Homilies on Romans

So far is he from terrifying you, he says, that he even praises you: so far from being a hindrance to you, that he even works with you. When then you have his praise and his succor, how is it that you are not in subjection to him? For he makes virtue easier for you in other ways also, by chastising the wicked, by benefiting and honoring the good, and by working together with the will of God. Whence too he has even given him the name of “Minister.” And consider: I give you counsel to be sober-minded, and he, by the laws, speaks the same language. I exhort you not to be rapacious and grasping. And he sits in judgment in such cases, and so is a worker together with us, and an assistant to us, and has been commissioned by God for this end. Hence there are both reasons for reverencing him, both because he was commissioned by God, and because it was for such an object. “But if you do that which is evil, be afraid.” It is not then the ruler that makes the fear, but our own wickedness.

“For he bears not the sword in vain.” You see how he has furnished him with arms, and set him on guard like a soldier, for a terror to those that commit sin. “For he is the minister of God to execute wrath, a revenger upon him that does evil.” Now lest you should start off at hearing again of punishment, and vengeance, and a sword, he says again that it is God's law he is carrying out. For what if he does not know it himself? Yet it is God that has so shaped things (οὕτως ἐτύπωσεν). If then, whether in punishing, or in honoring, he be a Minister, in avenging virtue's cause, in driving vice away, as God wills, why be captious against him, when he is the cause of so many good doings, and paves the way for yours too? Since there are many who first practised virtue through the fear of God. For there are a duller sort, whom things to come have not such a hold upon as things present. He then who by fear and rewards gives the soul of the majority a preparatory turn towards its becoming more suited for the word of doctrine, is with good reason called “the Minister of God.”

Ver. 5. “Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake.”

What is the meaning of, “not only for wrath?” It means not only because thou dost resist God by not being subject, nor only because you are procuring great evils for yourself, both from God and the rulers, but also because he is a benefactor to you in things of the greatest importance, as he procures peace to you, and the blessings of civil institutions. For there are countless blessings to states through these authorities; and if you were to remove them, all things would go to ruin, and neither city nor country, nor private nor public buildings, nor anything else would stand, but all the world will be turned upside down, while the more powerful devour the weaker. And so even if some wrath were not to follow man's disobedience, even on this ground you ought to be subject, that you may not seem devoid of conscience and feeling towards the benefactor.

Ver. 6. “For, for this cause pay ye tribute also; for they are God's ministers, attending continually on this very thing.”

Without going one by one into the benefits done to states by the rulers, as that of good order and peace, the other services, as regarding the soldiery, and those over the public business, he shows the whole of this by a single case. For that you are benefited by him, he means, you bear witness yourself, by paying him a salary. Observe the wisdom and judgment of the blessed Paul. For that which seemed to be burdensome and annoying— the system of imposts— this he turns into a proof of their care for men. What is the reason, he means, that we pay tribute to a king? It is not as providing for us? And yet we should not have paid it unless we had known in the first instance that we were gainers from this superintendence. Yet it was for this that from of old all men came to an agreement that governors should be maintained by us, because to the neglect of their own affairs, they take charge of the public, and on this they spend their whole leisure, whereby our goods also are kept safe. After saying then what the external goods are, he again averts to the former line of argument (for in this way he was more likely to attract the believer to him), and he shows again that this is God's decree, and on it he makes his advice rest finally, in these words, “they are God's ministers.” Then to show the pains they take, and their hard life, he proceeds,

“Waiting continually upon this very thing.”

For this is their life, this their business, that you may enjoy peace. Wherefore in another Epistle, he bids them not only be subject, but also “pray” in their behalf. And as showing there too that the advantage was common to all, he adds, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all things.” For it is in no small degree that they contribute to the settled state of the present life, by keeping guard, beating off enemies, hindering those who are for sedition in the cities, putting an end to differences among any. For do not tell me of some one who makes an ill use of the thing, but look to the good order that is in the institution itself, and you will see the great wisdom of Him who enacted this law from the first.

Ver. 7, 8. “Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe (or ye owe) no man anything, but to love one another.”