The jews were salt and light of the world. If the salt lost it’s savor it’s no good but to be trodden down and good for nothing. This was not a message to the church for Jesus said later the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and the new testament church wasn’t officially started. Unless you understand the historical context how can you understand what it means to the church?
The Jews were, and are disobedient, and suffer still for that same disobedience. A woman of Jewish ancestry who recently became Catholic said that Judaism had a “deadness” to it. The salt lost its flavor.
- The same way with Romans 7 and Paul’s frailty of man when he said; I do the things I don’t want to do and the things I don’t want to do I do etc. If they believe this is Paul as a new covenant believer then they run the risk of feeling that it is normal for a new covenant believer to live defeated. It doesn’t mean that we can’t fall into that state but it shouldn’t be the norm and you can’t be consistently victorious. If a person says they can’t help but sin then, what it says to your subconcious is that satan has more power to keep you in sin than God has to keep you from sin. How you believe about sin will usually determine how they live their life.
I see it as more about the retention of free will. Saint Paul teaches us to put on the whole armor of God, since on this earth we do battle with the forces of this earth. We remain human, with all of our frailties, but Jesus has “overcome this world”. Indulge me a bit and I’ll quote a very wise Saint: “For whether we desire it or not, we shall be tempted. If we do not struggle, we shall not be victorious, nor shall we merit the crown of immortal glory which God has prepared for those of us who are victorious and triumphant. Let us fear neither the temptation nor the tempter, for if we make use of the shield of faith and the armor of truth, they shall have no power whatsoever over us” - Saint Francis de Sales.
The fact is a christian can go to extreme on anything whether it’s apostolic authority, spiritualizing scripture when it should be literal or literal when it is more spiritual. There is a proper perspective and no matter how much we know we need to stay open and pliable to the spirit.
Jesus Christ is extreme! He sent Apostles forth, and they appointed successors. I read and listen to them, because through them, we have the bible, as well as the oldest organization on earth, the Catholic Church. My faith and trust remain in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The bible says to be like the bereans to see whether or not they say is true.
Paul describes the nature of the Bereans as “more noble” than the Thessalonians, and describes their actions. Since what they scrutinized was OT scrolls, they were rather clearly reading the prophets to see if Jesus was the One. Thus, they were not Sadducees, who did not accept the prophets. But, you and I know that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy, so we need both to study the scriptures as well as listen to Him. However, even the Bereans had to accept the non-scriptural oral Apostolic teaching from Paul. Otherwise, how would they have received the Gospel? None of the Gospel was written at that point. Who speaks for Him? “He who hears you hears Me”. Thus, we have successors to those same Apostles.
It didn’t say read their doctrinal interpretation until you understand it but to read, study, and understand the bible to see if their interpretation is correct.
Being Jews, their doctrine was that the Messiah was coming. Their reading was to see if Jesus was Him.
The same goes for those who use a few scriptures that sound like it’s the completion on a subject without all the scriptures on that given subject and correct context. The objective is to say the same thing so there be no schisms in the body. God bless! Jerry kelso
Thank you, Jerry. I must point out that the bible, a product of the Catholic Church, is 100% consistent with Catholic doctrine. Why? Because it is the Church that already existed which produced that same bible. Is there Catholic doctrine that is not in the bible? Certainly! The vast majority of what Jesus did and said is not in the bible, so the bible cannot be complete. It is “sufficient”, but Go does not desire us to have a “sufficient” relationship with Him He wants us to be as crazy about Him as He is about us. So, I want more than just sufficient.
We know also that divine revelation is but one of the means which our Lord uses to communicate with man. That is how Paul received the Gospel in the first place. He heard the Gospel before, and he read the prophets, but rejected it all. So, Paul did not receive the Gospel via scripture. Look beyond the bible. God does.
See? We have a different take on some things, but we agree on much more than you probably thought.
