Verse 4
4. Minister of God Though as pagan, antichristian, or worldly, the government is, according to Daniel, a beast, yet as a conservator of society required by the divinely established laws of human nature the governor is the minister of God.
The sword The ensign of sovereignty. It is the emblem also of death. And as it is placed by God in the hands of the sovereign as the minister of God, so to him is delegated from God the power over life and death in order to secure the just peace of society. The sword is authorized by God to the government, to be used not only in just execution upon the domestic criminal, but in just war against a foreign foe. For one of these rights involves the other. The execution of the criminal is a lesser war upon a single foe. The difference is a difference only in numbers.
A revenger… doeth evil According to the apostle the ruler is of God only as a revenger upon him that doeth evil. He is not a minister of God when he is the executioner of the good.
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