If we read Matthew 10 correctly, we don’t walk away with permission to dismiss people; we walk away with a call to carry peace into places that may reject us anyway. The Kingdom of God is at hand, and it heals, calms, and freely welcomes those who desire to participate.

Christian theology speaks into that uncertainty with a radically different claim. Human worth does not begin with the self. It does not arise from recognition, productivity, or public approval. It is not bestowed by the market, by popularity, by talent, by health, by youth, or by success. Human worth begins in God.

America has become a people more eager to unite against an enemy than to unite around God. We know how to identify threats, expose corruption, denounce error, defend our tribe, and sharpen our outrage. We know how to speak with fire about what is wrong with the world. But too often we have forgotten how to burn with the love of God. Too often we have mistaken suspicion for discernment, hostility for holiness, and public anger for spiritual courage.

Christians dont have enemies, we have neighbors. This is the most misunderstood teaching of Jesus coming out of Matthew 5. Because the call to love our enemies is actually a call to see them as neighbors instead.

There is a reason superhero and supervillain narratives do so well at the box office. It feeds a desire we all have as humans. But is this desire a part of how God wants us to live, or is it a part of the sinful nature of humanity? One of my favorite classes I have ever taken was an elective I took in my senior year of High School. In the first semester, we read the classic Greek and Roman Myths, and then in the second semester, we spent the year exploring the world of Comic