Chapter 6

Up through chapter five we have had principle, now we get to the concept of practice. In chapter 6 we have the universal ministry of the believer. In chapters 7 & 8 we have one of the privileges of the priesthood, two whole chapters on giving.

Verse 6 — “We as workers together.” ‘We’ is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and it refers to the fact that every believer is a minister — verse 4. The word ‘ministry’ is used three ways in the scripture. The political use is found in Romans 13:4 where it is used for someone who has a position of authority in divine institution #4. The second use of the word is specialised, often used for the pastor of a church as in Ephesians 3:7; 6:21; Colossians 1:23, 25; 4:7; 1 Timothy 1:12. But the word is also used in a third way and that is the way we find it almost entirely throughout 2 Corinthians. The general usage has to do with the universal ministry of the believer. Every believer is a minister from the standpoint of 2 Corinthians. While there is a distinction in spiritual gifts there is a general thrust in the Christian life that includes us all. Literally, “We therefore as workers together.”

“workers together” is sunergew, present active participle [sun = with or together with; e)rgew = producers]. So we are all joint producers. This is a present active participle which says that we are always going to be workers together. It doesn’t say that you have to have togetherness, As workers together you’d be amazed as to how we pull together. We pull together by first of all drawing a line between us, and that is a curtain called privacy. The reason is because we are all priests and between each one of us there should be privacy, even in any intimate relationship — even marriage. The primary principle in pulling together is the recognition of each other’s privacy. We must have privacy to live our lives unto the Lord. And when you have everyone breathing in his own lungs and not trying to give artificial respiration to someone else, then we will start to work together. When it says “we working together” it means every person has his own volition of soul. This is summarised in Colossians 3:16,17.

This means that apart from spiritual gifts there are certain assets which we all possess:

a) Positional truth, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Every believer at the point of salvation is entered into union with Jesus Christ. Now every believer is his own priest and is in full time Christian service. The distinction of clergy and laity is obviously a Satanic traditional attack upon the true concept. We are workers together.

b) We have the universal indwelling of Christ. Every believer is indwelt by Christ for the purpose of fellowship. This was never true before.

c) God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer. This was never true before.

d) The priesthood. Each one represents himself before God.

e) We have a completed canon of scripture. We have Bible doctrine exegetically portrayed verse by verse, line by line, and we also have it categorically with an indication as to the category found throughout the scripture.

f) This is the first time in any dispensation, the first time in history, when we have had a completely and total supernatural way of life which in no way requires any human energy, any human ingenuity, whereby we have a total provision per individual believer from God.

g) For the first time in history every believer is a minister — the universal ministry of the believer. Therefore, every believer is in full time Christian service.

“beseech” — present active indicative parakalew [para = immediate source; kalew = call] means sometimes to exhort and sometimes it means to encourage, but whatever way you take it it also means to persuade. They way it is taken here, beware in a public relations apostasy, beware in a legalistic apostasy, beware in a blasphemous apostasy, beware every generation …

“that you do not receive the grace of God in vain” — the only way we can work together is for grace to be in the soul of every believer. Every believer must be grace oriented.

“receive not” — the Greek verb is dexomai which means three or four things. It means to welcome something with open arms, to receive gladly, to take someone up in your arms, and it also means to receive the content of something. Here it means to inhale Bible doctrine which is the grace of God expressed. Bible doctrine reveals and expresses the grace of God.

“in vain” — kenoj means emptiness, empty without content, minus structure. The whole point here is that every believer must not ever be empty of structure. We cannot work together when we are minus doctrine in the soul. There must be a constant inhale of doctrine so that there can be structure, content in the soul.

The doctrine of edification

1. Etymology. There are three Greek nouns and all of them are translated by the word “edification” but they are all different.

a) o)ikodomh — this is the act of erecting a structure. This is the one that is found in Ephesians four. This is the one where doctrine comes in the left bank of the soul and you begin to build a structure on doctrine — grace orientation, inner happiness, RMA, capacity to love in all categories, mastery of the details of life. O)ikodomh simply means the process of this thing.

b) o)ikodomia — this noun means the finished product, the one we are going to see in 2 Corinthians. This word sees the structure erected in the soul.

c) o)ikodomoj — this is the builder. In our context the builder is Bible doctrine, residual doctrine in the soul.

2. The biblical usage.

a) Three times in Ephesians four we have o)ikodomh, in verses 12,16,29. This is the process.

b) In Acts 9:31 we have a church that had peace and quiet and blessing because it had o)ikodomia. In other words, we actually have a church that is the perfect idea church. Everyone is relaxed because inside of the soul of each was this erected structure.

c) In 1 Corinthians 14, to show that the tongues movement only had a short-burst function and was being abused, and then no longer existed, the word oikodomia & o)ikodomh are being used in contrast with the tongues movement — verses 3,4,12,26. It was nothing compared to doctrine, grace orientation, inner happiness, RMA, capacity to love, and mastery of the details of life. That is the erected structure of the soul.

d) In 1 Corinthians 8:1 we have another use. ‘Knowledge puffeth up but love edifies’ — but knowledge there is the stuff that comes through mataiothj, it is the devil’s stuff. But when you have love, RMA, in the edification structure you have it because you have doctrine, and it is doctrine that edifies and builds the structure. The verb is o)ikodomew which means the process of building the structure, verb form to erect the structure. Therefore the inhale of doctrine erects the structure and this is a contrast between human viewpoint knowledge of kosmoj diabolikuj and divine viewpoint knowledge of Bible doctrine.

e) The communication gifts are designed for edification — 2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10. Bible doctrine is designed for edification.

3. The first prerequisite for edification is the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is the means of inhaling Bible doctrine — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14. This is based upon the rebound technique.

4. The second prerequisite for edification is the continuous learning of Bible doctrine.

5. The mechanics of edification. They involve all three Greek words: oikodomoj, which is doctrine equivalent to oxygen. Then mechanically you have the left bank of the soul with the left lung designed for inhale of doctrine. The basis for doing this is the filling of the Spirit. Then you exhale toward God, category #1 love; toward people, category #2 love, right man, right woman; toward friends, category #3; toward the details of life. All of this is done with residual doctrine in the soul. Then from there you build grace orientation and there must be a fantastic residual factor here before your grace orientation begins to build. The first result of this is e)pignwsij, full knowledge of God. The second result is o)ikodomia which is the finished product.

“We as workers together.” How are we ever going to work together? We must have an erected structure in the soul from residual doctrine. This causes our relationship with each other to operate on the basis of the erected structure of the soul and it eliminates all the guff. It means that we work together as a team, it means we are going in the same direction even though our personalities are different, our basic background may be different, everything that people count as important is different, but we are living our lives as unto the Lord, we have privacy.

