The Christian as Fighter; Part 2

I feel compelled to restate that I’m not so much speaking against current teachings [although I sometimes will] as trying to balance them… to provide, not an alternative as much as 'the rest of the story’. See, there are plenty of people teaching and preaching about God’s love (although I believe their understanding of it is often one-dimensional). We need to hear that. Repeatedly. The problem is, that’s all we hear. I describe this as part of God's feminine side. Things being as they are today, somebody desperately needs to talk about God’s love for justice… His masculine side.

First, God is perfect and whole and you cannot properly understand God’s character if you try to put his attributes on a sort of Force Continuum with ‘LOVE’ at one end and ‘JUSTICE’ at the other. I think most people view His love and justice as being like sugar and salt in a bowl: together, but separate. That’s wrong. A more accurate picture would be that of separate chemicals mixed together to form one new solution, or separate colors mixed to form a new one. You cannot separate the yellow from green to get blue.

His love, his justice, all his attributes are totally integrated into one perfect, inseparable, wholeness. God is Complete. More on that concept of ‘completeness’ in another post.

I don’t think we have a word in our language that adequately explains God’s motivation for telling Joshua to slay all the inhabitants of Canaan. We might be tempted to put it down near the end of the continuum toward the ‘JUSTICE’ side. The reality is that God’s love for the Canaanites is just as much at play. By having the Canaanites slain, God prevented further sin on their part and so lessened the penalty they will ultimately pay when they come before His Judgment Seat (1). I'm not saying He wasn't angry with them. He certainly was. I'm saying we're making a mistake if we try to sift God's anger out of the mix and say that alone is the reason for His wrath.

Jesus said if we commit an act in our heart, we’ve committed the sin. If that’s so, then how many murders has the average terrorist trainee committed in his heart (without ever pressing a detonator) as he's trained and rehearsed killing innocent people? Dozens? Hundreds?(2)

So, are we not preventing further sin when we slay this person before he can commit his (or her - never forget that!) act? Yes! Isn’t it possible then, that we do NOT need to resort to hate toward our enemy as a motivator for what really should be a righteous, godly, and joyful response to evil on our part?

Here’s a great quote from C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity:

“War is a dreadful thing, and I can respect an honest pacifist [Steve: I can't.], though I think he is entirely mistaken, What I cannot understand is this sort of semi-pacifism you get nowadays which gives people the idea that though you have to fight, you ought to do it with a long face and as if you were ashamed of it. It is that feeling that robs lots of magnificent young Christians in the Services of something they have a right to, something which is the natural accompaniment of courage - a kind of gaiety and whole-heartedness.”

Christian, what’s in your heart is as important as what you do. Maybe more so. God’s character manifest in your life is healthy; self or worldly desires acted on, even if ‘just’ in our imagination, are not healthy for us because we were created for Good. You can do the same fine motor skill of aligning the sights and pressing the trigger using either hate or love as your motivator and accomplish the same physical result, but your heart and your health may pay a price for acting in hate. No matter how justified it may seem, hate is not for us. We are commanded to love our enemies.

Sometimes, that means killing them.

We'll talk about anger later. For now, I believe it can be a good thing. Just don't let it take control because your performance may suffer. The main point is that anger and hatred are two separate issues. Don't let hatred take root in your heart.

Here’s the Question: Can you demonstrate God’s love to an evil-doer by putting your front sight on him and pressing the trigger? When morally and legally justified, I believe yes, absolutely.

Protect your heart. Go do battle with clarity of purpose and peace. Slay your enemy and sleep well afterwards, secure in the knowledge that, no matter how poorly your church, your family, or your friends understand what you’ve done, or how uncomfortable they may be with it, God does understand, and He is comfortable with it.

Strength and courage,
Steve
DVC/iHs


(1) I've met many believers who struggle with the idea of us receiving different rewards and punishments in the next life. If you're one of them, I urge you to take another hard look at this issue, starting with the parable of the talents in Matthew.

(2) In order to enhance performance under stress, we train people to mentally rehearse their actions. A great example of this technique can be found in the street fight scene toward the end of ‘The Last Samurai’. Cruise’s character isn’t seeing the future; he’s rehearsing his attack against the four thugs. Also of relevance, they say the brain can’t distinguish between a vividly imagined event and one that actually occurs; that almost the same synaptic connections are built as we mentally rehearse a motor skill as when we actually perform it. For me, this is just another proof of the pragmatic nature of God’s commands. They are for our spiritual and physical health.