DAILY TEXT, From today Friday, January 19, 2024, Let everyone submit to the higher authorities (Rom. 13:1).

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Friday, January 19, 2024

Let everyone submit to higher authorities (Rom. 13:1).

In this verse, the expression “higher authorities” refers to human rulers who have power and authority over other people. Christians must obey these rulers. They maintain public order, enforce the law, and sometimes even defend Jehovah's people (Rev. 12:16). That is why we are commanded to give them the taxes, tributes, fear and honor that they ask for (Rom. 13:7). Now, these governments have authority only because Jehovah allows them to. Jesus made this truth clear when the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was interrogating him. When Pilate told him that he had the authority to spare his life or to execute him, Jesus replied: “You would have no authority over me if it had not been given to you from above” (John 19:11). Like Pilate, all rulers and politicians today have limited authority. w22.10 14 para. 6.

In what situations should we not obey human rulers, and what do they need to know?

Christians obey rulers when their laws do not contradict Jehovah's laws. But, when they ask us to do something that God forbids or forbid us to do something that God wants us to do, we do not obey them. For example, they may require young people to join their country's armed forces.c Or they may ban our Bible and publications, as well as preaching and gathering. When rulers abuse their authority, for example by persecuting Christ's disciples, they must answer to God. Jehovah is watching! (Eccl. 5:8).

What is the difference between superior and supreme, and how important is this?

The word superior conveys the idea of ​​something that is better or greater than, or above, something else. But it doesn't mean that that is the best, the greatest or what is above everything. This last idea is rather related to another word: supreme. Although human governments are called “the higher authorities,” there is another authority that is supreme, that is, above all. In the Bible it is said four times that Jehovah is Supreme (Dan. 7:18, 22, 25, 27).

What did the prophet Daniel see in some visions?

The prophet Daniel had visions that made it clear that Jehovah is far above all other authorities. First he saw four enormous beasts representing world powers of the past and present: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, and the power formed by the United Kingdom and the United States, which is the one that rules today (Dan. 7: 1-3, 17). Daniel then saw Jehovah sitting on a throne in the heavenly court (Dan. 7:9, 10). What that faithful prophet saw next is a warning to the rulers of our day.

According to Daniel 7:13, 14, 27, to whom does Jehovah give authority over the Earth, and what does this tell us about him?

(Read Daniel 7:13, 14, 27). Daniel sees that God takes all authority away from human governments and gives it to those who are most deserving and powerful. To whom? To “one like a son of man,” Jesus Christ, and to “the saints of the Supreme,” the 144,000, who will rule “forever and ever” (Dan. 7:18). It is clear that Jehovah is the Supreme, since only he has the authority to do something like this.

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