Notice the word ‘beseech’ here means to persuade, and persuasion starts in 6:1 and goes all the way to the end of the book. In 13:10 is the direction of his persuasion: “Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me directed toward the purpose of edification, and not destruction.” In other words, he is writing these things so as not to destroy them but to edify them. If he came in person he would tear them to bits.

This is the whole issue in the Christian life: edification or destruction. Which is it going to be? If you are somehow daily taking in Bible doctrine and exhaling Bible doctrine, you have residual doctrine in the soul. And from residual doctrine you have a buildup and therefore you have a perfect stability of life, a consistency of life, a dynamic of life. But if you are a believer who goes negative on doctrine then there is no residual doctrine in the soul, there is no soul breathing, you have mental attitude sins, you have self-induced misery, wide emotional swings, great instability, and you may cover it up with any system of pseudo spirituality but it still stinks and you are pulling in the wrong direction. This means the buildup of scar tissue on the right and left banks of the soul, and when it is filled up completely the sin unto death.

Verse 11 tells us what happens when edification, not destruction, is the order of the day: “Finally brethren, farewell, Be equipped, be stabilised, be of one mind [divine viewpoint], live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” He can’t be anything else where there is the erection of the structure of the soul based on residual Bible doctrine.

Verses 2 & 3 deal with an illustration of how not to accept the grace of God in vain. This has to do with your personal life day by day in whatever you do by way of recreation of business, or however you fill your hours, the inhale or exhale of doctrine. Now the apostle Paul selects one facet of the Christian life, a facet which is not connected in any way with what you do when you are in the geographical area of the local church. Witnessing was really not designed for the church service or for the function of the church, it was designed to go to the outside day by day where the unbelievers are located and to reach these individuals for Christ. So we have a problem here, and that problem is to be able to so operate from the structure of the grace of God in the soul so that without any problem, without any difficulty, we are going to be able to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. The concept of witnessing is given first in verse 2 where we have the message of the lips.

Verse 2 — “For he saith” is a quotation from Isaiah 49:8; “I have heard thee in a time accepted” — ‘I have heard’ is not the usual word for hearing which is a)kouw, but here we have e)pakouw which is slightly different. Putting the pronoun with it means to hear with favour, to hear with positive volition. When you hear something you respond to it. You hear it and you are positive volition begins to throw out signals in response to that. This is the inhale of the gospel. The gospel goes into the nouj and once there then there is a response. There is the response of positive volition, there is the exhale of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God says, “I have heard favourably in a time.”

“in a time” — kairoj refers to an epoch or a dispensation or to a civilisation. It refers to an historical period of time. It is usually translated ‘epoch,’ it refers to anything that involves an historical period of time. The historical period of time here involves the Church Age in which every believer is in full time Christian service and one of his expressions of service is witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ.

“accepted” — dektoj refers to the point of God-consciousness. This is every epoch, in every period, in every dispensation, in every century, in any period of time no matter how time is declared in the scripture, the time/epoch accepted refers to positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. It refers to the fact that people in various periods of history are rearranged geographically. For example, in some periods of history there has been a great population explosion in Mongolia and it has pushed out in all directions. It pushed out toward the Assyrians, toward the Cythians. Others went toward China and some toward India. And throughout history there have been great population explosions. Populations are located in various places, and you never know from one century to the next and from one generation to the next where the positive volition is going to be. The positive volition at God-consciousness can be in different areas and maximum evangelism in that generation is going to depend on where the positive signals are. Wherever there is maximum negative volition at the point of God-consciousness that is the area where God shuts down. We can deduce that China is in this area today. Communism has taken over China today. In spite of the tremendous aggressiveness of the communists after world war 2 there would be no communism in China today except for the fact that communism follows the vacuum. Communism is a Satanic organisation and the vacuum is negative volition. But this also tells us something else, it means that God has opened up somewhere else.

Isaiah recognised in his day what we should recognise in ours. They were just about to go to war with Assyria. For about a year before that war Isaiah recognised that the people of that day had gone positive at the point of God-consciousness and at the point of gospel hearing. Hezekiah was a born again believer and even though he was a very weak king there was definitely positive volition right under his nose. So Isaiah began to evangelise and teach day by day. The result was that within that year there was a fantastic harvest of souls and a fantastic development of the individual believer, for those who were born again went to his Bible classes daily. Then the crisis came, the Assyrian invasion of the land which eventually led to the siege of Jerusalem. And you have the people on the wall who faith-rested it all the way. They had been led to the Lord under Isaiah’s ministry, they were people who were strong in the Word, they had that ECS as it then existed. They had all of these things and they were strong and relaxed when the Rabshakah came forth with his system of brainwashing, they didn’t buy it at all.

“and in the day of salvation I have succoured thee” — the word to ‘succour’ means to run to the aid of someone crying for help. The Greek word is bohqew. The cry for help is positive volition at God-consciousness, the potential positive volition at the point of gospel hearing. That means that there are thousands of people in our area right now in their souls are crying for help. And all they are waiting for is for you to witness.

The application: “behold now” — Paul is speaking in his day, in the dispensation of grace, the dispensation of the Church whereas Isaiah was speaking in the dispensation of Israel. Now there is an application from Isaiah’s remarks.

“now is the time accepted” — the time of a grace offering. The word for ‘accepted’ here is e)uprosdektoj [e)u = good; proj = face to face with; dektoj = the concept of an opportunity], the time when grace is available, when God will look with favour upon the call for help. So he is saying to the Corinthians that they are face to face with a fantastic opportunity in their own city. Now is the time for the Corinthians to face up to the tremendous opportunity of positive volition.

“behold, now is the day of salvation” — when the people in Corinth are presented the issue they are going respond when it is presented on a grace basis. That means no legalism intruding. In order for this to occur there is going to have to be a change among the Corinthians. They are spending all of their time criticising Paul. They are going to have to get rid of the scar tissue of the soul where it exists and they are going to have to go on that crash program for the removal of scar tissue. As scar tissue is removed there will be the build-up of residual doctrine in the soul. This is the foundation for the erection of a structure in the soul.

Verse 3 — “Giving no offence.” The word for ‘offence’ here is proskoph which is a very mild word [koph = cut off; proj = face to face with]. It means to phase someone out, to shut them down, to turn them down. But it is a mild word. He is saying in effect that as long as you are out of fellowship, building up scar tissue, you are going to cut off these unbelievers who are on positive volition, even though you are face to face with the, even though you live in the same vicinity. And when you do that you are going to cause offence to the ministry. He puts a negative in front of proskoph which means ‘no offence.’

“that the ministry [the universal ministry of the believer] be not blamed” — the word for ‘blame’ here is mwmeomai, and it means an unbeliever criticising a believer for a legitimate reason. It is an aorist passive subjunctive and it means the Corinthian believers are being criticised by the unbelievers because the unbelievers are critical, because the believers manifest mental attitude sins. So here is the unbeliever of Corinth censoring the believer because of his mental attitude sins, and therefore the believers of Corinth who are supposed to be witnessing are turning off unbelievers on positive volition.

