Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
There's still lots of brothers who feel that TC should be the current MOTA.
And all the things you said how the MOTA -- shifts focus from the church at a local level and usually entails undermining the local eldership. Everything becomes about what does the MOTA think? Did you fellowship with the MOTA about it? We have to drop everything and go hear the MOTA! We have to finance the MOTA. Etc. Ultimately such an atmosphere devalues the local church and individual believers. -- still are occurring.
|
The devaluation of the local assembly, and the individual believers, shows what has happened to "the greatest commandment of all", which is to love the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves. This greatest commandment, to paraphrase the LOTR trilogy, is the "one ring to rule them all" -- i.e. it is the one rule to which every other rule should be subservient. In the MOTA realm, as long as you have heard the latest MOTA message, are "positive" toward the MOTA's hierarchy, and are going along with the "practices" pushed by the MOTA's ministry, it matters little if the greatest commandment now has secondary or even tertiary status.
For a confirmation of the teachings of Jesus, not that we need one, look at Paul, who is in absolute lockstep with his Master in this regard. In Romans 13:9 Paul goes through a list of "thou shalt nots", then says, "...if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (KJV).
Paul's scripture is "briefly comprehended" in this saying. Paul's scripture is summed up; it is driven by, it is fully revealed by the rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. To the extent that the MOTA distracts, diverts, and confuses us from this rule, and I believe it does (see the various "rebellions", "quarantines", lawsuits, cover-ups, "new moves of the Lord"), then it should itself be relegated to tertiary status.