Well, it is real easy to get our focus on pleasing others instead of God, but truly, we’re the ones who choose to do it, no one makes us. Today our churches are full of unbelievers. The tares are even in the pulpit teaching false doctrine and blindly leading others. The only way to know the difference between the false and the true is to know the Word of God
However i have found that the majority of the people at that time just studied the scriptures as guided by the pastor and took his meaning as gospel they did not really read the scriptures for them selves.
We would take turns reading scripture, if we did not know what a word meant or could not even pronounce it, no big deal.
I think if i was in charge of a Bible study i would sub jest some homework, for some of these words that you suspect is not understood, in other words have them read the Bible and find out what they mean.
I am sure much of this does not have any thing to do with faith, but teaching false doctrine is not good works either.
As i was leaving church one day the preacher came up to me and said, my boy when are you going to get rid of those bad habits?
I thought gee whiz, how could he know about my weakness for the opposite sex, but i jokingly said, what bad habits? he replied, smoking of course.
Yeah right, hear i was you might say in a straight jacket over pretty women and the only sin to him was smoking.
Well here i am going on 75 and i still enjoy smoking, and i still like pretty women, however i have improved some what on that point so i don,t really know if i would enjoy them or not, I am not meaning this to be a boast as it may sound.
One of Gods commandments is, thou shall not lie.
May God be with you also.
>I am sure much of this does not have any thing to do with faith, but teaching false doctrine is not good works either.<
It has everything to do with faith, the BUILDING UP of your faith in the TRUTH!
Ah, yes, smoking...two Scriptures helped me greatly in that area, which I memorized at the time (many years ago):
1 Corinthians 10:31, Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
—I had to admit that my smoking didn’t glorify the Lord.
1 Corinthians 6:19, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
—The verse is in the context of immorality (see v. 18), but my spirit understood that it applied to all things that I did, since His Spirit is living inside of me. I knew the smoking was detrimental to my body, which belongs to Him.
It was pretty hard, as I started out mostly doing it “in the flesh,” albeit I was praying and reminding myself of the Scriptures and was helped by them, as I cut down the number of cigarettes. I really wanted to quit and just couldn’t seem to. Finally, I was so frustrated at my many starts and failures, I cried out to the Lord to give me a real HATRED of the habit. [I hated smelling like smoke,I hated all the holes I burned in my clothes, I hated the way I felt in the morning, and I hated the fact that I allowed myself to be controlled by it, but I didn’t hate the actual doing of it.]
And praise the Lord, He did it, He set me free!