The Government Can’t Change the Heart, but Love Can

In our politically tense world, we must look to God’s Word for perspective and guidance. Romans 13 is one of the key passages in Scripture on politics, and while it’s deep and complex, three simple points can be drawn from it for our context today: leaders are necessary, laws are good, and love is better.

Leaders Are Necessary

Romans 13:1 makes a bold claim: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” In an age of corrupt politicians, this command feels strange. Are we really called to submit to government leaders, even when they’re driven by greed and partisan gain?

Affirming God’s sovereignty over governing authorities and the call for Christians to submit to them doesn’t mean those authorities won’t be held accountable for their actions or that we owe them unconditional obedience. The point is that all human authority is derived from God’s authority. And since it comes from God, the authority of government leaders is a delegated, not absolute, authority.

This doesn’t mean God endorses everything done by a political leader. God-given authority can be misused and abused. As Jesus said to Pilate before the crucifixion, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). Pilate misused his authority to condemn and kill Jesus, yet the authority he used to do this was delegated to him by God.

The authority of government leaders is a delegated, not absolute, authority.

The apostle Peter could write “Honor the emperor” (1 Pet. 2:17) even though the emperor at the time was a psychopath named Nero who terrorized Christians and eventually killed Peter. Submitting to the authorities that God has established is about respecting the function of the office, not the character of the one in the office.

For this reason, while it’s fine to disagree with a political ruler, Christians are called to do so with respect and love, acknowledging the image of God in that leader even as we hold them accountable to their God-given authority.

Leaders are always flawed, yet they’re an essential part of God’s design for government.

Laws Are Good

Government leaders are called to create and uphold laws that protect people’s basic rights and create space for their flourishing. And we can all agree, in general, that laws are good. It’s good that 10-year-olds can’t drive. It’s to everyone’s benefit that stealing isn’t allowed. But while laws are meant to be good, we have to acknowledge two important qualifications to how Christians relate to the laws of their land.

First, we must recognize the distinction between biblical principles and government policies. For Christians, our biblical principles must shape the way we approach government policies. But we cannot confuse the two. The Bible doesn’t give us policies on international trade, carbon dioxide emissions, or public education. If we don’t recognize this difference, there’s a danger of reading our policy preferences into Scripture and then claiming to have the only biblical position.

Take immigration, for example. Scripture gives clear principles about God’s heart for the immigrant and how God’s people are to love the immigrant. Deuteronomy 10:18–19 says, “[The LORD] loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt” (NIV). However, while this biblical principle regarding love for the immigrant is clear, Scripture doesn’t prescribe policies regarding how many immigrants should be allowed in a country or how long visas should last. Biblical principles must inform our approach to government policies.

Second, while laws are good, there’s a time for Christians to resist the laws of the land. We’re obligated to resist the law when the government forbids what God commands or commands what God forbids.

Scripture is filled with examples of God’s people resisting the government. The Egyptian Pharaoh ordered Hebrew midwives to kill newborn boys, but the women refused to obey (Ex. 1:15–17). The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar issued an edict that his subjects must bow down and worship his golden image, but three Israelites—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—resisted (Dan. 3:4–6, 12). When the Persian king Darius made a decree that for 30 days nobody could pray “to any god or man” except himself, Daniel refused (6:7–10).

After the governing authorities commanded the apostles to stop preaching the gospel, Peter and John replied, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). In Acts 5:29, they say, “We must obey God rather than man.”

We have an obligation to the government, but our ultimate allegiance is to God. When Christians do resist the government, however, they must do so not in violence but in peace, driven not by hate but by love, and aiming not for conquest but for reconciliation.

Love Is Better

While many people look to Romans 13:1–7 for principles about government, they often miss its connection to the next three verses, which are about love. Immediately after discussing leaders and laws, the apostle Paul says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” for “love is the fulfilling of the law” (vv. 9, 10).

We have an obligation to the government, but our ultimate allegiance is to God.

We must remember that while Scripture speaks to the legitimacy of government, it also makes clear the limits of government.

The government can’t change the heart, but love can. Politicians can’t make you a new person, but love can. Laws can’t give purpose to your life, but love can.

This isn’t to minimize legislation: it’s important. But you can’t legislate internal transformation. The people of God are called to be a people of love:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col. 3:12–14)

Love is the social glue of Christ’s community. We’re bound together by love for one another and for our city.

Leaders are necessary. Laws are good. Love is better.