Do you guys think God loves us more than He loves Himself?
I'm going to tackle this one in a roundabout, albeit, biblical manner. Follow the logic:
"And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question." - Mark 12:28-24
Jesus stated that He came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. Since He said in Matthew 22:40, that the two above commandments are the summation of the Law, then He must have fulfilled this also.
Jesus is the Word of God, whereby the Word is God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us(John 1:1,14), and in Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). Then Jesus as God fulfilled the Law.
Since the Law states, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself", then it stands to reason that God loves His neighbor as Himself.
Therefore God loves us as much as He loves Himself.
Yet, as Jesus noted about the sabbath (one of the Laws of God), "It was made for man and not man for it." Therefore, my first argument is that since God is not bound by any law and is a law unto Himself, I affairm with Jesus that the Laws are for man and not God.
So should we keep the Sabbath, Silas?
I think we should uphold the law - all of it. But, not as to gain any favor with God and thereby believe salvation is based on works rather than faith based, but instead to please God. You know? Romans 3...you dig?
So do you think God wants us to keep the sabbath? Or does he care?
I think the keep the sabbath is for us. Dedicating time for spirit is for our benefit...the law just tells us its value...tis to our detriment to avoid it.I think we should uphold the law - all of it. But, not as to gain any favor with God and thereby believe salvation is based on works rather than faith based, but instead to please God. You know? ...
Or what moment? It seems if we know that G-d is the source of our supply....that we have access to all...the time to keep the sabbath holy is everytime we think we are in charge, everytime our material, I know better ego trys to take over, it is time to take a moment for gratitude, a time to step back.So Prober...Does it matter which day is observed as Sabbath, or is any seventh day good? Like, if I start on Tuesday, then Monday would be my Sabbath. Or if I were to start my work week on Monday, then Sunday would be my Sabbath. Is that right?
In accordance with scripture, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath...So should we keep the Sabbath, Silas?
Yet, as Jesus noted about the sabbath (one of the Laws of God), "It was made for man and not man for it." Therefore, my first argument is that since God is not bound by any law and is a law unto Himself, I affairm with Jesus that the Laws are for man and not God.
Silas said:Secondly, since God Himself is Love - in fact the hightest form of Love; not the selfish kind or self-seeking kind or needy, wanting kind of love, but instead agape, it stands evident that God's choice in loving us is not based on anything in us, but soley on His own choice to lavish His Love upon us (Jer 31:3). In other words, we didnt persuade him to love us, or merit it in anyway. Rather, He simply chooses to Love people, save people, justly punish people, etc., all for His own Glory (Isa. 48:9-11
Third, though it is become sort of customary to say "God loves the sinner but hates their sin," that is still a meaningless distination. Why? Because there is nothing in the sinner but sin (Rom. 14:23 Isa. 64:6). And, since God hates sin and condemns because of it, and since it is an abomination for God to justify the wicked (Proverb 17:15) - namely, us, it shows that God's passion for His holiness and righteousness and for His name to be great among the universe, isnt thwarted by a need or want for loving mankind. In other words, God loves His glory more than He loves us! Lastly (and I hope this inspires you), God does love mankind! In fact, so much so that I cannot begin to understand or try to explain in words. It is not a gerneral kind of love that suggest that Christ died for everyone the same way he died for His bride (all those who would repent and believe), which incidentially some people contend for. But rather, Christ so loved the Chruch vis-a-vis, His bride, that He gave Himself for Her that she might be holy and blameless in His sight and be able to live to God's glory (Eph. 5:25-27). God's love in Christ is a covernantal love which began in eternity and will last forever.
Ok so we take the days of creation, and on the seventh he finished and then rested...and then we argue that those days aren't days but metaphor and are like eons...
And then we decide that the week is seven days and align this sabbath with one day of the week...Jews took Saturday, so we'll skip to SunDay, which left Islam with Friday...but we won't get into all that...but suddenly our metaphor for creation is back to one day?
So this sabbath, should we keep it holy for an eon? No that's too long, a day? But what about football? Or the golf final day? Oh this celebrating, giving time back to G-d is getting into my schedule...can't have it.
I say give it to G-d moment by moment, your sabbath and mine don't have to align.