Eph 1007ff, 1169; 3 Jn 10/6/80

DOCTRINE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY HONOR CODE

A. Definition and Description.

1. The royal family honor code is a system of spiritual integrity mandated by God and revealed in the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

2. The royal family honor code relates to personal integrity in relationship with other persons. The honor code is a supplement to impersonal love for all believers. It is also a problem-solving device of the protocol plan of God.

a. The honor code includes: the filling of Spirit; doctrinal orientation; grace orientation; and a personal sense of destiny.

b. The believer, who through the Spirit and inculcation of doctrine understands and develops the honor code in his life, will have spiritual self-esteem and a personal sense of destiny.

3. The recipients of Bible doctrine must not only apply this truth, but communicate it in terms of their lives in relationship to others. Therefore, the royal family honor code centers around two words: truth and integrity.

4. Integrity is adherence to spiritual, moral, and ethical principles related to honor. Hence, the royal family honor code relates to both the protocol plan of God as well as every function in relationship to people, which means the laws of divine establishment.

a. The believer is born again into a status quo of aristocracy.

b. The Church Age is the dispensation of the royal family of God. Therefore we must have royal function.

c. Jesus Christ Himself is the basis for the fact we have an honor code. He left us this honor code. He has three categories of royalty: divine, Jewish, and battlefield. This last category of royalty is necessary to provide a royal family for Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. Therefore, the Church Age was inserted into the Jewish Age to call out the royal family. The baptism of the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ making us spiritual aristocracy.

d. Aristocracy has standards, and these standards are called the honor code.

e. The honor code is the Christian way of life; it is compatible with two things that happened at salvation.

(1) The baptism of the Spirit and current positional truth provide the Church Age believer with a double portion of perfect righteousness and eternal life. The phrase “in Christ” found throughout the New Testament is the basis for the fact that the honor code is superior to any other code, system, morality, or spiritual function in any previous or future dispensation.

(2) The imputation of perfect righteousness provides a purpose for the royal family. This imputation provides both motivation and momentum. We have the perfect righteousness of the Father through imputation, and the perfect righteousness of the Son through being in union with Him.

f. Right thinking results in right motivation. Right motivation means right function. This is the thrust of the royal family honor code.

g. For this right thinking to occur there must be maximum Bible doctrine in the right lobe of the soul.

h. For application of this resident doctrine there must also be the filling of the Holy Spirit. So the honor code is executed by means of the Spirit, but only when filled with the Spirit.

i. The honor code includes the advance to maturity. The honor code makes it possible for every believer who is positive to doctrine to advance to maturity. The Holy Spirit sponsors you in the plan of God.

5. There is a great enemy to the honor code: gossip, maligning, slandering others. Eph 4:25, “Therefore, having laid aside the lie, each one of you speak the truth with his fellow-believer, since we are members one of another.”

a. “The lie” is anything which contradicts the honor code. “The lie” includes certain areas of carnality, cosmic involvement, and Christian degeneracy.

b. “Laying aside the lie” is recovery in all of these areas where we have failed. 6. The protocol plan of God is the greatest producer of honor and integrity in all of history. It is an honor and integrity produced by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. It is an honor and integrity produced by perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. 7. Absolute truth will tolerate nothing less than the honor, integrity, and virtue that comes from the filling of the Spirit, the perception and inculcation of doctrine, and the resultant spiritual growth.

8. Absolute truth has prevailed in the past and will prevail in the future. But when people reject absolute truth, there is no understanding of honor and integrity.

B. The Application of Bible Doctrine and the Royal Family Honor Code.

1. The honor code is an application of doctrine. The application of doctrine requires the attainment and function of spiritual self-esteem, and the necessity of moving from spiritual self-esteem to a higher function of honor - spiritual autonomy and spiritual maturity.

a. Spiritual self-esteem is the basis for resolving everything related to integrity.

b. Spiritual self-esteem is the basis of operations for our relationship with other people.

c. With the attainment of spiritual self-esteem the believer learns enough Bible doctrine to make application to every experience in life.

2. In addition to the problem-solving devices of the protocol plan of God, two things are necessary for the application of Bible doctrine to experience.

a. The attainment and function of spiritual self-esteem. The royal family honor code functions best where spiritual self-esteem exists.

(1) Spiritual self-esteem is the basis for resolving otherwise unsolvable problems. Spiritual self-esteem becomes the base of operations for the effective application of Bible doctrine to experience.

(2) With the attainment of spiritual self-esteem, the believer has learned enough Bible doctrine to make application to every experience of life.

(3) Therefore, the believer in spiritual self-esteem has the environment for fulfilling the pattern of application, which is:

(a) Learning, the perception and metabolization of Bible doctrine.

(b) Thinking, the application of metabolized doctrine to experience.

b. The function of the royal family honor code.

