No-one could possibly live their entire lives in accordance with Jesus’ exacting and impractical commands, loving their enemies, turning the other cheek, giving to all who ask. It can’t be done, which is why no-one, but no-one, manages it.
There’s a reason his expectations are so ridiculously unrealistic. Jesus didn’t anticipate that people would have to live according to them for very long. He fully expected that within a very short time, God would be imposing his kingdom rule on the Earth (Mark 1:15; Matthew 4:17; 10: 5-23; 16:28; 24:34 etc). The old system was about to pass away and the new golden age of the Kingdom of Heaven was just about to make its spectacular appearance. This was Jesus’s good news: if his fellow Jews changed their behaviour in the way he commanded, they could earn a place in the Kingdom (Mark 9:35; 19:47, Matthew 25:34-40; 31:36; 20:27-28 etc) Sacrificially serving others, putting oneself last, going the extra mile, all of it, was a small, short-term price to pay for eternal life in a renewed Earth from which all evil had been eradicated.
Of course, it didn’t happen. The Son of Man did not descend from the clouds within the disciples’ lifetime to make Earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). As the first century progressed it was obvious that Jesus’s prediction of ‘thy Kingdom come’ hadn’t happened in the time scale he (and Paul) had anticipated. Consequently, his good news had to be adjusted*. We see this in Luke’s gospel, which starts to speak of the kingdom as an inner, spiritual experience, and in the fourth gospel where the coming kingdom is eliminated entirely. By the time of 2 Peter, its non-appearance has become the nonsensical argument that the then one hundred year delay was so that God could give people more time to repent.
All the same, the new cult’s members were now stuck with Jesus’s unreasonable commands. They’d been codified in the stories about him that were by then doing the rounds. (I’m of the view that the various sects within the cult created the commands themselves, as short term rules while they waited for the Great Reset.) As a result, the words put in Jesus’s mouth went from being instructions for the time at hand to impossible demands for the long haul. Two thousand years later and they’re still there. So how do most Christians deal with them? By ignoring them, dismissing them, insisting Jesus didn’t mean them literally, which of course he, or his scriptwriters, most certainly did.
The early cultists, believing an angelic figure would soon be descending from heaven to kick start God’s Kingdom on Earth, were wrong. Just about as wrong as it is possible to be. The writing they left behind, the so-called New Testament, is testimony to the failure of their beliefs.
rejectingjesus, 
Good write up Neil! One of the craziest parts of this whole concept is that they call atheists delusional, crazy, etc., while they are still trying to jusify TWO THOUSAND YEARS of disappointment and disillusionment! Where, exactly is Jesus? In the common grave the Romans tossed his body in after he literally rotted off of the cross. They don’t want to ever face facts: Jesus never made it off of the cross. The entire “Joseph of Arimathea” farce is nothing more than a writing device used to get him onto a grave so he can be resurrected, nothing more.
Talk about delusional! Hello! Pot, kettle?
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How do you know? It sounds to me like another guess without any evidence whatsoever.
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Oh, Don! I love your sense of humor!
You don’t have a single iota of proof of anything you’re constantly spouting out, that doesn’t seem to bother you then. My “theory” is based upon research, reading, studying the events, those involved, and whatever “evidence” there may be; such as the information we have on Pilate, crucifixion, etc. Yet you’ll assert this same person was risen from the dead and you’re asking ME for proof?
How do you spell “C-H-U-T-Z-P-A?”
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T’NaCH — common law. New Testament — theology. The one shares nothing in common with the other. Hence the church has a reputation for war crimes guilt and has nothing what so ever to do with justice. How come missionaries fail to make mention of this horrible, disgusting, and absolutely vile gospel bad news?
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What a way to live! To constantly have the thought in the back of your mind that “the end is nigh” and … AM I READY???? Have I prayed enough today? Did I confess my sins? Should I have told more people about “God’s” love? Will I be judged because I didn’t title this month? (Surely “He” knows that gas prices are out-of-sight!) And on and on it goes.
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Had they actually READ the content they would have known that Jesus taught that the end times were imminent; “Some of you will not taste death before ALL these things come to pass” They could have saved themselves the aggravation….
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How do most Christians deal with Jesus’ commands?
Pretty much the same way Paul did. We take them seriously and make it our goal to obey them.
You seem to think that failure to fully and perfectly obey them is a fatal flaw. Well, you’ll have to take that up with Paul who in Philippians 3:12 said that he was still pressing forward to be all that God desired him to be. And in 2 Corinthians 3:18 said that we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus from one degree of glory to another. We are works in process, in other words.
Maybe it was the mistaken idea that God demands perfection right now or you’re in serious trouble that put you off from the faith. Think it through a little more deeply.
But does no one manage to live by Jesus’ commands?
Jesus did. And if Jesus did, we can too as we live our life in him.
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Or you could take it up with Jesus (difficult when he doesn’t exist):
‘Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect’ (Matt 5:48); ‘Obey my commands’ (John 14:15). Or you can just keep on ignoring him (in which case he’ll say he never knew you) and instead argue endlessly with atheists.
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That is absolute nonsense Don; really. Jesus was a devout Jew; are you? If not well, He did not come to, what? Read his words about the Law, please.
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Well, not really. Paul didn’t take any of Jesus’ commands, really. Jesus was a devout Jew, he lived and died by the Law, Torah. Paul took it upon himself to dispose of this, even though Jesus is quite explicit about this topic. If you believe that he was buried (which I do not) then he was even buried according to the Law. Paul was not teaching what Jesus was teaching.
Remember, Paul never met, Jesus, wouldn’t have known him from Adam. Never heard him speak, never walked with him and discussed his teachings, etc. Paul, in my view at least, was a charlatan and a con man that weasled his way into the early church and began his own religion, Paulianity.
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