John 5:14

[Apple]

I read John 5: 1-15 this morning and I liked the passage very much until I came to verse 14 which confused me.

"See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

My understanding of what Jesus is saying (and please don't shout me down if I am wrong) is that bad things happen to you if you sin. Ummmm!!!!!!

Therefore, if you take that thought further, we could say that hospitals are full of sinners and night clubs (or other places where healthy people go) are full of people who don't sin!

Now I don't believe that myself, but isn't that what Jesus is saying? - which means that I should believe it!!!!

Am I understanding this incorrectly or is it saying that if you don't sin you will only experience good things in your life?

 

[ladylovesJesus]

We are all sinners saved by grace. We do sin, but when we confess our sins according to 1 John 1.9 God forgives us our sins and does not remember them.
We are not to go on sinning deliberately knowing that we will be forgiven. When we do sin we need to keep short accounts with God and confess our sins to Him.

We will all suffer trials and tribulations as it says in the Word, BUT God is with us through all our storms in life. He goes through them with us.

There is a book called Why do bad things happen to good people.

All we do know is when people do bad things to us God tells us to turn the other cheek and not seek to get our own back as
Romans 12.19 says

Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

20. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.


I just went to look at this passage in another version and the message says:

14A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, "You look wonderful! You're well! Don't return to a sinning life or something worse might happen."

My understanding of this passage is to tell the man he needs to stop deliberately living a sinful life.

God bless

Love in Christ :rainbow: :rose:

 

[Apple]

When we do sin we need to keep short accounts with God and confess our sins to Him.

Thank you for your reply. My next question stems from it though, as in your quote above.

Do we always know when we are sinning?

This morning, I did something wrong and I asked God to forgive me.

However, to keep a short account with God, you need to know when you are sinning.

I suppose that I am frightened that I won't know when I have sinned. Don't get me wrong - some things are OBVIOUS, but other things might not be. From my simple understanding of this, there might be things that I do and say that I don't even know are sin in the eyes of God.

Hope that this makes sense to you.

 

[ladylovesJesus]

It does make sense but the good news is the Holy Spirit will convict us when we sin. What we do has to line up with the Bible. We have to be careful what we say as death and life are in the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18.21.

Do not worry, you are doing great and just be led by the Holy Spirit guiding you. We are not under condemnation. The enemy is the accuser do not listen to Father of all lies.

God is gentle and will be the quiet still voice not in an accusing way. Hope this makes sense to you.

God bless

Love in Christ :rainbow: :rose:

 

[Apple]

It does make sense but the good news is the Holy Spirit will convict us when we sin.

Sorry, but I just have to ask this:

How does the Holy Spirit convict us when we sin?

 

[MAJ52653]

No. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you would no doubt include a one way trip to hell. Now surely that would indeed be something worse.

 

[Chad]

Sorry, but I just have to ask this:

How does the Holy Spirit convict us when we sin?

In such a case, its usually a simply obvious thing. For example, we may feel guilty, regretful, embarrassed. We may feel down. These "feelings" are actually gifts from the Holy Spirit for our sake to let us know, to warn us when we do wrong. Of course, we still need to study the Word to gain more wisdom as well of what GOD says directly.

 

[Apple]

"In such a case, its usually a simply obvious thing. For example, we may feel guilty, regretful, embarrassed. We may feel down."

So how is conviction by the Holy Spirit different to my conscience? My conscience does all of those things when I have done something that I am aware of as being wrong?

My question still stands:

" Do we always know when we are sinning?"

Once you become a Christian, you are playing by a 'new set of rules', (found in the Bible). I understand that. But to begin with, nobody can expect me to know 'all the rules'. Some of the rules are obvious eg do not kill, do not lie, but how can I keep a short 'account with God' based on what I don't know?

My conscience will only convict me of things that I know are wrong. Will the Holy Spirit convict me of the things that I don't know are wrong?

 

[Word of Life]

When you receive the Holy Spirit, our Father will tell us when things are not good and what things are sinful, the Holy Spirit will help you and guide you to become more Holy each day.

But before being saved, and I don't know about anybody else, but when I did things wrong, I didn't care, it didn't bother me what I was doing, I just went on my merrily way. Of course, I did apologize to people, if I did something wrong to someone, but those words which came out of my mouth, did not come from heart, I did not truly mean those words, (btw, I only know that now) it was more of like a ritual coming out of my mouth then genuinely saying I was sorry and meaning it, because that's what our parents taught me to say when we were kids, when you do something wrong, just apologize. I wasn't taught only say it, if I meant it from my heart. Of course you will see a big difference here, this is why the world is in such a mess. So I just used those words as an escape goat, if you like, just so things would be okay again, until the next time and of course I would say it again. It was never from my heart.