3. One of the great problems of believers is not having human self- esteem, which many unbelievers have.

a. Because many believers lack human self-esteem, they lack the ability to apply any truth or Bible doctrine to their experience. Lack of human self-esteem puts them into a vacuum.

b. They suffer from many problems of dependency. You are to be dependent on God, but independent of problems.

c. Areas of dependency which are problems to the believer include:

(1) Dependency from difficult environment in childhood. This limits capacity for love. This produces many problems of relationship, especially in marriage.

(2) Chemical dependency which is used as a substitute for self-esteem.

(a) Alcohol dependence.

(b) Drug dependence.

(3) Peer pressure dependence. This is never being able to think for yourself, being herdbound, succumbing to the pressures of your peers.

(4) Resentment of those who possess self-esteem, and therefore, entering into competition with them.

(5) Self-pity as a substitute for self-esteem.

(6) Self-fragmentation as a substitution for self-esteem. Self-fragmentation is a result of one or more mental attitude sins.

(7) The emulation of self-esteem through role model arrogance. You emulate someone you admire and make this a substitute for self-esteem.

d. Having no human self-esteem means four things.

(1) Lack of self-esteem in marriage means that problems in marriage are never solved; inevitably there is incompatibility.

(2) There can be no royal family honor code function without self-esteem.

(3) The royal family honor code cannot function without spiritual self-esteem.

(4) Lack of human self-esteem can be resolved by the attainment of spiritual self-esteem.

e. Self-esteem is a key to life. With no self-esteem, whether human or spiritual, you are disoriented to life. No one can be successful in marriage without self-esteem. Without self-esteem you cannot entertain yourself or handle simple problems like loneliness and problems related to social life.

f. Lack of self-esteem in almost everything in life is disastrous. But the greatest disaster is failure to learn, understand, and think in terms of the royal family honor code, the greatest system of integrity ever known.

g. Lack of human self-esteem can be resolved by the attainment of spiritual self-esteem. But those who lack human self-esteem generally live out their lives in arrogance, and generally give in to one of the two categories of Christian degeneracy.

4. Most people who accept Christ as Savior have no self-esteem. The protocol plan of God provides the opportunity for spiritual self-esteem. Once you enter Christianity without human self-esteem your only chance for having any self-esteem is the attainment of spiritual self-esteem.

5. Spiritual self-esteem is far greater than human self-esteem. Human self-esteem can sometimes be frustrating, but spiritual self-esteem is never frustrating.

C. The royal family honor code is related to the laws of divine establishment and impersonal love, Rom 13:8-10.

1. Verse 8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law [of divine establishment].” The first half of the verse deals with spiritual self-esteem; the last half with human self-esteem.

2. Verse 9, “For instance, this, `You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment [and there are], it is summarized in this doctrine, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

a. The original purpose of the law to not commit adultery was to provide freedom for a man and woman in the state of marriage to resolve their own problems without a third party getting involved. Marriage is the most fragile status in life; only self-esteem gives it a chance for stability.

b. Note that both life and property are sacred under the laws of divine establishment.

c. You must have human self-esteem as an unbeliever and spiritual self-esteem as a believer in order not to covet. Everyone, rich or poor, covets when they do not have self-esteem. With self-esteem you are content with what you have. You do not have to have anything to have self-esteem. Charity is love plus self-esteem. Socialism is lack of self-esteem.

d. “Loving self” is self-esteem; it is being free of arrogance. You are to have impersonal love for others just as you have self-esteem. This is quoted from Lev 19:18; it is quoted in Mt 5:43, 22:39; Mk 12:31; Lk 10:27; Gal 5:14; Jas 2:8.

e. Lack of self-esteem is the basis for people having hang-ups about themselves, or being anti-social and hyper-social.

f. Lev 19:18 says, “You shall not take revenge.” Who takes revenge? People with no self-esteem; Christians outside of the divine dynasphere.

(1) The first half of this verse is a direct statement of the laws of establishment as found in the Decalogue. This demands freedom and morality.

(2) The second half of this verse summarizes the execution of any system of establishment. This demands integrity and the execution of the royal family honor code during the Church Age.

g. Self-esteem keeps morality from becoming legalism. Self- esteem keeps arrogance out of morality. Morality is necessary for the human race to fulfill the principle of live and let live. But the execution of the protocol plan of God and the function of the royal family honor code are beyond the function of morality.

h. The execution of the protocol plan, the function of the royal family honor code, and the function of self-esteem cannot be divorced; they stand or fall together. The royal family honor code demands:

(1) Morality related to the laws of divine establishment, morality without arrogance or legalism.

(2) Grace orientation related to impersonal love.

(3) The integrity of spiritual adulthood, which begins with spiritual self-esteem for the believer.

i. Morality demands obedience to a series of negative and positive commands. The royal family honor code demands the filling of the Holy Spirit as the means of executing the positive and negative commands of the protocol plan.

j. Morality can be executed by self-determination from human self-esteem. But the royal family honor code can only be fulfilled by residence in the divine dynasphere under the filling of the Holy Spirit and attainment and function under spiritual self-esteem.

