Are Christians sinners?
Because of the very interesting dialogue on another thread, I’m creating this space to carry on. Is it appropriate to call ourselves sinners? Do Christians sin? What is sin? Is it possible to go long periods of time without sinning?
peace, g
Posted by Greg Fadness on October 7, 2008
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31 Responses to “Are Christians sinners?”
i think if i thought that every christian wasnt a sinner and i shouldnt be one since coming to christ, then i dont think i could cut it as a christian… i would drop out on default… despair would overtake me and i would have nothing to live for… strive for.. nothing to obtain… why would we look forward to heaven if perfection was obtained here on earth..
even pauls ‘evolution’ through plilippians shows that he has more awareness of his sin nature as he writes the book…he is more self loathing and all knowing that he is the “chief of all sinners”… the only non-sinner of the bible is jesus everyone else fell short. how can we think we can be sinless on this side of heaven? i just cant wrap my mind around that.. if i was sinless then i wouldnt have as close a relationship to my lord and savior… pride would insue and and jesus would be not needed… its seems hypocritical to say we wont sin once jesus is accepted… im not loving my sin nature but i panic thinking that i wouldnt need him with me daily… i want him with me daily…
i know im a sinner, and im a christian.
Jesus doesn’t look at me and label me a sinner but I already know I am one. I do sin daily. I have tried to go throughout the day without sinning and I can’t do it. Even one bad thought and you’re guilty of all. The good news is that I can go all day, all week, etc, bringing every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ! I can recognize my error at the point of conception and shoot an arrow of TRUTH right at it. There’s a big difference between stumbling and walking. We have to choose to obey and not live in the sin. We have to choose to “repent” and go in the opposite direction when we fail in thoughts or deeds. As a Christian, I do sin and fall short of the Glory of God (Himself revealed in us) but I can turn the other way anytime because I have a free will. Praise the Lord because He Is Victorious we can be too!
As Christians, we are not sinners…but we DO sin. To say that we are “sinners” is to say that we are slaves to sin. Christ pulled us out of that lifestyle when He saved us. That’s why we’re called Christians, because we serve Christ, not sin. However, we are still human and we do sin. Because the Lord puts in us a spirit of conviction and repentance, we know when we sin and are able to repent.
See, although we do not still serve sin, Christ constantly saves us from sin, by chastising us when we’re wrong and giving us repentant hearts. Without Christ, we would either not know that we were sinning, or we’d make excuses for it until it didn’t seem that bad. Worst of all, I think we would just not acknowledge sin at all and we’d do what “seemed right” to us.
So, are we sinners? No, not anymore. But we do make mistakes and we sin. Not every month or so, but daily.
Is it possible to go long periods of time without sinning? Maybe if you’re in a coma, but otherwise NO. I agree that I need Christ daily, I don’t like the fact that I still sin, but I always want to need Christ. If I didn’t sin every day, I might eventually come to the conclusion that I don’t need Him anymore. I’m not justifying sin, I’m just saying that humans sin. Period. And Christ is the lifeguard that makes sure we don’t drown. He pulls us out of the murky waters and breathes into us Living Water.
Greg great idea,
First question-Is it appropriate to call ourselves sinners?
It is appropriate for only one reason and I dont think we should use it for any other reason but what Paul reveals, lest we add to the meaning.
1 Tim 1:12-16
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, 13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
Paul calls himself the chief of all sinners not because he is sinning the most, this is obvious or should be. But because of his past life before christ which he explains. He states this present being is still present with him. God does not destroy the ability to sin that lies in us, But He enables us as Paul said to be free from its bondage, as he would say in Rom.6
So if I call myself a sinner because I know my capabilities, then I rightfully speak the truth.
However if I say that I am a sinner because I practice sin, this although being a true statemnet is not to be excused as christian behavior on account of this scripture.
The next question-Do Christians sin? The answer is easy, of course when they walk in the flesh.
Gal 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
However notice the warning if you CONTINUE in it.
The next question-What is sin?
