I know...There are quite a few of those throughout the entire Bible, but in reference to us, I think one of the mistakes we make, is in assuming that the disciples, went from having been under the law, their whole lives, to overnight being completely perfect in and under our New Covenant, which as we were made aware of, within all the descriptions of Jesus with the Pharisees and Saducees, was a really big ask, because so much of God, had been misunderstood right from the beginning, and Gods 'Name' ( His Character ) was being blasphemed all the night and day long.
The word to 'blaspheme' means to 'speak about a thing, which one has no actual knowledge of'........And let's face it, mankind have been making up the rules as he went along, and The Truth, got buried in between , and sadly a lot of those mistakes are still being perpetrated today.
Our Father and Jesus Himself at times, have endured quite a 'character assassination' , in the hands of men, and these men have DEMANDED that other men follow them in it......Jesus spoke of this several times in a few different ways, about them ' shutting of Heaven for themselves, but worse, preventing other's from entering in also, because of their insistence that people just blindly follow after them.
Every single fellowship I have been a part of since being saved, shows this exact same problem.....They take the written word, as if it's the Living Word......They take what's been written about or even by the disciples, as laws written in stone, and off man has gone again, doing the exact same thing the Hebrews did initially.......We also have 'leaders' who DFEMAND' that we follow after their interpretation, of what has been written, assuming it to be 100% perfect, which anyone, reading the Bible, can tell quite quickly, simply is not the case....
In regard to those specific verses you quoted, I have never prayed or sought understanding of these particular verses, but one thing I did find, was that in Rev 22:14, where in the NKJ it says :" Blessed are those who do His commandments....." In a different translation of that sentence it comes out as :" Blessed are they who wash their Robes, that they may have the right to enter etc....."
We are informed that there exists Robes ( plural ) of Righteousness and a ( singular ) Gown of Salvation......Spiritual clothing which we are given by the Lord, so that we will never be naked before our Father....These robes can be cleaned for us, if we have stained them.....some are so good, they won't need their garments cleansed before going in, and other's do.
Also that description is an odd one, because it can't be talking of Heaven, because dogs, sorcerers and Harlots, wouldn't be just outside heavens Gate, surely ???
It's an interesting thought, but me, for the most part, .......I just hold onto Him for dear life, as much as I am capable of at any particular time, because I have learned to trust that He will direct me, guide me and teach me anything which is needed for someone or something, when it is needed.....I'm done being all in knots, trying to be an oh so perfect little human being, as I have seen that even the very most perfect a human CAN be, is still nowhere near the perfection of God, so we are literally beating our heads against a rather large brick wall, for no reason other than our own pride, that we can say that 'WE' did this or that, that 'WE' accomplished this or that, instead of just resting in Jesus, and saying thank you all the time, because HE DID all that needed to be done, and His plan of Salvation is PERFECTION itself, as with everything else God makes........And this time, nothing will stand in God's way, He has seen to that !
