Is it true in Christianity that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son” and “Love your enemies”!

 

Let us review the texts of love,

the Gospel of John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already , because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.


Whoever reviews the previous texts will find that love is conditional , “ so that whoever believes in Him will not perish.” The following texts make it clearer that love in Christianity is specific and restricted and not absolute, as the ignorant are led to believe.

John 13
:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end.

Matthew 25:41
“Then he will say also to those on his left, ‘Depart from me , you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not take me in, I was naked and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me.
44 Then they also will answer him, saying, ‘Lord , when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?
45 And he will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you , inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
46 Then these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life .”

If what is meant by “ God loves the world ” is the believer and the non-believer, then what is the benefit of love for the one who does not believe and is condemned, perishes, and enters eternal fire in eternal torment?!

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Matthew 5:43
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 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 despitefully use you and persecute you.


Who are your enemies?

Matthew 10:33
But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 And a man’s enemies will be those of his own household .
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.


What kind of love is there for these enemies, whether they are relatives or strangers!?

Luke 19:26
For I say to you, to everyone who has, more will be given, and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
27 But as for my enemies , who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.”

The previous text was used in the Crusades.

Interpretation of Chapter 19 of the Gospel of Luke
by Father Anthony Fikry. As for my enemies... and slaughter them = Christ here issues judgment on Jerusalem before entering it. Titus actually slaughtered them in 70 AD. Those who are led to slaughter are those who wrote their own destiny with their own hands. Let us see how many talents and manas God gave to the Jews (prophets/priesthood/temple/miracles/miraculous victories over their enemies/law/statute/holy land/commandments that if they had carried them out they would have lived happily/a secure kingdom/material goods, a land flowing with milk and honey..). What did they do? They did not put their money in a handkerchief, but they wasted everything they had taken and finally crucified Christ. They became barbaric, and just as they slaughtered Christ in a barbarity that had become part of their nature, they foolishly, having lost all wisdom, killed the Roman officers waiting for God to send them the Messiah to save them. So, in their foolishness and barbarity with which they dealt with Christ, they dealt with the Roman officers in the same way, but Christ asked for forgiveness for them on the cross, while Rome slaughtered them as they deserved. Forgiveness is attained by those who believe in Christ, even if they participated in His crucifixion. With this parable, the Lord Christ ends His teachings concerning the kingdom which He came to establish:
There is a reward and a reward for everyone who strives in this earthly kingdom and wins souls for Christ.
The reward and the reward are according to the struggle.
He who is negligent in his trade will be rejected.
He who is hostile to Christ and does not accept him will perish (be slaughtered).

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We ask, is loving enemies slaughtering or has love been abrogated by slaughtering ?!

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Jesus gives an example for them to learn from and apply: If you are weak, ask for peace; if you are strong, fight.
Luke 14:31
For what king, going to make war against another king, does not first sit down and consult whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 Otherwise, while that is still a long way off, he sends an embassy and asks what is for peace.

And it is not possible to fight against the devil as they pretend; otherwise, how would the devil ask for peace?!

The following texts and interpretations show that love is not absolute as the claimants claim.

Leviticus 20:22
“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments, and do them,so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
23And you shall not walk in the customs of the nations whom I am casting out before you, for they have done all these things, and I have hated them.
24 And I said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
” Psalm 5
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all who work iniquity .
6 You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD hates the bloodthirsty and deceitful man .
Proverbs 17:15
He who justifies the guilty and he who condemns the innocent both are an abomination to the Lord.

