Could This Single Phrase from Jesus Be Key to the Next Revival? by KYLE WINKLER for Charisma News
I often liken Jesus to a spiritual wrecking ball to the religious culture of His day. That is, His ministry obliterated many of the long-held beliefs taught by their most esteemed leaders.
To recount a few of His taboos: He healed on the Sabbath, spoke to women in public and interacted with Samaritans. All of these, according to the teachings of the time, were huge no-no’s. Yet Jesus did them anyway, undoing years of flawed Scripture interpretation and man-made traditions.
And consequently, revealing the true character of God.
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One of my favorite culture-shattering teachings of Jesus is one scholars attribute to the explosive growth of the early church. And it happens to be a lesson we ought to desperately follow in our own culture, even as I write.
The Old Law vs. the New Law
In the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He interjects: “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy” (Matt. 5:43b, NLT). This was standard practice at the time. The original words used in the verse explain it further. “Neighbor,” in Greek, is plesion, meaning anyone nearby or part of the group. “Enemy” is echthros, a somewhat broad term to indicate those who are different, be it religiously, politically or personally. In other words, Jesus instructs, “You have heard the law that says to love those who are like you and hate those who aren’t.”
Now, it should be said that such a law to hate enemies is nowhere in the Old Testament. Quite the opposite actually. Through Moses, God instructed to “love [strangers] as yourself” (Lev. 19:34b, MEV). Yet, in the years between the Ten Commandments and the birth of Christ, religious leaders added many laws of their own. Hating an enemy was one of them.
But in a radical correction to the tradition, Jesus continues: “I say to you, love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44)! In other words, He instructed His followers to love those who aren’t like them. Those who don’t look, act or believe like them. Even those who are hostile toward them.
The Key to Explosive Growth
Fascinatingly, early church history reveals that Jesus’ followers took His “love command” to heart. So much so that the phrase “love your enemies” is quoted 26 times by 10 authors in early church writings. What makes this so significant? This means “love your enemies” is the most cited and shared verse in the first 300 years of Christianity.
