Is love always 'nice?'

Is it ever right to pray - "Lord, hit him over the head and make him stop!"?

David did. In those psalms that carry the label, imprecatory, he prays for his enemies to be neutralized! "O Lord, oppose those who oppose me. Declare war on those who are attacking me. Put on your armor, and take up your shield. Prepare for battle, and come to my aid. Lift up your spear and javelin and block the way of my enemies. Let me hear you say, “I am your salvation!”" (Psalm 35:1-3, NLT) In other Psalms, his prayers are even more violent! (Psalm 109 will astonish you.) So, what of this response? Is it one we can adopt when under siege? We are quite familiar with Jesus' demand that we 'turn the other cheek,' which would seem to forbid our retaliation against an enemy. But we also see Jesus making a whip and driving irreverent and greedy men from the Temple with an angry denunciation - "You have made this house of prayer into a den of thieves!" We read of Paul's testimony "We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We respond gently when evil things are said about us. " (1 Corinthians 4:12-13, NLT) But we read him speaking in the most strident terms about false teachers who were leading young Christians astray. In the letter to the church in Galatia, his anger spills out as he writes sarcastically about some teachers who insisted that Gentile Believers must be circumcised like observant Jews - "Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!"

Are you confused yet? Are these examples of inconsistency in the Bible? No, though some would point to them in that way. They guide us to the understanding that love is not always 'nice.' In dealing with evil in any of its three forms - corrupt world systems, our own sinful nature, or the work of the Devil - our response cannot be conciliatory or soft. We meet evil in the strength of our God, naming it, resisting it, and battling it. But, in the process, we must not lose the character of Jesus Christ! If we become evil in our attempts to fight evil, evil has won the day. When we are focused only on eliminating a situation or person from our life just to restore our happiness, our motive is wrong. If we are focused on the preservation of good, on establishing the work of God, we are much more likely to 'fight' in a way that is godly.

The Lord is a Warrior. He hates sin and evil. He wages war against evil and calls us to be warriors with Him. But, our weapons are not guns, bullets, and broadsides. Our weapons are truth and love. The truth can have a sharp edge. Ever felt it cut into you? I have. When someone names a sin in my life it hurts, even when they do it in a loving way. That is why the Bible says that the 'wounds from a friend can be trusted.' It is a loving act to help a brother to move toward overcoming a sinful habit by naming it. But can you see how easily even this 'loving act' could become sinful? When I start to enjoy 'wounding' my friend because it makes me feel spiritually superior, or because it allows me to control him, or because it takes him down a peg or two, I am no longer a godly warrior.

One old pastor advised young preachers under his teaching, "Never preach a sermon on Hell or damnation, unless you have tears streaming from your eyes." His point was that it is too easy to enjoy the destruction of those we perceive as our enemies. The old line that is much mocked urges us to 'hate the sin, love the sinner.' It is a true statement! That is exactly what the Bible wants us to do. It is what God does. He saw sin in me and hated it. My sin was destroying me, causing my death, and keeping me from living in God's purpose. So He acted, in love, to remove the sin from my life. He did so in several ways. First, He sent His Son to build a bridge of loving forgiveness so that I could aspire to be His child. Then, He allowed me to taste the dregs of the cup of my life. He stood back and let me choose to sin even though He knew it would bring me pain. He even disciplined me by letting my sins bring their fruits of sorrow into my life. And all the while, He loved me, waiting for me to respond to His invitation - "Come home to your Father!" My restoration, not my destruction, was His goal.

That is the goal of every warrior for God when it comes to the creation of God. We do not seek to destroy, we seek to restore. Only an active experience of God's love can help us to know where that line is drawn between waging war for the Kingdom's sake and waging war for our own purposes.

Jesus said, "Pray for your enemies." A loving prayer might well include a request that God would stop that person in their tracks, both to limit the damage they do to God's work AND so that they will turn to the God who loves them. Our prayers will not always be, "Lord, bless them with wonderful things today." We may lovingly pray, "Lord, let them suffer today so that they will realize the futility of life as they are living it. Lord, let them feel real pain. Remove the sources of temporary comfort that keep them from knowing their real need."

And, we give up our natural inclinations by accepting that person who turns to God, who turns from his sin, into our hearts, restoring them in full forgiveness, just as God forgave us. And, in that kind of love, God and good wins the day!