Repeat after me, please:

Romans 13 was not written to me.
Romans 13 was not written to me.
Romans 13 was not written to me.

And nor was any other book of the Bible yet we use the words of letters, histories, narratives, poems and apocalypses as if they were. None of us would take an email written to a good friend by his wife which expressed her love, trust and desire for her husband and read it as if it were written to us. Yet we continually do this with the Bible. We have a really really bad habit of it.

Reading the scriptures in context is a must; reading it out of context, grabbing verses to prove our point simply twists the scriptures. We end up with common or well known situations like…

Jeremiah 29v11: People think, pray, wait  decide based on this very poster friendly verse but it is a verse written to a nation of people – not to an individual. It is not God speaking to a certain individual nor to you or I; it is not promising personal provision.

Or how about this one?

Psalm 46v10: Verses 1-9 role forward like a tidal wave. God is refuge, strength, protector, thunderer & melter of earth; come and see his glorious works! Yet when we get to verse 10 <pause for silence> Be still and know… <awkward pause> and I wil be exalted in the heavens. I will be exalted on the earth.
Another poster friendly line that is twisted & miss used. I actually love when people read this whole Psalm aloud because they generally get into the flow of it and have an awkward moment at vs. 10…it just doesn’t fit our common reading. Verse 10 rolls on with the rest of the Psalm – mighty, strong, victorious. “You, reader of this Psalm – BE STILL and know that I AM GOD!” (emphasis mine) and by inference you & I are not. God will be honored not us. This verse is forceful! God is mighty and strong. I love the intent of 46v10 but this isn’t the place to prove that point.

I could go on & on with these but hopefully you get the idea.

Over the past few days, well years, this happens with Romans 13. Mainly verses 1-7 when just a bit of contextual work will quickly reveal what’s going on here. A few thoughts…

1) Romans was written to Roman believers by Paul. It was a letter that preceded his attempt to visit them. It was not written to us or any other group and we cannot read it like an email received by an acquaintance, a friend or a spiritual mentor.

Think: Who wrote this letter? Who was he writing to? What were the circumstances? What would the readers hear?

2) Romans 13 follows Romans 12. (Thank you very much! I’m here all week.)

But seriously, Romans 12 speaks of living sacrificially & clearly echos jesus teachings in Matthewe 5/6.
We get gems like…

be eager to practice hospitality (v.13)
Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. (v.14)
Live in harmony with each other (v.15)
Never payback evil with more evil. (v.17)
Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.(v.18)

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that righteous anger of God.(v.19)
“Instead “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”
Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (v. 20-21)

3) Paul’s letter to the Romans as written didn’t have chapters. It is constant flow. It didn’t have the subheadings that now subtly dictate to us what the passage is really about. Paul didn’t write the pericope headings that your Bible probably has “Respect for Authority” and “Love Fulfills God’s Requirements” (both in Chapter 13).

4) Now we tend to read this section with full appreciation of Chapter 12 and Chapters 13v8-14. We read verses 1-7 like Paul is ADD and just interjects a random thought that can be used on it’s on, but it is in the flow of Paul’s intent – sandwiched between “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” and “Owe nothing to anyone – except for your obligation to love one another.

5) Now verses 1-7 most often show up in conversations about Christians and the use of force/violence and conversations about capital punishment.

So…the intent.

We live in the wake of Luther & Calvin who both taught that the sword was the focal point of this passage and the governments right to use violent force to punish; I do not agree with this reading. Both of these historical figures lived in worlds whether the church was deeply intertwined with the state. Calvin being involved in both worlds.

So…Why pull out 1-7 from the flow of the rest of Paul’s writing? To use the sword as the focal point is to basically disregard Chapter 12 and verses 8-14 of Chapter 13.

So is the intent..Paul allowing for government intervention through mortal means or is something else there?

Do verses 1-7 in the flow of Paul’s writing deal with our owing nothing but love to our enemies, and in this time the Roman empire was the enemy of Christianity. The Roman Christians were to live at peace with them. And I believe it is indeed a reach to take this passage and use it as a blanket statement that we should support and submit everything that governments do. If this position were so, then you can kiss the American Civil Rights movement good bye. Do we really believe that?

