The rebellious enemies of God are enemies of justice and of His divine rule. As a peace officer, God’s enemies are my enemies, and I should treat His enemies the same way He does. So, how does God treat His enemies? He treats them with compassion, mercy, and grace. To add to this seemingly contradiction in the way man thinks, God disciplines those He loves. There is actually no contradiction. This is even taught by Jesus in the New Testament. As Christians we are called to judge and hold accountable other Christians. We are not to judge non-Christians for their behavior, and this is, so we do not become stumbling blocks that get in the way of them coming to know, understand, and commit to Jesus.
We must remember what Jesus says about our enemies in Matthew 5:44 when He told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. In Ephesian 6:12 Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers and authorities of this dark world. Our enemy is the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. Other people may present themselves as our enemies, but it is actually the controlling spiritual forces that are our enemies.
Having God’s enemies as our enemies does not give us permission to mistreat anyone. In Romans 12:17-19 Paul tells us that we are not allowed to repay anyone evil for evil. This may be the way of the world, but it is not right in God’s eyes. He goes on to say that if it is possible, and sometimes it is not possible, we should live at peace with everyone. He also tells us no to take revenge but leave room for God’s wrath. It is not our place to take vengeance, it is God’s place because He is the only one with the authority to do it.
This must be the Christian’s attitude towards our enemies. We also understand that God has also ordained law enforcement officers to step outside of these requirements to do the works that He has created for us. Just like our human governments have given law enforcement several exemptions from the law in order to enforce the law, God has exempted the men and women of law enforcement from some of these requirements in order to be able to carry out the duties of the job. “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” We must love and have mercy on our enemies but still understand that our duty as God’s ordained law enforcement officers, explained in Romans 13:4. It is a fine line between loving your enemies and being God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. It is a thin blue line.
A lot of Christian law enforcement officers struggle with this question. I encourage you to keep this study in a place where you can access it and help other peace officers to understand that what they are doing is in God’s will and He is proud of the job they are doing.
