Chapter 2

In chapter one, and continuing to about the middle of chapter two, we have the principle of spiritual heritage. Spiritual heritage is the manner in which history is changed in any generation by super-grace believers. Many times people have said that they are doing thus and so in order that they might make a better world, a better environment for my children and grandchildren. The fallacy of this lies in the fact that there is nothing that we can do to improve this world in our own generation or in any generation, for Satan is the ruler of this world. The whole plan by which he rules the world is good and evil. Good and evil are the genius of Satan. Good and evil were never necessary when man had a relationship with God in the garden on the basis of creation. When man lived in the garden in innocence man had a relationship with God based upon creation. Under this relationship man came into existence as an adult, therefore he needed instant appreciation for grace, instant appreciation for the plan of God. The only way to provide this instant appreciation was to have a tree which epitomised the plan of God. That tree is called in the Hebrew “the tree of lives.” By eating of that tree one did not and could not have eternal life, it was simply a tree for capacity for life, for appreciation for the plan of God. This was one of the two ways in which man oriented to God’s plan and his relationship with God in creation. The second way was through a daily Bible class held in the garden “in the cool of the evening.” The issue, however, for man’s creation was to resolve the angelic conflict. Man’s positive volition toward God and God’s plan was indicative by the fact that he could eat of the tree of lives, and apparently did so with great regularity. This gave him instant appreciation and instant capacity to enjoy what God had provided.

On the other hand we have the fall. The reason for the fall is because in the angelic conflict man must have a choice: to choose God’s plan, the perfect environment of the garden, and the tree of lives which gave him spiritual capacity; and also to make an issue for negative volition there was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man in his relationship with God in creation did not need either good or evil because this innocence relationship was a grace relationship. God did all of the work; God did all of the providing. Man simply had to understand and appreciate what God had provided and continue to enjoy it indefinitely. Therefore three categories of trees were for man in grace.

Both good and evil represent the great genius of Satan. God is a Satanic device to intrude upon a grace relationship. To know good and to know evil is not necessary for relationship with God and therefore it was forbidden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil contained the elements of spiritual death. All human good is a sign of spiritual death, and the fact that man is constantly trying to do good is simply indicative of the fact that Satan is the ruler of this world and has been since man first partook of this tree. Once man understood good and evil, Satan’s plan — and they had instant understanding — then they were spiritually dead. They were operating under Satan’s plan, for in innocence and through the relationship of creation man was the ruler of this world. But the moment that man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he became not only spiritually dead but he lost the sovereignty of the world, and Satan now became the ruler of the world. From that time on we have Satan as the ruler of the world and he will continue to be the ruler of the world until the second advent and the Millennial reign of Christ.

And now instead of coming into the world as complete adults we come into the world as babies, we are born into the world, and we are born spiritually dead, we are born under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are born to do good, we are born to think evil. Evil is a Satanic thought and good is a Satanic function. So we must be born again. And now, since the fall of man, grace relationship is no longer based on creation, it is based upon regeneration which is the technical theological word for being born again. We are born again by faith in Jesus Christ. There is a sense, then, in which the cross becomes the tree of life for us — not lives — because this is eternal life. The eating from the tree of lives was never eternal life, it was simply capacity to appreciate who and what God was and what He had provided in grace. There is a sense in which the cross and the daily intake of doctrine becomes the tree of lives. The tree of lives is comparable to the intake of doctrine after we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our tree of lives is Bible doctrine preserved in the Word. As we take this in on a daily basis, just as the man and the woman did, we come to have an appreciation of who and what Christ is and we break out from under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil is what Satan thinks and therefore becomes Satanic doctrine; good is how this Satanic doctrine is put into application in Satan’s attempt to control the world which he rules.

The great frustration to all of this is the fact that not only does Jesus Christ control history but He has found a system whereby we can defeat Satan as the ruler of this world. We have seen that Jesus Christ controls history through direct control. This is accomplished through divine essence. Also there is indirect control which is accomplished through the laws of divine establishment. Finally, there is permissive control and this is accomplished through the permission of the angelic conflict to be perpetuated throughout human history so that the issue remains in spite of man’s fall.

All of this is related to the fact that you cannot make a better world by anything that you do. That is simply improving Satan’s world, it is simply contributing to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there is one thing you can do which can change the very course of our generation. That is to reach the super-grace status. By reaching super-grace you become a spiritual Atlas holding up your generation. You can pass doctrine on to your children and as a result they can take it up and become the spiritual Atlas in their generation. As goes the super-grace believer, so goes every generation. A generation may be good or bad, it does not depend upon the previous generation, it depends entirely upon how many people reach super-grace in that generation.

The second chapter of 2 Timothy is going to deal with the mechanics of spiritual heritage. The whole thing lies in the missing link between the Bible, the Word of God or doctrine in the Word, and doctrine being transferred to the soul of the individual believer. The missing link is the gift of pastor-teacher. It is the function of the pastor to dig it out and then communicating it to his congregation. This is really the key to history. This chapter is going to define for us why we have pastors, why people cannot sit down and read a book on spirituality or anything else and become a spiritual giant. They must get it by academic principles under one pastor, whoever their right pastor is, and stay with his ministry and grow under his ministry. There is a sense in which we might call 2 Timothy chapter two “Perspicuous pastors.”

There are three paragraphs in this chapter. Verses 1-7, five analogies to pastoral discipline; Verses 8-13, three reasons why pastors suffer; Verses 14-26, the responsibilities of the pastor.

Verse 1 — an analogy to a student. The student analogy is designed to teach the principle that grace is definitely related to discipline. So we have grace discipline.

“Thou therefore, my son” — we have a proleptic use of a pronoun, su, “you.” It is addressed to Timothy as a pastor who has now recovered from reversionism. So having recovered from reversionism it must be defined once again what the role of the pastor is when he is out of reversionism. What is the function of the pastor? How does it relate to every member of the congregation? How does it relate to the royal priesthood? All of that is going to be answered in this critical chapter. We also have the post positive conjunctive particle o)un used as an inferential conjunction.

It says. “Therefore in view of the fact that believers must grow up, in view of the fact that there must be a perpetuation of spiritual heritage (Chapter one). Therefore in view of the fact that the only way to glorify God and the purpose for which we remain in this life is to reach the place of tactical victory of super-grace, to complement the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict, this must be so.” There must be a relationship between a pastor and his congregation. It is a relationship of academic discipline in which the language, the personality, the peculiarities, etc. must be eliminated, and therefore must be a discipline and a rapport based upon the filling of the Holy Spirit and the communication of Bible doctrine.

Plus the vocative singular from the noun teknon, and teknon is where we run into trouble because it is mistranslated here “son.” One hundred years before this was written Teknon meant a basic relationship between a child and a parent. But what is basic relationship? Discipline! By the time this was written it no longer was simply a child in relationship to the parent but it was a student in relationship to anyone who had the authority and was teaching the student. So it is used here for a theological student under academic discipline. The word “academic” in this sense means only in the classroom or anything related to the classroom. It also means matriculation. This would mean through your own free will coming regularly to Bible class. If you do so, this means you are positive toward the Word, you recognise the authority of the communicator, and you are under academic discipline.

There is also a possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw. This refers to Paul as Timothy’s professor, pastor. “Consequently, you and you only my student.” Paul is the parent in the sense of being the professor. he is the one who has trained Timothy for the ministry.

“be strong” is a present passive imperative from the verb e)ndunamow [e)n = inside; dunamow = to be strong], which means to become invigorated, to acquire strength, or to become strong. The emphasis is on inner strength, soul strength. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begin in the past with Timothy’s reversion recovery and continues into the present through the daily function of GAP. The passive voice: Timothy receives the action of the verb through the daily inhale of Bible doctrine which transfers that doctrine from the page of the scripture to his right lobe. The imperative mood is a command — “keep on becoming powerful.” In other words, the pastor must keep up his own spiritual life and advance, and he does it in a different way from the congregation. The pastor develops his spiritual life by personal study. This means he has the spiritual gift to go directly to the scripture and get it. Then his gift is the means of communicating it to the congregation. The congregation do not get it by their personal study, they get it through discipline as well as teaching. The type of teaching that produces growth is teaching that has a framework of discipline. God the Holy Spirit is the means of learning doctrine — John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27.

“in the grace” — e)n plus the locative of xarij, plus the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun — “in that grace.”

The doctrine of grace

1. Definition.

a) Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. The whole point of grace is that God is free to give.

b) Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His entire essence to mankind without compromising or jeopardising any part of His essence.

c) No one can truly give and rightly give unless they have the freedom to do so. Grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. It is both God’s plan and God’s policy regarding mankind. His plan and policy are both called grace because this is the way that God’s character remains intact. Grave therefore is the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi. Under grace God does all the work, all the providing, and man does all the receiving. And God does all the thinking. Grace isn’t designed for us to think, it is designed for us to accept God’s ideas. That is where doctrine comes in because doctrine is simply the thinking of God.

Concept.

a) Grace depends on the essence or character of God.

b) Therefore grace depends on who and what God is.

c) Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence.

d) Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation (the beginning).

e) Grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s talent, man’s thinking, man’s planning.

f) Grace therefore is the genius of God and doctrine is the revelation of that genius.

The great enemy of grace is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The “good” part is legalism, the evil part is merely the thinking of Satan superimposed or inculcated in mankind causing him to be working for everything, to be under the function of good. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil means a knowledge of Satan’s thinking. Evil is the knowledge of Satan’s thinking; “good” is how Satan’s thinking is put into operation, the application. Evil is merely Satan’s doctrine; “good” is merely Satan’s application of that doctrine. Evil and good were what man did not need in relationship with God. He doesn’t need either one of them, he never will. Whenever we are inculcated by Satan — reversionism and being under the influence of evil — then we function according to Satanic principles. So the great enemy to grace is legalism, man’s intrusion into the plan of God with his own works, his ability, his talents, his schemes, his plans; and good and evil is the sum total of the good, the schemes, the plans, the abilities, and the works of mankind apart from God. The believer must learn to sort out the difference between grace and legalism. Anything that adds to what God has provided, or throws into the plan of God, if accepted, would destroy the plan of God. Therefore the only way we can avoid intrusion into the plan of God with our works and our abilities is a maximum understanding of Bible doctrine. Anything, therefore, that man adds is contrary to the plan. The plan of God, operation grace, is never destroyed or neutralised because grace rejected human thinking, human energy of the flesh, human ability, human talent, human viewpoint plans. Legalism and grace cannot coexist, they are mutually exclusive.

2. Grace and the new contract for the church.

a) The glorification of Christ by resurrection, ascension and session is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.

b) This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish Age in order that the royal family of God might be formed to commemorate that victory.

c) The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age.

d) The new covenant or the new contract to the church is related to the biblical doctrine of sanctification.

e) Grace found a way to take man, created inferior to the angels, and make him ultimately superior to angelic creatures.

f) This is accomplished through three phases of what the Bible calls sanctification.

i) Positional sanctification. The greatest thing that God the Father can do for the believer is to make him exactly like His Son, Jesus Christ. This is accomplished positionally at the point of salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby we enter into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The act of regeneration is tantamount to entering the family of God but the baptism of the Spirit makes it royal family of God. This is called positional sanctification. All the Old Testament believers received at regeneration entrance into the family of God and received the righteousness of God by imputation. But we as royal family receive more than that. Paragraph one of our new contract provides for royalty plus the fact that each member of the royal family of God is now positionally higher than angels.

ii) Experiential sanctification whereby the object is to achieve super-grace status. It is also called the balance of residency. We start with the filling of the Holy Spirit (which comes and goes with carnality and rebound) but we must balance it with doctrine. That balance of residency occurs at super-grace status, so when we reach super-grace we have reached the point of experiential sanctification.

iii) Ultimate sanctification is the third paragraph in the new contract to the church. In this one we have a resurrection body minus the old sin nature, minus human good, minus the lake of fire, plus for those who maintain super-grace paragraph SG³ or surpassing grace blessings and rewards forever and ever.

3. There are five stages of grace.

a) Saving grace. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once when he trusted in Christ — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3. At the moment of salvation every believer receives at least 36 irrevocable things from God. Because of propitiation every believer is under maximum blessing from God. God is free to exercise His love and still not compromise His character and provide the maximum for you. God is also free to exercise His love in giving all of the discipline necessary to bring you around to Bible doctrine. And if after the elapse of a certain amount of time you do not come around to Bible doctrine — positive volition and spiritual growth — then God feels perfectly free to make your life hell on earth, ending with the sin unto death, so that when you go to heaven you have been thoroughly wrung-out under the principle of divine discipline. “Whom the Lord loveth He chaseneth.” So saving grace is the beginning of the plan of God. This is a grace that comes through the work of Christ on the cross. Capacity for grace, like capacity for life is based on the amount of doctrine resident in the believer’s soul.

b) Living grace. This is all that God is free to do for the believer while he lives under the rule of Satan in the devil’s world. Every moment in time you are living under Satan’s rule, the world is Satan’s domain. He is the ruler of this world and will be until the second advent. Therefore we live in an area of conflict of interest in which our soul is the battleground. So under living grace God must provide first of all for the body, and secondly for the soul. This is divine provision under living grace — our material needs plus a pastor-teacher for spiritual food.

c) Super-grace. This is the point of spiritual maturity and where production really begins. There are five categories under our paragraph SG²: i. Spiritual blessings; ii. Temporal blessings; iii. The area of blessing by association; iv. Historical blessing, the spiritual heritage concept; v. Dying blessing.

4. A modus vivendi of grace. i. Grace is the means of growth — 2 Peter 3:18; ii. It is the basis for stability — Hebrews 13:9; 12:28; 1 Peter 5:12; iii. Grace is the basis for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1.

5. The failure to utilise grace — Galatians 5:4; Hebrews 12:15, two descriptions of reversionism.

6. Grace in suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

7. The axioms of grace:

a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect.

b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from the source of a perfect God.

c) If mankind could do anything meritorious in the pan of God it is no longer perfect. Man is imperfect, he cannot contribute to a perfect plan.

d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in the grace plan of God.

e) Grace excludes all human merit and ability, all human good and legalism, all self-righteousness and evil.

f) Legalism is the enemy of grace. There is no place for legalism or human good in the plan of God.

g) All legalism and human good is associated with the greatest of the mental attitude sins, pride or arrogance.

8. The four areas in which arrogance rejects grace.

9. Grace in innocence. Man’s relationship with God was based on creation rather than regeneration. Man came from God as a full adult. Therefore he had to possess instant appreciation for God’s plan of grace. This was provided in two ways, the tree of lives providing instant capacity for grace and daily Bible class providing the maintenance of this capacity.

“that is in Christ Jesus” — the words “that is” in the English is a definite article used as a relative pronoun, so we translate it “which.” It implies the present active indicative of e)imi — “which is.” Then we have e)n plus the locative of Xristoj, plus the locative of I)hsouj. Xristoj is used for His Jewish royalty; the locative of I)hsouj is used for His battlefield royalty.

Translation: “Consequently you, my student, keep on being strong in that grace which is in Christ Jesus.”

Verse 2 — we have another type of discipline: academic discipline, and the analogy is made to banking.

“And the things” — the connective use of kai plus the nominative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j should be translated “And what.” The word “things” refers to doctrinal teaching.

“thou hast heard” — aorist active indicative from the verb a)kouw. This is used for concentration: academic concentration and recognition of authority, separate but related principles. The verb connotes positive volition toward doctrine, concentration, academic discipline, perception of Bible doctrine. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, it gathers into one entirety Timothy’s function of GAP under the authority of Paul. The active voice: Timothy did this. As a student he produces the action of the verb, the persistent function of GAP. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Timothy accepted the authority of the apostle Paul and recovered.

“of me” is the preposition para plus the ablative of source of e)gw and should be translated “from me.” He had to take it from Paul.

“among many witnesses” indicates Timothy in seminary — the preposition dia plus the genitive from the adjective poluj. Dia plus the genitive means “through” or “in the presence of” or “along with.” Poluj is an adjective correctly translated “many.” Where the problem lies is in the noun goes with the adjective in the objective of the preposition, the genitive plural from the noun martuj which means a judicial witness. That is, a legitimate witness who functions academically in learning doctrine under the strict academic discipline of Paul’s seminary. A martuj is a person who comes into court and gives legitimate evidence.

a) Martuj means to be on the spot, to be there. You have to be in the classroom, the local church.

b) He had to concentrate.

c) As a result of concentration there is perspicacity, the assimilation of the facts. And that isn’t what makes a witness. What makes a witness? The communication of those facts. Timothy had the gift of pastor-teacher. He had to be there and be there and be there. He was under the ministry of Paul. Now he is communicating doctrine in Ephesus as a super-grace pastor-teacher.

The etymology of this word find itself in the root of the word mermeroj [mer = remember; mer = remember again; oj = now I have it completely]. So mermeroj means to carry it in your mind, to bear in mind, therefore to remember. We get other Greek words from this: mermainw which means to remember; martuj which means not only to remember but to communicate it — “in the presence of many theological students.”

“the same” refers to the accusative plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. The demonstrative emphasises the doctrine by which Timothy was ready and prepared to become a pastor-teacher. Doctrine does two things for anyone who is going into the ministry, assuming, of course, he has the gift of pastor-teacher. The doctrine first of all is the basis of his growth from babyhood to adulthood. This is accomplished by constant intake of doctrine, the function of GAP. In addition to that the doctrine retained in his soul is going to be communicated under his spiritual gift. So everything he learns in class he will eventually be able to communicate in some form or another to his own congregation. This is the twofold principle of the importance of doctrine. There is another reason. Timothy who was moving toward the high ground of super-grace took a nose dive and went into reversionism. That is why we have 1 Timothy. Now this same doctrine is going to be the way in which he can climb out of the hole and keep moving to the high ground. This demonstrative pronoun o(utoj places special emphasis on the doctrine which Timothy learned in the classroom of Paul’s seminary. It should perhaps be better translated “these doctrines.” This is the direct object of the verb.

“commit thou” — the aorist middle imperative from the verb paratiqhmi which means to deposit. The ministry is now regarded from the viewpoint of a banking analogy. Among Timothy’s congregation are some who are going to have the gift of pastor-teacher. Therefore as he is giving out doctrine to all the members of the congregation he is also preparing in some stage other members of the congregation who have this spiritual gift. The aorist middle imperative: he is ordered to make a deposit with these people. He makes a deposit with everyone else at the same time but there is a difference in motivation. Those who are aware of the fact that they have the gift of pastor-teacher have a tendency to be a little more careful with their notes and to concentrate and to work a little harder. For the male believer who possesses the gift of pastor-teacher every assembly of the local church is a theological classroom for that individual so that the deposit of doctrine can be made in his soul. The aorist tense: the culminative aorist views Timothy’s doctrinal teaching in the local church in its entirety but emphasises the gift of the pastor-teacher training. For every believer it is spiritual growth, for the one who has the gift it is also spiritual preparation. The middle voice is a dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the subject, Timothy, in the action of the verb. Therefore every pastor in teaching his congregation must never forget that some of his congregation will eventually be teaching the Word from the pulpit. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, it demands that the pastor of the local church deposits doctrine with his congregation. This is his basic function as a pastor and the deposit of doctrine in the royal family is the only way that the royal family can grow.

“to faithful men” — the word “men” simply refers here to the male believer who might have the gift of pastor-teacher, but the actual word here is mankind — in the plural — a)nqrwpoj. Pistoj is the adjective that goes with this — “faithfulness.” The meaning of “faithful men” refers to anyone, ladies included, who comes to Bible class consistently. The purpose of the deposit is to bear interest, compound interest, and the bearing of interest is your growth. Once you have a big enough deposit God starts pouring. It takes something to be persistent. Pistoj is another way of saying “guts.”

“who” — nominative masculine plural from a compound relative pronoun o(stij. It emphasises the qualitative aspect of those who are consistent. The greatest believers are those who reach super-grace. They have one thing in common — “faithful.” “Who by there very nature” is the way to translate o(stij.

“shall be able” — now talking specifically about those who have the gift if pastor-teacher, the future active indicative of e)imi. The future tense is a progressive future denoting the idea of progress in future time. The active voice: qualified pastors will produce the action of the verb by joining those members of the congregation in the action called “faithfulness.” The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historic and dogmatic reality. Someone will always be teaching doctrine. Constant study, the discipline as well as the doctrine, means future ability to communicate. It isn’t how you communicate, it is what you communicate. You don’t have to be a an eloquent speaker in order to be a pastor-teacher, it is the content that counts. If you have a content you will communicate it. Also here is the predicate nominative masculine plural from i)kanoj, and it means “qualified.” So the predicate nominative with the verb to be means “shall be qualified.”

1. These qualifications include being a member of a local church where Bible doctrine is constantly taught.

2. Being consistent in academic discipline resulting in following the colours to the high ground of super-grace.

3. Entering into whatever training and experience the Lord provides by way of preparation and seasoning for the ministry.

4. Note that qualification demands enough spiritual growth for the male believer to recognise the reality of possession of the proper spiritual gift.

5. A congregation should never be victimised by emotional pleas for full-time Christian service. People “come forward” for full-time Christian service and the whole thing is a hoax because all believers are in full-time Christian service.

Summary of qualifications

a) Must be a male believer in Jesus Christ who at the point of salvation received from God the Holy Spirit the gift of pastor-teacher.

b) Must be under strict academic discipline of Bible teaching in a local church ministry with enough growth to recognise the possession of the gift. It takes a certain amount of growth to recognise the gift.

c) Must complete growth to the point of super-grace by the intensification of the function of GAP.

d) Must have academic training as the Lord provides. The Lord leads in different ways.

e) Must have strong disciplinary training. The pastor must be the epitome of self-discipline.

f) Must understand administration and the delegation of authority.

g) Must have enough leadership ability not to abuse the tremendous authority vested by God in the pastor of the local church. Leadership ability will keep the pastor from both arrogance and the abuse of power.

h) Must have moral courage to make decisions compatible with Bible doctrine. The pastor is responsible to God for his policy, his decisions, his teachings, his modus operandi.

i) Must understand that his primary function is to study and teach. Therefore he must not be side-tracked from this objective by calling, by visiting the sick, by counselling, by catering to those who demand time and attention.

“to teach” is the aorist active infinitive of didaskw — always means one person with the authority teaching a group. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the entire teaching ministry of the pastor-teacher but it emphasises the results — spiritual growth. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb in the local assembly when he teaches the Word. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result in which the results indicated follow a deliberate goal — for the believer to reach the high ground of super-grace so that God can bless him in the devil’s world.

“others also” — other believers. The adjunctive use of kai is correctly translated “also.” So the pastor must learn doctrine but God will provide the hearers. God provides the hearers when the pastor is prepared.

Translation: “And what things [doctrinal teaching] you have heard from me along with many theological students, you deposit these doctrines with faithful men, who by their very nature [as potential pastors] shall be qualified to teacher other believers also.”

Note that God perpetuates the spiritual heritage during the Church Age through the function of the pastor-teacher in the assembly of the local church. There is no perpetuation of spiritual heritage without pastor-teachers. Therefore there is no substitute for the local church during this dispensation. The apostasy of some local churches and the moral cowardice in the form of denominations does not justify the rise of the independent movement. Each one misses the boat. All of these independent organisations and the denominations have missed the boat. There will never be a departure from the local church. You can only grow in a local church, there is no other place to grow.

