Chapter 3

This is a passage for ladies. It starts in verse 1 and goes down to verse 6. The complex person from the standpoint of the function of the soul and from the standpoint of the operation of the human race is the man. Only in times of apostasy does the male of the species appear to be simple, and the only reason he appears to be simple is because he can be classified as weak. Emotional revolt of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and a number of factors of this sort reduce the man to a very superficial evaluation. One reason that the man is reduced to this simple evaluation is because he trades places with the woman. He becomes in effect a male with a woman’s soul; he becomes a responder.

It is true that a woman is designed to be an aggressor but only in response to her right man. And then her aggression, which can be called passion and many other things, is a very beautiful and wonderful thing, and a very bona fide thing. But tragically we live in a day of apostasy where the man has become a woman. One of the signs of this is that the man begins to dress like the woman. Overtly he grooms himself like a woman; he grows long hair; he has clothes that are feminine in nature; his characteristics become feminine. And, at the same time, the woman begins to look and act like the man. In principle it is always a very unhappy period in history and a very unhappy society when the male loses bona fide aggressiveness.

Verse 1 — “Likewise” is o(moioj, a transitional word which could be translated “in a similar manner.” The similar manner is taken from the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, in verse 25 of chapter 2, is the Shepherd and the Bishop of the soul of every believer. There is also an analogy between Christ as the Bishop of the soul of the believer and the right man as the bishop of the soul of the right woman. The Lord Jesus Christ not only provides for the believer spiritually but He also provides in a material way for every believer.

There is one thing that has to be watched here. What is a real man? In the life of every woman, with some rare exceptions, there is only going to be one real man and one right man. And he cannot be described with regard to his physical characteristics. But in eternity past God designed for each woman, one man.

We do not have a word in the Greek language for wife and we do not have a word in the Greek language for husband. The same applies in the Hebrew language. So one of the great surprises that we get immediately is the fact that “wives” is the Greek word gunh. This means “woman” in the Greek. Then we have the word that is translated “husband” in the same verse, and it is the Greek word a)nhr — man. The principle is that when we are talking about right man and right woman then it is legitimate to translate this “husband” and “wife.”

This word “wives” refers to a woman in a relationship with a man whereby she recognises the man as her husband. So this is addressed to married women. What follows is a command which has led to a great deal of controversy and misunderstanding. It has caused a lot of trouble in a lot of ways but it is a divine command and obviously many of the troubles that come to a nation come because this command is ignored. For example, there never was any precedent anywhere in history for a woman ever voting. Even the Athenian democracy did not allow a woman to vote, and many of the evils that have come to us have come because women have votes — not that the women vote incorrectly, it is just that because there are so many women voters politicians do so many idiotic things, or a party tries to get someone who has the “woman appeal” and will get the women’s vote.

So the first thing we notice is that if we are going to have an orderly society women are going to have to be in subjection to someone. There is no exception and all of a woman’s life is a life of subjection. She was designed to find happiness in submissiveness. Her happiness is actually found in the verb here, which is anticipated — u(potassw. Now, it isn’t as if the woman is alone in this because the man is also under u(potassw. Life and freedom and the pursuit of happiness demand authority.

So when it says “wives, be in subjection to your own men (husbands)” this is not unreasonable, nor unfair, nor a system of slavery. It is a way of life designed by God in eternity past. When God’s wisdom is questioned the ones involved are miserable and frustrated. So “ye wives” is a reference to a woman living under a man — present middle participle of u(potassqw. This is her life. Middle voice: subject is benefited by the action of the verb. Ladies are benefited by living in u(potassw. The participle sets up a divine principle which will always exist, from the beginning of time to the end of man’s history. U(potassw means to submit to the authority of, to be under the authority of one, to give one’s self to the authority of.

There is a principle of marriage here. The woman from her own volition has freedom when she comes to her right man. And this is the first thing she gives to that right man. She gives that right man her freedom and he assumes the responsibility for her soul and body and becomes the shepherd and the bishop of her soul.

“to your own husbands” — a)nhr (man in the noble sense). To one woman a certain man is a nobleman. A)nqrwpoj is also translated “man” but it means homo sapien — male and female, both sexes in the species. But a)nar is man in the noble sense, and not any man, just one man. The Greek word — “your own,” for this one man is idioj, which means “private property,” your very own a)nhr.

Principle: Any woman who is flirtatious in any way is an unfulfilled woman. The shepherd-bishop principle is not operating and u(potassw is not in effect.

“that” introduces a purpose clause — “if,” 1st class condition; “any” refers specifically to the one in authority - the husband; “obey not the word” could refer to a believing husband who is negative toward doctrine — present active indicative of a)poqew, to reject authority. He has rejected the authority of doctrine. Logoj here refers to doctrine. But the woman has respect for authority and love for authority; she is positive toward her man. And this principle of her u(potassw can bring him under u(potassw to doctrine. It doesn’t work the other way, like women trying to nag their husbands into getting their doctrine. Sometimes this is a believer and sometimes it is an unbeliever. If it is an unbeliever it is a rejection of the gospel; if it is a believer it is a rejection of Bible doctrine.

The word “won” here does not mean to be won in the sense of soul saving. Why? Because there is another principle on which this passage is based. This is taking the case of a believing woman and a believing husband because the Bible forbids marriage between a believer and an unbeliever. So this is not a case here of an unbeliever husband and a believing wife, it is a case of the wife being positive toward doctrine and the husband being negative toward doctrine. And since he is negative and she is positive, she in being positive has capacity and therefore she is also positive toward her man. This can influence him to positive volition toward doctrine, which will only make their marriage sublime — perfect happiness.

“they also may be won” — future passive indicative kerdainw. And by interpretation here kerdainw, which means to win or to gain, refers to gaining the husband for doctrine. The same principle would apply if you had an unbelieving husband.

“without the word.” The word “without” is a preposition, a)neu, which means apart from hearing the Word. In other words, he won’t come to church to hear it, he will be won to the principle of doctrine by his wife’s response to him, and he will turn positive. He will be won, not by hearing doctrine taught, but he will be won by the “conversation” of his wife.

“conversation” — dia plus the genitive of a)nastrofh — way of life. The way of life here is u(potassw.

Verse 2 — “behold” is the aorist active participle of e)popteuw, which means to observe something very carefully, especially something that you treasure, like your right woman. However this particular verse limits the observation to something rather interesting — “chaste conversation.” The aorist tense is the point of time in which such chaste conversation is observable. The active voice indicates that the right man does the observing. This is an aorist participle and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb means to “be won,” found in the previous verse. We have already seen that “by the conversation” is dia plus the genitive of a)nastrofh, which means way of life, not conversation. The principle of being won over by the way of life of the woman is now amplified. This is something they have to see and observe, so e)popteuw means to observe in some point of time and, in fact it is a number of points of time, and gathers them up into one ball of wax. And this pattern is observed by the man.

Now what is “chaste conversation” ? The word “chaste” is the Greek adjective a)gnoj, and it means a number of things under the concept of blameless. It does not mean perfect; it does not mean sinless, but it does mean blameless in the absolute sense of the adjective. To be blameless means to be free from nagging, bullying, gimmick pressures, tantrums, anything that might be construed as the woman taking charge rather than responding. (A woman can be very aggressive in response but she cannot be aggressive in aggressiveness) The word “chaste” here really means that she is blameless in at least three fields: mental attitude - her mental attitude love is so strong that she is willing to be patient enough to wait until the Word changes the man, rather than the woman remaking the man into something she wants. A)gnoj means to relax, it does not mean to try to make a man into a preconceived mould. What is required is to sit tight and recognise divine design because our ideas and God’s may not coincide. A)gnoj not only means blameless in the soul but it means blameless in the life. No woman ever succeeded with her right man by making him jealous, by having an affair, by going in another direction, by getting in some crowd that sort of takes up the slack, and so on. None of these things work and if a woman is waiting for her right man it should be a)gnoj, which does not include social life with the “fast crowd”; promiscuity is not the answer. So a)gnoj includes a lot of things but basically it refers to a blameless woman, a woman who has waited for her right man.

“conversation” — a)nastrofh again. It means way of life.

The word “coupled” is not found in the Greek; “with fear” is e)n plus the locative of foboj — “in the sphere of The word foboj means not only fear but it also connotes several other things — reverential trust, respect, occupation, concentration. Actually it becomes a noun of concentration. Fear generally blots everything else out. Therefore foboj is a noun which generally means concentration. Everything else is blotted out. And so there are two ways in which this occurs. The translation here — fear — which is a bona fide translation, but it also connotes strong love response, concentration, reverential trust. In category one love fear is used for occupation with the person of Christ, and this is the use of the concept here. So it is “in the sphere of string love response.”

The doctrine of right man, right woman

1. The pattern of precedence of right man, right woman is divine design in eternity but established overtly at the point of creation — Genesis 2:21-25.

2. The right man, right woman relationship is analogous to the relationship between Christ and the Church — Ephesians 5:31-33.

3. Not only is there a soul design of right man, right woman but there is also a physical design in the male and female bodies — Jeremiah 31:22.

4. No one can achieve either soul love or sex love satisfaction apart from right man or right woman. This is taught by analogy in Jeremiah chapters 2 & 3; Ezekiel 16:28-30; 23.

One of the tragedies is again this whole concept of 1 Peter 3:2 — “blameless way of life.” The woman departs from the blameless way of life and destroys a relationship with her hero even if she finds him. That woman, then, is frustrated for the rest of her life, and apart from doctrine she has really had it.

