Effectiveness or Faithfulness?
The reasoning behind nonviolence
What would you do if someone broke into your house and threatened to hurt you or your loved ones? How would you react to foreign (or domestic) provocation to war? How would you handle a troll on social media? All of these questions are impacted by how we view the doctrine of peace, or non-violence.
I am a pastor in the Brethren in Christ denomination where we belong to the historic Peace Church. The way we state this value is that we believe in “pursuing peace – we value all human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation, and nonviolent resolution of conflict.” As we read the scriptures, we simply cannot reconcile the use of violence with the witness of Jesus or the rest of the Bible.
Which is why I was so thrilled to finally read Preston Sprinkle’s book “Nonviolence, The Revolutionary Way of Jesus”. It was fantastic. I really appreciate how Sprinkle studies scripture and really isn’t afraid to dig into the difficult questions, some of which I posed above.
A step by step walk-through of the Old Testament and New Testament is beyond the scope of this post. So I urge you, implore you even, to read that book. Even though Preston Sprinkle is not a member of an historic Peace Church and even though I disagree with him on a few things here and there, the book is fantastic and discusses far more than I can or will here. But I did want to highlight one quote.
One of the critiques of the peace position, or a position of nonviolence, is that it’s naïve, it doesn’t “work”, or it’s too idealistic. Critics might quote one of the worst lines in cinematic history at us: “we live in a real world, come back to it!” (Star Wars, Attack of the Clones). Sprinkle masterfully talks about what the “real” world actually is in the book, but on pages 147-148 he goes on to say this:
“The Bible, however, doesn’t promote nonviolent behavior because of its effectiveness. Rather, we love our enemies and do good to those who hate us because that’s what God does. Faithfulness rather than effectiveness is our motivation… We renounce power and become servants because ‘even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve’ (Mark 10:45). We love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, extend kindness to the ungrateful, and flood evil people with mercy not because such behavior will always work at confronting injustice, but because such behavior showcases God’s stubborn delight in un-delightful people. Faithfulness rather than perceived effectiveness motivates our response to evil.”
This says it so well. Our faith cannot be motivated by expediency, worldly “effectiveness” (whatever that means), or what we get in return. We cannot be motivated by those things because those are not what motivated Jesus. He lived and made his choices guided by his character, not by what would be the most efficient or “effective”. If he did, the story of Satan tempting him in the desert would have gone very differently (as would pretty much all of the choices he made in his ministry).
We will not always be forced to choose one over the other, but when the conflict arises, we must value faithfulness over effectiveness every time. It may not win us seats in an election. It may not make our churches larger. It may not bring us more money or comfort in life. In fact, it might make some of those things and others more difficult. But we live faithfully because that is who God is and wants us to be. If God decides to bring an electoral win, church growth, or more money, fine. But it’s not up to us, that’s God’s prerogative.
We pursue peace not because it “works” every time, but because it is faithful to the witness and teachings of Jesus and of our God throughout scripture. In fact, there have been countless martyrs who chose peace even as they were killed for their faith. It certainly didn’t “work” for them.
But when God himself is our standard, when our template is Jesus, we cannot just set that aside when it comes to the temptation toward violence, the seduction of vengeance, or the satisfaction of “owning” someone online. In the end, Living Jesusly is a call to be a people who value faithfulness over effectiveness.
I recommend getting Sprinkle’s book on your reading list for this year. Even if you are not persuaded, it will at least challenge your thinking, which is always a good exercise!