As Christians, we alter some Christian concepts. Our desire is to make Christian concepts compatible with the "realities of our world and our culture." This is not the suggestion that Christians deliberately convene groups [classes or committees] with a conscious intent to alter basic Christian concepts or teachings. It suggests our studies often include assumptions that powerfully influence our conclusions and concepts.
Everyone has extreme difficulty in allowing scripture to "speak for itself." Everyone is prejudiced by his or her culture, society, family experiences, and personal experiences. Commonly a person brings to his study of scripture a number of conclusions formed prior to that study.
Continued study over a long period of time produces growth. Growth produces deeper insights and understandings. Deeper insights and understandings bring new realizations and awareness. It is not a matter of spiritual dishonesty. It is a matter of spiritual maturity.
Few concepts illustrate this practice more clearly than do Jesus' teachings concerning a disciple's attitude toward an enemy. As we begin, we acknowledge this is a complex concept. Over simplification results in distortions. However, assumptions frequently influence the concept. We often assume our definition of an enemy. We often assume the type of enemy under discussion. We often assume in what ways these individuals or groups are our enemies. The problem is illustrated by two questions: "What enemy should I love?" "What enemy should I destroy?"
This lesson is merely an introduction to a study of enemies. It is not intended to be a comprehensive statement or study. A study of a Christian's relationship with an enemy is quite relevant to an understanding of godly character and integrity. However, please caution your class not to oversimplify a complex matter.
Jesus made the statements in our texts to Jewish people who had enemies. Many of their recent ancestors were killed by enemies. Jewish patriotic fervor ran high. Some devoutly believed God willed the destruction of Jewish enemies.
In our study of Jesus' statements concerning one's enemies, it is essential to study his statements in the context of the situation. He is speaking to Jewish people in the nation of Israel in the first century. It must be stressed that Jesus' statements were as resented and unpopular with many Jewish people then as they are with many Christian people now. In the recent Jewish past of that time, enemies who were Israelites and enemies who were not Israelites caused them much suffering.
Jewish people from the fall of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. until Jesus' ministry [and beyond!] had a long, difficult history of interaction with enemies. For more than 600 years, they experienced severe suffering with relatively few periods of peace. When Jesus taught about enemies, probably the majority of the listeners had recent ancestors who were killed by enemies.
The Jewish suffering at the hands of Syrian rulers was especially cruel.
In their fairly recent history, their domination by the Selucid rulers of Syria produced suffering, death, and destruction. Jews who owned or read the Torah [Jewish scripture] were executed. Jewish mothers who allowed their children to be circumcised were executed with their infants. Since Jews kept the Sabbath, Syrian forces attacked on Sabbaths and slaughtered them. [Jewish leaders decided defending oneself on Sabbaths did not violate Sabbaths.]
The cruelties they suffered significantly contributed to generating a Jewish revolt [guerrilla war] against Syrian control. The result of the Maccabean revolt was a period of Jewish independence. It was the first independence the Jewish people experienced since the beginning of Babylonian captivity.
From 198 B.C. to 143 B.C. Jewish resistance forces fought a war for independence under Maccabean leadership. The nation achieved and enjoyed independence until inner turmoil resulted in Roman oversight from 63 B.C. After 63 B.C. anyone, including Herod, who ruled Palestine did so with Roman approval.
In Jesus' lifetime, Jewish people deeply resented Roman domination. Though Roman rulers granted them many concessions, they were no longer independent.
After Herod's death, Rome directly controlled Palestine. Palestine in Jesus' day was under a Roman governor and Roman troops. Jesus taught people who hated Roman domination. They hated their loss of independence. They hated Roman taxation. They hated the presence of Roman soldiers. Some believed that Roman domination and taxation defied God's rule. When Jesus taught about the proper treatment of enemies, those in his audience knew by experience the quality of life under an enemy.
A discussion of enemies included factors of greater significance than "someone I work with distresses me." Typically, issues created for us by enemies and issues created for them by enemies would be different issues. Many times their issues would be of greater seriousness.
For American Christians, American freedom and American civil rights often distort Christian concepts. Jesus challenges us to understand facts we often fail to see. God used the cruelty and death inflicted by enemies to achieve victory. As Jesus died, he prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). No human witness of Jesus' death realized God was victorious as Jesus died. "Your son's cruel death produced life?" History and traditional sources declare all the apostles but one were killed. Stephen, a Christian martyr, prayed aloud at his execution, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" (Acts 7:60)
To American Christians, this understanding is difficult to grasp: God can use the suffering and deaths of godly people to achieve His purposes. God not only can; He does.
In numerous situations, early Christians were persecuted. Yet, never does a New Testament writing suggest that they use hostility against an enemy. Contrarily, (1) Paul urged Christians in Rome to understand that kindness defeats an enemy and doing good defeats evil (Romans 12:17-21). (2) Paul assigned good results to his imprisonment because his imprisonment resulted in more people talking about Jesus (Philippians 1:12-14). (3) Peter urged suffering Christians to realize their attitude and behavior while suffering could create opportunities to explain their hope (1 Peter 3:14-16). (4) Peter also declared suffering caused by faith in Jesus was an avenue of blessing (1 Peter 4:12-14). To American Christians, those are strange perspectives.
Godly reactions to suffering [or death] caused by enemies can appear completely "unamerican."
Jesus' statement, "My kingdom is not of this world . . . ," (John 18:36 ) has greater significance than many American Christians realize. Jesus' kingdom exists to extend hope to ungodly people, not to destroy ungodly people. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is relevant in understanding this concept.
A Christian's world view is in total contrast to ways people who are not Christians look at the world. The concepts and principles that govern a Christian's life are commonly misunderstood by the person who is not a Christian. These two parties do not "look at" or "see" existence from similar perspectives.
Jesus' definition of godly behavior for those devoted to godly character and integrity:
It was a law of limitation. In Jewish society, justice and retaliation could not exceed the loss one suffered. In other societies justice and retaliation were not limited.
In Jewish society, it affirmed the worth of the injured person. The injury the injured Jewish person suffered mattered. He or she was a person to be considered, not a "thing" to be ignored.
The presence/power/authority of a Roman soldier was an immediate reminder/confirmation that the Jewish people were no longer independent.
Allow people in your class to express the lessons they see and the relationships between their lessons and godly character. Likely many of the lessons will focus on symbols or acts of symbols considered unjust or demeaning from godly perspectives. In every age, godly character and integrity respond to injustice and demeaning behavior with attitudes of kindness or surrender. These attitudes produce kind, considerate acts rather than resentful, hostile acts.
Love people who are your neighbor [good to you]; hate people who are your enemies [bad to you].
Jesus said to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors [those who do you harm]. Jesus used agape, a common word he used when speaking of love. The force for this love does not come from one's feelings. It comes from a decision. The decision is to function in consideration of your enemy's highest good. One cannot feel about his enemies as he feels about his friends. However, he can consciously choose to treat enemies with the consideration that comes from kindness rather than from resentment. That attitude is a core quality of godly character and integrity.
The person of godly character and integrity chooses God as his or her example. At that time, the good sons of a father imitated their father. Our Father is God. We want God properly to be reflected in what we are and what we do. God gave sunshine and rain to everyone--good and evil. Then existence literally depended on the sun and the rain. Those were the key elements for supporting life. The point: God sustained the existence of the good and the evil. If God can function with kindness toward the good and evil, so can we if we are His children.
The second basis was this: if the treatment others gave them determined the way they treated others, they behaved no differently than godless people.
The behavior standard for people of godly character and integrity is the heavenly Father.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 7