(1) Morality is designed for the fulfillment of the laws of divine establishment. Therefore, it is necessary for the entire human race. But since the unbeliever can produce morality, morality is not a part of the Christian way of life.

(2) While the Christian way of life is not morality, it does not exclude morality. However, the honor code demands a standard superior to morality for the royal family.

(3) Hence, Christianity uses the morality of divine establishment as a base, but it exceeds morality in the function of the honor code. Impersonal love is higher than morality.

(4) Anything the unbeliever can do is not the Christian way of life. The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life, which requires a supernatural means of execution: the filling of the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever is required to be moral, therefore morality is not the Christian way of life.

(5) Morality is not rejected as per antinomianism; nor is morality accepted as per legalism. Neither legalism nor antinomianism is the Christian way of life.

(6) The honor code demands the believer live under establishment, and exceed morality and establishment through the perception of doctrine and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

(7) Both the morality of establishment and the integrity of the honor code support the believer in his advance.

(8) However, the honor code demands patriotism, respect for governmental authority, military service, and respect for law and order in Christian relationship with one’s government, Rom 13:1-7.

k. What does the phrase `love your neighbor as yourself’ mean?

(1) It does not imply that love for yourself is the standard, but rather a human definition of impersonal love where spiritual self-esteem exists.

(2) This phrase emphasizes two things.

(a) The function of impersonal love as a problem- solving device.

(b) And that you do not lower your standards to those who are antagonistic toward you by emulating them in controversy or strife. In spiritual self-esteem you function under impersonal love toward all, and thereby avoid revenge, holding a grudge, bitterness.

(i) People can change you by their antagonism, when you lower yourself to their level. The royal family honor code keeps you in a far greater level, so that you stoop to where people can change you. You cannot change those who are antagonistic toward you, but they can change you by you lowering yourself to their level. You cannot change evil.

(ii) When you do not reciprocate to judging, maligning, revenge, etc., you are changed by the integrity and honor code of the royal family. Reciprocation lowers you to the standard of your antagonist.

(iii) Instead, you use the problem solving devices.

(3) Impersonal love fulfills two concepts.

(a) Impersonal love executes establishment principles in recognition of freedom, privacy, property, and the life of others. Hence, it adds the royal family honor code to morality.

(b) Impersonal love also executes the mandates of the protocol plan in human relationship.

(4) The command to love the brethren can never be fulfilled until the believer understands the difference between essential and non-essential, and personal love and impersonal love.

(a) Impersonal love emphasizes the subject while personal love emphasizes the object. Impersonal love demands we operate on our own norms and standards.

(b) Impersonal love is a command in which all members of the human race in your periphery are the objects. Jn 15:12, 17; Rom 13:8-9; 1 Pet 2:17, 3:8; 1 Jn 3:23.

© Personal love is directed toward a few, impersonal love toward all. There are three categories of personal love: toward Jesus Christ, toward right man/right woman, and toward friends. The object is a source of attraction to you.

(d) The object of impersonal love is the entire human race who are in your periphery.

(e) Impersonal love excludes emotion, while personal love has great emotional function.

(f) Impersonal love emphasizes the integrity of the subject, while personal love emphasizes the attractiveness of the object.

(g) Impersonal love cannot be reduced to the level of dog eat dog. Your relaxed mental attitude is the issue. You never reduce yourself to the norms and standards of those who attack, malign you. Impersonal love emphasizes your strength, not the weakness of someone else. Therefore, you maintain your standards.

(h) Impersonal love excludes carrying a grudge. You do not retaliate or seek revenge if wronged.

(i) Impersonal love includes respect for the imputed perfect righteousness residing in others. Since the perfect righteousness of God resides in every believer, impersonal love respects other believers on that basis.

(j) To hold a grudge against other believers is like holding a grudge against the perfect righteousness of God.

(k) Impersonal love is the relaxed mental attitude from the filling of the Holy Spirit rather than overt friendliness or effusive hypocrisy. Rom 5:5; Gal 15:22 both teach that the filling of the Holy Spirit produces impersonal love.

(l) Under impersonal love the believer functions under his own standards rather than being influenced by flattery, attraction, attention, or reciprocity.

(m) Not only does the impersonal love of the honor code exclude mental attitude sins and verbal sins, but demands toleration, respect for privacy and avoidance of distracting anyone from doctrine.

(n) Therefore flexibility is related to impersonal love. In contrast personal love demands learning about and knowing the object, for love of that object to exist, whether Jesus Christ, right man/right woman, or friends. Rom 12:9; 13:8-10.

3. Verse 10, “Love does not accomplish [carry out, perform, practice] evil to a neighbor; therefore [impersonal] love is the fulfillment of the law.”

a. The royal family honor code centers around three principles related to people.

