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A twofold duty towards magistrates is here laid down by our apostle, namely, maintenance and reverence.
1. There is due unto them maintenance. Tribute and custom is payable to them for that purpose, and not without great reason and obligation: for he is the minister of God for our good, that is, an instrument under God to preserve our blessings to us, and farther, because such supplies are necessary to defray those vast expenses, which they are constrained to be at, for the security and welfare of their subjects. Taxes, tribute, and custom, are not so much gifts as due debts to princes, which by the command of God are to be justly and cheerfully paid unto them, and which cannot without sin and injustice be denied to them, or purloined from them. To cheat our prince, is as great a sin in the sight of God as to rob our father, though few think it so: Render tribute to whom tribute is due.
Again, 2. There is reverence as well as maintenance due to magistrates: Render fear to whom fear, and honour to whom honour, is due. Fear denotes inward reverence, and honour outward respect: fear is the magistrate's due by reason of his authority, and honour by reason of his dignity.
Here note, That the apostle is thus particular and express in asserting the rights of princes and assigning the proper duties of subjects towards them, because the Jews held opinions which were destructive of all civil government; as, namely, that they being the only people of God, God alone was to be owned as their Lord and Governor, and none under him but such as should be immediately chosen by him; and, as a consequent of this, they refused to pay tribute to Caesar, looking upon that as a token of subjection to him.
Therefore the apostle here presses the Christians at Rome to show their freedom from, and opposition to, all such pernicious principles, and to give the world a convincing proof that Christianity makes the best men, the best magistrates, the best subjects, of any religion in the world.