Verses 3 and 4 — self discipline. The analogy to the military.

Verse 3 — “Thou therefore endure hardness.” There is no Greek word here for therefore but we do have a compound verb, the aorist active imperative of sugkakopaqew. It is composed of the preposition sun which means “with, along with,” and so on; kakoj means evil; paqew is taken from the verb pasxw which means to suffer. Put together the word means to suffer evil along with someone else. It comes to means to share hardship. Here it means to campaign with, it includes a lot of hardship. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Timothy who has now reached super-grace is commanded by Paul to join him in that phase of the angelic conflict carrying the colours. In effect, Paul is passing the colours to Timothy as he faces his own death. Paul carried his own generation, he was the leader of super-grace believers in that generation and carried it historically. The active voice: Timothy is going to produce the action of the verb by becoming a spiritual Atlas in his generation. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy. The preposition sun indicates that Paul recognises Timothy now as a super-grace believer. The adjective kakoj in the verb recognises the enemy of the angelic conflict, it recognises his strategy and summarises it with the word “evil.” The word pasxw which means to suffer indicates the suffering in the spiritual campaign of the angelic conflict. So we come up with the concept, “Bear hardship with me.” It means to campaign with Paul in the angelic conflict, or for a few moments to carry the colours with Paul before Paul dies and Timothy will carry on.

“as” is going to set up an analogy. It is the relative adverb o(j used in the correlative sense to set up analogy.

“a good soldier” — the adjective kaloj means “honourable,” and it is set up as the antithesis if kakoj; stratiwthj is correctly translated “soldier.”

“of Jesus Christ” — the Greek reverses the word order. They are genitive of relationship. This indicates that all believers have a specific relationship to Christ. We are royal family; He is battlefield royalty and therefore in perfect analogy. Good soldiers are honourable soldiers “of Christ Jesus.”

Translation: “Bear hardship with me (carry the colours) and an honourable soldier of Christ Jesus.”

You are nothing in life without self-discipline. That is a principle that applies the believer and the unbeliever alike. We live under a principle called freedom, but freedom cannot be enjoyed without self-discipline because freedom does not belong just to you. Freedom belongs to everyone in the nation. Since every citizen has freedom it means that all citizens who are law-abiding are entitled not only to freedom but to the other side of the coin, privacy and property. Since everyone has this same freedom the only way you can enjoy your freedom and the next person can enjoy his freedom, privacy and property is through discipline. Freedom never works without self-discipline.

Verse 4 — “No man that wareth.” We have the compound adjective o)udeij which means “no one.” Also the present middle participle from the verb strateuw which means to serve as a soldier in a campaign. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what is begun in the past and continues into the present time. It denotes everything it took to make the person into a military type — all the discipline, all the training, and then the application of that training in a combat situation. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent as producing the action of the verb. The participle is temporal (generally a temporal participle is translated by the adverb “when”). “No soldier when serving on active duty” or “No soldier when serving in a campaign.”

“entangleth himself” — present passive indicative of the verb e)mplekw. It means in the passive voice to become antangled. “Entangle himself” would indicate a middle voice; “Become entangled” is passive voice. The present tense is a perfective present noting the continuation of existing results. The passive voice gives the connotation of being implicated. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic principle.

“with the affairs of this life” — locative plural from the noun pragmateia which means “business, occupation, transaction,” and it refers to the activities of civilian life; plus a descriptive genitive singular of the noun bioj, referring to the pattern of life. This is an idiom which simply means the function of civilian life. Civilian life is comparable to reversionism, to being under the influence of evil. This means that the super-grace believer who as a spiritual Atlas carries his generation, or as Timothy here, becomes a colour-bearer, perpetuates into that generation the spiritual heritage of blessing. No person can have one foot in reversionism and one foot in super-grace. It is one or the other. If he is involved in reversionism then he is like a soldier on campaign trying to do a civilian job at the same time. It can’t be done.

So we have a warning to Timothy to avoid any further reversionism or the influence of evil in his life.

“that” introduces a conjunction which introduces a final clause denoting God’s purpose — i(na, denoting the principle of purpose, objective, goal. “In order that.”

“he may please him” — aorist active subjunctive of the verb a)reskw which means to strive to please, to serve someone, to accommodate. Here it is translated “in order that he may strive to serve and please.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the soldier in ranks produces the action of the verb. Every believer is regarded here as a soldier in ranks. It is analogous to the super-grace believer. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive which has an element of contingency in fulfilling the objective. Contingency is based upon the continuation of positive volition.

“who hath chosen him to be a soldier” — the articular aorist participle of stratologew [strato is from stratoj = soldier; legw = to call]. It means to enlist or to muster or to activate a military organisation. Today it would mean activation of an organisation. But the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and in the ancient world everyone activated his own organisation by picking out those basic trainees who he thought personally could fill in his sentries and his legion. It is very simple for us. The one who enlisted us is the Lord Jesus Christ. The definite article is the dative of indirect object indicating the one in whose interest the act is performed. Striving to serve is in the interest of our commanding officer, the Lord Jesus Christ. The aorist tense is constative, it gathers into one entirety the enlistment which caused the activation of the military organisation. In other words, the aorist tense here gathers into one entirety from the point at which you were born again to the point you depart from this life by death or the Rapture. The active voice: the ancient custom of the commanding officer producing the action of the verb, enlisting his own regiment, is in view here. The participle is circumstantial.

Translation: “No soldier when serving on active duty in a military campaign becomes entangled in the functions of civilian life; in order that he may strive to serve and please his commanding officer.”

Principle

1. Civilian life is analogous to reversionism and being under the influence of evil.

2. The striving soldier is the super-grace believer whose self-discipline is involved in the maintenance of super-grace.

Verse 5 — an analogy to athletics: teaching the blessing and reward of discipline. “And if a man” includes the conjunction e)an which introduces the protasis of a third class condition. With it is the enclitic post positive transitional conjunctive particle de. It should be translated “Now.” Plus the emphatic use of kai which is translated “really,” plus an enclitic indefinite pronoun tij. Translation: “Now if anyone really.” The word “really” means that somewhere there are believers who are serious about doctrine, believers who have so disciplined their lives and understand the issue that everything is devoted to the intake of doctrine and everything else in life is on the periphery. These are the believers who have their priority straight. Question: Are you interested in doctrine because it is the mind of Christ or are you interested in doctrine because it means promotion, success, wealth, power, prosperity, etc.

“strive for the masteries” — the present active subjunctive from one verb, a)qlew. It means to compete in an athletic contest in the Roman empire. The present tense is an iterative present describing what recurs at successive intervals. The active voice: the professional athlete, an extremely serious person in the field of athletics, produced the action. The subjunctive mood is potential, it is a part of the third class condition and it indicated that not everyone was interested in going this far with athletics. “Now if anyone really competes in the athletic games.”

There were two kinds of established athletes in the day in which this was written. There was the athlete who went to the gymnasium where they lived for ten months. Then there was the other system where they could go down to a gymnasium which was not the official government gym where they could go for an hour or two and work out, and then come back in a couple of days — not really a very serious thing. So we have the serious athlete and the one who merely did it to contribute to his own social life and business life, i.e. just for fun and health and never took it too seriously. The serious athlete is comparable to the believer who is positive toward doctrine. The non-serious athlete is the believer who is indifferent to doctrine and will eventually move into some phase of reversionism.

“is he not crowned” — present passive indicative of the verb stefanow. The cognate noun is stefanoj which is really not a crown; it is a wreath, a winner’s wreath. The verb here means to receive a winner’s crown. It should be translated, with the negative mh, “he does not receive a winner’s crown.” This is an aoristic present tense for punctiliar action in present time. It just takes a few seconds to crown a winner with a wreath. The passive voice: the winner in the athletic contest receives the action of the verb, namely a victor’s wreath or crown for a first place. There was no such thing as a second place. There was either a wreath or nothing. The indicative mood is potential, a rather rare type of indicative. The potential indicative sets up a hypothetical case to illustrate the point. The hypothetical case is viewed from the standpoint of reality, however.

“except” is made up of two Greek particles, e(an plus mh. Here they are used as the Greek idiom “unless.”

“he strive” — aorist active subjunctive from a)qlew which means to compete. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the function of complying with the rules over a period of ten months and gathering it up into one action. The active voice: the serious athlete who competes in any of the events of the games in the Roman world had to comply with laws and rules. The subjunctive mood is potential. Compliance was potential, depending upon the individual attitude. For a person who maintained a continual state of positive volition toward the job there was no problem. The rules were not impossible, they just demanded a gutsy type of self-discipline, that constant regulation of your own life.

“lawfully” — adverb nomimwj, “according to the law.” He had to compete according to the rules.

Translation: “Now if anyone really competes in the athletic games he does not receive a winner’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.”

Summary of the rules

1. Firstly, the rule of matriculation. You entered into a gymnasium, signed up, brought something to prove that you were a citizen of the Roman empire. If you were not a citizen you could not compete. Principle: If you are an unbeliever you can’t go to super-grace.

2. The athlete must live in the gymnasium for a period of ten months. This is analogous to the basic principle of Christian self-discipline — rebound and separation. If you are going to regulate your own life the first thing you must do is to remember your sin and rebound. You have to have the good sense to know what kind of a person you should avoid — mostly believers. People influence you. Avoid the people who keep you out of Bible class! This is also analogous to entrance into one’s local church under the filling of the Spirit for doctrinal teaching.

3. They had to answer all trumpet calls. Basically the trumpet calls were divided into three categories: warning calls, assembly calls, and then they had to differentiate because they had warning calls to go out on the athletic field and then the assembly calls, then they had warning calls for meals — two each day. So they had to learn and obey all of the trumpet calls. This is analogous to the relationship between the persistent positive volition and personal self-discipline.

4. The athlete must exercise in all kinds of weather. This represents the stability of self-discipline, the stability of positive volition. No believer reaches super-grace without consistent self-discipline, consistent positive volition toward doctrine.

5. He must have no contact with the opposite sex during the training period of ten months. This is analogous to the distractions of reversionism. There are many distractions that would keep you away from the teaching of the Word.

6. Part of the training was dietary. They had to abstain from rich foods and alcoholic beverage of which there was an abundance at this time in the Roman empire. The athlete was on a rule diet for ten months. This emphasises objectivity in learning in which your preconceived ideas are set aside and there is reception of the Word of God. In other words, Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint must displace human viewpoint and Satanic doctrine known as evil.

7. Therefore you must obey every other law or rule or policy of the gumnasiarxoj, the ruler of the gymnasium. This was one of the highest systems of power and authority in the Roman empire. This office was comparable to the pastor of the local church who is given great authority by God over his own pastorate. It is inevitable that his study of the Word will produce policy. Therefore this rule says that any additional policies not prescribed by the Roman senate could be made by the gumnasiarxoj.

There were two categories of athlete. There was the one called a)qlhtai, the one who went into the gym for ten months. He represents the quintessence of self-discipline, recognition of authority, and therefore the ability to exercise authority. This man was a future great in the Roman empire. The second category is called the a)gonistai. This was the kind of person who was merely trying to stay in shape, an amateur indulging for the purpose of health, etc. He is comparable to the negative believer. He is under no system of discipline for a prolonged period of time. So he is the kind of person who occasionally comes.

The analogy to production

1. The games were always held in a stadium. This was comparable to phase two or the royal family’s life on this earth.

2. The training for the games was always held in a gymnasium. This is comparable to the local church.

3. In the stadium certain events were held in competition viewed by the crowd. The first of these was called dromoj, the running events. The second category of events was called palh — wrestling. The third category was called pugmh — boxing. There were two other categories in most of the games. One was called the pentaqlon, getting the most points in five events, and the final one was the pagkration, a combined wrestling and boxing in which few people survived. There was also another events, but only for those who could afford the equipment — chariot racing. The real secret to being a great athlete was not the performance so much as the attitude to the daily training; the self-discipline concept. The various events are analogous to the many areas of production which are open to the super-grace believer. Doctrine resident in the soul, however, must precede production in the Christian life.

The profile of the super-grace believer is given in this passage as well as the great principle of self-discipline.

1. Like the athlete who qualifies to compete in the games the super-grace believer follows the colours to the high ground through the daily function of GAP, resulting in maximum doctrine resident in the soul. He arrives, he is qualified to compete, he is qualified for legitimate production in the spiritual life.

2. Like the athlete who wins the super-grace believer has his own paragraph SG², and this is comparable to receiving the wreath on the victory stand — stefanoj. This means spiritual blessing, temporal blessing, blessing by association, historical blessing, dying blessing.

Principle behind verse 5

1. Either regulate your own life or God will do it for you. If you regulate your own life you will end up under super-grace blessings; if God does it for you you end up under divine discipline.

2. Either you discipline yourself (rebound and +V toward doctrine) or God will discipline you.

3. Either you learn the easy way or you learn the hard way. Learning the easy way is GAPing it daily; learning the hard way is going through reversionism and going through whatever divine discipline it takes to wake you up.

4. The easy way, then, is the daily function of GAP.

5. The hard way is negative volition toward doctrine resulting in reversionism and a life of the various stages of divine discipline.

Summary

1. The judges and marshals of the games had the responsibility of enforcing all discipline and rules pertaining to the games.

2. One act of disobedience you were disqualified. This meant no chance for blessing or reward. The analogy is obvious. The reversionist will not accept self-discipline, group discipline, or the authority of anyone but himself.

3. Obviously we have analogy here. Reversionism and evil not only disqualifies the believer for reaching super-grace status but results in maximum divine discipline or the sin unto death. The sin unto death is never for carnality, it is for reversionism.

4. Here is where an understanding of the cross begins to help us along. On the cross Christ was judged for the sins from the old sin nature’s area of weakness. But at the same time Christ rejected human good and evil which came from the old sin nature’s area of strength. On the cross the sins of the world were judged — spiritual death. But human good and evil was rejected because human good and evil must be perpetuated in the angelic conflict. This is the issue.

5. This means that sin and carnality do not disqualify the believer from super-grace, or from growth, because of the grace provision of rebound.

6. But negative volition toward doctrine and resultant reversionism means disqualification.

7. This passage relates the function of GAP and resultant super-grace status to the biblical concept of self-discipline plus group or academic discipline in phase two.

Verse 6 — the analogy to farming: the dynamics of self-discipline. “The husbandman” — the accusative singular from the noun gewrgoj which means “farmer.” It is used here for an accusative of general reference and it becomes in effect the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive is metalambanw. The noun is not properly the subject of the infinitive but it acts as the subject because it describes the person connected with the action of the infinitive. With this is a present active participle from the verb kopiaw which means “hard-working.” Here the participle is used as an adjective, so we start out with the phrase, “The hard-working farmer.” A hard-working farmer has a lot of self-discipline, he has to regulate his own life.

“must be first partaker” — an impersonal verb of compulsion, dei, denoting the custom; plus a temporal adverb prwton, meaning first in time; and the present active infinitive from the compound verb metalambanw which means to receives one’s share. This is a customary present which denotes what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: the hard-working farmer produces the action of the verb. This is analogous to the believer who is consistent in the function of GAP. It involves not only self-discipline but kopiaw means self-discipline when you are exhausted. The harvest is the reception of blessing — paragraph SG² with its various categories of blessings. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result indicating the fulfilment of a deliberate plan or objective.

“of the fruits” — the possessive genitive plural from the noun karpoj. It means “crops, production, profits, benefits.”

Translation: “The hard-working farmer must first receive his share of the fruits [benefits].”

Those members of the royal family of God who operate under grace must be the first to share the benefits of grace. No one can operate under grace apart from the daily function of GAP, and no one can function under the daily principle of GAP apart from strict self-discipline; consistent daily function of GAP is hard work, it requires great self-discipline. The great benefits cannot be reproduced by anyone or anything, including the ruler of this world who is Satan.

Verse 7 — the real secret to life is what you carry around in your soul. What you carry around in your soul results in what you think. What you think determines what you really are.

“Consider” is a present active imperative from the verb noew. It means here to concentrate, to perceive, and it has to do with academic discipline. Therefore it is translated “concentrate” or “be concentrating.” Of all of the factors in worship this is the most important. The present tense is a present tense of duration, it has very strong linear aktionsart. This is something you must do all of your life and this is really the secret to capacity for life — your ability to concentrate and to think, the ability to increase your vocabulary, your categorical understanding of things. The active voice: Timothy and all members of the royal family of God produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command.

“what I say” — the nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun o(j actually deals with the content of Bible doctrine, the content which must be prepared on the part of the pastor-teacher. With this is the present active indicative of the verb legw which means to speak, to talk, to form words, to say. Here it means to communicate doctrine, the teaching of the Word of God. The customary present indicates what has to occur constantly. The active voice: Paul here is the communicator of doctrine, and this is what all pastors should do. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The reality of the existence of a right pastor-teacher for every believer is a true principle of doctrine. It is just a question of finding who that pastor is. “Keep concentrating on what I say.” This requires maximum academic discipline. The fulfilment of this command requires self-discipline and self-regulation of the life on the part of the individual. But this self-discipline is compatible with the principle of grace. The grace principle is found in the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit who indwells us and who when we are in fellowship controls our soul under the principle of the filling. John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14; James 1:21-25; 1 John 2:27.

“and the Lord” — “and” is the post positive conjunctive particle gar used to express a cause or reason for concentration. The noun kurioj here refers to God the Holy Spirit. Kurioj in the Greek connotes deity and it is the same as the Hebrew “Jehovah.” These two words can be used for any member of the Trinity. Kurioj is used most frequently for the Son because the Son is the manifest person of the Godhead. Sometimes it is used for God the Holy Spirit and this is one of those passages. There is a parallel for this in 2 Corinthians 3:17,18 — “Now the Lord [kurioj] is that same Holy Spirit.” No doctrine is real apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

“give” is the future active indicative of the verb didomi. The future tense is a progressive future, it denotes the idea of progress in future time. The progress is “from glory to glory,” from super-grace to surpassing grace, from each facet of grace to another facet. Each one of these facets of grace has tremendous divine blessing. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit is the teacher of Bible doctrine and therefore He is the one producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic reality of this point of doctrine. No assimilation, no cognisance of doctrine apart from the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. This is the grace factor that links up with self-discipline.

“thee” is old English for the second person singular personal pronoun su. This personalises the entire passage, it was originally addressed to Timothy but it is addressed to everyone of us who have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The dative of indirect object indicates Timothy and all believers in whose interest the act of teaching doctrine is performed.

“understanding” — the key to spiritual growth, the key to everything. It isn’t works, it isn’t some system of legalism, of conformity with religiosity, but it is understanding Bible doctrine. It is the accusative singular direct object from the noun sunesij, a technical word for Bible doctrine stored away in the technical areas of the soul. Remember that the soul has self-consciousness, we are aware of our own existence and we can relate things to ourselves and to individuals, and the extent that we are normal we can relate our existence to the reality of life. Then we have two frontal lobes. The left lobe is called the nouj and is the staging area for Bible doctrine. The right lobe, called in the Greek kardia or heart, is the key to everything. The right lobe has a frame of reference, a memory centre, a vocabulary storage, categorical storage. When the categorical storage is empty it when there is no benefit in any way in life and cannot be happy in life. Then there are norms and standards or conscience and finally a launching pad. Then there is positive volition with its positive and negative poles, and emotion. Emotion is designed to respond to what is in the right lobe. So the key to everything is getting Bible doctrine in the right lobe. Sunesisj is a technical word for Bible doctrine in the vocabulary and in the categorical storage — total understanding.

“in all things” is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative plural from paj.

Translation: “Concentrate on what I say; for the Lord [God the Holy Spirit] will give you total understanding in all the categories of doctrine.”

Therefore the chief objective of the spiritual life is the intake of Bible doctrine. God measures your progress in terms of the doctrinal content of your soul, not the activity of your life. God is only impressed with one thing, and from that one thing comes the whole principle of grace activity in your life. So if there is to be any grace activity in your life at all it is going to come one way only and that is through Bible doctrine resident in your soul or the balance of residency including the filling of the Spirit.

The doctrine of GAP

1. Definition. GAP is an acrostic: G = grace; A = apparatus; P = perception. GAP is the system provided by God in eternity past whereby every believer is able to understand the whole realm of doctrine while living on this earth. Consequently is the divine grace provision for the believer’s spiritual growth, progress, and advancement. God has found a way for every believer, regardless of his IQ, of his educational background, to perceive, to understand Bible doctrine. In other words, to transfer Bible doctrine from the written page to the soul of the individual believer priest.

2. There are several systems of perception. In life there are three basic systems by which all members of the human race acquire knowledge.

a) The first is called rationalism which is a system of reason where reason is the source of knowledge. Reason is superior to and independent of the sensory perception in rationalism. In other words, what you think, what you can draw from your frame of reference, your memory centre, your vocabulary and categorical storage, is reality totally apart from any other factor. What you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears, what you smell with your nose, what you taste with your mouth, is excluded from reality under the system of rationalism. Reason becomes the norm or the criterion from reality. Rationalism is the adherence to the supremacy of reason in matters of belief, conduct and thought. The subject of Bible doctrine and scriptural interpretation must be put to the test of human reason and therefore rationalism always rejects dogmatic authority. Rationalism is primarily for philosophers. Rationalism is a system of superiority in thinking, as it were. The higher the IQ the greater you can go into the principle of rationalism. It is a system which is not related in any way to GAP.

b) Empiricism. This is the scientific system of learning, learning by observation and experimentation. Reality lies in the function of your sensory system relaying observations to the brain for analysis. Key words are: experience, observation, experimentation providing the basis for reality and perception.

In anything in life people have a tendency to go toward empiricism or toward rationalism about anything. No one starts out as an empiricist or rationalist. A baby and then a child does not start out with either of these systems. These are systems for developed IQs, developed perspicacity. Both of these systems start the same way. They are both meritorious systems. The merit of empiricism is an observation and analysis. The merit of rationalism is in the extent of one’s vocabulary and categorical understanding of things in life. But all people start as babies, then as a child, in the principle of faith.

c) Faith is merely learning by accepting the authority of the criterion, learning by accepting words as vocabulary. Faith must always have an object. In salvation the object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith which is a non-meritorious system of perception is the system brought into grace because under grace all of the merit belongs to God, and we are the beneficiaries of blessing from that. So faith is learning by accepting the authority of the criterion, it is the reality of the unseen. Faith is a system of thinking but it is always a non-meritorious system of thinking. Faith is building knowledge on the basis of an absolute authority or axiom, whether it is God exists or 1 + 1 = 2. So faith, then, is a valid system of cognisance and the most commonly used. The validity of faith depends upon the criterion or the object of faith. In salvation Jesus Christ is the object of faith, there is validity. In the function of GAP faith is the system of perception. The object of faith is Bible doctrine, the principles of the Word of God. The absolute criterion is the Word of God. Many times when the Greek word pistij is found in the New Testament it more frequently refers to doctrine than it does simply to the act of faith. So faith is a bona fide system of learning, a bona fide system of thinking. It is the secret to blessing from God in time.

