The TWO golden rules our society HAS FORGOTTEN!!

[LinkJ86]

In my opinion and after years and years of just studying and learning about Jesus and his teachings in the bible, i have come to concluded that Jesus was a liberal in his time. He told the pharoahs, who were obsessed with following rules, rules, rules, to only keep my two commandments which is Love your God with all ur heart, AND love your neighbor as you love yourself. So as you can see Jesus himself was a very free thinking and very liberal person, and thats y the govt at that time was on his case so much, they did not like how he was challenging them. So my point is that in today's society and in churches is that we are much like those pharoahs back in that time, obsessed with rules, rules and rules, and this is true because I have met so many people who dont believe that they are good enough to be saved or to even be called a christian because they cant follow with all the rules that are in the bible, well what they dont kno is that only through faith in christ is the way to salvatioin but because the church is constantly focused on "dont do this or dont do that" that is why so many people feel that following countless amounts of rules is what christianity is about. But I disagree and so did Jesus himself, I myself have adopted a very liberal view of christianity, I think that all those rules that are said in the bible are only said to reinforce the idea of loving ur god and ur neighbor. I think THAT is the KEY to sanctification. I think when God says do not get drunk, I think God says this because he knows that people who do get drunk tend to do mean thing to their neighbors (therefore not loving their neighbor as themself) and could become addicted (making an idol and therefore not loving God). God doesnt want us to fall into those two categories, so that is why in the bible it is OK to drink, Jesus himself drank, but as long as Jesus maintained control of himself and did not violate the TWO IMPORTANT RULES it was OK in Gods eyes. Now probably at this point most of you would agree, but this leads me to my next point, that if it is ok with drinking then i think it is ok with anything else! Marijuana for example is a drug just like alcohol (and some say that alcohol is worse than marijuana) so the same rules apply for marijuana, as long as you do it just to have fun, like you playing videogames or snowboarding, its OK as long as u KEEP the two most important rules. Same thing with gambling, gambling is a source of having fun just like social drinking, but it does have a strong tendency to become addicted, and if one begins to LOVE gambling or doing marijuana or drinking, then we have a problem, it says in the bible do not LOVE anything in this world, GOD didnt say DO NOT ENJOY the world, SO if one LOVES one of these acts more then GOD I say ur violating one of the rules and SINNING! So now that I look at my own christian life i dont see it being a religion of RULES RULES RULES i see it in fact as being as free as ever but because i must follow the two golden rules i wont do certain things like, stealing or gossip, because that violates loving my neighbor. So in the end JESUS HIMSELF came down and told the pharoahs basically that they are too obessed with the rules and not focused on what christianity is really about which is LOVE for one another and LOVE for GOD (and just because society and MAN himself deemed such activities as BAD doesnt necessarily means that GOD himself thinks its bad, what he think is bad is violating the two rules) and one more thing maybe to help clarify:

If a kid holds a gun in the middle of a mall, society will say "OH MY GOSH whats wrong with that kid he must be horrible!"
the bible says that THE ACT OF holding a gun is NOT A SIN
HOWEVER, if the kid uses the gun to murder and NOT LOVe his/her neighbor THEN God has a problem with that kid.....so just because society says holding that gun is wrong doesnt mean the bible says its wrong, only when the kid uses the gun to violate the two important rules is when God says its wrong and a sin.

[TimM1104]

I agree with you to a limit, I believe those 2 rules are the only important rules BUT, when you do those 2 rules all the other rules are basically automatically followed. If you love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, then you would wnat to please him, enjoy him, think about him, and just fully live for him. If one was doing so then they wouldnt want to do anything that might offend the one they love so much, they would want to do everything that the one they loved so much even mentioned... For example, when you find your first true love, you want to go hang out with them you want to go talk to them, you want to do everything for them, you hold the doors open for them, you do them whatever favors they want and all of that... It's the same way for Jesus, you do what you think he wants you to do, yes enjoy your life, but when you are doing it, do it with Jesus.. and if you think Jesus would rather you not do something wouldn't you think you would not do it at all? its like if you love someone soo much and they say "i would rather u not goto a bar tonight" if you love them then you would say "ok honey ill stay home"... Maybe im just young and have immature faith? But i truly think that if you love God, and your following those 2 commandments, every thing he mentions will fall into place, not because you are told to, but because you want to do it for God... Not to get into heaven, not to be saved from pain, not to prevent yourself from doing something that might get you into trouble, but because you LOVE god, not like, but LOVE, with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your mind.... That is one boy's theory about all that