Is there a problem with taking Christianity too seriously?

FireDragon76 said:

I disagree. If you use those things to avoid your obvious and natural duties, then you are actually sinning.

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I was not entirely clear. I never suggested that we abandon responsibilities of our life here on earth. But our responsibilities here must be informed by the word of God and through an unceasing prayer life. You can do you earthly duties and continue to pray and meditate on the word of God.

FireDragon76 said:

Nowhere in the Bible does it instruct us to actually read "The Bible", the 66 books Protestants take for granted .

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Jesus certainly expected the Jews to know scripture. Matthew 12:3, 12:5, 19:4, 22:31, Mark 12:10, 12:26, Luke 6:3. Also the 10 commandments were written down, so clearly God placed an expectation on His people that they would read His word.

And it would be a real bad generalization to say that Protestants take the Bible for granted.

FireDragon76 said:

Likewise, Jesus doesn't say we should pray to the detriment of the rest of our lives.

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I never said or implied that unceasing prayer is a "detriment" to our lives. And Paul teaches us to pray without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing,

FireDragon76 said:

Furthermore, why are those things strictly necessary?

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If you don't read the Bible, pray and seek God's will, can you honestly say you know and love God?

FireDragon76 said:

What are we accomplishing?

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You come to know and love God to greater depths and love His truth.

FireDragon76 said:

Is really spirituality about seeking God, or God seeking us?

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Both.

FireDragon76 said:

Spiritually, Christ has accomplished everything. He's God, after all, what more can we really add to that?

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I completely agree that Christ has accomplished what He set out to do perfectly. Praying, reading the Bible and our seeking God adds nothing to what Christ has done. But God commands us to do it.

FireDragon76 said:

The dwelling place of God is with mortals.

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That does not mean that God adopts and accepts the ways of the world, nor are we called to join in the things of the world that are against God.

FireDragon76 said:

There should not be a radical split between the secular and the sacred in the Christian life.

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The Bible would disagree.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. (17) And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

FireDragon76 said:

All life is potentially a holy vocation.

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Only when we seek to glorify God and be obedient to Him (not to earn salvation, but because we love Him).

FireDragon76 said:

And what is God's purpose?

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To glorify Himself. All things glorify God, that is there purpose.

FireDragon76 said:

Corporal and spiritual acts of mercy that need to be done for the sake of our neighbor.

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I don't disagree, but if you don't first love God, you can't even begin to love your neighbor.

FireDragon76 said:

And the most obvious places to start loving our neighbor is with ourselves, our families, our communities.

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It starts with loving God first. Your neighbor comes second to God in the correct order.


Matthew 22:37-39 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38) This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

FireDragon76 said:

Anything else is likely to be self-styled spirituality and works-righteousness.

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I am not suggesting works-righteousness at all. If you believe I have said that, then I have not written very clearly or you have completely misunderstood me.

bettercallpaul said:

Almost describes me except I'm not heavenly minded enough. I'm a classic daydreamer.

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If you don't mind me asking, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your LORD and Saviour?

I'm just asking, because you identify yourself as a "Christian Seeker".

bettercallpaul said:

If you spend every waking moment either reading your Bible, praying or looking for God in every daily event, are you taking Christianity too seriously?
Time for a secular break now and then?
I'm thinking this might be the case. I have a Christian friend , in his fiftees. He's single, never married but he is what I would class "hardcore". He spends weekends on the street trying to evangelise new recruits. And spends a long time at his Protestant Church with other activities.
I definitely see benefits as God has transformed His life. But I wonder if he was married, he might take his faith with less zeal. And focus on raising his family. He does tend to be overzealous, in my opinion.
Still you might argue he is devoting his life to the Lord. And that is what we all should be doing I guess.

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The first thought that came to my head was scriptures admonishment to pray without ceasing. Without ceasing is without stopping for a "secular break"...in fact, this is one of the ways we remain blameless, sinless, without spot or wrinkle because when you are communing with God it is hard to sin in fact, scripture says that sin cannot reside where God is. So seems to me that the renewed heart or new man as scripture would put it, does just what this friend of yours is doing...remains constantly, without fail in Christ and He in him.

