Do we all willfully sin against God?.

[Hamilton]

How about not helping the less fortunate out of your abundance?
Is that a sin?

Excellent question to explore: many think there is a hierarchy of response to those in need:

1 the Bible says that those that do not provide for the family are worst than unbelievers.

2 The brothers in the faith may take precedence over unbelievers if the need is the same

3 more vulnerable unbelievers (orphans, elders, widows, handicap, etc.) take precedence over normal persons.

So on and so forth.

Would I help someone that got in trouble due to negligence? not if a believer that is safety conscious is also in need.

There are many different views about this. In the end, God should give input of who He wants to be helped and who does not.

And is not only about money and assets.

The story goes that an English infantryman spared A. Hitler because the war was nearly over. Many believe that if he had done him, we would have been spared of the 2nd WW. Did the Englishman do right? what would have happened if he was the one in A. H. 's sight?

Ethics, morality, and the like are not easy. I wish I could be better knowledgeable of the principles, values at play, and more understanding of God's point of view in different situations.

What good is to help the poor, if after you turn around they go to buy liquor. Is it not better to see that they accept Christ and regenerate before helping them?

How about christian responsibility? are we to give fish to able bodied people, or should they learn to fish?

Would I give aid to a tradition that teaches doctrine not in line with Scripture? not if another group that teaches doctrine aligned with Scripture is in need.

Choices, decision, trying to be just, not easy.

 

[Embankment]

Excellent question to explore: many think there is a hierarchy of response to those in need:

1 the Bible says that those that do not provide for the family are worst than unbelievers.

2 The brothers in the faith may take precedence over unbelievers if the need is the same

3 more vulnerable unbelievers (orphans, elders, widows, handicap, etc.) take precedence over normal persons.

So on and so forth.

Would I help someone that got in trouble due to negligence? not if a believer that is safety conscious is also in need.

There are many different views about this. In the end, God should give input of who He wants to be helped and who does not.

And is not only about money and assets.

The story goes that an English infantryman spared A. Hitler because the war was nearly over. Many believe that if he had done him, we would have been spared of the 2nd WW. Did the Englishman do right? what would have happened if he was the one in A. H. 's sight?

Ethics, morality, and the like are not easy. I wish I could be better knowledgeable of the principles, values at play, and more understanding of God's point of view in different situations.

What good is to help the poor, if after you turn around they go to buy liquor. Is it not better to see that they accept Christ and regenerate before helping them?

How about christian responsibility? are we to give fish to able bodied people, or should they learn to fish?

Would I give aid to a tradition that teaches doctrine not in line with Scripture? not if another group that teaches doctrine aligned with Scripture is in need.

Choices, decision, trying to be just, not easy.

I enjoyed your post.
A couple of things come to mind.
Yes we could justify not helping those who have self distinctive behaviors. Did Jesus step up and redeem us when we did not deserve help?
Does the Bible teach us to win others over by an outpouring of love? Heaps of burning coals or something like that?
My thoughts 🙂

 

[Hevosmies]

Often the case is that others commit grievous sins, but we just make 'mistakes' . nobody is perfect, hey

 

[Hamilton]

I enjoyed your post.
A couple of things come to mind.
Yes we could justify not helping those who have self distinctive behaviors. Did Jesus step up and redeem us when we did not deserve help?
Does the Bible teach us to win others over by an outpouring of love? Heaps of burning coals or something like that?
My thoughts 🙂

Excellent thinking skills Embankment:

My only answer to you: pray at all times, and use the gift of discernment of spirits.

Story. Went to a church while visiting Peru. A guy approached me and in a very aggressive manner said: I have nothing, no clothes, nothing, what are you gonna do about it, you should give me.... (you get the idea).

I told him: sure, let's talk after the service. During the service, when encouraged to pray, I kneeled and asked God to reveal who that person was, what were his intentions, and what I should do.

It turned out that person was a fake, abusing the pastors and ministers, he locked himself in his room and refused to come out. He was playing the system, not really converting nor looking the face of God. Good for him Paul the Apostle was not around, he would probably be harshly disciplined. I was going to give him my sweater, and some money for clothing, but the darkness in him manifested, did not want to do anything with the light of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in a real sense.

