|
 Police work is tough work but police work is God's work. Knowing that can be a source of strength and encouragement on those days when you're tempted to turn in your badge. Someone has said, "He who understands the why can live with any what or how."
How is police work God's work? God has created only three institutions: the family, the church, and the government. Each of these has a distinct mission. Part of the mission of government is to restrain evil. You, better than most citizens, know the evil that threatens society.
God can and does deal directly with evil, but He also delegates this work to the government. He who is the source of all authority has given government the authority to do good and to restrain evil. Speaking through the Apostle Paul, God says that "everyone must submit to the governing authorities" [Ro 13:1]. At the time Paul was writing, he was not living in a constitution demorcracy like we live in. He was a citizen of Rome, a dictatorship, and not a benevolent dictatorship. The people to whom Paul wrote had lived under three of the most wicked rulers the world had seen: Caligula, Claudius 1, and Nero. Nevertheless Paul states that God has instituted even these governments, and not just some but everyone is to submit to them.
Those who resist governmental authority are resisting God and can expect God's judgment. Parents who train their children to respect and obey the law often say to them something like, "You don't have to be afraid of policemen, They are our friends." That is exactly what the Scripture teaches. Law abiding citizens will find that you are their friend. But those who disobey the law and despise the authority God has granted governments will find you are opposed to them.
Not only that, God has granted you the means to deal with those who flaunt the law. Paul says, "But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God's servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong." If Paul were writing this today, he might say government does not carry the pistol for no reason.
Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier say that even the driver who rebels against the ticket you are writing is rebelling against what God has instituted. If they rebel loud enough, they may be punished with an additional fine for disorderly conduct, interfering with a police officer, or touching (assaulting) a police officer. They go on to say that "when an otherwise competent individual, set apart from us by nothing but a gold (or silver) badge asserts his or her authority over us, it is hard to see God in that blue suit. But God says He is there and to resist Him is to invite His blue-suited judgment."
Living and working with the awareness that you represent God and your government to the citizens you serve can be a strong source of stability and courage on days of chaos and unbelievable stress. He who has made you for this work hasn't left you on your own but daily stands ready to give you wisdom if you will but ask.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways. {James 1:5-8}
Taken from 'The Policeman's Bible' HCSB Pg.1113
| 
