Crusader War College

Link: http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=Matthew+7%3A7-11&section=0&version=csb&new=1&oq=&NavBook=mt&NavGo=7&NavCurrentChapter=7

I am going to juxtaposition two passages from the Sermon on the Mount that are conventionally not put side by side. The first is known and loved by Liberals: to quote to OTHERS of course:
The first is Matthew 5:38-48:

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

The second is Matthew 7:7-11

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

...

Some personal observations. It seems to me that many people who take seriously the Matthew 7 passage should also take the Matthew 5 passage equally seriously. Oftentimes, I find that such people do so incidentally and in passing: they don't really THINK about it all the time, but do acknowledge that they SHOULD.

However, it is my observation that there are many who take the Matthew 5 passage seriously, BUT DO NOT TAKE THE MATTHEW 7 PASSAGE EQUALLY SERIOUSLY. Indeed, I find such people to be covertly hostile to taking seriously any promise that has a material outcome. I'm not sure what motivates them: I used to think that they were motivated by a sense of fear of disappointment, that God would not come through for them, but now I am not so sure. Too many people in this category seem to be liberals, willing to grant that paryer is good, but just for YOU. Presumably, praying for your enemies is intended to change you, not your enemies.

My personal problem is that I do not believe that the Matthew 7 passage is true: I KNOW that the Matthew 7 passage is true. While there are obvious limitations on what one can ask for, the limitations are fail-safes, intended to preserve the requester: sometimes, having your prayers being granted IS the worst thing that could happen to you. The solution for this is some wisdom, a lot more humility, and a lot of prayer asking for guidance with respect for that which one should pray.

And THIS is precisely the dilemma that I realized I had several days back. I was fasting, as I have been since February, and was praying about this passage with regard to the Christian Peacemakers: I happen to know that Peggy Gish is planning on coming to Vidalia to speak at a local church, and I wondered what I should do about it. There was, of course, the problem of my having problems with the Matthew 5 passage: It is obvously hard to pray for your enemies if they are actively seeking to destroy you.

However, my belief in Matthew 7 vastly complicates things: It's not that I don't believe my prayers will be answered. I KNOW that my prayers, more often than not, ARE answered!

Consider the dilemma of Jonah: He was ordered by God to preach against Nineveh, and after a side trip through a great fish's belly, he got around to doing what God ordered. There was a mass revival for which true evangelists would give their left hands, cumulating in nearly universal repentance and pleading to God for mercy. God heard, and granted those prayers. Jonah was furious, not because this turn of events surprised him, but because it didn't: "I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." Even though they were all uniformly evil and refused to follow God, the kings of the Northern kingdom of Israel had a reputation for being merciful kings.

This point is very important: To me, an enemy is someone who violates God's law in the process of attacking an innocent. To me, it does not matter if the victim is me or another: Because I am part of mankind, an undeserved attack upon another is an attack upon me. In this day and age, letting a terrorist attack another without a response is to encourage him to eventually attack me. (Lefty liberals, by the way, believe the same thing: they viewed the attack on Iraq by Bush as an attack against the world order they desire, and thus made calls upon us to regard it as an attack against all. There is no difference in "principle" (if what a lefty liberal holds at the moment can be called "principle"), merely a difference in what is held as the "pertinent facts" of the attack.)

Thus, the call to pray for ones enemies poses a moral dilemma: if my prayers HELP my enemies to commit further atrocities, am I not morally implicated? And what if my prayers for my enemies are disregarded? My experience tells me that God rarely tells me that my prayers are being refused. My time is limited and valuable: I could be praying USEFULLY for the victims instead of praying USELESSLY for those God regards as undeserving.

One of the things I have learned about God is that, although He IS a God of Justice, He also is a God of Mercy that makes allowances for best effort compliance. "Continuous improvement" may have been made popular by Deming and the Japanese, but the requirement has been there ever since Adam ate the forbidden fruit.

The basis for my assertion can be best illustrated by an example. I believe in tithing, although I also know that there is no requirement in the New Testament to tithe. Tithing was something Abraham did, and that was obviously before the command to do so was given by God to Abraham's descendants at Sinai. There are promises associated with tithing, and although the writer of Hebrews asserts Christians have better promises, Jesus assures us that the old wine still has some good left in it. I have proven, to myself, the benefits of tithing. I teach my boys to tithe, and encourage others to do so. However, the vast majority of those who do not tithe are not in a sufficient economic position to fully tithe at a 10% level. Based on what I believe about God, I counsel them to start tithing at 1% of their income, but to not stop at 1%. There is no promise that God will bless someone who tithes at 1% AS IF they tithed at 10%, but if they promise, in prayer, to increase their giving to the 10% level as their situation permits, my experience tells me that God will respond with appropriate blessings so that the giver CAN keep that promise. Whether the giver WILL keep that promise is a different matter, but they cannot blame God when He stops blessing them extra when they, not He, renege on their promise.

Based on this, I decided that, although I definitely have problems with Matthew 5, I could start by praying, not for my enemies, but for help in understanding the Matthew 5 passage. If one has a command from God to do something, and they are not able to do it, the obvious thing to do is for one to confess that they cannot do it and to pray for help on how to do it. As I have said in other posts, I have been fasting 5 days a week since February of 2006, and have already received several revelations on other issues vital to me, so I felt that this was a good time to settle this as well.

And I was not disappointed.

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