Luke 6:30, Epsilon Clue

Luke 6:30

²⁷“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

This has long been one of my favorite Bible verses, especially with biblical literalists, because so few of them actually obey it.

Over in the comments on the Jo Hovind Update post, I asked Flabberghasted whether he obeys that injunction. He said yes. I asked him for a thousand smackers.

To my surprise, he came through. Oh, not the full kilobuck. But he did send me a $50 Amazon gift card. After I pointed out that this was an object lesson to illustrate that the passage above was not one of Jesus’ better-thought-out ideas. And in the credit-where-credit-is-due department, he didn’t drag his feet. The main delay was that I didn’t give him my email address as quickly as he wanted it.

So first of all, to Flabberghasted: thank you.

Secondly, while he gets points for consistency and obedience to Jesus. Unfortunately, I maintain that my point still stands, and being a doormat is still not a good long-term strategy for Christians. So minus a bunch of points for that.

I haven’t decided yet what to do with the card. As I said, I just got it, and am considering my options.

charity, Christianity, Flabberghasted, Luke 6:30

Comments 5

That’s a hugely important passage. I follow my pastor’s interpretation of it (and a lot of other passages in the gospels) as saying that if you want to get into Heaven purely by our own deeds, this is how good you have to be. And nobody is good enough to do it. Oh, we can do bits of it, and what Flabberghasted did is pretty darned cool. 😉 But we still hate our neighbors. How many of us could honestly say we’d give Osama Bin Laden the coat off our backs if he asked, rather than kicking him in the ‘nads? Yet this passage tells us we must. Likewise, Jesus tells us it’s not good enough just to avoid killing other people. If you even think the slightest bit ill of them, you are being hypocritical in your application of “thou shalt not kill” — following the letter of the law rather than its spirit.

This is why we need Christ even if we have the law. (Remember, a lot of the New Testament was written not to us modern day folks but to Jews in the first century CE. They had the law; why did they need Jesus? It wasn’t like he was the avenging king Messiah they were expecting, there to kick some Roman butt and win them back their kingdom.) Because no matter how hard we try, we will come short. And this is because we are human beings, living in the mortal world, and we didn’t exactly evolve to be doormats. (And there’s other scripture suggesting Jesus didn’t intend for us to actually be doormats. He shouldn’t be taken too literally; he often spoke in parables, which makes understanding the messages more difficult, compounded by the fact that we only get to see it through the eyes of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.) It’s not in our nature, and odds are, we won’t survive trying to live like God. It’s good to aspire to it, but we can take comfort in the fact that God loves us anyway.

I gotta say, though, I’m really impressed by what Flabberghasted did. That takes guts. I’m not up to that standard yet. I hope I get there.

One thought on “Luke 6:30”

menes777 says:

December 9, 2009 at 17:32

How many Dawkins books (or audio books) can you get with that? Then send them to Chad.
Flabberghasted says:

December 10, 2009 at 01:48

Take it for what it is worth. Out of complete honesty, if it were up to me, I never would have sent it. So I do believe the thanks and credit goes to the one who is quoted in Luke 6:30.
Fez says:

December 10, 2009 at 07:40

Flabberghasted Says: “Take it for what it is worth. Out of complete honesty, if it were up to me, I never would have sent it.”

If you believe in a deity free will gave you the choice to send the card. If you don’t believe in a deity free will still gives one the choice, albeit with different potential motivators.
.
Flabberghasted says:

December 10, 2009 at 14:30

all I meant was that it wasn’t my idea so don’t thank me.
Calli Arcale says:

December 22, 2009 at 11:39

That’s a hugely important passage. I follow my pastor’s interpretation of it (and a lot of other passages in the gospels) as saying that if you want to get into Heaven purely by our own deeds, this is how good you have to be. And nobody is good enough to do it. Oh, we can do bits of it, and what Flabberghasted did is pretty darned cool. 😉 But we still hate our neighbors. How many of us could honestly say we’d give Osama Bin Laden the coat off our backs if he asked, rather than kicking him in the ‘nads? Yet this passage tells us we must. Likewise, Jesus tells us it’s not good enough just to avoid killing other people. If you even think the slightest bit ill of them, you are being hypocritical in your application of “thou shalt not kill” — following the letter of the law rather than its spirit.

This is why we need Christ even if we have the law. (Remember, a lot of the New Testament was written not to us modern day folks but to Jews in the first century CE. They had the law; why did they need Jesus? It wasn’t like he was the avenging king Messiah they were expecting, there to kick some Roman butt and win them back their kingdom.) Because no matter how hard we try, we will come short. And this is because we are human beings, living in the mortal world, and we didn’t exactly evolve to be doormats. (And there’s other scripture suggesting Jesus didn’t intend for us to actually be doormats. He shouldn’t be taken too literally; he often spoke in parables, which makes understanding the messages more difficult, compounded by the fact that we only get to see it through the eyes of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.) It’s not in our nature, and odds are, we won’t survive trying to live like God. It’s good to aspire to it, but we can take comfort in the fact that God loves us anyway.

I gotta say, though, I’m really impressed by what Flabberghasted did. That takes guts. I’m not up to that standard yet. I hope I get there.

Comments are closed.