Session 10 - Love Your Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.Matthew 5:43-48 English Standard Version (ESV)
Right now, PM Trudeau is pushing the US into a trade war with their status quo way of thinking. Trump was trying to force the Canadian deligate to move along with a tariff, and the Canadian team responded by getting involved with a tariff war. Here is what should have been done:
- figure out which Canadian Industries are due for a repurpose;
- figure out which American Indistries need the same;
- figure out how those industries can be retooled to benefit both countries;
- allow subsidies on both side to help each country boost up those industries;
- sign the new FTA that will benefit both countries, boost both ecomonies, and get more people employed.
That is how you make friends.Now, from today's session, the challenge is to do the same strategic thinking with a person. That choice person is easy to think of, but not easy to come up with a plan. Why? Because it is personal.This person was a friend whom I kind of grew up with at church. The funny thing is this very passage will cause great argument between us. As a matter of fact, it did. For some reason he had a distinct hatred toward the Communist China Government. It is not just a simple distrust or dislike, but an outright hatred. So much so that he often wish all of them dead. He firmly believe only then God's just is demonstrated.As you might have guessed, I do not agree with that kind of thinking.Before I blocked him on Facebook, he repeatedly accusing me of being unChristlike and unbecoming of a Christian for not condemning, cursing, or hate anyone who are from the Communist China. His interpretation of Micah 6:8 is to act out justice, and not yielding to that interpretation and align with his stand are, indeed "Satan worshippers".He really hated this passage."Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".I have absolutely no idea how I can resolve this. So long as he maintain his blind hatred toward his "enemy", there is no way he will "forgive" me and make amend. I had to block him because he was the one who yell and scream and even swearThere was another friend who is also in the same Sunday School class we were in whom I had to block for the same reason. He came to term with the misinterpretation of the Bible and how he needs to change his attitude toward China, and we are back to being friends and have our constructive discussion over how our attitude toward China should be.Every time I visit Hong Kong, now, I no longer attend my home church to avoid conflicts. Not that I am complaining, because that gave me more chance to see my niece and her family. However, now and then I will see picture of him and his wife and I wanted to cry because I do not feel like we can talk. I hate that.Lord have mercy.