This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Those who follow the command of Christ in loving each other are the ones identified as friends. Who laid down His life for those friends? Who, then, has the greatest love, a love that is the example for all other love relationships?
Using this verse out of context as a reference to military service is heresy and blasphemy.
I think this is right about understanding the context. Anything else is an attempt to use the Bible for a personal favorite agenda such as justifying homosexual relationships or abortion.
I think it’s sad that the Bible isn’t studied to strengthen personal discipleship to Jesus but it’s used as sound bites to push sinful lifestyles. I guess it just shows that the games of the scribes and pharisees continue.
I agree with you, but are there not principles that people can derive from Jesus teaching?
I cannot imagine any passage of scripture that justifies abortion or homosexual relationships because scripture is clear about those being sin and abomination.
(Although future presidential candidate Gavin Newsome did use Jesus words to invite women to California for abortions on a billboard!- but that is “clearly” misapplied.)
barnhart wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2026 7:43 am
I think the Bible is very clear about who our enemy is/is not and how we should treat those who make the selves our enemies.
I think it would be good at this point in this thread to list those verses in context.
0 x
Free Will Baptist <-> Anabaptist
”Try hard not to offend. Try harder not to be offended.” Robert Martz
barnhart wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2026 7:43 am
I think the Bible is very clear about who our enemy is/is not and how we should treat those who make the selves our enemies.
I think it would be good at this point in this thread to list those verses in context.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Those who follow the command of Christ in loving each other are the ones identified as friends. Who laid down His life for those friends? Who, then, has the greatest love, a love that is the example for all other love relationships?
Using this verse out of context as a reference to military service is heresy and blasphemy.
As far back as I can remember I’ve heard that as an application anyone could apply as what love can mean in sacrifice in any walk of life- never heard anyone refer to the application as blasphemy or only limited to the exact context of Jesus’ sacrifice but His example of how sacrificial love is.
Quoting that phrase out of context is one thing - quoting Jesus' words out of context to glorify something that is diametrically opposed to Jesus' teachings and
example is quite another. Heresy and blasphemy is an apt description of the latter.
ohio jones wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2026 1:09 pm
Those who follow the command of Christ in loving each other are the ones identified as friends. Who laid down His life for those friends? Who, then, has the greatest love, a love that is the example for all other love relationships?
Using this verse out of context as a reference to military service is heresy and blasphemy.
I think this is right about understanding the context. Anything else is an attempt to use the Bible for a personal favorite agenda such as justifying homosexual relationships or abortion.
I think it’s sad that the Bible isn’t studied to strengthen personal discipleship to Jesus but it’s used as sound bites to push sinful lifestyles. I guess it just shows that the games of the scribes and pharisees continue.
I agree with you, but are there not principles that people can derive from Jesus teaching?
I cannot imagine any passage of scripture that justifies abortion or homosexual relationships because scripture is clear about those being sin and abomination.
(Although future presidential candidate Gavin Newsome did use Jesus words to invite women to California for abortions on a billboard!- but that is “clearly” misapplied.)
Jesus taught very clearly against violence, killing, and hatred, all of which are part and parcel of war.
JohnL wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2026 7:32 am
I think this is right about understanding the context. Anything else is an attempt to use the Bible for a personal favorite agenda such as justifying homosexual relationships or abortion.
I think it’s sad that the Bible isn’t studied to strengthen personal discipleship to Jesus but it’s used as sound bites to push sinful lifestyles. I guess it just shows that the games of the scribes and pharisees continue.
I agree with you, but are there not principles that people can derive from Jesus teaching?
I cannot imagine any passage of scripture that justifies abortion or homosexual relationships because scripture is clear about those being sin and abomination.
(Although future presidential candidate Gavin Newsome did use Jesus words to invite women to California for abortions on a billboard!- but that is “clearly” misapplied.)
Jesus taught very clearly against violence, killing, and hatred, all of which are part and parcel of war.
I agree yet most denominations believe that had nothing to do with the necessary place of each country to have an army to protect its people from evil leaders of other countries- for example I was brought up learning we could have fallen to communism just like other countries did, would we have been okay with that? Without our military being there to be willing to fight for our freedom we could be like many other countries that did fall to communism.
I agree with you, but are there not principles that people can derive from Jesus teaching?
I cannot imagine any passage of scripture that justifies abortion or homosexual relationships because scripture is clear about those being sin and abomination.
(Although future presidential candidate Gavin Newsome did use Jesus words to invite women to California for abortions on a billboard!- but that is “clearly” misapplied.)
Jesus taught very clearly against violence, killing, and hatred, all of which are part and parcel of war.
I agree yet most denominations believe that had nothing to do with the necessary place of each country to have an army to protect its people from evil leaders of other countries- for example I was brought up learning we could have fallen to communism just like other countries did, would we have been okay with that? Without our military being there to be willing to fight for our freedom we could be like many other countries that did fall to communism.
Is communism worse than capitalism? Or is the problem with both the corrupt leaders?
I would say Christianity has quite a lot in common with communalism and to a lesser degree communism and even less capitalism.
The core difference though is compulsion. Ultimately, are Christians better off under a government who hates them or gives them things? I would point to Constantine as the answer and quote Tertulian paraphrased “the seed of the church is the blood of martyrs”
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Those who follow the command of Christ in loving each other are the ones identified as friends. Who laid down His life for those friends? Who, then, has the greatest love, a love that is the example for all other love relationships?
Using this verse out of context as a reference to military service is heresy and blasphemy.
As far back as I can remember I’ve heard that as an application anyone could apply as what love can mean in sacrifice in any walk of life- never heard anyone refer to the application as blasphemy or only limited to the exact context of Jesus’ sacrifice but His example of how sacrificial love is.
Wife: I actually agree that this seems to have been referring to a generalized statement about love of a person/ect. it is the greatest sacrifice you can do for a cause or a person, and what you are willing to die for is typically what you love most. People have been willing to die in protests, for loved ones, as kamikaze/suicide bombers, etc., so that does not automatically make it a Christian virtue. It does show the character of Christ though that He was willing to die for us while we were still His enemies.
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Soloist wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:52 am
Is communism worse than capitalism? Or is the problem with both the corrupt leaders?
I would say Christianity has quite a lot in common with communalism and to a lesser degree communism and even less capitalism.
The core difference though is compulsion. Ultimately, are Christians better off under a government who hates them or gives them things? I would point to Constantine as the answer and quote Tertulian paraphrased “the seed of the church is the blood of martyrs”
Communism is explicitly anti-Christian and has been since its founding.