Willow Branches in Autumn Winds

Thoughts on Bin Laden, Government and Romans 12 and 13

There has been a lot of talk this week about Bin Laden’s death and the many responses to it, from dancing in the streets to Bible-verse tweets questioning the appropriateness of such rejoicing.

I found these remarks from N.T. Wright in Christianity Today’s Politics Blog very interesting. It brings up many questions for me.

I’m guessing that many American Christians are OK with this kind of “vigilante justice” because of what is written in Romans 13: governing authorities or rulers “are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

I think this is the passage that many Christians also use to justify the use of torture, and the one they use when they claim that extremely limited government is the biblical model (i.e. that government’s only God-ordained purpose is to punish wrongdoers, not to ensure every citizen has health care, or to regulate business).

This passage in Romans 13 is very confusing to me, especially because of what comes before it in Romans 12:

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…Do not repay anyone evil for evil… Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Do these principals from Romans 12 only apply to regular old individual Christians, but not apply to governments? But what about a government that is made up of “We the People…”? Are Christians in the government exempt from the words of Romans 12 because they are “rulers”? Are Paul’s words in Romans 13 difficult understand because his context was so different from ours? 

Can anyone recommend any good writing on Romans 13:1-7? I’d love to gain a better understanding of it.