Chapter 3

“with Christ” is the locative singular of Xristoj plus the definite article o( and should be translated “the Christ.”

Next we have our first imperative mood of this chapter, the present active imperative of zhtew which is translated “seek.” It means to search for, to pursue, to endeavour, to obtain, to investigate, to examine, to desire to possess. All of these meanings are pertinent at this point. The present tense is linear aktionsart for the daily function of GAP, and GAP can be described here under the meaning “search for.” “Keep on searching for, keep on pursuing. keep on endeavouring to obtain, keep on investigating, keep on examining, keep on desiring to possess.” All of these indicate the positive volition, the drive necessary to function under GAP. The active voice: the believer himself must produce the action of the verb, and he does so by attending the local classroom, the local church, and picking up doctrine through concentration through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The imperative mood is a command to the believer to learn Bible doctrine through the daily function of GAP. Therefore it should be translated, “keep on desiring to possess and endeavouring to obtain.”

“those things which are above,” this is an incorrect translation. The Greek phrase has two words, ta a)nw; ta means “the things,” a)nw means “above.” It is a reference to Bible doctrine. This is a command to the daily function of GAP which leads to the erection of the ECS and the entrance into the supergrace life.

“where” is the adverb o(u formed from the genitive o(j, and it means “where” or “in which place.”

“Christ” is “the Christ,” o( Xristoj; plus the present active indicative of e)imi, “where the Christ is.” Then with this is a present active participle translated “sitteth,” kaqhmai, and should be translated sitting.”

“on the right hand of God,” e)n decia tou qeou, “on the right hand side of the God,” referring to God the Father.

Translation: “If therefore you have been raised in the Christ, keep on desiring to possess and endeavouring to obtain the above things [doctrine], where the Christ is sitting on the right hand side of the God.”

The doctrine of ascension and session

1. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ is capable of space travel. The resurrection body of Christ traveled through three heavens to get Him to the presence of the Father, John 20:17.

2. Once He arrived there He was seated on the right hand side of the Father, Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13; 8:1;10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22. All of these passages indicate that Jesus Christ was acceptable as the God-Man and that as a member of the human race He entered into heaven, and God the Father said to His humanity (not to His deity), “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The humanity of Christ sits, not His deity. This was addressed to the humanity of Christ in resurrection, and what God the Father said to the humanity of Christ He never said to any angel. And the moment He said that to the humanity of Christ the humanity of Christ was infinitely superior to all angelic creatures. This will be the future status of all believers in resurrection bodies; now it is only a positional reality, not a physical reality.

3. The ascension and session of Christ form the basis for the victory in the angelic conflict, Hebrews 1:3-13.

4. The ascension and session of Christ begin a new sphere of the a angelic conflict, Ephesians 1:20-22; 4:7-10. Therefore the believer in the Church Age is involved in the intensification of the angelic conflict.

5. The ascension and session begin the operation known as operation footstool, prophesied in Psalm 110:1 and quoted in Luke 20:42.43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13.

6. The second advent of Jesus Christ will conclude operation footstool, Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1-3.

7. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ complete the glorification of the Son of God in hypostatic union, Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9; 1 Peter 3:22.

8. The ascension and session explain the uniqueness of the Church Age, John 7:337-39.

9. The ascension and session of Christ is the key to the victory of the angelic conflict, Hebrews 1:4.

Verse 2, the challenge to mental attitude. “Set you affection” is the present active imperative and has to do with objective thinking. The verb is fronew. This should be translated, Keep on thinking about.” The present tense is linear aktionsart and it means that Bible doctrine must provide the basis for the constant objective thinking of the believer. Objective thinking is also divine viewpoint. The active voice: the supergrace believer is the one who will produce this action. It is when the believer is in supergrace that he produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to all believers, it is really and essentially a command to get to supergrace so he can think like a supergrace believer.

“things above,” ta a)nw, the above things. Again, it refers to Bible doctrine, only this time it is Bible doctrine in the soul. The soul is saved at salvation so that the soul might be fed in time. Bible doctrine in the soul is the most important thing in the believer’s life.

The doctrine of mental attitude in phase two

1. In the angelic conflict and during the course of man’s history there are two antithetical mental attitudes. These two mental attitudes conflict in the soul of every believer. They are described in Isaiah 55:7-9.

2. What you think is what you really are. You are not what you appear to be, you are what you think in your soul, Proverbs 23:7.

3. It is obvious from the scriptures that the divine viewpoint is commanded of every believer priest, 2 Corinthians 10:4,5. This can only be fulfilled by the daily function of GAP resulting in doctrine in the right lobe, the erection of the ECS, and the rapid entrance into the supergrace life.

4. Since doctrine in the mind of Christ such intake under GAP shapes the mental attitude, 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5.

5. God’s plan, operation grace, demands a new mental attitude on the part of the believer priest, 2 Timothy 1:7.

6. The inner happiness of the ECS, plus entrance into supergrace, produces capacity for the divine viewpoint of life, Philippians 2:2.

7. Part of divine viewpoint is that confidence which results in the inculcation of Bible doctrine through GAP, 2 Corinthians 5:1 cf verses 6 and 8.

8. Stability, therefore, is a mental attitude, Philippians 4:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:2.

9. Giving is a mental attitude, 2 Corinthians 9:7.

10. Love is a mental attitude of the soul, 1 Corinthians 13:5. Therefore capacity for love is resolved in the soul.

11. Worldliness is the human viewpoint mental attitude rather than overt activity — it is thinking the way Satan wants you to think, Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2.

12. Evil is something you think, not something you do, Matthew 9:4; Galatians 6:3. The doing results from the thinking.

13. mental attitude sins are the worst category and not only produce reversionism but along the way they produce self-induced misery, Proverbs 15:13.

“not,” the negative mh is a particle of qualified negation, used with the subjunctive mood of the verb to imply uncertainly. This negative denies hypothetically, therefore it recognises the fact that many believers will not obey this imperative: the imperative to GAP it daily, the imperative to move into supergrace.

“on things on the earth,” ta e)pi thj ghj, refers to the human viewpoint of life. “Not the things upon the earth” is the correct translation.

Translation: “Keep thinking objectively about the above things [Bible doctrine], not the things upon the earth.”

Summary

1. The earth is filled with Satanic propaganda because the devil is the ruler of this world, John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. Satanic propaganda in 1 Timothy 4:1 is called doctrine of demons.

2. Satan also deceives the world, Revelation 12:9.

3. Satan is also the god of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4.

4. Therefore, Christ came into the world to take away the sins of the world, John 1:19, because God so loved the world, John 3:16.

5. Therefore Christ is the saviour of the world, John 3:17; 4:42; 1 John 4:14, who gives His life for the world, John 6:33.

6. Therefore the world, the devil’s kingdom is called the kingdom of darkness, and Christ is the light of the world, John 8:12; 9:5.

7. Therefore Christ has overcome the world, John 16:33.

8. Consequently, believers in Christ must not conform to the world, Romans 12:2.

9. This is accomplished through Bible doctrine by which God has made foolish the wisdom of this world, 1 Corinthians 1:20; 3:19.

10. Therefore it is imperative that once we have been rescued from the devil’s kingdom we must think like God with regard to cosmos diabolicus. Therefore such passage as Philippians 2:5; 4:7; Proverbs 23:7; 2 Timothy 1:7; 2 Corinthians 10:4,5; 1 Corinthians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 5:1,6,8; Isaiah 26:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:2. These passages recognise the importance of what you think. You have to fuel to think. God has made it possible for the believer to think by making available His thinking which is Bible doctrine.

Verse 3, the challenge of retroactive positional truth. “For” is the particle gar used as a conjunction to express cause, inference, continuation, explanation. Here this is the gar of explanation.

“ye are dead,” not a correct translation because this is an aorist active indicative of a)poqnhskw. It means to die but this is a culminative aorist in which the aorist tense is employed when it is wished to view an event in its entirety, but you regard it from the viewpoint of existing results. It should be translated, “For you have died.” The active voice: the believer is the subject, he is identified with Christ in His death. The indicative mood is the reality of retroactive positional truth, Romans 6:3,4; Colossians 2:12,20.

The doctrine of death

1. The first death in the Bible is spiritual death, Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:12; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:22. Spiritual death in essence is separation from God — no fellowship with God, no relationship with God. It is the condition of all members of the human race at birth, and be born spiritually dead is to have citizenship papers into the devil’s kingdom.

2. Physical death, Matthew 8:22; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Philippians 1:21; Romans 8:38,39. Physical death is the soul separated from the body.

3. The Bible talks of a second death. It mentions it in principle in Hebrews 9:27 and mentions it specifically in Revelation 20:12-15. The second death is the last judgement and is when the unbeliever stands before the judgement throne of God and is judged and cast into the lake of fire forever.

4. Operational death, James 2:26. This is failure to produce divine good. Faith without works is non-operational. Faith produces divine good under conditions of the inhale of faith (GAP0; the exhale of faith (faith-rest).

5. Positional death, identification with Christ in His death. This is tantamount to rejecting human good.

6. Temporal death. This means to be out of fellowship, Romans 8:6, 13; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 5:6; Revelation 3:1; James 1:15; Luke 15:24, 32.

7. Sexual death, inability to copulate, Romans 4:16-21; Hebrews 11:11,12.

“And your life,” kai h( zwh u(mwn. Zwh refers to the function of life, hence the function of the believer in phase two. We have the perfect passive indicative of kruptw. In the perfect tense something happened in the past with results that are permanent. The perfect tense here should be translated, “has been hidden.” The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of both current and retroactive positional truth.

“with Christ” is the preposition sun plus the instrumental of Xristoj which should be “together with Christ.”

“in God” is e)n plus the instrumental of qeoj, “by means of the God.”

Translation: “For you have died, and your life has been hidden together with the Christ by means of the God.”

Verse 4, the challenge to the bride of Christ. We begin with a compound conjunction o(tan which means “Whenever.” It is a combination of two very short words, the adverb o(te plus the particle a)n, the particle of vagueness and uncertainty. When these are put together it is used with the aorist subjunctive in order to present the challenge of the bride of Christ. In other words, Christ appears as the groom before we appears as the bride, and the compound conjunction is used to demonstrate this principle. So it should be translated “whenever” or “on the occasion of.”

Next we have the word “Christ” which is o( Xristoj, :the Christ.”

“our life,” h( zwh h(mwn, “the life of ours.” This refers to the analogy of right man, right woman. In the analogy Christ is the groom and the Church Age believer is the bride, 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-33; Revelation 19:6-8. While on earth the believer is a part of the body of Christ but at the end of the Church Age the believer becomes the bride of Christ. Only in resurrection body is the Church the bride of Christ. This phrase, “Christ our life,” also refers to the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, He is the only celebrity for the Church Age.

“shall appear,” the aorist passive subjunctive of fanerow. It means to become manifest and it refers here to the second advent of Jesus Christ and/or the marriage supper. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. This means that the appearance is a final one to the earth. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, and the subject is Jesus Christ at the second advent. That is when it becomes manifest to the earth that He is the groom. This is manifest to the bride at the Rapture; this is coming back to the earth. The subjunctive mood is used in a subordinate clause to imply a future reference and therefore it is a potential subjunctive from the standpoint that the aorist subjunctive and the future tense have approximately the same morphology and they do have the same concept. So it is used to indicate a future event but not an uncertain future event. The culminative aorist plus the subjunctive indicates the certainty of this future event, the second advent of Christ or the manifestation of bride and groom to the earth.

“then,” adverb of time, tote; “shall ye also appear,” the future passive indicative of fanerow. We also have with this the adjunctive kai plus the nominative plural of the pronoun su, and it should be translated, “at that time also.” This means to become manifest, “you shall become manifest,” as the bride to the groom. Jesus Christ. The future tense is both predictive future for an event in a future time plus the gnomic future for a statement of absolute fact. The passive voice: the believer of the Church Age receives manifestation as the bride of Christ at the second advent. This is manifestation to the world. We have had fanerow twice; it is not used for the Rapture, it is used for the second advent.

“with him,” the preposition sun plus the instrumental of a)utoj, which is literally, “together with him.” The instrumental of a)utoj means association when it is used with sun.

“in glory” is literally, “the sphere of glory,” e)n plus the locative of doch.

