JOHN 6:65 & 1st PETER 4:18

I know that there are some that seek holiness but it seems to me that the
major number of christians are content to just go to church ,pay tithe,sing
in the chior etc.They feel that is all that is involved.
      Well anyway could you tell me what John 6:65 means?
       Enabled is the key word that i have trouble with in this passage.
      Also 1 Peter 4:18 is a very strong statement can you give your
thoughts on that?



RESPONSE:

Hello,

Regarding I Peter 4:18 - Matthew Henry's commentary says: "...there are
so many suffering, temptations, and difficulties to be overcome,  so
many sins to be mortified, the gate is so strait and the way so narrow,
that it is as much as the righteous can do to be saved."

When we stand on heaven's shores after being delivered from this wicked
world, I don't believe we will say: "I made it to heaven and it was so
easy to get here; I could have prayed a lot less and coasted to heaven."

After accepting Christ through faith, it is through faithfully striving
to remain on the path of righteousness that one receives a favorable
reward when appearing before the judgement seat of Christ.

However, the ungodly and sinner, who remains thus, is not faithfully
striving to please God and has no hope of a pleasurable experience when
he/she appears before the judgement seat of God.

John 6:65 -

Your question regarding the word "enabled" confused me at first, until I
found the Greek word "didomi" was rendered "enabled" in the New
International translation. However, this Greek word is frequently
rendered "given" as we see it in the King James Version. In any case,
let me give my testimony as an answer for your question. For years I
intellectually understood what the gospel message proclaimed and
believed it to be correct (from an intellectual/theoretical point of
view). But, one Sunday afternoon, I heard the Spirit of God speaking to
me, profoundly convincing me of my sinfulness and my need to repent
immediately, without delay.

That blessed day that I repented of my sins and became a Christian was
not due to my own goodness or some sort of superior reasoning ability.
Previously, my own failure to accept the gospel that I had heard for
years was proof for me that I could not become a Christian without God's
divine intervention. The day of my conversion, it was through God's
drawing me, speaking to me, and convincing me that I yielded my will to
God's.

Just a brother