German theologians Friedrich, Pohlmann and Stuhlmacher lay out the contextual situation well and make a compelling case in their work of Romans 13 that…(paraphrase of their research)

Paul wants to go to Rome.
He wants Roman Christians to submit and pay their taxes.

Why?

Previously Christians had participated in a tax rebellion.
Christians had been expelled from Rome. This included Priscilla and Aquila (companions of Paul’s)
He doesn’t want this to happen again as Nero is imposing new taxes.
And…another insurrection is brewing. Paul wants to be able to get to them w/o strife.

Machaira (the mentioned sword in 13v4) refers to the weapon carried by Roman police who accompanied tax collectors. It is not the offensive weapon of war or the executioners broadsword.

Paul urges them to make peace; pay the tax; do not rebel.

Paul is arguing against violent response not for it!

The context of the letter does not give us carte blanche privilige to be a part of and support government activity that could stand against the character of Christ. It is the opposite. It is a letter from a spiritual giant to friends he hasn’t met yet. He asks them to keep their cool so that he may come to them in peace.

Now.  This is miles; I mean miles a way from the interpretation that most of us have been taught of this passage. I will let you work through the implications.

Summary:

Romans 13 isn’t about the government’s authority to take life.
Romans 13 isn’t about our duty to just mindlessly obey governments. Just in the past century this reading has lent its aid to apartheid in South Africa and the atrocities of Nazi Germany. The Kairos Document from South Africa calls this out as the Churches slide to a “state theology.”

Romans 13 is about Paul (a respected apostle…late in his life) asking a group of insurgents (as the Christians were in this culture) to keep their cool. Live at peace. Owe only love…I’m on the way & can’t wait to meet you. He speaks from a specific situation to a specific situation and this passage is not a unilateral manifesto on church-state relations.

Over & over I’ve seen this verse beaten up and abused. I saw it a number of times on Monday and Tuesday. It was used to lend support to the killing of Osama Bin Laden or if not support to the killing at least to support the government. It seems to often be used to suit our own need to win and take revenge. We have treated it with as little respect as Ike gave to Tina or Chris gave to Rihanna.

I’m not sure where the problem lies. I do know that if I handled my wife & kids the way the evangelical church has handled this passage, I would have nothing of a marriage or family left. I also think we as teachers of the scriptures have got to do better. We are much more students of the cool and trendy than we are of the scriptures and our story or our history.

We must, must do better than this.

Peace ~

William

Suggested Resources:

Free Bible Commentary and Resources (Utley…Don’t let the suit & tie fool you. Great, great teaching here. Grounded in history.)

Yesterday I jumped in on the Luke 17 & Matthew 24 passages that I believe are read out of context and often misused. The general evangelical reading that you hear is that….

1) The one taken is the “believer” who is raptured (leaning on & created by another non-contextual reading…this time 1 Thess. 4v17)

2) The one who is left behind is a wicked unrighteous “lost” person who is no left on planet earth for the tribulation.

Yesterday in the first of these posts, I commented on why I believe this reading is actually backwards.

Today…Why it matters.

1) Reading the scriptures out of context has created a shallow self-serving theology in America and we need to do better as students of our story. (Check out How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth or The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible)

2) Solomon once said that as a man thinks, so he is. I don’t think it’s to big a stretch to say as well that as a group of people think, so they are. If we raise up generations of people…believers, who believe that they are going to be taken out of here at some point, then here doesn’t matter. It’s like hanging out in that awkward waiting area at an IHOP or a Denny’s. You’re in but do you really want to be here?

Or say that you know next weekend you are headed to a VIP tour with all the stops at Disney World followed by 7 days of luxury cruising with all the perks and the whole trip was given to you + an envelope of $25,000 cash. It’s free. You just go and have a good time. Everything that you do between now & boarding time are things that you “have to do”. They are tasks/chores; your mind will be somewhere else – on what is coming.

As people who are gifted and sent by God on mission we need to be totally here so that we are on task to bring healing to God’s creation. If we are all the time thinking that we’re getting out…then here will become less & less important. The focused remnant has & can re-invent the kingdom of God and manifest it’s hope and healing. If our heads & hearts are somewhere else, that will never happen.

3) It gives Christians the idea that judgement is really not for us or that suffering is really for others. This is really easy in America as we don’t suffer the way 2/3 of the world does. Judgement that is coming is real and suffering will/does happen. We are never promised a pass but we are promised his presence. Our story is filled with suffering servants and it is in these moments that the Kingdom often spreads like wildfire.

