Romans 13 Round Two: The Survival Guide to Surviving People

What if the real survival guide for a chaotic world is not sharper comebacks but deeper character? We open Romans 13 and find two anchors—respect and love—that reshape how we live among people who test our patience, convictions, and hope. Rather than retreating into outrage or resignation, we walk through Paul’s call to honor legitimate authority, pay what we owe, and keep a clear conscience while remembering that God’s sovereignty is larger than any election cycle or unfair citation.

From there we turn to the heart of the law: love your neighbor as yourself. Love is not a feeling; it is a set of choices that refuses to wrong others. We talk about how holiness becomes a public good, why “clothing ourselves with Christ” changes our tone and timing, and how simple, steady integrity at home and at work can preach louder than our arguments. Along the way, we draw on Augustine’s insight that allegiance to Christ can make us better citizens—more principled, less panicked, and ready to act with courage when obedience to God requires standing apart.

You’ll hear practical ways to navigate unfair leaders without losing your soul, how to distinguish respectful appeal from blind compliance, and how to turn urgency into daily habits that bless your community: praying for leaders by name, refusing petty quarrels, and serving others when it costs you. If you’ve been asking how to live awake, clear-eyed, and hopeful in a weary culture, this conversation offers a grounded path forward.

If this episode encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can find the Bible Breakdown Podcast. What’s one way you’ll practice respect or love this week?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Big Idea
• 1:19 Community Updates And Listener Invites
• 2:23 Romans Review: Setting The Stage
• 3:28 Living Among Nonbelievers: The Tension
• 4:09 Respecting Authority: Reading Romans 13:1–7
• 7:05 Wrestling With Unfair Leaders And Systems
• 9:01 Augustine And Better Citizenship
• 10:40 Love Fulfills The Law: Romans 13:8–14
• 13:10 Holiness As Witness In Daily Life
• 15:12 Two Hallmarks: Respect And Love

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Romans chapter 13. And if I give this one a title, it would be Survival Guide to Surviving People. Survival Guide to Surviving People or Surviving Others. I don't know about you, but I love like post-apocalyptic movies. And what I mean by that is like fictional movies when like the end has come and we survived it, and now we have to rebuild society. And I think it's because it just takes us back to this like very more innocent time, you know, where things were more simple or whatever. But there's always like this survival guide on how you're going to do it. Well, I don't know about you. I live in a world that I feel like I need a survival guide sometimes. There's very few simple answers on how to make it through the complexities of being a parent, being a spouse, being part of a culture that seems like they hate God more every day, being around a bunch of crazy friends and I'm the craziest one. And like, what do you do? So we want to talk about that today on God's survival guide for surviving a life with others. But as always, first before we do that, I want to make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube thing. I've been doing these things called YouTube Shorts lately where I'm taking some of my favorite, like apologetic and Christian quotes and I'm putting them on there. And I would love it if you would to like some of those and help us kind of figure out which ones you like, you don't like. Thought about doing some Bible trivia questions. I'm a Bible trivia kind of guy. And if you'd like that, let me know in the comments below if what would kind of bless you and be something that you would enjoy. Also, thank you everybody for the podcast. For all of you who are leaving me the five-star reviews, you are my favorite. Make sure you comment, let me know what you like about the podcast so we can do a whole lot more of it. And then also, one of our rallying points is the Bible breakdown discussion. And I just want to say thank you so much to all of those who are leaving those devotions. They are so good, so awesome. That team is just amazing. If you would like to know more about becoming part of the devotional team, make sure to leave me a comment in this video or on the podcast. Make sure you go there and you let us know on the Facebook group so that we can give you the details on what that will look like. Well, if you want to get your Bibles ready for me for Romans chapter 13, let me catch you up really quickly on where we are. Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and someone is there reading what Paul wrote, and he is just systematically giving us the gospel. What we've been talking about is in chapter 1, 2, and 3, Paul says, Hey man, we messed up. And then God gave us the law, showed us how bad we messed up. But then in chapters 4, 5, and 6, he said, he sent Jesus. And because of that, man, we're free. We're able to walk in freedom. But in chapters 7 and 8, 6, 7, and 8, he says it's not easy. It's one step at a time, but thank goodness God is with us all the way. Chapters 9, 10, and 11, he says that's why we go and we share the gospel with others, is the same freedom that we have experienced, they can experience as well. And then yesterday we talked about once we've experienced that freedom and know that God is the God of mercy, then we become the original transformers, right? And we're growing in freedom every day. Well, now we get into chapter 13, where he talks about the idea of doing life with other Christians in an unbelieving culture. It would be one thing if we were everybody all over the world, all Christians, and we all followed the Bible perfectly. Wouldn't that be amazing? Well, we don't live in one of those worlds. We live in a world full of just all kinds of everything else. And so, how do we go about living in this world and doing it with a sense of honor and maybe even, God help us, a sense of joy? Well, there's two particular attributes that Paul's going to talk about. He's going to talk about respect and he's going to talk about love. And I think both of those are two sides to the same coin. One has to do with how we relate to the local government, and the other is how to fulfill the things that God has required of us and doing life with others. So I'm going to go ahead and ask you this question. Which one of these have you heard someone debate about recently? In my world, I hear people debate about these topics all the time. And it's hard to ignore. So we're going to go there and just kind of talk about these for a moment and read these because as we continue to move forward into election cycles and all these different things, these scriptures many times will be used in an unhealthy way. They'll be used to criticize one another and say things that God's word never says. So I think it's important we take time to read what God's word actually says so we know what to do with it. So if you got your your NLT Bible with me, chapter 13, verse 1, let's dive into when Paul talks about living together and what that means when it comes to respect. Here we go. Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all the authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So everyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. For the authorities do not strike fear in people who do what's right, but in those who are doing what's wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and then they will honor you. The authorities are God's servants sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God's servant, a servant sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. So if you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but if you must submit to them, but if you must, submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also for the sake of keeping a clear conscience. Also, pay your taxes too, for these same reasons. For the government workers need to get paid. They are serving God in what they do. Give to everyone what you owe them. Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Well, that's very inconvenient, isn't it? Because I know people who say, Well, I'm part of the kingdom of God, which means I don't have to do those things, or, you know, I don't think that that's right, and I don't trust the cops, and I don't do all this kind of stuff. Well, let's let's go ahead and be fair about all this, right? In any institution, you have good people and you have bad people. And when it comes to government, you know, employees, such as politicians and other things like that, you have good ones. I'm I'm sure you probably have good ones, and you have bad ones, right? When it comes to the police officers and stuff, you have good ones, you have bad ones. In everything you do, that's not what Paul's saying. He's not saying that we should just do the good, you know, obey the good ones and not the bad ones. He's saying realize that God is much bigger than we realize. He says, all authority comes from God, and those in position of authority have been placed there by God, which means, and this is a hard one, but that means that even if you get pulled over that police officer by that police officer, and you weren't speeding, and he gives you a ticket anyway, that means that God is so big that he has the ability to use even that to bring about his good purposes in your life. So therefore, we do the best we can. We we tell them, hey, look, this wasn't fair, whatever, whatever. But if they still end up charging us, we don't say, why doesn't God love me? Why would a loving God? We don't do that. We don't do that. We just say, you know what, God, this is one of those when I really don't know what you're doing, but I trust your character. Also, the same thing. We