Verse 4 — “But in all things approving ourselves.” There are all kinds of all things and some all things are more obvious than other all things. There are all things of eternity, what you will have in phase three. There are all things in time.

In this passage, verses 4-10, we have three demonstrations of the ministry, the universal ministry of the believer as a priest and as an ambassador. The first of these demonstrations is pressure, verses 4,5. The second one is stability, verses 6,7. The third is adaptability, verses 8-10. All of these demonstrations are from Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer. In other words, the concept of residual doctrine in the believer’s soul. As a believer we are given as a gift from God pressure, and this pressure is to demonstrate that inside of us is that wonderful edification structure which He has provided. God says, ‘I am going to show the world what kind of a suit you have on your soul. I am going to show Satan and the fallen angels and all human beings in cosmos diabolicus the most beautiful clothes in the world.’ The style is perfect because it was designed in heaven billions of years ago. God says that to show the world what you are wearing He has to turn us inside out. The only way He can do this is through suffering. So when you begin to get the ECS, when you begin to have the erected structure of your soul, you are going to are going to have this marvellous structure to put on, clothes in the soul — the new man. And when you do it God shows the world what it is like by turning you inside out. So we have three ingredients in the divine demonstration of the ECS to the world. People can’t look inside of you and see your soul, your soul is well hidden from human view. So God shows fallen angels and unbelievers what beautiful clothes you wear in your soul. But you have to have the ECS first, and when you have it God turns you inside out with pressure. Once it is turned inside out through suffering, through pressure, with that ECS this is what people are going to see — stability. Then, to intensify this storm we are going to have adaptability. God demonstrates what His grace can do. We are going to show what the plan of God can do and therefore we have in this passage the demonstration of the edification structure, or a minister turned inside out. The minister is every believer. With the build-up of the edification structure God is going to demonstrate His grace and His plan to angels and to men. God is going to show to the world what you are wearing in your soul. When God brings or permits pressure in your life that pressure plus what you have in your soul, the ECS, is a fantastic reflection of His glory.

Therefore we have “in all things approving,” a present active participle of sunisthmi. The word means to recommend to favourable attention, it means to present, to introduce or to demonstrate. God has a demonstration of His glory, not every believer but only those believers who daily inhale Bible doctrine, who have residual doctrine in the soul and who build upon that residual doctrine the ECS. Exhale of doctrine from your soul is simple application but when you start reflecting from your soul the edification structure of the soul that is reflected glory. This is a present active participle and all of your life on this earth you are to be a reflector of the glory of God. “In all things constantly demonstrating.” The active voice: each believer must do it for himself. No one else can demonstrate glory for you, you must do it on your own. This is something that is done by the grace of God, it is done by soul breathing.

“as the ministers of God” — ‘of God’ is a genitive of possession; the word ‘minister’ refers to every believer. You are the possession of God. As the possession of God you should be the glory of God. There are nine areas of suffering whereby the edification complex reflects glory to God. When the glory is reflected toward God the other side of the building also reflects glory under these conditions, and so glory is reflected toward angels, toward people, and everything else involved in cosmos diabolicus. But this is clothing on the inside because this is the devil’s world. There is a time coming when we are going to be removed from the devil’s world and given outside clothing, the resurrection body. This is the greatest glory we can have until we possess a resurrection body. And when we possess a resurrection body we will come back to the earth and Satan will be removed, and then there will be a reflected glory overtly forever. You and I in resurrection bodies will glorify God forever.

The exhale of the reflected glory is through the exhale from the soul. In this reflected glory, category #1 love, there is a principle which causes the reflector to fire out the other side at the same time, and that is the principle of faith-rest in suffering, a persistence in the most difficult circumstances. And this is declared by the prepositional phrase, “in patience.”

“in” is e)n plus the locative case, and it should be translated “in the sphere of.” Then we have the word “patience,” the Greek word u(pomonh [monh = abide; u(po = under]. It means to abide under pressure. You have the ECS and therefore reflected glory going out toward God, and there is a faith-rest switch called u(pomonh, persistent faith-rest — your love toward God, your prayer toward God, your faith rest is all category #1. And this switch also fires it out in the other direction so that the world, the flesh and the devil, as it were (the people in the flesh), can all see this.

Patience — u(pomonh

1. Patience is the locative noun u(pomonh which emphasises the extension of the faith-rest technique into suffering situations in life.

2. Suffering is designed by God to be a great blessing to the believer. God wouldn’t let us suffer in time if it were not His plan and it didn’t have a good purpose. It has a good purpose and it is in His plan. Suffering is a source of great blessing in phase two.

3. God in grace found a way to bless the believer in suffering, and to advance His plan.

4. The advance of God’s plan in suffering is the demonstration of His glory from the ECS.

5. Under suffering the reflected glory from the ECS is category #1 love. In this reflected glory toward God there is a switch which fires grace glory out the right bank of the soul.

6. Category #1 love includes not just the love itself but faith-rest and prayer, the faith-rest is the switch.

7. With the faith-rest switch, u(pomonh, causes God’s glory to fire out the right bank toward people, toward angels, toward cosmos diabolicus.

The nine areas where the reflected glory is perceptible

All of these nine areas have the same structure. They are all prepositional phrases. The preposition is e)n plus the locative case which means ‘in the sphere of.’

1. “In the sphere of afflictions” — qliyij means the closing in of the walls until they crush you. This is a word which means pressure, mental pressure, from distressing circumstances of life. Mental pressure reveals the ECS, the beauty of the new man in the soul.

2. “In the sphere of necessities” — the object of the preposition is a)nagkh which means to compress, it means compulsion, it means to use torture, to be bullied, to have people intrude upon your own volition, your privacy. The noun is actually used for some form of compulsion which can be threefold: loss of freedom, being bullied, being bullied.

These are gradations of loss of freedom. Loss of freedom simply means sticking their nose in your business. Being bullied means they are trying to force you into a false system. Being tortured, of course, is obvious. This should be translated ‘in the sphere of compulsions.’

3. “In the sphere of distresses” — stenokwria which means excruciating pain of soul or body. It means anguish, distress or troubles. This is a general term for trouble, the other two were specifics; “and in general troubles of life.” God has so designed something whereby you can reflect His glory.

Verse 5 —

4. “In the sphere of strife” — plhgh means wounds, blows, bruises. In other words, it refers to violence. The believer priest is going to be subjected to various types of violence.

5. “In the sphere of imprisonments” — fulakh, means here unfair incarceration, being deprived unjustly of your normal functions and freedoms in life.

6. “In the sphere of tumults” — a)katastasia means revolutions, riots, mobs. In other words, the suffering of political persecution. Even in riots, if you are the victim you can reflect the glory of God.

