In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus pointed out that evil thinking was as wrong as evil doing.
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:28, English Standard Version (ESV)
Intent matters.
When I was a child my father taught me to hunt. When he gave me my first shotgun — a single-shot .410 — he intended for me to use it to shoot doves. I intended to use it to shoot doves, too, and I did. I was a pretty good shot, if I do say so myself.
When someone buys a gun for “self protection” there is some level of intent to use it against another human being. Granted, few ever do, and most of those, I would guess, don’t really want to, although some lick their lips at the thought of standing their ground.
We are responsible for our own actions. Every day we make choices. We can’t control the behavior of others, but we can control how we respond to them — and I use the word “respond” intentionally. The intention to kill an intruder is still an intention to take human life. It is the seed of a choice. It is a response, not a reaction, and it is a plan. Isn’t it possible that if we allow ourselves to say that if someone threatens us in our own home we would kill them that we have already killed in our hearts? What would even that willingness to kill do to a soul?
We live in a world rocked by violence and hate. Thieves break in and steal. Murderers attack and kill. Am I going to judge a person for having used deadly force to protect themselves and their loved ones from real danger? Heavens, no! We all have to make those kinds of decisions for ourselves and only God can judge that.
I believe I would die for my family. And as horrid at the thought is to me, I would probably kill for them if it came down to kill or be killed. I’m told that most people who kill another person are forever changed by the experience. I hope and pray I never find that out for myself.
I would hope that anyone who used any weapon to kill an intruder would do so as a last resort. That they would try every way possible to escape or disarm the aggressor before taking a life. That killing, even in self-defense, would be the last thing they would do and not the first.
For it seems to me that when we consider a lethal weapon we have some level of intent to use it against another person and that seed of intent could — could, mind you — germinate into vengeance and disdain for a fellow human who, although by earthly standards may not “deserve” to live, is still a child of God. While it might be legally permissible to kill that person, is it moral or ethical?
Proverbs 23:7a says we are what we think in our heart. If we are prepared to kill, have we not already killed? And how do we keep that willingness to kill from infecting our hearts?
Jesus preached and lived non-violence. Gandhi preached and lived non-violence. Martin Luther King Jr. preached and lived non-violence. All of these met a violent end as a result of hate, but they all stayed true to their conviction that violence was not acceptable, that it could not abide in the same heart as love.
A life of non-violence is a pretty high standard to aspire to, but isn’t that the only principle that is consistent with a message of love? We may not always hit the target, but if we aim any lower we are choosing to fall short. Why anyone would set their sights on anything but dead center?
- Randy Weeks is an ordained minister and a Licensed Professional Counselor. He lives in Oxford with his wife, Dr. Jeannie Falkner.
