“Dangerous”, What do you think of when you hear the word “dangerous”? Perhaps a crocodile, or a bank robber, maybe it's your girlfriend or wife asking you how she looks in a certain dress?
Regardless it's probably not a Christian.
I think that as men, society has tried to make us harmless and in some cases even try to go beyond that by making us ashamed of our masculine nature and having the natural ability of fighting and being strong and confident. Especially as Christians, since we are called to love and forgive we think we are called to be pacifist or to not be dangerous. It seems like society is actively trying to remove that part of what it means to be a man. If they can't actively remove it from us then they try to shame us into thinking that feeling that primal urge to fight or cause harm is something we should be ashamed of or that something is wrong with us.
I don’t believe that is what Jesus had in mind for the people of his church, a bunch of incapable men who couldn't stand up against the threats of this world or the spiritual one. I mean just look at what he calls the bible and his word, the “Armor of God” Ephesians 6:11. I don't know about you but I wouldn't put armor on an incapable child or an incompetent adult and call them to do battle with a foe. Just look at what Ephesians 6:12 has to say “For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world.” Make no mistake we are in a fight, whether you want to believe it or not.
And while we fight our otherworldly enemy with God’s weapons and not weapons of our world, I want to make a nuanced point. One that I think is not talked about in the church, and is the subject of this essay.
As christians, especially as men, but this also pertains to women, we should know how to be strong, how to fight, and to have the ability to be “dangerous” or to cause great harm to both body and property if need be. That might look different from person to person and just to state it up front, I do not think that everyone should go join an MMA school tomorrow and start beating people up. Rather I believe as a society, especially as Christian Americans, We are trying to strip the “Dangerous” aspects out of our young men and make them harmless. I believe this is a huge problem and something I feel I should discuss in some way. This is my attempt at that.
I will clarify the point I am trying to make in just a moment but before I do I want to first make sure you dear reader understand what an essay is. If you are like me you probably do not know what an essay is other than the dreaded highschool assignment from your english teacher. Until I started to have these things that I wanted to find some way to get out of my head and began to look at the different methods of writing I didn't know what an essay was either. Essentially an essay is a written document that allows the author to put out some kind of position, thought, argument, etc. out into the public and then craft a supporting argument around that point that they are trying to make.
I want to expand upon this definition for my purposes as I write about some of my viewpoints as a christian. I do not claim to be an expert, nor am I a bible scholar or have I been trained in some kind of seminary manner. My views in this essay are simply my views as they are today. I want to get these views out of my head and put them into the air so that I can have an open discussion with other smart, curious and open minded christians about these things so we can come to the truth together. In order to explain my thoughts fully I write this essay with the hopes that it will encourage friendly discussion about how we are raising the next generation. If you would like to discuss or disagree with parts or the entire thing, that is fine, I just ask that you read the entire essay first before jumping to conclusions and emailing me about something that I answer a couple paragraphs later.
I also write this for posterity's sake so that as my son grows and becomes a young man he can know exactly what I stood for and perhaps carry on that legacy with his children in the future.
Now onto the rest of the essay.
Refining the point
Now let's take a stab at refining the main point of what I'm trying to say in this specific essay. How should we as christians, think about being “dangerous”? First I suppose we should discuss what I mean by being “dangerous”. When I use the word dangerous I mean in the physical sense. We should be capable of doing much physical harm to other people. I know for some of you that might sound extreme or counter cultural to being a christian. You're probably asking yourself “how can a follower of christ want to do much physical harm to other people, aren't they all about love and turning the other cheek?” Just so I'm not keeping you in suspense, you are not wrong, however I did not say that christians should do much physical harm, but rather that they should be capable of it. This is the nuanced point that is not often discussed in churches. For the full point I am trying to make, I believe that as christians, especially as men, we should be capable of causing great harm to other people and be capable of doing violence, however i believe that as christians we are called to control that part of us, not cut it out of us. When it comes to future generations I believe we should teach our young men how to harness that ability and control it, not castrate it out of them like it seems so many of us are fond of doing today.
Some of what I will say I'm sure is not in alignment with the “mainstream” views. I don't believe my views are wrong or disagree with what I believe the bible says, or I would not put them out, and I have discussed my views with pastors and people who are far more knowledgeable than me. I will however state that I will continue to grow in my faith and refine my beliefs over time. Much of my thinking on this subject has come from my background in the martial arts. One of the things that martial arts taught me is that while many believe that achieving a black belt is the goal, only black belts realize that is when training and learning actually begin. One of the best tools a black belt has to learn and grow is by teaching others. It is part of their journey and it is a step that I am now trying to take in my walk with christ. I don't know if I have a black belt as a christian yet though haha. Black belts will often learn how to refine their own actions, stances and forms by teaching these things to newer students, it helps them to understand the martial art on a deeper level, ultimately improving their technique.
