The Early Church on Enemies

The early church was full of men and women dedicated to communicating the love of Jesus Christ to all people. They died for being Christians and for not meeting the demands of the world around them in various ways. One of the extraordinary aspects of the Christian life is enemy love. Jesus clearly taught his followers to extend love towards those who were against them. He instructed his people to bless, pray, do good and make friends with enemies. Through the next several hundred years this was a big aspect in the exercising of one's Christian faith. Here are a few words by some leaders of the faith in the few hundred years following Christ concerning enemy love.

We who formerly hated and murdered one another and did not even share our hearth with those of a different tribe because of their customs, now, after Christ’s appearance, live together and share the same table. Now we pray for our enemies and try to win those who hate us unjustly so that they too may live in accordance with Christ’s wonderful teachings, that they too may enter into the expectation, that they too may receive the same good things that we will receive from God, the ruler of the universe.

-Justin, First Apology 14.

They [Christians] speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies.

-Aristides, Apology 15; ca. A.D. 137.

And yet he [Jesus] loved those who hated him, mourned over those who did not believe in him, blessed those who abused him, and prayed for his enemies. He not only acted like a father himself, but he also taught his disciples to do the same in their attitude [toward others], to act toward them as toward their own brothers.

-Clementine Homelies III.19

The prophet Isaiah tells us that we should not, as some think, love only our own people: “Say to those that hate and curse you, ‘You are our brothers!’” And the Gospel says, “Love your enemies!”

-Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus III.14.

Now the teaching of these words is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies. Fast for those who persecute you, for what grace would it be if you love those who love you? Do not even the hea- then peoples do that? But love those who hate you, and you will have no enemy. Abstain from the cravings of the flesh and of the body. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also, and you will be perfect. If someone presses you to go with him one mile, get ready for two. If anyone takes away your coat, give him your jacket as well. If any man seizes what is yours, do not demand it back, for you cannot anyway. Give to everyone who asks of you and never demand a re- turn, for it is the Father’s will that all should share the gifts we have received.

-The Didache

Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies. This was already announced through Isaiah in several passages, which also tell of the mystery of new birth, a new birth belonging to all people who expect Christ’s coming in Jerusalem and who strive to please him through deeds.

-Justin, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 85.7

...this the people who have to suffer these things are not even allowed to hit back when struck and are expected to use only kind words when reviled! To be just alone is not enough because to be just means to repay like for like, but we have been commanded to go far beyond this, to be kind and patient. How could anyone in his right mind accuse us of murder when we hold to such principles...

-Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians

We must then offer no resistance. He never wanted us to imitate the wicked. Rather, he challenged us to lead everyone away from shamefulness and pleasure in evil by patience and kindness. We can in fact show that many who were once among you have been transformed in this way. They gave up their violent and domineering ways.

-Justin, First Apoology 16

Today there are some popular church leaders who continue to embrace this perspective. In his book Reason for GodTim Keller, a New York pastor and author, says of Christians, "At the very heart of their view of reality was a man who died for his enemies, paying for their forgiveness. Reflection on this could only lead to a radically different way of dealing with those who were different from them. It meant they could not act in violence and oppression towards their opponents."

Jesus Dirty-Ups the Temple

In discussing Jesus' example of nonviolent love, people ask, "If Jesus is teaching/encouraging a nonviolent lifestyle then how do we explain his cleansing of the temple?" or "Didn't Jesus whip people in the temple?" or even "What about Jesus' turning over tables of the moneychangers? Isn't that violence?" All these questions revolve around four passages of scripture. Here they are:

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers." (Mark 11:15-17, NIV)

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer," but you are making it "a den of robbers." (Matthew 21:12-13, NIV)

In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. (John 2:14-15, NIV)

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’" Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words. (Luke 19:45-48, NIV)

There are a lot of problems using Jesus' turning over of tables and running out of merchants and animals in the temple for justifying self-defense, or the defense of those in danger in a way that is unloving, violent, or lethal toward an enemy. Here are some of those problems:

1. Jesus was not defending himself or anyone else from any type of abuse in these passages. If he was defending people from any type of abuse it would be financial abuse but even then we must admit that Jesus' top priority is not defending those being financially abused in this scenario. There are many reasons to fight for people. Proverbs 31:9 states, "Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." The folks being taken advantage of by the moneychangers were the average joe's of the day. This passage justifies defending the oppressed but it doesn't promote violence. We'll get into that more in later points. The key message to take away from this point is that Jesus was not concerned with defending his life or the lives of others. This act in the temple is not about reacting to assailants. If it is about reacting to anything it might be structural injustice.

