Well said Gary.
"And that Light is His love, which we learn of through suffering, because of our stubborness"
reminds me of this
Heb 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Heb 12:5 You have forgotten the encouragement that is addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline or give up when you are corrected by him.
Heb 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he punishes every son he accepts."
Heb 12:7 What you endure is for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as sons. Is there a son whom his father does not discipline?
Heb 12:8 Now if you are without any discipline, in which all sons share, then you are illegitimate and not his sons.
Many think the sons of God are sinless. But Sin if the very thing we are diciplined for.
So can we go on sinning so as to be diciplined to prove we are sons of God?(shall we go on sinning so as to increase grace)
Of course not, we are still called not to sin.
The only way a sinner can be Christ like, is to LOVE and show Mercy!!
1Pe 4:8 Above all, continue to love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.
Mat 5:7 "How blessed are those who are merciful, for it is they who will receive mercy!
1Jo 2:9 The person who says that he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
As horrible as sin is, if it did not have a good purpose, God would have not created it in the first place.
Isa 45:7 forming light, and creating darkness; making peace, and creating evil. I, Jehovah, do all these things.
Paul was able to live at peace with his flesh, he understood the purpose of the flesh, and that it was to be only for a short time.
He also realized it was the flesh working sin and not him.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For what I work out, I do not know. For what I do not will, this I do. But what I hate, this I do. (not did but do)
Rom 7:16 But if I do what I do not will, I agree with the Law, that it is good.
Rom 7:17 But now I no longer work it out, but the sin dwelling in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good. For to will is present to me, but to work out the good I do not find.
Rom 7:19 For what good I desire, I do not do. But the evil I do not desire, this I do.
Rom 7:20 But if I do what I do not desire, it is no longer I working it out, but the sin dwelling in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then the law, when I desire to do the right, that evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man;
Rom 7:23 but I see another law in my members having warred against the law of my mind, and taking me captive by the law of sin being in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself with the mind truly serve the Law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.