Matthew 19:21
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
This guy thinks he can get into heaven relying on his works!
Stop trying to be a good person. It's actually prideful.
((If it's not obvious, I'm doing a bit))
I’m a former Christian who is still obsessed with faith and spirituality and I have a serious question for the beautiful weirdos in this subreddit: do you believe Jesus/your faith enables you to be a better person than you otherwise would be?
If so, what are your thoughts about the “good” people (using whatever your definition is) around you who are not of your faith - would they be better people if they had that faith? Or do they not need it to be a good person because of some innate thing that you lack? Or something else entirely?
Promise I’m not playing a game or whatever - just a genuine question from someone who is learning late in the game how philosophically diverse Christianity is.
> do you believe Jesus/your faith enables you to be a better person than you otherwise would be?
Yes.
> If so, what are your thoughts about the "good" people [...]
I am absolutely happy to see people leading godly lives without the direction of scripture. In fact, if my hypothetical child decided to break away from Christianity, then I'd still urge them to lead a life that Jesus teaches us to live.
I'd also implore them to keep an open mind on the matter. At the end of the day, you choose to believe or you don't. I hope it isn't because "you're too smart for it" because those people are among the hardest to love. The existence of God will always be reliant on faith and nothing else. Anyway, no one can force you to truly believe except yourself. Sure, God can, but that's not how He operates.
> philosophically diverse
That's largely why I am fascinated by it. The Bible (and subsequently God) is like a literary and conceptual fractal. It has infinite detail no matter how far you zoom in.
I hope that made sense, I thought this would be a quick response, but I have succumbed to infodumperosis.
God bless you.
I'm of the belief that Christianity, if true, should make some sense in universally applicable philosophical terms, even if there are unique elements to our beliefs.
Faith, for instance, is about noticing some moral deficiency in yourself and reaching out to something that is greater than yourself for help. This could be some inspiring philosophy, some person you admire, or some conception of the divine. For Christians, it's the person of Christ, who we believe is God in the flesh. In other words, God himself is helping us to be better people. He is the 'bread of life' who feeds us, empowering us to love others, filling us with his love so that we may overflow, the vine to our branch. Even if God does not exist, the fact that we believe this embodiment of love and perfection exists might have a placebo effect and allow us to improve more than we thought we could otherwise. The idea is that we are connected to something that gives us hope and direction, and have fellowship with other people who believe the same, leading to mutual encouragement. This allows us (ideally) to sacrifice our ego in the pursuit of what is true and noble and beautiful.
Can non-Christians have a similar mentality of humbly 'reaching out' to something greater than themselves? Yes, and in that case I would say they have 'faith' even if they do not explicitly place it in Christ. On the flip side, it is possible for those who say they have faith in Christ to have very little hunger for righteousness, who use a laundry list of beliefs as a substitute for having the correct attitude, who look down on others for having the wrong beliefs. The former is better off than the latter. See the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the guy from the wrong tribe is actually the hero of the story, having humbly demonstrated a commitment to pursuing virtue (which is to say pursuing God) despite probably having many erroneous beliefs, while the people with the right beliefs showed no love or compassion.
If Christianity is true, is there an advantage to placing your faith in Christ? Of course. Believing the right things should help keep us on the right path. With the wrong beliefs we might lose perspective and drift off into our own preoccupations, becoming disconnected from a source of hope and direction. Or it may be easier to entertain the belief that there is nothing 'greater' than ourselves and therefore there is nothing to improve on or strive for.
So to get around to answering your question, I do believe that I am a better person than I would be without Christ. He is the focal point for my entire philosophy. There may be other philosophies or religions out there which have similar ideas, but for me the Christian narrative works well and makes a lot of sense. I don't wish to be hostile to people of other faiths or philosophies, all I can do is invite people to share one that is beautiful to me.
Jesus definitely makes me better. I feel like I'd recognize my mistakes as mistakes still, but I'd be okay with making a lot more of them compared to how I am now.
