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Are Christians therefore here to tell other people about Jesus? No. No, we’re not. Not primarily. We’re here to worship Jesus, that’s what the church is for, and to build the kingdom around us, which will include some evangelism but also includes a whole bunch of other stuff under the heading of ‘make disciples.’
It’s always worth noticing that the command to make disciples is not just make lots of new Christians, but also therefore to grow all those Christians up into maturity.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THAT ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> What I think we miss is that, most likely, these people—these lovers of self and of money, proud, arrogant, disobedient to parents, abusive… he goes on at length—are within the church.
United Methodist Church episcopacy — Paul was talkin’ to YOU.
(UMC bishops have devolved into corruption & rank heresy, hence the “disaffiliations” of many congregations from the UMC.)
For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
It seems some people are unable to receive the Gospel due to psychopathy. They operate based soley on external image. No personal insight as their being is repressed or destroyed.
The one chapter in the book of Jude is also a warning about these people.