(1) Truth or integrity.

(2) Impersonal love.

(3) Grace orientation.

b. The royal family honor code cannot be divorced from impersonal love as a problem-solving device or grace orientation.

4. Freedom and the Honor Code.

a. The laws of divine establishment sponsor freedom in the function of the human race. You must have a freedom, an independence from Satan, in the function of your volition in order to survive in Satan’s world.

b. The purpose of man’s creation is to resolve the angelic conflict. This cannot occur without the function of freedom.

c. Freedom is composed of four categories which are interrelated and interdependent.

(1) Freedom itself is the status of volition, or the uncaused cause of human function. It is legitimate self determination and exemption from arbitrary control (false authority).

(2) Privacy is the environment for the function of freedom. This is true when you are alone and when you are in the company of others. This includes your body and soul. You always have privacy unless you reveal your soul. When you wear clothes, you maintain your privacy. You have privacy to think whatever you want. When someone tells you what to wear, your freedom has been attacked because you have no self-determination.

(a) Privacy of the priesthood guarantees that every believer of the royal family has a right to live his life as unto the Lord. Col 3:17.

(b) It guarantees that every believer has the right to live under the plan of God without distraction, or interference from others.

(d) Such a believer has the right to assemble without his personal life or business being an issue, without being maligned, gossiped about, or the subject of criticism.

(e) Each believer must appreciate the teaching of the Word with objectivity as well as concentration.

(f) Therefore the believer must be confident that when a passage of Scripture condemns him, the condemnation is from the Spirit and not his peers.

(g) The honor code condemns mental attitude sins because they motivate gossip, maligning, and judging.

(h) Spiritual privacy is an integral part of the royal priesthood, 1 Pet 2:9. 2 Thes 3:11-12, “eat your own bread” means mind your own business. 1 Tim 5:13, Christians often study to be idle, gossips and invaders of privacy. Rom 14:10, “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you also, why do you regard with contempt your brother? For we all will be present at the judgment seat of the God [Jesus Christ].”

(3) Property is what is legitimately acquired or possessed by the individual. It is the ownership of tangible things.

(4) Authority is power delegated by God to command, to train, to prepare for life, to employ, to act as an agent for a principle like a nation or a city. All authority is delegated by God. All divine institutions have a stated system of authority designed to guarantee and protect freedom.

d. Freedom cannot exist without each of the four categories above. There can be no freedom if property is destroyed, e.g., by redistribution of wealth. No freedom exists without authority to protect that freedom.

e. Spiritual freedom is an extension of establishment freedom, in that all four classifications are involved in the honor code.

f. The laws of divine establishment never divorce freedom from privacy or privacy from property or property from authority; neither does the royal family honor code. The royal family honor code is an extension of the concept of freedom in the laws of divine establishment.

g. Gal 5:1, “In the sphere of freedom Christ has freed us; stand fast therefore and stop being enmeshed by the yoke of slavery.” Christ has freed us so that we can advance spiritually even though physically we may be slaves. There is a slavery to false doctrine, as pointed out in this verse.

D. Violations of the Royal Family Honor Code.

1. Prov 6:16-19 lists the seven worse sins as far as God is concerned. “There are six things which the Lord hates; yes, seven are an abomination to His soul: haughty eyes [arrogance], a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood [murder], a right lobe that devises evil plans [conspiracy, rejection of authority, revolution, civil disobedience], feet that run rapidly to evil [troublemakers], a false witness who utters lies [slander, gossip, maligning, perjury], and one who spreads strife among the brethren.” All of these sins are violations of the royal family honor code.

2. Believers who violate the royal family honor code are described in 2 Tim 3:2-8. They reject the truth, and so reject the royal family honor code. They are compared to unbelievers who oppose doctrine.

3. The royal family honor code demands virtue, integrity, metabolization of doctrine, and grace orientation for its function. Without the function of the royal family honor code and the protocol plan of God, the believer cannot be distinguished from the unbeliever experientially. The believer without the royal family honor code is described as useless and worthless by comparison.

4. 2 Tim 2:16-17, “Avoid profane and useless chatter [gossip, maligning, slandering], for that will make further progress in ungodliness, and their [false] doctrine will spread like cancer. And among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus.”

5. The royal family honor code relates to the protocol plan of God primarily through the avoidance of the sins of the tongue. Eph 4:25, “Therefore, having laid aside the lie, each one of you speak the truth with his fellow-believers, since we are members one of another.”

6. Rom 14:4 notes sins of the tongue in violation of the royal family honor code, “You, who are you to keep judging a servant that belongs to another? To his own Lord he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”

a. In Roman society, no one judged or punished the servant of another Roman. You have no right to judge another believer who is the servant of God. God has not delegated the prerogative of judging other believers to the arrogant, self-righteous, legalistic, weak believer.

b. Therefore, the legalistic, arrogant, self-righteous believer is both presumptuous and blasphemous when he slanders, maligns, gossips, or judges another member of the royal family. The believer who judges others is weak. He seeks to gain strength and power by putting down or discrediting other believers.

