to learn to do well.
Here is an allusion to laying aside their night clothes, and putting on their day
clothes.
6.He exhorts them to this that they may walk honestly, decently habited; and not
spend their time, waste their substance, destroy their lives, and ruin their souls
in such iniquitous practices as those which he immediately specifies.
7. That they might not mistake his meaning concerning the decent clothing which
he exhorts them to walk in, he immediately explains himself by the use of a
common form of speech, and says, still following his metaphor, Put on the Lord
Jesus Christ - receive his doctrine, copy his example, and seek the things which
belong to another life; for the Gentiles thought of little else than making
provision for the flesh or body, to gratify its animal desires and propensities.
II. These last verses have been rendered famous in the Christian Church for more
than 1400 years, as being the instrument of the conversion of St. Augustine. It is
well known that this man was at first a Manichean, in which doctrine he continued
till the 32nd year of his age. He had frequent conferences and controversies on the
Christian religion with several friends who were Christians; and with his mother
Monica, who was incessant in her prayers and tears for his conversion. She was
greatly comforted by the assurance given her by St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan,
where her son Augustine was then professor of rhetoric: that a child of so many
prayers and fears could not perish. He frequently heard St. Ambrose preach, and
was affected, not only by his eloquence, but by the important subjects which he
discussed; but still could not abandon his Manicheanism. Walking one day in a
garden with his friend Alypius, who it appears had been reading a copy of St.
Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and had left it on a bank near which they then were,
(though some say that Augustine was then alone), he thought he heard a musical
voice calling out distinctly, Tolle Et Lege! Tolle Et Lege! take up and read! take up
and read! He looked down, saw the book, took it up, and hastily opening it, the
first words that met his eye were these - Μη κωµοις και µεθαις, etc., Not in rioting
and drunkenness, etc., but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. He felt the import and
power of the words, and immediately resolved to become a follower of Christ: he in
consequence instantly embraced Christianity; and afterwards boldly professed and
wrote largely in its defense, and became one of the most eminent of all the Latin
fathers. Such is the substance of the story handed down to us from antiquity
concerning the conversion of St. Augustine. He was made bishop of Hippo in
Africa, in the year 395, and died in that city, Aug. 28th, 430, at the very time that it

189. was besieged by the Vandals.
III. After what I have said in the notes, I need add nothing on the great political
question of subordination to the civil powers; and of the propriety and expediency
of submitting to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake. I need only observe,
that it is in things civil this obedience is enjoined; in things religious, God alone is
to be obeyed. Should the civil power attempt to usurp the place of the Almighty,
and forge a new creed, or prescribe rites and ceremonies not authorized by the
word of God, no Christian is bound to obey. Yet even in this case, as I have already
noted, no Christian is authorized to rebel against the civil power; he must bear the
persecution, and, if needs be, seal the truth with his blood, and thus become a
martyr of the Lord Jesus. This has been the invariable practice of the genuine
Church of Christ. They committed their cause to him who judgeth righteously. See
farther on this subject on Mat_22:20 (note), etc.
GILL, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,.... As a man puts on his clothes when
he rises in the morning: the righteousness of Christ is compared to a garment, it is the
best robe, it is fine linen, clean and white, and change of raiment; which being put on by
the Father's gracious act of imputation, covers the sins and deformities of his people,
defends them from divine justice, secures them from wrath to come, and renders them
beautiful and acceptable in his sight: which righteousness being revealed from faith to
faith, is received by faith, and made use of as a proper dress to appear in before God; and
may be daily said to be put on by the believer, as often as he makes use of it, and pleads
it with God as his justifying righteousness, which should be continually: moreover, to
put on Christ, and which indeed seems to be the true sense of the phrase here, is not only
to exercise faith on him as the Lord our righteousness, and to make a profession of his
name, but to imitate him in the exercise of grace and discharge of duty; to walk as he
walked, and as we have him for an example, in love, meekness, patience, humility, and
holiness:
and make not provision for the flesh; the body: not but that due care is to be taken
of it, both for food and clothing; and for its health, and the continuance and preservation
of it by all lawful methods; but not so as
to fulfil the lusts thereof; to indulge and gratify them, by luxury and uncleanness: it
is a saying of Hillell (k), ‫רמה‬ ‫מרבה‬ ‫בשר‬ ‫מרבה‬ "he that increases flesh, increases worms"; the
sense his commentators (l) give of it is, that
"he that increases by eating and drinking, until he becomes fat and fleshy, increases for
himself worms in the grave:''
the design of the sentence is, that voluptuous men, who care for nothing else but the
flesh, should consider, that ere long they will be a repast for worms: we should not
provide, or be caterers for the flesh; and, by pampering it, stir up and satisfy its corrupt
inclinations and desires.
HE RY, "What provision to make (Pro_23:14): “Make not provision for the flesh. Be