5. The right woman is the glory of the man just as the believers edification complex is the glory of God. This is another spiritual analogy that teaches us something about right man, right woman — 1 Corinthians 11:7, which is also the passage where the men have short hair. This is a part of the principle. Why do men have short hair? It is a recognition of right man, right woman, and rebellion against this doctrine can be seen in the long-haired man, who is no longer a man, he’s a male with a female soul. Long hair is a sign of submission.

6. The woman is a responder, but she is designed to respond to one man — Genesis 3:16b. In the original sin of the man and the woman they reversed their roles. The woman became the initiator and “she did take of the fruit and did eat,” and then she gave to her husband also. Adam responded to the woman, and so the fall of man — Genesis 3:6.

7. When the right woman responds sexually to the wrong man she destroys her soul — Proverbs 6:32; and her body — 1 Corinthians 6:16,18. For this reason adultery is forbidden.

8. Monogamy is ordained of God to remind mankind that God has a right man for a right woman. Therefore polygamy is never condoned — 1 Corinthians 7:2-4. The fact that certain great believers were polygamous is not in any way condoning polygamy. They had a tremendous amount of trouble and no man ever had a harem without the misery that attends it.

9. Even in the empty life of the unbeliever, or even in the empty life of a believer with scar tissue, when the right man and the right woman get together their happiness is derived from the relationship — Ecclesiastes 9:9. Conversely, when you marry the wrong woman or the wrong man a lifetime of suffering results. Next to the decision to accept Christ as saviour and the daily decision to take in doctrine the most important you will ever make is the decision with regard to marriage.

10. Recognition of the right woman or the right man, therefore, becomes vitally important. Most physical recognition signals are found in the soul but body recognition signals also exist — 1 Corinthians 7:9.

11. The principle of right man, right woman is behind the command of 1 Corinthians 7:10,11.

Verse 3 — the overt beauty of the woman. We start with a relative pronoun in the genitive plural which refers to the woman or the wife. Because a woman is saved she should not neglect her outer appearance. “Whose adorning” — the word for adorning here is kosmoj, which indicates the fact that the woman in her natural state needs some help. Kosmoj means ornamentation, decoration, organisation, and here it refers to the entire co-ordination of attire and grooming. This is the source of our English word “cosmetics.” Here it refers to the overt appearance to the woman.

As this passage stands it looks as though overt grooming is prohibited, but actually as we follow the passage through carefully in the Greek we are going to discover that it is definitely commanded but not to be emphasised over the soul, that’s all. The grooming of the soul - Bible doctrine - is more important than overt grooming. And this passage is really saying: You ladies, once you accept Christ as saviour emphasise the inner life but do not neglect the outer life.

“let it not be that outward” — present active imperative of e)imi. It should be translated “be not,” plus the word “outward,” a definite article plus an adverb. It is translated “that outward” but should be “the outward” — e)xwqen, which merely means external or exterior. And the adverb is used here to indicate emphasis. The exterior appearance should not be neglected but it should not be emphasised to the exclusion of inner beauty. This passage does not prohibit overt grooming. Otherwise this passage would come to mean, “Do not wear clothes.” If grooming is prohibited then ladies do not wear apparel! So the key really is the adverb, “outward.” It is an adverb of emphasis and the emphasis must be on the grooming of the soul but do not neglect overt grooming.

“the plaiting of the hair” — e)mplokh is used for hair styling. Question: Is there something wrong with hair styling? Answer: No. Why does this passage start with the woman’s hair? Because hair is the sign of the woman’s beauty, and it is a sign of her submission.

The difference between a well dressed woman and a woman who is not well dressed is in accessories — “wearing of gold.” Jewellery and accessories are a part of female grooming. They should never be emphasised to the exclusion of inner beauty. Accessories here means more than just the wearing of gold. The wearing of gold is used for that particular concept. The word “wearing” is not a verb, it is a noun — periqesij. The suffix, qesij , means the act of (peri means around and qesij means to put on). It refers not merely to jewellery, it refers also to the ability to match.

“or the putting on of apparel” — don’t emphasise these things to the exclusion of. “Whose adorning … let it not be the putting on of apparel.” The clothes should be in good taste and in feminine style; it is not necessary to follow the styles of the day.

In verse 3, then, we have the overt grooming which is necessary. And in verse 4 we go from overt grooming to inner beauty.

We now come to verse four where the inner beauty and the empty vessel are combined. There is no greater combination in the world as far as category homo sapien is concerned. In the empty vessel and inner beauty it reflects itself in overt beauty as well. This is the woman.

“But” — conjunction of contrast. There is a contrast here of emphasis only between outer beauty of the previous verse and the inner beauty of this verse. Neither is excluded in the woman but there is a difference of emphasis. For a detailed dissertation on inner beauty we would have to go to 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

“the hidden man.” The word for “man” here is a)nqrwpoj which is a generic term and does not refer to either sex; it refers to male and female as a generic term. In other words, we have homo sapien, mankind. Then we have with that an adjective, kruptoj, which is used here for inner beauty. The hidden man refers to the soul but it refers to the dominant part of the soul and, strangely enough, that dominant part is described next as kardia.

There are two frontal lobes in the soul. The left lobe is called the mind or the nouj; the right lobe is called the heart. The right lobe has memory centre, frame of reference, norms and standards, and viewpoint. The right lobe is like the right man. You have male and female in every soul just as every member of the human race has male and female hormones. So you have the right man, he is to dominate the soul. The woman in the soul is the emotion. The emotion, like the woman, is an empty vessel, designed to respond. The woman, or the emotion, is designed to enhance what is in the heart or the right lobe. And whatever appreciations you have in the norms and standards the stimulus comes from the emotion. The emotion responds, it is never designed to take over the soul. The right lobe is the area of inner beauty in the woman.

This inner beauty must be in the area of the “incorruptible” — e)n to afqarto. There is no phrase “in that which is not corruptible” and there is no word “even the ornament of a meek.” The correct translation is, “in the sphere of the incorruptible.” The heart must be incorruptible. This is capacity for love as far as the right lobe is concerned. What is the incorruptible heart? First of all, it is freedom from mental attitude sins. The quickest way to destroy capacity for life in any area is to have mental attitude sins. The woman must have in her heart, which is the dominant part of the soul, no incorruption, which means, first of all, no mental attitude sins. In addition to that her soul must be totally cleared of any other man. In the sphere of the incorruptible means mental attitude sins primarily but there are other things that corrupt too. Emotional revolt of the soul corrupts, and actually emotional revolt is mental attitude sinning.

The word “meek” is inadequate in the English, it has a bad connotation. It almost sounds like weak. However, we have in the Greek here, prauj, which refers to a mental attitude humility which is not really humility but grace orientation. Grace orientation is a character index. For example, a man who is grace orientated understands that he initiates in the field of giving, and he gives and he gives and he gives of himself, his soul, of whatever materialistic possessions he has, of himself physically — sex — and he understands that he initiates and he gives. Therefore in grace orientation he has the character to understand that he gives on the basis of his own character and his own capacity for love; he doesn’t stand around and wait for some “doll,” his right woman, to make the proper noises and if she is nice he will be nice to her. Prauj is really a grace orientation concept as this applies to unbelievers. This passage is addressed to believers but as it applies to unbelievers there is a comparable factor and that is simply a mental attitude of wonderful character.

“quiet” is really “tranquil” — h(suxioj. Again we go right back to the mental attitude sin problem. Part of this tranquillity is freedom from pride or bitterness or jealousy or vindictiveness or implacability or hatred, the things that destroy capacity or the expression of capacity.

“spirit” — the human spirit, which is the area of Bible doctrine in storage and the area for the building of an ECS. Ultimately these things must be stabilised through the ECS. Doctrine in the human spirit is the foundation for consolidating these things — grace orientation, mastery of the details of life, relaxed mental attitude, stability and freedom from mental attitude sins, capacity for love, and plus H — on a permanent basis. Here is where the person grows up spiritually.

“which is” — present active indicative of e)imi, keeps on being, there will never be a time when it isn’t; “the sight of God” is divine viewpoint.

“great price” — poluteloj, “much end", or in other words, the ultimate of value. What you are in the soul then demonstrates what you are everywhere else.

So here is the empty vessel, the lady. The empty vessel really has the best of it because in fulfilment the happiness is fantastic.

Illustration: Sarah, verses 5,6. Sarah was a woman who was always beautiful. However, while she was overtly beautiful but inwardly [her name was Sarai in the Hebrew and that effectively means “bitch”] in her soul she was everything that was no good.

Verse 5 — “after this manner” means illustration coming up; “old time” refers to the Old Testament times, specifically the age of the patriarchs.

“the holy women” — this indicates born again, took in doctrine, grew up. How do we know this? Because experientially they are said to have “trusted,” the present active participle of e)lpizw, generally translated “hope.” Actually it means here to repose confidence — present linear aktionsart. So Sarah reposed confidence in God. The only thing that ever straightened her out was doctrine. (There were a lot of women like this so we have a general statement in verse 5 and a specific statement with regard to Sarah in verse 6.) “who reposed confidence in God” — this is the function of GAP, the intake of doctrine, the resultant capacity to love category one. With category one capacity to love category two is no problem. It is when there is no capacity to love God that everything gets so fouled up.