Anba Shenouda says thatit is not lovefor a person to encourage a sinner in his sin.It is not lovefor him to defend him, or even to help him financially or materially.Rather, true love is to lead him to repentance, by explaining the mistake to him, rebuking him for it, and calling him to abandon it. Truly, this is not love, but rather harm. The Bible says: ( He who justifies the guilty and he who condemns the innocent,both are an abomination to the Lord. ) (Proverbs 17:15). So the one who justifies the guilty, but because of his love for him,loses God’s love and becomes an abomination to Him. Even his wrong love for the sinner causes his eternal destruction. He considers his supporter a partner with him in the sin, and in the responsibility for the error, its results and its punishment.When this sinner perishes, the one who supported him is one of the reasons that led him to perish. At the same time, he is against the truth, which is God.Book of Ten Concepts - Pope Shenouda III - The Concept of Love and Friendship - Wrong Love








Psalms 139
19that you would kill the wicked, O God!Depart from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20Those who speak deceit to you, speaking lies, are your enemies.
21Do hatethose who hate you, O Lord,and detest those who rise up against you?
22them with utter hatred; they have become my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts.

Interpretation of Psalm 139 from the Book of Psalms by Father Tadros Yacoub
Those who speak deceit to You,
speaking lies, are Your enemies [20].
O Lord, I hate those who hate You,
and I detest those who rise up against You [21].
The Prophet David does not bear personal hatred, nor does he desire revenge against people in defense of his own person, but he does not tolerate evil, but rather hates it, even though he seeks the salvation of the wicked through their repentance and return to the Savior who awaits them, but he seeks to work with his Holy Spirit in them, without any obligation on his part.
* Therefore, when David is fully committed to the covenant of the peace of the Spirit, he testifies that he is not in agreement with the wicked, saying: “Should I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I hate them with a complete hatred; they have become my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22). Here it is clear that hating God’s enemies with a complete hatred means that we love their persons, but we rebuke their actions, we rebuke their evil behavior so that we may be of benefit to them. [66]
Father Gregory (the Great

* Let us hate those (heretics) who deserve hatred, and let us keep away from those from whom the Lord keeps away, and let us also say with all courage to God about the heretics, “ Should I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and detest those who rise up against you?! ” (Psalm 139:21) because there is real enmity, for it is written, “I will put enmity between you and her offspring” (Gen. 3:15), because friendship with the serpent creates enmity with God and brings about death! [67]
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
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The Book of Jesus, son of Sirach 36
1 O Lord, God of all, have mercy on us, and look upon us, and show us the light of your mercies.
2 And cast your terror upon all the nations that have not They seek you , that they may know that there is no God but you, and that they may declare your great works.
3 Lift up your hand over the foreign nations , that they may know your power.
4 Just as your holiness appeared in their presence in us, so let your greatness appear in their presence in us.
5 And that they may know you, just as we have known you, that there is no God but you, O Lord.
6 Show signs and do wonders again.
7 Glorify your hand, and your right arm.
8 Stir up your anger, and pour out your wrath.
9 Destroy the adversary, and crush the enemy.
10 Hasten the time, and remember the covenant, and let your great deeds be declared.
11 Let the fire of wrath consume him who escapes, and let those who afflict your people be destroyed.
12 Smash the heads of the leaders of the enemy, who say, “There is none other than us.”

Numbers 33
50 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho, saying,
51 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you are crossing the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you, and destroy all their images, and destroy all their molten images, and destroy all their high places.
53 You shall possess the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess it.
54 And you shall divide the land by lot according to your families. To the many you shall give the inheritance of many, and to the few you shall give the inheritance of few; where the lot falls, there it shall be for him; according to the tribes of your fathers you shall divide it.

Isaiah 34
1 Draw near, you nations, and hear; and listen, you peoples; let the earth hear, and all that is in it. The world and all its results.
2 For the LORD has wrath against all the nations, And fierceness against all their army. He has utterly destroyed
them, He has given them to the slaughter. 3 Their slain shall be cast out, And their carcasses shall stench, And the mountains shall run with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be consumed, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host shall be scattered, as the leaves from the vine, and the fallen leaves from the fig tree.
5 For my sword is watered in the heavens: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people whom I have devoted to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is full of blood, It is smeared with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And the wild oxen shall fall with them, And the calves with the bulls; And their land shall be drenched with blood, And their dust shall be fattened with fat.
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of recompense For the cause of Zion. 9 And its rivers shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its land shall be burning pitch. 10 Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall ascend
forever
; from generation to generation it shall be desolate; for ever and ever there shall be none to pass through it.

