Bob

“The angry rioters in Thessalonica are not wrong when they say the Christians announce another king (Jesus) who is a rival to Caesar (Acts 17:5–8). When Peter tells Cornelius, the Roman centurion, that the Christian message is a gospel of peace about “Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (10:36) he is implicitly saying that it is Jesus who is in charge and the one who is truly Lord. Obviously, that means that Jesus’s peace is much more than personal peace with God. The implicit message is that Jesus is also the way to societal peace.”
― Ronald J. Sider, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence

“In every single instance where pre-Constantinian Christian writers mention the topic of killing, they say that Christians do not do that, whether in abortion, capital punishment, or war.76 And Jesus’s statement about loving enemies is one of the reasons cited.”
― Ronald J. Sider, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence

“We know what the power of the world looks like. When push comes to shove, as it often does, it is the power of violence, using the threat of pain and death. It is, yes, the power of tanks and bombs, and also of guns and knives and whips and prisons and barbed wire and bulldozers. Weapons to destroy people’s lives; machines to destroy their homes. Cruelty in the home or at work. Malice and manipulation where there should be gentleness, kindness, and wisdom. Jesus’s power is of a totally different sort, as he explained to the Roman governor a few minutes before the governor sent him to his death—thereby proving the point. The kingdoms of the world run on violence. The kingdom of God, Jesus declared, runs on love. That is the good news.”
― N.T. Wright, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good

“The widespread (heretical) idea in many evangelical circles that the only important reason Jesus came was to die for our sins is one of the most glaring examples of failure to embrace the full biblical Christ. Tragically, other Christians seem to affirm the (equally heretical) idea that it is only Jesus’s teaching (especially his call to love enemies) that is finally important. If we believe with the church through two millennia that the teacher from Nazareth is God incarnate, then we must embrace the full biblical Christ.”
― Ronald J. Sider, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence