Leviticus 24:16 "Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death."
That sounds pretty serious! Let's see what the New Testament says:
Luke 12:10 "And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."
Hmm, again, not something I'd want to do. So, what is "basphemy"?
Numbers 15:30 "But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people."
Seems clear enough to me. So, even Christians, if they sin defiantly (knowing it's sin, no remorse or desire to stop), they will not be forgiven.
Matt 22:36 - 40 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Some of things to avoid are (a list I made a while back from the NT):
Greed, covet, jealousy, murder, quarrelling, ill-will, gossip, slander, hater of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, plan evil, disobey parents, brainless, faithless, heartless, ruthless, stubborn, unrepentant, selfish, steal, adultery, idolatry, blasphemy, liar, fear, anger, vengeful, drunkeness, partying, sexual immorality, abusive, homosexuality, contemptuous language, conceited, hypocrasy, fighting, selfish ambition, disobedient, bitterness, violent assertiveness, spitefulness, obscenity, course language, vanity, impurity, lust, meanness, self-loving, money loving, proud, insulting, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasible, uncontrolled, brutal, hateful of good, traitorous, headstrong, loving pleasure rather tahn God, religious but without power, murder...
I'm sure there's more,,,, but that's a good start.
And then there's this one (hence the cool picture above):
Hebrews 4:13 "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
9 comments:
i've always said "covetousness" is usually the beginning of most sin and have seen it time and again begin with that little word "covet", even in my past life experiences. sometimes it comes in and rears its ugly head and all that saves me from it is the Lord - and then sometimes He lets me put my foot in it - yuck!
one must first recognize it in order to deal with it.
p.s. - you know i had that picture as my desktop backdrop for many months until my 'puter crashed here awhile back - perhaps i'll take it again?
Exactly Nanc! If you don't know it's sin, it's not as serious (obviously) and that's a whole other topic.... My big one is stubbornness... like a horse I had once. It takes a lot of intervention to turn the stubborn in the direction you want them to go.
That's not the best picture... it's a pretty small jpeg. This one is better:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/helix_spitzer_2048.jpg
wrt unknown sin, my personal belief is that we will be judged by our own standard. For example, if we would not want to be lied to, but we lie to others, we will be found guilty. It ties in to some degree with what's called 'natural law'. Natural law contends that there are certain things all humans know are wrong. For instance, all humans know that cowardice is not a virtue.
yes, i'm reading "mere christianity" lately and lewis has it pretty well spot-on in his assumptions regarding natural law.
there are just some things we naturally know.
That's probably where I got the idea:>D CS Lewis is terrific!
CS Lewis was greatly used by G*D, to encourage me(and many others) to think seriously about my spiritual state!
tmw
HI Schweetie!
Democrats. The blasphemers of classical liberalsim.
Hi tmw, Yes he was. I read a book once about CS Lewis vs S Freud. They had similar backgrounds but were such opposites. Lewis optimistic, Freud dark and pessimistic...
Hi FJ, Great point!
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