Deuteronomy 20:10
“When you approach a city to fight against it, then offer it an offer of peace.
11 If it makes peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it will be subject to forced labor and will serve you.
12 But if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put all the males of it to the sword.
14 But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city—all its spoil—you shall take as plunder for yourself . And you shall eat the plunder of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.
15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations here. 16 But of the cities
of these nations which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.
But you shall utterly destroy them—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites —as the Lord your God
has commanded you. 18 That they may not teach you to do according to all the abominations they have done for their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, fighting against it to take it, you shall notdestroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat some of them.shall notcut them down. For is a tree of the field a man, that he should go before you in the siege?
20 But the tree which you know is not a tree for food, you shall destroy and cut down,and build a fort against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
Interpretation of Chapter 20 of the Book of Deuteronomy by Father Tadros Yacoub
2. Siege of cities outside Canaan:
As for the distant nations, he sends to them to establish covenants of peace. If they accept, they shall serve God and His people[10-15]. They may not go down to battle with their neighbors unless they first make a public declaration, in which they ask for peace.
"When you approach a city to fight against it, then offer it peace.
If it accepts peace and opens to you, then all the people who are in it shall be your forced laborers and serve you.
But if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put to death all the males therein with the edge of the sword.
But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take for yourself. And you shall use the spoil of
your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.
Thus you shall do to all the cities very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations here" [10-15].
The commentators differed in explaining this phrase. Some believe that it applies to the countries adjacent to the Promised Land, and does not apply to the seven nations in Canaan. The reason for this is that the remaining of any remnant of the seven nations among the people would be a stumbling block to them, and would draw them into the worship of pagan gods and the practice of abominations.Others believe that it applies to these nations as well,where the conditions of peace are:
1.Renouncing pagan worship and entering into the worship of the living God.
2.Submission to the Jews.
3.Paying an annual tribute.
Whoever does not accept these conditions will not leave a single living creature in their city if it is one of the seven nations.However, if it is one of the neighboring cities, the men will be killed and the women and children will be spared along with the animals and all their spoils.The reason for the discrimination is to leave no trace of pagan worship among the people.
Subjection to hard work, fulfilling Noah’s curse on his son Canaan (Gen. 9:25).
As for distant countries that do not belong to the Promised Land, it is possible to seek peace with them and to subject their people to slavery (20:10-15). A symbolic image of the inner desire of the spiritual person for peace with the transformation of energies from working for evil to energies subject to the account of the Kingdom of God within us.

