NAB MAT 5:43
"You have heard the commandment, ‘You shall love your countryman but hate your enemies.’ My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors.
**NAB LEV 19:17 **
"You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."
To understand how to now love your enemies, it is good to look at how Moses loved and prayed for his countryman who persecuted and hated him. Moses slays three thousand of his countrymen to protect the body of the Israelite Church. He then prays for and offers up his eternal soul (tuns the other cheek) for those who have pesecuted him.
**NAB EXO 32:17 **
When Moses realized that, to the scornful joy of their foes, Aaron had let the people run wild, he stood at the gate of the camp and cried,** “Whoever is for the Lord, let him come to me!” All the Levites then rallied to him, and he told them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Put your sword on your hip everyone of you! Now go up and down the camp, from gate to gate, and slay your own kinsmen, your friends and neighbors!” The Levites carried out the command of Moses, and that day there fell about three thousand of the people.**“On the next day Moses said to the people,
“You have committed a grave sin. I will go up to the LORD, then; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.” So Moses went back to the LORD and said,
"Ah, this people has indeed committed a grave sin in making a god of gold for themselves! If you would only *forgive *their sin! If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written.”
**NAB REV 3:5 **
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The victor will thus be dressed in white, and** I will never erase his name from the book of life** but will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and of his angels.
The LORD answered,
"Him only who has sinned against me will I strike out of my book. Now, go and lead the people whither I have told you. My angel will go before you.
When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin." Thus the LORD smote the people for having had Aaron make the calf for them.
Pope John Paul II is a loveing, “cheek turning” man. Still he is not going to disband armed Italian Vatican police or Church excommunication which protect himself and Christ’s flock.
Christ’s Last Supper command to the Apostles to arm themselves is not about duck hunting.
**NAB LUKE 22:35 **
“…And the man without a sword must sell his coat and buy one.” Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
ILOVEYOUGOD.com
