Ask Pastor Mike Live

Speaker 1

Well, it's Friday and time for Focal Point's popular feature called Ask Pastor Mike. Welcome to Focal Point. I'm Dave Droueh, your host.

Each Friday, we have a popular question and answer time with Pastor Mike Favares. It's an opportunity to talk through the challenges we face and ask the questions prevalent in our day.

Today's topic is a hot one: guns and self-defense. Make no mistake, many Americans are passionate about their guns. But like all issues, we need to regard what the Bible says before we regard the Constitution.

So now let's join the executive director of Focal Point, Jay Worton, who leads our discussion today.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Dave.

Pastor Mike, over the last couple of months, we've seen a number of mass shootings throughout the world, actually not just in the United States. That's ignited a lot of gun control and self-defense and protection debates, not only among politicians, but among Christians as well.

But I wanted to ask you, what is our biblical response to self-defense and carrying guns for Christians?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Well, the scripture certainly gives us a principle both in the Old and New Testament of self-defense. I mean, there is a biblical allowance for me to protect myself from criminal behavior. I think sometimes the mistake is made by not seeing the distinction in the Bible between persecution, for instance, that Christians may incur from government officials, from legitimate authorities in society, even Jesus talking about the rulers of the synagogues versus the criminal, the robber on the road to Jericho. These are two different categories.

When Jesus sent his disciples out, and sometimes they point to this, that they were sent out with nothing, they weren't supposed to take any money back, not even a second pair of sandals. And then at the end of his ministry, they'll point to that and say, oh, see there? He doesn't want us to have any defense and so we just trust him and God will take care of us. Well, I think those same people do have wallets and they do put money in the wallet before they go out to dinner, and they do bring an extra pair of shoes when they go on a trip. See what I'm saying? It's not a consistent application of that text.

But that's cleared up for us when we get to the end of the Gospels where in Luke 22 he says, I sent you out without those things and did you lack anything? And they said nothing. He said, great. Now I tell you, if you have a money bag, you better take it. And if you don't have a knapsack with you, you better go get one. And if you don't have a sword, you better sell your cloak and buy one. So there was this sense of knowing that if you're in a jam, God is always there and will always be the fail-safe, if you will.

But now we're back to the principles we see throughout the Old Testament, and that is prudence and preparation, having what I need and being like that ant in Proverbs 6 that stores up food for the wintertime. You do these things knowing without fear or stress or anxiety or worry that God is a God who will take care of us. Even if these provisions come to an end, if they're depleted.

Well, back to my point in this passage. If they're told to take swords, then clearly what are swords for? They're not for display, they're not for ceremony. They were for self-defense. And people will say, well, isn't that in the same situation that he tells Peter to put his sword away? Exactly, he does. Why? Because the authorities had come to arrest Christ and scripture was going to be fulfilled and he was going to be tried by the authorities and he was going to be crucified.

So if I'm called on the carpet by the government because I'm a Christian and they say, hey, we're here opposing you and all you stand for and we're going to persecute you, well then yeah, I don't pull out my swords, I don't pull out my guns, I don't start shooting them. I don't become someone who's unwilling to suffer for Christ in persecution. But what was their sword for? It wasn't for saying to the governing authorities, no, you can't take Christ and try him here. Of course they could.

But it's for me now on these missionary journeys to put myself back in the sandals of Peter and the apostles. And I need to make sure that I have money to pay for a place to stay. I need to have a knapsack to have food for the journey. I need to have a sword in case a robber on the road to Jericho jumps out from behind a rock and I can defend myself. That's the principle of the Old Testament. It is the principle of the New Testament. It's the law of the land in our country.

And so if someone feels as though they need the protection of a handgun or a shotgun or whatever to protect their family, protect themselves, great. When Peter does what he often does, and that is he seems to take what Jesus says and runs way too far with it. You see, even in that same setting that Jesus says, they've got a couple swords, well, that's enough. In other words, you don't need an arsenal.

I don't think every Christian person's house needs to have the latest and greatest security systems and a shotgun in every room. I mean, we have to show by our wise and prudent preparation for whatever might be a hazard in life or a threat in life to show that we trust God by not being driven in our worry or our concern to some kind of over-preparation. I recommend Christians have a fortress and have the latest Glock in every room.

But I do think that Christians certainly have the biblical right and certainly the law of our land is we still have the legal right to defend ourselves and to do that with the right in our country to bear arms. And in scripture, that's equivalent to them having a sword. And how important was it for them in the dangerous world of the first century? Well, it'd be better for you to be cold and not have a cloak than to go out in the world in the first century without a sword. And Jesus made that clear.

