repenting but still not perfect

I unerstand about repentance, but the only problem with this word is that its easy for people who think they are "christians" to use it against you. What can you do with people when you tell them that they need to repent and they say they have, but they are still living in sin. You can try to tell them about how they arent repenting but they will still tell you stuff like "well im not perfect so i still mess up" and maybe add something like "Are you perfect?" You can tell them your not perfect and then right away they will say " well see you still sin so your in sin also." so how can u explain to someone the difference between living in sin and a christian who is not living in sin but since they arent perfect they still sin.

This is great question and I've never heard it explained better than in a compilation by Adam Fell call "So Great Salvation" on the website www.fireonthealtar.com. Instead of trying to explain it myself just go and listen. The explaination is 5 min. in to this 18 min. compilation. Click on this link and it is the second compilation in. You can't miss it.http://www.fireonthealtar.com/compilations/index.htmlDon't quite until you reach the end. Take not of Paris Reidhead at 11 min. in. This made me cry for weeks.

Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, "therefore, you are to be perfect, even as your heaveny father is perfect." Many think this is just some goal that we are to chase after, but never obtain in this life. However, we must realize that Biblical, Christian perfection is simply a gift of God, and you can live in perfection even right now. When you are born again, you are made a new creation by God. And God can say of you, that you are perfect. That is, you are complete. You will now have everything you ever need for a life pertaining to godliness. So long as you live your life according to the Spirit by faith, you are within the Father's perfect will, and therefore perfect. Christians and Sin? 1 John teaches quite clearly you cannot be a Christian yet claim to be living in sin, no more than light and darkness being able to coexist in God. But, common experience teaches us that Christians often sin, and the Scriptures are full examples of Christians sinning.A righteous man may stumble from time to time, even seven times, but the difference between him and the heathen is that those who are made righteous get up again, and repent, and move on. A Christian may still sin from time to time, but, will get back up again, repent, and move on. Be sure though if they are living in open, unrepentant sin, and just don't care, yet claim to be a Christian, they will not inherit eternal life.

KingJimmy wrote:Be sure though if they are living in open, unrepentant sin, and just don't care, yet claim to be a Christian, they will not inherit eternal life. Boy, I know I am opening up a can of worms here but my guess with the above statement is that your belief is that you can lose your salvation.My belief is that You can lose every reward you could have had and yet go to heaven. Why? Because your salvation is based on the work of Christ, not on your own works. Your works, good or bad, neither gain nor lose salvation.I know the can lose or cannot lose your salvation is in my opinion is based on religion, not much we can do about that until God tears down those walls of denomination which will happen before Jesus comes back, thank you Lord.

My belief is that You can lose every reward you could have had and yet go to heaven.Can you show me this in the Bible?

II John 8 says, “Look to yourselves.” So many times we are concerned about the other person, but God wants you to look at yourself. If you had to stand before God right now, would He say, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant?” Would you receive a great reward? What about yourself? “Look to yourselves that you lose not those things which we have wrought (have worked for) but that we receive a full reward.” You can lose your reward.Rewards and salvation are two different categories. You can lose your rewards. He is talking about yoking up with unbelievers here in II John. You are instructed not to do that. You can fall into sin, and you can lose your reward because you will not work. You are too cotton picking lazy to do anything for the Lord. I think the way most people lose their reward, is that they do not work and earn a reward. In that sense they will lose it. You can pile up a lot of rewards, and then afterwards do something to bring a reproach on Christ and lose your rewards. When you do more harm than you have done good, you lose your rewards. There are different ways to lose them, but you can lose your rewards.

Brother MrBillBro,Perhaps I wasn't quite clear enough, but can you show me one Scripture to justify this notion of losing rewards? I've yet to find any.

My 2 cents on the prededing posts:I Cor 3:[13] Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.[14] If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.[15] If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.Ravenhill spoke how the quality of our works will be revealed not the quantity. Luke 9:[62] And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.If your God's man, you won't want to go back in your sins. Day after day you will seek things above. The non-believer watching you will just see sin after sin being given up, and think you are ridiculous. They just think your doing mind over matter to prove a point, while you see it as giving up something that makes your brother or yourself stumble. They see you as a legalizer, while you are just seeking Christ.

My answer to luckyd:Show them Scriptures that they shouldn't trust in you, you are just a man.Psalm 118:8, "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."Romans 3:4, "let God be true, but every man a liar"They are just trying to justify themselves. Tell them they have offended God, and that they need to repent. If they resist and point out your faults, it shows they are convicted, and your words are doing the job. Then pray their conviction turns into repentance, and let God bring the increase. Now if you are living in obvious sin, Spurgeon said you should go far away from your house, and when you stand up to speak, you should say nothing. I think it was a Chinese missionary who described American Christians as: "Too much talky, not enough walky."

I Cor 3:[13] Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.[14] If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.[15] If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.I thought this passage might be at some time brought up. If one reads it though, one will see no mention of a loss of rewards though. The context of this passage is ministry, and the question is if the believer's works were something of eternal value or not. If's one's works were not of eternal value, e.g. a church building you built, that building cannot survive the day of judgment when everything is tested by fire. But if one's works were of eternal value e.g. preaching the gospel, feeding the hungry, etc. then one's works will be found to survive the day of judgment.