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No, because Paul's words and Philpott's are very different. In view of "an eternal weight of glory," Paul could consider his temporary ("but for a moment") suffering "light." But this is a comparative statement, not a promise that God would make a Christian's suffering actually, in experience...

??? Romans 8:9-11 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of...

John 8:31-36 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that...

I wonder if Jesus thought to himself as he bore his cross to Golgotha, "The Spirit gives me strength, so my cross is no cross at all; the Spirit supports me, so my affliction is no affliction; I know I am pleasing my Father, so my trial is no trial; my sorrow is lightened by His love."...

You're right: No one arrives at sinless perfection this side of the grave - not in their practical, daily living anyway. But sin ought certainly to become an ever-increasing rarity in the life of a mature believer. The apostle Paul made this point very clearly, as did Peter and John: Romans...

What I look for is the life and work of the Holy Spirit in the one claiming to be born-again. Not the monkey babbling called tongues, not hysterical prostration, not dubious "healings," but what the New Testament describes as the normal experience of the Spirit by those indwelt by him. As...

2 Corinthians 13:5-6 (NASB) 5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? 6 But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. Paul, it...

I figured I'd get a reply like this...

Is there some good reason why you can't offer your own definitions? I'm interacting with you, after all, not Wikipedia. It seems to me, that if you can't be bothered to frame your own definitions, you can't be much interested in my answer. Why, then, should I bother to provide one? I know that...

Well, my answer depends upon what you mean by "realist" and "idealist."

I think of this verse in the light of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians: Ephesians 5:29 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it... Even the most self-loathing people I've met (I used to be one of these), feed, rest, bathe, clothe, shelter and protect...

No one knows what "complete surrender" actually is. For only after a person first surrenders to God, does He begin to reveal to them regions of their living that they did not understand would come under His control: their attitudes, their desires, their imaginations, their happiness, their...

You're being a bit pedantic here, I think. Please note the winking emoji at the end of my remark. It signifies - I had hoped - that I was being humorous and that you should not take my question as a serious universal statement about pastors.

Being a pastor, shouldn't he already be married? ;) In view of the fact that marriage is God's "institution" and only really works properly when He's at the center of it, illustrating the love of Christ for his "Bride," the Church, should a pastor be uniting together in this fundamentally...

Not until the sin of their fornication is addressed biblically. And is a couple obliged to marry simply because they've been fornicating together for a long time? I don't see any biblical ground for such a view. Their willingness to be in such a circumstance together indicates to me that...

There are so many... In my youth, Romans 6 gave me much confusion, especially everything before verse 13. My adolescent feelings and experience did not bear out what Paul had written in the first half of the chapter, though I knew I was a born-again child of God. Learning to "walk by faith, not...

We used to say in training: "The empty barrel makes the most noise."

Thanks for the appreciative reply to my post. I'm glad to know that you're not a "technique polisher," but want the "internal (spiritual) skills" of fellowship with God. When I read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, I see a description of godly living but a I don't see in the sermon any...

I used to train in the martial arts. In fact, I was a chief instructor for a little over twenty years (I trained for thirty years). As I trained and developed in my skills in the martial art, it became evident that there were a great many who were "polishing the exterior" of the various martial...

Well, I have offered to you God's word that contradicts directly and repeatedly what you've written here. You can ignore God's word if you like and persist in your unnecessarily laborious version of the Christian life that your used to, but you don't have to. There is a far better life God has...