Christians, why do you ignore the words of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?

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SuperAtheistt

New member
Matthew 6:5-6:

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you"

And what about Luke 18:22?

"When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

I'm just curious why so many Christians who speak about the importance of following Jesus's teachings ignore the very words they allegedly believe to be instruction and guidance from Jesus himself?

This isn't like the icky OT laws christians like to ignore with the whole "We have a new convenant" excuse; this is directly from the Man Jesus himself...so, Christians, why do you extol the virtues of following the bible, when you 1) pray in the street where others can see you and 2) don't sell your possessions in order to give them to the poor?
 
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Eric

Active member
The first scripture reference means what? We are not to pray at all out in public? You are rather unclear what you are implying citing this passage. The Luke 18 cite you have pulled from out of context. Who was Jesus speaking to? A young rich man. Why did Jesus tell him that he was almost there spiritually? Because the young man still had a tremendous amount of wealth he was not suffering from a lack thereof. Jesus tested the young rich man by telling him he needed to be willing to part with everything that he had. Obviously, the young rich man did not wish to sell everything that he had in order to gain heaven. The message: the more "stuff" that we possess the less likely it is that we will be willing to give it all away if necessary. This is why it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven by becoming saved through Jesus Christ.

Christ wants His followers to give to the poor liberally, and to not make a great show of praying out in public. Does this mean one can't pray in public at all? No, for He did not ban all public praying, just the flowery showy eloquent flourish that is only intended to impress those within hearing distance. Your claim would prohibit me from saying grace out in any restaurant before eating a meal, which is against what God says a believer should do.
 
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Sassycajun

New member
I think what you are trying to say is that basically we were instructed to keep our prayer private between us and Him and many don't they go on and on in public making a spectacle of themselves. They other thing is you have those churches that believe in prosperity here on earth which does contradict the above scripture.
We have cherry pickers in all faiths, is all I can say.
 
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hellogoodbye1

New member
You are reading part of the Bible, and not the entire section. Jesus was talking to a man, who first of all, couldn't have kept all of the commandments since birth, and also, Jesus knew how much this mans money meant to him.
If you are going to try to "trap" Christians, at least make an effort to READ the Bible, and quote it accurately.
 
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primoa1970

Member
You obviously have no clue how to interpret Scripture using basic exegesis. Come back and try again when you receive the Holy Spirit. Because then and only then do you have a right to interpret the Bible
 
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jcsaves316

New member
the fact that you are atheist and using the bible to disprove the bible makes you intellectually ineligible to get an answer. I will throw psalm 14:1 into your trough though. God Bless
 
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ReceiveHim

New member
Once you receive the Holy Spirit, true wisdom will be revealed to you, brother.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." -
1 Corinthians 2:14

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." - 1 Cor 1:18
 
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LAMPLIGHTS

New member
Matthew 6:5-8; is referring to those who pray with improper motives.

A believers prayer must be '' God's will be done.'' [Matthew 6:8-14]

Luke 18:22;
Jesus' response to the this young ruler was to determine if his treasure lay with God;
or if his treasure was laid up in his [v 16] wealth. [Matthew 6:19-21]
 
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TrustMet

New member
A lot to tackle in a short space. The point of the prayer is not to HIDE your praying, it is to not draw attention in your praying. That is what the leaders at the time were doing, Praying loudly and in a manor to draw attention to how Holy they were. Praying should never draw attention to us, but be used as a conversation between us and the Father to seek out his will, to find the desires of his heart.

Second, Christ never said, be poor. If you read this you would be aware that he was talking to a rich young man, who placed his wealth first in his life. Nothing is to be place above our love for Christ. Wealth should never be horded up for wealths' sake. If we see a need we should try to help if we have the means to do so. But no where will you find, that God wanted his followers to be poor, and in need. That's not the point at all.
 
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