"I have to sin because those non-Christians might sin" is an interesting chain of thought.
Religion is about many things, and a major theme is depriving yourself to demonstrate your faith. Refrain from sin, pray for forgiveness and repent your mistakes. Live as a good example, give aid and charity to others. These are all commands in the Bible.
Concern yourself with your own sins, not those of others. Do all this and you will be rewarded in heaven.
Wonder what Jesus would have to say about your thoughts here - that you have to break the commandments of your God because if you don't, someone following a different god might break them first. It doesn't sound very Christ-like to me.
This has weird “look what you made me do” undernotes. A Christian can live by their values without forcing them on others. As anyone can from any religion or not religious at all.
>but it is very easy to say when you are currently not in the trenches.
the point of the entire Christian faith is that even God was in the trenches and died on the cross instead of picking up the sword. To the Christian the reality is the Christian life and the kingdom of God, the unreality is ceasing to be a Christian to engage in a nihilistic struggle for this world.
Given that a lot of people brought up Tolkien being mentioned. The Christian act is to reject the ring, not say I need the ring because someone else wants it.
We are all in the trenches of the war you refer to. For those of us who engage with a spirit of for the greater good, the side you are rooting for is as dangerous and malevolent as the side you supposedly plan to protect yourself from.
The "we must do it or someone else will" logic is pernicious and dehumanizes both the enemy and the supposed good-guy. I cannot count how many times it's been used after the first couple answers to "why are we doing this?" fall flat.
I remember talking to someone who worked on quantum computing explain how interesting the domain was, and at the very end he concluded with "if the Chinese figure this out before we do, then it's all over".
No man can control the behavior of others, in the end. All any of us can do is conduct himself properly, and encourage others to do the same. It's worth acting right even if nobody else does.
Religion is about many things, and a major theme is depriving yourself to demonstrate your faith. Refrain from sin, pray for forgiveness and repent your mistakes. Live as a good example, give aid and charity to others. These are all commands in the Bible.
Concern yourself with your own sins, not those of others. Do all this and you will be rewarded in heaven.
Wonder what Jesus would have to say about your thoughts here - that you have to break the commandments of your God because if you don't, someone following a different god might break them first. It doesn't sound very Christ-like to me.