In Matthew 5:44 Jesus says, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
Discuss with your parents the following questions...
In what ways have American churches failed to obey these words of Christ?
What effects have those actions had on America?
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Most of the churches just go by something random. they claim to be christian but they cover it up. They dont truly live it out the words of God-peter
ReplyDeletei think that it is very hard for americans and churches to fowllow all the commandments he has given us. but churches make an effort. although americans still choose to take the hard path and disobey.
ReplyDelete-mary hannah skelton
Churches look at the Bible and they read something and they don't put it into real times, like they don't compare it to the 21st Century. They think "Oh that wasn't that bad." But really in this century it is bad, then when someone does something really bad and they hate the person who did the crime. These actions make our country look horrible and it makes us look like we hate each other. We accuse those who have done bad and we say, "Oh I'll never do that," but then we do the same thing. Our country is a backstabbing nation.
ReplyDeleteThe classic American thing to do when someone does something wrong to you or someone you know is to get revenge. Unfortunately, I think American churches are afraid to break that state of mind because the founders of the church probably don't know what to do otherwise. American churches should strive to forgive others instead of get revenge, no matter the circumstances. These wrong choices toward revenge has made America make some unneeded decisions (like going to war). If America learned to forgive, we could teach other countries to do the same. Many wars could be stopped and people would feel safer.
ReplyDelete-Justin Brendel
When someone does something mean to us we get mad at them and dislike them. Churches do the same thing. You can have good people in a church but it is still hard to forgive someone who has hurt you. This has effected America because if a country does something bad to us we want to get revenge. If all the countries learned to forgive each other maybe there would not be as many wars and countries would not hate each other as much.
ReplyDelete-Katie Kassis
When I think that someone has done me wrong I think of revenge or being mean back. This has turned into an American "theme" sort of thing. You see all these moves about revenge and setting things straight when really it is about love and forgiveness. Churches have been messing this up because they do not teach the subject. In a way that is supporting revenge. What you really should do is "turn the other cheek".
ReplyDelete-Brandon Chan
The average american church these days doesnt follow this verse. They either shun the outside world and stay secluded into there own little bubble, or they act like they will follow this verse but when the time comes, they choose the wronge choice and don't follow it,
ReplyDeleteMicah Owens
Many of the churches have failed to live this verse out if fact i have not seen one church live this verse out. we ruin this saying because we don't forgive those that we hate we hate them even more. we don't love the people that we love right. we think that the world revolves around us and that we make the decisions. these churches say that we should treat others like we want to be treated well we don't do that and this is the fact on how this is ruining our lives so this is what i have to say about this verse and how we don't live up to it and neither do these churches.
ReplyDeleteIn america it has become very difficult to live your enemy. This is where we fall short and turn our back against God!! With war, politicians, and other people with different religions we sin and hate the people we disagree with. These actions (hating, being mean to, sinning, not praying for) have hurt our country and religion greatly because it just opposes people from Christ when they see how we act and treat each other. I wouldn't want to be a part of something where these things take place. So when we don't follow what Jesus has said we are hurting them, Christians, and most of all God.
ReplyDelete-Grace (Your Fav. Student)
When someone does something bad/mean to someone the average american first instinct isn't to do good for them or to pray for them. Some effects on america is a lot more crime because most criminals go hurt/kill someone if they did something bad to them when they really should be praying for them and showing them kindness. Many churches have failed this comand maybe teaching it but never accually showing how you can love your enemies insted of just saying pray for your enemies.
ReplyDelete-CARA GRACE HILDEBRAND:D :D :D :D :D :D :D
I feel in american churches, we dont love our "enemies" or "un church-goers" the way we should.I think we push them away and dont welcome them. Not all churches are like that but most are.? When churches pray, they tend to pray for those who arent their enemies, they usually pray for those who are "good". I think when your a christian, your dont first think when someone's hurt you to pray for them or anything like that. Not praying wont really have a physical effect, but i think mentally it can seperate you from God. Like in the future it'll be harder for you to forgive. When you love your enemies, it can effect them in ways you wouldnt know, you dont think it a big deal, but when they see that throughout all the pain and hurt their causing, you still can manage to give them love, they can know it's God. Im sure thats really confusing. i hope that one day i can go by this bible verse.
ReplyDelete-Jiniah Bliss [bored]
I think that many churches have failed to obey this command by not preaching loving your enemies. We often see this even within churches. When different groups get upset at each other it causes a split in the church. Nonbelievers probably see this and think why should I be a Christian. If we don’t love our enemies then we are not allowing Jesus to shine in our lives. We don’t have to like what someone does, or agree with them however we are commanded to love them. I think that this has split our country because usually if you don’t agree with someone you aren’t going to love them you are just going to think how wrong their opinion is.
ReplyDelete~Sarah Marriott!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that many churches haven't failed to obey these words of Christ. I know many churches, including my own, teach people to love their enemies. But there are some I'm sure that are confused and that have been mislead, thus leading their followers astray from the truth. People in those churches might teach that you should love your rude neighbor, but not followers of other religions. Or they could claim that they love others as themselves but don't exhibit that behavior towards everyone, making excuses such as "that doesn't pertain to everyone (stress that word)". In short, they are hypocrites, claiming to follow the teachings of Christ but really are doing the exact opposite. We are all guilty of hypocricy, but if an entire church teaches that then it becomes a huge problem. It shows to Americans that we are not firm in our faith and that we don't truly believe in what we say we believe. Someone who sees a so-called Christian doing things that are known to be wrong isn't going to want to convert to Christianity. They will be pushed away, or could think that since the hypocrite was a "Christian" that it's o.k. to do whatever it was that they were doing. Hypocracy affects America in leading people far from the truth, and keeping them from trusting each other.
ReplyDeleteSee some Christians think that we are the best and we can do anything, but when it comes to people we just strait up hate out enemies. Its not just about loving out enemies its about forgiving them when they do something wrong, and being there for them. Do what Jesus would do. we fail to obey because first its our human nature but that can't always be our excuse, even though we sin a lot we just can't help it. We also fail to do what is right because we want to do what we want to do. Everything affects America. Us as Christians are suppose to be examples for others. When were not examples it just makes us one big mess.
ReplyDelete-Caitlin Kleefeld
Well things have slurred in the past 2000 years about how things have been said to do in the bible, and how we do things today in our churches. Usually on Sunday we have services from 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock, and they teach us to respect others as you would respect yourself. But the world tells us that revenge is a natural occurring no matter what. When something is done to you, you have to get back at them. Jesus teaches us to respect each other, but more than talk, to walk, because our mouths run too much. This blinds us from what we should actually be doing. It is harder to do action, when we could just speak of doing such. I've been trying to complete this task, but as we all know it’s hard. We could do this all together and that would be twice as easier.
ReplyDeleteI think that the american church has failed to follow what it says in Matthew 5:44 in a few different ways. First I think that they have failed because sometimes they dont welcome newcomers or non-christians because they may be different or something like that. The second way that I think that they dont follow what it says in that passage is that sometimes they are only concerned about themselves and dont care about enemies in other countries or just enemies in general. They are able to pray for everybody else but not the people that they hate or disagree with. Some affects that those problems in churches have caused in America is that some people cant go to church because the church wont accept them or they are afraid that the church wont accept them which shouldnt happen becaus they should be able to have the confidence that a CHURCH of all places would take them in.-Stephen Bracher
ReplyDeleteI think that probably most churches have not followed at least one of these things. They may not have not followed all of them but most have not followed at least one or two. There may be a church whose enemy is supposedly satin, but their real enemy is the church down the street they like to take members from. Also, most people that are a part of the church(the body of Christ) have not followed barely any of these things. We have fallen into the trap that the world throws out at us saying that you don't need to love your enemies, you should hate them, and why would you bless thoughs who curse you? It is sad how we are supposed to build others up in the church, but we are tearing each other down by hating our enemies and hurting those around us. So basically the church has failed to keep all of these things right because we would rather do what is easier for us. - caroline holliday
ReplyDeleteI think that American churches have failed in playing out what this verse says, because they aren't saying anything about loving our enemys at all. This is wrong because we should obey what God says to the last letter in every sentence. Kids nowdays are taught to hate those who are mean to you, and love those who are loving and kind to you. This is wrong in every single way that there is. We should love everyone, even if they don't love us. My mom has always said. "If someone is mean to you, kill them with kindness." I think that everyone should live by this, people can change if you kill them with kindness; at least it has worked for me. Basically the church should be saying and teaching that you should kill everyone that you meet with kindness, because you never know what your first empression will do to someone. What God is saying in this specific verse is very hard to follow, because everyone wants to do the opposite. In my opinion, schools should be stressing the "love your enemies" saying as much as the "Golden Rule". Thy are pretty much the same, but the verse is better in every way because it is God commanding us to be kind to everyone and love everyone that you meet. -sydney flemmer
ReplyDeleteI think most of the time Christains dont follow this verse. Even if you are loving the Lord with all your heart, no ones perfect. Most of the time Christains do not love there enemies. They normally look down on anyone who does not love Jesus, even if you dont mean to. They dont just look down on people who dont love Jesus, but also people who are less fortunate, and who dont fit in. For example, I know someone who is my mom's friend, and she kind of looks down on people who dont fit in in our church. She was very judgementale and didnt like that people from different places were coming to our Church. this was not very good because, as Christains, we should invite people in to our Church! Also, as a human, we never immidiately think to bless those who curse you.another thing Americans need to do that is very hard to learn is to do good to those who hate you. If most Americans who werent Christains heard this they would probably think this is obserde! Praying for those who spitefully use you and persectute you is another thing that Christains fail to accomlish. I think we really need to work on these things because when were acting like this, other people arent going to want to become a Christain. so, i think its our job to do these thing to bring more people to Jesus Christ!
