Being Subject to Authorities

13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.^(A)

Maintain Good Deeds

3 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,^(A)

¹³ For the Lord’s sake be subject to every human authority,^[a] whether to the emperor as supreme^{(A) 14} or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶ As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.^{(B) 17} Honor everyone. Love the family of believers.^[b] Fear God. Honor the emperor.^(C)

¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”^(A)

⁵ It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever I please.^{(A) 6} Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him.^{(B) 7} All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.^(C)

⁸ But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I have completed its destruction by his hand.^(D)

⁸ Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.^[a](A)

¹⁸ As for you, O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar kingship, greatness, glory, and majesty.^{(A) 19} And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed those he wanted to kill, kept alive those he wanted to keep alive, honored those he wanted to honor, and degraded those he wanted to degrade.^{(B) 20} But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he acted proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory was stripped from him.^{(C) 21} He was driven from human society, and his mind was made like that of an animal. His dwelling was with the wild asses, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until he learned that the Most High God has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals and sets over it whomever he will.^{(D) 22} And you, Belshazzar his son, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this!^{(E) 23} You have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven! The vessels of his temple have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose power is your very breath and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored.^(F)