I may never march in the infantry,
ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery;
I may never zoom o’er the enemy,
but I’m in the Lord’s army.
I remember singing this song when I was in kids ministry, both attending and later leading. You might also remember it as well. It’s a fairly popular song to sing with kids, and it’s easy to see why. Who as a child didn’t pretend to play soldier with their friends, throwing pinecone grenades and shooting gun-shaped sticks at each other? As fun as this song is, I do have a fairly major gripe with it, it’s false.
As we study God’s word, it’s true that we see plenty of depictions of war. God calls Israel to battle his enemies, warriors take up arms and become war heroes, and cities are besieged and felled. This all changes when Jesus appears in the New Testament. All those battles and wars were to bring about the arrival of the savior, and Jesus explains that now that he is here, everything is different. Followers of Christ are not called to kill our enemies but to love them. This confusion over how we are supposed to serve the Kingdom of God isn’t just a modern problem. It was an issue that even Jesus had to handle among his disciples.
The Peter Problem
In all four gospels, we’re treated to a pretty strange story surrounding Jesus’ arrest. Jesus and his disciples had just finished having a fairly intense and eventful dinner. Jesus had just told them that one of them will betray him, hand him over to the authorities, who will then crucify him. He also shared with them that all of his disciples will abandon him. Peter did not take this well. He reaffirmed his devotion to his rabbi, saying he would never deny him. That’s when Jesus drops the bomb that Peter will actually deny him three times before the morning comes.
The atmosphere that night was already intense. For several nights, Jesus had been going off alone to pray, so he decided to do this again that night. This time, he invites along a few disciples, Peter included. After all that, Peter is determined to prove himself, so when the Romans arrive to arrest him, Peter sees his moment and springs into action. Peter knew something was going to go down this night, so he was prepared. He draws his sword and takes a wild swing at one of the high priest’s assistants, cutting off his ear. To Peter’s surprise, Jesus rebukes him, saying what is recorded in Matthew 26.
Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?
Matthew 26:52-54 CSB
He then touches the assistant’s ear and heals him before he’s taken away.
I feel for Peter in this story. He was just trying to show his devotion to his Lord, and it takes some serious guts to draw a sword against armed Roman soldiers. However, Jesus emphasizes that the intention behind Peter’s action isn’t the problem—Peter’s devotion is misguided. Jesus first reminds Peter that he doesn’t need protecting. “If I wanted to fight, I’d simply call the angels to come and save me, and they’d do a much better job than an untrained fisherman with a sword.” He also reminds him to keep his eye on the prize. He is not here to conquer the world through the sword, for “those who live by the sword die by the sword.” Instead, he is going to win by subverting the way of violence of the world. His way is the way of the suffering servant, not the slaying soldier.
Know Thine Enemy
We know through the book of Acts that Peter eventually gets with the program, but this soldier mentality continued to plague the early church. It’s easy to understand why. The early church was heavily persecuted and constantly under threat, so it makes sense that they would respond by coming out swinging. This mirrors much of the current mood in the North American Church. If there’s any doubt, pull up any news site. You’ll find an almost endless parade of stories pointing toward the same narrative: the world is going to hell. We can debate whether those stories match reality, but the mood in the American Church is clear: we must fight our mortal enemy, the world.
Paul saw this attitude taking root in the early church and wrote specifically to address it before it overran this new movement. Paul sets the record straight on who our battle is really against.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Ephesians 6:12 CSB
Our enemy is not the world but the evil spiritual forces that have enslaved it. Here is the truth we must recover: the world is not our enemy but the hostage our enemy has captured. Our job is to fight back against the enemy to save the world for Christ. We cannot save the world if we’re constantly attacking it. The world will not come to the church to find Christ’s love if we’re constantly threatening it with a sword. People in the world are turned off by a church that is more concerned about winning arguments, shouting down opponents, and trying to protect our own.
We are Ambassadors
So what do we do then? Do we just quit the struggle? Do we fall into silence or, worse, cowardly support for the sinfulness of the world? Some have chosen this path, embracing the world’s lies to appease others. The issue with that is we end up preaching a gospel that has no truth to save others. Paul doesn’t say that there isn’t a struggle, he clearly says that we still have a struggle, but that how we fight this battle is different. Look at what Paul says in his second letter to the Church in Corinth.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God.’
2 Corinthians 5:20 CSB
Wars are not only fought by soldiers. Behind every modern armed conflict is a struggle being fought not by soldiers but by ambassadors hashing out terms, making appeals, and working to bring an end to conflict. Not only that, but how many wars never started because wise ambassadors were able to temper emotions and advocate for their people. This is the role that we are called to play, not soldier but ambassador.
The Work of Reconciliation
Each follower of Christ is a representative of the Kingdom of God, an ambassador. Paul not only tells us our identity, but he also gives us our orders. Plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” The message of a soldier is, “God is angry, and I am here to destroy and conquer you for him.” Compare that to the message of an ambassador, “I am here to make peace between you and God, he wants to bring you back.” Soldiers have churches that are fortresses that protect them from the world outside and are bases of operation to wage war and rally troops. Ambassadors view their churches like embassies. They become places where a weary world can glimpse what the Kingdom of God looks like. They can experience the freedom that only God can give and can see what citizenship in God’s Kingdom is like. Furthermore, they are welcomed in to receive aid, relief, and meet with Jesus.
Ambassadors don’t carry weapons. Instead, they boldly travel to the enemy unarmed and vulnerable. Who would welcome an ambassador holding a sword? They risk injury, imprisonment, and even death, but they do this knowing their mission matters more than their safety and comfort. Swinging a sword feels great! Holding a sword can help you feel safe, but our mission is not to protect ourselves or to feel safe and comfortable. Our mission is to reconcile those far from God back to him, and that doesn’t happen at the end of a sword but at a table of peace.
If we really embraced our role as ambassadors, maybe we’d invite those who disagree to coffee instead of shouting them down. We’d listen to them and get to know them. We’d stop flaming others online trying to win arguments and instead spend more time in our real life communities. Likewise, we’d stop sitting far away from that one parent at our kid’s game and instead try to know them more, even if we couldn’t be more different. We’d stop huddling up in our churches attempting to protect ourselves from the outside world and instead go into be sent out from our churches to work in the world.
It’s time to put the sword down. Jesus neither wants nor needs us to protect him or his church from the world. What he does want is for us to become ambassadors, to go into the world and make the appeal to a lost, broken, and confused world that the way of Christ is really what they’re looking for. When the people of God resist the frenzy of messages in our world right now to arm and fight, and instead we offer the world relief from their daily struggle, then we will see a revival. It will never come if we are constantly acting like soldiers. Soldiers fight wars, but ambassadors make peace. It’s time, Christian soldier, to put down your arms and take up your cross.
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