As Martin [Luther] King points out so very well, when Jesus said to love thy enemy [Matthew 5:44], he was not talking about friendship love, nor was he talking about romantic love. [1] He was not talking about deep liking and appreciation. He was talking about what the Quakers and William Penn pledged to the Native Americans during colonial times:... See more

the one who has damaged you. 6. Having an enemy, (vv. 43–48) Hate your enemy. Love and bless your your enemy, as the heavenly Father does. And now with the preliminaries about the structure and progress of the Discourse on the Hillside before us, we can begin to immerse ourselves in the substance of Jesus’ teachings on the rightness of the kingdom

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Generations of Christians seem to have forgotten Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence. We’ve relegated visions of a peaceful kingdom to a far distant heaven, hardly believing Jesus could have meant for us to turn the other cheek here and now.