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Love Your Enemies

           Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. (I Peter 3:8)

          “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, (Luke 6:27)

          There are two things I doubt Charlie Kirk would have wanted as a result of his death. The first is to be made out to be better than he was. I’m not saying anything against him. I’m speaking against those who would make an idol of him. The second is to have others respond in his name in precisely the manner he rejected or to make a weapon of him. One meme I saw said something about killing him resulting in the creation of 12 million of him, but if any of those 12 million are belligerent, they are not him or his followers. To be a new Charlie Kirk means educating oneself.

I suspect he would suggest we start turning to Christ, since Christ was one of the themes of his message. And Christ made it clear in the second passage above. We are to love our enemies. And if you prefer Martin Luther King, Jr., then I suggest you learn his principles (Outline, The Philosophy of Nonviolence | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute). The use of any of these men as a justification for hatred and violence is to reject what they stood for. To hate is to become like those one hates, or worse. To pronounce that you will unfriend anyone who dares say this or that is to hate.

The passage in I Peter is addressed to Christians about Christians, but that doesn’t free us to abuse or attack those who aren’t Christians. The second passage makes that clear. We’re to treat them as friends and potential friends – not to the point of endangering ourselves or our loved ones unnecessarily, but to the point of not acting as an enemy to them.

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