“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (Romans 13:1)

By now we are all tired of the election news, banter, random texts, robo-calls, letters in the mail, and everything in between. This is not to say that we feel the election is unimportant, but more so what is done is done and now we need to simply elect our next president and get back to the hard work needed to fix this country (with whomever might be the winner). So honestly this verse was the last thing I personally wanted to write about. But I went to https://www.biblegateway.com/ and naturally Romans 13:1 was the verse of the day, so here we are… If we assume a fair and just election, which I will be vigorously praying for, then we need to except the outcome. For Paul has written, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities.” Now we need to truly examine this verse within the context of its time period to get its full meaning. The Jews were captive under an oppressive Roman empire. And the Jewish Christians were considered outcasts from their own families. Non-Jewish (gentile) Christians had it even worse. And with that as the setting, Paul still argued for submission to the government. Why? Because they “have been established by God.” We might think, well God must have gotten this one wrong. Or how can we submit to a person / administration that has caused so many problems. Well with absolute certainty, I can say that I have no idea. All I can say, is that come Tuesday, God will hopefully allow another president to take office. We can hope for the best outcome and pray for God’s will to be done. But at some point, one of these two candidates will take control of the executive branch of our government. And all we need to remember is that “there is no authority except that which God has established.”