The challenge in Christianity is not to love Jesus, it's to love Judas.

[St. SteVen]

"Say what?"
"Love Judas? We hate Judas!"
"He betrayed our Lord! Why would we love Judas?"

Perhaps Jesus understood this better than we do.
As indicated in this scripture.

John 13:26-28 NIV
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give
this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”
Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”
28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Did Jesus love Judas?
If Jesus loved Judas, shouldn't we?

"To love a betrayer, a person who seeks your actual harm and
who slanders you, is a part of our faith (Luke 6:22; 1 Peter 4:4). It literally is
the story of Jesus Christ. Also a part of our faith is the separation between Holy and unholy,
as was stated previously, between friend and foes, which will lead to separation
even amongst family (Luke 12:53). Loving a person who seeks to harm us lays hot coals
on the heads of the betrayer (Romans 12:20), but it also is most Christ like
when done so. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) and it creates a pathway
for redemption (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) as we see people as more than just
flesh and blood, we see them as souls to be redeemed." Source

/ @TonyChanYT

 

[Deborah_]

In what way could I, in the 21st century, love a man who died two thousand years ago? (Or hate him, for that matter?)

I see him as a terrible warning. You can be that close to Jesus - and yet turn your back on the light.

Can we rehabilitate Judas?

Of all the characters in the Easter story, Judas is one of the most enigmatic, and therefore one of the most fascinating. As the man who betrayed Jesus with a kiss and then killed himself, he has b…

deborahsbiblestudies.wordpress.com

 

[St. SteVen]

In what way could I, in the 21st century, love a man who died two thousand years ago? (Or hate him, for that matter?)

I see him as a terrible warning. You can be that close to Jesus - and yet turn your back on the light.

Can we rehabilitate Judas?

Of all the characters in the Easter story, Judas is one of the most enigmatic, and therefore one of the most fascinating. As the man who betrayed Jesus with a kiss and then killed himself, he has b…

deborahsbiblestudies.wordpress.com

Good blog article. Thanks for providing the link.
Quick read. I encourage everyone to read it.

/

 

[MatthewG]

In what way could I, in the 21st century, love a man who died two thousand years ago? (Or hate him, for that matter?)

I see him as a terrible warning. You can be that close to Jesus - and yet turn your back on the light.

That is good thing to notice, Deborah. Even after Judas did what he did, I believe he felt a tremendous amount of guilt, and therefore went to kill himself off. There is a great warning in that indeed. It's also for the people who teeter on the fence of where one desires to be, either with Yahava, or just a few pieces of silver here on earth, which is worth more? Reminds me of when Jesus spoke about, who would sell their own soul to gain the whole world, but those who give their life for him would gain eternal life or will find life (paraphrasing.)

 

[Randy Kluth]

We would do well to ask ourselves, "What does "loving" Judas really mean? It means that we, as children of God, need to be consistent with our Father in heaven who is *always* loving. So no matter who we're dealing with, our actions should always express God's love.

Our problem comes when we try to define "love" as passivity or ultra-tolerance of human sin. Love also judges people for eternity. Love also allows all kinds of sins to take place in the world in the interest of bringing people to judgment through patience.

One Scripture passage indicated that God "hated" Esau. How can God "hate" someone when God is always "love?" It is quite simple. God, who is love, consigns people to their fate if they pose a threat to the world. It is loving to remove someone even if God loves the person that is discarded.

So God brings justice, and causes people to meet a negative fate even though He remains loving. The same would hold true of Judas.

Jesus allowed him to live out his life to choose his fate, even through his thefts and ultimately his betrayal. But in love Jesus also recognized that he was a "devil" in his choices, and as such, consigned him to eternal separation from the children of God.

That way his evil deeds would be constrained, and God's Kingdom would not have to suffer the presence of the wicked. That truly is what love is--it is just and only compassionate insofar as people are willing to change their ungodly ways. To let them continue to afflict the righteous would not be loving, would it?

 

[St. SteVen]

Love also judges people for eternity.

Good post, thanks.
Although you and I disagree on judgment.
Something to consider.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Do we fulfill that command by incinerating them?
Or would God not accept that as a loving response from us?

/

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Jesus said to love our enemies. So not sure why we would hate on Judas.. nor do I know anyone who does

As far as incinerating people for eternity, God is pure love, he is also pure justice. His love can not overrule his justice. He showed us this on the cross. by paying for everyone's sin. so they can be freed from Gods justice.

Those who reject the cross. will not be freed from Justice. they will suffer it.

it does not prove God does not love. It proves he loves more. Because he died for them also. He gave them a way out. they rejected him..

