Authority

This has been on my heart a lot lately. Once again I read Romans 13:1-7 this morning.  It starts, there is no authority except that which God has established. Our civil authority is ordained by God. He approves of it. It has his stamp of approval on it. Then it continues, whoever rebels against the authority rebels against what God has instituted.  Here again God instituted authority. If we rebel and dishonor authority, we rebel and dishonor God. I know in the past, we had civil rights protests and marches etc., but it had a God designed purpose other than to tear down. It was intended to make things better. The protests we are seeing today are violent and meant to cause a rift in our country. They are not against an unjust law or interpretation of law. It seems to have a political agenda that is not God honoring and it is destructive. It is not bringing our nation together, it is driving us apart. Rulers hold no terror for those who do right. As much as I have heard about these two individuals, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, they were on the wrong side of the law and would not submit to the police. We must recognize that to have justice in these incidents. It is so unfortunate that these men died. Their families and friends are hurting, a life was snuff out too early. These men hold most of the responsibility for their deaths, they would not submit to the governing authority. They resisted and fought the police. We need to submit, verse 5 tells us to submit to authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. It is the right thing to do. We need to teach this younger generation that the governing authorities are their for their protection and need to be submitted to and respected. Most of the officers we deal with are good officers, they are just trying to do what we the public tell them to do. We are their bosses in a way. We need to honor and respect and submit to the police officers we come in contact with. Especially in the line of duty, they are there as public servants to do OUR biding. It was said that Eric Garner was selling untaxed cigarettes, against the law. They also had some kind of community cleanup effort in work and Eric was part of the problem the city was trying to correct. Brown had just robbed a store, this is not profiling, he was the exact man they were looking for. He knew he was in trouble and did not submit, he had just robbed a store and was found. Both would be alive if they had not resisted the God given and God ordained authority they were dealing with at that moment. Verse 7 "Give to everyone what you owe them: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue then revenue; if respect, then respect, if honor then honor."  We do owe our God ordained law enforcement officers respect, we should respect and honor them, it is a matter of conscience. Most of them are good officers, and we owe them respect. God bless, LVZ