2PhiloVoid said:

True enough, Hidden. I guess even Jesus felt the need to take an occasional 'vacation' to a solitary place ....

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when Christ pulled away He was in prayer not the world.

Jesus4Ever said:

But God created the world...so He created the world so we could hate it?

I mean obviously we should love Jesus above all else but aren't we still allowed to enjoy good aspects of the world?

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From the standpoint of scripture, being in the world is not sitting in a chair and watching the sunset and in doing so worshiping God. Rather being in the world means to partake of the things that are in opposition to God Himself and His righteousness.

bettercallpaul said:

Ok we can perform heart surgery right here on CF. A transplant. If you can find the new heart, I suppose I'll have to go along with it.

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the new heart comes from crucifying self or in other scripture words, circumcision of the heart...in other words, denying the fleshly pleasures in exchange for the spiritual truths.

No™

Of the many pleasures of being a Christian one of my favorite is telling a broken Christian brother who feels like he let God , himself and people down that Jesus couldn't love you more or less if you were perfect and so do I or tell them ''huh that ain't nothing Bro let me tell you what I did'' .. I'm not talking about the ones who think they have a licence to sin but real Christians who struggle in common with us to keep transforming ..

razzelflabben said:

the new heart comes from crucifying self or in other scripture words, circumcision of the heart...in other words, denying the fleshly pleasures in exchange for the spiritual truths.

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Yes, Paul's expression about the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2.29) extends from Paul's great treatise on repentance.

faroukfarouk said:

Yes, Paul's expression about the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2.29) extends from Paul's great treatise on repentance.

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amen, confession and repentance are central to the Christian walk.

bettercallpaul said:

If you spend every waking moment either reading your Bible, praying or looking for God in every daily event, are you taking Christianity too seriously?
Time for a secular break now and then?
I'm thinking this might be the case. I have a Christian friend , in his fiftees. He's single, never married but he is what I would class "hardcore". He spends weekends on the street trying to evangelise new recruits. And spends a long time at his Protestant Church with other activities.
I definitely see benefits as God has transformed His life. But I wonder if he was married, he might take his faith with less zeal. And focus on raising his family. He does tend to be overzealous, in my opinion.
Still you might argue he is devoting his life to the Lord. And that is what we all should be doing I guess.

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I´m sorry, but i think there is such a thing as taking Christianity too serious as with everything else, fanatism is very common in every genre. What i see is when people become overly devoted to things, they can´t stay objective, they loose their sense of thinking rationally. Yes, maybe we should not think rationally when it comes to faith, but to me it´s important and always will be. I know it´s not this life that matters, it´s the next life, but i enjoy my life, i think i´m lucky to have received a life here on earth, i will never ever take that for granted! This life is for me to learn, to explore, to evolve based on experiences. My life is not going to be about sitting and reading a book, my life is going to be living my life, the gift i have received. People seem to think that a book is the only guideline, but actually experiences and action speaks louder in my view. Why can´t there be middle ground??? everything always have to be so black and white, it hurts my eyes

Maria.V.H said:

I´m sorry, but i think there is such a thing as taking Christianity too serious as with everything else, fanatism is very common in every genre. What i see is when people become overly devoted to things, they can´t stay objective, they loose their sense of thinking rationally. Yes, maybe we should not think rationally when it comes to faith, but to me it´s important and always will be. I know it´s not this life that matters, it´s the next life, but i enjoy my life, i think i´m lucky to have received a life here on earth, i will never ever take that for granted! This life is for me to learn, to explore, to evolve based on experiences. My life is not going to be about sitting and reading a book, my life is going to be living my life, the gift i have received. People seem to think that a book is the only guideline, but actually experiences and action speaks louder in my view. Why can´t there be middle ground??? everything always have to be so black and white, it hurts my eyes

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can you clarify what you are saying for me...this is how I read your words as they would apply to another genre...IOW's an analogy based on how I understand what you are saying, would it be correct or incorrect and if incorrect how.

Analogy...you can't get married because if you did you would lose your ability to think objectively because you are giving your marriage all you have.

Since scripture describes a relationship with Christ this is how I read your post....please clarify for me thanks

razzelflabben said:

can you clarify what you are saying for me...this is how I read your words as they would apply to another genre...IOW's an analogy based on how I understand what you are saying, would it be correct or incorrect and if incorrect how.

