Fight Fire with ________ (Friday Devotional)

“But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.”

- 1 Peter 3:15-17

Firefighters are some of the most well-respected and admired people in modern society—for good reason. Firefighters rush to scenes that we flee; they run into buildings that we run out of. When flames threaten our property and our very lives, it is firefighters who bravely battle the destructive blaze in defense of our homes, businesses, and public spaces, at great risk to their own lives. Small wonder then that, from childhood through adulthood, we regard them as heroes.

But while we admire the work that firefighters do, there can be no denying that their approach is almost entirely reactionary—they don’t show up until something’s already burning, and once the flames have been extinguished, their work is done. Their fight is an entirely defensive one; they have no hope of permanently defending society from destructive fires because their task is put out fires once they have started.

So imagine if firefighters took a different, more aggressive approach. What if, upon arriving at a scene, they not only extinguished the blaze, but then determined who the perpetrator was (whether it was accidental or intentional). And what if, upon finding that person, they then went to his or her home and burned it down themselves as an act of retribution. “That’ll teach you,” they might say. “Fire is dangerous.”

Crazy, right? Maybe such an approach would, through fear and intimidation, promote more interest in fire safety and discourage arson. But nobody in their right minds wants to see more fires, even if it’s the good guys who start them. Battling fires the way they do now may be an endlessly defensive task, an unwinnable war, but we have no appetite for literally fighting fire with fire.

Doing so rhetorically is another matter. In the conflicts waged throughout society, from civil court to the political arena to the office, there exists an attitude that says you must fight exactly as dirty as your opponent in order to win—that if they are willing to lie then you must be too; if they are willing to cheat then you need to sink to their level just to stand a chance. Simply defending yourself from attack is not an option, according to this line of thought; you have to fight back just as hard and just as ‘tough.’

Sadly, this kind of thinking has even crept into Christianity. Some read 1 Peter 3:15—“always be ready to make your defense”—as a battle cry, and use it as justification to defend the faith by any means necessary. In defense of Christian teachings, leaders, Scripture, and the church, there is a temptation to fight the enemies of the faith using the weapons of this world, from self-righteousness to rumors to hateful rhetoric to even, in extreme cases, violence.

But disciples of the crucified Christ are called to something different. In the same verse that commands believers to be ready with a defense when questioned or persecuted, the apostle says, “yet, do it with gentleness and reverence.” The gospel is worthy of defending, but any defense must honor the Lord it proclaims, never sinking to means that stray from Christ’s commands and example. The enemy would love nothing more than a vicious, hateful, gossipy, materialistic, militant church that defends itself at all costs—even the cost of its witness. Don’t fall into that trap. The number one way you can stand up for Jesus is by living for him. It may seem satisfying to fight fire with fire, but turn instead to the only tool that can truly bring victory over the flames: living water.