Did Jesus Mean This Literally?

The question is why would we not want to take it literally?

Greetings Bear

Yes it is to be taken literally. We are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.In all my time walking with JESUS I have not heard any other teaching except to love our enemies.

I read testimony of a woman, she was a nurse and missionary who was held in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during world war two. She spoke about how she would pray for those who tortured and abused them. She said no matter how cruel they were to her she could not bring herself to hate them. She felt sorry for them and prayed for them to see their need for JESUS.

God bless
maryjane

CS Lewis said something along the lines that if you cannot or do not love your enemy, then ACT as if you did and perhaps the feeling will follow.

We can't "try" to love someone emotionally. We either do or we don't. I think Jesus is talking about acting as if we loved them. We do not have to have warm fuzzy feelings. But the command is not to "feel" but to act.

That's my 2 cents.

bearmaster,
Did Jesus Mean This Literally? Reply To This Post |

Mathew 5:43-45
You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.` But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain to the righteous and the righteous

The answer is yes.

I pray for my enemy the evil one his spirits all the time, and I Pray with my heart.becouse I get attacks.

John 5:39 King James Bible
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me

John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have
life.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life

by TMK on 2014/8/7 9:32:01

CS Lewis said something along the lines that if you cannot or do not love your enemy, then ACT as if you did and perhaps the feeling will follow.

We can't "try" to love someone emotionally. We either do or we don't. I think Jesus is talking about acting as if we loved them. We do not have to have warm fuzzy feelings. But the command is not to "feel" but to act.

That's my 2 cents.

______

Greeting TMK

We can love others emotionally and deeply if it is through the HOLY SPIRIT. If we try to do anything in our own strength you are correct it can not be done, but we can love others by the strength of HIM who lives in us.

Also if GOD looks at the heart and judges by what lies there in, isn't wrong to think JESUS would only be talking about external behavior here? We are told if you say your hate your brother you have murdered him,1 John 3:15, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart you have committed adultery Matthew 5:28. Considering these things don't you think JESUS meant to literally love, cause anything else would be of self and fake right?

God bless
maryjane

Edit: here is the quote from CS Lewis, "Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

(In reading that I think it is saying that if you walk in faith demonstrating love to others you find in CHRIST that you soon do love them)

Love for Enemies

43 "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

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Greetings Bear

Read the rest of the verses in Matthew. Do you really think is is speaking of a vague ideal?? No HE is instructing us to love our enemies. Let me ask do you believe that JESUS does not love those who persecute brothers and sisters in other countries? If an Islamic Jihadist threw down his sword and turned to CHRIST and repented wouldn't he be just as accepted as you and I? For all have sinned and JESUS came to forgive us our sins. You and I were once enemies of GOD to until we came to JESUS and the cross.

God bless
maryjane

I believe this scripture here means we are to AGAPE Love our neighbour. This kind of Agape love isn't the PHILEO love which some may think is required.
Saying that we can only love our enemies when we feel affectional love (PHILEO) is the way a lot of Christians believe is the only way we should operate.

However, we don't need these feelings of PHILEO Love from God before we can AGAPE Love our neighbour in the way mentioned in this scripture. This AGAPE love is the kind where we do the right thing as a responsibilty, wether we feel like doing it or not. It is a part of the Christian life where we deny what our flesh is telling us to do.
Those who have discovered this secret life of self denial can go on to become mature in God.

Thank you david... That is essentially what I was trying to say.

Bear you do not have to love an Islamic jihadist coming to kill your family, in the sense that you like him a whole lot. But you must feed him if he is hungry or give him something to drink if he is thirsty.

Whether you need to surrender your family is another matter altogether.

Greetings bear:

I came across this short teaching on loving your enemies. Perhaps there is something in it for you.

God Bless
maryjane

When you hear the command, "...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...” (Mat. 5:44) , it sounds like it would be a little bit of a problem or a war of self-control that God has invited us into. But that’s really not the case exactly.

If you are like Jesus, you will have enemies. There will be those that hate us, falsely accuse us, persecute us, twist and manipulate, or lie about any of us and so on. Jesus said that will happen. If that’s not happening to you, then you’re not much like Jesus. Jesus said no man is greater than his master. They did those things to Him, and if you’re like Him they will do those things to you. If you’re NOT like Him, then you don’t have to worry about any of that because all men will speak well of you and it won’t be a problem. You’ll be "spiritual,” "loving,” "kind,” "wonderful,” and no one will ever feel as if you are a threat to them or intimidating to them. If you don’t walk in truth and you aren’t like Jesus, then you won’t have any enemies. So, everyone who is like Jesus will have enemies. Otherwise, we’re a liar and the truth is not in us. Jesus promised us that we would have enemies if we’re like Him, because we’re not better or more loving or spiritual than He is.

Assuming that there are those that would call themselves our enemies, how then do we love them? One foundational issue that has to be established in our hearts is that God found us as His enemies. Now that doesn’t sound like something most of us would want to think about ourselves in our pre-Christ era. We didn’t assume that we were enemies of God. We didn’t think or say, "I hate God. I think I’ll attack Him.” But the Scriptures are clear that if we love the world, we are enemies of God. But, if there’s pride in our hearts and lives and we’re filled with self-love, then we’re enemies of God. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34; Jas. 4:6). There’s a war going on. In other words, we are His enemies.

Now, what did He do to us as His enemies? He didn’t assume that we would continue in that path of hating the truth and crucifying His Son without first opening His heart and being willing to be betrayed by a kiss. He exposed Himself to us, not to compromise the things that are true, but under the assumption that perhaps we’d change if we could see His love. So then, God didn’t lower His standard. He didn’t say it’s okay to be self-centered, hateful, lazy, proud, worldly, vain and egotistical, loving the things of the world, being filled with idolatry and greed, with slanderous tongues and temper. He didn’t say, "That’s okay, and you could be My friends anyway.” Those things do make us at enmity with God.

What He did was, He gave us an opportunity out of His kindness to turn from those things. We were His enemies and He opened His arms, not to accept our sin, but in willingness to forgive us if we repented. If we would turn from those things, He would overlook and remember our sins no more.

Basically, this idea of loving our enemies is remembering that we were God’s enemies. He didn’t lower the standard for us, but He was willing to give us opportunity after opportunity to make it right””without penalty, without remembering our iniquities. He was willing to give us opportunity after opportunity to make it right.

The standard remained the same, but forgiveness was full and free for those that would turn to Him, empty themselves, ask for His forgiveness and turn away from the things that made us His enemies.

Loving our enemies is to continually be open to remembering their iniquities no more if there’s a turning from them; a willingness to not hold their sins against them.

I think we must not confuse our "personal" enemies with the spiritual war that is occurring between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan.

1. If we have personal enemies because of our own carnality then we must enter into a attitude of repentance and reconciliation as the Holy Spirit leads us.

2. If they are enemies of ours because they and we are members of opposing forces in spiritual warfare then we must look beyond the person and identify the spiritual forces behind his or her actions and bind the strongman or whatever God desires us to do in intercessory prayer. We do not seem to have a problem with this when we pray for an unsaved loved one; even though he or she are members of the kingdom of darkness.

3. If they are physical persons and spiritual enemies who physically desire to hurt us or our loved ones we must defend ourselves both physically and in spiritual warfare. Unless, of course God directs us not to. Scripture is full of examples of divine protection and assistance in defense of the Godly.

There is scripture in Revelations that speaks of a time when God gives Satan power to overcome the saints -- but, I do not think we are there yet -- and pray we are not. The current persecution and murder of the saints in the middle east may be occurring because someone else has disobeyed God's instructions to protect them.

Perhaps the key here is to love all people as Christ does and desire their salvation. And to be able to hear God's voice thereby obeying His instructions. I am reminded of David Wilkerson's ministry in New York when he reached out to dangerous gang members -- David listened to God and plundered darkness for the glory of our Lord. David overcame evil by doing good! David went to this ministry motivated by love. But, we can not truly love our enemies until the old sin nature in us is dead -- And Christ is manifest in us.

An excellent follow-up question, though it opens another discussion that has been debated here before.

I am an advocate of Christian non-violence or pacifism. Loving our enemies means not killing them. Wars send scores of people into eternity unprepared and God desires that all people repent and come to the knowledge of Him. One of the official reasons Rome persecuted early Christians was because they refused to serve in the military.

In addition, if someone breaks into my house and kills me, I go to heaven. If they break into my house and I kill them, they go to Hell. There is no question that they deserve it, but so did I. I have been forgiven and know mercy, and I want to be willing to lay down my life to give them a greater opportunity to receive that mercy.

Though I am passionate about this view, I respect and honor those who serve in our military. I know God's grace is powerful and covers a multitude of sins, and we all most be obedient to our conscience. I minister alongside a number of former soldiers who reach out to the Muslims they once fought because while they were in Iraq and Afghanistan, God gave them a love for their enemies.

Bear- if the US. has the power to rescue Christians in Iraq or Syria from terrorists who want to kill them should we do so?

Should police stop home invasions by thugs into Christian homes or just let them invade?

Better yet if someone is invading my home to harm my family should I even call 911 or let them have their way?