Jesus did practice what He preached, but I'm not certain I could practice what He preached. I don't know what I would do if you tried to rob me; I know what I hope I would do, but I may not trust God enough to follow His commandments. "That which I want to do, I do not do." "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
We're not perfect only forgiven. :)
I figure if someone has the nerve to strike me on my cheek, if I turn the other to them they'll avail themselves of the opportunity to hit harder. Because I'm showing them I do not oppose being physically abused.
I was a student in what was actually a cult x-tian school for a few years. Signed up because public school was OK but there were bullies being more bold as I graduated to higher grades. They were there in Kindergarten but by middle school they were just ridiculous. I thought a Christia school would be ideal. And it was aligned with our family church. Boy was I wrong.
Took a day off school to attend there and see how I liked it. Everyone was great. Lovely atmosphere. It was an act. I didn't know this.
Signed up. First day of school the pervert sadistic principle meets me at the door after I got off the bus. He wanted to welcome me to the school as a new student.
We get into his office, he closes the door, we sit, he says,
I know you've been "raised" in public school to this point. That's OK. Our mission here is to break your spirit!
No
, our mission is to heal your worldly spirit and help you to be more aligned with that of Christ. Just that statement. Then he gets up, opens the door, and I'm dismissed. This cult practiced corporal punishment. Mind you I'd never been spanked a day in my life.
After that? Once a week, every week, for two years that freak, who'd worked it out with my teachers, found any excuse to call me into the office for a beating. An oak paddle, 17 inches long, four inches wide, three inches thick, with nickle sized holes drilled in to retard the down draft on the down swing so that the impact was more severe.
Yeah, I'm not one to invite someone to strike me even the first time. I don't turn the other cheek. I had both mine beaten three times each visit to that office for those two years enough to realize, when a girl wears a dress to her knees, per school dress code, she should have been warned to bring Kevlar panties to absorb the impact of a freak from Texas. Who "prayed with me that God forgive my sin that caused him to have to punish me that way", each and every time. Then I had to go before my classmates and ask who among them would forgive my sin, while he stood beside me, by a show of hands.
Do you know, there were kids that didn't raise their hands?
Not that you were in the mood for a testimony. ;)