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people generally abandon their sacred right <strong>to</strong> think and <strong>to</strong> make correct decisions.They blindly follow the mob which endeavours <strong>to</strong> make violence a virtue, falsehoodan expediency, and crime a necessity. —E.J. Swalm, Nonresistance Under Test (1949)Is the call <strong>to</strong> peace personal or corporate?Many who contemplate how Jesus’ teaching affects believers who are faced with theprospect of warfare would say that the ethic taught by Jesus in Luke 6: 27-31 is anethic that applies only <strong>to</strong> personal relationships. It says nothing about choosing <strong>to</strong>fight in a war being fought by your country. Others would say that Jesus makes noqualifications here. His followers should simply love their enemies and that means alltheir enemies in any situations and surely that applies <strong>to</strong> war.In Ephesians 2: 14-18 Paul writes that Jesus is our peace and has made the two one.Paul is not thinking about two human beings, he is talking about the grand divisionbetween Jews and Gentiles. Jesus’ work of peace was designed <strong>to</strong> bring <strong>to</strong>gether twopeople groups that had existed with some sense of hostility between them. Paul appliesJesus’ ethic of love <strong>to</strong>ward enemies and peace <strong>to</strong> a corporate situation. —MarvThiessen, First <strong>Mennonite</strong> Church, CalgaryGuide our feet in<strong>to</strong> the way of peace Lk 1:7925 Resources for worship

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