WATCHMAN33
At dawn in a Roman street, believers pay lawful dues, aid a neighbor, and lay aside dark garments as warm light gleams like protective armor.
KING JAMES VERSION

ROMANS 13

Read the chapter, follow a linked verse, and continue into related Watchman 33 teaching.

CHAPTER VISUAL

Romans 13 — Believers honor governing authorities, render what is due, fulfill the law through love, and awaken to put on the armor of light.

About this illustration

Taxes, civic order, neighbor-love, discarded night garments, and dawn combine the chapter’s public and moral exhortations. The armor of light is suggested by illumination rather than militarizing the church, and the scene does not imply approval of every governmental act.

Scripture basis: Romans 13:1–14
  1. 1Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
  2. 2Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
  3. 3For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
  4. 4For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
  5. 5Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
  6. 6For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
  7. 7Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
  8. 8Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
  9. 9For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
  10. 10Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
  11. 11And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
  12. 12The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
  13. 13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
  14. 14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom

EXPLORE THE MESSAGE

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