A Biblical Argument for Self Defense

by Pastor Paul Wolff

God gives temporal authorities the sword to punish wrongdoers. Joshua was judge of Israel, and instrument of judgment against the idolatrous Canaanites.

The news of this week is that there has been another mass shooting of innocent people. It happened in a Christian church near Fort Worth, Texas, during worship on the Sunday after Christmas. A gunman started shooting people in the church, and killed two people (including a security guard) before armed parishioners pulled out their own guns and shot and killed the murderer. This was a textbook case of how the freedom to carry concealed weapons by law-abiding citizens helps prevent more murders. But what does the Bible say about such things?

I should first say that I hate guns. I hate violence and the murder and injuries that are caused by guns. I believe that gun violence against people is evil and that the world would be a better place if no one ever used a gun to injure another human being. I am not generally a violent person, and I went into the ministry to save people, not hurt them. I do not own a gun, though I own a couple pocket knives that could possibly be used to save the lives of others, but more on that below.

When I was young and naïve, after the shooting of President Reagan, I was convinced to be in favor of some form of gun control. However, after further study and consideration I have come to reluctantly see the wisdom in the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. This limited “right” properly recognizes that we live in a fallen world, and there are times when violence and tyranny must be met by violence in order to protect the lives and freedom of innocent people. This freedom still makes me a little uncomfortable, but I am no longer in favor of broad gun control.

The nails and spear were not weapons which Jesus used against others, but He allowed them to be used on Him for our redemption.

As a Minister of the Gospel, I know that I am potentially a target for some evil person who is angry at God and has some murderous intent. I knew when I took my ordination vows that I was dedicating my life in service to God and to God’s people in the congregation where I serve. I also knew that if society changed (as it is in the process of doing) that I would be a prime target for those who seek to harm the church through violence. I pray that such a thing does not come to pass, but if it does I pray that I would stand firm confessing Christ as my Lord and Savior without fear of death, nor of anything that man can do to me. Christ is risen from the dead, and has promised to bring me with Him into His heavenly kingdom as His redeemed child. “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)

There are some Biblical precedents for arming oneself for self defense and the protection of one’s neighbors. Abraham raised a small army and defeated several kings who kidnapped his nephew, Lot, and stole his property (see Genesis 14). Lot, and the others who were kidnapped with him were rescued and their belongings were restored. Also, in the Book of Esther, the Persian King who ruled over the Jewish captives in exile in Babylon, allowed the Jews to arm and defend themselves from those who sought to kill them. If you recall, the king had foolishly passed a law authorizing the killing of Jews, not realizing that his favorite wife, Esther, was a Jew. Even though the king was prevented by law from changing his foolish law, he issued another decree that the Jews could be well armed and fight to defend themselves against any who sought to destroy them (see Esther 8). This sounds like a recipe for civil war to have two opposing laws calling for violence, but it prevented a greater slaughter. The king also gave great honor to Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, who previously uncovered and foiled a plot against the king.

Jesus did not defend Himself at His trial, even though He was innocent. He trusted in God to judge Him and vindicate Him.

Generally, God-fearing people ought to flee violence and seek peace, but there are times when such things are unavoidable. Psalm 34:14 says, “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Jesus also teaches that God-fearing believers ought to “turn the other cheek” when someone strikes you on the cheek (Matthew 5:39). Also Christ’s teaching in His “Sermon on the Mount” (see Matthew 5) shows that the Fifth Commandment (“You shall not murder”) also implies that we are to positively help support and protect our neighbor in his bodily needs, and not only refrain from murdering him.

Scripture doesn’t have a blanket command for self-defense, lest it be abused as an excuse to commit murder, but we are commanded to help protect our neighbor. As I mentioned above, I sometimes carry a knife, but I am not sure that I would use it to protect myself if I came under a threat. That could possibly seem to be self-serving, and just an excuse for murder, even though easily justified. I would, however, be much more inclined to use a knife or other weapon against someone who was attacking innocent people or those that I love, to protect their lives, if I was in a position to help in that way. Generally, though, I don’t view a knife as a weapon to be used against people. I am more likely to view it as a tool to open envelopes or packages or to cut things around the house or office that need cutting. Unlike a gun, a knife has many innocent uses around the home and the office. The only blood I have shed using knives is my own, when I have carelessly handled a sharp knife in one way or another. I hope never to see another’s blood by my own doing, whether for good or for ill.

I do not know if any of the members of my congregation bring a gun to church. If there are any who do, I would want to be assured that they are well trained and disciplined in its use. I would worry more that a child might accidentally get hold of someone else’s gun and hurt himself or others. However, if a gunman came into our church hell-bent on murder, then I would thank God for anyone who would put a stop to the murderous act. I don’t want any of the members of my congregation to kill anyone, unless they have to, but I would absolve the person who stopped a murderer, as long as it was clear that the murderer was the one who attacked first. Preemptive attacks on people who may or may not be contemplating violence are not justifiable, and are properly punished. Taking the life of someone is something that cannot be reversed, and should only happen if there is no other choice, like when a murderer is intentionally hurting innocent, unarmed people. There are consequences which affect the lives even of trained police officers and soldiers who must take the lives of others in the fulfilling of their duties. I would, without hesitation, comfort and absolve those who had to take someone’s life while protecting innocent lives and preventing more murder and injury.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the earth.”

