by Rev. Dr. Aric Fenske
There has been much written over the past several weeks in the wake of the recent violent acts that have taken place across our country: another school shooting, an innocent woman stabbed on a subway, the assassination of a popular speaker. I have no desire to rehash those events, nor do I intend this to be a response to any event or any article in particular. I simply want to share a few reminders from God’s Word that can help us process these things in a proper and godly manner.
First, we must remember that every human being has been created by God and is therefore precious to Him. That is true regardless of their political associations or even whether or not they have faith in Him. God’s final words to Jonah illustrate this beautifully. The people of Ninevah were enemies of Israel, and yet the book of Jonah closes with God asking, “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:11).
Instead of wishing for the destruction of His enemies, God pitied them and hoped for their repentance.
He says exactly the same thing to the prophet Ezekiel. “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekial 33:11).
God takes no delight in the death of any man, even the wicked and those who’ve turned away from Him. Instead, He longs for their repentance to the point that He takes on our sinful human flesh and bears the sins of the world so that all can “be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Since we have been redeemed by His blood and brought to faith in Christ, we have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us (Romans 8:9) and are to “have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). That is to say, we have been redeemed from sin that we might begin to think about our neighbors the way that Christ thinks about them.
That means, for starters, that we mourn every act of violence and every death. Jesus does not revel in the death of any person, even His enemies, and neither should we. This is especially true if they are outside the Body of Christ. Knowing that those who die outside of Christ must face eternal condemnation, we should weep over every life that ends without repentance and faith.
We must also remember that violence and murder are tools of the devil (John 8:44) and are wicked intrusions into God’s creation. Death is the result of—not the solution to—sin. We cannot use death to solve the problems and divisions that exist between us sinners. Instead, death should always be viewed as the result of sin (Romans 6:23) and therefore as our enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Hoping for or demanding the death of any person because of their nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or political views has no place among the Body of Christ.
Instead, our Lord Jesus teaches us that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). We pray for their repentance, even as we acknowledge our own sinfulness and pray for our own repentance so that we might act and speak with humility and work toward building unity and peace among all people (Ephesians 4:2-3).
In like manner, we should pray for the perpetrators of such violent and sinful acts. Any person who would commit such evil has clearly been enslaved by sin and has a mind that is corrupted and defiled by the devil, and therefore is in need of repentance and salvation. Pray that the Holy Spirit works the miracle of conversion in them before it is too late, even as we pray that justice be done for the preservation of civil order (1 Timothy 2:1-2; 1 Peter 2:14).
Additionally, since St. Paul encourages us to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), we should weep with the families of those affected by these acts of violence and pray for them. Pray that God takes care of their bodily needs and that He would bring them the comfort and peace that can only come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that through these tragedies, they and all others would be drawn closer to God in faith.
Finally, we remember that in the face of such darkness, Christ shines as the Light of the world (John 9:5). Amazingly, He shines His light through us as we preach the Gospel and imitate His love before the world (Matthew 5:14-16). So, we will follow the example of those who went before us and preach the Gospel to a world broken by sin, knowing that the Gospel alone has the power to change hearts. And all the while, we pray that God brings an end to violence and bloodshed and ushers in the day when sin is completely removed from us and all tears will be wiped from our eyes.