Why Modern Christians Think Any Use of Power Is Unchristian
Recovering Biblical Categories for Love, Authority, and the Restraint of Evil
Many modern Christians carry a deep unease with power. Authority feels suspect. Force feels immoral. Enforcement feels unloving. Borders, policing, punishment, and even self-defense are often spoken of as necessary evils at best and outright betrayals of Christ at worst.
This instinct feels virtuous to those who hold it. It feels compassionate. It feels Christlike. It often presents itself as humility or peacemaking. Yet Scripture does not share this instinct, and the church did not hold it for most of its history.
Modern Christian concern for love has been detached from justice, authority, and moral seriousness, leaving love unmoored from the biblical order that gives it weight and direction. When this happens, power itself is treated as unchristian rather than as a tool God explicitly assigns and judges.
The Modern Moral Reflex
The reflex is easy to spot. Any use of coercion is framed as incompatible with the gospel. Any exercise of authority is assumed to be oppressive. Any attempt to restrain evil through law or force is accused of lacking grace.
This reflex often borrows language from Jesus while quietly importing moral assumptions from modern liberalism, post-war trauma, and pietistic withdrawal. It assumes that faithfulness looks like disengagement from public responsibility and that Christlikeness requires non-resistance in every sphere of life.
Scripture never trains God’s people to think this way.
God’s Own Use of Authority
From the opening chapters of Genesis, authority is treated as a moral necessity. After the flood, God establishes a covenantal principle for human society:
“Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed,
For in the image of God
He made man.”
Genesis 9:6
Justice here flows from the dignity of the image of God and the moral responsibility to restrain evil. God authorizes restraint because unchecked violence destroys His world. The use of power here is not contrary to love. It is an expression of love for human life and order.
This pattern continues throughout Scripture. Kings are judged for failing to restrain evil. Shepherds are condemned for neglecting discipline. God rebukes rulers who allow injustice to spread unchecked.
“To do justice is pleasure for the righteous,
But is ruin to the workers of iniquity.”
Proverbs 21:15
Justice produces relief for the faithful and fear for the wicked. Scripture treats this as a moral good.
Christ and the Limits of Personal Ethics
Much confusion arises from collapsing all authority into personal ethics. Jesus teaches His disciples to turn the other cheek, to forgive, and to love enemies. These commands govern personal conduct, not the totality of human responsibility.
Jesus Himself affirms the legitimacy of civil authority even under pagan rule. He acknowledges the authority of Pilate while holding him accountable before God. He warns cities of judgment. He speaks of consequences, accountability, and final reckoning.
Paul makes the distinction explicit:
“For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of that authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same;”
Romans 13:3–4
Civil authority is described as God’s servant. The restraint of evil is not a concession to sin but a moral duty under God’s law.
The Crusades as a Mirror
The Crusades are often invoked as proof that Christian use of power always ends in corruption. History does record grave sins, excesses, and false theology surrounding them. Those realities must be named honestly.
Yet the more revealing question is whether modern Christians would even recognize the moral question the medieval church believed it was answering. The question was not whether love permits authority. The question was how authority should be exercised under God in a violent world.
Modern Christianity often refuses to ask that question at all. The issue has shifted from discernment to abdication. Power is simply surrendered to those who reject God’s law entirely.
Abdication Disguised as Piety
Scripture consistently warns against this kind of retreat. When authority collapses, evil multiplies.
“Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.”
Ecclesiastes 8:11
Refusal to restrain evil allows disorder to spread and corrodes peace. Silence trains lawlessness. Withdrawal invites tyranny by those with no moral restraint.
This pattern explains much of the modern church’s paralysis. Christians hesitate to speak, govern, discipline, or act publicly because they have absorbed a false equation between love and passivity.
Love, Justice, and Moral Weight
Biblical love carries weight. It protects the innocent. It restrains the violent. It confronts rebellion. It acts for the good of neighbor and community, even when action is costly.
Psalm 2 portrays the nations raging and rulers resisting God’s authority. God’s response is not retreat but command:
“So now, O kings, show insight;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Serve Yahweh with fear
And rejoice with trembling.”
Psalm 2:10-11
Kings are addressed as accountable moral agents under divine law. Christ’s reign brings public authority under His judgment and rule.
The Question Before the Church
The question is not whether power can be abused. Scripture assumes that it can and will be judged. The question is whether Christians believe truth has public consequences or only private comfort.
Christians who reject all use of authority do not escape power. They merely hand it to others. Scripture offers no blessing for that exchange.
Christ reigns now. His law orders love, justice, and authority together. Faithfulness requires discernment, not withdrawal.
The church must recover the courage to affirm moral seriousness without cruelty, authority without arrogance, and love that acts rather than retreats.