Analogy...you can't get married because if you did you would lose your ability to think objectively because you are giving your marriage all you have.

Since scripture describes a relationship with Christ this is how I read your post....please clarify for me thanks

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I´m sorry, but i don´t understand what you are saying, can you please rewrite it in a not so complicated way?
Why would i loose the ability to think objectively if i got married???? Can´t you give everything you have and still think objectively??? maybe you couldn´t, but i could... maybe you are a all or nothing person, but i´m not... A relationship is not demanding, i don´t believe it has to be with God either, anyway we are all wrong, all of us, no one is doing things right, we all fail, so what is the point????

Maria.V.H said:

I´m sorry, but i don´t understand what you are saying, can you please rewrite it in a not so complicated way?
Why would i loose the ability to think objectively if i got married???? Can´t you give everything you have and still think objectively??? maybe you couldn´t, but i could... maybe you are a all or nothing person, but i´m not... A relationship is not demanding, i don´t believe it has to be with God either, anyway we are all wrong, all of us, no one is doing things right, we all fail, so what is the point????

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that was what I was trying to clarify from the other poster...I don't see any reason why giving a relationship all you have removes objectivity but as I read the poster that is what I understood them to be saying which confused me thus I asked for clarification from that poster.

bettercallpaul said:

If you spend every waking moment either reading your Bible, praying or looking for God in every daily event, are you taking Christianity too seriously?
Time for a secular break now and then?
I'm thinking this might be the case. I have a Christian friend , in his fiftees. He's single, never married but he is what I would class "hardcore". He spends weekends on the street trying to evangelise new recruits. And spends a long time at his Protestant Church with other activities.
I definitely see benefits as God has transformed His life. But I wonder if he was married, he might take his faith with less zeal. And focus on raising his family. He does tend to be overzealous, in my opinion.
Still you might argue he is devoting his life to the Lord. And that is what we all should be doing I guess.

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If we look at the life of Jesus.......and the apostles........then we have an idea of how seriously we need to take the gospel of salvation...as seriously as they did. Because without it people will perish....for eternity. So, it sounds like your friend is doing well trying to get the Word out so that people will have an opportunity to hear the gospel and a chance to be saved. When a person comes to faith in Jesus and receives His Spirit, we just find that the things and pursuits of this world become very secondary and our faith in Christ and pursuit of God becomes by far our over-riding interest, love, passion, and reality.

bettercallpaul said:

Everything? So if I have a few beers and watch the football on Saturday afternoon, that's OK?

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Good point, but wrong hypothetical conclusion. If everything was holy, God would not have had to have had much of what is written in certain books of the Bible, telling the Jews what they could and could not do. Maybe what the writer meant was that everything should be seen in relation to the spiritual. Is taking out the trash spiritual, one might ask? For the non-Christian (for lack of a better title) what does taking out the trash have to do with the spiritual? Answer: It is done in "spiritual" blindness, spiritual unawareness. It is spiritual, but in the negative instead of in the positive. What does taking out the trash have to do with the Christian? Again it can be the same negative spiritualness of the non-Christian, or it can be positive spiritualness in line with Colossians 3:23 and 1 Corinthians 10:31. The Christian can complain about taking out the trash, or just do it without thinking, or they can be thankful for what that trash represents. An empty can of beans represents the beans you had for supper. Some may not have that trash because they are starving in poverty. A Christian can praise God they have the blessing to be able to take out the trash, rather than be in prison, a hospital, a grave. All things may not be holy, set apart for the Lord, but all things are spiritual, but just aren't recognize unless you are looking through spiritual eyes. We are told in Galatians 5:25 "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk (conduct our lives, take out the trash) in the Spirit."

I think it boils down to who you are in Christ and who you become 24 hrs a day , Don't we prefer a chaplain who basically are who they are at work or after work .. Should we expect any less of ourselves at least to strive .. Nothing wrong with that at all imo, in fact is great purpose ..

IDK I guess I am suppose to offer an apology for asking for clarification so that I could understand another POV for consideration...I didn't mean to offend anyone just wanted to understand...I guess I will leave before my zeal to understand causes more problems.