From Disarming the Church: Why Christians Must Forsake Violence to Follow Jesus and Change the World By Eric A. Seibert · 2018, pp 130-31.

Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor” (Matt 22:39) is arguably the most compelling biblical argument used by Christians to support warfare.

How can we stand by and do nothing when we see our brothers and sisters around the world being systematically persecuted, tortured, and killed? Doesn’t love of neighbor require us to fight, and even kill, on their behalf so they can be delivered from oppression and tyranny?

A lot of Christians think so.

In fact, Jesus himself said there was no greater love than laying down our life for our friends (John 15:13). Doesn’t this imply that going to war to save others is not only an act of love but one of the most noble things we can do? Many Christians believe we should be willing to engage in war for the sake of those in need even if it costs us our life.

At one level, this sounds quite reasonable. We should be eager to help others and willing to make sacrifices to do so. But here’s the rub. While there is nothing wrong with laying down our life, there is something terribly wrong with taking another’s.

Moreover, while I agree that doing nothing to help a neighbor in need fails to fulfill the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, [recall the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37] showing love to one neighbor while killing another misses the point.

We should do all we can to aid the neighbor in need—and we will dis-cuss many nonviolent ways to do this in the following chapters, so I ask for your patience here—but faithful Christian discipleship does not allow us to help one neighbor while hurting another. The call of Jesus is to love everyone, enemies included. We need to find a better way.