I think on Monday I’ll come back with a part 3 on the 1 Thessalonians passage referenced above. It is an instance of Paul using thick rich symbolic language that we just often run through without digging into what those people would have heard.

May we be a focused righteous remnant as we display the kingdom & manifest its gifts and power.

Peace ~

William

I for a couple of weeks now have owed my community a blog post from Luke 17.  So Here We Go…

Luke 17v26-37

26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” [36] ^{e]” style=”font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em;”>[}e^]

37 “Where, Lord?” they asked.

He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

The standard line of thought on this verse (mostly based on a strong pre-tribulation / pre-millenial / Left Behind bent) is that the one who is taken is “raptured” away and the on who is left now lives in the tribulation. Thus the believers are taken away and don’t have to deal with a period of turmoil on the earth (the tribulation). Because of their faith they are lifted out and and pardoned this wrathful time.

Like a great deal of “Left Behind” theology, I would argue that this takes Jesus’ words out of context, fits them to current pop thought, and gets the believer out of the tribulation – a very comfortable reading but it is a reading that I believe is wrong and detrimental to the Kingdom.

I believe what Jesus is saying here is that the ones taken are the ones who are being judged and the ones left behind represent the remnant – a faithful people to represent our God when things need to be restarted so to speak. (a common occurrence in our story)

Today my reasons for believing this. Tomorrow, I’ll give my reasons for believing it is detrimental.

1) In previous prophetic warnings to the people, this was the pattern.
The ones left were the remnant of God’s hope.

Isaiah 39 – Again the prophet writes that the wicked are taken

(Is 39 & Jer 6 both show wrath coming from foreign kindoms. In Jeremiah the just should flee for safety as the wicked who are unprepared are left their to be slaughtered. As history went, the small remnant was left in the land. The unjust were hauled off to Babylon)

In Zeph 3:11 the Lord says he will “remove” from their midst those who are proud and arrogant.

And…the prophet Zechariah speaks the words of the Lord to the rebellious people: “In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.” (Zech 13:8).

2) Jesus’ on teachings.

Most people interpret this and the Matthew parallel along the lines of 1 Thessalonians 4v17. While this is easy to see we do have to be careful to not run straight way and interpret Jesus stories through Paul. Are there places where Jesus himself gives interpretive insights? Are the types of literature (here: Matthew & 1 Thessalonians) the same? Do they have the same purpose? And, are the contexts the same or different? All of this plays in to reading the passage.

In this case, I think Jesus gives us enough to see what we need. He leans into judgment/exile teaching to give a prophetic warning.

In Matthew 13v41-43 the unrighteous/sinful are taken away and the righteous shine.

In the Luke 17 version we are reminded of Lot’s wife who looked back. Her heart was there in the sinful place. She is taken. The righteous survive.

In Luke 17 and in Matthew 24 (the two tellings of this teaching) we are set up with the idea that it will be just like the days of Noah. People ate, drank and it looks like partied right up until the moment that reality splashed over them. In the Noah story, who is left behind? Noah and his family are. Yes we assume that they visibly move in the boat but all of the wicked who wouldn’t listen are taken. The righteous family is left.

I think it is important for us to know that God has a tendency of using a remnant. It is not uncommon for the religious, the ones who think they have it all together to actually be swept away catastrophically or abruptly and a small chosen faithful few are left to do the work. Which group are we in?

That’s a tough question as is the idea that we would have to not be raptured and be left to live in a time of suffering. And if this is then the model are all the unrighteous judged and taken? Do some fall away during a period of God’s testing? There are big questions that follow this interpretation.

The take aways for me are…

1) Be watchful; be mindful; be ready – to do this we need to be focused on our King and set our hearts and minds on what is good pure and noble. We must not be distracted by earthly things.

2) God’s people have never and may not until New Heavens and New Earth escaped suffering and hard times. These are defining moments for us and the times when the Gospel shines brightest.

3) Once again…please read the Bible in context. We Americans struggle with this. There is a bigger deeper more thick beautiful story if we will only dive into it.

4) Be watchful; be mindful; be ready – there is not only love…there is judgment as well. And the possibility of eternal punishment.

Peace ~

William