Translation: “On the occasion when the Christ our life, shall become manifest, also you shall become manifest together with him in glory.”

The doctrine of the manifestation of the bride

1. The body of Christ is being formed on the earth during the Church Age, Ephesians 1:22,23; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18, 24; 2:19. When the Rapture occurs then the number of believers will be of such a nature as to complete this dispensation and to make the believers of this dispensation in a special relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Right man, right woman is the illustration of that, Ephesians 5.

2. When the body of Christ is completed the Rapture will occur, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. BY comparing Colossians 2:15 with Revelation 19:6-18, with Zechariah 13:2 and 1 Thessalonians 3:13 it is concluded that the number of believers in the body of Christ will be equal to the number of demons now operating under Satan’s command.

3. During the Tribulation on earth the bride is prepared in heaven. First, by entering into ultimate sanctification. The body of Christ enters into positional sanctification; the bride of Christ enters into ultimate sanctification. Ultimate sanctification is the resurrection body, 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:1,2. Secondly, the bride is prepared by being cleansed from all human good, 1 Corinthians 3:12,15. Finally, the bride no longer possesses the old sin nature.

4. The bride returns with Christ at the second advent, 1 Thessalonians 3:13.

5. Upon the return of the bride and the groom at the second advent operation footstool occurs, Psalm 110:1. Operation footstool is broken down into three parts. First, the triumphal procession in which all demons are disarmed by Jesus Christ and publicly displayed in a triumphal procession, Colossians 2:15. Next, Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years, Revelation 20:1-3. Finally, Church Age believers cast demons into prison, Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:24,25.

6. The next event is the coronation of the groom. The groom is crowned King of the world, Revelation 19:6.

7. Next is the wedding supper of the Lamb, Revelation 19:7-9. Three things should be noted at the marriage supper.

a) The marriage occurred in heaven but the supper took place on earth, Matthew 25:1-13.

b) The wedding supper of the Lamb is described in detail in Revelation 19:6-9. There are four categories involved in this wedding supper: 1. The groom, Jesus Christ; 2. The friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints such as John the Baptist, John 3:29; 3. The bride, Church Age believers; 4. The friends of the bride, the Tribulational believers who survive the Tribulation, Matthew 25:1-13.

Revelation 19:6, the coronation on the way to the wedding. “I heard” is an aorist active indicative of a)kouw which means to hear and concentrate, to hear and accept the authority of the one who is teaching or communicating. Here it is tantamount to the apostle John learning this doctrine from GAP. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist because he heard a number of things put down in this book called Revelation. The active voice: he is GAPing it. The indicative mood is the reality of learning these things from the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Spirit. They are recalled and recorded here.

“as it were” is a correlative adverb but not a verb. It should be translated, And I heard as a voice.” The word for “voice” is fwnh which describes the categories of people present at the wedding feast. It describes the guests.

“of a great multitude,” this is the genitive singular of o)xloj, used for a crowd. It also has with it the genitive singular of poluj, and the combination of the two words together should be translated “a great crowd of people.” These are Church Age believers, the bride.

“and as the voice of many waters,” w(j fwonhn u(datwn pollwn, refers to the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints plus Tribulational believers who die during the Tribulation.

“and as the voice of mighty thunderings,” kai w(j fwnhn brontwn i)sxurwn, translated correctly, and it refers to believers who are alive at the second advent of Christ and they are mighty thunderers. They have been holding out against the enemy in one of the greatest campaigns in all of human history. These are the friends of the bride, the Tribulational believers who are alive at the second advent, Matthew 25:1-13.

“saying,” the present active participle of legw, they all keep saying; “Hallelujah.” This is taken from Hallel which means to praise. “Jah” is the suffix for Jehovah. Hallelujah means to praise the Lord. However this is a transliteration of that.

“for,” the Greek causal conjunction o(ti which means “because.”

“the Lord God,” kurioj o( qeoj. Kurioj refers to deity; qeoj refers to deity. “The Lord the God” refers to the God-Man with emphasis here on His deity. It is literally, “because Lord the God.”

‘omnipotent,” pantokratwr. Kratwr = powerful; panto = from paj, “all,” “all powerful.”

“reigneth” is the aorist active indicative of basileuw. This means to become a king, not to reign, “the Lord God all powerful has become the king,” and it is a culminative aorist for a coronation, the final coronation of all human history. Jesus Christ is crowned King and He will reign forever. And He will reign for the last 1000 years of history. The active voice: the action is produced by Jesus Christ, the groom, the only celebrity of the Church Age. The indicative mood is the reality of the coronation of the groom, the Church’s right man.

Translation: “And I heard as the a voice of a great crowd of people [Church Age believers], and as the voice of many waters [Old Testament saints in resurrection bodies], and as the voice of mighty thunderings [Tribulational saints alive at the second advent], saying, Praise the Lord because the Lord God all-powerful has become the King.”

Verse 7, the wedding. “Let us be glad” is the present active subjunctive of xairw which means here to express absolute happiness. This is the status quo of a person in +H expressing +H. The present tense is linear aktionsart. The active voice: the Church Age believers as the bride, the Old Testament saints, the Tribulational martyrs, also in resurrection bodies as the groom’s friends, plus the living Tribulational believers as the friends of the bride, all produce the action. The subjunctive mood is a hortatory subjunctive in which the bride exhorts the rest of the guests to join in the common action of expression of supergrace happiness. “Let us express super happiness.”

“rejoice,” present active subjunctive of a)galliaw. This word means to be happy to the point of ecstatics, or what our Greek lexicons call to be overjoyed.

“and give,” aorist active subjunctive of didomi. Didomi in the aorist tense is a culminative aorist. We have reached the great point of the wedding. The active voice: all involved in the wedding supper of the Lamb have this happiness expressed. The subjunctive mood is hortatory, it is inviting everyone to join in.

“and give honour,” the word “honour” is the accusative singular of doca which means “glory.”

“to him,” the dative of the indirect object of a)utoj, referring to Christ. This dative of indirect object indicates the one for whom the act of praise and all the happiness is performed. “To him” as an indirect object dative indicates all of this is focusing attention on the only celebrity of the Church Age, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“for,” again we have the causal conjunction o(ti meaning “because.”

“the marriage of the Lamb,” o( gamoj, “the marriage”; tou a)rniou, “of the Lamb.” This refers to the marriage supper.

“is come” should be “has come,” the aorist active indicative of e)rxomai. This is where Colossians 3:4 comes in: “when Christ who is our life shall become manifest, and ye also manifest with him in glory.” This is that point. This is actually the fulfillment of Colossians 3:4. It should be translated, “because the marriage of the Lamb has come.”

“and his wife,” h( gunh a)utou. Gunh here refers to the right woman, the Church, the body of Christ.

“hath prepared herself,” aorist active indicative of e(toimazw. This is a culminative aorist, her preparation is over. She is in a resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus human good. The active voice indicates that this has occurred up to this moment. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that the bride is prepared and the marriage is now consummated at the wedding feast.

Translation: “Let us express super happiness and let us be ecstatically happy, and let us give glory to him because the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his right woman [has prepared herself].”

Verse 8, the wedding dress. “And to her was granted.” “Granted” here is the aorist passive indicative of didomi and it means “was given.” This is a culminative aorist, this is the completion of this giving. The passive voice: the Church as the bride of Christ receives preparation. The indicative mood is the reality of the bride’s preparation. “And it [the preparation] was given to her.”

“that,” the conjunction i(na to introduce a semifinal purpose clause in which the clause denotes the direction of the action of the main verb. The man verb is to give. The goal or direction is toward a given result.

“she should be arrayed,” aorist middle indicative of periballw [peri = around; ballw = to throw], it means she is completely clothed. “And it was given to her that she herself should be completely clothed.”

“fine linen” not only refers to imputed righteousness but also to the status of ultimate sanctification. We have the word bussinoj which was the finest linen in the world at that time, all white.

“clean,” the accusative singular of lamproj means not clean but “bright,” bright and shiny new.

“and white,” the word “white” is kaqaroj which means unsoiled.

“for” is the explanatory use of gar; “the fine linen is,” e)imi, “the righteousness,” dikaiwma which means justification.

Translation: “And it was given to her [the Church] that she herself should be clothed in fine linen, bright [imputed righteousness] and unsoiled [absence of human good]: for the fine linen is the justification of the saints.”

Verse 9, the guests. “And he saith” is them present active indicative of legw; “to me,” dative of indirect object to indicate on whose behalf the message was communicated. It is a reference to the apostle John under inspiration. God the Holy Spirit directed him to write this message.

“Write,” the aorist active imperative of grafw means a command to write. As it is used here it is an ingressive aorist, “Begin to write.”

“Blessed,” the nominative plural of makarioj. It means happinesses.

“which are called” is a perfect passive participle from kalew and the perfect tense means to have been invited. This refers to two categories, the friends of the groom [Old Testament saints plus the Tribulational martyrs] who are in resurrection bodies; the friends of the bride [Tribulational believers alive at the second advent]. “unto the marriage supper of the Lamb,” the wedding supper takes place on the earth immediately after the coronation of Jesus Christ in contrast to the preparation for the wedding in heaven. The background for this is found on Matthew 25:1-13.

“And he saith to me,” these are the true,” the nominative masculine plural from a)lhqinoj, genuine or dependable.

“sayings,” the nominative plural of logoj and should be translated “doctrines”; “of God,” ablative of qeoj, “from the source of the God.”

Translation: “He said unto me, Begin to write, Happinesses to the one’s having been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are genuine doctrines from the source of the God.”

Verses 5-17 deals with the objectives of phase two. This objective is broken down into principle and mechanic.

Verse 5, “Mortify” is an aorist active imperative from the verb nekrow which means to put to death or to render impotent. The verb is used of persons whose physical capabilities have failed in a certain respect, says Arndt and Gingricht, page 537. Actually, it is only used one way on the Greek and that is for those who are sexually impotent. In our passage it doesn’t mean to render sexual impotence, it just means to render impotent certain undesirable things in the life. So to translate we will give its true implication, “Render impotent.” The aorist tense is ingressive, it has in view the reversionistic believers who are in Colosse and in the Lycus valley which includes Laodicea. These reversionists have taken the phallic cult. The ingressive aorist always looks at something from the start. It should be translated, then, “Begin to render impotent.” The active voice: the reversionist must produce the action of the verb and the verb requires reversion recovery from phallic reversionism. The imperative mood: this is the only command that can stop maximum discipline to believers in Colosse in reversionism.

“therefore,” the inferential particle o)un. This particle is used as a transitional conjunction here to relate the challenge of phase two in verses 1-4 to the function of phase two in this passage.

“your members,” the accusative plural of meloj. In the singular meloj refers to a part of the body, a limb or some other portion of the human body. Here it refers to the facets of the old sin nature, the essence of the old sin nature, all of which becomes involved in reversionism. Since meloj is related to the body it becomes an easy transition to relate it to parts of the old sin nature. We have similar phrases, like in Romans 6:6, “the body of sin.” Or in Colossians 2:11, “the body of the flesh.” This has a definite article and should be “the members.”

The doctrine of the old sin nature

1. The old sin nature is the source of spiritual death, Romans 5:12; Ephesians 2:1.

2. The old sin nature is perpetuated in the human race through physical birth, Psalm 51:5; 1 Tim. 2:13,14.

3. The believer continues to have an old sin nature after salvation, 1 John 1:8; 1 Cor. 3:1.

4. The old sin nature can be rendered impotent when certain conditions are true in the life: rebound, filled with the Spirit, when GAPing it, when erecting an ECS, and when you enter into the supergrace life.

5. The OSN frustrates bona fide production in phase two, Romans 7:15.

6. The nomenclature for the OSN,: “flesh,” Galatians 5:16; “old man,” Ephesians 4:22; “carnal,” Romans 7:14; 1 Cor. 3:1-3; “sin” in the singular, Romans 5:12; 1 John 1:8; 1 Cor. 15:56’ sometimes “heart” is used for the OSN, Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19; “members,” Colossians 3:5.

7. The essence of the OSN, revealed both in Col. 3:5 and Romans 6:6. The area of weakness is revealed in Hebrews 12:1; the area of strength is revealed in Romans 8:8; the lust pattern, Romans 7:7; trends for lasciviousness or asceticism are revealed in various lives of great believers.