2. Jesus is on the offense in this scenario. He is instigating the action. At least the physical action. The moneychangers initiated the conflict with injustice by pulling the old switcharoo on those who came to make sacrifices and by taking away the place in the temple which was meant for Gentiles. A family would come with their animal to make a sacrifice and be told "Oh no, this animal is not clean enough. Trade in your animal and pay a little for an animal worthy of sacrifice." So they family exchanged and paid. Then another family would come and go through the same motion and the animal they would receive would be the animal belonging to the previous family. A classic con move. This sort of scheme was extremely prevalent in the temple along with other schemes. By putting this marketplace in the Gentile court of the temple the Jewish folks abused the temple and went against God's desire for the temple to be a place for all nations to come to him. The Jews were keeping people from worship. Jesus knows this, see this, and does something about it. He comes into the temple knocking tables over, scattering money, not letting people walk out with merchandise in hand, and calling out the injustice and sin of the moneychangers (who are Israelites)! So far, if this passage grants permission for anything it's some type of social justice vigilante action or protest, maybe even almost to the point of rioting (but not quite). Let's keep going.

3. Jesus' wrath (if you want to call it that - as some do) wasn't one that involved violence against persons in this scenario. Jesus never reacts with physical violence against a person. There is debate if there was violence brought against animals or not. Most scholars say there wasn't. More on that in a moment. Nothing in John 2:14-15 (the only one of the three recordings of the instance that mentions a whip) leads the reader to believe Jesus used his McGuyver style whip to harm people. The whip is a herding tool and that is exactly how the reader at the time of it's telling would have assumed Jesus used it. Some scholars argue the turning over of tables was to make a pathway for the herd of animals but I'm not 100% convinced that was the main purpose. This sort of chaos, animals running through the temple, could be described as a small stampede. This sort of stampede would certainly send all the people in the temple (not just the moneychangers) fleeing the area.

Many scholars believe the disciples were aids in this stampede's inception. Perhaps they were helping direct the animals and making sure people didn't leave with merchandise. If the disciples were involved, as they most likely were given the rabbi and disciple relationship, then we would be wise to assume they'd get violent if Jesus got violent. After all, they were imitating him. This would have classified as a violent riot and drastic action would have been taken. But we're not told about this. We'll revisit this in a moment.

But does that mean the whip wasn't used on people? Well, when we look at the text we don't read anything else about the whip. Mention of the whip is omitted from three of the four accounts. This leads us to conclude that the whip really isn't an important aspect of the story for three of the four authors. If Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who dies for his enemies, forgives everyone, who came to save the world, who rebuked Peter for using a sword, and who spoke clearly about how to handle anger is whipping people then it would be a pretty significant detail to include in the telling of this story. Yet it is omitted.

When the whip is not omitted by John there is no indication that Jesus used the whip against people. If Jesus did use the whip on people the author would point it out since the wording of the text and the cultural assumption point to the whip being used for herding out animals. Had Jesus been violently attacking people in the temple then the Roman guards/soldiers who were there (which they always were thanks to the Roman Empire's occupying of the area and their connection with Jewish leaders) then He would have been taken downtown... or just taken down if it were as extreme as whipping lots of people. Yet this does not happen. The conflict does not escalate to this degree. We all know Jesus' arrest happens later. Jesus and his followers do not start a violent riot. If they had, they'd be overpowered by the armed Roman guards.

The Romans don't react. Only the people do. Mark's account goes on to state, "The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching." Apparently not everyone was afraid or even terribly upset. The crowd (the common folk) were amazed. Amazed is typically a positive word. It invokes the internationally known and practiced statements "oooooo" and "aaaaaah." The priests and teachers were pretty irked though and they weren't even present apparently. They only heard about the ordeal! I'm sure some of the moneychangers were a bit upset while being amazed though. Afterall, they lost a decent amount of money and were called robbers. If the people were getting whipped, even by accident, they'd be more than amazed. They'd want to kill Jesus along with the priests and teachers. Especially the moneychangers. But we don't get that reaction from the people for some reason. At the very most this passages grants permission for Christians to knock over furniture, scatter things like money, and herd animals (with herding tools if needed).

