You would be surprised how many people expect this of a Christian. They expect the Christian to take all sorts of abuse and grin and bear it. As always, we go to the Bible for our answers and the life of Jesus, more specifically. There are some Christians who feel you should not fight back if someone kicks and slaps you. I had one person tell me that if a Christian man was on a date and someone tried to rape his girlfriend, he should not fight back. I don’t know in what alternative reality this person lives but IT IS NOT THE BIBLE.
People misinterpret the Bible in the area of a Christian standing up for himself, more than any area, perhaps. Lets look at the life of Jesus. Jesus got angry. He turned over the tables in the Temple. Jesus was disgusted with people and walked away. Jesus told his disciples to walk away from people, as well.
There is no place in the Bible where a Christian should be abused, threatened and not stand up. I will give one caveat here. This may be where people get their misunderstandings. A Christian should be willing to die for Jesus. However, this would be a choice of death to promote Jesus’ to the world. This is very different than a person coming up to you with a threat. You are under no obligation to buckle. You have every right to defend yourself and to be strong.
In fact, if you are not strong, you are a poor witness to those who look to you to see what a Christian should be. If people have to be beaten up and take it, who would want to be a Christian? Moreover, what does that say about God?
To clarify, if I decided to go into a Muslim country as a missionary, I may lose my life. People do. That would be a work for God and service for God. If I stand up for God and get hated, that is a service to God and for God. However, if someone threatens me because the person has emotional or personal issues, I am under no obligation to take that threat lying down. I am to stand up, vociferously, and defend myself. People need to see that a Christian is strong. Again, you don’t have to be a wimp to be a Christian!
Sanest stuff I’ve ever read. I pray for revolution in Christian understanding, literally!
Thank you, FT. I learned on my own. People want Christians to be doormats. I had to go deep and try to figure out how I was supposed to be. It was very hard, as you can probably tell from this article. However, I prevailed in the situation to which I am referring. I am still there, in this community. I learned a lot and I think I showed a good side of Christians, which is always my goal, although I am a very flawed person.