Speaker 2

Pastor Mike, some people would say that Luke 22 passage, as you even referenced, is just for the missionary evangelical work. What about the person just doing their normal day to day business? Does it apply to them as well?

Speaker 3

What's the difference though? I mean, yeah, they're out there doing their missionary work, but they were doing it in their homeland, in Jerusalem, Judea, and they were going to go beyond that. But Peter, who's out there getting that sword and equipping himself to do his work, they were doing it in the land in which they lived and it was something that they were going to need only with the threat of some kind of criminal assault.

So yeah, I think the principle holds true, whether it's on the mission field or whether it's in my back alley behind my house. I mean, I may need to, in my own life, in a world of hazards and crime, I may need to at some point defend myself. And again, this is against criminal behavior. It's not. If I as a preacher am preaching the truth and the authorities come to arrest me, I don't want people in our church to pull out their guns and shoot the authorities. I am willing to suffer for Christ as Christ calls us to persecution.

But if someone is attacking my church and as a criminal, if there is someone wielding a sword in the lobby trying to kill Christians in the lobby of our church, if someone is going to climb up the trellis and try and kill my family, well then of course the biblical, not to mention common sense response is not to allow criminals to criminalize us, but to be able to, in righteousness, defend ourselves.

People can take it way too far, but to say that it's sinful or unbiblical is certainly not. I can't see that case anywhere in Scripture, and I've heard many people try to make it. Because I hold this view, I have people try to make the case that this is unbiblical, but I'm not persuaded. I think the Scripture is clear on this.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Pastor Mike. This has been an important conversation for the things that are going on in our times right now. And so we're going to continue this topic with a message you gave called Dealing with Mean and Demanding People.

Speaker 4

Let's begin today by considering a hypothetical exhortation. Just hypothetical. Here it comes. Ready? Quote, let's get out there and beat them. Show them no mercy. Let's decimate those guys. Unquote. Hey, got it. Now think this through with me. Hypothetical exhortation. Let's get out there and beat them. Show them no mercy. Let's decimate these guys. Here's the question. What exactly is the expected response to that exhortation? Think that through. What would that be? Now you're groping in the dark because you'd have to have a few questions answered before you would know what exactly is the expected response. You need to know who's giving that directive. You need to consider a context in which that's given. If it were a sergeant in a foxhole in Afghanistan before a night raid, then you might be on to exactly what is expected. If it's the Awana leader on a Thursday night out back before steal the bacon, you would expect a different response.

What you would not want is your Awana, your little Awana junior out there. Exactly. Responding as a Marine in Afghanistan, you would have to expect the appropriate response in the right context, knowing who it's coming from and what's the setting in which that was given. That's what we call standard hermeneutics. When we see a text of Scripture that is giving an exhortation, we have to consider who is saying it, who the subjects in that exhortation are. And then we can start to define words like decimate, show them no mercy, you know, beat them. We can understand those verbs and those imperatives when we know the context, the applicational context.

Now, the reason I say that, and I emphasize it the way I did, is because we're entering into a section of the Bible that is so often misunderstood and misapplied that we need to be super careful about all of these verses that we're going to encounter. We're only going to look at four of them today: Luke, chapter 6, verses 27, 28, 29, and 30. And they're quoted all the time by Christians and non-Christians. My contention is that they're often misapplied. In other words, let me put it this way. I want to respond to every exhortation of Christ exactly as Christ intended me to respond to it. Living as a part of the church, in the church age, in my case, in the 21st century. I want to respond exactly as he intended. I don't want to respond as an Awana kid would, to an exhortation that was intended to be responded to like the Marines. I need to know what is the setting, what is the context? So important.

We're in the middle of Luke, chapter six, the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus is preaching. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. Okay, now you see some things here, the motifs that we're used to. Love your enemies, turn the other cheek, give to the one who asks. That triad of statements is often misapplied, and sometimes those statements may even haunt you, so to speak.

In trying to give you that sense of guilt about doing something in a situation that really you should have no guilt about, because that's not what Jesus intended. So we need to understand the context. A lot of people look at this and say, I don't know. Let's just start with turn the other cheek. Start in the middle of all this, you know, if someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other, here you hit me here, hit me there. That sounds like almost an impossible command to obey. So you got some choices. Either you think, well, it's not literal, or you say, you know what? I just think in this case, I'm going to set aside the teaching. I want to do everything Christ asked me to do, and you should, too.