190. not careful about the body.” Our great care must be to provide for our souls; but must we
take no care about our bodies? Must we not provide for them, when they need it? Yes,
but two things are here forbidden: - 1. Perplexing ourselves with an inordinate care,
intimated in these words, pronoian mē poieisthe. “Be not solicitous in forecasting for the
body; do not stretch your wits, nor set your thoughts upon the tenter-hooks, in making
this provision; be not careful and cumbered about it; do not take thought,” Mat_6:31. It
forbids an anxious encumbering care. 2. Indulging ourselves in an irregular desire. We
are not forbidden barely to provide for the body (it is a lamp that must be supplied with
oil), but we are forbidden to fulfil the lusts thereof. The necessities of the body must be
considered, but the lusts of it must not be gratified. Natural desires must be answered,
but wanton appetites must be checked and denied. To ask meat for our necessities is
duty: we are taught to pray for daily bread; but to ask meat for our lusts is provoking,
Psa_78:18. Those who profess to walk in the spirit must not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,
Gal_5:16.
HODGE, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. be as he was. To put on Christ,
signifies to be intituately united to him, so that he, and not we, may appear,
Galatians 3:27 : ‘Let not your own evil deeds be seen, (i.e., do not commit such,) but
let what Christ was appear in all your conduct, as effectually as if clothed with the
garment of his virtues.'
And make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. That is, let it not be
your care to gratify the flesh. By flesh, in this passage, is perhaps generally
understood the body; so that the prohibition is confined to the vicious indulgence of
the sensual appetites. But there seems to be no sufficient reason for this restriction.
As the word is constantly used by Paul for whatever is CORRUPT, and in the
preceding verse the sins of envy and contention are specially mentioned, it may be
understood more generally, ‘Do not indulge the desires of your corrupt nature.'
JAMISO , "But — to sum up all in one word.
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ — in such wise that Christ only may be seen in
you (see 2Co_3:3; Gal_3:27; Eph_4:24).
and make no provision — “take no forethought.”
for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof - “Direct none of your attention to the
cravings of your corrupt nature, how you may provide for their gratification.”
Note,
(1) How gloriously adapted is Christianity for human society in all conditions! As it
makes war directly against no specific forms of government, so it directly recommends
none. While its holy and benign principles secure the ultimate abolition of all iniquitous
government, the reverence which it teaches for magistracy, under whatever form, as a
divine institution, secures the loyalty and peaceableness of its disciples, amid all the
turbulence and distractions of civil society, and makes it the highest interest of all states
to welcome it within their pale, as in this as well as every other sense - “the salt of the
earth, the light of the world” (Rom_13:1-5).
(2) Christianity is the grand specific for the purification and elevation of all the social
relations; inspiring a readiness to discharge all obligations, and most of all, implanting

191. in its disciples that love which secures all men against injury from them, inasmuch as it
is the fulfilling of the law (Rom_13:6-10).
(3) The rapid march of the kingdom of God, the advanced stage of it at which we have
arrived, and the ever-nearing approach of the perfect day - nearer to every believer the
longer he lives - should quicken all the children of light to redeem the time, and, seeing
that they look for such things, to be diligent, that they may be found of Him in peace,
without spot and blameless (2Pe_3:14).
(4) In virtue of “the expulsive power of a new and more powerful affection,” the great
secret of persevering holiness in all manner of conversation will be found to be “Christ
IN US, the hope of glory” (Col_1:27), and Christ ON US, as the character in which alone
we shall be able to shine before men (2Co_3:8) (Rom_13:14).
COFFMA , "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the
flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.
Paul had already mentioned (Romans 13:12) the new investiture of the Christian,
calling it the armor of light; and here is a return to the same figure, only here it is
Christ himself who is to be put on by the Christian. Barmby observed that
Christians are said to have already put on Christ in their baptism; here they are
exhorted still to do so. There is no real contradiction; they are but exhorted to
realize in actual life the meaning of their baptism.[5]
Provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof ... refers to the investment of time,
preparation and money in such a manner as to allow or facilitate the gratification of
fleshly lusts. When one thinks of the countless pleasure palaces, and other
hideaways bought and provided for no other purpose than that of facilitating the
fulfillment of fleshly lusts, the apostle's wisdom in forbidding such investments to
Christians is evident.
E D OTE:
[5] J. Barmby, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), Vol. 18 (ii), p. 392.
CALVI , "14.But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, etc. This metaphor is commonly used
in Scripture with respect to what tends to adorn or to deform man; both of which may be
seen in his clothing: for a filthy and torn garment dishonors a man; but what is becoming
and clean recommends him. Now to put on Christ, means here to be on every side
fortified by the power of his Spirit, and be thereby prepared to discharge all the duties of
holiness; for thus is the image of God renewed in us, which is the only true ornament of

