When you read the Bible , it is obvious that the letters of Paul are not the same message as the message that Christ sends us, that is, if we assume that we are to emulate Christ.
[background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]"When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'? [/background][background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]When Jesus heard this, he said, 'Healthy people don't need a doctor--sick people do.' (Matthew 9:11-12)[/background]
[background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]Paul the Apostle says[/background]
[background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]"When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin [/background][background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. [/background][background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. (Cor. 5:9-11)[/background]
[background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]Are we to assume that these brothers who are immoral are to be outcasts in the mind of Paul but for Jesus it is exactly these same people who NEED Christ's love. And doesn't Paul's Christianity assume a Judgemental and holier-than-thou point of view that "I, who am not [/background][background=rgb(249, 253, 255)]sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler are outcasting YOU, brother , and I shall not eat with you." ??? [/background]
You know, there are times where I find it really hard not to reply to topics like this, even though I generally find they don't achieve anything. It's just that they are so tongue-in-cheek, that I cannot resist replying.
Let me repost the verse in question in a bit more understandable text:
1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
Paul was referring to one who was claiming Christianity, but was
This brings up an interesting point in my mind- when I thought this topic had reached the end to be honest with you. My question is this: Should we hold what Jesus said , in the Bible, to a higher, equal or lesser pedestal to what Paul had to write? We could say that it is all God speaking through them and leave it at that- but I would argue that reading the Beatitudes are the strongest, most wonderful and most beautiful statement anyone on earth has made and certainly comes from a place of deep authority and love. And every word that Jesus speaks , in my mind and heart, has a greater love and compassion for humanity than what Paul has to write in his letters.
What Jesus had to say was greater than what Paul had to say.
Son of God > Apostle/Saint
Oh my gosh. I would've thought that Hammerstone had answered the 'problem' eloquently enough!
Paul wrote UNDER INSPIRATION OF THE EXACT SAME SPIRIT THAT INHABITED CHRIST!
So let me rephrase your quote: What Jesus had to say was greater than what Jesus had to say.
Help!!!???
Answer me this: If religious hypocrites (Christians who openly sin without shame) where condoned by Jesus, how is it that he THREW them out of the Temple?
Mat 21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
Mat 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Jesus and Paul were on the EXACT same page! Jesus didn't go and spend time with the hypocrites of his day, the 'religious' people who claimed to have it all and all the while spat in God's face. He supped with those who were lost, those who didn't know the way, those who didn't profess the way.
You CANNOT say Paul's gospel was different to Jesus, or the WHOLE Scripture becomes null and void. Because if we cannot trust part of it, how do we know the rest is trustworthy?
So the question still begs, if Jesus and Paul weren't on the same page, why then did Jesus throw the moneychangers out of the temple? After all, they were probably the most needy of ALL the people! Why?
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Paul in Eph 3:14-21 (NLT)
I think Paul's writings as all scripture are inspired by the same Spirit that inspired Jesus in His earthly ministry.
They better have been, or we're in a heap of strife! lol.
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
—Matthew 19:3-9
if Jesus' works and words are not of the highest importance in the Bible, how are we to understand this passage?
What bearing does this even have on the topic :/