Chapter 4

General causes for suffering in the human race

Whatever is a general cause for believer and unbeliever also becomes a specific cause in the plan of God for believers periodically. For example, privation which includes believer and unbeliever alike. But there comes a time when privation in the life of the believer has a purpose — it is designed by God for blessing.

The second general one is people — people in maligning, people in gossip, people functioning under crime, in warfare. One way or another people are the cause of other people suffering. However, a general cause for suffering becomes a specific means of blessing where believers are concerned.

A third cause for suffering is loss of health. Both believers and unbelievers suffer from loss of health. However, when loss of health occurs with a believer specifically all things work together for good and the purpose is designed by God for blessing. If any of these things are punitive in nature from God, rebound turns them into blessing.

The fourth reason is the exercise of justice. Inevitably we all know believers who may have been involved in some type of crime. Believers have been known to commit all crimes up to murder and to pay the due penalty of the law. This means, of course, that they are incarcerated and that they suffer. This is also true of unbelievers. However if the believer is using rebound and getting with doctrine, whatever the initial cause of incarceration, the cursing is now turned to blessing.

The fifth one is mental anguish — the fear, worry pattern. This is a self-inflicted type of suffering and it is common to the human race, unbelievers as well as believers. Fear and worry are mental attitude sins. However, when they are rebounded and the believer is back in fellowship and utilising doctrine and promises under faith-rest, again you have a pattern of cursing turned to blessing even though the cause for the fear or the anxiety still exists.

Another general cause for suffering is weather — extreme heat, extreme cold, or weather catastrophes such as hurricanes, cyclones, and so on. Whenever believers are involved in such suffering, if it is punitive in nature rebound turns the cursing into blessing, if it is not punitive the objective is blessing even though the believer is deprived of home and possessions, health, etc.

These are all general causes for suffering in the human race. However, God has deigned your life as a believer so that when these difficulties, pressures and adversities come into your life the purpose is always blessing. So as a general principle, as a believer you are going to have both prosperity and adversity. This will be true as long as you live. The periods of adversity have a specific part in God’s plan for your life. God only has, in the short period that you have on this earth as a believer, this time to demonstrate His grace to you in adversity. In heaven there will never be any sorrow or tears or pain or any form of suffering ever again for you. There will never be anything but perfect happiness and perfect blessing in heaven. Therefore, God can only demonstrate His grace to you in suffering in those short periods of time in the short life that you live as a Christian on this earth. It is inevitable that you are going to have some suffering in your life when it does not imply or suggest in any way that the suffering in your life is punitive.

The premise for suffering

1. All suffering in the Christian life is designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 1 Peter 4:14.

2. The exception is divine discipline - Hebrews 12:6 — or self-induced misery through mental attitude sins.

3. The exception is always removed by rebound — 1 John 1:9. Rebound not only puts you back in the bottom circle - in the place of fellowship — but any suffering that continues from the initial cause is now blessing suffering. Rebound changes everything.

4. Therefore, the principle of grace in suffering is found in passages like Romans 8:28 or 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

There are two types of suffering that are always going to be unique. One is to one person and one is to a category of persons. The suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross in absolutely unique. It is divided into two parts: the pre-cross suffering from the time that He was apprehended in the Garden of Gethsemane and up to the first three hours on the cross. In the first three hours on the cross — from nine to twelve — you have an intensity of human suffering. The last three hours on the cross are unique. This was when Christ was bearing our sins and there is nothing comparable to it in all of human history.

There is one other type of incomparable suffering, and that is the suffering which occurs for all unbelievers from the time of the Great White Throne and forever. That is the suffering of the lake of fire. It is beyond human description.

1 Peter 4:1-6. In this particular passage we have the principle of orientation to suffering.

Verse 1 — “then” is o)un, which means “therefore.” This particle has to pick up some thread of the previous context, and it does so in verse 18 of the previous chapter — “Christ also hath once suffered for sins.” That is picked up by “therefore” — “as Christ hath suffered for us.”

We have a genitive absolute here — “Christ” in the genitive case acting as the subject; “hath suffered” is an aorist active participle of pasxw. The aorist tense does two things: it puts into one area of time the unique sufferings of Christ, which Peter mentioned in chapter 2:24 and again in 3:18. It also is a participle and this anticipates the main verb — “arm yourselves.”

“in the flesh” — a locative of sarc. This time, as always, in the locative case it refers to the human body. Christ has suffered in the sphere of His human body, in the flesh. In other words, the sufferings of Christ were confined to His humanity. Christ had to become true humanity in order to pay for the penalty of sin, which is spiritual death. Always the mental attitude illustration is the thing that counts. We can never understand the sufferings of Christ on the cross but we can understand the mental attitude with which He approached this unique suffering. Peter is going to emphasise His mental attitude as orientation; Paul emphasises it as mental attitude dynamics in Philippians 2:5-8. Matthew recognised it in Matthew 26:39, 42. Whoever wrote Hebrews recognised it in Hebrews 12:2,3. So four separate writers of scripture recognised the uniqueness of the suffering of Christ and, related to it, His mental attitude in His humanity.

“arm yourselves” — this is related to us. this is the aorist middle imperative of o(plizw. O(plizw is the training, the arming, the equipping of the Greek hoplite (a Greek soldier). So it means here to train and equip one’s self. It refers to the whole function of the daily function of GAP; it refers to the construction of the ECS which is the spiritual equipment for the angelic conflict; it refers to a continual, constant, never ceasing as long as you live, intake of the Word of God. The more of the Bible you know now the better off you are now and at any point of time.

The aorist tense takes up any point of time when you have the opportunity to be exposed to doctrine and gathers it up into one ball of wax. The middle voice: you have to make the decision constantly to do this yourself, no one can decide for you. The imperative mood: it is an order.

“with the same mind” is literally, “with the same in-thinking.” We have a noun here, e)nnoia. Noia is thinking; e)n is in. With the same inside thinking. Inside thinking, again, is a mental attitude. Here we have an almost identical concept as Philippians 2:5-8 except that Paul develops it from a doctrinal standpoint and Peter develops it from an experiential viewpoint. It isn’t what you do that counts in Christianity, it is what you think. The conflict of what you think is portrayed in Isaiah 55:7-9; Proverbs 23:7; Philippians 2:5; 2 Timothy 1:7 — we have a new mental attitude; 2 Corinthians 10:5,6 — bringing every thought into captivity for Christ (the function of GAP); the confidence that comes from mental attitude — 2 Corinthians 5:1,6,8; the mental attitude as it relates to love in Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; the concept that worldliness is not something you do but a mental attitude — Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2; stability of mental attitude which is found in Isaiah 26:3,4; Philippians 4:7. Inside thinking is doctrine in the right lobe.

“he that hath suffered in the flesh” is a reference to undeserved suffering. It refers here to the suffering of Christ on the cross. Christ was impeccable when He began to bear our sins on the cross in those last three hours. His impeccability qualified Him; the fact that He had no sin nature; the fact that did not have the imputation of Adam’s sin and the fact that He lived without ever committing one personal sin, though He was tempted way beyond anything we have ever had to endure. In all of this Jesus Christ is the perfect illustration of undeserved suffering. That is why “he that hath suffered in the flesh” is the same phrase again — pasxw plus the preposition e)n, plus sarc which, again, indicates the same concept of undeserved suffering. And the fact that Christ suffered for three hours in a way we will never understand also indicates that when you get past the cross and you are in the Church Age believers will have a certain amount of undeserved suffering.

“hath ceased” — perfect middle indicative of the verb pauw. This is a perfect tense which means something that happened in the past with continuing results. The middle voice here is beneficial rather than reflexive. The indicative mood is the reality of a principle. The verb means to pause, to desist, to refrain or to stop. Here is means to desist. “The one having suffered in the flesh has paused from sin (or desisted at that point from sin)” .In other words, undeserved suffering always occurs in a time when you are in fellowship.

Regardless of the original cause of suffering — even discipline — rebound turns cursing into blessing. The suffering may continue but the believer has paused or desisted from sin at the point of his rebound. Therefore the purpose of his suffering is blessing. This phrase, “the one having suffered in the flesh has paused from sin, describes the principle of undeserved suffering. The perfect tense indicates the pause [rebound] has definite results. Prior to rebound you have punitive or self-induced misery; after rebound you have paused or desisted from sin, and having paused or desisted from sin grace is now clear to bless you in suffering. The middle voice indicates that the subject is benefited from, not only the rebound, but from the suffering. The aorist tense of pasxw with the perfect tense of pauw indicates that the suffering occurs in the believer’s experience in time, — this has nothing to do with eternity — in a time when he has desisted or paused from sin. Therefore he is in fellowship. Therefore when you are in fellowship all suffering is designed for blessing. The indicative mood is the reality of undeserved in the life of the believer just as, in context, the reality of undeserved suffering in the humanity of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. There will be times when the believer is in fellowship when he has paused or desisted from sin and, at that time, one of two things will occur. There will be prosperity or suffering. Whenever you are in fellowship the suffering is designed for blessing and you can also pass the prosperity test.

The blessing comes from being armed. The greater your intake of doctrine the greater you blessing. Blessing comes from hoplizw — being armed — and then the in-thinking [e)nnoia]. O(plizw is the mechanics of GAP, day by day in your life; e)nnoia is the result — doctrine in the right lobe.

Notice that with the verb pauw in the perfect middle indicative we have the genitive of source — “from sin” — of a(martia, the principle of sin or missing the mark. It means being out of fellowship on the basis of any sin.

In verses two and three we have orientation to the will of God. The word “that” introduces a purpose clause in the Greek and here is one of the purposes for undeserved suffering, namely that the human volition — divine institution number one — should comply with God’s volition resulting in the believer doing the will of God.

“he may not longer” — “he” refers to any believer and the adverb means “no more” or “no longer.” The adverb in the Greek is meketei, and it means that the believer should no longer follow the same pattern of life that he did before the cross — referring to the thought life, which comes first — and it also means that the unbeliever who is described in the next verse as a part of the “fast crowd.” And whatever props the fast crowd may offer it does not offer anything for the believer. One of the most difficult things for some people to understand, i.e. those who have depended upon the fast crowd for fun and games, is the fact that once you have Bible doctrine and once you have God’s grace provision you simply do not need what the fast crowd has to offer. The more you take in Bible doctrine the more you realise the truth of this principle.

