1 John 4:20-21 and 1 Elwood 1:8

[Ian David]

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

---

See also:

1 Ellwood 1:8

1 ...and please remember people, that no matter who you are, and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there are still some things that make us all the same. you, me them, everybody, everybody.

2 Everybody needs somebody

3 Everybody needs somebody to love (someone to love)

4 Sweetheart to miss (sweetheart to miss)

5 Sugar to kiss (sugar to kiss)

6 I need you you you. I need you you you

7 I need you you you in the morning

8 I need you you you when my soul’s on fire

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/blues-brothers,-the/20711.html

[niallmac]

1. ..your just twisting the bible to support love...

:sarcasm: I mean I'm not very informed about the Bible but the Bushy folks tell me god wants me to hate gays and kill people who get in the way of democracy and uh, oil. I'm sure glad you found this off beat stuff though. Love thy neighbor. I think that would be a good message for the fundys. I'll let them know, and thanks for the monday morning inspiration :-)

[Ian David]

2. Well, I guess God will love you unless you eat shellfish

http://www.GodHatesShrimp.com

[papau]

3. What the Bible really says about gays

"(Can) Scripture be reinterpreted, ...on the basis of the lived experience of Christians, guided by the Holy Spirit.(?)"

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mcgough18jul1...

MICHAEL MCGOUGH author of "The Bible, Christianity and Homosexuality" (www.truthsetsfree.net )
What the Bible really says about gays
Liberal Christians can wield two weapons against conservatives on the issue of homosexuality.
By Michael McGough

July 18, 2005

Justin R. Cannon, a student at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., is one of the youngest combatants in the Christian culture wars. But he's a happy warrior because his contribution to the debate — an illuminating online analysis that argues the Bible doesn't condemn faithful gay relationships — has piqued the interest of clergy and laypeople across the country.<snip>

Revisionists such as Cannon are ingenious and often persuasive in arguing that strictures in both the Old and New Testaments that have been read to broadly condemn homosexuality were actually directed at particular offenses — male prostitution, a breach of hospitality (the real "sin of Sodom") or the insult to patriarchy represented by a male lying "with a man as one lies with a woman" (Leviticus 18:22).
<snip>

Sophisticated Christians have long recognized that, as a colleague of mine put it after launching his own Scripture study, "there's a lot of wacky stuff in the Bible." For example, Cannon points out that the same holiness code in Leviticus that prohibits men from lying with each other "as with a woman" also forbids the shaving of beards and the sowing of two kinds of seeds in the same field.

Conservatives argue that this doesn't mean that we're not to take Scripture literally, but only that some Old Testament rules are superseded by the Christian Gospel. But that thinking runs aground because the New Testament itself contains its own literal conundrums. In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul asserts that "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." But in the Epistle of James, he says: "A man is justified by works and not by faith alone." <snip>

[okasha]

4. The last is not Paul contradicting himself

but Paul in conflict with James as, apparently, he frequently was. So the question is, who's more dependable--the guy who fell off his horse on the way to Damascus, or Jesus' brother?