If this above statement makes you feel condemned, realize that you don’t have to be :) God loves you unconditionally and all that he wants for you is to love him back!

In that verse, Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and the people around you” AND! “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The word used there for “hang” is the Hebrew word “Kremannumi” which means to be suspended! So Jesus is saying here that the law suspends on love!!!! So that means that if you have no love, the law is useless!!!

This is great news, but there is a big danger of people saying that if the law “doesn’t count” anymore then we can just do whatever we want.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mathew 5:17).

Jesus sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. This was exactly how the church in countries where people worshipped thousands of gods, was able to witness Jesus Christ. It was through supernatural healing non-Christian people were convinced to believe that Jesus is indeed the true and living God and there is none other. Healing and charity are 2 entirely different works.

Yes, you are right about the Nazarite vow in the spiritual sense. It is not some ceremonial or supernatural experience but simply a willful decision made consciously with understanding… to devote myself completely to love God above all… to stand for His truth and come what may nothing can separate me from the love of God… When God completely fills our hearts, His presence keeps us pure and holy. I am not striving to be holy and perfect… as you said, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

My flesh is sinful and my human heart is only capable of evil. So, when I sin, I take the blame but when the Holy Spirit enables me to obey God and not sin, I don’t take credit for it to feel proud as though it was my accomplishment. All the credit and all glory go to God… because we know that no one is good except God. Hence, whatever the works, healing, charity and righteous works, we do not boast or take credit for what we cannot do in our strength. “for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in us to work for His good pleasure” Phil 2:13. Hope that helped to clear the misunderstanding:)…

I also agree with your idea to leave alone “legalist”… personally I’m not aware of words like “legalism” mentioned in the Bible It is sad though, that the 2 most misunderstood character of God are “law” and “Grace” also the words “faith” and “works”. Those Jews who religiously held on to a twisted understanding of works of law missed the first coming of the Messiah. Similarly, I’m afraid those of us who are convinced about a wrong understanding of faith and grace will miss His 2nd coming when the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air … but when we pray and ask God for wisdom, the Holy Spirit is able to teach us all the deep and spiritual truths in the Word of God.

Like as we live in faith in Christ Jesus, we live in the spirit of the meaning of the 4th commandment, we rest of our own works: the life we live is in Christ, so the works we do, are His works.

Although it is now a bit dated, I remember a pretty good book that offered a fairly balanced chronicle of the often unseemly relationship between U.S. politics and religion.

William Martin wrote the book (much more useful than the accompanying PBS series):
With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America

Take-away for me was that both institutions (and their prominent figures) have a long and checkered history of manipulating one another and consequently getting “bit by the hands that fed them”–and still seem to be repeating the same mistakes.

I’ll echo the word’s of Martin Luther: “I’d rather be ruled by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian.”

Learned men have said that this church is symbolic for the time period we live in now. . . but, what about each of us?? Shouldn’t this church be a healthy jolt to remind us about being luke warm? Being complacent about the things of the Lord isn’t right. Doesn’t this church convict each of us to be careful to NOT be like they were? Jesus loves us, but not sinful attitudes.

When we do good things outwardly, shouldn’t our minds and hearts be on the Lord, and not on what we are doing?

James reminds us faith without works is dead. We should do things to honor our Lord. So, if we give someone money, food, clothes, a cup of coffee, or even a bag lunch (Thanks Deb, for your email :) ) we should do it so the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. . .We’re not to do things to gain attention, but to honor Jesus. But then, when we do kind things for others, it does make us happy, because we have pleased Jesus, and helped another–even when we are trying to get our own selves out of the way. We are so imperfect!

The Lord allows rain to fall on the just and unjust. So, it seems to me, that when we share/give to others, we need to let the Lord take care of that. . . the Lord needs to be the focus of our acts, and not the people. A former boss at my Christian school said we should do good things out of love for the Lord, and not out of love of others. If we are doing works only out of love for people, we would become discouraged. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. We shouldn’t get so caught up in doing works that our focus is lost on who really matters.

Hope this wasn’t rambiling or going in circles. Didn’t mean to take up so much space. :-(

Jesus… is against lukewarm Christians and Jesus hated legalists who took pride in keeping a squeaky clean righteous image and giving alms to the poor. He told His disciples that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of legalists.

The law of love which I follow in Christ applies to the heart… i.e. circumcision of the heart to avoid adultery and murder due to impure thoughts. The law of giving according to Jesus extends beyond normal giving: if I have 2 coats, I should give one away to the needy person … if my enemy grabs my coat I should let him have my shirt too…and if I really want to serve the poor, then Jesus tells me to sell all, give it away to the poor and follow Him. Tough call, isn’t it?

The point is: no one is good except God. The best of our good works are but like filthy rags in the sight of God… because even our very best good intentions to keep the law and care for the poor… are filled with ulterior motives that are tainted with pride, greed and selfishness. Hence it is not by our own efforts but it is God alone who is doing every good work—both righteous and charitable works… in and through us who are in Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ not only enables us to care for the poor, it also helps us to avoid sinful lifestyles that lead to poverty of the soul. Whether it is good works of righteousness or good works of charity, as a Christian I am convinced to live—in word and deed.

I went back to read my comment on “abiblical words” and it certainly did not mention “missionary work”. I have good missionary friends here who have sacrificed their lives to take the gospel to different continents and my only brother is passionately sharing Christ with people in Africa despite his lack of knowledge about their culture and the language… and almost half of the members of my biological family are missionaries… I have shared enough about them on this site… it will be not be modest of me to repeat those details and blow my own horns….and on second thoughts I think I am blowing my own horns:) So, missionaries are always at the top of my prayer list and I have never said anything to belittle their work for the Lord.

Do I have to be a missionary, pastor or a minister to fulfill the commission of Christ? No, we are all ambassadors for Christ and are called to carry out His command to preach the gospel, wherever we are placed in society. And if we share the gospel which one is the priority (1 Cor 15:3): distributing physical food or giving spiritual food for the salvation of souls? Man does not live by bread alone and what can we give in exchange of our souls?

Salvation of souls cannot be bought through the physical riches of this world but through the incomparable riches of the grace and kindness of Jesus Christ. Those who have been born-again through the gospel of Christ experience a transformation of the heart by God’s Spirit towards caring for the worst sinners—because we now that we are ourselves the worst of sinners.

All other kinds of social and humanitarian work of serving the poor are secondary. One of the disciples of Jesus—Judas was concerned for the poor but ultimately he betrayed the Son of God. Jesus said “You will always have the poor among you”. God is certainly concerned for the poor, but His purpose for the body of Christ right now is not to distribute material wealth but to make disciples for Him.

Yes balance is always a must. We cannot ask others to accept Christ while asking them to stay hungry, naked, homeless and sick. To show compassion and serve the poor is not a prescription … but the description of a Christian. However, if you insist we should use charitable works as a bait to win souls for Christ, then my experience only tells me that we will be terribly disappointed when we will stand someday in front of Jesus-The Judge.