Paul Says Love Your Oppressors
You may have heard that Romans 13 says to submit to all authorities because God put them over us. It’s understandable that you’ve heard that and that people teach that. At first glance, that’s what it looks like. But, as usual, there’s more to the story.
Also as usual, reading it in context matters, avoiding just taking a verse or a few verses all by themselves and thinking it has a clear and inarguable meaning. In this case, the context is both social and textual. Let’s start with the text.
As with most things that have to do with Jesus, the immediate context of the verses in question begin and end with love. If we read the first seven verses of Romans 13, we really have to start with Romans 12:9 and go all the way to 13:10.
9 Love must be without pretending. Since you are horrified at what causes harm and are joined together by what is beneficial, 10 and since you are mutually affectionate with familial love toward each other and lead the way in valuing each other, 11 and since you are not hesitant in earnestness and are bubbling over with Life-breath and are enslaved workers for the Lord, 12 and since you celebrate the hope and endure the oppression and persevere with prayer, 13 and since you share in meeting the needs of those who are designated for sacred purposes and pursue hospitality, 14 wish well-being on those who pursue you with intent to harm; wish them well, and do not wish them hardship. 15 Celebrate with those who celebrate. Weep with those who weep. 16 Think of each other as equals, not thinking of yourselves as higher but yielding to those of low status. Do not come to think of yourselves as exceptional. 17 Not paying back harm for harm to anyone and considering what is beneficial from the perspective of all people, 18 as far as it is up to you, be at peace with all people. 19 Loved ones, that includes not avenging yourselves. Instead, give anger space since it is written, “Carrying out justice is for me to do; I will repay it,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if the one who is hostile to you is hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. Doing so piles up burning coals on their head.” 21 Do not be conquered by harmfulness, but instead conquer harmfulness with beneficialness to others.
Love has an absolute aversion to causing harm to others and affinity to what causes well-being for others. This paragraph makes that point and affirms that the readers already know it and fit that description in how they treat each other. It acknowledges that they endure oppression, and then it asks them to do something really hard. To paraphrase with the words of Jesus, it asks them to love their enemies, those who oppress them.
That’s a tall order, but it’s essential if they are to be Jesus people, people who live consistently with love. They are not supposed to get vengeance against their oppressors. They are supposed to do whatever they can to live at peace even with those who pursue them with intent to harm and tyrants who oppress them.
It’s explicitly in that context that chapter 13 starts making what seems to be even more outrageous assertions.
1 Each living being should cooperate with the authorities who arise over them since no authority figure exists without being under God, and those that exist are arranged under God. 2 Therefore, whoever is organized in opposition against the authority has risen against God’s arrangement, and those who rise against it will take on decisive action against themselves 3 (Those who lead are not fearful to those with beneficial actions but with harmful). Do you want to have no reason to fear the authority? Do what is beneficial, and you will have the authority’s approval. 4 They are God’s servant for your benefit. But if you do harm, be afraid, for it isn’t for nothing that they carry the sword; they are God’s servant of injustice with anger against the one who practices harm. 5 Because of this, it is necessary to cooperate, not only because of the anger but also because of shared understanding.
Now, I know, even looking at this after reading chapter 12, it still sounds a lot like “obey authorities no matter what,” right? Stay with me. For the social context, I want to quote Thom Stark and see if his work can bring things into focus a bit.
For centuries, ruling elites and their systems of domination have found an ally in these ostensibly unambiguous words from the mouth of the apostle Paul. As Robert Jewett puts it, Rom 13:1-7 “has provided the basis for propaganda by which the policies of Mars and Jupiter have frequently been disguised as serving the cause of Christ.” Conversely, and not surprisingly, many liberation theologians have found something of an adversary in Paul, in their attempts to construct theologies of revolutionary social change. Franz Hinkelammert is representative here when he concludes that Paul is “not interested in inquiring about the nature of the existing authority or class structure.” For Hinkelammert, Paul knows only that “authorities are necessary.” Paul makes “no effort to ask whether a particular authority has been established by God or not. The issue is not one kind of authority or another. All authority has been established by God.” This divinely established authority is not any one particular authority but “authority as such.” Since authority as such is divinely established, every authority is divinely established, whether that authority be just or unjust, benevolent or tyrannical. In Paul, according to Hinkelammert, there is no functional distinction. There is for Paul “no Christian political thought dealing with domination.”
