December 11 | Standing Against Violence

Series | The Life of Revival

Scripture | Genesis 6:11, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.”

Lesson 11 | Standing Against Violence

The book of Genesis describes a very violent and corrupt world at the time of Noah.  Mankind was set only on doing evil and the imaginations of their hearts were continual filled with wickedness.  The Bible records God’s great sorrow and His reason behind sending a world wide flood in Genesis 6:6-7, “6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

Sadly today we are seeing the same kind of violence and corruption on the earth that marked the days of Noah.  Urban violence in the U.S. has reached unimaginable heights in cities like Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and New York.  The average number of homicides in the U.S. per year is around 16,000.  Just to put this number into perspective the homicides in the U.S. per year is more than double than the total loss of life in both the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars since 2001 (around 6,700 deaths)!    

Every murder has its own unique circumstances and background story, however, one thing is certain that God was against every one of them.  “Thou shall not murder” has been the foundation of God’s moral code since the time of Cain and Abel and the Ten Commandments given to Moses in Exodus 20:13.  Jesus even expanded the reach of this command to also include hatred when He said in Matthew 5:22, “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool! ’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

Therefore, we should stand against violence in the following ways, (1) Forgive and pray for our enemies, (2) Try to be peacemakers in the communities we live in, and lastly, (3) Pray for God to remove violence from the land through the preaching of His gospel, the gospel of peace, Ephesians 6:13.         

Reflection | Do you believe Jesus is the answer to violence?

Action | (1) Explain from the Bible why violence is sinful.  (2) Pray that God will use you to reach those who are violent with the gospel of peace. (3) Lastly, for more information regarding standing against violence read the following books, “The Cross and the Switchblade,” by David Wilkerson and “Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way,” by Gary Chapman.

One Year Reading Plan (Optional) | Amos 4:1-6:14, Revelation 2:18-3:6, Psalm 130:1-8, & Proverbs 29:21-22. Click here to read online.