“Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”
Romans 13:2-5 ESV
Biblical discernment, Charles Spurgeon famously said, isn’t the discipline of determining right from wrong, but right from almost right.
The Christian, saved by grace, adorned now in the blazing white robes of righteousness given them by God to the glory of His Son, is commanded in Romans 12 to both not be conformed to this world and abhor what is evil. The goal of Christian living is Christian thinking because to act biblically we must think biblically. Whatever isn’t of faith is sin and how are we to define faith except through the principles of Scripture?
Thus we know that we have two choices: the renewal of our minds through the aforementioned fidelity to Scripture or the conformity to the pagan philosophies of this world. A man who has a wife and a chick on the side isn’t faithful nor is a Christian who sleeps philosophically with the Enemy’s toadies. “Yeah, but honey…I don’t love her…” is the same complaint as “…but I have to keep my job and I don’t want to be confrontational.” Too many of us are more afraid of offending the cry-bullies of the atheistic Left than we are the holy God.
If we see salvation as marriage to the Lord and ourselves as His bride we get a glimpse of what it means to be unfaithful through syncretism/idolatry. So, here’s the thing: no, it’s not okay for a Christian to flirt with God’s enemies and their ideas any more than it is for a woman to sleep around on her husband.
To that end we see the next great commandment of Romans 12. Let your love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. That’s not a suggestion. It isn’t life advice. It’s a commandment from the sovereign God whose word is law. The AMP version reads thus:
“Love is to be sincere and active [the real thing—without guile and hypocrisy]. Hate what is evil [detest all ungodliness, do not tolerate wickedness]; hold on tightly to what is good.”
Romans 12:9 AMP
A Christian man gets angry when a car cuts him off in traffic. A Christian woman gets all bent out of shape because former President Trump was bombastic and rude. But nary a peep about movements like Defund the Police. What we get mad at shows what we truly care about (that’s why it’s so easy to get mad when traffic is bad…we absolutely adore ourselves!).
There was ample confusion among churchgoers over the movement – headed by the Black Lives Matter campaign and championed by the Democrat party – to slander America’s law enforcement as racist. The catalyst in one event was a career felon, Jacob Blake from Wisconsin, getting shot by police. Blake thankfully survived and we pray for his conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we certainly pray for the salvation of all…this is genuine love. But genuine love literally hates actual wickedness and Mr. Blake, when he was shot by police, wasn’t casually walking down the road, Bible in hand, hymn on his lips, as pure as a fresh winter snowfall.
Uh, no.
He was fighting with police who were trying to make a lawful arrest.
Oh, and he had a knife.
To this, in August of 2020, Kenosha Wisconsin was nearly burned to the ground by violent anarchists who insisted that Blake was shot only and merely because of his skin color.
But what does the Scripture say? Read Romans 13:2-5 again. If Mr. Blake and the police critics don’t want to be afraid of the police, God has an answer for them. It’s deep. It’s heavy, heavy philosophy. Ready?
Stop committing crimes. And if you do, stop fighting with the Lord’s avenger who’s fulfilling His law by arresting and punishing the criminal.
Mr. Blake violated the Lord’s commandment by not only committing a crime but then in also resisting arrest. If there’s a fight between criminals and the police, the police absolutely must win. And they must win totally and with gusto because this warns the budding criminal who’s sitting on the sideline, watching the show (Proverbs 19:25). Does this rub you the wrong way? Well, please understand that the Lord commands that His servant, the police, use violence against a criminal in order to restore/maintain civil order. Police critics, on the other hand, ignore the Lord’s word/law and demand that the criminal not be violently subdued. But the Scripture literally and plainly states that the police are His agent carrying out His wrath on the criminal! There’s no reading of this that can support criminals not being afraid and not being severely handled should they violently resist arrest.
The thing to know about the Enemy and his schemes is that you can spot him by applying the following questions.
First, does he call into question the authority and/or truth of God’s word/law?
Second, does he encourage what the Lord forbids and/or throw shade at what the Lord promotes?
Does he draw your attention to a real problem but offer an unbiblical solution to it?
That’s been the deception of the Defund the Police movement. Police brutality and racism are real things. Yes, they do exist. The answer to them is holding police accountable to God’s standard, not slandering the entirety of police and doing away with the Biblical concept of punishment. If police break the law they absolutely must be held accountable but we must not conflate this truth with hostility toward the Godly institution of avenger to which police are called.
