Romans 13:3-4 reveals that one of the methods of His doing so is by means of civil government. Paul depicts those responsible for this duty as ministers, or servants, of God. Consequently, if 1 Corinthians 5:13 eliminates Christians from judging non-Christian lawbreakers, it also eliminates Christians from serving as judges in civil government. Consequently, the position depicted by Paul as servants of God in Romans 13 must be filled exclusively by non-Christians.
However, the government Paul depicts in Romans 13 is a biblical civil government.2 Would anyone dare suggest that a biblical civil body politic is to be governed by non-Christians?3 Consequently, there must be more to 1 Corinthians 5:13 then first meets the eye.
More “Contradictions”
Not only is the usual interpretation of 1 Corinthians 5:13 incompatible with Romans 13:1-7, it also conflicts with what immediately follows it in 1 Corinthians 6:
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? ... Know ye not that we shall judge ... things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. (1 Corinthians 6:2-4)
What appears to be a contradiction by Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians is solved in his second epistle to the Corinthians:
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:5-6, NASB)
1 Corinthians 10:6 declares a time was coming when Christians would not only punish their own but all disobedience. This cannot be referring to disobedience in the church because Paul declares this is to occur when the Christians’ obedience is complete, or fulfilled. If the punishment is here referring to that which is to be meted out upon Christians, why would Paul wait to do so after the Christians become obedient? When someone is obedient, you don’t punish them for their disobedience, but instead reward them for their obedience.
Instead, Paul is referring to the future when the Christian ecclesias4 would be large enough and potent enough to have established biblical governments over society through which all violations of God’s law—by Christians and non-Christians alike—would be adjudicated by biblically qualified judges, in similar fashion as found prescribed in Exodus 18:
And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws.... Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons. (Exodus 18:20-22)
Past and Future Ecclesias
According to 1 Corinthians 6:1-2, Christian ecclesias were expected to judge themselves. But the time for governing society had not yet arrived when Paul penned 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, nor when he penned 1 Corinthians 6:2-4, nor even when he penned 2 Corinthians 10:4-6. But he understood there would in fact be a time when this would occur under the watch of future diligent kingdom ambassadors, like those right here in 17th-century Christian Colonial America:
The Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Compact, 1638
We whose names are underwritten do hereby solemnly in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick and as He shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given in His Holy Word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby.
Fundamental Agreement of the Colony of New Haven, Connecticut, 1639
Agreement; We all agree that the scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in duties which they are to perform to God and to man, as well in families and commonwealth as in matters of the church; so likewise in all public officers which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, we will, all of us, be ordered by the rules which the scripture holds forth; and we agree that such persons may be entrusted with such matters of government as are described in Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1:13 with Deuteronomy 17:15 and 1 Corinthians 6:1, 6 & 7….
In 1 Corinthians 5:13, Paul does not limit Christians from governing society. When coupled with Romans 12:21-13:7, 1 Corinthians 6:2-4, and 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, his statement instead anticipates the times when Christians would do precisely that.
END NOTES
1. America’s Greatest Constitution
Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective
2. “Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government, Part 1”
3. “Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government, Part 3”
“Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government, Part 4”
4. Ecclesia is poorly translated “church” in our English Bibles. Instead, ecclesia refers to a Christian community in the fullest sense of the word, governed by biblically qualified Christian overseers, such as depicted by Paul in Romans 13:1-7.
