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I was thinking yesterday about guys and guns. Most guys love guns, they love to shoot, they love to put lead down range, and the bigger the better! I think there's a God-given aptitude in most guys for such activities. But it's easy to let it get out of hand, to the point where we let our lust for bigger and better firepower validate our manhood. Taking joy in shooting guns does not make you a man and does not make you mature. Knowing your duty as a man to protect the family that God has given you, and knowing well the tools God has given us to protect that family – that should bring a man joy – in performing God’s expectation of us.
I was thinking yesterday about guys and guns. Most guys love guns, they love to shoot, they love to put lead down range, and the bigger the better! I think there's a God-given aptitude in most guys for such activities. But it's easy to let it get out of hand, to the point where we let our lust for bigger and better firepower validate our manhood. Taking joy in shooting guns does not make you a man and does not make you mature. Knowing your duty as a man to protect the family that God has given you, and knowing well the tools God has given us to protect that family – that should bring a man joy – in performing God’s expectation of us.
Men are built to make war, in many regards, for the defense of hearth and home. However, we shouldn't take joy in violence, but we should be fully prepared to use violence. In Luke 22:36, Jesus instructed his disciples that from now on, they should gird themselves up:
"Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Later, in Gethsemane, after Peter had smote off the priest's servant's ear, Jesus said:
"...Put again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matthew 26:52)
The Greek word used for "take" as in "take the sword" is lambano. This is a prolonged verb, which is why this passage is generally quoted as being, "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Probably a good way of describing it would be "continually grasping" the sword. If a Christian lives by the Word of God, he or she makes a lifestyle of it. If a man lives by the sword, he is a constantly violent man. Clearly we see throughout Scripture, from the families behind the wall in Nehemiah to the Old Testament laws regarding the defense of a man's home against intruders, and Jesus' admonition to his disciples to carry a sword on their journeys, that the use of force is not a forbidden act. But a lifestyle of violence is what Jesus is referring to here.
A man has the responsibility to defend his family, that much is clear from Scripture. But as men, we can't let the false security of our tools of defense be the thing that we point to as proof of our manhood. It is God who makes us men, who gives us the strength we need to lead, protect, and guide our families. It is God who validates our manhood, and our relationship with Him that makes us stronger men!
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"Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Later, in Gethsemane, after Peter had smote off the priest's servant's ear, Jesus said:
"...Put again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matthew 26:52)
The Greek word used for "take" as in "take the sword" is lambano. This is a prolonged verb, which is why this passage is generally quoted as being, "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Probably a good way of describing it would be "continually grasping" the sword. If a Christian lives by the Word of God, he or she makes a lifestyle of it. If a man lives by the sword, he is a constantly violent man. Clearly we see throughout Scripture, from the families behind the wall in Nehemiah to the Old Testament laws regarding the defense of a man's home against intruders, and Jesus' admonition to his disciples to carry a sword on their journeys, that the use of force is not a forbidden act. But a lifestyle of violence is what Jesus is referring to here.
A man has the responsibility to defend his family, that much is clear from Scripture. But as men, we can't let the false security of our tools of defense be the thing that we point to as proof of our manhood. It is God who makes us men, who gives us the strength we need to lead, protect, and guide our families. It is God who validates our manhood, and our relationship with Him that makes us stronger men!
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Wow, that was good! I never quite got that. Amen! Thanks for posting.
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