{"id":5337,"date":"2011-12-20T21:21:34","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T02:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=5337"},"modified":"2011-12-20T21:21:34","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T02:21:34","slug":"you-have-heard-it-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/12\/20\/you-have-heard-it-said\/","title":{"rendered":"You have heard it said"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Just a small bit more here on that passage in Romans I\u2019ve been referring to as Paul\u2019s mini-Sermon on the Mount<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I call it that because it closely follows many of the things that Jesus taught in that sermon in the Gospels. Paul wasn\u2019t quoting the Gospels \u2014 he was writing years, maybe even decades earlier \u2014 but what he says very closely parallels those teachings of Jesus.<\/p>\n

At a couple of points, though, Paul is a bit more accommodating, in a way. First there\u2019s that bit we discussed in the previous post, where he acknowledges the desire to heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies. The Gospels don\u2019t record Jesus saying that, but I appreciate it, because it acknowledges that loving our enemies is hard<\/em> \u2014 that it isn\u2019t something we\u2019re going to want<\/em> to do.<\/p>\n

The second difference is that, unlike Jesus, Paul doesn\u2019t say,<\/em> \u201clove your enemies\u201d \u2014 at least not in so many words. He tells us not to repay evil for evil. He tells us to bless those who curse us. And he says, \u201cif your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

What all of that means in practice, of course, is \u201clove your enemies.\u201d But it helps to remind us that \u201clove your enemies\u201d doesn\u2019t mean anything apart from what it means in practice.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to think of love as primarily an emotion \u2014 a tender affection, a fondness, a feeling<\/em> of warm regard. Paul isn\u2019t concerned with your feelings. He pretty much assumes that what you\u2019ll feel<\/em> like doing is heaping burning coals on your enemies\u2019 heads. He doesn\u2019t tell us not<\/em> to feel that \u2014 only to act as though we felt differently. It\u2019s the actions that matter.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded again of some lines from Leonard Cohen:<\/p>\n

I hated everyone
\nbut I acted generously
\nand no one found me out<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think Paul could relate to that.<\/p>\n

Or maybe that\u2019s just projection on my part, because I<\/em> certainly can relate to that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a small bit more here on that passage in Romans I\u2019ve been referring to as Paul\u2019s mini-Sermon on the Mount. I call it that because it closely follows many of the things that Jesus taught in that sermon in the Gospels. Paul wasn\u2019t quoting the Gospels \u2014 he was writing years, maybe even decades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-5337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible"],"yoast_head":"\nYou have heard it said<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just a small bit more here on that passage in Romans I've been referring to as Paul's mini-Sermon on the Mount. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"You have heard it said","description":"Just a small bit more here on that passage in Romans I've been referring to as Paul's mini-Sermon on the Mount. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}