Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
My post wasn't about "Christianity". It was about the teachings of Jesus. From what I can tell, they're two very different things. "Christianity" appears to be whatever an individual wants it to be.
Yes, all we have are the teachings of Jesus as written down in the New Testament. That said, I would think that if one professes to love Jesus, one would f what I can tell, Jesus doesn't ask one to "try", Jesus asks one to humbly follow.
If one truly loved Jesus, one would follow the teachings of Jesus. If one truly believed in Jesus, one would follow the teachings of Jesus. From what I can tell, Jesus doesn't ask one to "try", Jesus asks one to humbly follow. Tof ONE
I find this thinking very all or nothing. It's all a bit naive. Is it not possible to grow in love and to love incompletely whilst working towards being more complete. You treat love as if it were a switch . One day you don't love someone at all , the next on goes the switch and you love "truely" and you are perfect in love. Everything I know about love tells me (from experience and watching others) that love is a thing that deepens and grows over time. We learn how to love. Infact that is what the disciples did with Jesus when he was alive.Peter's love was not complete which was why christ questioned him on it and prophesised him that he would betray him despite Peter declaring his love.
Your theory makes sense in theory but in practice you leave no room for all the greys and messiness of life. I'll give you an example , i know that I love my wife and she loves me , but my love is not perfect so does that mean I don't love her at all? Of course not! If I am an environmentalist but take a foreign holiday once every 2 years am I not an environmentalist at all? What about 3 years? Your logic would probably say that unless I live in a grass hut and eat lentils then I don't care at all about climate change.
When you treat human being likes bytes in a PC or switches you forget what it is to be human. Your logic is that anyone who doesn't follow Jesus's teachings 100% doesn't love him , so what about those that follow them 92% or 99% or 78%? They don't love him at all??? If so why are they bothering following him 92% then. If they feel nothing for him then they should be at 0%!
Why can't someone just be in the process of moving forward and growing in love (going from 5% to 100% ) ?
It's all black and white , all or nothing , 0 or 100 - why ?