“live” is an aorist active infinitive of biow. There are two words for living: biow and zaw. Biow means to live a pattern of life in contrast to zaw which means to live in the sense of exercising the functions of life. So biow refers to the mentality, the mental attitude. It is the function of your soul, whereas zaw refers only to the function of the body. The aorist tense of this verb gathers into one ball of wax every moment you live in phase two and, of course, God has designed your life day by day for phase two and moment by moment. When the believer is doing the predesigned will of God then the aorist tense of biow applies. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb, which is the mental attitude as well as the function and pattern of the life. The infinitive: it is God’s purpose to live in compatibility with His will.

“the rest of time” is an accusative of the elapse of time — e)piloipoj, which means the rest of the time that you have after you get smart from this particular passage. In other words, the accusative of the elapse of time here indicates that up to now as a believer you may have been very stupid about this. Now that you know better you are starting, as it were, a brand new ball game. From this point on you are held responsible. The accusative of the elapse of time says you were not held responsible up to this point. The “rest of the time” is a grace phrase and it describes the time between when you learn this principle and your death or Rapture, whichever occurs first.

“in the flesh” — phase two from the point at which you learn this principle of doctrine until you are removed. In the flesh refers to living in the body but, of course, it also refers to the fact that the body possesses and old sin nature.

Three principles

1. The “rest of time” means the elapse of time between learning this doctrine and your departure from this life. This is a grace principle. God does not hold you responsible for things that you do after salvation of which you have no cognisance. The implication here is the fact that there will be a period during which you will not be aware of all the implications. But there is nothing the fast crowd can offer you that will in any way compare with what God has provided for you.

2. The implication of this verse so far: the believers whom Peter was addressing in this epistle had been living like unbelievers. They were Jewish believers living like Gentile unbelievers. This comes out from the fact that this epistle was written to Jews who were scattered throughout the Roman empire.

3. The Gentile Galatians incidentally were starting to live like Jews. They are trying to be saved and spiritual by keeping the law. People often switch after salvation to something they were not before.

“to the lusts of men” — dative plural of e)piqumia. The lusts of the fast crowd are not presented in this verse but in the next. The reason being that Peter will not digress for the moment, he wants to bring home the principle and then he will get over to the lusts of the fast crowd. “of men” — a)nqrwpoj, genitive plural, meaning mankind in general.

“but” — conjunction of contrast. We have a contrast between mankind under the control of the old sin nature and its lust pattern in contrast to the believer under the control of God’s grace and God’s plan.

“to the will of God” — the will of God is the plan of God designed in eternity past. The word “will” is the accusative plural form qelhma. Qelhma means a predesigned plan. So the word “will” here means both purpose and design — the sovereignty of God in eternity past. In other words, in eternity past God designed everything in your life you would ever need. Everything was provided for you and the means of communicating these things to you is Bible doctrine. So there is no difficulty or problem in your life which is too great for the plan of God and for the grace of God.

The doctrine of divine guidance

1. There are three categories of volition or will in history: a. The will of God. This is known as the sovereignty of God; it is a part of God’s essence; b. Human will. Under the concept of human will God is a gentleman, He never violates the volition of the individual. That is why some people are never saved. If God had His way everyone would be saved. He does everything necessary for salvation but whether a person is saved or not depends entirely on his own volition -operating in a non-meritorious manner; c. Angelic will. Angelic will is the basis for the creation of man. Angelic volition is bona fide in that the angelic race is divided into those who are for God and those who are against God. So angelic volition is one of the means of explaining the angelic conflict.

2. There is a cardinal principle of divine guidance. It is stated in 1 John 3:23. The verse is divided into two parts; it begins by saying “This is the will of God.” What is the will of God? That we believe on His Son, Jesus Christ. The second part of the verse is that we “love one another.” The first part of the verse is God’s cardinal principle of guidance for the unbeliever. God desires that all unbelievers, all members of the human race therefore, believe in Christ. Then secondly, having believed in Christ, that we love one another, that we have a relaxed mental attitude toward one another.

That is not the entire will of God but it is a cardinal principle. This is the place at which divine guidance starts. For an unbeliever God’s will is involved in one issue only; it is God’s will that you believe in Jesus Christ. For a believer divine guidance starts by loving one another. The word for love is agape love which is produced by the filling of the Spirit. So in effect the basic cardinal principle for divine guidance is to be filled with the Spirit. Therefore, no person is ever guided by God apart from the use of the rebound technique, without which there is no filling of the Spirit. And it is impossible to do God’s will unless you keep short accounts with God.

So guidance becomes a matter of two great factors. One is being filled with the Spirit and the other is knowing the Word of God.

3. No study of divine guidance is complete without a quick look at the humanity of Christ. The humanity of Christ had free will. This is taught in Matthew 20:22; 26:42; Hebrews 10:7; 10:9. There are some implications as far as theology is concerned. The first one: no free will in mankind means no free will in Christ. The second: this lack of free will would, of course, precludes salvation. The basic principle of divine guidance is based on the fact that man possesses volition of the soul or free will.

4. This means that if you are dealing with the will of God and doing the will of God there are types of the will of God. Three types are categorised by the scriptures. Balaam is a great illustration of what the will of God is and how Balaam went contrary to it. So in the story of Balaam we actually have all three types of the will of God. All of these are found in either Numbers 22 or Numbers 23. For example, there is first of all the directive will of God — Numbers 22:12 — in which God told Balaam not to go to Moab to curse the Jews. Secondly, there is the permissive will of God — Numbers 22:20 — in which God permitted Balaam to go to Moab without killing him en route [Warned, but no punitive measure was taken en route]. However, when he arrived there Balaam discovered that he could not curse the Jews, and that is the overruling will of God — Numbers 23:5, 12, 26.

5. There are three academic principles of divine guidance. The first one pertains to doctrine in the human spirit and the right lobe. Knowledge of doctrine is absolutely essential for knowing the will of God. You cannot know the will of God apart from Bible doctrine. The more you know about doctrine the more you know about the will of God for your life. The less you know about doctrine the less you know about the will of God for your life. So first of all there is knowledge of doctrine - Isaiah 58:11; Proverbs 3:1-6; Psalm 32:8; and the principle is also given in Romans 12:2.

The second principle of divine guidance is yieldedness but you have to understand what yieldedness is. Yieldedness is being filled with the Spirit. You are never yielded to God’s will unless you are filled with the Spirit - Romans 6:13; 12:1; 1 John 1:9; Ephesians 5:17,18. But remember that you cannot yield to God in the energy of the flesh and that yieldedness is automatic if you are filled with the Spirit.

The third principle is the erection of the ECS for growth — 2 Peter 3:18.

6. We have phase two categories of the will of God. First is the viewpoint will of God which is, What does He want me to think? This is resolved by knowledge of Bible doctrine. The second is operational will of God, What does He want me to do? This is resolved by the filling of the Spirit. The third is the geographical will of God, Where does He want me to be? This is resolved by moving toward maturity.

7. The mechanics of the will of God. We have all of the mechanics in one portion of Acts 11 — verse 5-16. The first is guidance through prayer, verse 5. You have a legitimate right to ask God for guidance, for clarification in prayer. The only problem with this prayer is that if you have been saved long enough to know certain principles of doctrine and you are ignorant of them the only way you can be guided is to learn the principles. This is the only solid ground for living the Christian life. The second one is guidance through the mind - doctrine in the right lobe - verse 6. Which logically leads to the third principle of mechanics, guidance through the Word, verses 7-10. It is impossible to do the will of God unless you know the Word of God. The fourth mechanic is guidance through providential circumstances — verse 11. Providential circumstances, however, are meaningless apart from the Word. The fifth mechanic is guidance through the filling of the Spirit, verse 12. Mechanic number six is guidance through fellowship with other believers in comparison of data, verse 13-15. This again would be very shaky apart from learning doctrine. Occasionally, as in mechanic number seven, there is guidance through recalling a passage of scripture, verse 16. Peter was guided on this occasion because he recalled a passage of scripture.

Verse 3 tells us in effect that it is the will of God to stay away from the fast crowd. this was a big issue with the Jews who were scattered throughout Asia Minor. The Jews were living like Gentiles and their big problem was that they were hooking up with the fast crowd.

“time” — xronoj, always refers to time as a succession of events. Here it refers to the past of the believers when they were outside of the plan of God because they were operating with the fast crowd.

“past” a perfect active participle of parerxomai, which means to have elapsed or gone by. “For the time having elapsed.” “Of our life” is not found in the original, and so it should read: “For emphatically sufficient the time having elapsed in the will of the Gentiles.” The will of the Gentiles is travelling with the fast crowd.

The words “may suffice” is an adjective, a)rxetoj, which means sufficient or enough. If you travel with the fast crowd you have had enough because you can never travel with the fast crowd and do the will of God.

The word for “will” here is a very interesting one. We have already had “the will of God” before when we had qelhma. Here we have boulomai, which is the verb and from the verb we get boulema. Boulema actually means to a whole system of action. The fast crowd has an organised system of action. Qelhma means predesigned but boulomai means to be in the action. The fast crowd is characterised by action.

Literally again, the corrected translation: “For emphatically sufficient the time having elapsed in the will of the Gentiles” - referring to the actual action. Boulhma means will based on predesigned ideas but putting them into action. The Gentile mould here is the operation of the fast crowd.

This comes out in the next phrase, “to have wrought,” a perfect middle infinitive of katergazomai. Katergazomai generally means something on the inside working to the outside; it means to bring out as a result. Here it means to get involved in the fast crowd you have to have something on the inside that makes you want what they appear to have - the glamour, the fun, and so on. Some of the things that you want are mentioned at the end of this verse. It means to work out what is on the inside of you; you have to desire this type of thing.

