Biblical absolutes or guidelines for Christian living?

[Fez]

Biblical absolutes or guidelines for Christian living?

 

The Bible is the absolute guideline if you see what I am getting at?

[TsukinoRei]

Biblical absolutes or guidelines for Christian living?

 

The Bible is the absolute guideline if you see what I am getting at?

 

Nicely worded!    And I agree.

[Sevenseas]

hmmm...I started an 'absolutes' thread of my own b4 I knew this thread exisited, but it has a different flavor.  Interesting.......

[Qnts2]

Luke 6:²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

 

True story- A person who was not a Christian and was against Christians sharing the gospel, learned of this verse. Whenever a Christian would try to share the gospel with this person, the response from this person was, 'give me your coat'. When the Christian gave them their coat, they would walk away laughing that they got another Christian to give them their coat. Of course the Christian was just left there shivering.  

[thomas t]

 

BTW I think that Luke also applies to a shoe issue, Nebula

 

 

I'm sorry, but I do not know what you mean by "shoe issue"? I see no reference to shoes here. Please clarify.

Dear Nebula,

maybe I wasn't clear. The passage in Luke mentions a coat and a shirt, so I inferred that a shoe which is also a peace of clothing might be meant as well. I thought this conclusion went in the same direction as your little skit you've told us.

In contrast, housing isn't meant in this particular verse, in my opinion.

Have a good day

Thomas

[JDavis]

 

 

BTW I think that Luke also applies to a shoe issue, Nebula

 

 

I'm sorry, but I do not know what you mean by "shoe issue"? I see no reference to shoes here. Please clarify.

Dear Nebula,

maybe I wasn't clear. The passage in Luke mentions a coat and a shirt, so I inferred that a shoe which is also a peace of clothing might be meant as well. I thought this conclusion went in the same direction as your little skit you've told us.

In contrast, housing isn't meant in this particular verse, in my opinion.

Have a good day

Thomas

 

 

 

verse 30 does not limit the asking to just a coat or a shirt. 

[thomas t]

You are right. However verse 30 is rather unspecific in what is meant as to be given.

 

In my opinion, other Bible verses have to be taken into account:

 

There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.

They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children. Job 24:2-5

 

or read this one, feel free to further study it in its context:

They were banished from human society Job 30:5a

 

I think, forced expulsions are meant here. If expulsions were meant by Jesus as well in the Luke passage above, that one wouldn't jive well with the ones I presented here. I think this is the context in which Jesus' words according to Luke are to be understood among others.

 

Thomas

[GoldenEagle]

This is an off-shoot from a different thread, but there are two passages that I would like to address.

 

The first is from Luke 6

 

²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

 

The next is from I Cor 10:

 

³¹ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³² Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— ³³ even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

And Romans 14:

¹⁹ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

 

 

Are these passages absolutes that should be taken literally, or are they a guide for how we should live our lives?

 

I would say they are guidelines. I really think the subject of absolutes or guidelines has to be within the context of grace. God's grace to us (vertical grace) and our treatment of others as an overflow of God's grace ().

 

 

Grace comes to us in two dimensions: vertical and horizontal.

Vertical grace centers on our relationships with God. Freeing us from the demands and the condemnation of the Mosaic law, vertical grace gives us hope to the sinner by not only providing eternal life but also freeing us from any requirements to pay back God. Vertical grace is truly amazing!

Horizontal grace centers around our relationship with others. Relieved from our guilt and shame, we walk in grace, we’re free from the tyranny of pleasing people. We’re free from their demands and expectations, and they’re free from ours. When we can demonstrate horizontal grace, we accept others as they are. We have no personal agenda to make anyone be someone he or she is not. Horizontal grace is truly charming!

 

Does this make sense?

 

God bless,

GE

[nebula]

 

 

BTW I think that Luke also applies to a shoe issue, Nebula

 

 

I'm sorry, but I do not know what you mean by "shoe issue"? I see no reference to shoes here. Please clarify.

Dear Nebula,

maybe I wasn't clear. The passage in Luke mentions a coat and a shirt, so I inferred that a shoe which is also a peace of clothing might be meant as well. I thought this conclusion went in the same direction as your little skit you've told us.

In contrast, housing isn't meant in this particular verse, in my opinion.

Have a good day

Thomas

 

 

OK, but I am not understanding why you brought up shoes to me.

[GoldenEagle]

Are these passages absolutes that should be taken literally, or are they a guide for how we should live our lives?

 

I think regarding absolutes or guidelines Nebula had a good perspective... See below.

 

 

I. Two Strong Tendencies that Nullify Grace

 

Along this train of thought -

 

There was a song that came out back in the 70's: "And they'll know we are Christians by our love."

 

I've often marveled, though, at how this principle never seemed to manifest itself in the Body of Christ.

 

Rather, it has seemed:  "And they'll know we are Christians by our obsession with sin."

 

 

It's like a problem I have. For some reason, I got into the habit of pinching the zits on my face. It turned into an addiction where I feel better from squeezing oil out of my face. So I look for zits and blackheads and any potential pocket of oil to squeeze out. So what that it damages my face, I'm getting the nasty oil out!

 

This seems to be what we are like as the body of Christ. We don't see the beauty of the face, we see the nasty zits and we look close up for the nasty oil because it feels so good to eliminate it. And then we believe that eliminating the oil is love, even though it leaves behind wounds and swollen tissue, rather than believing love is covering over the zit or treat it in a way that brings healing in its own time and way.