My dear friend Glenn
asked a question that I would address.
He mentioned the quote that is often associated with WWII. “All that is necessary for the triumph of
evil is that good men do nothing.” We do
not truly know who said this first. It
is associated with Edmund Burke.
It can also be found in Proverbs that we are to rescue those in danger: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to the slaughter, oh hold them back! If you say, ‘See, we did not know this,’ Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work? (Proverbs 24:11-12 NASB) The entire chapter is dedicated to resisting evil.
It would seem that
it is wrong to allow evil to continue uncontested. It is right to feel anger relative to things
in the world that are evil. As we said
yesterday, however, anger is not allowed to be kept overnight. This begs the question of seeking balance. Jesus told us to love our enemies. He Said not to resist them. It is obvious that killing my enemy is both
resistant and unloving. Resisting evil
is not the same as resisting an enemy.
What then is my
path? I think there is another question
that we do not ask before we go to war.
I am asking this question of everyone who claims to follow Christ. Have we done all that we can to provide a way
that is the path of peace? We can always
find ways to love, care, and provide that make violence unnecessary. We can resist evil in ways that are
supernatural and fly in the face of violence.
Too often we stop
short of loving our enemies. We fail to
see that there is a way out. I cannot
nor will I comment on specific scenarios.
If Christ commands something the situation does not matter. I do not see a time in recent history when
believers united to find loving solutions to the great ills of the world. We have no unity within and, therefore,
cannot stand united against evil. We
simply do not choose to act as one for the sake of the Kingdom.
I believe that
until we choose peace in all things and harness obedience as a weapon of peace,
we will not understand the path of loving our enemies. As long as things divide us internally, we
cannot stand in the battle against evil. Until our first response to all things is to
unite before the Father and ask him to intervene, we have not exhausted all of
our options. If I respond to all anger
with love, I am on the right path.
It is no small thing
that I heard this quote as I have been pondering all of these things.
If I respond to evil
with violence, I am not following Christ, Dear Reader. It is in making peace that I resemble my
Father. The path of peace is paved with
love and grace, not destruction. As
Larry Norman noted that the way to bring about peace is not through sacrificing
children and killing all our enemies.
The only way out of this present darkness is to follow the Son.
Wishing you joy in
the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus
said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of
Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new
and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Every human
story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything
back to Good.
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
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“Men have used the atrocities of their enemies to
justify their own throughout history.” Father Lantom
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