But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Colossians 3:8-9
However, Brother At Peace has stated that these verses are to the unsaved see quote below:
John wanted the faithful to make available to men not yet in the faith, repentance from sin and life in Christ.
The sins unto death are those not repented of.
Previous Post Continued:
I have read a background on the book of Colossians and the reasoning for Paul writing to them. It appears that they were in error in some practices/teachings. You can see this in Colossians 2:18
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
My Note: I consider voluntary humility as being false humility.
So, if false teachings, this would speak a warning to the believer and not the unbeliever who had yet to come to Christ. I guess one could say that there were unbelievers attempting to undermine the person and work of Christ and the sufficiency of the salvation believers have in Him. So, again, this was an Epistle directed to a Christian community, which as the book of 1 John was, speaks to believers.
We have a tendency to forget that unlike today, they did not have the benefit of Scripture (NT). So, many churches were more prone to deviate or be influenced by practices/people we would now acknowledge through Scripture as communicating heresy. Probably more so here at Colossians, because from what I can find. The larger part if not the majority of this Christian Community were Gentiles and not Jewish. So, familiarity with OT Law and behavior would have been absent/unknown for the most part to them.
Which to me makes sense since even though the Epistle is small, it doesn't make mention of the OT that I can find, which Paul was prone to do in most of his letters that had mixed congregations.
Now as far as Brother At Peace's comment "
John wanted the faithful to make available to men not yet in the faith, repentance from sin and life in Christ.The sins unto death are those not repented of" if read as a stand alone comment and not tied to 1 John 5:16 specifically, would probably find acceptance with any one of us! I mean who would disagree with the belief that the Apostle John would have wanted those of faith to communicate to the unbeliever repentance from sin and life in Christ? Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing? I surely do, just not in the context to 1 John 5:16.
I just think that in this day and age what we look to define as "Perfect" is really attempting to say is a "Godly Perfection", and not a spiritual completion for actions to be done in the service of Christ Jesus. Think about Abraham. After the covenant to which he was called to be perfect (Genesis 17:1), in which he was to be perfect. He bargained with God on the saving of the righteous in Sodom & Gomorrah. Seriously, does anyone of us consider a perfect person doing this? Of course not, but does it mean in truth that the person is not perfect or is it our definition of what perfect means that needs redefining? However, I don't know if I'd call wheeling & dealing for the saving of righteous people as being a sin. How about lying? Abraham lied about his wife Sarah and made her out to be his sister. Is lying a sin? So, I truly believe that we need to change our outlook to what it means "to be perfect". Completion for the duties required of us by God? Might truly be closer in line with the reality and align with what scripture states, then one without error in ones life or
repented of sin. You can also look at Noah also called "just and perfect"......
Sorry Sister. It appears I have digressed to another subject!!! One in which I have held off on getting fully involved with!
Probably because it requires of me more than I'm willing do right now. Study, Research, Pray, etc.....which I'm doing, but not on this subject. Heavy sigh. Why couldn't the subject be on Love instead!!!!
I hope this additional input is helpful Dear Sister. You are a treasure here at Talk Jesus, and I pray continued blessings on you and yours.
With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
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