I pay my taxes. I stop at stop signs. I don’t use another’s identity. I abide by speed limits. I have marriage and driver’s licenses. I stop when told to do so by an officer of the law.

In other words, I try to be in compliance with this:

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers” (Romans 13:1).

I suppose my most conscious reason for submitting to civil authority is that I fear the consequences of disobedience.

More importantly, though, I obey because of the rest of the verse.

“For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Civil authority gets its power from God. Not from the people, not from the Constitution, not from the military. From God. Period.

So obeying them is obeying God. Honoring them is honoring God.

I want to do better at this, especially at my attitudes toward some of them.