PERFECT LOVE AND WAR. The following are excerpts from Myron Augsburger's 1973 presentation to a symposium reflecting on the relationship of Christian holiness to issues of war and peace. The conference content was compiled and edited by Paul Hostetler and published in 1974 by Evangel Press under the title Perfect Love and War. Augsburger was President of Eastern Mennonite College at the time of his presentation.
BEHAVE YOUR BELIEFS. "The new life in Christ has upon it the very stamp, or character, of Christ. The ethical dimensions of life are not just adjuncts to one's piety, not dimensions of works that one adds to faith, but are rather expressions of our relation to Christ. This is to say that we relate our ethics to Christology (the study of the person and attributes of Christ) in the same way we relate salvation to Christology. We behave our beliefs, expressing what it means to live under the lordship of Christ in the total life. There is no part of the Christian's life in which he may abdicate his moral responsibility to someone else, including the state. Each believer is responsible to live the holiness of love imparted to us by the Spirit of Christ."
CHOOSE WHICH KIND OF SUFFERING. "[Jesus Christ] reverses the old 'eye for an eye, tooth for tooth' attitude. He tells us we are to love our enemies In answer to the question of whether this will work in our world, Jesus showed us that we do not have to live; we can die. The ultimate expression of this was the cross itself. Sometimes in dying we do more to the world than we could by living. So we do not answer this issue on the basis of whether someone will have to suffer. Of course they will, one way or the other. The question is on the basis of which kind of suffering -- that which is imposed by war (as though this will bring an end to war) or the suffering which comes because of love? Redemptive suffering is that which comes by love."
BECOME A CONSCIENCE TO SOCIETY. "We regard membership in the kingdom of Christ as our primary loyalty. The question of committing one's self in ultimate loyalty to Jesus Christ means that the Christian can do no less than become a conscience to society where that society operates beneath the level of the will of Jesus Christ. As members of the kingdom of heaven, obedience to Christ is the basic aspect of our approach to the question of war."
ACT FOR THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE. "As Christians we must behave in accordance with belief in the sanctity of human life. We treat every person as an end in himself and not as a means to an end. Believing in the sanctity of human life means that we must also avoid the deterioration that happens to any peoples who take the course of violence as an answer to the world's ills. We cannot justly be involved in anything which interrupts man's opportunities for a full life, be it social injustice, be it violence, be it the problem of war, or be it the problem of poverty."
WITNESS TO THE MEANING OF LOVE KNOWN IN THE CROSS. "The New Testament calls us to let the church be the church. First, it asks us as the church to give ourselves to prayer for rulers and those in authority. Second, we are to give ourselves in sacrificial living and witnessing as an extension of the meaning of love known in the cross of Christ. If our commitment to holiness is genuine it will involve love for all, justice that works to correct the ills, mercy that moves beyond the issue to the person, honesty in our understanding of ourselves in the process, and joy that keeps our spirits free. We are called to yield ourselves 'servants to righteousness unto holiness.' (Romans 6:19)."
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