MJJ

Jesus calls us to rise above our imperfect love to his perfect agape love. The word translated "Be perfect" in verse 48 is Greek teleios, "complete, perfect," from the verb teleō, "bring to an end, finish, complete, carry out, accomplish. God's love for the just and the unjust is the end or purpose or goal of our love. Christ's death on the cross for our sins is perhaps the best example of all. We Christians cannot settle for a love that only loves friends. Instead we are to embrace a greater love, impossible unless the Holy Spirit grows this love within our hearts. We aspire to a love that forgives the unforgivable, a love that bridges the enmity of decades, a love that refuses to tire from rejection, a love that never gives up. This is the love we are called to. This quality of love is God's perfection and glory, and is to be ours as well. Verse 45 states : "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." God's love is perfect because He loves everyone of us indiscriminately.

There are times when you must clearly defend yourself and defeat evil, if you don't want it to prevail. A world war to right these wrongs and bring justice to the peoples of the earth was righteous. Sometimes we simultaneously are called upon as citizens here on earth to fulfill a dual role, such as a policeman, soldier, or judge, at the same time as we operate on a personal level according to Jesus' insistence on loving our enemies. For example, it is entirely possible that a victim will forgive an offence while the offender is sentenced by a judge to punishment for his crimes. We must separate the personal from the judicial or we get in trouble. Of course, the judicial function, too, is to be guided by God's laws. It should operate under God, not as a law to itself.

Jesus is calling his followers to a higher standard. Instead of retaliation and resistance against enemies, he calls them to a radical love, rather than turn on them with resistance and retaliation we are to -- in love for them -- give them more than they require.

They are all examples. They are not case law to serve as the basis of a new Christian legalism. The theme is non-retaliation. Jesus says: Do not set yourself against the evil person. Jesus wants us to do more than is required of us by our enemies, by those who are trying to use us, by those who are trying to take advantage of us. Rather than turn on them with resistance and retaliation we are to -- in love for them -- give them more than they require. Jesus isn't placing his followers outside the protection of justice, but he is calling them to a higher standard. Instead of retaliation and resistance against enemies, he calls them to a radical love.

The point here is to restrain man's vindictiveness, not encourage it. "Law of retaliation," simply stated says that you may not extract from someone who has injured you any more than you have lost. In other words, the punishment should fit the crime -- no more, no less. We find it first in the ancient Code of Hammurabi, a king who ruled in Babylon from 1728 to 1686 BC. It was designed for justice administered through a court of law.

Jesus asks us to be truthful and mean what we say. He is asking us not to play games with words with the intention of deceiving others. If we speak to deceive, then we are following the devil and not God. If we obeyed this command we would "speak the truth in love" like true children of God.

Jesus' words meant to convey to us that we are to take sexual lus+ with utmost seriousness. He intended us to understand that lus+ can lead us down the road to hell itself. Therefore, he is saying, unless you and I want to stand as guilty before God as one who commits physical adultery, we must repent rather than excuse ourselves. We must train our eyes to see as God sees with the love with which God loves, then it would be hard to look with lus+. The reason brothers & sisters don't usually lus+ for each other -- beyond a strong cultural incest taboo -- is because they care for each other as people. Their relationship goes beyond the physical exterior to the real person who has longings and disappointments, a person with potential and hope and pain. That is what "agape" (God's love) is all about.

I would advise him to Share with someone close to you your struggle with this sin and become accountable to this person. Ask for this person's prayer support and confess your sins to him (James 5:16). Seek counsel for your problem from a pastor or Christian counselor. Use the weapons of prayer, scripture reading, and fasting. Throw out any pornographic materials you possess. Get rid of anything in your home that triggers this ****. To prevent temptation over TV - ask the cable operator to block those channels or just disconnect cable TV. To prevent temptation over internet - use software that blocks such websites.

There are lots of things wrong with pornogr@phy. 1. Pornogr@phy helps men view women as mere sex objects. 2. Pornogr@phy lowers moral values in individuals and society resulting in the acceptability and/or legalization of prostitution, fornication, adultery, and other sexual perversions. 3. Pornogr@phy creates unrealistic expectations of sex and sexual practices that spouses may be unable or unwilling to fulfill. 4. Pornogr@phy isolates sexual fulfillment from a caring relationship with another human being, rendering it essentially selfish. 5. Pornogr@phy exploits young women's naivet

The sex drive is a good thing given by God, but only good when it is exercised within the boundaries God has set, namely, marriage. Natural desire for the opposite sex is normal and necessary. Men desire women and vice versa, families are formed, children produced. That is what God intended. Outside of marriage, sex may "feel so right" but bring a harvest of bad fruit. We read in Genesis 2 about a man and a woman. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife [literally, "woman"], and they will become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) This unity of husband and wife is the basic unit. Like any good gift, however, Satan is quick to pervert or twist it into something God didn't intend - like ****, prostitution, unchastity, fornication, homosexual behaviour.

The point of similarity is that as per The Tenth Commandment both lus+ and adultery are caused by desire. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Exodus 20:17). The point of difference is that while lus+ is the desire, adultery is the actual act of being involved with someone other than the spouse.

The theme of Jesus' teaching is that God is seeking those who do not let anger and hatred live in their hearts at all. He is seeking those who will show mercy, those who will forgive, those who will LOVE. This is why Jesus said "Love your neighbor as yourself." That is the aim of the whole law, straight from the mouth of God himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.

In this mini-parable, Jesus is saying, settle quickly, before you get to court. Settle quickly or you'll be stuck for every last cent that is due. Jesus is teaching his hearers to reconcile quickly with those they have wronged and not to put it off. The implication is that if they wait for God to settle the matter at his bar of justice, that judgment will exacting and harsh punishment. Jesus' mini-parable is only a thinly-veiled picture of us having to stand before God for every one of our sins unless we repent now.

Jesus' clear point is that worship -- seeking to honor God by bringing an offering -- is a mockery if we don't first repent of our sins and carry out that repentance to its logical conclusion. That point isn't radical. It is taught throughout the Scripture in such passages as: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). "Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God..." (Joel 2:13). "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:16-17). Sometimes we have hurt someone deeply and it is fully our fault, but when we go to humble ourselves and seek forgiveness we are snubbed. We may be snubbed, but we must still go and seek reconciliation.

Jesus goes to the heart of the Law as he expounds the motivation behind murder -- anger, and because of this Jesus classifies anger as bad as murder as they both come from the same root. Jesus is saying that we are guilty before God for a heart that lashes out in anger and venom. If we believe that an angry attitude is viewed by God as murder, we would not insult others or speak rudely and harshly to them. Insulting words crush the spirit and affect us sometimes for life.