Is our government any worse than the Roman government that was in power when Paul wrote those words? How'd did that Roman government treat followers of Christ? How did the early Christians react to that Roman government?

The Roman's slaughtered babies, they gave sacrifices to Satan, they held games where slaves were forced to fight each other to the death for their entertainment. They were incredibly sexually immoral with orgies, homosexuals and beastiality. They conquered nations and committed genocide. And this was normal, this was their culture.

It would seem that early Christians had it much worse than we do and yet they endured, for Christ.