8. The solution to the OSN involves God’s judgement of the OSN by Christ bearing our sins — 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24. Phase two judgement is rebound and then GAPing it to the point of neutralising the OSN. The OSN is removed by phase three.

9. The OSN is not found in eternity and is not found in the resurrection body.

“which are upon the earth,” ta e)pi thj ghj. Ta means “the things,” there is no relative pronoun, “the things upon the earth.”

Specifically now these things deal with phallic reversionism: “fornication,” the accusative singular of porneia, a noun that refers to illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman; “uncleanness,” also in the accusative singular because all of these modify the objects of the verb, the aorist active imperative of nekrow. “Uncleanness” is a)kaqarsia which is used in the Greek language for refuse or immorality. It is especially used for unnatural sex vices, and this is the way it is used in Romans 1:24. So it is actually in contrast to porneia but it is still in the framework of the subject. So it includes homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, and so on. It was Demosthenes in the fifth century BC who first used this word for impure motivation or anything that would break down the laws of divine establishment; “inordinate affection,” the accusative singular of paqoj, and it refers to that which is endured or experienced. It connotes suffering. Out of this meaning comes the usage of passion, and it is actually used in the New Testament for depraved passion, abnormal sex lust. So we will translate this “depraved passion”; “evil concupiscence,” this is made up of two words, e)piqumia which means lust, and the word for evil is correctly translated kakoj. It should be translated “evil lust” and since it is in the framework of phallic reversionism it has to be lasciviousness rather than the other types of lust; “covetousness,” the accusative singular of pleonecia, and it actually means insatiableness. It is technical both in Ephesians 4:19 and here for a frantic search for happiness. Obviously this is a frantic search for happiness in the realm of the phallic cult. The next word is not the ordinary relative pronoun, this is o(stij, a qualitative relative pronoun, nominative feminine singular, and it should be translated “which category.” The existence of a qualitative relative pronoun at this point after a list of five nouns, which are all related to the phallic reversionistic trend, obviously indicates that we do have a classification here. The classification is phallic reversionism. There are other types of reversionism, so the classification would apply in the sense that every type of reversionism does have its own classification. The source is the old sin nature and the OSN must be rendered impotent by reversion recovery through GAP.

“which [category of things].” Then we have “is,” present active indicative of e)imi. This is a classification and they all fall into this, they are a part of phallic reversionism; “idolatry,” e)idwlolatria, [e)ido means idol; latria means worship], it means the worship of idols.

Translation: “Therefore begin to render impotent [through doctrine] the members [OSN] the things upon the earth; namely, fornication, unnatural sexual vices, degenerate passions, evil lust, phallic search for happiness, which category of things keeps on being idolatry.”

Principle

1. Rejection of reversionism is taken from the most common type in the ancient world at the time of writing, and the type that was disturbing Colosse, phallic reversionism.

2. Phallic reversionism is based on a trend toward lasciviousness in the OSN plus the function of the OSN in influencing emotional revolt, plus an entrance into the Canaanitish phallic cult. There are three basic forms of reversionism: ritual reversionism, Hebrews 5:11-6:6; monetary reversionism, James 5:1-6; Revelation 3:14-20; phallic reversionism, 2 Cor. 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; Colossians 3:5; Revelation 2:2-23; 2:14.

Verse 6, “For which things” should be “Because of which things,” dia plus the accusative of o(j. O(j is in the neuter which makes it things instead of persons. This tells us that the previous verse deals with a principle, and while there was some classification within the phallic cult this was not to deal with mechanics but to show that there are variations within phallic reversionism. Some practice it, some thing it, but whether you think it or practice it or both phallic reversionism is a reality in which the OSN controls the soul, and the OSN must be rendered impotent. “because of which things,” i.e. because of reversionism.

“the wrath of God,” this is an anthropopathism, God does not get mad. It is simply explaining in human terms the divine attitude toward reversionism.

“cometh” is the present active indicative of e)rxomai. The coming of the wrath of God refers to divine discipline. This is a gnomic present, it is an absolute.

“the children of disobedience” is not found in the original, so the verse is a very short one.

Translation: “Because of which things [phallic reversionism] the wrath of God comes.”

The wrath of God comes in two ways: divine discipline and the sin unto death.

The doctrine of divine discipline

1. This doctrine is for believers only, Hebrew 12:5. It is for the family of God. This is not saying that unbelievers do not suffer. They suffer by violating the laws of establishment, they suffer from self-induced misery, from the decadence of their soul in the field of mental attitude sins. The unbelievers do suffer but their suffering is not a family matter. Divine discipline is a family matter.

2. Discipline is based on love, Hebrews 12:6.

3. Divine discipline does not entail the loss of salvation, Galatians 3:26 cf Hebrews 12:6.

4. Divine discipline is often removed by rebound, 1 Corinthians 11:31. In this way God turns cursing into blessing.

5. If the suffering continues after rebound the purpose is blessing, Job 5:17,18.

6. All discipline for members of the family of God is confined to time, Revelation 21:4.

7. Discipline relates to sins of the immediate past. The suffering is caused by discipline for something you have done wrong in the immediate past. The only exception to this would be reversionism over a long period of time, as in the case of king Saul.

8. Maximum discipline for any member of the family of God is the sin unto death, 1 John 5:16. This is caused by prolonged reversionism.

9. Triple compound discipline is one of the more intense forms of divine discipline. An illustration is found in Matthew 7:1-2.

Verse 7, “In the which” is e)n plus the locative plural of o(j, and it should be translated “In the sphere of which things.” Again it refers to reversionism and the practice of reverse process reversionism.

“ye also walked,” the aorist active indicative of the verb peripatew, used here for a way of life, behaviour pattern of life, thought pattern, behaviour pattern, all of it. The aorist tense here is constantive, it gathers into one entirety every occasion in which the Colossians practiced phallic reversionism. The active voice: the ones to whom this applies in the passage are those who are in reversionism, not all the members of the Colossian church. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that one segment of the Colossian church are involved in reversionism.

The doctrine of walking

1. Our verb, peripatew, describes not literal walking but a pattern or function of life. It is generally ascribed favourably, sometimes unfavourably as in our context, to believers in phase two. Actually peripatew or walking is used for the Christian’s modus operandi or the Christian’s modus vivendi in phase two.

2. The concept of one day at a time is connoted in walking. In walking you have to take one step at a time, just as the Christian life involves one day at a time, Romans 14:5,6; Ephesians 5:16-18; James 4:13-15.

3. The mechanics of walking connote the recovery of balance. The believer is off balance living in the devil’s world but is stabilised by God’s grace provision, and this is the concept when peripatew has a favourable connotation.

4. Walking is used to depict the modus operandi of the reversionistic believer, Philippians 3:18; Colossians 3:7.

5. Walking is also used to describe the function of the ECS believer, Philippians 3:7; Colossians 2:6.

6. There are three favourable spheres of the believer’s walk: a) In the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:16; b) In faith, 2 Corinthians 5:7; In doctrine 3 John 3.

7. Walking therefore depicts the Spirit-filled life in certain passages, Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:2-4; Ephesians 5:2,18.

8. Walking describes the function of GAP in Ephesians 5:15.

9. Walking is used for the function of the edification-type believer, 1 John 1:7; Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:11; Colossians 1:10; Romans 13:13.

“some time” is literally, “once upon a time,” the enclitic particle pote; “when” is o(te.

“ye lived,” the imperfect active indicative from the verb zaw which means the function of living.

“in them,” e)n plus the locative plural of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, used to call attention with special emphasis to a designated object in the literary context of the writer. It refers here to reversionism. O(utoj always calls attention to whatever is being discussed by the writer.

Translation: “In the sphere of which things you also walked once upon a time when you were living in them.”

In verses 8 & 9 our subject is: Reversion recovery removes the characteristics of reverse process reversionism. When you recover from reversionism you also lose the characteristics, the habits, the way of life which was practiced under reverse process reversionism.

Verse 8, we have two Greek words which recognises the believer’s determination to recover from reversionism: nuni de, a combination of an adverb and a particle. These two are actually designed to show a change of attitude once you are in reversionism. When a believer begins to go into reversionism he receives a series of disciplines which is called Jesus Christ knocking on the door. Knocking is a warning, and as this discipline continues it eventuates in the sin unto death. “but then,” the word de is an adversative conjunctive particle; it means there is now a change in the volition of the individual’s soul.

“ye also” is the nominative plural of the pronoun su plus the adjunctive use of kai. This refers to the believers of Colosse who have now changed their mind in discipline, who have faced the reality of their adverse spiritual condition and are now about to do something about it. They are in the process of recovery which includes a number of continuous decisions: the continuous decision to rebound as the occasion arises; the decision to expose one’s self to face to face teaching with right pastor.

“put off” is an aorist middle imperative of the verb a)potiqhmi. The word originally means to take off soiled or dirty clothes. It also came to mean to renounce, to lay aside something, to rid one’s self of something that is dirty and uncomfortable. In other words, to completely get rid of something which is causing discomfort. In this case the discomfort is divine discipline designed to turn a person back toward grace to fulfill the objectives of the Christian life which are twofold: the erection of the ECS and the entrance into the supergrace life at which point the priesthood begins to function. The aorist tense is ingressive, which means begin to lay these things aside. It means you begin to make the positive decisions — positive decisions toward rebound, positive decisions toward doctrine, positive decisions toward local church operation where you take in the Word of God. These are continuous decisions but they must have a starting point and the ingressive aorist is that starting point — begin to take off the dirty clothes, they do not all come off at once. The middle voice: the subject participates in the results of the action. While the active voice stresses the action itself the middle voice emphasises the agent involved in the action. The agent is the believer in reversionism, he is now in the process of getting away from reversionism. Reversionism is like wearing very many soiled clothes. The removal is a process, it is not instantaneous. The imperative mood is a command to reversionistic believers everywhere.

“all these,” in the beginning of this passage, starting at verse 5, we only had as the background phallic reversionism. Now we are going to other categories of reversionism and before we have finished the next one a number of other categories will appear. Ta panta, is literally, “the all these.” The definite article indicates a specific list of categories of reversionism. The first gives us a hint as to what is coming. When a person enters into reversionism he often discovers for the first time that he has a characteristic that has been latent but very much a part of his personality, and that is a vicious temper. Without fuses it is very easy to hide a bad temper. With long fuses and with a certain amount of psychopathic thinking activity it is very easy to give the impression of being docile, placid, easygoing, sweet and sincere. But in reality the individual involved is a bomb looking for a detonator. That is the meaning of anger here.

“anger,” the accusative singular of the noun o)rgh. All it takes is some reversionism to bring this out. The Greek word here connotes an anger caused by emotional revolt, caused by jealousy in emotional revolt. The detonator and short fuse is jealousy.

“wrath,” this appears to be synonymous with anger but is not. This is the Greek word qumoj and it is quite different from anger in that it is emotional turbulence and has to do with tantrums or emotional agitation leading to instability of soul, “emotional tantrums.”

“malice,” kakia, which means depravity but it doesn’t mean depravity in the sense of degeneracy, it means depravity in other fields. It means when anger is frustrated, when tantrums no longer bring the attention or change people into the pattern that you have fixed for them. This means to find a substitute to care for the frustration. But this also means evil practices. This could simply mean any form of evil directed toward someone else, the attempt to destroy them, to hurt them. Many times people pattern a behaviour pattern not because they want to engage in that behaviour pattern but because it hurts the object of their love or their affection.

“blasphemy,” a transliteration. The Greek word is blasfhmia and it means to malign. Often in reversionism, in trying to hurt someone else, there is the practice of maligning them, slandering them.

“filthy communication out of your mouth,” the word for filthy communication is a)isxrologia and it means shame talk, talk that will hurt someone else. It also means to be obscene. It is an extension, then, of blasfhmia in the sense of slander.

Translation: “But now you also begin to lay aside all these; outbursts of temper, volatile anger, emotional turbulence, depravity [to hurt someone at the expense of someone else: hurting X by using Y], slander, language designed to hurt, from the source of your mouth.”

