My Talk With God:

[votivesoul]

Thanks for the very thorough and clarifying response, Aquila. I am glad for the dialogue.

I read everything, but some things, more than others, stood out. These I wish to address:

Originally Posted by Aquila

...While each list is strictly based on a “biblical” interpretation, each list is but a “human” interpretation.

This is really my issue. If you had written that the qualm the Lord has with us was our interpretation of the lists found in Scripture, I don't think I would have disagreed at all. The presentation, from my pov, seemed to be suggesting that the Lord was against humans trying their very best to understand "what doth the Lord require of thee?".

There is no doubt that Christ was and is against teaching for the commandments of God the doctrines of men.

Amen. But what bothers me is the reasoning behind saying, “we are but flesh”...

I use this phrase in its Biblical context: Psalm 78:38-39,

38. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

God knows we are but a wind that passes away. He even said of us "...the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

As a species, rescued from sin, or still dead therein, we really have no idea, most of the time, what we're doing, even if we boast differently.

Hence why the Lord is "very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11).

So, not an excuse, but rather mere acknowledgement of just how helpless and child-like we all are. Utterly dependent of God for everything!

The understanding that God desires that we do one thing: Love? That we love Him… and show our love for Him by loving others as ourselves?

If we love Him we keep His commandments, right?

The corollary being that those who do not keep the Lord's commandments prove that they do not love Him as they say. Again we are drawn back to lists. What are the commandments of the Lord Jesus? How do we keep them properly? What if we don't agree? Can we be in sincere disagreement with one another without being in trouble with the Savior?

I’ve come to realize that it’s rather simple. If one’s words are not “loving”… they are not wholesome. If one’s actions are not “loving” they are not holy.

A Christlike love fulfills the law in all things. Every commandment ever given is summed up in this one action… love.

Paul asked the Galatians, "Am I now become your enemy because I tell you the truth"?

He called them foolish, said they were bewitched, said they had fallen from grace, and even desired that the Judaizers who had corrupted them would be castrated.

Are these words "loving" or "wholesome"?

Sometimes, the greatest words of love hurt us the most. We need censure, we need reproof and rebuke, we need verbal chastisement, we need to be upbraided.

I understand what you’re saying. And I agree. However I’ve come to see it differently. God doesn’t want us to become one with each other if such oneness compromises… HIM.

But if HIM, how much more us?