Thanks for your encouragements . . . quite so . . . though I’m not always quite as convinced or . . . don’t always feel quite as led to the same perspective on
no fire with fire! LOL.
I significantly do . . . not sure if 51% or more—probably . . . just not always precisely the same perspectve . . .
I think the personal self-defensive fire with fire is virtually always in error . . . mostly . . .
But that there is a time to respond or assert on an issue with
more or less equally fierce intensity.
God is often subtle . . . evidently needs to be to avoid overwhelming us.
On the other hand . . . along with different fingers, there’s lightening, earthquakes, . . . and birds of rare plumage . . . LOL.
Of a truth, self-defense is an instinctive reaction of man - e.g. to raise his arm when someone is about to strike a blow - or to return a blow, especially in the hope of making it stop.
It takes enormous Spiritual discipline to turn the other cheek - it requires living the Great Commandment, loving God surpassing above all else, putting His will above our instinctive self-defense.
Letting go and letting God.
I suspect that we all struggle with it:
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have [thy] cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. - Matthew 5:38-48
It is not what we think or say or do but Whose we are, where we live, in Whom we abide. We are not perfect, He is.
There is only One Great Commandment.
To God be the glory!