PG4Him
Senior Member
Essay Moderator
Posts: 3,570
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Post by PG4Him on Feb 7, 2019 15:43:06 GMT -5
There’s a lot of talk about unity these days — and most of it involves social/political/cultural unity with an unbelieving world. Somehow if we all “come together” in the public square to promote political unity, we can end poverty and save the whales and do all sorts of great things, and then we’ll have heaven on earth.
Yet this warm-and-fuzzy ideal somehow stops when we go home. Couples argue at the drop of a hat. One spouse lets the children get away with disobeying the other. Families drift apart over stupid fights, borrowed money, a text that went unanswered, or whatever else. Divorce is always on the table. Blocking a phone number is always one argument away. Friendships are conditional. People who live together in the same home are untrustworthy, unreliable, uncaring, uncompromising, and ungrateful. Then when we’re in public, we talk a big game of wanting “unity” for the human race.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? — 1 John 4:20
Let’s extrapolate just one tiny bit. If you won’t love the brother/sister you can see, how can you love some abstract notion of “society” you can’t see? If you won’t love the spouse sitting next to you, how can you love a “community of patriots” you’ve never met before? If you won’t give unconditional love to a real, flesh-and-bone friend, how can you give it to a cause?
The world will tell you to set your affections on outward things like social justice and human progress, knowing you will be left empty, unsatisfied, and argumentative when nothing good comes of it — all while telling you to be guarded, cynical, temperamental, and conditional in your inter-personal relationships. The end result is that you are left loving neither your brother nor the world at large.
Society is made of one home at a time, one marriage at a time, one friendship at a time. No abstract notion of social justice can bypass this. If more of us would get to work on showing God’s love in the home, society would turn itself around.
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Post by 2fw8212a on Feb 7, 2019 19:32:46 GMT -5
...we can end poverty and save the whales and do all sorts of great things, and then we’ll have heaven on earth...
upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape." - 1 Thessalonians 5:3
"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which
endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you..." - John 6:27
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21 |
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Post by frienduff on Feb 26, 2019 23:21:50 GMT -5
...we can end poverty and save the whales and do all sorts of great things, and then we’ll have heaven on earth...
upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape." - 1 Thessalonians 5:3
"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which
endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you..." - John 6:27
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21Letters , we got to still try and reach some at worthy . come back and send some exhortations and I will post them |
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Post by John on Mar 13, 2019 19:30:31 GMT -5
There’s a lot of talk about unity these days — and most of it involves social/political/cultural unity with an unbelieving world. Somehow if we all “come together” in the public square to promote political unity, we can end poverty and save the whales and do all sorts of great things, and then we’ll have heaven on earth. Yet this warm-and-fuzzy ideal somehow stops when we go home. Couples argue at the drop of a hat. One spouse lets the children get away with disobeying the other. Families drift apart over stupid fights, borrowed money, a text that went unanswered, or whatever else. Divorce is always on the table. Blocking a phone number is always one argument away. Friendships are conditional. People who live together in the same home are untrustworthy, unreliable, uncaring, uncompromising, and ungrateful. Then when we’re in public, we talk a big game of wanting “unity” for the human race. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? — 1 John 4:20Let’s extrapolate just one tiny bit. If you won’t love the brother/sister you can see, how can you love some abstract notion of “society” you can’t see? If you won’t love the spouse sitting next to you, how can you love a “community of patriots” you’ve never met before? If you won’t give unconditional love to a real, flesh-and-bone friend, how can you give it to a cause? The world will tell you to set your affections on outward things like social justice and human progress, knowing you will be left empty, unsatisfied, and argumentative when nothing good comes of it — all while telling you to be guarded, cynical, temperamental, and conditional in your inter-personal relationships. The end result is that you are left loving neither your brother nor the world at large. Society is made of one home at a time, one marriage at a time, one friendship at a time. No abstract notion of social justice can bypass this. If more of us would get to work on showing God’s love in the home, society would turn itself around.
With regard to the children, the parents would need to be in unity, at least in front of the kids. They would need to hash out disagreements between themselves quietly outside of where the children could hear. Hopefully they could come to an agreement, but if not, the husband has the final say, as he is the authority. It will always come down to trying to come to some kind of agreement whenever possible, and when it is not, the one in charge makes the final decision. The children are always to obey their parents. That goes without being said, as God placed both parents in authority over the children, and even Jesus obeyed his parents as a child.
The Bible gives clear guidelines that would instruct us on most matters. Everything will run best if the husband and wife both are willing to follow what God says for them to do. In an ideal world, I do believe God wants everyone to do things unconditionally, but he even makes exceptions, like in the case of marital infidelity. They can choose to forgive and move on, or separate and divorce. If one spouse is physically abusive all the time, does unconditional apply then? I think it does in most cases, but not all. Even God himself will cut us off at a certain point, but clearly the example given is that we should do everything possible to forgive, especially if the other person says they repent. Remember that about seventy times seven?
When it comes to friendships, they are very important, yet people are quick to throw them away over little things. People like that generally find themselves isolated in the end. There certainly can be things a person could do that warrant ending a friendship. They might try to seduce your spouse. That is one quick way to get cut off. They might turn on you, and show themselves to be your enemy and never repent. There are extreme cases where cutting off someone has to be done, but it should be a last resort. That is not just for their benefit, but yours as well. Look at the kind of things we fight over. I have seen baseball fans get into fist fights with fans of the opposing team in the stands. Is it really worth it?
I think that what it comes down to Candance, is it is best to try to work things out whenever possible, and we should always follow God's order and God's way. If everyone did that in the home and everywhere else, all the problems in the world would be quickly resolved. That is what I believe things will be like during the Millennial reign of Christ.
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Let's read our bibles daily my friends