In being subject to the government, believers should pay taxes and customs to the authorities as God’s officers (vv. 6-7). On the one hand, we are in a good condition, enjoying a good country with a good government; on the other hand, we need to pay for this by paying taxes and customs to the authorities as God’s officers. To pay taxes and customs indicates that we are subject to authority. In relation to the government we must be honest and pay whatever taxes are due.
All believers need to learn how to subject themselves to authorities. Rendering fear and honor to whom they are due indicates that we are subject to the government (v. 7).
According to the healthy teaching in the New Testament, believers must keep a good relationship with the government and be ready to do every good work (Titus 3:1-8). Paul said to Titus, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready unto every good work” (v. 1). To be subject to rulers is to recognize God’s authority and to respect His government over men. To be ready unto every good work means to live a testimony for God.
Before Paul could teach the saints to respect the government, he had to experience a certain amount of transformation. When he was Saul of Tarsus, he was a patriotic Jew and wanted to be free from the yoke of the Roman imperialists. However, in Titus 3:1 Paul instructs the saints to subject themselves to rulers and authorities, being ready unto every good work. According to Paul’s word in Romans 13, governmental officials are appointed by God. Paul recognized that even the officials appointed by Caesar were rulers appointed by God; they were His deputy authority. If Paul had not been transformed from a natural person into a spiritual person with a spiritual understanding, it would have been difficult for him to give such instructions. In like manner, we need to be transformed through the divine dispensing in order to be subject to rulers and to be ready unto every good work. We have a proper relationship with the government not by ethical teachings, by philosophical instruction, or by our natural life and ability but through our experience of the dispensing of the processed Triune God. We have a heavenly, divine, and spiritual supply that enables us to be subject to the government.
First Peter 2:13-15 says, “Be subject to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, whether to a king as being supreme, or to governors as being sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and praise of those who do good. For so is the will of God, that by doing good you would muzzle the ignorance of foolish men.” The phrase every human institution includes “a king as being supreme” and also “governors as being sent by him.” To be subject to institutions means to be subject to the regulations, ordinances, and laws enacted by the legislature. In these verses Peter is telling us that for the Lord’s sake, that is, for the expression and glorification of God (v. 12), we should be subject to all human institutions according to the will of God.
For the believers to have the best attitude toward others, they should love their enemies. This is the topmost attitude that they should hold toward others. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:43-44). This requirement to love our enemies deeply touches our being and is a test to prove whether we live by ourselves or by Christ. We love our good neighbors because they suit our natural choice, and we hate our enemies because they do not match our natural choice. If the Lord arranged for us to have only good neighbors and no enemies, we would not be put to the test. The Lord uses our enemies to expose what is within us. If we read Matthew 5 through 7, we will see that the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens does not give any room to our natural being; instead, it kills all the “germs” within us. Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity we are able to love our enemies.
As believers, we not only should love our enemies but also do well to those who hate us. Luke 6:27 says, “Love your enemies; do well to those who hate you.” This is the highest standard of morality. Verse 35 says, “Love your enemies, and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” This verse contains the secret to loving our enemies and doing good to those who hate us. The secret is the life of God. If we would fulfill these requirements, we must have the life of God. We must be born of the Most High, born of God, and thereby become sons of the Most High. Therefore, in order to love our enemies, we must be born of God to be a God-man, a person saturated with God and mingled with Him.
God loved us even when we were His enemies (Rom. 5:8, 10). This One who is the Most High is kind to those who are unthankful and evil. His love has been dispensed into us. Therefore, the love with which we love others, especially our enemies, is the love of God our Father. The New Testament says that God is love (1 John 4:8). As Spirit is the nature of God’s person, and light is the nature of God’s expression, so love is the nature of God’s being. Hence, if we have been born of God, we surely have been born of the nature of God’s being, which is the divine love. As those born of God, we have His life and nature. Now we are spontaneously able to love our enemies even as God our Father loves them. The reason the Lord told us to love our enemies is so that we may be the sons of the Most High.