What about the servant with the 1 talent? Did he go to hell?

What are you listening to Joyce Meyer for? She's Word Faith and has said that Christ had to go to hell and fight Satan to pay our sins. Don't listen to her -- she'll get you all mixed up.

The Bible says that when we believe, we are saved. Period.

Read Jn. 5.24.

Works flow from faith -- this is what the book of James is about. And Galatians 3 says that if we start by faith, we finish by faith. Heb. 11 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

So you were saved by faith and now you walk by faith. Ask God for help and lean on Christ -- don't try to do things out of your own strength. I hope you're in a good church.

 

If I like a person, I will do anything for them. The like experience came first. I do, not to keep their friendship, but because we are friends.

A reasonable analogy of our relationship with Christ in salvation. He provided the saving grace and the gift of faith. I provides the resulting works because I love Him. He loves me regardless, but sometimes He must slap my hands..that too is love, and has nothing to do with my relationship with Him.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Well, it should scare you, but not because it concerns your spiritual salvation. This is about obedience and profitableness; rewards, loss, and chastisement. Every saved person should be profitable, but many are not. (Some even cost the "company" money.)

 

If you are worried about it, then you are doing the right thing! That is a normal reaction for a Christian. God will show you the answer in His time, set yourself to seeking God and growing in your relationship with Him.

Charles Swindoll is another sound christian preacher that I think you will find has many helpful answers.

http://www.insight.org/

 

We absolutely cannot do anything to earn salvation, we must rely on the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, for eternal life.

But the proper response if yuou have really seen and known the love of Jesus for you ...if it has had its work on your heart will be to want to find out what pleases God and to align yourself in every way with His will.

Self must die all the way around. Self wants to somehow think it can "earn" salvation, Self also thinks only of itself and wants to go to heaven but doesnt care about God or about doing good works to glorify God and to show the world His character of love.

Self has to die in both respects.

Rely totally and completely on the atonement of Christ for your sins. Seek the Holy Spirit and study the Bible as never before to find out what God would have you do and what sin He would have removed from your life. Do this out of your love for God and from the gratitude you have for Him sending His son Jesus to die for you.

Serving God should not be done out of fear of "Hell" or punishment, if it is then you are just as selfish as you always were and wont be in heaven anyway, because heaven is for those who love God.

Total humility involves realizing you can do nothing to save yourself and then a complete surrender of your self to love God with all your heart, mind and soul, endeavoring to please Him in every way, but even this is done throught the power of Christ alone and by faith in His promises. "I can do all things through Christ who strenghthens me".

Claudia

 

It is absolutely true that you can do nothing to save yourself, but you can do many things to be obedient.

Your statement that serving should not be done out of fear is true, but if you do serve just out of fear, you are still serving. (But, how much more joyous to serve out of love!) You can serve under law or under grace, as well. Remember, Ishmael still had an inheritance (he was a son under the law), but Isaac, the child born of faith, had a much greater inheritance!

But, thankfully, being selfish doesn't determine whether or not you're in heaven. We're not saved by our works, we don't stay saved by our works, and we don't even have to prove our salvation by our works. Our salvation is dependent solely upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus. (Now, selfishness will affect your inheritance...)

 

The person with one talent was saved, but they lost any rewared they would have received. The servant is not to be compared to the 5 foolish virgins, who were not saved.

 

The last post, I was thinking of something else when I typed it. I believe both the person with one talent, and the five virgins were not saved, which was contradictory to what I posted.

 

They're "his" servants, and virgins are pure, but it obviously means that they're not "his" servants and they're not clean? What kind of reasoning is that?

You were correct in your first post: It has to do with rewards; it has to do with inheritance. It doesn't have anything to do with spiritual salvation beyond the fact that thew were "his" servants.

 

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Serving God should not be done out of fear of "Hell" or punishment, if it is then you are just as selfish as you always were and wont be in heaven anyway, because heaven is for those who love God.

Total humility involves realizing you can do nothing to save yourself
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Wow, you don't go to heaven because you don't want to go to Hell? THAT'S A NEW ONE! Claudia, let that medication wear off before you post! (just jokin ) But I don't understand how that could be the case.

Dustin

 

Dustin

Why do you think that every person would be happier in Heaven? You think Hitler, Nero, and Pol POt would?

 

Dustin,

My medication causes me to be able to view everything on a much higher plain of thought that everybody else ..I would share some with you but then I wouldnt have as much of it that I need so that I can continue to enlighten everybody. (just being silly, of course)

Seriously though, I shouldve stated that in a more precise way.

You of course can be motivated lots of times by fear, I mean, many times the prophets of the old testament put the fear of God in people... and even in the new testament it says:

Jude:1:
22: And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.


