ＴＥＲＴＵＬＬＩＡＮ： ”Ｗｉｔｈｉｎ ｔｈｅ Ｌｉｍｉｔｓ” （Ｔｉｔｕｓ ３：１）

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work.

Titus 3:11

Tertullian on the Limits of “Being Subject to Magistrates”

The early Christian writer Tertullian (ca. 155 AD – ca. 220 AD) had to deal with the practical application of the New Testament’s commands for Christians to be good subjects to the temporal rulers at a time when the temporal rulers defined being a good subject as renouncing the faith and participating in idolatry. In the following excerpts Tertullian makes the case that such command passages, like Titus 3:1, cannot be isolated from the rest of Holy Writ. He writes:

As to what relates to the honours due to kings or emperors, we have a prescript sufficient, that it behoves us to be in all obedience, according to the apostle’s precept, “subject to magistrates, and princes, and powers” (Titus 3:1); but within the limits of discipline, so long as we keep ourselves separate from idolatry.

On Idolatry, Chapter XV.

Tertullian then turns to the example of Daniel to make this case. He writes:

For it is for this reason, too, that that example of the three brethren has forerun us, who, in other respects obedient toward king Nebuchodonosor rejected with all constancy the honour to his image (Dan 3), proving that whatever is extolled beyond the measure of human honour, unto the resemblance of divine sublimity, is idolatry. So too, Daniel, in all other points submissive to Darius, remained in his duty so long as it was free from danger to his religion (Dan 6); for, to avoid undergoing that danger, he feared the royal lions no more than they the royal fires.

On Idolatry, Chapter XV.