Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Do not worry about tomorrow...
How many times should I forgive my brother? Seventy times seven.
Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
All of these things are pretty easy to follow, right? We just need to follow the Word and do what it says, right?
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Entire "Vast Sea of Grace" Series:
Prelude: >Just follow the Word, right?<
The Vast Sea of Grace: Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4
Summaries: So close but yet so far -- Far Cry -- Be a Man
James has some good ones too. I have no idea how these guys living under law can say "I'm pleasing God". You can love the law all you want to. Paul did too, but the only thing it did was arouse sin in him.
ReplyDeleteI don't like sinning just as much as the next believer, but I do not have the ability to be perfect. The law demands perfection and you can't add grace to it. It can't be grace and works. It makes absolutely no sense.
"I am under deserved and undeserved favor".
How about selling all your possessions and give it to the poor? (Luke 18)
ReplyDeleteHow about getting angry with brother is murder? (Mathew 5)
And how about this?
"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Mathew 5)
Tell me who is NOT going to hell based on the above!
Good one, Bino. I forgot Jesus told some guy who wanted to be under deserved favor that he needed to literally sell all his possessions and give to the poor.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, religious people water that down and say, "Well, Jesus was just trying to show people they shouldn't love their possessions so much" or whatever the case may be.
Jesus didn't allow room for one sin. He said if you feel tempted, cut off your hand; pluck out your eye.
Why aren't people under law, who claim to be super obedient to Jesus cutting off their hands and plucking out their eyes? Again, they try and make some interpretation up for it.
I like how Bob George puts it, " Jesus didn't just come to teach the Law, He came to bury us under it." How about this one:
ReplyDelete"He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."
How are they going to pull that one off?
Thanks, guys, for your great comments! This post was actually going to be longer, but last night I decided to end it right there and make it kind of a prelude for another post.
ReplyDeleteThis really all has to do with "rightly dividing" the Word of Truth. There is so much that Jesus said (and that James said, and that Paul said, and that John said, etc), that Christians read and try to apply at face value, when so many times it goes far deeper than face value.