Former location of "The Kingdom of the Heavens" blog, written by an incurable fool who is trying to become a holy fool!
Jesus uses unforgiveness as the prime example of a stumbling block we can place in the way of a fellow believer, bringing judgment. Therefore he warns us that we must be careful to freely forgive those who come to us expressing repentance for harm they have done to us by missing the mark of either our own, or God’s, expectations for their behavior.
In the Lord’s Prayer and the parallel teaching about mercy, Jesus tells us that we are to ask God to release us from the consequences or resulting debts of our sins as we release others from the debts we imagine they owe us. While praying, we are to show mercy upon the flaws (paráptōmata) that led them to sin, because the Father will show us mercy in the same measure.
James 5:16 occurs in a context dealing with sick Christians and healing. In that context, it teaches that we are to agree with each other about the character flaws in our lives that lead to discrete sins, and pray for each other that these flaws–and the whole person–will be healed. This sensible reading is supported by the Byzantine New Testament text tradition, which is to be preferred for this verse.
A God who Speaks, Confession and Repentance, Confession of Sin, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, Is forgiveness of sins the focus of salvation?, Reconciliation, Repentance, Repentance in community, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, Through others, Through the church, To live in unity
Confession of sin is expression of our full agreement with God about the evil within us that produces acts of disobedience. It is NOT the recitation of a detailed list of wrong acts, which we admit we did but for which we deflect responsibility to God or others. True confession is the beginning of reconciliation and restoration.
The continued existence of ethnic Coptic and Assyrian Christian minorities in Egypt and the Middle East demonstrates God’s faithfulness and the possibility of a literal fulfillment of Isaiah 19:23-25. If God can preserve these ethnic groups across two millennia of persecution in order to fulfill a prophecy, can he possibly need my “help” doing anything in my own life?
Unity in the church arises, not from submission to a power structure, but from mutual submission to each other, seeking each other’s good above our own, in submission to Christ.
Authority and submission are important to the unity of the Church. But it does not operate based on a human chain of command. It operates based on respect for leaders under a common head.
Jude’s description of divisive persons in the church points to false believers who try to look like us but have infiltrated the church for their own advantage, to serve their own greed and lusts. They are dead trees, and dead trees bear no fruit. In dealing with them, we need to contend for the truth and resist contending against them personally.
Like Balaam, false teachers do their work stealthily motivated by greed. They do not openly deny the Lordship of Christ, but deceptively proclaim teachings that permit us to retain our own independence, greed or lust, to seek first our own pleasure, and still, they say, please God. They teach these things not necessarily because they believe them, but to obtain our following and our money.
Factions, “hereseis,” as used in 1 Corinthians 11:19, clearly does not refer to divisions caused by false teachers. Instead, in that context, it refers to divisions caused by neglect and humiliation of poor believers and by the formation of personality cults.