Although it is important to be aware of the teachings of Jesus, many of which are along the lines of the moral ethic of the Law of Moses, these can have bad consequences as well as good, especially if the teachings are not truly followed. For example, the law of eye for an eye is mentioned by Jesus, but he does not say to keep to it, but rather to take a different approach of returning good for evil, not evil for evil. The result of not actually following his teaching in Spirit is that people pick up on the eye for an eye part and try practising it. It has bad consequences. This could be called nominal Christianity. It is like the Jews mentioned in John 8, who believed in Jesus from hearing him one time, but did not let his teachings be their light in life. They were still, as Jesus pointed out, despite believing in him, hateful and liars, akin to the devil who Jesus pointed out is just like that too. If they kept his teachings and learned to understand and apply them obediently in their lives, they would become not so much children of the devil, but children of God. They would become his disciples, and in obeying his commands, be his sheep and he their good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. Staying nominal is to maybe believe in him as light of the world, but not to follow and truly learn to obey his teachings. So the nominal Christians do not learn to walk by his light. They stay as bad as before, not becoming children of God, even though they have power to become children of God.
