"In Christ" = Never ends.

[marks]

Have you not been reading the 1 John verses I've been posting that teach us how not to be deceived by fake believers?

So then you are the judge?

You can tell me who has and who has not received reconciliation to God?

Much love!

 

[marks]

Oy vey, Lord help me, lol.

It's like, we agree on the core of what you are saying, yet you persist on a disagreement? So it makes me think there's more that you aren't saying. Maybe there is, maybe not, but it seems like there's something else you are looking for here but not finding.

Again, I find you promoting a tautology, two things that are the same, yet this doesn't seem to satisfy.

Much love!

 

[Ferris Bueller]

So it's about love, not sins? That the truth of a Christian is measured in their love for others, and not in their sins committed?

In the Bible love is not an emotion like us humans make it out to be. Biblical love is godly doing on behalf of someone out of concern for their well being. It is not just warm fuzzy feelings towards them.

1 John 3:18-19
let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. 19And by this we will know that we belong to the truth

Biblical love is being considerate of other people and not sinning against them. You love people when you keep the commandments of God, and vice versa.

Romans 13:10
10Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet your neighbor's stuff, do not sleep with your neighbor's spouse, etc.)

And it is that action of love towards other (the keeping of his commands) that shows us to be saved children of God.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

So then you are the judge?

You can tell me who has and who has not received reconciliation to God?

Much love!

John says we can know if someone is reconciled to God in salvation by if they practice sin or not. Obviously, that doesn't mean just sinning. Christians and unbelievers both sin. But the unbeliever lives habitually without care or concern in the sin he's always been in bondage to in the mind set on the flesh that he's always had. There is no change in them. That's how you know you're dealing with an unconverted unbeliever. John is telling the church this important way to discern people in 1 John so they can recognize the false brother with his false teachings. You know that by how they live. As Jesus said, you recognize false prophets BY THE FRUIT THEY BEAR Matthew 7:20.

 

[farouk]

I don't agree with the OSAS doctrine simply because it flies in the face of the "Parable of the Sower".
The Sower

@Angelina I do think that in the parable of the sower it is those who are the good ground into which the good seed falls that prove to represent the genuine believers. The others seem to be those without root, etc.

 

[marks]

In the Bible love is not an emotion like us humans make it out to be.

Yes, that's right, it's a choice of the will, and when chosen often, it becomes a character.

It is not just warm fuzzy feelings towards them.

Are you really assuming that's all I meant?

Much love!

 

[Ferris Bueller]

Are you really assuming that's all I meant?

Yes.

 

[marks]

Yes.

So maybe that explains some things.

I'd like to suggest you practice active listening, that may help.

Much love!

 

[Ferris Bueller]

So maybe that explains some things.

I'd like to suggest you practice active listening, that may help.

Much love!

Did you say something?