There’s a lot of chatter about guns right now. Some people fear them and wish they could get rid of them. Others see guns as part of American culture, and gun ownership as a fundamental right. Guns fit right in with the idea of rugged independence that many Americans prize. Let us arm ourselves, they say, and we can be the sheepdogs who guard against the wolves.
Paul had some of those same values; in 1 Corinthians 16:13 he said, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” Good, stout words that appeal to our stand-up-and-do-something ideologies.
But then Paul added verse 14: “Do everything in love.”
Of course Paul wasn’t talking about weapons but about living faithfully in a sinful world. But he’s addressing the same issue we’re talking about in our school-safety debate: there are, in this world, bad people who would attack us for our beliefs. How, then, should we live?
In that context, I note a couple of things here. First, Paul doesn’t encourage us to live in a bunker. He doesn’t say to harden ourselves as targets. In some circumstances those actions are prudent, but in general Paul seems to accept that we will always have to live with these people. He seems to think that we should go about our lives normally, but be on guard.
More importantly, though, he encourages a very un-American response to these people: love. Even if, he says, we have to be brave and on our guard, and act in strength, we should do those things in love.
How can we do that? I think the idea is that, even as we do the things we have to do, we want the best for everyone. The best would be for these people to change their thinking, to stop attacking us, to be moved to live obediently. They probably won’t, but if that’s what we genuinely want for them, we’ll deal with whatever restrain the situation permits. We’ll listen and explain, if possible, before we call names or dismiss them. We’ll even be moved to pray for them.
It’s hard to love people who we have to be on our guard against. But it is possible, and it’s what Jesus expects.
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