Are Christians Obligated to Break Up Fights?

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Jonathan95

Puritan Board Sophomore
Proverbs 26:17
Proverbs 24:11-12

The sixth commandment addresses the fact that we should be people who seek to defend and preserve life. With that said, if we're out and about and we see a brawl take place, are we required to step in? What if it was a man attacking a woman? Or someone being robbed and getting into a fight that way? Or what if we see a fight break out and someone gets knocked out and the other person(s) begin to beat that unconscious person to death? What if these are Christians fighting this way? What if they are strangers?
 
Seeing a likely drunk man fighting another or something like, I would probably avoid if I did not know them. If it was a Christian I knew, or a family member I would probably step in. In any circumstance if I saw a stranger, friend, Christian beating a woman or child I believe it is right to step in. I would probably nervously attempt to stop a crime like robbery too. But with two strange men brawling, it seems to me wise to ignore that, unless it turns into a lethal situation.
 
There's no hard-and-fast rule. Rather, you use your wisdom. Most proverbs don't apply in all situations, but Proverbs 26:17 certainly will apply to some. Compassion is a strong Christian virtue, and it might lead us to step into some risky situations. But compassion is not always served by trying to break up a fight. It depends on the situation.
 
I agree with Jack. The Bible does not give us express answers for everything but lays down certain general principles that we are to prudently apply to the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
 
Seeing a likely drunk man fighting another or something like, I would probably avoid if I did not know them. If it was a Christian I knew, or a family member I would probably step in. In any circumstance if I saw a stranger, friend, Christian beating a woman or child I believe it is right to step in. I would probably nervously attempt to stop a crime like robbery too. But with two strange men brawling, it seems to me wise to ignore that, unless it turns into a lethal situation.
You’d wait until someone was dead? You don’t have to break anything up then. Easy plan. :)
 
You’d wait until someone was dead? You don’t have to break anything up then. Easy plan. :)

Im almost certain the "lethal situation" being referred to is the example I gave about seeing someone continue to smash another's face in past the point of being knocked unconscious.
 
Im almost certain the "lethal situation" being referred to is the example I gave about seeing someone continue to smash another's face in past the point of being knocked unconscious.
Various hypothetical situations portrayed in your original post. It really depends, but unless you're ready and willing to possibly leave some of your DNA at the scene you might be better off dialing 911. Unless you're trained, experienced in martial arts, or some such talent, and willing to risk life and limb ... as the old adage goes, 'discretion is the better part of valor.' :2cents:
 
I think there are competing Proverbial truths about (1) Defending the weak versus (2) needlessly escalating a situation or getting into someone else's business that is not yours.

Nationally, we see WWI played out by ceaseless escalation because the nations had bound themselves together to defend one another (this was especially important for the weaker nations, since they could otherwise be swallowed up by the larger nations without much of a fight). In some cases in history such strategies worked...and sometimes not....

Several examples in my life:

(1). A group of drunk tribal men on the coast tried to lift the skirt of a teacher passing by and grabbed her. I intervene and threaten to fight the whole group and get spit on, but they no longer bother the teacher, who scurries off in tears. I believe I did the right thing. A few years later the lady met me and brought up the remembrance and thanked me. It was her! She was embarrassed to go back to school and teach because some of the students had seen her underwear.

(2). A man was beating another man and pulled out a machete. I stood between them. The attacker told me that the man had slept with his girlfriend and so there had to be blood shed, but he'd just whack him with the blunt end of the blade. Huh? Both parties agreed. What? The family members agreed. Huh? And so they told me to get out of the way and let them handle it their own way. So the guilty party willingly received a head-wound that probably needed stitches (but I am sure they did not get) and just as quickly the fight ended and all parties went home.

(3) Caution: If you defend a wife or girl being beaten by her man, she is sometimes likely to then side with him. I got punched in the head once by a woman after tackling a man for punching her in the face (Mike Tyson style). She went down for the count, but recovered...only to smack me in the head as I sat on top of the guy. Women are strange and irrational.

(4) I intervened in a fight with a man on campus in college who has high and swinging a baseball bat and had a switch-blade knife in his back-pocket and was thanked later by the police for subduing him. I did the classic Gracie close the distance to take-down, to mount, and held him there. Of course, I cussed when I did so to alarm him and make him freeze before I lunged, and this came back to haunt me, too. Anytime there is anger/violence, it is easy to escalate into sin on all parties. The clean-cut college guy said dirty words, and so some folks teased me the next day.

Violence is a very useful tool under the right circumstances. Men should be gentle but capable of great violence. And the time is coming when it might be best to use more of it to defend our country. But it is easy to use it sinfully or to fall into sin while using it. And so a man must be very disciplined and principled when he does so. Few of us are capable of this, and many of us who train and are capable of fighting have trouble with our egos and sometimes want to needlessly escalate situations that could be peacefully defused. We are to seek peace, even when our blood is up and we are ready to throw down.
 