Verse 9, in order to accomplish the last half of this verse you have to become deceitful, so we have the present middle imperative of yeudw, translated “Lie not.” Yeudw means to speak falsely, to speak deceitfully. Both are relegated to the category of lying. Deceit is a part of the practice of reverse process reversionism. However, the object is not God who cannot be deceived, only someone with whom you have some kind of a relationship.

“Lie not one to another,” the word e)ij here actually means “to,” and it is directional, and then we have the object of this, a)llhlon, which means one another of the same kind. Literally, the present imperative says to stop doing some you are already doing. The middle voice means you are doing it yourself. Literally, “Stop lying to one another” or “Stop deceiving one another.”

“seeing” does not occur in the original. Instead, we have an aorist middle participle, “having put off,” rather than “seeing you have put off.” The verb is a)pekdiomai. This word in the active voice means to strip off clothes, but in the middle voice it means to disarm. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist, it gathers up into one ball of wax every time this becomes necessary. It gathers into one entirety the decisions of a believer in reversionism trying to recover from reversionism — the decisions to rebound, the decisions to attend class, the decisions to expose one’s self to Bible teaching in spite of temptations to do other things. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome. This is a permissive middle in which the subject yields himself to the results of the action in his own interest. The subject, then, is benefited by the action of the verb. The participle is an instrumental participle, and the instrumental participle indicates the means by which the action of the main verb is accomplished. The action of the main verb is “stop lying.” This tells you how you are going to stop lying. it will be accomplished no by saying, I’m going to stop lying, but by recovering from reversionism. But there is no reversion recovery apart from rebound and the daily function of GAP. When you begin to recover you disarm the OSN. “Stop lying to one another of the same kind, having disarmed “the old man.”

“the old man” refers to the old sin nature; “with his deeds,” the preposition sun plus the instrumental of pracij which means “practices.” Sun plus the instrumental means “together with.”

Translation: “Stop lying to one another of the same kind, having disarmed the old man [OSN] together with his modus operandi.”

There are at least 8 categories of reversionism

1. Drug reversionism. If the person loses the neurons of the brain on which information is printed by grace, if he destroys too much, if he has too much brain damage, he cannot recover. This is why it is important o emphasise that it is possible for a born-again believer to go too far, too long, with drugs and that makes reversion recovery impossible unless God performs a miracle by touching that person’s brain.

2. Phallic reversionism.

3. Monetary reversionism, James 5:1-6.

4. Legalistic reversionism. This was the problem of the Pharisees in our Lord’s day; it was the problem of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD.

5. Mental attitude reversionism — jealousy or some related mental attitude sin, which we have noted in this chapter, becomes a short fuse for a total loss of sanity temporarily through great anger.

6. Verbal reversionism. The concept here is using the mouth, the tongue, to malign and hurt others.

7. Antiestablishment reversionism. This belongs to the believer and the unbeliever. it always goes in for a frantic search for happiness by a total rejection of authority.

8. Mental illness reversionism. This includes the psychopathic the neurotic and the psychotic getting into these things in reversionism.

Verse 10, reversion recovery includes the construction of the ECS. It is rebuilt. “And have put on,” the aorist middle participle of e)nduw. The word in the active voice means to dress someone, but in the middle voice it means to dress yourself. It is used also in the Greek in a figurative sense of taking on the characteristics, the virtues and the intentions of someone who is great. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist, it gathers into one entirety every decision you have to make toward doctrine, to take it in, to make it a part of your soul so that the ECS can be reconstructed. The middle voice: the subject participates in the results of the action for his own benefit. The participle is an aorist participle and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb; our main verb goes back to the previous verse: Stop lying. Stop lying but put on something. This is also an instrumental participle, which indicates the means by which the action of the main verb is going to be fulfilled. How are you going to stop lying? How are you going to stop being deceptive? The answer is “putting on the new.”

“the new,” the Greek has two words for “new.” The first is neoj which means new in a point of time; the second is kainoj which means new in species. Both concepts of the ECS are pertinent to the concept here, however neoj is the word which is used. If you are recovering from reversionism you have lost the ECS and you begin to reconstruct it through the daily function of GAP. “New” refers to an ECS reconstructed by reversion recovery.

The doctrine of the edification complex of the soul

1. The doctrine is based upon certain verbs and their cognates found in he Bible, both in the Hebrew and the Greek. E.g. in the Hebrew we have banah which means to construct and edifice. Its counterpart in the Greek is o)ikodomew which means to build or construct, to erect a structure. There are also some nouns that go with o)ikodomew — O)ikodomh which means the act of building or erecting a structure. It is quite common for the ECS. Then there is o)ikodomia which is the ECS, the result of erecting a structure. There is also o)ikodomoj which refers to the contractor or the builder or the function of construction.

2. GAP is the source of the ECS, Ephesians 4:12,13. In that passage we have all the ingredients for the ECS. The believer is a priest in the Church. As a believer priest he is to gather with others, this gives him his privacy. The message of the pastor-teacher is all that is important to the believers who hear him.

3. The believer’s ECS provides both stability for the individual and preservation for the national entity. It is the only way a believer can be happy. Furthermore, the ECS count is the basis for determining the preservation of the national entity, Jeremiah 42:10.

4. The rapid construction of the ECS comes from a maximum use of faith patience under maximum pressure, James 1:2-4.

5. The structure of the ECS. First floor: grace orientation. It is impossible to begin an ECS unless the believer is grace oriented; second floor: the mastery of the details of life, and capacity for these details; the third floor: the relaxed mental attitude of the believer’s soul. This is freedom from any habitual mental attitude sins because MA sins destroy any capacity for life; the fourth floor: capacity for love. This is important because all capacity for love does not start with people, it starts with God. As you develop occupation with Christ, then the other capacities fall in line; the fifth floor: +H, the door that opens the believer into the normal Christian life which is supergrace.

6. The biblical use of the word “edification.” It is used in Ephesians 4:11,12, as the objective of the pastor-teacher. His responsibility is to so communicate doctrine that those who are positive will hear and grow up into the ECS. The soul was saved in order that the soul might have something special from God. The soul is saved so that it can be structurised by God’s plan, and this is where the ECS comes in. The second use of “edification” is found where a local church with a maximum number of believers having an ECS is a prosperous church. Acts 9:31. The third use of “edification,” the objective of phase two is to erect the ECS, not to speak in tongues, 1 Cor. 14:3,4, 12, 26. Fourth, human knowledge has a tendency to pump up but the function of GAP in the sphere of love edifies, 1 Corinthians 8:1.

7. There are two spirits involved in ECS. The first is God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. He functions in the intake of doctrine by which the ECS is constructed, John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 John 2:27; 1` Cor. 2:9-16. The second “spirit” in the ECS principle is the human spirit. It is the target for doctrine by which material is made available for the construction of the ECS, Romans 8:16; 1 Cor. 2:12,13; Job 32:8. Only doctrine stored in the human spirit is construction material, Ephesians 4:23,24; Colossians 1:9,10; 1 John 2:3.

8. As a starting point for motivation the humanity of Christ possessed an ECS during the incarnation, Luke 2:40, 52; John 1:14.

9. Biblical synonyms for the ECS:

Light, Psalm 43:3; Psalm 119:130; Ephesians 5:8,9,13.

Glory is used for the ECS, Jeremiah 13:16; 1 Corinthians 11:7.

The fullness of God, Ephesians 3:19

Imitators of God, Ephesians 5:1. However, Eph. 5:1 not only refers to the ECS but emphasises it as the entrance into supergrace.

Christ at home in your hearts, Ephesians 3:17.

Christ formed in you, Galatians 4:19.

The new man, Ephesians 4:24.

The new, Colossians 3:10.

The perfect work, James 1:4.

Christ in you, 2 Cor. 13:5.

10. The supergrace life is the objective after the ECS. The ECS, therefore, is the entrance into the supergrace life. Once the top floor has been constructed there is a transition into supergrace. The top floor is God’s happiness shared with the believer.

“new” means the reconstruction of the ECS.

“which is renewed,” the present passive participle of a)nakainow — a)na means again and again; kainoj means new in species. It should be translated “being renewed.”

Summary

1. The participle indicates that the ECS once existed but was destroyed through reversionism.

2. Essentially this is what reversionism means — the destruction of the ECS through negative volition toward doctrine, accumulation of scar tissue, emotional revolt, blackout of the soul.

3. Once the ECS is in the process of destruction and these other things are occurring simultaneously the believer begins to practice in his behaviour pattern, in his modus operandi, reverse process reversionism. Since reverse process reversionism is the end of the line he has to stop. That means decisions. There has to be rebound, getting back under GAP.

“in knowledge,” e)ij plus the accusative singular of e)pignwsij is literally, “because of e)pignwosij doctrine.” Therefore it should be translated, “And having put on the new [the ECS reconstructed], being renewed because of e)pignwsij.”

“after the image,” kata plus the accusative of e)ikon, “according to the image.” The image here is Jesus Christ.

“of him,” there is no personal pronoun here but rather the genitive of the definite article which should be translated “the one.” “The one” is used here because Jesus Christ is the only celebrity of the Church Age.

“that created,” aorist active participle of ktizw, “having created.”

“him,” referring to the believer who has now recovered from reversionism. The function of this intensive pronoun is to emphasise the identity of the individual.

Translation: “And having put on the new, being renewed because of e)pignwsij doctrine according to the image of the one having created him.”

Verse 11, the application of current positional truth. Of all of the doctrines that pertain to us in the Church Age, the one which causes us to separate from religion and to begin to understand the true nature of God’s plan for the believer’s life, it is the doctrine of positional truth. This is the one doctrine that removes any inferiority complex, eliminates all handicaps from being a hindrance to us, keeps from ever getting mixed up with the psychiatric approach or the psychological approach to life which says you are a product of your environment, protects us from all of the fallacies of life, and causes us to distinguish between Christianity and religion which are as antithetical as two things can be. Positional truth always emphasises that Christianity is a relationship with God and not some system, like religion, that is trying to make points with God through works.

“Where,” and adverb which means “in which place.” The Greek word is o(pou and it is a reference to union with the Lord Jesus Christ with emphasis on current positional truth. “In which place,” i.e. in union with Christ.

“there is neither,” present active indicative of e)n e)imi which means to be within, to be inside. It refers to current positional truth. We have a negative with this one: “In which place [union with Christ] there is not inside.”

The doctrine of positional truth

Basically positional truth is something that occurs at the point of salvation and is never improved. God is perfect. One of the 36 things He provides at the point you believe in Jesus Christ is union with Christ. It is a ministry whereby God the Holy Spirit picks you up and enters you into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is your salvation, that is your security, that is your relationship with God. You are “in Christ,” you are in union with Him. This keeps you from and protects you from the devil’s ace trump which is religion — man trying to work to get something out of God. The guarantee for everything in your life from the moment of salvation on is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of eternal salvation whereby He enters you into union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Mechanics: 1 Corinthians 12:13. This is a verse dealing with the subject of the baptism of the Spirit. “We all” refers to every believer in the Church Age, “baptised into Christ.” The word “baptise” means identify. it means here that God the Holy Spirit puts you into union with Christ at the right hand of the Father. This was prophesied by the Lord Jesus Christ just before His ascension in Acts 1:5. It is the subject of Ephesians 4:5 where we have the phrase, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” The aorist tense of 1 Cor. 12:13 is a culminative aorist, it means it is over

2. Positional truth belongs to the carnal as well as to the spiritual believer. Under positional truth we enter into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is permanent. The spiritual believer is in fellowship; the carnal believer is out of fellowship, he is in the state of having sinned. The carnal believer becomes spiritual again by means of rebound. But whether the believer is spiritual or carnal he is still in union with Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30.

3. Positional sanctification protects the believer from divine judgement in eternity, Romans 8:1.

4. Positional sanctification qualifies the believer to live with the Lord forever. There are two qualifying principles. If you are going to live with God forever in heaven you have to have the same righteousness as God has. The only way we are qualified is the fact that Jesus Christ has +R, at the moment of salvation we enter into union with Christ, and His righteousness becomes our righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21. His righteousness belongs to us now, and it is His righteousness which justifies us. God sees His righteousness credited to our account and therefore justifies us. We also have to have the same kind of life that God has. Jesus Christ has this eternal life, 1 John 5:11,12, and when we believe in Christ we enter into union with Christ and His life becomes our life. We are going to live forever and ever and ever with God.

