The Good and Beautiful Life, Chapter 7 – Love Your Enemies, Discussion Questions
Kinship Group Discussion Questions – 4/3/2020
An additional observation to Chapter 7.
The Human heart and the motives that proceed from it are powerful. In the Original, right way it was a force of Good that enjoyed the backing of the blessings and resources of God.
This Heart learned disobedience and sin, yet it is still formidable. Further, God continues to respect each Soul’s personhood. In other words, God will not force anyone to do anything. True, He uses circumstance and His managing of our Hearts to achieve His Goals – but no one has ever found Salvation and said “This is not what I want, it was against my will.”
We can strive to follow the commands of Jesus concerning loving those who hate us, without any further consideration as to why. True, this is one of His expectations, and He arguably owes us no explanation.
But, we enjoy a God Who offers us charity by oftentimes explaining why. It’s not because His commands need justification, but instead it can help us to see His depth and Character, and maybe even help us see ourselves.
The sinful Human Heart is a fortress, and it’s respected by God. Consider Rev 3.20 – “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hears My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
All of us are given the reserved right to choose to respond to Him. On top of that, He alone can move and quicken a Human’s Heart.
If these things are so, perhaps we could consider the Human Heart – in its current, ‘natural’ state – to be a locked up fortress. Only the occupant can unlock the door and open it from the inside. While God could surely force His way in, He instead beckons and makes way to convince the Rebel to let Him enter.
With all of this, if we turn to Jesus’ commands on how to love and respond to those who (like us) have selfish tendencies that hurt others, His prescription appears to show that we are participating in His Work to beckon the Rebel. 1 Cor 13b is one example of Scripture that assures us the greatest force amongst faith, hope and love, is, love.
Showing love towards offenders is powerful because that loving response does nothing to add to the fire of the rebelling Heart. Instead, the Love and provision of God demonstrated through Christ in us is the overwhelming force that calls to the Rebel to open the door.
In our responding as Jesus commands, we are:
- Not adding to the problem
- Reflecting Christ as His vessel, and
- Exposing the Rebel to the greatest force God has created against the sin that enslaves Mankind
Discussion Questions
- What have you experienced after “Turning the other Cheek” or any other show of love towards an offender?
- How about your experience after doing the opposite?
- Have you found it difficult or easy to follow these precepts?