The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Subject” it comes from the Greek Word “hypotasso” which means “to submit, to be subject to.”
Paul addresses believers’ relationship with government, then boils the entire law down to one word. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Romans 13.
Paul instructs believers to “be subject unto the higher powers,” “hypotasso” in Greek, meaning to submit or be arranged under, since there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are established by Him. He explains that resisting this ordained authority means resisting God’s own ordinance, and describes rulers as generally serving a good purpose, punishing evil and commending good, existing as God’s ministers for the wellbeing of society, which is why believers should pay their taxes and honor those in authority, giving everyone what is owed them, whether tribute, custom, fear, or honor.
Paul then addresses believers’ relationships with one another directly. “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” He explains that the specific commandments, against adultery, murder, theft, false witness, and coveting, along with any other commandment, are all summed up in one single principle. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Love, Paul insists, “worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Paul closes urging urgency, “knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” He describes the night as far spent and the day at hand, calling believers to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, walking honestly as in the day, avoiding rioting, drunkenness, sexual immorality, strife, and envy. Instead, he instructs them to “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Paul’s summary of the entire law into a single command, love your neighbor as yourself, cuts through endless lists of individual rules with remarkable simplicity. Genuine love, he insists, naturally does no harm to another person, making it not a replacement for the law’s specific commands, but their complete and natural fulfillment.
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