“adorned themselves” — the word “adorn” means they had outer beauty and they dressed well. This doesn’t mean that they dressed expensively but they dressed well. The Greek word here for “adorned themselves” is an imperfect active indicative of kosmew (from which we get cosmetics). The “holy women” of the Old Testament were all good dressers. This is suggested by the imperfect tense. But they had something to match it. They became great because there was something on the inside. As empty vessels they were “in subjection.”

“being in subjection” — the present middle participle of u(potassw, which is the verb with which we began this passage. It is the strongest word for subjection. In the past this was accomplished. Women of the Church Age are to do this. Adorning themselves referred to the overt appearance but it reflected something in the soul — being in subjection. They wanted to look beautiful because they were u(potassw to their own man. We have the fact that overt submission does not really fulfil the concept of category two love. It has to be an inner submission with overt manifestation. The “adorning” simply means that this is a manifestation.

Verse 6 — the illustration. “Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham” .It was years before she came around to this, however. Her name was Sarai and she did not have inner beauty, she had mental attitude sins, she was full of jealousy, bitterness and vindictiveness. This was manifest by the whole operation with her Egyptian slave girl.

“obeyed” — u(pakouw. A)kouw means to listen under the subjection to, and she finally got to where she listened to Abraham. She had always been telling Abraham what to do, she never listened. But finally she became an empty vessel. It took a long time because she was full of mental attitude sins.

“calling him lord” — present active participle of kalew, she kept on calling him lord from then on. She had finally arrived. Her soul finally became what it should have been in the first place, an empty vessel.

“whose daughters ye are [you have become]” .They became that through the new birth. The aorist passive of ginomai does not mean “you are,” it means you have become something you were not before. But just because you are born again it does not mean that you qualify.

“as long as ye do well.” “As long as” indicates that just because you are a believer, ladies, it does not mean that you are an empty vessel fulfilled by a right man in the soul and then in the body. It depends upon something here which says “ye do well.” A)gaqopoiew is a present active participle [a)gaqw is divine good, poiew is producing divine good]. The production of divine good is based upon doctrine and, in this dispensation, the filling of the Spirit. So the filling of the Spirit plus the production of divine good through knowledge of doctrine results in fulfilling this particular participle. “and are not afraid” — present middle participle of fobew, used here for the inner mental attitude. Fobew is negative here as a mental attitude sin. In other words, fear is a mental attitude sin and you do not have mental attitude sins.

“with any amazement” — any intimidation. The Greek word ptohsij, which is generally intimidation, means here that you are completely relaxed.

This brings us to the point of the man’s responsibility.

Verse 7 — “Likewise,” o(moioj, in a similar manner. “ye husbands” — believers.

“dwell with them according to knowledge”; “dwell” is the Greek word sunoikew, which means to dwell alongside of (it means to have sexual intercourse actually). This sexual relationship now becomes something very wonderful because the woman is now an empty vessel and the man who has now fulfilled her soul can fulfil her body.

“according to knowledge” — according to is kata, according to a norm or standard. A man must initiate giving but he must know what he is doing and he must know how to do it. Knowledge is gnwsij. Why? Because even the unbeliever can understand how to satisfy a woman in sex, and most men do not. So gnwsij is used here instead of e)pignwsij because this is information available also to unbelievers. However, here we are dealing with a born again man. Gnwsij refers to a specific type of knowledge which is not spiritual phenomena; sex and how to satisfy a woman is not spiritual phenomena. Anyone can learn it who is a male.

“giving” — present active participle from a)ponemw. A)po is ultimate source; nemw means to allot. It means to assign or allot from the ultimate source of one’s self and it means, therefore, to give of yourself. The giving of the soul before the giving of the body.

In this case notice what the woman requires; she requires the fulfilment of her soul — “honour,” timh, honour, preciousness, high value. Therefore the first giving is soul giving unto the wife.

“as the weaker vessel.” The word for weaker is a)sqenhj, which means not weak in the sense of physically but in completeness, dependent upon someone else to be completed. The woman is the weaker vessel in that she is dependent upon her right man for soul fulfilment and for body fulfilment. A vessel is something that is empty but only becomes useful as it is filled.

Now notice that we are talking again about believers “as being heirs together.” This is joint heirs and emphasises the fact that your right man or right woman will have to be a believer. This relationship was designed to last beyond the grave. Marriage will be cut off but the relationship does not, forever.

“of the grace of life” — this is God’s marvellous grace that in eternity past He designed for you a right man or a right woman. You are in the plan of God, you are both believers, you have the basis for working these things out.

“that your prayers be not hindered” — one of the reason s that prayer is not answered is because when this is not true there are mental attitude sins, there is domestic quarrelling of one type or another, and this impedes; “hinder” is e)gkoptw. E)g is “in” and koptw means to cut, so it cuts in to the prayer life. Not only do you have the failure of the great happiness designed for right man, right woman but you also have cutting in to certain types of activity in the spiritual life. Prayer life is hindered. So whenever a man and a woman are encumbered with domestic problems it overflows into other facets such as the problem here.

Verse 8 — “Finally” — to de teloj. This adverbial phrase expresses a conclusion. When you are finishing up a section on right man, right woman you should finish up with harmony, and harmony comes from the mind. This is true in every facet of life, mental attitude is the important thing. It often applies to situations which are uncomfortable and miserable. But if you have the right mental attitude you can have harmony in every facet of life, including suffering.

It all begins with the mental attitude concept in verse eight. “Finally [in conclusion of the dissertation on right man, right woman given in the first seven verses] all of one mind.” The word “all” refers to all believers in all circumstances — pantej. Then we have a noun which is translated “one mind,” a nominative masculine plural of o(mofron. Fron is mind, o(mo is the same. The noun should be translated “like-minded.” Likemindedness has to do with a similar mental attitude, a viewpoint of life based on doctrine.

The doctrine of mental attitude

1. Mental attitude determines both the life and the character of a person — Proverbs 23:7.

2. The inner happiness of the edification complex produces capacity for the divine viewpoint of life — Philippians 2:2.

3. Every believer faces the inner conflict of divine versus human viewpoint. This is a part of the spiritual struggle on this earth — Isaiah 55:7-9. The more doctrine you have the more this conflict will exist, and the more this conflict exists the greater the inner struggle. But doctrine inevitably will triumph if you take it in on a daily basis.

4. God’s plan, operation grace, calls for a new mental attitude. Therefore a new mental attitude means a new vocabulary. To learn doctrine you must learn a technical vocabulary that goes with doctrine in order to have a framework for concepts. We must have a new mental attitude to combat the old one — 2 Timothy 1:7; Philippians 2:5; Romans 12:2.

5. The divine viewpoint mental attitude is commanded in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5. This can only be fulfilled by the daily function of GAP.

6. Since doctrine is the mind of Christ the intake of doctrine shapes the mental attitude. Doctrine is called the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2:16.

7. Part of divine viewpoint is confidence which results from knowing Bible doctrine — 2 Corinthians 5:1,6,8. The more you learn doctrine the more you revert from the instabilities of human thinking to the absolutes. Doctrine demands thinking in terms of absolutes. Bible doctrine says, “This is it,” on a given subject or on a viewpoint of life; there is no other viewpoint.

8. Love is a mental attitude in the soul. Therefore capacity for love is found in the right lobe. Your ability to love is the capacity of the right lobe of the heart — 1 Corinthians 13:5.

9. Human viewpoint mental attitude is called worldliness — Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2. If the human viewpoint persists in your right lobe after salvation you are a worldly Christian. You are not worldly because of something you do or because of some place you go (you are not worldly because you play golf on Sunday); you are worldly because of what you think, not because of what you do.

10. Stability is a mental attitude. You are not stabilised because of a pattern of life, you are stabilised because of a thought pattern — Isaiah 26:3,4; Philippians 4:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:2.

11. Giving is a mental attitude — 2 Corinthians 9:7.

12. The word “evil” occurs quite frequently in the Bible. Evil is actually something you think, not something you do. You do something as a result of what you think — Matthew 9:4; Galatians 6:3.

13. Mental attitude sins produce self-induced misery — Proverbs 15:13.

The word “one mind” is not quite a correct translation, it is “like-minded.” What does it mean to be like-minded? It means to have the same mental attitude that Jesus Christ had, the same thing we find in Philippians 2:5 — “Let this thinking be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This means, first of all, “having compassion” — sumpaqhj (an adjective), which means to be compassionate, sympathetic. This is the grace viewpoint of life.

Next we have “love as brethren” — filadelfoj. Filoj is total soul love, the strongest possible type of love that can exist. Filadelfoj means to have maximum capacity for love based on doctrine. Notice that we do not have a)gaph here but filoj. Filoj represents love that comes from the ECS; a)gaph is mental attitude love. Filoj is your own capacity for love based upon the whole function of your soul.

“pitiful” — e)usplagxnoj, which is “good guts”! e)u is good; splagnon is intestines, or guts. The Greek word means literally, “good bowels” .Actually, the word “bowels” is used for emotions and it indicates that the emotions should fulfil their proper function. The right lobe or the heart is the right man of the soul. The right woman is the emotion of the soul. Just as the woman is the empty vessel, so the emotion is an empty vessel; it is designed to respond to what is in the right lobe. So every soul has a male and a female. In the man, when the right man dominates in his soul, he is masculine. True manliness is in the soul, it is not a set of muscles or a brash attitude toward life. When the right man dominates the woman’s soul she is feminine. But the right lobe is designed to dominate; this is capacity for life; this is the place for everything that is important in life. So in the translation “good emotions” is what is really meant here, and good emotions means responding to the right man. In other words, the soul is functioning under its divinely given authority. Emotional revolt is the antithesis of this. That would be a bad emotion.