7. “In the sphere of labours” — kopoj is used especially for being pestered. It also means to be exhausted. Generally if you are pestered long enough you are exhausted — like mothers at the end of the summer!

8. “In the sphere of watchings” — a)gnupviaj means to suffer from lack of sleep. This is suffering from being deprived of sleep.

9. “In the sphere of fasting” — nhsteia means suffering from being deprived of food. This phrase means suffering by not having basic necessities in life.

All of these are adversities which are designed by God to show, to demonstrate, the edification structure of the soul, what you are wearing in the soul. By the way, if you are wearing rags in the soul that, too, shows up.

Verses 6,7 — demonstration #2, stability.

Verse 6 — this time we have the same preposition, e)n. But instead of the locative we have the instrumental case. This should be translated ‘by’ or ‘by means of.’ E)n plus the locative is ‘in the sphere of,’ but e)n plus the instrumental is ‘by means of.’ Stability is demonstrated by the erection of the ECS from residual doctrine. The foundation for the structure being residual doctrine which comes from daily inhale-exhale of doctrine. These conditions, then, are going to show something of how the structure is developed and how the reflection goes on. Demonstration #2 is not only stability but it is mechanics also. First of all, there must be pureness to build up this structure.

“By pureness” — e)n plus the instrumental of a)gnothj which means purity of life, purity of thought pattern, purity of motivation, purity of behaviour pattern. In other words, it really is another expression of the rebound technique. This is accomplished by rebound. So ‘pureness’ is the means of cranking up this structure which reflects the glory of God. The rebound technique, then, is the basis for stability in phase two because rebound provides the filling of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit leads to soul breathing with positive volition involved.

“by knowledge” — gnwsij which means technical knowledge, knowledge of a technical subject. The technical type subject for the believer is Bible doctrine categorically. It is used here for residual doctrine.

“by longsuffering” — e)n plus the instrumental makroqumia which is a grace orientation word. It means longsuffering.

“by kindness” — this is also a grace orientation word, xrhstothj. But now this is to show us something. Gnwsij is technical, categorical knowledge, and it refers to residual doctrine. Then we have makroqumia which is grace orientation. When suffering hits makroqumia, longsuffering, it reflects out the right bank, “by gracious operation” — xrhstothj. This means your attitude toward people is based on what you have in your soul. Grace is who and what God is. God has essence and grace is the work of His essence. God in His essence found a way to save man, found a way to love man, found a way to provide for man. The way that He found was grace, so grace is the reflected glory of God’s essence. Kindness is the reflected glory of your essence in the soul, your new essence, your ‘new man’ where the ECS is a new man. And this is what you are in the soul, therefore your attitude toward people is based upon grace orientation.

“by [means of] the Holy Spirit” — once again the Holy Spirit is brought in to show that the filling of the Holy Spirit makes the whole thing function.

“by love unfeigned” — inner happiness and RMA. The word ‘unfeigned’ really tells us that this love is without mental hypocrisy.

Verse 7 — all of this is built on residual doctrine. “The word of truth” is a synonym for gnwsij because residual doctrine has a mechanics even. The mechanics is logoj, ‘word,’ referring to Bible doctrine in the Bible; a)lhqeia, the word for ‘truth’ means categorical truth. Getting it from logoj to a)lhqeia is the process of the pastor-teacher communicating doctrine, the inhale of doctrine into the soul, the doctrine going into its categories, making it a)lhqeia.

“by the power of God” — again the instrumental case and the word for inherent power, dunamij. This is a reminder, a safeguard. Remember, you don’t build the ECS. The foundation is residual doctrine and he basis for taking in this is the grace principle and every floor of the ECS is built on grace, you don’t earn it, you don’t deserve it, you can’t cultivate it, it is something that God found a way to do. God found a way to reflect His own glory and to reflect it on earth. So there has to be a safeguard here so that you will never get off into legalism — ‘by means of the power of God.’ This is His inherent power, His omnipotence. This is the power of the Father in 1 Peter 1:5; the power of the Son in 2 Corinthians 12:9; the power of the Spirit in Romans 15:13; the power of the Word of God in Hebrews 4:12.

Now the devil goes around trying to put the lights out, the lights of the reflected glory. The light is a reflected light and therefore he has to see that this structure is destroyed, so God has given us some armour over the soul.

“by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left” — now we have a change of preposition. Now we go to dia plus the genitive which means by the means of: “by means of the armour of righteousness.” The armour includes both weapons and equipment of the soldier. It is a reminder that we are in the angelic conflict and the devil is in the job of trying to destroy the reflectors. This reflector is called ‘righteousness,’ which means here fairness, equity, justice, graciousness, vindication. God has found a way in grace to supply for us the armour of vindication in the devil’s world. There is no way that we can be vindicated by our own works. Our vindication has to come from God. So what has He done? He has provided lungs for the soul, He has provided the principle of soul breathing, He has provided the residual doctrine of the soul for the building of the ECS. And He has put a suit of armour over it all called grace.

We now move to another demonstration through the ECS which is the subject of adaptability. Adaptability has to do with rapidly changing circumstances. There are nine rapidly changing circumstances which are connected with suffering because of the rapid change from one extreme to another extreme and these are going to be used to once again show the reflected glory of the ECS. Adaptability is a concept which has to do with weathering a storm. How to weather a storm is the subject of adaptability. God gives us a series of rapidly changing circumstances. There is a type of suffering where you just take the full brunt of it and it goes on and on and on and one, but you orient and you begin to find some of God’s wonderful provisions of grace on that disaster. But here we have a situation where a storm hits and disappears, hits and disappears, and this calls for the ECS under the concept of adaptability which is presented in verses 8-10. In the concept of adaptability some of the rapidly changing circumstances will be in the form of the preposition dia plus the genitive. Then, all of a sudden, we run out of prepositional phrases and we go to a second expression of adaptability. We have an adverb, o(j which introduces antithetical situations which also are a part of the adaptability factor. So throughout this particular passage we are going to have dia plus the genitive, and then o(j, and then finally to participles and verbs to set up nine different systems which involve the ECS. These are rapidly changing circumstances. So once again we need to realise that the inner resources of the soul are built up over a period of time by the inhale of Bible doctrine. The edification structure of the soul begins with residual doctrine, the doctrine you do not exhale, the doctrine you do not apply. On this is erected a structure which can adapt to rapidly changing circumstances without being destroyed. In other words, when the winds of life come along and everything that would be disastrous, this structure can stand up under all of them. All of these adaptability factors begin with a prosperity principle and then move to non-prosperity where they reverse and you start out with non-prosperity and disaster and move to a successful principle. But the principle that is to be remembered here is like moving to some situation where you are very hot to a situation where you are very cold. This requires adaptability of the body and people often say this is the way you get a cold, you get hot and you suddenly get very cold. The body has to adapt from one circumstance to another, and so it is with the spiritual life where circumstances change rapidly.

