Rodney, thanks for your comment.
In the sentence you highlighted, I'm wrongly assuming the reader understands where I'm coming from. Unfortunately, some don't. This writer needs to be more clear. Oops. :-)
Could the issue you have with my statement above be that I'm not using traditional religious language expressed in a way you are familiar with? Is semantics at play?
I am working on a follow-up article that breaks that idea down better, and I hope you and I land on the same page. Below is a broader explanation in a nutshell:
As Christians, we are tangled up in a mess of theological and moral definitions and interpretations, and rarely can two people agree on what is "right." For sure, no one has a perfect understanding of the Bible.
God knows this. While helpful as a tool, none of the above was ever God's point in creating us. But at the end of the day, we are valuable to Him, and the primary thing He cares about is that we realign ourselves with Him and trust Him. That process starts in our minds. In my words, "an intellectual understanding of who we are in relation to our creator."
Yes, we are sinners and need to repent, using religious jargon. Jesus is the sacrificial element in the redemption story.
That aside, "An intellectual understanding of who we are in relation to our creator" means I understand I exist, I recognize God exists, and then I do what's necessary to be in His good graces. Admitting we have separated ourselves from God (sin) starts in the mind, and so does repentance, followed by our actions. This is what I mean by "intellectual understanding" and "alignment."
Yes, God's love is king! That said, love (and all the different expressions of love in our behaviors towards ourselves and others) are a secondary action and a byproduct of that primary "realignment" mind shift.
Just so you know (and for anyone who may read this), I intentionally strip out all the religious jargon, like repentance, redemption, sanctification, to make holy, etc., in my writing because those "words" don't mean much to most people in today's society. Our actions do, however! So, those terms will express themselves through our actions toward our creator and others.
So, Rodney, does that help? Hopefully, I'm not as off base as you thought, but I should have been clearer.
Thanks for challenging me on that. :-)
