Don’t trust anyone over 30.
AM Psalm 88 • PM Psalm 91, 92
Gen. 27:46-28:4,10-22 • Rom. 13:1-14 • John 8:33-47
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.”
For those who are too young to remember the first of these two admonitions, it emerged out of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in the 1960s to become a rallying cry for a national protest movement. In the half century since then Americans have become increasing suspicious of authority figures and institutions of all sorts. Perhaps at no time since the Civil War has there been greater division among us about “authority” than we are experiencing today.
Paul’s admonition to the Christian community in Rome begins with the second quotation above and ends with this: “Pay…taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.” (13:7) What’s going on with this appeal? Is Paul kowtowing to Roman authorities? Not likely, since elsewhere in this letter he commits high treason by ascribing to Jesus titles such as Son of God, God Incarnate, Lord, Savior of the World, and Peace Maker. In Roman imperial theology these titles already belonged to Caesar—first to Augustus, and at the time of Paul’s writing in the 50s, to Nero.
We need to hear Paul’s words, but first we must acknowledge that over the centuries they have been used to justify all manner of authoritarian regimes, including American slavery and the Third Reich. Then, as is so often the case, it helps to read what comes before and after the text in question.
Try reading Romans 12:9 through 13:14 as one statement, and I think you’ll see that Paul is giving the Romans instructions on how to live in the world as they found it. His message is clear: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Contradicting the student radicals of the 1960s, we could also say Trust your neighbor as yourself.
Some observers have described the divisions among Americans today as a crisis of authority. No wonder we flinch when we hear Romans 13:1-7 read aloud! We might also call it a crisis of trust. According to one recent survey, the percentage of Americans who agree with the statement “most people could be trusted” has dropped from 45 in the 1980s to 30 now.
I doubt that any of us would say we are more united now than we were half a century ago. Deep seated distrust of leaders and institutions, attitudes unlike those which have given us a sense of shared purpose in times past, is not healthy for us or for our country. If all Americans who call themselves Christians would commit to loving and trusting their neighbors—all their neighbors—we would be in a much better place.
Written by Bob McMath
I want to acknowledge two New Testament scholars, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, for their helpful comments on this passage from Romans in the book they coauthored, The First Paul (2009). Borg has been a Tippy McMichael lecturer at St. Paul’s.