By Grace Through Faith (v. 1-10)
You used to do bad things just like everybody else, but now you walk with Christ because God loves you and showed mercy on you. You have been saved through faith, but it is not your own doing. God loved you and created you in a way that you would follow Christ and be saved, so you shouldn't boast about it.
The idea that you shouldn't boast about being among the saved seems very good, from either perspective. If you are an outsider and the Christians are constantly boasting, they will likely come off as jerks, being around a bunch of people like that can be very troublesome. From the Christian perspective, if you are boasting you might turn potential converts away which would be bad for you. So in either case, encouraging Christians to not be boastful seems like a good thing.
Another thing here, this says that God made you in such a way that you are saved because "you are his workmanship" and he loves you. But he created you in such a way that you will be saved before you existed. This seems very strange to me because there do exist people who will not be saved, so does that imply that he does not love them? Is his workmanship not as good in them? He knew all of that before he created them right? So why did he still create the "lower quality" people? Not sure if I'd exactly call this a contradiction or anything, but it is certainly something to think about.
One in Christ (v. 11-22)
We used to be divided, circumcised and uncircumcised, but now we are together in Christ. Jesus preached peace to everyone.
I guess it is a good message, we should all work together. Although this isn't so much a command as it is a declaration. It also seems quite incorrect, look at the huge number of different denominations, they are certainly divided on many issues, and we see a problem with faith based stuff, there is no real way to reconcile a disagreement. "I believe X and you believe Y, we both believe it because of faith so there is no convincing each other...uhh...kill each other?" Also, it is simply incorrect that Jesus taught peace to everyone.
For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)
Good:
2:8-9 Don't boast about being among the saved
The part about not boasting I also see as something good in the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI have a note in here which I originally noted from SAB on old Christian views on weather. They used to believe that storms and droughts as being caused by satan. I thought the article was rather interesting, though it is quite a bit long. I believe that this book was written in 1896.
I think it's good that you point out the contradiction about the law and are now able to cite it. Echoing something you've said a few times already, it is important for people who find this stuff important in their lives, or at least encounter it a lot to actually sit down and read the thing. It's almost like me talking about how great Pride and Prejudice is or trying to tell you what the author was conveying even though I've never read it. Of course you don't live your life by that book, and honestly I haven't read it.
That is really interesting. I didn't even notice verse 2 where it calls satan "prince of power of the air". I read right past it. That kind of stuff is exactly why it is great to be able to read these things together.
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