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While we are told to bless them that curse us, turn the other cheek, walk an extra mile, etc., nowhere does Jesus tell us to remain passive even unto death. Also, He speaks about an eye for an eye, etc. This all tells me that there are times when criminals and despots must be resisted by all available means and that there are jobs in which people will be called upon to administer justice to the wicked, sort of acting as God's proxy. Some of these jobs would include police officer, judge, and soldier.

It reminds me most of the old adage that most of us peobably heard from our mothers, "Two wrongs don't make a right."

They seem to me to be illustrations of modeling God's love in the world rather than mirroring the enmity of your antagonist's. No. We can show people God's love and affirm the power that goodness has over evil. It is way to hold a mirror up to evil, aggressive people to show them what their behavior really looks like in comparison with God's ideal. They are examples of how we should give people more than they demand. We can show them the same kind of love and service (with no self-serving motives), that Jesus has for us all.

As a limit to the punishment that was to be meted out. It is a method of ensuring that the punishment fits the crime, no more, no less. It is designed to be administered by courts or judges, not by individuals. People are not to take the law into their own hands. It is designed to govern judicial action.

It means to say what you mean and to mean what you say. Don't look for ways to dissemble and deceive, but rather be plain-spoken and transparent. Speak the truth. We would not always look for ways to make someone think we had agreed to do something that we had not. we would speak the truth instead of lying. If we have the reputation of always speaking the truth plainly, our credibility is greatly enhanced and people will trust us much more.

I would try to help them to understand that God wants for their marriage to continue and be for life. I would also want to reassure them that God is bigger than any problem and that anything can be overcome with His help. Lastly, they need to know that they will have the love and support of myself and other brothers and sisters in Christ. We should know that it isn't for us to judge them, only to love them. All I can do is love them and assure them that God still loves them and still wants an intimate, one-to-one love relationship with them. He understands what it's like to be human (Jesus lived 33 years or so on earth in human form), and will forgive us if we falter as long as we confess our sins and repent. 1John 1:9 says:" But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness"NLT

Not all people who have remarried after divorce are perpetual adulterers. No. We get back into God's will in this case in the same way as all the other cases. We recognize and admit our sin and ask for God's forgiveness. God's grace is given to us through Jesus, and we are forgiven. We are taught that there is only one unforgivable sin (Mark 3:28-29), and adultery isn't it.

They reacted the way they did because of sinful human nature. They had a hard time (as almost everyone does) thinking in such absolute terms with no escape clause or exceptions allowed. To accept this, we have to completely trust that God does what's best for us and submit ourselves to His will. I believe they did, in just the way mentioned above.

No. It does allow it, but narrowly defines the circumstances in which it is permissable, and sets up rules to protect both spouses and to provide financially for the wife as well as preserve her ability to remarry. Jesus says that it was because of the hardness of their hearts. God's design is for a man and a woman to leave their parents and be joined together as one flesh and to stay that way for their whole lives. His intention was that there should be no divorce.

No. It is natural law. That is the way that God designed it to be. God's designs and desires for the universe have no regard for whether or not we agree and adhere to them. The religious ceremony is the public way we say that we recognize God's design and intend to submit ourselves to it. 100%, with the possible exception of a marriage that has not yet been consummated (they have not yet become "one flesh").

On one hand, Jesus tells us that married couples are joined together by God as one flesh, and that what God has joined together, no man should separate. This tells us in no uncertain terms that God hates divorce and doesn't ever want it to happen. On the other hand, God knows human nature. He knows that humans may not, in many cases, be able to forgive and forget (adultery) in the way we are able to only with His help. From this it could be said that Jesus agrees, at least in part, with Rabbi Shammai. He does say that divorce is permissable only in cases of marital infidelity. It seems that Jesus is helping to settle any debate over what circumstances constitute the "something indecent about her" mentioned in the passage. Only marital unfaithfulness is a reason for divorce that is recognized by God.

We are supposed to take it very seriously, so seriously, in fact that three of the commandments prohibit it in one way or another. We are forbidden to committ adultery, we are forbidden to covet (lus+ after) our neighbor's wife, and most importantly we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourself, of which lus+ is not a manifestation. If we love someone the way we love our mother or our sister, or like the way God loves us, it is nearly impossible to objectify them in the way that looking with lustful desire does. If we look on others the way Jesus wants us to, we will care too much about their hopes, dreams, aspirations, about their soul and their relationship with God to demean them and ourselves in that way. If we do as the song says and turn our eyes upon Jesus to follow His example the best we can, we will go a long way toward being able to love like Him instead of like our fleshly nature.