5. Positional truth explains two of the most difficult stumbling blocks in the realm of theology: election and predestination, Ephesians 1:3-6. In eternity past Jesus Christ was elected by God the Father [that is a part of the doctrine of divine decrees]. In the divine decrees Jesus Christ was given a destiny. The moment that you believe in Christ you enter into union with Christ, you share His election, you share His destiny. That is the sense in which you are predestined. Predestination and election cannot be understood apart from positional truth, apart from union with Jesus Christ. You are predestined in the sense that you share the destiny of Christ.

Predestination is not fatalism. Some good theologians fall apart because all they can think of is the sovereignty of God and that you really have no free will of your own, and that you fall into this or you don’t .There are all kinds of fatalism in the world but a sovereignty-type theologian inevitably has to be a fatalist and he spends half of his life explaining why he isn’t a fatalist. A lot of theologians try to explain the difference between the “Calvinistic” view of predestination, and they can’t .The Calvinistic view of predestination is fatalism. It is called Reformed fatalism. It is really not John Calvin’s fault. John Calvin did not hold to the view of Predestination to which his name is attached by Reformed Theologians. When we say Calvinism we are not talking about that great, brilliant theological mind, John Calvin. John Calvin recognised free will. We are talking about the followers of Calvin in the 20th century who do not know straight up from straight down. Positional sanctification clarifies election and predestination and keeps the believer from being a fatalist.

6. Positional truth produces a new creature in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17. Notice: “in Christ.” The “old things” in that verse is spiritual death, “In Adam all die.” That is old things. “Old things” is a technical phrase related to the fall; what Adam got us into. Old things are anything related to the fall of man. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature” because of who and what God is, because of what God did at the point of salvation for us. We are new creatures not because of what we gave up at salvation but because of what He gave up.

At the moment a person believes in Jesus Christ he is a new creature, and he is a perfect creature. The Bible says that the moment you believe in Jesus Christ you are perfect. But every one of us is a Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde. Positionally we are one and experientially we are the other. God found a way to make the worst person who ever lived and make him perfect as at the moment of salvation in the eyes of God. That is positional truth. Union with Christ makes you perfect at the point of salvation, and positional truth is never improved. We are new creatures because of who and what Christ is, not because of changes we make at the point of salvation or subsequently.

7. Positional truth guarantees the eternal security of the believer, Romans 8:38,39. We are in union with Christ and we will never get out. But the doctrine of eternal security was never designed to give you some kind of a credit card to raise hell in the manner in which you think it ought to be done. There is a verse written for that kind of believer: “Man’s days are full of trouble,” divine discipline.

8. Positional truth exists in two categories: retroactive — identification with Christ in His death. Christ in His death bore our sins in His own body on the tree but He rejected human good. The moment we believe we enter into union with Christ as he was on the cross, Romans 6; Colossians 2:12; 3:3. The principle is a very simple one. Christ rejected human good. We are identified with Christ in His death, therefore down with human good. We are also identified with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, and that means up with divine good. That is the meaning of water baptism, by the way. So we have retroactive and current positional truth.

9. Current positional truth has many applications. For example, we share the life of Christ, eternal life, 1 John 5:11,12; we share His righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21; we share His election, Ephesians 1:4; we share His destiny, Ephesians 1:5; we share His sonship, 2 Timothy 2:1; we share His heirship, Romans 8:16,17; we share His sanctification. Jesus Christ is separated unto God the Father. By being in union with Him we are sanctified in Him forever, 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; we share His kingdom, 2 Peter 1:11; we share His priesthood, Hebrews 10:10-14.

10. The characteristics of positional truth.

a) It is not an experience. It is not emotional; It is not emotional or ecstatic.

b) It is not progressive. You cannot improve it in time or eternity.

c) It is not related to human merit, human good, human talent. Grace escalates divine good and excludes human good.

d) Positional truth is eternal in nature. We have it now, we have it forever. It cannot be changed by God, angel, or mankind.

e) Positional truth is known only by the Word of God.

f) Positional truth is in toto at the moment of salvation, it is one of the 36 things we receive at that point.

“There is not inside” i.e. in union with Christ, four things. Experientially on the earth people are still Jews and Gentiles. So the first category is a racial category. There are four areas of equality established by positional truth.

“neither Greek nor Jew,” E(llhn is used because of the tremendous impact of Greek culture on western civilisation, and therefore the word “Greek” means those who are Gentiles racially and culturally apart from Israel. The Jew refers to a Jew racially and culturally.

“circumcision nor uncircumcision,” peritomh kai a)krobustia. This indicates that all ritual and religious activity is excluded as meritorious under positional sanctification. One’s background is eliminated as having any advantage. Religious background, religious environment, does not give anyone an advantage over a non-religious background. Non-religious environment is uncircumcision.

The third category is strictly cultural, “Barbarian, Cythian.” The word “Barbarian” is barbaroj. When the Greeks first went to the Black Sea to trade they encountered people who would try to talk to them, and they sounded like “Bar, bar, bar, bar.” The Greeks decided that these people didn’t make sense, so they called the people who sounded like that Barbarians. Skuqhj is a Cythian, and the Greeks didn’t think much of them. They were a crude people. They were a nomadic people who lived very much like hippies. They always scalped their enemies, they drank the blood of their enemies out of skulls, they offered human sacrifices. To the Greeks they were the lowest trash in the world.

The fourth category, “bond nor free.” The word “bond” is douloj and it means a slave; “free” is e)leuqeroj which means a state of freedom. All social distinctions are removed by positional truth. Positional truth accomplishes in one second what the devil has not been able to do in all of human history. This is the devil’s big thrust. He wants everyone to be socially equal, socially acceptable, and he has never been able to pull it off.

“but,” the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast. This is a contrast between human superiorities and distinctions with objectives achieved by the construction of the ECS and entrance into the supergrace life.

Principle: No believer enters supergrace with either a superiority complex or an inferiority complex.

There is a contrast between the inferiorities or superiorities and the family of God in its function. The supergrace believer is now in view.

“but Christ,” Xristoj is here without the definite article and it calls attention to the quality of this proper noun. In other words, Christ is the only celebrity for phase two. This only becomes apparent as the believer erects the fourth floor of the ECS and reaches maximum capacity for category #1 love under supergrace living. In other words, all of these inferiorities or superiorities which trouble mankind are all removed, and when you enter supergrace Christ is all and in all. You are occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. You have a new focus, a new concentration, a new motivation, a new happiness, you have a fantastic life.

“is all,” the nominative neuter plural of paj. In the neuter it has to be “things,” “in all things.” Literally, “Christ all things.” There is no verb here. “All things” refers to Bible doctrine. Jesus Christ only becomes a reality to you when you take in Bible doctrine.

“and in all’’ is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental neuter plural of paj, and it should be translated, “because of all things.” In other words, Christ is the grace source of everything we have. Furthermore, under supergrace with capacity to love Christ we have capacity for everything else in life. So Christ is all things and the cause of all things. Christ is the source of every bit of prosperity you will ever have.

Translation: “In which place [union with Christ] there does not exist Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave, free: but all things and the cause of all things, Christ.” This is the literal Greek word order.

The doctrine of occupation with Christ

1. The basis for occupation with Christ is the consistent or daily intake of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP, Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18,19; 4:20.

2. With doctrine as the working object of faith the believer has maximum category #1 love response. Therefore, he is called filoj qeou, “friend/lover of God.” This is a title for occupation with the person of Christ and it occurs in James 2:22,23.

3. Occupation with Christ is based upon the glorification of Jesus Christ, Colossians 3:1,2.

4. Occupation with Christ is the standard operating procedure for the Christian life, Hebrews 12:1,2.

5. Occupation with Christ has a perfect illustration in the doctrine of right man, right woman, Ephesians 525-32, and very briefly in 1 Corinthians 11:7.

6. The function of GAP is the believer responding to Christ’s love in phase two. In other words, Jesus Christ makes love to the believer through Bible doctrine, James 1:21,22.

7. The sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees an eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the believer, Ephesians 1:11-14.

8. Occupation with Christ includes total dependence on grace provision, Psalm 37:4,5.

9. Occupation with Christ is related to stability, inner happiness, and capacity for life, Psalm 16:8,9.

10. Occupation with Christ is the basis for blessing in suffering. Reversion intensifies suffering; supergrace minimises suffering and substitutes happiness, Psalm 77.

11. Occupation with Christ is based on the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life, Hebrews 3:1,6.

In verses 12 and 13 we now come to the results of having an ECS.

Verse 12, the results of the ECS. This area begins the supergrace area of Colossians chapter 3. “put on,” the aorist middle imperative of e)nduw which really means to dress up, to dress yourself in the middle voice. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist which gathers up into one entirety every time that you take in the Word of God. Supergrace is the great objective, it is the normal Christian life, the normal function of the priesthood, the place where God is free to pour out blessing upon you. It is the only place where God can share His perfect happiness with you. In the middle voice of this verb the subject participates in the results of the action, this is a direct middle which is reflexive and is reflected in the translation, “Dress yourself.” The interesting thing is everyone has to do this for himself. If you take in Bible doctrine you have to make the decision to do so, no one else can make it for you. People can hinder you but no one can help you. The imperative mood is a command to all believers.

“therefore,” we have an inferential particle immediately after the verb, o)un. The purpose of this particle is to set up a relationship between the command which is now given and the previous verse.

“as the elect of God,” w(j e)klektoi tou qeou, “as the elected ones of God,” referring to all believers.

Then we have the genitive of possession, “the elected ones belonging to God.” This is referring to the dressing up of the soul.

The doctrine of election

1. All members of the human race are potentially elected to the plan of God through the doctrine of unlimited atonement, 2 Timothy 2:10.

2. Christ was elected from eternity past, Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4,6. Election for the believer means to share the election of Christ as well as to share the destiny of Christ.

3. The election of Christ occurred in the doctrine of divine decrees. This is a technical theological term which refers to the eternal life conference, John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2. Christ was elected in eternity past, every believer is in union with Christ, therefore we share His election.

4. Every believer shares the election of Christ through the mechanics of positional truth, 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; Romans 8:28-32; Ephesians 1:4.

5. Election is the present as well as the future possession of every believer, therefore election is temporal as well as the eternal possession of the believer, John 15:16; Colossians 3:12.

6. The election occurs at the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9.

7. Election is the foundation of the universal church, 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

8. Orientation to election comes through doctrine in the human spirit, Titus 1:1.

9. The regenerate Jews of the previous dispensation, the Age of Israel, also had election as a part of the plan of God, Romans 11:1-7.

Every believer is in the plan of God. The principle: the ECS is dressing up the soul. The erection of the ECS is what is meant by this command, “Dress yourselves.” Your soul puts on clothes by the erection of an ECS through the daily function of GAP. So the ECS is designed to make the believer’s life an experience compatible with his position. It is designed to begin everything that leads to capacity.

“holy,” nominative plural from a(gioj which means saint or separated one. The nominative plural of e)klektoj emphasises the plan of God. A(gioj emphasises the grace security provided by God.

“beloved,” this is not a noun. This is the perfect passive participle of a)gapaw, the word for mental attitude love and it should be translated in this participial form, “having been loved.” The perfect tense of the participle means that the action is completed with results from that action. God loved us in the past with results. The result is that God is not compromised in loving us. This is an intensive perfect which emphasises the existing results of a completed action. This may also be classified as a dramatic perfect which describes a fact in an unusual, vivid and realistic way. How is it possible for God to remain uncompromised in His essence and still love man? The answer is grace. Mechanics: the cross.

“Dress yourselves therefore, as elected ones of God, separated ones [sanctified] and having been loved with the result that you keep on being loved.”

Summary

1. The perfect passive participle, “having been loved,” is also found in the following verses: Ephesians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13. And it is translated the same way, “beloved,” but it should be translated “having been loved’ in the past with the result that you keep on being loved forever.

2. However, the word “beloved” also is translated the same way from a noun, a)gaphtoj. The noun is found in Romans 1:7; Hebrews 6:9; James 1:16,19; 2:5; 1 Peter 4:12; 2 Peter 3:1; 1 John 3:2. So beloved is found in two forms and there is no way to distinguish them in the English.