Because the principles of humanism and sin are anarchic (that is lawless in regard to self) they’re anti-authority. The Defund the Police movement was built upon this foundation in defiance to Romans 13. God calls everyone to obey the moral law – both the civil authorities and the citizens. Sin’s desire is self-law and that’s achieved through lies and/or force. The lie of the modern Left against the police is that they’re racist. This is a slander that puts innocent people in harms way. A dilapidated police force that doesn’t “wield the sword” against criminals encourages crime. Christians must abhor this. We must love peace and order. And we must not be sissified in our understanding of the world and recoil at the manliness that sometimes needs to be mobilized to stop criminals. If a rapist breaks into your daughter’s home and she’s unable to fight him off, you absolutely want violent men, in righteousness, to subdue him. You yearn for it…passionately. And you yearn for it because God’s avenger, the police, prefigure the ultimate justice coming at the end of the age.
To hate God’s avenger, the police, is to hate God’s moral law. To want to use His avenger as you see fit, contrary to His commandments, is to try and play god. Anarchy on one side, tyranny on the other. The heart that loves the Lord will love and honor His servant, the police officer. The Godly civil magistrate who punishes crime regardless of class, race, sex, or any other distinction is the Biblical model and we should be always praying for it. Godliness seeks peace through His principles, not the principles of anarchy or tyranny.
This is what it means to be “in subjection for the sake of conscience.” That’s not thrown in there haphazardly. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need an editor. And He’s not writing to please us, but to change us. If in doubt about Scripture and its application remember that God is always right. Be humble.
For the sake of conscience we submit to a manly civil magistrate because sin is anarchic. Sin, left unpunished, will lead to the suffering of the weak and we must hate that. Jacob Blake wasn’t shot because he was weak; he was shot because he was abusive to the women in his life, the police came to protect them, Blake fought with the police and lost the fight. This is as it should be. Criminals should lose fights with God’s avenger and that, my friends, is awesome! It’s awesome because it foreshadows that Day when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah, the greatest warrior of all, our undefeated Champion, perfectly holy and righteous, comes again to literally demolish evil. Our hearts swell when justice is done according to the Lord because our hearts cry out…”Your will be done.”
Now we note that His will is never perfectly done on earth as it is in heaven. Not yet. We’re sinners and though redeemed, we still live in this fallen world. Seeing the imperfections caused by our sins we cry out, “Abba, Father…your will be done…on EARTH as it is in heaven.” There’s an aspect of this that’s eschatological – which is to say, this prayer is a grief-filled moan for Him to come again and establish His righteous throne upon this reeling and fetid planet full of sin.
You see, the impulse to defund the police is on one hand the desire for anarchy. No Christian should support that. All Christians, in light of the perspicuity of Romans 13, should support the use of violence against criminals who resist arrest. More than that, Christians must support a police force that adheres to its mandate under the Lord and only that. It’s tyranny if the state decides that it, not the Lord, is the final authority. Tell me what you think is a crime and how it should be punished and you tell me your theology.
The antidote for both anarchy and tyranny is Romans 13, itself resting upon Romans 1-12. The antidote for all sin is the Lord and His principles of righteous living. The police are His Avengers…He doesn’t give us Iron Man and Spider Man…He gives us the local police and all of them are His Captain America. They’re called to guard His creation and punish that heinous sin called crime. And they’re called to do all that in His honor – never being partial. If Jacob Blake needs to be arrested, arrest him. If he pulls a knife while resisting arrest, use superior violence to bring him to justice. If it’s not Jacob Blake, but Elon Musk, or whoever the world’s richest man is, God’s avenger must do the same. No distinction matters except the law. And that law is God’s commandment, not man’s.
Defunding the police is anarchy. The police enforcing laws of the state contrary to the law of God is tyranny. God calls the police to avenge all citizens who are victims of crime. This is how He has ordained that they, the police, “protect” citizens…by being a virulent and steadfast avenger/punisher of the one who commits the particular evil called crime.
So, hooray for the strong men and women with a badge. May they continue to intimidate, scare, and defeat criminals, for this is their righteous calling.
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