As I shared above, our wall in DC (
National Law Enforcement Memorial
) has a bronze lion under which
Proverbs 28:1
is carved into the stone: "
T
he wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion
." But just who are "the
righteous
" and how does it apply both to us in law enforcement and in government in general? Yes, as we'll see here it matters!
In a previous study (
The Righteous -- Bold as Lions
), I shared what God has for us in this verse. That said, it is by no means the only place in Proverbs or the Bible (by far) that the issue of "righteousness" is addressed. In fact, perhaps the key verse for this study is not
28:1
but rather
14:34
--
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people
Unrighteousness --
sin
-- is the most fundamental weakness of any organization and of any country. Sadly, especially in today's "progressive," everything goes culture, even many so-called "Christians" (?) don't want to hear about it. Yet when sin (a lack of righteousness) dominate the lives of individuals, it quickly infects, upbraids and unravels their families, agencies, communities and their nation as whole. Accordingly, Whether it be in law enforcement, government in general or even in the church, all must operate on a set of ethical (biblical) principles in order to function properly.
The question then becomes how a nation, agency, community, etc. can most effectively silence sin (if they recognize it as such) and lawlessness, and how a country and its individuals should attempt to impute righteousness into the culture.
One answer is a "police state." The fact that I serve in law enforcement simply reinforces the clear position that no one wants to live in a
police state
.
Another answer is a strong church, in which individuals are grown in personal righteousness within themselves — self-governed — through their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In a composite, societal structure as in the genius of America, Church and state are separate yet intertwined institutions that respect each other’s respective, God-ordained purposes.
Option number two here shows us
God's answer
. All of America is critically dependent on scripturally-driven and scripturally-sound churches and leaders (the SERVANT-leader kind) in order to build up righteousness in a nation’s citizens. Sadly today, we are seeing far too many "churches" and "leaders" falling into unbiblical doctrine and outright apostasy (again, UNrighteousness).
Our Sin Problem
Before getting into this much further, it is important to understand a biblical overview of
sin
. Part of our problem today is that our unrighteousness stems from refusing to address our sin problem (the unrighteous -- including even some in the "church" -- argue that it is not "politically correct" or "inclusive" to talk about sin). Yet God, in His Word (the Bible), is clear that even though He created man in His image, we are separated from God due to sin. The most elementary student of the Bible knows that sin enters the world in
Genesis 3
, when Adam and Eve rebelled (sin) and disobeyed (sin) God’s most simple of commands. The Greek word for sin is
hamartia
and it means “to miss the mark.”
All have sinned
states
Romans 3:23
. And sin leads to eternal separation from God, who, because of His absolute holiness and righteousness, can have nothing to do with sin whatsoever (
Romans 6:23
).
Then Jesus Himself, in His first recorded words of His earthly ministry, declared, "
Repent and believe
..." (
Mark 1:15
). Repent from what? Sin (our unrighteousness)! Until we repent and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord by faith alone in Him alone, we remain in the state in which we were physically born: dead in your trespasses and sins (
Ephesians 2:1-4
). This means we cannot think biblically, nor be expected to perform righteous actions by our own doing. Until we are regenerated (
born again
--
John 3:1-21
) in Christ and imbued with the indwelling (governing) power of the Holy Spirit, we are walking corpses in terms of our spiritual life and ultimately of no earthly good here today.
Lastly, sin dominates the unsaved and they are addicted to its fruit.
Galatians 5:19-21
lists these characteristics of sin:
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Note how the habitual presence of these characteristics disgraces a nation. When the wicked and lost increasingly dominate a society, as is the case in our country today, these fruits soon become its downfall.
Now then the following are
three critical truths
regarding the realities of sin in leadership from the book of Proverbs (all leading to our downfall):
(1)
Downfall Via Sexual Sin
:
His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin.
Proverbs 5:22
In keeping with Scripture in general, Solomon spends chapters and chapters warning about the need to guard against sexual fulfillment outside of marriage (marriage being between one man and one woman only). In this particular passage he is stating a sobering principle: When a person gets caught up in sexual activity of any type outside of his spouse, he soon becomes locked in an immoral set of handcuffs that can forever rule over his life. Sexual sin has
cords
(bindings, handcuffs) that can
hold
you to it. In fact, a lack of obedience to what God gave Solomon to share with us on this ultimately became a huge factor in his own downfall.
Hebrews 12:13
adds this about guarding your life relative to sexual temptation: "
and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed
."
Get the picture?
(2)
Downfall Via Power and Pride
:
"
Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall
."
Proverbs 16:18
I've done whole studies on pride, but here's a link to a short one that I think brings this home:
The Remedy for Pride
.
He who sows iniquity will reap vanity, and the rod of his fury will perish.
