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NASB | Colossians 2:21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Colossians 2:21 "Do not handle [this], do not taste [that], do not [even] touch!"? |
Subject: Drawing the line |
Bible Note: Hi, Tim; It's called legalism and the comparison with the Pharisees is valid. I once heard a radio Bible teacher (name of Malcolm Smith maybe?) discuss this at a time when I was a new Christian and really obsessing over what was expected of me. He said that he had grown up in an environment similar to the one you described. He found no joy and no encouragement in his faith only rules. Then he read Jeremiah 31:31-34: '"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."' He went on to say that he realized that it was his realtionship with God, not adherence to rules, that mattered. He concluded by saying you can put all the religions in the world into a barrel labled "Try and Do"; you can put Christianity all by itself into another barrel labled "Trust and Done". I nearly drove off the road such was my relief an joy. Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones |