James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. God told us to be Holy, because He's Holy. What's that mean? I like to take the example the Savior made for us of living sinless. The Bible says; He was tempted in all ways yet he didn't sin. That's what I want, but sometimes the flesh isn't willing to do so. I hate to sound simplistic here, but it's totally possible to live the way the Lord intends us to. The answer is CHOICE! “Everybody wants to enjoy heaven after they die, but they don’t want to be heavenly-minded while they live.” D.L. Moody
As much as I'd like it to be true, I don't believe it's possible for us to live a sinless life. Not while in the flesh anyways.
Sure. But how many of us always choose to make the right choice? I can't say I'm perfect in this. Can you? If so, tell me your secret.
No secret and I'm not perfect either. But God wouldn't have told us that he wants us to live sinless if it were impossible. John said: 1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
Ideally that would be wonderful. But notice the next sentence, "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:" He already knew we'd sin. Although He desires us to not to.
And by the way, I'm not saying that it's a loophole in order for us to sin, I'm just saying that He KNOWS we'll sin.
Depends on how we define "live how God wants us to live". Does he want us to live sinless? Yes. Does he expect us to live sinless? I don't think so. Is it choice? Yes. The fact is the Scripture speaks of glorification. Until then, we won't live sinless. Like Manny said, it's not an excuse to use to sin. But it is a fact to acknowledge to understand why we still do sin.
Joe, just for the sake of conversation, how would you define: 1 Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Just as Old Testament Israel was set apart by God from the surrounding nations to be holy, so also the church is to be set apart from sin to the service of God (2:9; Lev. 19:2). The Christian’s standard of and motivation for holiness is the absolute moral perfection of God Himself (v. 16; Matt. 5:48; Eph. 5:1).
Joe, look at the part that says "holy in all manner of conversation". All does mean all doesn't it? And conversation is the way we live isn't it?
Isn't conversation just the way we communicate? How we talk? I've never heard conversation used in such a broad sense.
If we are consistent with that hermeneutic, then I would have to say that none of us on this forum know God.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. If we take "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not" to mean "I am writing to you so that you can live a life without any instance of sin," creating, as Kant would say, a categorical imperative, then in order to be consistent, we have to also interpret v 3 to contain a categorical imperative, which in the negative corollary, would be "if we do not keep his commandments, then that is evidence that we do not know him." I'm not ready to say that failure to keep God's commandment means that I do not know Him, just as I am not willing to say that John wrote vs. 1, which anticipates the necessity for an advocate in the event (certain) that we would sin, to mean that I can be sinless in this life.