P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

“PEACE AT ALL COSTS” IS TOO EXPENSIVE

Things were going just great at the First Fictional Adventist Church of Anytown, U.S.A. The pastor and the congregation alike were committed to growth, to unity, to having peace and keeping the peace. The minister regularly worked the concept of harmony into his sermons, quoting from Matthew 5, and the Sabbath School classes discussed the issue in their study sessions.

And then the news slowly began to buzz its way around the church’s Internet mailing list. One of the church elders, Mr. X, was having an affair. And not only that, it was with a relative. If that wasn’t complicated enough, there was a sizable contingent in that church – maybe 30 people – who were actually content to say: “So what?” “Live and let live. If it doesn’t bother anyone else, it doesn’t bother me. What a guy does in his own bedroom is nobody’s business.” Etc.

Well, as you might suspect, this actually isn’t from a fictional church but a real one. If we go over to the New Testament writings of Paul, we discover that this was happening for real at the First Assembly of God Church of Corinth . . . and I’m not talking about the present “A of G” denomination, which has as much biblical integrity in this arena as anyone. But this was literally the first and only Christian church in town. When you looked in the Yellow Pages, there was one listing and it was right here! And in this one-and-only church, there was one ordained deacon who was blatantly living with his stepmother. Apparently one third of the church was saying, “Blessed be the peacemakers,” another third was saying, “Peace at all costs; let’s just keep on with the building program and pretend this isn’t happening,” and a third third was reading the writings of the Apostle Paul and saying: “We’re saved by grace, not by works. Commandment-keeping availeth nothing. By the works of the law shall no man be saved.” For them, grace hadn’t just become cheap, it had become a joke.

And what does Paul do, the preacher who spends almost the entire epistle to the Ephesians writing about unity and the one body and how Jesus came to tear down the walls of judgmentalism and hostility between us? Paul’s answer is essentially six words long: “Get that guy out of here!” And it appears that Paul’s spiritual slogan was “Peace at A cost,” but not “Peace at ALL costs.” “Drive him out,” he shouts in verse 13. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

Interestingly, the NIV text notes for this verse take us back to the Old Testament – which admittedly is bloodier and more militant-sounding than the New – where God’s people are told to pick up sticks and stones and either drive rebels out of town or sometimes drive them into a hole six feet down in the ground.

“You must purge the evil from among you,” Moses writes in Deuteronomy 17.

We bring these vigilante-like passages to the table today because our topic for the week is DUAL CITIZENSHIP. We, as Christians, may consider ourselves as citizens of heaven, but we still have responsibilities here on earth. And we have to decide how to respond to those responsibilities, and how to react to evil. Consider some of the recent military goings-on of my country and others, where evil men were driven to cover by Bradleys, Humvees, Chinook helicopters, and laser-guided cluster bombs. Is it compatible with Christianity for people to pull those triggers and kill their fellow human beings?

One Internet scholar who posted a treatise on all this right about that time reminded his subscribers that the Bible paints a realistic picture. Is peace always possible? No. Can we be peacemakers with people who refuse to adhere to guidelines set forth by the peacemakers? Sometimes no. Even that great challenge found in Romans 12:18 has a caveat right up front:

“IF IT IS POSSIBLE, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you” says the King James.

We often quote the peace-making guidelines of Matthew 18, which advise a concerned citizen to “go to his brother alone.” But the fact is that some brothers will not listen. There are people in the church, and there are tyrants in the world, who are going to continue persecuting others and stockpiling sinful things, things designed to blow up churches and cities and the people in those churches and cities. So “if it is possible,” you live in peace. If it is not possible, then sometimes God’s people are to join with others to do what is necessary.

This Internet writer, Samuele Bacchiocchi, concludes:

“We must do whatever we can to promote peace by avoiding conflicts and violence. But the phrase ‘if possible’ suggests that sometimes peace is not possible. There are situations when peace can only be maintained through armed conflicts designed to ward off aggressors. If we are aware of evil intentions by an individual or a nation to harm others, we would hardly keep the ‘peace’ by giving in to their demands. It would be morally irresponsible to turn over one’s wife to a rapist just to ‘keep peace.’”

That borrows from yesterday’s story.

And in this imperfect world we live in, there are times when the Christian man or woman has to rise up and protect innocent parties. For the sake of the innocent Body of Christ, the serial adulterer has to be expelled. An embezzler can certainly be forgiven, but restitution must be made, and a permanent firewall has to be erected between them and the church’s books. On Law & Order TV episodes, a pedophile is sometimes quietly transferred from one church or parish to the next one, leaving countless victims in his wake. And in the final scene, district attorney Sam Waterston usually does the right thing and puts that person behind bars where he belongs. The New York Times, when one of its reporters turns out to be a chronic con artist and plagiarist, has no choice but to protect its reputation by severing its ties with the offender.

Here in the grace-oriented New Testament, Paul digs up an unfortunate scenario where an able-bodied man is simply unwilling to punch a time clock and put in a 40-hour week to care for his family. He expects the deacons and elders to bring care packages and Thanksgiving fruit baskets over to his house; in other words, he wants to sleep in till noon and live off the largesse of the church. Shouldn’t the congregation care for the needy and feed him? And the answer is no. “No work, no wienerschnitzel.”

“For even when we were with you,” Paul writes, “we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’”

The same Bacchiocchi essay has a timely quotation from a Gleason Archer, writing in the book, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. Notice:

“Is it really a manifestation of goodness to furnish no opposition to evil?” he asks. “Can we say that a truly good surgeon should do nothing to cut away cancerous tissue from his patient and simply allow him to go on suffering until finally he dies? Can we praise a police force that stands idly by and offers no slightest resistance to the armed robber, the rapist, the arsonist, or any other criminal who preys on society? How could God be called ‘good’ if He forbade His people to protect their wives . . . and . . . children?”

Indeed, how could we call God our Father if He forbade us to protect our families? We’ve made reference to things that have happened in Iraq in recent years – pondering how Christians should respond, what our proper role is. Well, perhaps the aftermath of war can she some light. In the turmoil that resulted from war, many parents have had to take an active role in protecting their children from evil. One devoted dad had three pretty girls, each attending a different school. He knew it was his responsibility to protect them, and that’s what he devoted his life to. It was about all he could do: deliver them to school and pick them up after school . . . just to make sure no one ELSE picked them up. That is what a good dad does, and if he needs to carry a big stick, well, the bigger the better. Is it any different with OUR heavenly Father? Author Gleason Archer finishes his thought:

“No nation could retain its liberty or preserve the lives of its citizens if it were prevented from maintaining any sort of army for its defense. It is therefore incumbent on a ‘good God’ to include the right of self-defense as the prerogative of His people. He would not be good at all if He were to turn the world over to the horrors of unbridled cruelty perpetrated by violent and bloody criminals or unchecked aggression of invading armies.”

But friend, let’s close with the reality that God’s Word, while encouraging a sturdy defense of the weak among us, and a united front against destructive sin, also preaches relentless redemption. That serial adulterer was to be sent out of the church in the explicit hope that he would come to his senses and be restored. “His spirit saved on the day of the Lord” is how Paul puts it. Wise forgiveness and lasting reconciliation are always the way of the Christian, who should be eternally eager to lay down arms and embrace his former enemy.