One of the texts that further confirms that love is not absolute

Leviticus 26:
6 And I will make peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will destroy the evil beasts out of the land, and the sword shall not pass through your land.
7 And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 Five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 And I will look upon you, and will make you fruitful, and will multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
10 And you shall eat the old, and bring out the old from before the new.
11 And I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you, and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.
13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, and broke the bands of your yoke and made you stand upright.
14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,
15 and if you reject my statutes and your soul abhors my judgments, not doing all my commandments but breaking my covenant ,
16 then I will do this to you: I will put terror and paralysis on you and a fever that will destroy the eyes and ravage the soul. And you will sow your seed in vain, and your enemies will eat it.
17 And I will set My face against you, and you will be defeated before your enemies, and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee, and there will be no one to pursue you.
18 “But if you still do not listen to me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19 I will break your pride and make
your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 Your strength will be wasted, and your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the earth will not yield their fruit.
21 “But if you walk contrary to me and are unwilling to listen to me, I will add seven times more plagues to you for your sins.
22 I will send wild beasts against you, and they will take away your children and destroy your livestock. They will make you few in number, and your ways will be desolate.
23 “But if you do not learn from me in this, but walk contrary to me,
24 then I will also walk contrary to you and will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
25 I will bring a sword against you to avenge the covenant, and you will be gathered into your cities. I will send pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 Because I have broken your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven and return your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.
27 “But if you do not listen to me, but walk contrary to me,
28 I will also walk contrary to you in anger, and I will discipline you seven times for your sins.
29 And you will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.
30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your suns, and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.
31 And I will make your cities a waste, and your sanctuaries a desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your joy.
32 And I will make the land desolate, and your enemies who dwell in it will be desolate from it.
33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities shall be desolate.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths all the days of its desolation, and you shall be in the land of your enemies. Then the land shall lie down, and enjoy its sabbaths.
35 All the days of her desolation she shall hibernate, which of your sabbaths she did not hibernate when you dwelt upon her.
36 And as for those of you who remain, I will put cowardice into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a falling leaf shall disperse them, and they shall flee as one flees from a sword; and they shall fall, and none shall pursue.
37 And they shall fall one against another, as before a sword, and none shall pursue; and you shall have no standing before your enemies .
38 And you shall perish among the peoples, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.
39 And those who are left among you shall perish in their iniquities in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of your fathers they shall perish with them.
40 But if they confess their own sins and the sins of their fathers, in their treason which they committed against me, and their way of life which they walked contrary to me,
41 and that I also walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies. Unless then their uncircumcised hearts submit, and then they are remitted for their sins.
42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
43 And the land shall be forsaken by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths in its desolation by them
, and they shall pay for their iniquity, because they have rejected my judgments, and their soul abhors my statutes. 44 But even so, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not abhor them, nor will I hate them, so as to destroy them, and to break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.
45 But I will remember for them the covenant with the ancients whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the peoples, to be their God. I am the Lord.”
46 These are the statutes, the ordinances, and the laws which the Lord established between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Deuteronomy 28:15
“ But if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds, and the females of your flock.
19 Cursed shall be you when you come in, and cursed shall be
you when you go out. 20 The LORD will send upon you a curse, confusion, and rebuke in all that your hand sets out to do, until you perish and are quickly consumed, because of the evil that you have done in forsaking me.
21 The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you until he has destroyed you from off the land which you are entering to possess.
22 The LORD will strike you with tuberculosis, with fever, with sickness, with inflammation, with drought, with blight, and with mildew; and they will pursue you until they have consumed you.
23 And your heaven above your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you will be iron.
24 And the LORD will make the rain of your land into powder, and He will bring down dust upon you from heaven
. 25 The LORD will make you defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way, and flee before them seven ways; and you shall be a pestilence in all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And your carcass shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall disturb them.
27 The LORD will strike you with the plague of Egypt, with hemorrhoids, with scabies, and with itching, so that you cannot be healed.
28 The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart. 29 So you will grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in the dark, and your ways will not succeed. You will be oppressed and
robbed forever, and there will be none to save you.
30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not use it.
31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be taken away violently before your face, but it shall not return to you. Your flock shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to save you.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will look upon them all day long, and you will fail, and there will
be no provision in your hand. 33 The fruit of your land and all your toil will be eaten by a people you do not know, and you will be oppressed and crushed all your days.
34 And you will be mad because of the sight of your eyes which you see.
35 The LORD will strike you with a sore sore on your knees and on your legs, so that you cannot heal from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 The LORD will bring you and your king whom you have set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
37 And you will be an astonishment, a proverb, and a mockery among all the nations where the LORD will drive you.
38 You will bring forth much seed in the field, but you will gather little, because the locusts will eat it.
39 You shall plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you shall not drink wine or gather it, for the worm will eat it.
40 You shall have olive trees in all your borders, but you shall not anoint them with oil, for your olive trees will be scattered.
41 You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
42 All your trees and the fruit of your land the locust will take possession of.
43 The stranger who is among you will exalt himself above you, and you will be brought low, and you will be humbled.
44 He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.
46 And it shall be for a sign and a wonder in you and in your descendants forever.
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,
48 ​​you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in want of all things. And he will put an iron yoke on your neck until he destroys you.
49 The LORD will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,
50 a harsh nation, which will not respect the old, nor show compassion for the young.
51 They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land until you are destroyed, and will leave you neither grain nor wine nor oil, nor the increase of your herds nor the females of your flocks, until you are destroyed. 52 And they will besiege you in all your gates, until your high and strong walls , in which
you trusted, come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates, throughout all your land which the LORD your God is giving you.
53 And you will eat the fruit of your body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you.
54 The man who lives in luxury among you and is very spoiled, his eye will be stingy toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he leaves alive,
55 by giving to one of them some of the flesh of his children which he eats, because he has nothing left in the siege and the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates.
56 And the woman who is in pleasure and luxury among you, who has not tried to set the sole of her foot on the ground for pleasure and luxury, her eye is stingy toward the man of her bosom, toward her son and her daughter,
57 and toward her placenta that comes out from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears, for she devours them secretly in want of everything, in the siege. And the distress with which your enemy distresses you within your gates,
58 if you do not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, to fear this great and awesome name, the Lord your God,
59 then the Lord will make your plagues and the plagues of your descendants wonderful, plagues great and lasting, and sore diseases lasting.
60 And he will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of, and they will cling to you.
61 Moreover, every disease and every plague, which are not written in this book of the law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed.
62 And you will be left few in number, instead of being as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
63 And as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and to destroy you, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are entering to possess.
64 And the LORD will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of it, and there you will serve other gods, which you and your fathers have not known, both you and your fathers, of wood and stone.
65 And among those nations you will not rest, nor will your foot find rest; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and languishing soul.
66 And your life shall hang in suspense before you; and you shall be in fear night and day, and you shall not be sure of your life.
67 In the morning you shall say, “Oh, if only it were evening!” and in the evening you shall say, “Oh, if only it were morning!” because of the trembling of your heart wherewith you are terrified, and because of the sight of your eyes wherewith you see.
68 And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships by the way which I said to you, “You shall not see it again.” And there you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, and there will be no one to buy.”
From the interpretation of Chapter 28 of the Book of Deuteronomy by Father Tadros Yacoub
2. Curses of disobedience

