Romans 13:1-14
13 Let every soul be submissive to superior authorities; for there is no authority except by God, and those that there are are given their positions by God,
2 so that he who sets himself against authority is opposing God’s institution; and those who oppose it will have judgment passed on them.
3 * For rulers are not a terror to the good deed but to the bad; and you want not to be afraid of the authority? do the good, and you will have praise from it,
4 for it is to you an agent of God’s for the good. But if you do the bad, do be afraid, for it is not for nothing he wears his sword; for he is an avenging agent of God’s for anger to him who commits the bad deed;
5 * for which reason it is necessary to be submissive not only on account of his anger but also on account of your conscience.
6 For this is why you pay taxes too; for they are servitors of God’s steadily at work for that very purpose.
7 Pay everybody what is due him: for whom it is the tax, the tax; for whom the tariff, the tariff; for whom fear, fear; for whom honor, honor.
8 Do not owe anybody anything, except to love each other; for he who loves the other has fulfilled the law.
9 For “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does not do anything bad to a neighbor; so love is fulfillment of the law.
11 And this knowing the crisis, that it is already time you woke up out of sleep, for salvation is nearer us now than when we first believed.
12 It is far on in the night, and day is almost here; so let us throw off the activities of darkness and put on the armor of light;
13 let us behave respectably, as in daylight, not with wild parties and getting drunk, not with sexualism and indecency, not with quarreling and jealousy;
14 * but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make arrangements for the flesh for gratifications.
Footnotes
^ 13:3 The Greek shows that from it means from the authority
^ 13:5 Lit. of the anger
^ 13:14 (for gratifications) Lit. toward desires
