I don’t think of God as being confined to ordering, period. That’s why I say he is timeless or timefull (adding an ‘L’ 
), atemporal or omnitemporal.
Sin is disobedience and disobedience is sin – I don’t see how you get around it, either in the NT or the OT (and those links are just the noun form, not the adjective). Here is the adjective form: OT and NT.
When I sin, I am being disobedient in one way or another!
I neglected the verb forms – obey, obeying, obeyed and disobey, disobeying and disobeyed. Even that might not be exhaustive, and it does not include synonyms like lawlessness.
At least two translations even have it explicitly,
Of course there is. Teaching that sin equals disobedience is perfect for making religion into a tool of power and control. People are always making translations of the Bible which better serve their purpose, like the Jehovah Witnesses making the New World translation.
But I have no interest in Christianity refashioned into a tool of power, and I never will.
Father made good rules for his family to obey for their own well-being, directions for the proper use of the ‘equipment’. Damage results if you don’t use the equipment according to the manufacturer’s instructions and disobey them. What are commandments? Something to obey. What is lawlessness? Disobedience to laws (and a rebellious and disobedient mindset).
You are saying in effect that you have no interest in scripture – you seem to be hung up on this control issue and are being antithetical to the obvious.
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Of course, people can abuse rules and power, using them to manipulate, coerce, control and mislead – that is evidence of our brokenness. But they are being disobedient themselves and disobeying commandments in doing that, the laws of love.
You should not have a problem with being obedient to a loving Father and yielding to his power and control. One evidence that you love him is by being obedient and not sinning.
You are saying in effect that the only purpose of scripture is a tool of power and control over people. I of course disagree.
No… people WILL abuse rules and power, using them to manipulate, coerce, control and mislead. That is why you have remove the opportunity for people to do this whenever possible. And if you really believe in God then nothing can be more important than removing this possibility in religion. When you look at the ministry of Jesus you can see this focus in his own teachings quite clearly.
I am saying no such thing. If I were you would be correct in disagreeing.
I can grant that, no problem. That does not imply that the rules themselves are intrinsically bad, merely by virtue of being rules.
Wow. You sure read differently than I do. Christianity is not a religion, it is a Person, to quote Tim Keller, probably imperfectly. That does not mean that there are no rules for the Kingdom’s citizens to obey.
Jesus condemns pharisaical superficial obedience for show. He does not reject a contrite heart, sorrowful for its past disobedience and its desire to be obedient in the future.
I am saying no such thing.
You apparently have a different set of rules for other people than you do for yourself. This is inevitable when you seek justification for passing judgement on other people like you have done. This is why Jesus gave the warning that when you judge other people then you will be measured by the same standard you use for other people.
I repeat… if you really believe in God then nothing can be more important than removing the possibility that people will use religion to manipulate, coerce, control and mislead. When you look at the ministry of Jesus you can see this focus in his own teachings quite clearly, for it is not the unbelievers Jesus criticized and condemned but the most religious people.
You are misreading something somewhere. Please support your claim.
Where have I done that?
I said almost the exact same words to you, to show you that what you were doing was wrong.
You: You are saying in effect that you have no interest in scripture
Me: You are saying in effect that the only purpose of scripture is a tool of power and control over people.
Then you complained that you said no such thing when the fact is that I said no such thing either. That is a different standard for other people than you set for yourself.
Ok…
Here is where you seek to justify the judgment of others with regards to sins which you judge to be obvious. This seemed completely contrary to the observation that heart and motivation are integral to what people do and it is quite clear that only God can see the heart and motivation of people.
It’s not obvious when someone is caught embezzling? That is not judging anyone’s heart by a different standard.
(And you have to have rules, like “Do not steal.”)
Jesus’ warning against judging others doesn’t mean that society should have no laws or that people should not be punished for breaking them. It means we cannot take upon ourselves God prerogative the judge their eternal destiny. It means that we cannot even take it upon ourselves to judge our own eternal destiny either. Only God can judge such things. Paul says much the same thing in Romans 10 that faith doesn’t even ask the question of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
I never said otherwise. But we know that an embezzler’s heart is a covetous and thieving one, or at least it is not one trusting God to provide its actual needs. That is not judging the heart because it has been shown to us.
This is Paul not judging hearts:
Their condemnation is deserved!
Romans 3:8
Here, too:
You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.
Titus 3:11
Wrong. (How do I say that graciously?)
I know that I am my Father’s child and that my eternity is secure, because it has been promised me by him who cannot lie.
Recall: