Why you don't get what you ask from Christains! This topic is based on http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1913461 Matthew 5:42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Since there is a lot of Atheists whom think that this means that Christians deserve to give to anyone for anything I figured this will stop up the half of you. lol 1) You are reading the this verse wrong. If you read all of Matthew then you'd know straight away that the verse is indended for the people who are in NEED, not clever twerps. 2) The meaning of the verse is to give generously. It doesn't promote being unwise with your money. Consider the expression "Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice shame on me". It simple meaning is to teach people that they should not be foolish. 3) It does not say that Jesus allows you to take just one statement and ignore the others. The legal code says 'No Jaywalking' yet if you see a man collapsed in the center of the street you are wrong/evil/a bad citizen if you don't go out there and help him. Does that change the jaywalking law. No. Why do you think the bible reports Jesus and Paul NOT turning the other cheek when they were struck. 4) Jesus said "it is sinful to take one verse in isolation". That is what you are doing. Example: When you were a kid and Mom said don't leave the house, what would you do if it caught fire? Stay in the house ? Of course not. The verse is set on certian guidelines. That explains why it is NOT a Commandment. 5) The bible states in several verses and paragraphs on the importance of not being attached to our worldly possessions. Hense giving money does not help, its hurting. 6) Jesus also said to pray for those who spitefully use you. I believe this is what God wants, not to give the $2000. 7) The atheists tend to take most all scriptures out of context, and interpret them to their benefit. The same way for example as when you talk to the police and you say "I didn't kill him" then they say in court She/he said "kill him". Then acuse you as an accessory of Murder. It takes a shallow minded person to misunderstand something when it's deep reasoning and meaningful purpose is before their eyes. The type of usage of that scripture by their standards, sounds to me like extortion. 8) Proverbs 23:9 Do not speak wisdom in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. THIS IS PROPABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND BETTER 9) From the time of the early Church Fathers a prominent interpretation has been an emphasis on the context of Jesus' preaching: the coming Kingdom of God (which he was introducing.) Jesus was explaining how the "rules of life" would be very different in the Kingdom of God and entirely based upon the concept of love. So in the particular verse you cited, a citizen of the Kingdom (as introduced at the beginning of Matthew chapter 5 with the Beatitudes) would not turn down a hungry person who asks for a LOAN ("borrow"). [In that culture, a loan was understood as something needed for survival until the person could get sufficient work to pay for food -- not a business loan, home mortgage, or car loan! The average person just didn't deal with borrowing except for purposes of survival.] So in the Kingdom, the citizen was not to ignore the hungry neighbor but was driven to say YES when someone asked for a loan for that day's food. Indeed, in that culture, many people depended on their labor of that day to pay for that day's food, and so if they couldn't work for some reason, they went hungry that day. Jesus was NOT addressing the situation of some lazy fool simply coming up to a person and demanding money for no urgent, life-saving purpose. Jesus' audience understood this context, in part from the teachings of various rabbis. So what is often a mystery to people today when they read the Bible was not so mysterious to those in first century Palestine.
Why do you need to follow some old book to be a good person, I never understood the concept. Just love the other and remain pure, I promise you will get closer to god.
If you need an organized, funded religion, or a book to tell you how to be good, you're probably trying to compensate for how bad of a person you truly are. Do not kill? No way, who would've thought?
posted by Laceygirl: With no offence intended, at least as many people calling themselves Christians also do that. I do agree with the point re the referenced thread -- that people who try to spot quote the Bible in order to "Gotcha!" Christians are simply playing at silly, sometimes stupid and occasionally vicious games. Frank
Its not about the commandment. It is about the moral code that lives within a faithful Christian and its consequences to maintain integrity in life.
Its not a christians responsibility to read the bible with 100% understanding. In general all people will mis-read stuff in it but that does not make them wannabe christians. People are prone to mistakes. Both Christians and Atheists do try to GOTCHA move. Its a matter of who is intending to do it on purpose.
Another nice cop out and contrived rationalisation that allows them to completely disregard the bits of bible they disagree with. I agree with you, you shouldn't do what the bible tells you to do. Shame you have to pretend to believe otherwise though.
Christianity is the beliefs of those who abandoned the Saint - and is a denial for the true path that is likewise lost (to them).
There is nine reasons why that I've explained. Feel free to Atheist around by twisting, turning, avoiding the facts, and throwing random insults. Above hold more information that you can handle and I didn't avoid the quesiton once. I didn't cop out of what the bible tells people to do. Its just because you are an active atheist you twist up little bible quotes and turn them into something else. This one is for you "Jesus was NOT addressing the situation of some lazy fool simply coming up to a person and demanding money for no urgent, life-saving purpose." (DUH, Stox) This is why you turn to simple arguments such as rationalisation and cop out. Its called defeat. This what I find funny about you Stox. You spend a week saying that I'm avoiding to answer the question, then you and your little twerp friends laugh about it, and when I give you an answer, look what you babble on here. Give it up, the Mathew 5:42 dispute has been fully explained, if you can't handle it then please post again with your argument psychosis junk.
Before or after you get together with all of your friends and attack people? http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5206/helvetti.jpg http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4760/stox.jpg You must not be able to read correctly. Go see the first post On a side note: I find it extremely sad that me and you possibly share one thing in common that no one else does(if it is your site). We both have sites about dinosaurs.....
I understand it, i just think it's banal and trite. You seem to think that talking like some mystic in a cave is a valid alternative to making a substantive point. It's almost like with every post you make you stand there waiting for us all to say "wow, deep man" like you are some kind of bohemian prophet.
King James Bible Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. God bless!
Just how the Christian fable above may be accomplished is not possible without first bringing to justice those who crucified the Saint and likewise absolve themselves of their abandonment at the same time and or renounce the falsity of Christianity - Judaism - Islam and accept the one true commandment, to seek for themselves their own remission - through the understanding of the Garden / Universe given for the purpose for man to follow.....at any rate, the everlasting is the Garden that those religions prove theirselves to be false by its omission.