4. Similar to the first point, Jesus isn't fighting for the purpose of protecting people as much as he's fighting for God's temple in an attempt to rebuke. I do believe Jesus is fighting for justice on behalf of those being swindled and kept from the temple courts (obvious oppression) but he does it in a particular way. The main issue was that the temple was being abused ad thus people were being abused. This is why he cries out "My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers" in both the account in Matthew and in Mark. Jesus was concerned with the misuse of the temple by the people of God. What was supposed to be sacred and used to bring people closer to God was being used for evil and separating people from God. The place of reconciliation was becoming a place of sin. That's a big deal. I can see how the Messiah would be a little irritated by it and cause a scene.

Jesus attacked tables and money in this protest (if you want to call it that). He made it clear what needed to be done away with (interestingly he herds out the animals from the temple only to later be the final sacrifice for sin... connection? Possibly). The market didn't belong there, the Gentiles did. Jesus is seeking to correct this. He disrupts the injustice and then teaches scripture and truth. People are amazed and those in charge get upset. Jesus' words prove his concern and intentions. His actions promote his teaching. If Jesus was violent towards men and women in the temple then he would contradict various other teachings such as "love your neighbor." So while Jesus is in fact acting on the behalf of the Gentiles as he rebukes the Jewish people here he's not using violence to defend them as though they were being attacked. Jesus doesn't attack the people bringing oppression but the system (which has shades of Ephesians 6 in it).

Final thoughts: At this point it becomes hard to remember why we would be arguing this sets an example for violent defense of human life. There seems to be no way to connect the what Jesus was doing with what we want to do to our enemies. Despite that, let's entertain the idea that this is indeed a permission slip for violent action. If this is a justification for any type of violence then it's clearly not just self-defense or the defense of innocents. As my brother SirNickDon once wrote, "This would be an example of a person being told by God to attack with violence the people who are betraying his religious convictions. It would justify religious terrorism, of all things. I can't see how any middle ground is possible. Either this passage is not an instance of violence, or it is a form of extreme violence that Christians and people of good will everywhere would be right to reject."

Granted, Jesus' religious convictions are more in-tuned to the Father's will than any other person who has ever walked the earth but the example he would be setting is a dangerous one for it would still be a justification for religious terrorism of sorts. I'm not sure any of us are willing to accept that sort of thing. If we are there are plenty of other groups, such as the KKK, who are willing to promote that sort of activity.

Jesus' cleansing of the temple certainly seems to be the most "violent" of Jesus' interactions in the Gospels and strangely it doesn't have anything to do with protecting the innocent or hurting the wicked. Jesus seeks to clean out the temple of evil and injustice. He herds out animals, knocks over tables, messes up the tills of swindlers, and spends some time quoting scripture and teaching. Had Jesus committed violence, attacked people, and implemented what my friend calls "religious terrorism" then we might call this Jesus Dirty-Ups the Temple. Had Jesus whipped people with chords violently then we certainly wouldn't call this a cleansing. It'd be an attack. It'd be proof that Christ didn't walk His talk.

As it stands, Jesus does walk His talk and lives out His Lordship through His cleansing of the temple. At no point does He compromise His love for enemies or love for victims. He displays himself perfectly. He disrupts the evil and injustice around His people. He preaches the Word of God. He teaches. He possibly even points to His coming sacrifice through living metaphor. Jesus doesn't dirty up the place in the least. He cleans it. May we, like Christ, keep our hands clean as we seek to clean the world around us from evil with love, authority, and power.

Heaven; Then, Now, and Then

Jonathan Edwards spends a significant amount of time in his piece entitled Heaven, A World of Charity or Lovedescribing the perfection of heaven and the love found in heaven through God, God's connection to Himself in the persons of the trinity, through relationships between human beings, and through the relationships of God towards humans and humans toward God. It is quite clear that Edwards sees no imperfection in heaven and that when heaven arrives, or we arrive at heaven, that love will abound as though it came from an eternal fount. However, at this present time, on earth, it is difficult to picture this reality. We taste this coming reality right now. Edwards illustrates this by writing, "They see and understand so much of this as to know that it is the best good. They do not merely yield that it is so from rational arguments that may be offered for it, and by which they are convinced that it is so, but they know it is so from what little they have tasted of it." We have not known Eden as well as we have known a life east of Eden. Edwards is keenly aware of this even though he does not spend much time directly discussing the matter.

