I usually try and obey the posted speed limit when I'm driving. This is something I did even before I was a cop. Now, as anyone who drives the speed limit can tell you, this immediately makes you a nuisance to most of the other drivers on the road. In my travels there is often a line of cars behind me, and I can feel their silent wrath as they sway to the left to see if it's finally clear to pass. But an interesting thing happens while I'm at work and I trade in my personal vehicle for a squad car. All of a sudden, (most of) my fellow drivers no longer feel the need to pass me because I'm going the speed the limit, even if there is more than one lane in our direction of travel.
Common Grace
This is God's common grace in action, where the mere presence of authority and the possibility of punishment restrain law-breaking behavior. Let's talk about this term 'common grace' for a minute, just in case you're unfamiliar with the idea. Theologian John Murray defined common grace as "every favour of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys at the hand of God" (quoted in John Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief). So common grace is the grace God gives to everyone, believer and unbeliever alike. It's not grace in the sense that their sins are being pardoned and they are reconciled to God, but it is grace in the sense that it is given by God and it is undeserved. This would include things like food, rain, shelter, friends, family, and safety.
Now, one of the neat things about God is that he is a God who uses means. God could provide me with food in a miraculous way, like daily raining down bread from heaven or giving me a never ending basket of cheeseburgers to keep at my house for me and my family (which would be awesome). He could do that, but he doesn't. He provides food for me and my family through the means of giving me a job, which provides us the resources to get food- food that did not just miraculously appear but was grown or killed by another human.
The Means of Safety
Our safety is also a common grace from God. None of us deserve to live peaceful lives (many don't). I am aware, as John Piper says in Don't Waste Your Life, that safety is an illusion and that none of us are really safe. However, by and large it is a grace to live in a stable, relatively safe environment as opposed to an unstable or war-torn one (I say by and large because living in an unstable environment may actually be a blessing, as it forces one to consider the important aspects of life).
If safety is a common grace from God, then a country's law enforcement and military are the means of that grace. God could provide protection and safety for people, believers and unbelievers alike, through some miraculous display of power. The Bible records instances of this. God brought Israel safely across the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh's army all by himself (Exodus 14). When Ben-hadad laid siege to Samaria, it was God who drove the Syrians back from Israel (2 Kings 6-7). In both these situations, no Israeli took up arms to defend his country. But that is typically not God's style. Many other times, Israel had to engage in intense combat to defend her people and be obedient to her God. More often than not, God works through the warrior, keeping a people safe through men who combat the foes of that people.
Police Work as God's Work
This means that when it is just and righteous, police and military work are God's common grace work in this world. I don't mean this in a God, guns, and freedom sort of way, where the ideal Christian man is a good ol' boy who rides around with a shotgun in his truck and has replaced Scripture with the U.S. Constitution. What I mean is that in every stable country, there are people whom God uses to keep the peace. Someone is needed to keep the citizens safe as they go about their daily lives, and someone is needed to keep a country safe from unjust aggressors. God uses people to do this.
For those of us in law enforcement and the military, as long as our wars and our actions are just, we are doing God's work on earth, providing a stable society where the gospel can be preached and believers can be discipled. However, lest we be like another group of warriors whom God used to judge his people and ultimately faced judgement themselves (i.e. Assyria, see Isaiah ch. 10), this should not fill us with pride, but with a humble sense of responsibility, viewing our jobs as a ministry to the people we serve, providing help and safety to our people, for the glory of God.
For those who live under the protection of military and law enforcement, we should be thankful, if not to those who put on the uniform, then at least to the God who uses them. I am all for thanking our military and police, but let us not trust "in the multitude of [our] warriors" (Hosea 10:13). God had to continually remind Israel not to trust in military power, whether her own or another country's. Regardless of how you feel about the military or police, be thankful they are there, and ultimately direct that thanks to the God of grace.
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