Walking a Mile in our Enemies' Boots

As Americans, whenever we wage war as a nation, we usually find a reason to justify our actions.

We wage war because we've been attacked, or because we feel gravely threatened by the actions of another nation or people group. We believe if we should fail to act and engage in war, more American lives may be lost, and our way of life may be in jeopardy.

Generally speaking, most Americans support whatever war or conflict we engage in.

We see ourselves as fundamentally good, and our causes just. More often than not, if our political leaders feel the need to wage war, we are quick to give them our support and blessings. We generally only become critical of our nations' wars when they last longer than we think is necessary, when there is no clear objective, or when they become too severe for our tastes. It is only then that we begin to question what our real motives for fighting may have been all along.

One thing I've noticed that we seldom ever do as a nation is to sincerely question the justness of our enemies' cause. All we become interested in is the perceived threat against us.

Once it is established that they are a threat to us, we cease to care about what is going on in their head, and the reasons they feel so compelled to wage war against our nation. Whatever their reasons are of no consequence.

All that matters to us is that we know they want to kill us.

Which begs the question, is our concern then simply the fact that our lives are in danger, or are we really concerned about which side is acting morally just? Do we simply rationalize that because we face the possibility of harm, that automatically makes our side the right one?

If we are to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," like Jesus said, then how do you feel about another nation waging a "just war" against you?

We generally have no problem picking up the sword to wage "just war" against our enemies. If somebody shoots us, we are going to shoot back at them. They are evil monsters, and we feel they must die.

But what happens if we are the instigators, and are guilty of firing the first shot? Are you ok with them attacking you in response?

My guess is that even if we were guilty as Americans of firing the first shot and instigating a war, that we would have strong objections to our enemies deciding to fight back against us.

Indeed, if our enemies decided that we simply were too dangerous for the rest of the world, and that our government needed to be overthrown, we would be willing to fight to the death to prevent them from doing such, no matter how guilty we were of injustice.

A major problem with "just war theory" is that nobody wants to be on the receiving end of such justice. We don't mind dishing it out, but we definitely aren't willing to receive that which we so freely give.

If we were to walk a mile in our enemies' boots, what would you would think and feel?

Do you think our enemies are often attacking us simply because they are merely aggressors that hate us, and simply want to kill us?

Or, do you think our enemies are more like us?

They want to fight us because they feel that they are somehow being wronged and that their lives are threatened. Perhaps they don't really know who fired the first shot and who instigated the war. Perhaps they don't really care. Maybe all they know and care about is that their nation is being invaded by a foreign military, and that they feel compelled to fight against us for the same reasons we would fight against them should they ever do the same to us.

Let's walk a mile in our enemies' boots.

Let's do what Jesus said, and treat them the same way we would want to be treated.

Let's end the madness of engaging in war on the basis of just war theory.

Loving Your Enemies: But What About Islamic Terrorists?

I've lived in the "Bible belt" for almost 30 years. I've been saved for almost 15 of those years. I've been to Bible college and Seminary. I've literally listened to several thousand sermons in my lifetime. All the churches and schools I've been involved with have been conservative, Evangelical, and "Bible believing" churches.

Yet to date, I can confidently say I've never heard a single sermon dedicated to the topic of "loving my enemy."

That's not to say somebody hasn't mentioned it in passing at some point. Indeed, I briefly have heard it talked about. And that's not to say there aren't preachers out there in America that don't preach on the topic. Indeed, there are, as a simple Google search will reveal it to be so.

But I've never heard such a message preached in any church I've been a part of, and my guess is you probably haven't either.

Therefore, I worry that one of the central ethical teachings of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, has not only been largely overlooked, but has been almost entirely forgotten.

So far as I've heard and studied, any brief mention of loving our enemies is generally reduced to a command that only advises us on how to deal with interpersonal drama.  It deals with things you might see on "Dr Phil" or the "Jerry Springer Show."  That is, we see Jesus as teaching us to do nothing more than find ways to get along with people we don't like at work, and how to deal with family members whom we wish were grafted into somebody else's family tree.

As I get older, I've become increasingly aware of what a dangerous world we actually live in, and the fact that there are people out there who actually want to do mortal harm to me, my family, and this nation.

Yet, as I read my Bible, I find myself confronted with this teaching of Jesus where He commands me to love my enemies, and I start to think He might have something more in mind than how to deal with personality conflicts and otherwise rude people.

