Should I ready a knife, or would I be misinterpreting this passage?Catholics would get out a knife; if they applied the same rules to it as they do they oft mentioned...
...this is by body...
I've noticed that nearly no one is a "complete" literalist--even those who call themselves literalists. (And most Catholics don't seem to fit that self-identification. That is, if anyone's going to reach for the knife simply based on "applying the same rules to it," a Catholic group isn't what first comes to my mind.)
Yes, I'm aware that most who call themselves literalists acknowledge that their goal is not being "completely" literalist (does God literally have wings, or is Jesus literally a vine?) but literalist by default, as much as possible--whenever the literalist meaning makes sense to them. But this criterion doesn't result in perfect unity of interpretation. Different people and groups interpret different passages "literally" or not. Even two groups that both identify themselves as literalists concerning a given passage may disagree on the actual literal meading of the passage.
In other words, even "literalism" is more complex than it may at first sound. At least I'd hope that people may take Romans 12:17-18, for example, a little more literally. (Of course, the real solution may be taking it more seriously.)
As your answer touched all the bases; why did you want to know what MY interpretation was?