Love your enemy? huh?

Jack of Spades

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Matt 5:44 "...but I say unto you, love your enemies"

- Do you love your enemies?

- Is it even possible?

- Isn't the human nature hard-wired to do the exact opposite?

- Is there some missing point of view to this that would make it sound a bit less insane?

- What's the point in Jesus saying this? In your opinion.

- Doesn't loving your enemies put you, or others, in harms way?
 
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brinny

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Matt 5:44 "...but I say unto you, love your enemies"

- Do you love your enemies?

- Is it even possible?

- Isn't the whole human nature hard-wired to do the exact opposite?

- Is there some missing point of view to this that would make it sound a bit less insane?

- What's the point in Jesus saying this? In your opinion.

- Doesn't loving your enemies put you, or others, in harms way?

Care to give an example of what comes to mind when you read that verse?
 
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~Anastasia~

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Yes, we ARE supposed to love our enemies - but that might not mean what comes to mind.

It has more to do with considering and basing our actions on what is best for every person - even the ones who don't treat us well.
 
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Jack of Spades

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Care to give an example of what comes to mind when you read that verse?

What comes to mind are the experiences when I have - very temporarily - experienced feeling love of God towards someone I don't like at all, or have experienced difficulties with. A very otherworldly moment, as if my natural feelings had been temporarily overdriven by a spiritual feeling of, well, just love.

That experience has usually been enough for me to back off from an argument or just leave something be. Or something like that. But it usually fades away quickly and then I'm back to my normal self and feel the same way about them as before.

But even in those cases "enemy" is a bit strong word. I would imagine that loving my enemy would be that feeling on an overdrive.

I would very much like to emphasize that this has been a very rare experience, and by no means describes my normal state of mind towards other people.
 
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brinny

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Yes, we ARE supposed to love our enemies - but that might not mean what comes to mind.

It has more to do with considering and basing our actions on what is best for every person - even the ones who don't treat us well.

we seem to be in sync this morning. :)
 
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Tree of Life

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Matt 5:44 "...but I say unto you, love your enemies"

- Do you love your enemies?

Not like I'm commanded to.

- Is it even possible?

Only by the grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit with a mind set on the gospel of Christ.

- Isn't the human nature hard-wired to do the exact opposite?

It is *fallen* nature to do the exact opposite. This command exposes our fallen nature - we only do those who do good to us. So, in effect, we only do good for personal benefit. We really only love ourselves.

- Is there some missing point of view to this that would make it sound a bit less insane?

The gospel. According to the gospel God has loved his enemies by sending his son to die for them while they were still his enemies.

- What's the point in Jesus saying this? In your opinion.

To expose our sin, to point us to what God has done for us in Christ, and to call us to love our enemies.

- Doesn't loving your enemies put you, or others, in harms way?

Sometimes it can. It certainly put Jesus in harm's way.
 
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brinny

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What comes to mind are the experiences when I have - very temporarily - experienced feeling love of God towards someone I don't like at all, or have experienced difficulties with. A very otherworldly moment, as if my natural feelings had been temporarily overdriven by a spiritual feeling of, well, just love.

That experience has usually been enough for me to back off from an argument or just leave something be. Or something like that. But it usually fades away quickly and then I'm back to my normal self and feel the same way about them as before.

But even in those cases "enemy" is a bit strong word. I would imagine that loving my enemy would be that feeling on an overdrive.

I would very much like to emphasize that this has been a very rare experience, and by no means describes my normal state of mind towards other people.

i can relate brother Your response and Anastasia's response has been very edifying for me.

Thank you.
 
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Tull

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Loving your enemy also has a practical side since it tends to break the cycle of revenge,we would have fewer enemies if we were more careful about our associations and our own behavior....when someone is your enemy without a legitimate cause it tends to give you the peace of knowing it isn't anything you have done and it rest with them.
 
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brinny

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Not like I'm commanded to.



Only by the grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit with a mind set on the gospel of Christ.



It is *fallen* nature to do the exact opposite. This command exposes our fallen nature - we only do those who do good to us. So, in effect, we only do good for personal benefit. We really only love ourselves.



