CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:09 am**

Alright, so I'm reading my Bible passages this morning and there where two that I read that have confused me a little, as in, I am not sure how to apply them to my daily life. I hope you guys could maybe help me better my understanding here? Sorry, I'm really not the sharpest end of the stick if you catch my drift. Anyway, here they are:

Luke 12:35-48

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

I'm going to assume this passage is about the second coming of Jesus and that we must be prepared to meet him. It sounds to me like you aren't even aloud to sleep here. I'm really confused. So if Jesus comes and I'm sleeping or not dressed for the day yet then I'm as bad as an unbeliever for not being preapred...? Won't I die if I don't sleep? And what happened to not worrying so much about things in past or future? How am I not supposed to worry? What if Jesus comes and I'm asleep or not ready? Then I'll be beaten and thrown into hell? I really hope I'm just misinterpreting this.

Meanwhile, I'm going to admit somehow I lost the other passage I was going to put in here, but I noticed several times it is said in the Bible that if you want to follow Jesus you must sell everything you own and give it to the poor. Don't get me wrong, I donate to charity whenever I can and probably will be able to give more once I actually have a job. I also do want to become more involved, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Join a program or something I guess? Meanwhile, if I get rid of everything I own, how am I supposed to survive? If I walked up to my mom today and said, "Hey, guess what, we need to sell our house and everything we own and give all the money to the poor!" I don't think she'd take it well.

*Sighs* Maybe I'm just reading it wrong. Anyway, off to read the rest of my passages for the day. Hoping I'll understand the rest of them without a problem.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:40 am**

The thing you have to remember about that quote is that Jesus was speaking in the context of a generation that was not ready - it's not that they spent time eating and sleeping, but that they were unprepared in their hearts and minds to accept what God was doing there. They were not really looking for God. Now, assuredly, God extends his grace to us, but if God wants to use you to minister to somebody, or to give a specific offering, or to do some other thing, and he comes to you and you're not willing or psychologically able to do what he wants you to do, how will his purpose be accomplished? If God comes to you and wants to give you a blessing, and you are unable to receive it, how will you be blessed?

The cross takes hell off the table - that is guaranteed. You won't be thrown into hell, but you can block the flow of God in your life, and this is what Jesus is talking about here. The generation of Jews that Jesus came to was largely satisfied with their concept of God, and resisted being broken out of the limits of that concept.

The thing about God, though, is that He is always greater than we imagine. He always has the capacity to surprise us. If we cling to the limits of our old idea of God, then, when he comes and breaks past those limits, it becomes difficult for us to accept God as God. If you believe in a God who only speaks Latin, how will you accept him if he comes speaking English? To be prepared in this sense, then, is, when God comes, either in a way we expect or a way we do not, to be ready and willing to act accordingly.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:44 am**

It's a parable, you're reading it right, you're just misunderstanding it (I think). There is a meaning behind the face-value meaning. While such things are up to interpretation, I believe this has to do with how we lead our lives, one possible interpretation is:

We're the servants and Jesus is the master, as you note we're waiting on his return. So when the servants are waiting up for the master, they're continuing when others are resting. They continue to live their lives striving after the will of Christ, to love God and to love others, on the other hand, those who decide not to wait up are those that choose to stop striving after Christ and as noted to the bottom, take part in a life that is contrary to striving after Christ, hurting others on the basis that "I've got a long time to fix all this, Jesus isn't coming back in my life-time".

