13:1-2 Is this teaching that Christians have to obey every law of the state without question?
13:1-2 Is this teaching that Christians have to obey every law of the state without question?
Yes, but only when laws of the state do not contravene God's law. Paul is not teaching here that Christians have to blindly obey civil authorities without regard to moral responsibility or God's law, but that ideal government poses no threat to those who obey the law.
Peter teaches the same thing (CP V1-7; 1Pe 2:13-17; 4:12-19). God determined the concept of human government in the first place. This is not to say that God personally appoints every member of the government individually, but that he ordained the existence of government for the benefit of mankind.
Of course there will be bad governments and bad rulers - the New Testament church was birthed under a tyrannical governmental system - but generally, government's exist for the benefit of the people, and except where they conflict with god's law, their laws must be obeyed by God's children.
But when they conflict with God's law Christians must not compromise God's word and obey them. There are numerous scriptures to support this teaching (CP Ex 1:15-17; Psa 75:6-7; Dan 3:12-18; 6:6-10; Mt 2:1-5, 7-9, 12, 15-16; Ac 4:13-20; 5:28-29, 40-42; He 11:23).
Many Christians in the contemporary church believe that civil authorities must be obeyed without question, regardless of whether or not their laws conflict with God's law, yet as those scriptures clearly teach, that is not correct.
The believers subject of those scriptures all knew that it was more important to obey God rather than man (CP Mk 8:34-38 with Dan 3:19-30; 6:11-28; He 11:32-40). Ro 13:1-7 teaches simply that (in the ideal governmental system) civil authorities are not a terror to good people, but to those who do wrong, and therefore Christians must always uphold their laws, having regard to the fact that it was God who instituted human government in the first place for the benefit of all humans (CP V4).
We learn from this that God sanctions capital punishment. The sword is an instrument of death. It symbolized the right of (ideal) governments to inflict capital punishment - to execute wrath - upon wrongdoers, with God's approval.
God himself commanded murderers to be executed in the Old Testament (CP Gen 9:6; Nu 35:31, 33; Ac 25:11; Rev 13:10). Ro 13:6-7 teaches that civil authorities, discharge a Divinely ordained service, and believers must therefore pay their taxes (CP V6-7).