“courteous” — not really the meaning of the word. Courtesy is a result of this but the word is tapeinofren. Fren is mind, tapeinw is humility or humbleness, and it means humblemindedness. In other words, orientation to grace through Bible doctrine. So this is the mental attitude of grace. Now it does result in courtesy but courteous is not really the meaning of the word.

So these four are all mental attitude characteristics and they have some results which are expressed in verse nine.

Verse 9 — “Not rendering” is a present active participle of a)podidimi, which means to pay back, to give back. It really means to retaliate. “Not retaliating” is the translation. You have the right to have the mental attitude, you do not seek to retaliate when someone does something to you that is wrong or says something unkind about you or takes a wrong attitude toward you. You do not retaliate, you are relaxed. You put that in the Lord’s hands and you move right on. Same concept as Romans 12:17 where you have an additional concept of putting it in the Lord’s hands. Retaliation always hurts you more than the person you seek to hurt.

“or railing for railing” — verbal retaliation. To go through life trying to avenge every time someone wrongs you could get very complicated. Life is too short to become involved in operation retaliation.

“but contrariwise” — an adverb, the other side of the picture, tounantion, which means “on the contrary” .

“blessing” — present active participle, e)ulogew, which means “good doctrine.” In other words, when people have it in for you face them with good doctrine — e)ulogew. Rebound if you have to and put the matter in the Lord’s hands — 1 Peter 5:7; Psalm 55:22. Do not retaliate — Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19. You can have a very relaxed life by not running around trying to retaliate.

“knowing this” — perfect active participle of o)ida, inherent knowledge, knowledge in the right lobe, doctrine in the frame of reference. And you bring it right into memory centre at the point that someone ridicules you, someone is antagonistic, someone does something to hurt you. So you have doctrine as the basis for non-retaliation. This doctrine makes you realise that you have been called for the purpose of leaving to the Lord. It is a very marvellous way to live.

“you are called” — aorist passive indicative of kalew. Kalew has to do with your salvation. The aorist tense is the point of time when the believer enters the plan of God through faith in Christ. The passive voice: the believer cannot earn or deserve salvation and the plan of God. The indicative mood is the reality of the plan of God for the believer. So “having absolute knowledge that into this you have been called” .You have been called to live under this principle of non-retaliation. This is a personal principle in your life, it does not apply to military life.

“that” — purpose clause; “you should inherit,” aorist active subjunctive of klhronomew, which means to inherit, or to acquire a permanent inheritance. The believer acquired an inheritance from the new birth and that calls for putting everything in the Lord’s hands.

“blessing” here is happiness. Happiness is something to which you fall heir when you operate under grace. What is the principle? This aorist tense says, Look, you were saved by grace, now live by grace. Grace is putting in the Lord’s hands, let the Lord do it.

In order to do this there must be victory over the sins of the tongue. If you are guilty of the sins of the tongue then obviously you do not put anything in the Lord’s hands.

Verse 10 — Beginning with this verse we have capacity for life and how to lose it. This passage is a quotation from Psalm 34:12-16. The quotation has dispensational repercussions. People often ask: Do Old Testament passages apply to us in the dispensation of the Church? And the answer is, yes they do. If they do not apply almost everyone has the good sense to know that because it clearly indicates they do not apply. One of the two strongest prohibitions in the Old Testament has to do with the sins of the tongue. So we begin the whole subject of the sins of the tongue with the fact that God desires you to have a wonderful life.

“For he that will love life” — this is a phrase for capacity of life. “He that will” is a present active participle of qelw. This actually means to express a wish or a desire and it often has an emotional connotation. In this case it is a desire for a pattern of life. Then we have with it another present active participle, the verb to love, a)gapaw. And both of these are linear aktionsart — “He that keeps on desiring to keep on loving life.” Life is phase two. And actually as this is addressed to believers it refers to that portion of phase two from the time of salvation to the time that you depart from this life. Now, a)gapaw is mental attitude love, it is a mental attitude toward life. It is the capacity for life that is based on Bible doctrine.

“and see good days.” The word for “see” is an aorist active infinitive of o(raw. And we suddenly switch from two present participles to an aorist tense because the verb o(raw means a panoramic view. It means to be able to look over your entire life and say it was great. It doesn’t mean that everything in it was great or everything in it was pleasant but to be able to look back and say that you have had a great life. This is what Bible doctrine does for the believer. Loving life is the believer with doctrine who has great capacity for life. Capacity for life is a by-product of Bible doctrine.

“see good days” — to have a panoramic view of a)gaqoj days. A)gaqoj is good of intrinsic value and it is used for divine good. Divine good is the result of doctrine, of God’s matchless and endless grace. And divine good is very rare in the devil’s world and can only be produced from two sources - the Holy Spirit and from the Word.

“days” — the Christian life is measured in terms of days. This is because every day you should feed upon the Word, the daily function of GAP.

The doctrine of days

1. The believer with an ECS, the believer with maximum doctrine in his right lobe, regards every day alike — Romans 14:5,6. Every day is a day that belongs to the Lord; every day is a gift from the Lord. And every 24-hour period is a challenge to orientation to grace.

2. Therefore every day is a gracious gift from the Lord and it is to be purchased for the Lord. This purchase or redeeming for the Lord includes capacity for life based on Bible doctrine, as well as many other things — Ephesians 5:16-18.

3. The only time we possess to glorify God on the earth is the number of days of phase two in the divine plan. God has assigned to each one of us a number of days.

4. God provides the capital to make each day count for Him under the concept of more grace — James 4:6.

5. Therefore every day is a special day in the Christian life and under that concept one day is no holier than another day.

6. Each day the believer is to avoid mental attitude sins — Proverbs 27:1, and sins of the tongue — 1 Peter 3:10.

7. Only in the days of time can God demonstrate His matchless grace to us in suffering — Psalm 102:1-3. We won’t suffer in eternity — Revelation 21:4.

There is no way that you can have capacity for life and be guilty of habitual sins of the tongue. Therefore, “let him refrain” — aorist active imperative, a command — pauw. Throughout the scripture various commands are given for capacity for life. For example, “Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land,” a command to show the principle of authority. “Refrain the tongue from evil” — the word pauw means to cease, or to stop or to desist. The aorist tense means one day at a time; “from” — a)po, from the ultimate source of “evil.” This is the activity of the old sin nature. The basis for sins of the tongue is mental attitude sins. All sins of the tongue are motivated by some mental attitude sin, like jealousy or bitterness or implacability, etc.

“and his lips that they speak no guile.” The word “speak” means to communicate — lalew, aorist active infinitive. The word for “guile” is doloj, which means deceit, fraud. When you gossip about someone you are lying. Maligning or gossip or sins of lying are all related to mental attitude sins. In other words, mental attitude sins express themselves in the sins of the tongue and the more you are inclined to mental attitude sins and the more you are inclined to sins of the tongue, the shorter your life will become. Verse 11 — “Let him eschew evil.” This is what we call a problem of anachronism. In other words, words change their meaning. The English language undergoes a number of changes. “Eschewing evil” needs to be defined in modern English. We have an aorist active imperative of the verb e)kklinw. E)k means out from, and klinw means to deflect or to deviate. And when you put the two words together the word means to deviate from a means or turn away or to avoid some principle. The principle is stated by a prepositional phrase, a)po kakou. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source, kakou is the genitive of kakoj which means evil. So it should be translated: “Avoid evil,” or literally, Avoid from the ultimate source of evil. The ultimate source of evil is, of course, the old sin nature, and perhaps the best translation would be to “turn away from evil” — Kakoj being the principle of evil or the old sin nature.

What does it mean to turn away from evil? There are two possibilities. First of all, don’t sin; in the second place there is always the possibility that once you are under the control of the OSN you rebound. The latter is really the correct interpretation. There are many verses which tell us not to sin, tell us what sin is, tell us to avoid sin, but here we are dealing with a principle. We find ourselves, through our own volition, either in ignorance or deliberately under the control of the OSN. So actually this verse gives us a command that starts us out with the old sin nature in control. The word to “eschew” means to turn away from. There has to be some way to break the power of mental attitude sins in your life or you will never be happy. We must break away from the principle of we are ever going to break away from the practice, and since the old sin nature is never eradicated and since the principle of evil lives with us as long as we are in the body of corruption, it becomes important then to break from the ultimate source. While the rebound technique is the beginning, breaking from the ultimate source of evil demands the daily intake of Bible doctrine which will eventually offset many of the patterns of life which have been developed.

Now the principle of evil is called many other things. It is called the old sin nature, it is called the flesh in Galatians 5:16 (however the word “flesh” does not always mean OSN, sometimes it just means the human body), it is called to old man in Ephesians 4:22. The word “carnal” is an adjective used for the OSN in Romans 7:14 and 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. The word “heart” is used for the OSN (although it is used for other things as well) - Jeremiah 17:9. Notice that once you have turned away from the principle of evil, which means that you have begun to build up Bible doctrine in your life, you have learned to rebound, you have learned the grace way of being filled with the Spirit, and you have of your own free will chosen to take in Bible doctrine on a frequent and daily basis of consistency, then you are in a position to produce divine good, both in the soul and overtly.

