Discourse with Enemies

Here’s an excerpt from Discourse with Enemies, Lee Gatiss' contribution to the August issue of Tabletalk:

The lack of civility in public life these days is regularly commented on. The often vicious rhetoric that opposing sides in current national debates fling at each other ought to be a cause for profound concern. God’s people, finding themselves “in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation,” are meant to “shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Phil. 2:15–16). However, we are often tempted to justify the kind of toxic engagement that we so deplore in the secular culture. If we in the church want to critique the way that public engagement happens in our national life, we must make sure that as we do so we are living by our own professed biblical standards. One of the key things that we need to consider in this regard is Jesus’ teaching on this subject in Luke 6:28. The Lord said, “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

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