I recently heard a group of people talking about pacifism. The main teacher was saying that Jesus was calling us not to retaliate. The discussion quickly went to what if someone breaks into your home or what if we wouldn’t have fought against Hitler during World War 2. There was a lot of back and forth. I won’t say what I believe on the issue of these because I agree with the person who said, “It’s not the guy who might break into my house that I have a problem with it’s the guy who cuts me off in traffic or the grocery store.”
This comment made me realize that often we use extreme
examples to give us excuses to apply the practical truths. People say almost anything
may give you cancer as an excuse to keep doing the things that we know will
probably give you cancer. We use the excuse; I don’t like tofu as an excuse not
even trying to moderate our diets. When it comes to the Bible, they use the excuse
they can’t understand some part of the Bible as a reason not to learn or apply
any of the Bible. This is a problem.
What is the solution? The solution is not to use the extreme
or unknown not to apply what we do know. We may not be able to see with clarity
how we should respond to a Hitler (fight/passivity) but what I can say is the Bible
is pretty clear on how you should respond to your neighbor. Let’s not use the unclear
to justify not following what is clear.
Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash
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