We experience a little bit of heaven right now but we only do so knowing that this love and paradise must exist at bay, in a sense, a while longer and that this world we are currently operating in, even if we are operating in great love and expressing the fruits of the Spirit, is not the full paradise we have been promised to receive by Christ and the prophets. On earth, where there are troubles we can only see so much of the coming paradise. Edwards references the scriptures that teach us about the tension of this life on earth and its disconnection with the eternal bliss of heaven when he writes, "For though the glorious state of the church in its latter age on earth, will be perfect in comparison with its former state, yet its state in heaven is that state of the church to which the expressions of the apostle seem most agreeable, when he says, ''When that which is perfect is come,' and, 'Now we see "through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known."'"

The tension is clear to all who have encountered Christ and have called him Lord. Jesus tells us that the kingdom is at hand (Matthew 4:17, Mark 115). He says His kingdom of heaven is existent and that we belong to it right now while we are living on earth (John 18:36). At the same time He tells us that heavenly kingdom is our reality and as a result of that kingdom being present and ourselves being citizens belonging to that kingdom we live according to the customs of that kingdom. Many theologians describe this tension as the "already-but-not-yet kingdom." They refer to this kingdom in this way because it has come to earth but it is not completely present on earth. That is, it does not fill the earth as it later will when God is all in all (Corinthians 15:28). It has been initiated by Christ and continues through the church but it is not yet finalized. Jesus has come and will come again. When He returns the tension will be torn in two just as the curtain was in the temple when Christ first shook the sin-filled world (Matthew 27:51). As it is, the kingdom is like yeast in flower taking over the entire batch slowly or even like a mustard seed which was planted and is slowly growing into a massive shrubbery in which birds will find their God-given home.

Edwards describes this present world as "...this waste and howling wilderness, full of snares, and pitfalls, and poisonous serpents, where no rest could be found!" Truly, we are a fallen people within a world that have been ravaged by sin and is ruled by rebellion (Ephesians 2:1-4). There is little point spending time on this truth since one does not have to believe on Christ to see such a great reality before them. Along with this world full of sin and rebellion, in which lions are still at odds with lambs, we ourselves are imperfect. This is part of the reason the world is imperfect. We have brought terror upon the earth (Genesis 6:11). In our hearts we are still imperfect and unable to express the true and perfect love of God fully. Edwards writes, "There they will have no dulness and unwieldiness, and no corruption of heart to war against divine love, and hinder its expression." When rebellion is void we will only have compliance with God's love. Unless we have full compliance with the deep love of God we will be in rebellion. Even in our actions we are "struggling after holiness" for Edwards writes, "In the heart in this world there are many opposite principles arid influences; and it struggles after greater oneness, and more liberty, and more free exercise, and better fruit."

Not only are our hearts imperfect but even our very physical bodies are not yet suitable for the eternal life that heaven consists of Edwards writes, "...there no earthly body shall clog with its heaviness the heavenly flame." Paul instructs the church that when Jesus returns and we are resurrected with Him physically we will be transformed in the blink of an eye and at that time receive spiritual bodies. He writes, "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (1Corinthians 5:42-44). We can not say if our physical makeup will change much (Edwards seems to believe that they will for some of us) but we can say that these new bodies will be imperishable. Yet even this has already begun in some , perhaps less physical form, as Paul writes, "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God" (1Peter 1:23).

Everything is in transition and thus in tension. We see through a glass dimly now but one day our love will be perfect and all shall be clear. Our world, hearts, bodies, and actions are all imperfect in their love now but they shall be perfected as we come into heaven. In Christ we have been blessed with the ability to begin moving westward and upward towards heaven. Therefore, in the words of Jonathan Edwards, "If heaven be such a blessed world, then let it be our chosen country, and the inheritance that we look for and seek. Let us turn our course this way, and press on to its possession. It is not impossible but that this glorious world may be obtained by us. It is offered to us. Though it be so excellent and blessed a country, yet God stands ready to give us an inheritance there, if it be but the country that we desire, and will choose, and diligently seek."

