To you who hear I say, love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
So, is Christian morality basically the same as that of other other religions? Do Christians basically believe the same things about doing good and avoiding evil that have been taught since time immemorial by poets and philosophers and political statesmen? Well yes, Christians do believe that one should not do to another what he would not want done to himself. But we believe much more than this, much that is not commonsense, and that indeed probably seems like nonsense from an outside perspective.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Most (though not all) people believe in avoiding striking first, but there is by no means a consensus about not hitting back after a certain threshold is met. Once someone starts to threaten us, physically, or even in terms of our property, we believe that if we don't assert ourselves in the right way we will become doormats upon whom others will walk. The fact that this isn't commonsense is evident from the fact that even we Christians have misgivings about how practical such commands really are. We know and correctly understand that we don't have enough within us to give to everyone who asks without the risk of being quickly worn out and used up.
These commandments of Jesus are not meant to make us into passive doormat Christians. They are rather geared to make us imitators of Jesus himself, who not only preached these things, but demonstrated them by how he lived. He gave freely to all who came to him. However, he did not enable a vicious lifestyle by catering to their whims. Rather, he did so in a way that rendered those to whom he gave more fully alive and human. Even though he did indeed give his "cheeks to those who pull out the beard" (see Isaiah 50:6) he did not merely give himself to the first person that picked up a stone, or allow himself to be pushed from a cliff by whoever felt like it. His self-gift was strategic. It was an action, not of weakness, but of love.
you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.
Jesus was of course the only begotten Son of the Father. He was teaching his listeners how they too could act as children of God. In order to do so they would need to get out of the business of self protection and ego defense and surrender their lives into the hands of God, just as Jesus did. This was possible when one understood that doing so was not simply giving up. It was an act of trust in the Father, and belief that he loved his children and would deliver them, just as he delivered Jesus on the morning of the first Easter.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (see First John 4:16).
When we begin to live like children of the Most High our own ability to give to others is exponentially multiplied. And this becomes as virtuous cycle as God is never outdone in generosity.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
Once we stop insisting on taking care of ourselves and getting what we can get, and instead rely on God to take care of us and bring us what we need we will always have an abundance.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (see Second Corinthians 9:8).
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