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Are Message Believers Christians?: Difference between revisions
Are Message Believers Christians? (view source)
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But many Christians have veered from Jesus' command to love and become more focused on a set of beliefs, more concerned about themselves and their standing with God than about other people. | But many Christians have veered from Jesus' command to love and become more focused on a set of beliefs, more concerned about themselves and their standing with God than about other people. | ||
The church that Jesus founded was to be a movement love would replace law-keeping. | The church that Jesus founded was to be a movement love would replace law-keeping: | ||
:''When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the '''first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear'''.<ref>Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Heb 8:13.</ref> | |||
In fact, how we behaved became the most important thing in determining whether we were Christians: | |||
:''If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. | |||
:''If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, | |||
:''and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. | |||
:''If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. | |||
:''So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.<ref>Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), 1 Co 13:1–3.</ref> | |||
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"Imagine if everyone realizes … God is fine with me," he said. "Now I must figure out how to be fine with other people so they can be fine with my Father in heaven." | "Imagine if everyone realizes … God is fine with me," he said. "Now I must figure out how to be fine with other people so they can be fine with my Father in heaven." | ||
But those that say they follow Jesus have had a historical tendency to bring the old covenant back into the new. | |||
<ref>Stanley, Andy - from the sermon series "Brand:New"</ref> | <ref>Stanley, Andy - from the sermon series "Brand:New"</ref> | ||