Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 4 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Change of Allegiance  /  What If Jesus Meant Every Word He Said?  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 4
Their crisis sharpened when Dean read “do not resist an evil person…turn the other cheek…love your enemies” while they were in the Army; what do you think Jesus is revealing about the Father’s character in that passage (the Father who gives sun and rain to evil and good), and what picture of God is threatened if Christians insist enemy-killing can be faithful to Jesus?
Another way to ask: In “turn the other cheek” and “love your enemies,” what is Jesus showing us about what the Father is like? What view of God is at risk if Christians say killing enemies can still obey Jesus?

Direct Answer Based on the passage Dean read aloud, Jesus reveals the Father as generous and merciful even toward the evil—giving “sun” and “rain” to all—and calls believers to mirror that enemy-love as evidence of being God’s children. The threatened picture of God, in Dean’s framing, is a Father whose character is shown through mercy, not retaliation, because Jesus ties enemy-love directly to God’s nature.

Support from Transcript:

  • Dean reads Jesus’ command: “do not resist an evil person…turn… the other also…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
  • The purpose is explicit: “that you may be the children of your Father in heaven,” connecting enemy-love to sonship.
  • Jesus’ reason is the Father’s indiscriminate goodness: He “causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good” and “sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
  • Dean insists these are not “niceties” but authoritative commands meant “for us today.”
  • He argues the real-life question of killing is not neutral: “it’s either of God or it’s not of God,” forcing an either/or about God’s will.
Discussion Follow-ups What attributes of God do you instinctively highlight—justice, power, mercy—and how does Jesus’ argument in Matthew 5 reorder them? If enemy-love reflects the Father, what does that imply about Christian witness during conflict?

Jumpstarter 4 of 10
Back Questions Next