How powerful of a witness is the Chruch when its adherants don't live above sin.?

Question

The church is to be a powerful witness in the world what happens when it doesn't?

Answer 1

When the church isn't a powerful witness you see evil prevailing as you do now.

Answer 2

Wow! Who CAN live above sin? If you could do that, you'd be God.

I'll admit there are people who call themselves Christian who push the limits on tolerable behavior. You may even say they're a disgrace to the Church. They are not a witness to the church, only a witness to how low we humans can go. They are living a lie and they're too blind to see it.

But ... all Christians sin. All humans sin. The righteous man knows his fallen nature and relies on God to save his sorry butt. He confesses his sin, not only to God, but to the person he sins against. He seeks forgiveness and to make restitution to the person he wronged. That takes a solid belief in God and a little guts. And that my friend is a very powerful witness.

Answer 3

What are you saying? how could a man live above sin, when he is born into a sinful existence. Since Adam and Eve sinned in Eden, man has been burdened with sin. how could the church then live above sin? the church is a place of worship and fellowship for the believers of Christ Jesus. Remember that a Saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up, but does not live above sin. Yet rather rebukes sin and asks God to forgive us of sin through Jesus Christ who died and is Risen as our only Saviour.

Answer 4

Witnesses of history would say ¨the Church¨ creates much of the sin, killing, greed, and hate around the world with Holy Wars and slaughter of Native Peoples.

Answer 5

No one can live above sin. No one is perfect. Jesus is the only One Who lived a sinless life.

Certainly there is transformative power in Christ. There should be evidence of that power in the church. John the Baptist called the Jews to bear "fruits worthy of repentance." I believe that "fruit" is a changed heart and changed behavior.

This is actually very difficult to define. On the one hand, we must strive to live sinless lives. Sin is the enemy. Sin is the deadly enemy Jesus died to save us from. Of course we should avoid it and there is no circumstance under which it is okay. Even so, God knows that we will sin. He has made provisions to forgive us. It's important to remember His forgiveness and that we are to forgive others and even ourselves when we fail.

I think people generally go to one of two extremes on this. Either they become fixated on sin and become perfectionistic - which leads to their becoming very critical of themselves and others (think of the Pharisees), or they use grace as a license to do whatever they want - which Romans chapter 6 refutes.

I believe it is a relationship with God that saves us. And like other relationships, as long as we are growing closer, failures are forgiven. But we cannot take our responsibilites lightly or take God's grace for granted. And we must rely on Him to help us. We cannot perfect ourselves. It's a matter of trusting Him to perfect us.

When we co-operate with God's process of maturity, it is evident in our lives and it is a testimony to others. When we hyper-focus on not showing any external signs of sin in our lives, our hypocrisy may fool some, but it will turn others away from God and it steals any hope of salvation from us.

Answer 6

God told us through His Word that before His return there would be an apostacy (falling away) and the church would become lukewarm. I think it is just that God's word is true and that time has come. Statistics show there has never been a time in church history where people were as untaught in God's Word as they are today.

Answer 7

Human are fallible.....

How many Progressives were deeply hurt by Clinton's Monica venture

How many Conservatives are not disappointed with the conduct of the Iraq war by Bush

Witness are imperfect, they are human...what group or organization does not have fallen leaders or members

Your asking an absolute when humans do not qualify nor do their organizations

Answer 8

Christians still make mistakes even though their hearts are set on God. Take King David as an example.

God has said concerning His message of love and forgiveness is put in vulnerable containers(humans ).
I'm not going to argue with His wisdom:

2 Cor 4:4-8
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
(from New International Version)

Answer 9

people leave wich is happening in a lot of organised churches ,of wich jesus said
matt 15: 3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "`These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

Answer 10

What person other than Christ has EVER lived above and without sin? NONE.