What does it mean to be born again 2

[candle glow]

I found pink spider's "what does it mean to be born again" thread and was disappointed to find it locked.

Anyway, I think the topic could be worthy of more discussion.

I think the "born again" phrase is something along the lines of deciding to live by completely new/ or different standards/values.

For example, in the worldly system people use special titles to flatter one another (i.e Sir, Mr). But Jesus said NOT to do this.

In the worldly system people force payment from one another for their help, but in the Kingdom of Heaven people help each other for love.

In the worldly system, if someone hurts you, you should hurt them back. But in the kingdom of Heaven, we exercise forgiveness and patience.

There are so many practical ways in which Jesus' standards were different from the standards of the world. It's like we must become born again into a totally different set of values. It's not a theological viewpoint, so much as it's a different way of living life.

And, I don't agree that it's something which happens automatically. Just like physical birth is painful, so too can it be painful to forsake the values of this worldly system and start living by completely opposite standards.

 

[Emmy]

Dear candle glow. To be born again is just simply to be born again, but different to your first birth, this time as God our Heavenly Father wants us to be. We were born into an imperfect world, where we grew up becoming more and more selfish and without love for our neighbour. Now God wants us to be born again, as God wants us to be: " Loving God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. ALSO: To love our neighbour as we love ourselves." Change from being selfish and unloving, to treat all we know and all we meet, friends and not friends, treat them as we would love to be treated: always kindly and always with friendly words, become loving and caring. Jesus will give us His Love and Joy, and the Holy Spirit will empower us with His Love, also. Jesus tells us to: " ask and ye shall receive," then we thank God and share all Love and Joy with our neighbour. God will see our sincere efforts, and God will bless us. ( Matthew 7: 7-8 We keep asking God and thanking God, then share all Love and Joy with our neighbour. We might (stumble and forget at times, but then we ask God to forgive us, and carry on Loving God and loving and caring for our neighbour.
God is Love, and God wants Loving children/sons and daughters. The world around us will treat us as we treat people, and the world will know whom we represent: we will become sign-posts to our Heavenly Father. A Christian`s great weapon is Love for our Great God, and love and care for our neighbour.
Let us ask God to help us to " Be Born Again," and then follow Jesus advice in
(Matthew 22: 35-40 To Be Born Again is: to be as God wants us to be, and Jesus our Saviour will help and guide us. I say this with love, candle glow.
Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[candle glow]

Hi Emmy,

Thanks for that. I think we are saying basically the same thing. Being born again means to change, but the changes are so fundamental and different, that it can only work if we become like little babies learning all over again.

Babies are malleable and easy to teach. They don't already have a lot of preconceived ideas about the world around them. You can tell kids some of the most outrageous stories and they are willing to believe.

It's very different with adults, who often become stubborn about what they think they know.

But the real question is, change HOW? You mentioned the greatest commandment, about loving God with all our heart etc....

But then there are also many commands from Jesus all throughout the the gospels about how to show love for God and others.

For example, Jesus said that we cannot work for God and mammon (money and the things money can buy) at the same time without cheating on one or the other.

He said that we should not allow worry about what we will eat or wear, to stop us from working for love.

He said this, because a system where we only help one another because we expect payment, is different to the kingdom of Heaven, where we help each other just because we want to.

For those of us who've been born into this worldly system, it sounds ridiculous and impossible to work only for love vs. working for money. It's difficult to accept because we know that's just how the world works.

But Jesus promised that God will take care of anyone who starts to work for love vs working for money. It's difficult for our adult minds, with all our experience of how the world works, to believe such a promise from an invisible God. We need to be born again into a completely different set of values where money doesn't make the world go round.

Like little children, we need to learn to believe daddy just because he says it.

 

[Emmy]

Dear candle glow. Thank you for your reply, you are right, to be Born Again
changes us from selfish and unloving, to become loving and caring. Money is important only to live in this imperfect world, and as long as we do not let money change us into different people, i.e. living and working only to get more and more money, it cannot stop us from being Loving and Compassionate.
God is Love, and God wants Loving children/sons and daughters. All we say or do, all we advice or stand for MUST BE FROM LOVE FOR OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, AND LOVE FOR OUR NEIGHBOUR. Jesus our Saviour will help and guide us: Jesus is THE WAY, Jesus will lead us back to where we came from,
and Jesus told us: " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is
perfect. We know that God is Love, and Jesus told us that God wants perfect men and women, perfect in Love and Compassion. (Matthew 5: 48 We know that cannot happen while on Earth, but God wants us to start living as God wants us to be:
Loving God with all our beings, and loving our neighbour as we love ourselves:
all we know and all we meet, our ( neighbour.)
A Christian`s great weapon is Love, we will overcome all enmity with Love, and all wrong behaviour. God wants us " Born Again," let Love and Compassion change us into the people which God wants us to be.
I say this with love, candle glow. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[candle glow]

Money is important only to live in this imperfect world, and as long as we do not let money change us into different people, i.e. living and working only to get more and more money, it cannot stop us from being Loving and Compassionate.

Well, "to get more and more money" is the reason most people work, because they want to use it to buy their food and clothing, etc. It boils down to, "we can't live without money".

It's not really an issue of money changing us, because we've been taught from birth that working for money is how the world works, but rather, an issue of allowing the values of the Kingdom of Heaven change us.

We shift from one system to another, or, become born again into a new kingdom where we learn new values (i.e. money DOESN'T make the world go round and we really can live without working to get more of it).

But that is only one example. There is also the issue of pride and respectability. In Matthew 21, Jesus challenged the people for using special titles for one another, like "master" and "father" and "teacher".

He said they do it to praise one another, but that they should NOT use these special titles to praise one another because that kind of praise belongs to God and that we should all see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ (rather than a few special people being lifted up).

It is interesting that the title "Mr." is a shortened form of "master" and "Sir." is a shortened form of "sire" which also means "father". And yet, these are two of the most common ways to address one another, particularly in Christianity.

People say they do it as a form of respect, but usually people do it out of fear or to flatter. That is not how the kingdom of Heaven should work, and that's why Jesus spoke against it.

It sounds so alien to not use these kind of special titles for one another but that's what being born again is all about. Changing from one system to another.