(1) Under the tyranny of the weak, everyone is weak. But under the royal family honor code everyone is strong.

(2) Through perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine, adherence to the royal family honor code, and utilization of the problem-solving devices of the protocol plan becomes the basis for establishing the virtue required by the royal family honor code.

c. The believer is only authorized to judge himself under the rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9.

d. By leaving judgment and revenge in the hands of the Lord, the believer is executing the royal family honor code.

7. Verbal sins are a violation of the royal family honor code, and result in triple compound discipline, Mt 7:1-2. You are disciplined for your verbal sins, your mental attitude sins which motivated the verbal sin, and the sins which you name in judgment or slander. Any discipline which might have gone to your victim (if he was guilty) is transferred to you.

8. Rom 14:10, “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you also, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” Verse 13, “Therefore, let us no longer judge each other. But rather, determine this, not to put an obstacle [distraction] in a brother’s way.”

9. Judging others is not only a violation of the royal family honor code, but it becomes an occupational hazard in the execution of the protocol plan of God.

a. This is especially true of the child or adolescent believer, whose norms and standards are based on things he had before salvation, and not based on the teaching of the Word of God.

b. Because of false norms and standards, it is impossible for the adolescent, cosmic, reversionistic, or fragmented believer to evaluate himself or another with Biblical accuracy.

c. Other believers in spiritual adulthood must be careful to provide spiritual freedom for adolescent believers who have not attained their stage of spiritual growth. The royal family honor code provides an environment for new believers to make mistakes and keep growing while they learn in the privacy of their priesthood.

d. The royal family honor code provides the necessary privacy and spiritual freedom inside the divine dynasphere, so that the believer in each stage of spiritual growth can continue the execution of the protocol plan without outside interference.

10. The royal family honor code recognizes that there are strong and weak believers; and that the weak believer must be understood for what he is; and it demands more of the strong believer than the weak believer.

a. The weak believer has false standards with regard to the Christian way of life. He has the wrong precedence; he is legalistic; his precedence is usually based upon the Mosaic law or some system of morality he brought with him into salvation.

b. The weak believer is filled with mental attitude sins and is constantly throwing dirt on others. He fails to recognize the privacy of the royal priesthood.

c. The strong believer has a maximum understanding of the royal family honor code. He avoids the inflexibility of legalism. He has maximum doctrine but doesn’t throw his weight around. He has grace orientation, uses the problem-solving devices, and is occupied with Christ. The strong believer must be careful not to judge weak believers who are ignorant.

d. The royal family honor code recognizes that new believers cannot operate on the same standards as those who have attained spiritual self-esteem.

(1) The royal family honor code assigns additional duty to the strong believer, Rom 15:1, “Now we, the strong, are obligated to keep on bearing the weaknesses of the weak, and not to accommodate ourselves.”

(2) Putting up with the weak is a heavy load, and only the filling of the Spirit and maximum Bible doctrine in the soul gives you the ability to tolerate all the nonsense of weak believers.

(3) Bearing the weaknesses of the weak is maximum utilization of impersonal love and total toleration in the area of non-essentials.

(4) The maximum function of impersonal love fulfills the strong believer’s honor code duty to the weak believer.

(5) By not accommodating ourselves, the emphasis is placed on the norms and standards of doctrine resident in the soul.

(6) The weak believer is weak because he has little understanding of doctrine, and maximum arrogance with which to form the inconsequential opinions about superficialities of life. Therefore the strong believer carries a heavy burden by carrying the non-essentials. This makes an issue out of doctrine for everyone. Rom 15:1-4.

e. Sincerity is not part of the royal family honor code. It is not a Christian virtue. It is hypersensitivity in arrogance, thoughtlessness of others, a total violation of the royal family honor code.

f. The more we advance, the greater the danger in adolescence of inflexibility that will cause violations of the royal family honor code. This inflexibility turns us against friends and loved ones, and causes insensitivity toward others.

g. The principle of flexibility in the honor code.

(1) Here is where rightly dividing the Word of Truth comes into its own in this dispensation.

(2) The honor code demands that the believer distinguish between the essential and the nonessential.

(3) The essential is doctrine; the non-essential becomes everything else in life. About the essential you must always be inflexible. About the nonessential you must be flexible. Flexibility tolerates all the weirdos, legalists, holy rollers.

(4) Bible doctrine in the soul establishes the norms on which priorities are rated. (5) Without doctrine in the soul, the believer operates under erroneous norms.

(6) Jesus distinguished between the essential and the non-essential when he put the horsy woman of Lk 11:27-28 in her place. She introduced a non-essential. The Lord replied with what was essential, hearing and retaining the Word of God.

