Mathew 5:44-45 Our response as Christ Followers

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
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Sudsy
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Mathew 5:44-45 Our response as Christ Followers

Post by Sudsy »

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

In another thread MaxPC referred to this text in pointing to how we should look to the scriptures for our response to conflicts.

Here is a sermon by Greg Boyd, an Anabaptist preacher, regarding how believers are to face conflicts. The first 17 minutes are about how conflict came into and will remain as part of our current world. If you don't have the time perhaps starting at the 18 minute mark would be best -

I would love to get feedback on this from anyone.

Also, another article called ' How are we to love the soldiers of ISIS ?', imo is similar to how we are to respond to conflicts like Charlottesville from a scriptural perspective - http://reknew.org/2014/09/how-are-we-to ... s-of-isis/

Thoughts on this too are welcomed.

Is this generally how a Christian and especially an Anabaptist believer should respond ?
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Pilgrim
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Re: Mathew 5:44-45 Our response as Christ Followers

Post by Pilgrim »

This is a very powerful post, but I'm not sure I have a lot of good suggestions. Sometime later I hope to hear the sermon. Right now I want to respond to the "Loving Isis" comments. No doubt, prayer for the Isis fighters and their families is certainly appropriate. You really didn't say what the conditions might be in which we would confront an Isis fighter. If it would be dealing with them on the battlefield it would most certainly be a death wish. If you are talking about dealing with them in a private, safe environment, then I would say go ahead and love on them (as the Holy Spirit leads you.)

While we do love our enemies I don't think that we have to put ourselves in harms way. If we put ourselves in harms way then we have to depend on the Lord for sure. That's not to say that we don't do that anyway. Most Isis fighters are so angry at Christians and Jews that they most likely are not going to listen to reason. It would take a lot of prayer to make them open to the gospel. I believe prayer is best method so far. As a result of prayer some Muslims (maybe not Isis Muslims) are having dreams and visions of the Lord Jesus talking to them about accepting Him. We cannot discount the power of prayer.

Ken
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Sudsy
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Re: Mathew 5:44-45 Our response as Christ Followers

Post by Sudsy »

Pilgrim wrote:This is a very powerful post, but I'm not sure I have a lot of good suggestions. Sometime later I hope to hear the sermon. Right now I want to respond to the "Loving Isis" comments. No doubt, prayer for the Isis fighters and their families is certainly appropriate. You really didn't say what the conditions might be in which we would confront an Isis fighter. If it would be dealing with them on the battlefield it would most certainly be a death wish. If you are talking about dealing with them in a private, safe environment, then I would say go ahead and love on them (as the Holy Spirit leads you.)

While we do love our enemies I don't think that we have to put ourselves in harms way. If we put ourselves in harms way then we have to depend on the Lord for sure. That's not to say that we don't do that anyway. Most Isis fighters are so angry at Christians and Jews that they most likely are not going to listen to reason. It would take a lot of prayer to make them open to the gospel. I believe prayer is best method so far. As a result of prayer some Muslims (maybe not Isis Muslims) are having dreams and visions of the Lord Jesus talking to them about accepting Him. We cannot discount the power of prayer.

Ken
Greg believes we just wouldn't be part of a battlefield situation as God will take care of any physical warring through those who do not chose the Kingdom way as an Anabaptist believes. From the article - "Paul instructs kingdom people to leave to God the very thing that God uses governments to accomplish: namely, wielding the sword to exact vengeance on wrongdoers." However not everyone on this forum agrees that Kingdom citizens should stay out of wars between nations as Greg says - "The number of those willing to actually follow Jesus’ teachings and example has, unfortunately, always been relatively small, even among professing Christians.'

The point I see similar here in this article to the Charlottesville occurrence is that how we would treat an ISIS fighter or anyone else is the same. Greg puts it this way - " How are we to love the soldiers of ISIS? The only reason this question is different from the question of how we are to love anybody else is that these people strike us as more evil than others and/or because we may be concerned about what would happen if everybody loved these soldiers. But as we’ve just seen, our call to love has nothing to do with how “good” or “evil” a person is. We’re to love “the righteous” and the “wicked,” just like the rain falls and the sun shines (Mt 5:44-45). We are to love the KKK and all the other scary groups just as much as those standing up against them. In the video Greg gets more into how we develop this radical mindset that is so different than how the world tackles these areas of conflict.

I agree that prayer is a powerful means and is a means that Greg also encourages. And yes, isn't it amazing the stories of how God is speaking through dreams to some Muslims pointing them to who Jesus really is. We are to pray for and bless those who treat us as enemies and see no human as our enemy. Pretty radical, eh ?
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MaxPC
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Re: Mathew 5:44-45 Our response as Christ Followers

Post by MaxPC »

Sudsy wrote:
Pilgrim wrote:This is a very powerful post, but I'm not sure I have a lot of good suggestions. Sometime later I hope to hear the sermon. Right now I want to respond to the "Loving Isis" comments. No doubt, prayer for the Isis fighters and their families is certainly appropriate. You really didn't say what the conditions might be in which we would confront an Isis fighter. If it would be dealing with them on the battlefield it would most certainly be a death wish. If you are talking about dealing with them in a private, safe environment, then I would say go ahead and love on them (as the Holy Spirit leads you.)

While we do love our enemies I don't think that we have to put ourselves in harms way. If we put ourselves in harms way then we have to depend on the Lord for sure. That's not to say that we don't do that anyway. Most Isis fighters are so angry at Christians and Jews that they most likely are not going to listen to reason. It would take a lot of prayer to make them open to the gospel. I believe prayer is best method so far. As a result of prayer some Muslims (maybe not Isis Muslims) are having dreams and visions of the Lord Jesus talking to them about accepting Him. We cannot discount the power of prayer.

Ken
Greg believes we just wouldn't be part of a battlefield situation as God will take care of any physical warring through those who do not chose the Kingdom way as an Anabaptist believes. From the article - "Paul instructs kingdom people to leave to God the very thing that God uses governments to accomplish: namely, wielding the sword to exact vengeance on wrongdoers." However not everyone on this forum agrees that Kingdom citizens should stay out of wars between nations as Greg says - "The number of those willing to actually follow Jesus’ teachings and example has, unfortunately, always been relatively small, even among professing Christians.'

The point I see similar here in this article to the Charlottesville occurrence is that how we would treat an ISIS fighter or anyone else is the same. Greg puts it this way - " How are we to love the soldiers of ISIS? The only reason this question is different from the question of how we are to love anybody else is that these people strike us as more evil than others and/or because we may be concerned about what would happen if everybody loved these soldiers. But as we’ve just seen, our call to love has nothing to do with how “good” or “evil” a person is. We’re to love “the righteous” and the “wicked,” just like the rain falls and the sun shines (Mt 5:44-45). We are to love the KKK and all the other scary groups just as much as those standing up against them. In the video Greg gets more into how we develop this radical mindset that is so different than how the world tackles these areas of conflict.

I agree that prayer is a powerful means and is a means that Greg also encourages. And yes, isn't it amazing the stories of how God is speaking through dreams to some Muslims pointing them to who Jesus really is. We are to pray for and bless those who treat us as enemies and see no human as our enemy. Pretty radical, eh ?
Amen!
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