We're going to be judged by whether or not we respond to Christ's teaching. And I don't mean in terms of heaven and hell, but in terms of the Bema seat of Christ. We're going to give an account of our lives whether we were obedient to what Christ taught. I want to make sure I respond exactly as Jesus intended. And if that means when someone's beating me up, you know, when I'm in some bad part of town on my way to the car, if I'm not supposed to defend myself, then I want to know I'm not supposed to defend myself. But is that what's in view here? Is this about thugs and muggings and criminals? No.

To find the appropriate applicational context, we should look at the literary or grammatical context. And let's go back and find out what we just ended. A set of blessings and woes. We had the pairings, right? The blessing and the corresponding woe. Well, the last blessing and woe, you see, ended there in verse 26. What was the theme of the last one? Let's look at it. Verse 22. Blessed are you when people hate you. Okay, now this is supposed to be a good thing. When people hate me. This is weird. That's the startling nature of the rabbi's teaching here. And when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil. Now, there's not a period. There is a comma. Now we're going to describe what kind of situation we're talking about. This is what you need to highlight or underline. Don't miss this on account of the Son of Man.

Now, we're not talking about people that are your enemies, either civilly or philosophically or politically, or this. We're talking about people here that hate you, exclude you, revile your name as evil, spurn you. Why? Because of your alliance with the Son of Man. With Christ. Well, and he goes on to illustrate and make this even clearer. Because my reward is great in heaven. So God's going to reward it. Why? This makes it very clear. For so their fathers did to the prophets. What were the prophets? They spoke the truth to their generation. They said things that weren't easy to hear, just like we say things to our generation that aren't easy to hear.

Christ is the only way. The way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. The exclusivity of the message of Christianity, the issues of heaven and hell, people don't want to hear that. Now, for faithful messengers of the message of Christ. And we stand in alliance with Christ and his teaching. The Bible says you're going to get a negative reaction from a lot of people in this world, just like the prophets did. But that's okay. God's going to reward you. And you're in good company. We taught on that. Inversely, the woe in verse 26, hey, woe to you when people, all people, speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Now, if that's not clear enough to give us a sense that we're right now talking about people opposing us, or even if we want to use this big word persecuting us because of our stand with Christ, then we've missed the context. Now I know what kind of enemies we're talking about. Verse 27, I say to you who hear, love your enemies. That's the kind of enemies we're talking about. And he repeats some of the words we saw up in verse 22. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you or revile you. Pray for those who abuse you or spurn you. These are the people that, because I'm a Christian, they oppose me.

When you're in a situation and there is some assault on you in that context, they strike you on the cheek. Some commentators, was that physical, metaphorical? Is that my reputation? Is that a slap, slap? Is that a punch? What is that? Well, I'm not sure. The word is pretty broad here. But the point is, in the context of opposition, and for some of us it is a slap, slap, embarrassment, reputation thing. And in the early church and in some places around the world today, it's physical beatings. The Bible says, hey, say, okay, whatever, turn the other cheek. If you want to oppose me and attack me because I'm allied with Christ, I'm not going to fight you on this. I'm going to stand with Christ and take it. That's the context.

From the one who takes your cloak away, he says, give him your tunic, too. Do you see? That's the context, as we see in the Bible, of Christians being persecuted, as it says over there in Hebrews 10:34 about people having their property confiscated, not because they're drug dealers and rapists, but because they stand for Christ. Those people being persecuted, the Bible says, hey, if they're going to take your stuff, let them take your stuff. Now do you see? This is not the context of criminal behavior. If you go out to the parking lot and there's someone there ripping your car off, right? They've broken into your car and they're stealing your stuff out of your glove box, you don't walk up and go, oh, hey, wait, wait, wait, my wallet here, look, I got money here, too. Don't do that.

We're not talking about criminal law or civil law. We are talking about persecution for your Christianity. That's what we're talking about. People misquote this text all the time. Turn to Luke 22. Luke chapter 22. Drop down to verse 35. This is the end of Christ's earthly ministry. He's going to leave his 12. He's going to leave his disciples. And he said to them, when I sent you out with no money, bag, knapsack, or sandals, did you lack anything? And they said nothing. Now note this. Here's the strategy of Christ, by the way. And I could prove this to you if I had more time. But Jesus sends them out in a very unconventional way. Don't take money. Don't take extra shoes. Don't take a backpack. Don't take resources. Just go and watch how you'll be supplied.

