[gcruse]

"Although I belong to a church that condemns birth control, I am going to give up that intrinsic part of human life wherein sex is concerned."

"Whatever for?"

"Because it will please God."

"You mean this God?"

John 10-10 ... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

"Uhm, you mean pointless sacrifice won't save me?"

"Why should it?"

[conservonator]

Wow, 'djya come up with that little gem on your own?

[LadyDoc]

I am puzzled.

Sex is a gift of God, and when a man and a woman give joy to each other under God's rules, they are open to the gift of new life.

Contraception means saying no to God, saying that sex is merely fun, and has nothing to do with the sacrifices of married life, nor of the joy of cooperating with the Lord to beget and nourish a new soul that will live forever in eternity.

The Contraceptive ideas that permeate our culture make children, alas, too often an unwanted side effect of sex for fun, rather than a joy and a way to serve the Lord. This is even true in my patients, who often have had tubal ligations so they don't have to worry about the Lord sending them an unexpected gift that might mess up their careers...yet as all doctors know, it is often these unplanned babies that, looking back from years later, turn out to be a major blessing in the lives of the parents.

Now, as I read your quotation as you put it, you are interpreting "life more abundantly" that Jesus gives the equivalent to sex i.e. fun without responsibility and without complications.

That makes sense to the world where fun and pleasure are the highest goal, but not to a Christian whose highest goal is to love the Lord our God and serve him, and to love our neighbor (including our unborn children) as ourselves...

[NYer]

John 10-10 ... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

7

⁵ So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8

⁶ All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

9

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

10

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

11

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

5 [7-10] In John 10:7-8, the figure is of a gate for the shepherd to come to the sheep; in John 10:9-10, the figure is of a gate for the sheep to come in and go out.

Our pastor, who has been to Israel, described the pastures where the sheep graze. Parts of the fields are sectioned off with a fence that has no gate. Hence the analogy of the gatekeeper. It has always been the practice of shepherds there to herd the sheep into the pasture and stand guard as "gates" to prevent them from slipping out.

Not sure I understand what that has to do with celibacy.

[ninenot]

To you, apparently, 'abundant life' is more sex.

To others, who understand the Gospel, 'abundant life' is sanctifying grace.

Go away, oversexed troll.