Matt 5:44- Love your enemies-

[jeffnevins]

Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Just wondering if anyone's heard preaching on this, has studied it, or has insights.

The Bible says what it means, so we should do it. We also have a right to self-defense, etc.

I'm thinking we should really treat our close friends & people we live with in love, if we need to do so for enemies. Doesn't seem to work that way always, though.

Well, thanks for insights.

Glad to post here.

[BASS28]

I personally think that verse is wonderful. It's one of the more difficult things to put into practice, though.

But it makes sense. What good is it going to do to carry the weight of hatred on your shoulders? The wicked will be wicked, and it shouldn't manifest hate in your own heart. Pray that they may find God and peace. After all, when you have pure love in your heart it will naturally spread to others. It is the same with evil. No need to contribute more evil to this world than there already is.

[Guest shiloh357]

Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Just wondering if anyone's heard preaching on this, has studied it, or has insights.

The Bible says what it means, so we should do it. We also have a right to self-defense, etc.

I'm thinking we should really treat our close friends & people we live with in love, if we need to do so for enemies. Doesn't seem to work that way always, though.

Well, thanks for insights.

Glad to post here.

In the day he said that, His audience would have immediately thought of the Romans who were occupying their land. This was completely counter-intuitive to how people usually treat those who have conquered and rule over them. Jesus was not talking about love from an emotional standppoint. He was talking about how to treat their enemies despite how the felt about them emotionally. Jesus was tell them to love their enemies operatively. Love is operative nature. Jesus said to bless them, do good to them, and pray for them. Jesus was commanding the people to make it an act of their will to love their enemies despite being treated brutally by them at times. Jesus was countering the teachings of the Rabbis at the time who sanctioned acts of resistance against the Romans. In doing so Jesus was restoring the true meaning of "love your neighbor as yourself."

[Fez]

Corrie ten Boom is a shining example of forgiveness.

She met a concentration camp guard who found the Lord after the war, a man that had been responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, many her friends. She was in Ravensbruk concentration camp and saw what the man was capable of. This is a quote from her book as she saw the man walk up the aisle towards her. Imagine the emotions flooding through her.

"For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then"

She was released from the camp through a clerical error one week before all the women prisoners were killed. God was at work in her life.....

If you have not read anything by her, do it, she knew what forgiveness meant...

[Isaiah 6:8]

This topic has been on my mind. Just had not posted on it, thanks for starting it! I love what C.S. Lewis has to say about it.

7. Forgiveness

I said in a previous chapter that chastity was the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. But I am not

sure I was right I believe the one I have to talk of today is even more unpopular: the Christian rule,

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Because hi Christian morals "thy neighbour" includes "thy

enemy," and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies.

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the

war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people

think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. "That sort of

talk makes them sick," they say. And half of you already want to ask me, "I wonder how you'd feel

about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?"

So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even

to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point.

I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do—I can do precious little—I am telling you

what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find "Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those that sin against us." There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered

forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly dear that if we do not forgive we shall not be

forgiven. There are no two ways about it. What are we to do?

It is going to be hard enough, anyway, but I think there are two things we can do to make it easier.

When you start mathematics you do not begin with the calculus; you begin with simple addition. In

the same way, if we really want (but all depends on really wanting) to learn how to forgive, perhaps

we had better start with something easier than the Gestapo. One might start with forgiving one's

husband or wife, or parents or children, or the nearest N.C.O., for something they have done or said in

the last week. That will probably keep us busy for the moment. And secondly, we might try to

understand exactly what loving your neighbour as yourself means. I have to love him as I love myself.

Well, how exactly do I love myself?

Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and

1 do not even always enjoy my own society. So apparently "Love your neighbour" does not mean

"feel fond of him" or "find him attractive." I ought to have seen that before, because, of course, you cannot feel fond of a person by trying. Do 1 think well of myself, think myself a nice chap? Well, I

am afraid I sometimes do (and those are, no doubt, my worst moments) but that is not why I love

myself. In fact it, is the other way round: my self-love makes me think myself nice, but thinking

myself nice is not why I love myself. So loving my enemies does not apparently mean thinking them

nice either. That is an enormous relief

[jeffnevins]

Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Just wondering if anyone's heard preaching on this, has studied it, or has insights.

The Bible says what it means, so we should do it. We also have a right to self-defense, etc.

I'm thinking we should really treat our close friends & people we live with in love, if we need to do so for enemies. Doesn't seem to work that way always, though.

Well, thanks for insights.

Glad to post here.

Thanks, Jeff, for a good topic.

What captures me on this topic is Paul telling us to forgive as we have been forgiven (Col 2:13; Eph 4:32).

I think maybe we focus on offenses to us, instead of forgiveness of us.

My insight would be that a felt sense of appreciation and gratitude for God's forgiveness of ourselves, would lead us to forgive our enemies.

You're welcome.

Glad folks enjoy the topic. And good insights people.