What does scripture say we must do?

[MT1926]

I was think about the saying “What Would Jesus Do” and it got me wondering how many verses are there in the New Testament that tell us about something that is expected of us to do or not to do.

I thought up a few to start the list:
Matthew 5:44-45
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Psalm 66:18
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
Matthew 6:14
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;

Thanks

 

[sirach2v4]

That’s the same question I’ve asked for years, although in a different context. Jesus told his disciples to baptize all nations, teaching them to observe all that [He] has commanded.

exactly, What has Jesus commanded?

A lot rides on this question. Is there some ‘minimum’ that we must do, or has Jesus passed his authority to the Church throughout the ages, to ‘interpret’ what Jesus commands, in each age? This leads to an open-ended answer, like should we baptize space aliens, if we ever encountered them? I guess the answer would be yes.

There are those instances when Jesus says something like “sin no more” to the woman caught in adultery, so does this (I assume it does ) apply to all of us? Is this adultery the more general kind of adultery, where we seek satisfaction in the flesh outside of religion?
can we ‘sin no more?’

 

[sirach2v4]

I wonder if anyone has taken the new testament, verse by verse, to enumerate the obligations we have, starting with faith itself, what we must believe?

for the old Testament, some teacher in about the 11th century decided there were 613 laws in the Torah. Those divide up into things that must be done and things that must never be done.

Observant Jews say a prayer for performing either type of Biblical command.

 

[MT1926]

I wonder if anyone has taken the new testament, verse by verse, to enumerate the obligations we have, starting with faith itself, what we must believe?

That’s kind of where I am trying to go here. Reading on the boards I often hear the term you just need to believe in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Ok that’s fine, but then it makes me wonder then why is the Bible so big? Couldn’t the Holy Spirit have gotten his point across in a few pages or one scroll at most. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve always been the type of person that says “I don’t really care what you say you know, show me what you can do with it.” Maybe I’m wrong but God made me this way.

 

[mikekle]

Im sure Jesus expects much more out of us in modern times, the only problem is, churches have a hard enough time getting people to come to mass once a week for one hour, I think they realize many people would not fulfill these obligations, plus if any of them interfered in anyway to our secular lives, Im sure they would try to find some way to justify NOT doing it.

If priests started telling everyone all these things they need to start doing to call themselves a christian, and call them out for not doing them, I think attendance would begin to suffer.

I notice many people at my parish in mass on sunday, if it goes just a little bit longer than 60 minutes, they start looking at their watches, fidgeting, etc…this tells me they really dont want to be there, they just want to put in their hour each week and be done with it.

Ive even asked my dad, a lifelong catholic who never misses mass on sunday, asked him how often religion, God or christianity come up in day to day conversations with other people (outside of the church), or how often he tries to get someone to join him at mass…he said rarely if ever, Id bet many other parishioners at my parish are the same way, its sad it is like this today.

The only place I saw the opposite was when I was in the Pentecostal church, services would generally start at 8am or 7pm evening, and sometimes they would go for an hour, sometimes 3-4 hours, but no one was fidgeting or checking the time, they wanted to be right where they were.

 

[JurisPrudens]

I was think about the saying “What Would Jesus Do” and it got me wondering how many verses are there in the New Testament that tell us about something that is expected of us to do or not to do.

I thought up a few to start the list:
Matthew 5:44-45
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Psalm 66:18
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
Matthew 6:14
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;

Thanks

Jesus set up a “minimum” and a “maximum” programs.

Here’s the minimum:

34But the Pharisees hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together: 35And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him: 36Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? 37Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. 38This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.

(Matthew 22)

Here’s the maximum:

34 A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.

(John 13)

 

[Sheeniac]

I think looking to the verses too much could lead to a checkbox mentality. (Which is tough for me because I’m a checkbox lover myself.)

I think we must focus on faith, hope and love/charity at a minimum. We are to spread the Gospel. And we are to love others as we love God. How do we show that we love others? By living the beatitudes.

IMO - a very important verse:

The Judgment of the Nations.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’

Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’

And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

MT 25:31-46

 

[Sheeniac]

That’s kind of where I am trying to go here. Reading on the boards I often hear the term you just need to believe in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Ok that’s fine, but then it makes me wonder then why is the Bible so big? Couldn’t the Holy Spirit have gotten his point across in a few pages or one scroll at most. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve always been the type of person that says “I don’t really care what you say you know, show me what you can do with it.” Maybe I’m wrong but God made me this way.

Just needing to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior isn’t enough. That’s more of a Prot. Evangelical belief.

The Bible is so big because it’s the story of salvation history. The OT has the Torah, the prophets, wisdom literature, history, etc. The people make the same mistakes over the centuries, and God repeatedly calls them back.

The NT has just the 4 Gospels, but also the letters from Paul, Peter, etc. to the young churches. There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from them. Reading the Bible (both OT and NT) increases your knowledge and understanding of God, but I would suggest getting a study bible to really gain insight. Little Rock Catholic Study Bible is pretty good.

 

[mikekle]

There is also the verse that says MANY that assume they are right with God, are in reality, NOT right, and will be cast aside…so that is kind of depressing to think about.

What if all the people who constantly try to go thru the bible and make sure they are abiding by everything they can, are the ones who this is referring to and the people who dont give it much thought and just try to do whats right and good in life, are the ones who will enter heaven?