re: “Tim has yet to shed his profane pursuits to quietly exhibit a mature attitude, and it seems that your (mis)application of the Holy Scripture likewise misses the mark.”
The post I responded to condemned Tebow as a hypocrite for praying publicly. She used a passage taken out of context to do so from Matthew 6.
Now, as to Tebow’s playing football on a Sunday being a profaning of Sunday, I think you are being a bit premature in your condemnation of him. After all, is not the Sabbath Day really Saturday? Where in the New Testament does it say we are not to work or play on a Sunday? Where does the New Testament say that Sunday is the new Sabbath Day?
And, haven’t you read where Paul says in Romans 14:
“1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”[b]
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.”
In other words, imardmdl, Tebow is not doing anything wrong in playing football on a Sunday. The only thing he’s violating is your cultural view about what we should or shouldn’t do on a Sunday - it’s not taught anywhere in the New Testament that we are to transfer the Sabbath Law restrictions (which was a Saturday) to a Sunday.
Have you ever mowed your lawn on a Saturday? If so, you violated the Sabbath law of not working on a Sabbath. Did you take out the garbage, paint a room, play a game on a Saturday?? The point is, Paul declares that these things are to be decided between you and God. If you want to honor God on a Sunday by not working or watching a football game, then do what you think is right. But, that’s between you and God.
As to me “misapplying” Matthew 6 and 10, please show me how I misapplied these scriptures to the issue at hand - which was, is Tebow a hypocrite for praying in public. My response was to show from Scripture that it was one’s motive that mattered to God. And, since we can’t see into Tebow’s heart, then we cannot judge him.
I guess you like the word "condemn" when you describe someone who disagrees with you, but you seem to have a proclivity of doing it to others, and not briefly. You do misapply Matt. 6:5-8. Jesus' admonition prescribes that one does his praying in private, not like the hypocrite who does it to be seen of men. Just the posing in public is the exact showiness that Jesus counsels against.
We do not need to know or judge what is in Tebow's mind -- he shows it to all in public display. God does know what is in his mind, and Tebow does not need to pose to be heard by God if he is truly grateful, according to your theory and mine. But Tebow needs to avoid any appearance of ostentation. The Holy Ghost says,"Abstain from all appearance of evil." (2 Thess. 5:22)
So do you, in contradicting my evaluation (not condemnation) of this young man's apparent spiritual maturity in his public display. For a greater understanding, you might compare Jesus' teaching in Matt. 6 with the parallel teaching in Luke 18:9-14 where "The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as (his) eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." Now, that displays humility in posture as well as in heart.
As to me “misapplying” Matthew 6 and 10, please show me how I misapplied these scriptures to the issue at hand - which was, is Tebow a hypocrite for praying in public. My response was to show from Scripture that it was one’s motive that mattered to God. And, since we can’t see into Tebow’s heart, then we cannot judge him.
I just did on Matt. 6. On Matt. 10:32-33, if the "praying posture" is meant to be a form of confession, testimony, or "silent preaching", well, that is not the way people are saved. They are saved by relating to them the commonly held precepts of The Faith, by the hrema, the spoken Word, by someone who is sent to do so (Rom. 10:8-17. That needs to be a person who has been discipled into spiritual adulthood. That is the confession Jesus is talking about in Matt. 10.
To remain undiscipled, to put your life and career before the call of Christ, is not His determined Will. (See the comparable passage in Luke 14, esp. verse 26.) Check out 2 Pet. 3:14-17, esp verse 16. There, where "unlearned" in the KJV, is, a little more precisely translated "undiscipled," not "ignorant."
In the Romans passage that you quote, the whole thrust is that the mature person not engage in practices which draw the weak believer away from The Faith. But exemplifying, amplifying, an capitalizing on the pursuit of amusement does just that, to the detriment of the maturation and ministry of the weak believers everywhere at the other end of the tube. To follow your advice, an elder would be wrong to even mount to the sacred desk and preach on Christian practices and shortcomings, hey? What kind of teaching is that? 1 Cor. 10:23,32 also speaks more directly to your use of Rom. 14 passage.
In contrast, since the beginning, the first day of the week has always been the day of general assembly, the day of being called out for the purpose of meditation and deliberation, the day one is expected to regularly and faithfully attend the Remembrance and public teaching. It was initiated by Simon Peter on the first Pentecost of the descent of the Holy Spirit and has not changed. While you are at Acts 20:7 and/or 1 Cor. 16:2, you might want to check the Greek and see what the words for "first of the week" really are. The teaching in Hebrews 10:23-31 remonstrates on absence from the assembly. The Scripture exhorts to exercise discernment, but I do not pretend to be an ultimate judge of condemnation in this matter: The God is, though, and I expect that he doesn't encourage making light of His Day of the week.
Now, I am fully aware that the NT day of assembly is not merely a displacement of the OT Sabbath, but I will say that it is more in import! When the appointed elders of the Body of Christ say, "This is the day of assembly!" -- it is like in the Army -- when the command comes to "Fall out!," you fall out! You don't go off fishing, or for your own selfish goals without a severe reprimand from the Post Commander.
To profane is to make something common, and that is exactly what Sunday football, and a busy Walmart "worship" service, wasting money and time on movies, and preference of other commonplace tasks do to obscure reverence for the Lord's Day and obedience for what the Lord meant for its use, that is profaning the day; and that is what involvement in sports to that extent does. It is denying the Lord's requests and refusing to confess Him before men. Watching/playing football on Sunday is not exactly denying one's self, the world, and Sin as a master, and taking up one's cross of the Glorious Testimony and following Him!
There is no hint here of questioning this young man's eternal destination -- only of one facet of his walk before the Lord and before the watching world.