3. The distinction between human and spiritual IQ. IQ means intelligence quotient. Human IQ is the number assigned to person on the basis of dividing his mental age by his chronological age. The mental age is determined by testing; the chronological age is determined by interrogation. The results are multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals. The cut-off date for IQ is, at beast, 14. No one has an established IQ after 14. So IQ does not really determine how smart you are going to be in life, it merely teaches the ability of your mind to absorb under certain preconceived conditions within the area of the English language. IQ is an excuse for an intellectual snobbery that does not and cannot exist. The only reason that IQ is a handicap is because if you have a genius IQ you sometimes never get over it. Remember that for every person who is a genius and makes it in life there are a hundred thousand people of genius category who are a total flop. More geniuses fail than stupid people. Genius develops hypersensitivity and it has a tendency to divorce itself from reality, especially through functions of rationalism. There are only a few people in history who have had genius that is meaningful. Genius is no good unless it stays with reality.

Spiritual IQ is the issue for the believer. It is determined by the amount of Bible doctrine you have resident in your soul. This resident doctrine is called in the Hebrew language chakmah; in the Greek it is called e)pignwsij or sunesij. Colossians 1:9,10 is a dissertation on the principle of spiritual IQ. It says literally from the Greek,

“Because of this, we also from the day we heard the report, do not cease to pray for you constantly, asking that you might be filled up with e)pignwsij [full knowledge of doctrine] of his sovereign purpose, design and will by means of all sofia [doctrine on the launching pad] and spiritual understanding [sunesij — doctrine in the frame of reference, vocabulary and categories], so that you might walk worthy of the Lord [based upon the doctrinal content of your soul, not what you are doing but what you are thinking], pleasing God in all things; constantly producing in every good work.” Human IQ is not the issue, spiritual IQ will always be the issue.

4. The exclusion of human IQ from GAP. There is no place for human merit or human ability in God’s grace plan. Human IQ has often been considered a factor in learning doctrine. This would imply that low IQ believers would be handicapped in learning. However, in eternity past God found a way through grace by which every believer can learn doctrine totally apart from human ability. For this reason at the point of salvation every believer receives God the Holy Spirit indwelling and a human spirit for the assimilation of doctrine. The human spirit by-passes human IQ in learning. So we have the Holy Spirit teaching the human spirit and this knocks all the merit out of perspicacity. For this reason, then, God the Holy Spirit to the human spirit is taught in 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 1:19-2:16.

Job 32:7,8 — our lives, the glorification of Jesus Christ, our happiness, our capacity to love Jesus Christ, the ability to orient to the time in which we live, and to fulfil the objective for which we remain in this life, is all found in the principle found here.

Verse 7 — “I said” is a phrase which means ‘I am repeating what I previously said.’ The word “Days” is simply a reminder of the fact that God gives each one of us one day at a time. In eternity past God provided everything you would need to stay alive long enough to reach super-grace. He provided for you a paragraph SG². He also provided a paragraph SG^3. In this principle of living grace He provided everything necessary. One of the things He has provided in living grace is one day at a time. God has given each one of us a span of life. He knows right now exactly how long you are going to live and how you are going to die if the Rapture doesn’t occur first. “I said” is a qal imperfect of the verb amar. The imperfect tense meant that this is being repeated, that it has been said before. Therefore it is something that should be said again and again. It is put this way for emphasis.

“Days should speak” — the piel imperfect from the verb dabar. The piel stem is the intensive stem. It means to speak or to communicate doctrine. “Days should be devoted to the communication of doctrine.”

“and multitude of years” — the continuous and faithful function of GAP until it adds up to a multitude of years. The accumulation of years should teach.

“should teach” is the hiphil imperfect of yada. Hiphil is causative active voice, therefore it should be translated “should cause to teach” — to cause us to understand.

“wisdom” — chakmah, the synonym for the Greek e)pignwsij and refers to maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

Translation: “I am reminding you, Days [God gives us one day at a time] should be a basis for communication of doctrine, the multitude of years can cause us to understand chakmah [doctrine].”

Verse 8 — “But there is a spirit in man.” “Spirit” here is ruach which can be a number of things. It means life, breath, or spirit. When it means spirit it means human spirit or Holy Spirit. Here it refers to God the Holy Spirit — “But the [Holy] Spirit inside of man.” Every believer has the ministry of the Holy Spirit in order to learn.

“and the inspiration of the Almighty” — the word for “inspiration” is neshemmah and it refers to the spark of life. This is what happens when a person is born, they are not alive even yet until God gives the spark of life. Here in this verse it refers to the inhale of Bible doctrine, the function of GAP. So we have the Holy Spirit inside of man and the function of GAP from the Almighty — the constant inhale of doctrine as indicated in the previous verse.

“giveth them understanding” — the hiphil imperfect from the verb bin. This hiphil, again, is a causative active voice and means to cause to understand. So we are given the means by which we can understand doctrine.

5. The grace provision for learning doctrine.

a) The formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. Everything that Jesus Christ wanted us to know from His own thinking, as it were His own essence, He has provided for us in written form. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as the formation and preservation of the Bible through God’s grace. The canon of scripture is under constant attack from Satan, there is pressure constantly to destroy it. The preservation of the canon of scripture demonstrates that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The result is that the 20th century believer has intact everything that he will ever need in writing. It is merely a matter then of transferring from the written page to the soul the content of the canon. This is a grace factor. The very fact that you have a Bible, the very fact that Bibles exist, the very fact that the Bible is more widespread than any book in the world today is indicative of God’s fantastic grace and power in providing us this textbook.

b) The divine authorisation for the local church. While the Bible is the textbook the local church is the classroom. In this case you take the textbook to the classroom. The classroom of the local church is the only place where Bible doctrine is taken in under the correct principles. Only in the classroom of the local church can the royal family actually learn Bible doctrine and grow up. The only person who can get it directly from the book is the one who has the gift of pastor-teacher. The royal family of God, the Church Age believer, assembles in the local church and the minute he does he is a student without portfolio, his only right in the congregation is concentration under the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the assimilation of the Word. The local church must assemble under the principle of very strict discipline, emphasising good manners, objectivity, poise, concentration, and the obvious motivation which comes from the filling of the Spirit. The pastor has absolute authority during the time of the assembly and his teaching must be compatible with the spiritual principles enjoined. Because the pastor does have tremendous authority from God his preparation period, however long it takes, must be under a system of unfair discipline. He must have lived a portion of his life under authority that was totally unfair and unreasonable, for in this way he learns to appreciate and to value the proper use of authority. The local church, then, assembles under the principle of authority, the pastor exercises his authority as the ruler of the local church in the teaching of the Word and whatever other functions may be necessary for the local church to continue to operate in a grace manner compatible with the Word of God. As doctrine is transferred from the written page to the individual believer’s soul a command post is established there by which the individual believer is able to regulate his life on the basis of doctrine which is resident in his soul. This becomes the basis for great spiritual progress. So the local church always will be the classroom until the Rapture occurs.

c) The right pastor. You have only one right pastor. This means that if another pastor comes to town he is not your right pastor, you only have one right pastor. You have been given by God someone to communicate doctrine to you. It is not someone that you have to have any compatibility with, or rapport, it is someone who by the very nature of his preparation under God and by his spiritual growth is prepared to provide for you the spiritual food that you need. The spiritual gift is sovereignly bestowed by God on a few men in every generation. The spiritual gift is sovereignly bestowed by the decision of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. Spiritual growth leads to discovery of spiritual gifts, except in cases where your spiritual gift remains anonymous — it is not necessary to discover it, just stay with the spiritual growth. Once you do discover it, however, you are in for a long life of preparation — the daily function of GAP, the regulation of your life to the academic discipline, the various means by which you can receive the training you need.

d) The royal priesthood to the believer. Every believer is royalty, every believer is a royal priest. In this dispensation only there exists, therefore, that universal priesthood which says, in effect, You are to become spiritually self-sustaining, you are to do your own thinking, you are to have your own privacy, you are to have your own freedom, you are to live your own life before the Lord on the basis of what you have learned in the Bible class of the local church. You are a royal priest, you are to build and construct your own altar. So the purpose of the universal priesthood of the believer is privacy, freedom of reception of doctrine. The reason that privacy is ensured in the local church is that you are there for doctrine. Once you get doctrine you can run with it in any direction you want to but while you are learning your privacy is extremely important to you.

e) The ministry of God the Holy Spirit who makes all of this possible. This is where the word “grace” in GAP gets its origin. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is inevitably related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit whose function at salvation provides Jesus Christ with a royal family. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby we are entered into union with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration, He is the agent in making us royalty. He indwells us as the escutcheon, the coat of arms of royalty. He provides a sealing ministry or security. He provides spiritual gifts whereby we come to depend upon each other for spiritual blessing and sustenance. The objective is the balance of residency, and when the filling also includes a maximum amount of doctrine in the soul then the believer has arrived. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit offsets any lack of human IQ, and lack of human perspicacity, and inability to understand vocabulary and words and how they are put together; this is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

f) The human spirit which for a part of the function of GAP. The dichotomous unbeliever does not have a human spirit, only a body and soul. This means that he cannot understand doctrine, he cannot absorb spiritual phenomena, he doesn’t have the human spirit as the means of doing so. The human spirit is provided at the point of salvation as a basic receiver for Bible doctrine.

g) The laws of divine establishment. Our national government is responsible to protect the privacy and the freedom of the individual as well as the local church. One of the great principle under this provision is the separation of church and state. This freedom is known as religious liberty. Under this principle of separation of church and state we have the concept of privacy. We have the right to accept Christ without the government giving you any trouble, you also have the right to reject Christ. You have the principle and the right to choose any religion or no religion, to have a relationship with God or not. The government merely ensures the privacy and the freedom of everyone within the national entity. Of course, this freedom must be maintained. It can only be maintained by military victory. Military victory is also military preparedness. Military preparedness demands universal military training. Universal military training means maximum male self-discipline which in turn gives capacity for life to believer and unbeliever. The function of law — the judge on the bench, the police officer on the street corner is the principle here. basically this is the way freedom is enforced. The principle of human authority is also involved in establishment.

6. The target for GAP. We must understand receptive comprehension. The mentality of the soul is divided into two lobes: left and right. The right lobe is the eventual location for Bible doctrine and is called the heart. There is the human spirit which filters in doctrine. But doctrine has to have a staging area and therefore the left lobe is the staging area for doctrine and, as a matter of fact, for almost everything in life. The left lobe is called nouj and is designed to assimilate objective information. The type of information it assimilates in the staging area is called gnwsij. Once you get information, including doctrine, in there that doctrine is called gnwsij. That is information that is in the staging area but not necessarily usable. It is information that you can even give back on an examination paper or repeat back, but it does not mean that it is usable information. The left lobe is simply the staging area for any information that is objective or appears to be objective. The reception of doctrine into this particular lobe classifies the believer as a hearer of the Word. This is where doctrine often stops, and yet the whole thrust of James says that you must be more than a hearer of the Word, that is only the staging area. You must be a doer, and a doer is one with doctrine in his right lobe — not someone performing deeds, not some function of good, not someone in the productive end of Christianity. A doer of the Word is someone who has doctrine where it is usable in the right lobe. The right lobe is called kardia or heart. Here when we have information it is called e)pignwsij and sunesij. The problem is to get doctrine out of the staging area and into where it can be used, assimilated, where it becomes doctrine resident in the soul. Receptive information will not get the job done, it must be transferred. Getting the information into the “impregnated” side is where the growth occurs, where there is eventual production in the life that counts. James 1:19-25.

We also have some words for Christian thinking in the New Testament. a) Dokew which has the connotation of subjective thinking. That means it is a perfect illustration for receptive comprehension. b) Fronew is objective thinking, impregnated thinking, something that has been transferred from the left lobe to the right lobe.

7. The mechanics of GAP, the means by which all of this is going to be transferred.

a) Stage one involves simply hearing the Word — operation ICE. You are assembled taking in the Word of God. I = isagogics; C = categories; E = exegesis. These are the ingredients in teaching the Word of God. The believer must be motivated by positive volition and his life must be regulated.

Isagogics is the interpretation of the Bible within the framework of its historical setting.

Categorical communication of doctrine fulfils the hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture in order to determine classification and in order to determine mechanics of operation.

Exegesis is the analysis of each verse on the basis of its context to determine the exact meaning of that verse. The interpretation must be based upon the grammar, the syntax, the etymology, from the original language.

b) Operation gnwsij or receptive comprehension. In the first stage you listen and get information. That information has to go somewhere so it goes into the “warehouse” — gnwsij. That is the same as receptive comprehension. You have the information stored and in a place where it can be delivered immediately or in the near future to where it is useful. That is stage two and all doctrine goes into this receptive stage of comprehension first.

The big question is: How do we go from point A to point B? from the left lobe to the right lobe? from the nouj to the kardia? The answer to that goes right back to the faith-rest technique. The basic function of the faith-rest technique is to transfer doctrine from the left lobe to the right lobe. However, faith can only take it so far — as far as the human spirit. Then you actually believe what you know. In other words, the object of the faith-rest technique is to take the information in the warehouse and transfer it to your human spirit — from gnwsisj to e)pignwsij.

c) Stage three is operation e)pignwsij — it goes into the human spirit. Once it is in the human spirit two things happen to it. The human spirit takes all doctrine from the left lobe. It retains doctrine as building material for your ECS. It transfers that same doctrine up into the right lobe where it becomes usable. It goes into the frame of reference, to the memory centre. Your memory centre has valves that send it to the categorical storage, norms and standards, and the launching pad. This is critical — to get it down to the human spirit. Once it is in the human spirit it becomes building material for the ECS.

d) Stage four it goes to the heart, every category of the right lobe, and now that doctrine becomes usable. At that point you become a doer of the Word.

e) The final stage is operation glory in which maximum doctrine resident in the soul causes the believer to advance to the place where he glorifies God — the super-grace status. At this point the royal priest or Church Age believer glorifies God as per Ephesians 3:14-21.

8. The primary result in the function of GAP is that spiritual maturity of the believer — super-grace — which glorifies God as a part of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. The results are best expressed in terms of synonyms for this spiritual victory. There are many ways of describing the super-grace life.

a) There is a language synonym. In the Hebrew language is chakmah; in the Greek is e)pignwsij. These are synonyms for the super-grace life wherever they are found.

b) Super-grace status — James 4:6, “He gives greater [or super] grace. This is the theological synonym.

c) The construction of the altar in the soul — Hebrews 13:10. This is the priestly synonym.

d) The building synonym known as the edification complex of the soul [ECS]. This is the principle of grace orientation, mastery of the details of life, the relaxed mental attitude, capacity for love, sharing the happiness of God. This is called ECS in Ephesians 4:12,16. When the ECS is completed you are in super-grace.

e) The time synonym known as redeeming or purchasing time. God provides the believer with one day at a time — Job 32:7. The capital for the purchase of time is Bible doctrine resident in the soul — in the right lobe.

f) The central control synonym known as the dictator of the soul — the inner residency of maximum doctrine in the life of a super-grace believer — Ephesians 6:10.

g) The military synonym — putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-18; following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; establishing a command post of the soul — Colossians 2:5-8.

h) A crucifixion synonym — “Take up your cross [Bible class attendance in spite of distraction or opposition] and follow me [the daily function of GAP].” Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27.

i) The chemical synonym, “the salt of the land/earth” — salt used as a preservative. The super-grace believer becomes the preservative of his national entity.

j) A sanctification synonym — godliness. 1 Timothy 6:3-6; 2 Peter 1:3.

9. The other results of GAP.

a) Reversion recovery. This includes the removal of scar tissue of the soul, freedom from the influence of evil, cancellation of divine discipline.

b) The glorification of God in the angelic conflict through the attainment of super-grace status or spiritual maturity. The attainment of paragraph SG² glorifies God; holding the ground means dying grace and SG³, reward in eternity which also glorifies God.

c) It equates the royal status of the believer with the function of his priesthood. The normal function of the royal priesthood only occurs after the believer reaches super-grace.

d) It leads to the occupation with Christ principle and all of the capacities for life and love. The inner residency of maximum doctrine in the soul gives capacity for love, for life, for happiness, blessing, and so on.

e) It provides maximum influence in history. The super-grace believer is the spiritual Atlas who holds up his generation, he is also the one who not only carries his own generation under that principle but often changes the course of his own generation. This is operation spiritual Atlas.

f) It provides a basis for bona fide production. All bona fide production, dynamic production, is the result of balance of residency which means not only the filling of the Spirit but maximum doctrine in the soul.

g) It becomes the basis for eternal reward or the production of paragraph SG³.

Verses 8-13, three reasons why pastors suffer.

Verse 8 — the first is to perpetuate occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. It begins with the present active imperative from the verb mnhmoneuw, translated “remember.” It means to fix your thoughts on something or someone, to call to kind, to remember, to keep in mind. We translate it here “Keep in mind,” remembering that it has to do with the function of the memory centre of the right lobe. The present tense is a static present used to represent a condition assumed as continually existing in the life of a super-grace believer, or taken for granted as a fact in the life of the mature believer. The active voice: Timothy has now recovered super-grace and as a super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. He must be occupied with the person of Christ, he must always have maximum category #1 love. The imperative mood is a permission here which is not a direct command. This is called the imperative of permission in which the command signified by the imperative mood is in compliance with the express desire or manifest inclination on the part of the one who is the object of the command. In other words, Timothy should always want to do this with or without the command.

The doctrine of suffering

1. The general causes for suffering in life — that which is pertinent to believer and unbeliever.

a) Loss of health, wealth, property, money, loved ones, or anything of value.

b) Suffering from people. This includes gossip, ostracism, persecution, violence, crime, war.

c) Suffering from privation. That includes hunger, thirst, cold, heat, storm, earthquake, disasters from nature, accidents of any variety.

d) Suffering from the administration of the law: to be apprehended as a criminal or a violator of law, tried, sentenced, punished.

e) Social suffering. Loneliness, boredom, neglect, ostracism, disapproval.

f) Mental suffering — from mental pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, etc., from neurosis and psychosis.

g) Suffering from rejection of authority includes anything from love, divorce, failure in adulthood because of rejection of authority in childhood, being fired from the job, dishonourable discharge, loss of citizenship, excommunication, cut from a team, expelled from school.

h) Suffering from reversionism under the principle of reaping what you sow.

2. The basic categories of suffering.

a) In time. The unbeliever, by rejecting the laws of establishment, self-induced misery and reversionism.

b) In eternity. The unbeliever in the lake of fire forever — Revelation 20:12-15; the believer — no suffering in eternity — Revelation 21:4.

3. The premise of Christian suffering.

a) All suffering is designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 4:14.

b) The exception is divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6.

c) The exception removed — 1 Corinthians 11:31. The exception is removed for carnality by rebound, for reversion by reversion recovery.

d) Cursing is then turned into blessing — Romans 8:28.

4. The categories of Christian suffering. There are two basic categories: a) disciplinary; b) for blessing..

A. Disciplinary suffering:

i. Suffering from divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6; for carnality — Psalm 38; for reversionism — Ecclesiastes or Song of Solomon.

ii. Suffering by association. This is peripheral suffering — 1 Corinthians 12:26; Romans 14:7; and an illustration — 1 Samuel 21.

iii. Suffering causes by having the wrong priorities — Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

iv. Suffering from a guilt complex — 1 Timothy 1:5,6, 19,20; 3:9; 4:1,2; Titus 1:15.

v. Suffering because of national discipline — Leviticus 26; Isaiah 33; 59; the book of Hosea.

vi. Suffering from the rejection of the principle of right man/right woman — Ezekiel 16,23; Jeremiah 12:7; 15:7-12, 17,18.

vii. Suffering from failure to isolate sin — Hebrews 12:15.

viii. Suffering from temporary loss of grace norms — Jeremiah 2:24,25.

ix. Suffering from war, suffering from revolution.

x Suffering from reversionism — Psalm 77.

B. Suffering for blessing (undeserved):

i. Suffering to glorify God in the angelic conflict — book of Job; Luke 15:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17.

ii. Suffering to learn obedience from self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8; Philippians 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:1-7.

iii. Suffering to demonstrate the sufficiency of grace — 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.

iv. Suffering to eliminate occupational hazards for life, especially for the Christian life — pride and arrogance as it relates to the sufficiency of grace — 2 Corinthians 11:24-33; 12:1-10.

v. Suffering to develop faith necessary for the function of the faith-rest technique — 1 Peter 1:7,8.

vi. Suffering to accelerate the construction of the edification complex and to enter thereby into the super-grace life — James 1:1-6.

vii. Suffering as a means for witnessing for Christ — 2 Corinthians chapters 3,4.

viii. Suffering to help others who suffer — 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

ix. Suffering to learn the value of Bible doctrine — Psalm 119:67,68,71.

x Suffering for the advance and impact of Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 1:12-14.

5. The concept of family suffering.

i. The basic passages on family suffering — Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10.

ii. There is a four-generation curse listed in the scripture — Exodus 34:3-7; Numbers 14:18.

iii. The mechanics of the four-generation curse — Proverbs 30:11-17.

iv. The four generation curse is related to the law of culpability — Deuteronomy 24:16.

v. The problem of children. Fairness toward the children — Deuteronomy 21:15-17; maximum discipline for negative teenagers is death — Deuteronomy 21:18-22. The problem of children is a part of family suffering.

vi. The way in which the four-generation family curse can be broken. Doctrine breaks up the four-generation curse — Psalm 100;5; Deuteronomy 7:9; 6:6-13; 11:18-21.

vii. The children’s gimmick. Children are very handy for excuses — blame it on your children. Numbers 14:31; Jeremiah 31:15.

viii. Children can never be an excuse because of the triumph of children with doctrine — Lamentations 3:21-31; Psalm 119.

6. The concept of economic suffering.

i. Inflation is a part of the fourth cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:26.

ii. The principle of being solvent in a depression — Genesis 41.

ii. The principle of depression. It tests the faith-rest technique — Genesis 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7,8.

iv. Doctrine resident in the soul is the answer to depression rather than money in the pocket — 2 Chronicles 20:9.

v. Divine viewpoint is necessary to survive economic disaster — Psalm 33:17-20.

vi. Depression is a part of divine discipline to both the nation and the individual reversionist under the influence of evil — Psalm 105:16; Jeremiah 11:22.

vii. False teaching in time of depression intensifies that depression — Jeremiah 14:13-16.

viii. God protects the believer in depression — Job 5:20; Romans 8:35. More than that, these verses say that God blesses the believer in depression, so depression does not hinder divine blessing of the individual believer who is in super-grace.

ix. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the solution to depression. Consequently, advance to super-grace is the true basis for restoring the economy — Isaiah 37:30,31.

7. God can only demonstrate to believers through suffering in time. There will be no suffering in eternity — 1 Peter 4:14,16. Furthermore there is no suffering too great for the plan of God. Divine provision for suffering is greater than any pressure of life. Super-grace is the status in which to experience this principle. The super-grace believer is qualified through maximum doctrine resident in his soul to weather any storm in life.

8. The unique sufferings of Christ — Isaiah 53.

9. The reason why pastor-teachers suffer.

a) To perpetuate occupation with Christ — 2 Timothy 2:8.

b) To disseminate Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 2:9.

c) To fulfil the grace objectives of phase two — 2 Timothy 2:10.

