“Sharper than any two-edged sword” is how St. Paul characterizes God’s Word (Hebrews 4:12). If we are to show Scripture the reverence it is due, we must read it with sober care.

In addressing the question of the authority of the State, Paul gives us a text that demands our closest reading. Allow me, in three parts, to cite Romans 13:1–7 in its entirety. As I do so, I’ll also offer some pointed comments. Paul first tells us:

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. Therefore, he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Society requires structure, and sustaining that structure requires the exercise of civil authority. Our call is to a change of heart, to metanoia; insurrection does not bring this about. Yet neither is authority for its own sake. Rather it must be in service to the common good. Indeed, God is the source of this authority, even as the common good is ordered to God.

But how are we to recognize legitimate authority when so many who claim title to it prove to be imposters? Here civic discernment is critical. Raw political power, whether personal or structural, is only too often a terror to the good. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao martyred millions of good people and rewarded those who helped murder them. Such tyrants do not speak for God; it is a mystery that his permissive will allows them to reign for a time.

Despite the persistence of tyranny, legitimate authority can, by the grace of God, carry the day. With respect to this true authority, St. Paul develops his reflection. Thus, he continues:

Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.

The common and shared good that God wills for us embraces each of us. It is a fearful thing to act against it, and God is not mocked. Hence authority has a commission to punish those who undermine the common good. We do well to remember that the greatest of tyrants depend on the cold indifference and petty enmities of which we are all capable. Power corrupts those who abuse it, as Hannah Arendt commented, in the fashion of the “banality of evil.”

Just here there’s a further point to consider. Noting St. Paul’s reference to “the sword” and its use “to execute wrath,” apologists for capital punishment contend that he is an advocate of capital punishment. But Paul does not explicitly propose such an advocacy. Nor does he do so in his own case when, as a Roman citizen, he appeals to Festus. Rather in his own defense he says, “If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death; but if there is nothing in their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25:11). Paul simply acknowledges standard legal practice. But “standard practice” often falls far short of the Gospel’s dynamic trajectory. In its commentary on these passages, the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible tells us that the Church now works for the abolition of capital punishment.

Consider, by way of comparison, Paul’s intent when he sends Onesimus, a slave, back to his master Philemon. He does so not to endorse the institution of slavery. Rather he begs a Christian to treat his slave as a brother in Christ and by doing so to transcend an institution that persists even today.

Nothing, to be sure, has been more “standard practice” in the history of the State than the levying of taxes. Paul forthrightly reflects on how we are to respond. His final instruction is as follows:

Therefore, one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Conscience, as Cardinal Newman tells us, is at once both God’s vicar and an exercise of our reason. As such, it is more fundamental than the State. Insofar as the State advances the common good, it merits our financial support. But insofar as the State undermines the common good, we ought to be circumspect in providing it with revenue. On occasion, a mostly constructive State goes badly wrong in a specific matter. Here we can rightly speak of the option of limited civil disobedience. (An example: during the Vietnam War, some people refused to pay a telephone tax designed to help fund it.)

Perhaps, gentle reader, this blog post ought not to offer more amateur exegesis. Indeed, perhaps I have offered too much. But I am ready to submit two final thoughts. First, the Ignatius Study Bible is a splendid resource. Second, I respect a conscience that finds that it “passes all understanding” to suppose that we can best love our enemy by putting him to the sword.