1 Peter Ch 4

[Guest shiloh357]

Can you not respond gracefully especially since you are so keen on espousing that God's grace covers all.

What you see as a lack of grace, I see as an abundance of straigt forward honesty.

Contrary to your self-assessment, I think you have not adequately laid out your position - neither scripturally or logically.

Actually I spent a lot of time laying out my position and answering your responses.

I shouldn't have to ask you to provide scriptures to substantiate your argument – you should provide them at the outset so I and others don't have to guess or attempt to interpret what you mean.

I not only provided a scriptural basis for what I was saying, I also dealt with the Scriptures you provided and corrected your mishandling of the text. You didn’t have “interpret” what I mean. You could have asked for clarification, but you didn’t. Rather you went on ahead and assigned values to me that I never expressed. You put the lie in my mouth and then argued against it, proving that you cannot really be trusted in a debate.

You make general statements and I am supposed to take your word for it? I'd like to believe that you are not ignorant of the fact that theologians and different denominations have had differences of opinion over these exact same issues for ages.

I didn’t ask you take my word for anything. But the fact remains I spent more time correcting your misleading comments about my statements than anything else. I was not speaking in ambiguous terms. You simply had an agenda to paint me in a certain way, so you dishonestly assigned values to my comments that were meant to paint my position in a way that I did not intend. So far from taking my word for it, you tried to put words in my mouth so you could have something to knock down.

Therefore civil discourse is possible but instead you resort to accusing me of being under a curse for promoting a false gospel, having sloppy theology and having peculiar and bizarre approaches to the text. If so, I guess I am in plenty of good company as many other Christians believe as I do.

Given that your sloppy theology includes the heresy of Universalism, I wouldn’t be so proud that you have other people who believe as you do. The fact is that truth is not arrived at by a majority vote. And I stand by my comments that you are promoting a false Gospel that amounts to a works-based system of righteousness and universal salvation that denies the full sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross. There is nothing “Christian” about your theology.

You say you believe in accepting the plain reading of Scripture? So do I, and I won't spend my time responding to your opinions anymore however I will leave you with this scripture since you believe that converts to the faith can never fall away and are safely kept from God's condemnation as you so claim. “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil” (1 Tim 3:6).

This is talking about the qualifications for the office of Pastor. It is not saying that he will lose his salvation and be subject to the same eternal judgment of God that the devil is under, currently. What Paul has in mind is the potential for a person in ministry to become conceited view their ministry as an exalted rank and thus being removed from ministry by the Lord.

Pride is what removed satan from his exalted position in heaven. The same pride can remove a person from the ministry and often does. The issue Paul is raising in the text is not about whether or not the person is still saved, but about protecting the integrity of the ministry by requiring new believers to grow and become seasoned and spiritually mature before they are allowed to take on ministry leadership position in a given congregation.

[DInsights]

1 Peter 4:8-11

 

8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

9  Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

10  As every man hath received the gift, [even so] minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

11  If any man speak, [let him speak] as the oracles of God; if any man minister, [let him do it] as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

 

For charity shall cover the multitude of sins

 

Love is the ultimate commandment to bring about the righteousness of God. If sin is unrighteousness, it means that love is the opposite.

 

Righteousness displaces unrighteousness: therefore, love displaces/replaces sin (unrighteousness). A greater (fervent) measure of love correspondingly displaces/displaces the multitude of sins.

 

Luke 7:47-48 is a classic scripture that supports. It declares: Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, [the same] loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

 

 

Stewards of the manifold grace of God

 

By the Spirit, we receive various gifts from God. Faith, grace and glory, together with their derivatives, are freely given to believers.

 

Any gift remains dormant until exercised with/by love. That is how come faith is dead (dormant) if not accompanied by work. The recommended work is love.

 

Grace/salvation, also a gift from God, is exercised with/by love. Your supply of grace/salvation remains dormant if you do not love. God has ordained that His gift exercises and establishes the preordained work that we must do. Both the gift and the work are interdependent in order to establish perfection: preordained work exercises the gift even as the gift establishes the work.

 

Think of it in this way: a gift of a car remains to be admired but does not take the recipient to a desired destination without being driven. Grace/salvation remains a gift most beautiful and good, but must be exercised (or put to perfect use) by love for desired results.

 

We become good stewards of the gift of grace when we minister grace to the brethren. Fervent love, which encapsulates all preordained works of God, is the way by which grace can be ministered.

 

Let us become good stewards of whatsoever gift has been supplied us.

Edited June 10, 2013 by DInsights