By Garry J. Moes

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The divinely inspired ancient Hebrew prophet Micah spoke forth what we might call The Three Commandments, boiled down from the more familiar Ten Commandments into three essentials of human obligation toward God and our fellows.

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He has told you, O man, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

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Do justice, do it kindly, and do it humbly according to the leading of the God Who is our Sovereign Lord and Loving Redeemer. According to the commander of the hosts of heaven.

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These three commandments must be kept ever in our sight as we Christians face the challenges of a world that is increasingly hostile and openly militant against us and our God. We are and always have been, undoubtedly, in a war. Scripture makes this abundantly clear in a hundred ways and places, perhaps most succinctly in St. Paul's admonition to put on the Full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20).

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10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

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Since we are in a war and since we are to do our warfare justly, kindly and humbly before God, we would do well also to recall the doctrines of Just War as saints of old distilled them. First among the requirements for a just war is that it must never be an act of aggression, but, to be just, its purpose or intent must be defensive, an apologetic, to use a theological term. As I noted in my article linked above, "This does not mean that a war may not include an offensive component, even a pre-emptive one, but it does mean that the initiation of warfare may not be for aggressive purposes." 

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In the 1966 classic film A Man for All Seasons, the soon-to-be martyred Sir Thomas More, as portrayed by Paul Scofield, laid it out to his daughter Margaret this way:

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God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and, yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping.

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"Escaping," in this sense, does not mean running like a coward. It does not mean whistling in the dark or being apathic to the wickedness around us. It simply means that every effort must be made to avoid unnecessary conflict before we are finally forced to enter the fray, as we sometimes must in the end. If God so arranges our circumstances in life that we are forced to arise in the face of evil and all its pernicious manifestations, we "must stand to our tackle" as God gives us "the spittle" to do so. In that case, we are given the right and the calling to clamor like champions. Always humbly. Always justly, i.e., always with righteous intent and with righteousness as our end purpose.

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This is no theoretical matter in our present moral milieu, as it was not in numerous times past for the righteous. Think of Noah contra mundum. Think of David before Saul. Think of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Think of Paul before his persecutors. Think of Luther and other reformers. Think of the martyrs of all ages. Think of the faithful who suffered in the concentration camps and gulags. Think of the "great cloud of witnesses" named and unnamed in Hebrews 11 who suffered unspeakable atrocities for their faithfulness.

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We faithful ones living in once-Christian Western apostacies are seeing a time unfolding when we will likely soon face the straits that our brothers and sisters in China, Nigeria, Iran, North Korea, and other authoritarian and totalitarian hellholes now face. To some lesser degree, we are already there.

 

We are already seeing the hostility raining down upon those of us who stand against the moral evils of our time. It is a time for boldness, for clamoring like champions of the truth and the power of God unto salvation, which is the Gospel in His Holy Word. Like Paul, we must not be ashamed. We must clamor against the murder of the innocents, the debauchery of grotesque drag-queen events, the scourge of enslavement to pornography and drugs, the black plague of sexual slavery and perversion, the insidiousness of mind-manipulation by media and so-called educators, the rise of the occult and paganism sweeping through our civilizations, and all of the "works of the flesh" that are evident: "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these," as listed by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians. "I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

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Our duty does not depend on our success. Our duty is to stand in the breach — obeying (come what may) our Lord Jesus, unto whom all authority in heaven and on earth is given: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, ... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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