I'm puzzled when I see this fruit manifesting in non-believers. Should I understand that in non-believers, it's down to will-power, upbringing etc?
_________________Lisa
I did not read all the posts in regard to your question, but I do have a thought.If Gal 5:19-20 is descriptive of the religious person, he is not a Christian. Blunt, yes. And I did not write the Scriptures!There are lots of real nice people out there who are not Christian. In fact it is a tad bit unnerving when one finds nonChristians who are so dreadfully nice and polite.... they are so nice that it will evoke the question of God not accepting them apart from the blood of Jesus. But they are still lost.We are all sinners who need a Saviour and when we have made this decision it also means we have repented of a sinful lifestyle...there is another thread on this forum somewhere that deals with this issue - and a good one, IMHO.Blessings,ginnyrose
_________________Sandra Miller
It does not take a belief in any religious system to be a good person and in fact some the nicest and most trustworthy people are atheist. On the other hand some of the worst, untrustworthy and most contrary to God and Jesus Christ persons that I have had the misfortune to meet are known christians established both in the leadership of the church(s) and in the local community. For that matter if I was to judge Jesus by the conduct of the majority those who call themselves by His name I would run the other direction. This is not just my observation but is a general consensus of how the world views christians and the church....... no wonder the head in heaven does not have a body on earth to rest His on (Luke 9:58)However judgement will come first to the House of God and He will clean out the church......... nuff said about ChristiansAll of mankind have inherited through Adam the seeds of the knowledge of good and evil and just like Adam all of mankind can produce either good or evil and for that matter sometimes both.However Christ produces nothing but good works yet he still hates evil and is not above calling the kettle black.Yet he forgives all sin and if I was to point out the one thing to me that separates a real "walking as Jesus Christian" from the best that the secular world has to offer, is that a true Christian besides not committing sin themselves will forgive anyone no matter their sin.Remember the Amish girls that were murdered in Pa a few years back? Their forgiveness of the murderer and the fellowship and assistance extended to that persons family, IMO did more to testify to the Love of Christ than any sermon ever spoken about the love of Christ.So we are reminded that we have been born of a better blood than that of righteous Able whose blood cried out from the earth....... the one thing I do not think that Abel's blood ever cried out was his forgiveness of Cain for killing him unlike Stephen who was born again of the better blood of Jesus.BlessingsDoug