Loving ones enemies, ones brothers

[LightLoveHope]

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Matt 5:44-45

Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
1 John 2:10-11

For years I have been discussing christian issues on forums such as this with believers and non-believers alike.

I have got very passionate, making my points and trying to see if I could "win" though not seeing that was what I was doing. And the winning sometimes became putting down or getting annoyed.

It then struck me that I had a problem. I had accepted this was an argument, trying to see the position of another and getting them to move to my position whatever it maybe.
Over time I have realised hurt feelings, deep wounds not healed, burnt consciences, compromises and contradictions often drove people to share as they do. So the polarising, the labelling, the intellectualising people into friends and enemies was my mistake.

What this is is actually me sharing the love Jesus has planted in my heart and encouraging others to experience and walk in this also. I am also here to be encouraged by others experiences in Christ. Other than this I am here to bless and testify to my Lord.

So dear brothers and sisters, be careful not to end up arguing over positions, and not recognising the hurts that drive a lot of peoples interactions, which is pointless to dispute unless they can be honest about the baggage they carry.

God bless you

 

[LightLoveHope]

My testimony was of one brother who decided I had a serious spiritual problem of lack of security in Christ. This failure meant everything I did in the church was of the flesh and without value.

I was therefore rejected, lied about, abused, told I was evil, lost, denying Christ and His words, trampling on the cross, judgemental of believers, against the right understanding of scripture, that all my experiences in Jesus were invalid, that the whole language of scripture had been brain washed into me, that legalism was the true evil in society and traditional believers were why the kingdom was failing.

Fruit of thorns and thistles, designed to destroy a believers position and convert them into something else. And the true core of this approach was sin was ok, just from the flesh, unconquerable, unresolvable, and Jesus's words are irrelevant to gentile believers. In this view only the self righteous believe in righteous walking.

It is odd to me, because I just listen to Jesus and follow. This weird distortion of theology, scripture, and life must have a cause. And it seems to be believers who grew up in heavily conformist congregations where anything outside the group behaviour doomed you to hell.
They all consistently had fallen away from this group, got lost for a few years and then come back to faith, but a faith with no rules or structure other than just acceptance. This is the mirror image of the original group to which they grew up in. And they hated the people of their past.

So when I shared my love, my experience, I was put into this box, labelled and condemned, pushed down the river with no second thought.

So my conclusion is this, hurt, deep life changing, foundational hurt is here, unresolved and still driving this agenda. Without healing there is no resolution for these believers and great danger they are becoming the enemies of Christ. So loving ones enemies is a key issue, because our enemies are a prison to the hurts and disappointments of their lives rather than being open to the love and change Jesus constantly brings into our lives. God bless you

 

[~Zao~]

I like your conclusion. I see in it the reason for forgiveness to unlock oneself from a prison of hatred that becomes the root of many problems. There's a saying that the only way to conquer an enemy is to make them a friend. There's no point in fruitless arguments that only step on others and cause more division. I think that when one's stand on an issue is clear that those around them know that person for that stand whatever it may be. It takes but a small reminder to convince them of your position. To try to keep convincing someone of the same point thru throwing dirt at others can only be seen as losing ground for oneselves.