Many of us are trying to understand why an army sergeant turned his weapon on five fellow soldiers at a stress clinic in the outskirts of Baghdad. What was going through the mind of a man who already had his gun taken away before coming up with another? (See article here)
The soldier had three tours of duty in Iraq behind him including two others to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Some losses cannot be understood…only grieved.
Some who are grieving what happened to any one of the five soldiers killed, or to the sergeant who took their lives may be lashing out at God in anger. How could he allow such a senseless loss of life?
Others won’t let their minds go there.
Yet the Bible takes us places we don’t want to go. It says:
“If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” (Gal 5:15)
Why would Paul say this after wishing harm on those who put their trust in law (Gal 5:12) , and who ignore liberty in Christ (Gal 5:1), using instead their freedom in Christ as an occasion to fulfill their own natural desires (Gal 5:13), instead of walking in the Spirit (5:16), with the result of doing things they regret (5:17), like “outburst of anger” and “murders” (5:19-21), instead of qualities against which no one makes laws (5:22-23)?
Seems to me that Paul is suggesting that if we let our eyes move away from Christ (and all of the spiritual by-products that are found by walking in his Spirit), and if we instead focus on moral and religious laws as the answer to our personal or national problems, we will end up “killing one another”.
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