Forsaking All and Dying To Self Are Spiritual Goals Not Physical Requirements
Forsaking all and dying to self are certainly very good goals spiritually or metaphorically, but ultimately it is impossible to achieve these goals in the physical realm and so we should never seek to fulfill these literally in the world. How do we know this?
Well, even if you give up your house or apartment, give away the shirt on your back and live half naked in the streets, you would still not have surrendered all. Unless you give up all personal possessions, clothes, food, water and technically even air to breath, you would still not have forsaken all. And if you were ever attacked and harbored even a hint of self-preservation and engaged in self-defense, as right and good as that is, nevertheless you would have proven that you have not totally died to self.
So obviously forsaking all and dying to self are spiritual truths that God has not intended us to apply directly to our physical lives. It is not God's plan or His intention that we literally forsake all and literally die to self in such a nonsensical way where Christians must become paupers or worse. But leave it to false teachers to create illogical unbiblical scenarios and then convince people to try to comply. The rest of us are then left to deal with the resulting fallout and confusion. But I must say that I find it amusing and ironic how there are hypocritical people on the Internet preaching a false forsake-all “gospel” from the very computer that they have failed to forsake!
A person has essentially forsaken all and died to self when he or she has become a Christian and hopefully has dedicated his or her life, gifts and talents to the Lord's purposes. When a Christian conquers selfish ambition and seeks to serve God instead, this in effect is dying to self. When a person no longer loves the world but rather loves God, this in effect is forsaking all. These things have nothing to do with failing to take good care of oneself or self-neglect, living in poverty, or self-abasement.
And even more importantly, an aberrant view on these matters would leave one without the motivation or means to properly take care of one's own family, which according to the Bible would make them, in the eyes of the local church, equivalent to someone who has denied the Christian faith, making them “worse than an infidel”.
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel [an unbeliever]. 1Tim 5:8
Of course the Scriptures are not saying that a Christian who falls into error here would lose their salvation. They would however risk losing much in this life.
ChristiansFree.com
Forsaking all and dying to self are certainly very good goals spiritually or metaphorically, but ultimately it is impossible to achieve these goals in the physical realm and so we should never seek to fulfill these literally in the world. How do we know this?
Well, even if you give up your house or apartment, give away the shirt on your back and live half naked in the streets, you would still not have surrendered all. Unless you give up all personal possessions, clothes, food, water and technically even air to breath, you would still not have forsaken all. And if you were ever attacked and harbored even a hint of self-preservation and engaged in self-defense, as right and good as that is, nevertheless you would have proven that you have not totally died to self.
So obviously forsaking all and dying to self are spiritual truths that God has not intended us to apply directly to our physical lives. It is not God's plan or His intention that we literally forsake all and literally die to self in such a nonsensical way where Christians must become paupers or worse. But leave it to false teachers to create illogical unbiblical scenarios and then convince people to try to comply. The rest of us are then left to deal with the resulting fallout and confusion. But I must say that I find it amusing and ironic how there are hypocritical people on the Internet preaching a false forsake-all “gospel” from the very computer that they have failed to forsake!
A person has essentially forsaken all and died to self when he or she has become a Christian and hopefully has dedicated his or her life, gifts and talents to the Lord's purposes. When a Christian conquers selfish ambition and seeks to serve God instead, this in effect is dying to self. When a person no longer loves the world but rather loves God, this in effect is forsaking all. These things have nothing to do with failing to take good care of oneself or self-neglect, living in poverty, or self-abasement.
And even more importantly, an aberrant view on these matters would leave one without the motivation or means to properly take care of one's own family, which according to the Bible would make them, in the eyes of the local church, equivalent to someone who has denied the Christian faith, making them “worse than an infidel”.
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel [an unbeliever]. 1Tim 5:8
Of course the Scriptures are not saying that a Christian who falls into error here would lose their salvation. They would however risk losing much in this life.
ChristiansFree.com