Love Your Enemies

This is one of the few statements Jesus made that is readily accepted by believers and skeptics alike. Its authenticity is not seriously questioned and yet it is a revolutionary command.

John Piper (ThD, University of Munich) is pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. He has authored dozens of books, including What Jesus Demands from the World, The Future of Justification, and Think.

Preface to the 2012 Republication	p. v
Note on the Title and Previous Editions	p. xi
Preface to the 1979 Edition	p. xii
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
In Search of the Paraenetic Tradition of a Command of Enemy Love	p. 4
The Pertinent Texts	p. 4
Literary Dependence or Common Traditional Source?	p. 5
Determining the Form of the Command in the Paraenetic Tradition	p. 8
I Thess 5:15	p. 8
Rom 12:17 and I Pt 3:9	p. 14
Conclusion	p. 17
The Origin of the Command of Enemy Love in the New Testament Paraenetic Tradition	p. 19
The Question and the Approach	p. 19
Hellenistic Philosophy	p. 20
Seneca	p. 21
Epictetus	p. 25
The Old Testament	p. 27
Hellenistic Judaism	p. 35
Works from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha	p. 35
Philo	p. 39
Qumran and Works in the Region of its Influence	p. 39
Manual of Discipline	p. 40
The Book of Jubilees	p. 42
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs	p. 43
Palestinian Judaism outside Qumran	p. 45
The Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach	p. 45
Josephus	p. 46
The Rabbis	p. 46
The Teaching of Jesus	p. 49
The Question of Q	p. 49
The Question of the Antitheses	p. 51
Analysis of the Individual Sayings	p. 56
Conclusion	p. 63
Jesus' Command of Enemy Love in the Larger Context of His Message	p. 66
Preliminary Remarks	p. 66
The Hermeneutical Problems	p. 66
The Validity of Systematizing	p. 67
The Content of the Chapter	p. 68
Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Kingdom of God	p. 69
Four Recent Studies and One Older Work	p. 69
Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Coming Kingdom: Condition?	p. 76
Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Present Aspect of the Kingdom: Enablement	p. 80
Jesus' Command of Enemy Love as a Sign of the Kingdom	p. 86
Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Law	p. 89
Non-Resistance (Mt 5:39-42) vs the Lex Talionis (Ex 21:24)	p. 89
Enemy Love (Mt 5:44 par Lk) vs Neighbor Love (Lev 19:18)	p. 91
Abolition vs Continuation of the Law	p. 95
The Use and Meaning of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love in the Early Christian Paraenesis	p. 100
Preliminary Remarks	p. 100
The Motivation of the Command of Enemy Love	p. 101
A Brief Survey of the Previous Research	p. 101
Paul	p. 102
I Peter	p. 119
The Content of the Command of Enemy Love	p. 128
The General Features of Enemy Love	p. 128
Love and the Command of Enemy Love and the Institutions of Society	p. 130
The Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and its Use in Matthew and Luke	p. 134
The Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love before the Gospels	p. 134
Determining the Vorlage	p. 134
Determining the Sitz im Leben of the Vorlage	p. 136
The Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love in the Gospels	p. 139
The Approach and Methodology	p. 139
Matthew's Use of the Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love	p. 141
Luke's Use of the Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love	p. 153
Conclusion	p. 171
Notes	p. 176
Bibliography	p. 235
Index of Passages Cited	p. 249
Index of Modern Authors	p. 267
Index of Subjects	p. 271
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.