During the
winter we parked our big green John Deer 28-inch snow blower in the breezeway
between the house and the garage. A few weeks ago in the middle of the night
someone stole it. Actually, because of the size and weight, it would have taken
more than one person to lift it into a truck. I have no expectations of getting
the snow blower back, but because the model and serial numbers were entered in
the national and state crime information computer system, the thieves will have
a harder time trying to sell, pawn or trade it in. I fall short of loving my enemy
when at the same time I’m hoping they got a hernia from their dastardly deed.
Jesus said, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those
who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who
mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to
him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking
your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone
takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to
others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:27-31 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----”Love your enemies” is hard to understand while we are living in the enemy’s palace. We are the ones who love splitting hairs and mincing words, slicing off little concepts so we can make of things what we want made without having to deal with the rest of reality. In fact, with all these little slices of words and minced up concepts we build a faux reality in which it does not make sense to love your enemies. Then we excuse ourselves from loving them on the basis of that unreality. The enemy’s palace is about you and your security and well being, comfort, and pleasure. In it we make ourselves holy and indispensable to the kingdom of heaven by seeking to “step outside our comfort zones”, but “don’t touch my security, or my well-being, or my pleasure!” We would never, ever say how important we are. We will only make sure our pleasures are secure while sacrificing our “comfort zones” for some faux holiness.
-----I will never forget the Sunday-school teacher who shaved a thin slice off the word “death“ in order to dismiss by it the charge that a God who creates life through evolution is a liar for blaming his creature for the same death required to evolve it. If you want to know God’s concepts you’ve got to stick with His definitions.
-----Before Eve “bit the apple” things were perfect on earth (if one is inclined to believe the Bible about origins instead of science. I am inclined. So I proceed…) What is perfect? What is love? What makes an ecosystem eternal? Let’s consider possibilities beginning with the last question and proceed back to the first. The temporal ecosystem is that which foolishly eats itself. Every individual partaking of it must capture, rip up, and eat alive something else. The central concept of the temporal ecosystem is “feed me”. The eternal ecosystem is the temporal system’s opposite. In it the central concept of every individual is “feed thy neighbor”. Well! What about me! When would I get to feed myself if I were always feeding everyone else! Silly. You’re an else too. Everyone gets fed because every one is also an else. This is what makes the eternal ecosystem perfect, and eternal. Everyone there is doing it. So you always get fed even though you are always feeding. This is the palace of the holy, the kingdom of heaven.
-----Man was put in the garden to till it, not to be tilled by it. So. When Eve bit the apple, the living process reversed (the entire word of “death“ was realized in that moment.) God’s beautiful creation of everything lovingly caring for everything else became a system of everything fending for itself by eating up creation.
-----But, although things became bad, good did not disappear. Good is yet what is right. And there is always a “right” for every situation in this evil palace, even the situations of your enemies. Most often that “right” is not what either you nor your enemies want, because right is right regardless of anyone’s wants. To love is to do what is right. So to love your enemies is merely to serve them what is right with less to no regard for either what they want nor what you want (depending on how far off righteousness’ base either want is.) What makes this hard to do is that we must yet do it although few will ever do it back to us. So, becoming someone who serves others in this the enemy’s palace would leave one gaunt if it were not for the Lord’s serving the righteous. And He's got the biggest serving bowl! Do what is right; think what is right; desire what is right; pray for what is right in every situation, and you will love your enemies by the very nature of the new creation you‘re being made. And don’t worry from where “yours” will come. The Lord will cover that Himself, if He has too. So, “…seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Mat 6:33)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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