some of us are not friends , some of us do not like each other.
and we all agree that we are supposed to obey. the disagreement is over what we are supposed to obey. the judeaizers say we have to keep the Law/Sabbath to be saved. some say that our obedience maintains our salvation. some say that if we not producing fruit, then we are not saved.
so, then there of us pushing the truth- the sermon of the mount is the standards of behavior that we Christ followers are to be striving to obey. we fall short but that is the goal.
hope this clarifies things a bit.
Thanks for this nice reply.
What are we supposed to obey? Jesus narrowed it down to loving God, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we don't love ourself, how could we love anyone else? He was the best psychiatrist!
Those 2 Great Commandments cover all the others...If we love God and others, we will follow the 10 commandments.
Keeping the law depends on what you mean by LAW. There were 3 types of law in the O.T.
Civil, ceremonial, moral.
The only law we have to keep is the moral law -- Jesus did away with the other two. This is commonly known theology - nothing new here.
I believe we're to observe Sunday since Jesus is our rest; however I DO understand those that observe Saturday. After all, the 4th commandment say to keep holy the Sabbath. Either day is fine with me...every day is the Lord's day, I just don't like it when I'm told I'm lost because of this.
As to salvation...our works certainly don't save us, but once we are saved, I DO believe we're to do good deeds and that this keeps us saved. Jesus said we will be judged by our works, so how could we justify that we won't be??
If we don't have works we have a dead faith, a faith that is worth nothing, as per James 2:17.
Also, if we don't have good fruit (which is another name for good works?) wouldn't that be some sign that there is something wrong?
Jesus said that we are to remain IN HIM because without Him we can do nothing...
so if we do nothing, that would mean we are NOT IN HIM.
John 15:5
As to the sermon on the Mount. Amen to that.