Verse 8 — “By honour and dishonour.” We have the preposition dia plus the genitive meaning through or by means of. The preposition dia which should be translated ‘through’ here indicates that the edification structure of the soul stands up to the varying circumstances of life. In other words, adaptability means that you rule the circumstances of life, they do not rule you. The word for ‘honour’ is really not honour at all. It is the Greek word doca which is ‘glory.’ Then we have the word a)timia which means ‘dishonour’ or ‘infamy.’ It connotes disapprobation from the human race. Literally, this is “Through glory and dishonour.”

“Through glory and dishonour”

1. Antithetical circumstances are mentioned to demonstrate the ability of the edification complex to cope with rapid change of circumstances.

2. The ECS causes the believer to stand up under circumstances which change through adversity. You start out with glory and you wind up with dishonour. That is a rapid change of circumstances. Rapidly changing circumstances and adaptability is a sign of great stability.

3. Therefore the believer with an ECS is stabilised and adaptable. Adaptability is the utilisation of the ECS in time of sudden disaster.

4. Adaptability then manifests the believer’s grace orientation; it is the flashing forth, the manifestation of the reflected glory in the ECS.

5. Stability from the ECS causes immediate adjustment to rapidly changing circumstances.

6. Adaptability is the perpetuation of that stability into the extremes of suffering which are caused by a rapid change of circumstances.

7. Stability is the erection of the ECS and its first manifestation in the angelic conflict, but adaptability is the perpetuation of that structure into the worst possible storm of life.

8. Illustration: What does it mean to go from glory to dishonour? “Through glory and dishonour.” Glory can be to have the love of a woman. Dishonour is when she phases you right out of the picture. You’ve had it! That is a rapid set of circumstances. This phrase, “through glory and dishonour,” is suffering through a rapid change of circumstances but it is suffering which comes from vacillation and instability on the part of others, whether it is an individual who is unstable or a collective group.

“by evil report and good report” — again we have the same structure of dia plus two genitives. It should be translated “through evil report and good report.” The Greek has dusqhmia, the word which is translated ‘evil report.’ The next word e)uqhmia. Dusqhmia means to malign or slander someone; e)uqhmia means ‘praise,’ to say something good about someone. One word means to condemn, one means to commend. It would have been better translated “through condemnation and commendation.”

1. Rapidly changing circumstances produce suffering and disorientation unless you possess and ECS.

2. This believer who orients to both condemnation and commendation without loss of happiness, without lost of the relaxed mental attitude [RMA], obviously has his ECS intact.

3. A believer’s happiness does not depend on what people think about him. A believer’s happiness depends upon God and God’s grace and God’s plan and God’s perfect agenda.

4. Inner resources include the divine provision of the ECS.

5. This ECS manifests the glory of God under suffering from rapidly changing circumstances.

“as deceivers, and yet true” — now we change. With the others we were going through something, like a storm, dia plus the genitive. Now for the first time we have o(j, and adverb, and it is going to set up some contrasts with the use of this. It is correctly translated “as.” There is no passage in the Word of God that tells you to be a deceiver. We are never commanded to deceive anyone. The word ‘deceiver’ isn’t in the text. The word is planoj and it means to be misunderstood — ‘being misunderstood.’ This means to be misunderstood when you are right, when you have done nothing wrong. This means that people misunderstand you because you are operating on grace, because you are oriented to the Word and to the plan of God, and because it is a part of Satan’s strategy to have Christians generally misunderstood by Christians, unbelievers, and anyone else who happens to be around. So every believer is going to face the suffering of being misunderstood when he is right. And the suffering part of this comes from the fact that you can’t stand around and spend your life explaining. If people are going to misunderstand they are going to have to be disciplined by the Lord. But planoj means not only are you being misunderstood but you are right and they are wrong. This is the word “yet true” — a)lhqhj which means true or genuine. It means you have a relaxed mental attitude, you are oriented to the grace of God, you are not in anyway out of fellowship, you are not trying to run around and defend yourself. Your RMA keeps you from defending yourself, you don’t try to explain. You live your life as unto the Lord even though you are misunderstood.

Verse 9 — “As unknown, and yet well known” — again we have o(j, the adverb, plus two present passive participles. The first is from the verb a)gnoew, the second is e)piginwskw which means to be very well known. A)gnoew means to be obscure, to be unknown. The ECS protects the believer from ambition, greed, and approbation lust. He has no ambition based on pride. E)piginwskw means fame, to be famous, to be well known. The principle: The believer’s happiness does not depend on either success or obscurity. Notice that these are present passive participles: being unknown. This is being in the will of God, having and ECS, and yet not known. Then there is being well known, and the passive voice in each one of these participles means that this in the will of God for you at this point. You are unknown and then you are successful, you are well known. The passive voice means you were unknown through grace and you were successful through grace. You received it all from God. You have no right to boast in these things personally, you have no right to assume that this is because of your ability. You are these things because of God’s ability. The ECS adapts to these circumstances of being obscure and being successful. The same thing is taught in Philippians 4:11,12.

“as dying, and behold, we live” — for the first time we have a break in the structure. We have the word o(j again but this time we have a present active participle followed by a present active subjunctive. The subjunctive is the key, for the subjunctive goes with the word zaw which means to live. At the end of this phrase you still don’t know whether you are going to live or not. You have gone through a tremendous storm here, a storm where you are dying — present active participle of a)poqnhskw, you are in the process of dying, present tense. The active voice: they think you are dying. The participle: you are going out and you know it. When you get down to living you still have the present tense, you are still alive. Active voice: you are still alive, but dying. The subjunctive mood: you don’t know how it is going to turn out. When it says “behold we live” it doesn’t mean you get cured, or you get well, or you even get rescued.

The break in the parallel structure of these antithetical circumstances is to teach a very important principle. This is actually the suffering that comes from danger. Under conditions of danger where death is involved. For example, you might be going through a battle through which you are constantly in danger. It is only when the battle is over that you actually know how that subjunctive mood is going to turn out. This is a case, not of dying grace, but of the possibility of survival or the possibility of going on to be with the Lord. So we have a present active participle, a)poqnhskw which means a believer actually facing death. In the midst of this when he is facing death he has his ECS, he can have inner happiness, an RMA, he can be completely relaxed about everything. His ECS flashes out the very reflected glory of God when in a situation where he is dying or is in danger of dying, and the subjunctive mood means he is living and doesn’t know whether he is going to remain alive. His ECS carries him through the whole thing and he doesn’t fall apart. Residual doctrine gives stability in the face of death. Grace orientation recognises the fact that as long as God has a purpose for his life he is going to stay alive, and if it is God’s time to take him home there is no way he is going to survive. It is in God’s hands and he relaxes, that’s grace orientation to the dying situation. The third would be inner happiness which gives him that wonderful stimulation of soul in the midst of a dying situation. He has blessing while facing death. He has an RMA and then finally he has mastery of the details of life and therefore has great fortitude as he faces a dying situation.

