Matthew 26:52-53

“But Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?’ ”

There’s been a long running debate about how we should respond to aggressors. While one camp strongly believes that to serve as a deterrent, we need to fight back and defend ourselves, some others believe we should not do anything. The real debate however is not about how to respond to the aggressor but how to practice the life of faith. While it was possible for Jesus to have called down angels to fight for Him, yet in this situation He understood that the Father was at work even through the aggressors. Do we believe that God could do a good work through the wicked hands of aggressive men?

The only way to respond to aggressors is by faith and never by violence. We saw situations where Jesus escaped death because that was not God’s will for Him to die then. When we walk in faith, we respond as God leads us by His Spirit. We respond as the Word of God instructs us. We never respond in the flesh. We respond as Jesus would. We cannot change the wickedness of aggressors unless God changes them. Fighting them and killing them does not achieve anything. We must learn the hard discipline of loving our enemies even when we honestly don’t feel like. The only language we have for aggressors is love. Anything else is not the Jesus way.

“Lord Jesus, I crave Your heart, and once Your heart is fully formed in me, I know that I can love my aggressors. This is my only desire right now, to have Your heart fully formed in me. Amen.”