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I think there are competing Proverbial truths about (1) Defending the weak versus (2) needlessly escalating a situation or getting into someone else's business that is not yours.

Nationally, we see WWI played out by ceaseless escalation because the nations had bound themselves together to defend one another (this was especially important for the weaker nations, since they could otherwise be swallowed up by the larger nations without much of a fight). In some cases in history such strategies worked...and sometimes not....

Several examples in my life:

(1). A group of drunk tribal men on the coast tried to lift the skirt of a teacher passing by and grabbed her. I intervene and threaten to fight the whole group and get spit on, but they no longer bother the teacher, who scurries off in tears. I believe I did the right thing. A few years later the lady met me and brought up the remembrance and thanked me. It was her! She was embarrassed to go back to school and teach because some of the students had seen her underwear.

(2). A man was beating another man and pulled out a machete. I stood between them. The attacker told me that the man had slept with his girlfriend and so there had to be blood shed, but he'd just whack him with the blunt end of the blade. Huh? Both parties agreed. What? The family members agreed. Huh? And so they told me to get out of the way and let them handle it their own way. So the guilty party willingly received a head-wound that probably needed stitches (but I am sure they did not get) and just as quickly the fight ended and all parties went home.

(3) Caution: If you defend a wife or girl being beaten by her man, she is sometimes likely to then side with him. I got punched in the head once by a woman after tackling a man for punching her in the face (Mike Tyson style). She went down for the count, but recovered...only to smack me in the head as I sat on top of the guy. Women are strange and irrational.

(4) I intervened in a fight with a man on campus in college who has high and swinging a baseball bat and had a switch-blade knife in his back-pocket and was thanked later by the police for subduing him. I did the classic Gracie close the distance to take-down, to mount, and held him there. Of course, I cussed when I did so to alarm him and make him freeze before I lunged, and this came back to haunt me, too. Anytime there is anger/violence, it is easy to escalate into sin on all parties. The clean-cut college guy said dirty words, and so some folks teased me the next day.

Violence is a very useful tool under the right circumstances. Men should be gentle but capable of great violence. And the time is coming when it might be best to use more of it to defend our country. But it is easy to use it sinfully or to fall into sin while using it. And so a man must be very disciplined and principled when he does so. Few of us are capable of this, and many of us who train and are capable of fighting have trouble with our egos and sometimes want to needlessly escalate situations that could be peacefully defused. We are to seek peace, even when our blood is up and we are ready to throw down.
Ton of wisdom here. Thank you sir!
 
Caution: If you defend a wife or girl being beaten by her man, she is sometimes likely to then side with him.

Used to be a major cause of injuries to cops.

But you left out the circumstance where the woman is the aggressor and the man was defending himself.

Sometimes, violence is the answer.
 
Violence is a very useful tool under the right circumstances. Men should be gentle but capable of great violence. And the time is coming when it might be best to use more of it to defend our country. But it is easy to use it sinfully or to fall into sin while using it. And so a man must be very disciplined and principled when he does so. Few of us are capable of this, and many of us who train and are capable of fighting have trouble with our egos and sometimes want to needlessly escalate situations that could be peacefully defused. We are to seek peace, even when our blood is up and we are ready to throw down.
Didn't need to read anything else in the thread after this.
 
Used to be a major cause of injuries to cops.

But you left out the circumstance where the woman is the aggressor and the man was defending himself.

Sometimes, violence is the answer.
Poor 3rd World Women get beaten for the smallest of matters and are often poor victims whose husbands eat first and spend the rest of the money on drinking. I've never seen the woman be the aggressor in these poor regions. It is much harder to feel sorry for Western women who, yes, are often the instigators (feminism and hypergamy are cancers upon our land).
 
Another helpful exercise in these situations I think would be to apply a variation of C.S. Lewis’s cautionary Christianity and _____ framework. Where in a sweeping way it can be easy to create Christian duties out in cases where Christian principles are best applied. The result being in a one case action would be prudent and another is not. This isn’t ‘situational ethics’ but rather wisdom drawn from many factors including vocation, training, opportunity and knowledge of the situation.

Perg and Ed have given examples of this.
 
If my wife was getting beaten up by a guy, and you saw this and walked away in self preservation, I would look for the guy who attacked my wife then I would come look for you.
 
If my wife was getting beaten up by a guy, and you saw this and walked away in self preservation, I would look for the guy who attacked my wife then I would come look for you.
Who’s ’you’? An 80 year old woman in a wheelchair or Jocko?
 
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