So our next phrase says, “and do good” — another aorist active imperative; it is the positive side of the picture. It is the aorist active imperative of poiew. Poiew generally means to produce, and that is the meaning here. Along with it we have the accusative of a)gaqoj — inherent good, or good of intrinsic value. It is used for divine good in this passage. So we have: “Turn away from the principle of evil and produce divine good.”

The doctrine of divine good

1. There are three sources of divine good. Source one from the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit produces divine good on a limited basis, compatible with your understanding of doctrine. Secondly, from the source of the human spirit. The human spirit contains Bible doctrine and this Bible doctrine not only builds an ECS but becomes a source for the production of divine good. Thirdly, from the soul, which is the ECS, and which is triple compound divine good. This is divine good produced by a mature believer. The human spirit cycle doctrine into the right lobe; the human spirit builds an ECS — doctrine in the human spirit.

2. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21. Remember that divine good is not always overt, sometimes it resides in the soul.

3. GAP is the means for the production of divine good in the grace perspective; GAP is the grace apparatus for perception — Colossians 1:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:21; 3:17; Titus 2:7.

4. The believer in phase two is the recipient of grace and designed for the production of divine good — Ephesians 2:10.

5. The production of divine good is accompanied by stability in phase two — 2 Thessalonians 2:17.

6. Therefore the grace principle of divine good is found in 2 Corinthians 9:8; 1 Corinthians 15:10. 7. Divine good will be rewarded — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

The dynamic equation for the Christian life is the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the daily function of GAP equals the production of divine good.

As a result you are doing something else — “let him seek peace and ensue it.” To seek peace is another aorist active imperative from zhtew. Zhtew means to search, to obtain or to pursue. Peace is a relaxed mental attitude, tranquillity of soul — one of the areas of +H or happiness.

The word “ensue” is also an aorist active imperative of diwkw — a military word for pursuit. So a better translation: “search for tranquillity and (once you find it through the daily function of GAP) pursue it vigorously” .It is the exploitation of a breakthrough in military life. The breakthrough is the recognition of the importance of GAP. Once you recognise it, exploit it by pursuit — vigorous pursuit.

Verse 12 — an anthropomorphism to show us the Lord’s awareness. “For the eyes of the Lord are over [upon] the righteous.” The eyes of the Lord and the ears of the Lord are anthropomorphisms — ascribing to God physical characteristics of the human being in order to understand a policy of God. “the righteous” — every believer has +R imputed at the point of salvation. God accepts us on the basis of this righteousness imputed at the point of salvation, and having accepted us on that basis He is going to be faithful to us.

“and his ears are open to their prayers” — this makes something very clear under the principle of grace. His ears aren’t open to our prayers because we are “nice” people. We have within us the principle of evil but God found a way to listen to our prayers and to answer our prayers on the basis of what He has accomplished, on the basis of His character, on the basis of who and what He is. So really these are verses of comfort. Grace is always comforting. Grace sees us as we are; grace sees God as He is. And, in grace, God is doing something for those who are totally undeserving, and that includes all of us. None of us are deserving.

“but the face of the Lord” — used here as an expression of disapproval. God is still our Father and even though we have an anthropomorphism of disapproval which means discipline it does not change the relationship.

“against them” — the carnal believer. He is still a believer, still has the forty things, still a child of God.

“that do” — present active participle, “habitually produce” — poiew. “Evil” - kakoj, but this time it is in the plural, the accusative plural. It is still the principle of evil but in the plural it indicates all of the aspects of the OSN. The OSN produces sins; the OSN produces lust motivation, and the OSN produces human good. Human good is not sin but is a part of the principle of evil. The OSN has three principles of evil: sin, lust and human good. So when you are under the control of the OSN you are under divine discipline and under certain divine laws which are expressed in “the face of the Lord is against them constantly producing the principle of evil” .

Now this brings us down to the subject of suffering. And we are going to have the noun kakoj in verb form as we begin, for in verse 13 we begin with the phrase, “And who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of the good?”

Verse 13 — the interrogative “who” is followed by “he that will harm” — kakow. Kakow is a cognate. It is translated “harm.” It means to oppress under evil. “Who will oppress you under evil if you become imitators of the good” .

“ye be” is the aorist middle subjunctive of ginomai — to become. And the word “followers” — zhlwthj — means imitators. Not “of that which is good” but “the good” — a)gaqoj, the divine good. The imitators of the good are the producers of divine good under grace.

Verse 14 — There is a problem here. You know that there are many reasons why you suffer that have nothing to do with divine discipline. This verse says you are happy when you suffer for righteousness’ sake. Of course you have to go back to what it really says here, and you begin with a conjunction of contrast. We have the contrast between the principle of verse 13 and the situation in verse 14. In verse 13 we have undeserved suffering but in verse 14 we have divine discipline. Verse 14 starts “But if", there is no “and” here. This is a very rare “if,” it is a fourth class condition — “if, I wish you were but you are not” .If you are suffering for righteousness sake but you are not. In other words they are being disciplined. So the fourth class condition sets up two general categories of suffering in the Christian life, undeserved and deserved. The implication is that in undeserved suffering you are happy in it. And, of course, you immediately see the problem there because so many times you were under undeserved suffering and you weren’t happy at all. So you have the right to ask a question: Why wasn’t I happy while I was suffering undeservedly? That requires a rather general understanding of the whole realm of the problem of suffering.

After the fourth class condition we have the words “ye suffer” — a present active optative. The verb is pasxw. The present tense means that this is suffering that continues for awhile and the active voice indicates that sin produces this. This is the discipline. The optative mood expresses a wish or a desire of the writer which is at the moment not a reality. He wishes that they would suffer for righteousness sake but they are not. They are being disciplined. In other words, this sentence could read: “If you suffer for righteousness sake [I wish you were but you are not]” — the recipients of this epistle then have to be suffer for discipline under Hebrews 12:6. Now obviously there are a lot of problems in understanding a verse like this because the fourth class condition indicates that you can suffer because you deserve to suffer and you can suffer and you don’t deserve it. And that if you don’t deserve it you can also be happy. This verse says you can be happy and that God has provided a way to have perfect happiness in adversity just as much as in prosperity. In fact the word for happy indicates a type of happiness that does not depend on your circumstances, it depends entirely on Bible doctrine.

The reasons why we suffer

1. Because the details of life are not mastered and we therefore become slaves to them. Slavery to the details of life — this is the whole book of Ecclesiastes. The principle is that slavery to the details of life come from two sources: emotional revolt of the soul and scar tissue of the soul. And when you are under either emotional revolt or scar tissue everything you touch turns to misery and you are not happy, regardless of the cause of suffering. But obviously this is a type of suffering which you deserve — you’ve asked for it — because as a believer with emotional revolt of the soul or as a believer with scar tissue you are going to be a slave to the details of life and once you are a slave to the details of life, lack of these details makes you miserable.

2. Suffering from guilt-reaction to sin and the suppression of it in the subconscious. This principle is taught in 1 Timothy 1:5,6, 19,20; 4:1-2. In this case you perpetuate through mental attitude sins a guilt-reaction to some sin you have committed. So this started out with punitive suffering. Rebound should have wiped it out but the guilt reaction is the rejection of rebound. Although you have been forgiven by God you go right on with the guilt reaction and you add suffering to suffering, misery to misery. And if you are suffering from a guilt-reaction to sin it inevitably is going to affect those around you — loved ones, parents, friends, and so on — and in the name of guilt-reaction the most awful crimes have been committed.

3. Suffering from scar tissue of the soul — Ephesians 4:17-19. Negative volition toward doctrine puts scar tissue on the left bank of the soul, and that opens up mataiothj and lets in doctrines of demons. And there are five or six things that build scar tissue on the right bank of the soul, and they run the gamut from mental attitude sins, dope addiction, adultery, all sorts of things. And when you have scar tissue on the right and left bank inevitably you are going to have something accompanying it — emotional revolt of the soul.

4. Suffering from failure to isolate sin — Hebrews 12:15. Once you confess a sin to God the sin is forgiven and blotted out. God forgives, God forgets, and there is no way God will penalise you for the sin. Mental attitude sins perpetuate usually a sin in which someone else is involved. Someone has hurt you or you think that they have hurt you, or someone has wronged you in some way, and you have all these mental attitude reactions. Grace then goes out the window.

5. Suffering from rejection of authority. There are many kinds of authority in life and when these authorities are rejected the individual or the individuals concerned always suffer from it — Judges 19-21; Jeremiah 7; Matthew 7:29-8:13.

6. Suffering from rapid and accelerated construction of the ECS. Some people are in a hurry to get the edification complex of the soul and if they are in too much of a hurry then they have to go through certain pressure periods. Part of the ECS is constructed under pressure, so we have a pressure situation or two that is absolutely necessary — James 1:1-6.

7. Suffering from interrelationship with those who suffer. There are certain people with whom you are related and their suffering overflows to you. Certain verses deal with this, like 1 Corinthians 12:26 or Romans 14:7. Certain chapters explain this — 1 Sam.21; 1 Chronicles 21.

8. There is a certain amount of suffering in life that is attached to marrying outside of the right man, right woman category — suffering from failure to marry the right man or the right woman. This suffering is described in two entire chapters in Ezekiel — 16 & 23.

