By Mark W. Christy
While the Bible teaches that faith is a gift of God to those who believe (cf. Acts 3:16; Eph 2:8-9; Phil 1;29; 2 Pet 1:1), such faith displays itself within the decisions one makes. Irrespective of emotions and any other influence, whether they arise from within or without, God expects His people to live by faith and thereby make decisions in line with His Word. Unfortunately, this fallen world has many subversive means to attract God’s people away from the righteous path marked out by God’s Word. One of these ways is through the bully.
When some people hear the term bully, they will often reminisce about those times in school when the mean kids would try to oppress them or others for some nefarious reason. Most people will typically stand against any such form of bullying (at least in their words), but they fail to understand the deeper spiritual issues that lay behind bullying and how these issues play out in the life of the person who was bullied. To better understand these matters, it may help to consider the basic goal of every bully.
On the surface, the bullies want to have their way, and so they oppress others through the use of fear tactics. Their goals never align with the desire of God and instead lay firmly in the desires of people. Their intent is to subject those around them in such a way that all are made servants to the bullies’ own desires. Through the use of fear then, bullies accomplish the spiritually deviant goal of replacing God, who alone should be served, with themselves.
Unfortunately, what happens in the schoolyard continues to occur in society in various ways. In the time of Christ for example, the parents of the blind man who was healed by Jesus were asked about this event by the Jews. In response, the parents deferred the Pharisees’ questions back to their son “because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22).[i] In this occurrence, the Pharisees had effectively bullied the parents in submission to their will by exploiting their fear.
The same fear-induced blindness that affected the blind man’s parents also affected a disciple of Christ, Joseph Arimathea. According to John 19:38, he was indeed “a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews.” Controlled by his fear, Joseph failed to boldly proclaim his faith in Christ even while he performed the marvelously good deed of caring for Christ’s body immediately after the Lord’s death.
Unlike this sort of intentional bullying caused by a person or group determined to suppress others, some bullying occurs while the bullies remain unaware of how their actions and behavior have caused others to respond in fear. In Mark 11:30, Jesus asked some Jewish leaders a question concerning the baptism of John. In reply, they chose not to submit their answer because they were “afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet” (11:32; cf. 12:12). In this situation, the people became unintentional bullies because the religious leaders were more concerned about pleasing them than honestly submitting their views.
Like Joseph, Christ’s disciples allowed their fear of the Jews to overtake them. After Jesus had shown Himself to the women gathered at the empty tomb and sent them to inform His disciples, the disciples chose to shut themselves up behind closed doors out of fear (John 20:19). Their knowledge of Christ’s crucifixion instilled such a fear of people in them that it completely overran what should have been a joyous moment. For a brief point in time, it seemed like the bullies had won by prevailing over God through the death of His Son, and if that had of occurred, the disciples’ fear would have been warranted.
One might excuse Joseph and Christ’s disciples for their actions before the resurrection of Christ, but Peter shows by his own personal failure that even the best of Christians can be led astray by bullies. Among the Galatian believers (who were primarily Gentiles), he forewent Jewish dietary customs based on Mosaic Law and publicly ate with the Gentile believers (Gal 2:12). When the Judaizers came, however, “he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision” (2:12). Instead of charging the bullying Judaizers, who may or may not have been aware of their bullying, Paul directly charged Peter with sin for his choosing to fear the bullies (2:11). In the end, Peter’s fear suppressed the Gospel and served to elevate the false teaching of the Judaizers.
Later in Galatians, Paul reveals that the Judaizers were themselves motivated to adhere to their perverse teaching (and lead others in the same direction) by their own fears. As quasi-Christians, they wanted a share in Christ, but they also feared the harsh persecutions meted out by the Romans against Christians. Therefore, to avoid being “persecuted for the cross of Christ,” they were focused more on maintaining the appearance of being Jewish (by focusing on circumcision) than on making sure their hearts had been changed by the grace of God (Gal 6:12).
Reflecting upon all of the aforementioned cases of bullying, it may be tempting to stay resolutely focused on the evils perpetrated by the bullies by the supposedly helpless person who is suffering under the bullies’ fearmongering. This sort of ‘woke’ response, nevertheless, would be no less worldly than that of many social justice warriors who remain ever vigilant on finding some system to blame for situations which could only arise from individuals who have been endowed with a freewill choice. While it may certainly be true that one is guilty of bullying (i.e., elevating oneself over others) and likewise one may indeed have been violated by the wrongful acts of a bully, each person, when all is said and done, has to take responsibility for one’s individual response to the bully.
In Mosaic Law, the Lord commands all people thusly, “You shall not fear man” (Deut 1:17). Along with this clear command, the Bible frequently directs people to fear the Lord and never once instructs people to fear each other. This being said, anyone found guilty of bullying is guilty before God because by their own efforts they would be trying to lead someone into the sin of violating a direct command of God first and foremost.
To the person being bullied, the Bible never promises to bring about a time in this life where such a threat will become non-existent. Rather, It teaches that “by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil” (Prov 16:6). In other words, the evils perpetrated by the bully will not affect the spiritual life of a person who remains faithfully committed to fear God and not people. Such a person is one who actively decides to obey God regardless of the pressure placed upon him or her by others. This is the stance exemplified by Christ on the cross as well as that demonstrated by the many Christian martyrs since that day.
[i]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.