Biblical ‘Love Your Enemies’ VS Atheist ‘Tolerance’
Brad Stine breaks down the difference between the Biblical mandate to “love your enemies’ and Atheist ‘tolerance’.
Christianity teaches me that I have to love my enemies…I hate that!! Let’s talk.
I am a Christian and it’s not easy. Why? Because God commands me to do things that go against my nature! For example, Christianity commands me to have empathy towards people who hate me. It actually has the audacity to tell me to, and I quote, “Love my enemies”.
Wait… what? You sure that wasn’t a misprint, God?
Because, if that’s what you meant, then it’s proof of one thing at least: The Bible wasn’t written by man. Because no rational man, in his right mind, would ever say,”Love your enemies.”
If man had written it, it would have been more like, “Shoot your enemies”; or “Flee from your enemies”; or “Blow up your enemies”; or at least “DON’T HAVE ANY ENEMIES”
But, LOVE THEM?! That’s ridiculous!
Some people ask me why I allow so many hateful, bigoted, malicious, insulting, crass, evil comments from atheists and leftists on my thread down below. I mean, it is my channel and my site, I can block and delete anything I want. So, why leave ’em?
A couple reasons actually: 1) I am a Conservative, so I don’t just talk about free speech, I actually believe in it and prove it by giving it an audience. I actually try to practice what I preach. 2) I think it is essential to show the world what atheistic, postmodern/truth-relativistic ideology looks like.
What did Christianity leave culture compared to other religions or ideologies? Notice, apparently by their actions, leftists and atheists are under no obligation to be civil, kind, tolerant, or dignified. Notice their hatefulness, yet they exclude themselves from the scrutiny by claiming the hateful one is me.
Apparently, this self-delusion actually works for some humans. I have brought this up before. It appears that to the left, as long as they claim someone is hateful, their hate is somehow magically excluded from scrutiny! They exclude themselves because they have convinced themselves that since they are hating an evil person, their hate suddenly becomes virtuous.
If you don’t believe me, just read the threads posted below many of my previous posted episodes and comedy routines. This is not me attacking them, by the way. Their comments literally speak for themselves with THEIR NAMES ATTACHED! You’ll notice they will comment on even this observation I’m making right now and not perceive the irony or hypocrisy.
Of course, if you are aware of reality, I don’t need to explain that the violence, the bigotry and censorship of dissenting ideas in America is coming from the left. That’s not an indictment or a slander, it is simply the truth.
But here’s the grand dilemma. I am a Christian. A died-in-the wool Christ follower. Thus, I am stuck with the unenviable task of having to love these people. But how? How exactly does one love people that not only hate you but actually want you jailed – or at least marginalized and removed from the cultural table of ideas?
This harkens back to one of the most utilized terms on the internet: God is love.
But, here’s the question that so few Christians ask when confronted with this phrase. It is one of the techniques I teach to believers who are trying to be effective witnesses in regards to hot topic cultural issues.
DEFINE… YOUR… TERMS!
If someone says, “God is love”, you should reply, “Define ‘love.’” If someone says, “Everyone one should be treated equally”, you should say, “Define ‘equality’”.
Since this topic is Loving Your Enemy, let’s stick to that idea. What is love? Does love want the best for someone? Yes. Does love forgive? Yes. Does love deliver mercy? Yes. Is love kind? Yes. Is love fair? Yes.
Now ask: Does love judge behavior? Yes.
If you love someone and they cheat on you, can they say to you, “Don’t judge me because you love me”? Or, does love expect and demand loyalty as well? Is it love to discipline your child, or is that too judgmental? Does love say no sometimes?
Many times, in Christian America today, when someone uses the phrase, “God is love”, they are doing it to justify their sin. “Love” is used as a catch phrase to allow licentiousness. So, if loving your own family comes with a much more robust definition of love, and we are told to love our enemies and treat others as we want to be treated, then why would we expect to behave any differently towards our enemies?
First off, keep in mind that we are told in the Bible not to judge the unbeliever by the same standards as the believer, because they are outside the expectations of a redeemed soul. They aren’t in the family anyways, so their sin is simply a result of their nature. They are literally being true to their father, the devil. They are already condemned, so any sin or behavior doesn’t make them any more so.
No… truly loving someone is to want the best for them so much that you are willing to receive their wrath and indignation as a martyr, metaphorically, with the hope that your concern and continued love of them will model just what actual love looks like.
That is a lot to ask of Christians, since we readily admit we are the worst of humanity – which is exactly why Christ had to die or we didn’t stand a chance!
So all you haters of me out there… you are still welcome on my site. I will do my best to catch the missals you throw to hurt me, refashion them as a tool to promote civility and mutual respect without compromising my worldview or delivery system of comedy and sarcasm; and see if for a very few of you, you might actually find some hope and healing from your pain.
No promises, of course, because though I admit I am Christ follower, I also admit I usually suck at it.
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