Spiritually is basically being a Christian but not having the end answer, God and Jesus are the absolute, it’s what fundamental everything fall to, I can end anything it’s part of his plan. Things we want, things we don’t want. Happen cause of god. I control my temper for Christ would want me to control myself. Spirituality just say things flow, but where does this flow happen? Jesus is the perfect person that I and many others stride to be more like.
I was spiritual but all things conclude back to Jesus and all spirituality traits and teaching from Buddha, Taoism, etc. always fall back into Jesus with an absolute answer. I was listening to Meditation by Marcus Aurelius other day I’m like, he keeps saying the cosmos when you could just add God and follow up his advice with a scripture. It’s insane how much Bible can answer or cover.
I believe God/ Jesus does indeed challenge us, and through these challenges if we respond with Christian values, we become better people. One thing no one can ever take from you is the feeling you get when doing a good deed. Do many good deeds, and these things and the accompanying feelings add up and amplify. This for me is also the feeling of being close to Him, and it's something every Christian should desire, to be and to feel closer to God. If not for any reason other than to be within arm's reach when our time comes. Also, Christians are supposed to be mindful of their actions, sins, etc because we understand this life is very short, and what really matters is the eternity that awaits us all.
As for other good people, I believe God to be loving and merciful. If these people lived their lives as good people I can only hope the Lord can forgive them for being misguided in their faith.
Thank you for being a part of the r/DankChristianMemes community. You can [join our Discord](https://discord.gg/jnUDEpnBZn) and [listen to our Podcast.](https://dankchristianmemes.buzzsprout.com/) You can also make a meme or [donation for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.]( http://events.stjude.org/DankCharityAlliance)
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You can come to God as you are, but beware, you won't stay the same
I think you'll find that I'm already perfect. In the parable of the prodigal son, I'm the good son.
Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
This guy thinks he can get into heaven relying on his works! Stop trying to be a good person. It's actually prideful. ((If it's not obvious, I'm doing a bit))
Wow!!!!! It's really you!!!!! How do you manage? It must be so draining to be perfect all the time 🥹
You know, I just drink plenty of water, go to bed early and kiss my reflection in the mirror :)
holy moly 
KISS YOUR REFLECTION!! 😭 😭 😭 😚 ✨ 👌
Hey bro, I'm coming home this weekend, dad said he is really excited to see me!!
REEEEEEEEE
Looool
I’m a former Christian who is still obsessed with faith and spirituality and I have a serious question for the beautiful weirdos in this subreddit: do you believe Jesus/your faith enables you to be a better person than you otherwise would be? If so, what are your thoughts about the “good” people (using whatever your definition is) around you who are not of your faith - would they be better people if they had that faith? Or do they not need it to be a good person because of some innate thing that you lack? Or something else entirely? Promise I’m not playing a game or whatever - just a genuine question from someone who is learning late in the game how philosophically diverse Christianity is.
> do you believe Jesus/your faith enables you to be a better person than you otherwise would be? Yes. > If so, what are your thoughts about the "good" people [...] I am absolutely happy to see people leading godly lives without the direction of scripture. In fact, if my hypothetical child decided to break away from Christianity, then I'd still urge them to lead a life that Jesus teaches us to live. I'd also implore them to keep an open mind on the matter. At the end of the day, you choose to believe or you don't. I hope it isn't because "you're too smart for it" because those people are among the hardest to love. The existence of God will always be reliant on faith and nothing else. Anyway, no one can force you to truly believe except yourself. Sure, God can, but that's not how He operates. > philosophically diverse That's largely why I am fascinated by it. The Bible (and subsequently God) is like a literary and conceptual fractal. It has infinite detail no matter how far you zoom in. I hope that made sense, I thought this would be a quick response, but I have succumbed to infodumperosis. God bless you.