Verse 8 — Sometimes it takes suffering to convert the doctrine in your soul into occupation with Jesus Christ. This suffering has one objective in mind where the super-grace believer is concerned: to bring him back to spiritual reality the super-grace believer must be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for that occupation: maximum category #1 love.

Jesus Christ” is literally “Christ Jesus.” “Recall to mind Christ Jesus.”

“was raised” — the perfect passive participle of e)geirw. This refers to the physical, literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There is a change in the Greek words in the original MSS. The KJV has “Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead,” but that isn’t the way the MSS reads in the original. It says, “Recall to mind that Christ Jesus Christ, having been resurrected.” This is a perfect passive particle. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, it is a special rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. In other words, the action of resurrection has been completed with dramatic emphasis on the existing results both in the angelic conflict and in human history. The existing results include the strategic victory of our Lord in the angelic conflict and His appointment to battlefield royalty. The passive voice: Jesus Christ received this resurrection body from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit with the result that He still possesses it seated at the right hand of the Father, and with the result that He has received a third type of royalty (battlefield royalty) with the result that a royal family is being formed.

“from the dead” is an incorrect translation — e)k plus the ablative plural of nekroj and it means “out from” literally, but it should be “out from deaths (plural).” And there is no definite article. Christ died twice on the cross, once for the sins of the world (spiritual death) and once physically because salvation was completed. Therefore this passages says, without any definite article, “out from deaths.”

“of the seed of David” is next in its proper sequence in the original. We have the preposition e)k but this time we have the ablative singular of sperma. It is correctly translated “seed” but there is a great contrast, the singular here in contrast to the previous plural. There were two deaths on the cross but only one seed. So it is “out from deaths, out from the seed,” and then we have an indeclinable proper noun Dauid — “David.” This phrase places great emphasis on the Jewish royalty of David and the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant which is very closely associated with our Lord’s resurrection.

The problems in the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant

To fulfil this covenant there are some real problems. It must be remembered that this covenant is unconditional. That means that God has promised it without strings and that there is nothing that we can do for its fulfilment. It means that God Himself must fulfil this covenant or God is a liar, and that is blasphemous and unthinkable. Therefore a problem is proposed by this particular prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative singular of sperma plus Dauid, correctly translated “out from the seed of David.”

1. The big problem starts with the curse of Coniah — Jeremiah 22:30; 36:30,31. Coniah sometimes is called Jechoniah. He is also called Jehoiachin. He succeeded his father as the 19th king to rule over Judah, therefore he was descended from David and Bathsheba. There were four children who survived and Solomon became the ruling line. The line of Nathan is also recorded in the scripture. Nineteen generations down we come to Coniah, directly descended from David through Solomon. He reigned for three months and ten days — BC 597. He was told that he would never have a son who would rule under the Davidic covenant. But he did have several sons. One of his sons died childless. A second son, Shealtiel, had no children. So he found a nephew he could adopt, but he had to go over to the line of Nathan — Zerubbabel (of the book of Zechariah), the leader of the people in their return to the land. Therefore the legal line through Solomon and Coniah was cut off twice, once by his first son dying childless and secondly having to go to the other side of the family in order to get a son to continue the line. But that was cut off too because there were other people in this line who came down to Mary. Joseph was descended from the Zerubbabel side, he was the legal but not the real father and that was the final cut-off in the Coniah curse. There is a problem immediately, and that is, how can the Davidic covenant be fulfilled with the Coniah curse. The answer is found in the fact that the virgin birth brought in Mary who also was in the other line and also related to Zerubbabel, but not by physical birth.

2. The problem of the heraldry of Mary. Mary is descended from Nathan, the line of Joseph is descended from Solomon, and this poses something of a problem which is resolved by 1 Chronicles 3:5; Luke 3:31.

3. The physical death of Christ without heirs also poses a problem. This would appear to hinder the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant since Jesus Christ was not married, did not have any children, did not have any heirs, did not perpetuate the family line any further. This problem, however, is resolved by the resurrection of Christ and is so taught in Romans 1:3,4 — “ … resurrection from the deaths (pl).” Resurrection resolved the problem. Paul speaking before Agrippa in Acts 26:6-8 said the same thing.

4. The ascension of Christ in His absence from the earth. This is solved by the second advent of Christ. He left the earth to be rewarded His battlefield royalty, He will return to the earth with His battlefield royal family. The second part of this same problem is the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel so that the nation is scattered all over the world. This problem is resolved by the second advent of Christ when He returns, He will regather Israel and establish and fulfil the Davidic covenant.

The final phrase in this verse, “according to my gospel,” is kata plus the accusative singular from e)uaggelion and it simply refers to the fact that “gospel” means good news, it refers to evangelism. And the whole point is that God’s promises to Israel are going to be fulfilled, and at the same time evangelism goes right on. The two work together under the genius of God without one hindering the other. Christ had to die on the cross, that didn’t hinder the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant will be fulfilled at the second advent, that does not hinder evangelism during the interim. They go together. So this verse really is a landmark in the field of theology reconciling the function of the Age of Israel with the function in the Church Age, and explaining their differentiation; yet, how at the same time, though different, they work together for good.

Translation: “Recall to mind Christ Jesus, having been resurrected out from deaths, out from the seed of David, according to my gospel.”

Verse 9 — the second reason why pastors suffer. It is to disseminate Bible doctrine.

“Wherein” is a combination of the preposition e)n and the locative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated “In which [gospel].”

“I suffer trouble” — the present active indicative of the verb kakopaqew, a compound from two words [kakoj = evil; pasxw = to suffer]. So it means to suffer evil. “In the sphere of which gospel I suffer evil.” The present tense is the aoristic present, punctiliar action in present time. Hence, as a present fact without reference to any progress whatever. The aorist tense is punctiliar action in past time; the aoristic present is punctiliar action in present time. So there is no linear aktionsart. The aoristic present denotes an event which is now occurring. The active voice: Paul in his second imprisonment is producing this action, he is suffering evil. He is not suffering physical pain but he is suffering in the soul from the great attack of evil. The declarative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality and adds a new dimension to suffering. At the same time dying grace negates any power that this suffering might have over Paul. Remember that super-grace means maximum doctrine resident in the soul, and this insulates a believer.

“as an evil doer” — kakourgoj [kakoj plus e)rgon] means an evil doer, but an evildoer eventually became a word for a criminal. So Paul is not a criminal but he is suffering as a criminal.

“unto bonds” — a prepositional phrase. “Unto” is mexri, and with the genitive of desmoj for “imprisonment” it should be translated “even to the point of being in prison.”

“but” is the strong adversative conjunction a)lla to indicate that Paul is not concerned. This sets up a contrast between Paul’s pressure from evil and Paul’s freedom through doctrine.

“the word of God is not bound” — o( logoj [Bible doctrine] tou qeou; “is not bound” is perfect passive indicative of the verb dew. The word means to imprison or to bind. There is a strong negative o)uk with it and it should be translated “but the word of God has not been imprisoned [incarcerated].” The perfect tense here is dramatic. There is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect is something that happens in the past (completed action) but the results continue. The existing results are therefore described in a very vivid and realistic way. In other words, Bible doctrine has no been confined to that dungeon. It is resident in the soul of Paul and even though Paul is confined the doctrine in his soul has never been in prison and cannot be hindered. Doctrine will advance regardless of what is done to the believer. That is the point of this verse. No matter what happens to believers God’s plan moves on and doctrine moves on, and there is no way to stop it, no way to hinder it. Paul’s imprisonment has not stopped the teaching of Bible doctrine. Paul’s epistles are being taught just as efficiently today as when they first were nearly 2000 years ago. Nothing has changed. There is no way that the plan of God can be changed by the death of anyone. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality and dogmatic certainty.

Translation: “In which gospel I suffer as a criminal, to the point of being imprisoned; but the word of God [Bible doctrine] has not been incarcerated.”

Verse 10 — “Therefore” is a prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Literally it means “Because of this,” but it is an idiom and should be translated idiomatically, “For this reason.”

“I endure” — the present active indicative from the compound verb u(pomenw [u(po = under (authority); menw = to abide or remain]. It means here to be or remain under pressure, to endure as translated. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur. The devil’s world is unfair to devil’s own constituents but the devil’s world is twice as unfair to those who are in opposition to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is Satan’s system. So the devil’s world is unfair especially to the believer, and of all the believers the super-grace believer becomes the greater target. Of any super-grace believer, if anyone is a pastor, then he is a target. So the unfairness of Satan’s system often simply reflects his own inability for his genius to rule the world. While Satan is smarter than any other creature that has ever existed he is still not smart enough to put it all together, only God can do that. Therefore sometimes the unfairness merely comes from the fact that Satan doesn’t have the ability to be fair when dealing with masses of people historically, all going in different directions. Furthermore, Satan’s unfairness comes from the fact that Satan is opposed to the laws of divine establishment, the true supports for freedom. There is no freedom apart from establishment. So when it is all put together Satan is not only opposed to establishment but Satan doesn’t have the ability to come up with anything that will take the place of establishment and provide the same things. It must be remembered that it is a grossly unfair world in which you were born and in which you were born again. The only place you are going to have a fair shake is from God. Satan cannot stand to have anyone get a fair shake and the only way to get a fair shake is outside of Satan’s plan and inside the grace plan. But the only way to even begin to recognise the fairness of God is one’s own life is to have enough doctrine to do so. The only way you are going to get doctrine is from the pastor-teacher who is studying and therefore if any pastor-teacher studies he immediately puts himself under the academic discipline and pressure that comes from it. To teach regularly, consistently, daily, requires a tremendous amount of study and that builds its own pressure.

So we have u(pomenw, present active indicative:

1. The customary present denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur: pressure, first for the pastor-teacher who communicates, and secondly for the congregation who listens.

2. The devil’s world is unfair to the believer who is advancing toward super-grace or who has reached that first objective. This is understandable since the devil is unfair to his own crowd.

3. While reversionistic believers are blessed by the devil of this world the super-grace believer is often subjected to maximum pressure from cosmos diabolicus. But it is healthy pressure because learning doctrine insulates against this pressure.

4. To be blessed by the devil is to be under the maximum influence of evil and to be in a state of reversionism.

5. Pseudo maturity or pseudo super-grace is the devil’s counterfeit for biblical super-grace.

6. Therefore, Satan within the framework of his great power provides a pseudo paragraph SG² for reversionistic believers and unbelievers who serve him. Therefore there are some people in this world who are wealthy, who are promoted, who are prominent, who are successful, because Satan is in the business of counterfeiting God.

7. Insofar as he is able Satan puts maximum pressure on a) the pastor who communicates doctrine, b) the believer who is positive toward doctrine.

8. Therefore the customary present tense indicates what you can expect if you are positive toward doctrine. For this reason the apostle Paul endures various types of pressure a Satanic counterattack.

9. The active voice: The apostle Paul produced the action of the verb. He endured, he stayed under the pressure.

10. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. It is a real thing that a person can spend his whole life wrapped up in pressure and have great blessing.

“all things” — the accusative plural direct of paj means all categories of suffering. At the end of 2 Corinthians chapter 11 there is a partial list of the sufferings of Paul. Paul had more pressure, more sufferings of all categories than anyone of his time and very few people in history have come close to what he endured. But he did endure it because this was simply a nice warm blanket wrapped around a super super-grace. The plural summarises the various categories of suffering and pressure from Satan, cosmos diabolicus, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

“for the elect’s sake” — dia plus the accusative plural of e)klektoj is “because of the elect.” Paul is not only carrying his generation as a super-grace believer but he is demonstrating that there is a place beyond super-grace for those who will press on. But it starts to reverse itself. The emphasis on super-grace is blessing and the ability to meet pressure but in super super-grace the emphasis is on pressure wrapped around blessing and intensifying that blessing. But to go from super-grace to super super-grace means one’s whole life is going to be wrapped up in pressure and never be free from pressure. The elect is the believer in the plan of God. Every now and then God provides a person who is great, and blessed in his greatness, and wrapped up in pressure because of everyone else. So the apostle Paul not only was a super-grace believer but he was a blessing to his own generation, but as a super super-gracer he was a blessing to every generation since. The greatest books in the Bible are the Pauline epistles.

“that” — the conjunction i(na introduces a final clause denoting a purpose, an objective, and a goal. It should be “in order that.”

“they may obtain” — the aorist active subjunctive of tugxanw. It is correct to use the word “obtain” but we will use the word “acquire.” The verb means to acquire in the sense of obtaining by means of the daily function of GAP. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the function of GAP and regardless of its extent of duration it gathers it up into a single whole resulting in super-grace status. Here is one of the greatest encouragements to keep going. The constative aorist of tugxanw gathers up all it takes to go from believer, baby type, to super-grace type — every function of GAP to make that progress to maturity. The active voice: the believer who constantly functions under GAP, who is constantly positive toward doctrine, who regulates his life, is the believer who reaches the obtaining or acquiring area. The subjunctive mood is potential, it goes with i(na as a part of the objective. So i(na plus the subjunctive means objective.

“the salvation” — the objective genitive singular from the noun swthria which can mean technically “salvation” but also means, and generally means, “deliverance.” If Paul wrapped up in super super-grace, in pressure all the time, can have maximum blessing that very few people in this life have ever had, can have maximum happiness, the very best of everything, a life that is so wonderful that death is like skipping into heaven and no change; that is how great it is. If he can have deliverance from pressures that are greater than anyone down here simply moving to the high ground of super-grace, if he can have deliverance under maximum pressure then they can have deliverance under minimum pressure. That is what swthria is all about. The objective genitive receives the action of the verb, therefore it is used as an object with the verbal idea of obtaining deliverance. That is why the object of the verb is in the genitive case and not in the regular accusative case. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the deliverance. Any time that God delivers under pressure that deliverance is perfect.

“which” — this is a definite article used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is “deliverance.” No verb but the present active indicative of e)imi is implied — “which is [provided].”

“in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative. The entire phrase denotes the fact that a believer who is positive toward doctrine will never have more pressure than he can bear, and a believer who is positive toward doctrine at any stage of his spiritual growth will have pressure which he can endure and in which he can find blessing. In other words, the secret is happiness and blessing from pressure.

“with eternal glory” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of doch — “along with glory.” We have an adjective, a)iwnioj, which means eternal — phase three. Paul in heaven with all of his blessings and decorations will glorify God with those blessings and decorations. Just having them glorifies God.

Translation: “For this reason I endure all things because of the elect, in order that they may acquire [through the daily function of GAP] deliverance which is provided for those who are in Christ Jesus, along with eternal glory.”

Paul sets the precedent for the royal family of God. He endured every category of suffering and pressure as a super super-grace believer. This is not only a demonstration of the power of doctrine resident in the soul but it sets the pattern for deliverance from pressure through the constant inhale of Bible doctrine. This deliverance is one of the blessings of category #1, paragraph SG². But for Paul it is category #1, paragraph SG². It is provided for all members of the royal family of God.

The doctrine of super-grace

A.

1. The general definition and classification of grace which is necessary to understand super-grace and all of its components.

a) Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. If God is going to give man blessing He must be free to do so. If He is going to be free to do so He must not in any way jeopardise or in any way compromise any characteristic of His essence.

b) Because of the complexity of divine essence God must be consistent. No characteristic of divine essence can ever be jeopardised or compromised. So that when we have phrases such as “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” God isn’t giving mankind anything if it in any way becomes incompatible with His essence or compromises His essence. So God the Father’s freedom to give His Son is based upon the principle that God found a way to bless mankind in eternity past.

c) Therefore propitiation is that work of Christ on the cross which frees God to bless man under the plan of grace.

d) Grace is God’s freedom and God’s consistency to express His love though grace to mankind without the compromise of any part of His essence.

e) Under the principle of grace God supplies a series of blessings for man totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s thinking, his energy.

f) Under the policy of grace God gives and man receives. God does all the work, all the providing; while man does all the receiving, all the benefiting.

g) Under the concept of grace everything depends upon the essence or character of God. Therefore grace depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and still be consistent with His own essence.

h) Under the mechanics of grace man has a relationship with God in two categories. i. Before the fall the relationship with God was based upon creation. Man was created an adult. Everything had to be provided on that basis. We have an illustration of the divine provision of grace in the trees. The tress for the stimulation of the soul — pleasant to the eyes; the trees that were good for food — provision for the body; the tree that is related to the human spirit and to spiritual sustenance — the tree of lives (pl) representing capacity to appreciate what God has provided in grace (immediate capacity, immediate appreciation); then the test, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — the good and evil are Satan’s policy. This is a forbidden tree because good and evil result in spiritual death. Spiritual death is good and evil. Man in his creation relation to God was under grace and there were two things he did not need in that relationship — good and evil. Evil is the thinking policy of Satan, whereas good is the application of that policy to experience, to history. Good and evil are two things man did not need to know in his relationship with God. ii. After the fall the relationship is based upon regeneration. At the time of the fall man ate of the forbidden tree. He immediately understood good and evil and immediately, under the rulership of Satan, he performs good. He knows what good is and he does it — operation fig leaves. Good and evil are Satan’s plan. The original parents could choose Satan’s plan or God’s plan and eventually they chose Satan’s plan; that is the coup de tat whereby Satan became the ruler of this world. Now man no longer starts life as an adult, he starts life as a baby. With an old sin nature he is spiritually dead, and in his spiritual death he has to be born again to have a relationship with God. So there is grace provision mechanically both before and after the fall.

i) Under God’s plan grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s planning, man’s behaviour, man’s talent, man’s reaction (sin and evil), man’s response (human good).

j) Grace, therefore, is the genius of God and doctrine is the revelation and manifestation of that genius.

2. The categories of grace.

a) Saving grace — Ephesians 2:8,9. This includes all that the Trinity has done to accomplish salvation. The Father planned it in eternity past, the Son executed it — the incarnation, the Spirit reveals it at any time in time.

b) Living grace. This involves all that the Trinity provides by power, security and provision to keep the believer alive in the devil’s world so that the divine objectives in the historical part of the angelic conflict can be fulfilled in you. There are three categories of provision: spiritual provision — the Bible as the textbook, the local church as the classroom, the pastor-teacher as the communicator; temporal provision — food, shelter, clothing, transportation, friends; historical provision. The laws of divine establishment whereby the believer is free to grow in grace through the daily function of GAP

c) Super-grace — the tactical victory of the angelic conflict or spiritual maturity. This is experiential sanctification or the balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

d) Ultra-Super-grace — the sphere of the angelic conflict between the unfairness of the devil’s world and the total fairness of God to those super-grace believers placed under maximum pressure. Beyond the super-grace status in paragraph SG² is a higher plane whereby you still have all of the blessings — the five categories — completely surrounded by suffering, pressure, and adversity which intensifies these blessings. It does not remove them, it only makes them better. It is a conflict between the unfairness of the devil’s world and the total fairness of God to the super-grace believer. Ultra-super-grace provides everything found in the five categories of SG² plus the intensification of these blessings completely enshrouded in maximum pressure and persecution from the Satanic forces of evil. The principle of ultra-super-grace — 2 Timothy 2:10. The illustration of this is found in 2 Timothy 3:8-12.

e) Dying grace. This is greater blessing in passing from time to eternity than all the blessings of life. In addition, it means leaving behind great blessings by association to friends, loved ones, family, etc.

f) Surpassing grace. The blessings, rewards, decorations for super-grace believers and ultra-super-grace believers. This constitutes the quintessence of glorifying Christ — Ephesians 2:7.

B. The definition of super-grace.

1. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace are conditions of spiritual maturity.

2. The nomenclature “super-grace” is derived from the corrected translation of James 4:6 — “He gives greater [or, super] grace.”

3. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace is related to God’s power. It is a demonstration of maximum power in grace — Ephesians 1:19. “What is the surpassing magnitude of his omnipotence on us [the believing ones]?”

i. “According to the norm of operational power” — the power of the Holy Spirit.

ii. “According to the norm of ruling power” — maximum doctrine in the soul.

iii. “According to the norm of his inner power” — the Father’s inner power, His ability to make the plan work.

4. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace is described as pursuing grace in both the Old and the New Testaments — Psalm 23:5,6; Ephesians 1:6.

5. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace blessings are beyond human imagination — Ephesians 3:20,21.

6. In 1 Timothy 1:14 super-grace and ultra-super-grace is described as abundant.

7. By definition, therefore, super-grace is the adult stage of the spiritual life in the royal family of God.

8. Super-grace is maximum glorification of Jesus Christ complimenting His strategic victory of the angelic conflict with the believer’s tactical victory.

9. Super-grace is the status of spiritual maturity while ultra-super-grace is that maximum growth and blessing attended by maximum suffering which intensifies the blessing.

10. Super-grace is where the normal function of the royal priesthood and the production of divine good begin.

C. Synonyms for super-grace. The Bible uses several ways for describing the super-grace believer. Some are functional and some are technical and some are very simply stated.

a) Super-grace — James 4:6. “He gives greater [super] grace” — meizona xarin. That is the accusative singular from the comparative megaj plus the accusative singular direct object from xarij. It means super-grace or greater grace.

b) The nomenclature for maximum doctrine resident in the soul is found in the actual language of the Word of God. In the Hebrew it is chakmah, in the Greek it is e)pignwsij. So we have language nomenclature from the standpoint of doctrine to represent the super-grace life.

c) There is a priestly synonym, the altar of the soul — Hebrews 13:10. The altar in the soul is constructed and when it is the believer has reached super-grace or maturity.

d) A building synonym is the edification complex. Once the ECS is completed the believer is said to be in a state of edification which is maturity — i.e. super-grace. Ephesians 4:12,16.

e) There is a sanctification synonym — “godliness.” 1 Timothy 6:3-6; 2 Peter 1:3.

f) The chemical synonym — salt. The salt of the land is the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer being a blessing to his nation or to others by association.

g) The crucifixion synonym — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27. Taking up of the cross is the consistent function of GAP. Following Christ is the result in super-grace.

h) There are three military synonyms: Putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-18; following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; establishing a command post in the soul — Colossians 2:5-8.

i) There is a central control system called “inner strength” — Ephesians 6:10. This inner strength or central control is a synonym for super-grace or ultra-super-grace. “Endowed power” is the doctrine in the Word not yet transferred, the source of the power. So Bible doctrine resident in the soul becomes the inner dictator, the central control system for the super-grace believer.

D. The blessings of super-grace.

1. Spiritual blessings. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, maximum category #1 love. This is intensified in ultra-super-grace. Sharing of God’s happiness or +H. Capacity for life, love, happiness, blessing, the plan of God, the ability to face any suffering in life.

2. Temporal blessings. These are for the super-grace believer and also for the ultra-super-grace believer — wealth, success, promotion, etc.

3. Blessing by association. Those in the periphery of a super-grace believer are blessed by their association or relationship. There are two categories involved here when there is blessing by association: a) Directly from God to the one in association; b) Direct blessing from the super-grace believer who is simply sharing his blessing.