“as chastened, and not killed” — this is really different. These are both present passive participles. The word ‘chastened’ is paideuw which means to be trained by discipline, to be trained by being spanked, by being hurt. This category actually finds the believer under discipline from God. There is such a thing as suffering from discipline. Paideuw is the key here. It is possible that you can be in some form of discipline and suffer for quite a while. It is in the passive voice: you receive the discipline from God — Hebrews 12:6. The participle says that God is in the business of disciplining His own family. Now if you are suffering from this there is still the ECS to protect the believer in these circumstances.

1. As long as the believer priest continues to be alive he must orient rapidly to suffering caused by discipline. If you have an ECS you can orient rapidly. And what is your orientation? Rebound.

2. In so doing the believer will rebound with the result that cursing is turned to blessing. If you are suffering for discipline when you rebound the cursing of discipline is turned to blessing, and the suffering is now blessing suffering instead of cursing suffering because you are back in fellowship and you begin to operate again under the ECS.

3. If the suffering then continues, after rebound, the purpose of the suffering is blessing.

4. This is because grace found a way to turn cursing into blessing even when we are being spanked.

5. Rapid rebound indicates that the believer is not filled with scar tissue but rather has the ECS. Therefore he is alive after rebound so he keeps moving.

“not killed” — chastened but not dead. This is a present passive participle. This is the word qanatow, it means here to be delivered from death and as a result you are still alive so you keep moving. The believer assumes that God has a purpose for his life, he doesn’t look back, he doesn’t enter into guilt feelings or self-recrimination, he forgets it and he moves on. This is adaptability under discipline.

Verse 10 — again we have antithetical circumstances which are designed to bring out the beauty and the glory of God’s provision in grace for the believer through the ECS. You cannot utilise and enjoy the emotional facet of your soul without the ECS to stabilise it and to give it some real strength. We have here two present participles. “Sorrowful” is a present passive participle, “rejoicing” is a present active participle.

“As sorrowful” — the word sorrowful is not a good translation, it is an old English noun. The Greek word is lupew in the present passive participle and it means to feel pain, to feel sorrow, or to have an occasion for grief. So this should be translated “being sorrowful,” or constantly feeling pain [or grief]. It means to be the recipients of these things and yet not to succumb to them. In other words, it means to experience tragedy and all of the things that are so difficult and not to succumb. You go through these things but you don’t fall apart, and it is done through the ECS.

“yet always rejoicing” — the word ‘always’ is an adverb, a)ei. This means that the ECS, the inner happiness that is mentioned specifically as a part of the ECS, continues to exist through the greatest tragedies and sorrows that life has to offer; “always rejoicing” — present active participle, and the active voice is very important here because it says that that inner happiness floor of the ECS, joy, continues to function and from it there is reflected glory. There is reflected glory toward God, there is reflected glory toward the human race, even though the individual believer is in great tragedy and in great heartache. In the active voice the subject produces the action of the verb. In this case the believer produces this action through his ECS, he is always rejoicing — inner happiness. Receiving these troubles in life we are not changed by them, ‘yet always’ rejoicing, and that means always rejoicing in the midst of these difficulties.

“as poor, yet making many rich” — we have a contrast this time between a noun and a present active participle. The noun is going to describe a tragedy and the present active participle is going to show how the ECS carries you through that. The Greek word ptoxoj originally meant to be reduced to poverty. It means to be doing all right, to be comfortable, and to suddenly lose it all. In other words, it means to have it taken away suddenly. Ptoxoj means to be completely impoverished and yet still alive. That means that God provides for these catastrophes. But what He provides by way of food is nothing compared to what He has already provided for the believer who has been with doctrine. The word for making many rich is a verb, ploutizw. It is taken from Pluto the god of wealth. How can you be without the possibility of another meal and yet still alive and provide wealth for someone else. The present active participle of ploutizw means to enrich, and in this case it means to enrich spiritually. It means that when you are reduced to having absolutely nothing and are in the worst type of poverty there is no way that you can apparently recover from it. But you still have Bible doctrine in the soul, you still have the reflected glory of God, and when people see under these conditions the reflected glory of God the unbeliever will listen to the gospel and the believer will want to know what makes you tick. When you communicate Bible doctrine to the believer you are enriching others. This is a spiritual law that never ceases to exist. When a believer has the ECS under poverty he is able to provide a fantastic communication under those conditions.

“as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” — having nothing is not the same as being impoverished. Being impoverished means to have no money, not food, and therefore no to know where your next meal is going to originate. Having nothing means loss of the details of life but not the necessities of life;. ‘Having” is a present active participle which means constantly having nothing — e)xw plus the negative. Then we have the word ‘nothing’ which actually represents the details of life — mhdeij. Having nothing means to have the details of life all wiped out. If you have an ECS and you have lost the details you still have necessities such as food and clothing. The ECS reflects the glory of God under the disaster of losing the details. The word for ‘possess’ is katexw which means to be in full possession. You still have the ECS. You still have doctrine, grace orientation, you have inner happiness, joy. You have an RMA, you are not bitter about losing these things. You have the capacity to love even though you may have lost some of the objects. You still have mastery of the details of life, they’re gone but you are not depending on them so you don’t need a fix! In other words, loss of details is a tragedy. The “all things” refers to the grace provision in the soul, i.e. the ECS.

Verse 11 — from adaptability we go to the great enemy of the ECS, and that is emotionalism out of place. It is not wrong to have emotions. Christianity is not stoicism, it is God’s plan, grace, whereby you represent Him in the angelic conflict in the devil’s world and have the very happiness that God has possessed for all eternity past. All of these things are yours and so stoicism is not the order of the day.

For the first time in some chapters Paul speaks to the Corinthians directly. “O ye Corinthians” — this is a vocative addressed to believers who are negative to Bible doctrine. They have accumulated scar tissue on the lungs of their soul and they do not depend upon the ECS, therefore they must rely on how they feel. This is their problem.

“our mouth” — the mouth is the means of communication; ‘has been open [in the past] with the result that it is still open” — this is a perfect active indicative of the verb a)noigw. It means not simply to have the mouth open, it means to be teaching, to be communicating. Paul has done this since the day he stepped into Corinth, he is continuing it through written letters.

“is open unto you” — ‘face to face with you.’ Paul actually taught r Corinthians face to face and they have received enough doctrine to have erected an ECS rather than the accumulation of a scar tissue. What Paul has been describing is the ECS and how it reflects the glory of God in the midst of the worst storms of life. Even though the storms of life hit this ECS it has adaptability and it can face any changing circumstances. Inside the believer has perfect happiness. But actually what do we have? The Corinthians to whom he addresses this, or most of them, are loaded up with scar tissue and are on a frantic search for happiness. A frantic search for happiness always involves the emotions.

