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Originally Posted by MARDAV70
Effort and grace...so...am I wrong in my perception of effort and grace in the vast majority of Christians that make the claims of love and devotion to Christ, yet completely ignore Christ's commandment to "sell all you have and give it to the poor"? Or the many that don't follow "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", "whatsoever ye do unto the least of my brethren so ye have done unto me" or "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"?
Grace is claimed...but where's the effort?
I'm not sure where you mean to go with this, but I really am confused by so called Christians who repeatedly violate and try so hard to find ways to excuse themselves from the above commandments given by, supposedly, Jesus. They're excellent advice, yet are nearly impossible to follow in the society in which we live without living like a penniless vagabond...and I know of no one that does that. Seems to me the 'effort' has nothing to do with 'grace' in such a society.
And then maybe, I'm not really sure what you're trying to convey. I live in the USA where the vast majority of the faithful claim Christianity...and so it's really the only perception of "the scope and effort and grace" I can observe.
I like what Mahatma Gandhi said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They don't follow Christ". So very, very true.
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Hi, thanks. I'm not really seeking to go anywhere as such. I do like throwing in a few ideas and seeing what comes out.
Christianity I would leave to Christians. It all seems to be about the "Law" and the "spirit", between salvation by "faith" ( St Paul ) and faith/works ( St James ), all apparently confused between the Word as text ( Bible ) and the Living Word ( Christ ) Best left alone.
I approach it from the non-dual perspective of Pure Land Buddhism. There Grace is
everything, we are "already enlightened" and our life is simply the surrender to Grace, to that which already is.
But I do find opening threads such as this can prove helpful at various levels of understanding, and gaining - believe it or not - clarity of mind.