There are also peripheral areas of blessing by association: a) The loved one periphery — right man-right woman, friends, family; b) The business periphery; c) Social periphery. Any social organisation with which the super-grace believer is actively associated receives blessing; d) Spiritual periphery. This is blessing for the local church, the mission board, or other believers associated; e) Geographical periphery. The neighbourhood, the city, the state, the nation can all be blessed by the presence of super-grace believers as the salt of the earth principle.

4. Historical blessings. This is the doctrinal principle that the super-grace believer is a spiritual Atlas who carries his generation in history. In addition, the ultra-super-grace believer becomes a stabiliser for all future historical generations. The super-grace believer is said to be on the right side of history. As such he supports and sustains his generation in history. Except by rare cases of blessing by association blessing is not perpetuated from one generation to another. Every generation must stand or fall on the basis of its own super-grace remnant according to the election of grace.

5. Dying blessing. Every member of the royal family of God in time has a choice in his relationship with God. He can choose divine blessing through grace or divine discipline through grace. Attitude toward doctrine determines which way you go. For the reversionistic believer after a lifetime of misery and pain and unhappiness from divine discipline it is terminated by intensified discipline. God puts on this person a mantle of total discipline, the sin unto death. There is also a termination for the super-grace believer. It is called dying grace. He has the best of life and then in dying he has that which is better, resulting in surpassing grace in eternity — better than the best. Not only does the super-grace or ultra-super-grace believer, like Moses or Paul, have blessing in the manner of death but they leave behind the great blessing from God to all who are intimately associated with them in life.

Verse 11 — “Faithful is the word: For you see if we died with Christ [and we have], we shall also live with him.”

What this passage mentions now in the fragment of a hymn is positional truth as the point of beginning. We are brought into the plan of God by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit [the baptism of the Spirit] at the point of salvation.

The doctrine of positional truth

1. Positional truth, equivalent to positional sanctification, refers to the Church Age believer in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the key to understanding the Church Age and God’s reason for interrupting the Age of Israel. It is the fact that distinguishes the Church age believer as royal family of God from all other believers ion human history. It is the basis for distinguishing between Christianity and religion which are antithetical concepts. Religion is man seeking to gain the approbation of God through man’s efforts. Christianity is man without any approbation from God, as far as his works are concerned, in union with Christ. It is the difference between grace and legalism.

2. The mechanics of positional truth — the baptising ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation — 1 Corinthians 12:13 — resulting in Ephesians 4:5, “One Lord [Jesus Christ], one faith [faith in Christ as the only means of salvation], one baptism [the only means of entering the royal family of God].”

3. Positional truth guarantees no judgment for the believer in eternity — Romans 8:1.

4. Positional truth qualifies the believer to live with God forever. To live with God forever you must be as good as God is good, as righteous as God is righteous; and this is accomplished through union with Christ. The Holy Spirit takes us at the moment of salvation, enters us into the Lord Jesus Christ, we share His righteousness. Having the righteousness of Christ who is God we are as good as God is good. This was always accomplished in previous dispensations by imputation. It is accomplished in a double way for the royal family: imputation at regeneration and sharing the righteousness of Christ by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Old Testament believer had it by imputation; we have it by imputation because we are also regenerated, but we have it by being in union with Christ. In addition to that we are going to live with God forever, we must have the same life that God has — eternal life, which we do. 1 John 5:11,12.

5. Positional truth guarantees eternal security of the believer — Romans 8:38,39.

6. Positional truth belongs to all categories of believers. Since positional truth occurs at the moment of salvation it is finished before the category of experience is determined. Therefore positional truth belongs to the carnal as well as the spiritual believer. All categories of experiential Christianity have exactly the same union with the Lord Jesus Christ — 1 Corinthians 1 dramatises this concept, verse 1, 30.

7. Positional truth creates a new creature. Union with Christ is unique to the Church Age, it is something that never occurred before the day of Pentecost and will never occur after the Rapture of the Church. So whether believers become mature or not does not make them new creatures. “New creature” is not experiential, it is positional. New creatureship is a relationship with God, not spiritual progress. A believer is a new creature because he is “in Christ,” not because he gave up something. The “old things” that have “passed away” are the old things dealing with spiritual death. Positional truth is designed for good production and a pattern of life compatible with our royalty but new creatureship is not in any way experiential. The fact that positional truth was designed for a life compatible with royalty is very definitely taught in Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his production, having been created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good production, which the God has prefabricated that in the sphere of them we may pattern our life.” But that is not new creatureship. But good production does start with positional truth in the sense that from positional truth to maturity it is a long haul, but when you get there you can produce.

8. Positional truth is the basis for grace blessing — Ephesians 1:3-6.

9. The implication of positional truth.

a) We have eternal life because we are in union with Christ and we share His life — 1 John 5:11,12.

b) We have God’s righteousness because we are in union with Christ and share His righteousness — 2 Corinthians 5:21.

c) We have an election because we are in union with Christ we and share His election — Ephesians 1:4.

d) We have a destiny because we are in union with Christ and share His destiny — Ephesians 1:5.

e) We have a sonship because we are in union with Christ and share His Sonship — Galatians 3:26.

f) We have an heirship because we are in union with Christ and share His heirship — Romans 8:16,17.

g) We have a priesthood because we are in union with Christ and share His priesthood — Hebrews 10:10-14.

h) We have a kingship, royalty, because we are in union with Christ and share His royalty — 2 Peter 1:11.

Verse 12 — “If” — the conjunction e)i introduces a first class condition — e)i plus the indicative mood in the protasis. This is known as a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. The subject of the apodasis is based upon the assumption in the protasis. In a first class condition the protasis presents a fact which is the basis for conditioning another fact. A conditional clause is a statement of supposition, the fulfilment of which supposition is assumed to secure the realisation of a potential fact which is expressed in the companion clause. In other words, the clause containing the supposition is the protasis and the clause containing the statement of fact based on the supposition is the apodasis. We simplify this by saying first class condition, if an it is true.

“we suffer” — present active indicative from the compound u(pomenw which means to endure, to remain under, to be under the pressure and to stay there. The concept of this verb is taken from verse 10. The present tense is a customary present for what is expected from a super-grace believer and what is anticipated as being continuous with an ultra-super-grace believer. The active voice: the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, this verb represents the principle of reality. There will be suffering in the life of a super-grace believer. There will be continual pressure and opposition from Satanic forces of evil in the life of the ultra-super-grace believer. But all of this suffering is designed to only make the blessings of paragraph SG² that much sweeter, that much more intense, that much more enjoyable. The super-grace believer is equipped through the daily function of GAP to handle any adversity in life. The ultra-super-grace believer as the stabilising rod in history, much more so.

“we shall also reign” — the word “also” is the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, plus the future active indicative from a compound verb sunbasileuw [sun = the preposition “with” or “along with;” basileuw = to rule, to reign] which means to rule with. The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact expected under the normal circumstances of reaching super-grace, holding super-grace to dying grace, or reaching super-grace going to ultra-super-grace and then going to dying grace. The active voice: either the super-grace or the ultra-super-grace believer produces the action. The indicative mood is eschatological reality of future blessing and reward for those who hold. In other words, this is the anticipation, the declaration of paragraph SG³. All super-grace believers and all ultra-super-grace believers are going to have a phenomenal paragraph SG³ in eternity.

“If we endure suffering [as a super-grace believer], also we shall rule with him.” It all depends on your daily attitude toward Bible doctrine. The super-grace believer, therefore, must never neglect doctrine.

“if we deny him” — this third conditional clause portrays the loss of paragraph SG² and subsequent loss of reward in eternity. God has designed for every believer a paragraph SG³ that is phenomenal but it is based on first of all getting your paragraph SG². Here we have again the conditional particle e)i introducing a first class condition, indicating the reality of the fact that there will be those who do deny. The future middle indicative of a)rneomai means to deny or to repudiate or to refuse. It also means to disown. The verb connotes the status of reversionism which comes from neglecting or rejecting Bible teaching. Again, we have a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance expected under conditions of reversionism or the influence of evil. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The reversionistic believer under the influence of evil produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality. The verbal action occurs in some phase of reversionism, under the influence of evil, and/or both.

“he will also” — future middle indicative of a)rneomai, meaning again to refuse, to deny, to repudiate. Here it means to refuse. In the protasis it means to repudiate. If we repudiate Him He is going to refuse us something in eternity — not salvation, obviously. The concept here is very important: the predictive future this time, predicts an event which is expected to occur in the future time in the judgment seat of Christ as a result of reversionism and living in time under the influence of evil. Not only will human good be burned and destroyed but there will be no paragraph SG³. The middle voice: again the deponent verb, active in meaning even though it is middle in form. Christ produces the action of the verb when He gives us our efficiency rating at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. Also with this verb is kakeinoj [kai plus e)keinoj, the distant demonstrative] — “this same one also” or “he.”

Translation: “If we endure suffering [as super-grace believers], we shall also rule with Christ; if we [as reversionists] repudiate the Lord [Jesus Christ], that same one [Jesus Christ] will also refuse us [the blessings and rewards of paragraph SG³].”

Verse 13 — this explains the principle that loss of reward does not mean loss of salvation. The believer can lose the reward and blessing of paragraph SG³ but he cannot lose his eternal salvation. He cannot lose anything he gained in positional truth.

“If” is the conditional particle e)i introducing the protasis of a first class condition. He is what is considered the worst thing you could do in time as a reversionist.

“we believe not” — the present active indicative from the compound verb, a)pistew [a = “negative” or “not;” pistew = to believe] which means “not believing,” and therefore it means “disbelieving,” but it really comes to mean to be unfaithful.” What is the worst thing you can do as a believer in time? To be unfaithful. How do you become unfaithful? You neglect, you reject Bible doctrine and therefore you go through the inevitable eight stages of reversionism, and at each stage you accumulate a little more evil, a little more of the Satanic policy, until you have reached the point where you have total hardness of heart, blindness of soul, and reverse process reversionism. That is being unfaithful. The present tense of a)pistew is a pictorial present, it brings to mind a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. It takes reversionism as something now occurring in Ephesus and demonstrates that such reversionism may be loss of reward, loss of blessing, both for time and eternity. The active voice: under the ministry of Timothy at Ephesus are certain reversionistic believers under the influence of evil, they are producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood with the conjunctive particle indicates the fact that this is a reality at this moment in Ephesus.

The apodasis says, “he abideth” — the present active indicative of the verb menw meaning to remain. This is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: Jesus Christ and all members of the Godhead produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for dogmatic reality. Plus the adjective pistoj — “he abides faithful.” He is faithful to us regardless of our experiential failures or successes.

“he cannot deny himself” — gar is a post positive conjunctive particle and should be translated “for you see;” plus the present active indicative of the verb dunomai — “he cannot.” This is a static present, it represents a condition that is perpetually existing. it always is taken for granted. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood: absolute dogmatic reality; plus the aorist middle infinitive of a)rneomai — to deny, to repudiate. Here it means to deny. This is a gnomic aorist for a doctrine regarded as being an axiom. The middle voice of this deponent verb is active in meaning and therefore it is Christ producing the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of an actual result.

The object of a)rneomai is the third person singular accusative reflexive pronoun e(auton, and it refers to Christ Himself.

Translation: “If we are unfaithful [as reversionists], he remains faithful: for you see, he cannot deny himself.”

Verse 11 — “It is a faithful saying” is incorrect. This is merely the title of the hymn, and this is the fifth time that the apostle has cited the title so we do know what it is: pitoj o( logoj, “faithful the Word” or “faithful the doctrine.” In each of the five quotations of this hymn there is some relationship in the lyrics to the principle of the faithfulness of Bible doctrine. We will see that as this particular section of the hymn unfolds.

The actual quotation begins, “For if” — this is the first of four conditional clauses and it indicates that all members of the royal family of God are in the plan of God forever. This is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar, and explanation of the doctrines previously seen. It can be translated “For you see if,” the conditional particle e)i is correctly translated “if.” It is used with the indicative mood to introduce a first class condition. This protasis assumes the reality of the “if” clause — “if and it is true.” What is about to be said is absolutely true.

“we be dead with [him]” — the aorist active indicative from a compound, sunapoqenhskw, correctly translated, “if we have died with [Christ]” and we have. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event.

The past event: On the cross Jesus Christ resolved the problem of the sin nature that had to be resolved at salvation but not the problem of the sin nature that would have cut off the angelic conflict. The sin nature’s area of weakness produces sins in three categories: verbal, mental, and overt. All sins in the human race were poured out on Christ on the cross and judged. But the area of strength produces the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — good and evil. This was rejected at the cross because good and evil must exist as long as Satan is the ruler of this world and the angelic conflict must be perpetuated until the end of time. Since good and evil represents the genius of Satan, as well as his policy and function, it is perpetuated and therefore rejected.

Now the dramatic aorist takes up the past event: Christ died for our sins. He was judged for our sins, that is His spiritual death. We are identified with Christ in His death so that we died when Christ died. We died, therefore, in the sense that since our sins were judged all we have to do to recover from carnality is to cite them, and that’s all. But being dead with Christ means that we in the plan of God must reject — as our original parents did not — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But it is impossible for us to reject it because Satan is a thousand-fold smarter than we will ever be. Therefore the only way that we will ever reject the Satanic plan is by the constant feeding on the Word, the constant and daily function of GAP, whereby we grow away from the plan and we discern the policy of it.

The dramatic aorist, then, states the present reality with the certitude of a past event. It is true that Christ died 1900 years ago but we are seeing how we died with Him. That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The punctiliar action of this aorist refers to the moment of salvation when God the Holy Spirit entered every believer into union with Jesus Christ — the baptism of the Spirit. At that point the believer was identified with Christ in His death. This is known to us doctrinally as retroactive positional truth. The significance of retroactive positional truth is found in the fact that Christ rejected in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that He told the parents the day that they partook of that tree “dying, they would die” — spiritual death all the way. When you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you have no relationship with God. Believers in reversionism have no fellowship with God because they are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their souls are saturated with good and evil. But we died with Christ, and we were entered into union with Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, and have union with Christ at the right hand of the Father and union with Christ in His death. Therefore, the active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through the baptism of the Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative for the principle which views the verbal action from the standpoint of historical reality. This really happened.

“we shall also live with” — the future active indicative of suzaw which means to live with. This is the other part of positional truth. We have an adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, always translated “also.” The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact under the normal circumstances of the baptism of the Spirit. If we are going to live with Him we are going to live with Him forever as royal family of God. If royal family is left on this earth they are left to produce something in royalty that was never produced before — super-grace. The indicative mood is the historical reality and the current reality that every believer is a part of current positional truth.

Translation: “Faith is the word [doctrine]: For you see, if we have died with Christ [and we have], at the same time also we shall live with him.”

The doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit

1. Definition: The baptism of the Spirit is one of five ministries of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. The five are regeneration: entrance into the family of God; baptism of the Spirit: entrance into the royal family of God; indwelling of the Spirit: the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the body of the believer as the escutcheon of the royal family; sealing of the Spirit: the guarantee of security and royalty forever; the reception of a spiritual gift which becomes the function of royalty. Hence, by definition the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that salvation ministry of God the third person whereby He enters every believer at salvation into union with Christ. Union with Christ is permanent, a permanent identification which distinguishes Christianity from religion and the royal family from the family of God [Old Testament believers, Tribulational and Millennial believers]. When Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of God the Father He became battlefield royalty. And unlike His other types of royalty He did not have a royal family. Therefore the baptism of the Spirit is unique, it belongs to the Church Age only. In this dispensation it is the mechanics for the formation of the royal family of God. When the royal family of God is completed it will be removed en toto from the earth by the Rapture and there will never again be the baptism of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13.

2. The baptism of the Spirit is one of seven Bible baptisms. Baptism is described under two categories in the Bible. The word means “identification.”

Category #1 is Real Baptisms. These are actual identifications: the baptism of Moses — 1 Corinthians 10:2, Moses was identified with the cloud, the Jews were identified with Moses, as they passed through the Red Sea; the cross is said to be a baptism of the cup in the sense that the cup is used and portrayed as being filled with the sins of the world. This cup was poured out upon Christ on the cross and He was judged for our sins, He was identified with our sins and judged for them — Matthew 20:22; the baptism of the Spirit identification with Christ, union with Christ; the baptism of fire: the unbelievers of the Tribulation identified with fire — Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16.

Category #2 is Ritual Baptisms. These are representative identifications in which water is used to represent in a ritual some principle of doctrine. Prior to the completion of the canon of scripture the believers in the Church Age were baptised. There is no evidence that water baptism was ever to be perpetuated beyond AD 96. It was, but there is no evidence that it should have been. The Bible very clearly indicates that water baptism was putting a believer in the water, indicating by ritual, teaching him by ritual, since he didn’t have the completed canon of scripture. It was teaching him by ritual that he was identified with Christ in His death. When he came up out of the water he was identified with Christ at the right hand of the Father. There is no evidence that it was ever any more than a teaching aid until the canon of scripture was completed. This baptism is generally found in Acts. There is only once reference to water baptism in the epistles and it was a source of antagonism, fighting and bickering, as it always has been and always will be, and the basis of water baptism was totally obscured.

There was the baptism of John. The water there represented the principle of the kingdom of God. Those who believed in Jesus Christ under the ministry of John were identified with the kingdom of God and the ritual taught them that.

When Jesus was baptised by John the water had a different meaning. The water had to do with the plan of God the Father designed in the divine decrees in eternity past. Jesus said at the beginning of His earthly ministry, “I will fulfil my ministry, and I will go to the cross.”

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an actual identification whereby the believer of this dispensation is entered into union with Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6:2 indicates a multiplicity of baptisms found in the New Testament.

3. The baptism of the Spirit did not occur until the Church Age. The Church Age did not exist until our Lord’s ministry on earth was completed. It did not exist until the first advent was completely concluded. In fact, Jesus prophesied while on the earth that the Church was still a future factor — Matthew 16:1, “I will build my church,” future active indicative. The Church was formed by the baptism of the Spirit which was prophesied by Jesus Christ in Acts 1:5. It was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost — Acts 11:15-17.

4. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at the point of salvation. This is also noted from the three factors of salvation in Ephesians 4:5. These occur simultaneously. Galatians 3:26,28.

5. The baptism of the Spirit is related both to retroactive and current positional truth in Romans 6:3-5.

6. Conclusion:

a) Therefore the baptism of the Spirit is that unique ministry of God the Holy Spirit whereby at salvation every Church Age believer is entered into union with Christ, forming royal family of God.

b) While the Holy Spirit regenerated all Old Testament believers at salvation, and continues to do so in this dispensation, He adds at the same time the baptism of the Spirit whereby to regeneration is added royal family.

c) Therefore the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the means of forming the royal family of God and/or the body of Christ.

Verse 14 begins the profile of the pastor-teacher. “Of these things” is the accusative neuter plural direct object from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. An accusative is the object of the verb, not the subject. The translator in the King James version translated it like a genitive — “of.” This is really the direct object of a verb and it is a demonstrative pronoun. A demonstrative pronoun always emphasises the doctrines which were previously presented. The hymn quoted dealt with retroactive and current positional truth, super-grace suffering and ultra-super-grace suffering in time, blessing and reward in eternity, reversionism, the influence of evil, and eternal security.

“put them in remembrance” — the present active imperative of u(pomimnhskw. It means to remind someone of something they should already know, therefore to jog their memory. The preposition u(po in the compound therefore connotes the principle of deep down it is already there. U(po also indicates authority, it is a preposition of authority and therefore there is a connotation here of academic discipline of the local church involved in the fulfilling of this command. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what happens in the past — the teaching ministry of some faithful pastor — and continues into the present. It is also known, therefore, as the present tense of duration. When doctrines occur in the biblical context they should be taught and re-taught. The active voice: Timothy must produce the action of the verb. Every pastor must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood: it is an order. “Keep on reminding them about these things” or “Keep on inculcating them with regard to these things.”

“charging them” — present middle participle from a compound verb, diamarturomai. This adds discipline to discipline. Dia = through or by; marturomai means to testify, to bear witness in a trial and to tell the truth. Therefore it comes to mean in the English “to affirm.” But there is a stronger meaning than that. It means to adjure. To adjure means to impose an oath on someone or a group, to solemnly charge them and to give them a charge under oath whereby they are bound by that oath to do what is commanded. It means to give a command under threat of court martial. The customary present denotes what habitually occurs or may reasonably be expected to occur when a pastor faithfully communicates Bible doctrine. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning. The pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb in the communication of doctrine. The participle is used as an imperative mood following an imperative. It expresses a command based on the previous command and therefore it is translated, “be adjuring them.”

“before the Lord” — the adverb e)nwpion used as an improper preposition with the genitive case from qeoj. It means “in the presence of the Lord.” It means that you are responsible to the Lord for what you take in of the teaching of the Word of God. “In the presence of the Lord” is a reference to the assembly of believers assembled in the classroom. All the assembly of the local church or Bible class is in the presence of the Lord. When you are listening to Bible teaching you are in the presence of the Lord.

“that they strive not about words” — we have the negative mh plus the present active infinitive from the compound logomaxew [logoj = words or doctrines; maxomai = to fight]. It means not to fight about doctrine, or better in our modern English, not to resist the doctrine. The present tense is a progressive present for events in the process of occurrence. At the time of the teaching or any time thereafter you are not to resist the doctrine. The active voice: the believer in the local church produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result indicating the fulfilment of a very deliberate objective, a blending therefore of purpose and result. The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular while the present infinitive always indicates a condition or a process. The negative here is strong prohibition with the infinitive.

So far we have: “Be adjuring them in the presence of the God, not to resist doctrine.” Does this mean that you have to accept everything that is said? In essence it means that you must have an open mind, that there are things with which you will not agree but you are not to disagree. There are things which run counter to norms and concepts previously learned. A pastor is not going to be wrong about doctrine if he has had the right kind of training.

“to no profit” — the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of the adjective o)uden plus xrhsimoj. E)pi plus the accusative means “up to.” Xrhsimoj means “useful, beneficial or advantageous.” O)uden means “nothing.” Therefore we can translate this literally, “up to nothing useful.” This is an idiom meaning “beneficial for nothing,” useful for nothing,” or “beneficial for nothing.” It comes to mean it is useless or non-beneficial for you to ever resist Bible doctrine.

There must be added a verb to clarify the translation. There must be something like the present active participle of the verb a)gw for the English. These verbs were often understood by anyone who was familiar with the Greek. And there must be a connective kai with this so that we can translate “and leads to.”

“the subverting” — the preposition e)pi plus the locative of katastrofh which means ruin or destruction. Reversionism causes ruin or destruction of your life on this earth and deprives you of many blessings forever and ever as well.

The word “hearers” is the descriptive genitive plural, present active ascriptive participle of the verb a)kouw. An ascriptive participle is translated like an adjective and in some cases like a substantive. Used here in that sense the present tense is very strong linear aktionsart for a continual positive volition. The active voice: the believer produces the action. The ascriptive makes it an adjective or a noun — in this case a noun, “hearers.” The stated result is reversionism. Reversionism causes ruin or destruction to the hearers who are believers.

Translation: “Be adjuring them [believers] in the presence of the God, that it is non-beneficial to resist doctrine, and leads to the destruction of the hearers.”

The second purpose of the ministry is to fulfil the number one priority: study and teach.

