There Is Never An Excuse
If you read the statistics, domestic violence has reached epidemic proportions in our society. By domestic violence, I’m thinking of every kind of coercive, controlling behaviour, physical or emotional, used by one person to exert power or control over another. Sadly, it is as prevalent amongst Christians as it is amongst non-Christians. The difference is that abusers who claim to be Christians often try to twist the bible to justify their actions.
The bible offers no such support although you can make it say almost anything if you take its words completely out of context. There is a passage that says that a wife should submit to her husband, but the husband is also called on to submit to his wife. And the context for both is imitating the sacrificial love of Jesus (Ephesians 5:1-2, 21-22). There is no room for an imbalance of power in this kind of relationship. Nether has control over the other. What we’re each called to do is put our needs in second place and put the needs of the other first. The only permission given by this passage is the permission to honour God by showing the same kind of sacrificial love that Jesus first showed to us. Violence and control could not be further from that.
God is a God of justice. He defends the powerless. He speaks out for those without a voice. “He shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (Deut. 10:17-18). And God expects no less from his people. “Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:16-17).
God opposes all forms of domestic violence. His church must not be complicit in this evil by remaining silent and we must do everything we can to protect those affected by it.
Neil Percival
The bible offers no such support although you can make it say almost anything if you take its words completely out of context. There is a passage that says that a wife should submit to her husband, but the husband is also called on to submit to his wife. And the context for both is imitating the sacrificial love of Jesus (Ephesians 5:1-2, 21-22). There is no room for an imbalance of power in this kind of relationship. Nether has control over the other. What we’re each called to do is put our needs in second place and put the needs of the other first. The only permission given by this passage is the permission to honour God by showing the same kind of sacrificial love that Jesus first showed to us. Violence and control could not be further from that.
God is a God of justice. He defends the powerless. He speaks out for those without a voice. “He shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (Deut. 10:17-18). And God expects no less from his people. “Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:16-17).
God opposes all forms of domestic violence. His church must not be complicit in this evil by remaining silent and we must do everything we can to protect those affected by it.
Neil Percival