King Solomon writes in Proverbs 16:7 “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” This happens because God’s law is good and for our benefit, and because God created us, He made us to benefit from His goodness and we are always better off when we keep to God’s law. If we love our enemies as God has loved us all, then even our enemies will have to acknowledge the righteousness of our actions, and they will no longer be our enemies, but our friends.
 
Saint Paul writes in Romans 12:18-21 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” God is a truly impartial judge, and we are all accountable to Him in the end. If there is going to be punishment, we ought to leave it to God, or to His servants here on earth. God has established the proper authorities to punish wrongdoers, and to keep the peace. If we seek vigilante justice ourselves, we are almost certain to take it too far.
 
Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” We cannot make ourselves holy, but if we aspire to be sanctified by God, the Holy Spirit, we ought to strive to be holy in all we do or say. This should be the guiding rule when it comes to self-defense. We should love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). That means we ought to be hesitant to use violence against anyone unless it is absolutely necessary. Murderers are our neighbors, too, and if we can stop them without killing them, then they may be be brought to repentance and be saved. Jesus died to pay for the sin of murder, also. However, there is still temporal punishments for the sin of murder. After the great flood, God said to Noah, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (Genesis 9:6)

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For further reading, see my December 2017 article on Anger.

 

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The Good Samaritan

by Pastor Paul Wolff

A certain man fell among thieves A Samaritan had compassion on him A Priest and a Levite passed by

 
Luke 10:33-35
Jesus said, “A Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where (the injured man) was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”

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People are afraid of the Law, and think the Law is evil because the Law condemns us as sinners. However, the Law of God is not the problem. God’s Law is good, as God is good, and the Law shows us what is good for us to do to love God and love our neighbor. Sinners think the Law’s condemnation of sinners is bad because we don’t want to be condemned. Sin blinds us to the reality of just how wicked we really are, and how much we really deserve to be condemned.

Remember what happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. God made the whole world good and gave it to Adam and Eve for their benefit and enjoyment. The only thing forbidden to them was the fruit of one tree – one tree in the whole world. In effect, God was saying, “This tree belongs to me. Don’t eat its fruit. If you eat the fruit of this tree you will die. But look, here is another tree. This is the tree of Life. You are free to eat from this tree and anything else in the world that you wish to eat. I am your Father and I love you, and I want you to live and enjoy all the good things that I can give to you forever.” God gives us good things, and forbids us from doing things that will hurt us.

The problem isn’t God’s Law. The problem is that people rebelled against God’s good Law and chose sin and death instead of righteousness and life. Sinners despise what is good, and we twist and distort God’s Word to make the Law seem to say what we want it to say, instead of receiving it as God has given it to us for our good.

It is no coincidence that the man who tested Jesus was a teacher in the law. He knew the law, but he asks the wrong questions. If you ask the wrong questions you will get the wrong answers. However, in telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus gives us both the right question and the right answer.

Inheritance is a matter of Law, but you can only receive it as a gift.

The first question the lawyer asks Jesus is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question isn’t all wrong: It recognizes that eternal life is a matter of inheritance. It is a gift, not a right. However, the question is ridiculous. Can you imagine someone going up to Donald Trump (for example) and saying, “What must I do to inherit the wealth of your estate?” Most of the time the inheritance of an estate is given to the children. If you are not born or adopted into the family then it is unlikely you will inherit anything.

Since inheritance is a matter of law, and the man asking about it was a teacher of the law, Jesus asks him what the law says about inheriting eternal life. The man answered by quoting from Deuteronomy where God summarized the two tables of the Commandments. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” This was a good summary of the Law, as Jesus points out, but the man forgot that the Law cannot save sinners. The law condemns sinners. Since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, all people (except Jesus) have inherited the corruption of sin. This is our inheritance – according to the law.

Luke writes that the teacher of the law wanted to justify himself. To justify yourself is to make up excuses for your sin which will make you feel like you are doing right when you are doing wrong. It is a wicked thing to try to justify your sin, but sinners are always looking to justify themselves. I do it. You do it. Everyone does it, but that doesn’t make it right. It just means that everyone sins in justifying themselves.

So the teacher of the law asks, “Who is my neighbor?” This doesn’t seem like a bad question, but why would you ask it? Your neighbor is everyone you come in contact with in your various vocations, including those whom you try to avoid, like an injured man lying on the side of the road when you have somewhere else to go. If you have to ask, “Who is my neighbor?” then you may be really asking, “Who isn’t my neighbor?” or “Who can I ignore because they are not my neighbor.” So Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus is the Good Samaritan

Jesus told a story about a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among robbers. The robbers should have been neighbors to the traveler, and protected his life and property, but instead they beat him and stole his belongings, and left him for dead on the road.