Alright I think I have made the point well enough and set up enough of the exposition, lets get onto the meat and potatoes of this essay.
There is a time to kill
There is a time to kill…. “Starting off a little intense there, don't you think Chris?” well it might surprise you but the bible does in fact state this very idea. Let’s start by taking a look at Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“For Everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven ... .a time to kill ... .a time to scatter stones…..a time to tear…. And a time for war……
Now I know I skipped quite a few words in those verses so don't yell at me yet, we will be taking a look at these verses in their entirety in just a little bit. I wanted to start by specifically calling attention to these parts of the verse. Now it's unclear who actually wrote the book of Ecclesiastes but this blog post goes into the mystery of the Authorship and it is a book in the old testament, which we as christians know Jesus came to fulfill. It's often viewed as a book of wisdom similar to Proverbs where its teachings are meant to be used in various ways and situations but I think Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is pretty straight forward. There is time for “Everything” under heaven, and yes that means there is time to kill, a time to fight, and a time to do harm.
Now I don't think that this is something that we would say to someone who was meant only for peace. If we were only meant to “turn the other cheek” I do not believe this verse would be included in the bible. Now before I go on any further I believe it is very important to state that no one should take a single verse of the bible and try to expand upon it and turn it into some whole viewpoint. Doing so often leads to misinterpreting and leads to false teachings. So I want to pause on this thought and turn to another part of the old testament.
David’s Mighty Men
The stories of David and David's Mighty men are among my favorites in the bible. 2 Samuel 23; 13-24 There is quite a bit here so I won't write out that entire selection of the bible but I encourage you to read through it. I always wished that there was more to their stories included in the bible because to me, these guys are awesome. If you don't know, they were basically the special forces of Ancient Israel. A group of Special Operators and even though there were just under a hundred of them in total, contrary to the group's other name, “The Three and The Thirty”, these guys were basically an entire army all on their own. Some of them literally took on entire armies completely by themselves, and won!
These men were absolute beasts, they were warriors and David was counted the mightiest among them. Lets not forget David took down Goliath, David fought lions and bears, David was an absolute beast of a man. But that is not all David is known for, He played the harp, he wrote poetry and songs, he wept, he prayed, and in 1 Samuel 13;14 Samuel calls David “A man after God's own heart”. Does this really sound like God is really calling us to remove that spark or capability to be dangerous out of us? That as christians we are to be weak and harmless?
Now to parents who are thinking “well my son wouldn't hurt a fly, or he doesn't have that in him at all, or i don't think my son would be capable of being dangerous, he is so sweet”.
Think about how David started off, he was the least likely to succeed, he wasn't even called in from the field when Samuel came to look at Jesse's sons to select the next king of Israel.No one thought he would be capable of fighting Goliath. But he did, and he won. You might think that this doesn't pertain to your son or that your son shouldnt have this type of mindset introduced to him, but I challenge you to reconsider.
One more example but from the new testament
Jesus portrayed as a warrior
I won't quote the entire verse here but if you want to read an awesome example about how Jesus himself is a warrior I urge you to go read Revelation 19:11-19. The title of this passage is titled “The Heavenly Warrior Defeats The Beast” In it we see Jesus in a robe dipped in blood, a sharp two edged sword coming from his mouth by which he strikes down all of the kings, nations, generals, mighty and all people to the point where an angel beckons all of the birds of the world to come and gorge themselves on the flesh of the fallen.
We are called to embody the aspects of Christ, all of them. But it seems like as christians we forget about this aspect. I understand why. It is hard to talk about this with young men because it's hard to develop and strengthen this dangerous side of us without also teaching restraint. So many people default to trying to prevent that side from developing at all.
But Jesus and God are not all love and butterflies, Jesus flipped tables when the need arose. Often we want our young men to follow the “turn the other cheek” part of Christ but we shame the “flip the table” parts of Christ out of them if we don't outright chemically castrate that part out of them. God is known as a wrathful god, and a loving god. We want our young men to embody the love part but not the wrathful part.
Jesus tells his disciples to go and buy swords
In Luke 22:36-38 Jesus tells his disciple to go and get their swords and if they don't have one to sell their cloak and buy one. They respond by saying look we already have two among us and Jesus responds with that is enough.
