Mark E. Dever (Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns)
The Christian life is to be lived, in part, by folding yourself into a series of committed relationships, not just with your friends (with whom you may have all kinds of other things in common) but with a local church, open to all, united around faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you try to live your Christian life without such relationships in such a community, then you must beware, because there are many places in the New Testament that warn you that you could be fooling yourself.
Many biblical passages describe attempts at the rejection of responsibility. Of course, there is Genesis 3, the story of the first couple in the Garden. And 2 Samuel 12 is the incredible story of Nathan confronting David, who comes to see his own fault, though before that time he had completely justified his own actions in his mind. Again, in James 1 Christians are warned not to look at the Word of God and then turn away from it and so deceive ourselves. See too 1 John 4:19-20 and 1 Corinthians 5.
The Christian life is to be lived, in part, by folding yourself into a series of committed relationships, not just with your friends (with whom you may have all kinds of other things in common) but with a local church, open to all, united around faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you try to live your Christian life without such relationships in such a community, then you must beware, because there are many places in the New Testament that warn you that you could be fooling yourself.
Many biblical passages describe attempts at the rejection of responsibility. Of course, there is Genesis 3, the story of the first couple in the Garden. And 2 Samuel 12 is the incredible story of Nathan confronting David, who comes to see his own fault, though before that time he had completely justified his own actions in his mind. Again, in James 1 Christians are warned not to look at the Word of God and then turn away from it and so deceive ourselves. See too 1 John 4:19-20 and 1 Corinthians 5.
