Romans 13:3

For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. ["For" explains why the punishment comes upon the rebel. It is because government exists to promote the good and suppress the evil (1 Timothy 2:1-2; 1 Peter 2:13-17). If it does otherwise, "it," as Burkitt sagely remarks, "was not ordained for that end." A good man may suffer through misunderstanding, the machination of evil men, or even maladministration, but he can never suffer as a good man. Even Nero punished Christians as evil-doers (2 Timothy 2:9). History presents no instance where any government set itself to put down righteousness and exalt evil as such; though there are myriads of cases where human ignorance, prejudice and bigotry mistook the wrong for the right, and made havoc of the good, supposing it to be evil. Paul himself, as an executive of the Jewish Government, had been party to such an error (Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:13). Intentional punishment of the good and countenancing of the evil would be governmental insanity and suicide. When it becomes apparent to the populace that the government has fallen into this state of aberrance, revolution is inevitable; but till the information becomes general, the individual must submit, for slight mistakes do not justify momentous changes and vast social upheavals, and peace for the many may well be purchased at the discomfiture of the few. But if armed or physical resistance is forbidden, moral resistance is strictly and unequivocally enjoined. The government must exact nothing contrary to or inconsistent with Christian duty. If it does, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 4:18-20; Acts 5:28-29); for under no circumstance can God's children be justified in doing wrong (Matthew 10:28; Romans 3:8). Allegiance ceases when the law of the land seeks to subvert the law of God; and Paul teaches nothing to the contrary. As the martyr Polycarp said to the governor who bade him denounce Christ, and swear by the fortunes of Cæsar: "We are taught to give honor to princes and potentates, but such honor as is not contrary to God's religion." "It was the student of Paul," says Moule, "who, alone before the great Diet, uttering no denunciation, temperate and respectful in his whole bearing, was yet found immovable by pope and emperor: 'I can not otherwise; so help me God.'"] And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same [comp. 1 Peter 2:14]: