The WORDS of Jesus...

[deacon blues]

People, even Christians, will dispute Jesus and his role for humanity. Is he a brother? a father? a wise teacher" a Savior? a fraud? a myth? Jesus never left an indisputable first person record, a "I'm telling and/or writing you this" type of record- Unless you accept the D&C, which I still study, skeptically, since to me the D&C seems more like the words of JS than Jesus.
But the teachings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament still guide me. I KNOW (there's that annoying word! )that somebody said them! And many are powerful. The parables: Mote & Beam, Prodigal Son, Lost Sheep, still influence what I aspire to be like. Other teachings, like cutting off the offending hand, or looking on with lust seem ill-advised and dangerous to misapply or take literally. OK, sigh.
But the bottom line, for me, is there is real value in many of the WORDS of, or attributed to Jesus.
Fundamentalist Christians want to draw a clear line and say all of the Bible is divinely inspired.
Some skeptics it seem, to me, to want to draw an opposing clear line, saying that Jesus is mythical.
Black and white views are so appealing to many. But to me they are inherently suspicious. OK, sigh... I'm getting off my soapbox.
Thanks for listening intelligently and empathetically. Something I missed all those years in Church meetings & classes.

[deacon blues]

Here's a thought that would probably crash and burn in most Sunday School Classes around the world.
Matthew 5:13
The issue of salt losing its flavour is somewhat problematic. Salt itself, sodium chloride (NaCl), is extremely stable and cannot lose its flavour. France notes that Jesus was giving a lesson in moral philosophy and "not teaching chemistry"; to him, whether or not the proverbial image is factually accurate is of little relevance to the actual message of this verse.[31] Nolland considers the impossibility of what is described as deliberate, it is counter to nature that salt lose its flavour, just as it is counter to God's will that the disciples lose faith.[32]
WTH? Maybe it's just a poor parable.

[dogbite]

It seems to me that the best of Jesus' words already existed from other thinkers before him.

Such as Hillel the Elder
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder

[Palerider]

I think the Savior used hyperbole in a number of his teachings. For example:

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

Or this:

"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."

I haven't taken these scriptures to mean that the Savior wanted us to literally hate our personal family or to cannibalize his body somehow. There is a deeper symbolism in the saying that is ours to ferret out. And occasionally the Savior gives his apostles added insight after the crowds have dispersed. But we shouldn't feel alone in seeing the puzzling aspect of many of the parables. After all, the disciples were quite open in admitting their own bewilderment.

"Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?"

[Hagoth]

The sad truth is, we don't really know for certain one word that Jesus spoke, only what has been attributed to him. But, like Deacon, I am inspired by many of those words. I wish so badly that many of my Christian neighbors felt the same way, especially the words about loving your enemy, doing unto others, forgiving seven times seventy, turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, and showing your love for Jesus by lavishing it on the
'least of these" as his proxy.

I want say to some folks, please read Matthew 25 and think about who, in your eyes, is "the least of these." Is it, I dunno, transgender people? Then if you are truly a follower of Jesus you would be going out of your way to serve and love those people in particular, because YOU define them as the least of these, and therefore the people most in need of YOUR love. As ye have done unto the least of these ye have done unto me. As ye have not done unto the least of these ye have not done unto me (Jesus drops mike and performs the miracle of donuts and diet coke for the drag show attendees).

[deacon blues]

Excellent Point, Hagoth. The New Testament gives us Paul's sermon on Faith, Hope, and Charity in 1st Corinthians 13. What does that mean to Christian fundamentalists? Christian nationalists? DesNats? Do we even have just plain Christians anymore?

[deacon blues]

After a facetime chat with my TBM sisters I'll add this: The words of Jesus that have influenced my life the most are The Mote and Beam parable. When I see posts on line that I disagree with, I consider my own foibles, and sometimes I just post "Mote and Beam." If a Christian reads it they should pause to reflect, even though it likely goes in one ear and out the other for many of them.
I think it's cool that those words have influenced my life, whatever their source.