It is loving to protect and defend the defenseless, and it is also loving to protect a wicked person, an enemy if you will, from killing others—to bring that person to the point where they lay down their arms and give up their own evil ends. Thus, God has appointed and legitimized government authorities for this purpose; it is loving to defend the defenseless and the evil person from carrying out wickedness.

Note: Daniel Rowlands served more than two decades in the United States Army as a helicopter and airplane pilot. He holds Master of Arts degrees in Biblical Studies and Theological Studies from Westminster Seminary California.
In response to the article “Christians and the Military,” the following comment was submitted by a Beautiful Christian Life reader:
I just read the article written today by Daniel Rowlands entitled “Christians and the Military.” I notice that there was no mention or comment about some of the most pertinent verses in the New Testament, Matthew 5:43-46, wherein Jesus himself commands us to love our enemies and do good to them. I would really appreciate Daniel’s perspective on this. Thank you very much. God Bless!
Dear Reader,
Surely this is an important topic since there are so many Christians serving in military forces around the world. As you correctly point out, Christians are called to love our enemies and to do good to them, even as God loved us while we were his enemies (Rom. 5:8-10). God is compassionate, merciful, and loving toward us.
God’s Moral Law That Teaches Us Not to Kill Also Carries with It the Value of Human Life
On the other hand, God is also just—the perfectly righteous judge. He has appointed government authorities as the means of carrying out his justice in this fallen world (e.g., Rom. 13:4). God’s moral law that teaches us not to kill also carries with it the value of human life. It includes the loving command to protect people from others who want to injure or kill them—to place a high value on all human life, even the lives of our enemies who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:9).
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The ten basic commandments of Cultural Marxism…are violations of almost every one of the ten commandments of the Bible, values that permeate the Constitution of the United States and have informed much of British common law. 

Recently, one of Canada’s best-known rabbis (an American by birth and a graduate of prestigious colleges in the USA) asked me bluntly and simply to explain the essence of Critical Race Theory. This is what I told him.
Critical Race Theory is the latest version of Marxism, except it has gone racial. This means that unlike traditional Marxist theory, which used to focus on the injustices experienced by working men and women in industrial and industrializing societies around the world and preached violent revolution to overthrow the capitalist democracy that persecutes them, the new victims are any kind of minority, usually people of color, but not exclusively. The “white” working class no longer counts.
In the USA, Cultural Marxists have elected African Americans to fulfill the role of those persecuted by capitalism, which is done by white people or people with white skin (despite the fact that more than 50% of self-defined African Americans belong to the silent, non-protesting, law-abiding middle classes or “bourgeoise”).
Almost any grievance group, whose goal is to bring down liberal democracy and capitalism, can join African Americans in their persecuted status. So even wealthy Muslim immigrants can do so. Or sexual adventurers can be granted that status. Privileged women of color like “Ilhan Omar” and others like her can also qualify, as can millionaires like Meghan Markle or Oprah Winfrey.
The key thing is to hate whites, hate capitalism, hate democracy, hate American, Canadian, and British political culture, and believe that “whites” have caused all the trouble in the world. For example, an activist from this thought group once reframed WWII as “white on white” violence.
In an odd but not surprising anti-Semitic twist, Israelis (most of whom look like Sicilians and come from the Arab world) are thought of as colonial whites from Europe oppressing indigenous Arabs—so many of whom claim to have come to the land of Israel from Arabia some time ago. (Historical scholarship and truth are in short supply among the Cultural Marxists).
The last fifty years have seen an unhealthy and growing domination by Cultural Marxists of federal, state (provincial), and municipal bureaucracies, who then provide funds for a growing number of like-minded NGOs.
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Start by expressing your gratitude that God has adopted you into His family. Contemplate the power and might of the One you call Father. Take time to consider His majesty, and then ask Him to use your life to sing forth His praises. Express your desire to see the name of God revered, loved, and worshiped. 

Would you agree that, at times, the most challenging aspect of prayer is just getting started? What can we say that inclines our hearts to God’s will so that we are actually communing with the Lord and not merely murmuring religious words? Our Lord Himself shows us precisely what kind of prayer pleases God. Let’s consider His words. 
We Belong to a Family
Take a moment and read the model prayer in Matthew 6. Scan through verses 9-13 and notice all the first-person singular pronouns. Look for words such as my, mine, me, and I. What did you discover? It is surprising, isn’t it? They are not there!  
What we do find are first-person plural pronouns such as: “our Father in Heaven;” “give us this day our daily bread;” “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors;” and “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” These pronouns are more than just parts of speech; they send an important message. 
From the start of the Lord’s model prayer, we discover a focus on community. Prayer is something we do with the mindset of a family and congregation. Of course, our salvation is personal, but we are saved into a family.
There is no doubt that individual prayer is good and fitting for Christians, but it should also be our regular practice to pray with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Likewise, it is appropriate to pray for your own needs, but Jesus also teaches us to desire to pray with others in mind. This should comfort us as we remember that we bear the burdens of others as they do the same for us. 
Our Family Has a Father
We belong to a family, and our family has a perfect, righteous, holy, trustworthy Father. God is also our guide, protector, shield, and teacher. All the things we understand a faithful earthly father should be are perfectly exemplified in God. 
Knowing God in this way is a unique privilege and blessing to Christians. He is enthroned and highly exalted in Heaven, yet he is also near to us. You can say God is both transcendent (distinct from us) and immanent (near to us). While it is true that God Himself created all people and knit them together in their mother’s wombs (Psalm 139:13-14), only those adopted through the work of Christ can truly call Him Father. We have both a master/servant relationship and a familial one. He is our God, yet also our Abba Father.  
We begin our prayers with the blessed knowledge that God loves us and has chosen us as His sons and daughters (Ephesians 1:4-6, Galatians 4:4-7). We belong to a spiritual family, and our spiritual family has a perfect Father. This should flood our hearts with a well-spring of gratitude. 
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