The gospel. According to the gospel God has loved his enemies by sending his son to die for them while they were still his enemies.



To expose our sin, to point us to what God has done for us in Christ, and to call us to love our enemies.



Sometimes it can. It certainly put Jesus in harm's way.

edifying thoughts brother.

Thank you.
 
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grandvizier1006

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Loving your enemy is very difficult to do. Most of the things Jesus said in the "Sermon on the Mount" (that particular part of Matthew) are ideals, such as "do not worry" (we will inevitably worry about things not worth worrying about). Another thing to point out is that Jesus said any man who looks at a woman with lust is committing adultery. Although the context of the time is worth mentioning (most adults were married so if you saw a woman it was likely that she was married), that's still a very high standard.

Loving your enemies illustrates that idea as well. For the Jewish audience, they were used to "an eye for an eye"--in Mosaic tribal law you murdered someone the family of the victim was allowed to get revenge by killing you, unless you fled to a specific shelter city. For us Mosaic laws sound harsh, but when Jesus says that not only must you not even look at a woman lusefully (same thing as illicit sex), you can't even desire revenge or harbor hatred for someone, even if you have a very good reason (people tend to become our enemies for a reason).

The point Jesus was making was not "I'm going to make the law even harder for you to follow" but "the law is deliberately impossible. You can do everything right but if your thoughts are impure or against the law, then it's the same thing as breaking the law".

The mosaic law placed an emphasis on actions--it's hard to have someone executed for "thoughtcrime" in the real world. The PHarisees emphasized this with their reliance on actions (or prohibitions). They added to the law, thinking it made them more pious.

But Jesus was showing that the spirit of the law was more important. Even Deuteronomy encourages having the commandments in your "heart" (emotional being), rather than just in your head. It's in one of the Psalms as well.

Jesus's sermon was radical for the time. He was telling the Jewish people to disregard the specifics of the Old Testament law in favor of faith and willingness to not sin. Remember that many people Jesus interacted with were repentant sinners or people who should have been hated by their society for their supposed disregard of the law--prostitutes, tax collectors (associated with greed and obedience to a foreign power, Rome) and fishermen (uneducated rednecks of the day).

To get back to loving your enemies, well, the point of verses like it is that as a sinner, you we'll never be able to not to. I've struggled with hating people for a while now, usually anybody that isn't like me--mainly because I suspect that they would hate me anyway even if I was nice to them. But the verse encourages getting over that, knowing you will fail at times, as long as you try to let go of hating people, even if they deserve it. And most importantly, you're not doing it for any pragmatic reason--not because it's socially accepted or "right", but because you are choosing to resist the temptation and want to let the hatred go, even if it seems to fuel you. If someone's Christian faith compels them to stop hating their enemies, it shows that they are wanting to follow the ideals of a higher power greater than themselves, and not just society, which it would have been ffor the Jewish people (the difference being that their society encouraged hatred for good reasons whereas we do not, thanks in part to lingering Judeo-Christian ethics that encourage forgiveness and reconciliation).
 
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brinny

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Loving your enemy also has a practical side since it tends to break the cycle of revenge,we would have fewer enemies if we were more careful about our associations and our own behavior....when someone is your enemy without a legitimate cause it tends to give you the peace of knowing it isn't anything you have done and it rest with them.

Thank you for sharing such profound insight into what can be a most confusing and misunderstood concept.

Especially this:
Loving your enemy also has a practical side since it tends to break the cycle of revenge

Amen.
 
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Godlovesmetwo

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I'm glad someone has tried to address this one. My thoughts.
If we hate our enemy, we give away our power. They win.
Better not to harbour grudges. The loser will be us.
When someone is trying to bully you or paint you in a negative light, pray for them. I cant handle bullies by myself. Let God do it. Look them in the eye and pity them. (although that is kind of patronising I know)If they are wasting time hating you, they will be the loser one day.
 
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Godlovesmetwo

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tends to break the cycle of revenge,
that is a core problem in the world. One reason I come to CF and try to be Christian. As a Christian we need to especially be aware of not seeking revenge.
 