I wish Jesus would have clarified this a little more about what he intended them to do with those swords exactly. As christians there are no rules of engagement or appropriate use of force for how to respond to threats as they do in the military or police. So it's hard to say when it would have been acceptable for them to use those swords. It is possible that Jesus simply meant for them to have a deterrent against opportunists. In self defense one of the easiest ways to defend yourself against most crimes is to simply pay attention and look as though you are confident and are ready for an attack. If you are walking around like a scared lost dog or watching your phone not paying attention to your surroundings, you are far more likely to be attacked, bullied, taken advantage of, etc.
Bullies do not pick on people that are bigger than them that they think will be able to stand up for themselves. They pick on the people that they perceive as being weaker than them. So by Jesus simply telling his disciples to have swords perhaps he was just wanting them to be safe from this type of persecution.
As someone who believes in self defense I do wish the bible was a little more clear on what the rules are around defending yourself and your family. I think the best form of “rules of engagement” that we have might be found in meekness. Let's take a look at what it means to be Meek.
Blessed are the meek
See there's an important verse Mathew 5:5 that says that “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”. Many believe that this means that the mild Mannered, the pacifist, the WEAK will inherit the earth but that is wrong.
There’s some really great blog posts about this word Meek and the original Greek word ‘Praus’. Below is an excerpt from one such blog that discusses what praus, in regards to a war horse, meant.
”The ancient Greek army would wrangle wild horses and bring them in from the wild in order to train them for war. Not many possessed the strength or willingness to obey needed to be utilized by the Greek cavalry. Some were made into pack animals, some were simply discarded. But those that qualified after being broken were said to be ‘praus’ (πραΰς). They were no longer unruly or rebellious or out of control. The war horses – the ‘meek’ – would now charge into battle under control of their masters and maneuver according to his commands. A meek horse was one that had kept its strength but placed it under the authority of the one who had tamed it.”
There are a few Christian thought leaders that I agree with that think the historical context of Matthew 5:5 would translate to something closer to “Those that have a sword and know how to use it, yet choose to keep it sheathed, shall inherit the earth.” This makes far more sense to me as meekness is to be a virtue of christianity.
In order for some aspect of our behavior to be virtuous we must have the ability to produce the opposite of that behavior, and by purposefully choosing the virtuous behavior we can then be said to have that virtue. Let me give an example as that might be confusing. Say a person knew a bunch of gossip about a friend but never told anyone or helped in the spread of the gossip. That person could be said to have the virtue of not being a gossip. Now what if i said that, that person was locked in a tower unable to communicate with anyone ever immediately after learning about the gossip. They never spread gossip but they never had the opportunity either. Is that person still virtuous in that way? I would say no, as they have no ability to purposefully choose that path. In the same way If we as christians do not have the capability of causing physical harm to someone, I do not believe that we can claim the virtue of being meek.
Here is the final point I want to make in regards to being “meek” just as the last sentence of the excerpt above states. I believe God is calling us to be strong, to be confident, to be willing to go and face war if we need to, but to place all of our power, authority, confidence and everything that we have, under his control. It is at his discretion that we fight, that we attack, that we take ground for his kingdom.
This version of the word meek shows that there is both the ability and the readiness to be able to fight, to tear down, to destroy and yes even to kill, yet we do not decide when to make those choices, we wait for the call of our master.
I believe as men, as christian men we should be dangerous. We need to learn how to be absolutely dangerous, how to keep our strength, but we must also learn how to control that part of us and place it all under God's command.
Looking back at David, in 1 Samuel 24 we see that David had the opportunity to and some might say the right, to kill the king who was hunting him down. His men were probably correct in that the lord had put Saul in David's power to do as he wished. David could have taken the life of the man who had been hunting him but he chose not to. David would have been justified, he had the ability, the skill, the means and the opportunity. Yet he showed restraint and meekness. Now let's take a look at the rest of the verse from Ecclesiastes.
The rest of Ecclesiastes 3:3-8
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
Clearly we see that under the sun that there is a time for all things. I do believe that this is a warning to everyone that at some point there may come a day that you will need these other attributes. The problem is we typically listen to our own motives and desires about when those days come. This is where that restraint part comes into play. Just because we have this capability of being dangerous, doesn't mean that we should use it at our own discretion.
For me, I will protect my family and I will protect my friends and I will take any measure to ensure that they are protected but I will try to do that in a way that will minimize the harm to every person in that situation. If you are curious about how I think about self defense, I tend to lean toward the use of force rules that the police must follow since the uniform code of military justice has quite a bit that doesn't pertain to me as a civilian.
So I want you to consider this, be dangerous. Learn how to develop that part of yourself but at the same time you must learn to control it.
Some might ask why bother learning to be dangerous or to fight if I'm supposed to control it and tame it. If that is you, I'll leave you with an ancient Chinese proverb made famous by Bruce Lee.
“It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.”
It's about being in a state of readiness because remember there is a time for everything under heaven.
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