(upbeat music) - Pastor John, is it necessary for a Christian man in his divine calling to protect his wife and children to own and be willing to use a gun? Yes or no? - Yes or no? That would be a short. (both laughing) No. Are we done? - Oh no, you're not done.

- No, we're not done. I've got a lot, I've got thoughts about this. There are at least four reasons I would discourage people from owning firearms for the purpose of self-defense. I'm not talking about hunters here, okay? Leave that for another issue. The conclusion I come to here, I don't put on everyone else.

I'm bearing testimony here, not prescribing, okay? I'm telling people why I do what I do and see whether it commends itself to them. Here are the reasons. My human heart, or I could say the human heart, is vengeful and quick to anger. James 4 tells me this is really bad.

Be slow to anger, quick to listen. I don't think I'm holy enough to own a gun and use it in a Christ-honoring way. I am really quick to think payback, and that's unbiblical and unchristian, and I have to subdue it, and I don't want a gun in my hand while I'm making that battle.

Number two, the culture around me with movies and TV shows and humorists and literature is shot through with the glorification of cool, hard, tough-talking, tough-acting women and men who have a kind of unflappable, cocky swagger that gets the last word and has the last shot. It is ubiquitous. This is a ubiquitous hero in our culture and is anything but childlike, anything but humbly reliant on the grace of God and the rescue of a Savior.

That's the air we breathe in the media, and it's not the Spirit of Christ. When that is the attitude breaking in on my soul every day, the last thing I need is a gun in my hand. That's number two. Number three, Jesus and the apostles discourage us from preparing ourselves to return evil for evil.

Instead, they push us toward being wronged rather than being violent. Matthew 5:39, "Do not resist the one who is evil, "but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, "turn to him the other also. "If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, "let him have your cloak as well.

"If anyone forces you to go one mile, "go with him two miles." Matthew 10, "Behold, I send you out as sheep "in the midst of wolves, "not packing sheep. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Romans 12, "Repay no one evil for evil." First Thessalonians, "No one evil for evil." First Peter, "No one evil for evil." Now, I know, Tony, that these same texts would be used to say you shouldn't use your fists either, as just the same as applying them to guns.

So the person would ask me, "So, are you saying don't do anything "to protect yourself or your family?" And my answer is, these texts describe a real way of loving people and glorifying the all-satisfying, all-sufficient Christ. They are one form that love takes, a very powerful form, a form that Jesus chose almost all the time, a form of love that we don't have enough of.

I don't have enough of in my heart, and we don't have enough of in the world. Our flesh is all wired and hair-triggered to go the other direction than these texts. But these texts are not the only form of love. Love may protect a child, may protect a wife with a physical struggle.

Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying, in quoting those texts, it's the spirit of those texts that disinclines me from arming myself so that I can do the quickest and most deadly harm in self-defense. These passages don't sound like an arming spirit. So that's number three. And here's the last one, number four.

When Peter pulled his gun on the high priest in the Garden of Gethsemane, and shot off the high priest's servant's ear, and Jesus picked up the ear and put it back on, what did Jesus say at that point? 'Cause I think what he says really matters. He didn't say, "Hey, Peter, we've been through this before.

"I am here to die, and you are missing the whole point. "Get behind me, Satan." He didn't say that. He said that earlier. What he said was a proverb, a maxim, that he applies in this situation. He said, "Put your sword back in its place, "for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." That's a little proverb, and proverbs have a general truth.

They're not absolute, not everybody to the last man, but it's a general truth. All who take the sword will perish by the sword. So what does he mean? I think he means something like, "The mindset that plans to save its life by killing "is not inviting the protection of God, "but the violence of man." I think that's what Jesus means when he says, "All who take the sword will perish by the sword." The mindset that plans to save its life by killing is not inviting the protection of God, but the violence of man.

So, Tony, my response to, for what it's worth, and this is testimony, not prescription, has been to live in the inner city of Minneapolis for 33 years, raise five children there, surrounded by petty crimes and some gunshots and a little bit of a break-in, and never to possess a firearm, nor do I ever intend to.

God has protected us, and I believe he will, but as I see it now, I would rather be killed than to kill. For me, that would mean instant joy, but if I killed him, it might be instant hell. I'm ready, and he may not be. - That is a very sobering perspective on it all.

Thank you, Pastor John. And I can imagine we will be getting some follow-up questions about nonlethal force, and so if you wanna ask Pastor John questions about rubber bullets or tasers, please email those questions or any questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. We'll be back tomorrow to ask whether or not there's such thing as free will.

I'm your host Tony Reinke, we'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)