The first thing I would advise him to do is to pray to God and confess his sin and ask for God's forgiveness. Then I would assure him that with God's help,and a support group who loved them and wanted to see them succeed, many men have already defeated the same demons he is fighting. Next, he should ask God for the desire, and the power, and all the tools he will need to win his battle, because without God he stands no chance of success. I would advise him to try to remove as many of the temptations from his home and life as possible. Finally, I would make myself available to him for support, accountability, as a prayer partner, to help him seek professional help if necessary, or anything he might need from me. There are filtering programs available to keep unwanted content from being accessible from your computer. Putting the computer in public areas where it will be hard to view such content in privacy is also a good idea. In extreme cases interruption of internet access or removal of the computer may be necessary for a time. Praying for strength from God to see people as He sees them rather than as objects for your personal gratification is a good place to start. If a certain cable programming package is causing you to stumble, have it disconnected from your TV. With all these strategies, the most important thing is to let God take the lead and never stop trying. We need to realize that defeating some demons is very difficult and may take a long time. In some cases, it may even prove to be a lifelong battle.

p*rnography and prostitution both go against what God planned for our life to be like. They turn sex, which God intended as a mutual expression of love between married people and the means of procreation, into a basically solitary (emotionally), hedonistic method of seeking carnal pleasure. They make it easy for men to objectify women. They contribute to the moral decline of society as a whole. They exploit women, especially younger, poorer women. Theycan be linked to rising incidence of crime, especially sex crimes, and are often controlled by organized crime. They can create unrealistic expectations of sexual practices that can ruin marriages, and can also be addictive. The women who become sex workers, the husbands who purchase and often become addicted to their services, the wives and children who are neglected and alienated as a result, the victims of crimes that are inspired by it, and all of society.

If your desire is a manifestation of God's plan (involving marriage,building a family,etc.) it is given by God. If you are pursuing lusts that do not promote marriage, family, and healthy community you are falling victim to Satan's perverted depiction of what sexuality is. Often in these types of situations you will be able to see many more possible negative consequences than positive ones if you are taking an honest, objective look at things. If you find yourself rationalizing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that tell you that sex outside of marriage, or promiscuity, or other types of fornication are okay, you can be sure it is forbidden **** that is inspired by Satan and is to be avoided.

**** and adutery are more than just similar. Jesus tells us that they are really the same thing, stemming from an uncontrolled sinful nature and a not-fully repentant heart. They both involve sexual desire for someone to whom you are not married. Just as with all the other sins and behaviors we have looked at so far, Jesus emphasizes that the spirit of the law is the important thing, not strict adherance to merely the letter of the law. In either case, if you are married you are breaking your marriage vow. You made a covenant with God and your mate which contained the words "forsaking all others", or something very similar. The marriage bond is closer than other relationships we have in life and our sexual relationship is at the very heart of it. It should be a beautiful expression of our love for our spouse, and not corrupted by improper feelings for or about others. if we allow this we not only objectify the other person, we cheapen our marriage relationship and objectify our spouse as well. In the narrowest sense, there is a difference only in the fact that in adultery one or both of the participants are married to someone else. **** breaks the tenth commandment because you are covetous of something that belongs to another person, regardless of whether the other person is married. If they are married, you covet someone else's spouse. If they are not married, you still are desiring to posess something that belongs to them which they are not freely giving to you, namely their sexuality and an intimate knowledge of their very being.

The theme I see is to love your neighbor as yourself, live according to the spirit of the law, not strict adherence to the letter of it, seek to be reconciled of your differences with others in order to live in harmony with them, and seek and grant forgiveness in the way we are allowed to seek it from Jesus, and He freely gives it.

Settling out of court wiyh anyone who has a grievance with you is the right way to handle it. As with yhe other things we've looked at so far, it's about living in the spirit of the law, not merely according to the letter of it. The analogy is to sin in our lives in general. If you don't take care of a settlement now(or soon) with Jesus, you will have to face the judge (God) and He will decide what your penalty is to be, with no appeal possible. Our adversary, or whomever we have a grievance with. Making reparation and paying what you owe. If you don't make arrangements now to pay a price you can afford, you will be forced later to pay much more than you can afford-you will have to pay in full for your transgression and pay it all yourself.

