Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Matthew 16:6 And Jesus said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 16:6 Jesus said to them, "Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." |
Subject: How Holy Is Marriage? |
Bible Note: I respond to an earlier post in this thread but I make this post thinking of many things in it. To those who would correct Robert, and I ask you to consider what I say from love's eyes, he has shared with us the sin that his son lives in and scripture is clear. But for love's sake realize that you can not simply come to him with verses of scripture. You are not trying to persuade him simply of some abstract piece of theology or doctrine, what you are trying to persuade him of is that his son, his own flesh and blood, is not welcomed in the church, lost, whatever it is each of you are try to persuade him of. If your heart will not weap for it as his, he will not hear you. Let us teach with gentleness and compassion. Next, Robert, there are hard truths that are going to be hard for you to hear. Though it is with no joy and with pain that I say it, I direct your attention to 1 Corinthians 5:9-12. In this Paul says if a so called brother is immorral we are not to associate with him, not even to eat with him. This word immorral is not referring to general sin but refers specifically to sexual immorrality. Now that is certainly not the only sin on the list, but it is among them, and it is a command. We can not discard it for compassion's sake. I will gladly speak with, eat with, walk with, and spend time with a homosexual. The sin itself does not scare me away from loving a person at all. But the moment that person calls themself a Christian, I am obligated to step away and not associate with them. Why? Because now it is an issue of slandering the teaching of Jesus Christ. Just as in Romans it says, "As it is written My name is slandered among the gentiles all day long because of you." This is a neccessity for two reasons. First is because the world must plainly see that Christ has no part in that. That His teachings do not permit that. Second, we must teach an errant brother that to follow Christ means to turn from his sin. Ofcourse he will make mistakes, but deciding to just live in it isn't acceptable to Christ or us. Do we take joy in doing this? No! On the contrary it breaks our hearts, but love compels us to it, not judgement or hate! We care too much for him and his soulnot to try to push him to repentance. Beyond that we must for the sake of obedience to this command in 1 Cor 5. Now, I speak for myself in this next thing, and I pray I do not teach against God, but I personally expect direct family members to still have contact and time with such people. If nothing else to continually remind them that the Church is longing for their repentence and return so that they do not mistakenly interpret it as hate. Do not in your hurt accuse wrong doing on the Church. Next, let us not think that because a person will cling to sin through persecution that it is therefore not sinful lusts or worldliness. How many times as we read the prophets do we see God go through the acts of "punish then call to repent", "punish then call to repent"; only to be met with absolute committment to sin. Finally let me say something about the discussion regarding the law that has come up in this thread. And keep in mind that we are talking about the moral aspects of it, not the ordinances such as not eating pork and sacrifices. In Romans chapter 3 verse 19 Paul states for us the purpose of the Law. "Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God." The point of the law was so that all those not under grace, would see the law and when they saw its drastic demand for perfection, their mouths would be closed meaning that they could say nothing at all in their defense. That is because each would see with clarity that they are a sinner in need of saving. But let us consider what it is that God sent to accomplish this. Was it not perfection? Was it not the very standard by which we can measure Christ's life and say he was perfect? So while what he sent was meant to show us we can not obey, we have to stop and realize that the very thing he sent to accomplish that is an elaborate picture of what perfect righteousness looks like. Therefore even though the law has completely lost its ability to condemn any person in Christ, the law can never completely loose its value! For even after it can no longer condemn us does not a perfect picture of Godly righteousness have value to teach us still? Now that you are set free in Christ (because you could not measure up to His perfection on your own), will you turn to something else to show you perfection? Understand then that Christ overcame the moral law, that Christ disarmed the moral law from its power to condemn those who have faith in Him, but never teach that Christ came to abolish the moral law. "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." Matthew 5:17 |