This is an important subject that we don't like to talk about, or even think about. Why should we deprive ourselves of anything we want? It's a self-indulgent culture, affluent, wealthy. If you can't be rich, then act rich!
But spiritual growth involves giving up. New Year is a good time to meditate on what we need to give up to be filled with the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:19).
6 comments:
"spiritual growth involves giving up"
Wise words, Larry. So true. Surrender is essential.
Giving up may be good but sacrificing is another matter!
Rob: would you care to explicate your intent? In ordinary usage giving up and sacrificing are considered to be rather synonymous.
Sacrificing can be a means of blackmailing e.g. "If I deny myself God will have to look after me."
Giving, by contrast,is true generosity. One gives without expecting anything in return.
So true, Rob. The Jews had tried sacrifice for centuries before Christ, but it availed them little. I found 360 uses of the word in the Bible and settled on two from the N.T., used with quite different connotations:
Matthew 9:13: But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
And Romans 12 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 to remind the Jews that God wanted something other than (beyond) sacrifice.
Paul poetically redeemed the word and gave it (in Rom 12) a goal that we may all strive to achieve, that is to say, glorified bodies.
yes
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