Christian morality and Sin

I understand sin as thoughts and actions that are contrary to God's word. Jesus, Son of God born of a Virgin and without sin was given the task of redeeming lost souls.

At one time I was a part of jail ministry team. One of the inmates said he cannot be good enough to be a Christian. No no one can on their own behalf, but, I know this for a fact is after receiving salvation a person changes from within and begins a personal relationship to God.

it is not the fear of God that makes me moral instead I prefer not sinning so I remain as close to God as I can possibly be.

 

That's a sad outlook... Certainly JC would say otherwise ...

 

Is that not the same as fear of separation?

Whose words are divisive, causing separation, then? Those I utter, or God's? Does it take both sides to make an argument, even?

 

Perhaps original sin is birth into nature that requires a natural being to take life in order to sustain its own? Every breath kills tiny unseen microbe creatures of the air, each sip of water kills microscopic life -- to live I must take life, or die?

 

Scripture and religious ritual are like the shell of the nut; the hard woody exterior protects the vital life-giving truth within. Literal scriptural insistence is like making prople eat the shell to get the kernel. People get tired of chewing on wood after a while and so just reject the whole business as not too useful?

 

Taking life as we know it in its present form is not taking the life becomes something else

Peering inside, is that the same as fear of separation? I haven't thought of it that way, but just the same, I enjoy life, it's fun and I am happy. Why would I entertain the thought everything I love about life might suddenly end? The travesty of it all is worrying about something that does not exist and may never exist. I don't worry.

Thomas, I do not consider what I said as sad, on the contrary, I am free to do and to say as I please. Perhaps the fear of loss comes into play here, why fear what is not known?

 

I don't like rituals, nor do I get anything from church or sermons. admittedly I do not know everything but I find those mentioned to be without substance and boring.

 

Sure. But that is nature, circle of life and death, to which we are bound as natural creatures. That is our limitation. Time and space are the walls beyond which we cannot pass?

See. But the shell is necessary to preserve the kernel of the nut. Ritual and scripture are what preserve truth. In many cases. Therefore they may not be lightly changed or tampered with. They are hugely valuable and necessary. But they are not themselves the truth? In that sense?

 

The essence or nucleus of truth is in the middle of layers and layers road signs pointing to the truth

 

It is not all about what "we like" .. or find interesting.
As an example, when I first became a Muslim, I learnt that there are 5 pillars in Islam.

1. the foundation "Your Lord is ONE Lord, and Muhammad is a messenger of God"
2. Establish daily ritual prayer
3. Fast the month of Ramadan
4. Give a percentage of your wealth annually to those in need
5. Perform the pilgrimage to Macca once in a lifetime

As I don't "like" crowds, I wasn't thinking of (5 Haj) any time soon.
Then, one year I was in the mosque during Ramadan, spending 10 days and nights
in devotion, and then realised that I "had my call" to go on Haj .. I realised that it is not what I think
is "good for me", but what our Maker has decreed.

All praise is for Him who has guided us aright .. we could not be truly successful without His mercy for us.

 

I meant, is the desire to be close to God, in terms of thoughts and actions, and fear of separation from God (in thoughts and actions) like two sides of a medal?


(I'm looking for the Christian morality/sin topic after which you named this thread.)

 

Hi KS —

Not what you said, what the inmate said ... it's not true and it just holds oneself at a distance.

 

Oh, well said that man!

 

But those layers are necessary, for without them the essence is invisible, unknowable, incommunicable.

If one loves the truth, one loves the layers.

 

In a Christian context, but then still there has to be the necessary decision to act contrary to what one knows of the Word.

Ignorance or accident is not a sin, although ignorance is tempered, as it is in law, by the application of common sense, but in reality in our legal systems 'ignorance of the law is no excuse', whereas in Christian dogma it can be.

It's all about the will.

Sin is a vast and complex subject, as old as man (as is salvation), and is universal, it's there in all religious traditions.

 

I'm going to show my ignorance, but didn't Lacan say similar things about the Real?

 

Pray, meditate, follow your religion: ask God to come to you. You have to ask. Even God who made you may not defy the free-will he gave you, to interfere with your own free decisions. The God who made you needs your permission to help you.

You have to ask. That is the first step. God will take nine steps towards you in response to reasonable prayer. There will be an answer.

It may not be the answer you want to get. God may respond by taking away a lot of treasured 'dead wood' first. Before you know you have to trust God and only God with everything dear to you. Imo.

Deep to deep. Soul to soul.

 

"It may not be the answer you want to get."

But at the deepest level you will understand that you have gained, not lost.

 

U.G. Krishnamurti and his "calamity" comes to mind. I wonder whether he was referring to this stripping of dead wood? Or to too much of the nutshell gone, too many of the veils being parted?

 

Heh. Well I don't know what Krishnamurti said?

Mixing metaphors. Passed on from nutshells now. I can't escape away in the rescuing helicopter with my grand piano under my arm? I have to let it go?

Dead wood, dead weight. "I am the vine."