“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-31)
This is the only way to change the hearts of those who are (whether they realize it or not) enemies of the gospel. Repaying curse for curse or violence for violence will never win the war against your enemies, it only increases the cycle of retribution. Only when you love your enemies do you disrupt that cycle and introduce a paradigm that is unheard of in the kingdom of the world. Turning the other cheek is not surrender to your enemies, it is resisting evil with the only power that can truly defeat evil … love. Loving only those who love you causes my church to fade into the world around it and offers no witness of my kingdom. I am calling my church to face the hard truth that in order to change the world, it must disrupt the world by acting in the opposite spirit of the world.
— July 2, 2020