Jesus, Enemy Love, and Time Travel

The other day (aka, today in the shower), I was contemplating the idea of “enemy love” as articulated by Jesus. This naturally led to me thinking about time travel and the following question:

“what sort of things would I do to live out the concept of “enemy love” if I had access to time travel?”

Now that’s quite a big question, and I can’t really answer it fully. And given that I just thought of the question, I haven’t put much thought into it. But if I had to answer it now, one thing I would do is go back and talk to all the famous heretics of Christian history. Given that there’s a good chance that the whole story behind these individuals has been lost throughout history it be fascinating to know what made them tick.

“You know Marcion, history says this about you. And from this document, and that writing, it really seems like that’s true. But is it? Have you been misunderstood? Are we missing something?”

<my time travel device is also a universal translator 🙂 >

“Gee Pelagius, is that what you are really saying? Have I misread you? Now that we know X, is it fair to put your writings in a new light? Or do we truly disagree?”

“Arius, what were your motivations? What do you think of your opponents? What did you truly think was at stake?”

Etc.

So that’s one thing I would do. Seek to better understand the people I disagree with. And if I would do that with a time machine, shouldn’t I do the same with those I disagree with today?