A Christian Call to Arms!!!

In the past year, it's been almost impossible to avoid the issue of gun control.  Gun violence has regularly dominated the news.  President Obama has vowed to make gun control a priority in his final year in office.  And, in response to recent events, many have felt the need to arm themselves, and gun sales have recently spiked.

What is a Christian to do in all of this? 

I firmly believe we are called to arm ourselves. 

However, I believe we are called to arm ourselves in a very different way than the likes of Jerry Falwell, Jr has called upon the students of Liberty University to do. 

I believe we are to arm ourselves to suffer.

The apostle Peter once said:

"Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." (1 Peter 4:1-2; NASB) 

Armed to suffer? Say whaaa?  Ain't nobody got time for that.

...But Muslims!
...But Hitler!
...But the Second Amendment!
...But bad guys with guns!
...But late night home invasions!
...But Joel Osteen said I could have my best life now, and I can't do that if I'm dead!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's immoral or sinful to own a weapon.  Jesus isn't going to send you to hell or strike you dead for owning a gun (after all, He did once encourage his followers to carry a couple swords). 

However, in listening to the news and chatting among family, friends, and other Christians, I can't help but notice that the primary tone of the conversations taking shape.  We want to own guns, not only because it is our right, but we want to be prepared to use lethal force so that we can avoid needless death and suffering. 

Suffering, even righteous suffering, is the furthest thing from our mind.  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness dominate our thinking instead.

Preserving our life and our way of life have taken priority over everything else.  We are prepared to arm ourselves, but only in order to avoid suffering.  And we find the idea of being prepared to suffer and embracing suffering to be ludicrous and completely foreign to our way of thinking. 

Yet the consistent call of the New Testament from cover to cover is for Christians to prepare themselves to suffer, even unjustly, at the hands of madmen, and to do so with the greater purposes of God and the Gospel ultimately in mind.

Owning a gun is fine, and I'll never object to you owning one.  But instead of owning a gun, and getting all bent out of shape over whether or not President Obama is going to allow us to freely buy them, I believe we need to have a different focus.  We need to focus on arming ourselves to suffer.  It is better to be armed to suffer than to have two friends named Smith and Wesson at your side

I firmly believe in my heart of hearts that difficult times are ahead.  Violent and even life threatening times, from which none of us will be exempt, even those who own guns.  Times for which we need to prepare ourselves spiritually, because of all the suffering that may even be brought to our own front door. 

Times for which, I believe we as the church in America simply are not prepared for... but must get prepared for in our hearts.

Will you arm yourself to suffer?

Jesus says: Don't be Stupid... Pigs can't eat Pearls

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." ~ (Matthew 7:6; NASB)

There is something about our humanity that just loves to give people a piece of our mind.  We love to be dispensers of our infinite wisdom.  And those of us with the gift of gab, we just can't wait to share our opinion on any range of topics.

In concluding His teaching on judging others, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us about the dangers of trying to force feed our little nuggets of wisdom to dogs and swine. Neither dogs nor swine are interested in what you have, so don't try to give it to them anyway.  Though what you have is extremely valuable, it is of no value to them, because it is something they simply cannot eat.  If they tried to, they just might just choke to death, or worse, they might just turn on you.

And treating this passage as a prophecy, we often try to comfort ourselves in such times when we feel the dogs and the pigs have turned on us.  We feel this way when somebody from another theological or political camp rejects the rightness of our position on whatever it is we have to say, and mud slinging ensues.  And afterwards, we dust ourselves off and vow to never share certain truths with certain people ever again.  We tell ourselves that we'll just share our wisdom with those who have ears to hear, and are interested in what we have to say.

However, if you are using this passage in this way (as most people do), you are reading it wrong.

We tend to understand this teaching as an isolated saying of Jesus, and divorce it from its entire context.  In the actual Biblical context within the Sermon on the Mount, this verse follows a string of passages in which Jesus exposes and condemns self-righteous behavior, and our general blindness to it.  This passage is no exception, as it caps off his teaching on the topic of judging others, which immediately preceded this verse.

In this Scripture, Jesus is offering no consolation prize to those who get their butts kicked after a heated argument, even though you were right in your position, and what you were preaching on. Jesus isn't encouraging you to be more discerning, and warning about the dangers of sharing precious truths with a bad crowd, and encouraging you to find people of more worth to share what you have to say with next time.

If such was the case, Jesus wouldn't have ever found a worthy audience to preach to.

Rather, Jesus is warning you and I about the dangers of looking at others in a smug, self-assured, know-it-all attitude to begin with, and then opening our mouths to let others know what we think anyway.  If you deem yourself so wise and think what you have is so valuable, then why the heck are you even trying to feed your pearls to people whom you deem to be dogs and pigs to begin with?

Instead of being so wise, Jesus says your behavior reveals that you are being a complete idiot, and what's worse, is that you don't even know it because you already think you are ever-so enlightened.  You should never look at somebody else and judge them as a dog or a pig (or "lib-tard," to use a modern idiom).  But if you do, then it's no wonder when an unplanned episode of Jerry Springer suddenly breaks out.