While showing the cheerful side of the cloud, which is directed toward obedience, he presents us with the dark side, which is directed toward disobedience. For if we do not keep the commandments, we are not only deprived of the promised blessings, but we also throw ourselves under the curse, which brings every misery as blessings bring every happiness.

God has revealed the power and effectiveness of His blessings in the life of the believer, and at the same time he has revealed the seriousness of disobedience, lest the believer think that the spiritual life is love without control or law . He presents a hideous picture of what happens to the people because of their deviation from God, the source of their life, growth, joy, satisfaction, sanctification, and inner freedom. Many consider this part of the chapter to be the most terrifying in the Bible. Matthew Henry said that a man, when he read this part, could not bear the curses contained therein, so he removed this chapter from the Bible. He did not realize that love must be wrapped in firmness; The exceeding love of God cannot be enjoyed without the fear of God .

In every nation there are people who are spiritual infants and need some fear to raise them to maturity to accept obedience through love . What is here called curses is the expression of divine wrath against sin itself or evil. The wrath of the Lord is holy, inseparable from love ; He is angry with sin, longing to free the sinner from it. Curses are the natural fruit of man’s alienation from God, the source of all blessing . When we speak of the curses that God permits, these do not come from the all-loving and benevolent God, but are the fruit of our evil will that isolates itself from the source of blessing.

True love is accompanied by sincerity and earnestness in work, not laxity, negligence, and insincerity.

Interpretation of Chapter 28 of the Book of Deuteronomy by Father Tadros Yacoub

God's terrifying punishments
God's limitless mercy did not prevent examples of terrifying punishments that divine justice inflicted on humanity because of human sins that defied God's holiness, resisted His goodness, and broke His commandments.

