Every employee hopes and prays to be assigned under a good boss or manager at work, but reality is that not everyone will have good and Godly bosses. That's because the office place is full of leaders that don't act like leaders.
Almost every professional has experienced being under a leader that they have a hard time submitting to because of questionable principles. I remember my wife's first job and the horror she had to go through dealing with the corruption, favoritism and complacency that her boss displayed. Often I felt the urge to tell my wife to show her manager who was boss, but that's not the way God wants us to roll.
Romans 13:1 tells us "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." Before we look at what this scripture means, let us first look at what it doesn't mean.
Submission does not mean blind devotion that follows leaders even if it leads to sin. It also does not mean that we do not confront our leaders when we feel that they are straying from the right path. It involves respect and submission, not just to the position but to the person as well.
In case you might be thinking that Paul must have been under a really good government leader to be able to boldly instruct the Roman church to submit to authorities, you must know that their leader was nowhere close to good. In fact, the emperor that time was Nero, who was known to be one of the most brutal and ill-advised leaders of Rome.
Emperor Nero caused thousands of Christian executions and is best known in history to have been the leader that burned Rome -- his own city -- for a reason that still remains a mystery to this day. But despite all of that, Paul calls Christians to submit to authorities. Sounds really easy to listen to your laggy boss compared to that, doesn't it?
David acted the same way when he refused to overthrow King Saul by his own hands calling him the chosen one by God. Because the truth is that God does appoint leaders -- both good and bad -- and He has very strong reasons in doing so. We may not understand it, but we must trust that God's will is sovereign and He makes all things work together even when it seems absurd in the beginning.
In the end, we know we can submit to authorities -- Godly and ungodly -- by respecting them and following them as long as it doesn't lead to sin because we don't serve them, but we serve God who is always in control.
