Random musings...The Bible...Interesting...
Bild von Calla Negra auf Pixabay
Inspired by a short clip on Facebook.
In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says the following;
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
The point being that Jesus, although Christians consider Him God in the flesh, recognizes that, because He is "in the flesh", He cannot be God. He recognizes God as his Father, who is, for all intents and purposes, a separate entity.
Reading further, in verse 21-23 He points the following out.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
He's basically saying that praying for anything in His name will not get you into heaven. In my experience, most preachers, or religious teachers, will end their prayers with some form of "In the name of Jesus". He is called Jesus Christ, hence the name of the religion...Christianity.
Reading on...
Now, verses 21 -23 give us a better understanding of verse 15-16.
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
We could ask, at this point, "Do men pray to God, or to Jesus...as God in the flesh?". Well, if men pray to Jesus, and Jesus says that He is not His Father, God, then it stands to reason that there can only be one conclusion as to what sort of man is praying.
Now, let us go back to Matthew 5, verses 17 and 19.
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
This sheds a new light on Matthews 22:37 - See also Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7. Well, actually it sheds a new light on God's Laws brought down by Moses.
37 ...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
One could argue that Jesus also pointed out in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.". I would argue, though, that in John 14:10 He explains that "the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.".
This, I believe, is where the confusion comes from. Jesus explains that when He speaks, it's God speaking. Not because He is God, but because God dwells in Him, and speaks through Him with words and deeds.
But, we may ask what Jesus means with "I am the way". Well, I think it could mean that Christians should see Jesus as their role model. They should aspire to be like Jesus.
"How to do that?", you may ask. Well, Matthews 22:37 gives us the first, and very important, step.
Matthews 22:39 gives us the second very important step.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
These two steps are really interesting. You see? Aspiring to be like Jesus requires us to, as Jesus states in John 14:10, to let God dwell in us.
Here is the really interesting part. If Christians let God dwell in, and speak and work through them, then they must also love their neighbor as God would, for that love would be God's love.
For if God dwells in you, then you must love, not only yourself, as you love God, but your neighbor too!
And exactly this love is the straight and narrow path, which so many avoid.
Just random musings…
P.S: Using the King James version, found at biblegateway.com.
This is a good read. I like reading Christian literature, been crazy about them in my college years...
The New testament is originally written in greek, so it's a good practice to look up the meaning of the greek word used in the text to get an idea what a particular passage mean.
So, if you look in the concordance, Matt. 7:21-22 (in thy name) and compare that to Acts 2:38 (in the name of) : they use the same greek word 'onoma' for the word 'name', which means authority or by the authority of. In other words, in the name of means basically - appeal and reference is made to Jesus Christ. As for Acts 2:38, the baptism is performed by His authority. And it is done by someone acting as Christ's representative.
Praying in Jesus' name means we are asking God the Father to act upon our prayers through the authority and power granted to us by Jesus.
Praying in Jesus' name means we are asking God the Father to act upon our prayers through the authority and power granted to us by Jesus
That's a really good explanation. Thank you! :)
Interesting enough, if God the Father is willing to dwell within us, then He must dwell there through that same authority. This, it seems, would allow us to talk, or pray, directly to the Father.
But, I'm not really deep enough into the subject, though. :))
I believe so, yes. :-))
I'm not an expert on this subject either. This was just some of the things I've learned that stuck with me.
Also, loving your neighbors as yourself... what does that really mean? How do we go about doing that? :-)))
It seems to me that to love your neighbor as you love yourself should require no effort.
I would suggest that if you really love God, and He dwells within you, then you must love yourself as you love God. Because of that, you must love your neighbor as you love yourself.
The problem it seems depends on whether you merely believe, or you have faith. Belief implies doubt, and this is where most find themselves. Faith is knowledge, through experience.
I would suggest that if you believe, pray and observe all that you do in a positive manner, you may eventually find that God is working through you. This will strengthen your belief, which will eventually evolve into faith. And, whether God exists outside of yourself, or not, doesn't even matter.
This is the point where the love of yourself and the love of God is one and the same. Understanding that God is everywhere, at all times, is understanding that to love another is to love god. Well, that should actually be enough. ;)
The mental exercise, it seems, is the similar to that of other philosophies/religions.
Just my thoughts.
Maybe in the sense that it is God who works through us. And if we truly believe, everything flows naturally - which requires faith in the first place. I also agree with what you said that belief will eventually evolve into faith if one is consistently obeying God's will. Merely saying that you believe God (belief) without doing anything about it means nothing. Faith without works is dead.
But I also believe that love is an action word whether towards God or neighbors. So it still requires effort because, realistically speaking, nobody can always have devout feelings, although feelings are not what God principally cares about. I don’t mean we have to force the feelings - what I’m trying to say is, it’s about the everyday stuff. Like when you don’t feel like going to church or praying, but you still do it anyway. You get my point :-))
From a nonbeliever's point of view, the idea of loving your neighbor as yourself can be a difficult - perhaps even impossible - task, especially when that neighbor often does you wrong or is clearly acting with malice. Loving your neighbors clearly doesn't mean thinking they're good fellows when it is quite plain that they are not. But this leads to another topic which is forgiveness. :-))
Good points. :)
I've often heard that God is Love. If that's the case, then Love is His natural state. Once He is dwelling within, then His natural state becomes our natural state and Love no longer needs effort.
If He is dwelling within and Love is His natural state, which becomes our natural state, then prayer and worship will come automatically. I think the urge to pray and worship would be overwhelming.
I don't see how we can forgive those we don't love, though. I'll have to think about that. :)
That gives us room for a future dialogue :-))
I have to admit that these thoughts are very alien to me. I once read the ‘Bible’ like a book of fairy tales. Like the ‘Communist Manifesto’ ;-)). Beyond that, it doesn't really interest me either. So as far as your thoughts are concerned, perhaps @ty-ty can provide more input, as he has dealt intensively with Christian texts...
PS: In the attached image I see a ‘ Wolf among Wolves’ ;-)) - novel by Hans Fallada... And that in turn leads to Thomas Hobbes (‘... man is a wolf to men.’)
I look at religion from a philosophical perspective, I guess.
It interests me because it has influenced my whole life, being raised in that environment.
As far as the image goes, I was looking for a picture of a wolf disguised as a sheep.
Because, I always look for the wolf within the sheep. :)