Posts Tagged ‘moral perfection’

Spiritual Training 20 March 2014

Posted: March 20, 2014 in 1 Corinthians, Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Proverbs, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

PAUL ADDRESSES CHURCH PROBLEMS (1:1-6:20)

1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no division among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 

Paul founded the church in Corinth on his second missionary journey.  Eighteen months after he left, arguments and divisions arose, and some church members slipped back into immoral lifestyle.  Paul wrote this letter to address the problems, to clear up confusion about right and wrong, and to remove the immorality among them.  The Corinthian people had a reputation for jumping from fad to fad; Paul wanted to keep Christianity from degenerating into just another fad.

Lets Bring it Home: By saying “brothers,” Paul is emphasizing that all Christians are part of God’s family.  Believers share a unity that rounds even deeper than that of blood brothers and sisters.

Spiritual Training 14 December 2012

Posted: December 15, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Romans 3:27-31 Where, then, is boasting?  It is excluded.  On what principle? On that of observing the law?  No, but on that of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.  Is God the God of Jews only?  Is he not the God of Gentiles too?  Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.  Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. 

Most religions prescribe specific duties that must be performed to make a person acceptable to a god.  Christianity is unique in teaching that the good deeds we do will not make us right with God.  No amount of human achievement or progress in personal development will close the gap between God’s moral perfection and our imperfect daily performance.  Good deeds are important, but they will not earn us eternal life.  We are saved only by trusting in what God has done for us.

(Ephesians 2:8-10).  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 Lets Bring It Home: Why does God save us by faith alone? (1) Faith eliminates the pride of human effort, because faith is not a deed that we do.  (2) Faith exalts what God has done, not what people do. (3) Faith admits that we can’t keep the law or measure up to God’s standards-we need help.  (4) Faith is based on our relationship with God, not our performance for God.