Proverbs 22:8
The desire for power, as with pride, is another form of unrighteousness (sin) that infects both our God-ordained profession and government in general (pride and power go together). The phrase
the rod of his fury
represents the evil inflicted on others by the abuse of power. This Proverb is talking about the brandishing of power (brandish being defined as, "to exhibit or expose in an ostentatious, shameless, or aggressive manner"). And even though the wicked will sometimes prosper for a season bullying their way through their misuse of power, eventually their injustices (sin) will find them out (
Numbers 32:23
).
The Hebrew word for
iniquity
as used here means “perversion, a twisting aside from the path of righteousness.” When those in "leadership" (I used that word loosely here) pervert the process or the policy from doing what is right and just, the end will be
vanity
— all for naught.
Finally, the Hebrew word for
perish
as used here means “to fail.” Pride and the abuse of power will ensure failure (dowfall), sooner or later. Short of wholesale repentance and revival, this will include our nation as well.
(3)
Downfall Via Unrighteous Anger
:
An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.
Proverbs 29:22
The final (well, there are others but we'll settle on these for now) issue of UNrighteousness that Solomon warns law enforcement/government leaders about is the sin of anger. In the Hebrew language the man spoken of here is literally “a man of nostrils” referring to a hot-tempered man who flexes his nose muscles during his oft-recurring rages. This is not a reference to righteous indignation, which is an honorable characteristic (
Ephesians 4:26, Luke 19:45-48
) when it comes to defending God’s honor and His laws. Rather, this Proverb refers to one being given over to unrighteous anger that will most assuredly cause strife (the state or condition of distrust or enmity: often bitter sometimes violent conflict or dissension) and conflict within your marriage, family, organization and in government.
Proverbs 19:11
adds a remedy: "
A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression
. Discretion is a concept we in law enforcement understand (or at least we should). "Leaders" (not) who are selfish and prideful tend to be people who are prone to anger because anger is the emotional response to not getting one’s way. Solomon is warning his son that his anger could lead to his downfall; may that not be the case with us either.
In closing, turn to
Proverbs 29:16
where the LORD, through Solomon, tell us:
When the wicked increase, transgression increases; but the righteous will see their fall.
The sins of leaders and the sins of citizens disgrace our country with a frightfully increasing rate (
Matthew 24:12
,
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
). As more and more wicked people become empowered to lead in our country, wicked individuals who do not walk according to the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ; the Indwelling Word, the Holy Spirit; and the Inerrant Word, the Holy Scriptures, unrighteousness will abound and our nation will suffer increasingly and proportionately. But the
good news
that Solomon communicated with his son Rehoboam and ostensibly with all of us is that the unrighteous will see their fall.
As certain as the physical laws of the universe are the inexorable moral laws of God in the lives of individuals.
Your sin will find you out
, states God in
Numbers 32:23
. Sin -- unrighteousness -- will ultimately be remedied by God but we still have an opportunity to make a difference NOW. How? Only by living and serving "all in" via a genuine, life-saving/life-changing personal relationship with God in Christ through which (and ONLY through which) we can be made righteous (the Word says that without Christ, our so-called "righteousness" is nothing short of a
filthy rags
--
Isaiah 64:6
). In short, true righteousness can only occur when we are serving, leading and living in lock-step behind the only truly Righteous One, Jesus Christ (
1 John 2
). Do you have not? If not, scroll down and find out how you can!
* Thanks to Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries for the use of his own study on this subject.
_____________________
KNOW GOD?
(1) Do you falsely believe that you can "earn" or otherwise "badge" your way into heaven and escape hell because you consider yourself to be a "
good
" cop or "good" person? That you can be "good" enough without God? Take the
Good Person Test
and see how you do!
(2) Jesus' first recorded words in His earthly ministry were and remain, "
Repent and believe in the Good News
" (
Mark 1:15
). To
repent
is a "180" -- a complete,
radical
change of mind and heart as it relates to our sin (as God defines it). To "believe" (
pisteuo
in the original Greek) as Jesus intends it here is to wholeheartedly trust and
surrender
your life to Him in faith in the same way we have "faith" that our body armor will do its job against the rounds it is intended to stop; that a well-maintained weapon will function properly when used in defense against criminals intent on destroying us or others; or that our parachute will open when it is supposed to (we stake our very lives on it)! For more, see
What does it mean to believe in Jesus?
(3) This same concept of "
believe
" (the saving kind) is further revealed in
John 3:1-21
where Jesus says, "
... you must be born again
." Again, note our Lord's emphasis on the word "
must
" (not "may" or "should" or even "someday"): this is ultimately the life-saving AND life-changing personal relationship (and NOT "religion") with Jesus Christ that I stress here every week (see
What does it mean to be a born again Christian
? [hint -- there is no other kind]). Folks, it is only through this miraculous event that we can be made "righteous" before a just and Holy God and thus become part of His family.
(5) Need more? Then check out this powerful, short video message shared by my fellow "radical," Maj.
Travis Yates
:
Cops and Salvation
.
(6) Have you now said "yes" to Jesus as Lord and Savior but are wondering what to do next? The "now what" is also an important part in dealing with the issues that can lead to suicide and sin in general. Click on,
Now what?
MC
