Teach us, Good Lord,
To serve Thee as Thou deservest:
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labor and not to seek for reward
Save that of knowing
that we do Thy will.
–Ignatius of Loyola
“For everything there is a season, and a time
for every purpose under heaven
. . . a time to kill” (Ec. 3:1,3).
“Thou shalt not kill” clearly puts murder out of bounds for everyone. It’s Command #6 of the Big Ten.
End of discussion.
However, there is one important exception, and it comes straight from the apostle Paul. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13 NIV).
There’s a death warrant out for the “misdeeds of the body,” and we are authorized—yea, commanded—to kill. Every last one of them is to be put to the sword. We are to listen to no pleas for mercy. Not one is to be spared.
Why such drastic action? Is this not an extreme measure?
The apostle pulls no punches. His argument is simple and strong—if you don’t put them to death, they will put you to death. Somebody is going to die, it’s either you or them. There’s a battle going on. Your life is on the line.
We are to soften the sentence for none of these fiends.
To “live according to the flesh” looks most attractive. Its forbidden pleasures are tantalizing—but make no mistake. They’re out to kill. Your soul is at stake.
Death and life are before you. The Spirit is willing.
You choose.
–Jurgen O. Schulz
Prayer: a subversive activity
[that] involves a more or less
open act of defiance
against any claim
by the current regime.
–Eugene Peterson
I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. This day we fight.
–Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King
This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
–Maltbie D. Babcock
(1858 – 1901)
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.
–C. S. Lewis
With every morn my life afresh must break
The crust of self, gathered about me fresh;
That thy wind-spirit may rush in and shake
The darkness out of me, and rend the mesh
The spider-devils spin out of the flesh—
Eager to net the soul before it wake,
That it may slumberous lie,
and listen to the snake.
–George MacDonald
(1824 – 1905)
Perichoresis 