1 John 3:4-5
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
This is true whether you knowingly broke the Law or not.
Lev 4:13-14
13 ‘Now if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which should not be done, and are guilty; 14 when the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a young bull for the sin, and bring it before the tabernacle of meeting.
Notice they were guilty even though they unknowingly commited the sin.
However the sin was not imputed to them until it had been brought to there conscious and then it had to be dealt with.
Rom 5:13
13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Next question-Is it possible to go long periods of time without sinning? Here is where you must define by the above question between willful acts of sin or unknowledgable sin.And also realize that it is not our own ability but christ in us that enables.
Concerning unkowing sin I believe we will always have God conforming us into His image which we do not even know clearly what that means in this present state.
1 John 3:2-3
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
But notice concerning what we DO KNOW to be impure is to be what we are purifying ourselves from.
Concering willful disobedience I do beleive the scripture gives us that impression. And for those that are living in sin there is no assurance of eternal life but need to be converted through repentance.
To give them security in salvation without the result of a heart change concerning sin is a huge mistake as you will read.
1 John 2:1
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Rom 8:7-8
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 6:1-3
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Rom 6:6-7
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Rom 6:12
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Rom 6:15-18
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Rom 6:22-23
22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Thess 4:3-8
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
Heb 12:14-16
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
1 John 1:6-7
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 2:3-4
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 3:4-9
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
1 John 5:18
18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
Matt 7:23
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Luke 6:46
46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
I dont know about you but I beleive these verse are pretty obvious on the subject which was the whole context of our last blog.
Do me a favor though dont tell me about your personal experience which will somehow negate these scriptures but tell me what scripture contradicts what I have said. The last blog had no scriptural backing only personal oppinion.If personal oppinion or experience is more important, then Joseph Smiths vision of Jesus and the Father and all the Doctrine that he recieved is just as valid.
Great questions Greg I think this is of vital importance, after all this is what the gospel is all about what has happened with our sins and how to walk as believers.
I don’t sin. I’m special.
Here’s the problem. Jason, you sometimes come across like a pompous, self-righteous pharisee. In your zeal for the truth you’re beating people to death with your Scripture club. You keep implying that Jake (and others) are glorifying and promoting sin and sinful lifestyles, rather than assuming they were making a humble confession of struggle. The signs “I covet” and “I lust”, etc. were not promotional (i.e. ‘Hey, I covet and I highly recommend you do to’), they were confessional. A person who struggles (fights) with sin is a good thing, right? It’s evidence they are truly His.
You see, the Pharisees majored on external righteousness. Their view of sin was superficial. The Lord Jesus came along and revealed that the sin problem was much deeper. ‘It’s not what goes into a man that defiles him, it’s what comes out’. Sin is a heart issue. Often times Christians will pride themselves in their external righteousness (they don’t steal, lie, fornicate, etc.), but they allow and even excuse the sins of the spirit (pride, inappropriate anger, malice, bitterness, lust, covetousness, etc.). Paul says we’re to ‘cleanse ourselves of every defilement of body and spirit’.
The Pharisees were experts in the Scripture and could slice and dice people to shreds with their deft knowledge of the Torah. But in so doing they violated the very Scriptures they claimed to love. Jason, I fear you do the same. Paul said ‘if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing’ and ‘Knowledge puffs up; love builds up’. Rather than accusing us of having bad theology and doctrine, how about practicing that highest of Christian virtues-love.
Pastor Greg
Amen to the Scripture posted by Jason.
It must not be forgotten that the willfil sin we are talking about is voluntary disobedience and cannot be anything else. To make anything else sin, is to talk nonsense. Living in Christ, therefore, must exclude sinning.
