Can one be faithful without quoting scripture?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

In what sense have you used the word "love"? That is, emotional or intellectual? The Bible uses the word "love" to mean an intellectual decision to put the needs of another first. In the case of God, biblical love means we put a desire to please him above any of our own conflicting desires.

I think we agree, I mean love in a more intellectual sense - or better yet love as an act of the will. I think I address this in post #80 above.

St. Thomas Aquinas defines love as "to will the good of another". And it is to be understood that the highest good for another is for them to get to Heaven.

[exile]

"If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy who drives a plow to know more of the scriptures than you do."

"The preaching of God's word is hateful and contrary to them."

William Tyndale,1494-10/6/1536

I like what Aquinas said about love being to will the good of another person.

And yes, to lead a person to Christ is the highest good that one can do for them. And that always begins with the gospel, which is presented by, through and in accordance with, the scriptures.

exile

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

And that always begins with the gospel

by "begins with" do you mean that our efforts to love another must be rooted or grounded in the Gospel? Or do you mean that upon first encounter with another person, you must start quoting scripture?

Too much of my Christian life has been spent trying to get my emotions to line up with the good that I wish to do, and it always ends in failure.

AMEN!! Boy do I hear you loud and clear brother!

[1hole]

A wise man once observed that people don't care how much we know until they know how much we care - about them. Studying and knowing scripture is certainly good but little is gained when we, in effect, beat others over the head with our Bible knowledge and much can be lost by that kind of well meant effort.

Thing is, trying to scare the lost to come to faith from fear nearly always fails. The bottom line; non-believers obviously have no fear of God OR he77. After all, by definition they don't believe!

We really can't put the cart before the horse. In our witnessing for the Lord all we can reasonably hope for is to present Jesus and the Christian life as something desirable. Sadly, too few of us accomplish that. It's only AFTER people come to a saving faith - i.e., a born again faith - can they join Christians in trembling fear of he77 for the lost OR have a personal hunger for studying the Bible.

[exile]

I guess you have me there, you are correct in thinking that, in our efforts to see someone enter the kingdom of heaven, we must love them. And as far as preaching the gospel to someone when we first meet them is concerned, I tried that a lot when I was first a Christian and it was usually un-fruitful, ha, ha!

[1hole]

... as far as preaching the gospel to someone when we first meet them is concerned, I tried that a lot when I was first a Christian and it was usually un-fruitful, ha, ha!

Yeeah. But then most approaches to the lost are unfruitful, nothing works all the time and nothing anyone can do works most of the time. What we can do is try the most effective approaches we know of and try avoid the least effective. We can love 'em but we can't beat anyone into faith by hitting them on the head with a Bible, all that usually does is give them a raw sore spot.

Actually, the most effective things we can do for the lost is tell them what Jesus means in our lives and pray for them.

[exile]

Yeeah. But then most approaches to the lost are unfruitful, nothing works all the time and nothing anyone can do works most of the time. What we can do is try the most effective approaches we know of and try avoid the least effective. We can love 'em but we can't beat anyone into faith by hitting them on the head with a Bible, all that usually does is give them a raw sore spot.

Actually, the most effective things we can do for the lost is tell them what Jesus means in our lives and pray for them.

As Alistair Begg said, "No man is greater than his prayer life."

It seems to me that most people these days have become numb to the gospel. Back in the late '70's, early '80's, when I came to Christ there was a revival and it seemed that every day someone I knew was coming to know Christ as Savior and Lord.

Now, the millennial generation has not only rejected Christ, they have rejected absolute values as well in favor of new age spirituality. (Does anyone even use that term anymore?)

We truly do live in a post-Christian society. Nevertheless, the scripture clearly states that,

"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:40, N.A.S.B.)

[468]

I guess you have me there, you are correct in thinking that, in our efforts to see someone enter the kingdom of heaven, we must love them. And as far as preaching the gospel to someone when we first meet them is concerned, I tried that a lot when I was first a Christian and it was usually un-fruitful, ha, ha!

This makes much sense to me. Kinda like John in Romans...it seemed he had to “shmooze” his way into Rome to reach those to whom he wanted to preach. That is, he took a more indirect route...

...and here I was, saying you don’t have to quote scripture to...LOL

[rl69]

That's the difference in quoting scripture and beating somone over the head with it

[rl69]

Go back and read Romans 1:1 real quick