Jesus tells us that most people love their family and friends but hate their enemies. Then He tells us we should love not only our friends and family but we should love our enemies. And when Jesus tells us to love our enemies I'm pretty sure He meant don't kill them.Christians in history practiced non-violence until Constantine. That you can find plenty of reading material on. David was prevented from building the first Temple because he was a man of war.
"But this word of the Lord came to me: 'You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight." (1 Chronicles 22:8)
In Matthew 5:39 Jesus says do not resist evil. But the word translated as resist in Greek is almost always used in connection with violence so Jesus is not saying do not resist, be passive. He is saying do not resort to violence in your resistance.
What the world saw under Gandhi's leadership and what America and the world saw under Dr.King's movement IS what Jesus meant by loving your enemies until you prevail.
Some may say that non-violent movements rarely succeed. And that's true. But then again it is so rarely tried. And does warfare always succeed? I think it's better to lose having not killed than to win having committed genocide.
To me it's a death before dishonor sort of thing.
I don't see murder or killing as honorable even if I can understand why it happened. When people talk about God and war and they say "If heavenly father wants there to be a war or for us to win then that's what'll happen."
That is a major error in judgment. I think the analogy is better if you ask "If one of your children killed the other what would your reaction be?" This is what it's like for God, He loves us all so He doesn't want any of us to win if it means one or more of us will lose and He certainly doesn't want us to kill or murder one another.
He wants us to love one another. That is how Christ says His disciples will be known, by their love for everyone.
To me I don't see the honor in killing. I think of it the way I think Christ may have in that He refused to raise a sword to the soldiers who came for Him in the middle of the night, He only raised His hand to heal the ear of a soldier that Peter had cut off. Christ loved His enemies so much that He let them kill Him AND begged God for them to be forgiven for what they were doing.
That is how loving your enemies is done.
The fruits of love are often but not always blissful but the fruits of war are rotted.
This isn't easy and it was never meant to be, it was only ever meant to be worth it.
