All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Unity in the church
One will argue against the head covering, citing it as outdated or a metaphor, while upholding not letting women teach because it's not the same and God commands it.
But as I was studying the difference between the terms holiness, righteousness and justification this morning, something I read just answered a lot of questions that are so often debated.
Laying aside all our notions and beliefs of all these matters, when Jesus said to obey His commands, just what commands was He speaking of?
Galatians 5:14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
John 15:10-12
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
- You shall have no other gods before Me.
- You shall not make idols.
- You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet.
Every message was to love God and one another, to live in peace with one another. Even Paul's teaching on head coverings and women teaching were wrapped into that central theme. As Paul said, if his eating meat offended a weaker brother, then he wouldn't eat meat. People were offended about women speaking out or showing their head, and it was causing disagreements and dissention in the church because of customs and trivial matters. The church was against one another and divided in beliefs. Kinda like Baptist, Pentecostal, Nazarene. All because of trivial matters, churches divide and write their own "beliefs" a.k.a. rules. When the only written statement should be "Love God, believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and love others." That simple.
Jesus repeatedly demonstrated love. Love takes care of every commandment. If you steal, you hurt the one you steal from. To dishonor your parents is going to hurt them, etc. The commandments were a guide on how to love God and others...how to treat one another.
The Pharisees tried to nit pick it and make up a bunch of rules like you must pay 10% even if you don't have it, you are not permitted to speak (which wasn't even what quietness meant), you must cover your head. All this clouded what Jesus was teaching.
Matthew 23:13-15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
There are 613 Jewish laws. That certainly is placing burdens on people. Just try and commit them all to memory. Some people can but the rest of the real world would be pulling their hair out.
Jesus never commanded us to keep women silent or from teaching. He never commanded us to cover our head or pay 10%. His commands were to love Him and love others. As long as we're adhering to that, truly loving others, we don't need a list of rules and regulations.
We're not going to do anything that would hurt a brother or sister. We won't covet what they have or steal it. We won't dishonor our parents. We won't lie about others or murder them. We won't step out on our spouse and tear a family apart.
But then we'd have nothing to debate and this site wouldn't exist and I wouldn't have posted this. And we'll finally have reached unity and have just one church.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ribbon on
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Janie,
Your questions are good ones, and they all lead to rabbit trails. :-)
To answer them quickly, yes I do pray for them.
Yes, abuse makes me angry. How can I pray for them in love when I'm angry? I know God understands, He hates abuse too.
How does the church have unity when these things are brought up? I don't know. I guess we have to realize that each person is accountable to God.
Just a quick note ... I didnt or wouldnt ask you or anyone if "abuse" makes them angry. Just putting that out there because your reply makes it seem like I asked you that. :-)
I had written another reply for you but when i copied it and tried posting it here it for some strange reason kept leaving out one part and the same part each time. I even tried pasting it on my page here and it wouldnt show that part. I pasted it on my email drafts and it showed up. It was just me commenting about bunny trails. Lol maybe a little ghost? No I dont believe in ghost but that was strange. I will try posting it again later.
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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It was just me commenting about bunny trails.
We all go off on bunny trails sometimes.... I find it's hard to avoid them though. The conversations are never just about one thing. I should have responded with more clarity and just said 'I don't have the time to sit at the computer and go into great depth right now', and your questions are deep. It's not that I don't think they deserve for me to take the time, because of course they do as I said "They are great questions", it's just a busy weekend for me.
So now I'm up at 5:30am checking to see if there is anything I can respond to.
I don't know why these glitches are happening with the site, but you can report them on the main page. Go to the main page and scroll down to the very bottom where you'll see this message. You can also just clink on the link that I copied here down below 'report an issue'.
KeepingTheNET Safe
Help keep TheNET a safe and wholesome place to grow in Jesus. We are a grace-filled community, but if you are convinced another member is behaving inappropriately and you have not been able to resolve the issue between yourselves, please use the Report an Issue link at the bottom of each page to report spam, harassment, abuse, or inappropriate content.
