I agree with this.



How did Jesus Christ treat His enemies? That is, when His enemies treated Him badly, how did He respond in return?

Jesus responded to His enemies in various ways. Sometimes He slipped away unnoticed. Sometimes He forgave them. Sometimes He rebuked them. Sometimes He outwitted them and left them feeling defeated and dumbfounded.

Everything Jesus did was for the good of others. While there was any chance, Jesus did what He could for His enemies. It was only when there was no more chance to save them that He rebuked them, and when He did so, there were tears in His voice. When He left them feeling defeated and dumbfounded, He did it in such a way, as far as possible, to lead them to Himself.

Here's an example of Jesus' tact. When Simon invited Jesus to a feast, in thanks for having healed him, Mary, Simon's niece, crashed the party. Simon said, to himself, "If He(Jesus) were a prophet, He would know what manner of woman this is." Mary had been led into sin by Simon himself. Simon's thoughts were the basest hypocrisy.

How did Jesus react? Did He expose him publicly? No. Jesus told Simon a story, a story that only Simon understood, that let him know that Jesus had read his heart, knew all about him, but still loved him. It was that love, that tact, that led Simon to become a believer.

Regarding the cross, what the cross teaches us is that Jesus died for His enemies, and at the hands of His enemies. Rather than call for legions of angels, rather than destroy them, He let them (apparently) destroy Him. He chose to be tortured and killed rather than act out of character.

When Jesus said "turn the other cheek," this is just what He did, and the cross demonstrates this more clearly than anything else could. It revealed the character of God, One who turns the other cheek, who walks the second mile, who gives His shirt when asked for a coat; unbelievably humble, kind, generous and compassionate is God.

Amen! Wonderful Savior! Please continue with the study. Thank you.

Ok, I'll try.

What made a big impact on me was realizing in a deeper way the truth that Jesus described in saying, "When you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." It's easy to picture Jesus as being humble, gracious, and being interested in your well-being in a non-threatening way, but not so easy to picture God in these terms.

When we think of God, His awesomeness comes to mind (i.e., awesome in terms of power). For example, thinking of the stars is just mind boggling. There are billions of galaxies, and the galaxies have billions of stars, some of which are so big that compared to our sun, they are bigger than our sun is compared to the earth. And the "billions" perhaps should be "trillions," at least for the number of galaxies, as I don't think this is even known, but guessed at. So just thinking of a being who could create all this is mind bending.

So when we think of God, His holiness, righteousness, justice, and awesome power are what tend to come to mind, as opposed to when we think of Jesus, and things like mercy, compassion, kindness, gentleness and humility come to mind. If you ask someone what they think of when they think of God, they'll likely say "Judge." Jesus referred to God as "Father" I can't remember how many times, but something over a hundred and less than two hundred, but never as "judge" IIRC. This isn't to make any point regarding "judge," but to make the point that Jesus was attempting to get us to view God in a different way.

After considering this, it became clear to me in a more powerful way just how humble and gracious, as well as patient, God is.

I began learning about God when I was 15 years old (1975) through Uncle Arthur. I viewed the Father and the Son as equally kind and loving. I've never thought of the Father as less kind and loving. I realize, though, there are people who view the Father as harsh and vindictive.

Sometimes people are unaware of the biases they hold. Jesus alluded to this. This is actually the problem of the Laodicean church. It's very difficult for God to heal people who don't think they have a problem.

Please continue with the study.

John tells us that no one has seen God at any time, but Jesus Christ, His only Son, who knew Him best, has shown us what God is really like.

Jesus said He did the things He saw His Father doing, and said the things He heard His Father saying. Where did He hear and see His Father? In the Scriptures.

So Jesus presented a picture of the Father very different than that which we ordinarily think of. This means that Jesus' view of the Father is different than ours.

Who will we believe? Are we willing to let go of our view in exchange for His?

I think this is what Jesus had in mind when He spoke of not being able to put new wine in old wineskins. This is a metaphor for our paradigms.

Amen! We need to make sure our view of the Father coincides with Jesus' view. Please continue with the study. Thank you.