In the case of one who truly abides in Christ in the exercise of a living, active faith, to sin–to disobey God–involves a contradiction in terms. To say that one sins while in the exercise of faith and of love, is absurd. Thus the Bible testifies:–”If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”–not merely ought to be, but is. So throughout the Bible. I know not one passage, descriptive of being in Christ, which does not imply living without sin. If it were otherwise–if faith in Christ for salvation from sin left the soul yet in sin, then is faith in Christ a failure; for being in Christ by faith has for its special object, victory over sin. And faith is declared to be that which gives the victory over the world. (1 John 5:4)
Hence when we sin, we are no longer in Christ, but out of Christ. This is implied in the text, and it equally follows from the very nature of being in him.
I am often amazed that people should think they have faith when they have not even so much as conviction of the great truths pertaining to Christ. To be in Christ, men must not only know and feel those truths, but they must receive them to their hearts in love.
Faith holds on upon the sustaining arm of Jesus. Thus holding fast, you are sustained. It is only when you let go that you fall. Then you lose his protection, you fail of his support and lose his power. If while you are in vital union with Christ, you sin, then of course he has failed to keep you. The remedy of God’s own providing against sin proves unreliable. Reverting to my own experience some years since, there was a long time in which I could see my difficulty. I thought I had faith, but I could see many things in myself that were all wrong–all selfish. My mind became exceedingly exercised and anxious; I could not live so. I even began to question whether I had not misunderstood the Bible by giving its promises too much meaning. I was anxious lest I had overstrained the promises and thereby had come to expect more than God ever intended to grant. I became greatly grieved in my soul until at length I said before the Lord most solemnly–”If thou hast done all for me that is provided in the gospel for thy people, then I am disappointed. I expected more. The gospel has not saved me from sin.”
I cannot say that I clearly saw that I had availed myself of all there is in the gospel, but my mind was dark and doubtful. I had been preaching a long time, mostly to sinners. So far forth as my preaching was to Christians, it fell far short of the fullness of the gospel. But now my own experience agonized me and in great anguish and by no means impudently or reproachfully, but in the agony of my soul, I spread out my sorrows and discouragements before the Lord.
It was then I saw that, instead of expecting too much, I had expected too little. I had not expected enough. I had by no means attached to these promises their rich meaning, their full and glorious sense.
You need to understand, brethren, that you may be in a general covenant relation to Christ, and yet not have this personal faith and this intimate union which saves the soul from sinning, because it so unites us to Christ. The ancient Jews were in this general relation, yet many of them failed of the particular and close union of which our text speaks. Many thousands of them did not receive Christ in a saving sense. Obviously they did not so receive him any farther than they were actually saved.
When a Christian commits himself to Jesus to save from sin, it is well for him to use this argument in prayer; “Lord, it will dishonor Thee if Thou dost not save me from all sin. I have trusted in Thee; I do now take hold of thy promises; let them be fulfilled in my case, and let all men seeing what thy grace has done for me, know thy salvation.”
Half-way believers are the greatest stumbling-blocks in religion. They profess to embrace Christ, and to be religious, and yet fail of having grace enough to overcome sin. Oh! if they would only embrace Jesus, so as to be full of his Spirit, how greatly would they honor their Lord! As it is, how earthly-minded, sensual, and devilish do they become! No wonder they are ashamed to say that Jesus is a Savior from sin. How can they bear such testimony without reading themselves out of the pale of the heirs of heaven?
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins.” –Matt. 1:21.
Does this state, here, Jesus came to save us from hell? Shall he save us from the consequences of that which we partake while we remain in the disease that got us here in the first place? Shall he cure the symptoms and not the disease?
Does this state, here also, that Jesus came to save us from “sin” in general? How can we be saved from sin while we remain in willful sin? Will we save an alcoholic from his addiction while he continually drinks?
I would just pray that people open their hearts to a higher calling in Christ. As John wrote, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.”
In true love for all of us belonging to Christ,
Brandon
amen, pastor greg, amen. well put and love is the bottom line.
As an afterthought, my concern is the whole of christianity has surrendered to “there is some cosmic force that causes me to willful sin every day and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.” What a low standard we now have. Will you end up sinning again? I sure hope not, and I would hope that you would hope not either. But I fear that we have already resigned ourself to the fate of sinning. With how much strength will a man fight a losing battle?