“when we walked” perfect middle participle of pareuomai, which means to hop from one place to another. It means to travel from one place to another and it indicates immediately that the fast crowd is restless and it cannot really settle down to one place. It also indicates that they associate happiness with being at certain places at certain times. The perfect tense indicates that in jumping around they are seeking happiness which means they have to travel because they can’t really be happy in one place too long. So the first thing we learn is that the fast crowd is always unstable. They appear to be fun, they are associated with happiness but they are unstable.

Next we have six characteristics of the fast crowd. One is “lasciviousness.” This is the locative case denoting sphere — in the sphere of lasciviousness. Lascivious means unrestrained sexual activity. For example, at the time of the Galatians it referred to the operation of the phallic cult in Galatia. The second word, “lusts", is also a locative of sphere [e)piqumea] and this refers to the inner call to this type of thing. Lasciviousness is overt but it comes from the lust pattern of the OSN and all of the sexual activity here: approbation lust which is satisfied by some sex partner. Then there is power lust, the ability to have control over other people, and so on. Then there is, of course, the physical lust, materialism lust, etc.

“excess of wine” — o)inoflugia, which means saturation of wine. Flugia means to bubble over — with wine.

“revellings” — the locative of kwmoj, which is from the verb keimai which means to lie down or recline, and it means parties which are designed to set up someone for sex. Revellings is really the way you get them started. “banquetings” — the locative of potoj, which is derived from the verb pinw which means to drink. So this is really drinking in connection with pagan religious rites. In “revellings” you set up the victims with all the trimmings; in “banquetings” we are getting right to the point. This is the fast crowd picking up someone in a bar.

“abominable idolatries” — the adjective of a)qemitoj, which means unlawful or criminal. The word “idolatries” means here the criminal part of idolatries, human sacrifice. This is listed last to show us that sooner or later the fast crowd will get you in over your head. The fast crowd become involved in things that are horrible. There is the same concept in drug addiction, which leads to crime and murder and all kinds of problems.

Verse 4 — “Wherein” is literally, “in which thing” — in which manner of life specified in the previous verse under the six characteristics of the fast crowd; “they,” the fast crowd, “think it strange.” That the fast crowd should think at all is a very interesting principle but it doesn’t really mean to think here anyway. It is the present passive indicative of zenizw, which means to be astonished. In the passive voice it means to receive shock, surprise, or astonishment.

There is one thing that really surprises the fast crowd and that is when you peel off and leave them, especially when they are very interested in you. They are surprised. Why would anyone want to leave this fun and games environment of the fast crowd? The present tense means they will always think it strange. In the passive voice the subject receives the action of the verb and, in this case, the fast crowd receives astonishment. The indicative mood is the reality of the shock or the surprise of the fast crowd.

The doctrine of separation

1. Separation from certain types of believers who practice certain types of carnality. You can’t separate from all believers because all believers practice carnality in one way or another. But there are certain types of carnality which are bad news — e.g. 1 Cor. 5:10-11, incest or homosexuality.

2. Separation from believers who go negative toward Bible doctrine — 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14, 15. (The exception is if you are married to someone who is negative)

3. Separation from believers who make emotion their criterion and enter into some form of pseudo-spirituality — Romans 16:17,18. (Stay away from the tongues crowd)

4. Separation from the fast crowd — 1 Peter 4:4; Proverbs 1:10-19.

5. Separation from the superficial social life of the apostate fun crowd — Jeremiah 15:17.

6. Separation from unbelievers where doctrine is compromised — 2 Corinthians 6:14; Hebrews 13:13.

7. Separation from human viewpoint — worldliness. What is worldliness? Worldliness is what you think, human viewpoint as over against divine viewpoint. Worldliness is antiestablishment, pacifism, liberalism, it can be asceticism, etc.

8. Separation from religion and apostasy — 2 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:5. (Remember Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ)

“that ye run not with them” — here is the separation. This is the present active participle of suntrexw, which means to run in the company of others, to run with the crowd or a certain group. The crowd described in the previous verse is a reference to the fast crowd. “Ye run not” means separation from the fast crowd.

“to the same excess” — a reference to the six characteristics of the fast crowd which were given in the previous verse. And our word for “excess” is a)naxusij, which means to do the same thing to the maximum over and over again - like getting drunk every day! What is this excess?

“riot” — debauchery, not riot. The word is a)swtia, which means debauchery. The fast crowd repeats itself and does the same thing every day. Therefore, what can a fast crowd do if you walk out on them? They think they have the best thing in the world. They think that anyone who doesn’t want to have anything to do with them must be a little crazy. So what do they do? They malign you. It is a compliment to be maligned by the fast crowd.

“speaking evil” is the present active participle of blasfemew, which means to malign. The present active participle indicates that they keep on maligning you - because they don’t understand you. They have set up their standards of what constitutes fun and you don’t go along with their standards. There is a principle that comes out of this: whenever you cross someone they are going to malign you. What causes the separation? Bible doctrine giving you the capacity for life.

Principle

1. When a believer learns Bible doctrine — daily function of GAP — he breaks with the fast crowd. He breaks because he outruns them. There are two things that occur: first, they are astonished, and secondly they are antagonistic — speaking evil, maligning. So the fast crowd reacts to this separation.

2. They express their hostility through maligning. The present active participle of the verb to malign indicates you are “blackballed” by the fast crowd, a perfect human illustration of undeserved suffering.

3. The fast crowd always feeds on attractive and beautiful girls who are attracted to the crowd because of its status symbol men — celebrities, etc.

4. For the girl who becomes involved with the fast crowd there is just one inevitable result. After disillusion she becomes a lush and a tramp, one or both.

5. It is Bible doctrine (taken in) which is the only thing that can save a girl from this type of a life.

6. The fast crowd eventually drops its lushes and tramps to pick up fresh flowers for the destruction machine. The worst situation is when the fast crowd leaves you. But again, Bible doctrine is the solution.

7. Basically there are two solutions to the girl who escapes the fast crowd. For the unbeliever it is, first of all, believing in Jesus Christ. Then, as a result of believing in Christ and having the grace apparatus for perception, there is a solution - positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

8. Zenizw — the fast crowd can be shocked, and the very fact that it can be shocked indicates a tremendous ingrained system of mental attitude sins built around ego. So their pride — mental attitude sin — is the basis for keeping a fast crowd off balance. They are always shocked when their status symbol fun is rejected. Therefore, when pride reacts it reacts with the sins of the tongue. Mental attitude sins always produce sins of the tongue. That brings us again to blasfemew, which means to malign — a sin of the tongue.

Now in direct answer to the fast crowd answer we have the doctrine of right man, right woman. And you must remember that sometimes a girl is attracted to the fast crowd because the fast crowd is doing those six things, but they do something else. We have already taken up the six things that tear the veneer off the fast crowd but there is one thing about a fast crowd, they always have some form of human good that makes them attractive. Often young ladies are attracted to the system of human good. They help each other; they protect each other; they help someone who is down; they perform some act of human good. Often the attraction is human good so, therefore, not only is right man, right woman a specific doctrine as a deterrent but you must understand the difference between human good and divine good.

Verse 5 — orientation to the production of divine good. “Who” — relative pronoun referring to a believer who is described in the previous verse, the believer who separates from the fast crowd by outrunning them. The participle is in the plural and the relative pronoun is also in the plural because the antecedent of the relative pronoun is the participle. Therefore, the believer who separates from the fast crowd on the basis of Bible doctrine will not only have the blessing of doctrine in phase two but will also be rewarded in phase three. Strangely enough, taking in Bible doctrine has all sorts of surprise rewards connected with it. When you can outrun a fast crowd by taking in Bible doctrine then there is a special reward which comes under the category of divine good.

“shall give an account” — a future active indicative of a)podidimi. A)podidmi is a very interesting verb, it is a compound — a)po, ultimate source; preposition didimi, to give, to give from the ultimate source of self. And the believer at the judgement seat of Christ gives production of divine good. So this is giving from the ultimate source of self “to him” — Jesus Christ — at the Rapture.

“that is ready” is literally, “the one having readiness.” We have a present active participle of e)xw, having and holding readiness. “readiness” is an adverb indicating that Jesus Christ as God is able to evaluate production of the believer in phase two. The one having readiness is Jesus Christ.

“to judge” — krinw means to evaluate as well as to condemn.

“the quick and the dead” .The word for “quick” is a present active participle of zaw, which means the function of life — the one who functions in life, the one living. The “dead” — nekroj, refers to the unbeliever, the spiritually dead.

We have two different judgements here. The zaw judgement is the judgement seat of Christ after the Rapture of the Church. At the end of time the unbeliever is judged, this is the nekroj judgement. These judgements are separated by 1007 years. In the case of the living it is a case of evaluation; in the case of the dead it is a judgement. One is found in 1 Corinthians 3:11,16, the judgement seat of Christ for believers; the other is found in Revelation 20:12-15.

Verse 6 — gives us our orientation to divine judgement. “For this cause.” This is a prepositional phrase which means “because of the fact” (of judgement). In this case we have the judgement of the dead used as the illustration.

“was the gospel preached also” — the gospel preached is aorist passive indicative of e)uaggelizw, which means to proclaim, to communicate good news.

“to them that are dead” — there is no verb here, it is a noun. The gospel, or the good news, was proclaimed to the dead - the nekroj, the spiritually dead. So in time the spiritually dead heard the gospel so that they are without excuse.

“that” introduces a purpose clause — “they might be judged,” the aorist passive subjunctive of krinw means here judged and condemned. The aorist tense refers to the point of time at the great white throne judgement. The passive voice, the unbeliever only receives this judgement. The subjunctive mood means the judgement is potential because any member of the human race can receive Christ and avoid this judgement — Hebrews 9:26-28.

“according” to a standard, kata. “According to the norm and standard of men in the flesh.” “men” — a)nqrwpoj, is a generic term for homo sapien; “flesh” is dative of disadvantage, it is a reference to the old sin nature. The old sin nature has two areas involved — the area of weakness produces sins — all judged at the cross; the area of strength produces human good — rejected at the cross. So when a person is an unbeliever his sins have already been judged but when he rejects the cross he stands on his human good. And at the last judgement the unbeliever is judged for his human good which was not judged at the cross.