When sharing what you think with  others, if you treat them as dogs and pigs, don't be shocked when they act like dogs and pigs towards you in return.  The real danger isn't to be found in what you have to share, or the people you are sharing with, but how you look at others and treat them in the process.

At the end of the day, we tend to be the real the pigs.  

Jesus says: Stop finger pointing

"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." ~ (Matthew 7:1-5, NASB)

I have to admit, I'm really good at finger pointing.

If you need somebody who can point out the faults of others and dissect them with more precision than a brain surgeon, I'm your guy.  If it were possible to nitpick somebody else to death, the police would've probably issued a warrant for my arrest a long time ago.

As a Christian, I am not particularly proud of this ability.  It is not exactly a skill set that Jesus applauds.  Be that as it may, there is something in my heart of hearts that revels in the nonsense that I have often engaged in.  It makes me feel smarter and morally superior to somebody else.  It fills my tank up with enough self-righteousness to fuel a trip to the moon.

The older I've become the more I've learned I'm not alone in delighting myself in this behavior.  Much of my fellow man enjoys finger pointing too.  A person casually browsing through Facebook on about any day of the week will find more than enough evidence to prove my thesis quite nicely, especially on nights where a hot mess is erupting on the evening news, or during an election season.

Be careful with finger pointing.

When you point the finger at somebody else, you've got three pointing back at you. What you slam somebody else about says a lot more about you than them. Be careful, in judging somebody else you might find yourself to be looking in a mirror.  Just like all the times when you judge somebody else for judging somebody else, yet you remain blind to the fact of what you are doing.

There is a lot of hypocrisy in judging others.  It's attempting to take the speck of dust out of somebody else's eye while you have a 4x4 lodged in your own.  You are blind to your own problems as you obsess over the problems of another.

And if you've noticed, for all the judging we do, we've yet to learn that there isn't a whole lot of good that comes from "calling people out" and "telling it like it is."  Such activity might make for good talk radio and keep folks like Rush Limbaugh employed for decades after decades.  But when it comes to actually solving problems and helping other people, it usually doesn't, and often creates more problems than it solves.

However, in saying all of this, Jesus isn't entirely tossing aside the idea of pointing out the faults of others and making judgments.  He regularly pointed out the faults of others, and so did His closest of disciples.  Jesus isn't saying "don't judge" altogether, as some who are looking to escape their own guilt regularly claim He taught such an idea.  He didn't.

Jesus is actually ok with you judging others.

The thrust of Jesus teaching here in the Sermon on that Mount isn't to refrain from judging altogether, so much as it is an exhortation to look inward at yourself first and foremost, and to not shoot off your mouth every chance you get (as people were not likely looking for your opinion anyway).  It's an exhortation to be quiet on a lot of issues and problems that you see with others and in society as a whole.  It's an exhortation to second guess what you are seeing, and to second guess what you have to say.  It's an exhortation to look inward before you look outward, and to give others the benefit of the doubt, just as you would want others to do in regard to you.

We might correctly summarize this passage in saying that Jesus is simply telling us that before you start gun-slinging at others that "You need to check yourself before you wreck yourself."  

Only in dealing with yourself first will you ever become of the right temperament and gain the skills and vision necessary to go about removing the spec in the eyes of others.  In engaging in a little introspection, you will realize how difficult it was to remove the plank in your own eye before you attempt to remove the speck in somebody else's, and therefore, you will deal more carefully with the eye of another.

And in dealing with yourself first, you will realize how big your problems are compared to how small the problems of others are.  Yet experience would show that we often think of our own problems as trivial and the problems of others as larger than life.

I try to remind myself of this anytime I get into a deep conversation with somebody on an issue in which I am trying to persuade them.  It helps me to be more gentle, patient, and kind. I realize that I did not always believe the things that I believe, or act the way I act, and I have often changed my opinions and behaviors over the years... not to mention the fact that I have often failed to practice what I preach.  Therefore, I will always preach to myself before I dare preach to others.

Therefore, when looking to actually help somebody (instead of merely just judging them), I should speak to them in the same manner that I spoke to myself in my own internal dialogue and struggles over issues that I have wrestled with.  And knowing how I dealt with myself, I will show much more compassion in attempting to deal with others, knowing my own frailty, shortcomings, and tendency to error.

And together, we might become men who see instead of men whose eyes hurt.

Jesus says: You love to worry

If Jesus ever had anything to say to us in America today, I think He would talk to us about worry.  Worry is something we excel at as Americans. 

We worry about our children.  We worry about our finances.  We worry about which political parties will get elected into office.  We worry about our constitutional rights being trampled on.  We worry about global warming.  We worry about radical Isalmic terrorism (and actively contemplate shooting a bunch of them dead). 

We worry so much and so often, I believe Jesus would tell us that we are a people who love to worry.  Otherwise, why would we worry as much as we do unless we love to do it so much? 

Worrying may feel like something of an involuntary action.  We feel like we can't help but worry.  It's just something mothers can't help but do, right? 

But Jesus is of another opinion on the matter. 