(a) Heb 10:35-36, “Don’t throw away as worthless your confidence in doctrine...for you keep on having need of persistance, in order that when you have accomplished the will of God [maturity] you might carry off for yourself the promise [escrow blessings].”

(b) Rom 13:4, “Let God continue truthful though every man a liar… that you might become vindicated by means of your doctrine...” If doctrine is always the essential and you are inflexible, then you’ll always be flexible about the non-essentials. Inflexibility in non-essentials destroys empires, people, and virtue.

11. Revenge is a violation of the royal family honor code. When wronged, let the supreme court of heaven handle the case. The royal family honor code demands that we leave retaliation and vengeance in the hands of the Lord. It is blasphemous to supercede God as judge.

a. Rom 12:19-21, “Beloved never take your revenge on others. Instead, give place to punishment from the justice of God. For it stands written [Deut 32:35], `Vengeance belongs to Me. I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

E. The modus operandi of the royal family honor code demands grace.

1. Rom 12:20, “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him water. For by doing this, you will pile coals of fire on his head.” You function in grace and don’t retaliate while the supreme court of heaven handles your case.

2. Rom 12:21, “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the absolute good.” The absolute good includes the function of grace in the royal family honor code.

3. The royal family honor code demands grace orientation and grace modus operandi. By feeding your enemy when he is hungry, the believer leaves hostility toward others in the hands of the Lord. This is dependence on the integrity of God rather than on revenge and retaliation. This is also the function of impersonal love.

4. The royal family honor code never mandates the believer to stoop to the level of vindication, implacability, hatred, arrogance, or bitterness toward other believers.

5. The benefits of grace demand the function of grace. We have been benefitted by grace, therefore we function by grace.

6. Retaliation interferes with the justice of God punishing others. If you get in way punishment is often postponed. Retaliation lowers the believer to the level of his antagonist. Never reduce yourself to the level of what you despise in others.

7. The royal family honor code demands that we never stoop to the level of evil, or be overcome by evil. When we stoop to the level of evil, we are overcome by that evil.

8. The royal family honor code demands the high standards of grace orientation. Revenge or retaliation is being overcome or conquered by evil.

9. Overcoming or conquering evil by means of the good (Rom 12:21) is the motivation of grace orientation and the modus operandi of grace function in the royal family honor code.

10. The royal family honor code demands three applications.

a. Grace orientation.

b. Impersonal love for all mankind.

c. Occupation with the person of Christ.

11. Any reference in the New Testament to speaking the truth is a part of the royal family honor code. Any reference to falsification, misrepresentation, fabrication, perjury, duplicity, fraud, perversion or distortion of the truth is a violation of the royal family honor code.

F. The Plan of God (X+Y+Z) and the Royal Family Honor Code.

1. X [I/HL (imputation of human life) + I/AOS (imputation of Adam’s original sin) = P1 (the potential of salvation) + doctrine (gospel) = Hope 1 (confidence that once you exercise faith in Christ you receive perfect righteousness and EL)] + (the reality of salvation). God imputes Adam’s original sin so there will be instant condemnation at birth. Therefore instant potential for salvation if the person dies before the age of accountability. You would be automatically saved because God did everything, even your condemnation.

2. Y [JI 1 (judicial imputation of our sins to Christ) + JI 2 (judicial imputation of perfect righteousness at salvation) = P2 (the potential of maturity) + doctrine = H2 (confidence that by persistent metabolization and application of doctrine we will reach maturity)] + (maturity adjustment to the Justice of God). We were condemned at birth by I/AOS so that all personal sins could be reserved for Christ on the Cross.

3. Z [I/EL (imputation of eternal life) + I/B (imputation of blessings in time = P3 (the potential of reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ) + doctrine and undeserved suffering = H3 (confidence that by continuing in maturity we will receive eternal blessings and reward which glorifies God forever)] = agathos or “the good,” or the plan of God.

4. Scriptural references to the plan of God as part of the royal family honor code.

a. Rom 8:28 states the agathos principle, “We know, in fact, that to those who love God He works all things together for good, to those who are the called ones according to His predetermined plan.”

b. Rom 12:9, “Despise the evil and adhere to the good. Your love must be non-hypocritical.”

c. Rom 12:21, “Conquer evil by means of the good.” A reference to your personal advance in the plan of God.

d. Rom 13:4. The honor code is related to the principle of establishment. “It is a minister to you for the purpose of the good.” Government gives you protection to advance.

e. Rom 14:6, “Let not the good attained by you be slandered.” By continuing to take in doctrine it will not be slandered by angels or man.

f. Rom 16:19, “But I want you to be wise with reference to the good and unharmed with reference to the evil.”

g. Rom 15:2, “Let each one of us accommodate his neighbor for the purpose of the good.”

5. Each verse has an honor code principle related to the plan of God, so that the honor code and the plan of God are the same. One is the principle, the other is the function.

