Canonized Principles of Jesus

[Prodigal_Son]

What I am perceiving is integrity and diligence which are perhaps even more essential than the list I have requested.

Thank you. I hardly think those words apply to me, but I sure would like them to.

I once logged onto a Christian forum as “Reluctant Prophet”. I chose that name primarily just to stir the Christians although I found that it stirred the Secularists even more. But once chosen, those who knew me in r/t commented that the name really suited me.

Unfortunately the “Reluctant” aspect of the name came from the fact that I could only foresee very, very, seriously dark future for Mankind and thus was reluctant to go into such matters and discussions.

For the record, I am one who believes that prophecy is still active in our midst. It is a difficult gifting, precisely because there are still so many false prophets about. I obviously am not qualified to know if your inklings are from God or not, but I can tell that – unlike the great multitude that likes to hear themselves speak – you speak with authority. This is a wonderful and a dangerous gift (perhaps, as Jesus would testify, most dangerous to yourself).

I consider the accurate list to be as the “DNA” of Jesus. Long ago, I felt that the resurrected Jesus seemed to be missing one significant “gene” from his “DNA”. That gene related to the promotion of the attempt to understand (whether entirely accomplishable or not). Jesus taught in a time when Solomon had already emphasized the need to “seek understanding” and wisdom so Jesus had no need to preach on such effort.

Perhaps it was necessary that Jesus not focus on seeking understanding – simply because so few people understand the difference between knowledge and understanding. (The Greek is vague about this, too, if I remember; no doubt, scholars would have mixed up the senses, and translated understanding “knowledge”). If Jesus had emphasized understanding more, perhaps the scientizing tendencies (to coin a term) of the modern day would go completely overboard.

Speculation aside, though, I sympathize with your sense that Christians need to focus more on understanding and wisdom. Paul’s letters give helpful guidelines for this.

But it seems the result of him not preaching on that issue left his pursuant church to under-emphasis the need to at least try toward understanding rather than merely be awestruck and mystified by the glory.

These things – awe and understanding – must be held in tension. “Wisdom *begins *in wonder”. It doesn’t end there.

The idea is basically that in all directions, the essential understanding of exactly what Jesus stood upon be canonized so that it could be cross checked and verified with any new “cell” being developed. This means that as A leads to B, B is verified to be fundamentally exactly what A was at its core. But further, as B leads to C, C is also verified against A so as to “double stitch” the body of Jesus into a more solidly pure being.

What is most essential is that his principles be very clearly stated with its words well defined. Without clarity, clouds, disorder, dust, uncleanliness, and germs grow out of control and my house would begin to look, well… like Christianity.

Certainly an interesting idea, perhaps even an inspired one. Anything that centers us more on the person of Jesus is a good thing. Jesus also said, “he who is not against me is with me”, which applies well to such a, shall I say, mysterious person as yourself.

I find it interesting that no one has yet mentioned what Jesus declared to be the utmost important “commandment” - “Love God”. Without that one principle, the others are irrelevant, not merely because Jesus said it was the highest of all commandments, but because he was right.

Good point – guess I failed the quiz. **Love, devotion and thankfulness to God is the fundamental disposition of a Christian. **It is, in essence, an attitude toward everything (cosmos), because everything proceeds from God.

Another principle I missed: The greatest among you is the one who serves. This is self-explanatory, I hope. (Its corollary is that we ought to desire greatness – humility is *not *desiring to be a happy nobody forever!).

 

[James_S_Saint]

1. “Love, devotion, and thankfulness to God is the fundamental disposition of a Christian.”
2. “…what mattered was a man’s heart…”
3. “…you must love everyone…”
4. “…we must die to our own desires…”
5. “…we must immerse ourselves in the world of the poor and needy…”
6. “The greatest among you is the one who serves.” {sad to think that there might only be one, huh }
7. …?
   .
   .
   Final) …?

– humility is *not *desiring to be a happy nobody forever!).

To me, “humility” means being very careful to ensure that your thoughts, desires, and actions truly are of Truth/God/Reality. This does not require that a person be downtrodden or poor. In fact, by ensuring such, even after a poor start, one gains the probability of causing quite the opposite.

But then, as life would have it, the more humble a person has been through life, the less they have reason to doubt what they have come to believe and thus all the more tempted to stop ensuring accuracy. Yet accuracy is always the issue. To “sin” is to be inaccurate, to “miss the mark”, to presume.

[SIGN]To be humble is to avoid presumption. That is why God favors the humble.[/SIGN]

“In My Humble Opinion” -

 

[shoewindow3000]

To be humble is to realize that your entire existence and everyone and everything in your life is by the will of God (even if that means accepting humiliations in life that God gives you.). It means that you don’t care AT ALL what other people think or say about you.
I remember I heard a priest say once,* “The moment you realize that you are humble, is the same moment you are no longer humble.”*

Sin is when your will contradicts God’s will. Likewise, when something contradicts your will, we call it “pain.” Patience is the willful endurance of pain.

If you want God to be patient toward you, a sinner, shouldn’t you be patient toward someone God puts into your life?​

What is wrong with the Sermon on the Mount? It is a summary of Christ’s teachings.
Just read the gospel.

I think you are looking for a magical “aha” moment, but there isn’t one. You are supposed to grow in God.
Instead of going in circles with empty philosophy, just humble yourself before God and ask God, and then listen to what God says.