“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matt 5:5 NASB

Jesus never trained His disciples to fight. Instead, He taught us to turn the other cheek, to forgive, and to lay our lives down.

In Luke 9, James and John wanted to call fire down and destroy people who weren’t receptive of Christ. However, Jesus rebuked this aggressive attitude.

And, Peter once wielded a violent sword, but…Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away” (John 18:11). Then, the Lord healed the wound Peter had caused. After this, Jesus—who said “follow me”—willingly walked ahead toward his own arrest and crucifixion.

Later in time, the Apostles became martyrs. They suffered horrible deaths. Still yet, the early church didn’t buy or make weaponry, and they never formed militias.

So, having pointed out these important lessons, allow me to add that Jesus was not afraid of confrontation. And, the New Testament is not void of swift judgment.

After all, Jesus cleansed the temple by defiantly removing the moneychangers. Also, Jesus sternly rebuked Peter and called him Satan when Peter tried to resist the way of the cross. Nevertheless, both of these instances were corrective teaching moments.

Plus, there were other occasions where Jesus addressed the Pharisees and Sadducees in harsh tones. Nonetheless, it is obvious that Jesus wasn’t here to have arm-wrestling matches, or fist-fights with un-agreeable people.

In Acts 5, there is a unique story where Ananias and Sapphira sequentially fell dead. From that, Scripture states that the fear of God spread throughout the church. It’s hard to develop doctrine around this rare story, but it happened and the fear of God was established as a relevant aspect even in the New Covenant dispensation.

Simon the sorcerer was severely rebuked later in the book of Acts. His error was sharply addressed. Yet, it appears he had the opportunity to seek repentance and grow up from his immature heart.

Two things we can collectively gather from these examples.

1.)God doesn’t want us involved in bloody, angry, vicious actions.

2.) That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want us to contend for the faith.

Contrarily, I believe we are to stand and make an overcoming difference by:

A) Intellectual reasoning and teaching.

B) resisting and warring in the spiritual arena.

Firstly, let us acknowledge that God chose Paul to help establish the newly birthed church. Paul was a highly educated individual, trained to be a rabbi—minister, teacher, lawyer. And, Paul certainly utilized his mind, and training to teach, write, and assert the truths of new covenant inspiration.

Another major Apostle of the New Testament was Peter. One time, Peter said we should be ready to give a defense of our inner hope to anyone who questions us (1Peter 3:15).

Otherwise, if we are going to fight, we are to fight spiritually, not physically engaging with other persons (2 Cor 10:3-4, Eph 6:12). Once, Jesus even addressed a natural storm in a spiritual way. He spoke to winds and waves—the storm—rebuked it and commanded it to be still and quiet. This was a spiritual response to a natural threat.

So, in the day we live in, there will be no repeat of 1 Kings 18’s prophetic showdown. After winning that prayer competition, Elijah slaughtered those failed false prophets.

No where in the New Testament do believers act with violence, strength, or physical judgment like what was seen in the Old Testament through men such as Samson, Samuel, David, Elijah, Jehu and others.

The closest thing you will find to a preacher and a militia in the NT was at the betrayal of Christ.

John 18:3. Judas then, having received a band [of men] and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.