Are you of the World? Maybe a little?

[JohnRH]

To inherit eternal life, we must continually seek a deeper relationship with God and surrender ourselves to His will.
By embracing the teachings of the gospel and seeking to live according to God's will, we can experience the transformation that leads to eternal life in His presence.

Eternal life is a gift that a person receives all at once in this life. It's free, paid in full by Jesus' work on the cross. You receive it by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You go from not having it to having it in a moment.

 

[montana123]

Are you of the World? Do you have one foot in the world and one in Christianity? If so, the love of the Father is not in you — and you cannot get to Heaven that way. A lot of Christians struggle with sin because they never leave the world behind. You must be separated unto the gospel of Jesus Christ to inherit eternal life. We are in this world, but not of this world. Sure, we have to work and handle the affairs of this life, but are you wrapped up in the cares of this life?

1 John 2
[15] Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
[16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
[17] And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. — (KJV)

This is a good message for there are millions of people claiming Christianity that will enjoy worldly entertainment, and things of the world, and believe they are right with God.

They spend money on worldly entertainment instead of caring about the poor and needy.

They enjoy watching shows, and movies, that have content that God would not approve of and listening to music that does not have godly content, or does not care about the will of God.

They enjoy money and material things above their needs which the love of money is the root of all evil for it neglects the poor and needy, and if any person teaches that godliness is gain from such withdraw yourselves having food and clothing be content, but they believe the prosperity Gospel going by their lusts.

 

[Gojira]

Either/or is the man-made popular propaganda. As a "theory", it fails the test of Scripture:

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 1 Tim 1:15 (KJV)
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25 (KJV)
For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. Eccl 7:20 (KJV)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8 (KJV)

Yeah, these passages fall on some deaf ears around here.

 

[Angela53510]

Perhaps he's perfect and we ought to capitalize His pronouns?

There is a huge issue about that in the scholarly community. I used to capitalize all pronouns referring to God. It wasn't rejected, but I was told it is old fashioned! I could care less about fashion or fads.

But after reading countless books by top theologians, many with amazing theology, I realized none of them capitalized divine pronouns. I stopped doing it in a few papers I wrote for my MDiv, realized a real sense of relief.

God is sovereign & divine. But capitalizing God's pronouns is something I'm glad I stopped! God does not need capitals to be far above all that we ask or think. God doesn't need our approval! Although he needs out respect. For me, that comes out of a life lived for God!

But you do you, and I promise not to call you out or criticize! God is in control, that's more important than fighting over whether to capitalize God's pronouns!!

 

[Angela53510]

Eternal life is a gift that a person receives all at once in this life. It's free, paid in full by Jesus' work on the cross. You receive it by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You go from not having it to having it in a moment.

Agreed! Justification is when we are made righteous through the blood of Christ! And, we are justified by faith!

"Therefore, since we have been justifiedthrough faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," Romans 5:1

God gives us the Holy Spirit and makes us alive! And it only takes a moment. No works-totally monergistic! God alone saves us.

But, then we spend the rest of our Christian lives being sanctified, growing into the image of Christ.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Romans 5:1

Being confirmed to that image is synergistic. The Holy Spirit leads. Our job is to follow and learn & grow. We are transformed by the power of God!

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Roman's 12:2 ESV

That word "transformed" is metamorphao in Greek, from where we get our word metamorphosis. In Romans 12:2, it is the Imperative passive. That means we are commanded to let God change us! This is the divine instructions, too! The biggest source of this transformation in our lives is reading & studying the Bible. Prayer is right there at the top. We need to know and follow the Bible. But God used circumstances to change our lives, and that includes suffering. But Paul writes we can rejoice in our suffering!

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

One of my personal lo favourite passsges in the Bible, as I suffer from a severe & debilitating disease. God really has used suffer to change my character. I was a broken, angry and confused young woman when God saved me. Suffering was part of roughing off the old temperament, grudges and hates.

But am I perfect? Not in this life! Anyone who claims we need to be perfect to stay saved, doesn't truly understand the depths of God's love in sending his son, who died because we were sinners. Jesus died in our place- the only perfect lamb! But there will come a time when we will all be perfect.,we will be glorified when Jesus Christ returns at his Second Coming! Or, when we die!

Too many people conflate the Biblical concepts of justification, sanctification & glorification. Some want us glorified the day we are sanctified. But it doesn't work that way. Instead, we are offered the precious gift of faith, and the rest of our lives to follow and grow to be like Christ. Sanctification is very different also than the final stage, when we will be perfect, glorified saints, living with Jesus!

 

[Gojira]

There is a huge issue about that in the scholarly community. I used to capitalize all pronouns referring to God. It wasn't rejected, but I was told it is old fashioned! I could care less about fashion or fads.

But after reading countless books by top theologians, many with amazing theology, I realized none of them capitalized divine pronouns. I stopped doing it in a few papers I wrote for my MDiv, realized a real sense of relief.

God is sovereign & divine. But capitalizing God's pronouns is something I'm glad I stopped! God does not need capitals to be far above all that we ask or think. God doesn't need our approval! Although he needs out respect. For me, that comes out of a life lived for God!

But you do you, and I promise not to call you out or criticize! God is in control, that's more important than fighting over whether to capitalize God's pronouns!!

I... wrote that for an entirely different set of reasons and was talking about the OP.

 

[Nehemiah6]

But after reading countless books by top theologians, many with amazing theology, I realized none of them capitalized divine pronouns. I stopped doing it in a few papers I wrote for my MDiv, realized a real sense of relief.

The "top theologians" are not to be trusted. The ordinary Christian has more common sense. And as far as I am concerned divine pronouns must be capitalized.