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Tackling Tradition 72: Love Your Neighbor!

From time to time, members of the chattering class will accuse Christians of hypocrisy by taking in money for themselves first then others.   That’s because there are people in the pews who believe churches are to help the needy among their own members first & then themselves. The Bible itself teaches the exact opposite.   How so?  God’s moral law is both individual & corporate in application.  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34–40, ESV)  9 For the commandments, “You s...
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Tackling Tradition 71: Be Fruitful & Multiply

There those in the TN legislature who believe that the nuclear family consists of one (heterosexual) husband & one (heterosexual) wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children & is God's design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world. That’s quite the assertion.   What does the Bible say?  From Genesis:  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27   So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28  And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that mo...
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The Jerusalem Council

  The Jerusalem Council 15  But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”   2  And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.   3  So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. [ a ]   4  When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.   5  But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them t...
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Galatians 1:1 - 9 : Freedom In Christ

From Austin Pfieffer @ Salem Presbyterian Church, Winston-Salem, NC  1  Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—   2  and all the brothers [ a ]  who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,   4  who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,   5  to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. No Other Gospel 6  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7  not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.   8  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the...
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Tackling Tradition 70: The Weaker Vessel

What does 1 Peter 3 mean by calling women the weaker vessel?  Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,  2  when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  3  Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—  4  but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 5  For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,  6  as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.  7  Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs wi...
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