"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26 NIV).
“You
have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He
causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on
the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you,
what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than
others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48 NIV).
Jesus
taught that we should love our enemies. It is said that this is
impossible for humans to do without the intercession of God. I would
like to discuss the logic structure that complements divine
intercession. Humans have a tremendous need for justice. We are hurt
by our enemy because their ad
hominem opposition to us represents an attempt to
invalidate our sense of worthiness—perhaps even to the point of
homicide. Thus, justice demands retribution.
The
Christian belief system sets in place a structure that outflanks such
attacks and precludes the infliction of hurt. This is because a
believer accepts the proposition that God – a transcendental being
– loves him and finds him worthy. David said that he has sinned
against God alone. Likewise our focus for final validation is on God
alone rather than man. From this perspective our enemy does not
impact through their hatred a hurt that in human terms calls for
retribution. That is so because we are receiving absolute and
transcendental validation from God and it is to him alone that we
look for validation. (God is his own validation and does not require
us to validate him, thereby our freedom is real.)
That
is why it is so important for leaders to be believers. In leadership
positions one usually has enemies—or less dramatically,
opposition—aplenty. It is extremely poisonous and disruptive to the
process of task definition when this critical activity is sidetracked
by tit for tat acrimony. This can only be avoided from the
perspective induced by belief. The believer does not retaliate since he
has not been hurt in the first place. And he has not been hurt in the
first place because he receives all necessary validation
transcendentally from the heavenly father. Leaders who are believers
do not become sidetracked by internecine one-upmanship in the
infliction of pain. A believing leader can therefore be task focused
rather than preoccupied with pursuit of revenge.
The
reason I quoted Luke 14:26 is to demonstrate that even in family
relationships one’s loyalty is ultimately to God alone. And this
transcendental relationship brings with it absolute validation by
God. Another way of putting this is that by being a believer in the
home, the believer frees his relatives from love’s duress – the
blackmail of codependency is absent. So paradoxically, by “hating”
loved ones, the believer imbues his family relationships with true
freedom.
To
illustrate points discussed here I refer to the “Little Joke”.
The cantilever can be viewed as the ultimate focus (line of sight)
directed to God alone:
http://www.wayneblogs.com/2013/03/the-abiding-little-joke-revisited.html
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