this is debatable, but i think Paul has two main points in all of his writings:
1.) be holy
y'all already know how strongly i feel about this one.
and
2.) we are no longer under the law, but under grace.
my thoughts:
if we're not under the law anymore,
then why do we try to use Pauls letters like a new law?
6 comments:
Jesus said, "I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it". I try to live under the law He has fulfilled.
And he has given us a new law "Love one another as I have loved you."
Paul spends a lot of time fleshing that out for the new Christians.
But you're right. We should not be treating Paul's letters like dry, dusty law. They are letters, and we are, in a sense, peeking in. They are meant to be living documents.
Grace,
Aaron
aaron--
that's very helpful. thanks teacher-man!
I read your words regularly, you have a gift for expression and succinct disclosure. Thoughts about the Law...trying to make Paul's letters a new law. I haven't heard anyone describe that - can you unpack it a little?
The Law did not bring salvation, no it placed a bright light exposing the presence and depth of sin.
When Paul describes no longer being under the Law, it is to convey that we no longer are found within the helpless state of drowning sin, but there is a life preserver thrown to us. The drowning element has remained present, but it doesn't contain the power to hold...grace through faith brings the salvation.
We cannot step away from the Law, which still to this day defines and establishes the depth and depravity of sin. But God's free grace reaches, cleanses, draws close, refines.
jsi--
sometimes i wonder if we take what Paul says and treat it like it is the law-- take every little piece of advice, every opinion, every thought, every insight, every sentence, and scrutinize it and try to follow it word by word.
i believe his writing was inspired by God, and it should be read, meditated on, prayed through, and listened to. but i don't think it should be read as a list of do's and dont's.
does that make sense?
i have much thought about it, but i blogged in brevity because i don't know how to explain it.
Becuase we are retarded
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