When I crawl into my time machine and find myself transported back into the times of Jesus, as I hear Him preaching to the multitudes in His famous "Sermon on the Mount," I can't help but be arrested by the fact that Jesus's teaching to love my enemies had a much greater application than I  regularly appreciate as a middle-class white-boy who grew up in America.

As I listen to Jesus preaching on a hill side in Judea, I look around and see a lot of Jewish people who have lived under the brutally oppressive Roman Empire.

I see a people whose hearts are broken,  angry, and confused.  They don't understand why God has allowed a foreign and pagan army to occupy and govern a land that He had promised them.   They are forced to pay heavy taxes, are forced into servitude, and live under a police state.  Justice is administered coldly, swiftly, and decisively (which is to say, not really at all).  They are a people who want to rebel, they want to fight back, and they want to get out from under the boot of Rome.  But Rome frequently squashes all hope of that ever happening, and regularly tortures and kills anybody who dares to fight back, and try to gain freedom.

History tells how the Romans dealt with Jewish rebellions in their day.  For example, one day they reportedly crucified 3,000 people, and set them up on the highway as an object lesson.  The lesson was simple: Don't even think about messing with us.

This happened during the time of Jesus.  He may have personally seen this event as a small boy.  If He didn't see it, He would've definitely heard about it.

Yet for all the brutality the Jews suffered at Roman hands, Jesus taught that they should not hate their enemy.  Instead, Jesus taught the Jews of His day that if they wanted to be a people who were rightly related to God, that they would have to love their enemies.

That is, they would have to love the Romans.

Jesus taught the Jews of His day to love the very enemies who not only crucified 3,000 Jews, but would one day crucify Him.

Jesus taught the Jews of His day to love they very enemies who would one day conduct a military siege against Jerusalem.  According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, more than 1 million people were killed in the fall of Jerusalem, and almost 100,000 people were enslaved.

Love those people, Jesus said.

The application would have been loud and clear.

The Jews would have understood Jesus's sermon as teaching them to love people who were truly their enemies, and not simply people they had a hard time getting along with.  They would've understood Jesus to be teaching them to love people who could actually physically and mortally harm them and their families.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48; NASB)

...Fast forward 2,000 years to the present.

Outside of some co-workers and some family members that you consider your enemies, can you think of anybody that threatens you in the way the Romans threatened the ancient Jewish people?  Do we have any enemies who actually threaten to physically harm and kill us and our loved ones?

If Jesus were to preach a sermon at your church this Sunday, and taught you to love your enemies, do you think He might make a PowerPoint slide that listed Islamic terrorists as one of the people we ought to love?

If Jesus appeared on Fox News and was interviewed by Sean Hannity, how do you think Hannity would respond if Jesus said He thinks the solution to the crisis in the Middle East was for us to bomb ISIS with something resembling "care packages" instead of something a little more explosive.

If Jesus were to advise President Obama on the Middle East crisis, do you think He would tell the president to love his enemies and pray for their well being?  Or do you think He would quote the famous country music star Toby Keith, and tell the president to "put a boot in their ass."

In our heart of hearts, if we were really honest with ourselves, I think most of us know what Jesus would say on these matters if He were given the platform to speak today.

The problem is, as so often is the case, we simply find the straight forward teachings of Jesus too hard to accept.  I believe we simply don't have the capacity in our hearts to accept such truth.  The problem therein is not the words of Jesus being too hard to accept, so much as it is the hardness of our hearts to accept them.

So we largely ignore such teachings.  We pass over them very quickly in our reading of the Bible and in our teaching in the church.  We don't want to dwell on such things.

For we ultimately know that there is a lot of risk involved in loving our enemies.  Loving our enemies means we let something of our guard down.  Lowering our guard makes us vulnerable.  We don't want to be vulnerable as a general rule of thumb, let alone vulnerable before our enemies, who have an interest in putting us and those we love to death.

Our fear is what ultimately keeps us from loving our enemies.

But love, true love, the kind of love that can only come from God, can grant us the supernatural transformation we all need in our hearts, to give us the capacity to genuinely love our enemies.  It is the kind of love that Jesus had in Him, and is the kind of love that ultimately drove Him to the cross to die on our behalf.

And if Jesus can cause us to love even the men that want to put us to death, then just imagine what He can do to the hearts of those who want to kill us.

He did this once to a man named Saul of Tarsus, who was involved in killing the first Christian martyr.  Today, we all better know this man by the name of Paul, the apostle.  He started dozens, if not hundreds of churches.  And in the process, he wrote most of the New Testament.