In this essay I will challenge readings of Paul such as Hinkelammert‟s. It is my contention that the anthropological work of James C. Scott has provided a new and appropriate lens through which to read texts such as Rom 13:1-7, and that this lens will prove useful for liberation theologians who wish to use Paul in service of theologies of revolutionary social change.
[…]
The main lines of Scott‟s observations are as follows: in political economies marked by inequitable power relations, such as in systems of chattel slavery or under colonization, the norm is for the political discourse of the dominated to “dissemble,” that is, “to feign obedience and loyalty to the colonial overlords while pursuing its own hidden agenda.” On the surface of such an economy there is what Scott has called the “public transcript,” which represents the “official” interpretation of political events and power relations, engineered and controlled by the ruling elites. Invariably, eddying beneath the surface of such an economy, there is also the “hidden transcript,” a clandestine discourse produced by the subjects of domination. The public transcript is “a shorthand way of describing the open interaction between subordinates and those who dominate” (2), whereas the hidden transcript is the “discourse that takes place „offstage,‟ beyond direct observation by powerholders” (4). Put differently, the public, “onstage,” transcript represents “the self-portrait of dominant elites as they would have themselves seen” (18), while the hidden, “offstage” transcript, is the discourse of the oppressed, and reflects their true attitude toward their rulers.
Stark, T. (2009). "Liberating Subtext: Rereading Romans 13:1-7 after James C Scott for Liberation Theology. https://www.academia.edu/235556/Liberating_Subtext_Rereading_Romans_13_1_7_after_James_C_Scott_for_Liberation_Theology
Certainly, if we incorporate Stark’s idea that Romans 13 is “dissembling,” saying one thing for the authorities to hear and another thing for the oppressed church to understand, we must do so in the context of Romans 12 and the context of the example of Jesus himself.
Romans 12 insists that even those who pursue us with harmful intent, those who oppress us, must be loved, not repaid more harm. Jesus says something truly unique in Matthew 5:43-48: “Love your enemies.” Then he lived it, enduring wrongful trial and imprisonment, torture, public humiliation, and gruesome execution, even praying for the people murdering him (Luke 23:34).
And that’s the point. Romans 13:1-5 is not describing good leaders. It’s describing violent tyrants, and Paul uses multiple carefully chosen wordings to make what he is saying way more ambiguous in Greek than it usually appears in English.
Here are a number of important points to notice:
Romans 13:1
“Cooperate with” or “submit to/be subject to” is not a synonym for “obey.” It was primarily used for being arranged in orderly ranks as soldiers in an army, taking your specified position so that the whole group can function well. In the context of oppression, as it is used in Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3-4, 1 Peter 2-3 and Romans 13, there is an endurance of being subjected to something, not an absolute obedience to a rightful commander.
“Who arise over” or “governing” is not just about being in authority but rather about dominating, a sense of prevailing in a struggle for power over others.
“Without being under God” or “except from God” is not about origin (‘from’ is not a good word to use as its translation). The word hupo has two basic meanings: ‘under’ or ‘by.’ This word choice seems intentionally ambiguous here, wanting the authorities to assume he means ‘by’ and the oppressed people hearing him to mean ‘under.’
“Arranged under God” or “appointed by God” is about being put in place and again uses the preposition hupo, which can mean either ‘under’ or ‘by.’
Romans 13:2
“Is organized in opposition against” or “resists” is not just about disagreeing or noncompliance. It is another military term related to ‘cooperate with’ but with the opposite meaning. It is used of an army arranged in ranks ready to oppose an attacking force. There is an assumption of reactive violence, returning violent force against violent force.
“Decisive action” or “judgment” is not about divine punishment but about the authorities reacting to the violent opposition with more violence to crush the opposition.
