| Author | Message | ||
| Jim02 Registered user Username: Jim02 Post Number: 1194 Registered: 5-2007 |
I have been warned about reading outside materials that may only add to my confusion, and I accept that as good advice from more than one person here on the forum. There is also the insight of not seeing things with a SDA filter in place. Especially the scriptures. I am told to stay with the scriptures. Yet, even here I am prone to get into mind traps that lead to reprocessing legalism repeatedly. This week , reading passages that disturb my budding freedom from being under the law. Since I am still not settled as to where I should seek fellowship and because I am guilty no matter which way I go, I stay in neutral from the stress alone of it. I read in my Bible: 1 John 2: 3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. J: Plural, commands, global implication. Not just the 10C, all of them. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God[a] is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. J: Whoa. Walk as Jesus did? That is a wide definition. As Jesus did? That is a EGW teaching that leads to working our way into salvation. Yet , here it is , “As Jesus did” In context, not really explained here. 1 John 3: 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. J: Legal full circle. Right back under the law. Sin is defined by the law. Why did he put this here? What was his context? 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. J: This is suggested as the sum total of God’s commands. This is not a clear conclusion to me. So I go back over to Galatians and Romans, I see a whole different approach. I find some relief. The problem is , holding onto the permission to let go of the law and accept the freedom in Christ. Trying desperately to verify that the law was in total, nailed to the cross. Until I finally get past that, I cannot effectively merge into fellowship without being a ship tossed at sea. This is why I do not fit anywhere. I am broken in my faith as to what truth is or what God wants from me. I can’t get out of the way from condemnation. I know what spiritual abuse is. Defending against it is a whole different matter. | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 1146 Registered: 7-2004  |
Jim, first I would contend that John has defined what John means by commands, including twice in this very letter. So rather than speculate about what laws or commands he means, just accept what he actually says. John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 1 John 3:23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 2 John 1:5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. For what they are worth, here are some notes that I put together when we were studying this book in our Formers' Study Fellowship. There are some links in the document that I found useful as well. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28659164/Notes%20on%20I%20John%203-5.pdf | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 7255 Registered: 9-2006  |
Quote: I am broken in my faith as to what truth is or what God wants from me. Yes you are, you are a product of a broken system of belief. Adventism was broken since the day before you were born, and I see the same system in action with you, sifting through scripture picking up this one and discarding that one, with apparent inability to take in the whole concepts brought fourth in scripture, being able to see in part, but not the whole, and that is the way Adventism works. If you zero in on one scripture, it is like looking at a grain of sand to try to make out the whole beach. Try looking at scripture as a whole as well as in part. Salvation is reflected in the whole of scripture, like a face is reflected in water. Hey Bud, don't say can't, your post are a whole lot better than they used to be, filled with more truth. You may not see your own growth, but I do.  I remember the many numerous times I have sent prayers heavenward for you, but there comes a time when we need to rest from prayer so that the answers to them can catch up. River | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 1961 Registered: 7-2007 |
Jim; John 3:17 says that God didn't send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved. Someone just wrote here on the forum - just in the last couple days or so - the two words in the New Testament translated "law." They are two different words in the Greek - Entole and Nomos or something. Since English doesn't have both words in English, they are both translated "law." Jesus' commands are one of them and the old covenant commands (all 613) are the other. In any case, Jim; when a person is saved, they stay saved. They don't go back and forth like a yo-yo. Everybody sins, even after they have been saved. Notice what John says in 1st John 1:8 (and notice that he includes himself in this, by the use of the word we). "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Also notice that John wrote to the believers in 1st John 2:12 ...your sins are forgiven you... By the time his letter got to the believers, their sins would STILL have been forgiven. That means future sins too! Yea! (Message edited by Asurprise on June 26, 2011) | ||
| Jim02 Registered user Username: Jim02 Post Number: 1195 Registered: 5-2007 |
I have been trying to read more in a learning frame of mind, rather than bouncing off the walls so much. River, I appreciate your encouraging words. I am trying to see the big picture. Ric, I saw those passages too. But in one sense , these seemed to be additional or reenforced overviews rather than specific identifaction of God's commands. Yet, as I said before, I jump to Paul's writings and find relief. Asurprise, I want to accept your point about staying saved. It's difficult to nail it down. But I am trying. |