I remember being in the locker room in highschool of a senior basketball game. It had been a tough season, and we were definitely one of the bottom teams. We were now facing the #1 undefeated team in our division. They were tall, we were short. They were big, we were little. They were fast, we were mostly overweight and slow. Inside our minds, we all KNEW the outcome of the game before it started. But our coach came in and he started throwing his arms around, talking about strategy, how it didn’t matter who we were playing, that every game was a new game and we had a chance, and we had practiced and prepared, and this was our night. And you know what happened? A small light turned on in our heads. All of a sudden, with our coach cheering us on, we realized that we DID have a chance to win this game, and we could go out there and give it our all and we might come out with a W.
Now picture scenario #2. Same locker room, same game, our small team vs them. Now the coach comes in and says plainly “well, I wanted to prep talk you tonight but we all know who we’re playing. We all know that we don’t have a chance to defeat these guys. They’re stronger than we are and better. so go out and at least have some fun, but don’t expect much because we are going to lose and we all know that. maybe next game we’ll have a chance of winning.”
What type of foolish person will go out and give his all for a losing battle? It would be wasted energy, wasted breath, wasted time.
Now my point. It doesn’t matter the outcome of the game. Let me tell you that scenario #1 is what really happened, and we still went out and got a whooping that I’ll remember for awhile. But what made the difference?
Hence my concern for this doctrine that no matter what you do, you will sin. Now IF you do sin, then confess it to Christ, come to your pastor, do whatever you HAVE to so that it does not happen again. Deal with it IF it happens. But do not make room for it. Do not submit yourself to it. Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world. Was the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit living in us not enough to give us victory from sinning? As stated before in excerpts from Finney and Spurgeon, I would sure hope not. Otherwise I would be greatly disappointed that God was not big enough to save me from sinning.
Do any say–How shall we get into Christ? How can we attain to this peculiar and soul-transforming union?
In the first place do not begin with assuming that the thing is exceedingly difficult. Do not impeach your loving Savior by supposing that He is so far off and so averse that you can have at least but a faint hope of ever finding him. No indeed; for lo, HE CALLETH THEE even now; arise and go to him. He seeks this very union.
Then the next and main thing is to cast out from your heart all other lovers–all rivals to your Lord. Let your heart go out to him alone. Let your will be lost in his will;–not lost in the sense of being annihilated, but in the better sense of being submitted–merged in his will. Let it be enough for you to know and follow his will.
Dismiss all selfish ideas and all selfish pursuits. Cease to form selfish schemes, or to scramble after selfish good. Be satisfied with Christ and his love; so shall he accept your heart’s love and make you his own
In true love for all of us belonging to Christ,
Brandon
One time I went for about 8 hours without sinning, then I woke up.
are you sure Jed? maybe you sleepsin
I am always blessed when I see individuals search out the Word of God for truth. Jesus said, ” I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” The Way–meaning there is only one way to the Father and that is through Jesus Christ. The Truth–which refers to the Bible and how the Word and God are are one. The Life–meaning we are a cursed people who will die and spend eternity in hell except for the provision Christ made for us on the cross–eternal life with Him.
I think the best way to view this topic of sin is to realize that the Bible is written to everyone. I may go to an extreme and say “Christians don’t sin.” On the otherhand, I may say, “It’s okay if Christians sin because I have accepted Christ into my life and my sins are covered.” Neither view point, in my opinion is correct; however, for some people, the verses in the Word of God that state we should not sin are written for those who would be inclined to sin freely, while the verses that say that we have an Advocate are for those that beat themselves up for every sin they commit.
The Bible was written with balance and written 100% for you, 100% for me, and 100% for Billy Bob.
If you are inclined to believe that sinning is okay then perhaps you should understand the fact that God cannot look on sin and turned His face from His own Son because He is just, pure, and holy. But, if you are inclined to beat yourself up because of sin and you let the fear of stumbling prevent you from doing anything for the kingdom, you should remember that God still uses imperfect people.