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Joh 16:9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Joh 16:10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
Joh 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Now when you are born again in Spirit, God will comes to you and gives you a new heart. He knows whether you mean what you say or not, But when you speak the words out of your mouth, to a friend or a family member, they won't, but God will and He will help you and guide you, so that you become more Holy and He will help you not to say those things or commit sin. But this of course does takes time.

You see, the flesh can still commit sin, but your spirit can't, this is a daily battle for all Christians. One needs to renew their mind to Gods ways, which is a daily process.

Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.


Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

By transforming your mind, one needs to stay in the Word, speak to God a lot and pray for help when you need it and be around Christian people.

 

[Apple]

When you receive the Holy Spirit, our Father will tell us when things are not good and what things are sinful, the Holy Spirit will help you and guide you to become more Holy each day.

OK - thanks for your reply. I am just going to hold on to the fact that the Holy Spirit will (somehow??) tell me when I have done something wrong.

Thanks

 

[Tonyb]

No. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you would no doubt include a one way trip to hell.

Not necessarily, I believe it is more likely to mean the man could become more sickly that he was prior to the healing.

As for the sin he was committing I'm inclined to believe it was a life style sin, something that had become part of his daily life. Such sins can be quite destructive to the physical body over a period of time.

 

[Chad]

1 John 5:15-17

15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

James 1:14-16

14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

 

[Apple]

Are these verses in response to my question? If so, could you please explain what they mean?

 

[Chad]

I was simply clarifying that sin can/does lead to death. That's all. As Scripture says, some sin leads to death while others do not. Being Christians, we are to try to imitate Christ who was sinless.

 

[Apple]

So are there different degrees of sin? I thought that if you did something wrong, whatever it was, then that was called sin.

Which sins do not lead to death? I don't understand that as that suggests that it is OK to do those sins!

I do, however, understand that our aim should be to be sinless, like Jesus.

 

[Chad]

Nothing in Scripture says it is "ok to sin". Just because a sin does not lead to death, it does not mean its ok to sin.

This is a portion of an article from Got Questions:

The “sin unto death” is deliberate, willful, continuous, unrepentant sin. God, in His grace, allows His children to sin without immediately punishing them. However, there comes a point when God will no longer allow a believer to continue in unrepentant sin. When this point is reached, God sometimes decides to punish a Christian, even to the point of taking his or her life. That is what He did in Acts 5:1-10, and 1 Corinthians 11:28-32.

 

[Tonyb]

Lot's of sins are destructive in the sense that they can cause emotional and physical sickness. Repressed anger, bitterness, resentment unduly high levels of anxiety unpleasant stuff like that can wreck someones health. It's not meant to be an exhaustive list by any means, I'm not a counselor so I tend to keep out of areas where I have no expertise.

No sin is helpful but we have 1 John 1:9 so we can walk free from sin. The type of sins I mentioned above can go on for years with some people with out being resolved and could in some cases lead to an untimely death.

Blessings,
Tony

 

[Apple]

Gosh! - This is really worrying stuff!

I'm really quite horrified by your posts but thank you for sharing this with me.

 

[Mouse]

OK - thanks for your reply. I am just going to hold on to the fact that the Holy Spirit will (somehow??) tell me when I have done something wrong.

Thanks

That's what I'd advice too. Always ask God to show our sins because we are sometimes not aware of them. But there are different ways in sinning. There is a worse kind which is (I think I have the correct word): mortal sins. It's when you know something is a sin and you do it anyway. Maybe Jesus was referring to that more so in this verse.

Sometimes when I read verses like that I feel that we are all doomed

 

[spiritfilledjm]

I read John 5: 1-15 this morning and I liked the passage very much until I came to verse 14 which confused me.

"See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

My understanding of what Jesus is saying (and please don't shout me down if I am wrong) is that bad things happen to you if you sin. Ummmm!!!!!!

This part is right...

Therefore, if you take that thought further, we could say that hospitals are full of sinners and night clubs (or other places where healthy people go) are full of people who don't sin!

Now I don't believe that myself, but isn't that what Jesus is saying? - which means that I should believe it!!!!

Am I understanding this incorrectly or is it saying that if you don't sin you will only experience good things in your life?

This part is wrong...Night clubs are full of people who sin. In fact the Bible says that We all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23) so, basically, everywhere you go there are people who have sinned.