Dual Panel1Every person must submit to the authorities in power, for all authority comes from God, and the existing authorities are instituted by him.
2It follows that anyone who rebels against authority is resisting a divine institution, and those who resist have themselves to thank for the punishment they will receive.
3Governments hold no terrors for the law-abiding but only for the criminal. You wish to have no fear of the authorities? Then continue to do right and you will have their approval,
4for they are God's agents working for your good. But if you are doing wrong, then you will have cause to fear them; it is not for nothing that they hold the power of the sword, for they are God's agents of punishment bringing retribution on the offender.
5That is why you are obliged to submit. It is an obligation imposed not merely by fear of retribution but by conscience.
6That is also why you pay taxes. The authorities are in God's service and it is to this they devote their energies.
7Discharge your obligations to everyone; pay tax and levy, reverence and respect, to those to whom they are due.
8Leave no debt outstanding, but remember the debt of love you owe one another. He who loves his neighbour has met every requirement of the law.
9The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment there may be, are all summed up in the one rule, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
10Love cannot wrong a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
11Always remember that this is the hour of crisis: it is high time for you to wake out of sleep, for deliverance is nearer to us now than it was when first we believed.
12It is far on in the night; day is near. Let us therefore throw off the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.
13Let us behave with decency as befits the day: no drunken orgies, no debauchery or vice, no quarrels or jealousies!
14Let Christ Jesus himself be the armour that you wear; give your unspiritual nature no opportunity to satisfy its desires.