Love your enemies

Tellyontellyon

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)
 

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Loving your enemy was never easy. Jesus prayed for his enemies who were crucifying him. As much as I would appreciate not having to do that, this isn't a command that's going to go obsolete before Jesus comes back at very least. I don't even consider it likely that the command would go away after he comes back either, but he gets to make that call.
 
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PloverWing

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Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

It should be a central concern of all Christians, in the way that you have said: caring for and working for the good of other persons, even if they are my enemies.

I didn't realize that Buddhism had a similar idea; thanks for the explanation. I don't think Jesus directly addressed our attitude towards animals or whatever spirit-beings there may be, but it would be consistent to practice kindness toward them too.
 
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Martinius

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To me the idea of loving your enemy means to forgive them. Jesus did that on the cross. We will be forgiven as we forgive others. Jesus said that as well.

I think the OP's understanding is correct.
 
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disciple Clint

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)
you can certainly love someone and not love what they do, example your child who elects to abuse drugs.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)
You are right in your understanding. The problem is not the principle but the practice. Buddhists have good intentions, but the hostility and conflict in Thailand is an example of how hard it is.

Christians have a supreme advantage over any other belief. Jesus lives in us to enable us to do what we find impossible. He died for those who hated Him for no good reason. That's loving your enemies to the highest possible degree. There are many testimonies of Christians doing similar things.
 
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Silly Uncle Wayne

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)
Love IS a central concern of all Christians.

In context however it does not mean ignoring (or as you say condoning) their behaviour. The context is about not repaying bad behaviour. I.e. don't seek revenge, but instead try to help that person. It is a prelude to the Golden Rule as stated by Jesus.
 
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Gregory Thompson

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I have observed turning the other cheek has a spiritual effect. Is it more considerate to take offense? Is the punishment following turning the other cheek a bit excessive? However, is it compassionate to let evildoers go unpunished? What kind of world would that create?

Many such questions to live in, and in the moment a decision and action to take.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)

This is lay at the heart of Christian ethics. In Christ, God came loving those who were His enemies--a world of hostile sinners that ultimately put Him to death. So when Christ commands that we love our enemy, He means what He says. St. Paul elaborates further in Romans ch. 12 that if our enemy is hungry, give them food, if our enemy is thirsty give them drink.

Violent retaliation is not permissible for the Christian.

There may be arguments to be made where the evil of violence is necessitated by a far greater evil.an obvious, and arguably cliche', example would be the response to Adolf Hitler. For example Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was devoutly committed to Christian non-violence; and yet ultimately partook in a plot to kill Hitler (for which he would later be hanged). Bonhoeffer writes that there may be times when the clear course of ethical action is not clear, and in these instances all one can do is make a leap of faith, know that we shall be judged righteously on the Last Day, and trust in God's grace which is ours in Christ.

Bonhoeffer, when he partook of the plot, did not partake of it lightly, but he regarded allowing Hitler to continue living, and the continuation of the Nazi regime, to be a far greater evil than the use of violence to exterminate Hitler and cut off the head of the beast.

The reality of evil does not itself justify further evil through violence; but there may be times when in order to minimize, lessen, or reduce suffering that a violent course of action may be necessitated. This should never be considered in itself "good", but rather justified by circumstance out of the true conviction that the most minimal amount of violence may be necessitated to curb evil and preserve safety and security for our neighbor.

Is there an easy, one size fits all solution to every issue and circumstance? It's unlikely. The world is far too complicated and messy for that. At the end of the day the primary concern must always be the well-being of our neighbors--and that includes our enemies.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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aiki

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

God's love isn't natural human love. The two kinds of love are very different. God's love is bounded by Truth, and holiness, and fundamentally characterized by self-sacrifice; God's love isn't afflicted by ignorance, or sentimentality, or confused with sexual passion; God's love isn't contingent on human capacity, extending far beyond what we could, in-and-of ourselves, express.

When Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another, it was to be through the power of the Holy Spirit, who, in himself, imparts to born-again followers of Christ, divine, supernatural love.

Romans 5:5
5 ...the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.


Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love...


It is the love of the Spirit of Christ that Christians are to express to one another and to the unbeliever, which love is without end, holy, truthful, expressing the self-sacrificing character of Christ. This love, though, isn't all-embracing, tolerant of everything, uncritical, refusing to mark out what is evil from what is good. Godly love is quite different, judging right from wrong, rejecting evil and falsehood, serving first and foremost eternal, Christ-centered, spiritual ends, not mere temporal, physical needs.

For the Christian, loving their enemy always entails shining the light of the truth of the Gospel, the holy, eternal truth of God, into the life of their enemies. This can deepen antagonism, it can heighten division, rather than quell it. In the case of Stephen, the light and love of Christ that he preached had his enemies gnashing their teeth at him in fury.

Acts 7:51-54
51 "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
52 "Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it."
54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.


God's truth is a saving truth - though it pierces dark, evil hearts and minds to painful effect. The love of God can never be divorced from His truth - unwelcome as it might be - and still be called Christian love. Unfortunately, many "Christians" have abandoned anything like true, Christ-honoring love for a worldly, love-everything, blindly-accepting "love" that hastens the lost to their eternal doom.

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)

Proverbs 27:5-6
5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.


Proverbs 27:17
17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.


