Choose Your Weapon

Christian culture, particularly in the west, is full of military related idioms:

"You're an army dressed for battle!"

"We are marching in the light of God!"

"The battle belongs to the Lord!"

We love that stuff! And that's great, it's encouraging to remind each other that we serve a mighty, conquering King who will one day make all of his enemies a footstool. Amen! But we don't get very far into Jesus' teachings before we realize that although he is going to return very soon wearing a robe dipped in the blood of his enemies, you and I seem to be called to something else entirely.

"But I tell you, do not resist and evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also." (Matthew 5:39)

Maybe it depends on the situation. Maybe turning the other cheek is fine, as long as the other guy doesn't have a gun. Or maybe I can turn the other cheek, as long as I'm alone, but if someone is threatening the safety of my family, surely Jesus would be ok with me opening up like, half a can? The point is, we as westerners tend to have some pretty strong opinions on when and how Christians are "allowed" to defend ourselves.

*IMPORTANT! I want to be very clear that the topic of domestic abuse is a very real and complicated issue which I promise will be addressed in another blog. If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please contact me as soon as possible so that we can talk about your options. There is help!

If, for you however, the subject of self defense is for the most part hypothetical, then you aren't thinking about how you're going to avoid daily abuse, but rather what you might do to defend yourself or your family in a particular scenario.

What if someone assaults you at the gas station, or tries to rob you, or breaks into your home, etc.?

As with most spiritual issues, what actually matters isn't your preplanned response to some hypothetical situation, but rather your heart in general. Before you decide what caliber handgun you need for when the hamburglar breaks into your house at night, you need to decide what you're going to do about your obnoxious boss. You need to decide how you're going to handle it when your crazy uncle starts with his conspiracy theories on social media again. You need to address that feeling in your stomach when you see that lady in the grocery store that you really hoped you'd never have to talk to again.

How you choose respond to daily conflict will shape how you respond to larger conflict.

If you're like most people, your misguided sense of equality and worldly morality probably tells you that when it's a minor offense, you should let it go, but when someone "crosses the line," you need to put a stop to it. If someone keeps pushing you, at some point it's ok to retaliate. And if you're born again, you probably have some sense that that can't be correct either. But are we really just supposed to let things go, be doormats and let people treat us however they want? How can we "balance" turning the other cheek with being healthy, productive adults? It seems to me that if someone continues to behave poorly towards me, and I allow it, that's enabling that person to do the same thing to others, isn't it?

But maybe turning the other cheek and allowing bad behavior are totally different things. Maybe turning the other cheek means actively employing a powerful spiritual weapon which is devastating to the work that the enemy was doing in that person.

Paul says "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up agains the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

When you choose to fight with the weapons of this world, hate, blame, slander, fear, it doesn't change anything. In fact, you're only making our enemy stronger. But when you choose to fight with the weapons of the Kingdom of Heaven, self-sacrifice, responsibility, encouragement, and love, you're not "allowing" anything. In fact, you are demolishing the stronghold that Satan has in that person's life. Responding to slander with encouragement is completely disarming! People are shocked when someone catches them stealing from them and then blesses them with even more! The weapons we fight with are not just different, they're far more effective than the weapons of the world! God isn't expecting you to walk around in enemy territory unarmed, that would be totally irresponsible as a General. He's sent us out with weapons that were specifically designed to make us a powerful force against our real enemy! We were never commanded to be doormats; Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell won't stand up to the church. That tells me that the role of the church is not to defend itself and endure attacks from the enemy, but rather be on the offensive and storm the gates of hell!

So let's be powerful soldiers. Let's be bold for our King. Let's be a strong, spiritual military. But we have to do it with spiritual weapons, not the ones the world is using.