The Beauty of Tamed Aggression
The bane of mankind, the source of war, famine, and suffering: aggression. What beauty can be found in such a base instinct? What use have we today of such a deplorable act? Well, as the saying goes, all good theology flows out of Genesis.
The Garden
Genesis is like the foundation of a castle. When interpreted correctly, man has a strong footing for life and godliness. When interpreted poorly, the castle crumbles. In Genesis 2 man is given two commands before woman is created. He is told to "work" the garden and to "keep" it. Gen 2:15, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it." (ESV). Two basic commands but the implications run deep. Our focus here will be on the latter command. What does it mean to "keep"? The Hebrew word for keep is Shamar. This word carries the connotation of guarding. So it could also be translated to ..."work it and to guard it." This is given on the heels of the dominion mandate to "be fruitful and multiply." This mandate goes beyond the garden but extends to the whole earth. (Gen 1:26). We see that the earth is given to man to be stewarded. When stewarded correctly man cultivates and guards.
The Greater Garden
The dominion mandate has not gone away. There is no inclination that this command ceased. Man is still to be fruitful and multiply and guard the rhetorical garden that he is placed in. Our garden today is composed of three basic elements. The first is the family, then the church, then our community. Man's shepherding is hierarchically built into society, from the family to the church, to the greater society.
The family is the most basic building block of society. When the family falls, the cultus falls. In marriage man is called to lay down his life for his wife. (Eph 5:25.). Passive man does not lay down his life, passive man does not defend, and passive man allows for the woman to be trampled on. This does not go beyond the context as this is clearly connected to another portion of scripture. John 10 tells us of the good shepherd who defends his sheep from the wolves... "He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them." (John 10:12 ESV). Just like Christ protects the sheep from the wolves and lays his life down for them, we are to do just the same for our wives. Christ defends the flock, the flock represents the church, the church represents the bride, men represent Christ. Fighting wolves requires rightly directed aggression.
Leadership in the church is told to mimic the ultimate shepherd, Christ, by shepherding his flock. (Eph 4:11, Acts 20:28). Pastors are to protect and guard against false teachers and anti-christ's creeping into the body as a kind of under-shepherd. (1 John 2:18). John by simply writing this letter to the church serves as an example of what guarding looks like. He shines the light of scripture on the darkness creeping into the church and enables the church to till the weeds by identifying them. Aggression more often than not is non-physical. Rightly ordered aggression sees evil and protects. Man is not to be passive and whiny, letting the sun go down on his anger, he is angry and yet does not sin. Man sees danger and takes action. (Eph 4:26). The church today is ruled by passive men, allowing wolves to trample on the flock, rather than protect.
In our community man is called to physically and spiritually guard. Let us ponder in institution of government.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. (Rom 13:3-4 ESV).
God has placed man in government to be a"terror to bad conduct," and to "bear the sword" against wrongdoers. These are not passive actions. Functioning society requires man to actively bear the sword, making the very thought of crime frightful. Man must also be sure to not put women in the position of protecting him. Man is called to protect woman, not the other way around. Therefore who is sending their wives, daughters, or sisters into the military and police force to protect them on the societal level? If God expects man to protect the woman from the smallest brick, why are we sending them to defend the whole castle? Neutered men cheer them on to their destruction. This is the most hateful thing that could be done to them, and it requires no aggression at all.
Forgotten Beauty
True beauty is that which points to the objective, transcendent beauty of the creator. Art is simply man's attempt to point toward perfection. The perfectly harmonious Trinitarian God. We don't think of society as beautiful, unfortunately. This is because our culture today is ugly. Woman wants to be man, man wants to be woman. Men are passive, woman are thrust into leadership, placing them directly in harm's way. The complete opposite of harmony. But culture can be a beautiful thing. Man defending his family, laying down his life, is beautiful. Men protecting the church from false teachers is beautiful. Man bearing the sword against evildoers is beautiful. Man embracing his God-ordained role is beautiful, because it leads to harmony. It is no wonder that art today is ugly because our society is ugly. Every single one of these points has been flipped on its head. Men are angry, and like a forest fire, they burn away everything in their path. We need warriors who know how to direct that anger and aggression in the right place, to "be angry and do not sin."
Image credit
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/faith-in-the-law/
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