The post is messy because I was tagging your copy/paste post. Again, I'm not ignoring those commands but if you choose to believe otherwise then go ahead. Whatever gets you through your day. My point was about believers practicing righteousness BECAUSE they are righteous and not in order for them to become righteous - "descriptive" and that believers love BECAUSE they are born of God and not in order to become born of God - "descriptive."
Keeping or not keeping commands was not my point, which is why I did not mention it, but yes, we are commanded to love and why do believers love in the first place? (Romans 5:5; 1 John 4:19) Now obedience/works is the fruit, by product and demonstrative evidence of authentic faith in Christ, but not the very essence of faith itself and also not the basis or means by which we obtain salvation. Speaking of a new nature. (2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4)
What gets me through my day is reading and sticking with Scripture - actually learning to understand and live in Christ in Spirit in accordance with the Word of God and not having people rewrite it and explain it away.
Your point was to make your point and skip over the commands and relabel and recategorize the verses of Scripture. This is very simply called eisegesis. You can wrangle around this as much as you want but it's very clear that's what you did. You literally rewrote the verses and negated the imperatives.
My clear ask was working with you to have you explain how you categorize the COMMANDS that are IN SCRIPTURE. You stripped the commands and categorized the explanatory portion of each verse. You stripped what IS prescriptive, ignored it, and relabeled the verses as descriptive. So, you made prescriptive commands for Christians to believe and obey into something that just describes things about Christians.
When this "prescriptive" and "descriptive" concept was brought into discussion,
@Pilgrimshope essentially mentioned how they were a diversion (my word). I agreed but did want to see you play out the concept, which you graciously did. Thanks for doing so. It confirms my concern.
This classifying technique is mostly diversionary. It simply goes right along with a version of faith alone theology that sees "works-salvation" at every turn of a phrase, even if it's right
from Scripture (aka exegesis).
Some of us are not afraid of God's commands. We relish them along with every word He's graciously given us. They are rules and instruction from God for Life under Grace in Christ in Spirit. If He didn't want them written as commands, there are plenty of other ways to write them in the Greek language. Some just don't seem to understand absolute authority. The first Adam is gone. The second Adam says this:
Luke 6:46-49 "But
why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say? 47 "
Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 "He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 "But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."
Matt7:22-29 "
Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "
And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' (
which is unrighteousness, which is sin, which is ultimately and just very simply, disobedience to God and thus unbelief in God). 24 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,
and does them, I will liken him to
a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine,
and does not do them, will be like
a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for
He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Luke19:27 'But bring here those enemies of mine,
who did not want me to reign/exercise authority over them, and slay them before me.'"
What a mess.
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