G. Hope as Motivation and Momentum in Honor Code Function.

1. Hope is confident expectation regarding the future. Therefore hope is not only the motivation and momentum in the advance of the plan of God, but the motivator in the function of Christian integrity, Rom 15:13-14. See the Doctrine of Hope.

2. Hope is total dependence on the integrity of God. The honor code demands total dependence on the integrity of God. The more you understand the integrity of God, the more your dependence on that integrity becomes.

3. The royal family honor code gains its momentum from the various stages of hope in the plan of God. Hope is the confident expectation of blessing at certain stages in God’ plan. Each hope is a thought. It is confident thinking about the future.

4. Hope relates our thinking to the integrity of God, and is a reminder that the integrity of God appointed Jesus Christ as the object of our hope and the custodian of our blessings. 5. Hope is a demand in the function of the royal family honor code. You are not living the Christian way of life unless you have a confidence about the future. Your hope is your momentum to carry you to maturity, and to give you confidence before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

H. The Principle of Production and the Honor Code.

1. This is the distinction between the believer’s priesthood and ambassadorship.

2. As a royal priest the believer advances through persistent perception of doctrine, and passing the momentum tests.

3. As a royal ambassador the believer produces spiritually as a result of spiritual growth and the filling of the Holy Spirit. His production is not the means of spiritual growth.

4. This means that the royal family honor code excludes all forms of illegitimate or legitimate Christian production or “works” as the means of blessing. Nothing the believer produces brings blessing from God.

5. Neither morality, talent, personality change, asceticism, sacrificial giving, devotional worship or working in a church will illicit blessing from God.

6. Blessing from God originates from doctrine in the soul producing capacity for life, which in turn triggers the imputation of divine blessing to perfect righteousness.

7. Divine blessing in a real imputation from the justice of God to the perfect righteousness of God occurs when the believer has attained maturity. Therefore the attainment of maturity through maximum Bible doctrine perceived is the only basis for the imputation of divine blessing. Production is the result of advance in the priesthood.

8. What is often construed as blessing from God is often logistical grace or blessing by association. Under logistical grace, God provides the support to attain maturity. Each believer has different logistical grace support. God knows how much you can be trusted with. It is wrong to have self-pity because someone else has better logistical support than you do.

9. Under blessing by association, the believer receives blessing from God because of association with a mature believer.

10. Therefore the royal family honor code demands total dependence on the integrity of God rather than on one’s own ability or human achievement. But this doesn’t mean you don’t work hard.

11. The purpose of the honor code is to provide the necessary privacy, protection from bullying, and survival in life during the advance to maturity.

12. Works are the result of the advance, but never the means of advance. Production may be a manifestation of spiritual progress, but never the means of spiritual progress.

I. The thrust of the honor code demands authority orientation for continued momentum in the Christian way of life.

1. Authority is a creation of God. Millions of people can take responsibility for their own decisions, but can never handle having responsibility for others. Authority involves a person who is willing to take responsibility for the lives of others.

2. Most people think of authority in terms of arrogance: the idea of telling others what to do, running someone else’s life. This is not authority, only a form of arrogance.

3. Authority is necessary because not all people are equal, not all have clarity of thought in regard to policy in business life, social life, etc. Authority demands moral courage as well as honesty, integrity, fairness to all.

4. The honor code demands that we have spiritual authority. Weak people resent authority. Arrogant people resent authority because they are weak. Your attitude toward authority is an index of your character. All of us live under a system of authority. Criminals never catch on to the principle of authority. You must learn to live under authority whether you like the authority or not. This is especially true in the spiritual realm. The only issue between you and your Pastor is: are you learning doctrine from him or not. His personality is not the issue. The pastor must have total assertion of authority.

5. While the positive believer advances to maturity under the privacy of his priesthood, and produces from his ambassadorship, he cannot continue his momentum apart from authority.

6. Christian freedom is not an isolated entity. It is always a part of a structure which includes privacy, property, authority. Without police and law, you wouldn’t have anything.

7. Divine authority is clearly represented in the Scripture. The canon is the book on all systems of authority: social, civil, personal, and spiritual.

8. Divine authority has delegated human authority in various realms of life. In the spiritual realm authority is delegated to the pastor-teacher who both has the spiritual gift and is functioning in a local church.

a. The purpose of this gift is the proper communication and teaching of doctrine, and the protection of the privacy of the congregation. The authority of the pastor-teacher is related to his spiritual gift, his Bible teaching, and his policy based on the Scriptures.

b. The pastor is also to delegate authority where administration is concerned. He is responsible to see that the policy of the church is being followed.

c. Having absolute authority does not mean having absolute control. Authority is delegated. Absolute authority often means taking responsibility for things which are not your fault. Therefore the pastor is often misunderstood, maligned, judged, and hated.

d. All believers grow under the authority of someone else. This challenges every believer to the principle of self-discipline. Your self-discipline keeps you from breaking your concentration, from trying to associate everything you hear to your current problems.

