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Matt Shene's avatar

When Bonhoeffer analysed the Sermon on the Mount, he indicated that what could seem inconsistent - the ideas of being salt and light and the idea that our righteous acts should largely be hidden - is really very consistent. He says we as individuals can never know our own righteousness, lest we become enthralled with it and it becomes a massive missing of the mark. We must only know Christ, him crucified, and use all our power to follow the example he set. It's relational. It's immediate and present in every moment. It's not tied to big sets of rules. It's the complete opposite of idolatry. It's loving the fully God and fully man, Jesus, more than the cold logic and easiness of ideologies. Thank you for an excellent reminder of this fact!

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ViaVeritasVita's avatar

Causing me to muse upon Greeks, Hebrews, and Christians. Thinking that in Greek thought, although Zeus was "king" of the many gods, it was the Titan-god Prometheus, who was not an Olympus inhabitant, who created the human. What does that imply about the relative position of king-god and human? Moving on to the Hebrews: they perceived God as creator of universe and men, as judge, but very distant. He did not even provide them with His own name until Moses was sent to "do diplomacy" with Pharaoh. Enter upon the stage, Jesus of Nazareth, who speaks over and over again, of God as not only creator of men, of the universe, but as Daddy, who reaches out to embrace each of His children. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God. And so we are.

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