This week’s reading from John Stott’s The Cross of Christ for Reading Classics Together at Challies.com is Chapter 12, Loving Our Enemies. This is a chapter I wouldn’t have anticipated in a book about the cross of Christ. I understand that it’s there in order to work out what it is to show in our relationships the same “combination of love and justice” as there is in the work of Christ on the cross, but it still felt out of place.
Christians, says Stott, are called to be peacemakers, and yet the kind of peace we make must be modeled on the peace of God. It may cost us to make peace; we may need to confess our fault in the dispute. At the same time, we cannot forgive when there is no repentance for real wrongs done.
The Christian Home
Christian parents will model their love for their children on God’s love, meaning they will seek the best for them, even at great cost. They will also model their discipline after God’s own discipline of his children.
The Church
Love and discipline should characterize the church family, too.
[T]he New Testament gives clear instruction about discipline, on the one hand its necessity for the sake of the church’s holiness, and on the other hand its constructive purpose, namely, if possible, to “win over” and “restore” the offending member. …[A]ll disciplinary action was to exhibit the love and justice of the cross.
The State
Stott bases what he says about the administration of justice by the state on Romans 12 and 13. The Christian attitude toward evil should be:
- Evil is to be hated.
- Evil is not to be repaid.
- Evil is to be overcome. By this, Stott refers to these words of Paul: “Bless those who persecute you” and “if your enemy is hungry, feed him.”
- Evil is to be punished. The first three on this list are the responses the individual Christian should make toward evil. This last one is to be carried out only by the state. The law enforcement officer, working for the state, is “God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”
The origin of the states authority to punish evil is God, and the purpose of this authority it to reward good and punish evil. Stott goes on to say that this authority must be used in a way that is controlled and discriminate. Citizens must submit to the authority of the state.
To sum up this section:
Because its authority has been delegated to it by God, we must respect but not worship it. Because the purpose of its authority is to punish evil and promote goodness, it has no excuse for arbitrary government. To fulfill this purpose it may use coercion, but only minimum necessary force, not indiscriminate violence. We are to respect the state and its officials, giving them a discerning submission, not an uncritical subservience.
Next up is chapter 13, Suffering and Glory.