“our heart” — kardia. There is no reference in the New Testament where the heart is the heart, the blood pump. It does not refer to the physiological pump. The kardia always refers to some function of the soul. It refers generally to the mentality of the soul. Sometimes it refers to the old sin nature and quite frequently it refers to the breathing or the lungs, the breathing structure of the soul. But it is always connected with the soul and never to the physiological heart. So what does Paul means when he says he has an enlarged heart? An enlarged heart is something that every pastor should have. It is a maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine. “Our heart has received enlargement in the past with the result that it keeps on being enlarged.” Paul has maximum doctrine. The word for ‘enlarged’ is platunw and it means expansion. This is a perfect passive indicative. The perfect tense: Paul continues to study Bible doctrine, he is building doctrine on doctrine. It started in the past and it keeps on going. The passive voice: Paul receives doctrinal information through the left bank of the soul under the filling of the Holy Spirit. He inhales and exhales doctrine and has residual doctrine in his soul. The indicative mood means that Paul does have a maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine. The only basis for teaching the Word of God is maximum knowledge of doctrine.

Paul is making something very clear to the Corinthians. He has maximum doctrine. He has communicated this doctrine to the Corinthians but they have gone on negative volition and they have built up scar tissue. When they did they went on emotion and made it the criterion instead of doctrine. Doctrine is the criterion for the Christian life, not how you feel. How you feel does not determine spirituality or your relationship with the Lord, or salvation, or anything else. Your spirituality depends entirely on what the Word of God teaches: entirely upon the criterion of Bible doctrine.

Verse 12 — “Ye are not straightened” is stenoxwrew [xwrew = the concept of room; stenw = narrow or cramped]. This word meant originally to have cramped space, narrow space. Eventually it came to mean to be restricted, and then to be limited, and finally to be hindered. The word means to be hindered. This is a present passive indicative. “You have not received hindrance from us,” present tense, linear aktionsart — all the time Paul was in Corinth. Passive voice: they did not receive hindrance from Paul. Why” Paul taught them doctrine. So wherever they got their hindrance in the Christian life they didn’t get it from Paul. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that Paul’s ministry was only beneficial. The content was beneficial but of course it didn’t take.

“but,” conjunction of contrast, “you have received hindrance by your own bowels.” The Greek word is splagnon, and this word is never used for the physiological heart. It is always used in the New Testament for the emotions. They are actually using the emotion as their criterion rather than the Bible doctrine that Paul has taught. The Corinthians in rejecting Bible doctrine as the criterion have substituted the emotions of the soul. And why did they pick the emotions rather than the conscience or something else? For the reason that the emotions are the shortest cut to ecstatics, to some form of stimulation which is a substitute for inner happiness. So they are depending on how they feel, they are depending upon the emotions. Therefore they have rejected doctrine. As a result of depending on emotion the storms of life, the rapidly changing circumstances have wiped them out. They can’t stand up, they have no doctrine to carry them, they have no ECS. Because they lack an ECS they’re shot down.

Verse 13 — “Now for a recompense.” Ordinarily a recompense means a reward. But this word needs a little more explanation, it is a)ntimisqia [misqia = reward; anti = the preposition instead of, sometimes against]. Here it means against a reward. It means here a reward all right, the reward is not lost, but it is reward based on grace, not merit. So Paul says, “Now for a reward not based on merit.” In other words, the wages of grace. “Now for the wages of grace in the same” — literally, “in the like kind.” Just as the Corinthians have given themselves over to their emotions Paul now challenges them to now give themselves over to Bible doctrine.

“I speak as unto children [who haven’t grown up — but you can]” — the word ‘children’ means non-grownups; “be ye also enlarged” — platunw again. In other words, how can you be enlarged? It is aorist tense now, you have to start from scratch. Here is the intensification of Bible study, the crash program. The aorist tense takes up a series of points, a series of periods of time and gathers them into a single whole. In other words, you don’t get enlarged all at once. You study today, you study tomorrow, you study the next day. You inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale … take it in, take it in, take it in. You build up residual doctrine. On residual doctrine you have the erection of the ECS. The aorist tense says it takes a lot of studies, one after the other, after the other. The passive voice: the Corinthians must receive doctrine. That means that they have to have a change in attitude, they have to go from negative to positive volition toward doctrine. Then they can receive doctrine through soul breathing. The imperative mood: this is a command.

“Now for the ages of grace (I speak as unto children) keep on receiving Bible doctrine.”

Verse 14 — “Be ye not” is literally, ‘Stop becoming.’ It is the present active imperative of ginomai which means to become something you were not before. Here is has with it the negative mh.

“unequally yoked” — we actually have a present active participle, e(terozugew [e(teroj = other of a different kind; zugew = to yoke]. This was commonly used in the ancient world under an agricultural economy for trying to yoke up an ox and an ass and to get them to pull together to plow. An ox and an ass have different gaits and different strengths and they can’t pull together. This is exactly the principle we have here. This is based on Deuteronomy 22:10.

“with unbelievers” — dative of disadvantage. Because of this phrase this passage is limited with regard to the separation principle. However the principle does go beyond that as we shall see. There are five areas where you cannot be comfortably ‘yoked together’ with unbelievers. For example, one is marriage. Nothing in the Bible ever condones a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever. This is like the ox and the ass plowing together. The second area of application would be religion. No one should ever get tied up with a religious organisation. The third is in social life. The social life of the believer and the social life of the unbeliever in many ways are quite different, but there is a different mental attitude. The believer, if he is living a normal Christian life, has norms and standards which are cycled up from e)pignwsij. That means that there are certain things about his social life that are bound to be different even in attitudes. A fourth area would be business partnerships, but this does not include a corporation. A fifth area would be certain fraternal relationships such as a college fraternity.

The key actually here is ‘yoke.’ It’s principle does not exclude contact with the unbeliever but the principle demands that such contact should in no way compromise doctrine, that it should in no way hinder the function of GAP and the erection of an ECS. While this passage is dealing with unbelievers there is a general doctrine of separation.

The doctrine of separation

1. We are commanded to separate from certain types of carnal believers. There are certain types of carnality that encourage scar tissue and any kind of a sin that produces scar tissue in any believer who is habitually involved with that type is obviously the type for separation — 1 Corinthians 5:10,11.

2. Separation from believers who reject doctrine. If there is anything that will take you down in a hurry it is to make your associations with those who are indifferent to doctrine or whose exposure is sporadic — 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14,15.

3. Separation from believers who make emotion the criterion for life. These people always enter into some form of pseudo spirituality, and the best illustration is tongues — Romans 16:17,18.

4. Separation from the fast crowd — 1 Peter 4:4; Proverbs 1:10-19. The fast crowd destroy your norms and turn you into an animal. You have perception minus norms.