Sometimes you do need the eebie jeebies scared out of you so that you can realize you need to get your life in order.

But for the most part, we ought to serve God out of love. There is a heavean to gain and a hell to shun.

But Jesus said, If you LOVE ME keep my commandments.

Think about if your children only obeyed you because they were afraid of punishment. If the punishment were removd would they then just go out and do whatever they wanted to do? Love is a long-lasting motivation.

Claudia

 

HopeofGlory,

What you say doesnt reconcile with all the many Bible passages that say we must "die" to self.

Col:3:3: For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Rom:6:11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

16: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

20: For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21: What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22: But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

If we refuse to mortify our old sinful deeds of the flesh then we will not be in heaven. We must "die".

Its kinda like either die now or die later... forever

Jn:12:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.


so its not like it doesnt matter whether or not you still hold onto your old sinfaul ways and that you will go to heaven either way but get some kind of "better" reward if you do one thing and a not so good reward if you dont...


Hey lets put it this way, you must be born again!

How can you be born again if your old man of sin doesnt die first!

Mt:6:22: The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Mt:9:17: Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Claudia

 

Just trust in Christ, and use any oppourtunities God gives you. Nothing you do will EVER be enough to get you to heaven. Ask God to show you what your calling is. Keep in prayer! I want to remind you that witnessing is not the ONLY thing you can do for God, but it's one of the most important. God uses sometimes the SMALLEST things to start to change someones heart. For me, it was a lady at my old job cursing me out! Just ask God what His plan is for you, and He will answer.

 

xdisciplex:

Mk:4:28: For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

If you are a new Christian, then you should first realize that it takes time to develop. God isnt going to expect you to know all that you are supposed to be doing right away. These things take time.

You ought to begin by focusing upon the idea of beholding Jesus. Meaning, set aside an hour or more each day just reading the Bible, getting to know God, getting to know Jesus. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth and to enlighten you each day.

Spend about half an hour at least just talking to God as you would to a friend. Tell Him all your problems, all your sorrows all your joys, everything that perplexes you. Get to know God.

Naturally, you will develop and learn more and more.

It sounds to me that right now you are so full of anxiety all the time that you cant even breathe. Its like you are hyperventilating. Relax.

The first thing to do is to realize that God understands your weaknesses and your confusion.

Begin writing down or typing out every Bible promise you find and group them together into categories, such as verses about trust, verses about whatever. Then when you have a problem understanding something, for instance, go look up and ponder over all the verses about God promising to give you wisdom. Learn to trust God, this takes time.

Do the same thing with Bible topics, group together verses you find on different topics and do a bible study on each of them. Find out for yourself what the Bible teaches about different subjects.

Every day, take time to behold Jesus. Read Matthew, Mark Luke and John and really think about what Jesus is saying, what He is really like... His love, His purity. As you do this, you will develop more and more of a longing to become like Him and you will trust more and more in Him to make a change in you.

Because you know what? all of us can tell you what we THINK but God KNOWS exactly what you need. He knows the exact answers to all your questions.

If you will do as I just said, you will get closer and closer to God and your fears and anxiety will melt away, replaced by an earnest longing to please God instead of worrying you are going to hell for not doing the right thing.

Claudia

 

Live by faith. You are saved by "believe", but you should live by faith. To live by faith means that you go beyond simply being just, which is obeying the laws of God: Don't murder, don't steal, etc.

Study the Scriptures daily, and follow the leading of God.

 

You can find this same idea in many places.

Matt 7 Christ said "NOT everyone who SAYS Lord Lord but he who DOES The will of my Father"

In Romans 2 Paul says "NOT the hearers of the Law but the DOERS will be justified"

In James 2 James says "SO live and act as those who ARE to be judged by the Law of Liberty" and he points out "for if you transgress one command you transgress all".

Paul says in Romans 3 "do we then make VOID the law of God by our faith?? God forbid!! In fact we establish the Law of God".

In 1John 2 John says "He who SAYS He knows Christ must also WALK as Christ walked - if he does not he is a liar".

Actually Paul spends a lot of time on this point in Romans 2 --

Some treat this part of the NT as "the bad Bible" that must not be exposed to the light of day.

But it is actually all through scripture and is not contraty to "justification by faith through Grace" because it SHOWS us the truth of God's Word about the fruit from a good tree (in Matt 7) vs the fruit from a bad tree "By their fruits you shall know them".

Indeed the one with one talent Who did nothing - was lost.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Inded this is forgiveness revoked!

Indeed the one with one talent given to him by God and yet did nothing - was lost.

In Christ,

Bob