An example of this is the flood , in which God wiped out man from the face of the earth (Gen. 6:7).
Another example is the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah ,
when God rained brimstone and fire from the sky on them , "and overthrew those cities, all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the vegetation of the ground ... And Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen. 19:24-26). As we stand before the flood , and before the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah , we learn a lesson and think. Who said that our sins are less than the sins of Sodom ?! Or less than the sins of the people at the time of the flood ?! Or less than the sin of Lot's wife who became a pillar of salt?!
And who said that God, who inflicted these punishments in the Old Testament, has changed in the New Testament ?!
Isn't He "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8) "with Him there is no variation, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17)?
He is also the one who in the New Testament caused Ananias and Sapphira to fall dead because they lied in their conversation with the Apostle Peter . How many people lie when they talk with the bishops, priests, and even the patriarchs !
He is also the one who allowed His servant Paul to say about the sinner of Corinth:
"I have determined... to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus " (1 Cor. 5:5).
* One of the most severe things mentioned in the Holy Bible about God's punishments for sinners is the curses that God pours on those who disobey His commandments.
A list of these curses is given in the Book of Deuteronomy, where the Lord says: “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes… all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Cursed shall you be in the field, cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, the offspring of your herds and the females of your flocks; cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send upon you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you perish and are quickly consumed because of the evil of your deeds in that you have forsaken me. Your heaven that is above your head shall be defiled, and the earth that is beneath you shall be iron … The Lord will make you defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way, and flee before them seven ways . You shall be troubled in all the kingdoms of the earth … You shall not prosper in your ways, but you shall be oppressed and deprived all your days, with no one to save you…
Also every sickness and every plague—not written inThis book of the law - the Lord will bring them upon you until you perish.. And your life will be hanging in the balance before you, and you will be terrified night and day, and you will not feel safe about your life. In the morning you say, “Oh, if only it were evening!” and in the evening you say, “Oh, if only it were morning!” Because of the fear of your heart with which you are terrified, and because of the sight of your eyes with which you see…” (Deut. 28:15, 68).
Truly these curses are terrifying and frightening. And because of the intensity of their terror, I have been silent about recording them all. They give us an idea of ​​the holiness of God, which never tolerates sin , and they give us an idea of ​​the justice of God, which punishes sin according to its hideousness. May we read all this and be admonished and repent… and leave the sin that causes all these curses.
* Truly, the curse entered the world as a result of sin :
* When Adam sinned , the Lord said to him, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen. 3:17). Then the matter developed and the curse was brought to man himself, and thus the Lord said to Cain , “Cursed are you from the ground , which crept its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand” (Gen. 4:11). “Cursed are you…” just as He said to the serpent before, “Cursed are you…” (Gen. 3:14). Thus sinful man was likened to Satan, “ the ancient serpent ,” and it is right to call sinners “children of the devil ” (1 John 3:10), or “children of vipers” (Matt. 3:7). Then came the curse of the flood , which is the curse of destruction (Gen. 8:21). Then came the curse of slavery, which fell first on Canaan, when it was said to him, “Cursed be Canaan.” “ A servant of servants shall be to his brothers” (Gen. 9:25). Then came the curses of the law (Deut. 28) which included many punishments.. including death , disease, epidemic, poverty, failure, injustice, anxiety and defeat..
In the New Testament, the Lord Christ cursed the fruitless, leafy fig tree (Mark 11:21) which gives an idea of ​​hypocrisy with impiety, and it was a symbol for everyone who follows this path.
* Really, who reads all this and does not fear?! And who is likely to be cursed by God?! Rather, who is likely to lose the blessing that he first received from the Lord?! Let us repent, my brothers, because all these things have been left for us as an example, and were written to warn us, we upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11). And let us wash away our sins with tears of repentance , before the terrible Day of Judgment overtakes us where neither weeping nor repentance will be of any use .

Holy Spirit as they made him an oppressed god and made everything for the Father and a little for the Son.
He is an imaginary, oppressed god who does not exist except in their imagination.