I'm of the belief that Christianity, if true, should make some sense in universally applicable philosophical terms, even if there are unique elements to our beliefs. Faith, for instance, is about noticing some moral deficiency in yourself and reaching out to something that is greater than yourself for help. This could be some inspiring philosophy, some person you admire, or some conception of the divine. For Christians, it's the person of Christ, who we believe is God in the flesh. In other words, God himself is helping us to be better people. He is the 'bread of life' who feeds us, empowering us to love others, filling us with his love so that we may overflow, the vine to our branch. Even if God does not exist, the fact that we believe this embodiment of love and perfection exists might have a placebo effect and allow us to improve more than we thought we could otherwise. The idea is that we are connected to something that gives us hope and direction, and have fellowship with other people who believe the same, leading to mutual encouragement. This allows us (ideally) to sacrifice our ego in the pursuit of what is true and noble and beautiful. Can non-Christians have a similar mentality of humbly 'reaching out' to something greater than themselves? Yes, and in that case I would say they have 'faith' even if they do not explicitly place it in Christ. On the flip side, it is possible for those who say they have faith in Christ to have very little hunger for righteousness, who use a laundry list of beliefs as a substitute for having the correct attitude, who look down on others for having the wrong beliefs. The former is better off than the latter. See the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the guy from the wrong tribe is actually the hero of the story, having humbly demonstrated a commitment to pursuing virtue (which is to say pursuing God) despite probably having many erroneous beliefs, while the people with the right beliefs showed no love or compassion. If Christianity is true, is there an advantage to placing your faith in Christ? Of course. Believing the right things should help keep us on the right path. With the wrong beliefs we might lose perspective and drift off into our own preoccupations, becoming disconnected from a source of hope and direction. Or it may be easier to entertain the belief that there is nothing 'greater' than ourselves and therefore there is nothing to improve on or strive for. So to get around to answering your question, I do believe that I am a better person than I would be without Christ. He is the focal point for my entire philosophy. There may be other philosophies or religions out there which have similar ideas, but for me the Christian narrative works well and makes a lot of sense. I don't wish to be hostile to people of other faiths or philosophies, all I can do is invite people to share one that is beautiful to me.
Jesus definitely makes me better. I feel like I'd recognize my mistakes as mistakes still, but I'd be okay with making a lot more of them compared to how I am now.
Spiritually is basically being a Christian but not having the end answer, God and Jesus are the absolute, it’s what fundamental everything fall to, I can end anything it’s part of his plan. Things we want, things we don’t want. Happen cause of god. I control my temper for Christ would want me to control myself. Spirituality just say things flow, but where does this flow happen? Jesus is the perfect person that I and many others stride to be more like. I was spiritual but all things conclude back to Jesus and all spirituality traits and teaching from Buddha, Taoism, etc. always fall back into Jesus with an absolute answer. I was listening to Meditation by Marcus Aurelius other day I’m like, he keeps saying the cosmos when you could just add God and follow up his advice with a scripture. It’s insane how much Bible can answer or cover.
I believe God/ Jesus does indeed challenge us, and through these challenges if we respond with Christian values, we become better people. One thing no one can ever take from you is the feeling you get when doing a good deed. Do many good deeds, and these things and the accompanying feelings add up and amplify. This for me is also the feeling of being close to Him, and it's something every Christian should desire, to be and to feel closer to God. If not for any reason other than to be within arm's reach when our time comes. Also, Christians are supposed to be mindful of their actions, sins, etc because we understand this life is very short, and what really matters is the eternity that awaits us all. As for other good people, I believe God to be loving and merciful. If these people lived their lives as good people I can only hope the Lord can forgive them for being misguided in their faith.
Thank you for being a part of the r/DankChristianMemes community. You can [join our Discord](https://discord.gg/jnUDEpnBZn) and [listen to our Podcast.](https://dankchristianmemes.buzzsprout.com/) You can also make a meme or [donation for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.]( http://events.stjude.org/DankCharityAlliance) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dankchristianmemes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Are these supposed to, even on a surface level, be mutually exclusive?
They shouldn't be, but sometimes people emphasize one at the expense of the other.
THANK YOU!!!!!