What Jesus said about the religious

[H. Richard]

you have made many words but not answered my question!

I do not believe that an answer given by me will be accepted so I will forget your question.

 

[H. Richard]

Correct. James was giving us the mind of Christ in this verse.

Pure religion* and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)

So, before God and the Father, there is such a thing as pure religion.

That is the point. No man can keep himself unspotted from the world. Religions ran by men become corrupt.

 

[quietthinker]

I do not believe that an answer given by me will be accepted so I will forget your question.

hmmmmm, your rational is peculiar. I deduct from your previous reply to my question in the light of what you have just said that you then deliberately avoided it....hmmmm!

 

[LoveBeacon]

But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.
9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.

Has anyone else noticed what these scriptures says? It says for us not to call no man on Earth 'Father'? Does that mean I am not suppose to call my physical male parent 'Father'? Am I sinning if I do?

What about teacher? I use to call my school teachers 'teachers' all the time. Am I disobeying scripture if I continue to do that? If I become a teacher, should I tell people not to refer to me as teacher 'so-and-so'.

 

[farouk]

That is the point. No man can keep himself unspotted from the world. Religions ran by men become corrupt.

This why the believer needs a continual cleansing through the precious blood, as s/he walks in the light in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (John's First Epistle).

 

[justbyfaith]

You have jumped to a false concussion. What James wrote was specifically written to the Jews (James 1:1) teaching the law. But the religious say that since it is in the Bible it is written to the Gentiles too. That is a false concussion. Either it was written to the Jews only or James 1:1 is a lie.

Again you refuse to admit that those believing Jews were only mad a Paul and not James. Common sense tells me that James was teaching that the Jews were still under the Law and Paul was teaching that they were not.

But the religious stick their heads in the sand and say they were teaching the same things when common sense says they were not.

James 1:1 does not say that the Jewish Christians were under the law.

I hold fast to the understanding that everyone in Christ is not under the law (Romans 6:14), whether they be Jew or Gentile.

Yes James is written to the Jewish people, specifically the the twelve tribes who were scattered abroad. Does that mean that the epistle has no application to our lives?

Consider that Ephesians was only written to "the saints in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus." So obviously you cannot get anything out of Ephesians if you are not in one of those categories. Or, Philippians was written only to those "saints which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." So you cannot rightfully sing, "He who began a good work in me...will be faithful to complete it..." because you have never lived in Philippi. Technically, Philippians was only written to those who lived in Philippi; and therefore the entire book is for them alone; we cannot extract any kind of doctrine or exhortation from it therefore, because it was not written to us.

 

[Enoch111]

Yes James is written to the Jewish people...

As was the epistle to the Hebrews, which clearly taught them that the Old Covenant was null and void. James was fully aware of this since He met the resurrected Savior personally.

Indeed it would be absurd to have a New Testament book which harked back to the Law of Moses. Even Moses knew that when he met Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.

 

[justbyfaith]

As was the epistle to the Hebrews, which clearly taught them that the Old Covenant was null and void.

A clear understanding of Hebrews 8 will tell you that while the Old covenant was vanishing away, the New Covenant contains aspects of the Old.

In the New Covenant, the law is written on the hearts and minds of the recipients of grace, rather than being written on tablets of stone.

To sow bountifully is to reap bountifully, so I will continue:

The love of the Lord is shed abroad in the hearts of those who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:5); and this love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14), since it is not done in word or in tongue only, but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:17-18).

And this is how the law is written on the hearts and minds of those who are under the New Covenant. Not through attempting to measure up to a set of do's and don'ts, but through simply abiding in Christ and His love, and in living according to it. For love is the fulfilling of the law.

And also, when we violate certain moral tenets found in scripture (whether Old or new Testament), we are violating the love of the Lord; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. If we live according to the Lord's love, we will not violate the moral tenets of the Old and New Testaments. If we lack faith in Jesus Christ and therefore have not apprehended His love, then we will not live according to the Lord's love, and the law will identify us as sinners in need of a Saviour.

 

[quietthinker]

This why the believer needs a continual cleansing through the precious blood, as s/he walks in the light in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (John's First Epistle).

Does that include tattoo's?

 

[H. Richard]

This why the believer needs a continual cleansing through the precious blood, as s/he walks in the light in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (John's First Epistle).

Your reply said that a believer has to be continuously cleaned. I disagree with that since that would mean a person has to be forgiven daily and fit in perfectly with those that teach faith plus works daily to keep salvation. Not only that but the scriptures I give will testify that Jesus paid for all sins of the flesh, past, present, and future with his ONE TIME blood sacrifice.

Rom 6:10
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
NKJV

Heb 7:27
27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
NKJV

Heb 9:12
12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
NKJV

Heb 10:9-10
9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
NKJV

Heb 10:12-14
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
NKJV

Some will say that the words being sanctified (verse 14 above) means it is a process the individual goes through but that is not what it says. It is NOT implying that a person is being sanctified, but that the group is being added too by addition of others. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 6:11
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
NKJV

 

[justbyfaith]

Hebrews 10:15-17 defines what it means to be perfected for ever because you are sanctified (in Hebrews 10:14).