Romans 13:4
“God’s servant” or “God’s agent” is a term that someone like Caesar would not have appreciated, just as he would have been less than thrilled about being called “under God.”
“God’s servant of injustice” or “God’s punishing agent” is another ambiguous term. The word ekdikos is translated in the LIT as ‘of injustice’ and in the NRSV as ‘who executes’ (it’s a difficult phrase to translate, with the word itself being an adjective that doesn’t flow well in English). It most literally means something like “out of justice” and can be used both to mean “outside of justice,” as in, unjust, and “from justice,” as in acting on the basis of Justice. I believe this is another intentionally vague word with two meanings, one for the authority to hear, and one for the oppressed to understand.
Romans 13:5
“It is necessary to cooperate” or “One must submit/be subject” as “because” of the violent anger of the authority does not suggest that this is a divine morality issue. It is a practical way of avoiding the violence threatened by the authority.
“Shared understanding” or “conscience” is not about an inner moral guide but about an awareness or attentiveness, an understanding held together as a community. The sense of what that understanding is about is not explicitly stated, but it almost certainly points back to the end of chapter 12 and the instruction not to repay violence toward the violent oppressor. It also seems to be an acknowledgement that Paul and his audience understand each other and what is being hinted at without being said explicitly. It’s like a textual wink.
Go back and read the paragraph again with those ideas in mind. For me, it starts to paint a picture of both pragmatic self-preservation through not provoking violent tyrants and also a subversive, nonviolent resistance of loving and enduring under the reign of an enemy.
Remember, the relevant section isn’t over yet. Keep going through verse 10.
6 That’s also why you complete your tribute payment—because the representative servants of God are those who persevere in this very thing. 7 Give away everything that is owed—tributes to whomever claims a tribute, tax to whomever claims a tax, fear to whomever elicits fear, and treating as having value whomever deserves being treated as having value. 8 Owe nothing to anyone except love to each other. Whoever loves the other fulfills Torah. 9 You see, the part that says, “Do not engage in marital infidelity, do not murder, do not steal, do not crave” (and any other directive) is summarized with this saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love doesn’t produce harm to the neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of Torah.
It continues along the lines of “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” another example of ambiguous “dissembling” that says something that the oppressed would understand but that the privileged and powerful would have a hard time pinpointing.
This section fits within the whole flow of Romans by summarizing the whole of Scripture with “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but it also ties together this one section that starts at 12:9 with “Love must be without pretending.” It’s not only instructing the audience to love everyone—including the enemy, which includes the oppressive authorities—but also makes a point to say “Love doesn’t produce harm to the neighbor.”
If God is love, and God loves the whole world, and God is mostly clearly shown in Jesus who would rather die for others than do any harm, then when the authorities use violent force against people it sees as a threat, then it is against God, acting “outside of justice.” That statement about love not producing harm is not only a guide for the church; it is an indictment against the oppressors.
With all that in view, it strikes me that Christians who teach that Romans 13 is about obeying all authorities all the time without question because “God says so” are not reading it with the shared understanding Paul mentions. They are reading it with the understanding Caesar would have held. They are reading it in “the way of the world.”
And I stand with Paul in saying about them,
28 And just as they knowingly decided not to hold close to God, God handed them over to a degrading mind to do things that aren’t appropriate, 29 having been filled with every injustice, disgraceful behavior, greed, and abuse and being full of spite, murder, competitiveness, deception, and malice, being whisperers, 30 people who speak badly of others, who are horrifying to God, violent, arrogant, frauds, inventors of harm, who disregard parents, 31 who are uncomprehending, disunited, cruel, and without loving-faithfulness. 32 These people know thoroughly what God has declared to be right, that those who practice these kinds of things are equivalent with death, yet they not only do them but also applaud those who practice them.
Don’t be a tyrant, and don’t support tyrants. Love your enemies, and pray for them, but not to support what they’re doing but precisely so that they’ll transform they’re thinking and what they do, and we may all find liberation together. Let’s all conquer harmfulness with love that promotes well-being for all.
