A violent man entices his neighbor

and leads him down a path that is not good.

—Proverbs 16:29

Life App

Violent defined: acting with or marked by or resulting from great force or energy or emotional intensity.

Food for Thought

Violence is a reality of life and men are hard wired for it. I’ll give you a for instance: Sharon and I wanted to raise our children without any violent influences, or at least, as little as possible, so our firstborn son didn’t see a play gun or anything similar for his first 24 months. What was the result of our passive approach to parenting? The toddler turned everything he could get his hands on into a gun. “Bang! Bang!” went the kitchen spoon. “Bang! Bang!” went the storybook. “Bang! Bang!” went the furry animal. Alas, sometimes it seems impossible that we overcome our natural instinct.

Yet Jesus calls us to something more. He calls us to a life without violence. He calls us to love. Considering all things, if we live violent lives, we’re putting ourselves ahead of others. When we use violence to show our dominance, to show that we were right, to basically, get our way, we lose.

The wise man once said that there was a season for everything and I’m sure that included a time for violence. When we see others being hurt and we can do something about it, we should act and that sometimes may require violence. I’m certainly grateful for those in authority who use violence to protect me from violent men. But for the most part, living together in society, there is no place for violence. We must instead embrace Jesus’ teachings to love one another as we would want to be loved.

Next Steps

Ask the Lord of the heavens and the earth to examine your heart. Is there a strain of violence embedded there? Is there a sense of unbridled rage? If so, ask the Lord to replace it with the love of Jesus. I promise you’ll sleep better at night if you’ll do these things. And this is the advice from a formerly very violent man…