Yes, There are Some Bad Cops...

…and bad waitresses and drive-thru workers and soldiers and loan officers and politicians and even preachers!!  Ok, admittedly the title was clickbait to an extent. But why are we so surprised when an employee in one certain workforce sins?  “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23). There will always be bad people that get appointed to positions that they shouldn’t have—even positions that carry great authority and responsibility. It simply cannot be avoided. Does this mean we shouldn’t try?  Of course not!  Paul gives us a rather thorough list of qualifications for pastors in two different books (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9). And yet, even the best, most thorough pastor searches have occasionally ended badly. As hardly as we try, it simply cannot be wholly prevented. 
 
Does this mean we shouldn’t have a high standard for law enforcement? Absolutely not. It is a high-profile, high-authority position. Police officers are servants of their communities and should always be held to the highest of standards. The same can be said for politicians or pastors or tax accessors or judges or teachers or 911 operators—and a whole slew of other jobs. Most of us have been wrongly treated by a drive-thru worker more times than we can count. Unless you are at Chic-Fil-A, you actually expect it, these days! Memes are posted daily on social media that say as much. There is some bit of a double standard when we expect one group of sinners to perform better than another group of sinners. And admittedly, police officers have a more public job than most. Yet, there will always be a few bad cops. Our job as a society is to remove them from their position just like McDonalds needs to fire a bad drive-thru worker. Sinners sin. And when they do, there is sometimes great accountability here on earth when the sin is simply too great to ignore. 
 
But cops can actually take people’s lives when they abuse authority, right? I mean, they can take mothers and fathers from children. They can take children from mothers and fathers. That certainly is true.  And judges and juries have sent the wrong people to prison for life—or even to the electric chair. It’s not a perfect system and never will be.  But let us be reminded that cops too have been taken from their families by criminals. Many children have been left motherless or fatherless by the actions of a sinner killing an officer of the law. The street runs both ways.  In 2018, 106 officers were killed in the line-of-duty—55 of these being the result of a felonious act.  The job, by definition, is law enforcement. There will be casualties. The victims on both sides almost always knew what they were getting into. Police officers (and their families) know there is a possibility that they will die on the job every single time they walk out the door. Criminals too know there is a possibility that they will be killed when they break the law. Almost all felonious crimes that result in death fall into one of these two categories.
 
But still, there are some crime fighters that make terrible moral judgments. Sometimes this results in law-abiding citizens being maltreated. And sadly, this does occasionally result in law-abiding citizens dying as a result of a poor decision by a law enforcement officer. What is the real cause?  Sin…sin is the cause. There is no way to hire a sinless workforce in any job field in the world.  Everybody is a sinner.  Every applicant to every job is a sinner. And sometimes, the worst of sinners slip through the cracks no matter how well a company may process applicants for a position.  Banks want good tellers—and yet some steal money. The American people want good politicians—and yet many (if not most) are morally bankrupt. McDonald’s wants good front line cashiers—and yet some simply cannot get an order correct.  Even our beloved Chic-Fil-A occasionally has to fire employees that do not meet their high standard. There is no perfect hiring process from an imperfect field of sinful applicants. We, as a society, can only seek to do the right thing after an evil has occurred. And even then, sinners are still in charge—in Washington, in Burger King, at the US Post Office and yes, at your local police department. Sinners sin. We have perfected it. And sadly, it will continue until eternity sets in.
 
So, what should the Christian response be? I mean, our worldview is vastly different than the society around us, isn’t it? The little prophet Micah has that challenging passage—“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).  As God’s adopted children, we must love justice while doing it ourselves. We must love kindness while doing it ourselves. We must love humility while doing it ourselves. Do we march? Maybe—but not as a first response. I think…I hope we all desire honest cops (and the vast, vast majority of law enforcement officers certainly are that). All that said, our first response, as believers, must be to seek a Biblical answer to the problems of our society—whether it be the angry drive-thru worker or the abusive deputy sheriff.  Why do we see mistakes made by employees that affect other people? Ultimately, because Adam ate the fruit that God told him not to—“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12). We all fell in Adam and we still have the same sinful qualities that he did. Until this world is past history and the new heavens and new earth have come (Revelation 21:1), we will see sinners sinning—everywhere. Our duty as Christians first and foremost—before anything else—is to point sinners to God’s only remedy for sin. “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:15-17). 
 
So the next time a cop makes a bad decision…or the next time a postal worker goes “postal”…or the next time a restaurant worker does something atrocious to a customer’s hamburger…or the next time an executive in an investment company robs unsuspecting clients of millions…or the next time a politician lies (this one alone should keep us all busy)…or even the next time an influential religious leader is exposed as a fraud, let us, as believers in one united voice, remind those around us that we were all broken in Adam and we all must stand before the perfect Judge one day. If Adam represents us, we will be condemned to an eternity in the Lake of Fire—no matter how good or how bad of an employee we are in our respective jobs. Yet, if we stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we will stand before Him complete. Jesus died for sinners; He was buried and rose from the grave. He alone is the Hope of every sinner on the planet today.  Let this be the primary message of those of us that claim Him as Lord and Savior.