Yes and pray for them as well.
Romans 12:20
King James
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Yes, but only until you run out of cheeks
Most people don’t realize that number is 4 unfortunately
G.K. Chesterton pointed out that Our Lord didn’t have a lot to say about the occupying Roman army, except that he generally got along with them.
You don’t have to hate your enemies to fight for your freedom and faith.
Many soldiers in WWII didn’t hate the Krauts or the Nips, in fact that was a sign of weakness to hate them. Those that understood what they were fighting for fought to the death for the cause of freedom and didn’t hate, and often respected their enemies.
Paul the Apostle had much opposition and many adversaries in his good fight of faith and grace. He, too, fought to the death but didn’t hate his enemies. His enemies were the ones he was trying to help and save.
I would have to call that title a false dichotomy.
I tell my kids as they are becoming CCW age. If you need to use it, you will most likely be sending them to Hell.
I wish that I had the strength to love Democrats.
There are worse things than killing your enemy.
For instance,when the enemy teaches your toddlers about sex. And your supposed government pays for it.
IMNSHO that is worse than putting a bullet in someone’s head.
Loving our enemies comes from the same place in G-d that tells us to love the sinner. We know G-d does not mean for us to love the sin. We are to condem the sin.
G-d also does not want us to love a war an enemy commits against us. He expects us to condem the war. The problem comes when we fail to sperate the two parts and wind up not codemning the bad that the sin or the enemy is doing.
I think that CS Lewis said
“I have often thought to myself how it would have been if, when I served in the first World War, I and some young German had killed each other simultaneously and found ourselves together a moment after death. I cannot imagine that either of us would have felt any resentment or even any embarrassment. I think we might have laughed over it (p. 119).” Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Lewis thought war horrible, but not the worst thing that could happen to us. To kill or to be killed in war is not murder. Rather, war is a species of punishment that may require our death or the death of the enemy, but we cannot hate or enjoy hating those we kill.
You don’t have to allow evil to love your enemy. Stop him... and pray for his salvation. We are Easter people. We long for resurrection and Heaven. There are times when you have to usher some people on their way.
Love them to death...
All depends on how the words “love” and “hate” are defined. I’ve always maintained there are circumstances where hate can rightfully be considered a virtue.
Regarding this paragraph:
“Some might quip in facetious response, “So, it looks like this? Before the sniper shoots the enemy in the head, he mutters under his breath, ‘Jesus loves you, and so do I. Here’s a token of my love. Bang!’””
It gave me this sarcastic thought “It is easier to kill the enemy if he is a godless commie.”
Brown has written a good article.
Let us separate a national need and act from an individual need and act.
Just as it is clearly correct and needful to protect innocents from unlawful violence and crime, it is often needful for a nation to defend itself and even be offensive against an aggressor nation.
As a combat veteran I can tell you that the act of combat is much different than that of murder. While the individual warriors are required to act in concert and collectively or individually to accomplish a national requirement, the individual act is held accountable under our laws of both war and crime. Perhaps not so with others, but as a nation we do not easily tolerate the murderous on the battlefield, but certainly expect valor and fierceness against the enemy in combat.
As a husband and father, I will kill, if need be, to protect my family, I will not employ force outside that simple and concise equation of just war- unlawful force is to be met with defensive force, countervailing up to lethal force if required, and then ceased and sheathed.
As Solomon records in Ecclesiastes, the whole duty of man is to love God, keep his commandments, love your neighbor and the rest is circumstance. Paraphrasing of course.
Often, we hear of the need to love our enemies and do good to those that spitefully abuse- and I practice that as often as the occasion arises. However, the limit is clear- unlawful force is to be resisted as both a man and as a Believer. Either that force will relent, or escalate, and they are responsible for the outcome, not the innocent. Just as our laws across the several states (with exceptions, like CA/MA/NY etc) the unlawful aggressor is subject to lawful force, both by the state and by its citizens.
I’ll turn my cheek to a brother who ceremoniously backhands me, as a man subject to grace, but I will not, ever, submit to unlawful force of any kind.
Now, if we look at persecution for Christs sake alone, then that may be the place and situation to not resist and submit to such abuse, but I will have to see that a long way off before I lay down my arms and allow unlawful force to be applied to me or mine. I will not.
While not a scripture, the principle stands “evil flourishes when good men do nothing”.
We obviously are seeing that at many levels of state and federal govt. They bear the responsibility for their nonfeasance. Why do we see millions of new gun owners annually in the US? Reasonable people are seeing the writing on the wall so to speak- if govt abdicates its public duty to not allow nor tolerate unlawful force and violence, then it is incumbent on the people personally to so do.
Christmas, WWI. Ardennes Forest. Germans and Americans freezing to death, together. Christmas Eve, and faint singing heard at the front lines. Troops from both sides honored white flag and shared Christmas together. Made friends they hoped they wouldn’t have to kill the next day.
I’m trying to remember any military actions Jesus was involved in or commented on.
You can love him in a certain minimal way, because he has value as a living being in the image of God. But you also have the perfect right to preserve and protect your own God-given natural rights (the perfect right of self defense) in a way that may require use of force against him.
https://youtu.be/i1Nh_3JCFj8?t=72
People see Jesus how they want sometimes. If you want war, it’s “war Jesus”.