Romans 13: 1-14
1: Every person must submit to the authorities in power, for all authorities come form God, and the existing authorities are constituted by Him.
2: It follows that everyone who rebels against authority is resisting a divine institution, and those who resist have themselves to thank for the punishment they will receive.
3: Governments hold no terrors for the law abiding but only for the criminal.
You wish to have no fear of authorities?
Then continue to do right and you will have their approval.
4: for they are God’s agents working for your good. But if you are doing wrong, then you will have cause to fear them; it is not for nothing that they hold the power of the sword, for they are God’s agents of punishment bringing retribution on the offender.
5: That is why you are obliged to submit. It is an obligation imposed not merely by fear of retribution but of fear of conscience.
6: That is also why you pay taxes. The authorities are in God’s service and it is to this they devote their energies.
7: Discharge your obligations to everyone; pay tax and levy, reverence and respect to those to whom they are due.
8: Leave no debt outstanding, but remember the debt of love you owe one another. He who loves His neighbour has met every requirement of the law.
9: The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covert,’ and any other commandment there may be, are all summed up in one rule, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
10: Love cannot wrong a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
11: Always remember that this is the hour of crisis: it is high time for you to wake out of your sleep, for deliverance is nearer to us now than it was when first we believed.
12: It is far on the night; day is near. Let us therefore throw off the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.
13: Let us behave with decency as befits the day: no drunken orgies, no debauchery or vice, no quarrels or jealousies!
14: Let Christ Jesus Himself be the armour you wear; give your un-spiritual nature no opportunities to satisfy its desires.