Laying down weapons and Loving your enemies

I’m taking notice lately of how words have become one of our greatest weapons. In  our conversation around the topic of increasing physical violence, we seem to be missing the hostile tones and verbal accusations that are rising in our digital culture. All too often, our swords are raised for battle and ready to strike in response to the latest news story plastered across social media.  The emotionally triggered reaction comes with a swift strike, without regard for who might feel the slice across their heart (instead of their flesh) on the other side of the screen. 

Your position in this digital war is ensuring that your enemy on the other side knows which armor you wear and that you are ready for battle in the land of Opinionville.  With the strike of your sword, a retaliation rises from the opposition as fiery arrows fly your direction across the sky.  You hold up your shield of “rightness” with confidence over your head, deflecting arrows while you listen to the chants of support from your chosen army, who fuel you to stay in the battle.  The dividing line in this digital war is invisible but it demands that every person pick a side.  

A world on fire

“It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can RUIN the world, turn harmony to CHAOS, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world UP IN SMOKE and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.”  James 3:5-6 (MSG)   

This warning from scripture somehow loses its application in our advanced, technological world because doesn’t this just mean words that come out of our mouth?  But, have you noticed how much less words are coming out of our physical mouths and how much more words are expressed through written, or more accurately, typed form?  Texting is our primary way to communicate with business associates, schedule appointments, and all kinds of transactions with acquaintances. And, it’s also the way we connect with family and friends that we love and care deeply about. We post on our social media feeds without regard for our readers because it’s “my platform” to say and share whatever I want to.  

If we’re being honest, we’re careless with our words.  We care so much about making sure that our “friends and followers” know where we stand on various political, moral, and ethical issues that we intentionally strike a match and set the fire.  And it burns.  It burns ties between family members. It burns bridges built over years of friendship. And it burns people who you don’t have a true relationship with. And now it potentially distorts the image of the God you follow.  You look back over your shoulder and see the smoke rise and wonder, “how did that fire get started?” Or worse, you might smile proudly at your work, knowing that you were the fire starter.

A new chapter from Screwtape

As I’ve thought about how our words have become weapons, I’m envisioning the addition of chapters to The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis, written with our digitized culture in mind.  The classic book by Lewis is a series of letters from Screwtape, an assistant to Satan, who is training his novice demon nephew, Wormwood, in ways to deceive the human race.  In this updated version, Screwtape would advise Wormwood to drop a thought or idea to be mass reproduced on social media that would feed the ego of human nature with the praise of likes and comments.  Or, he would encourage Wormwood to continue with creating confusion, rage, and division among the followers of Jesus. Screwtape would direct Wormwood’s efforts in making sure the human target would neglect thinking about his neighbors, friends and co-workers as he writes with a focus only on his own agenda and pleasing the masses. 

 “The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbors who he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.”  

Screwtape letters, pg. 28

We wage war in the battle with our words against those who don’t think like us but we have largely forgotten who the real enemy is: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Eph 6:12 (NIV)  

False weapons

This war isn’t what we suppose it is: a battle over moral and religious rightness. Instead, it’s a battle for the heart of every human.  I’m looking across the invisible dividing line, the light exposing the enemy for who he really is, his tactics unveiled, and instead of anger, I’m empathetic to the faces of my friends on the other side.  We’ve dressed up in the armor of God for the wrong enemy! We hooked our belt of truth and put across our chest, our rightness.  The problem is that rightness is not the same as righteousness. And righteousness is what approves us before God, not before man.  We place rightness over our chest, closest to our heart, as a barrier to keep others out.  The breastplate of righteousness is to keep us near to the heart of the Father. 

We take up the shield of faith that’s meant to deflect the arrows of lies, confusion and deceit. It’s not meant to push back against those we consider enemies. And look down at our feet.  We forgot to put on the most important part: shoes.  Those shoes are intended to carry the gospel of PEACE.  And yet, there is a weapon that we are called to pick up and it’s not the sword bearing our own words but the word of God.  Let’s be clear on this though: the weapon of scripture isn’t intended to be used against one another. The word of God is a weapon to be used against our real enemy in the battle where his plan is to steal, kill and destroy.  

What if we laid down these false weapons and picked up one that could actually make an impact? What if we intentionally used our words in prayer to stand against our true enemy instead of standing against each other?  What if instead of reacting to every new story to hit our social media feed, we paused to pray? What if we spent more time reading the Word of God to get His perspective on our world instead of consuming every opinion offered in our feeds? What if we took a stand against our real enemy and resisted letting him use us to continue feeding this dividing line?

A radical love

An old hymn from my childhood keeps ringing in my mind:  “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Jesus has a radical idea of love.  He calls us to love our neighbors, to love the stranger, and to love God, the Father.  But the one love we are neglecting the most right now: Love our enemies. (Matthew 5:43)  Jesus isn’t telling us to love satan, the true enemy.  He’s telling us to love those who we consider enemies, those on the other side of the invisible line. 

We would much rather call a group of people our “enemies” than attaching a real name and face to that title.  We prefer to think our enemy is a political party, evangelical Christians, progressive Christians, corporations, non-profit organizations or a specific social group.  But if you pull back from these mass groupings, you’re likely to be able to attach a name and a face to someone you know and care about who fits into one of those categories.  And, Jesus instructs, THIS is the enemy who you need to love.  

I don’t believe this command to love your enemy is easy.  I think it’s incredibly hard. And, I think Jesus knew all of His disciples would be challenged to live out this radical kind of love.  In every generation.  

But, imagine a world where we figured this out.  We figured out how to lay down the weapons of our words and put out the raging fires around us. Where we resisted gut reactions to the events of the world and instead, we were slow to respond.  We figured out that love is the soothing balm to all the abrasive hatred that surrounds us. That faith in God, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, will be our redemption and He will be the one to execute justice on this earth. 

Feels like that could be a world filled with peace.