We live in a world that seems to be transforming before our very eyes. Technology allows us to see and learn things our parents never even thought of seeing and learning. The things you and I are experiencing today are nothing compared to the world our grandchildren will inherit.
One of the changes we seem to deal with on a daily basis is the changing norms of society. An old Cole Porter song says, “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked upon as something shocking. Now, heaven knows, anything goes.” In my parents’ day, Rhett Butler’s last line in “Gone With the Wind” was scandalous; today, “f-bombs” are common occurrences.
We are confronted with changes and challenges on all sides, never sure what’s right or wrong any more in society. Those who seek to follow Christ see these changes and cry out against the seeming disregard for God’s ways and God’s expectations. And the only thing we have to fight back with is what the Bible tells us.
Too often, we wield the word of God like a cudgel. But is that the best way to get God’s word across?
What’s a Cudgel?
In days of yore, during ancient and Middle Ages times, fighting was often hand-to-hand. The advent of archery and firearms made fighting more distant, but for most of history, warfare meant standing against your opponent and whacking away. One of the weapons of choice was the cudgel.
The cudgel was essentially a thick limb, usually with a knob at the end of it. Google “cudgel images” and it shows up anything from what looks like a baseball bat to ornate war hammers. Regardless of what the cudgel looked like, though, its purpose was simple: to bash out the brains of your enemy.
There was nothing fancy or subtle about the cudgel. A soldier armed with one would stand on the battlefield and swing it with as much force as he could muster, aiming for the head of the enemy. Sometimes, the foe would put up a defense, with a result of a broken arm or shoulder or collarbone. But the aim was always toward the head. If a person could brain the enemy with his cudgel, he had won the battle.
Again, brutal, crass and simple, the cudgel was designed to smash and crack skulls, crush faces and scatter brains. The user has no interest in taking prisoners, only destroying. It’s messy, but effective.
Using the Bible as a Cudgel
So what’s so bad about bashing people about the head and shoulders with God’s Word? Sometimes, a good slap up alongside the head is an effective way of getting someone’s attention. And in a society where it seems that Christian faith is in retreat, maybe we need someone standing in the breach, swinging the message of God with all our might. “Take no prisoners” isn’t such a bad model in the war against sin and Satan, is it?
Here’s the problem as I see it. Nowhere in the Bible is Scripture referred to as a battle hammer. And the person who uses the Bible as a battle hammer seems to be more concerned about making points than sharing the Good News. When we use the Bible as a blunt force weapon, we seem to be less interested in how people respond to the Word as we are in slaying the enemy. It’s hard to “love the sinner and hate the sin” while we are destroying the sinner in the process.
Two Examples of Using God’s Word as a Cudgel
In the Gospel according to Luke, there is an encounter between Jesus and a crippled woman (cf. Luke 13:10-17). Luke writes that the woman had been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 years, and she was so bent over that she couldn’t straighten up at all. Jesus called her forward and healed her.
So far, so good. The problem is that the healing took place in a synagogue on the Sabbath. As so often happened when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, there was immediate reaction from the Pharisees. The Pharisees saw themselves as the protectors of the Law of Moses, and they went to great lengths to see that the laws were kept. Their devotion to the law grew out of the Babylonian exile. They realized that the exile was God’s punishment for a people that had failed to keep His laws. They committed themselves to learn the law, the live the law, and to protect and preserve the law.
That was good in the beginning, but by the time Jesus had come, the devotion to the law had excluded compassion to the people. Rather than see the “lost and seeking” as people in need of God’s restoration and reconciliation, they looked down on those who were not like them. The Pharisees saw themselves as the keepers of the law, and they would not countenance anyone questioning their interpretation. Such challenges would be met with immediate and harsh responses.
As a result of this healing on the Sabbath in the synagogue, the Bible says, “Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, ‘There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath’” (v. 14). The ruler had witnessed a miracle, but he didn’t see the miracle—he only saw the violation of the law of the Sabbath. While he acknowledged the woman’s need to be healed, he could not get past the idea that the law had been violated. To him, that was the primary issue: the law, not the person.
When Jesus had committed Himself to go to Jerusalem where He would be handed over to the religious rulers and be crucified, He and the disciples started traveling through Samaria. Samaritans and Jews did not get along together at all, in part because it was perceived that the Samaritans had not been true to God’s will and God’s law.
As Jesus was traveling through the area, He sent a couple of the disciples to a nearby village to make arrangements for them to stay the night in the village. The villagers would not hear of such a thing, and denied access to Jesus and the disciples.
James and John, brothers and two of the first disciples, asked Jesus, “Lord, do You want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” (Luke 9:54), Jesus declined. More modern translations only say that Jesus turned and rebuked to two brothers and went on to another village. Other translations include the words, “And He said to them, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’” (vs. 55-56).
Here is the contrast. When James and John heard that the Samaritans refused hospitality toward travelers, they wanted to bring swift and immediate judgment upon the Samaritans. Jesus’ response demonstrates the nature of His ministry and His approach—seek to save, not destroy.
In both cases, the synagogue ruler and the brothers wanted to use God’s law to bring judgment and condemnation upon people. Jesus wanted to bring salvation.
The Cudgel or the Sword
As I stated earlier, nowhere does the Bible refer to the Word of God as a cudgel. Instead, it refers numerous times to the Word of God as a sword (cf. Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16).
The difference between the cudgel and the sword is that the sword is a more nuanced weapon. Granted, its primary purpose was to kill, but it could also be used to disarm and to limit damage. A skilled swordsman could demonstrate great skill in the handling of the sword, while a man with a bat in his hand (cudgel) simply wants to bash brains in.
Using the sword of the Word requires skill and an awareness of the weapon. Once, during my college days in Tyler, Texas, it had been a rainy day. I was at the Baptist Student Union on campus, and there were several umbrellas lying about to dry. I picked one up and was pretending to use it as a sword.
As I was toying around, our BSU director grabbed another one and held it out as if to challenge me. I took the stance and said, “Engarde.” Within seconds, my “sword” was pointed at the ground, while the other “sword” was pointed at my heart. I was shocked. We did it again, with the same results. Baffled at his ability to so easily thwart my best effort (not that I could really start a best effort; both times took less than a heartbeat), he mentioned to me that he had taken fencing in college. He was skilled; I was not. The skillful use of the sword makes all the difference.
Standing on street corners screaming at people to repent, or protesting at a soldier’s funeral to make a point about sin in our nation, is the cudgel approach, with the result that ears are deafened to the genuine message of the Bible. The perception of the cudgel approach is that the one swinging the cudgel cares more about “what’s right” than they do about the person they are supposed to be talking with.
The skilled swordsman will know when to draw his or her sword, know when to disarm the opponent (as my BSU director disarmed me) or when to lunge and parry with the Word. The skilled swordsman will show that the concern genuinely is for the sinner, not the hatred of the sin.
Conclusion
Paul writes, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. . . Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:2, 5-6).
The skilled swordsman is one who heeds the Spirit of God, being watchful and thankful, knowing when to speak and when not to, and letting the words be accurate but filled with the love of God.
Put away the cudgel; draw the sword instead.
© 2019 Glynn Beaty