Earlier this week I listened to a debate on whether or not Christians should ever engage in violence. The discussion was a good one, and is worth thinking through. A pacifist believes that a Christian should not engage in violence. To the pacifist, Christ’s command to love one’s enemy prohibits them from doing violence to them (Matt 5:44). After all, it is kind of hard to love your enemy while you are beating him up or killing him. To the pacifist then, there is never any justification for aggressive self-defense or for fighting in wars. I want to approach this subject and examine a few biblical texts that hold application for our thoughts on this. The first thing to consider is that the government is ordained by God to use violence to ensure law and order. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from…