Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous, be strong.  Do everything in love.             1 Corinthians 16:13  NIV

This is just one of many passages that tell us to stand firm and/or be courageous.  But it throws that “do everything in love” in there.  Now I could pull up a number of verses that talk about defending ourselves, defending those that are weaker than us and defending others.  The thing is we must look at why we do it.  This is where it gets tricky.  If we are simply defending ourselves, no problem.  If we take it beyond that to a level where our anger has sought vengeance, well, then we have a problem.

There are a number of Bible verses about self defense.  Think about this, if self defense and defense of others were not allowed for in the Bible, then military and law enforcement could not be Christians.  But, praise God this is not the case.  Our military and first responders are men and women who have been called into a field where they are prepared to give their lives, if necessary, in the course of doing their job; which is defending you and me.

A local law enforcement agency has the numbers 13:4 on their vehicles.  This is for Romans 13:4 which says, “For he is God’s servant for your good.  But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.  For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”  So, clearly the Bible tells us that there are times when anger is appropriate and there are times when it is appropriate to defend ourselves and others.  The greatest commandment is that we love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind.  The second greatest commandment is that we love others as we love ourselves.  So, let’s dive into this subject for a bit.

You see if you love others as you love yourself, then you are not going to want to harm them.  We are told in Romans 12:17 that we are to not repay evil for evil, we are to be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  We are told in verse 18, that as far as it depends on us we are to live at peace with everyone, if possible.    So what are we to do?

Proverbs 24:1-2 tells us to not envy the wicked, nor desire their company; “for their hearts plot violence, and their lips talk about making trouble.”  When someone is attacking us, it is human nature to want to plot evil against this person and seek vengeance.  Human nature is what usually gets us into trouble.  The Bible tells us that we are not to repay evil for evil.  In Romans 12:19, we are told not to take revenge, but to leave room for God’s wrath. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” saith the Lord.  So how do we defend ourselves and allow room for God’s wrath?

Well, we do everything in love.  In police work, there is something called an escalation of force continuum.  You match the level of resistance and go one level higher.  If someone refuses a police officer’s verbal command, this does not give the police officer ground to shoot the person.  However, if the person refuses their verbal command and escalates to pulling a weapon such as a knife or a gun, then this justifies the officer in using deadly force against the assailant.  Of course, this is contrary to some of the high profile cases that have been on the news lately, but that is how it is supposed to work.  Where we get into trouble with self defense is when someone comes against us with words, we want to plot evil against them and perhaps do them physical harm.  Self-defense is just that.  It is defending ourselves and preserving our lives and the lives of others.  However, when emotions such as anger take over, we tend to go beyond the force level that is necessary.  When we begin to plot evil, we are then repaying evil with evil.  We then become the aggressor and this is where the trouble begins. If we do everything in love, then we defend against the attack and nothing more.

This is extremely difficult to do because when someone comes against us, I mean really comes against us and causes us extreme emotional pain, we want action and we want it right now.  The last thing we want to do is love that person.  But, that’s what the Bible tells us to do.  We are told to love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48)  I will tell you this, if you can make yourself get down on your knees and pray for that person, it will go a long way towards removing your anger.  I have also learned that if I ask God to remove any anger and bitterness from me that He is faithful to do so.  Now, I have gone through periods where I was under severe attack and had to pray this many times during the day, but I can tell you God is faithful.

So we went into a pretty deep subject today, but to simplify it, I will use this example.  If we do everything in love, we are not going to go beyond the force that is needed to defend against an attack.  In this day and age, we are seeing police officers under attack for using necessary force to defend themselves against an attack.  We are seeing police officers ambushed for no apparent reason.  We are seeing pure evil all around us.  For us to join in with those that are evil, solves nothing.  It destroys our witness, makes the devil happy, and causes us to sin and separate ourselves from God.  So no matter how much someone may provoke you to anger, stop yourself short of plotting evil against them.  Be prepared to defend yourself, but do not plot evil.  They are not one in the same, please do not get them confused.  Also remember, in Ephesians 6 we are told that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against the dark forces of evil.  Remember that Satan, himself is behind these attacks.  Try to take your focus off the person, this person is just a pawn being used by Satan.  Our former pastor used to say, “hate the sin but love the sinner”.   So, remember to pray, trust God to guide you, and do everything in love.  This should help to keep you out of trouble.

Have a great day!