192. the soul. For Paul had in view the end of our calling; inasmuch as God, by adopting us,
unites us to the body of his only-begotten Son, and for this purpose, — that we,
renouncing our former life, may become new men in him. (412) On this ACCOUNT he
says also in another place, that we put on Christ in baptism. (Gal_3:27.)
And have no care, etc. As long as we carry about us our flesh, we cannot cast away every
care for it; for though our conversation is in heaven, we yet sojourn on earth. The things
then which belong to the body must be taken care of, but not otherwise than as they are
helps to us in our pilgrimage, and not that they may make us to forget our country. Even
heathens have said, that a few things suffice nature, but that the appetites of men are
insatiable. Every one then who wishes to satisfy the desires of the flesh, must necessarily
not only fall into, but be immerged in a vast and deep gulf.
Paul, setting a bridle on our desires, reminds us, that the cause of all intemperance is, that
no one is content with a moderate or lawful use of things: he has therefore laid down this
rule, — that we are to provide for the wants of our flesh, but not to indulge its lusts. It is
in this way that we shall use this world without abusing it.
(412) Many have explained “ putting on” here in a manner wholly inconsistent with the
passage, as though the putting on of Christ’ righteousness was intended. [Calvin ] keeps
to what accords with the context, the putting on of Christ as to his holy image.
Sanctification, and not justification, is the subject of the passage. To put on Christ, then,
is to put on his virtues and graces, to put on or be endued with his spirit, to imitate his
conduct and to copy his example. This is in addition to the putting him on as our
righteousness, and not as a substitute for it. Both are necessary: for Christ is our
sanctification, the author, worker, and example of it, as well as our righteousness. —
APPENDIX
HODGE, "Doctrine
1. Civil government is a divine institution, i.e. it is the will of God that it should exist,
and be respected and obeyed, Romans 13:2.
2. While ‘government is of God, the form is of men.' God has never enjoined any one
form obligatory on all communities; but has simply laid down certain principles,
applicable to rulers and subjects, under every form in which governments exist, Romans

193. 13:1-7.
3. The obedience which the Scriptures command us to render to our rulers is not
unlimited; there are cases in which disobedience is a duty. This is evident, first, from the
very nature of the case. The command to obey magistrates is, from its nature, a command
to obey them as magistrates in the exercise of their rightful authority. They are not to be
obeyed as priests or as parents, but as civil rulers. No one doubts that the precept,
"Children, obey your parents in all things," is a command to obey them in the exercise of
their rightful parental authority, and imposes no obligation to implicit and passive
obedience. A parent who should claim the power of a sovereign over his children, would
have no right to their obedience. The case is still plainer with regard to the command,
"Wives, submit to your own husbands." Secondly, from the fact that the same inspired
men who enjoin, in such general terms, obedience to rulers, themselves uniformly and
openly disobeyed them whenever their commands were inconsistent with other and
higher obligations. "We ought to obey God rather than men," was the principle which the
early Christians avowed, and on which they acted. They disobeyed the Jewish and
heathen authorities, whenever they required them to do anything contrary to the will of
God. There are cases, therefore, in which disobedience is a duty. How far the rightful
authority of rulers extends, the precise point at which the obligation to obedience ceases,
must often be a difficult question; and each case must be decided on its own merits. The
same difficulty exists in fixing the limits of the authority of parents over their children,
husbands over their wives, masters over their servants. This, however, is a theoretical
rather than a practical difficulty. The general principles on which the question in regard to
any given case is to be decided are sufficiently plain. No command to do anything
morally wrong can be binding; nor can any which transcends the rightful authority of the
power whence it emanates. What that rightful authority is, must be determined by the
institutions and laws of the land, or from prescription and usage, or from the nature and
design of the office with which the magistrate is invested. The right of deciding on all
these points, and determining where the obligation to obedience ceases, and the duty of
resistance begins, must, from the nature of the case, rest with the subject, and not with the
ruler. The apostles and early Christians decided this point for themselves, and did not
leave the decision with the Jewish or Roman authorities. Like all other questions of duty,
it is to be decided on our responsibility to God and our fellow men, Romans 13:1-7.
4. The design of civil government is not to promote the advantage of rulers, but of the
ruled. They are ordained and invested with authority, to be a terror to evil doers, and a
praise to them that do well. They are the ministers of God for this end, and are appointed
for "this very thing." On this ground our obligation to obedience rests, and the obligation
ceases when this design is systematically, constantly, and notoriously disregarded. Where
unfaithfulness on the part of the government exists, or where the form of it is
incompatible with the design of its institution, the governed must have a right to remedy
the evil. But they cannot have the moral right to remedy one evil, by the production of a
greater. And, therefore, as there are few greater evils than instability and uncertainty in
governments, the cases in which revolutions are justifiable must be exceedingly rare,
Romans 13:3-7.
5. The proper sphere of civil government is the civil and social relations of men, and their
temporal welfare; conscience, and of course religion, are beyond its jurisdiction, except