9. Suffering because of divine discipline. The first eight categories of suffering above are either undeserved or something we bring upon ourselves. Most of our suffering comes from ourselves. But there is also a suffering which comes from God, a punitive measure from God - Hebrews 12:6.

10. Suffering from rejection of Bible doctrine. This is for believers only. Cf. Jeremiah chapter 13.

11. Suffering from the angelic conflict. This is undeserved. We suffer because as believers we are an extension of the angelic conflict into the human race — 1 Peter 3:17; 1 Peter 1:12; Ephesians 3:9-13.

12. Suffering to demonstrate the power and the provision of God’s grace — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

13. Suffering to learn the value of doctrine. Sometimes we are not appreciative of Bible doctrine until we go through certain types of suffering — learning the hard way — Psalm 119:67,68,71.

14. There is a general type of suffering which is both deserved and undeserved depending on where you are - suffering from national disaster — Isaiah 59:15-21.

15. Suffering from temporary loss of norms. All of your norms and standards are in the right lobe. Emotional revolt of the soul shuts them down and you are no longer operating on norms and standards which come from doctrine, and you revert to human norms and standards which are without moral courage and without strength — Daniel chapter 4.

16. Suffering from war.

17. Suffering from the emotional revolt of the soul in time of tragedy and disaster, as in John chapter 20:11-18.

18. Suffering when the right man rejects the right woman or when the right woman rejects the right man — Jeremiah 12:7; 15:7-12,17,18; Ezekiel 23.

Categories of suffering: 1. Self-induced suffering; 2. Punitive divine discipline; 3. Undeserved suffering.

“happy” — in the plural, makarioi. Should be translated “happinesses.” There is no “are ye” .In other words, you would be happy if your suffering was undeserved but it isn’t .Undeserved suffering is where you can have +H. But it takes doctrine. When God “spanks” you you are never happy; when you bring suffering on yourself you are never happy; it is only under undeserved suffering that you fall into the category “happinesses,” plural.

Under the conditions of undeserved suffering, which is not pertinent to these people, “be not afraid of their terror” .The Greek says: “do not fear their fear.”

“be not afraid” — aorist passive subjunctive of fobew. This is followed by the noun foboj. “do not fobew foboj” — do not fear their fear. The word “terror” is really “fear” and so it is translated, Do not fear their fear. What fear? Undeserved suffering. You can’t be happy and afraid at the same time. So obviously if you are in undeserved suffering don’t be afraid of it. Don’t be afraid of suffering undeservedly, there is happiness in it for you.

“neither be troubled” — an aorist active subjunctive of tarassw, to be worried. Fear and worry are very closely related and if you are in a sphere of undeserved suffering and you know it you should not be afraid of the suffering and you should not be disturbed. Both fear and worry are mental attitude sins. So there is a second principle here. Mental attitude sins cancel the blessing of undeserved suffering. Undeserved suffering is the only chance God ever has in time with you to demonstrate a certain facet of His grace. There is no suffering in heaven.

Verse 15 — “But sanctify the Lord God.” “But” is a conjunction of contrast, a contrast between worry and fear on the one hand and category one love on the other. “Sanctify” is an expression of category one love. The verb is a(giazw, an aorist active imperative which means to set apart, to be occupied with. And the word is not “Lord God” [which would be kurioj Qeoj] but actually we have here kurioj Xristoj — Lord Christ. Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead, so this is actually a word for love and concentration. The aorist tense: in the point of time when you are in the undeserved suffering. When you are, concentrate on Christ. But to do that you have to have capacity for love and this is why the ECS is so important.

“in your hearts” — the heart here refers to the right lobe where your capacity for love begins.

“ready” is actually an adjective — e)toimoj, which means ready, prepared, and as an adjective it probably should be translated here “prepared” .This means you are prepared for blessing — happiness in time of undeserved suffering. What does it for you? Doctrine in the right lobe — “in your hearts”; “always” — at all times. Prepared at all times to give an answer. This is a prepositional phrase, proj [face to face with] plus the accusative case. The word for “answer” is a)pologia — defence. Your undeserved suffering resulting in the application of doctrine and the happinesses is a defence, a reason, “of the hope” — concerning the in you hope.

Corrected translation of verse 15 so far: “But set apart the Lord Christ in your souls: and always ready [or prepared] for a face to face reason to every man who keeps on asking you a word concerning the in you confidence …”

“with meekness” — prauthj, grace orientation. The word “fear” here is foboj and it is good foboj. This time it is love, reverence, awe, and it is a synonym for occupation with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 16 — We begin with a verb which describes one of the results of the daily function of GAP. “Having” is a present active participle of e)xw, which means to have and to hold; “a good conscience.” We have, first of all, the word “good” which is good of intrinsic value and refers to doctrine — a)gaqoj. This is an adjective which describes Bible doctrine. The word for “conscience” is suneidhsis which means to know with. It refers to the norms and standards of the right lobe. The objective is that the conscience, and the norms and standards in the conscience, should line up with the divine viewpoint. This does not mean to have a clear conscience; this means to have a conscience where the norms and standards deal with Bible doctrine and have the biblical viewpoint or divine viewpoint. It has nothing to do with whether you feel everything is all right or you’ve done right or wrong, and so on. A good conscience is doctrine in the conscience as norms and standards.

“that” introduces a purpose clause and “whereas” is “wherein.”

“they speak evil” — this is a word which means to speak against or malign, katalaew, which means to gossip against, whereas blasfhmew means to malign. Katalalew is used here; it means to gossip against actually.

“as an evildoer” is not found in the original.

“they may be ashamed” or “put to shame” — the aorist passive subjunctive of kataisxunw. A good conscience means that you have enough doctrine to know that you are on the right track even though they say you are on the wrong track. This has nothing to do with guilt reaction or feeling as though you have done everything right. This actually has to do with norms and standards in the right lobe. When your norms and standards line up with Bible doctrine then you will be maligned from time to time, you will be gossiped against [katalalew], but the fact that your conscience tells you through the Bible doctrine you have learned and the norms and standards you have established, that you are doing the right thing and that you are on the right track, they are put to shame or disappointed, frustrated — “that falsely accuse you.” You do not change your viewpoint, your way of life, whatever is involved in your conscience at that point.

“falsely accuse” — e(phreazw, which means to slander, to harass or to insult. Here is really means to harass.

Not for “your good conversation in Christ” but “for your good manner of life in Christ.” The good manner of life goes with the good conscience. The norms and standards in the right lobe apply in such a way as to present a way of life. The way of life then lining up with the conscience is exactly the way God would have it and contrary to the katakosmoj [against the kosmoj], so the kosmoj, or the people who are in the satanic system through religion or through human viewpoint are the ones who are critical.

“in Christ” is the anchor for everything; this is positional truth. In effect, this is great peace and happiness and victory and blessing under pressure. You do not waver under pressure because you have norms and standards which have been permanently established in your right lobe. Your norms and standards or your conscience will not permit you to waver even though you are under very heavy fire from criticism and maligning, and so on. And, furthermore, your life is consistent because what you have in your conscience by way of norms and standards lines up with your way of life and, therefore, there is no way that you can be pressurised into a false system. Obviously, then, this will result in undeserved suffering.

Verse 17 — “For it is better” — there is only one word here, a comparative, “better.”

“if” — this introduces a fourth class condition. I wish it was but it isn’t .The people Peter addresses have not advanced as far as verse 16. They have not yet developed the conscience based on doctrine and therefore much of their suffering is punitive or self-induced. Therefore a fourth class condition is used to give us the correct principle and also to show us the condition of the recipients. The recipients have been given a principle to which they have not yet adhered -"Better if the will of God be so but it isn’t in your case.”

The principle that follows has to do with the blessing that comes from undeserved suffering. “Be so” is not found in the original. Instead we have a verb, qelw, which means to will.

“that ye suffer” — present active infinitive of pasxw.

“for well doing.” Well doing does not mean the points program in the church. It doesn’t even mean morality because morality is basic to the human race and this is talking about something in the Christian way of life. So the word a)gaqopoiew means to produce divine good. Divine good is produced to the maximum through the erection of the ECS. “Evil doing” is the production of the old sin nature. Both alternatives are stated. The objective for the recipients of 1 Peter is that they produce divine good. That is the whole concept here but it is a principle that they have not put into practice so he adds “evil doing,” which has to do with the reality of the situation — they are suffering for evil doing. Both of these words are present active participles to indicate a perpetual concept. Well doing or the production of divine good should be a regular thing in the Christian life. Evil doing is the reality of the situation and it is used here for the production from all three areas of the old sin nature. Production from the area of weakness would be mental attitude sins primarily because they produce self-induced misery. The lust pattern and, of course the area of strength that produces human good.

All of this leads to how are you going to change evil doing to the production of divine good? Well, the great illustration is to go to the Lord Jesus Christ — verse 18.

Verse 18 — “Christ also” is so stated in the Greek as to give it a very unique area — kai Xristoj. It is almost idiomatic; it means here is a unique person suffering. The uniqueness of Christ is the doctrine of the hypostatic union.

“once” — a(pac. A(pac means the cross. The cross and the suffering there is as unique as the person who was hanging on the cross. The victory which was accomplished there resolves the angelic conflict and many other things beside, including undeserved suffering. Here it is related to suffering, only the word “suffer” is not suffer.

