Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to ..... define everyone else according to our own definition.
(I am strongly sympathetic to, and (with caveats) in agreement with, what you say here.)
However, I would also like to suggest that the only real definitions that work are the ones that are mutually agreed upon.
A person who calls themselves a Christian doesn't really get to define what is and isn't a Christian except for himself and others who agree with him. Accordingly, there will, (kek, by definition) be others who call themselves Christian and who have a different definition than the other who says they aren't.
At that point, it becomes a fight for "orthodoxy", and that I would say is a fight that should ONLY be fought by the power of love, and not by the love of power.
In short, he who loves the most is the one whose definition is the most orthodox and authoritative. Which is also why God's definition is the one that counts, because God loves the most. Perhaps if one could love others MORE than God does, then maybe God would evan acquiesce and say, sure, your definition is the orthodox one.
Because above all things, God is true and God is love, and true (that is, unconditional, unselfish, principled and constructive) love is the most important authority in the universe.
kek. updoogle.
Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to ..... define everyone else according to our own definition.
(I am strongly sympathetic to, and (with caveats) in agreement with, what you say here.)
However, I would also like to suggest that the only real definitions that work are the ones that are mutually agreed upon.
A person who calls themselves a Christian doesn't really get to define what is and isn't a Christian except for himself and others who agree with him. Accordingly, there will, (kek, by definition) be others who call themselves Christian and who have a different definition than the other who says they aren't.
At that point, it becomes a fight for "orthodoxy", and that I would say is a fight that should ONLY be fought by the power of love, and not by the love of power.
In short, he who loves the most is the one whose definition is the most orthodox and authoritative. Which is also why God's definition is the one that counts, because God loves the most. Perhaps if one could love others MORE than God does, then maybe God would evan acquiesce and say, sure, your definition is the orthodox one.
Because above all things, God is true and God is love, and true (that is, unconditional, unselfish, principled and constructive) love is the most important authority in the universe.