Then a priest was going down the road and saw the injured man. The priest represents the first table of the Law where we love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. The priest served God in his vocation, but he was under the law. The ceremonial law said much about blood and how to deal with it. It would not do for the priest to show up for work with bloody hands from helping an injured man. He would likely be considered unclean. Now, uncleanliness wasn’t too big of a deal. All people would do things in the normal activities of life which would make them unclean. I think that was the point of the cleanliness laws. They reminded people that our sin makes us unclean and that we need to be cleansed of our sin.

The priest could have helped the man, but then in order to be fit for his priestly service he would have had to wash and make a sacrifice and wait until sundown to be considered clean again. It was an inconvenience, and somewhat costly, but he could have helped the injured man, and should have. The people who would benefit from his priestly service would have understood, but the priest justified his inaction by telling himself that if he helped the injured man he couldn’t carry out his service to God. This was a misuse of the law, but this is what sinners do to justify themselves. So the priest walks by the injured man on the other side of the road.

Likewise, a Levite came and saw the injured man lying in the road. He represents the second table of the Law where we must love our neighbor as ourselves. The Levites were those members of the tribe of Levi who were not priests, but who served as laymen in the church. Levites were the elders, ushers, acolytes, trustees, groundskeepers, altar guild, board members, and similar laymen who serve the church. He could have helped the injured man, but he was under the law also. He could have helped the injured man, but would then be unfit to serve in the congregation for a time, and so he justified his actions in the same way as the priest. He also misused the law to justify his unmerciful actions. So he, too walked by on the other side of the road.

Then a Samaritan came down the road and saw the injured man. The Samaritan was not under the law in the same way that the priest and Levite were. He was not above the Law, certainly, instead he was outside the Law. He was not bound by the Law in the same way that the priest and Levite were, nor could he hide under the Law to justify unmerciful inaction. In a way, the Samaritan was free of the Law’s demands, but because he was free of the Law’s demands, he was also free to help his neighbor without having to worry that the Law might condemn him in some other way (unless he also ignored the injured man and left him to die). So he had compassion on the injured man and treated his wounds and took care of him.

Jesus is the Good Samaritan who paid the costly price to give you His inheritance.

You should note that what the Samaritan did was also costly. Besides the time and effort of cleaning and treating the wounds, he also paid the entire burden of the injured man’s health care. It was a sacrifice, but because he was free from the law’s burdens, he willingly paid what was necessary to help his neighbor.

Jesus ends His parable by asking the teacher of the Law, “Which of these was neighbor to the man injured by the robbers?” He answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise.”

Now, if you have a wrong view of the law, you might think that Jesus was just giving the man another law to live by. But that would be a wrong understanding. Jesus was, in fact, doing the exact opposite. Jesus was not even giving a new law that supersedes the old law, as if you could use that to justify breaking any of the Ten Commandments. Instead, Jesus was declaring the man free from the law, just like the Samaritan was free from the law, and used his freedom to have mercy on his neighbor.

Jesus is the Good Samaritan. As the Son of God, Jesus was free from the Law’s demands. Jesus was not just free from the Law, He was above the Law because He created the Law. Though, in a way, Jesus was also bound by the Law in ways that we are not. God created the Law to reflect His very nature, so when Jesus obeyed the Law, He was only acting according to His nature, not against it (as we are when we obey the law). Yet, in His mercy, Jesus submitted Himself to the Law for our sake to redeem us and free us from the Law’s demands and its condemnation.

Jesus was, of course, a Jew, and not a Samaritan, but it is interesting in John 8 some of the Jews said to Jesus, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.” It is interesting that Jesus confessed that He did not have a demon, but He did not deny the charge of being a Samaritan. Although the Jews thought they were insulting Jesus by calling him a Samaritan, Jesus was not ashamed to be called a Samaritan. Jesus came to save Samaritans and other Gentiles as well as Jews. The Samaritans were His neighbors as much as His own people.

When Jesus says, “Go and do likewise” He is not putting us under the law, as if he were saying, ‘you can’t be saved unless you make up for your sin by doing good and showing mercy.’ Instead, Jesus is setting us free from the law’s curses. You are free to serve your neighbor because you no longer have to worry about fulfilling the law’s demands yourself. Jesus fulfilled the law for you. You are free. Not free to sin (for that would put you under the law’s curse), but free to serve your neighbor instead of trying to serve yourself.

Jesus set Zacchaeus free because he trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins.

Scripture says in Romans 6:22-23 “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus fulfilled God’s Law completely in our place so that through Jesus we are freed from the Law’s demands and can serve our neighbor in freedom as the Samaritan had mercy on his injured neighbor. This freedom we have in Christ is given to us as a gift by His mercy.

This gift is our inheritance as Children of God through Baptism and faith. Scripture says in Galatians 4:4-7, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”

What must you do to inherit eternal life? Of course you can’t do anything, but Christ has already done it all for you. He has redeemed you from your sin, and adopted you as His children, and He gives you the inheritance of His eternal Kingdom as a gift – as all inheritance is given. Like the Samaritan in the parable, Jesus paid the great price to make you His child and heir. St. Peter writes, “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a (sacrificial) lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Praise be to Christ, who is your Good Samaritan who sacrificed His life to rescue and heal you from the wounds of sin and death, and who gives you life everlasting.