Hebrews 12:5-11
5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons, My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved of him;
6 For whom the Lord loves he chastens, And scourges every son whom he receives.
7 It is for chastening that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chastens not?
8 But if you are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
11 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.


In God's economy of things, suffering has a vital, salutary, role to play in Christian living. Suffering purges, purifies, strengthens, and remediates. Rather than seek to avoid all suffering, God in His word warns the disciple of Jesus that, like Jesus himself, suffering is inevitable and, at times, very necessary.
 
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Hawkins

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)

You need to love your enemies because your enemies could well be Christians at some point in their life. Only God knows who is who. That's why vengeance belongs to God.
 
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James_Lai

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Jesus said love your enemies and seemed serious about that. Love isn't the same as condoning behaviour, but you can still care about the person and the harm they are doing both to themselves and others, while wishing for them to free themselves from that behaviour.

Am I right in my understanding? Should such a difficult thing to do be abandoned... or should this be a central concern of all Christians?

(Btw, this seems similar in a way to Buddhist intention.. i.e., That we should strive to free all sentient beings from suffering without exception... That includes all gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings.)

Jesus the Christ taught Love towards all, including enemies - complete inclusion in the spirit of Buddhist and Hinduist teachings. We’re to love, it’s clear. Jesus declared that dividing the world into friends and foes, yours and theirs etc is wrong. It’s the illusion of identity or Ahankara in Sanskrit. We have to transend it and reach the higher level of consciouseness, with a Universal or at least a Global identity.

In my opinion, Christianity overall ignored this teaching, creating and perpetuating strong identities contrary to what Jesus wanted for His followers.
 
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aiki

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It’s the illusion of identity or Ahankara in Sanskrit. We have to transend it and reach the higher level of consciouseness, with a Universal or at least a Global identity.

This is not at all a Christian perspective. Elevating our "consciousness" - whatever that means - is nowhere found as a primary goal in Christian theology. And God is not a Universal or Global Identity, some amorphous collective mind-energy or cosmic awareness, but a distinct Person, our Creator, to whom we must submit ourselves, and who we were created to worship and serve.
 
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James_Lai

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This is not at all a Christian perspective. Elevating our "consciousness" - whatever that means - is nowhere found as a primary goal in Christian theology. And God is not a Universal or Global Identity, some amorphous collective mind-energy or cosmic awareness, but a distinct Person, our Creator, to whom we must submit ourselves, and who we were created to worship and serve.

You misunderstood it, it’s about encompassing all people globally, in fact all life, as part of yourself. To expand your identity beyond a small bubble of race, friend & foe, religion, nation, gender, political party, profession etc etc
 
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ViaCrucis

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Maybe the confusion is about language and translation... Greek has more words for Love than English...
What Greek words are being used to: Love your enemy?

Edit... Looked it up:
ἀγαπᾶτε agapate

Agape is the word we frequently encounter in the New Testament to describe the love with which God loves the world, loves us. Agape is, in Christianity, considered the highest love. The love of God who gives Himself away in Christ as a Servant, to serve, even to die for sinners.

That's the same kind of love we are supposed to have for our neighbors, and the love we are to show our enemies.

So there's no confusion: Jesus explicitly commands that we love our enemies.

There are other forms of love/affection, for example storge and philia, which describe different kinds of familial and fraternal affection. There is also eros, which is often confused with lust; but eros simply describes natural affection, and so is sometimes also decribed as "romantic love".

Storge and philia are fascinating. Storge is famial, it's the love a parent has for a child, or a child for a parent. Philia, in contrast, is also a familial affection, but is more intentional and purposeful.

The main difference between storge and philia, if I'm remembering correctly, is that storge exists between blood relatives naturally, whereas philia is a bond of friendship and love that comes through intentionally walking on the same path together. Aristotle (IIRC) says that philia is the greatest love, because in contrast to storge philia requires choice. You have storge with your blood relative, but you have philia with your chosen family, the people you choose to walk with in life. Philia is often called "brotherly love", but this is only partly true. It would be more accurate to say that philia is the love between those who choose to call each other brother or sister. Unsurprisingly, then, when we see in the New Testament the call for Jesus' followers to care for each other as brothers and sisters, the language used is the language of philia. When it comes to showing compassion, care, concern, service, etc, the New Testament calls that agape.

In Christianity we say that agape is the highest love, it is the highest love because it is the love with which God loves us and saves us in Christ. For this reason we often call it unconditional love, sacrificial love. It is also known as caritas in Latin, from which we get the English word "charity". In fact, if you look at older Bible translations, you'll often find the word "charity" used to translate agape.

We are to give agape to our enemies, and St. Paul tells us how we can do that in Romans 12, by feeding our enemy, giving our enemy drink when they are thirsty. We care for our enemy, we show compassion to our enemy, we seek the wellbeing of our enemy. Our enemy may desire that we are hurt, or even dead; but we are to seek that our enemy is treated well, and that he live. So Jesus says that we respond to curses with blessing. We respond to persecution with prayer. We respond to oppression with compassion.

Forgiveness, compassion, kindness, and real justice comes from a place of agape.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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James_Lai

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Maybe the confusion is about language and translation... Greek has more words for Love than English...
What Greek words are being used to: Love your enemy?

Edit... Looked it up:
ἀγαπᾶτε agapate

Love is love. Treating somebody as you’d treat yourself. (Again breaking the boundaries of Ahankara - you and enemy is the same one identity and even further)
 
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