It makes me sigh when I think of how many clients - clients who would consider themselves to be Christians, who have subtly asked me how much they can “get away with” and still be assured of salvation. Of course they don’t say it in those words but that is what they mean. When you “argue” to retain behaviours that you know Jesus and the rest of the New Testament speaks against, that is what you are trying to find out.
“How much can I get away with?”
The very fact that you’re asking that question, in my mind, lays the reality of your salvation in question. You certainly haven't experienced the joy and peace of following your Saviour as Lord. If that sounds harsh or judgmental to you, consider that in Luke 14:27 Jesus is recorded as saying, “And anyone who does not deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Notice Jesus doesn’t say, “If you don’t deny yourself you won’t be a very good disciple.”
He says that if you do not set aside your earthly desires in order to obey Him, you will not be considered His disciple at all.
Even knowing what Jesus says about relationships, both with Him and with others, these clients attempt to excuse:
Lust
Flirting
Drinking “a little too much” from time to time
Living a lie
Bitterness and resentment
Watching porn
Living in excess
Living in worry and anxiety
Ignoring those in need and many more examples of, frankly, disobeying Jesus.
Jesus said, “The one who loves Me is the one who obeys Me. The one who doesn’t obey Me is the one who doesn’t love Me.”
What these people are really asking is, “Can I go to heaven without loving Jesus?”
Within the context of relationships and desires and longings, what do you think these verses mean?
Matthew 16:24-25 - What does it mean to “deny yourself”?
Luke 14:33- What does it mean to be willing to “give up everything that you have”?
1st John 2:3-4 - Within the context of relationships and desires and longings, what do you think this verse means?
Perhaps this is why Jesus has warned people not to start to follow Him until you’ve “counted the cost.”
Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart.
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How can you use the Bible to classify something like "watching porn" as sinful?!?
ReplyDeleteThe other way around: homosexuality is not a sin, but the Bible says so on many occasions, so why do you take such passages literally?
The Bible is a guide and contains symbolic representations of what perfect love is, just to name that one truth. But if one takes it literally, there is the danger of forgetting that we are humans living in 2010, and we think very differently than the Bible's authors!
“How can you use the Bible to classify something like "watching porn" as sinful?!?”
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how your moniker suggests that you’re a seeker after purity, when almost all your comments attempt to justify impurity.
Could you help me understand that seeming contradiction?
For example, Whose definition of purity are you using?
All my comments attempt to justify impurity?
ReplyDeleteYou're the one who needs to define what purity is after saying such non-sense...
You're the one who says that the simple fact of being homosexual is a sin! Therefore, it's impossible for a human being to share pure love with another human being because both happen to be gay?
You're the one who needs to define what purity is after saying such non-sense!!
"You're the one who needs to define what purity is"
ReplyDeletePurity is living according to the commands of our Creator, Saviour and Lord; particularly as delineated in Matthew chapters 5-7.
Your turn.
This is pretty sad! you just showed that you are not able to express ideas yourself. It's ok and you are right not to have worries, you'll enter Jesus' kingdom as a devoted servant, a true child of God! ...but also as a poor in spirit, and it does not have to be the case.
ReplyDeleteYou did not get what the idea behind "PuritySeeker" was anyway! It's a way to express the ideals we are looking for but cannot ever attained; pure love, pure justice, pure peace.
What Jesus, THE one and only physical incarnation of all that is pure, said on the mountain was relevant 2,000 years ago, and it's still the case today; but it is no reason to abandon our humanity in front of a book that was written by people who were living in a completely different context with completely different information available.
Our reason and inner morality is what makes us human, what makes us different from animals without a soul. By refusing to utilize your reason to discuss moral issues, you sacrifice parts of your own soul. Again, it does not have to be the case!
May God bless you, and have a nice evening.
Are you going to explain what role watching pornography and inflaming sexual lust plays in your search for purity?
ReplyDeleteHas your love affair with human reason convinced you that isolating physical love from emotional and spiritual love is a good and God honouring way to connect with another human being?
The blind leading the blind!
ReplyDelete"Are you going to explain what role watching pornography and inflaming sexual lust plays in your search for purity?"
ReplyDeleteNone !
"Has your love affair with human reason convinced you that isolating physical love from emotional and spiritual love is a good and God honouring way to connect with another human being?"
No !
Did you really just say 'your love affair with human reason'!? Does that mean that you, on the other hand, are proud to NOT use your reason!?
By the way, still pending... why do you consider homosexuality to be a sin?
“How can you use the Bible to classify something like "watching porn" as sinful?!?”
ReplyDeleteSo what did this question mean? It just strikes me as very odd coming from some who claims to be seeking purity.
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“why do you consider homosexuality to be a sin?”
In my opinion homosexuality is a relational disorder whereby our emotional needs have become sexualised. I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of couples in this lifestyle and have not found a single exception.
For what it’s worth, in my counselling with homosexual couples the focus was always on fixing the relationship. My views regarding the rightness or wrongness of the relationship never came up unless they asked. It was the same when working with heterosexual couples who were living common-law which I also view as unhealthy and wrong in the eyes of our Creator.
Anyhow, the same problem of sexualised emotional needs is often seen in heterosexuals and it is equally destructive in both camps.
That is why God calls it a sin.
Again, I understand that you believe differently and you are free to believe what you want and live how you want.