194. so far as the best interests of civil society are necessarily connected with them. What
extent of ground this exception covers, ever has been, and probably will ever remain a
matter of dispute. Still it is to be remembered, that it is an exception; religion and
morality, as such, are not within the legitimate sphere of the civil authority. To justify the
interference of the civil government, therefore, in any given case, with these important
subjects, an exception must be made out. It must be shown that an opinion or a religion is
not only false, but that its prevalence is incompatible with the rights of those members of
the community who are not embraced within its communion, before the civil authority
can be authorized to interfere for its suppression. It is then to be suppressed, not as a
religion, but as a public nuisance. God has ordained civil government for the promotion
of the welfare of men as members of the same civil society; and parental government, and
the instruction and discipline of the church, for their moral and religious improvement.
And the less interference there is between these two great institutions, in the promotion of
their respective objects, the better. We do not find in the New Testament any commands
addressed to magistrates with regard to the suppression of heresies or the support of the
truth; nor, on the other hand, do we meet with any directions to the church to interfere
with matters pertaining to the civil government, Romans 13:3-6.
6. The discharge of all the social and civil duties of life is to the Christian a matter of
religious obligation, Romans 13:5-7.
Remarks
1. The Christian religion is adapted to all states of society and all forms of civil
government. As the Spirit of God, when it enters any human heart, leaves unmolested
what is peculiar to its individual character, as far as it is innocent, and effects the
reformation of what is evil, not by violence, but by a sweetly constraining influence; so
the religion of Christ, when it enters any community of men, does not assail their form of
government, whether despotic or free; and if there is anything in their institutions
inconsistent with its spirit, it is changed by its silent operation on the heart and
conscience, rather than by direct denunciation. It has thus, without rebellion or violent
convulsions, curbed the exercise of despotic power, and wrought the abolition of slavery
throughout the greater part of Christendom, Romans 13:1-14.
2. The gospel is equally hostile to tyranny and anarchy. It teaches rulers that they are
ministers of God for the public good; and it teaches subjects to be obedient to magistrates,
not only for fear, but also for conscience' sake, Romans 13:5.
3. God is to be recognized as ordering the affairs of civil society: "He removeth kings,
and he setteth up kings;" by him "kings reign, and princes decree justice." It is enough,
therefore, to SECURE the obedience of the Christian, that, in the providence of God, he
finds the power of government lodged in certain hands. The early Christians would have
been in constant perplexity, had it been incumbent on them, amidst the frequent
poisonings and assassinations of the imperial palace, the tumults of the pretorian guards,
and the proclamation by contending armies of rival candidates, to decide on the
individual who had de jure the power of the sword, before they could conscientiously

195. obey, Romans 13:1-6.
4. When rulers become a terror to the good, and a praise to them that do evil, they may
still be tolerated and obeyed, not however, of right, but because the remedy may be worse
than the disease, Romans 13:3, Romans 13:4.
5. Did genuine Christian love prevail, it would SECURE the right discharge, not only of
the duties of rulers towards their subjects, and of subjects towards their rulers, but of all
the relative social duties of life; for he that loveth another fulfilleth the law, Romans 13:7,
Romans 13:8.
6. The nearness of eternity should operate on all Christians as a motive to purity and
devotedness to God. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed, Romans 13:13, Romans 13:14.
7. All Christian duty is included in putting on the Lord Jesus; in being like him, having
that similarity of temper and conduct which results from being intimately united to him
by the Holy Spirit, Romans 13:14.
Footnotes:
Romans 13:9 Exodus 20:13-15,17; Deut. 5:17-19,21
Romans 13:9 Lev. 19:18
Romans 13:14 Or the flesh