The Sermon on the Mount_ The Key to Success in Life - Emmet Fox [33]
It will sometimes happen that you will find yourself in company where the conversation is very negative, sickness and trouble being described and dwelt upon at great length, or perhaps uncharitable statements made concerning absent people. For various reasons it may be difficult for you to withdraw, and if so your duty is clear—you must mentally “turn the other cheek” and thus help both the speakers and their victims.
Let him have thy cloak also, and go with him twain are dramatic expressions that still further emphasize the principle of nonresistance in thought to seemingly evil conditions. Meet the attitude of fellowmen sympathetically as far as you possibly can, concede every point that is not absolutely essential, and redeem the remainder with the True Thought or Christ. Never surrender to error, of course. But it is the sin and not the sinner that is to be condemned.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do god to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
(Matthew V)
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you. “Hatred ceases not with hatred,” is here again the theme; now Jesus puts this fundamental truth in such a plain and simple way that not even the youngest child can misunderstand him. Instead of hating him who seems to be your enemy, as the lower instinct impels man to do, you are to love him. For curses you are to return blessings, and hatred you are to reward with good. For those who actually go to the length of persecuting you, you are to pray, definitely and specifically. Jesus says it as plainly and directly as that; and then, in order to meet everybody on the very simplest level of comprehension, he adds: “If you return love for love, what is there out of the ordinary in that?” Nothing, of course, for anyone would do as much. If you wish to make any real advance you must do much more. You must get rid of all sense of resentment and hostility. You must change your own state of mind until you are conscious only of harmony and peace within yourself, and have a sense of positive good-will towards all.
This is not merely the best practical policy, but, for the reasons upon which the whole Sermon on the Mount is founded, it is the only policy wherewith you can make any progress at all. Physical health itself, for instance, is not in the long run possible without forgiveness and good-will to everyone, and even your material prosperity will disappear at last unless your soul is free from enmity and condemnation. Indeed, such freedom is the primary requisite for any spiritual progress at all, and anyone with any spiritual sense easily recognizes this when once it has been pointed out to him. Those who have some understanding of what is called the Spiritual Idea find here a wonderful lesson in practical spiritual treatment, or scientific prayer. Quite simply, the Spiritual Ideal is the understanding of the basic fact that good is permanent, omnipresent, and all-powerful; and evil, a temporary, insubstantial belief, without character of its own, which is destroyed by scientific prayer. Thus, what may be called the secret of spiritual treatment is not to wrestle with the error, which only gives it further life and power, but to destroy it by withdrawing from it just that very energy of belief that gives