Re: my long response-- grab some coffee and sit a spel
Submitted by hopesalive on March 25 2002 01:30:50
In reply to my long response-- grab some coffee and sit a spel submitted by sally on March 24 2002 22:50:08
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Okay, in theory what you say is great. The problem is that the very foundation is based on innacurate preconceptions. The most obvious is your interpretation of "young friend." This is a very ambiguous word. For some people, this may be overriding and obscure other relationships as you say. However, generally it is just a very close friendship. Is there something wrong with that? Certainly Jesus had friends who he kept close, but was still able to keep his larger love for God in perspective. You seem to base a lot on this idea of loving everybody equally (as your neighbor), but fling around the interpretation quite liberally. You seem to say that nobody should be special to us. We should feel exactly the same about everybody. Later, you say that we should pick that one lady and love her in a special way. I suspect that you love your children in a very special way as well. I don't think that makes you sinful. God gives us very special relationships with people he puts in our lives. That is a fantastic gift and to deny it is to deny a large part of the Bible. We should love everybody completely, no matter what gender, age, religion, or race they are. These facts don't contradict. Again, you seem to assume that we are enforcing sin here. Really, it's just the opposite! You say that we should talk to other Christians to keep ourselves accountable, and that is what we are doing. There is a lot of strength here that you don't seem to recognize. I find it odd that you ask why we don't just go to other Christians and share our feelings, temptations, and struggles. Do you live in America? I do, and I know how people are treated who admit that they have been tempted to do certain things. You sound like you are not one of those people who would react violently, and I respect you for that. However, you are in the minority. Okay, I think terminology is the culprit for some of the conflict in ideas. Some people use temptation and desire in the same way. Thus, many times they are talking about temptation (external) when they say desire (internal). This is a tricky thing, and we have discussed it before. I think we should desire to please God, but of course we will be tempted. Temptation is certainly not a sin unless we act on it. If you really desire to go against God's will, then of course that is a sin. However, most people show that they desire to please God simply by coming here. Through fellowship of other Christians they gain strength and accountability to resist temptation. |
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