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MI7BZ3EW on scored.co
1 month ago3 points(+0/-0/+3Score on mirror)3 children
St. Cyril missed the point of Jesus' sermon.
First, the Law of Moses was given to Israel and sets in place rules for how they were supposed to deal with themselves. Very little of the law has to do with the people outside of Israel, and most of that is "Don't pick up their culture, religion or habits."
God was obsessed with how Israelites treated other Israelites. Don't rape each other. Don't murder each other. Don't steal from each other. If you hurt each other, make amends and restitution.
Heck, in the Law of Moses, there was a procedure where you could tell a murderer "We are not going to hunt you down anymore." It went something like this. The family of the murderer would come to the victim's family and beg for forgiveness. Then the leader of the victim's family would swear an oath that he would not get vengeance for murder. Once that testimony has been sworn, it was unlawful for the brothers of the victim to kill the murderer.
When Jesus amended the Law of Moses on the Sermon on the Mount, he wasn't telling jews of Israel how to treat Romans and Greeks. He was talking about INTERNAL FEUDS. Thus, the ENEMY he was referring to was OTHER ISRAELITES. It had NOTHING to do with Romans or Greeks.
Forgiving your ENEMY meant saying, or swearing, "I am not going to pursue justice" against people living in your community. It was a big deal because you could end feuds and violence all with a few words. You could restore entire towns back to sanity. "Love your enemies" meant showing kindness and compassion to people IN YOUR COMMUNITY who had wronged you. If someone stole your cow, and you found he was starving, you were supposed to allow him to glean from your harvest. You can settle the issue with the cow later. But in the meantime, just because you have a beef with someone does not mean you should stop showing charity and kindness to them.
"Love", by the way, is an ACTION VERB, not a sentiment or feeling. "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR" meant actually helping your neighbor. It meant showing up with food and clothing when they had a disaster, or helping them tend their fields if they are injured, or standing up for them when their character is assaulted by others.
As far as OUTSIDERS go, Jesus gave a few directions for dealing with them. "If you are compelled to walk 1 mile" -- because at the time, Roman law stated that soldiers could compel locals to carry their pack for 1 mile and no more -- "Walk with him 2". In other words, Rome has conquered you, and you HAVE to submit to them, and you might as well pay 2x what you owe them in tribute.
Since its original founding, Christianity had been forming communities. These communities were isolated from the local populations NOT because the Christians isolated themselves, but because THEY isolated them from the community. Jesus never intended for things to go that way. He wanted Christians to be a part of the community they live in.
As time went on, the isolation turned into separation, and soon, you had entire cities made up of Christians alone, with neighboring cities of pagans or whatever. And what would eventually happen was the pagans or whatever would wage war on the Christians. And how were the Christians to respond? Obviously, they were to wage war right back at them, until they relented and agreed to peace. During such a war, were they supposed to "Love their enemy"? Of course not. It's a ridiculous concept. When you're laying siege to a city, do you give them food and water?
Today we live in a world where we have nations. The civilized world is mostly Christian. We owe OURSELVES everything, but we owe foreign nations NOTHING. In fact, we had better treat them as enemies as much as they do to us. Should we feed a starving nation when they are trying to wage war against us? Ridiculous.
First, the Law of Moses was given to Israel and sets in place rules for how they were supposed to deal with themselves. Very little of the law has to do with the people outside of Israel, and most of that is "Don't pick up their culture, religion or habits."
God was obsessed with how Israelites treated other Israelites. Don't rape each other. Don't murder each other. Don't steal from each other. If you hurt each other, make amends and restitution.
Heck, in the Law of Moses, there was a procedure where you could tell a murderer "We are not going to hunt you down anymore." It went something like this. The family of the murderer would come to the victim's family and beg for forgiveness. Then the leader of the victim's family would swear an oath that he would not get vengeance for murder. Once that testimony has been sworn, it was unlawful for the brothers of the victim to kill the murderer.
When Jesus amended the Law of Moses on the Sermon on the Mount, he wasn't telling jews of Israel how to treat Romans and Greeks. He was talking about INTERNAL FEUDS. Thus, the ENEMY he was referring to was OTHER ISRAELITES. It had NOTHING to do with Romans or Greeks.
Forgiving your ENEMY meant saying, or swearing, "I am not going to pursue justice" against people living in your community. It was a big deal because you could end feuds and violence all with a few words. You could restore entire towns back to sanity. "Love your enemies" meant showing kindness and compassion to people IN YOUR COMMUNITY who had wronged you. If someone stole your cow, and you found he was starving, you were supposed to allow him to glean from your harvest. You can settle the issue with the cow later. But in the meantime, just because you have a beef with someone does not mean you should stop showing charity and kindness to them.
"Love", by the way, is an ACTION VERB, not a sentiment or feeling. "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR" meant actually helping your neighbor. It meant showing up with food and clothing when they had a disaster, or helping them tend their fields if they are injured, or standing up for them when their character is assaulted by others.
As far as OUTSIDERS go, Jesus gave a few directions for dealing with them. "If you are compelled to walk 1 mile" -- because at the time, Roman law stated that soldiers could compel locals to carry their pack for 1 mile and no more -- "Walk with him 2". In other words, Rome has conquered you, and you HAVE to submit to them, and you might as well pay 2x what you owe them in tribute.
Since its original founding, Christianity had been forming communities. These communities were isolated from the local populations NOT because the Christians isolated themselves, but because THEY isolated them from the community. Jesus never intended for things to go that way. He wanted Christians to be a part of the community they live in.
As time went on, the isolation turned into separation, and soon, you had entire cities made up of Christians alone, with neighboring cities of pagans or whatever. And what would eventually happen was the pagans or whatever would wage war on the Christians. And how were the Christians to respond? Obviously, they were to wage war right back at them, until they relented and agreed to peace. During such a war, were they supposed to "Love their enemy"? Of course not. It's a ridiculous concept. When you're laying siege to a city, do you give them food and water?
Today we live in a world where we have nations. The civilized world is mostly Christian. We owe OURSELVES everything, but we owe foreign nations NOTHING. In fact, we had better treat them as enemies as much as they do to us. Should we feed a starving nation when they are trying to wage war against us? Ridiculous.