Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
A peacemaker goes beyond avoiding conflict. It denotes someone who is actively trying to create peace where there is none. Now, I don’t want to make too much of the significance of the number, but 7 is traditionally viewed as the number of completion or holiness. It’s interesting that the teaching on being peacemakers is the seventh thing to come out of Jesus’ mouth. One might think creating peace is an act of holiness.
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
A peacemaker goes beyond avoiding conflict. It denotes someone who is actively trying to create peace where there is none. Now, I don’t want to make too much of the significance of the number, but 7 is traditionally viewed as the number of completion or holiness. It’s interesting that the teaching on being peacemakers is the seventh thing to come out of Jesus’ mouth. One might think creating peace is an act of holiness.
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
One of those ways would be to be peacemakers.
Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
A peacemaker goes beyond avoiding conflict. It denotes someone who is actively trying to create peace where there is none. Now, I don’t want to make too much of the significance of the number, but 7 is traditionally viewed as the number of completion or holiness. It’s interesting that the teaching on being peacemakers is the seventh thing to come out of Jesus’ mouth. One might think creating peace is an act of holiness.
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
Understanding Jesus’ stance on these issues is important for followers of Jesus. All too often, we are swept up in the so-called culture wars, which put political ideology above Christian morality. That is to say, many who claim to be Christians (and by extension are understood to be followers of Jesus) also contradict their claim by walking all too willingly towards conflict in the name of fighting for what is right.
The challenge for the modern-day follower of Jesus is to have the courage and humility to escape the gravity of ideological peer pressure and attempt to understand the way of Christ in the middle of war and peace. I appreciate that this is no easy task.
Let’s explore some key passages around Jesus’ words on war and peace.
1) Jesus’ Call for Peace:
I’ll get to some of Jesus’ teachings about war later on, but let’s begin with his primary theme of peace.
The 7th teaching to come out of Jesus’ mouth, as far as scripture is concerned, is one of peace. In Matthew 5, Jesus heads up to the side of a mountain, he sits down (which is a position of authority and assurance as one teaches) and then begins his first sermon. If Jesus were ever to be fond of sermon titles, I’d like to think he would have called his first sermon ‘how to be blessed’.
One of those ways would be to be peacemakers.
Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
A peacemaker goes beyond avoiding conflict. It denotes someone who is actively trying to create peace where there is none. Now, I don’t want to make too much of the significance of the number, but 7 is traditionally viewed as the number of completion or holiness. It’s interesting that the teaching on being peacemakers is the seventh thing to come out of Jesus’ mouth. One might think creating peace is an act of holiness.
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
While the Bible has much to say about war, reading the whole book can reveal a variety of teachings with a spectrum of perspectives; Jesus’ approach was for his followers not to seek violence but to intentionally find pathways to peace. His teachings on peace go way further than simply avoiding conflict.
Understanding Jesus’ stance on these issues is important for followers of Jesus. All too often, we are swept up in the so-called culture wars, which put political ideology above Christian morality. That is to say, many who claim to be Christians (and by extension are understood to be followers of Jesus) also contradict their claim by walking all too willingly towards conflict in the name of fighting for what is right.
The challenge for the modern-day follower of Jesus is to have the courage and humility to escape the gravity of ideological peer pressure and attempt to understand the way of Christ in the middle of war and peace. I appreciate that this is no easy task.
Let’s explore some key passages around Jesus’ words on war and peace.
1) Jesus’ Call for Peace:
I’ll get to some of Jesus’ teachings about war later on, but let’s begin with his primary theme of peace.
The 7th teaching to come out of Jesus’ mouth, as far as scripture is concerned, is one of peace. In Matthew 5, Jesus heads up to the side of a mountain, he sits down (which is a position of authority and assurance as one teaches) and then begins his first sermon. If Jesus were ever to be fond of sermon titles, I’d like to think he would have called his first sermon ‘how to be blessed’.
One of those ways would be to be peacemakers.
Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
A peacemaker goes beyond avoiding conflict. It denotes someone who is actively trying to create peace where there is none. Now, I don’t want to make too much of the significance of the number, but 7 is traditionally viewed as the number of completion or holiness. It’s interesting that the teaching on being peacemakers is the seventh thing to come out of Jesus’ mouth. One might think creating peace is an act of holiness.
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
[/vc_column_text]KEY VERSES: Matthew 5:9, Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:38, 1 Chronicles 28:2-6, Matthew 24:6-7, Luke 14:31-32.
Bible references are taken from the ESV
Featured Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
We typically imagine pacifism when we think of Jesus’ teachings on war and peace. However, much can be said about the difference between pacifism and the pursuit of peace. Jesus lived in a highly volatile and violent period of history, and the surrounding years were plagued with extreme outbreaks of violence, battles, and wars; so, what does Jesus say about war and peace?
Jesus spoke about wars and rumours of wars, but this was usually in a prophetic or forth-telling context where future war was to be expected. Jesus’ primary teaching was for his followers to enact peace and react to conflict proactively, living out peace to the best of their ability.
More specifically, he predicted the inevitable coming of war and conflict. This is a prediction which is arguably true of every generation, but reading Jesus’ words, you get the sense of being taught to expect conflict. The challenge is exploring how to navigate those conflicts in light of Jesus’ teachings around peace.
While the Bible has much to say about war, reading the whole book can reveal a variety of teachings with a spectrum of perspectives; Jesus’ approach was for his followers not to seek violence but to intentionally find pathways to peace. His teachings on peace go way further than simply avoiding conflict.
Understanding Jesus’ stance on these issues is important for followers of Jesus. All too often, we are swept up in the so-called culture wars, which put political ideology above Christian morality. That is to say, many who claim to be Christians (and by extension are understood to be followers of Jesus) also contradict their claim by walking all too willingly towards conflict in the name of fighting for what is right.
The challenge for the modern-day follower of Jesus is to have the courage and humility to escape the gravity of ideological peer pressure and attempt to understand the way of Christ in the middle of war and peace. I appreciate that this is no easy task.
Let’s explore some key passages around Jesus’ words on war and peace.
1) Jesus’ Call for Peace:
I’ll get to some of Jesus’ teachings about war later on, but let’s begin with his primary theme of peace.
The 7th teaching to come out of Jesus’ mouth, as far as scripture is concerned, is one of peace. In Matthew 5, Jesus heads up to the side of a mountain, he sits down (which is a position of authority and assurance as one teaches) and then begins his first sermon. If Jesus were ever to be fond of sermon titles, I’d like to think he would have called his first sermon ‘how to be blessed’.
One of those ways would be to be peacemakers.
Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
A peacemaker goes beyond avoiding conflict. It denotes someone who is actively trying to create peace where there is none. Now, I don’t want to make too much of the significance of the number, but 7 is traditionally viewed as the number of completion or holiness. It’s interesting that the teaching on being peacemakers is the seventh thing to come out of Jesus’ mouth. One might think creating peace is an act of holiness.
That’s not to say we avoid conflict and, more particularly, avoid violence; there are references in the Bible to how we approach violence in war. However, it’s clear Jesus has a particular way of living in mind for those who follow him.
Even in the first century, a largely oppressive context where Rome ruled with a heavy and physically brutal hand, violence was to be expected to a certain extent in daily life. In fact, the Old Testament approach, one by which all first-century Jews would all have been relatively comfortable, was to repay violent acts with violent acts.
If you injure me, I get to injure you. If you steal my toy, I get to take yours. If you smash my car, I get to smash yours.
In Exodus 21:23-25 and again in Leviticus 24:19-20, the Biblical Mosaic law was that violence can be repaid with matched and measurable violence.
Yet when Jesus comes along with his teaching, he directly contradicts the Old Testament law.
Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version): 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
What Jesus proposes is radically counter-cultural to any sense of what is legal, right and fair in the eyes of the legalists of his day. Jesus’ teachings on peace are so challenging that they even directly contradict Old Testament law. I cannot stress how significantly difficult that is for anyone who is legalistic and religious.
This idea is that you are now to challenge violence with a peaceful and absurd response, such as turning the other cheek. These words also come at a time of high Roman oppression, where soldiers who despised the Jews would sometimes force them to carry their bags, take things from them or sometimes slap them with the back of their hands as a mark of disrespect and dominance.
To turn the other cheek would be to offer the violent actor another hit. Not resisting them is somewhat shocking for a violent oppressor who expects resistance.
It’s also like that the first-century Jews, under Roman oppression, were sick and tired of the Romans. They were mostly ready for a fight and hoped Jesus had come to help them rise up and overthrow, something they expected of the Messiah. So it’s even more jarring when Jesus’ expectation is to turn the other cheek and make peace.
Imagine being asked to make peace with someone who you believe does not deserve it and is constantly looking to provoke violence. That’s the challenge of these words.
Peacemaking of this kind is not about ignoring violence, accepting poor behaviour, or oppressing powers. It’s more about the individual who is trying to make peace. It is about having a counter-cultural attitude and living in a way that contradicts our world’s bloodlust. War and oppression only ever bring pain and sorrow. Striving towards peace is a way of challenging the world’s lust for savagery.
So, does Jesus mean for us to avoid violence? Are there any circumstances in which we permit or even require us to be violent? What should our response be when violence is brought to us and is inescapable?
2) Jesus’ Warning Against Violence:
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Those were the rebuking words of Jesus to Peter in Matthew 26:52. Peter only had a sword because Jesus told Him to bring one back in Luke 22:38. By merging the Gospel stories of the accounts that night of Jesus’ betrayal, we see two contradictory statements. First, Jesus tells them to bring swords, so they do. Later, He then tells them off for using the sword to attack.
Some might say it’s a profound metaphor, but there is some literal meaning here. Jesus is rebuking them for instigating violence. Christians are not to be the aggressors. We are to be the peacemakers. Violence is almost certain to visit most of us in a broken and sinful world. It would not be a sin to protect a loved one or defend yourself under a violent attack. However, we are called to pursue the pathway of peace. Be ready for violence, but do not seek it. We are not to be about that life of violence.
It’s time to do everything possible to avoid violence and not embrace it. If violence still visits you, then at least you must have sincerely made every effort to avoid it. Afterall, one of the reasons King David could not fully enter the promises of God was due to his embrace of violence as seen in 1 Chronicles 28:2-6.
3) Prophecies of War & What We Must Do
So, we are to make peace and expect conflict. Jesus speaks of a future tension where we will find ourselves in a world full of conflict. War may come to our door. Violence may find us, even when we do not seek it. We cannot live in a bubble of peaceful protection. Matthew 24:6-7 has Jesus tell us that war and pain will come. The question is Luke 14:31-32.
A word around excitment of war. There are some who seem to gain enthusiasm as though violent hot wars are a sign of the coming of Christ. In reality, wars come and go, and Jesus even says in Matthew 24:36 that He does not know when He will return. Regardless, I don’t encourage anyone to seek the so-called ‘glory of war’. War is not a means of ushering in the second coming. The reason, I believe, that Jesus warns us of wars and rumours of wars is that we might be prepared. Matthew 24 is surrounded by teaching of anticipation and vigilance in living righteously before the Lord.
Our takeaway is that Jesus desires to live a life that honours God. Not one that satisfies a desire of blood.
There may be a time when you should go to battle for reasons of defence and to meet an aggressor with defiant pushback. This is not the aim, but a necessary endeavour. The aim is to reflect Christ in all things.
How do you balance the need for defending the weak and oppressed with the pursuit of peaceful living reflected in a life of forgiveness?
How do you find the tension of war, conflict and the Christian compulsion for peace?
What other tensions make this issue complex?
Comment with your thoughts below.
