With all the articles being written about loving our enemies, taking in refugees, and retaliation, you can get bogged down in the weeds. I’ve tried to write something all day and because I have consistent writer’s remorse, it’s a constant struggle.
I wanted to explain why I’m an advocate for nonviolence, but couldn’t. I wanted to explain how bringing in the Syrian refugees advanced the Gospel, but Klinton Silvey did it better than I ever could. I thought about writing satirically about the misuse of Romans 13 by people who think we should go to war but ignore the part about giving honor to our President. I saw folks posting articles from Desiring God, Russell Moore, and the Gospel Coalition. We’ve all read them. And we all have an opinion. And you’d read it and just think, “Oh Jay is too liberal” or “Oh Jay is too conservative” or “You’re so out of touch with the Bible.”
And maybe I am.
Maybe I’m incredibly out of touch. Maybe I didn’t understand this Hebrew word. Maybe I think “Love your enemies” means something that it doesn’t. And if so I’ll gladly take correction. I want to get the Scriptures right. I want to be obedient to Scripture, I don't think any Christian wants to be out of accord. But I'm not going to do any of that here.
Instead, I want to address the damage we're doing on a different front. We have the potential to do damage with our thumbs or our words, but we can cause so much more just with our hearts and minds. You see it's one thing to not love our military enemies. It's one thing to not love your political enemies. It's one thing to not care for people who are displaced and are in need. But what if someone is my ideological enemy? What if someone thinks we should help the refugees? What if someone thinks that we should totally bomb ISIS back to the Stone Age? What happens when you find out, your brother or sister in Christ is a Democrat or Republican?
Charles Drew, a Reformed pastor, writes in his book Body Broken
“We keep hoping for and believing in the “silver bullet”— the candidate, the policy, the platform, the Supreme Court configuration—that will fix things. And when we find that someone else’s silver bullet differs from ours, we don’t trust him anymore— even if he is a fellow believer. Or we keep clinging to the mistaken notion that America is God’s chosen nation, positioned to make things right in the world: if we can just get America “right” we will put the world to rights. And when we find someone with a different vision for what it means to get America “right” we demonize him.”
My fear is that we're about to excommunicate Christians because they take a different view on all this. I worry because I see friends who want to demonize “them” and it makes me livid, to the point where I am internally screaming “Are you even a Christian?!” and that's not ok. That's actually dangerous, because it puts a litmus test on another's justification that Scripture just doesn't allow. Some of your enemies are also brothers. Someone who is a Christian Republican has more in common with a Christian Democrat than an unbelieving member of his own party.
Nowhere in Scripture do we have a place to deny those in need, but many places in Scripture were called to especially love those who are brothers:
1 John 2
9Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in himb there is no cause for stumbling. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 3
11For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.
16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
I love my brother. We are best friends. And we haven't always agreed. There have been painful times. But by no means would I disown my brother because of a disagreement. How then do we have the right to excommunicate my Christian brother our hearts?
So as we bite and devour, let us remember that some of our enemies are blood bought brothers, and they are just as worthy of grace as we are.
SDG
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