1 John;- The old and new command

a reply to: guidetube
I think you want this to be about my personal philosophy- or at least your personal philosophy.
In fact the purpose of this thread is the specific message found in 1 John. In other words, it's an exercise in theology.

a reply to: DISRAELI

based on this particular book...

Wouldn't this be your personal theology?

not like you're offering this info from another's point of view...

wescott perhaps, but wouldn't that sill apply to your own ideas IF you choose to use them in your thread?

a reply to: Akragon
The object of the exercise is transmitting faithfully what John was saying. Making it easier to understand, where necessary.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I can appreciate that... but are you saying this isn't your own personal theology?

IF it isn't what is the point of the exercise?

a reply to: Akragon
It's the New Testament's theology. So the purpose of the exercise is the transmitting of an understanding of New Testament theology.

a reply to: DISRAELI

so..

your theology/philosophy?

a reply to: Akragon
It is my understanding of New Testament theology.
In other words, what I am doing is not what guidetube thinks I should be doing (he and I agree on that point). I take it you are playing the game of trying to manoeuvre me into saying they are the same thing. You're not going to get anywhere.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Whats a Guidetube?

a reply to: Akragon
See top of this page. You have been replying to my reply to his post.

a reply to: DISRAELI

You're writing a book eh...

a reply to: Akragon
You know my back-catalogue on ATS. I think there are several books there.

a reply to: Akragon

If the point is to be like Christ as much as you can, then you want to be like Him. Jesus could not have influenced those around Him walking a solitary path.

Similarly you cannot share your love with others walking alone. Love does nothing if you aren't sharing it.

There is a parable about sowing seed and what ground it falls on. It might be of interest.

a reply to: ketsuko

In a sense that is correct. Its difficult to understand without considering the times in which Christ and John lived. In those times, "community" meant life. To be shunned from the community meant eventual death from lack of the community support system. Early "believers", followers of Christ formed and lived in fellowship communities that offered life supporting community to like minded believers. There weren't the organized type "Churches" we have today. They worshipped, prayed, shared the "good news" in each others homes. It was much like modern AA meetings.

Shunning organized religion and walking alone is all well and good, but not self sustaining. Doing so leads one to the error of self-sufficiency. John understood this. To walk the "way" means doing so in fellowship with like minded faithful and that support of the fellowship of the community of the faithful is inherint to understanding and practicing Christ's call to "service" to one's bretheren in the fellowship. Considering the dominance of the Pagan Roman culture in which these little communities were formed and grew, it also meant..........survival.

I don't condemn those who shun today's organized religions. The mega churches, the large organized churches like Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, etc. Most people live in these huge cities and the church experience often times offers little in the way of fellowship. There's no greater feeling of lonliness than in a crowd. Its a tough world out there.

Wow I must be reading the wrong texts. I'e never understood how people get hand holding out of Biblical texts. Love is not holding hands, pretending everything's ok. Love is helping others in ways they need help, and only in those ways.

Was Yeshuah not holy? Go look the word up in your concordance. Being seperated is the challenge, abandoned by most for secular comfort,and the retaining memory it forms at the moment of death. Loopty loop.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye might lay the same on your pleasures.
Ye [screw heads], know ye not that the amity of the world is the enmity of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, maketh himself the enemy of God.

Christ's power did not come from the way Yeshuah lived, the way Yeshuah lived came from the power of Christ. Loving people will get you nowhere,if you have to force yourself to do it. Love is the reward, not a means to the reward.

originally posted by: BigBangWasAnEcho
Wow I must be reading the wrong texts. I'e never understood how people get hand holding out of Biblical texts.

Who in this thread has been talking about hand-holding?

Was Yeshuah not holy? Go look the word up in your concordance.

Yes, as used in the Bible, the word means approximately "belonging to God".

Ye [screw heads], know ye not that the amity of the world is the enmity of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, maketh himself the enemy of God.

I quote that verse from James in my next thread, where it is relevant. I'm not sure how it fits into an argument in this one.

Loving people will get you nowhere,if you have to force yourself to do it. Love is the reward, not a means to the reward.

Love is an attitude. In this chapter, John is treating the absence of love as a symptom.