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John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 8:7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

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I'd be careful with the No True Scotsman fallacy. Since Christianity is on open religion and has low requirements to convert, such discussions usually degrade into which sect of Christianity is best. It becomes a pissing contest of who's the better Christian.

I'd say a devout Christian would be the one that best emulates Christ. Different sects have different takes on how it's done. As for the bible, it's an anthology of Christian and Jewish literature compiled together to support a particular theology. It was never meant to be followed literally and to the letter. I do believe it is an inspired work written within the particular paradigm each author had of God given what they understood of the world at their time and how they understood their experiences with God.

Striving to be like Christ as the bible portrays, however only the individual Christian and God may judge the person in question. For example only I and God can evaluate my own level of devoutness.

No, there are parts that contradict each other. I believe a Christian (follower of Christ) should follow the teachings of Christ (which means being like Christ, he led by example) as much as possible. We all make mistakes, we will inevitably fail, but when we do we should ask for forgiveness.

Absolutely. Let's say the original text was indeed written by God. It has since been translated to other languages by men, written and rewritten by men, censored and edited by men, and thus it is now a man-made version. However there is no question about the absolute love and compassion shown by Jesus. I believe that should be the focus, not the text itself.

Today there are to many different versions and each person who believes in just one will claim his is more accurate than the others. I believe the fact that our own bible now separates us, our written text that we all believe is the word of God divides us, should be considered evidence of unholy tampering.

Being a Christian or follower of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is a personal relationship between you and the Trinity so each person is different...

But for me...

I'm a Christian that believes in love, compassion, and equality for all people not just people of a single race, gender, faith, sexual orientation, or nation.

I'm not a generic mindless zombie christian that goes to church simply to follow a routine.

I'm not the kind of christian that believes everything that is said by the person standing behind the pulpit.

I don't go to church to hear about politics or sports. I go to learn and grow in faith.

I believe that the Bible is a religious text that should be taken very seriously but i don't believe it to be perfect or infallible. I believe the Bible is to saturated with the opinions and influence of man to be something that i would put absolute or blind faith in. I believe the Bible does have messages from God in it and that God's ultimate message of salvation is in the Bible. Those messages are like solid rocks that you can build faith on but there is a lot of sand in the Bible too that a person can sink into and cause them to commit great sins against themselves and others.

I believe that to have a real relationship with God that you can't rely on the Bible for everything. The Bible has a lot of wonderful guidance and advice on issues and how to live your life. BUT Your number one guide should always be God. If problems or confusion arises then go to God first and for most. The Bible is great but God is perfect and almighty.

Christian - Follows the Law of Agape or shut the ******** up. There, that answers that question.

Umm... Yeah it is when it is DMJ... It's best if you learn to appreciate it...

He meant it more of as, Christians - Follows the law of agape; or stfu. Meaning, if they don't follow the law of agape, they are being poor Christians. I'm not seeing how it contradicts.

Okay, I get you now. It honestly didn't bother me with what he said. That's the way DMJ is