Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
When you bring a canary into a coal mine it is not to help you mine the coal. The canary protects you from a pernicious killer creeping in by warning you. These false prophets that we have been warned about will prey on the most vulnerable, the widows and orphans. As long as you are caring for them it is like bug repellant to those that would make merchandise of the saints. James says "pure and undefiled religion". If you are not taking care of widows and orphans it indicates you are not pure, you are not undefiled, but instead you are "spotted by the world".
Instead I would argue that being a hearer only and not a doer of the word, that is the far more common pitfall of Christians and they have missed God's purpose.
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Of course doings and not just hearings are needed....the question here is what compels the doer and does the compelling force instigate anything else.
For instance, if I were to ask you to describe American football and you told me it consist of tens of thousands of fans screaming and yelling, eating hotdogs, popcorn, nachos, drinking beer and players trying to hurt each on the field then I would say you know something about American football but only on the surface... in reality you don’t really know the essence of football.
I wouldn’t go as far as afazio appeared to go in the main forum in finding fault with James, but she had a point that many problems in the early church could be sourced back to James and those he was shepherding because he was devoid of proper explanation (and presumably an understanding) of the essence of American football.
Thanks for the conversation... it really was civil and thought provoking rising above the usual canned speeches in the main forum.
Drake