1..why is loving especially those who are considered unlovable a christian duty?
2. why is christ not in favor of``wealth-making`` as one's priority in life?
3.how do you interpret jesus' statement in this passage?
Answers
Answer:
1. God loves them. I take these words literally: "For God loved the world in this way. . . ." (John 3:16). He loves the arrogant church member, the person caught in sin, and the follower who denies Him. That's the point: He who loves all of us with an amazing love expects us to love others similarly.
2. We show the power of the gospel by loving all people. Jesus said our love for one another would be one way to show the world His love (John 13:34-35). The church is indeed a miracle – people from varied backgrounds and different races, all loving each other as a family brought together by the blood of Jesus. Being family means we must love even those who occasionally drive the family crazy.
3. We live in Christian obedience when we show love toward all. Christian love, while not being devoid of emotion, is an active love, a doing love – evidenced by how we act toward others. Our faith does not allow us to say, "Because I just don't love you any more, we can no longer be in relationship." Rather, Christian love means we act as a Christian toward all people, even when our feelings aren't there.
4. Some unlovable church members need Jesus. Let's face it: Jesus had a fake in His followers, and we're not going to do better than He did. Among a church family are likely to be those who believe they're Christian, but who never truly repented and believed. They sometimes act as non-believers act . . . because that's who they are. They need to see genuine Christian love so they might recognize their need for Christ.
5. Some unlovable church members are undiscipled believers acting like undiscipled people. Some believers have never been taught. Their churches led them to the Lord and baptized them, but they often did not pour themselves into these believers. Consequently, some church members are still babies in Christ, despite their years in the church. They need someone to help them see how much they need to grow – but it needs to be someone who truly loves them.
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Matthew 6:19-24
In 1970 the average American home was 1400 square feet; in 2005 it was 2400. We keep building our homes bigger and bigger. Even with all of this extra space, one out of ten American households doesn’t have enough room for all of its stuff, and so rents storage space.
Verse 19 is one that most Americans obviously ignore. We especially value storing up “treasures on earth.” I remember a popular bumper sticker from some years ago: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” That does seem to be the philosophy that guides many of our lives.
But what’s wrong with collecting a lot of treasure on earth? Jesus is saying it skews our priorities. If we are collecting lots of stuff, we then have to find a place to put it all (thus, bigger and bigger houses). We also have to protect it so no one steals it (thus, costly security systems, and making all sorts of life decisions based on worry and paranoia). And what has gotten lost in the process? Concern for others, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and being as committed to the needs of others as to our own needs.
Storing up “treasures in heaven” doesn’t mean going to church and praying a lot so that when you die you’ll have accumulated a lot of brownie points in heaven. Treasures in heaven means that one is treasuring the kingdom of God, making God’s will a priority here on earth, so that all of humanity may experience a healed world. Burglars can’t steal our love for others, and peacemaking never rusts away. These are the treasures that should guide the energy and resources of our life.
And then, to make the point as bluntly as possible, Jesus says we can’t serve God and money. It’s one or the other. These two masters have diametrically opposed priorities. Serving God means to serve others. Serving money means to selfishly serve ourselves.
We often forget that Jesus speaks more about the dangers of wealth than on any other topic. We forget this because our culture has convinced us to make peace with wealth-making. It is central to the American dream and our nation’s prosperity. Perhaps we should make major adjustments to Jesus’ teaching, since Jesus never knew the benefits of a captitalist system in which we all pursue our own profit.
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Any evils humans experience outside the Garden before God breathes into them the breath of life would be experienced as natural evils in the same way that other animals experience them. The pain would be real, but it would not be experienced as divine justice in response to willful rebellion. Moreover, once God breathes the breath of life into them, we may assume that the first humans experienced an amnesia of their former animal life: Operating on a higher plane of consciousness once infused with the breath of life, they would transcend the lower plane of animal consciousness on which they had previously operated—though, after the Fall, they might be tempted to resort to that lower consciousness