9. Therefore the royal family honor code demands authority orientation in your own spiritual life, Isa 54:17; Heb 13:17, “Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you, and submit to their authority.”

J. The Principle of Reciprocity, Rom 15:26-27. “For Macedonia and Achaia have decided with pleasure to make a special offering to the poor ones among the saints who are in Jerusalem. Yes, they have decided with pleasure to do this. In fact, they are obligated to them. For you see, if the Gentiles have shared in the spiritual things belonging to them [the Jewish believers], they [the Gentiles] are obligated to minister to them in material things.”

1. Local churches have benefited spiritually from doctrine and are now motivated by that doctrine to give to the destitute Jews in Jerusalem.

2. These Jewish believers have been persecuted because of doctrine. And these Gentile believers recognize their debt of gratitude for the doctrine brought to them.

3. Thus the honor code principle emerges: as God has prospered them financially, they sought to share their prosperity with those who had been the source of their prosperity. They were motivated by impersonal love to do something for these other believers, even though many Jewish believers were still legalistic, reversionistic and often antagonistic.

4. They responded to the motivation in their own soul, rather than the attitude of the object. Also note that money was a non-essential to them. It was a privilege to give to those who were antagonistic.

5. The object of their grace attitude, courtesy, and gift was not important. The essential was the doctrine in the soul of the one being gracious.

6. The sharing of spiritual prosperity in doctrine motivates the sharing of material prosperity in money. This fulfills the principle of Rom 15:1. This makes giving an honor code function with emphasis on motivation from doctrine in the soul.

7. The purpose of giving is a spiritual function of motivation. You never ask or beg for money. There is no emotion involved in giving. Christian giving is a matter of true worship of God. This is reciprocity between doctrinal teaching and resultant material prosperity.

8. Because the mature believer has been spiritually blessed from doctrine and materially blessed through imputation to God’s perfect righteousness resident in him, therefore he is motivated from doctrine to give to others.

K. The royal family honor code demands avoidance of self-pity or any function which arouses pity from others.

1. To become occupied with self and filled with self-pity is one of the greatest distractions in life.

2. Self-pity is one of the greatest weaknesses in life. Seeking to gain pity from others is living a phony life. You really have no true friendship on this basis. When you do things for someone because you feel sorry for them, it is based on self pity.

3. Rom 12:9-10, “Your love must be non-hypocritical. Despise what is evil, adhere to the good. With reference to your brotherly love, be devoted to each other. With reference to your honor, esteem others more highly than yourself.”

4. Rom 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. For when he loves the other, he has fulfilled the Law.” Impersonal love is demanded. And since impersonal love depends on doctrinal norms and standards in the conscience, it automatically excludes self-pity on the part of the subject and repudiates any system whereby you seek to gain someone else’s attention by arousing their compassion.

5. Rom 14:8, “For just as when we live, we live to the Lord, so also when we die, we die to the Lord. So not only if we live, but also if we die, we are the Lord’s.” This precludes the concept of self-pity, which is evil.

6. Rom 15:5-7. “Perseverance and encouragement” precludes self-pity. In time of trouble the believer must find his blessing, encouragement and strength in the resources of doctrine in his soul. You are not to arouse pity from others or panhandle from others. When you have disaster, you are to reflect the application of doctrine, not how much you hurt. Advertising your troubles is not a part of the honor code.

L. The royal family honor code excludes self-righteousness.

1. The imputation of perfect righteousness at salvation eliminates the function of self-Righteousness in the Christian way of life.

2. Divine justice can only bless divine perfect righteousness; never self-righteousness. Self-righteous people always think God is going to bless them.

3. Self-righteousness functions in all three categories of the old sin nature’s modus operandi: sin (arrogance), human good, and evil.

4. Self-righteousness is a complex of evil, which is eliminated by the honor code function.

5. Self-righteousness plus sincerity guarantees the function of evil in your life.

6. Therefore self-righteousness is excluded from the honor code. Its presence in the believer’s life is an insult to the integrity of God. It is a blasphemous denial of the divine provision of logistical grace.

M. Maximum function of the honor code is to risk or give one’s life for another member of the royal family, Rom 16:3-4; Jn 15:12-13; Rom 5:7; 1 Jn 3:16.

14. The honor code is the only system that makes dying a part of living

1. As long as you draw breath, you are living. And when dying, you still function under the honor code, the same as if you aren’t dying.

2. Dying is the greatest challenge to the application of doctrine in your life, Phil 1:20-21, “According to my intense concentration and resultant hope that in nothing shall I be disgraced, but in integrity, even now as always, Christ shall be exalted in my person, whether by living or by dying. For my living is Christ, and dying is advantage.”

3. To the unbeliever, there is a distinction between living and dying. But to the mature believer, dying is the most wonderful phase of living. The honor code makes greater demands in the dying phase of living.

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