Some believers lose their beans when Paul lists various sins and then tells people what they stand to lose should they chronically commit them. These believers who now have fewer beans can’t understand why Paul would do this after declaring believers justified, conciliated to God, and telling them to present
themselves to God as if alive from among the dead.
I can understand this confusion and why people might tend to accuse Paul of reverting to the law of Moses—but in a sneaky way. And yet this is not at all what is happening. The bean-losers say to me, “We’re just going to ignore those verses. We don’t like them. There is no way we’re going back to ‘Do
this’ and ‘Don’t do that.’”
I say to these folks, “Good! Because these verses are not FOR you. They are for the people with the potential to be helped by these exhortations, for whom these exhortations are a goad dissuading them from doing things that, although they could never imperil their salvation, could nevertheless screw up their lives,
hurt those around them, and cause them a loss of certain wages at the dais of Christ.
I have noticed one thing in common with the complainers (or those, perhaps, who are merely confused about this—until this video, of course): These people are, to a man, leading mild and quiet lives. That is, they are not committing those categories of sins that could cause forfeiture of special blessings (above and beyond
salvation) at the dais of Christ.
“I can’t read these verses!” say these people. To which I answer, “Then don’t! They're not for you! But don’t deny these verses to those whom they were designed to help.”
God has built into the evangel what I call “safety valves”—exhortations that serve as nudges to keep certain people away from worldly trouble for their own eonian benefit.
