Lately it seems like the world has gone crazy. People speak of police brutatlity and while it does seem as if recent events do in fact point to that in some cases, I can’t help but think it is a symptom of a much deeper sickness in our culture. One where people do not have respect, not for themselves, their fellow man and even worse authority. When that level of depravity enters a society, nothing good can be a result.
Romans 13:1-5 (CEV)
1 Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their places of power. 2 People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished. 3 Rulers are a threat to evil people, not to good people. There is no need to be afraid of the authorities. Just do right, and they will praise you for it. 4 After all, they are God’s servants, and it is their duty to help you.
If you do something wrong, you ought to be afraid, because these rulers have the right to punish you. They are God’s servants who punish criminals to show how angry God is. 5 But you should obey the rulers because you know it is the right thing to do, and not just because of God’s anger.
This basic concept seems to be lost in today’s world. People are so quick to blame everyone around them for their challenges and the bad things that happen. When this happens between them and those charged with protecting them it appears to take on a whole life of its own. We go from not respecting authority to being absolutely irresponsible to our fellow man.
The riots in Baltimore in the last few weeks have been a perfect example of this. People were upset because there was a very unfortunate situation between the police and a citizen. Regardless of the situation, Those officers deserved respect. Just like in Romans 13:3, there is no reason to be afraid of the police if you are following the law; consequentially just like it says in verse 4, if you are in the wrong they have the right to punish. They are the manifestation of God’s holy wrath on earth.
My wife and I have intentionally shielded our girls from the situation because at 5 and 8 years old,they are too young to process why someone, much less hundreds of people, would exhibit such behavior. The root of these riots is nothing more complicated than sin. Sin caused the young man to behave in such a way that he had a fear of authority. Sin caused the children in those high schools to plan such destructive behavior. It was a sin field day.
In the end we have the responsibility to raise our children to respect authority and behave in such a way that nothing they do will be seen as anything less than honoring their God and Savior. That way they can know that they are doing as Paul said in Romans 13.
An Ordinary Methodist 