“suffered” — literally, died, a)poqnhskw, the strongest word for death. This is a compound word and the strongest word for death. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source; qnhskw means to die, hence to die from the ultimate source, which means to die by utter separation, and this word is used specifically here for the spiritual death of Christ on the cross which is the basis of our salvation. It does not refer to His physical death; the suffering was in His spiritual death and the suffering is explained — “he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” So we have the concept of intense, maximum suffering. The most intense suffering of all history was when Christ, as our substitute, bore our sins on the cross.

“Also Christ once has died” — the aorist tense is the point of time, the cross; the active voice, Christ did it; the indicative mood is the reality of the God-Man, the unique person of the universe being judged for our sins.

“for sins” — peri is a preposition of substitution here and also a preposition of reference — “concerning our sins.” In other words, it is our sins that put Jesus Christ on the cross, He did not suffer for His own sins. This is strictly spiritual death. When Jesus Christ died physically He was in fellowship with God. He said: “Father into thy hands I dismiss my spirit.” When He was bearing our sins He was being judged by God, so He said: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This then is the spiritual death.

“the just for the unjust” — indicating once again that we are talking of the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. “the just” is literally “the righteous” — dikaioj. And it describes the right of both His deity and His humanity. Dikaioj means perfect righteousness in His deity; it means impeccable righteousness in His humanity. He was absolutely perfect, therefore any suffering that came to Jesus Christ had to be undeserved suffering. There never was a time when He deserved anything in the way of suffering.

“for the unjust” — u(per, another preposition of substitution which means the just takes the place of the unjust. The unjust deserves suffering; the unjust deserves to be judged by God, but the just does not. However, the just took the place of the unjust. This is the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross. We should have been judged; He was judged in our place.

“that” introduces a purpose clause — “he [Jesus Christ] might bring,” prosagw. A))gw means to bring; pros means face to face. Literally, “that he might bring us face to face to God.” Now, to bring us face to face with the Father we have to be clean. We are unclean and we cannot be face to face with a perfect God unless we have something that qualifies us — +R. At the cross we get the +R of Christ so that we are positionally face to face with God; we are qualified because we have God’s righteousness imputed to us. That is what justification is. We are vindicated because we possess God’s righteousness, not our own; we are vindicated because we possess eternal life, not our own.

“being put to death” — qanatow, an aorist passive participle which precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is a)poqnhskw — Christ died. So this came first — He received death [qanatow]. The action of the aorist participle goes first. So He received our sins and by receiving our sins on the cross, it is called bearing our sins in 1 Pet, 2:24 — our sins were put on Him and then judged. And, again, the aorist tense is a point of time, the cross. Before He could bring us to God He had to be put to death, or receive death. Literally, “being put to death having received death” .

“in the flesh” — the locative of sarc, which means in His human body. It is a locative case which means “in the sphere” of His human body.

“but” is a conjunction of contrast to introduce the contrast between undeserved suffering and the great victory which followed.

“quickened” — zwopoiew. Poiew means to do; zow, to make life. It means to do or to make life. It is translated “quickened” but it really means to make alive and it refers to the resurrection. And the interesting thing here is that while God the Father is said to have had a part in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is here emphasised. Both the Father and the Spirit had a part in the resurrection of the humanity of Christ.

“by the Spirit” — is an instrumental case and it means by means of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the agent of the resurrection of the humanity of Christ. This is not only taught here but in Acts 2:24; Romans 8:11. The reason is that God the Father expressed His approval through propitiation and the Holy Spirit expresses His approval through being the agent of resurrection. Resurrection, of course, is the ultimate victory that comes out of the cross. It makes it possible for Christ to go from abject humiliation to the highest glorification. Without a resurrection body He could not have been seated at the right hand of the Father.

This brings out another factor. The Holy Spirit sustained Jesus Christ in His humanity. This is a part of the true doctrine of Kenosis. Jesus Christ, in His humanity, did not independently use His own divine attributes but He depended upon the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. So the Lord Jesus was sustained. That is why we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit or controlled by the Spirit.

There is a little difference. Since Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature He was indwelt and filled with the Spirit from birth — Isaiah 11:2; 42:1-4; 61:1,2; John 3:34. So actually the Holy Spirit sustained the Lord Jesus in His humanity from birth.

Then there was another ministry of the Holy Spirit which came at the point of the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3:17. The Spirit came and lighted upon Him like a dove. This was the way in which God the Holy Spirit would produce in Christ the signs of Messiahship which had been prophesied in the Old Testament. This was the beginning of His earthly ministry which lasted three years — after 30 years of preparation. It is also taught in the scriptures that when Jesus Christ performed miracles He did so in the power of the Spirit — Matthew 12:28; Luke 4:14,15, 18,19. But we have to remember that both the Father and the Spirit forsook Jesus Christ at the cross. Both had to forsake Him because He was made sin for us.

However, the Holy Spirit became the agent in the resurrection of Jesus Christ — Romans 8:11. And that isn’t all. During the time that Jesus Christ was in the state of physical death His human spirit went into the presence of the Father in heaven. He said to the dying thief: “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” So His soul went to paradise where all of the Old Testament saints reside until the resurrection. Then His body went into the grave and during this period His soul made a trip down to Tartarus where certain fallen angels are incarcerated. And even this trip of the soul from paradise to Tartarus was made in the power of the same Holy Spirit.

Verse 19 — We begin with a prepositional phrase. The object of the preposition is a relative pronoun in the instrumental case. The translation is not correct because the relative pronoun actually refers to a person. Therefore we translate: “By means of whom.” This is a reference to God the Holy Spirit. This is a case of where understanding the Word of God always helps with the translation. “Which” is the way you translate a neuter relative pronoun and it just so happens that the word pneuma is neuter. And it just so happiness that when the neuter word pneuma is used for God the Holy Spirit you translate it like a masculine gender pronoun. So we change the translation to include the instrumental case — “By means of whom” .That means that the Holy Spirit not only had a part in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ but He also had a part in sustaining the Lord Jesus after resurrection on a trip He made to Tartarus. The purpose of the trip was to announce to one segment of fallen angels what had happened and how their particular mission many centuries before had been in vain.

The underworld is called sheol or hades (sheol being Hebrew and hades being Greek). It is made up of three parts. There is “paradise,” a Persian word for the garden of the king (the Jewish word is Abraham’s bosom). This is the place where all born again believers of the Old Testament went before the resurrection. Then there is a great gulf fixed and the next segment is called “torments.” This is a place of temporary fire (not the Lake of Fire) for unbelievers. Then there is a third section where we have the incarceration of certain fallen angels. This is called Tartarus. Tartarus is the area where Jesus went in resurrection body.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross a thief died on each side of Him. One of these criminals believed in Jesus Christ and Jesus said to him: “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise,” indicating his salvation. The other thief refused to believe and wound up in torments. Torments still contains all unbelievers. At the last judgement torments will be emptied. It is called Hades, “Hades shall deliver up its dead.” They are brought up before the great white throne and judged, and then cast into the lake of fire.

In Tartarus are the angels of Genesis 6. These are the angels who tried to destroy humanity and they have been incarcerated since before the flood. They will remain there until some time in the Tribulation when they are released for one stage of the Tribulation. But in the meantime they understand that the angelic conflict is over and that they have lost out. The reason that they do is because after His resurrection, in the power of the Spirit, Jesus Christ in a resurrection body came to see them and make His announcement. That is actually the subject of this particular passage.

So we begin now, “By means of whom,” a reference to the Holy Spirit whose responsibility it was to sustain the Lord Jesus Christ during His entire earthly ministry. Jesus Christ was resurrected by the agency of the Holy Spirit and then by means of the Spirit He was transported into Tartarus for His victorious proclamation.

The word “he” is a pronoun referring to Jesus Christ right after His resurrection. “Went” — aorist passive participle of poreuomai, which means to go from one place to another. He went from the earth’s surface into the heart of the earth where Tartarus is located. This is why we have poreuomai used instead of other possible words. This means to be transported from one spot to another in the passive voice, and we have it here as an aorist passive participle. “Having been transported” or “having been taken from one place to another.”

Then we have the main verb — “and preached” .The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. “Went” or “transported” is the aorist participle.

“preached” — khrussw. There are two words which are used for communicating doctrine in the Church Age — khrussw, used here, and didaskw. Almost invariably they translated khrussw, preach, and almost invariably they translated didaskw, teach. There is no difference. Both words mean to communicate to a group and when Jesus Christ made His proclamation He made it to everyone in Tartarus.

What is the difference between khrussw and didaskw? There is a slight difference. Both mean to speak to a group. The difference means khrussw is a short message and didaskw is a longer one. Proclamations were generally short and well planned. Didaskw was longer and not necessarily defined ahead of time as to its limitations. So the actual words are interchangeable, except that with khrussw the content of the message has definitely been defined ahead of time and once it is completely given in a short period of time, that is the end. Whereas with didaskw how far it takes you is unknown at the moment. So the difference between the two is simply how the content is handled — predesigned or non-predesigned.

“preached” — the aorist tense means that this was a one-shot message. The active voice, Jesus Christ made the proclamation as God’s herald; the indicative mood is the reality of the public declaration of victory. The recipients are not human beings, they are said to be “spirits.”

“spirits” — this is a dative plural of pneuma and it refers, of course, to the fallen angels involved in the Genesis 6 fracas. These angels were imprisoned in Tartarus before the flood — Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4.

“in prison” — their prison is specifically said to be Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4, where you will find the word “hell” translated there, but the word should be Tartarus. It is a special prison for a special category of fallen angels — the “sons of God” of Genesis 6.

