Violence
Manly Christian Trait #2
A post by Paladin Actual
What do you think about Violence?
Masculinity is the pursuit manliness, and man is made in the image of God. So true masculinity is the pursuit of Godliness, not in self-deification, but in honor of God and striving to reflect those good traits he shines on the world.
Today we’ll be talking about the manly Christian trait of Violence.
But wait, your mother said that violence never solves anything! Yet naked force has resolved more issues throughout history than any other factor. The contrary opinion, that 'violence never solves anything' is wishful thinking at its worst.
As always, we should focus on what the Bible has to say. Are there times when God used violence for good? Did He ever command specific people to do specific violent acts? Does He have any laws for the use of violence, or is all violence forbidden. And finally, what is the difference between a masculine exercise of violence and a sinful one?
Martin Luther wrote a letter titled, “Whether soldiers too can be saved”, in it he writes this:
For the very fact that the sword has been instituted of God to punish the evil and protect the good and preserve peace, (Romans 13:1, 1 Peter 3:1) is proof, powerful and sufficient, that fighting and slaying and the other things that war-times and martial law bring with them, have been instituted by God. What else is war than the punishment of wrong and evil? Why does anyone go to war, except because he desires peace and obedience? Although slaying and robbing do not seem to be a work of love, and therefore a simple man thinks it not a Christian thing to do, yet in truth even this is a work of love
Luther then goes on to give the example of a surgeon who has a patient with an infection, the surgeon has to cut out the infection, and by doing so, he does violence to a part of the body in order to save the whole body.
Just like with all of the other masculine traits, true, holy Christian violence must be ruled by love, not personal gain, personal vengeance, conquest, anything selfish for the individual, family or country.
As such Martin Luther opposed the idea of a “holy war”, and I think he’s right. The concept of the Christian Church declaring a holy war on earth against an individual, group, or country is entirely sinful and absurd. If wars must be fought to preserve peace and protect the innocent, so be it, but don’t try to slap a crusader’s cross on it, and say that God commanded the conquest of Jerusalem.
When we are looking at masculine traits, traits that reflect man made in the image of God, we should look to God to see if there are any examples where He has exercised this trait.
Certainly, the Old Testament is full of examples of the violence of God. After all, if God is the creator of all things, it is entirely His prerogative to move His creation between this life and the next, or back if He desires.
Even still, God is not a wild tyrant, or an unpredictable force of calamity, but rather His violence is calculated and intentional, used to accomplish specific good, and withheld to show grace and mercy even to those who don’t deserve it. Which means that an essential aspect of the violence of God is discretion; control.
First, consider this example of God’s violence, and the reason given behind it in Noah’s flood.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land (Genesis 6:5-7)
That’s a pretty powerful statement, “Every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil, continually”. All evil, only evil, all the time, these people on the earth were about as bad as they could get.
Now well-intentioned and ill-informed atheists will look to the worldwide flood and try to use this to paint a picture of an unhinged sociopathic God. But quite the opposite is true. If you wish to take the text as history and say that indeed there was a worldwide flood, then the text also explains that such a flood couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate group of people.
There is some bizarre irony that the complaint “If God is good, why would He allow evil to be on the earth?” is most frequently spoken by those who most enthusiastically oppose it when God does remove so many evil people from the earth. There’s just no pleasing some people.
But you’ll notice in the text of Noah’s flood, Noah’s family was spared. He was considered righteous, but other verses in Scripture remind us that nobody is innocent of sin. Noah too deserved to die, according to his sin, but he was preserved according to his faith and God’s mercy.
Here is another example of God’s violence in Isaiah chapter 63. In this passage there is the image of a couple people having a conversation among themselves, like watchmen on the wall. Two of them are talking and they are commenting on a man approaching the wall.
They say “who is this guy approaching us? And why is he covered in red, head to toe?”, They point out that this guy approaching does not look weary, but strong, glorious, and ready to fight. Jesus, the guy approaching them, identifies Himself and explains the reason His clothes are red is because He’s drenched in the blood of the enemies of God’s people. The enemies of the watchmen.
This passage goes so incredibly hard. Certainly, there are a lot of gangster passages in Scripture but this is easily one of my favorites. Check it out, Isaiah 63:
Who is this who comes from Edom,
in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.”
Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
“I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.
For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come.
I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me.
I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
Once again, this is extreme and overwhelming violence, but it is precise, measured, and controlled. Jesus is not just killing everyone, but rather He slaughters the enemies for the love of the people He saves.
In a similar way, throughout the Bible, God commands His people at specific times to take up arms against specific threats. He never commands His people to just try to conquer the world, but the call to violence is always specific and with a purpose.
Moses, Joshua, David, leaders of the Israelites are told to take a land promised to them, or to fight an enemy and defeat them entirely. The entire book of Judges is full of God giving specific violent men, and one woman, to guard and free His people.
But isn’t the 5th commandment “Thou shalt not kill?” Doesn’t this mean that it is immoral for a Christian to take the life of another?
The 5th commandment does apply to Christians, but if it was a command never to kill, God would have been commanding His people to break the commandments. So, this should be an indicator that we need to look closer at the language.
If we do, we see that there are different words in Hebrew for “killing”. “Murder”, in particular, is when someone kills another person when they do not have the authority to.
For example, God gives the authority to the state to kill, whether in the punishment of criminals, or in warfare.
Romans 13:4 says this about the government:
he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
The government has the authority to exercise the sword in righteousness, but the government does not have the authority to take life unjustly, whether through war, tyranny, abortion, coercion, or any other reason.
It can be a challenge to know when a government is acting righteously or unrighteously in its exercise of violence, but it is still the obligation of a Christian to try to determine this. God is king over all the heavens and the earth. If the government institutes violence contrary to the will of God, then the government is not to be obeyed in this matter. The earthly authority is outranked by the eternal authority. If the government goes to war for a righteous reason, however, then it is righteous for a Christian solder to participate in that righteous violence.
Man is made in the image of God, and masculinity is a reflection of God’s traits. Murder is not righteous violence, neither is abuse. Unrighteous violence of any form or in any degree is sinful and, according to Christ, regarded as murder. Such abuse of violence does not mean that violence itself is not an aspect of God, or that violence should never be present in the Christian life.
But violence MUST be exercised with the appropriate authority, to the appropriate degree, and in a measured and controlled manner on those who need to receive it.
Peace is also a masculine trait, but both peace and violence must be present in a masculine Christian, each exercised appropriately, and only in love.
You cannot be a Christian pacifist, completely free of violence. If you observe violent injustice against another, you have an obligation as a Christian to intervene in love. When a murderer breaks into the house of the family, where is the father who opts at that moment to be a pacifist?
I’ll tell you where he is, he is in sin and error.
Did not God send violent men to defend His children Israel? How then can you be a father who refuses to defend your wife and children? How then can you be a man?
Righteous violence must be done in love. It is careful, precise, measured, appropriate, with the right authority to act it out. Violence must be accompanied by peace. Peace is not weakness; peace is the ability for violence and the choice to abstain.
If it is unclear whether peace or violence is appropriate, then choose peace. Peace is superior to violence, but so long as we live in this sin filled world, violence is essential.
So, whether you desire to pursue masculinity, or better understand the masculine traits of God, perhaps you can now see violence as one of these virtues.
God bless you all, and take care.