The morale of the story - if taken from this perspective is that we should continue to strive to be better people because of our love of Christ and not harm others on the basis that "we're saved, so we can hurt who-ever we want". (Although I do agree with Kaligraphic, I think if someone is thinking this way to begin with, they really need to re-evaluate their life)

At least that's my take on it. I'd be interested to hear other people's interpretations though.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:18 am**

Thanks Kaligraphic and Pascal, I guess I wasn't looking past the literal text to delve into the true meaning of the parable. I am trying to love and follow Christ, but I will admit I am a stubborn person. I'm afraid some of the things I think and believe in are wrong, yet I'm a bit unwilling to even accept them as wrong. I ask God to show me the truth, yet my own pride and stubborness probably blocks out any answer he tries to give me. I've got to work on this, I know I do. I need to learn to accept that my opinion is not the only one that matters and might not even be right, when it comes to people and especilly when it comes to God. I'm a bit worried that I have such a hard time understanding the meaning of certain bible passages. I have heard people say that if you do not understand the bible then you are not saved and the Holy Spirit is not within you.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:34 am**

Sent a PM your way, Topaz

.

Also, I'm not sure where these people got the idea that if you don't understand the Bible, you're not saved. That's just downright heartless. I've been reading cover to cover, and I still have trouble understanding certain passages. That doens't mean I'm not learning or that He's stopped speaking to me as I read.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:25 pm**

TopazRaven (post: 1454621) wrote: I have heard people say that if you do not understand the bible then you are not saved and the Holy Spirit is not within you.

This is pure, cruel bias, plain and simple. If this were true than around 1/5 of the planet would be automatically unable to be christian, sheerly because they can't read. The number would actually be higher, since literacy does not mean that there is a bible translation for that group of people or that they have perfect understanding. Heck, you, me and everyone else on this site are literate and highly educated in comparison to some parts of the world and I'm pretty sure everyone here has run across parts of the bible that didn't make perfect sense to them right away, and we have many times the resources that other places have.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:33 pm**

First of all I don't think there is a lot of people in the world understanding everything in the bible. And second of all I don't get why someone would tell you sucha thing.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:05 pm**

The Bible doesn't save. Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection saves. What the Bible does is explain what happened.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:42 pm**

MrKrillz0r wrote:First of all I don't think there is a lot of people in the world understanding everything in the bible. And second of all I don't get why someone would tell you sucha thing.

Indeed. That's just plain nonsense.

TopazRaven (post: 1454609) wrote:I'm going to assume this passage is about the second coming of Jesus and that we must be prepared to meet him. It sounds to me like you aren't even aloud to sleep here. I'm really confused. So if Jesus comes and I'm sleeping or not dressed for the day yet then I'm as bad as an unbeliever for not being preapred...? Won't I die if I don't sleep? And what happened to not worrying so much about things in past or future? How am I not supposed to worry? What if Jesus comes and I'm asleep or not ready? Then I'll be beaten and thrown into hell? I really hope I'm just misinterpreting this.

I believe you are right in assuming that you have misunderstood the word. I don't think God intends for you not to sleep or be dressed in order for Judgement Day. That would be illogical, because we need sleep in order to function. Infact, I don't think he intends for you to be ready, in a sense.

It is said that that day will come like a thief in the night, and that no one will know the day or the hour that it will come. How then can we prepare for this day? We cannot - atleast not fully.

What jesus is trying to say here is that in order to be ready you must believe in his sacrifice and to act justly. Not to think "Oh, it's been 2000+ years, he isn't going to come back."

Meanwhile, I'm going to admit somehow I lost the other passage I was going to put in here, but I noticed several times it is said in the Bible that if you want to follow Jesus you must sell everything you own and give it to the poor. Don't get me wrong, I donate to charity whenever I can and probably will be able to give more once I actually have a job. I also do want to become more involved, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Join a program or something I guess? Meanwhile, if I get rid of everything I own, how am I supposed to survive? If I walked up to my mom today and said, "Hey, guess what, we need to sell our house and everything we own and give all the money to the poor!" I don't think she'd take it well.

I believe the passage you're looking for is in Matthew 19:16-30, where Jesus meets a rich man, although he says the same to a few other people, I believe.

Again, ridiculous. Donating to charity is good, but selling all of your possessions is a crazy idea. If it was that important, it would be preached in churches everywhere telling other christians to sell everything you have. But it is not, infact that would be taking the passage out of context.