5. Separation from human viewpoint thinking. This is often called ‘worldliness.’ Romans 12:1,2.

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

7. Separation from religion and apostasy — 2 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:5.

8. Separation from anything that destroys norms and standards in the frontal lobe — Jeremiah 2:24,25.

We now have five questions to enforce the imperative mood. “for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?” The word for ‘fellowship’ means communion or sharing. Doctrine is the basis for sharing, doctrine is the basis for the divine viewpoint of life, doctrine is the basis for frame of reference, and doctrine is the basis for the ECS. Therefore doctrine must not be compromised, so this question simply deals with fellowship with a believer and an unbeliever. It should translate: “what communion has grace orientation and lawlessness.” The word for ‘righteousness’ is dikaiosunh and that means grace orientation.

The second question: “what communion hath light with darkness?” This is partnership here, we have the word koinwnia. The word ‘light’ here is the reflected light of the ECS. The ECS is designed to reflect the glory of God, this is how God clothes the soul of the believer. There is no way that you can have this reflected glory and be in fellowship or partnership with darkness. So literally, “what fellowship has light face to face with darkness.”

Verse 15 — the third question: “And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” The word ‘concord’ is sumfwnhsij from which we get ‘symphony,’ and it means harmony. ‘What harmony has Christ face to face with Belial?’ ‘Belial’ is a Hebrew word for worthlessness. It is used for Satan’s doctrines and Satan’s concepts. This includes religion, legalism, and every anti-grace concept.

The fourth question: “or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” The word for ‘part’ is merij for ‘portion.’ What portion has the believer with the unbeliever? The believer and the unbeliever do not share the same destiny in eternity, they do not share the same purpose in time. They are actually enemies on opposite sides of the fence.

Verse 16 — the fifth question, designed especially for the people of Corinth: “What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” The word for ‘agreement’ means a norm or a standard put into place. There is no basis for having Bible doctrine in your human spirit and having anything to do with the devil’s communion table or idolatry.

“For ye are [keep on being] the temple of the living God.” This is a reference to the believer of the Church Age under the intensified stage of the angelic conflict; “as God hath said.” Now we have a quotation from Leviticus 26:12: “I will dwell in them.” This is a reference to the principle that the Holy Spirit now dwells inside of us; “and walk in them” or provides for us. In the age in which this was written which was the Jewish age, the dispensation of Israel, there was no divine indwelling of the believer. Divine provision for the believer was quite different in that time. So this was used to anticipate what would come in the future. “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” When you go back to the Leviticus passage you are actually looking at something which the Jews could understand but not in their own dispensation. This was written in the Age of Israel and it anticipates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Millennium. But, of course, here it is used to apply to the Church Age. “I will dwell in them” here has to do with the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age.

We have six principles connected with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

1. The fact of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given in 1 Corinthians 6:19,20; Romans 8:9; Galatians 3:2.

2. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit must be distinguished from the filling of the Spirit. It is one thing for all believers to be indwelt, it is something else to be filled. Only when we are filled with the Spirit are we accomplishing anything in the angelic conflict. We are never commanded to be indwelt but in Ephesians 5:18 we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. In Galatians 5:16 we are commanded to walk in the Spirit.

3. It must be clearly understood in spite of the fact that we have this passage quoted in Leviticus 26:12, which is Millennial, that the Holy Spirit did not indwell all believers until the Church Age — John 7:37-39. This anticipates the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. There was no need for every believer to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Had the need existed then every believer would have been indwelt, but it was no necessary. The purpose of the indwelling of the Spirit is to glorify Christ, as per 1 Corinthians 6:19; John 7:39.

4. The indwelling of the Spirit must be distinguished from the indwelling of Christ. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is functional; the indwelling of Christ is strictly for the matter of fellowship — Revelation 3:20.

5. The purpose of the indwelling of the Spirit is provision of power to execute phase two — Acts 1:8.

6. The indwelling of the Spirit is also described by the word ‘anointing’ in Acts 4:27; 10:38; 2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20.

“and walk in them” — the word for walking here has the idea of Jesus Christ having fellowship with them. It is the same idea as ‘sup’ in Revelation 3:20, the same concept is found in 2 Corinthians 13:5.

“and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” — it is possible for Christ to be your saviour and still not to be your God. ‘I will be their God’ is a reference to the fact that the believer must have e)pignwsij before he appreciates his saviour. E)pignwsisj is exhale toward God, toward Jesus Christ; “and they shall be my people” — this is the believers in the Church Age who replace Israel who is out under the fifth cycle of discipline. The future tense here is equivalent to the Hebrew imperfect. The active voice is the believer in the Church Age by application here. The indicative mood is the reality of a relationship with God in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. As this was quoted in Leviticus this referred to the Millennium, as it is quoted here it refers to the Church Age.

Verse 17 — “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate.” This is an aorist active imperative of ecerxomai which means ‘come outside.’ This is the devil’s world, step outside of it. This is a command of separation from religion, from all Satanic thought. It says once and for all. The aorist tense means once and for all come outside. There is only one way to fulfill ecerxomai in the aorist imperative and that is to function daily under GAP. None of us have the ability to be consistent unless we are consistent in one thing: the daily intake of Bible doctrine. The word ‘be ye separate’ is a)forizw [orizw = to set up boundaries; a)po = ultimate source] and it means spearation on the basis of an ultimate source, and the ultimate source here is doctrine. You can’t simply walk out on something because someone tells you to do it, you have to do it on the basis of what you know. The passive voice says you receive this separation through doctrine. Doctrine gives you a frame of reference, doctrine gives you an ECS. You receive it.

“and touch not the unclean thing” — ‘touch not’ means do not contact the unclean thing. The unclean thing is defined by doctrine. You can’t say offhand what the unclean thing is. It might be religion, it might be some unbeliever, it might be a believer, but Bible doctrine makes it clear as to which it is going to be.

“and I will receive you” — e)isdexomai is a very strong Greek word for embracing, it means to embrace on the basis of grace. In other words, we are given the ability to know from what to separate and we are, as it were, embraced by the Lord.

Verse 18 — “And will be a Father unto you” means more than just the relationship, it means fulfilling the relationship in provision. A Father provides for his family. The father may exist and not be a provider but here is a case where we have a relationship with God the Father, but billions of years ago He makes the procision and the provision is possible through doctrine. So this means the actual provision.

“ye shall be my sons and daughters” — and it must be taken on the basis of the separation concept. It means ‘you will function in relationship to me so that you will need nothing else.’ In other words, having a Father like this and having all His provision there is no need for any other relationship.

“saith the Lord Almighty” — El Shaddai. God has the ability to provide everything that is necessary. The whole point of this is that separation is a principle. If you are having a relationship with God than all of the other things that you want will be taken care of. It is doctrine that gives the relationship.