Verse 15 — this command is not given to every believer, it is given to Timothy as a pastor-teacher who has recovered from reversionism, who has attained super-grace, and who is now going to be a communicator in the key spot, Ephesus, for the next generation. We have the aorist active imperative of speudw which does not mean to study, it means to hurry. It somehow became related to zeal, so it meant to be zealous, to exert one’s self. to be diligent. People who move fast are industrious, it means to be industrious. Occasionally it even meant to strive. It can be translated here to strive, to be zealous, or to be diligent, but it does not mean to study. There are other passages which do so we do not exclude the concept, of course. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the daily function of GAP, including the positive decision to assemble and listen or the pastor’s decision to keep studying, it takes a daily positive decision, it takes concentration and avoiding distraction, academic diligence, and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into a single whole. The active voice: every member of the royal family should produce the action of the verb — the daily function of GAP, and this emphasises the diligence. The imperative mood is a command.

“to shew thyself” — aorist active infinitive of paristhmi, and it means to present. “Be diligent [or strive] to present.” This is a culminative aorist, it views the function of GAP in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the achievement of approval or super-grace status. The active voice: the positive believer is diligent, a striving believer producing the action of the verb. It is the infinitive of intended result. When the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective it is called intended result, it blends purpose and result in the objective.

We also have a direct object here, the reflexive pronoun seautou. When the action expressed by the verb is referred back to its own subject the construction is called reflexive. “Strive to present yourself,” or “Be diligent to present yourself.”

“approved” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun dokimoj. It is a noun that means to be approved after testing, after examination, after trial. It refers to the judgment seat of Christ where every member of the royal family of God receives his efficiency rating — Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:12,16; Hebrews 6:7-12. The word “approved” here is based on reaching super-grace and holding until death, so that dokimoj is the reward, the blessing over and above blessing that the super-grace believer receives throughout all eternity. This is strictly over and above, it is beyond what is ordinarily expected. It is approval, therefore, based on following the colours to the high ground. The approval is parlayed into paragraph SG³. The one who approves is God.

Therefore “unto God” is the dative of indirect object from qeoj plus the definite article. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the believer seizes and holds the high ground of super-grace, and in some cases even goes on to ultra-super-grace. Remember that dokimoj means to test for the purpose of approval.

“a workman” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun e)rgathj which means a worker in the sense of a producer but it is used figuratively for apostles or pastor-teachers, a producer in the sense of a communicator. It should be translated not a workman but a teacher, a communicator. Timothy must be diligent to be a communicator, that is his job. This doesn’t apply to everyone.

“that needeth not to be a shamed” is a compound adjective, accusative plural of a)nepaisxuntoj. The a is an alpha privitive, meaning negative; the preposition e)pi = upon, on, or at; eisxunomai = to be ashamed. Hence, it means without cause for shame. The only way a pastor-teacher can avoid shame at the judgment seat of Christ is to be diligent to study and teach. The pastor must avoid many things which detract from this pattern.

“rightly dividing” — present active participle from the compound verb o)rqotomew which means to cut a straight line. It means to accurately handle something. It comes to mean to skilfully and accurately exegete the Word of God. It doesn’t mean to rightly divide in the sense of dispensations. There is no question about dispensations being there but what it really means is to skilfully examine and accurately exegete the Word of God. It means the Word of God must be approached with skill. And skill means preparedness. Preparedness means learning and work. No one should come into the pulpit unless he is skilled in exegeting and has thoroughly analysed a passage so that his presentation of information is based upon his skill in the languages and other things. Corrected translation: “accurately and skilfully exegeting.” The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected of that person who has the gift of pastor-teacher. The active voice: the pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb by diligent study. The participle is used as an imperative mood here (peculiar to the Koine Greek and the papyri of the first two centuries) — one imperative at the beginning of s sentence and the participles that follow are all imperatives. “the word of truth” — the textbook, o( logoj; a)lhqeia — doctrine. There is a definite article in front of a)lhqeia used as a possessive pronoun. So this should be translated, “the word with reference to its doctrine.”

Translation: “Strive [be diligent] to present yourself approved to the God, a teacher not put to shame, accurately and skilfully exegeting the word with reference to its doctrine.”

Verse 16 — We now move into the third function of the pastor-teacher. He is to avoid apostasy, reversionism and evil in the content of his message. This can only be accomplished, of course, by his own personal study. “But shun” — the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de setting up a contrast. This particular contrast is between what the pastor should have in the content of his message and what he should not have. The present middle imperative which is obviously in order is from the compound verb periisthmi [from peri = the preposition for around, and i(sthmi = to stand], “to stand around.” In the middle voice which intensifies it a bit it means to go around so as to avoid someone. In this particular case, then, it means to avoid — “But keep avoiding.” The present tense of duration, or retroactive progressive present, denotes what should be avoided in the past by pastors in the teaching of the Word and continuing into the present time. The more a pastor teaches the more vulnerable he becomes to making some mistake at some time along the way, whether he makes a grammatical error, whether he simply presents information which is not compatible with the subject, or whether he simply gives something that is totally inaccurate. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the pastor is the agent producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. This is the imperative mood of command and it is directed to pastors, and you can always identify your right pastor by this verse because the wrong pastor will be teaching evil and that which is compatible with Satan’s policy as the ruler of this world.

“profane” — this word does not tell too much but in the Greek we get a little more help. It is the accusative plural from the adjective bebhloj, correctly translated “profane” if you understand that profane means to treat something of value with contempt. It means to treat doctrine with contempt, to ridicule Bible doctrine.

“vain babblings” is all one word in the Greek, a compound noun in the accusative, part of the direct object — kenofwnia [kenoj = empty or void of content; fwnh = voice or sound] which simply means “empty talk.” So far, then, we have “But keep on avoiding anti-doctrinal empty talk.” “Anti-doctrinal” is used as a translation for “profane,” and “empty talk” is the noun.

Summary

1. All words are formed in the mind. They reveal what the individual is thinking.

2. Talk, or chatter, is composed therefore of words formed in the mind. Every bit of preaching that has ever occurred came from the mind.

3. When the words formed in the mind are put into the vocal cords they represent the thinking of, on the one hand, reversionism and evil, or, on the other hand, grace and doctrine. In this passage we have anti-doctrinal, empty chatter which should be avoided.

4. Therefore the only way to obey this command is for the pastor to study.

5. Sermons which are called “empty talk” are sermons based on the influence of evil in the soul. The pastor involved, therefore, is in some phase of reversionism.

6. When the message is void of content the congregation cannot grow spiritually.

7. This means failure in the objective of the local church which is assembly for the purpose of communication and reception of Bible doctrine.

8. No pastor can lead his congregation to super-grace when there is no doctrinal content to his message.

9. Doctrinal content comes through diligent study which was previously commanded in verse 15.

10. The pastor must present the Bible viewpoint. He is God’s representative, he is therefore to present God’s viewpoint of the situation. This is only possible through careful study, including exegesis, analysis of the context, and classification of all doctrines found in a given context.

11. No pastor can be divorced from constant daily Bible study which is the source of his personal growth, the means of preparation of his messages, and the inevitable growth of the positive members of his congregation.

“for they will increase” — we have the conjunctive particle gar which introduces a cause of a reason. With is is the future active indicative of the verb prokoptw [pro = “before” or “ahead”; koptw = to cut] which means to go forward, to make progress, to advance. Here we will use the translation to “make progress” — “for they will make progress,” or “they will advance.” But what it means here is its negative sense is that will get deeper into it. Whatever it is it is not pleasant and they are getting deeper into it. This is the pastor whose content of message is described as empty talk, i.e. human viewpoint representing the policies of Satan or doctrines which have in content evil. The future tense is a progressive future, it denotes progress or continuation in future time. In this case it is really retrogression but they are moving, moving in the wrong direction. This is advancing to the rear! The active voice: the congregation produces the action of the verb in getting deeper and deeper into reversionism when the content of the message from the pulpit is reversionistic under the influence of evil. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality. A reversionistic pastor means that the congregation is getting deeper and deeper into reversionism with him. He becomes an apostle of evil.

“unto more ungodliness” is a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative neuter singular from pleion, a comparative from poluj which means “more.” The comparative means much more, more, over more, and therefore we translate it in correct English “further,” or “farther.” It means “they will get deeper into reversionism.”

Translation: “Keep on voiding anti-doctrinal empty talk [in preaching], for they will get you deeper into reversionism.”

Members of a congregation can never have a right pastor who is in reversionism.

Verses 17-18, we now get into the first of several parenthetical principles. It says in effect as a conclusion that the reversionistic pastor is no believer’s right pastor.

Verse 17 — “And their word.” “And” is not correctly translated. This is the conjunction kai but it has at least four different uses. It should be translated here in its emphatic use. It is translated “In fact.” Then we have the nominative singular o( logoj — “the word.” It refers to the preaching or the teaching or the communication from the pulpit of the reversionistic pastor. We also have an ablative of source from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. As an intensive pronoun this word is used to emphasise the identity of the false pastor, the one who is teaching evil. “In fact, the word from them.”

“will eat” — the future active indicative of e)xw. E)xw means to have, to hold, or tow have and to hold. With this is the accusative singular direct object from the word nomh which is a pasture for feeding. So instead of “will eat” what we have is “In fact their teaching will spread.” The progressive future tense denotes the idea of progress or increase in future time. The active voice: the teaching of the reversionistic pastor produces the action of the verb — it spreads, there will always be someone who likes to hear a reversionistic pastor. But the royal family of God can bypass, avoid, and shun any form of reversionism taught from the pulpit. The indicative mood is the reality of the reversionistic or apostate pastors, they actually exist and they are spreading Satanic propaganda.

“as doth a canker” — we have a comparative particle, w(j — “as”; then a relative pronoun, o(j, “also.” The two together should be translated “like.” Then we have the word gaggraina from which we get our English word “gangrene.” However, it does not mean gangrene, it means “cancer.” “In fact, their teaching will spread like cancer.” The analogy indicates the total evil of the teaching from reversionistic pastors. Cancer is always among the normal cells, and they may say some things that are correct but because their ministry is not founded in the Word they will inevitably deviate. In fact Satan likes to have his own representatives in the pulpit and say a few things that are true to attract the simple-minded, and then throw in the cancer. Since it is the devil’s world evil spreads very rapidly and evil in many forms is very popular. False teaching from reversionists is like cancer in the body, it spreads rapidly and eventually destroys the believer. The destruction of the believer, of course, in the analogy to cancer is reversionism ending in the sin unto death.

“of whom” is literally “among whom” — the ablative of w(j again; “is” — Paul does not ordinarily spend any time naming names but occasionally it becomes necessary to do so and he is perfectly free under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to point out a couple of typical examples in Ephesus. Timothy has just recovered from reversionism. He has the first church in Ephesus. But there are other churches, there are splinter groups who have pulled out of the church when Timothy recovered. One of the people who pulled out was Hymenaeus. He was first mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:19,20. He has been under the sin unto death for several years and is still in that situation. He is guilty of every form of reversionism and has attracted a number of people out of the Ephesus church. They have formed a little splinter group. The other is Philetus, named here, also a pastor in Ephesus. He has special kind of heresy, he has disagreed with Timothy about the Rapture. There is a lot of trouble at this time in the Roman empire and he says that the Tribulation is already here, that the Church is going through it. He was teaching a Jewish form of legalism that you had to keep the Mosaic law and if you did then you would catch the Rapture at the end of the Tribulation. So these two men have formed splinter groups and they each have their own appeal. One has the appeal of his personality, the other has the fact that he has some truth and he mixes it in with false teaching with the result that the false teaching predominates, the cancer always dominates, and he teaches cancerous doctrine. When this is caught by the individual in the congregation he too goes into reversionism.

Translation: “In fact, their teaching will spread like cancer: among whom there is Hymenaeus and Philetus.”

Verse 18 — we have a qualitative relative pronoun o(stij beginning this verse. This is a nominative masculine plural referring to both Hymenaeus and Philetus. The qualitative relative pronoun emphasises the character of these reversionists and it should be translated “Such ones who.” These are specific people, this is a specific problem, and therefore the qualitative relative pronoun is used to indicate that this is not indefinite but these are both well-known pastors and everyone in Ephesus must be warned that they are teaching that which is false. They are apostles of evil.

“concerning the truth” — peri plus the accusative singular of a)lhqeia meaning truth or doctrine. Peri plus the genitive means “concerning,” and that is the way it is translated in the KJV, but it is peri plus the accusative which means “from the doctrine” rather than “concerning the doctrine.” So we have “Such a category of individuals who have departed from the doctrine.” The word “erred” is translated “departed,” it is the aorist active indicative of a)stokew. It means to miss the target and it means to miss the point as far as life on this earth is concerned. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the various stages of reversionism which constitute a departure from doctrine and the intake of doctrine on a daily basis. The constative aorist represents the action of the verb in its entirety and therefore the stages of reversionism are gathered up into this punctiliar concept. Hymenaeus and Philetus produce the action of the verb, along with all of their hearers. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that this actually occurred historically and has been repeated many times in history.

Now we have an illustration of their apostasy, it is related to the mid or the post-Tribulational Rapture.

“saying” — present active participle of legw indicating that this is what is being taught from the pulpits of the false teachers. These men are believers, they are still false teachers. They are reversionists and as such are working for Satan. The spiritual gift which they possessed from God the Holy Spirit has been turned around and is now being used in a Satanic way. The present tense is an historic present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence in order to illustrate a point. The active voice: Hymenaeus and Philetus produce the action. The participle is circumstantial.

“that” is not found in the original manuscript but is used as a translational device to denote the content of their heresy. Their heresy: the accusative of general reference of a)nastasij, referring to resurrection. The resurrection here refers to the time when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, as per 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

“is past” — the perfect active infinitive of ginomai which means to become, to occur, and it means here “has occurred.” The dramatic perfect, something that happened in the past and is completed action and the results are going on. The active voice: the Rapture is producing the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of conceived result which means that the Rapture is assumed as having already occurred because there is so much trouble at this time in the Ephesus area. But, of course, it has not occurred.

“already” merely helps to dramatise this perfect tense. It is the adverb h)dh.

Principle

1. Teaching the mid or the post-Tribulational Rapture is false, it is a sign of some kind of failure. It demonstrates two kinds of failure: a) Failure in the soul to have the correct doctrine; b) Failure from the old sin nature — pettiness, spite, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability.

2. The very fact that any pastor would ever stand up and teach such a thing in the pulpit indicates failure to understand the uniqueness of the Church Age and therefore failure to understand the objective for which we remain alive. The Church Age is absolutely unique and it means that God has a plan for each one of us, a purpose for each one of us.

3. Such a position reveals total ignorance of God’s plan or the deliberate tampering with the plan of God by misstating it.

“and overthrow” — a)natrepw [a)na = again, above; trepw = to turn] which means to turn again, to overturn, to overthrow, to subvert, to corrupt, to destroy. Here it means to corrupt — “and they are corrupting.” The retroactive progressive present means they are corrupting in the past with the result that every time you go to hear them and every time they stand up to speak your soul is filled with further corruption, your mind is distorted, you are moving from one stage to another of reversionism. The active voice: the apostate pastor produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the historical reality of the fact that the apostles of evil, the evangelists of reversionism, exist in every generation and Timothy’s generation was no excluded.

“the faith” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun pistij and it should be translated here “the doctrine.”

“of some” — the descriptive genitive plural of the indefinite pronoun tij. The congregation are not named, the pastors are named because in Ephesus there must be a warning against these people. The category here is represented by the indefinite relative pronoun. The indefinite pronoun always depicts some kind of a category. The category represented here is reversionistic believers under the influence of evil. They had some doctrine when they started but that doctrine is being corrupted. “Of certain reversionistic believers” would be a better translation of the phrase. Those who are negative toward doctrine have found the ministry of the apostate Hymenaeus and Philetus enjoyable in contrast to the orthodox teaching of Timothy. So negative believers cannot take exegetical teaching, they cannot stand the truth.

Translation: “Such a category of pastors who have departed from the doctrine, communicating that the resurrection [Rapture] has already occurred; and they are corrupting the doctrine of certain ones.”

Verse 19 — make a constant issue out of doctrine. Doctrine is more important than the air that we breathe, it is the only way we advance in the spiritual life, it is the means of the tactical victory and therefore there must be a constant issue made about doctrine to those who are interested in doctrine.

“Nevertheless” is an adversative conjunctive particle, mentoi. It means to set up a contrast between the reversionistic pastors of the previous verse and those pastors who are doggedly plugging away studying and teaching. Therefore it should be translated “However.” The principle here is that apostasy, reversionism, evil does not shake the foundation of this dispensation which is the preservation of doctrine in the canon of scripture. The continued existence of the local church and pastors who will be faithful in teaching the Word, and the perpetuation of super-grace pastors is always true in history. There always will be a few no matter what the circumstances.

“the foundation of God standeth sure” — the word for “foundation” here is the nominative singular qemelioj. As the subject it is very important to understand this foundation. The foundation is spiritual growth through the daily function of GAP causing the individual to reach the objective of super-grace and to glorify God. This foundation is based upon the intake of doctrine, therefore the importance of stressing doctrine. Furthermore this is not a foundation that will ever crumble and so it is called the stereoj foundation. This is an adjective and the word means “solid.” The adjective modifies the foundation — “solid foundation.” The solid foundation means spiritual growth, the means of glorifying God, the means of our spiritual advance. This is Bible doctrine resident in the Word of God, in the canon of scripture, preserved by God. The local church which in spite of abuses by denominations or independent movements which are not local church and do not have a pastor-teacher as the leader, will continue to exist. There is no spiritual growth in any organisation outside of the local church. The solid foundation, then, is a threefold principle. Bible doctrine resident in the canon of scripture and a congregation of believers who are positive toward that doctrine. The missing link is the pastor-teacher who communicates to the believer in the local church. With this we have an ablative of source from qeoj referring to God, indicating the source of the solid foundation — “the solid foundation from the God.” This is a reference to the fact that God has a perfect plan and He has chosen to stabilise the human race on the basis of His perfect plan, and His perfect plan is communicated to those who are born-again in the human race by means of the teaching of Bible doctrine.

Next we have the phrase “to stand.” In this case the KJV says “standeth sure,” but we actually have a perfect active indicative from the verb i(sthmi which does mean to stand. However, this is the perfect tense and the dramatic perfect emphasises not only the completed action but the results of that action in believers in every generation. God will never be without those who reach super-grace in every generation and many times these people are not known by name, they are not even identified in history. Many times these people are unknown but they are the ones who carry history. God has His spiritual Atlases in every generation who actually hold up history. This foundation is one that stands fast in the past with the result that it keeps on standing fast to be the stabiliser for every generation of history. The active voice indicates that the living grace provision of God is behind this foundation. The indicative mood is a dogmatic and absolute statement of fact, it is historical reality in every generation. “having” is a present active participle from the verb e)xw, meaning to have and to hold. The static present represents a condition as perpetually existing, there will always be believers in every generation, whether known to history or not, who will continue to be the spiritual Atlases that sustain the human race down through the period of the angelic conflict. The active voice: the sure foundation of divine provision of living grace for the positive believer produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle meaning that there never was in history, even if there was only one person in history who was positive, a person who was positive as a believer who did not receive from God everything necessary to go on, to advance to super-grace, and to act as the spiritual Atlas for that generation.

“seal” — the direct object of the verb, the accusative singular of the noun sfragij. The use of seals is important to understanding its meaning here. With this word is a demonstrative pronoun emphasising a designated object in the vicinity of the writing. In this case it is God’s grace provision to keep anyone alive who as a believer is consistently positive toward doctrine in order that he might reach the point of super-grace and glorify God.

What is sealing?

1. Sealing was used in the ancient world for many things. You cant even understand the use of the word “seal” in the Bible unless you understand its usage in the ancient world. A principle of hermeneutics: The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In the time in which this was written there was a certain usage of seals which is absolutely imperative to understand.

2. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written.

3. First of all the seal was used as a guarantee of a transaction. Therefore it denotes for anyone who is going to stand up and look history in the eye and face it down, no matter how disastrous it is, the guarantee of life and provision for your spiritual growth and that you will survive through disaster periods of history.

4. The seal was used as identification of ownership. Therefore the believer must remember that the seal here means that God recognises you as belonging to Him.

5. The seal also indicates provision. The signet ring, by the way, was the way you signed your cheques in the ancient world. The signet ring of God indicates that He is constantly cashing cheques for us, He has provided the means whereby we spend our time in life glorifying Him and fulfilling the objectives of grace. This spending means capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing that comes to the believer who is loaded down with doctrine.

6. The seal was used to protect something of value. Every believer is regarded by God as something of value and the seal is used in that sense of protection. The seal of God is affixed to us, this is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. That sealing is a security and it means that as far as God is concerned we are something of value to Him.

The thing that is sealed in our passage is of the utmost importance. It is the firm foundation, Bible doctrine contained in the scripture, Bible doctrine communicated to the local church. It is the importance of Bible doctrine that makes our life meaningful and fulfils the objective for which we remain in this life. Therefore the principle of sealing is brought out in the next phrase.

“The Lord knoweth them that are his” — the word for “Lord” is the nominative of kurioj, it is minus the definite article. It refers to deity, to God the Father here who is the author of the plan. No definite article means that there is great emphasis on kurioj, on His essence. He has the ability to provide for us and to protect us. The word for “knoweth” is the aorist active indicative of the verb ginwskw which also means to acknowledge and to recognise and to understand. The culminative aorist views the punctiliar action of eternity past in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of the existing results — God’s provision. The active voice: God produces the action. The indicative mood is the reality of divine omniscience and the resultant divine decrees where grace provision was made for us.

“them that are his” — the accusative plural definite article used as a relative pronoun plus the present active participle of e)imi. plus the possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. Together it all means “The Lord has acknowledged [recognised in eternity past] those who belong to him.” This phrase relates the omniscience of God to the doctrine of the divine decrees and the fact that God has not been caught off-guard by some unusual adversity of history. In eternity past He knew the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end and made provision long before we ever called out in prayer and asked for help.

“And” is an emphatic use of the conjunction kai and it should be translated “In fact.”

“Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ” — again we have a nominative singular from paj. “Everyone” particularises and specialises every believer. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ you are special to God; “that nameth” is the articular present active participle from o)nomazw which means to name or to use the name. The present tense is the perfective use of the present, it approaches its kindred tense, the perfect, when used to denote the continuation of existing results. Here it refers to the fact of something which happened in the past — God knew in eternity past that you would believe — and it emphasises the present reality of the things that He provided for you for your whole lifetime. It should be translated “use the name” and the perfective present indicates that principle of using it in the sense that you are now using what God provided in eternity past. The active voice: mankind using the name of the Lord is a reference to salvation and entrance into the plan of God, so the unbeliever at the point of his salvation produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. It comes to read: “In fact all who use the person of the Lord [for salvation].” In other words, this is where all of that grace begins.

“depart” — the aorist active imperative of a)fisthmi. It means to withdraw, it is a word for separation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist indicating that all you have to do from the time you are born again to the time you depart from this life is to GAP it daily and you will fulfil the principle. The active voice: the positive believer toward doctrine produces the action. The imperative mood is a command.

