The Law of the Avenger

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 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, 4 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.5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. (Romans 13)
Recently, our congregation has been studying the topic "living unoffensivedly in an offended world." We live in a time when people do not care if they offend others, yet are easily offended by anything others do, say, or do not do or say to them. We like to hold on to our right to "righteous anger" as an excuse for our bad behavior.  The fact is we do not have the right, or the ability, to judge others behavior - and motives - only God does. For day to day living, He has chosen to give the carrying out of justice and judgment to government authorities. To be sure, such activities will always be imperfect, anse sometimes downright corrupt. But throughout history, including the Old Testament, there has always been this "Law of the Avenger" - we are not to take justice away from government and into our own hands; otherwise, we end up with a wild west, or "Hatfields and McCoys" kind of partiality, because in the midst of the conflict, we simply cannot see clearly. Government has its place; it is a God-appointed institution without which anarchy will rule. It is part of trusting God and His sovereignty to let it do its job, and "gulp", even pay for it to do so.