Worry is a choice.  Worry is something you voluntarily choose to do.  Worry gives us the illusion of control.  Worry invites us to play out little war games in our head as an attempt to solve our problems and to take control over our destinies.

Jesus says such is a losing battle.  Instead of attempting to war game our way through life, Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."  ~ (Matthew 6:34; NASB)

Jesus commands us not to worry.  "Not worrying" is something we can and must actively do in our life and mind.  And by not worrying, we open up the opportunity in our lives to actively watch God work in our daily life, as we trust Him to put food in our stomach, pay our bills, and put clothes on our back. 


Jesus says that when we worry, our imagination is fundamentally no different than that of the pagan idolator, who deifies inanimate objects and sees imaginary forces as the root cause of all his ills.  And like the idolator, we think if we can but appease all these things and forces, with a little luck, we might just see things work out in our favor.  As a result, we start putting our trust in things other than the Lord to rescue us from all of our problems. 

Now, in saying all of this, I'm not dismissing the reality of the problems we face on a day-to-day basis.  Yes, absolutely, there are problems that we face that are very much real.  Jesus never dismisses the harsh reality of the world we live in.  We are in need of food, drink, clothing, shelter, and protection. 

But instead of war gaming our way through life and attempting to mitigate all of our risks, Jesus encourages us to stop fighting losing battles in our minds, and to transform all of our worries into thoughts and prayers that we take to God.

At the end of the day, when you really think about it, worry is all about worship. 

We will either deify the objects and forces in our imaginations, and go the way of the idolator, or we will find ourselves taking everything in our lives to our Heavenly Father, who knows what we need, and promises to meet us in the midst of our need.

It is no wonder that Jesus ended His teaching on worry in the Sermon on the Mount with an exhortation to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33)  

For it is only in seeking first the kingdom of God and turning away from the idolatry of worry that we will overcome the fears and doubts about the future that plagues our minds.  Worship allows us to encounter the Great I Am in the trouble of every moment as we live out our lives in this world.

For only by turning to God will we avoid the trap of worrying like an idolator, and trying to solve our problems and the problems of this world exactly like an idolator would.  And instead of implementing paganized solutions in our world and the world around us, maybe our imaginations would dream up solutions that are in keeping with the teachings of Jesus and the reality of the kingdom of God. 

And in a world currently plagued by the worries associated with things like Islamic terrorism, I can't help but feel the church could dream up better solutions than doing things like bombing Muslims to hell and arming students at places like Liberty University with guns.  Such solutions seem birthed out of worry instead of solutions birthed out of actively trusting God to intervene in our daily affairs.

Jesus says: Beware of Money!

Alcoholics have this tendency to think that they can hold their liquor really well.  They feel they can always have "just one more," and that they can quit drinking at any time.

People often have this same problem when it comes to wealth.  They don't think they have a problem with the love of money.  They just like to work hard, dream big, and pursue the American dream.

We have this tendency to look at money as a very neutral thing, and say things like "It's only a tool, it's neither good or bad, money is what you make out of it."  Such is fundamentally no different than the alcoholic that thinks they can hold their liquor.  We never view making one more dollar as a danger.

Yet this is the exact opposite view that the New Testament holds.

In the eyes of Jesus and the apostles, money was far from a neutral thing.  Money was something that had the power to transform you, and even damn your very soul.  And instead of looking at wealth as a sign of Divine favor and a great source of blessing, money was looked at as something that was to be handled very, very carefully.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth." ~ Matthew 6:19-24 (NASB)

Here you have it, in black and white (or in red letters if that's your thing)! 

Jesus says the way you view money is of eternal importance.  Your perspective about wealth will shape your eternal destination, and it will define your religion and your relationship to God.

As Jesus says above, He wants us to look at money with clear eyes so that our souls can be full of God's light, and so that we can value things in their true and eternal perspective.  Such will keep us heavenly minded, and safeguard us against ruin.  He warns, however, that if our vision is bad and if we don't have a clear perspective, we are in danger of being lost in darkness, and will understand the world (and heaven) in a very warped and perverted way, though we claim to "really" understand (like some of you who are disagreeing with what I'm saying).

Jesus says that trappings of wealth are so dangerous that you are going to have to choose who you are going to have to a love for, and who you are going to hate.  Jesus says if you love money, you are going to hate God.  However, if you are going to love God, you are going to have to hate wealth.

Loving both simply does not mix, try as you might.

So let's get this straight:  Jesus says you will love money and hate God, OR, you will love God and hate money.

This is what Jesus leaves us with in His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount.  He doesn't leave us room for both.

Of course, such offends our American sensibilities.  It especially offends our American Christian sensibilities.  For we have this tendency to look at wealth as a blessing from God and a sign of Divine favor.  It's become the seal of our righteousness, the proof that God loves us, and that He is on our side!

Far from looking at money as a neutral thing, as Christians we should be as uncomfortable around it as we are idols.  And if we aren't, we can be assured that we are on the fast track to making money our idol and master.  And worst of all, far from being a sign of God's favor and blessing in our lives, it is a warning sign from God that we are on our way to hating Him instead of loving Him.