John 8
I thought it was really interesting in John 8:30 where it says, "as He spoke these things (referring to things about Jesus being the Messiah), many came to believe in Him" and how for the rest of the chapter thereafter the people that believed Jesus in 8:30 went on this rant of sorts and ended up winding to stone him. So this leads me to to possible conclusions:
1. The people didn't really understand what it was that they are believing
2. Their belief was shallow
Conclusion 1:
I don't know how much I believe in this conclusion because this verse came right after Jesus' rant on how He's from God and sent by God and if it was a misunderstanding, then I think John would have pointed it out like he did in other chapters.
Conclusion 2:
This was the conclusion that I drew from the reading. I came to this conclusion because Jesus than went on to say some really hard things. Things like, you have to abide in my Word and God now has to be your father.
It must be easy to believe in things when there is nothing to be held accountable to, but so much more difficult when we have to make choices. I can see this so often in Christianity today. So many people call themselves Christians and believe that Jesus is who he says he is. But then when it's time to make a choice, they fight against God. They say things like, "God cannot be a loving God if...." and so many other things to make themselves feel comfortable.
The question that I have is, do people with shallow faith still go to Heaven? Romans 10:9-10 talks about confessing and believing...and people with shallow faith have that. But Romans also talks about a transforming faith (12:2) and many shallow Christians do not have that. 1 Corinthians talks about people still needing milk instead of solid food...but it makes the assumption that people crave solid food. What if people are ok with milk for the rest of their life? The gospels (John I think) talks about how narrow the road to Heaven is...does that mean shallow believers are not on this road? Otherwise the road would seem to be fairly wide and uncrowded.
I know some people may argue that if we have the Spirit inside of us, we cannot continue in shallow faith. But I know that in my walk, I have often tried to suppress the spirit's leading and guidance...and sadly, it was rather easy to do. So why cannot shallow Christians do that, especially if they were never truly trained to understand the spirit's directive?
I also understand that James talks about how even the demons believe in Jesus, so belief alone is not enough. But the thing is, demons don't praise God but alot of shallow Christians do. Their Christianity is one of comfort, but it's still very different than that of the demons.
I don't know the answer to my questions. Some days I think shallow Christians are only Christians by heritage but other days I think that they believe all the same things I do, but just have no desire to grow stronger.
1. The people didn't really understand what it was that they are believing
2. Their belief was shallow
Conclusion 1:
I don't know how much I believe in this conclusion because this verse came right after Jesus' rant on how He's from God and sent by God and if it was a misunderstanding, then I think John would have pointed it out like he did in other chapters.
Conclusion 2:
This was the conclusion that I drew from the reading. I came to this conclusion because Jesus than went on to say some really hard things. Things like, you have to abide in my Word and God now has to be your father.
It must be easy to believe in things when there is nothing to be held accountable to, but so much more difficult when we have to make choices. I can see this so often in Christianity today. So many people call themselves Christians and believe that Jesus is who he says he is. But then when it's time to make a choice, they fight against God. They say things like, "God cannot be a loving God if...." and so many other things to make themselves feel comfortable.
The question that I have is, do people with shallow faith still go to Heaven? Romans 10:9-10 talks about confessing and believing...and people with shallow faith have that. But Romans also talks about a transforming faith (12:2) and many shallow Christians do not have that. 1 Corinthians talks about people still needing milk instead of solid food...but it makes the assumption that people crave solid food. What if people are ok with milk for the rest of their life? The gospels (John I think) talks about how narrow the road to Heaven is...does that mean shallow believers are not on this road? Otherwise the road would seem to be fairly wide and uncrowded.
I know some people may argue that if we have the Spirit inside of us, we cannot continue in shallow faith. But I know that in my walk, I have often tried to suppress the spirit's leading and guidance...and sadly, it was rather easy to do. So why cannot shallow Christians do that, especially if they were never truly trained to understand the spirit's directive?
I also understand that James talks about how even the demons believe in Jesus, so belief alone is not enough. But the thing is, demons don't praise God but alot of shallow Christians do. Their Christianity is one of comfort, but it's still very different than that of the demons.
I don't know the answer to my questions. Some days I think shallow Christians are only Christians by heritage but other days I think that they believe all the same things I do, but just have no desire to grow stronger.
posted by chen at 9:43 AM
1 Comments:
"If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." - 1 Corinthians 3: 12-15
I guess that I've always thought of it that way - that even if you don't store up treasures in Heaven, you can still go there.
Post a Comment
<< Home