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graceandpeace

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I don't always love my enemies. Then again, I don't really have any *personal* enemies that I'm aware of. There are certainly people in the world who I don't like or who get on my nerves. There are people who do terrible things out there.

Loving our enemies, I think, forces us to confront the reality that they, too, are made in God's image & that they have the potential for good, because humans are inherently good - even though we mess up often. If we hate our enemies, they have power over us, & I don't see how we can work toward peace if we let power (rather than forgiveness, mercy, joy) rule the day.

I think Jesus is challenging us to go the extra mile here, & it's never going to be easy.
 
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Kenny'sID

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Praying for my enemies as I believe is commanded just as well as loving them, is something I do like a robot, only because I'm told to. I try to respect Gods wishes but at the same time I make no bones about having a very hard time carrying out those wishes.

I guess a lot depends on what exactly these enemies have done to us. One might say, I have no problem loving my enemies, but it could very well be, they haven't dealt with the extremes n that area.

Anyway, I will try and maybe one day I'll be able to live up to it. Just trying may well, at the very least, keep us from losing it, and beating them to a pulp. :)
 
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Godlovesmetwo

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forces us to confront the reality that they, too, are made in God's image & that they have the potential for good
I agree. This the challenge. Example. Someone is completely dismissive of my opinion or point of view, painting me as a fool. Now I could choose to harbour a grudge for instance, lick my wounds and consider how I can find them foolish, preying on their weakness. Or I could just let it go. Depends how sensitive I am or how big my ego is.
Someone tells us off for doing something wrong. Any response we make that is in the same accusatory tone, wont work.
Somehow we have to see them as a fellow human being who is just trying to get though the day.
 
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Godlovesmetwo

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Love your enemies is probably not what it appears on the surface. My first impression is that I had to "like" and accept my bully, the same as I would like and accept say my partner or best friend. My take is this. We need to try and look past the behaviour of people. They may be stressed, they might have just had a fight with someone else, they may have been bullied by a parent or sibling recently. The challenge is to separate the behaviour from the person. Compassion for a fellow human being, despite their behaviour. We look into their eyes, trying to see past their attention-seeking or rudeness or need to bring you down in order to boost themselves. Praying for them on the spot sounds like a good idea. It might appear to be patronising to do such a thing but I have got a feeling it works. Our challenge is not to let them bring us down to their pettiness, their ego-driven childishness. Maturity wins the day as we show them the way "good" behaviour triumphs in the long run.
 
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Mobezom

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"Love thy enemy" is a cool statement. Even as an agnostic atheist, I think it's very useful. I think of it as caring about your enemy, being concerned about their wellbeing as you would a close friend. It's not "love" in the kissing sense. I recommend looking more into the four (or more?) different types of love; it's unfortunate that we lumped four Greek words into one English one. It makes discussions like this very unclear.
 
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Kenny'sID

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It's not "love" in the kissing sense.

Unless I missed something and I could very well have, I don't think anyone confused it to mean to have a romantic love for your enemy. :)

It's pretty much what you say it is, and good thing to do, but sometimes easier said than done, all depending on why they are our enemy.

Christ did it while his enemies had him hanging from a cross, as in "Forgive them father for they know not what they do". Quite the feat, and something that took tons of understanding.
 
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"Love thy enemy" is a cool statement. Even as an agnostic atheist, I think it's very useful. I think of it as caring about your enemy, being concerned about their wellbeing as you would a close friend. It's not "love" in the kissing sense. I recommend looking more into the four (or more?) different types of love; it's unfortunate that we lumped four Greek words into one English one. It makes discussions like this very unclear.
Hello, Mobezom, and welcome to CF!

Of course I agree that "love" in this case isn't "Eros". It's always good to keep in mind what the Greek says - overall it's a much more expressive language than English and we tend to lose a lot in translation.

More importantly, i also agree that to love our enemies is a good rule for life, and I'm glad that you have found it so. Practiced with dedication, it brings us closer to God than we might think. ;)

Again, welcome to CF, and if you need any help finding your way around, or have any questions, please let us know and we will be glad to help. :)
 
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