For rulers are not a terror to a good work, but to an evil [one]. Dost thou desire then not to be afraid of the authority? practise [what is] good, and thou shalt have praise from it;
Paul has just told believers not to take revenge; here he turns to the ruler God has appointed to punish evil. Power normally rewards the good and frightens the wicked — so what happens when a ruler does the opposite?
A ruler is no terror to good conduct because of what the office is for. One writer traces it back to God's intention, and adds a remark that holds even under bad government:
God has given men authority to restrain evil and protect good. It follows that those in authority are not a terror to good works but to evil. If we want to walk without fear of authority, let us keep away from evil. Whether he knows it or not, the one in authority is God's servant to carry out judgment on the evildoer. Men often twist government to their own ends. Yet in the main we will find that, in the mercy of God, the very worst governments seek to restrain evil.
The move from chapter 12 to chapter 13 is not a change of subject. The Christian never avenges himself; that task belongs to the ruler.
Step by step Paul brings us on. He starts with not avenging ourselves, and overcoming evil with good, as suits the children of God. Then he comes to our relation to the authorities in the world, whose office is to avenge evil: to punish evildoers and to praise those who do well. This was especially fitting from the apostle, writing to believers in imperial Rome, the great capital city of the Gentile world.
Everything in the verse turns on what counts as good and what counts as evil. One writer answers that the measure is God's, not the ruler's. That measure marks out how far the state's authority runs:
Is blind obedience in everything to the ruling power being taught here? Has it authority to exercise unlimited sway over the conscience? We are to obey it within its proper sphere of civil rule, and that is where the apostle points… The good and the evil here must be understood as what is good or evil in God's sight. That shows us how far civil rule reaches, and God's purpose in setting up such authority on earth.
The verse promises approval to the one who does good, not just safety. The same principle appears where Paul lists what the Spirit produces, and then says no law stands against it:
The law will never condemn those who walk in these things. He says the same to the Roman believers in Romans 13, speaking of governors and rulers: "Do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good." So here too, "against such things there is no law." If you are producing these fruits of the Spirit, there is no condemnation against them.
It is fair to object that history is full of rulers who terrorised the innocent. But the objection was already true when the ink was wet:
We may cry out at once about the sad mockery of authority we so often see. But remember when these words were written. Nero had just come to the imperial throne in Rome, and the man who wrote them would soon suffer terrible things from the religious authorities in Jerusalem. Read Acts 23:5 and 26:25, and notice in these cases how well Paul practised what he teaches us here.
The obedience commanded here has one limit. One writer marks it where a ruler demands what belongs to God alone:
"For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad." This is certainly the normal state. But there is surely a point beyond which we must give no obedience to rulers, or to anyone else except God. Suppose they demand of us what is due only to God — worship, for instance, as Daniel faced under Darius, or his three friends under Nebuchadnezzar. Then we must refuse outright… But that is very different from unjust laws or practices that are hard and oppressive. So long as a good conscience toward God is not compromised, it is better that we suffer in subjection.
- Purpose. God gave authority to restrain evil and protect good. That is why the ruler is no threat to the one doing good.
- Standard. The good and evil in view are good and evil as God sees them, and that measure marks out how far civil authority reaches.
- Position. The believer never avenges himself. God has handed that task to the ruler, who serves Him whether he knows it or not.
- Promise. Do good, and you receive approval instead of fear. No law can condemn the conduct the Spirit produces.
- Limit. Paul wrote this while Nero reigned, and the command still stands. It stops only where obeying a ruler would mean disobeying God. Even there the path is to suffer, not to resist.
for it is God's minister to thee for good. But if thou practisest evil, fear; for it bears not the sword in vain; for it is God's minister, an avenger for wrath to him that does evil.
Paul has just told believers not to take revenge, but to leave wrath to God. Here he shows that God has an appointed hand for that wrath on earth. The verse gives the ruler two titles: God's servant for good, and an avenger who carries out wrath. So how far does that authority reach? And what does a Christian owe to a ruler who abuses it?
The word here for "servant" is an everyday word for someone who serves; older translations render it "minister." The New Testament uses it of very different people.
The word is used in a wide sense, and is employed to describe magistrates and rulers, for we read, "He is the minister [deacon] of God to you for good" (Rom. 13:4). Again, Paul and Timothy were made "able ministers [deacons] of the new covenant" (2 Cor. 3:6).
Men may pick a ruler in any number of ways. That is not where his real title comes from.
It is a wholly inadequate view to regard the magistrate on the side of man only. Not that he may not be chosen in all sorts of ways by man, but that he is God's servant, as this passage says again and again. He is His servant for good, not for evil… To see God in the magistrate brings in conscience.
The verse names the ruler's purpose: your good. That purpose holds even under bad governments.
God has given men authority to restrain evil and protect good. So those in authority are not a terror to good works but to evil… Whether he is aware of it or not, the one in authority is a minister of God to judge the evildoer. Men often twist government to their own ends. Even so, in the mercy of God, the very worst governments mostly seek to restrain evil.
The phrase about bearing the sword means the power to punish is genuine, not symbolic.
But suppose, instead of doing good and having praise from the ruler, a man does evil — what then? "Be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain." If the ruler is not to use the sword, then he does bear it in vain… The Christian is bound to respect that sword, whoever holds it. Even if the magistrate were an unbeliever, and treated the will of the people, not God, as the source of his authority, the Christian is still bound to own God's authority in him.
That sword reaches back to a command God gave after the flood:
Scripture speaks of the sword again and again as the instrument of death. In the New Testament the magistrate carries it, Rom. 13:4. This shows that the gospel does not set aside God's governmental principle of capital punishment, which He commanded after the flood. Gen. 9:5-6.
Paul wrote these words while a brutal ruler held power in Rome.
When the apostle wrote to the saints at Rome, God's providence had one of the cruellest despots on the throne. Even so: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." The worst ruler is better than anarchy. Still, the word of God does not speak for this reason of usefulness. Whoever he may be, he is the minister of God for good.
The ruler serves God, so God sets the limits of his sphere. What happens when a ruler goes past them?
Suppose the civil power disputes God's authority over the conscience and commands what He has forbidden. How often it has done this! Then anyone who resists it will not have its praise; and if they did obey it in such a case, they would not be doing what is good. So the command here is subjection to it within its own lawful sphere. If it oversteps the bounds, Peter's answer to the rulers at Jerusalem will guide the Christian: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge" (Acts 4:19).
God hands wrath to the magistrate. He never hands it to the individual believer.
God has dealt with the Christian in grace, so he must also act in grace towards others. The word to him is "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord'"… A Christian's duty not to avenge himself in no way clashes with God's government carried out by magistrates. They get their authority from Him to hold down and punish evil.
- Servant, appointed. God gives the ruler his title — the same word used of Paul and Timothy in their service. His office is not just a human arrangement.
- Servant for good. The office exists to restrain evil and shield those who do right. Even the worst governments mostly still do this.
- Servant with a sword. The power to punish is real. It goes back to Genesis 9, and grace does not repeal it.
- Servant, however flawed. Rome's emperor at the time was a tyrant, and the instruction stood — "the worst ruler is better than anarchy."
- Servant, not master. When a ruler commands what God forbids, the believer obeys God. God trusts wrath to the magistrate, never to the private Christian.