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There’s a difference between refusing revenge and refusing responsibility.
Christians have inherited a strange kind of moral squeamishness when it comes to defending themselves or their families. Somewhere, someone told us that “niceness” is next to “godliness,” and that resisting an attacker, even to save your own life, or the lives of those in your direct care, is a departure from the way of Jesus.
But niceness isn’t a fruit of the Spirit. Love is. And sometimes the most loving thing you can do is stop the man who intends to do violence to your neighbor. This isn’t bravado. It’s basic Christian vocation.
And it’s an argument Christians have worked through for centuries; including Martin Luther, who dealt with these questions more directly than almost any theologian before or after him.
Self-Defense Is Not Vengeance (Luther Was Crystal Clear on This):
Romans 12 prohibits Christians from taking vengeance. Good. Christians aren’t vigilantes. But Luther makes a crucial distinction in Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved. Vengeance belongs to God. Protection belongs to vocation.
Luther argues that God has placed us in particular stations as fathers, mothers, magistrates, soldiers, neighbors, etc. Each of these stations has duties. One of those duties, he says plainly, is to protect those entrusted to us. Not to hate the attacker. Not to repay evil with evil. But to stop him from doing evil and harm for the sake of your neighbor.
Luther even says: “You must help, protect, and save your neighbor, even at the risk of your own body and life, for that is what love and justice demand.” [1] In other words, refusing to protect your neighbor isn’t holiness but a dereliction of duty.
Scripture Affirms the Legitimacy of Defense:
Exodus 22 gives us a straightforward picture: if someone breaks into your home at night, and you defend yourself, “there is no bloodguilt” (Ex. 22:2). Not because killing is good, but because protecting life is. The book of Nehemiah portrays God’s people working with tools in one hand and weapons in the other, not because they lusted for violence, but because they loved their families. Luther reads these passages and concludes that the use of force in defense of life is not just permissible, but sometimes necessary.
But didn’t Jesus say to turn the other cheek? Yes, and Luther addresses this, too. “Turn the other cheek” is about personal insult, not existential threat. Luther reads this as a command against retaliation, not a command to surrender your neighbor’s life to those that are wicked.
When Jesus was struck on the cheek, he didn’t retaliate; but when his neighbor was threatened, when the woman caught in adultery was about to be stoned, he stepped in. There’s a difference between refusing revenge and refusing responsibility.
Luther put it this way: “If you see that your neighbor is being attacked, you are obligated to defend him… He who fails to do so becomes guilty of his neighbor’s injury and is a murderer in the sight of God.” [2] Pacifism that watches neighbors die isn’t piety but sin.
Luther and the Turkish Invasion Resistance in Its Proper Vocation:
Luther lived during the Ottoman advance into Europe, and many Christians wondered whether it was right to fight. Luther gave a surprising answer. If you fight as the Church, in the name of Christ, you sin. If you fight as citizens, under the authority of the state, to protect your neighbor, you do well. Why? Because Christ gave the church the gospel, not the sword. The sword belongs to civil vocation.
Luther gave a surprising answer. If you fight as the Church, in the name of Christ, you sin. If you fight as citizens, under the authority of the state, to protect your neighbor, you do well.
So, Luther insists: “To fight against the Turk is not to fight as Christians, but as men under civil authority.” [3] In other words, a Christian may engage in self-defense or national defense, but only under the right office and motive: not as a religious crusade, but as a civil responsibility intended to defend homeland or nation and to preserve life.
For Luther, the command to love your neighbor means you sometimes must stand between your neighbor and harm, and you must do it without hatred, without vengeance, and without imagining that you’re saving Christ’s kingdom. You’re just doing your job, fulfilling one of your civil vocations.
Christians Are Called to Resist Evil:
James says, “Resist the devil” (James 4:7). Paul says, “The magistrate does not bear the sword in vain” (Rom. 13:4). And Luther says: “Since the sword has been given to rulers to punish the wicked and protect the good, everyone is obliged to assist and protect his neighbor when he is in need… this is what love requires.” [4] The Christian life isn’t a cartoon pacifism where we pretend evil isn’t real, but a vocation-based realism where we acknowledge that God rules the world through both the Word and the sword. Your calling and your station determine which one you wield.
So here is the heart of the matter:
- Self-defense is not vengeance.
- Stopping evil is an act of love.
- Protecting your family is a God-given vocation.
- Christians may resist attackers without violating Jesus’ commands.
- Luther, Scripture, and the Christian tradition all affirm this.
Or as Luther might summarize it: “It is the duty of love to risk body and life for the sake of the neighbor.” [5] And maybe it’s time we stop acting like Christian vocation ends when danger begins.
[1] Martin Luther, Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved, WA 19:623; AE 46:96
[2] Martin Luther, Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved, WA 19:623–24; AE 46:96–97.
[3] Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk (1529), WA 30 II:107–108; AE 49: 179.
[4] Martin Luther, Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (1523), WA 11:268–69; AE 45:95–96
[5] Ibid, WA 11:270; AE 45:96
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