by Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you WILL be saved.”
1 John 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,”
First I want to pray. I thank you Father for this beautiful day and for each and every person on CAC. All precious to you and all who love you Father God. Please help me to find the right words which are in my heart and I believe are also your will for your people.
I believe with all my heart that the main concern always with the Lord is our minds and our hearts. Mature Christians who love the Lord are not often involved in out and out sin, such as adultery or fornication. They are not drunks, or drug addicts. Our battle is really within our own minds and hearts. Self control, forgiveness, things along these lines. We set our hearts on things of the Spirit, not of things in the world.
We are all different parts of the body of Christ with different functions within the body therefore our focus will be different depending on our function. There are Christians who believe they shouldn’t cut they’re hair or shave they’re beards. There are Christians who believe women shouldn’t wear make up or use cosmetics. There are those who believe they need to come completely out of the word and they don’t drive cars or have electricity. There are those who follow Torah law on issues such as diet and the Sabbath. There are those who believe the law now written in our hearts and follow the word of God according to the New Testament alone.
These are not issues that keep a person from salvation. These are not issues of sin and destruction.
Paul writes “knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.” Love builds us up.
Now Paul talks about food in 1 Corinthians 8 but I don’t believe this just pertains to food. Look at these scriptures carefully;
“7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
Anyone who truly loves the Lord God is going to do according to they’re conscience before the Lord. We need to be careful with each other. Look at the last verses 11-13, you mean someone can be destroyed by your knowledge and its sinning against Christ? There are so many avenues I could take with this that I could fill up two pages. The ridicule and sarcasm that some throw about at others on this forum as if its nothing, and then defend their right to do so.
I don’t care if you don’t cut your hair, or if you follow the Torah law on diet or Sabbath. It doesn’t matter to me if you don’t wear make up or if you do. What matters is you love the Lord God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And that you love thy neighbour as thyself. Don’t do, or say, or write anything to anyone you wouldn’t want them to do, say, or write to you. Treat others how you want to be treated, with love and respect. This is what the Lord wants and expects of us. To love and forgive one another. To build each other up in our faith. To encourage each other.