 

[St. SteVen]

As far as incinerating people for eternity, God is pure love, he is also pure justice. His love can not overrule his justice. He showed us this on the cross. by paying for everyone's sin. so they can be freed from Gods justice.

Is it justice to assign an eternal punishment for a finite crime?
Even sinful humans have laws about cruel and unusual punishment.

Also, we tend to forget that mercy granted is always an option for justice.
Justice does not have to be served as punishment. Reconciliation is a better option.

/

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Is it justice to assign an eternal punishment for a finite crime?
Even sinful humans have laws about cruel and unusual punishment.

Also, we tend to forget that mercy granted is always an option for justice.
Justice does not have to be served as punishment. Reconciliation is a better option.

/

the penalty of sin is death

unless that penalty is removed. The penalty will remain.

Those cast into outer darkness or the lake of fire. Never had the penalty removed. so they suffer their fate (Jesus calls it the second death)

remember, Adam ate a peace of fruit. and that caused the fall of mankind.. and all the evil we see today is a dire t result of that one sin.

 

[St. SteVen]

the penalty of sin is death

unless that penalty is removed. The penalty will remain.

Jesus paid the death penalty on our behalf. Paid in full. The Atonement was not incomplete.

Those cast into outer darkness or the lake of fire. Never had the penalty removed. so they suffer their fate (Jesus calls it the second death)

I say the fire is restorative, not punitive.

Adam ate a peace of fruit

Imagine telling your child not to eat any of the apples in a prominently displayed bowl.
When you discovered their disobedience you dragged them down to the basement and tortured them without mercy.

/

 

[Wrangler]

The challenge in Christianity is not to love Jesus, it's to love Judas.

I disagree with the premise of the OP. Consistent with Phil 4:8, the challenge for Christians IS to truly and fully love Jesus - not their IDOLS. The 1C says you shall have no other gods before me. That is precisely what you are doing with the premise, putting something before God and his emmisary to and for us. It is forbidden!

It is only through our devotion to our master that having compassion for the Judas' of the world makes any sense.

Here is how I do it. I jettison with word love. For the Bible talks about an unnatural love, a response more akin in our language to compassion. The Bible talks about divine compassion.

I have sympathy for the lost. No one is more lost than our enemies. Most people are indifferently going about their little lives in search of the shabot shalom that our master freely offers. Rather than embrace the life he came to abundantly give, they search in vain elsewhere. Maybe it is in sex, money, power, drugs, self-aggrandizement, etc, they suppose. They demand our sympathy, not having eyes to see or ears to hear.

It is by truly and fully loving Jesus that I can have divine compassion for the Judas' of the world.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Jesus paid the death penalty on our behalf. Paid in full. The Atonement was not incomplete.

That is atonement. in full. He said "it is finished" or in the greek literally "paid in full"

I say the fire is restorative, not punitive.

You would be in error

Imagine telling your child not to eat any of the apples in a prominently displayed bowl. When you discovered their disobedience you dragged them down to the basement and tortured them without mercy.

/

Your looking at it wrong

Imagine telling your child not to drink that poison or she would die.

When you discovered her dead body. was it unjust?

 

[St. SteVen]

Your looking at it wrong

Imagine telling your child not to drink that poison or she would die.

When you discovered her dead body. was it unjust?

Oh my!
That's quite a thing to lay at God's doorstep. Wow.

Wouldn't I be judged guilty of murder for that?
Telling the judge that I warned my child that it was deadly poison would convict me.

Do you have a better example than that? Back to the drawing board. - LOL

/

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Oh my!
That's quite a thing to lay at God's doorstep. Wow.

But thats what happened

He told Adam, on the day you eat it you will die

that happened.

Wouldn't I be judged guilty of murder for that?
Telling the judge that I warned my child that it was deadly poison would convict me.

The wage of sin is death

thats is why so many people do not see their situation. If I say a little white lie. The wage is death, If I commit murder. it is death.

God gave us free will. the penalty for going against his will and choosing our own is death.

That's why Christ had to die..

Do you have a better example than that? Back to the drawing board. - LOL

/

nope, It fits.

God told adam, do not eat this fruit, If you do you will die.

When he was dead. Was it Gods fault?

 

[Ritajanice]

I have NO hate in my heart.....only the river of everlasting life....I have the Love of Jesus in my heart.

 

[Randy Kluth]

Good post, thanks.
Although you and I disagree on judgment.
Something to consider.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Do we fulfill that command by incinerating them?
Or would God not accept that as a loving response from us?

