I recently saw Eastwood's Chris Kyle biographical film American Sniper.  I'm not going to lie to you.  It was rough, deserving of its R rating.  That being said, it was good.  Of the many important lessons the movie taught, one in particular impressed itself upon me.  In a flashback to childhood, Kyle's father said to his sons:  "There are three types of people in this world:  sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs.  Some people prefer to believe that evil doesn't exist in the world, and if it ever darkened their doorstep, they wouldn't know how to protect themselves.  Those are the sheep.  Then you've got predators who use violence to prey on the weak.  They're the wolves.  And then there are those blessed with the gift of aggression, an overpowering need to protect the flock.  These men are the rare breed who live to confront the wolf.  They are the sheepdog."  How profound, simple, and true those observations are.  (Now I have to confess, I have not done any digging to find out whether Mr. Kyle actually said those words or they were just the product of excellent screenwriting.)  

As men, we cannot afford to live as sheep.  (Don't read too much into this.  Of course we are sheep in the contexts of many Biblical passages.)  We are responsible for the physical safety of our families, and others around us.  But we are also responsible for the spiritual safety of our families, our churches, and others around us.  Remember that all throughout the Bible God holds Adam responsible for the fall, even though Eve was deceived and ate first (Genesis 3:9, Isaiah 43:27, Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21).  We cannot pretend that evil does not exist.  We cannot pretend that it won't happen to us.  UK Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain tried to make peace with Hitler to avoid WWII.  We know how that ended up.  The sheep cannot make terms of peace with the wolves.  The Holocaust serves as a reminder of that.

I frequently quote 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, to remind us that our enemies are not those who would seek to destroy us.  Instead our enemies are the deceptions and the philosophies to which those who would harm us are enslaved.  We have to be strong.  We cannot depend upon someone else to know the Word of God for us.  We will protect our families or no one will.  Either we will do our jobs or our homes will fall.  We didn't start the war, but the war rages anyway.  "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong" (1 Corinthians 16:13).