Sermon Title: Submission to the Worldly Governing Authorities, for There is No Authority Except from God, and the Authorities Existing Today Are Appointed by God in Our Beloved South Sudan.

Romans 13: 1–14

My dear brother and sister in our Lord Jesus Christ, greetings to you all in the fold of our living God, in our beloved South Sudan. The God of our father Abraham, the God of our father Isaac, and the God of our father Jacob, in this blessed morning of God’s grace for His chosen people in South Sudan since eternity, may you be well and in good health.

Beloved brothers and sisters, I am pleased first of all to point you to this grace from the Holy Scripture, as you prepare your hearts in your daily lives with spiritual readiness, faith, and trust in God alone, who has no partner.

A brief note on: Submission to the worldly governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities existing today are appointed by God in our beloved nation of South Sudan.

As the main verses indicate in Romans 13: 1–7, which say:

1. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
4. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
5. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.
6. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.
7. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

And not only this, but the Holy Scripture also speaks to us about brotherly love, found in Romans 13: 8–14, which say:

8. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

The Holy Scripture also teaches us about truth and justice in society, found in Micah 6: 8, which says:

“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

And also in Revelation 1: 3, which says:

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

And in Daniel 12: 3, which says:

“Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”

In conclusion, beloved brothers and sisters: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

The writer is an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and can be reached at the following phone number or email: 

📞 0913306885 

📧 johndour268@gmail.com