The doctrine of human good

1. Human good, human works, is identified as dead works — Hebrews 6:1. There is no place on God’s plan for human good.

2. Human good is never acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6.

3. Therefore, human good has no place in the plan of God — 2 Timothy 1:9.

4. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

5. The believer’s human good is revealed at the judgement seat of Christ and destroyed — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16. God will not permit human good in heaven.

6. Human good is the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgement — Revelation 20:12-15. The unbeliever is not judged for his sins because his sins were judged on the cross. Christ died for all sins — unlimited atonement.

7. However, distinction must be made between morality and human good — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is necessary for the function of the human race, it is a part of the laws of divine establishment and the basis for human freedom, as per the ten commandments. So morality is necessary for the perpetuation of the human race under the angelic conflict. Therefore, distinguish between morality and human good. Morality is bona fide; human good is not.

“but” — conjunction of contrast — between the unbeliever at the great white throne and his human good, and the judgement of the believer at the Rapture and his divine good. Divine good is produced through the filling of the Spirit and through Bible doctrine. Human good is produced by the old sin nature. The human good of the unbeliever ends up in the lake of fire; the divine good of the believer results in reward in the new heavens. It should be translated “but he that lives.” It is a verb — present active subjunctive of zaw, function of life again; “he that keeps on living,” actually. The present tense is the believer in phase two — keeps on living in phase two. The active voice: the believer, through the filling of the Spirit and the function of GAP, produces divine good. The subjunctive mood: the filling of the Spirit and GAP are potential and, therefore, divine good is potential.

“according to the standard of God” — reference to God the Father. “In the Spirit” is an instrumental case denoting the filling of the Spirit. The believer has to be filled with the Spirit to orient to the principle of undeserved suffering, to orient to the concept of human versus divine good. The filling of the Spirit is the basis for the function of GAP and so the believer must live in the Spirit to take in GAP, to utilise Bible doctrine properly.

Verse 4 — “Wherein” is literally, “in which thing” — in which manner of life specified in the previous verse under the six characteristics of the fast crowd; “they” — the fast crowd; “think it strange.” That the fast crowd should think at all is a very interesting principle but it doesn’t really mean to think here anyway. It is the present passive indicative of zenizw, which means to be astonished. In the passive voice it means to receive shock, surprise, or astonishment.

The doctrine of separation

2. Separation from believers who go negative toward Bible doctrine — 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14, 15. (The exception is if you are married to someone who is negative)

3. Separation from believers who make emotion their criterion and enter into some form of pseudo-spirituality - Romans 16:17,18. (Stay away from the tongues crowd)

4. Separation from the fast crowd - 1 Peter 4:4; Proverbs 1:10-19.

5. Separation from the superficial social life of the apostate fun crowd — Jeremiah 15:17.

6. Separation from unbelievers where doctrine is compromised — 2 Corinthians 6:14; Hebrews 13:13.

8. Separation from religion and apostasy — 2 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:5. (Remember Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ)

“that ye run not with them” — here is the separation. This is the present active participle of suntrexw, which means to run in the company of others, to run with the crowd or a certain group. The crowd described in the previous verse is a reference to the fast crowd; “ye run not” means separation from the fast crowd.

“to the same excess” — a reference to the six characteristics of the fast crowd which were given in the previous verse. And our word for “excess” is a)naxusij, which means to do the same thing to the maximum over and over again — like getting drunk every day! What is this excess?

“speaking evil” is the present active participle of blasfemew, which means to malign. The present active participle indicates that they keep on maligning you — because they don’t understand you. They have set up their standards of what constitutes fun and you don’t go along with their standards. There is a principle that comes out of this: whenever you cross someone they are going to malign you. What causes the separation? Bible doctrine giving you the capacity for life.

Principle

2. They express their hostility through maligning. The present active participle of the verb to malign indicates you are “black-balled” by the fast crowd — a perfect human illustration of undeserved suffering.

3. The fast crowd always feeds on attractive and beautiful girls who are attracted to the crowd because of its status symbol men — celebrities, etc.

4. For the girl who becomes involved with the fast crowd there is just one inevitable result. After disillusion she becomes a lush and a tramp - one or both.

5. It is Bible doctrine (taken in) which is the only thing that can save a girl from this type of a life.

“shall give an account” — a future active indicative of a)podidimi. A)podidmi is a very interesting verb, it is a compound — a)pw, ultimate source; preposition didimi, to give, to give from the ultimate source of self. And the believer at the judgement seat of Christ gives production of divine good. So this is giving from the ultimate source of self; “to him” — Jesus Christ — at the Rapture.

“that is ready” is literally, “the one having readiness.” We have a present active participle of e)xw — having and holding readiness; “readiness” is an adverb indicating that Jesus Christ as God is able to evaluate production of the believer in phase two. The one having readiness is Jesus Christ.

“to judge” — krinw means to evaluate as well as to condemn.

“the quick and the dead.” The word for “quick” is a present active participle of zaw, which means the function of life, the one who functions in life, the one living. The “dead” — nekroj, refers to the unbeliever, the spiritually dead.

We have two different judgements here. The zaw judgement is the judgement seat of Christ after the Rapture of the Church. At the end of time the unbeliever is judged, this is the nekroj judgement. These judgements are separated by 1007 years. In the case of the living it is a case of evaluation; in the case of the dead it is a judgement. One is found in 1 Corinthians 3:11,16 — the judgement seat of Christ for believers; the other is found in Revelation 20:12-15.

“was the gospel preached also” — the gospel preached is aorist passive indicative of e)uaggelizw, which means to proclaim, to communicate good news.

“to them that are dead” — there is no verb here, it is a noun. The gospel, or the good news, was proclaimed to the dead — the nekroj, the spiritually dead. So in time the spiritually dead heard the gospel so that they are without excuse.

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “they might be judged” — the aorist passive subjunctive of krinw means here judged and condemned. The aorist tense refers to the point of time at the great white throne judgement. The passive voice, the unbeliever only receives this judgement. The subjunctive mood means the judgement is potential because any member of the human race can receive Christ and avoid this judgement — Hebrews 9:26-28.

“according” to a standard, kata. “According to the norm and standard of men in the flesh.”

“men” - a)nqrwpoj, is a generic term for homo sapien; “flesh” is dative of disadvantage, it is a reference to the old sin nature. The old sin nature has two areas involved. The area of weakness produces sins, all judged at the cross; the area of strength produces human good, rejected at the cross. So when a person is an unbeliever his sins have already been judged but when he rejects the cross he stands on his human good. And at the last judgement the unbeliever is judged for his human good which was not judged at the cross.

The doctrine of human good

1. Human good, human works, is identified as dead works — Hebrews 6:1. There is no place on God’s plan for human good.

2. Human good is never acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6.

3. Therefore, human good has no place in the plan of God — 2 Timothy 1:9.

4. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

5. The believer’s human good is revealed at the judgement seat of Christ and destroyed — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16. God will not permit human good in heaven.

7. However, distinction must be made between morality and human good — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is necessary for the function of the human race, it is a part of the laws of divine establishment and the basis for human freedom — as per the ten commandments. So morality is necessary for the perpetuation of the human race under the angelic conflict. Therefore, distinguish between morality and human good. Morality is bona fide; human good is not.

“but” — conjunction of contrast — between the unbeliever at the great white throne and his human good, and the judgement of the believer at the Rapture and his divine good. Divine good is produced through the filling of the Spirit and through Bible doctrine. Human good is produced by the old sin nature. The human good of the unbeliever ends up in the lake of fire; the divine good of the believer results in reward in the new heavens. It should be translated — “but he that lives.” It is a verb — present active subjunctive of zaw — function of life again — “he that keeps on living,” actually. The present tense is the believer in phase two — keeps on living in phase two. The active voice: the believer, through the filling of the Spirit and the function of GAP, produces divine good. The subjunctive mood: the filling of the Spirit and GAP are potential and, therefore, divine good is potential.

“according to the standard of God” — reference to God the Father; “in the Spirit” is an instrumental case denoting the filling of the Spirit. The believer has to be filled with the Spirit to orient to the principle of undeserved suffering, to orient to the concept of human versus divine good. The filling of the Spirit is the basis for the function of GAP and so the believer must live in the Spirit to take in GAP, to utilize Bible doctrine properly.

Verse 7 — the principle of pressure and prayer. “The end of all things is at hand”; “end of all things” is a perfect active indicative of the verb e)gguzw, which means to draw near, to approach something that is impending. And the perfect tense means the end of all things draws near with the result that it is almost here. The active voice indicates a catastrophe.

This passage is addressed to believers who are living in what is now called Turkey. This is the reign of Nero and Nero is about to invade with a Roman army in order to persecute Christians. The objective will be to gather the Christians out of this particular area and bring them into Rome to use for entertainment. Some would be thrown to wild animals, some would be used in gladiator shows, some would be used as Nero’s torches at his parties at evening ( by tarring them and setting them alight). So he has a lot of objectives for Christians and this means great pressure is coming to the people of this area. This is a group catastrophe; “the end of all things is impending (drawing near)” .Therefore, in view of the fact that they have just a little time left before the great disaster hits they should be prepared for it.

The first preparation has to do with doctrine. It doesn’t sound like it because we have an aorist active imperative which is translated, “be ye sober’ — sofronew. Sofronew is taken from two words. One is an adjective, soj, and fren, which is the noun. Fren means mind, soj means stabilised. So “be ye sober” means have stability of thought pattern. Stability of thought pattern depends upon the daily function of GAP, only now they are going to have to concentrate; they are going to have to take it in in a more concentrated form.

The principle here: Whenever great catastrophe is about to occur the preparation involves a special concentration on Bible doctrine. It is the only answer. Stability of thought pattern means the constant intake of doctrine, a very concentrated dose.

“and watch” — as a result. Not really simultaneous but as an application there is watching. “Watch” is the aorist active imperative of nefw, which means to be vigilant, or it also means to be self-disciplined. Vigilance, however, is in the area of prayer. Be self-disciplined with regard to prayer.

