Hi Grape,
Just a little perspective on this story:
Good king Jehoshaphat had allianced himself with Ahab king of Israel, an idolater and murderer, in his expedition for the recovery of Remoth-gilead from the Syrians. Jehoshaphat barely escaped, by God's intervention (2Ch 18:28-32) and Ahab was wounded and later died. On his return from the battle Jehoshaphat was met by the prophet Jehu and reproved for helping so bad a man as Ahab.
2Ch 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, "
Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Therefore the wrath of the LORD is upon you.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Yes we are to love everybody, even our enemy, but does that mean it's alright to form a alignance with them? Here is an excerpt from the 'Love ' transcript, I think it will help your understanding.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3719.msg27959.html#msg27959 ------
We’ve stepped out of Sunday School now, and we’re going to a little higher level. You can have this agapao love, for something you hate. What, yes you can, proof, God does. He hated Esau, He hates a false witness, He hates people. He doesn’t just hate false witnesses, He hates a false witness, that’s a person, you see.
The Christian world would have you believe, He loves the world sooo much. But the Concordance version has it right, John 3:16 “For thus God loves the world…” Not how much He loved the world, although it was a lot, but that is not what the word said. It does not say, for God loved the world so much, no. It says this is how He loved the world, that’s what it means. He didn’t so love the world, He thus loved the world, in this way and this manner. Now in what manner did He agape the world, “He gave His only begotten Son,” okay. But if you say, God so loved the world, then you are insinuating He has phileo love for the world, right. That He has this affectionate, endearment of friendship with the world, because He so loved the world. NO.
This is the manner He loved them, He loved them with this agapao love, which has the benefit and future of humanity at heart. Nowhere does it say, God phileo loves the world, or any sinner in the world, mark that. This is too deep for the world, they can’t except this, the same way they can’t except that God created evil and uses it often. But we have to deal with what scripture says or you might as well fall under the condemnation of the verses that says, “Because you despise this Word,” (Isa 30:12; Jere 23:17), if you won’t believe what it says.
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We can love our neighbor, with an agape love, we don’t need to fellowship, hobnob with them or become part of what they are, in any way, shape or form. When God says, love your enemies. If it said you would have to phileo your enemies, then I would just have to take my 9 pages of notes here, tear them up, throw them away. Close the Bible and say, I have not a clue as to what this thing about love is, not a clue.
But I have checked it out for many, many hours now, and I understand that the Bible does not contradict in this area. God - Jesus Christ, never said you have heard, them of old say, you should hate your enemies.
First of all, God never taught to hate your enemies. Well, where did they hear that of old? About five times in the book of Psalms, by David, who went to his death bed hating his enemies, telling his son to kill them and make it bloody. That was King David, not God. But people read the Psalms and so you heard it said. Yes, you did hear it said, but not of God.
But Christ said, but I say unto you, love your enemies - agapao your enemies. Can you love your enemies and hate them at the same time? Well, you say no you can’t, that’s a contradiction. Well, let’s think about that for a second. Could God hate Esau and love him a the same time? Not only could He, the Bible tells us that, and it shows that He did. He shows more favor to Jacob then He did for Esau, and yet you can find some pretty strong promises and blessings (even though He said I hate Esau), you can find blessings on Esau in the Bible I can show you them.
God said, I hate liars and people that cause discord and everything, yet I gave My own Son for the world. Why?, because I agapao them. God thinks beyond their couple of three score and ten years of hate and criminality. I look beyond that, and I see their future - agapao. Maybe we need to learn to do that too. If we’re going to be like God, right.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat