Dung

Self inflicted guilt because of sin, and or judging, convicting, or condemning others because of their sin is only beneficial if it’s done to bring them into stronger relationship with Jesus.

Paul counted all his righteousness and benefits of the “perfect” religious upbringing as dung for the sake of knowing Christ. (Phil. 3:8)

This means that Christ is the answer to mankind’s issues. Either the religious, like Paul, or the terrible sinner, like me, both need relationship with Christ.

In our culture we love to spend years making people religious in hopes that they will become intimate with God… The earlier followers of Christ had this same debate. Some folks wanted the New Testament Christians to be circumcised as they came to follow Christ. But the devout saw that this was not the way. (Acts 15)

In these days many aren’t converted unto Christ… their converted unto church and the laws their-in. And we wonder why the church is such a mess…

We have to 1. Follow Christ our selves. So that, 2. We convert people to Him. So that 3. Community is about being spiritual family with one another, not about vain traditions that have no power.