- Mar 25, 2020
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Well, yes. If it has a broken wing or it's a still a chick, or had some other problem, like humans have aplenty, then yes, I would tell it to try to fly. Now try your logic the other way; can you imagine telling a person who has a problem with dishonesty that he doesn't need to try to be more honest, or a person who struggles with greed that he doesn't need to try to stop being greedy, or a person who has an addiction to inappropriate content that he doesn't need totry to stop indulging in the vice?
We should be, but we aren't. That's the whole point of forgiveness; we should not look at failure as an impediment to improved progress, which can only happen by trying again after each failure. As we learn and grow, the failures should become less in number or less in intensity. That's the lesson behind the parable of the talents; the 3rd servant was punished because he did not even try to be productive.
So, Jesus' death on the cross conveniently leaves the door open for you to live your life however you want to, because any attempt to live for God equates to "trying to be good"? That makes no sense. I get that we should never think that we've somehow earned salvation or boast that we're good, but that's not what you're preaching here; what you're preaching is fake grace, that Jesus doesn't want us to even try to obey him despite all his teachings to the contrary. "If you love me you will obey me". "Why do you call me Lord, but do not obey me"? "My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it". "The wise man hears my teachings and obeys them". "My teachings will judge you". "He who endures to the end will be saved". The list goes on and on, yet despite all this you stubbornly cling to this idea that Jesus does not want you to at least try to obey him? It's stupefying.
Sure, some people probably think that way, but Jesus addressed that, too. He said when you pray, fast, or give charity to the poor, do it all in secret, so that no one will know, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly, but if you ignore this teaching, if you do these things in public where others can see, then you will not be rewarded by God, because you will have already gotten your reward on earth (i.e. the praise of men who see you promoting yourself via these public demonstrations and think you're a spiritual person). If I had to guess, you probably do the opposite on these teachings; you probably do tell people about your fasting and charity giving and you probably do pray aloud for others to hear.
I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong on that, but I've talked to a lot of people who take the position you take here, where we should not even try to obey Jesus because it amounts to wanting glory for ourselves, but then they will argue up and down that there's absolutely no problem with telling others about their fasting, charity-giving, and making their prayers as public as can be.
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