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NASB | Hebrews 13:17 ¶ Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 13:17 ¶ Obey your [spiritual] leaders and submit to them [recognizing their authority over you], for they are keeping watch over your souls and continually guarding your spiritual welfare as those who will give an account [of their stewardship of you]. Let them do this with joy and not with grief and groans, for this would be of no benefit to you. |
Subject: Why is marijuana use prohibited? |
Bible Note: Greetings, jini; I have to admit your misuse of Scripture is interesting: 1) There is no place in the Bible that prohibits speeding in school zones, private ownership of bazookas and grenade launchers, or practicing medicine without a license. Nonetheless, I think it's safe to say that Christians generally support laws prohibiting such things. Are we to assume based on your "argument from silence" that you are an advocate of them? 2) Cannabis is also known as hemp; perhaps God intended it only for rope-making and we have chosen to misuse it; we do have a history of that. Otherwise, we must believe that God meant for man to be more or less perpetually stoned on marijuana, hashish, heroin, mescaline, cocaine, and psilocybin. This leads to the enivitable question, why would a loving God combine mescaline with strychnine in the peyote cactus? 3) You object to "ignorant" and "apathetic" churches quoting irrelevant Scripture in their opposition to recreational drug use. Yet you don't hesitate to surgically remove Isaiah 10:1 from its context to support your opinion. Perhaps you could read chapter 9 and the rest of 10 to get some idea of what Isaiah was talking about. I assure you he was not complaining that poor people and widows were not being allowed to get high. 4) Your statement that "Jesus told us to visit people in prison, not to put them there" is just plain silly. Did he say to close the prisons? Did he say to eliminate civil law? or to ignore it at will? No; he said to visit those who are paying the price for their disobedience to man's laws, recognizing that we are all prisoners of our own disobedience to God's law. 5) Likewise, your expropriation of Colossians 2:21 to invalidate civil law is proof-texting of the worst sort - especially if you would have us believe Paul was railing against laws that interfere with sensual pleasure (v. 23). If you have not read the entire Bible to get a sense of what it's all about, I suggest you do so. If you have and you deliberately misapply Scripture to promote Hedonism then you really should be ashamed of yourself. Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones |