DP 265 - Questions

DP 265 [1-3]

. . . people do not know
that to refrain from evils as sins
is the essence of Christian religion.

. . . I have asked . . . whether they know
that to refrain from evils as sins
is the essence of religion.
They have said they did not,
and that it is something new they had not heard before,
but that they had been told
that they could not do good of themselves
and were not under the yoke of the law.
When I asked whether they knew
that a person should examine himself,
see his sins, repent, and then begin a new life,
and that otherwise his sins are not forgiven;
that if their sins are not forgiven, they are not saved;
and that this was something read aloud before them
whenever they attended the Holy Supper,
they replied that they took no notice of that
but focused only on this,
that through the Holy Supper
they gained forgiveness for their sins,
and that their faith did the rest without their knowing.

I asked again,
"Why did you teach your little children
the Ten Commandments?
Was it not that they might know
what evils are sins to be shunned?
Were the Commandments
only things for them to know and believe,
and not for them to obey?
Why then do you say that this is something new?"