The Good and Beautiful Life, Chapter 7 – Love Your Enemies, Discussion Questions
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?