I think God's love was expressed by determining that people could choose whether to be near Him or not. So in His love He separates the ungodly from the godly who will be given to possess the earth.

The "fire" is not, I think, a fire to torture, though the description of a hot and dry environment (Lazarus and the Rich Man) is given to explain the "waterless" places the ungodly are given to dwell in without the Holy Spirit. Remember, they have *chosen* not to be near God. They face the consequences of their own wishes, and cannot enjoy the comfort and joy of God's presence forever.

So no, God created people to exist forever. I view the ungodly as having a habitat that is tolerable, and functional, and yet not in the blessed environment of God's Presence and Kingdom on earth.

God doesn't torture people, although in the present age He allows men to demonstrate their own wickedness and tortures. That will come to an end completely, and God Himself will not "torture" anybody. The "torment" will be what people themselves have chosen by abandoning God and His Kingdom.

 

[St. SteVen]

He told Adam, on the day you eat it you will die

There must have been a better way. We wouldn't do this to our own children.
And if Genesis wasn't literal, then what?

God gave us free will. the penalty for going against his will and choosing our own is death.

I thought death came through Adam. We are paying for his crime. (and our own)

/

 

[St. SteVen]

I think God's love was expressed by determining that people could choose whether to be near Him or not. So in His love He separates the ungodly from the godly who will be given to possess the earth.

The "fire" is not, I think, a fire to torture, though the description of a hot and dry environment (Lazarus and the Rich Man) is given to explain the "waterless" places the ungodly are given to dwell in without the Holy Spirit. Remember, they have *chosen* not to be near God. They face the consequences of their own wishes, and cannot enjoy the comfort and joy of God's presence forever.

So no, God created people to exist forever. I view the ungodly as having a habitat that is tolerable, and functional, and yet not in the blessed environment of God's Presence and Kingdom on earth.

God doesn't torture people, although in the present age He allows men to demonstrate their own wickedness and tortures. That will come to an end completely, and God Himself will not "torture" anybody. The "torment" will be what people themselves have chosen by abandoning God and His Kingdom.

That's an interesting view, thanks.
A biblical search for the term "realm of the dead" in the NIV yields 29 results. Interesting to see them.

/

 

[Ronald Nolette]

"Say what?"
"Love Judas? We hate Judas!"
"He betrayed our Lord! Why would we love Judas?"

Perhaps Jesus understood this better than we do.
As indicated in this scripture.

John 13:26-28 NIV
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give
this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”
Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”
28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Did Jesus love Judas?
If Jesus loved Judas, shouldn't we?

"To love a betrayer, a person who seeks your actual harm and
who slanders you, is a part of our faith (Luke 6:22; 1 Peter 4:4). It literally is
the story of Jesus Christ. Also a part of our faith is the separation between Holy and unholy,
as was stated previously, between friend and foes, which will lead to separation
even amongst family (Luke 12:53). Loving a person who seeks to harm us lays hot coals
on the heads of the betrayer (Romans 12:20), but it also is most Christ like
when done so. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) and it creates a pathway
for redemption (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) as we see people as more than just
flesh and blood, we see them as souls to be redeemed." Source

/ @TonyChanYT

Tha tis humorous! Jesus called him a devil and the Inspired Scriptures called him the son of perdition. also, the Scriptures in JOhn 3 say that unbelievers have the wrath of God already abiding on them! Jesus accepted Judas knowing he was the son of perdition because it was prophecy. that does not mean He loved him.

We love all for we do not know which ones are called of God or not! We do not know th efuture Judas's of the world.

 

[BlessedPeace]

Judas was possessed by Satan when he turned on Jesus.Therefore,Judas wasn't responsible.

That's why when he realized what happened in that state he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the demonic pharisees, and then hanged himself.

It isn't a matter of live.It is a matter of feeling compassion. While Satans possession was obviously done because otherwise Judas would have never betrayed Jesus otherwise.

And we know this because Satan chose to enter him and that's when "Judas" betrayed Jesus.

The thing is, in those days there were a lot of fake prophets. And they performed tricks meant to be miracles. Even turning water to wine.

Why then would the Sadducees and Pharisees want this one man dead? And so much so as to collude with Rome to get it done?

And after,curse themselves and their future generations for having done so?
"Let his blood be upon our heads and those of our children."

Live Judas? No. Empathize and sympathize with his plight,yes.

His possession was the way Jesus achieved his mission to earth. Maybe love Satan in that instance as God's emissary once more, for having insured Gods plan of Salvation began with having Jesus to die on the cross.