Do you know you have authority to ask God through Jesus to unmask persons so they show what they really are and represent. Problem is that is not pretty. Many persons you kind of think highly of in normal sense, are reprobates of the faith.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not waste time with tares (infiltrated or free flowing), I pray always for God's direction to touch and help in any way I can the Wheat, the adopted children of God.

And understand that the wheat are not the goodie goodies, the wheat can be all over and unrecognizable: in wrong traditions, cults, in wrong associations (martial arts, yoga, etc.), but God knows them and allows you to sow, so that other may water... you get the idea.

Think of Jesus: he chose pure wheat except one: Judas Iscariot. Jesus said of him: eimi diabolos (is a devil), the only reason Jesus chose that person is to allow prophesy to fulfill.

I try not to waste time with the tares, because we are warned not to give the pearls to the porkies (very rough paraphrase LOL), so I always encourage all believers to pray so that God grants the gift of discernment of spirits in them to get a better idea of what is really going on in our contextual day to day living.

Am I perfect? far from it, absolutely not, do I make mistake, most likely all the time, is my conscience clear because I prayed before carrying out an action? definitively.

When I give money to a beggar in the street, I pray that the money cannot be used for vice, but for food, or some other good thing.

We try to do best we can, good deeds in thankfulness for the free gift of salvation, not to be saved, we are not perfect, but God loves us like that. My prayer is: let me recognize your true sheep, and allow me to help them in whatever way as minimum as it can be, so that they can get closer to you.

One of the reasons I write so much, is because I care for the true sheep, and I want them to be empowered to critically think about things, so that wolves disguised as sheep do not tangle them in a web of lies for dubious purposes.

Do I care about what persons think of me? not really because God loves me, this I know, I try to be polite to all, and respectful, but try to bring to limelight the truth as found in the Bible. Many persons dislike that. Too bad, my allegiance is to God.

Do I know it all? not, still learning, seeking, knocking, trying to expand conceptual framework, very willing to what others have to say because I have to presuppose that the Holy Spirit may have illuminated about some truth that jibes with the Bible.

But, if what they say does not jibe, off it goes, like if never heard it.

Kind regards.

 

[Hamilton]

Often the case is that others commit grievous sins, but we just make 'mistakes' . nobody is perfect, hey

Good observation, and is somehow ingrained in some persons:

Secular analogy:

Technocrat is walking to the office, and is reviewing a presentation of importance that he has to give. A small rock is in the way and he does not notice it, steps on it, twists his ankle, falls, and has some injury.

End result when reported the situation: verbal warning for conducting an unsafe act of not paying attention to his walk while on company premises.

Next day a vp is walking and someone greet him from afar, he turns to greet back, and steps on another small rock, he also falls, and injuries his knee.

End result: the supervisor in charge of grounds maintenance is fired.

For some reason in the natural man we tend to judge others as in a dispositional state (are clumsy, not pay attention, do not do due diligence), and when something happens to us, we tend to judge in a situational way ( there was an unsafe condition which I was not aware and got caught in a situation that is someone else's fault).

Supposedly with the regeneration, the dying of the old man, and the new spirit in us, we should be different. We should judge righteously because the Holy Spirit allows us to see things as they really are.

Unfortunately, we do not always see that change. If persons judge the same old way, are they walking in a manner worthy of the calling, or are they artificially making a distinction between secular and sacred, public and private, real life, and Sunday service?

Thus my thinking that real christians should study more about moral theology / christian ethics, be an example of godliness and true justice here on Earth to be witness to the goodness of God, and this need be manifested in work, life, hobbies, shopping, everywhere, because christians are living epistles being witness to the transformed life God allows in us.

Status makes you a right judge and discerner making the right call in different cases? or is it a lie of the devil, and we really need to immerse ourselves in Christian ethics, christian moral theology, and pray and fast and do to learn by practice to discern good from evil?

The question begs asking. My own non-expert opinion of course.

Kind regards.

Ps the story about the persons stepping on the rock was read in a book, not sure if was true or an illustration, but I am sure of many situations that you have seen similar situations.

Is not studying, analyzing with due diligence a sin? how about thinking that appointment to office makes you infallible? how about not allowing the Holy Spirit to input in key decisions we have to make?