Ilyin starts out by defining what most people consider to be love "What is nice is good", or that which we are sympathetic to.  He points out that perfection is actually what is good and worthy of love.  He posits that people like things that give them pleasure and confuse that for love, but it is shallow and unmeaningful.

On the contrary, spiritual love means that we do what is right, even if it is not pleasant, not fun, and not nice, even if it leads to discomfort, unpleasantness, or difficulty.  For spiritual love, even suffering is worth it.

According to Ilyin, Christ's two basic Commandments were to love God and to love your neighbor.  He points out that when your neighbor (fellow man) is doing evil, resisting him would seem to be in contradiction to "loving" him, but not resisting violates the love of God.  The love of God (doing what is right in His eyes) outweighs any sympathy or "love" for your neighbor.  If someone has removed God from their lives, they need us to tell them "no", rather than modern society telling them "yes", and thus resistance to evil.

The proponents of "love wins" and "love trumps all", claim that condemning people for their choices and evil deeds is labeled as "hate", "intolerance", and "malice", and thus encourage no limits on behavior.  If I truly love my neighbor, I MUST be able to tell him no, that his behavior is unacceptable, and that I will resist their actions.  Refusing to put them on the right path out of "love" is not truly love and is actually helping to condemn their soul.  Ilyin interestingly paraphrases the idea that "acceptance is not a Christian Virtue".

Ilyin reminds us that while we should indeed love our neighbor, we CANNOT EVER love evil in a man.  There are some people who are just evil.  No amount of acceptance or sympathy will ever change them, and we must modify our approach to resistance.

The only thing we can truly love completely without conditions is God.

When true good is confronted by true evil, evil must be destroyed and, as Ilyin says, executed.  When we resist using force, we do not become evil, as, in the end, we pray for the salvation of the soul of the executed person.

Ilyin points out that we begin with disapproval and work our way through a series of escalating responses to evil done in our presence, which can (and should) include ruthlessness against evildoers.  Remember God's commands to Joshua about what to do to anyone who resisted him.  Ilyin posits that true love of good requires it.

He uses the example of Jesus driving the money changers from the Temple as the justification for righteous application of force in the presence of and resistance to evil.

Ilyin says that resistance to evil can be summed up like this: "the struggle is fought with love, but with spiritualized love."

We must resist evil out of a love for good, not for vengeance, revenge, greed, or desire for power.

The struggle against evil is done from love.

Here's the closing quote, which I love: "but the active resistance against the villain's evil designs on others, and against the villain himself is not evil, but good."

Let me know your thoughts below.

Man, this chapter is FULL of good stuff, despite it being relatively short.

Spiritual Love and devotion is a CHOICE.  It's not born into us, we have to decide to choose good over evil and prefer it.  According to Ilyin, you cannot love everything (as the left says) or love all things equally.  Those who say they do are either incorrect or are so self-centered that they don't actually love anything but themselves.

According to the text, we love everyone to the extent that they do good.  Love of evil, evil people, or the devil is UNNATURAL.

Ilyin writes that we must NEVER accept evil.  Accepting evil, or identifying with it, leads to temptation and eventual submission.

According to our homeboy Ilyin, the only position Christians can take when faced with evil is with a drawn sword.

Next, Ilyin DESTROYS one of the biggest fallacies that the modern church pushes on us: "Love your enemies" refers only to your own personal haters & persecutors, NOT the enemies of God.  BOOM.  Christ never called us to love the enemies of God.  Christ Himself actually had fiery words and threats of retribution for evildoers.  Therefore, loving, forgiving, and caring for the enemies of God is against God's will.

When the Bible says to "forgive", it says to forgive those who sin AGAINST YOU, not God.  The Bible refers to forgiving "brothers" or fellow followers of The Way, not everyone.  In fact, it even points out that if a brother refuses to change, you can treat him as a heathen.  According to Ivan, those who can "forgive all" have a personal worldview, rather than a spiritual one.

According to Ilyin, forgiveness doesn't stop evil, it just stops the emotional impact it has on you.  The villain is still free to impact others.  Forgiveness doesn't mean we shouldn't intervene.

Indifference towards evil done to others shows a lack of will and spirit.

There is a great quote here: "Permissiveness has nothing to do with Christian forgiveness."

When we resist, we must not do so to punish, but to restrain behavior.  

To the villain, forgiveness is encouragement to continue.

Ilyin asks: Do we have to let the victim be harmed by the villain to show our gentleness and restraint?  He points out that this is a betayal.

Straight FIRE chapter.  Discuss below.

Link to buy book: On Resistance to Evil by Force

Another great chapter, but a little shorter and a bit easier to read, mostly because I already understood this concept and knew all the Scripture he referenced.

Resisting evil is ONLY meaningful if it is done on behalf of good.  In other words, only the virtuous can recognize the evil and resist it from a stance of wanting to do good.  When evil happens to oppose some other evil, it is usually in service of it's own evil ideas, rather than a desire to do good.  At best, it is a collision of evil intentions between two others.  This means that us, as the virtuous, have to fight evil on two fronts, rather than just one.  This gives lie to the idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"; no, he is still your enemy and you'll have to fight him too, as soon as your paths diverge from the current same direction.  As Ilyin quoted in the book, if one snake eats the other snake, there is still a snake to deal with.

Ilyin points out that resisting evil is a net good and thus stems from spritual love.  

Love without a spiritual component is risky.  That leads to temptation and the potential to do evil under the guise of advancing love.  It becomes blind and self-defeating.  The spiritual component is what compels us to be willing to die for something other than ourselves.

Ilyin points out the truth in Matthew 22:38 (Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind - this the First and Greatest Commandment", you heathens).  We must love God first in order to love our neighbors and see them in a new light.  Only then can we truly "Love thy neighbor."  Loving God is required and is inseparable from loving your neighbor.  This means that you see the Holy Spirit in others, just as it is in you.  

The movie The Road comes to mind.  In it, the father keeps telling the boy that they are "carrying the fire".  When the father dies and the boy meets a new family, he first asks them if they are "carrying the fire".  I think this is the same idea.

According to Ilyin, you must be a Son (or Daughter) of God to see anyone else as a Son of God.  This loves gives you a feeling of connection to something bigger than yourself.  These include: God, Church, homeland, your leaders, the other people.  This connects you to a cause that you would be willing to die for.

Ilyin writes that those who lack spiritual love usually put usefulness and equality above divinity (sound familiar?).  They say that everyone is equal and the no one is right or wrong.  This is where "living their truth" comes from.  They see events as destined to happen or inevitable.  They believe that everyone's happiness is more important than anything else.

On the other hand, those with spiritual love generally put divinity and goodness above all else, especially over usefulness or happiness.  Spiritual love knows that all are not equal.  This is where Ilyin drops the BANGER quote of the day: There are those "who are better off being killed than allowed to do evil."  WOW.  This is truly loving thy neighbor.  It's saying I love you too much to let you destroy your soul with an evil act, so I will stop you.  In this section, we see Ilyin quote the three eyewitness accounts of Jesus laying it down with the millstone quote (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, and Luke 17:1-2).  One with spiritual love also knows the danger of letting "happiness" be the standard, because most people are perfectly happy with sin.

Another great Ilyin quote is in the chapter's closing:

"Noble death is always better than shameful life."

SIde note, in this chapter Ilyin leaves a footnote that references Heraclitus, fragment 49:

"To me, one man is worth 10,000 if he is first rate."

This means that a man with wisdom and courage is better than 10,000 without.  Strive to be the one man.  Be worthy of each other.

Let me know your thoughts below.