You can also report bugs with the site here as as well. Thanks! -
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Your questions are good ones, and they all lead to rabbit trails. :-)
I am sorry about the rabbit trail questions. As I said in my now gone reply I think any discussion especially the longer ones can and most of the time does lead off into bunny trails. Like if I didnt read the title to this one I might think it could be called "Women got the Power" lol. I am sorry I am tired and dingy. But anyway I am trying to be active again . I guess I could just page hop like I did when I first came to AAG.
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aha there I copied it by it self. My comment about bunny trails is related to your above in bold comment to me.
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I'm so glad to see you here active.
The long replies (I'm guilty of them) are often so time consuming, I just wonder if everybody reads everything on them. It's easy for me to have scattered thoughts and just type what comes to mind, but I'm trying to be more intentional about what I write and stay focused and on topic.
I also think when we keep our comments short and to the point, it helps to engage lots of different people into the conversation.
Not many people have the time to spend a couple hours online.
I realize that some people may take offense to that comment, I'm not typing it to be offensive, I'm saying it so that we can appreciate and respect people's lives outside of AAG.
I don't want you to be sorry about rabbit trail questions.. ASK ASK ASK. Like I mentioned earlier, it does get complicated because everything is so closely connected. Rabbit trails are often unavoidable.... I'm trying to be careful around them because I want lots of people to read and respond. That's what makes a healthy community. It's never healthy if one person dominates a discussion.
I'd love to keep hearing from you...
Blessings, Carla
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:-) I suck at saying what I am thinking, When I mentioned "long replies' I meant a lot of replies in one forum post.... maybe I should have said .. bunny trails can happen when there are 'many' replies. I like any type of replie long or short ... I also like it when people are able to spend time on here. I wish there could be more moderators here who can spend time here. .. I come here and then go again. I am very hooked on YT. As soon as I get my computer working better I will probably be spending time on YT again lol. It pauses to much now when I try. My internet connenection is bad now but I soon will have a better modem. I thought maybe it was just my batterie but was rong. Anyway thanks for your reply. I wish Amanda would start commenting again too. I looked for her blogs ealier and couldnt find any of them :-(/
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aactually I just rread what I had wrote above.... I said long discussions. :-D
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Responding on these forums is great training for all of us to learn to say what we're thinking. I struggle with this too.
I think it's important to acknowledge that all people are at different stages in their lives and because of that they have different amounts of time to spend online. I feel like I'm not expressing myself well in our exchange either. Please understand that I was not saying your questions are not important, I was saying I didn't have time to respond. From my point of view I didn't change anything I was saying, I just didn't express it effectively.
Let me say this "Your comments and questions matter very much. I am not saying they don't matter, and that I don't want to spend time answering them, I am saying my family and my responsibilities demand my first attention."
I'm going to be checking in and out today throughout the day for 10 minutes at a time, I wish I could give more than that, but I can't. Even saying this, I anticipate it is coming across badly.
This community is a great supplement for face to face fellowship. I know that not everyone embraces the face to face fellowship recommendations for various reasons. I also acknowledge that each persons situation is unique, and if a person can only participate in online fellowship that is preferable over nothing.
I wish I could express it better than I am.
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Its ll good Carla, but you are right... because to me its almost as if we are having two different conversations. I am not trying to rush you in any way havent even thought about rushing anyone. I was responding to short and long post and respondimg to you saying people stay on here 2 hours at a time. I was just trying to respond to comments and then while rereading I find you changed it up. Like using words like some people dominating the forums. Im like what? lol. lololol I hop you are ok. Lately you seem to be different. Anyway please dont feel like you have to respond .... I know this isnt a chat room.
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I'm great. Thanks for asking. :-) Life is Busy. That's all.
Bye for now....
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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I think the site's been a bit hokey. I made some corrections to typos in one post and they showed on a refresh of the page. But when Carla responded, I saw the original post. All my corrections were gone. Like talking about referring to one another. I corrected it to deferring, but it is back to the original.
I've also hit "add reply" and often it just spins thinking but doesn't refresh the page. I copy text so I manually refresh so I can try posting it again but it's already posted.
So either the site has issues or I need new glasses. Uhhhhh actually I do need new glasses. -
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