As it is stated in Romans 13:1, everyone must submit themselves to the governing authorities. This verse was written during a time when pagans were in charge of the government. There is no authority on earth which God has not established. We must remember that no authority exists that can command us to do what God forbids or forbid us to do what God commands. If the government is incompetent, then we are receiving the wrath of God from people who have told God they don’t want His authority. Paul spoke up about his Roman citizen rights in Philippi so that the church he planted would not be persecuted. His end goal was to spread the gospel. We rejoice when we are persecuted for doing righteous deeds. But if we are not doing God’s commands, we should be afraid. We are to pay what we owe when we owe it. We are not to borrow what we cannot pay. That said, we do have the continuing debt to love one another. If we really love our neighbor, we will love the way God commands. We are not to even think about gratifying the fleshly desires. When we do, we must say no to those desires and not dwell on them at all.