Actor Zachary Levi has a message for a divided culture struggling to push past hate and anger, imploring people to take a deeper look at Jesus’ message.
The “Shazam!” star told CBN’s Faithwire that Christ’s countercultural teachings weren’t about shouting or beating down opponents and, instead, focused on revolutionary forgiveness and compassion.
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“Jesus was saying to love your enemy and pray for your persecutor. This is something that nobody seemingly does,” Levi said in a recent interview. “And [Christ] talks about, to love those who already love you isn’t really love … love is to radically accept someone else exactly as they are, exactly where they’re from.”
While the 41-year-old actor said this doesn’t mean people have to agree with everything they see others saying and doing, but that they should attempt to see people — even opponents — through God’s lens.
“These are our enemies, these are our persecutors, but we don’t take the time to acknowledge that they are still also a child of God, that they are still a miracle that is across from us, whether that’s across the aisle, across the faith, across whatever you might find,” Levi said.
He added, “If we have any chance of making it into a future that is not just really sad and really full of hate and anger and fear, we’ve got to radically accept where people are in their lives.”
Watch Levi discuss these views and his new book, “Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others“:
Read more about what Levi had to say about faith, love, and his own journey through depression.
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