u/jeron_gwendolen

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Ephesians 5:15–17

Notice that. The opposite of foolishness is understanding God’s will. So wisdom helps you recognize it.

A lot of people today treat God’s will like some hidden Easter egg:

“Should I marry this person?”

“Should I take this job?”

“Should I go to this school?”

“What if I miss God’s plan?”

But most of the time, Scripture talks about God’s will way more practically than that.

God already made many things crystal clear. Like:

It is never God’s will for you to sleep around.

It is never God’s will for you to live in bitterness, deceit, drunkenness, greed, idolatry, pride, etc.

“...that you abstain from sexual immorality”

1 Thessalonians 4:3

The Bible gives moral boundaries, wisdom, and principles. Inside those boundaries, there is often genuine freedom.

It’s also written:

“trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:10

Think about a father letting his son choose toys in the living room. The father’s greater desire is not obsessing over which toy the kid picks. He wants the child to grow, flourish, learn, laugh, mature.

Same with God.

Sometimes we panic over universities, jobs, cities, or tiny decisions as if one wrong turn destroys our destiny. Meanwhile God is more concerned with whether you’re becoming holy, loving, truthful, courageous, faithful.

You can choose this job or that job.

This university or that university.

This city or that city.

None of those automatically ruins God’s plan.

You are not a Sim character waiting for secret quest instructions from heaven every morning. This is THE wrong mindset.

Walk in wisdom. Obey what God already clearly said. Stay close to Him. Pursue what is pleasing to Him.

And then live freely without paranoia.

God’s plan for your life is bigger than whether you picked Toy Car #3 or Toy Dinosaur #7.

It is the abusive husband bringing flowers after destroying his wife emotionally, as if the flowers somehow erase the cruelty. Technically “doing the relationship things,” but missing the heart entirely.

It is the religious leaders and spiritual guides being extremely religious, careful about rituals, fasting, holidays, purity, Sabbath rules, and public appearances, while having no mercy, understanding or compassion for the broken people right in front of them.

And it is the modern hypocrite who sends Bible verses to a suffering person but never lifts a finger to help him. No meal. No call. No shelter. No patience. No love. Just holy-looking words thrown over a bleeding wound.

That is why God says:

“I hate, I reject your festivals,

Nor do I delight in your festive assemblies.”

Amos 5:21

God is not impressed by religious performance that hides lovelessness.

A sacrifice without mercy is theater.

A Bible verse without love can become a stone.

A prayer without obedience can become noise.

Jesus did not rebuke broken sinners the hardest. He rebuked the religious people who used holiness as a mask for pride, cruelty, and self-protection, personal gain, and status.

If your faith makes you colder, prouder, harsher, and less willing to love inconvenient people, something is deeply wrong.

Not with God.

With you.

That is not the Gospel.

We are not saved by rituals, religious performance, food laws, ceremonies, or trying to prove we are good enough. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.” Romans 6:14

Freedom from the Law does not mean freedom to sin. It means freedom from trying to earn righteousness before God. Jesus fulfilled what we could not fulfill. He lived a perfectly good life and yet He bore the punishment we deserve. He gives us righteousness and eternal life as a gift.

So no, Christians do not obey God to become saved.

We obey because Christ has saved us, changed us, and made us alive.

We are not slaves to laws and manmade rules.

This is no longer slavery.

That is grace.

Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of modern Western people talk about the Bible with this weird superiority complex.

They’ll read about ancient Israelite laws, customs, sacrifices, purity practices, family structures, warfare, or social rules and immediately go, “Wow, this is so primitive and stupid.”

But imagine flying to another country today, seeing cultural practices you don’t understand, and saying that to the locals.

“Your customs are primitive.” “Your traditions are stupid.” “Your way of life is backwards.”

Everyone would instantly recognize that as arrogant, ignorant, and culturally chauvinistic. You’d be called narrow-minded at best and racist at worst.

But when it comes to the Bible, suddenly that same attitude gets treated as intellectual maturity.

I’m not saying every ancient practice should be copied today. We are not living in old covenant Israel today. Obviously not. Christians themselves believe Scripture unfolds through covenants, context, and fulfillment in Christ. But there’s a huge difference between saying, “I need to understand this in its historical and theological context,” and saying, “Ancient people were dumb and I, modern enlightened person, am obviously better.”

A lot of what people call “primitive” is actually them refusing to do basic cultural interpretation.

The Bible was written in real historical cultures, with real social structures, legal systems, symbols, rituals, assumptions, and problems. You can disagree with something, wrestle with it, or critique it, but mocking it before understanding it is not wisdom.

Modern Western culture is not the default setting of humanity. It’s one culture among many. And it has its own blind spots, hypocrisies, and barbarities too.

So maybe before calling the Bible primitive, people should ask:

“Do I actually understand what this meant in that world?”

Because if not, the problem might not be ancient ignorance.

It might be modern arrogance.

I genuinely cannot express how much Jesus has changed my life.

Like actually changed it. Not just “I became a slightly nicer person” changed it. I mean radically, deeply, painfully, beautifully changed it.

I feel freer than ever before. There is always this accessible peace underneath all the worries, fear, confusion, and anxiety of life. Even during suffering, something is different now.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

That verse FEELS real now.

Because Jesus is alive.

JESUS IS ALIVE TODAY.

And actually KNOWING him changes everything.

Just to think that because of Him, we have eternal life. We are not abandoned. We are not alone. We are not just floating through life desperately trying to hold ourselves together with tape and anxiety. He changes us. He sanctifies us. He reshapes our desires. He makes us more like Him, even when it is slow, even when it hurts, even when we barely understand what He is doing. And in the end, it is promised for it all to make sense and for it all to be worth it.

Christian faith is such a gift honestly. Literally the best thing I have in life. Nothing even comes close. And the insane part is that everyone can have this. Not just the smart, stable, successful, or religious-looking people. Anyone who comes to Christ in repentance and faith can have Him.

Muhammad is still in his tomb.

Joseph Smith is still in his tomb.

Philosophers and spiritual teachers are still in their tombs.

Buddha is still in his tomb.

Confucius is still in his tomb.

Dictators are still in their tombs.

Cult leaders are still in their tombs.

But Jesus Christ is alive.

The tomb is empty.

OUR GOD IS STILL ALIVE TODAY.

He is with us.

He is changing us.

He is keeping us.

NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM HIS LOVE.

And He is coming back again!!

Why should we love and put each other above ourselves even when it makes ZERO sense?

Because God bears with us first.

Every day we come to Him distracted, fearful, prideful, impatient, emotionally messy, inconsistent, anxious, selfish, or exhausted. We misunderstand Him, misunderstand each other, overreact, withdraw, assume the worst, and sometimes speak before thinking. We fall into sin and cannot even recognize ourselves sometimes.

Yet God does not throw us away every time we wobble.

He corrects us, disciplines us, teaches us, and remains faithful while we grow.

That is why we are called to treat others with patience too.

>“with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,”

Ephesians 4:2 NASB2020

Bearing with one another means remembering that many of our conflicts are not wars between enemies, but collisions between tired humans carrying expectations, fears, stress, wounds, pride, and emotions.

one person forgets to invite someone, says something awkward, or seems distant at church, and the other starts feeling unwanted.

Or if they’re a couple: one person is tired and reacts emotionally, the other feels helpless or confused, and suddenly a small moment turns into something bigger than expected.

Tiny misunderstandings can grow fast when people are stressed, exhausted, or carrying things they haven’t said out loud.

That’s why Christians are called to bear with one another in love.

And suddenly two people who love each other are accidentally standing back to back like gunslingers at sunset over a misunderstanding that probably needed a hug and eight hours of sleep.

Christian love slows down before escalating. It asks questions before accusations. It leaves room for weakness. It remembers that sanctification is a process, not instant perfection.

“Love is patient, love is kind...”

1 Corinthians 13:4 NASB2020

And we are all patiently waiting for the result.

then your body isn’t something to burn through.

