Should Christians retaliate?

November 19, 2017
taught by Ken McGarvey
First Baptist Church of Tellico Village, Tennessee

Should Christians retaliate?

     When other people do something offensive to us, to our family, our church, our country, or to God, what should be our response? Should we retaliate? Get even? Correct them? Hurt them? What should we do?

     I’ve broken responses down into several categories, and there may well be others. Is our response to be primarily

Punitive?
Vengeful?
Protective?
Defensive?
Redemptive?
Submissive?
Corrective?

     Obviously, much depends on the circumstances. When Jesus was arrested, put on trial, humiliated, tortured and killed, his response was to be submissive. When he was verbally attacked by the religious leaders, it was corrective, as he preached woes upon them while describing the effects of what they were doing.

     In the Old Testament, Samson responded to violence against him and his family with defense and vengeance. When Jesus was a baby, Joseph and Mary responded to Herod’s threat with protection, as they fled to Egypt until Herod was dead. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter acted punitively and defensively, using his sword to attack the nearest offender; but Jesus stopped him and restored the injury he had caused.

     The question is not simple, nor are the answers. Here we are not looking for rules or laws, as the situations are much too complex. What we are looking for is principles God gives us from scripture that we can use effectively in the varying situations we find ourselves in. We are also looking for similar situations others faced in the Biblical record, and how they were resolved and what was the outcome as far as God was concerned.

Biblical Principles
     In the Bible the enemy of all that’s right is sin — s-I-n. It was sin in the Garden of Eden that caused the disconnect between God and man. And it is sin that causes all the problems of man and his relationship with God. From that first sin, the Bible is the story of redemption, God’s giving covenants, laws, priests, the Tabernacle, promises, kings, prophets, and finally a Savior, God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, to redeem mankind and reconcile man unto himself. He then sent the Holy Spirit and gave us the Church,  to be the presence of God in a fallen world.

     In the Law, there were punishments for sin. Sometimes sin was treated as a personal offense against God (which it always is). But there were also provisions for dealing with sin as a social offense, dragging the entire society away from God, and injuring or destroying that society.

     The teachings of the Bible are all about relationships — between man and God and between man and man. How we treat each other is inescapably linked to our relationship with God. As John says in 1 John 4:20–21,  If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

     In the Old Testament God frequently dealt with sin in a negative way: He cursed the ground because of Adam, he destroyed the world in the days of Noah, he wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah, he sent plagues upon the Israelites in the time of David, he sent the kingdom of Israel into exile and loss of identity, he sent the nation of Judah into captivity in Babylon for 70 years, etc.

     Even in the negative world of the Old Testament, God did not allow his people to extract vengeance. It came in Deuteronomy 32 and is quoted by Paul in Romans 12:19, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

     In the Old Testament Law, punishment was to be executed upon evildoers by those in authority for their sins. Indeed, punishment is done by those in charge. However, in the New Testament the emphasis seems to be more on correction than punishment. Instead of making people get what they deserve, it speaks of correcting them so that they are able to gain victory over that sin. Galatians 6:1, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Jesus said something similar in Matthew 18:15–17, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

     In our society, self-defense s one of our highest values. But Jesus taught his disciples that self-defense is not necessarily God’s plan for us. Matthew 16:25–26, Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. He also said, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Our response to the threats of society should not begin with fear.

     In the New Testament God sometimes still treats sin harshly, as with Ananias and Sapphire in Acts 5, and the “sin unto death” in 1 John 5:16. We don’t know much about the latter, but in Acts 5 it seems that God wanted to get the message to the church to take seriously their responsibility to be honest in dealing with the church, the body of Christ. But those seem to be exceptions, rather than the rule.

Application today

     How then do we respond when treated badly in this life? When dealing with fellow Christians Paul gives us some guidelines in 1 Corinthians 6. First he scolds them for suing one another in a secular court of law. He suggests that Christians should not take their disputes to unbelievers to decide. Rather, if they cannot agree among themselves, they ought at least to have someone in the church be their arbiter. Yet, his preference would be for something better: To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? (1 Corinthians 6:7) Instead of standing up for our “rights,” we ought just to overlook it and live with it.

     Paul also talks to believers about distancing themselves from immoral people. But which immoral people is he talking about? And what kinds of immorality?

 ⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? ¹³ God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

     Here Paul is speaking not about how we handle those who have offended us, but those whose lives are offensive to God, and to the church. We are to separate from them, what many churches call excommunicating or disfellowshipping. But we are NOT to do that with unbelievers. And please note that the “immorality” God is speaking of includes greed. Yes, greed is immorality in the eyes of God.

     And we cannot discuss this without mentioning Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is speaking directly about retaliation in Matthew 5:38–42, ³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹ And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴² Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. This just adds to the New Testament teachings, concluding pretty surely to me, that retaliation should not be part of the Christian’s repertoire of responses to evil.

     So then, what does that really mean for us today? Retaliation is not necessarily revenge. Revenge is always wrong; we are to leave that in the hands of God. Retaliation is not necessarily prosecution. If you are wronged by an illegal act, reporting and prosecuting that act is not retaliation. Where I think retaliation is especially common in our society (by Christians and nonchristian) is in business, in politics and in boycotting. But I think it’s pretty common for Christians in business and in politics to leave their Christianity outside the work world.

     I am amazed (and even amused) by Christians who choose to boycott businesses. And the reasons they give. Let me share why I don’t boycott businesses.

1. Paul said we’re not to separate ourselves from unbelievers because of their sins.
2. Most boycotts by Christians are because the business does not operate by standards we as Christians believe in. And even these may be controversial. When so many Christians live apart from Christian principles, why should we expect nonchristians to live by them?
3. When we try to hurt business for not conforming to our standards, we give the church a black eye in the eyes of the nonchristian world. We can’t evangelize them. Why would they want to become one of us? Or become like us?
4. How do we decide what offenses are boycottable? If the business is greedy, underpays its workers, sells merchandise harmful to our health, favors the wealthy in its dealings, and keeps vast sums in nontaxable overseas accounts, why would we suddenly boycott them because they hired a homosexual, or stopped allowing Salvation Army kettles outside their stores?
5. For 2000 years, Christians have often been persecuted. They took it in stride and stayed faithful unto death. We have been the powerless among the powerful. Why should we try to exercise power over others? It runs counter to the whole New Testament. I know, it’s human nature — sinful human nature. Let’s yield to the Holy Spirit and let him handle our problems. We’ll be holier and probably happier.