The God of Love

Jonathan Edwards is often known as the pastor who preached the harsh sermon entitled Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God. Sadly it is his claim to theological fame (or infamy). People often view Edwards as nothing but a man obsessed with hell-fire and brimstone damnation talk. Despite this Edwards wrote and preached many wonderful things. I recently read a lecture of his entitled Heaven, A World of Charity or Love. Here is a fun little snippet of the writing.

And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that "God is love;" and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and overflowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.

There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear, arid incomprehensible, and mutual, and eternal love. There dwells God the Father, who is the father of mercies, and so the father of love, who so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son to die for it. There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God, the prince of peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood, and poured out his soul unto death for men. There dwells the great Mediator, through whom all the divine love is expressed toward men, and by whom the fruits of that love have been purchased, and through whom they are communicated, and through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all God's people. There dwells Christ in both his natures, the human and the divine, sitting on the same throne with the Father. And there dwells the Holy Spirit-the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God, as ,it were, flows out, and is breathed forth in love, and by whose immediate influence all holy love is shed abroad in the hearts of all the saints on earth and in heaven. There, in heaven, this infinite fountain of love-this eternal Three in One-is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it, as it flows for ever. There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight; and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!

I enjoy his use of the term Mediator for the Holy Spirit. The early church often used this word in the same way and it has always seemed a fantastic name/title. I also enjoy the final line of this piece. It reads like a song. "And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight; and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!" Edwards encouraged me by this writing recently. It is easy to forget the dynamic love of God. It brings to life a song I've recently become familiar with. Here's a video of the song.

A Time to Kill

Sounds like a movie doesn't? Well, it is a movie! And guess who stars in it? Yup... Samuel L. Jackson. I'm sure it is utter rubbish of the highest quality. I should see if it is on Netflix. But not only is A Time to Kill a movie with one of the coolest actors of all time in it but it's also a passage of scripture. It's a passage that has been brought before me countless times by folks who don't accept that Christians ought to embrace nonviolence. Many claim that Ecclesiastes 3 teaches "here are times that it is proper to kill, hate and make war." Below is Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 & 8 (the portions of the chapter relevant to the question).

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
...a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."

Solomon wrote a beautiful piece of poetry when he penned this. People often read Ecclesiastes 3 and take away that Solomon is saying that there is an appropriate time to kill, hate, and make war when he more likely saying that there are times of killing, hate, and war. I use to think it was only the latter but now I believe both are true. However, these verses are not granting people permission to make war or to hate just as they don’t grant permission to be born or die (after all who needs permission for birth or death). A sober reading of this text will show that Solomon is speaking predominantly of the way the world and history is and not what is appropriate action for believers today.

If we say that this passage is an allowance for hate, killing, and war for believers today then we must also say it grants allowance for every activity under heaven (aka on earth). That would be consistent right? Of course it would. Hopefully we would all also agree that not every activity under the sun is permissible for Christians (or ancient Jews). Is Solomon stating that there are acceptable times for all kinds of activities? Yes. Most likely. Is he right? ...Pretty much. Yes. We'll get back to that. We know that there is a difference between what was expected from the Jewish people and what is now expected from Christians. We also know that what God was doing specifically with Israel is different that what he is doing with the Church today. That is to say that God has always been seeking to bring all people to Him through his people but he has used different methods through time. It is my belief that these methods are connected to the amount of revelation God's people had concerning him. Like a child grows to know his or her father so humanity, predominantly Israel, had to grow to learn about her Father in heaven. Through miracles, rescue out of Egypt, Law, deserts, prophets, big fish, kings, weather, judges, and more God revealed more and more of Himself to His people through the Old Testament. Christ is the pinnacle of God's revelation for in Christ we see the very face of God that was cried out for (Psalm 80) as he did and said only what the Father instructed him (John 5:19) and as He is God Himself (John 1:1-5).

Therefore, something that must be considered when reading this poem is that Solomon lived before Christ lived and died and lived again on earth. The resurrection of Jesus is an enormous factor in Christian ethics. We must always look to the cross and victory of Christ Jesus when we seek to apply Old Testament passages to the Christian life. We must look at the scriptures with a cross shaped lens. Solomon couldn't do this. Jesus taught two men how to do this on the road to Emmaus when he revealed to them all the scriptures that pointed to Him (Luke 24:13-35). I know... those dudes were totally lucky. Talk about being in the right place at the right time (historically speaking). Anyway, we must keep in mind that Solomon didn't have the more full revelation of God like we who have come after Christ do. He had more wisdom than anyone else but he didn't have the revelation. That's extremely important in this matter.