The content of Christ’s proclamation is suggested in verse 18 and amplified in Hebrews 2:9-15 and 10:5-14. Verse 20 — there is a slight explanation of the recipients of the proclamation. “Which sometime were disobedient.” Again we have the relative pronoun “which.” The antecedents here are the spirits — which, of course, is a neuter gender — which are translated “which.” But since they are persons or personalities the translation should be changed to conform to the concept — “spirits who.”

“sometime” — not quite correctly translated. Pote, the adverb here, can mean sometime but it means “before time” and again refers to the angelic infiltration of Genesis 6:1-11. “Before time were disobedient,” aorist active participle of a)peqew, which indicates that their disobedience had to do with the laws of establishment, a commandment which existed long before mankind. The angelic creatures were to stay within the framework of their own creation and sex relationship. This same prohibition was repeated as a part of the laws of divine establishment when man was created. Man was to stay within his species and was not to overflow into the animal kingdom — Leviticus 18:22. It was Satan’s strategy through sexual relationship with certain fallen angels and certain women to frustrate the humanity of Christ and to destroy any possibility of Jesus Christ ever getting to the cross as true humanity. This almost succeeded except for Noah and his line.

“when once the long-suffering of God” — there is no greater demonstration of God’s long-suffering than that final 120 years before the flood — Genesis 6:3. In other words, the human race and the corrupted human race, the nepthalim who were part angel and part human, could have been saved. They had 120 years in which to believe in Christ and they had a very excellent preacher (evangelist). As a “preacher of righteousness” Noah did not talk about morality, he preached imputed righteousness by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“waited” — imperfect active indicative of a)pekdexomai, one of the strongest words for patience. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source; e)k is the preposition out from; dexomai means to receive or to wait. This means to wait very patiently from an ultimate source [the essence of God]. The source of God’s waiting was His character, which again demonstrates the principle that the source of grace is also God’s character. This was a great demonstration of grace. The imperfect tense: He kept on waiting from the ultimate source of Himself; the active voice: God did all of the waiting; the indicative mood is the reality of God’s grace.

“in the days of Noah” — this phrase explains the previous phrase. “Before time when once in the days of Noah", literally.

The word for “ark” is kibwtoj. Remember that at the time of the ark there never had been a ship in the history of the human race. Kibwtoj does not mean a sailing vessel of any kind. Kibwtoj is a chest used to preserve treasures. We know it, of course, as a ship. The actual dimensions given in Genesis are perfect dimensions for a stabilised type of sailing vessel. But here we have a word that is translated “ark” and ark is incorrect; it is a treasure chest.

“while the ark [treasure chest] was being prepared.” What entered into the treasure chest? Eight members of the human race, all born again. And, of course, there is an analogy. Jesus Christ is the ark, the treasure chest. Jesus Christ is described “in whom all of the treasures of God exist” .In the Church Age every believer is in union with Christ and we are preserved forever by our relationship.

“being prepared” [constructed]. Noah worked on this ark off and on for that 120 years and that was a part of his message. People came from all over the world to see Noah’s treasure chest.

“wherein” is literally, in which. “few” — a percentage of the human race, “specifically eight souls,” o)ktw yeuxai — i.e. Noah plus his wife, their three sons [Shem, Ham, and Japheth] plus their wives; “were saved” — aorist passive indicative of diaswzw, a compound verb [dia means through; swzw means to be delivered]. The word means to be delivered through something — “water", dia plus the genitive of u(dor. So they were delivered through the water, or it can be translated “by means of the water.” The water became the instrument of their deliverance while it became the means of destroying the antediluvian civilisation. This does not mean salvation; this means physical deliverance.

Verse 21 — In this verse we go from the actual historical deliverance in which eight people were inside of God’s treasure chest and delivered to some analogy. So the entire verse 21 is really a parenthesis to teach a spiritual lesson.

“The like figure” — the Greek noun a)ntitupon from which we get the word antitype. A)nti means instead of. Instead of the historical there is a type. The historical ark is called “type", the antitype is the doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit. So history is the type; doctrine is the antitype. Instead of the historical ark there is now an illustration. The historical ark is a type of union with Christ. So this should be translated: “which also represents to us the baptism that now saves” .It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that delivers. The antitype is the fact that every believer is in union with Christ and is safe. This is the means of deliverance — union with Christ.

“also now” — kai nun

1. Peter wrote at the beginning of the Church Age, “also now” refers to the beginning of the Church Age.

2. Peter personally heard Jesus announce the baptism of the Spirit; he was there — Acts 1:5.

3. Peter declared this prophecy was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, the day the Church Age began - Acts 11:15-17.

4. The baptism of the Spirit had never occurred before the Day of Pentecost. There was no baptism of the Spirit in the Old Testament. The baptism of the Spirit is what distinguishes the Church Age from all other dispensations. Being in union with Christ only has occurred in the Church Age and Church Age believers are the only ones in union with Christ.

5. But with the judgement of Israel under the fifth cycle of discipline and the beginning of the Church dispensation it became necessary for the baptism of the Spirit. Israel would go out under discipline; the Church would represent the Lord on the earth. Therefore a personal relationship very similar to the preservation of Noah occurred.

6. For that reason Peter was able to put together type and antitype, the historical ark and the doctrinal baptism of the Spirit.

a. First of all we have in the type, Noah’s ark. The antitype of Noah’s ark is doctrinal, the Lord Jesus Christ.

b. There were eight in the ark; every believer in the Church Age is in union with Christ — “in Christ”.

c. There was no judgement to those in the ark; there is therefore now no judgement to them who are in Christ Jesus — Romans 8:1.

d. There was judgement to the unbelievers; in the Church Age there is judgement to unbelievers — John 3:18.

7. While the type existed in form the time of Noah on as a historical fact the antitype did not exist until the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD.

“doth save” — present active indicative of swzow. Swzow means both spiritual salvation — eternal life, and it also means deliverance. Here it represents to us the baptism that now saves, eternal salvation.

So the corrected translation: “Which also represents to us the baptism that now saves,” the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer at the moment of faith in Christ is entered into union with Christ. And we are to understand that this is a Spirit baptism and it is not a water baptism.

Spirit baptism is one of the 40 things accomplished at salvation. The baptism of the Spirit actually puts the believer in union with Christ and as believers we share His life which is eternal life. Water baptism merely portrays salvation but does not save. So one actually saves; one represents salvation.

There is a principle here: water baptism cannot save — “not the putting away” — this is a noun, a)poqesij which means to remove from the ultimate source. The word was used for removing clothing that was dirty.

“filth of the flesh” — the word for “filth” is r(upoj. The filth of the flesh is the manifestation of the old sin nature. In other words Peter is stating that this baptism is not a bath! It is the baptism of the Spirit which is the antitype of Noah’s ark.

“but” — conjunction of contrast , “the answer” — e)perwthma, a word which originally meant interrogation but in the Koine it is used for a pledge. So the corrected translation: “but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” The Spirit baptism gives us the pledge of a good conscience toward God. Our soul is saved but our OSN is still active. The possession of the old sin nature makes the pledge of a good conscience toward God impossible but the baptism of the Spirit produces, under retroactive and current positional truth, the answer. You cannot have the pledge of a good conscience toward God because even after you are saved you still have an OSN and you still sin. But you are in union with Christ. Christ is eternal life, you share His life; He is plus R, you share His righteousness, etc. So good conscience does not depend upon whether you sin or you do not sin after salvation. Good conscience depends upon your relationship - you are in union with Christ.

“by the resurrection” — a)nastasij. Dia pus the genitive — literally, “through the resurrection” .Through resurrection Christ made the victorious declaration; through resurrection Christ made it possible for us to be in union with Him and to be delivered. He is seated at the right hand of the Father; He is acceptable. Before Christ could be seated at the right hand of the Father He had to be resurrected. Now we are in union with Christ at the right hand of the Father and therefore we have a good conscience toward God because we are accepted, not on the basis of who and what we are, but on the basis of who and what God is — God the Son in resurrection.

Verse 22 — we have the sequel to the victorious proclamation. The resurrection of Christ, as it relates to this particular phrase, is found in greater detail in Hebrews chapter one, with special emphasis on verses 13 and 14. The ascension of Christ is based on His resurrection and made it possible for Him to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Being seated at the right hand of the Father means that He is acceptable. We are in union with Christ, therefore we are acceptable.

“Who” — o(j is a relative pronoun. “is gone” — poreuomai. This time He goes from earth to the third heaven, aorist passive participle. The aorist tense is the point of the ascension of Christ. The passive voice means that Christ received transportation again.

“is” — e)imi, refers to being at the right hand of the Father. So He was transported from earth to heaven in His resurrection body before He was seated at the right hand of the Father. The “right hand of God” is where operation footstool occurs.

“angels” — Satan plus fallen angels who are defeated by operation footstool, preceded by the cross and resurrection.

“authorities” — often translated “powers” as in Ephesians 6:12, and e)cousia here does refer to demons, as it does in Ephesians 6:12.

“powers” — is also found in Ephesians and it refers to Satan as the ruler of this world and angels being under him.

Corrected translation: “angels, both authorities and powers.”

“being made subject’ — aorist passive participle of u(potassw which is used as the ultimate word in authority. It means “having been subordinated to him.” Here is the victory of the angelic conflict, beginning with the cross, then the resurrection, and then the session whereby Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.