The doctrine of prayer

1. The principle of approach in prayer. All prayer is addressed to God the Father, never to the Son, never to the Spirit. This is a biblical law. Matthew 6:9 is the model prayer [it is not the Lord’s prayer] and it begins, “Our Father” .See also Ephesians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:17.

There are two great heresies with regard to prayer. The Pentecostal heresy is to pray to the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is an intercessor Himself — Romans 8:26,27. The second heresy is praying to Jesus Christ. These are people in emotional revolt or just plain stupid. It is important to know how to approach God in prayer. Jesus Christ Himself as the High Priest makes intercession for us — Hebrews 7:25. Neither Jesus Christ nor the Holy Spirit is ever the recipient of prayer. Prayer belongs to the Father; it does not belong to us. It is something we use to approach Him. The approach to prayer goes through the High Priest. Jesus Christ is not the recipient of prayer, He is the means of getting to the Throne. We go in the name of Christ — John 14:13,14.

The principle of address: Prayer is addressed to the Father in the name of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

2. Prayer, like all things which God has designed, is associated with promises. The promises of prayer are designed for believers who are not mature and who need, before they learn the principles of prayer, something they can use in faith-rest.

Some bona fide prayer promises: Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; Matthew 18:19; Psalm 116:1,2; Jeremiah 33:3. Isaiah 65:24 is one you have to watch, it is a Millennial promise. The principle of importunity in prayer — Matthew 7:7,8; the anticipation of the universal priesthood of the believer — John 14:13,14; 15:7; Philippians 4:6; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:17 — pray with the frequency of a hacking cough. The fact that prayer is designed for confidence or boldness — Hebrews 4:16.

The believer claiming promises is the beginning of the Christian life. As you mature you begin to think in terms of the structure of doctrine and you claim the principles of the Word of God, which is an advance over promises. Promises are generally claimed by believers at a point of immaturity or a point of great pressure. But if you are going to meet and weather the storm of suffering and disaster and pressure you must have the principles of doctrine in your right lobe.

3. The principles of prayer: a. Prayer must be offered by a believer-priest — John 15:7. If you are not a believer your prayer is not going to be heard; b. Prayer must comply with the principle of the faith-rest technique — Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; c. Prayer must be compatible with the will of God - 1 John 5:14; d. Prayer must be offered in the status quo of walking in the Spirit or the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18. As a believer your prayers will not be heard unless you are under the power of the Spirit when you pray; e. Prayer cannot be answered under any status of carnality — Psalm 66:18; f. Prayer must involve thanksgiving — Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Thanksgiving is orientation to grace; it is appreciation for what you receive apart from human merit. Therefore, the greater your orientation to grace the more effective you thanksgiving in prayer; g. Prayer, therefore, must comply with the grace pattern — “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace” — Hebrews 4:16.

4. The agenda for private prayer. Basically there are four areas of prayer: a. Confession of sin, which makes it possible for you to be in fellowship, to be filled with the Spirit, and therefore your prayers will be heard; b. Thanksgiving — Ephesians 5:20; c. Intercession — Ephesians 6:18. This is praying for others. It is advisable to have a prayer list; d. Petition — Hebrews 4:16, praying for yourself.

5. The nine reasons why prayer is not answered. In effect they all say the same thing; they all describe some form of carnality. a. Failure to be filled with the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18; b. The failure of the faith-rest technique — Matthew 21:22 cf. Romans 14:23; c. Mental attitude sins — Psalm 66:18; d. Lust type selfishness — James 4:2,3; e. Lack of obedience — 1 John 3:22; f. To offer prayer outside of the will of God — 1 John 5:14; g. Pride or self-righteousness — Job 35:12,13; h. Lack of grace orientation or lack of compassion — Proverbs 21:13; i. Lack of domestic tranquillity — 1 Peter 3:7.

6. The principle of grace in prayer is found in Hebrews 4:16 and in our context. a. Prayer is a privilege of grace; b. No believer can come to God in prayer and expect to be heard on the basis of his own merit or his own works. Don’t try to do any horse trading with God; c. The Father is satisfied with Jesus Christ — doctrine of propitiation — but the Father is no respector of persons as far as believers are concerned. Therefore, grace is quite obviously in focus. Any prayer that goes through is definitely a matter of grace; d. Every believer approaches God the Father on the basis of the merits of Christ. Christ is our High Priest; e. God does not hear the prayers of a believer because he is moral, good, benevolent, sincere or religious; f. God hears prayer on the basis of who and what Christ is. Prayer then is based upon merit in the Godhead, not in the human race.

7. A quick review of the concept of intercession. The power of intercessory prayer is the first principle. Under intercession we have the power of intercessory prayer as portrayed in 1 Kings 18:42,46; James 5:16-18. There is a type of intercession called prevailing prayer. The power of prevailing prayer is found in Acts 12. There is prayer for the unbeliever as a type of intercession — Romans 10:1. There is prayer for an unknown believer — Colossians 1:3-11. There is prayer for a known believer — Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21. There is the Lord’s prayer found in John 17, for the Church.

Now another factor is necessary as these people face a crisis. The people who are the believers located in Turkey are going to face this disaster together, a disaster which does not reach an individual believer but reaches all the believers. So, verse eight, the production of the ministry of the Spirit in disaster.

Verse 8 — “above all things” is a prepositional phrase, pro panton. Panton is the accusative plural of paj, pro means before, panton means all things. “Before all things” is a priority prepositional phrase and priority in time of disaster is the filling of the Holy Spirit.

“have fervent charity” .The present active participle for “have” is exw, which means have and hold. “fervent” is e)ktenhj, and it means intense. The word “charity” is love, a)gaph, mental attitude love. Filoj is total soul love; this is mental attitude love.

As pressure intensifies for a group of believers there must be an intensity of their RMA (relaxed mental attitude). Pressure has a tendency to divide believers, to make believers irritable, to turn believer against believer. And a)gaph is not overt love, a)gaph is mental attitude love. So, “have and hold intense a)gaph” .A)gaph is produced by the filling of the Spirit — Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22, “the fruit of the Spirit is a)gaph” .The amplification of that phrase is 1 Corinthians 13. The greater the pressure to a group of believers the more intense must be the relaxed mental attitude of the believers toward each other.

“among yourselves” — toward each other, in other words. When Nero sends his Roman soldiers into these provinces there is going to be death, torture, imprisonment, and intense disaster. Intense disaster demands an intensity of the relaxed mental attitude.

Now there is a statement about a)gaph love which is not found elsewhere — “charity,” a)gaph; shall cover” — present active indicative of kaluptw. Kaluptw means to hide or to veil. It also means to blot out. “Love shall blot out a multitude of sins” .That means that when a believer is out of the bottom circle through sin and he confesses his sin, he not only is cleansed but he is cleansed from all unrighteousness, which means that he is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then produces agape. So a)gaph is used for being in fellowship. The principle is that you can’t afford to stay out of fellowship in disaster conditions.

“And, first of all, keep on having intense love among yourselves: for love [a)gaph] keeps on blotting out a multitude of sins”.

Verse 9 — an illustration of love. “Use hospitality” implies a verb form but actually all we have here is a noun, and it is a compound noun in the plural — filozenoj. Zenoj is stranger and filoj refers to total soul love, and when you put it together in a noun it simply means friendly to strangers or hospitality. The plural indicates that the hospitality takes many forms and is not simply confined to entertaining people. So literally, we have the noun “hospitalities” .This is the illustration of the RMA under great disaster conditions.

“one to another” — a)lloj, one to another of the same kind. And we have e)ij, the directional preposition here — e)ij a)llalouj, one to another of the same kind. This is a reference to the believers who are also under disaster conditions.

Literally: “hospitalities are directed toward one another of the same kind [toward other believers] without murmuring”.

“grudging” — goggusmoj, cf. Philippians 2:14 — “Do all things without murmurings,” same word here. It should be translated: “without sullen discontent, without mental attitude resentment” .In other words, without a complaining attitude.

There is also use of spiritual gifts at a time like this. This is brought out in verses 10,11.

Verse 10 — “every man” refers to every believer, not to just males. “hath received” — aorist active indicative of lambent, which means at the point of salvation. It means a gracious gift, a gracious reception. The aorist tense refers to the point of salvation. Everyone received a spiritual gift. The mechanics are give in 1 Corinthians 12:11 where God the Holy Spirit bestows each one a spiritual gift at the point that he believes. The word for “gift” here has no definite article, like “the gift” .It means “a gift” — xarisma. This word is terribly abused today. It means a gracious endowment. It has nothing to do with talent. It means to be graced. In other words, you were graced at the point of salvation; you were provided at least one spiritual gift.

“minister” — diakonew means to serve, to wait on tables [originally]. The body of Christ is a team of believers and here the concept is to serve rather than to minister; it has the concept of serving each other.

“the same one to another” — use your spiritual gift in time of disaster.

“as good stewards” .The word for “good” is “noble” — kolwj, which means useful or profitable here. The word “stewards” is o)ikonomoj, which means administrators.

“the manifold grace of God” — the many-faceted grace of God. In other words, you don’t have to know what your spiritual gift is. If you have had any kind of growth it will automatically come into operation under the filling of the Spirit in time of disaster.

Verse 11 — illustration. “If anyone speak.” This is a first class condition. In time of disaster believers need comfort and strength from the Word of God; “speak” — lalew means to communicate; it doesn’t mean to teach, that would be didaskw. It does mean to communicate doctrine. Here is a gift, like the gift of communicating doctrine, that is just encouragement of some kind for someone in great disaster. This could be construed as counselling. “If anyone keeps on speaking let him do his counselling of the divine viewpoint [the oracles of God].” The “oracles of God” refer to Bible doctrine - always use the doctrinal viewpoint. So if you communicate in time of disaster, communicate from the doctrinal viewpoint.

“if any man minister” — diakonew again. And we have a first class condition. And, again, it means if you have some gift of service.

“as of the ability which God provides” — if you have some spiritual gift that is a gift of service; “as of the ability” is i)sxouj and refers to the endowed power that makes it function, the power of the Holy Spirit. “God” — literally, “the God,” God the Father.

