Romans 13-14

Romans 13

¹Let everyone put himself under the authority of the higher powers, because there is no power which is not of God, and all powers are ordered by God.

²For which reason everyone who puts himself against the authority puts himself against the order of God: and those who are against it will get punishment for themselves.

³For rulers are not a cause of fear to the good work but to the evil. If you would have no fear of the authority, do good and you will have praise;

⁴For he is the servant of God to you for good. But if you do evil, have fear; for the sword is not in his hand for nothing: he is God's servant, making God's punishment come on the evil-doer.

⁵So put yourselves under the authority, not for fear of wrath, but because you have the knowledge of what is right.

⁶For the same reason, make payment of taxes; because the authority is God's servant, to take care of such things at all times.

⁷Give to all what is their right: taxes to him whose they are, payment to him whose right it is, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour is to be given.

⁸Be in debt for nothing, but to have love for one another: for he who has love for his neighbour has kept all the law.

⁹And this, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not put to death, Do not take what is another's, Do not have desire for what is another's, and if there is any other order, it is covered by this word, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself.

¹⁰Love does no wrong to his neighbour, so love makes the law complete.

¹¹See then that the time has come for you to be awake from sleep: for now is your salvation nearer than when you first had faith.

¹²The night is far gone, and the day is near: so let us put off the works of the dark, arming ourselves with light,

¹³With right behaviour as in the day; not in pleasure-making and drinking, not in bad company and unclean behaviour, not in fighting and envy.

¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give thought to the flesh to do its desires.

Romans 14

¹Do not put on one side him who is feeble in faith, and do not put him in doubt by your reasonings.

²One man has faith to take all things as food: another who is feeble in faith takes only green food.

³Let not him who takes food have a low opinion of him who does not: and let not him who does not take food be a judge of him who does; for he has God's approval.

⁴Who are you to make yourself a judge of another man's servant? it is to his master that he is responsible for good or bad. Yes, his place will be safe, because the Lord is able to keep him from falling.

⁵This man puts one day before another: to that man they are the same. Let every man be certain in his mind.

⁶He who keeps the day, keeps it to the Lord; and he who takes food, takes it as to the Lord, for he gives praise to God; and he who does not take food, to the Lord he takes it not, and gives praise to God.

⁷For every man's life and every man's death has a relation to others as well as to himself.

⁸As long as we have life we are living to the Lord; or if we give up our life it is to the Lord; so if we are living, or if our life comes to an end, we are the Lord's.

⁹And for this purpose Christ went into death and came back again, that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰But you, why do you make yourself your brother's judge? or again, why have you no respect for your brother? because we will all have to take our place before God as our judge.

¹¹For it is said in the holy Writings, By my life, says the Lord, to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give worship to God.

¹²So every one of us will have to give an account of himself to God.

¹³Then let us not be judges of one another any longer: but keep this in mind, that no man is to make it hard for his brother, or give him cause for doubting.

¹⁴I am conscious of this, and am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself; but for the man in whose opinion it is unclean, for him it is unclean.

¹⁵And if because of food your brother is troubled, then you are no longer going on in the way of love. Do not let your food be destruction to him for whom Christ went into death.

¹⁶Let it not be possible for men to say evil about your good:

¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸And he who in these things is Christ's servant, is pleasing to God and has the approval of men.

¹⁹So then, let us go after the things which make peace, and the things by which we may be a help to one another.

²⁰Do not let the work of God come to nothing on account of food. All things are certainly clean; but it is evil for that man who by taking food makes it hard for another.

²¹It is better not to take meat or wine or to do anything which might be a cause of trouble to your brother.

²²The faith which you have, have it to yourself before God. Happy is the man who is not judged by that to which he gives approval.

²³But he who is in doubt is judged if he takes food, because he does it not in faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.