All that to say Solomon's words may mean more than what he meant for them too because of Christ. Those dudes on the way to Emmaus would have probably known that. I maintain then that Solomon is primarily communicating that life is full of happenings. There is joy and pain in life. There is good and bad. There is mourning and dancing. Killing and healing. War and peace. Hate and love. Solomon, in his wisdom and creative artistic expression is painting a portrait of the way life is on earth through poetry. That seems to be his intention. He's not writing an essay on ethics. He's not writing doctrine. He's writing poetry. Wise people do that sort of thing. They understand that art is far greater than instruction manuals or position papers. Poetry is often dealing with perspective and observations of the world. This piece is no different. But perhaps in his portrait of the world Solomon was also saying that there is a time of permission for killing and making war. Perhaps that was a view he held. I agree with that. Why wouldn't he hold such a view? He was a Jewish king. Killing kind of came with the territory according to 1Samuel 8. Also, he was pretty good at those things so why would he speak against those sorts of things? And he isn't mistaken. Anyone who has read the Old Testament can attest to the fact that God commanded His people to kill and go to war. To disobey would be wrong. There was, without a doubt, a time for killing and a time for war. However, that time must have an end right? If it has a time to be then it also has a time to not be. That's logical. It's not artistic but it is logical.

Jesus tells us in His Sermon on the Mount that peacemakers are the children of Father God (Matthew 5:9), that if we remain angry and insult brothers we are hell-bound (Matthew 5:24) and that hate ought to be replaced with love (Matthew 5:43-44). Killing, hating, and making war are antithetical to the way of Christ Jesus. There doesn't seem to be any way around that. Even if Solomon were saying there is permission for such things Jesus has rebuked such teachings with His own teachings. Jesus, as being the pinnacle of God's revelation, trumps Solomon. Progression has occurred and Solomon's words are now most true in poetic form. By that I mean that Solomon still shows us the way of life on earth. His words are also now more true in the sense that time has been divided with a very bold line through Christ Jesus' resurrection. There was absolutely a time when God commanded his people to kill and make war and it was right for His people to obey His commands but that was under a more shallow revelation and different methods being used by our Father. Some things change. For instance, Christ informs his followers that the standard of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21) no longer applies but rather enemy love applies. As I've shown in this paragraph Jesus instructs us that we are to be people of peace and of love and of patience. The Gospels do not leave room for the Christian to hate, kill, or war. The time for killing and war seems to have passed. Christ reveals that we who are in His already-not-yet kingdom of heaven are not in the time of killing and war but the time of peace and of love. This is the time of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:11-21). When Paul tells us this he writes that "the old has gone and the new has come." We live out kingdom ideals on earth since we belong to the kingdom. We live out what it looks like to be a purified, righteous, redeemed creation in the midst of a sinful creation still bent on hate, killing, and war. It's time for change. The old is gone. The new has come. The kingdom belonging to the Prince of Peace has come.

How do we know this is true? The witness of the New Testament. Acts 10:34-43 tells of how Christ came with peace and was killed. It shows conflicting worlds. Jesus believes it is the time for peace and the world around him disagrees (obviously). This passage also portrays Jesus as healing and being brought back from the dead. Jesus is winning in this conflict. His peace and healing is definitely outweighing the killing being done. If people are being healed and raised from the dead and if one of those people being raised from the dead is the Messiah then it is probably true that it is time for healing and peace. I say that because Jesus tells his disciples that he has left his peace to them in John 14:27. What's more, Revelations (the book at the end of the Bible) tells us that the kingdom Jesus said was at hand is going to be fulfilled when He returns and that kingdom is absent of pain. In other words, no hate, no killing, no war. What is present? Peace. Healed creation. Love. This is the same kingdom Jesus says is at hand and it is because this kingdom is at hand that He tells us to "repent." He tells us to change direction. The time has changed. The kingdom has come. Stop hating, killing, and making war. Be lovers, healers, peacemakers! The time is now.