LOVE THINE ENEMY
This is Here and Now for me - so I will feel ill pressed if I do not let this riff out to express it. Because it’s a reoccurring theme for me lately, as I am drawing closer and closer to Christ within me over the course of the last 3 months. This very specific subject will just not go away, and it was tripped again for me just now as I was listening to Jesus’s Sermon On The Mount.
Matthew 5:43-44 He says “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.” AND I JUST CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT HOW MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY ALWAYS FOCUSES SO HEAVILY ON “THE ENEMY”. And although I know so many beautiful Christian souls that walk in purity of intent each day, since I’ve begun to imbue myself in spoken words about walking with Christ in a devotional sort of way the last few months - the biggest thing that keeps hitting me is THE ENEMY narrative over and over and over again. And every single time I hear of and ponder this notion, and I guess can be said this unfortunate reality, my mind keeps automatically going to all the wars we HUMANS are in all around the world. And I don’t mean just wars between nations, but wars within our own communities of all nature, wars within and between families, wars between neighbors and friends, etc. And who do these wars all break down to once we go far enough with pointing the finger? : OURSELVES
My minds eye literally sees us at war with our own selves.
In no way shape or form am I denying that spiritual warfare isn’t a very real thing, and something that all humans would do well to be mindful of (not just Christians). And I do absolutely believe and know that Satan is this personality that oppresses anyone that he can - not just Christians. But what if the role that he plays as our antagonizer is just as divinely ordered as Christ’s is as our redeemer? Or what if we go even further down that rabbit hole and comprehend that if there was no oppression and imprisonment of souls from Satan, then Jesus would have never even been able to be so glorified and His miracles would never have even been such an expressed and marvelous thing, because there would have literally been no need for all of that here. JESUS IS EXEMPLARY IN ALL WAYS - YES! But we would have never even had such a need for the great and mighty works and legendary story of Jesus Christ, which still holds unrivaled living power to this day, without the serpent and the role that he played in deceiving humans in the first place. We can love and admire our Savior so much simply because of how “despicable our enemy is”. And in no way am I coming at this from a blasphemous perspective or tone. I have actually never been more enamored with Jesus Christ in my life as I am now, and how it just keeps continuing to grow each day. But as The Light keeps growing within me, my perspective and comprehension of the darkness keeps evolving as well.
When Satan tempted Jesus during his 40 days in the desert, it was at the height of Jesus’s mastery over his physical self and human compulsions to that day, because he had not yet been crucified. I feel it is so interesting that Satan himself came to Jesus during that time of extreme abstinence and self denial when Jesus was in the act of intentionally purifying himself. And I feel it is such a proper fitting scene that is laid out in that exchange, because that is essentially how I personally feel about Satan’s ordained role in the lives of every human being. He can literally offer us the world, but just like Jesus did… we can also say NO! And Jesus had so much faith and self control that He didn’t get dramatic in how He responded, He didn’t become fearful of failing these tests, He just simply pulled His spiritual rank with conviction and told Satan to shut up and be gone. And that was that!
And then I think about the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden… and how the blame game we humans continue to play to this very day is as ancient as the story of creation itself. How Eve blamed the serpent, and how Adam blamed Eve… how everyone alive today generally blames everyone else for the degraded state of the world - especially Satan. And all I think about now is how disempowering the blame game is in any situation in life - and I speak from first hand perspective of this, because I lived in victimhood for so long, and my life was a wreck because of it. It was my own humanity that I could not get a hold of, and so Satan was having a hay day in my body and mind. I was not practicing self discipline with my mindset, I was not practicing healthy physical routines and diet (I am still working on this daily)… and in those days “my enemy” was winning. Or I feel it would be more honestly said that in those days I was simply failing MYSELF. And I was not only failing myself, I was failing my son, my loved ones that actually were supporting me during those times and also my savior that walked this Earth and died to show me that me overcoming such suppression/oppression was not just possible but also my birthright.
A well known exorcist of the Catholic Church, Fr. Chad Ripperger speaks on the divinity of demonic oppression being used and allowed as a tool for human soul’s sanctifitation. “Diabolic attack is actually a sign of God’s predilection. It sounds counterintuitive, you would think that if God really loves somebody He would keep them from any form of diabolic attack. That’s only true in heaven. Because the demons are the instruments of our sanctification in this life, they become the means by which we grow holy. And so God will allow them to attack us (just like the story of Job). And God is willing to allow that because then He gives them the grace in their soul, but specifically gives them actual graces in their minds, and actual grace enlightens the mind and strengthens the will. And this means that God wants to give His people levels of grace, because to combat the diabolic as I mentioned, requires even stronger effort than it does just to build natural virtue.”
What I’m saying is that we can’t just keep being a collective of hypocrites and expect anything to change in this world. We can’t say that we believe in living healthy physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally and then keep repeating the same toxic cycles in our lives that keep producing the same unhealthy results. And I personally feel it is weak and degraded when a Christian will use Christ’s blood sacrifice as their permission slip into heaven, while still living like little devils in human form. We can’t say that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and then fail to make strides to literally LIVE LIKE HIM EVERYDAY. He practiced so much self discipline, spiritual fortitude, and long suffering every day and every way.
“Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” Revelations 14:12
Even the Bible says this isn’t a time to be messin around. This isn’t a time to be taken lightly… not by faith nor by deed. Yes, we are covered by God’s grace and His sacrifice for our sins… but also straight and narrow is The Way. If anyone is able to be deceived, or to succumb to worldly compulsions at this time, which would result in a spiritual death… then apparently so be it. And it wouldn’t be anybody else’s fault but our very own.
I’m just so over “THE ENEMY” narrative all across the board. Not just in regards to satan against the saints, but also how it all plays out on the world scene between…. everyone. I feel it is such an old and boring story at this point. And since we are supposedly reaching such heightened levels of human intelligence and creative evolutions… I personally feel we can all do so much better. We can take more ownership of how WE CHOOSE to harness our creative powers and perspective. And I don’t point fingers outwardly without one directed back to myself, either.
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“FORGIVENESS is the final form of LOVE.” - Reinhold Niebuhr
Think about this from Jesus’s perspective - just how much He had to forgive each one of us “sinners”
And then think about this in relationship to “The Enemy”
And lastly, but most importantly, think about this in relationship to oneself.
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“But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?” // Mark Twain
(Not pray TO Satan….prays FOR Satan)
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BE THE LIGHT
“Love is an accelerant. Like gasoline. You pour it on something and it makes it burn brighter and hotter. If that's joy and happiness, good. If it's not...
You see the opposite of love isn't hate, it's fear. And the opposite of hate isn't love, it's compassion.
You can't outlove hate. Hate doesn't need to be loved. It doesn't want to be loved. What it wants and what it needs desperately is to be forgiven.
Hate is the wailing child clad in an armor of broken glass. And it doesn't need to burn hotter, it needs to be soothed. And it takes a very rare and special person to hug something made of broken glass.” // unknown
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I wonder what would happen IF…