It’s something to prepare and honor.

Sin wrecks things. You don’t need a theology degree to see it:

sexual immorality empties relationships.

greed never satisfies.

selfishness isolates.

anger torches the people you care about.

It takes good things… and slowly twists them until they stop giving life.

But your body isn’t trash.

God already decided He’s going to redeem and raise it.

That’s Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 6:

your body isn’t disposable or unimportant.

it’s not “just for now” until we kick the bucket and go to a magical place in the skies forever.

It’s future-proof.

It WILL be RESURRECTED. Restored. Glorified. Not aging, not breaking, not dying.

If we enjoy this broken world so much with its sunsets and mountains, how much more will we enjoy the world when it's without any evil and decay?

So walking away from sin isn’t just avoidance.

It’s alignment with reality.

God knows you completely. He sees exactly where sin goes, and He calls it out not to shame or overburden you with religious do's and dont's, but to keep you from wrecking yourself.

If you push God away, the world will welcome you.

Not because it loves you, but because it doesn't care about you.

And honestly, what’s it offering?

A decent career, some dopamine, and then a grave?

That’s the deal?

God offers life. Actual life.

So no, this isn’t “be better.”

It’s: wake up to what’s true.

You belong to God.

Act like it.

And you’re not doing this alone.

God’s already moved in... and He’s not moving out.

I know someone who is struggling to wrap their mind around the concept of sin and hell and all the "bad stuff."

I think the phrase “we deserve hell” hits wrong because it sounds like God is just angry and waiting to punish people.

But biblically, the point is not “God is looking for an excuse to throw people away.” The point is that sin is far worse than we naturally ***want to*** think.

Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

A better way to see it is this:

Imagine you cut yourself off from oxygen. You can be a nice person, kind, funny, helpful… but if you refuse to breathe, your body still shuts down. Not because oxygen is “mad,” but because you’re separated from the very thing that gives you life. Oxygen = God, the only reason you're still alive today.

The Bible’s claim is basically: God is that life.

And the diagnosis

Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NASB2020).

Sin is not just messing up rules. It’s living disconnected from God, choosing ourselves over Him, commiting suicide. That disconnect is the real problem.

Hell is not random punishment for random action, it’s the end result of that separation carried out fully.

THE HARD TRUTH US FOR ALL OF US:

If God is truly holy and good, then evil can’t just be brushed off like “no big deal.” A judge who ignores crime is not loving, he’s corrupt. Same idea here.

And the same God who judges justly says,

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”

Jesus doesn’t just say “try harder and be a better person” which no one can ever do perfectly. He steps in and takes the consequence, then offers us His life instead. It’s not earned, it’s received.

Real-life example

Think about addiction. Someone might say, “I’ve got this under control,” while slowly destroying their relationships, health, and future. From the outside, it’s obvious something is deeply wrong even if they don’t feel it yet.

Sin is like that, but deeper. We normalize it because everyone around us is in the same condition. The Bible is basically saying: “You’re more sick than you think...but there’s actually a real cure.”

And that’s the whole tension:

Yes, the diagnosis is serious.

But the cure is unbelievably generous.

That’s why Christians talk about both.

what do you guys think about Baha'i faith?

I’m in a long-distance relationship (~5 months), and we recently had a serious conversation that left me confused.

My girlfriend mentioned that if a major crisis happened (like a war situation), she would consider suicide, though she also said she doesn’t actually think about it now and is happy with her life. She promised she’d reach out to me if she ever felt that way.

When I tried to talk about it, she later told me she didn’t appreciate that I kept pushing the topic after she said she didn’t want to discuss it. She said she needs her boundaries respected in those moments.

I understand that, but I also felt like this topic is serious and shouldn’t be ignored. I care about her, but I’m also feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility and unsure how to balance respecting her boundaries vs addressing something important.

On top of that, we sometimes handle conflict differently. I tend to want to talk things through and keep connection, while she tends to shut down and want space.

Is this something that can be worked through with better communication, or are these signs of deeper incompatibility?