“iniquity” — a)dikia. It means “wickedness” if you understand that wickedness is evil. It means wickedness in the sense of all of the concepts of evil combined with every facet of reversionism. It is a part of a prepositional phrase, a)po plus the ablative, and it should be translated “withdraw from wickedness.”

Translation: “However, the solid foundation from the God stands fast [holds its ground], having this seal, The Lord has acknowledged [recognised in eternity past] those who belong to him. In fact, all who use the person of the Lord for salvation withdraw from wickedness.”

This brings us to our second parenthetical principle, the classification of the congregation.

Verse 20 — the classification of the congregation.

Eight principles

1. The objective of the ministry of the pastor is to lead his congregation to maturity. This is accomplished by the consistent studying and teaching of the Word.

2. Maturity in the concept here is called super-grace, as per James 4:6.

3. The super-grace believer is spiritually self-sustaining as well as being a beneficiary of his own paragraph SG².

4. The super-grace believer glorifies Jesus Christ in receiving these blessings and he maintains these blessings by not being spoiled through success.

5. However, we will also find in this paragraph that every local church contains all kinds of believers. Some do not grow up, they are in the congregation but they do not benefit from the teaching of the Word.

6. Not all believers are positive toward doctrine. Not all are amenable to discipline and authority exercised by the pastor in the communication of the Word. Therefore not all believers in a given congregation are advancing to super-grace.

7. Therefore this second parenthesis introduces the objective of verse 21.

8. The classification of the congregation is portrayed through an analogy.

“But in a great house” — the post positive conjunctive particle de used as a transitional particle. It should be translated “Now.” Then there is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of the adjective megaj plus the locative of the noun o)ikia. “Now in a large house.” In 1 Peter 2:5 the Church is called a spiritual house, so the word “house” for the local church is not foreign to the scripture. The local church is here compared to a large house, and a large house it must be. it is not that all local churches are large, far from it. Any place that royalty assembles there may only five people but it is still a large house. The word “large house” refers to the house, not the number of people in it. It refer to where royalty meets. The local church is always a large house because it is referring to the fact that royalty assembles there for its spiritual growth and to fulfil the basic principle in the plan of God.

“there are” — present active indicative of e)imi. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs. With the indicative mood of the customary present it indicates the temporal element involved here. The following categories of believers are found in local churches in every generation is what the present indicative of e)imi says here. The active voice: various categories of vessels are going to be producing the action. That is, all kinds of vessels exist. The indicative mood is declarative indicating a temporal element, this happens in every generation.

“not only vessels of gold” — the strong negative o)uk, then the adverb monon for “only,” and then the word for “vessel,” skeuh. What was a vessel in the time in which this was written? It referred to any kind of household furnishings. Skeuh can refer to a container but it can also be a chair or a table. There is also an adjective here, xruseoj which means golden. There is a noun, skeuoj, that always means a jar or dish or container, but that isn’t what we have here. These are two different words, even though they may be related. What is referred to here is a castle with all golden furniture, and obviously it refers to the super-grace believer.

From the standpoint of positional truth we are all equal, from the standpoint of experience we are all completely unequal. The reason is because we all have a different attitude toward Bible doctrine. Some are positive, some are negative. There are variations, and some make it and some do not.

“silver” is the adjective a)rgureoj. With skeuh it means “silver furniture.” The silver furniture is not a super-grace believer but it is the next stage down which is a positive and growing believer, someone who is consistent in the daily function of GAP but who has simply not been a believer long enough or been under the function of GAP long enough to reach the first objective which is maturity. The gold and silver furniture are both classified as honourable.

“but also of wood and earth” — the strong adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast in the congregation between honourable and dishonourable. The honourable is gold and silver, now the dishonourable are the wood and earth. There is an adjunctive use of the conjunction here, kai, translated “also.” With it is the word culinoj for “wood.” It must be remembered that this is not a 20th century passage. In the ancient world the homes that were considered the best had permanent metal furnishings. Wood was only used because it was cheaper and because one couldn’t afford the other. So wood has a different connotation 2000 years ago than it has today. The wood furnishings refer to the carnal believer. We have noted the difference between the carnal believer and the reversionist. The reversionist is under the influence of Satanic thinking; the carnal believer is under the influence of sin. The carnal believer here is the one who permits his carnality to get in the way of the intake of Bible doctrine. Being out of fellowship he is grieving and quenching the Spirit and the spiritual teaching from the pulpit is not meaningful to him. It is true that all reversionists are carnal but all carnal believers are not reversionistic.

“earth” is the predicate adjective of o)strakinoj which is clay or earthenware. Clay or earthenware household furnishings represent the reversionistic believer. Along with wood the clay represents the vessel of dishonour.

“some to honour” — the nominative neuter plural from the definite article used as an intensive pronoun identifying the fact that believers who are positive toward doctrine consistently are considered honourable by the scripture, by God’s standards. Then we have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “in fact.” With it the affirmative particle men used correlatively, and we translate it “on the one hand.” “In fact on the one hand certain ones with reference to honour” — the certain ones refer to honour, e)ij plus the accusative of timh.

“and some to dishonour” — the post positive conjunctive particle de; e)ij plus the accusative of a)timia — “with reference to dishonour.”

There are positive believers toward doctrine who function consistently under the authority of their right pastor-teacher. The golden furnishings refer to the actual super-grace believer while the silver refers to those who are positive, who are advancing, who are closing in on the first objective. The wood and clay refer to dishonourable believers. The wood believers are carnal but their carnality gets in the way of the function of GAP. The clay believers are those who are reversionistic.

Translation: “Now in a large house [the local church] there are not only gold and silver household furnishings [positive believers], but also wood and earthenware; in fact there are, on the one hand, certain ones referring to honour [believers who are positive], but on the other hand there are certain ones referring to dishonour.”

Verse 21 — “If a man therefore purge.” This includes a conjunctive particle e)an, it introduces a third class condition — “if,” maybe it is true, maybe it isn’t. The protasis of a third class condition presents a supposition from the viewpoint of probability. The third class condition is more probable future, the fourth class condition is less probable future. Because of the subjunctive mood which is used uncertainty is always implied in a third class condition. The thought in the third class condition always has to do with something in the future, it may be immediate or it may be distant but it is future. With this we have an inferential particle o)un. This always means that some conclusion is in the vicinity. It is translated “therefore.” Plus the indefinite pronoun tij representing a category of believers and depicting them in terms of household furniture. Along with this is a verb which is mistranslated “purge,” the aorist active subjunctive of e)kkaqairw [e)k = out from; kaqairw = cleanse], to cleanse out from, to eliminate, to clean out, to cleanse thoroughly. In other words, we have something here that represents a concept that something needs to be completely and totally cleaned out. The culminative aorist tense of this verb contemplates reversion recovery in its entirety. The active voice: the believer who is in reversionism but who has turned around in his thinking and now is going for doctrine is going to produce the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is potential indicating a third class condition. “Therefore if anyone has cleaned out.”

Then we have the object of the verb, a reflexive pronoun, the accusative singular of e(autou. This indicates that a part of reversion recovery is getting all of the evil thinking, the policy of Satan, out of the soul. So this means that the action of the verb is referred back to its own subject and that the reversionistic believer must use his own volition, constantly expose himself to doctrine and intensify his intake of doctrine with consistency and persistence. In this way he rids his soul of evil and reversionism. They are mentioned unto the prepositional phrase “from these,” a)po plus the ablative plural from o(outoj. This calls attention with special emphasis to reversionism and the fact that all reversionists are under the influence of evil. The plural stems from the fact that there are two sides to the coin of apostasy. On one side we have reversionism and on the other side we have evil. So a)po connotes ultimate source, the demonstrative pronoun is called the demonstrative of immediacy, denoting that which is relatively near — vessels made out of wood or clay.

“he shall be” — future active indicative of e)imi. This verb begins the apodasis of the third class condition. A conditional clause is a statement of supposition. The fulfilment of that supposition is realised as a potential factor in the apodasis. This phrase is based on the supposition that apostate believers will, when they change their mind or repent about reversionism, turn around toward doctrine, become very positive about doctrine and take it in at every opportunity. They will overdose themselves with doctrine in order to clean out the evil from their soul. Evil and reversionism must go before there can be recovery.

“he shall be a vessel unto honour” — the predicate nominative skeuoj which is a vessel, a container; plus e)ij plus the accusative of timh — “a vessel with reference to honour.” This honourable vessel is a super-grace believer. There are no super-grace believers apart from the faithful communication of Bible doctrine on the part of the pastor-teacher and therefore it takes consistent, faithful teaching from one’s right pastor-teacher to clean out the vessel of dishonour and fill it with honour. This is really a point of displacement. As evil is pushed out it is pushed out by doctrine going in.

The doctrine of vessels

1. Definition and etymology. The doctrine is taken from both the Greek and the Hebrew. We have the Greek word skeuh which refers to any kind of household furnishing. But the second word we have is skeuoj which refers only to a vessel or a container. There is another Greek word which occurs occasionally, a)ggeion which is correctly translated “flask.” The first Hebrew word is keli which refers to any kind of household furnishing again. Another Hebrew word is maen which means vessel or container. There is another word used for a wine bottle, usually made out of skin, nebel.

2. Under the principle of election the believer is said to be a chosen vessel. Therefore as a chosen vessel he needs to be filled with doctrine — Acts 9:15. The word “vessel” is used because a vessel is no good while it is empty and is only usable while it is filled. The whole concept is that in the word “election” God has a plan for Paul’s life. The word “vessel” means that before Paul can be useful he must be filled with doctrine. So the in concept of election or the plan of God we are never usable, we are never utilised by God, we never fulfil the plan of God designed for us in eternity past, until we become filled vessels, until we contain Bible doctrine or maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

3. Vessels are used to demonstrate the essence of God, the essence of God in His treatment of believers and unbelievers. Illustration: Romans 9:19-23. It is impossible for God to make an unfair decision.

a) The character of God is perfect; God can do not wrong.

b) The sovereignty of God is a part of the character of God, therefore the sovereignty of God is perfect.

c) God can make no bad or unfair decisions. If His essence is perfect and sovereignty is a part of His essence the sovereignty is perfect. And if His sovereignty is perfect it is impossible for His sovereignty to ever make a bad decision.

d) With the believer propitiation makes it possible for God to provide grace blessing and to do so without compromising His character.

e) With the unbeliever (he has rejected the cross, therefore there is no propitiation factor) God must curse him because the righteousness and justice of God have not been propitiated, that person has said no to the cross. Righteousness and justice must curse the person who says no to the cross.

The unbeliever is a vessel of dishonour. The unbeliever superimposes his own volition over divine volition. In other words, the clay tells the potter how he is going to be made. The unbeliever is not willing to let God save him and mould him into a vessel of honour. The unbeliever chooses his own works for salvation. This is called “vessel of dishonour” in context. His own works make the unbeliever a vessel of dishonour in this context.

4. Vessels are used to provide an analogy between Bible doctrine resident in the soul and capacity of life for the super-grace believer — 2 Corinthians 4:7. The treasure in earthen vessels is Bible doctrine. Doctrine resident in the soul keeps us from tampering with the plan of God.

5. Therefore vessels are used to set up a contrast between the believer in super-grace status and the believer in reversionism — 2 Timothy 2:20,21; Proverbs 25:4 — “Take away the dross [evil and reversionism].”

6. Vessels are related to category #2 love and they always refer to the woman because there is a sense in which a woman without her right man is empty, like a vessel — 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Peter 3:7.

7. Shattered vessels are also used to describe personal judgment from God — Psalm 31:12; Jeremiah 22:28; 25:34.

8. Shattered vessels are used to describe national judgments — the northern kingdom, Hosea 8:8,9; the southern kingdom, Jeremiah 51:34; Gentile nations in the Tribulation — Psalm 2:9.

“sanctified” is a perfect passive participle from the verb a(giazw which means to set apart. Here it means to be set apart in the plan of God and to be consecrated. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect emphasises the existing results of a completed action. Therefore this is dramatised to the extent that our sanctification is a continuous thing. The passive voice: the super-grace believer receives the action of the verb. This is the balance of residency in the soul. The participle is causal and should be translated “because he has been sanctified.”

“and meet” — there is no conjunctive particle but there is the accusative singular direct object from the noun e)uxrhstoj which means useful or serviceable. Here it means “useful.”

“for the master’s use” — the word for “master” is a dative singular indirect object from despothj. This word is very strong for the principle that the super-grace believer recognises his Lord and master, he recognises that He is the owner of the vessel. The super-grace believer glorifies Jesus Christ through the tactical victory of his status which complements the strategical victory of the angelic conflict.

“prepared” is a perfect passive participle, e)toimazw. This is the dramatic perfect again, it means prepared in the past with the result that he keeps on being prepared. The passive voice: the super-grace believer is the only prepared one. The participle is circumstantial. it is translated “has been prepared.”

“unto every good work” — e)ij plus the accusative of paj plus a)gaqoj for divine good, good of intrinsic value, plus e)rgon — “for the purpose of every good work.”

Translation: “Therefore if anyone has cleaned out himself in these things [reversionism and evil], he will be a vessel with reference to honour, because he has been sanctified, useful to the Lord, having been prepared for the purpose of every good work.”

Doctrine of divine good

1. Divine good is the production primarily of the super-grace believer. It is also the production of the growing or progressing believer. Divine good is the maximum and the most effective production that the believer can have in his life. The production has its source from God directly, mechanically the balance of residency.

2. There are three types of good in history. In the order in which they occur: a) Human good. This is the production of evil or Satan’s policy. It comes first because there was a tree in the garden called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil is the thinking of Satan and good is the application of that thinking to experience.

b) Moral good is the observance of the laws of divine establishment. c) Divine good which is the production of either the growing or the mature believer.

Human good can only be produced by the unbeliever or the reversionistic believer. Moral good can be produced by anyone who is a believer or unbeliever who understands and observes the laws of divine establishment. Divine good can only be produced by a growing or a mature believer. The word “good” is always defined by the context as to which type.

3. The source of divine good. Divine good has its production from the balance of residency in the soul. It takes two factors to produce divine good in God’s plan. The first factor is the filling of the Holy Spirit. It is simple because the filling of the Spirit is the result of rebound which is instant recovery from carnality. The filling of the Spirit can only be hindered by carnality. Rebound means instant recovery. So you can lose the filling of the Spirit through sin but you can recover it instantly. Reason: Because our sins were judged on the cross.

The next factor is a matter of the balance of residency in the soul. We start out with minus doctrine and therefore are incapable of producing divine good. This minus becomes a plus through the daily function of GAP. When it becomes a maximum plus it will be maximum production of divine good which is simply a result of being a super-grace believer. The balance of residency and/or experiential sanctification is the normal super-grace life and it is the place for the production of divine good. When the royal priest has constructed his altar he then becomes a producer of divine good. The construction of the altar is synonymous with the super-grace life.

There are four sources of divine good.

a) The filling of the Holy Spirit is a source. Of course, it must be related to some doctrine in the soul. When God the Holy Spirit controls the soul and there is any doctrine also resident then there can be, and there is, an expression of this in the production of some divine good.

b) The doctrine resident in the soul is a source. The consistent function of GAP increases the amount of doctrine in the soul. Doctrine in the soul displaces evil and the Satanic policies and principles and therefore it also becomes a source.

c) The super-grace status is the point at which you have the dynamics of divine good. The super-grace believer in fellowship can only produce divine good. The super-grace believer out of fellowship may not produce much but he is not in the area of human good either.

d) Ultra-super-grace status which adds one more ingredient to the filling of the Spirit, maximum doctrine in the soul, and that is continual adversity — the ultra-super-grace status where every function in life is the production of divine good in the midst of maximum pressure, opposition, and suffering.

4. The believer in time was designed to produce divine good. This is a part of God’s plan for the life of every believer. Ephesians 2:10. The only production that counts is production which is based upon something in the soul that is there as a result of grace. There are two things in the soul as a result of grace: a) The filling of the Spirit;

b) The accumulation of Bible doctrine. These two, accumulate to a balance of residency resulting in the super-grace status. The super-grace believer when not carnal always produces divine good.

5. Therefore the production of divine good is related to living grace. Living grace is everything that God has done to keep us alive. The production of divine good is really related to your progress in the spiritual life, i.e. the intake of doctrine. 2 Corinthians 9:8 — it is all grace.

6. Therefore the production of divine good must be related to the function of GAP — Titus 2:7, “Showing yourself to be an example in the production of good deeds [divine good] by soundness of doctrine.” Colossians 1:9,10.

7. Therefore the production of divine good is related to super-grace status — 2 Timothy 3:16,17, “ … having been equipped for the production of divine good.”

8. The production of divine good, therefore, is an issue in the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

9. Therefore the production of divine good is related to surpassing grace status — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

10. The production of divine good is related to the believer’s honour — 2 Timothy 2:21.

Verse 22 — Principle:

1. No pastor can lead to an objective which he has not attained himself.

2. No pastor can lead his congregation to super-grace when he has not reached super-grace himself.

3. The congregation under the ministry of the pastor cannot exceed the growth of the pastor.

4. The pastor must reach super-grace to lead his congregation to super-grace.

5. The only difference is that the pastor reaches super-grace by his own personal study, in contrast to the congregation who reach super-grace through the teaching of the right pastor.

6. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is the exception to reaching super-grace through academic discipline of the local church.

7. The pastor can reach super-grace through his own personal self-discipline of intensive and consistent study of the Word of God.

8. The possession of the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher makes the communicator of doctrine the exception.

9. Timothy recovered from super-grace through personal study.

10. But his congregation at Ephesus can only recover through Timothy’s teaching. He must inculcate them through doctrine.

11. The assembly of the local congregation must be under principles of strict academic discipline for the achievement of this objective.

Verse 22 is addressed only to young pastors. “Flee youthful lusts” is not addressed to the congregation in general. The word “flee” is the present active imperative of feugw. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or what is reasonably expected to occur in a young minister. The active voice: the young pastor must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command. It can be translated one of two ways: “Be escaping from” or “Flee from.”

“youthful lusts” begins with a post positive or enclitic conjunctive particle de used as a transitional conjunction, and it should be translated “now.” Plus the accusative plural definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun and translated “those.” Plus the accusative plural from the adjective newtrikaj. It is translated correctly “youthful” if it is understood that it means those who are at the beginning of the ministry, who are young, who have grand ideas about what they are going to do and how much better they are going to be than anyone before them! The word “lusts” is the accusative plural of e)piqumia. In other passages it means approbation lust, power lust, monetary lust, sexual lust, popularity lust. These are occupational hazards for believers, period. Here some of these are pertinent for a youthful pastor. The primary youthful lust is probably the one we would never pick — pride or arrogance.

Note

1. Arrogance leads to the abuse of power and authority vested in the pastor-teacher.

2. The pastor is given authority from God and he is given power through Bible teaching, and he must not abuse his authority and power.

3. Connected with this arrogance is popularity lust which keeps the pastor from honesty and integrity in the accurate teaching of the Word.

4. Popularity lust linked with approbation lust also makes the pastor overly ambitious for renown and fame.

5. Most young men entering the ministry want to start at the top instead of using that dogged day-by-day plugging which is necessary for the mastery of the Word and its presentation from the pulpit. Related to this is another trap: monetary lust. Pastors are often out to make money rather than to teach the Word.

“Be escaping from those lusts of immaturity.” “Youthful” means immature.

“but follow” — the enclitic adversative conjunctive particle de to set up a contrast between what to avoid and what to pursue; “follow” means to pursue, the present active imperative of diwkw. The customary present denotes what is reasonably expected of a young pastor who has his head screwed on straight! He is expected to plug away at study, and communicate as he is able. The active voice: the young pastor produces the action. The imperative mood is a command to all pastors but this is especially true in getting started.

“righteousness” — accusative singular direct object from dikaiosunh which means righteousness in the sense of fulfilling a divine principle. The divine principle is to study. A pastor-teacher is a professional student, he studies all the time. “Be pursuing righteousness” means two things: constant study and eventual growth.

“faith” — the accusative singular of pistij, doctrine resident in the soul. His study is going to produce doctrine in the soul. This will start the balance of residency and lead to that pastor reaching super-grace.

“charity” — accusative singular of a)gaph and it means the filling of the Spirit, as per Romans 5:5 where love is said to be the filling of the Spirit producing love in the soul; or Galatians 5:22, “the fruit of the Spirit is a)gaph”; or 1 Corinthians 13, the manifestations of a)gaph.

“peace” — accusative singular of e)irhnh, used here for prosperity. It refers to temporal prosperity which comes from a pastor having his paragraph SG².

“with all them that call on the Lord” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of the articular present middle participle e)pikalew, meaning not only to call upon God in prayer but it means to make an appeal for aid and also to make an appeal in court, to call on someone as a witness; but it is used here in a technical sense with kurioj for the believer pressing toward super-grace by his consistent function of GAP. So the preposition meta indicates that this is done in the presence of other believers. The congregation is calling upon the Lord as a witness. In other words, the Lord does the transferring of the doctrine and the congregation is gathered together to take it in. The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise positive believers. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting what has happened in the past and continues into the present time — function of GAP. The middle voice is an indirect middle emphasising the agent: the positive believer gathering with other positive believers in the assembly of the local church. The participle is circumstantial.

“out of a pure heart” — e)k plus the ablative of kaqaroj for “pure” plus the noun kardia. It means you must be in fellowship to take in doctrine.

Translation: “Now be escaping from those lusts of immaturity: but be pursuing righteousness [super-grace status], doctrine resident in the soul, love [the filling of the Spirit], prosperity [paragraph SG²], with those positive believers who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.”

Summary of the responsibility of the pastor

1. To maintain discipline in the local church — verse 14.

2. To fulfil #1 priority in the ministry: study and teach — verse 15.

3. To avoid apostasy, reversionism and evil in the content of his message — verse 16

4. The first parenthetical principle: the reversionistic pastor is no believer’s right P-T — verses 17,18.

5. To constantly make an issue out of doctrine — verse 19.

6. The second parenthetical principle: the classification of the congregation — verse 20.

7. By faithfulness in teaching to produce from the congregation vessels of honour — verse 21.

8. By faithfulness in personal study to also become a vessel of honour — verse 22.

9. By keeping his priorities straight to avoid false issues — verse 23.

Verse 23 — “But foolish and unlearned questions.” The post positive conjunctive particle de used for emphasis and contrast. With it is the accusative plural direct object from the adjective mwroj which means “foolish”, plus the accusative plural direct object from the noun zhthsij which means controversies. Together it is translated “But foolish and undisciplined controversies.” There is one more word that needs very special emphasis, a)paideutoj. It means to discipline children and it comes to mean discipline. The a is negative and therefore it means undisciplined. It is possible to get into subjects and things that are taught that are totally apart from self-discipline, they encourage people to go in the opposite direction. “But foolish and undisciplined controversies.”

