Ultimately, someone declaring themselves a Christian must hold their world view against the teachings of Christ. What I feel I must do as a Christian is take each element that I stand by in my world view, each piece I claim as truth, and hold it against what is central to my life, my faith in God. So with this said, what does it mean for a Christian (in this case myself) when it comes to issues of war and violence?
I’ll start with Jesus, referring to possibly his most popular teaching , ‘The sermon on the mount’. He says “In everything, treat people the same way your want them to treat you, for this is the law.” Throughout his life, Jesus taught that the first priority of a Christian is to love God, the second, to love fellow humans. Jesus also said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” It seems to me that Jesus did not teach against the Old Testament, or the ‘Old Law’, but rather he took what was the most important ‘laws’ of following God, and emphasized that they should be more rigorously observed. He affirmed the notion of loving your neighbor, being against killing, but he took it much further. He maintained there was no room for violence, or even anger at times was wrong. His message was to love everyone, even your enemies. When Jesus was arrested and Peter drew his sword he scolded Peter saying that whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword. Jesus lived the ultimate life of peace even forgiving his torturers at his death.
Jesus also says, “Your have heard it said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, resist not him that is evil.” This is particularly interesting since this was opposing a quote from Exodus. Not only this but great men of God like Samson, Joshua, and Gideon, where military men. Despite this Jesus and his followers maintained that Jewish law should be held to a higher standard. And that even though war and violence had been tolerated in the past, they would be no longer. This kind of teaching was one of the fundamentals of Christianity for the first several centuries following Jesus’ time on earth. Christians rejected warfare in all its institutions. The ‘original Christians’ were devoted to anti-militarism.
Jesus never explicitly called out the issue of war that I can tell, but that doesn’t make it any less important in my mind. After all, to use this kind of logic by saying it was never addressed and therefore permissible would be to do the same as those who advocated slavery.
I’ve read about many early Christians who taught along these lines of non-violence. First century Christian writer Ignatius called for an abolition of warfare. Second century writer Origenes Adamantius said that a Christian must refuse warfare even if mandated by the state (in his case the emperor of Rome). It was because of all this that Christians became so troublesome to the Roman empire and were seen as such a threat. Those who are anti war are often seen as anti-state, and a menace to society. Mozi, a first century Christian, said that it was wrong to put your loyalty of your own country above your loyalty to God. I this this is an awesome statement. I love America, but my first and foremost allegiance is to God.
Many people in the history of the church who have been made saints got there by their life of strong anti-violent stances and teachings. (unfortuntely, there are some saints who acheived recognition by the opposite in later church history).
I feel strongly that Jesus came to teach us that peace and love (sounds a bit hippyish) along with our allegiance to God is to be our ‘Golden Rule’ - Even if this is contrary to how we feel, and what we see from fellow humans, and even Christians around us.