I fear that there are too few of the latter in this day and age–too few who remember we are to “Be holy as He is holy.” I am so encouraged by people like Jason who don’t want to compromise. As Christians we do compromise–way too much. We should keep in mind that Jesus Himself said our righteousness should be greater than that of the pharisees. I believe He was saying, “I want you to love Me.” If we love Christ, we will want to please Him. Sin does not please Christ–that’s all there is to it.
Do Christians sin? The unfortunate answer is “yes.” But should Christians sin? In our striving to be more like Christ, I hope and pray you sin less today than you did the day before–otherwise, what makes us different from the world in which we are called to change?
Just some food for thought–
Jessica
I have an idea that the ones here that keep saying Christians shouldn’t sin are thinking about “big” sins, (not that there is such a thing) but I guarantee you that we ALL sin and we do it willingly. Should we do it? Nobody SHOULD sin, but the problem is: WE DO. How many times a day to you have a negative thought about somebody? A coworker, relative or annoying lady in traffic…it happens, we all do it. How often do we see an attractive person walking down the street and our eyes linger a little longer than they should? Trust me, it happens, even amongst us who are happily married.
What about pride? Have you ever gone a day without sinning and you were so proud of yourself you sinned because of pride?
These are all sins…keep in mind that there are no degrees of sin with God. All sin is disgusting to God and the wages of sin is death. Christ’s death on the cross. He has already paid for our sins, even future ones. What we need to focus on now is not worrying ourselves to death over our every move and constantly worrying about if there is sin involved. We need to give it ALL to God. Our sin natures as well. This doesn’t mean that we will never sin again, it means that we leave things up to God and know that He has already saved us. We don’t fall away from God every time we sin. The fact that we sin every day just means that we need Christ every day.
Should we search out ways to sin? NO. Everybody recognizes the things in their lives that tempt them, the sins that they are likely to fall into if they’re not careful and if they don’t rely on God. Remove yourself from these things and try every day to not do them. However, we all do these “little” sins every day, sometimes without realizing it. It is only with the Holy Spirit’s guidance that we are convicted of these things and can repent.
We should not embrace a life of sin, and we should definitely try every day to remove sin from our lives, but really we need to live our lives for God instead of worrying about “what I can do” to please God. That’s nonsense. We all know that God is no respecter of persons. He can not love you more than he does now. He is pleased when we choose not to sin, but he doesn’t love us more because of it.
Okay, so I’ve gone off on a rant a bit, but I just want to make it clear how religious this whole thread is starting to sound.
Brandon
Great input but I am afraid that many have come to a form of godliness but have denied its power to truly save from sin, Scripture as you can see has been replaced with man made experiential doctrine and excuse for sinful lifestyles.
Holiness is now only for those labled a pharissee.
And scripture cannot any longer be used to correct peoples false statements.
Instead of the great debates of the past church leaders now we have name calling and hurt feelings. I pray that one day scripture would be the ONLY rock we stand on.
This will be my last blog since I have become a thorn in your flesh, but I will take the only lesson that I have learned from this time with you, and so as not to dissappoint any of those that miss my pompous self-righteous ways I leave you with this.
John 3:19-20
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
Well serious topics, unfortunately, always generate serious emotion. Some of them good, most of them bad. The purpose behind everything, as Pastor Greg put so well, should always be love. The point of this topic – or any topic for that matter – should never become “I’m right you’re wrong.” I can honestly say that this topic is of an immense passion on my heart. It is not with pride and self-piety that I try to share Scripture’s with the brethren. It is with tears and grief. In fact, I have been a ‘christian’ for a long, long time. And ONLY until recently have I truly started to search out the Scripture’s on this topic of what it means to be saved and the Christian life in regards to sin. I came to a point where I said “God, if this is the extent of Christianity, I am sorely disappointed. Is the extent of the power of Christ in me the ability to ‘feel bad after sinning’ and ‘try to not do it again, even though it’s apparently impossible’? I would think there must be more victory than this.”