“giveth” — xorhgew, to provide for a chorus, to defray the expenses for a chorus in a Greek drama. So it means, as God has provided for you in grace, so minister grace in time of disaster.

“that” introduces a purpose clause. “in all things the God may be glorified.” “The” God is God the Father who has provided everything graciously. “may be glorified” is the present passive subjunctive of docazw, and it indicates that whether God is glorified or not is potential because this is subjunctive; the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. The subject is “the” God — o( qeoj — God the Father, the author of the plan. He receives the glory but it is potential; it all depends on whether believers are filled with the Spirit, their doctrinal content, utilisation of their spiritual gift. Present tense is linear aktionsart, God is constantly receiving glory under disaster conditions when believers have these ingredients. This is accomplished — dia plus the genitive, “through Jesus Christ.”

“to whom” is a relative pronoun referring to Jesus Christ; “keeps on being” — present active indicative of e)imi. Jesus Christ is also glorified. Two members of the Godhead are glorified in the Church Age, one member is not — the Holy Spirit. Why? because His responsibility is to glorify Christ - John 7:37-39; 16:14.

“praise” — is the noun doca, which means glory rather than praise.

“dominion” is power, kratoj. How does Jesus Christ rule in the devil’s world today (in the Church Age)? Through the ministry of doctrine; through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. But His kratoj will go on “forever,” emphasising the glory of Jesus Christ at the second advent.

“Amen” — A)mhn is taken from the Hebrew word “amen” and it means to use God as a prop and it indicates “I believe it", which is positive volition toward the doctrine at the point of understanding it objectively. So “Amen” indicates “I understand the issue” .Peter, as the writer, understands the issue. His objective in communicating this is so that they will understand the issue as they now face the great disaster.

The last part of the fourth chapter of 1 Peter is designed to show us that God’s love extends to the most stringent, difficult circumstances of life and that actually God only has one or two opportunities in our lifetime to demonstrate something of His plan, something of His genius, and something of His grace, under suffering circumstances. There seems to be no question about the fact that some people suffer more than others as Christians. Remember that our passage is dealing with Christian suffering only - “if anyone suffers as a Christian” .This passage does not deal with the phenomenon of human suffering in a general sense, but specifically with Christian suffering. Some believers will suffer more than others because they will live longer than others, although it is possible that God will allow the same amount of suffering in the lives of two believers who have different life-spans by means of more intense suffering in the shorter life-span.

There are certain times in the Christian life when there is absolutely no suffering at all. When those moments occur you may be looking over your shoulder wondering what is wrong! But there are times of prosperity in every Christian life. God breaks this up; He never puts on us more than we can bear. There are also times of intense suffering but those times are all designed by God to not only show us His provision for suffering but to give us the same +H in suffering as we would have at any other time. In fact God’s happiness which He provides does not depend upon circumstances. You can have +H in prosperity because it is from God; you can have +H in suffering because it is from God.

Obviously you can have +H in a period of prosperity and you can have +H in a period of suffering. It is the same +H from the same source. Circumstances make absolutely no difference. If circumstances make a difference then you can count on it that you are not beyond the adolescent stage of the Christian life. Let’s face it, when you get into suffering and you notice that the abnormal circumstances of suffering make you unhappy as compared to the normal circumstances of prosperity, you have not grown up in the Christian life. So really, suffering is a check. Do you have God’s happiness or does your happiness depend on circumstances and details of life. If your happiness depends on circumstances and details of life then suffering always makes you very miserable because suffering is being deprived of pleasant circumstances and being deprived of the details of life. And if you are deprived of these things and you are miserable because of it then you have yet to have enough doctrine to utilize the inner resources of God.

So this is where we begin the panorama of suffering with God’s intent involved. It is God’s purpose that every one of you as a believer in Jesus Christ have some suffering in your life when you have plus H [perfect happiness], a plus H which can never, never be changed by circumstances. Christianity is designed — and was designed in eternity past in the doctrine of divine decrees — to eliminate any slavery to circumstances and any slavery to the details of life. And the only possibility that this can occur in your life is through the daily function of GAP. GAP garrisons the soul and it provides the inner resources for +H.

Verse 12 — orientation to suffering. “Beloved” is the Greek a)gaphtoi; it is a vocative here, in the plural referring to all believers. A))gaphtoj means the object of God’s love. God loves us whether the circumstances are pleasant or unpleasant, and the word “beloved” should be translated “beloved ones.”

“think it not strange” — this is exactly what this word does not mean. The verb is cenizw. It is in the present, passive imperative plus the negative. The present tense is linear aktionsart, and the present tense plus the negative in the Greek it should be translated “stop” .In other words, the present plus the negative recognises that you are already doing what you shouldn’t do. So it should be translated “stop being” .In the passive voice the subject receives the action of the verb and here we receive the action of shock, not “thinking it strange” .So literally, “stop being shocked.” The change of circumstances from something pleasant to something adverse is a shock to the unbeliever; it is trauma in the soul. But this should not be where the believer is concerned; that is, the believer who has doctrine.

Again, the present tense indicates that the Christians to whom Peter originally addressed this were under suffering and were shocked by it. The passive voice - the believer should never receive shock or amazement when suffering comes because of doctrine in the right lobe, because of his ECS, the antithesis of reversionism. If a believer is in emotional revolt or reversionism then obviously he will be shocked . The imperative mood plus the negative indicates the believer must stop doing something that he is in the midst of doing.

“concerning” — is not “concerning” at all, that would be the preposition peri. But here we have e)n, which is the preposition “in” .Sometimes, under certain conditions, it also means “among” .So literally we should translate this, “Beloved ones, stop being shocked by the maximum pressures among you.”

We have the words “fiery trials” for maximum pressures. The word for “fiery” is purosij. A fiery trial is a maximum pressure situation. It is a catastrophe which would shock and completely take by surprise an unbeliever.

“which is to try you” — this phrase does not occur. What we have literally from the Greek is: “face to face with testing, coming to you for your benefit” — proj [face to face with] plus the accusative; “testing” is peirasmoj, which has the connotation of testing with the purpose of determining good or evil, testing to determine what you have. You as ostensibly a strong believer come under a strong pressure to see what is really there, doctrine or not!

“coming” — a present middle participle of ginomai. Ginomai means to become something you were not before. In this case you were not a believer under pressure and now you have become a believer under pressure. The present tense means during the course of phase two you go from one set of circumstances to another. The middle voice: the believer is benefited by changing from prosperity to adversity when he has Bible doctrine, when he is not in reversionism, when he is not in emotional revolt and when there is no scar tissue on the soul. The participle indicates that this is a point of doctrine for the believer during his life on the earth.

“for your benefit” is the dative plural of the personal pronoun su. The dative case indicates “for your benefit” .

Corrected translation: “Beloved ones, stop being shocked by the maximum pressures among you, face to face with testing coming to you for you benefit, as though some strange thing had happened unto you.”

“strange thing” — zenoj. The believer is this case has assumed that there will be no suffering in the Christian life and that any suffering that comes because of discipline. So the “strange thing” here indicates that suffering is not normal to our way of thinking and our way of life, and therefore adds pressure.

“happened” is a present active participle of sumbainw, a compound verb in the Greek. Sumbainw means to stand with the feet near together; it means to happen or to befall. If you stand with your feet close together and something hits you, you fall down, and that is really the idea here. These people have not advanced far enough in the Christian life, have not absorbed enough doctrine, and in effect they stand with their feet close together.

“unto you” — dative of advantage. It is still to your advantage to have this pressure.

Verse 13 — what is the objective of the Christian life? God has designed suffering in your life in eternity past. He knew in His omniscience that you would suffer and He has designed that point of suffering to share with you His own happiness. And God wants to demonstrate that the provision of grace is so fantastic that you can have +H in time of suffering, in time of disaster, in the worst possible circumstances of life. This is brought out now by a new command. “Stop being shocked” is the negative command.

The positive command: “But rejoice” — “But” is a conjunction of contrast, a contrast between shocked at your disaster and having great inner happiness. The present active imperative of xairw indicates what they should be having. Cairw is God’s perfect happiness. Present active imperative: “keep on having +H” “But keep on rejoicing” .And this is in contrast with “stop being shocked.”

“ye are partakers” is a present active indicative of koinonew. Koinonew means to have something in common, to be a partner or to be a sharer. Actually, here it means more to have something in common. We are never sharers of Christ’s sufferings in the sense of the unique sufferings of the cross. We will never know — at least this side of heaven — how excruciating were the sufferings of Jesus Christ. All we have is the record to show their uniqueness. So we should not kid ourselves for one moment that we share the sufferings of Christ.

We are not partakers of Christ’s sufferings. Koinwnew is a present active indicative and it means to have in common, to be a sharer or to be a partner. Here it means we have in common, suffering. Christ suffered on earth; we suffer. We do not have the same suffering. Since Jesus Christ was sinless, obviously His sufferings would be much more unique. But we will have, as Christ had, undeserved suffering in the life.

“that” introduces a purpose clause. The rest of this sentence has to do with that purpose.

“when his glory shall be revealed.” The Greek says, “even in the revealing of His glory.”

“in the revealing” is a prepositional phrase. We have the preposition en plus a)pokaluyw — “in the sphere of the revealing” .Christ’s sufferings reveal His glory. The revealing of His glory was the fact that in all of these sufferings Christ had +H. Therefore, while we will not suffer the exact same sufferings, our pressure will be great and intense to us. And the word “that” really goes with the verb, “ye may be glad.” So here is the purpose: we will suffer undeserved pressures “that ye may be glad” - aorist passive subjunctive of xairw again. And xairw means to have +H. It is translated generally “rejoice.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it means, “this time when you suffer,” at any point in your life when you have undeserved suffering, you can also have +H. They go together; doctrine brings them together in the soul. We have the passive voice: the believer receives this +H, he doesn’t earn it or deserve it. The concept is found in John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 John 2:27. The subjunctive mood says that God’s perfect happiness is potential. It depends on whether you have been functioning under GAP or not. If you have doctrine in the right lobe you have +H; if you do not have doctrine in the right lobe you have no inner resources for this type of suffering.