We should have a pure heart when we worship God. The only way for us to have a pure heart is through the reconciling work of Jesus. In order for that to happen we are supposed to repent and follow Him. To repent is to turn around and follow Jesus, which means forgiveness of anyone who may have wronged us, as well as trying to make right any wrongs we have done to others. God promises to forgive and has forgiven us anything. To fail to do the same for others would be an incredible affront to God. We should ask for forgiveness from anyone who feels we have wronged them, as well as offering whatever is in our power to offer by way of making amends. We should grant others forgiveness without requiring them to make amends, even when they don't necessarily ask us to. No. Of course we may encounter situations where another person may make it difficult or even impossible to have a reconciliation. But that should never happen without the utmost effort on our part to forestall it.

This is the same type of unrestrained, angry reaction. The outcome may different or less drastic, but the angry spirit and lack of control are very similar. No, it is not the same or at the same level. Murder is obviously anger taken to the extreme. The point is that your unrestrained anger violates the spirit of the law even if it doesn't violate the letter of the law. We would take a lot more care to ensure that our language and actions did not become thoughtlessly abusive or brutal towards others.

Many people do seem to act as if the "Jewish Bible" doesn't have anything to do with them. They overlook the fact that the Law is what shows us what sin is. Even though anyone would acknowledge that it is impossible for any of us to keep all the laws without Jesus' taking our sin on Him, when we are saved we are transformed so that we desire to do what God wills. I would call this being liberated from sin. Others might say that they have been liberated from the law, and aren't obligated to keep it. Some people have a tendecy to adhere to a lot of rules, and try to make others do so as well. They have an idea of what a Christian should look like, act like, and be like, that they believe everyone needs to conform to. They tend to ignore or downplay the personal relationship with Jesus that we all should have. There is a lot of worrying about appearing to keep the letter of the law without really feeling the spirit of it in your heart. This is like humanism or relativism. People will believe they are their own authority on right and wrong and spiritual matters. This would look not much different from the rest of the world.

The main relationship that I see between 10-12 & 13-16 is the fact that if we are "salty", and if we do let our light shine before men, the persecution Jesus tells us of (and the rewards as well, therefore) will be our lot in life. If we hide our light we can't bring glory to God through our actions. What little we can do (or fail to do) will not diminish God's great glory, but the good works that God's grace and power (through Jesus and the Holy Spirit) enable us to do will add to God's glory. One way this happens is to show how someone as flawed and inadequate as myself (or Moses, or Gideon, or Samson, or any number of others) can be used by God to do great things through. It is the same thing that happened to Jesus. First He was humiliated and suffered a terrible, humiliating outcast's death by torture on the cross for me (all of us, if we but claim it), and then He was glorified in heaven at the right hand of the Father. This is how we reflect God's great love for us. This is how we take up our cross daily and follow Him, how we lay down our lives for others. By making ourselves as nothing and putting others first, we show the love of Christ shining through us, love which we could not even have without the grace of God through Jesus. Yes Yes Paul explains to us just what I was trying to. This is the way to show that we are different than the world. That we are transformed by the love of Christ into people who will subordinate our own petty pursuits and concerns to the will of God and the concerns of His Kingdom.

Jesus warns us against not getting His message out to people who haven't heard it. We are called to be an example to the world of how things can be. Jesus was the only perfect person ever to be born, and many people the world over have not heard the good news of how their lives can be transformed through a relationship with Him. They need to be shown how the world might look if we all (or even many of us) lived to put the concerns of the Kingdom of God before all other concerns. If our lights are hidden, how will they ever learn the wonderful truth?

One good reason would be that Jesus told us to. Also, I believe if we are being attacked by the power of the evil one, we must be on the right track in our faith walk. If we weren't getting closer to Jesus and the way He calls us to live, Satan would be happy about it and leave us to our own devices. We don't really find pleasure in the pain, we find pleasure in bringing pleasure to the Lord by striving to be in His will. If we are walking with Him, in his will, one of the ways we can know this is by the attacks that come from Satan and his servants. Jesus tells us both that we get to heaven by following Him, and that we will be persecuted in His name. I find it an incredible blessing as well to think of my unworthy self as being put in the same class as Jesus and the great saints of history.

The only way for fallen, depraved humanity to have a pure heart is by the grace of God through the redemptive work of Jesus. When Jesus does this work in our lives and we are saved, the Holy Spirit enters us. The Spirit gives us knowledge, power, understanding, and discernment just as Jesus gave it to the apostles. People who are "chronic" sinners are not saved and don't have the Holy Spirit in them to help them see. We can't do it for ourselves, no matter how badly we might want to. We must be convicted of our sinful ways and turn around, turn towards Jesus. Only the blood of the Lamb can wash the stains of sin from our hearts.