Christians: What does our savior mean here?

Question

Jesus says to love your enemies as you do your friend. But in Luke 14:26 he says, the following:

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned [to hell].

It sounds like non-baptized or non-believers are enemies of Jesus. Condemning his enemies to a lake of fire does not sound like love.

What about this? Mark 16:15-16:

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

What is the word "hate" symbolic for here? I am unable to fathom another meaning for "hate." Can you?

Einstein: It doesn’t sound like Jesus loves them. You failed to answer the second question. By the way, Albert Einstein was a Deist.

Odds: How do you explain the contradiction in my first question? Secondly, where in the Bible does he use your explanation: Only if they do not love Jesus?

Answer 1

We can still love people even though they have made themselves enemies of Christ...what's the problem?

Just because they have chosen to make hell their final destiny doesn't mean we don't love them anyway.

Answer 2

Jesus did teach us to love our enemies. He then went and chased the money lenders out of the temple. Are these contrary? Yes, in superficial ways. If you take single points of his teaching and try to make it the whole, you are like the 4 blind men describing the elephant.

It is necessary to see deeper than this. Are unbelievers condemned? If you reject Christ don't you also reject his gifts. If you are not able to progress spiritually, you condemn yourself to less than you could have.

As used in the KJV damn has a wider meaning than is at once apparent from modern usage. Damnation is the opposite of salvation, and exists in varying degrees. All who do not obtain the fulness of celestial exaltation will to some degree be limited in their progress and privileges, and hence be damned to that extent.

Family is important to the Savior. I don't believe that hate is the correct word. Deeper meaning is that the priority we give to following Him is what counts.

Answer 3

Hi,
First let me clear up that "hate" was a bad
translation: the manuscripts say "love less".
This does not mean to praise the Lord and neglect or abuse your family; it means that
when you love your God and place Him and His Will before ANYTHING else in your life,
the result of that will be prosperity and protection for not only you, but your family as well.

Constantly I see folks who will post a verse
or two, and then ask "does this sound like
a 'loving' God to you?". And many times
I hear people saying gee, He states He will put his enemies into the lake of fire? That doesn't sound like 'love', does it?

The answer is quite simple: YES, IT DOES SOUND LIKE LOVE. This is why: You love your family more than anything, right? You would do anything to protect them, even if it means killing someone who attempts to hurt them, correct? Same thing here.
God had made a promise before we were put here in the flesh, not to interfere in the decisions in the individual life. He keeps that promise, but every day he also sees whats going on. He sees the children he loves (age 0 to age 105) being mistreated,
being abused, being persecuted, mocked, ridiculed, even those who try to take the freedom of religion and speech away from them; He is a Father and is not liking what he is seeing AT ALL.
He keeps the memory of every single action and word against his own, stored in
a large-mouthed vial; at the appointed time,
He will pour it out right on top of the heads of those who are guilty, period. You would do the same the first moment you had to
attack someone who abused your child, too.
Well, they are gonna get it and they are gonna get it real good. That cup of wrath will be so powerful, that Christ himself spoke to the Father and asked him if there was any possible way that they could avoid that cup of wrath being poured out - and many think that Christ was speaking of the Crucifiction - no, he was on a mission for that, and in no way wished for it not to occur. That cup of wrath he spoke of is yet to happen, but it will, and soon.
You call it "not loving"; I strongly disagree:
I see a parent who loves his children and
has it out for not only his own enemies, but their enemies as well. Perhaps you aren't a parent, and so you don't realize the love of
a parent to a child, but each time I see that
He is going to get those creeps who hurt
his people for years and years on end, I see nothing BUT LOVE IN IT.

Answer 4

In the first quote, Jesus is pointing out the consequences of rejecting His gift of salvation. Those people aren't His enemies; they have simply chosen, for themselves, a path that leads to destruction.

In the second quote, to "hate. . ." means to abandon ALL worldly concerns, not actually to feel enmity toward one's kin. Jesus' disciples gave up their families and vocations, and often their lives, to follow Him.

Answer 5

The most loving thing anyone can do is share the gospel with them.

Those who choose to reject the gospel have made their choice, deserve whatever comes as a result, and there is nothing we can do to change that.

The reference to "hate" means "to love less" ... in other words, those who love other persons or things more than God are in for some serious problems.

Answer 6

The first part of your question is, If you believe Jesus died for your sins and you ask God to forgive your sins, you should be baptized to show it. If you do not believe it, then you are a sinner and you are hell bound according to the Bible and Jesus and God. The second part of your question means, If your family does not believe in God, but you do, then leave your family and worship and pray to God. It's not meaning to hate your family. It means to hate their sin, to leave their sin and move on to a better life in Christ. It's better to move away from your family and worship God, than to live with your family and deny God.

Answer 7

revs right. well your enemies may be christians and you just dont get along with them.

Answer 8

oh goody, another 'enlightened and more intelligent than all of you' bible thumper...