ReplyDelete~Kerry Anna Lemasters
i feel this is a biased question.not all churches teach this and i have grown up in churches that teach other wise. and the churches that do teach it is because they want to please the congregation so the church will grow and have a good reputation.it has affected americans by letting them think the bible says you can love them, but they can still be mean sometimes.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Thomas
I think that the verse from Matthew is not applied to American churches becuase most churches if you are new you are pretty much already rejected. Sometimes even if your a different skin color you can be rejected.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are some churches teach that, but not all churches. Some churches teach us to avoid people like that and avoid there company,but not all. The church i go to does not teach that. And now everybody in America hate Arabs because SOME, not all of their people are terrorists. Its not that we should let them blow us up, but we don't need to judge every one because of their origins. We still need to love them and be there friend even if they suspicious.
ReplyDeleteThe average church is in its own little wonderland. They don't usually do the right thing. I believe that some people think that if you hang with the wrong crowd you arnt a christian. That is not true they could be trying to minister to them. What I'm getting at is we should let everyone in our churches and pop the bubble.
ReplyDeleteI think that these words are very true but no one actually obeys these rules. I think that churches will sometimes fail to tell everyone this because when someone does something bad to you, then, all you want to do is to get revenge. When someone is doing something bad to you, you want to do something bad to them or you may not even want to talk to these people at all. I think that America has been affecteed greatly by all of this. When people hear something, it tends to spread around and so now everyone thinks that revenge can be the answer to everything. This may also be why we are fighting all these wars between other countries. I think that sometimes, America needs to learn how to forgive and forget.
ReplyDeleteChurches dont really preach that any more. Some set examples to hate those who have wronged you or revenge. I have also seen examples of this with homosexuals. Even if we think what they are doing is wrong we should still love them.It effects americans because it is the example that americans follow. whatever the churches do most americans do the same.
ReplyDelete<3 sophie
I think that most churches do not preach this anymore because we as Americans have all been taught/thinking for so long that when you are mad at someone you should get them back and have revenge on them. When really that is exactly the opposite of what the bible tells us to do.
ReplyDelete~Ann DuPre!
I believe that a lot of Christianity is based on this fundamental idea of turning the other cheek, loving your neighbors and enemies, and it would be very nice if all churches were open enough to preach this, unfortunately this isn't always what people want to hear.It is definitely hard for a lot of people, and me to grasp this idea because it is not human nature to love those who despise you. If only we all followed this principal then we would show what it really means to be a Christian and we would all be working for the body of Christ. This is a great verse that we should all (including me) base our life on.
ReplyDelete-David Lemasters
This verse is one of those to live out and put to your experiences throughout your entire life. However, I do not understand part of the question. In no way has any church of God taugt this subject wrong its just not all americans go to church or some dont recieve the certain message well. Not in any way is God's teachers responsible for our hateful actions. But these actions have caused to grow large and fast. Every american citizen has suffered from revenge on someone. All people including are government which creates are countries to have enimies and start war. We should look to the bible for the answers to these mistakes and become an example for other less dominate countries
ReplyDelete-Matt Landry
Some american churches are very defensive and if some one fires insults at them because of their faith of church, they fire it right back. Others are hypocritical like looking down on non christians when they should be spreading the word to them instead. Hypocritical churches could also look down on other churches who might praise God in a different way. I know, i'm kinda getting off topic. The main point is, there are alot of people out there who don't believe in God of just persecute others for their faith and telling them things like "you're gonna go to hell!" or "God doesn't love you because you don't believe!" is wrong. We as christians are supposed to help them come into the light before they end up in destruction.
ReplyDelete-Hannah
There are probably many churches that don't follow through with this verse but the ones that have, have taught it thouroghly...I think. But I think even if you take this verse and what your church teaches you and understand its meaning it's still hard to follow through with it. I'm awful at taking this verse and putting it into my life, I hold grudges too much and this is hard for me. I'm sure there are many others who feel the same way (I guess). And for the second part of the question, it affects us by making us hateful people who only love the people that love us. There are so many situatations/scenarios where we can be hateful against someone and it seems that America as a whole usually takes those situations and looks at them the wrong way and follows through the wrong way. But comparitively (to other countries)I feel that America is a loving country, occasionally.
ReplyDelete-Anna Long ... was here
i know that theyve failed this because ive never heard this verse in church. ive probably heard this more times at school than here. this has caused many people to become enimies with each other. it should be that we like every one. not that we hate every one that is mean to us. this is actually a huge reason that we have war with other countries.