“avoid” — present middle imperative of paraiteomai which means to avoid or to excuse yourself. It means to deviate from demands made by the congregation. Sometimes congregations demand certain kinds of subjects they think a pastor ought to emphasise. In other words, the idea of trying to run the congregation from afar by dictating to the pastor what he should teach and what he shouldn’t teach. This is undisciplined controversy. “Undisciplined” comes from the fact that the pastor is his own dictator, he must regulate his own life. In self-discipline he must teach whatever the passage teaches and not teach something that will cater to people who have some kind of influence on him. To be avoiding these things means that he must stick with whatever the passage teaches. The passage is really saying to excuse yourself from this type of activity. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected from a pastor whose priorities are straight. He must therefore avoid anything which he does not understand himself and which does not line up with the Word of God. The direct middle voice refers the action of the verb to the agent with reflexive force. The imperative mood is a command or an order.

There are other areas in which this has great meaning to the pastor.

Summary

1. In addition to what has just been noted foolish and undisciplined controversies refer to those functions of life which involve improving the devil’s world. There are a lot of things where pastors are not studying the Word, where they begin to get either grief-stricken or have a guilt complex, or somehow they feel they ought to become “more involved.” They do so by “brotherly love” sermons, getting everyone to love everyone else, or bless the United Nations, etc. This is also what is meant by foolish and undisciplined controversies. “Foolish” has to do with the fact that they represent evil, they represent the Satanic viewpoint; “undisciplined” has to do with the fact that they have nothing to do with the pastor’s discipline which is the study of doctrine.

2. These are functions related to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan’s policy for ruling the world. The pastor who eats at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil falls into the category found in this verse.

3. When a pastor has his priorities straight — doctrine is first — he will stick to study-and-teach resulting in the production of vessels of honour in his own congregation, or those who are super-grace believers.

4. Only the super-grace believer is on the right side of history.

5. Only the super-grace believer can carry his generation as a spiritual Atlas.

6. Undisciplined controversies are those outside of the academic discipline of the local church.

7. Undisciplined controversies are those functions which advance the plan, the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. For example, when Fabian socialism is taught from the pulpit, as some pastors do, it is a fulfilment of this verse.

8. We are on this earth to adhere to grace, not to advance Satan’s policy of good and evil.

“knowing” — perfect active participle of o)ida used as a present tense for an established scale of values and correct priorities. The life of every pastor, as we have seen from this context, is one where his priority must be doctrine. He must have understanding of doctrine through his personal study, he must regulate his life accordingly. He must study and teach.

“that” is the conjunction o(ti used after verbs of perception. The pastor must understand what he is doing.

“they do gender” — the present active indicative of gennaw means to give birth. When a pastor is pregnant with evil he is going to give birth to a lot of false ideas. The aoristic present is for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: the foolish and undisciplined controversies produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality.

“strifes” merely means that some members of the congregation will be straight on points of doctrine, they will hear human viewpoint which contradicts that point of doctrine — contradicting divine viewpoint — and immediately there is a battle in the congregation which is divided by what is taught when it is human viewpoint. Now congregations will always be divided by what is taught but the pastor should represent divine viewpoint so that the legalists will understand that they are on the wrong side of the fence. The word “strifes” is the accusative plural direct object from maxh which means “battle.” It is a reference to false or useless battles. Useless battles result in spiritual defeat instead of victory, and useless battles squander resources without accomplishing objectives. When a pastor is presenting human viewpoint there are those in the congregation who will spot it because they are ahead of the pastor in spiritual growth, they have correct understanding from some other source. Therefore when the pastor does this there is a problem. They cannot fight the authority of the pastor and as a result there will be somewhere in the congregation some expression of correct and incorrect viewpoint, and there is the battle. It is a useless conflict, it accomplishes no objective. The pastor squander his grace resources, he becomes involved in crusades for the improvement of the devil’s world.

Translation: “But excuse yourself from foolish and undisciplined controversies, knowing that they give birth to useless battles.”

Summary

1. The pastor’s top priority is Bible doctrine.

2. He must personally grow spiritually by his own personal study of the Word of God. No pastor can grow apart from personal study. He is the only one who can grow by personal study, it is connected with his spiritual gift. The congregation cannot grow by personal study, it can only grow by being under authority.

3. He must constantly and consistently teach his congregation so that they can follow the colours. But you can’t teach what you do not know and the content of the message is what is important. The content of the message must be what any given passage of scripture is teaching. What kind of person he is is not an issue and never has been. The important thing is how he thinks. You can’t think evil and ever succeed in anything.

4. The pastor receives growth through his own personal study.

5. The congregation receives growth from the pastor’s teaching — which includes discipline. The pastor must discipline himself, the congregation exercises self-discipline by listening, by ignoring distractions, and so on.

In verses 24 and 25 we have: By dogged determination every pastor must become a consistent plugger, avoiding the pitfalls of the ministry. Since the issue is what you think he must avoid mental pitfalls such as pride. The thing that knocks out a pastor is what he thinks. When he stops thinking doctrine he is knocked out.

Verse 24 — “And the servant of the Lord.” That is not what the Greek says. We have a post positive conjunctive particle de which should be translated “Now,” plus “the slave” [the pastor-teacher] — douloj. The pastor is the direct slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church who is seated at the right hand of the Father. The pastor-teacher is directly under Him as a slave, but a slave with maximum authority over the congregation.

“must not strive” is a combination of two verbs. The first is the impersonal verb of compulsion, dei, and it is correctly translated “must” or “it is necessary.” This is compulsion of inner necessity growing out of slavery. The pastor is the Lord’s slave, the absolute ruler of the congregation. But he must not abuse this power. Plus the present middle infinitive of the verb maxomai which means to fight, to quarrel, to dispute. It should be translated “Now a slave of the Lord must not be belligerent.” This is not belligerent in the sense of aggressiveness, it is in the sense of being bellicose or contentious or pugnacious. In other words, he must not ever use the power that God has given him in any personal fight or antagonism or contention with someone in the congregation. His authority is not given to him so that he can beat down his enemies in the congregation. That would be an abuse of power. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected from the pastor-teacher whose job is to rule the congregation and to teach Bible doctrine. The middle voice is a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The pastor-teacher produces the action. This is the infinitive of the imperative and it is used as a prohibition. It prohibits the pastor from wearing a chip on his shoulder or being quarrelsome or antagonistic toward some individual in his congregation. It does not keep the pastor from exercising authority in dealing with those who are recalcitrant, those who are gossips or maligners, or in any way infringe upon the privacy and freedom of other members of the congregation. Nor does it have anything to do with troublemakers. A pastor is to wipe out the troublemakers, to devastate them, and this is a legitimate use of his power. But what this is saying in effect is that he has no right to use his power in any kind of a personal vendetta.

“must not strive” is a combination of two verbs. The first is the impersonal verb of compulsion, dei, and it is correctly translated “must” or “it is necessary.” This is compulsion of inner necessity growing out of slavery. The pastor is the Lord’s slave, the absolute ruler of the congregation. But he must not abuse this power. Plus the present middle infinitive of the verb maxomai which means to fight, to quarrel, to dispute. It should be translated “Now a slave of the Lord must not be belligerent.” This is not belligerent in the sense of aggressiveness, it is in the sense of being bellicose or contentious or pugnacious. In other words, he must not ever use the power that God has given him in any personal fight or antagonism or contention with someone in the congregation. His authority is not given to him so that he can beat down his enemies in the congregation. That would be an abuse of power. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected from the pastor-teacher whose job is to rule the congregation and to teach Bible doctrine. The middle voice is a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The pastor-teacher produces the action. This is the infinitive of the imperative and it is used as a prohibition. It prohibits the pastor from wearing a chip on his shoulder or being quarrelsome or antagonistic toward some individual in his congregation. It does not keep the pastor from exercising authority in dealing with those who are recalcitrant, those who are gossips or maligners, or in any way infringe upon the privacy and freedom of other members of the congregation. Nor does it have anything to do with troublemakers. A pastor is to wipe out the troublemakers, to devastate them, and this is a legitimate use of his power. But what this is saying in effect is that he has no right to use his power in any kind of a personal vendetta. Belligerency toward any member of the congregation removes the pastor’s objectivity in teaching. Therefore one of the pitfalls of the ministry is subjectivity with regard to a congregation. You cannot fight your congregation and teach them.

“but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla, the strongest of adversative conjunctions, it sets up a contrast between subjectivity and the objectivity of a pastor in relation to his command or flock.

“be” is a present active infinitive of e)imi. The static present represents a condition or a situation taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: the pastor-teacher as the Lord’s slave produces the action. The infinitive is an imperative infinitive. After the negative prohibition this is what the pastor is commanded to be — “but he must keep on being.”

“gentle” — the accusative singular from the adjective h)poij. It means gracious in mental attitude, gracious to the point of not really being human, gracious where you do not react, where you are objective, where you stand up before there are no people that you love, no people you hate, no people you admire, no people you disdain; they are just sheep. In other words, when a pastor stands up and starts to preach he is not preaching to people he knows or people he likes or dislikes. He is not preaching to individuals, he is preaching to a congregation, he is communicating what the passage says, he is bringing the doctrine to their souls. He is not in any way dealing personally or individually with anyone of the congregation. This is an attitude. This is a predicate nominative but it is in the accusative case because it matches the accusative of general reference on the other side of the infinitive. That’s why we have a predicate nominative in the accusative. “But he must keep on being gracious.” This is not the ordinary word for gracious, this is the word for grace objectivity. So we might translate it: “but he must keep on having grace objectivity.” No pastor can teach the Word, cover what the passage says, and be angry and out to get someone in the congregation.

“unto all” — the preposition proj plus the accusative of paj. Paj is in the accusative and proj plus the accusative, not always but frequently, means “face to face.” That is what it means here. Paj means “entire” here — “Face to face with the entire congregation.” That comes first. If his mental attitude is gracious objectivity then the next will follow.

“apt to teach” is incorrect. This is the accusative singular from the adjective didaktikoj which means skilful in teaching. This adjective emphasises the primary function of the pastor, the only function of the pastor in the pulpit in which all others functions in his life must be totally subordinated to this principle.

“patient” — no one can consistently teach the Word of God correctly without being patient. But it is a hidden kind of patience, the kind of patience where people don’t get something after you have worked on it. The pastor has to be patient in teaching. He has to be patient with himself. He has to get up and do it again, and do it again. This is not the ordinary word for patience, which would be u(pomonh, instead we have a long adjectives, a)necikakoj. It means persistence, but it means persistence in spite of evil. This is a compound adjective: a)nec is from the verb a)nexw which means to bear with or to endure; kakoj means evil. So it means to bear up under or to endure or to put up with evil. It means to bear evil without resentment, to be patient when wronged. It is much more than that though. No pastor is going to teach doctrine without getting opposition from the whole realm of Satanic opposition or evil. So in effect opposition to doctrine from Satan’s plan and policy — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil again — should not obstruct, prevent, impede or retard the dogged perseverance in plugging, in persistence in daily study, research, analysis of doctrine, daily reconnaissance of the Word. In other words, a pastor should never let what anyone thinks deter him.

Translation: “Now the slave of the Lord [pastor-teacher] must not be belligerent [bellicose, pugnacious, contentious], but he must keep on being gracious [in his mental attitude] face to face with the entire congregation, skilful in teaching, persevering in spite of evil.”

Summary

1. The opposition of evil places the pastor in many discouraging situations.

2. The more doctrine he learns the greater becomes his perception of human folly and national failure.

3. The application of his doctrinal teaching is a constant warning which runs counter to national and collective policy in the devil’s world.

4. The cutback of the military establishment, the attack on free enterprise, the distortion of the legislative branch of government passing laws which destroy freedom in the name of common good; all of these things are opposition to doctrinal teaching, but the pastor must persevere in teaching the truth.

5. The arrogance of mediocre government violating human freedom, human privacy, human property, human lawful enterprise, is opposition to the teaching of the truth. But the pastor must persist.

6. Pastors must persist in spite of the apparent triumph of evil for the only hope of any generation is centred in the nucleus of super-grace believers, and super-grace believers cannot exist apart from Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Bible doctrine resident in the soul cannot exist apart from the faithfulness of the pastor-teacher in study-and-teach.

Principles in connection with verse 25

1. In the previous the occupational hazard of the ministry was failure to keep plugging in the area of study-and-teach plus being sensitive to, in an abnormal way, and discouraged by the pressure from some in the congregation and the opinions of evil in the world in general.

2. In this verse another occupational hazard is presented. It deals with the subject of pride.

3. Blind arrogance is the greatest killer of pastors.

4. Many pastors have removed themselves from serving the Lord through their pride and arrogance.

5. Next to teaching the most frequent use of the pastor’s authority is directed toward discipline of recalcitrants in the congregation.

6. The reversionistic believer who disrupts a congregation must feel the sting of the pastor’s authority. The pastor has received from God maximum authority.

7. No pastor can handle this authority if he is under the influence of pride or arrogance. Pastoral pomposity destroys the proper and necessary use of his authority in the protection of his congregation.

Verse 25 — “In meekness” is the preposition e)n plus the locative of the noun prauthj

which means humility, meekness, but really connoting here the concept of grace orientation which is humility and meekness in the true biblical sense. Self-effacement and false humility is merely a disguise for pride, but true meekness is grace orientation. The best translation here is “In grace orientation.” That is freedom from pride. No pastor can use his authority to discipline others if he is suffering from pride or arrogance. But then no believer can function with arrogance or pride.

The doctrine of pride

1. Pride is the basic mental attitude of sin. It is the quality or state of self-esteem in conceit. It is a lofty self-respect, it is having an opinion of yourself that is totally divorced from the reality of Bible doctrine. Pride is high-esteem of one’s self for some real or imagined superiority. Vanity is empty pride in respect of one’s person, attainments, possession, coupled with an excessive desire for notice, attention, approval or praise from others. There are many synonyms, including conceit, egotism, haughtiness, vanity, arrogance, pomposity, vainglory, superciliousness, and when carried into psychosis, megalomania. The big danger in pride comes from the fact that it is never alone, it is never isolated. It is a no-pressure type of sin that always has a counterpart, and the counterpart is just as much connected with pride. For example, arrogance and cowardice are merely two sides of the same coin. Pride is no pressure. But you put pressure on pride and it submerges and hides, and up comes its counterpart which in this case is cowardice. Then, as soon as the pressure is off cowardice it disappears and again pride comes into view.

2. Pride was both the original sin of Satan and the motivator of his fall — Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14-17.

3. Pride also became a human sin. Categorically pride is the basic mental attitude sin. It becomes the counterpart to other mental sins such as jealousy and weaknesses of the soul such as cowardice. All arrogant people are totally different when under pressure, the pressure acts as a sensitivity point hiding the pride and bringing out the counterparts. Counterparts fall into several categories: mental attitudes sins such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, anger, antagonism. Or the counterpart can be verbal sins such as gossip, maligning, judging. Overt sins such as operation vengeance or put-down. The pastor, being a human being, is just as vulnerable to pride as anyone in the congregation — noted in 1 Timothy 3:6; 6:4.

4. Pride relates to personal reversionism — Psalm 10:2-4; Proverbs 16:18 — literally, “Pride precedes destruction, and before a fall is arrogance of spirit.”

5. Pride is related to national reversionism — Leviticus 26:19; 2 Chronicles 32:26; Isaiah 9:9. National pride is related to the fall of the Arab nation of Moab — Isaiah 16:6 — and is related to the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom — Isaiah 28:1-3; Hosea 7:10-14; the southern kingdom — Ezekiel 7:10.

6. Pride in relationship to God — 1 Samuel 2:3. Pride rejects the concept that Jesus Christ controls history — Daniel 4:37. The principle of pride is related to the Lord Jesus Christ who very strongly condemned pride in Matthew 19:27-20:34.

7. Positive volition toward doctrine insulates the soul from pride. A pastor must study and by his personal study he not only prepares to teach the congregation but he protects himself from the great danger of pride. In the famous speech of Elihu in Job 33:16, 17. This is emphasised again in Proverbs 8:13; 11:2.

8. Pride and psychology.

a) Flaws are divided into two categories, real flaws or failures of character and pseudo flaws in which a person’s flare is mistaken for arrogance.

b) A hang-up is an obstacle in the normal function of life related to pride or arrogance.

c) A hang-up results in becoming snagged in some form of subjectivity or abnormality. All hang-ups are related to and manifestations of pride.

d) Hang-ups are another counterpart to pride. If pride or arrogance is under pressure then hang-ups or real flaws appear in the life.

e) There are two kinds of hang-ups as a counterpart to pride: i) Blind hang-ups from blind arrogance; ii) Known hang-ups from known arrogance.

f) The symptoms of these hang-ups are called in psychology “syndromes.” Syndromes are symptoms which are typical of a condition.

g) The condition is pride or arrogance; the syndromes are the counterpart of pride or manifestations of pressure on pride.

h) Hang-ups are a hindrance to learning Bible doctrine just as hang-ups are a hindrance to teaching Bible doctrine.

i) Pride rejects the authority of the Bible teacher. Pride refuses to attend Bible class or church services of one’s right pastor, or to continue listening to tapes, or failure to remain under the ministry of the right pastor.

j) However there are certain occasions where the proud attend Bible class or church services. Usually the message puts them under pressure so that pride is submerged and up comes the hang-ups or the syndromes. These hang-ups result in resisting doctrine. This resistance may be any one of a number of syndromes — the legalistic syndrome, the guilt syndrome, the emotional syndrome, the cowardice syndrome, the inadequacy syndrome, the liberal syndrome, etc.

9. Pride and the laws of divine establishment — Matthew 24:12.

“instructing” is a present active participle from paideuw which is not what it appears to be on the surface. It really means spank the little brats whether they need it or not at least once a week. It means “discipline children.” But sometimes it simply means to discipline. It means the practice of discipline, correction by discipline. So, “In grace orientation exercise disciplinary action.” The present tense is an iterative present, it is used to describe what recurs at successive intervals. The iterative present tense says that this will occasionally occur, not all the time. You only exercise disciplinary action when necessary, and it shouldn’t be necessary too often. The iterative present means on occasion. It is necessary to subordinate everything to the teaching of Bible doctrine. There must be order in the assembly teaching of the Word during worship, in the inculcation of doctrine, the instruction of the royal family of God, and the edification of the positive believer demand order, self-discipline, and respect for authority. The participle is circumstantial and because of the iterative present hopefully it is infrequent.

“those that oppose themselves” is not a correct translation. This is the articular present middle participle from the compound a)ntidiatiqhmi [a)nti = against; diatiqhmi = a verb to ordain, to decree, or to issue a decree] which means to resist or to be against the decree or the plan of God — “to those who are in opposition to doctrinal teaching” is the best translation of this participle. The definite article is in the accusative plural and it is used as a demonstrative pronoun emphasising the opposition of reversionistic believers to Bible teaching. Reversionistic believers are under the influence of evil. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting something begun in the past and continuing into the present time. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the agent, the reversionistic believer, produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

“if God” is incorrect. The word “if” includes a negative mh plus the enclitic particle pote used as a conjunction. It should be translated “so that perhaps.” Plus o( qeoj, “the God.”

“peradventure will give them” includes the aorist active optative of didomi which means to give. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the occurrence of reversion recovery and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into one entirety. The active voice: God in His grace provides time, the right pastor, the right local church, and all of the temporal provision necessary to recover — food, shelter, transportation. The optative mood is the mood of strong contingency, strong possibility. This is called a voluntative optative mood which expresses the wish of the writer that all reversionistic believers would recover. With the conjunction mh pote this becomes a desirable possibility. There is also in this phrase the dative plural of the intensive pronoun a)utoj. It is used as an indirect object and the intensive pronoun emphasises the identity of the reversionistic believer.

“repentance” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun metanoia [noia = thinking; meta = change]. Repentance is simply the old English way of saying a change of mind. Here the change of mind is toward Bible doctrine. The absence of the definite article in front of repentance calls attention to the quality of the noun. This noun is the key to reversion recovery. There must be a change of mind about the importance of doctrine.

“to the acknowledging of the truth” — “to the acknowledging” is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of e)pignwsij which means maximum doctrine, full knowledge, doctrine resident in the right lobe. Plus “of the truth,” i.e. Bible doctrine.

Translation: “In grace orientation [freedom from pride and arrogance] exercising disciplinary action toward those who are in opposition to doctrinal teaching; so that perhaps the God may give them a change of mind for the purpose of achieving full knowledge of the truth [doctrine].”

Verse 26 — “And that they may recover.” This is a transitional use of the conjunction kai, plus the aorist active subjunctive of a)nanhfw which means that they should come to their senses. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety and emphasises the existing results — the existing results of coming to one’s sense. The active voice: the awakened reversionistic believer formerly under the influence of evil has now sobered up and is now taking in Bible doctrine. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference, becoming aware of reversionism through discipline and by realising that something must be done and doing it — the daily function of GAP.

“out of the snare of the devil” — e)k is the preposition, plus the ablative of pagij which means a trap — “and be delivered from the devil’s trap. The devil’s trap is reversionism and evil, the two sides of the coin called apostasy.

“who are taken captive” refers to believers getting into reversionism. This is a perfect passive participle from zwgrew which means to be captured in a battle. The battle is the angelic conflict and the capture takes place when the believer goes into reversionism. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it is used for a completed action of reversionism with the result that the believer is now completely in the Satanic trap of evil. He is feeding regularly from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives the action of the verb, he is captured by evil — the Satanic viewpoint and policy of life. The participle is circumstantial for a believer who has neglected Bible doctrine.

“by him” is the preposition u(po plus the ablative from the intensive pronoun a)utoj referring to Satan, emphasising Satan — under his authority. The ablative of means is used here and that is unusual. The ablative is not the regular Greek case for expressing means but it is used when the expression of means is accompanied by an implication of origin or source. The origin or the source is mentioned by the word a)utoj — “by him.”

“at his will” — i.e. at Satan’s will, e)ij plus the accusative of qelhma which means will, plan, or purpose. We also have a possessive genitive from the remote demonstrative pronoun e)keinoj, emphasising that Satan is behind the scenes. he is not going to make contact directly, he has all kinds of unusual personalities to handle that job for him. Corrected translation here: “having been held captive by him with reference to his plan.”

Translation: “And that they should come to their senses and be delivered from the devil’s trap, having been held captive by him with reference to his plan.”

There can be no great emphasis on the importance of teaching doctrine when there is a negative approach and when evil is in the soul. So God has to discipline, discipline, discipline, and wake up the individual.

Summary of the 11 responsibilities of the pastor in this paragraph: 14-26

1. To maintain discipline in the local church — verse 14.

2. To fulfil the #1 priority of the ministry: study and teach — verse 15.

3. To avoid apostasy, reversionism and evil in the content of the message — verse 16.

4. The first parenthetical principle: The reversionistic pastor is no believer’s right pastor — verses 17,18.

5. To constantly make an issue out of doctrine — verse 19.

6. The second parenthetical principle: The classification of the congregation — verse 20.

7. By faithfulness and teaching to produce from the congregation vessels of honour — verse 21.

8. By faithfulness in personal to also become a vessel of honour — verse 22.

9. By keeping his priorities straight the pastor avoids false issues — verse 23.

10. By dogged determination the pastor must become a consistent plugger, avoiding the pitfalls of the ministry — verses 24,25.

11. Therefore to provide a teaching ministry for recovery from Satan’s trap of reversionism and evil — verse 26.