Ephesians 6:10-13: Is War Ever Just?

Is war ever just? This is certainly a difficult question to answer; brilliant churchmen and theologians (Augustine, Aquinas, Moore, Grotius, CS Lewis, John Paul II...) like others before them (Plato and Cicero) have wrestled with this question and fought to find various theoretical formulae in order to test for a just war. Though their intent was noble, the results are ambiguous. A prime example of the struggle is Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli was a brilliant reformer and staunch pacifist – he died in a battle he voluntarily entered.

Part of the difficulty in addressing the question of a just war is, of course, the two Joshuas. God used Joshua of the Old Testament to deliver His people into the Promised Land. War and violence accompanied this conquest. (Joshua is a Hebrew name; the Greek translation of that name is Jesus.) God uses Joshua of the New Testament, Jesus, to deliver us into the eternal Promised Land. Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6) who teaches that one should turn the other cheek and offer our attackers even more than they demand of us (Matt 5, Lk 6). Pacifists have argued that any physical resistance is therefore disobedience and placing our trust in ourselves rather than in God.

The Salvation Army, in which I am an officer, is not a pacifist movement. We have both pacifists and national soldiers in our ranks. We have a long tradition of standing up for the weak and disadvantaged. John 15 says that a man can show no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends; we do owe a debt of gratitude to all our soldiers who have died for us and, from my perspective, I think Canada’s former peacekeeping tradition of sending our troops to defend civilian populations and stand between warring factions was a noble expression of faith in action.

I further believe that our war here is with principalities and powers and that, as this is the case, officers in the Salvation Army pledge to make the saving of people the primary focus of our lives. It is to this end that I have committed to fight; Jesus saves and when His kingdom is fully realised on earth, there will be no further wars, no more tears. This is most certainly a just war.

What are you doing to fight the good fight?

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