For that was not going to be the norm for Christian missions work. What he's proving by that is if you go out, even though you're prepared, which he's going to call them to do now, and you find yourself with your back against the wall, trust me, if you feel like you're at the end of your rope and you don't have the money, you don't have the resources, trust me, I'll provide. So he gives them these three years of experience of going out without provisions. That was to show them that God would supply. He wants them to plan, he wants them to prepare, he wants them to take provisions, and he changes the rules. This is the norm for the church age.

Here we go, he says, verse 36. But now let the one who has a money bag take it. Likewise, a knapsack. You better take it. Let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. Now that's telling right there. They're going to be going all over the cities of Judea, you know, Samaria, all over the ancient world preaching this message. He says this, you better take a Glock with you. You. You have a Beretta, 9 millimeter. Do you have something? You know what? If you don't have one, you should run on down and fill out the forms and get one. Even if you have to sell your coat. Rather you be cold than not have a defensive weapon on you.

Think that through. If in their minds they took Luke 6, as you know, when I'm jumped on the road to Jericho and someone comes out and says, stick them up. Give me your money. And they reach for my knapsack or my money bag, I should go, oh, Jesus said, turn the other cheek. Here, take my jacket, too. That is not the context of Luke 6. Luke 22 makes it clear. Pull out your sword and defend yourself and protect your property. Bend yourself. See, because if you creep into my house in the middle of the night to take my stuff or threaten my family, I'm going to shoot you. See, and I'm the pastor and I. And I believe fully, you shouldn't clap at that. Really.

I believe fully in Luke 6 about turning the other cheek. But if I shoot you and I don't happen to kill you, and then you want to pull out your Bible as you're laying there on the gurney, as you're getting wheeled into the paramedics, say, pastor, don't you believe this, that if someone asks of you, you're supposed to give it, right? Shouldn't you just turn the other cheek? I'm going to laugh at you and I'm going to say you are misquoting scripture that is not the context of Luke 6. And I'm going to quote for you Luke 22 and I'm going to tell you that's why I bought a 357 so I could shoot you when you come into my house to steal my stuff.

See, now I'm going to do it lovingly. Right? All I'm trying to tell you is there is a very specific context for turn the other cheek. You need to apply it in exactly the way Jesus wants you to apply it. If it's for Christ, I'm willing to suffer the loss of that. I don't even care. Take it if that's the purpose of you coming in and doing this. If you go through the book of Acts, look at how many times the disciples who were being persecuted, even Paul himself, when there were things being done that were unjust to him, he wanted those to be made right. When, remember when he, because of his citizenship and they find out he's a Roman citizen, they want to release him quietly. What does he say? No, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.

See, you arrest me publicly, you flogged me, you dragged me in here and you do it unjustly. You better make this right. You better make it right publicly. What's with that? Where's the turn the other cheek in that? Well, that's not the context of the turn the other cheek command, knowing that that's the context and that's where he's going to go. Don't worry about the losses, don't worry about the pain. Stand with Christ. Be proud to do it in verses 27, 28. He now gives us instructions about those that are opposing us. I say to you who hear, love your enemies. And because of that motive, which by the way, is not a feeling. Can I make that clear? Not a feeling.

When you look at dictators in countries that are throwing Christians and Christian pastors in jail, you do not feel good about those people, do you? The people that ridicule you for your Christianity, make fun of you at work, say things behind your back, start rumors about you because you're the Jesus freak. You do not feel good about them. Love is not a feeling word in the Bible. This is a motive of intention to do good to them. That's why the next phrase says do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you. What is my prayer? The prayer is that they'll repent. What is my blessing for those who curse me? It's bringing the blessing of the message of the Gospel. What's the good to those who hate me? It's doing good by calling them to trust in Christ.

I'm not asking you to feel anything. And as I already quoted from Psalm 119, you may feel a lot of indignation towards those people, but you still need to purpose to have God in their lives, pray and beg and beseech God to do in their lives what God has done in your life. I know it's a humbling thing to pray that God would mercifully save our opponents, but it is the call of Christ in this very specific passage about our persecution.

Speaker 1

You're listening to Pastor Mike Fabarez give a timely and important treatment on the issue of how to respond to enemies. Today's Question and Answer Time, along with the corresponding message, is a favorite with our focal point family. You've just heard Mike give a thorough biblical treatment on the commonly misinterpreted passage in Luke 6 where Jesus says, turn the other cheek.

Now, to hear his presentation from start to finish and without interruption, go to focalpointradio.org and you can watch the sermon or listen to the audio free. And to own a copy of this helpful message on CD, you can purchase it from our website focalpointradio.org. While you're online, be sure to check out our featured resource called Sinners in the Hands of a Good God.

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Speaker 2

Sam.