“exceeding joy” — present middle participle of a)galliaw. This word means to celebrate — “with celebration.” If you have +H in time of disaster and you use Bible doctrine then it is a source of celebration. Inner happiness based on doctrine sustains the believer in any pressure or disaster in this life.

Verse 14 — the principle which results from the combination of extreme adversity and doctrine. “If” is a first class condition recognising the reality of undeserved suffering; “ye be reproached” — o)neidizw, which means to be censored, to be reviled, to be insulted with opprobrious language. The present tense indicates that it will be a period of time; the passive voice: you get it; the indicative mood: the reality of undeserved suffering.

“name” — the name means for the person of Christ. The believer is persecuted and reviled because of his relationship with Jesus Christ.

“happy” — (plural) makarioj. It should be translated “happinesses to you.” Two kinds of happiness: happiness in the soul; happiness overtly. Two sources of happiness: the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the ministry of Bible doctrine.

Translation: “If ye are censored for the person of Christ, happinesses” .There is no “are ye” .

“spirit of glory” — a reference to the Holy Spirit; “and of God” — “even of God” is a better translation. He glorifies Jesus Christ in our sufferings by controlling us. So the Spirit of glory is His function here; the Spirit of God is His person.

“resteth” — a)napaw. This is a present middle indicative — a)na means above; paw means to rest. It means to rest from above, and to rest from above means to be refreshed. When the believer is filled with the Spirit, Bible doctrine which is there will function in his right lobe and he is refreshed from above. These are the inner resources for suffering. Present tense: he will continue to be refreshed. The middle voice: he is benefited by being refreshed. The indicative mood is the reality of the Spirit’s refreshment.

“upon you” is a prepositional phrase that indicates that only the believer is the receiver of this blessing. This is strictly for believers.

The rest of this sentence, “on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified,” is not found in the original. The sentence actually ends with the word “you.”

In verses 15 and 16 we have the two general categories of suffering. In verse 15 the believer suffers for discipline; in verse 16 the believer suffers for blessing. In the Christian life all suffering is designed for blessing. The exception is, of course, suffering for discipline, carnality, and the exception is always removed by the rebound technique. In other words, when a believer gets out of fellowship and gets into punitive suffering or discipline, obviously he is suffering for discipline. But the moment that he rebounds the cursing is turned to blessing and the suffering may continue at the same intensity but the purpose of that suffering is now blessing. The suffering is often diminished and the purpose of the diminished suffering is blessing. And sometimes the suffering is removed and, of course, that is blessing too. So, no matter how you slice it, once you get back into fellowship through rebound then the purpose of the suffering changes.

Verse 15 — “But” is not a preposition as it is translated but it is the enclitic particle, gar. It is used to advance the subject; it is used to remind the believer to avoid suffering for discipline. It is therefore used to explain and continue the concept in the context which was started in verse 14 - undeserved suffering. It is saying two things here: do not sin in the first place, but since you have a sin nature and will, rebound in the second place.

“suffer” — present active imperative of pasxw. Pasxw does not mean to suffer, in the present tense here, it means to keep on suffering. So the order is, Never suffer for these reasons. The present active imperative has a negative with it, and that comes out in the word “none.” The present active imperative plus the negative means you are doing it and, Stop it! So gar should be translated “for”; “you all stop suffering” — for a certain reason. There is one area in which you can’t stop suffering and that is suffering for blessing. If God wants to bless you in suffering you suffer and you are blessed.

But this is suffering for discipline and in this particular passage you have four sins specified. These four sins develop four principles of suffering for discipline:

“as a murderer” — the Greek is foneuj, which refers to homicide. It does not refer to serving in the military service. This was addressed to some believers who were operating outside the law in Cappadocia, and murder or homicide means, of course, a criminal. So don’t suffer as a criminal.

“thief” — klepthj, also a criminal category. The murderer ignores the life of others but the thief ignores the property of others — from the standpoint of the law. Note: Legislation in a government is designed to protect life, property and the rights of others. So in these first two categories we have lawbreaking (criminal) Christians.

The third area ignores the rights of others, so we are dealing with a Christian criminal again. This is called “evildoers.” The Greek is kakopoioj, it is technical for a criminal. This is the person who is guilty of civil disobedience, such as participation in mobs which destroy both life and property. So he ignores the rights of others.

The doctrine of legislation

1. Legislation is a part of divine institution number four — nationalism.

2. Legislation is designed to protect life, property and privacy.

3. Legislation cannot provide equality. (The only basis for equality in life is regeneration).

4. Legislation cannot remove poverty. It can alleviate suffering of those who are in legitimate poverty but it cannot remove poverty.

5. Legislation is designed to protect personal freedom and volition of the individual, provided that such individual does not enter into criminal activity.

6. Legislation should not force any person to accept religion, or to accept Christ, or to accept any cult. This is the principle of separation of Church and State.

7. Therefore, legislation should be designed to allow freedom of choice in matters pertaining to religion or lack of it, in matters pertaining to business and profession, or social life. No government has the right to tell me with whom I am going to associate. (The only exception to that would be conspiring with traitors)

8. The federal government does not have a right to tell me in whom I must believe, who I can hire or fire, or with whom I must associate. These are matters of personal volition, personal preference and personal judgement.

9. Legislation must have a criminal and moral code to protect the people of a nation from self-destruction and anarchy.

“busybody” — a)llotriepiskopoj. A))llotrioj, the first half of the word, means to belong to another. E)piskopoj means to be an inspector or a watcher. So it means to be an inspector or a watcher of someone who belongs to someone else. That is the way it started. Finally, it came to be a bad word meaning one who meddles in the affairs of others. It is described, as far as modus operandi, in Romans 14:4. Every believer must live his own life as unto the Lord. The enemy of the privacy of your priesthood is the a)llotriepiskopoj. This is the person who, as a believer, meddles into the affairs of others and is guilty of the “long proboscis” .Every believer has the right as a priest to his privacy and he has the right to live his own life as unto the Lord — Colossians 3:16,17. Apart from divine institution number three, the family, no one has the right to interfere with you with regard to taboos, legalism, or any system of pseudo-spirituality. Generally speaking, the basis for a busybody is mental attitude sins — like pride, jealousy, implacability, vindictiveness, etc. These sins always lead to becoming nosy. So the principle that comes out of this: for that person who interferes in the lives of others, the person who sticks his nose in other people’s business, this is the person who eventually ostracises himself. These people should be ostracised as troublemakers.

Verse 16 — suffering for blessing. This is the category in which we are going to suffer; this is the category in which we would wish to find ourselves. And we should.

“Yet” — a particle used as a conjunction, de. Gar is a particle never used as a conjunction and in verse 15 it was translated “But,” and it should have been translated “for.” De is a particle used as a conjunction and it is here translated “yet” .It should have been translated “but” .This may not seem important on the surface but the basis of appreciating who and what God is depends upon accuracy in the Word of God.

Here we do have a conjunction of contrast. De is a particle used as a conjunction to set up a contrast between suffering for punishment, as in the previous verse, and suffering for blessing as in this verse. So it should be translated, “But if” ."If” is a first class condition — if and it is true; “any man suffer” is in italics in the KJV because it is not a part of the original passage here. Literally, “If as a Christian.” It means if anyone suffers as a Christian, that is the subject. The Greek says, If as a Christian [and he does].

“Christian” — Here we have one of four designations for a believer in the Church Age at this point. It was rare to find this word as a designation for believers in that first century. The word is Xristianj in the Greek, and it means a follower of Christ. It emphasises the identification relationship. It has to do with association and eternal security. A Christian may be a lot of things but he is still a Christian.

The second designation for a believer in the early Church was maqhthj which is translated “disciple” — a bad translation. Maqhthj was one of the most common and it means a person dedicated to learning doctrine. This emphasises the daily function of GAP and it emphasises that the air that you breath in the Christian life is doctrine. So maqhthj is a learner of doctrine. We find it translated always “disciple” .Of course, that’s what a disciple was originally in the English language. A disciple is a person who accepts the discipline and the teaching of someone else.

The third word is a(gioj which is translated “saint” — a good translation. A(gioj always emphasises positional truth. You are in union with Christ; you share who and what Christ is. Everything that Christ is you share by virtue of the fact that you are in union with Him. This is really one of the better designations. It is the designation from the standpoint of sanctification.

Then there was a fourth designation for believers in the early Church called pisteuontej. This is a present active participle of the verb pisteuw, to believe, and it is used as a noun (participles in the ancient world often became nouns) and it is translated “a believer.”

God has designed the Christian life on earth for suffering for blessing. The reason for this is that in phase three there will be no suffering. So the only time a believer can suffer is now. And no matter what type of suffering you have, whether you deserve it or not, it is all designed for blessing. That is the grace provision.

“let him not be ashamed” .Why? Because of doctrine, because all suffering is designed for blessing. And this is a present passive imperative, a)ixunomai plus the negative which means they were being ashamed. They were being ashamed instead of rebounding. When you allow emotion to take over in carnality you have had it. Never allow emotion to rule you in carnality. God does not intend for you to be emotional about it, He intends for you to go to grace. How do you go to grace? Rebound. How you feel about the sin is inconsequential; how God has provided is the thing that counts. A)isxunomai means to receive shame or disgrace, or to have a feeling of penance. The present tense means they are doing this instead of rebounding. Why? Because their carnality has led to emotional revolt of the soul.

“let him glorify” is a present active imperative of docazw. Docazw actually means here to utilize grace. Present tense: keep using grace; active voice: you do it; imperative mood: it is a command. God’s plan is grace and God is only glorified in grace. Why? Because in grace God does the work.

“God” — literally, “the God,” o( qeoj, God the Father, author of the plan called operation grace.

“on this behalf” — wrong. It should be, “in the sphere of his name.” It is e)n plus the locative of o)noma. The word “name” refers to His person. God is glorified only by grace because in grace God does the work.

Verse 17 — the principle of turning cursing into blessing. This is actually a rebound verse.

“judgement” is self-judgement or rebound. The verse is not correctly translated.

