Romans 13 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Submit to Government

Obey Authorities; Love Your Neighbor; Put on Christ

Rom 13:1Let 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.

Rom 13:2

Rom 13:2Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

Rom 13:3

Rom 13:3For 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.

Rom 13:4

Rom 13:4For 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.

Rom 13:5

Rom 13:5Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.

Rom 13:6

Rom 13:6For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.

Rom 13:7

Rom 13:7Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Love Your Neighbor

(cf. Mark 12:31; James 2:8 )

Rom 13:8

Rom 13:8Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Rom 13:9

Rom 13:9For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,”[fn] “You shall not covet,”[fn] and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[fn]

Rom 13:10

Rom 13:10Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Put on Christ

Rom 13:11

Rom 13:11And 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.

Rom 13:12

Rom 13:12The 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.

Rom 13:13

Rom 13:13Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.

Rom 13:14

Rom 13:14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(13:9)

NU-Text omits “You shall not bear false witness.”

(13:9)

Exodus 20:13–15, 17; Deuteronomy 5:17–19, 21

(13:9)

Leviticus 19:18

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For more information on this translation, see the NKJV Preface.