Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay
As I said in my last post in this thread; God is concerned with our eating. In his economy God has given us Christ as the center of his distribution, for us to eat spiritually (John 6:57, John 4:24). This is the core theme of the Bible. God wants an expression on the earth, and he gains it through willful assimilation of his spirit. This is the point and goal of salvation and regeneration of our human spirit, not simply works
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I've been in the Christian assemblies for decades and don't recall anyone teaching that the point and goal of salvation is simply works. Faith is usually stressed along with behaviour. The two are integrally related. It appears as though Jay is constructing a "straw man" and then saying, "We don't want to be like that." When no Christian assembly is promoting simply works.
And yes, God is concerned with our eating. But the Local Church tactic in discussing our eating is to leave out verses that indicate it's something other than what they say. I will bring them forward, again, with germane sections capitalized for emphasis. I am paraphrasing by memory but I doubt that I'm distorting the meaning much if at all.
"My food is to DO the will of the Father in heaven" [which will is expressed in scripture] Here eating is obedience to God's will, explicitly stated.
"Even as I DO the will of the Father [as written in scripture] and live, so you [disciples] should DO my will [expressed in my commandments] and live"
"Behold, I come to DO Thy will, O God, behold in the scroll of the book [God's command written in scripture] it is written concerning me [the Messiah, Jesus Christ]"
"Blessed is the servant whom the Master comes and finds so doing [i.e. distributing food to the hungry]. Behold, I tell you that He will set him over His whole house"
Peter, in preaching to the gentiles, said, "Jesus of Nazareth went around DOING GOOD, for God was with Him"
Remember that pray-reading and calling on the Lord repetitively are also a doing, based on another faith, that Witness Lee was a "seer of the divine revelation" (his own words for Watchman Nee, which he associated with himself explicitly, as well). We believe in WL as MOTA, go to his supposed "proper ground" and incessantly call, shout, and amen, thinking that in our multiplicity of words we somehow fulfill the divine command. No, the divine command was to be kind to one another, distributing (dispensing) to those who lack. Again, I remind of the
RecV translation: "And when Paul and Silas were finished with this dispensing [of food to the poor of Jerusalem], they left..."
Being obedient to God's command to love one another, which obedience is fueled by our faith in Jesus as God's Obedient Lamb (and our King) and our obedience to His commands to love one another (in deed [DOING] and not just in word). Confession of faith is naturally followed by obedience in activity.