3. The participle is even stronger than the noun. However, both participle and noun emphasise the fact that every believer in union with Christ is the object of the Father’s love.

4. By comparing Ephesians 1:6, the perfect passive participle of a)gapaw, with Colossians 3:12, another perfect passive participle, we begin to see the principle of how great is God’s love for us. Compare a)gaphtoj used for Christ in 2 Peter 1:17; with Matthew 3:17. Ephesians 1:6 tells us that Jesus Christ is the beloved, we are accepted in Him. “Beloved” is 2 Peter 1:17 is used of Christ; in 1 John 3:2 it is used of the believer. Comparing the two we have the same principle again: Christ is the object of the Father’s love; the believer is the object of the same love.

5. The implications are obvious. Every believer, regardless of spiritual status, is loved by God the Father with the same amount of love that He has for Jesus Christ.

6. Every believer through positional truth is the object of the Father’s perfect and unchangeable love.

7. The believer’s attitude toward God varies in accordance with his attitude toward doctrine. The believer’s capacity to love God is based on the amount of doctrine in his soul through the function of GAP. 8. Therefore the believer’s love for God varies but God’s love for the believer is maximum and unchangeable. God’s love for the believer is always the same from the cross to eternity whether the believer is supergrace or reversionistic.

9. The reality of this fact can only be achieved in the status quo of supergrace.

Therefore the rest of this verse relates the ECS to the supergrace life. We now have five characteristics in which the believer must be clothed in order to comply with the imperative, “Dress yourself.” These characteristics are related to the five floors of the ECS.

The first is “bowels of mercies,” splagxna o)iktrimou. Splagxna is the accusative singular of splagxnon, generally translated “bowels.” It means bowels, but like most portions of the anatomy in the Greek language they also double for some area of the soul. While this is translated “bowels” it is used for both emotions or the inner feelings of the soul. It is also used as inner feelings for the soul, it can be legitimately translated “affections.” The word o)iktrimu is the genitive singular of o)ktrimoj which means “grace compassion.” It is in the singular. It should be translated, “affections of grace compassion.” This is a love which is normal to the supergrace believer, the ability to give love from your own soul.

The second characteristic is called “kindness,” the accusative singular from the noun xrhstothj, and it means a a “gracious disposition.” This noun is used for God, it is a characteristic of God. God has a gracious disposition, Romans 2:4; 9:23; 11:22; Ephesians 2:7. It is God’s perfect happiness which produces the gracious disposition. In fact this characteristic of God is demanded of believers in 2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:12. To fulfill this command the believer must possess +H. Therefore this is the first half of Philippians 4:4.

The third one is “humbleness of mind,” tapeinofrosunh refers to a mental attitude of grace. It does not refer to some system of self-effacement. This is not overt, the word has to do with an inner function of the life. It is something you think, not something you do. it means that no matter how talented you are, no matter how smart you are, you have no illusions about yourself. So it is a total understanding of the principle of grace on the basis of Bible doctrine. Under grace orientation you have no illusions about yourself.

“meekness,” the accusative singular from prauthj. It means courtesy, humility, considerateness. This is the mental attitude of the soul which is not competing with others, not playing spiritual king of the mountains. This is the thought pattern of the soul that is free from subjectivity and sensitivity. Sensitivity is subjectivity relating everyone to yourself in a negative way. So no subjectivity, no sensitivity, no insatiable lust pattern in the field of approbation or power, no distorted scale of values, putting people or things before Bible doctrine.

Sensitivity with regard to others is legitimate; sensitivity with regard to yourself is not legitimate. The grace disposition takes care of sensitivity toward others. So you avoid under this concept the mental attitude sins of pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, lust, and so on. Instead, there is gentleness, thoughtfulness of others, courtesy and good manners. meekness, then, is the relaxed mental attitude in action.

“long-suffering,” the accusative singular of makroqumia. This noun is defined as well as clarified for us in James 5:7,8 where it is define as the use of doctrine in the soul as capital for phase two rather than using human capital in life. Money is a detail in life but money is the believer’s life. Doctrine is capital for phase two and the believer can only spend doctrine which resides in his soul. Just as you cannot spend money which you do not have so you cannot spend doctrine which is not in your soul. Bible doctrine is not capital for you until it resides in your soul. So just as the blood of Christ is the coin of the realm for phase one so doctrine is the coin of the realm for phase two. Therefore doctrine must come first fir the mastery of the details of life. The translation here should be “steadfastness” rather than longsuffering. That means stability from the mastery of the details of life.

Translation: “Dress yourselves therefore, as the elected ones of the God, separated ones [saints], having been loved with the result that you keep on being loved, I say, dress yourselves with affections of grace compassion [capacity for love], a gracious disposition leading to generosity, a mental attitude of grace, meekness [RMA], steadfastness.”

Principles

1. God vindicates His Word in the soul of the believer.

2. “All things work together for good” only applies to the supergrace believer, the one who loves God.

Verse 13, the supergrace function. “Forbearing” is the principle, the present middle participle of a)nexw. It means to bear with, to endure, to put up with someone, “Putting up with one another of the same kind.” One another of the same kind always refers to those who are believers. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what reoccurs at successive intervals. Under the supergrace concept of live and let live we have occasionally a great opportunity (if we have the doctrine) of putting up with some obnoxious fellow believer. The iterative present describes the fact that this will occur at intervals in your life. The middle voice describes the subject participating in the results of the action. This word a)nexw not only means to put up with one another of the same kind but the middle voice of the verb describes the believer participating in the results of the action. This is a direct middle in which the supergrace believer puts up with the obnoxious believer on the basis of grace. The participle is ascriptive. The word “ascriptive” is used of a participle which ascribes to the supergrace believer a quality or characteristic of the supergrace life. An ascriptive participle is also used as an imperative. The object of this participle is an objective genitive of a)lloj and it means one another of the same kind.

“forgiving,” this is still a part of the principle. This is also a present middle participle of xarizomai. It means to give graciously, to give without strings. Therefore to give without strings is to forgive. Again, this is an iterative present describing what occurs at successive intervals. Under supergrace the believer forgives on the basis of the fact that he is in a status where he is reaping what God sows. If you are reaping what God sows you are being blessed of God and therefore to forgive someone is easy, not hard. The middle voice: the subject doesn’t produce the action, it participates in the results of the action. That means you are reaping what God sows. The supergrace believer forgives on the basis of his status. Again, we have an ascriptive participle which assigns to the supergrace believer a quality or a characteristic of the supergrace life. This is one of those rare cases where the participle acts as an imperative in the status of the supergrace life.

“one another,” this time it is not one another of the same kind. This time we have a dative plural reflexive pronoun e(autou, used here as a reciprocal pronoun. The dative case here is indirect object to indicate the one in whose interest the act of gracious forgiveness is performed. The reflexive pronoun does not refer just to believers but to any member of the human race. That is the principle and it is followed by the mechanics.

“if” is the conjunction e)an plus the subjunctive mood which introduces a third class condition. This is therefore a protasis of a conditional clause, and it means “it”, maybe yes, maybe no.

“any man” is not correct. We have an indefinite pronoun tij which means “anyone.” If you are going to have a principle followed by a practice you must keep it impersonal. The indefinite pronoun keeps it very impersonal.

“have” should be “has,” present active subjunctive of e)xw, present tense, linear aktionsart; “quarrel” should be “complaint.”

“against anyone: even as,” the adverb kaqwj sets up a comparative standard for the supergrace believer. We have kai here plus o( qeoj, which means “even as also the Lord.” There is no “Christ” here.

“forgave,” aorist active indicative of xarizomai which means to graciously forgive — no strings. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist matching the iterative present — at any time this occurs. The active voice: you do the forgiving as a supergrace believer. The indicative mood is the reality of such forgiveness.

“you,” this is a pronoun that refers to all of us, and He forgives us at different times. The dative case is the indirect object to indicate the one in whose interest the act of gracious forgiveness is performed.

“so also ye” is incorrect. O(utoj kai u(meij means “in this way.”

Translation: “Putting up with one another [of the same kind], and graciously forgiving others [believers or unbelievers], if anyone has a complaint against anyone else: even as also the Lord has graciously forgiven you, in this way also you [graciously forgive].”

The illustration: David and Absalom

1. In 2 Samuel 14:24 David was guilty of a half forgiveness. David permitted Absalom to come home but he would not permit him to come into the palace. A half forgiveness equals no forgiveness.

2. According to 2 Samuel 14:28 during the next two years Absalom was banned from court, and during that two years bitterness developed toward his father. He reacted to the half forgiveness which was no forgiveness and his reaction was bitterness.

3. The result of this half forgiveness is the Absalom revolution in which Ahithophel used Absolom’s bitterness to overthrow the establishment. It was a revolution, 2 Samuel 15:12,31; 16:15,20; 17:1,7,14,23.

4. The resultant revolution is described in 2 Samuel 18. David’s army prevailed and put down the revolution.

5. However, the result to David personally is best described in 2 Samuel 18:33; 19:1-4, in which we have David’s broken heart, his maximum grief.

6. Yes, David was obviously in reversionism. But his fugitive activity caused him to recover. So he won the war and put down the revolution because he came back to supergrace and he reaped what God sowed. But prior to that he reaped what David sowed. He had used a half forgiveness against his beloved son, Absalom, and therefore he lost Absalom.

Verse 14, the progressing believer. Progress is measured in terms of the construction of the ECS. The ECS is the backbone of your soul.

“And above all these things.” The word “above” can be translated “above.” It is a preposition, e)pi. Sometimes it means “above” and sometimes it means “upon” which is what it means here. “And upon all these.” What we are talking about it building something on something else. “All these” is a reference to the first two floors of the ECS. The ECS is constructed out of doctrine. This verse is now contemplating the construction of the third floor which is a)gaph love, called a relaxed mental attitude. “Upon all these” is how you are going to build the rest of it. It is very difficult to start growing in the Christian life not matter how much doctrine you take in. The real problem comes from your mental attitude. It is very difficult to maintain a relaxed mental attitude through everything that is involved in taking in doctrine. For example, if you take in doctrine you have to assemble with other people and it is inevitable that you will not like some of the people with whom you assemble. There are many factors along the way which people are not really aware of.

“charity” is the Greek word a)gaph which is strictly a mental attitude love. On the negative side it is freedom from mental attitude sins, but on the other side of the fence it is a mental attitude born by doctrine whereby you have a total toleration of those with whom ordinarily you would have antagonism, those with whom you have clashes. God has designed a cement to hold all kinds of people together in one classroom, i.e. the local church, and that cement is a)gaph love. “ … put on the love.” The words “put on” are supplied. A)gaph love is also produced by the filling of the Spirit but it is not stabilised until it becomes a part of the ECS.

So far we have: “And on these put on the love [RMA].”

“which” is the relative pronoun o(j which has as its antecedent, love; “is,” the present active indicative of e)imi meaning “which keeps on being.”

“the bond,” the noun is sundesmoj, it refers to something which cements everything together, something which binds together. There is something that held us all together. It is not that we are members of the human race, it is not the fact that we all have souls because in our souls are all of the seeds of great conflicts — the OSN, emotional revolt, and so on. Just what is it that pulls us all together? It is the function of the soul when the believer has reached, has constructed, the third floor of the ECS. It is the relaxed mental attitude. The Bible does not advocate personality change but the Bible does make a major inner personality change for every believer, not a change necessarily that is overt from the standpoint of grooming or concepts of life, but it is a an attitude of soul. One of the most important attitudes of soul that you will ever develop comes from this third floor of the ECS, the RMA. There are two ways in human life in which a RMA is developed. The easy way is the intake of Bible doctrine until this third floor is constructed. The other way is military life.

“of perfectness,” teleiothj which means maturity, and it is a word synonymous with the concept of supergrace.

Translation: “And on these put on the love [RMA] which is the cementer of maturity.”

Not only does this mean that you are stabilised and ready to make that last sprint for supergrace, but there is something else here as well. Plato occasionally said in the days when he was famous in Athens, two things are always held together by a third thing. The RMA keeps what you have, it cements the floors of the ECS together.

Verse 15, the completion of the ECS comes next: “let rule” is not let rule, it is the present active imperative of brabeuw (the word for “rule” is kratew) which is an athletic term. In the athletics of the ancient world they had umpires and brabeuw means to be an umpire, to be an official. So the word means to umpire, to preside, to control, to govern, to reward.

