where Ransom realizes that he must stop negotiating with Evil, and thus resorts to violence against the Un-Man.
Do not negotiate with evil. Do not allow evil to control our attention, and to get us into fighting on evil's terms. Violence can be a way of negotiating with evil, by letting it decide what we do.
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)
How did Jesus defeat evil people? He did not kill them or physically force them. All that would have done is remove certain evil out of the way for others to come in.
"Jesus stayed with doing the good which was so better than only destroying evil people."
Look at how well killing terrorists has been working. We hear some promise of how killing them will solve the problem. We hear about how killing them will scare them to stop their terrorism. However, ones keep turning up somewhere else. So, you do not negotiate with them by dealing with them, or by violence which is their language of a certain sort of negotiation; they can understand that by getting us to fight with them, you can get weaker and more and more wasted.
What does God do, then?
"God resists the proud" > in James 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 5:5. He does not shut Satan completely down, but He effectively resists Satan and his people. And God's almighty resistance is very effective . . . while He always is accomplishing His all-loving good, which *He* desires.
But Jesus says, "not to resist an evil person," in Matthew 5:39. So, is this a contradiction? After all, we are told to be "followers of God as dear children," in Ephesians 5:2. So, you could think this means we are to resist evil like God does. But my opinion is this all means for us to be together with God and move with how *He* resists evil from His spiritual level, according to His ability so more than ours, with us cooperating with and depending on how He does it.
Because how we would do it . . . would not be able to bring about the best possible results. And we might be focused on only protecting people who are our favorites . . . not being all-loving. And Jesus says, "if you love those who love you, what reward have you?" in Matthew 5:46. So, in case our violence is mainly self-interested . . . we can be in a spirit of inferior love, with weakness so we ourselves are suffering the violence of Satanic anger and hatred and unforgiveness and frustration. We can be sinking in a quicksand pit of pig poop all around us while we are righteously punching at the pig poop while it is swallowing us!! Or you can indeed show how tough you are to kick a pile of manure all over a field, and then smell how you have become.
We can consider how things worked with Joseph > Genesis 37-50. He had opportunity to destroy people who had done evil to him. But instead with God making things work out well he used even the evil deeds for his advantage and the good of many other people. Because he was co-operating with God who is all-loving and almighty and creative to manage evil actions to help to produce much greater good than whatever Satanic people had destroyed and taken from Joseph.
And likewise Jesus on the cross lost what He did, suffered how He did, but even simultaneously He was bringing such all-loving good.
Jesus on the cross gained souls, so much more than all He lost in His life. We might note how the good God brings is mainly for Him to get what He wants. God is bringing up children who are conformed to the image of Jesus, so He can love us and enjoy us the way He loves and enjoys Jesus. So, He is able to take advantage of evil for this main purpose, His primary focus . . . I understand through Romans 8:29 >
"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29)
However, our own ability for violence "might" not be able to bring God's all-loving results, and it might have our attention away from maturing in the image of Jesus and how He has us relating as His family.
So, we carry our cross, each day (Luke 9:23), *strategically* losing and sacrificing, but discovering how God brings so much more for ourselves and for others . . . how God makes this work. And we discover better than we could have tried to bring for good. And, like I offer, God is bringing all that is for His pleasure and enjoyment, even while doing things in this life for us, to share with us.
So, we need to be very careful, prayerfully careful. Because if God's word really does mean not to depend on violence, but instead to hold out for God's judging and managing what to do while He guides us *how*to*fit*in* . . . if we do otherwise, we are operating in negotiation with Satan on his terms so we can be magnets for how things can work in Satan's kingdom.
And unforgiveness is a part of the process of violence. And we know what Jesus says about not forgiving. We know how Jesus on the cross prayed >
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (in Luke 23:34)
Right while they were still busy with hating and murdering and torturing Jesus God's own Son, Jesus so prayed forgiveness to them.
But if our violence is in another spirit, we are magnets for Satanic things of "the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" (in Ephesians 2:2). And in our process of ungodly violence, we can be feeding deeply on Satanic stuff so we become weaker and then can suffer ever deeper cruel feelings and disorderly emotions and dominating demands for vain and foolish pleasures. In the weakness we can become post-traumatic and keep fighting the same battles ever over inside ourselves, among other possibilities.
So, first is to become strong in Jesus, so we are in His almighty immunity against how cruel emotions would ransack us. And in Jesus we have His immunity almighty to keep us safe from bad memories that may attack, but can not get to us while we are obeying God in His peace with His almighty safety and immunity.
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)
And be strong with Him in compassion of love and generous forgiveness. And be pleasing to our Father in all this, sweetly pleasing, fragrant in gentleness and quietness of His "rest for your souls" (in Matthew 11:28-30).