Thanks for your comments and here are my answers to some of your questions. First, when we follow Christ it isn't that we model the single life of Christ, but we are modeling the virtues He teaches us. As for men and women who believe that they are better than others because they love Jesus or as you wrote "have Jesus", I would say that their attitude totally contradicts authentic charity (love), which is the way of God...so I would say that they have misinterpreted what it means to love Jesus and love others.
You also wrote that "Christ could become a reason NOT to love someone." I argue that Christ is never a reason to not love someone because God is Love. We love because He loved us first. As far as women recognizing men as true, I claim that a woman will recognize what a man offers her in love as true because the man demonstrates in word and action unselfish, unconditional love; the kind of love that she knows by loving and having a relationship with Christ. A man who offers this in my eyes offers true love. The modern world gives us many versions of "love" and sadly we have been fooled, but for myself and probably others, I'm interested in the real deal and not the other versions of "love".
Last couple points to address...Christ remained single because that was God's plan for Him, just as we can discover and know our purpose and plan in life when we develop a relationship with Our Creator, God. He has the plan. As far as your claim that women did not recognize Christ,...well, that isn't true actually. Women definitely recognized Christ. He had women followers. The bible is full of those instances of Christ speaking with women, and women recognizing Him (Check out John 4:1-42). Finally, to answer your question "could a person NOT know Jesus and have a good relationship with their spouse?"...I like this question, and I believe the answer is yes. Yes, because God is merciful. God loves us and desires to be with us. Remember what I wrote earlier, He loved us first. We still need to exercise our free will and participate in this relationship with God, but I believe that God will do whatever He can to reach a soul...what better way to reach somone then to show love to that person who may not believe, if it will begin him or her on that journey to Christ?
Thanks for your questions!
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
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I totally agree that Christ is merciful and allows unbelievers to share in the joy that love between a man and woman brings, even if they do not know it stems from His love for us, because He wrote that on our hearts. There's an innate ability to love and be loved within each person's core, regardless of if they know where it comes from or not. That's what makes human beings different from the animals, in that God loves us so much, and allows us to participate in that love by enabling us to love others the way that He loves us, even if we don't realize what we're really doing. Viewing love from this standpoint enables us to become more like Christ, who is the definition of love. Just my thoughts...
ReplyDeleteWell it’s just that my skin crawls when I hear people say that they model their life after Christ, is that to say these people hang around the dregs of society? (I.e. Tax collectors, prostitutes and ignorant loud mouthed smelly fishermen?) What I do experience is that some people would accept Christ, just not that whole messy business with the cross and all; you can leave that at home. Gross!
ReplyDeleteI think the whole idea of making Jesus into some sort of romantic Hollywood dream life is part and parcel to what’s creating selfish idealized dysfunctional relationships between boys and girls and men and women. We don’t want to have to change for Jesus; instead we want Jesus to change for us.
That’s not to say there should be no joy in our relationships, instead my argument would be, what we are our sources of joy? (Our names in the paper, forever young, good complexions, fine cloths, big houses, fast cars, the unalienable respect of our peers?)
Are these the sort of things that be characterized as built on sand or built on stone? Could they disappear suddenly?
Where is fancy bred? (...bread)? In my heart or in my head?