we do our best, we study the different opponents and political, you know, debates and stuff like that. We vote the best we can, but then we trust the Lord that whoever gets put in positions of authority, we trust that the Lord is bigger than any one political system. There was someone named Augustine who lived back not that long after Jesus, I believe it was the 300s, and he wrote an amazing book called The City of God. And it was a time when the Roman Empire was struggling with finding its identity, and he said that being a Christian should make you a better citizen, because all the things that Christ teaches us to do are all the things that a good citizen of a country would do. So, yes, our primary allegiance is to Christ, but that primary allegiance should make us the very best of citizens of the country that we're in. And so once again, God is saying respect them, and then we obey them as long as they don't contradict what God's word says, and trust that even when bad people are in authority, even when bad people do bad things for bad reasons, they still can't overcome what God wants to do. And so at the end, even when bad things happen, we trust the Lord to do what is right. All right, let's move on. Because first he says, How do we make it through through living with others? Respect authorities. Then he says this in verse 8 also, owe nothing to anyone, except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law. For the commandments say, You must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not steal, you must not covet. These are other such commands are summed up in this one commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not wrong, does no wrong to others. So love fulfills the requirements of God's law. This is all more urgent, for you know how late it is. Time is running out. Wake up, for your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. The night is almost gone, and the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on shining armor of right living, because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in the quarrels and jealousies. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires. So don't give in to the broken places in your life. So the first thing Paul says is, you know how you make it through this world is show respect to leaders, show respect to the right people. Does that mean that they will abuse that respect? Yes, because they're not Jesus and they're not perfect, but I trust God who is greater than them. So as long as they don't go against what God's word says, I'm gonna respect them. Not because I care about them, even though I love them, but I don't care about them. I care about God who is in charge of them. And then the second thing is, is I show love to everyone. It's something that I think we need to talk about because many people think love is all about me. You know, it's all about how I feel and what I love and me, me, me. But actually, if you look at this, love is all about how you treat other people. Love is an outward thing, not an internal selfishness. And so when he's saying, Oh no one anything except for your obligation to love one another, and then he talks a whole lot about how you go about loving other people that has nothing to do to benefit you. You know, all of these things are all about benefiting others. And one of the ways he said that we benefit those, especially those who don't know Christ, is by living wholly in front of them. In other words, it's this idea of I want to get so close to God. Number one, because I love him, but number two, the very best way I can show Christ to others is by showing him in my pursuit of him. So it's this mentality that I don't want to see how close to this world I can get and still go to heaven. I want to see how close to heaven I can be and still be living on this earth. I heard someone say one time, you don't want to be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. Can I tell you I disagree with that statement? I want to be so heavenly minded that I see heaven all around me while I'm on this earth. Now there is a balance there. You know, the reason why some people say that is because I've known people who they don't want to go to work, they don't want to provide for their family, they don't want to do that, they just want to stay home and read their Bible. But that's called being lazy, and he's already talked about that in the last chapter. You know, we do all of these things as a sense of honor, but also out of a sense of, God, I don't want to misrepresent you in this world. So I'm going to love others as an act of worship because of my love for you. So what can we take out of this today? Respect and love. Two things that should be the hallmark of Christians. That when people look at us and they say, What is a Christian? There's a lot of words you could use that would fit very, very well. One of those would be, man, they show respect even when it isn't earned. They show respect. They may not necessarily do what that person says because that person is is contradicting the word of God, but even in their not agreeing, even their disagreeing, they're showing respect to other people. There's something different about that person. And then others, the other one would be we show love. That has nothing to do with my selfish desires. It's all about how I can serve you. And so the application would be how would people know? Jesus said, How people would know we are his is that we would love one another. And we survive being with other people. The survival guide to surviving people is by showing respect and showing love. Here's my question for you Why is it so hard for you to show respect to leaders? Can I tell you? For me, sometimes it's hard because when I have shown respect to leaders, it always hasn't been repaid back to me in the way I would have wanted. It's been abused sometimes. And so sometimes I don't want to respect leaders because I don't feel like they're worthy of it. What I have to remember is I'm not necessarily respecting that person, I'm respecting the office that they currently hold. And I'm trusting that God is able to steer them in the right direction at the right time. What keeps you from loving others? Are you sometimes looking at loving others as what they can do for you or how you feel about them? What if you looked at love as how can I serve them? Love as an opportunity to give something to someone else. What if we looked at love as an opportunity rather than a right? You know, there's got less to do with me and more about them. A lot to think on, a lot to chew on. We're going to take a moment and just a second, let the music play, and just kind of think over this. But before that, let's pray together. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you that you teach us how to survive other people. And there's other people that's learning how to survive us. Because we live in a broken world full of hurting people that hurt people. And it can be difficult to have rules for the road as we walk through this life. Some of us, God, we need to grow in our respect. Some of us, we need to grow in our love. Some of us need to grow in our trust so that we can trust you even when we don't always see what you're doing in misguided leaders or in people that don't tend to want to return our love. Help us to keep our eyes on you and to realize that you will always lead us in the right direction. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I love you. My prayer for you today is that your life will be as Romans 1:16. It says, I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. Why? Because it is the power of God at work saving everyone who believes. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Romans chapter 14.