As most of you will realize, we are still dealing with the first seven verses in the 13th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans.

The great passage which starts with the words,

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.

The powers that be are ordained of God.

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God,

and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation or judgment.

And then the apostle, in the remaining five verses of this little section goes on to

elaborate that proposition. I call it little section. That's simply because it's seven verses.

But actually, of course, as we've been seeing, it is a very great section and a particularly

important one at the present time, because here the apostle,

in a more extended manner than perhaps anywhere else in all his writings, deals with the problem

of the relationship of the Christian man to the state in which he lives, the country to which

he belongs, and the government under which he has

his life and being.

And we are considering this.

Now, having dealt with it from the personal standpoint, we've now reached the stage at which

we are looking at it from the standpoint of the relationship of the church to the state,

not the individual Christian so much as the gathering

of Christians, those who constitute the church. And we've looked at it like this, we've

taken it historically. We've seen that it has played such a prominent part in the whole

history of Christianity that that it deserved our historical

review.

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