“time” is xairoj — time as an epoch, a sphere of time. The regular word for time is xronoj, which means time in sequence. But an epoch means once you are in the plan of God you are in xairoj, you are in the grace epoch. So the time refers to grace; you are living under grace now. The time refers to the point of salvation. From that point on you are in God’s plan; you live under grace. So xairoj here refers to grace.

Literally here, “the time to begin judgement from the ultimate source of the house of God” is what it really says. “to begin” is an aorist middle infinitive of a)rxw. The aorist tense here means a point of time — phase two. When you are out of fellowship you begin by using grace — rebound.

“judgement” — krima, refers to confessing your sins. Rebound is often called “judgement” — 1 Corinthians 11:31. The basis for rebound is the judgement of Christ on the cross and that is why this word is used. In other words, our sins went to court at the cross, they were condemned at the cross, they were judged at the cross. So all we have to do is confess or cite our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

“at” is not “at” at all. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source. A)po is “from the ultimate source of the house of God” .The house of God is the Church on earth composed of individual believers who must individually express their priesthood when out of fellowship by citing or naming their sins.

Translation: “For the time to begin judgement from the ultimate source of the house of God.” The Greek word for time is xairoj, which means time as an epoch. This is not time in the sense of chronology, it is time in the sense of a succession of events organised and put together. Here xairoj refers to the dispensation of the Church. Xronoj is merely a succession of events but this word is a dispensation. Xairoj can also refer to a concept of phase two but here it refers to the believer priest functioning under the rebound technique.

“to begin judgement.” To begin is an aorist middle infinitive of a)rxw, and the aorist tense means at any point of time when we are out of fellowship. The middle voice: the believer is benefited by rebound; the infinitive expresses God’s purpose. God’s purpose is for the believer to maintain fellowship by the use of grace provision. The word for judgement is krima. The suffix, ma, is a resultant suffix. So krima means a judicial sentence and this is rebound. Rebound is a judicial sentence passed upon one’s self — 1 Corinthians 11:31. The basis for this self-judgement is the fact that we are judging our own sins which have already been judged on the cross. The confession or the naming is simply a recognition of what was accomplished at the cross, and therefore we are cleansed from all unrighteousness at that particular point.

The word “at” is the preposition a)po, the preposition of ultimate source. Judgement must begin from the ultimate source of the house of God. Every believer must confess his own sins. The house of God refers to the Church on earth.

The doctrine of rebound

1. Rebound must be understood in the light of relationship with God. For the Old Testament saint this is brought out in Jeremiah 3:13, and for the believer in the Church Age this is brought out in Romans 8:1.

2. The frame of reference for rebound is the efficacious death of Christ on the cross. His efficacious death is described by 1 Peter 2:24 where He is said to be bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. Cf. also 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 John 1:7.

3. Eternal security is the prerequisite for understanding the rebound technique — Romans 8:38,39. 4. Rebound means restoration to fellowship with God as well as the filling of the Spirit — Proverbs 1:23; Ephesians 5:14 cf. Ephesians 5:18.

5. The mechanics: 1 John 1:9. Confess means to cite or name a case. It has no merit; the merit is in the work or the function of forgiveness which is the prerogative and the right of God.

Once you cite or name a sin you must watch for repercussions from that sin. So Philippians 3:13,14 — forget it. Don’t stand around with a guilt complex. Once you are forgiven the thing is blotted out; therefore forget it. Isolate it — Hebrews 12:15, which means do not have any mental attitude reactions from it.

6. The alternative to rebound is divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6; 1 Corinthians 11:31.

7. The grace provision for helping others to rebound. The mechanics are in Galatians 6:1 — “Let him who is spiritual restore such a one.” Mechanically you have to be in fellowship yourself to explain rebound to someone else. There is a proper mental attitude of grace when a believer is out of fellowship — Matthew 18:23-35.

9. Biblical synonyms for rebound. a. Confession — 1 John 1:9; b. Judge self —1 Cor. 11:31; c. Yield in the aorist tense — Romans 6:13; 12:1; d. Lay aside every weight — Hebrews 12:1; e. Be in subjection to the Father of spirits — Hebrews 12:9; f. Lift up the hands that hang down — Hebrews 12:12; g. Make straight paths — Matthew 3:3; Hebrews 12:13; h. Arise from the dead — Ephesians 5:14, which is literally from the Greek, “stand up again from deaths”; i. Put off the old man — Ephesians 4:22; j. Acknowledge thine iniquity — Jeremiah 3:13.

10. Old Testament rebound commands: Psalm 32:5; 38:18; 51:3,4; Proverbs 28:13.

“if it first begin at us” — from the ultimate source of us (First class condition).

“what shall the end.” The “end” is teloj, the final stage.

“them that obey not the gospel” — a present active participle of a)peiqew, to disbelieve the gospel. It is a verb of negative volition — refuse to believe the gospel.

“the gospel of God” — the genitive which denotes possession here indicates that the gospel belongs to God who is the executor, the designer and the revealer. The gospel belongs to God. For example, the Father designed and planned the gospel in eternity past, the Son executed the gospel on the cross, and the Holy Spirit reveals the gospel in time.

According to the Word of God cursing can only be turned to blessing by means of the rebound technique. In other words, when you rebound and come back into that bottom circle you are under a certain amount of discipline — self-induced or divine. Several things can happen: the suffering can continue at its present rate, the suffering can diminish, or the suffering can be removed. If the suffering continues the purpose of that suffering is blessing. If the suffering is diminished the purpose of that suffering is blessing. If the suffering is removed you have blessing, so no matter how you slice it you are blessed. So if there is blessing for us when we respond to God’s grace provision of rebound, what is the outcome for those who reject God’s grace at the cross? Rebound belongs to those who have accepted God’s grace at the cross, and so it is accepting more grace from God. What is the end of them that obey not the gospel? Well, they have completely rejected grace and therefore the alternative for them is suffering forever in the lake of fire.

In verses 18-19 we have a contrast of suffering. We have the eternal suffering of the unbeliever in verse 18, and then we have the temporal suffering of the believer in verse 19.

Verse 18 — “And if,” first class condition; “the righteous scarcely be saved.” The righteous — dikaioj — refers to the believer from the standpoint of imputation. When a person believes in Jesus Christ he enters into union with Christ. Christ has +R. The moment we enter into union with Christ His righteousness becomes our righteousness — 2 Corinthians 5:21. So we have imputed to us immediately the righteousness of God. And, as a result, there follows immediately justification or vindication. Why are we vindicated? Because God has +R and we now have +R and, therefore, God vindicates us without compromising His righteousness. Therefore, believers are often described in terms of the righteous.

“scarcely” is not correct. It is an adverb — molij. This adverb means “with difficulty.” It is difficult for man to understand grace. It is foreign to his nature; it is foreign to his thought pattern; it is contrary to his modus operandi. “For if the righteous [those who are already saved] with difficulty were saved.”

“saved” — present passive indicative of swzw. The present tense is dramatic, it is a dramatic moment when anyone believes. Passive voice; subject receives the action of the verb - you receive salvation.

The unbeliever does not have a human spirit so the gospel information can’t be cycled, and the gospel is doctrine or spiritual phenomena. So God the Holy Spirit makes it gnwsij in the left lobe and now the gospel is gnwsij through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit takes it over into the right lobe and puts it in the frame of reference where it becomes e)pignwsij. E)pignwsij is now applicable and the application is e)pignwsij gospel, positive volition toward it means the exhale of faith in Christ - you believe in Christ. Negative volition refuses to believe. This is called molij. Why? because apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit it couldn’t be done. Molij describes the fact that it is impossible to understand the gospel - which is spiritual phenomena - and “scarcely” should be translated “with difficulty.”

“be saved” should be “receives salvation.” With difficulty means that no matter how clear the gospel is made it is never clear to the unbeliever apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

“ungodly” means impious or without God — a)sebhj, a technical word for the unbeliever. The unbeliever is without God because he has rejected Christ as saviour.

“sinner” — a(martoloj, means one who deviates from the right path, in this case deviation from the path of salvation by faith.

Where will they appear? Future middle indicative of fainw, which means to make an appearance. The answer is found in Revelation 20:12-15 — in the lake of fire. This answers the phrase which came at the ends of verse 17.

Verse 19 — “Wherefore” picks up the thread of orientation to suffering which was begun in verse 16 — if any man suffer as a Christian …

“let them suffer according to the will of God” ."according to” — kata is according to the norm or standard of the will of God. Kata indicates that God can only demonstrate His grace to you in suffering in time, not in eternity. The “will of God” is not quite correct. It means the purpose and design of God — qelhma.

“commit” has to do with the attitude of the believer. It is the present middle imperative of paratiqhmi, which is made up of two words — para, the preposition of immediate source; tiqhmi, to place or to deposit. It means to deposit from the immediate source of self. The present tense is linear aktionsart — keep doing it. The middle voice: the believer is benefited by depositing or casting his cares on the Lord. The imperative mood: it is a command.

“the keeping of” is not found in the original. So it is “depositing their souls in the sphere of well-doing” .

Translation: “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the design of God deposit their souls in the sphere of divine good.”

“well-doing” is a compound noun — a)gaqopoia, divine good. In other words, here at the end of this chapter we have the dynamic equation: knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Spirit equals the production of divine good.

The doctrine of deposits

1. The believer makes a deposit with the Lord at the point of salvation — 2 Tim. 1:12.

2. The Lord makes a deposit with the believer in phase two — 2 Tim. 1:14. This deposit is Bible doctrine. It is received under the daily function of GAP and, therefore, the believer is enjoined to hold fast to sound doctrine in 2 Tim. 1:13.

3. The believer in phase two makes a deposit with the Lord — 1 Peter 4:19. The deposit here is the casting of your cares, your problems, your suffering, your disasters, on Him. This will be amplified in 1 Peter 5:7.

4. The believer in phase two makes a deposit with the unbeliever — Rom. 1:14, the deposit of the gospel.

5. The believer in phase two makes a deposit with other believers — this is seminary; Timothy is a “son", a seminary student. Wherever Paul went, there was a seminary. This has nothing to do with you telling someone else about doctrine.