"Convert Them or Kill Them" - Phil Robertson on ISIS

For those of you who may not be aware, in Iraq and Syria there presently exists an armed uprising by an Islamic army/terrorist organization that refers to themselves as "The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."

The number one goal of ISIS is to create an Islamic theocratic state, first starting in the Middle East, and eventually spreading across the globe. They hope to cause all men and women to live under the teachings and governance of Islamic law as interpreted through their religious leaders.

Ideally, they wish everybody would convert to Islam through their preaching. You may not know it, but Islam has their own missionaries. They actively try to convert people to Islam, much in the way we as Christians have missionaries and evangelists that go around the world sharing the gospel.

However, in regard to the form of Islam that ISIS practices, whoever resists their preaching must ultimately be executed, for such a person would have no place in a nation governed by Islamic law. Even Muslims who don't interpret Islam in the exact same way they do must ultimately convert and submit to their particular views, or face possible execution.

ISIS is terribly pragmatic in the implementation of their faith in the establishing of an Islamic government, and they are pretty straight forward in their approach:

Convert them, or kill them.

ISIS ultimately views America as an enemy in their struggle, and a result, we've landed in their crosshairs. They view us as a threat to their cause, their lives, and they believe we must be dealt with.

Many of our political leaders are presently scrambling for a solution to this problem. They realize that ISIS ultimately can't be negotiated with, because there is nothing to ultimately negotiate over. ISIS wants an Islamic state, not only in the Middle East, but ultimately across all of the world. They will be satisfied with nothing less.

While Washington, DC seeks for a present solution to this great problem, this topic has become a hot point of discussion in the media. Everybody is being asked to weigh in on where they stand, and what they see as a solution.

There is one brief interview recently conducted that sticks out in my mind, and I believe it to be indicative of the attitude that prevails amongst most Christians in America.

A few days ago, the controversial Duck Dynasty reality TV star and "patriarch" Phil Robertson appeared on Fox News, and was interviewed by commentator Sean Hannity. When Hannity asked Robertson about his thoughts on the ISIS crisis, Robertson briefly said the following:

"I'm not giving up on them, but I'm just saying, either convert them or kill them. One or the other."

I find Robertson's solution to the problem of ISIS to be rather revealing, and troubling at the same time. I fear too many follow his line of reasoning, and it goes along the following lines:

We know Jesus Christ has called us to fulfill the Great Commission, that is, to take the Gospel to all the world, and make disciples of all nations. We know all men are in need of our risen Lord and Savior. We know ISIS acts the way they do because like us, they are sinners in need of a Savior. We know they need to be born again, and apart from such, they will continue on in their present spiritual condition.

But in desiring to see all men saved, we recognize an immediate problem with groups like ISIS. They have no interests whatsoever in the Gospel message. Indeed, not only are they uninterested in hearing the Gospel, they are outwardly hostile to Christians, and are engaged in actively persecuting and murdering anybody who follows Christ. They simply will not tolerate the existence of Christians in their Islamic theocratic state. They don't believe in co-existing.

Being that there seems little hope in converting groups like ISIS, we quickly realize there only remains one practical means of stopping them from advancing, and that is to declare war against them, and kill as many of them as we possibly can. Our solution is ultimately this:

Convert them, or kill them.

But if you stop and think about what I just said, you will realize that our philosophy towards ISIS of converting them or killing them is the exact same philosophy that they are using in regard to us.

ISIS sees America as "the Great Satan" and believes we are beyond hope of being converted to Islam, and that we are actively trying to interfere with their mission of establishing an Islamic theocratic state. Likewise, we as Christians in America see ISIS as the embodiment of evil, inhuman, and demonic. And as such, we believe there are few practical steps we could take that could ever result in their conversion. They are beyond being saved it seems. Feeling hopeless and fearful in regard to stopping the jihad they are waging, we feel the only hope we have in stopping them is to declare war on them and kill them before they kill us.

Therefore, both of us agree the only solution to our problem is to kill the other group.

And while such may be the theology of Islam, carefully searching the Scriptures, I have a hard time believing such is also in keeping with the theology of Jesus, and the faith once and for all handed down to the saints.

The teachings of Jesus demand that we pick up our crosses instead of our swords, and follow Him. It demands that we love our enemies, even at the cost of our own lives. And if we literally give our lives over to death for the sake of Christ, we are to consider ourselves blessed. A resurrection awaits us. A kindgom has come and has been established that will know no end, and it conqurers and establishes justice and peace in the world through the weakness and foolishness of the cross, instead of the might of brute military force.