The word “peace” is peace in the sense of blessing, harmony, welfare, security and prosperity, e)irhnh. Peace is actually used here to indicate the finish line, the completion of the ECS.

“of God,” the ablative of source of Xristoj, “of the Christ.” “And the tranquillity from the Christ, let that umpire reside in the sphere of your hearts.”

“to the which” is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of o(j.

“also you are called,” the aorist passive indicative of kalew, you are kept in this life so that you could go to supergrace. God calls you into supergrace. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, it begins to call. It is also a gnomic aorist, it is an absolute for every member of the human race. There is no such thing as a member of the human race for whom God did not call. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb, he receives the call from God. The indicative mood is the reality of being called into the supergrace life.

“into one body,” e)n plus the locative of swma, used for the Church universal.

“and be ye” is not correct, it is the present active imperative of ginomai which means to become something you were not before. The present tense plus the imperative means “keep on becoming something you were not before.” The active voice: you as a believer produce the action of the verb.

“thankful,” the nominative masculine plural of e)uxaristoj. The interesting thing is that the word is in the plural, “keep on becoming thankful ones.”

Thanksgiving is related to capacity in the supergrace life.

Translation: “And the tranquillity [blessing, prosperity] from the Christ be of cause to umpire your right lobes, into which also you have been called into one body; and keep on becoming thankful ones.”

Verse 16, the congregation has a responsibility. “Let dwell,” the present active imperative of e)noikew [e)n means in; o)ikew means to dwell], and it means to dwell inside, to inhabit, to indwell. The subject is o( logoj and then the ablative of Christ, “the doctrine from Christ.” So literally, “And the doctrine from the source of Christ keep on dwelling inside you [in your souls].”

“richly,” an adverb plousiwj which means richly or abundantly to the point of wealth. It means saturation in this passage.

“in all wisdom,” swfia which indicates doctrine reaching the right lobe.

What is the function of the teacher, the pastor?

“teaching,” the present active participle of didaskw. Didaskw is used to teach a group with authority. The present tense indicates linear aktionsart. For a pastor-teacher to didaskw certain things have to be true:

1. The pastor has to be born again.

2. Only when a person is saved does God give him a spiritual gift. While we are all given a spiritual gift only a few males are given the gift of pastor-teacher.

3. There has to be a period of preparation.

4. Identification. The pastor has to get together with his right congregation.

5. There must be attendance by the congregation and the pastor must study. Then he has to communicate.

“and admonishing,” that is being personal in an impersonal way. This is the present active participle of a compound verb nouqetew. This word is made up of nouj = mind, and the verb tiqhmi which means to place. And to place in the mind, which is what the word meant originally, eventually comes to mean to instruct so as to warn of the application. When people begin to learn they cannot make application for themselves.

“one another” means “to self and others.” This is a reflexive pronoun, e(autou. The pastor has to learn it before he can communicate it, so this actually means teaching and applying to self and others of the same kind, other believers.

1. This whole matter is accomplished in a public assembly called the local church. The local church is a classroom made up of a pastor-teacher and a congregation.

2. In compliance with the principle of the privacy of the priesthood God has ordained public communication of doctrine. This is the only way you can have privacy.

3. The communicator or pastor-teacher must have absolute authority and attention when teaching. The congregation must be under strict academic discipline and, as the congregation grows, good manners, poise.

4. Only by public communication of doctrine can the believer priest have the privacy to learn and function under the principles of the grace apparatus for perception.

5. One on one teaching is a vicious evil, an intrusion on the privacy of the priesthood. It violates freedom, it constitutes coercion, bullying, it resolves itself in the adoption of legalistic gimmicks, it becomes a personality pressure thing, a source of promoting pseudo spirituality and human viewpoint thinking.

6. Therefore only grace provision for learning Bible doctrine is authorised.

7. Admonishing indicates that all good Bible teaching, all principles of doctrine, must be related to experience. Therefore it is the responsibility of the pastor to relate doctrine to everyday life.

“in psalms,” a psalm involves musical accompaniment. The Psalms do not have to be sung, they are taught. However, that does not help us with the next one. Psalms merely reflects that part of scripture whereby.

application is made from principles of doctrine. The psalms applied to David’s experiences the doctrines that he had learned. Psalms do not indicate music but hymns do.

hymns,” an instrumental plural of u(mnoj which has been transliterated. U(mnoj is a song of praise directed toward God. In effect, it is a love song directed toward God.

“and spiritual songs,” there is no “and” in the original. It is “by means of spiritual praise, by means of pneumatikoj,” and there is no music in pneumatikoj which means simply, “spiritual things.” It is a reference to doctrine in the soul.

Singing is bona fide but singing must have something in the soul which corresponds to what you are singing. Therefore to fulfill this principle there must be doctrine in the soul which corresponds to what you are singing. Singing relates what you have in your soul to worship and it illustrates the principle of you must relate what you learn to your life. Singing, therefore, becomes the illustration of what you should do with doctrine — apply it. Singing is relating principles of doctrine in your soul to God.

“with grace” is “by means of grace,” the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of xarij. In other words, the only singing which counts in the local church is accomplished by means of grace.

Translation: “And the doctrine from the Christ let it keep on dwelling inside in you abundantly to the point of wealth in all wisdom; teaching and warning self and others by musical accompaniment, by songs of praise, by means of spiritual things, by grace in your hearts keep singing to the Lord.”

When singing is involved in worship it becomes a ritual. Anything that a person does which constitutes worship is definitely a part of ritual and the singing part of worship is meaningless unless there is reality in the soul. The singing part is the result of the first part of verse 16, and that is about it. There is a great deal of emphasis placed on Christian singing today. In fact, the less people know of doctrine the more they want to sing. There is nothing wrong with singing and there is a true ritual in singing when it is a part of worship, but it must line up with bible doctrine in the soul. Our clear clue in the matter is found in the phrase in the Psalms, the instrumental of yalmoj, which is simply bringing the Hebrew word over into the Greek. This is done for a very simple reason because a psalm really is doctrine and there is no question about it. It is doctrine which was originally sung. The point is that if you have doctrine in your soul and you sing about doctrine it immediately sets up a frame of reference whereby there is worship in the content of it. The word for “hymns” means a song of praise toward God, and really hymns ought to be sung by those who have entered supergrace or at least have constructed the fourth floor of the ECS, because this is where hymns become meaningful. The word “spiritual songs” really isn’t there it means “by means of spiritual things.” Before singing can ever be worship there must be a spiritual concept, and “spiritual things” refers to doctrine of the soul. By means of “spiritual things” we can sing with grace in the right lobe to God.

Verse 17, supergrace function. “And” is a continuative use of the conjunction kai, so we are going right on from singing as a part of worship right into the next concept which is function as a part of glorifying God. With it we also have the word “all,” the nominative neuter singular of paj, and it should be translated “And all.” This is not a very good translation. In the Greek there are two words that aren’t even translated here. Between “And” and “whatsoever” we have the word paj, and then there should be inserted after “whatsoever” the word “if.” The word “whatsoever” is o(ti, “whatever things” with the neuter. Then there is the insertion of e)an for a third class condition. Literally, then, it should start out, “And all whatever things if you do in word or deed.” it does not say whatever things you do, it say “if” you do them. It is a third class condition which means maybe you will and maybe you will not. It all depends on whether you reach supergrace or not.

“ye do” is the present active subjunctive of poiew. Poiew here is in the present tense, a static present which recognises the fact that when you reach supergrace the production of the life is automatic. It isn’t something you think about, it isn’t something you crank yourself to do — “if you do,” and you will if you are in supergrace and the opportunity presents itself and you do it right. You don’t make an ass of yourself and make everyone think that Christianity is made up of a lot of freaks and that churches ought to be moved into the zoo. The present tense means this is the state that should exist. The active voice means that you will automatically produce, that supergrace makes a producer out of you without thinking about it, without anything being abnormal.

The phrase “in word” has to do with the fact that most of our production is inside, “in doctrine,” e)n plus the locative of logoj. It doesn’t mean talking to someone, it means in the sphere of doctrine and it is the same as being a doer of the Word in James, the function of doctrine in the soul. The first principle we learn, then: If we are not motivated by doctrine our overt production in the Christian life is null and void, it has been abrogated by the absence of doctrine in the soul. No doctrine, no bona fide production.

“or deed,” this is the overt function of the supergrace believer.

“do all,” but there is no Greek word for “do.” Instead, it is “all things.” Again we have the nominative plural neuter of paj.

“in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” indicates the angelic conflict is involved.

So literally we have so far, “And all, whatever things you do in doctrine or in deed, all things by the name [or person] of the Lord Jesus.”

Up to this point, then, we have the function of the supergrace believer and the true motivation behind it. At the same time we recognise our place in history as being that of great importance. Since the Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross where He died for our sins and took our place, and then three days later rose from the dead, ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father, that was what triggered the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Up to this point and all through human history from the fall of man on Christ was always the target for the angelic conflict and the target for demons. But once Christ is glorified He is beyond the pale of any Satanic opposition or fighting. Therefore Satan has redirected all of his attacks against the dispensation that interrupts, and the Church Age is the dispensation in which Satan directs his attacks toward believers, all of whom are priests. And the attack is intensified so we now have the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. In eternity past God knew this and therefore we are entered into union with Christ, we are entered into union with Christ. Also, positionally we are identified with Christ in His death. So we have current positional truth and retroactive positional truth which from the point of salvation on identifies us with the strategic victory, and being identified with the strategic victory we are tactically in a position to have the victory of the supergrace life. The tactical victory occurs on the earth, the strategic victory was from the cross to the ascension. The strategic victory is over, Satan’s back is broken, and now Satan is concentrating all of his efforts against the believer priest in the Church Age making this the intensified state. But God has a way to counter that and He has by the supergrace life, for in the supergrace life doctrine in the soul provides the cup and God starts pouring. God is glorified by pouring and the believer in not only blessed but this is his part in the tactical victory. This is the believer identified with the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

So whenever we get to the point where we have the amount of doctrine which is specified in this passage — enough doctrine to be in supergrace status — whatever we are involved in the next phrase is logical. Notice what we have up to this point. “And all, whatever things you do in doctrine or in deed, all things by the name [or person] of the Lord Jesus.” Next is logical, “constantly giving thanks to the God.”

“giving thanks” is a present active participle of e)uxaristew, the strongest word for thanksgiving. It is the one meaning thanksgiving based upon something rational. People are often thankful on an emotional basis. There are in fact two distinct types of thanksgiving which emanate from the soul of the individual. One is rational thanksgiving and the other is emotional thanksgiving. Emotional thanksgiving is simply an expression of the stimulation of the emotion and is meaningless. Rational thanksgiving is based upon true orientation to life and is meaningful and is the type of thanksgiving involved in any part of worship or any part of your relationship to God. It must be based on cognisance, not upon emotional stimulation. Therefore the giving thanks here is based a maximum amount of doctrine in the soul. The present tense in the participial form is linear aktionsart. The active voice refers to the supergrace believer producing the action of the verb. The object of such thanksgiving is God. This is the dative of indirect object plus the definite article, so it is “the God,” o( qeoj. The dative of indirect indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. In our own interest and our own benefit we give thanksgiving to God, but we are benefited by it because we are in supergrace, and the thanksgiving is rational, not emotional, and therefore it has meaning. All true thanksgiving must be enshrouded in love, and if you don’t love God obviously you can’t be thankful to God.

“by him,” dia plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and it is really “through him.”

Translation: “And all whatever things if you do in doctrine or in deed, all things by the name of the Lord Jesus, constantly giving thanks to the God even the Father through him.”

Summary

1. Supergrace capacity is expressed by means of thanksgiving. But the thanksgiving always emphasises the person not the gift and has capacity to enjoy the gift.

2. True thanksgiving of the soul is the supergrace capacity for freedom, for life, for love, for happiness, for grace, prosperity and adversity. Why? because these capacities are based upon doctrine and all thanksgiving, worship, must be related to doctrine.

3. True thanksgiving is the supergrace believer responding to God’s pouring of supergrace blessings — responding from his right lobe.