Jesus is talking to the people in his time who wanted to actually follow him and be his disciple, not to us. In order to follow him, you would have to actually leave your life behind. Jesus didn't wait for you, no matter what. You either went with him right then and there or he left you.

(Had a little more to say in this post, but I got signed out somehow and when I signed back in, what I wrote was gone. *rage rage rage* Eh, I think I got most of it though.)

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:02 pm**

Aw, I really hate when that happens. You write a really long post, submit it and you're signed out. That's why I always copy what I write down before I post. Anyway, thanks for clearing all this up for me. xD I've been foolish again. It is my first time reading through the bible so I guess I'm bound to make mistakes though.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:57 pm**

Hey, don't put yourself down! I think it's the hallmark of a good thinker to actually consider what they're reading, ask questions, and get help rather than making something up or ignore it.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 4:34 pm**

St Francis of Assisi said it best. One day, someone saw him tending a garden and asked him what he'd do if Jesus came for him while he was tending his garden. He said, "I'd just keep tending my garden." Which means, he was already prepared. That's all that counts.

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 4:56 pm**

I haven't read everything posted here, but still want to just give you a bit of encouragement.

Just because you do not understand sections of the Bible, does not mean in any way you're not saved. Christ's apostles didn't get half of what Jesus said, they needed to be bashed over the head with His words! And they were the apostles. Also, remember that salvation is "by grace through faith" not through works.

If people say "you're not trying hard enough! you don't know enough!" etc. Just smile, and don't let it get to you. God will teach you and show you and help you at the rate He wants YOU to learn. We are to strive to be as Christ-like as possible, yes. Strive to understand. But just because we fail, or don't understand, or feel like "I have to know everything NOW!" it doesn't void our salvation in the slightest. (I struggle with "I have to know everything right now!" a lot. Not sure if you do.)

Sorry that answers nothing about the original question, but...just had to throw that out there. =) :hug:

PostPosted: **Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:27 pm**

TopazRaven, everything has pretty much been said but remember this: if you don't understand a verse/chapter etc. that doesn't make you stupid, it just means you have to explore what it really means. Of course there are some mysteries of God and his nature that we will never understand but a lot of the Bible can be better understood through knowing the context. Ask these questions? When did this take place? Who was the audience for this verse/chapter/book of the Bible? What was the situation? How does it line up with what you know of the God of the Bible. Don't stop asking questions, just remember CONTEXT is key.

PostPosted: **Sat Jan 29, 2011 10:17 pm**

TopazRaven (post: 1454621) wrote:I have heard people say that if you do not understand the bible then you are not saved and the Holy Spirit is not within you.

As others have clearly stated on here, that's completely false & you'd do well not to belive that one inch!

Indeed, there are millions around who are sincere belivers in Christ but either don't have access to a Bible (like in Africa, etc.) or/and aren't able to read it so for them to be labelled 'unbelievers' on that falsehood is completely unjust & unfounded (not to mention, even us sincere followers of Christ in the West where we do have access to Bibles & can read, we often don't fully understand it ourselves!)

Also, another point, the Jewish people & early Christians (like Paul, James, etc.) didn't really have a Bible as such (not in the way we have nowadays) but were they not saved or didn't have the Spirit with them because of that? Heck no! So there's another reason why that statement is very, very silly (and ironic, coz it shows that they themselves haven't really grasped the Bible's ultimate message!)

I get furious when I hear such blatant lies, so I've kind of gone on a rant here, haha! In short, God's grace is more than sufficient to cover anything we don't understand about the Bible & in life!

PostPosted: **Sat Jan 29, 2011 10:59 pm**

Well-said, JD. =)

PostPosted: **Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:27 am**

Aw, thanks everyone! You guys and girls never fail to be helpful. I'm so glad I found CAA 4 months ago.!

PostPosted: **Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:53 am**

If understanding the Bible keeps you away from Heaven, there must be a lot of illiterate medieval peasants who are missing out on Eternal Paradise.

PostPosted: **Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:09 am**

I get furious when I hear such blatant lies

CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Bible interpretation help please?

Bible interpretation help please?