The Russian invasion of Ukraine is on everyone’s mind these days. Opinions are a dime a dozen. But how should Christians respond to war? What can the Bible tell us? War, as state-sanctioned violence for specific purposes, has been viewed differently throughout Christian history. Pacifism has always been a strong tendency (“you shall not murder*” and “love thy neighbor as thyself”), though it has been quickly discarded when other—usually earthly—benefits were at stake. Think of the crusades and the wars between Catholics and Protestants that raged throughout Europe following the Reformation. We are all created in God’s image, and so regardless of one’s nationality, violence should always be avoided if possible. If the commands above were the only or primary considerations in all situations, then Christians absolutely could not engage in war. Or could they?
What if one’s “neighbor” were being attacked through no fault of their own? That neighbor could live next door, in which case the state-sanctioned violence would come from the police to maintain order, or the neighbor could be in another country. What if one has the power to stop violence against a neighbor? Ukrainians are our neighbors in the sense that Jesus used the word when He taught the story of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10). Our duty to love and kindness knows no national boundaries. In the same way, Russians are our neighbors too. Can we be kind to both? And what does that kindness look like, exactly? Notice, I didn’t say that “Ukraine” or “Russia” are our neighbors. People are our neighbors, but nation-states are a little different, so it gets tricky to apply biblical commandments designed for people to entire nations. When national boundaries change over time, as do loyalties, the application of love towards entire nations gets tricky indeed, so let’s avoid that can of worms and focus on people.
Then there is also the biblical principle of justice. Someone once wrote, “Justice is love in public” (that’s in inexact quote of an author I forget). Think about it; to be just is to put love in action. Justice is one of the key principles of the Old Testament in particular, where YHWH taught His people that He was just: “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18); and He expected them to act justly: “He has showed 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). How do we apply justice, balanced with love, in war? Just War Theory attempts to do this. Just War is the leading Christian approach to war today. It addresses the questions of the justification for war and the means by which it is fought. In other words, Ukraine is justified in fighting to defend itself, but would not be justified in killing innocent Russian civilians as a means of defending itself. By the same token, Putin’s false rationale for invading fails the test of justified war.
By now you are probably wondering about the Israelite conquest of Canaan. We should set that aside as a historically unique event which was ordered by God for reasons beyond our full understanding. That includes the extreme levels of violence that God sanctioned: “They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys” (Joshua 6:21). This event is not to be considered normative for how we go to battle. So as I said, the conquest of Canaan should be set aside, rather than studied for universal principles to apply.
We tend to seek straight-forward, direct answers to our questions, even difficult ones. Unfortunately, that just isn’t possible in a fully-Christian response to war. You will notice that I’ve raised several questions in this short essay and answered none of them. These are the issues Christians need to wrestle with in coming to terms with war. And because they are complicated issues, well-meaning, thoughtful Christians can come to very different conclusions. Add to that the many unknowns, such as what actions could lead to an escalation, and it is easy to see how biblical principles get easily abandoned in war. While they may not answer all our questions, the principles of love, kindness, and justice should always be in the forefront of every consideration when it comes to war.
*The word “murder” is almost universally understood to exclude state-sanctioned violence.
