Love Your Enemies..unless it's Hitler" : MJism on how far one goes to save life....

[Gxg (G²)]

One would think protection of one's family and community might part of the following:

1Ti 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Many have always interpreted that as being about provision via food and work....and seen it in the sense that a man can't love the Lord yet be lazy. However, many never seem to consider it in terms of self-defese of family since there's a general paradigm that interprets the rest of the epistles/Yeshua's teachings as supporting pacifism at all times.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

ABSOLUTELY!!! If only we could convince elder care physicians and hospice workers of that!

How the elderly are treated today is rather disgusting..and shameful

 

[Gxg (G²)]

The great value God places on human life is why He placed such a steep price for the one who murders.

Indeed...

It also seems to be why he also seemed to think that shedding blood even in good causes was something that disqualifed because of how valuable life was. David not being able to build the temple, for example, because his hands had shed MUCH blood..

1 Chronicles 28:3 "But God said to me, 'You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.'

1 Chronicles 22:8 But the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.

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David wanted to build a house for the Lord...a good desire. But God says, "David, you are disqualified from doing this." Why? Not because of the murder of Uriah. Not because of his adultery with Bathsheba..even though those things can be considered as sins harming. The texts seems to say it is because of the wars, and because David had "shed much blood upon the earth in my sight." David had killed men in the sight of God, and that disqualified him from this spiritual service.

So much was shed that it had to be David's own son that did it ( 2 Chronicles 6:8-10 /2 Chronicles 6 )

It's rather interesting to consider I Chronicles 28 when it comes to David's hands being stained with much blood shed...and as seen in Psalm 144:1

"Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;"

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These two truths are somewhat of a mystery yet they are not contradictory. For David said God trained his hands for war, yet God told David could not build a house to his name because "he (David) had shed so much blood..." ..and in a sense, just as David had been commanded by the Lord to go to war/shed blood, there was also the realization that doing so did have its natural costs as it concerns certain things not being able to have participation since the nature of an action was so steep.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

The great value God places on human life is why He placed such a steep price for the one who murders.

Amazing considering that even murderers can be redeemed by the Lord---and be it with a Hitler or anyone else, no matter HOW grave of a sin, the Lord can redeem them. The power of redeemption is truly something amazing to consider when looking at how even the WORST of men have been made into the greatest of saints throughout history. As mentioned elsewhere:

....one story I heard a pastor note once when asking his son who the greatest superhero was--and while his son enthusiastically said "Superman!!!!", the pastor said "No, it's Jesus." When the son proclaimed that Superman can beat up all the bad guys/win, the pastor told his son "Yes, Superman can do that...but only Jesus can turn the bad guys into good ones."

Hearing that story always makes me pause when considering the many ways comics have actually made others equate having power with being dominant/able to harm others, even though the scriptures declare that the most powerful are the greatest servants...those not trying to be superheros and instead simply seeking to serve, as Christ noted. And in our times, when it's easy to love a Superman or a Thor or other superheros for what they symbolize, it's hard to remember how the Most Powerful being in existence did what none of those kats did---and that was coming to serve and die as a ransom.

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And it does serve to make me consider....if I was given the opportunity to preach the Gospel to a man like that (or other dictators), would I be willing to do so for the sake of loving the man's soul? Or would I leave the man to die for the sake of others living?