ReplyDeleteAlex
we thought that the congregation of the church still talks about things or people behind peoples backs. some churches still put other churches or people down. some other churches focus on other things like money. other people have not loved their enemies.
ReplyDelete-Harrison Weller
I think that "the church" (in general) does the talking, but sometimes forgets about walking. Sunday after Sunday, Preachers probably quote this verse or talk about the statement "treat others the way you want to be treated". But since we were born sinful and disobedient, our instinct is to get revenge. We would never in a million years even think about forgiving or praying for the "enemy". That's just crazy talk! Now this same concept applies to the church as well. We can't assume that just because the church is made up of christians, everyone included in it is perfect. That just doesn't roll. The physical church is not holy, but it is the refreshing word that people PRACTICE (not saying that they do 24/7) that is holy.
ReplyDeleteBefore i answer the "how do these actions affect America" question i would like to point this out- I believe that the ways of America more deeply influence the church (i.e. media, gossip, material items) rather than the church influencing America. But with saying that, the church has its moments. When non-Christians witness Christians who act like this most of the time, people back away from the religion because they don't think it's "real". This is a very simple way that the church affects America.
ELAINE SHARITZ
I think churches have failed to do a couple things in this verse. One of them is that in my church I don't ever remember praying for the people that persucute us. We would just pray for the people that are in the lower class or that are in the mist of a struggle. My mom said that also the church has been accused of not helping people with AIDS because that sometimes deals with homosexuals. I thinks this affects america because it makes the preaching window even smaller because we aren't preaching to less people
ReplyDeleteFrances hamilton
i think christians dont follow this verse because they hate people for some of the smallest things. also, they make people not want to be christians because of other christians actions.
ReplyDelete-sam henrickson
people don't always belive the churches and somtimes they can rebel against the churches. The people of america will do alot to change the way society changes things.
ReplyDelete~carter harrison~
because the world hates our enemies. we are taught to hate others who have wronged us. We always want to get even. And think that revenge is the correct way to go. and that forgiveness is not right or acceptable
ReplyDeleteMany churches do not get very into being hatefull. Some almost encourage it. In our lives, and at our age, it is not so much that we hate the other race but other friends. It is so important at the age we are to love everyone even if they are mean or rude to you. We should love everyone we encounter. People also have a sinful nature which makes it increadibly hard to love one another. The hardest thing to do is be kind when we are in a war because our mindset is to hate the others. The greatest people I know are overflowing with love and joy which is how the Lord intended it to be. If we all acted like that the world would be a better place.
ReplyDelete-Mary Beth Newkirk
American churches have forgotten what God has said about loviing those who curse you. God wants us to love everyone. to pray for them and take them into our hearts.
ReplyDeleteaveri noosinow
In a lot of ways.Sometimes we dont like to listen to what other people have to say. We try t o be so independent.
ReplyDeleteMany times people react to their enemies and people who persecute them with revenge. That completely contradicts Matthew 5:44. I think that in some churches, people tend to shy away from uncomfortable situations and confrontation. Some churches and pastors have the tendency to persecute people. I've seen this especially with homosexuals. This happens because Christians disagree with what homosexuals stand for. Though I agree that homosexuality is wrong, I think that Christians haven't handled dealing with homosexuals very well. We just tell them its sin; but don't give them an answer how to get out of it.
ReplyDeleteAmerica was built on a Christian foundation. In recent years, America has been seemingly shying away from those Christian values. Because we have shied away from those things, America is a less safe place, as well as a less religious place
My mom thinks that the church is losing its influence in America. She says that its partly because the way Christians are painted by the media. But she also says that it isn't just the media's fault. If Christians were doing more of what Jesus said to do - feeding the poor and stuff like that - instead of sometimes being social clubs - then maybe our actions would earn the right for us to have influence.
EMMA WRIGHT
Churches have not really shown the importance of loving God. Putting others first is sometimes extemly hard and they can easily misinterprit it. I feel like the churches need to show more about the words in the verse instead of little lessons that some dont understand.
ReplyDeletetinsley
people do thigs they shouldn't and the churches are always hatting on the people who they dont like talking bad about them. That is a bad influence on some people and then America acts like the church because they think the church is perfect and then that is bad because America is corrupt because they dont like their enemies and they dont love their neighbors and that is against Gods word and he doesnt like that.
ReplyDelete-Nick Russell
i think this is one of the most forgotton bible verses because very few christians live by it. if someone stole something from you, you are going to get that person back. if someone hit you, you not going to MLK on them and turn the other cheek, you are going to hit them back. i feel churches need to go over this verse deeply because since people are not going by this, our crime rate has gone up. an interesting fact is that there are more black male between the age of 12-25 that are in jail than in school. thats sad and i want to do something about that.
ReplyDelete