A Christian Living series
The OC Law of Moses, read: Lev 19:16-18; 33-34:
16 NLT best captures the sense:
Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened.
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart";
18 "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge."
NOTE: the "neighbor," i.e., "brother" = fellow Israelites only!
34 "treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself."
NOTE: sounds like the so-called Golden Rule of Jesus, right?
So what was novel about the NC Law of Jesus when it comes to loving your enemy? Mat 5:38-48
v.44, unqualified Love of enemy, i.e., love your enemy only if...;
v.38 Jesus directly overturns other OC laws that authorized violent, even lethal actions.
Read, Leviticus 24:15-23
v.20 Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him. cp. Ex 21.24;
v.23 “They took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him.”
Read, Deuteronomy 19:16-21
v.21, You must show no pity: Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
NOTE: Lev 19:34 love your neighbor as yourself a qualified commandment!
Hays, Moral Vision of the NT, pp. 324-25:
The Torah “prohibits murder, but Jesus forbids even anger. [In Mat 5.38-42] Jesus actually overrules the Torah [e.g.,] Deuteronomy insists, ‘Show no pity,’ Jesus says, 'Do not resist an evildoer.’ [The Torah’s] concern for maintaining stability and justice is supplanted by Jesus’ concern to encourage nonviolent, long-suffering generosity on the part of those who are wronged. This extraordinary change of emphasis constitutes a paradigm shift that effectually undermines the Torah’s teaching about just punishment for offenders.”
Did his Apostles practiced what Jesus preached? Read, Luke 9:51-56
Some mss. add to v.55, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man came not to destroy people's lives but to save them."
Read, Mat 26.47-56
v.52 Tertullian writing in the 2nd c. “In disarming Peter, Christ disarms all Christians.”
Overturning yet another OC Law, Ex 22.2, a home intruder "beaten to death" yet "no one is guilty of bloodshed."
v.54 fulfilling Luke 26:
36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
Hays, Moral Vision:
“There’s no foundation whatever in the Gospel of Matthew for the notion that violence in defense of a third party is justifiable. In fact, Matt 26.51-52 serves as an explicit refutation of this idea.”
The violent followers of Jesus typified by Gamaliel's speech: Read, Acts 5.35-39
Jesus attracted non-religious, non-leaders;
Some government officials (taxman);
Some violent Insurrectionists (Zealots); e.g., “Simon the patriot,” Luke 6.12-16;
A sword-wielding, violent Peter, John 18:10;
A violent blaspheming persecutor of the church, Paul, 1Tim 1.13.
Pentecost pacifists:
Peter: 1 Peter 3.9-14.
Paul: Rom 12.9-21;
The separation of Christians with any violent state: Rom 13:1-7; cp. 1Pet 2.12-14.
NOTE: Obedience, honor to the State does not mean joining the State!
Remember, the gods of the nations are demons: Ps 95.5!
Summary:
The sermon on the mount was a direct, overt rejection of the tit-for-tat, quid pro quo of the Law of Moses!
The parading shift: Matt 5.38f.; 26.52
"Whoever lives by the sword WILL DIE by the sword."
Jesus the new Moses: Mat 2.15; cp. John 1.17.
The Golden Rule of Jesus redefines, summarizes “the Law and the prophets” (Matt 7:12).
Mercy now overrides sacrifices (Mat 9.13; 12.7; cf. Hos 6.6).
Mercy now overrides the OC civil, judicial system: death penalty, Mat 5.27-28.
The non-violent spiritual church has no business with the violent, demonized nation-states of this present evil age: Rom 12-13; cp. Ps 95.5LXX, "The gods of the nations are demons"!
NOTE: In the NT Christian lethal violence is always eschatological, i.e., pertaining to the ge to come, the establishment of the KOG!
Violent, even lethal God-ordained justice/revenge is coming, Daniel 7!
Your imprecatory prayers (Luke 9.54, "fire from heaven") will finally be answered (Luke 19.27, bring my enemies before me and YOU slaughter them!).
