Responding to Violence: A Scriptural Call to Enduring Faith
In recent weeks we've seen seemingly more shootings and more unnecessary deaths than ever before. That got me thinking, and I pray it makes you think too: what should be our response to all this violence?
My church has been going through Acts for the last couple of years, and providentially we've been in chapters 16 and 17 these last few weeks. These thoughts are mostly condensed sermons from my pastor, driven straight from the Scriptures. Please read both chapters and study them for yourself.
In Acts 16, Paul casts a spirit of divination out of a slave girl, and the crowd turns on Paul and Silas. The magistrates have them stripped, beaten with rods and thrown into the inner prison with their feet in the stocks. "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25). An earthquake opens the doors; the jailer, about to kill himself, asks, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
In Acts 17, Paul reasons with the Jews in Thessalonica from the Scriptures for three Sabbaths, and a mob sets the city in an uproar. The Bereans, by contrast, receive the word eagerly, "examining the Scriptures daily." And in Athens, Paul tells the Areopagus about the unknown God, quotes their own poets ("In him we live and move and have our being"), and calls all people everywhere to repent.
Four thoughts
1. People will reject the gospel and react violently against it. This isn't new. It isn't something popping up out of nowhere in our time. Christians all the way back to the first century have suffered and died for the sake of the cross. Take heart: we aren't alone.
2. God is sovereign over our suffering and uses it to reach the lost. Right after they're beaten and thrown in prison, Paul and Silas aren't cowering in the corner. They're praying and singing, and all the prisoners are listening. As a result, the jailer's life is saved, both temporally and eternally, and so is his whole household. If we suffer, even die, for the sake of the cross, people hear about the gospel. As we watch our brothers and sisters suffer, let's not cower in fear. Let's sing and pray, and let the world hear our prayers.
3. If we want to see society changed, we must know the gospel and the Scriptures. Paul "reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead" (Acts 17:2–3). We must be ready to give a reason for the hope that's in us. You must study the Scriptures. I must study the Scriptures.
4. To relate to people, we must also be well read. That's the main mission here at Petra Publications: to encourage you to read, reflect and contemplate. That doesn't mean setting aside the Scriptures, but using other works to point back to the truth. Paul quoted the Greek poets (Acts 17:28). We need to know the culture: its writings, movies, even its music. That doesn't mean consuming sinful garbage. It means using these things to point back to Christ. People are searching for an answer, and the answer is Christ.
So take heart
If you're afraid of being caught in this violence, remember that all things work together for good for those who love God. Through our suffering the church is made stronger, the gospel reaches further, and in the end God is glorified more.
If you're scared, worried, anxious or angry: first, look to Christ. Pray, and sing His praises. Then study your Bible. Read it daily and know it by heart. Then read good, solid, biblical books. And then, with your knowledge of the truth, read other works and tie them back to the gospel. This is how we fight. This is how we share the gospel. This is how we live.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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