As I said, until very recently, I probably would be in the other camp. But God has allowed me to take off any ‘christianese-indoctrination’ I have been preached and taught and seen. I am trying to simply pull back and look at what the Scripture says, and believe it, and live on it as God makes provision with the Holy Spirit.
Blogs/texts/forums/any word-only media is always tough to deal with too. Because it is IMPOSSIBLE to read emotions and intents from text. What comes off as sweet and nice to one person, comes off as hostile to the next. I know what Pastor Greg posted came off a little brazen in the text-style format, but I am sure that it was posted with a sincere heart and in fullness of love. So wherever this topic leads to, or any other topic – just remember not to read too much inbetween the lines of how words may come across. And may I also ask everyone to do all things in love – whether it be tough love or gentle love, with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.
In true love for all of us belonging to Christ,
Brandon
Brandon,
That was very well written, though your text was toneless, your heart was clear.
Jason,
I hope you stick around, or go grab some coffee w/ me so we can wrestle w/ these things. I was not mocking your lifestyle and I am sorry that you felt that way.
I am new to this blogging thing and didn’t see the last blog from which this topic is a continuation. After reading the last blog between everyone, I fear we are all getting our feelings too involved. We ought to be careful to practice the fruit of the Spirit as we “blog.” We are all part of the family of God here and posting emotionally charched statements can really hurt the body. Remember we are THE body of Christ–meaning you are a part of me and I am a part of you. When I post cutting statements, I am hurting myself. The Bible says “They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another.”
When it is stated that someone feels his or her integrity is being judged, that’s a good indicator that the way we are saying things need to be revised.
This is an intense topic that requires a lot of prayer and study. I remember when my husband and I first tried hashing it out–haha–not so good! But when it started getting heated we both realized it was time to put the subject aside until we could debate it in a fashion more pleasing to God.
And realize too, you may not change my opinion. It may be that after speaking to fellow Christians on any topic and you come to a stalemate, that it is time to move on. We are not called to convict–that’s God’s job, we are called to simply speak. When we have spoken–and spoken in a way that would please Christ–all that we can do is pray.
Jason–in your qwest for truth, be careful. Everything you say and do impacts someone. And if you aren’t willing to speak to a person face to face–well maybe motives need to be evaluted as to why you are writing so intensely.
Be blessed my friends and please practice patience with one another :-)
Jessica
Well written dialogues and thoughts. DJ I like your comment about sinning in sleep. You know it! Sometimes there are dreams I subconsciously give into the sin knowing that it is really sin. Then I feel bad when I wake up, and I put it into context of reality. Wow! I sure would hate to dishonor my Lord. Then I ask for forgiveness.
Importantly, we have our relationship in prayer and in faith with our God knowing that he will always provide an escape for us to flee.
That I am truly thankful for. The Lord is MIGHTY!
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contmpt; “two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collecter. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collecter. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collecter, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather that the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted”
(Luke 18:9-14)
This has nothing to do with this thread, but I didn’t know where I could post this.
Give Pastor Greg a hug. But be gentile he is not as young as he used to be.
According to a memo on my calendar his birthday is tomorrow. October 14.
Happy Birthday Greg!
OH lol, thanks for the heads up Dan! Hope you and your lovely bride are doing well!
God bless
christa
happy happy birthday pastor greg! you are loved! have a great b-day!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PASTOR GREG!!!!!!!
Thanks for the B-day props everyone….pastor g
You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
Happy Birthday Pastor Greg :)
Be blessed †
happy birthday!!!
((((((ooooooooohhhhhh, pastor greg!!!)))))
we need another blog!!! please? pretty please? we are all patiently waiting… ok maybe im not being so patient!!
*smile*
Yeah, I think everyone is finally done with this topic
I wouldn’t say “done”, but everyone see’s posts that are longer than 2 pages and it defeats the atmosphere of a blog haha
Yup…. ready for something new…..
I agree…where’d you go, Pastor Gregg??