4. True thanksgiving expresses response in all three categories of the supergrace life — the celebrityship of Christ, the supergrace capacities, and to the supergrace blessings.

5. All bona fide thanksgiving in worship, regardless of dispensation, comes from doctrine in the mentality of the soul, not from emotions.

This brings us to the concept of establishment in phase two. Once you reach supergrace you are ready for everything wonderful under the laws of establishment. From Colossians 3:18 to 4:1 we are going to study a number of different facets of the laws of establishment. This is the proper relationship of the believer to life. The National Council of Churches and other liberal organisations talk about the social gospel, talk about getting involved, about doing something for the downtrodden, and so on. How are we to be related to the life in which we find ourselves once we have accepted Christ as saviour? What is the practical application of all of the doctrine we have in our souls? How does it involve us with the human race? What is our responsibility in the devil’s world? Where does it start and where does it stop? How do we relate to the time in which we live?

The Holy Spirit has selected as the first illustration the most difficult area for people to become oriented in life, and that is, of course, marriage. Marriage is the great test as to what you have in your soul or do not have in your soul.

Verse 18, a woman is to a man in marriage what a buck private is to a divisional commander. She is under authority. When the man has not properly exercised his authority in marriage this woman is the most dangerous thing in the devil’s world!

“Wives” is the vocative plural from gunh plus the definite article and should be translated “The women” or “The wives.” And it does refer to women under the authority of marriage as a part of divine establishment. The command is to “submit.” This has generally been taken as only to do with sex life, so we should be very careful as we examine this verb because it has far-reaching repercussions.

1. First of all, “submit” from the standpoint of morphology is a present middle imperative from a military word u(potassw which means to be a private in the ranks. It means to be under the authority of someone else and it has the connotation of subordination. Subordination is the role of the woman in marriage.

2. In view of the doctrine of right man, right woman this means that the woman would submit in the sense of voluntarily yielding her love, her soul, and her body to her right man. When a woman makes a mistake and marries the wrong man she is still under the same obligation because of her own free will she selected the wrong man to be her “company commander.” She had a choice and she blew it.

3. U(potassw refers to the right woman responding to the love of the right man. That means in every area of life The husband is in authority.

The present tense is a customary present, it denotes a status that exists because of the institution of marriage. The middle voice here is an indirect middle which emphasises the agent producing the action. The woman produces the action of submission. The imperative mood: this is a command to the woman without her volition being involved. This is a part of the laws of divine establishment. So it should be translated, “The women, keep voluntarily yielding yourselves.”

“unto your own husbands,” should be “to the noble man.” There is no “unto your own” here. This is actually a dative plural because each woman has a different nobleman. The noun is a)nhr which is in contrast to the generic term a)nqrwpoj. The woman’s right man is the nobleman of her life. Preferably it should be done in love. Love on the part of a woman gives her capacity for marriage — love of her right man. The woman is not commanded to love but this cannot be truly accomplished in the absolute sense without love, and it becomes a bitter chore for life rather than one of the most pleasant contributing to happiest things of life.

Summary

1. Regardless of whether it is good or bad the marital relationship is still a part of the laws of divine establishment. However, it is a situation in which both the man and the woman enter of their own free will.

2. The husband is the authority under the laws of divine establishment. The wife is subordinate.

3. This is a solemn principle which should make every woman think twice before she agrees to marry any man.

4. She should ask herself the question, “Do I want to submit to this man for the rest of my life?”

5. The ladies must be very wary not to be deceived either by their own libido or by the scintillating personality or the superficial handsomeness of the prospective groom.

6. Therefore ladies, make sure you penetrate beyond the surface of the man you intend to marry. You must find out what he is really like because in marriage he is the “company commander” for life.

7. If you say yes to the right man your love for him will intensify. You can always tell if you have married the right person because the love doesn’t stay the same, it gets better and better as life goes on.

8. If you say yes to the wrong man but he is noble you will still have to yield to him, submit to him in all things, and you may not have love. The best thing you can get out of it is respect.

9. If you say yes to an emotional child then your life will be an intolerable slavery.

Verse 19, The word “husbands is the vocative plural of a)nhr and, again, has the connotation of a noble person. The definite article defines the noun and this refers to the right man. So the scriptural assumption is that all men are a right man for a right woman somewhere. The command to love is not filew. Filew is the great soul rapport that comes in category #2 love. E)raw is the great sex relationship between a right man and a right woman. The present active imperative of a)gapaw is to have a relaxed mental attitude, and a)gapaw is the love here. A)gapaw is a specialised type of love in the soul and that does not cover the entire soul rapport as filew does. A)gapaw has to do with a relaxed mental attitude, the same attitude that you should have toward believers whether you like them or not. In other words, this passage does a rather phenomenal thing that Ephesians 5 does not do. It recognises that a lot of marriages are not right man, right woman. What does the man do in this type of a situation? He keeps a relaxed mental attitude. The absence of a relaxed mental attitude in this case is bitterness, bitterness being a mental attitude sin. “The noble man,” and this must be the mental attitude, “keep loving the woman” or “The husbands keep loving the wives.”

Two things are indicated here. a) The man is in charge of the marriage, he is the authority. He is also the aggressor, he must initiate. However, remember that when a woman truly responds there will be a lot of aggression in her response because of this intensity — if she has the right man, of course.

The phrase “be not bitter” is really the key to this verse, the present middle imperative of the verb pikrainw. This is the customary present, what should be ordinarily expected. With the negative and the imperative it should be translated, “stop being bitter.” This indicates that the first part of this command, the relaxed mental attitude, is not being obeyed and that the second part is a violation — bitterness or mental attitude sin toward the woman.

“against them,” proj plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun a)utoj should be translated “face to face with them.”

“The husbands, keep loving the wives [RMA] and stop being bitter face to face with them.”

What does this mean?

1. A woman must be very careful as to how she rears her male child or children.

2. Many male children have been dominated by their mothers through erroneous systems of coercion which are used in place of normal family discipline.

3. The result is that the male has a tendency to succumb to various types of female domination in marriage. He got the habit when mother dominated him, and if he is mother-dominated in childhood it is very easy for the little woman to take over where mother left off. In other words, once a male has been dominated — this is not talking about discipline and the proper exercise of authority but domination — by his mother he’s almost certain to be dominated by his wife.

4. The woman in marriage who has no influence who has no influence over the husband through love response and category #2 rapport resorts to divisiveness to control their husbands, keep them in line, and to “redo” them. The greatest little workers you have ever seen are wives trying to whip their husbands into line with their own preconceived ideas as to what a man ought to be. Some girls had a father who was a fantastic father and now they want the man to measure up to those standards learned in childhood.

5. The devices include nagging, tantrums, pouting, abnormal public behaviour, e.g. she runs her husband down in public, makes cracks, distorts everything he says, breaks into the middle of his sentences, upstages him constantly. All of these things are designed to force the husband into the preconceived patterns of the woman’s conscience.

6. The use of these devices constitutes female conspiracy against the biblical principles of category #2 love and forms an attempted coup de tat over the husbands authority. If a woman tramples the sensitivity of the man the man is going to be bitter. His shortcomings, his failings will be a part of his sensitivities and the woman will constantly harp on his shortcomings and his failings until she has trampled the sensitivity area of his soul to bits and he becomes bitter. Many women have trampled the souls of their husbands until they have no self-respect.

7. Many husbands have been denied sex, bullied, nagged, or brought into the desired pattern by a divisive woman whose whole objective is to retread the man.

8. Therefore the principle in this passage: Such female activity elicits the reaction of bitterness in the man. This bitterness becomes the reactor factor leading to the frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt and the other factors in reversionism.

9. Therefore, bitterness is a serious handicap in the function of marriage. Bitterness in the man is a fantastic problem in marriage and yet is not recognised. There is no area of marriage counseling where male bitterness is recognised as a factor. Yet male bitterness causes the woman all of her unhappiness.

This male bitterness is neutralised by a)gapaw, the a)gaph type love under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces a relaxed mental attitude whereby the man maintains the authority in the home regardless of the factors. This whole passage tells the woman to submit. When the woman doesn’t, then what happens? You have the alternative, the challenge to his RMA and the emergence of the reactor factor of bitterness in his soul. Once that bitterness in the soul occurs, everyone has had it because the two are living under one roof and there can only be misery as long as they live.

Behind all of this is the concept of authority. The principle of authority that needs to be emphasised first is, What authorities does the woman carry into marriage?

The woman does have a volition and the volition of her soul is her basic authority. With that she has norms and standards in the right lobe of the soul on which she learns to recognise authority in the man and authority in life. A woman has to be subjected to authority more so than the man as illustrated by the fact that the first member of the human race to fall was the woman, and the woman rejected the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden, accepting a false authority, Satan. So a woman has to have here the principles of authority in her conscience. She has to recognise that her free will must respond to authority where bona fide.

The man brings into the marriage the fact that in his body as well as his soul he has the rulership of the home. In his soul he has initiated and in his body he initiates so that the authority is something desirable to which the woman responds. In her response her true femininity is brought out as well as her happiness and blessing. And from this she also has his backing in the handling of the children when they come into the picture. The woman responds to his soul, she responds to his body — this is category #2 love — and in this comes the basic organisation in life which is the family. And as goes the family, so goes any nation.

For each one of us the areas of authority always begin with doctrine. Doctrine is going to teach us many things contrary to our instincts, contrary to our feelings, thoughts, and preconceived notions, and the greatest authority in our life must always be doctrine. Doctrine is not only the capacity for life but doctrine must also be the absolute final and the utmost in the field of authority. However, the problem here is the fact that this authority of doctrine is no good until it is in the right lobe. It must be in the frame of reference, it must be a part of the memory centre, it must be in the vocabulary and categories and in the conscience, and on the launching pad. Then doctrine is useable. Therefore there is a second authority to be brought in which is the authority of the pastor-teacher.

Verses 20, 21, the establishment and basic authority.

The doctrine of authority

1. Definition: Authority is the legal power delegated by God under the paws of divine establishment whereby certain members of the human race have jurisdiction and responsibility over and for others. Authority exists in both the temporal and spiritual realms of life.

2. The first principle is authority and the fall. One of the reasons for and one of the areas of vulnerability in the original failure of our human parents, Adam and the woman, is rejection of duly constituted authority. The woman fell because she rejected authority, Genesis 3. She failed under two principles of authority. One was a spiritual principle, the other a temporal. The spiritual principle: the authority of the Word as taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. The temporal principle: Authority of the man who was both the divinely commissioned ruler of the world, and therefore was her ruler; and also being her right man he ruled her. The failure of the woman to accept the authority of the man is emphasised in 2 Timothy 2:11,12.

3. The areas of authority in life:

a) God’s authority which is expressed today by way of Bible doctrine.

b) The authority in the local church — the pastor teacher.

c) There is authority under the divine institutions. Each divine institution has an authority. Divine institution #1 is volition related to mentality of the soul. Divine institution #2 — right man, right woman — the authority is in the right man. That is why when a woman responds to her right man she is the glory of the right man. If she doesn’t respond then she’s anything you want to call her that’s bad! Divine institution #3, the family. Parents are the authority. This is where the woman gets into the picture as an authority and as a teacher. Every woman who is a mother is an authority over her children. d) Divine institution #4, nationalism: Government has authority over people.

e) Athletics. The coach and the management is the authority.

f) Business has a duly constituted executive. One of the big problems in business today is lack of authority among executives, whether it is a boss or a foreman or a manager, or whatever it is.

g) The military. The senior officer is always the executive.

4. The Greek vocabulary:

u(pakouw, u(p means “under”; a)kouw means to listen, to listen under the authority of someone and finally comes to mean to obey, to be subject to. it is found in Matthew 8:27; Luke 8:25; Romans 6:16; Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20, 22; 1 Peter 3:6.

u(potassw, the military word for authority. tassw means “ranks”; u(po means to be under in the ranks. It comes to mean to be in submission to, to be subordinate to, to be under the authority of. It is found in Romans 8:20; 1 Corinthians 14:32; Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18; James 4:17; 1 Peter 5:5.

peiqw also means, among other things, to obey. Peiqw has different meanings in the verb form, depending on the context. It can also mean to believe, also to have confidence. But one of its basic connotations is obedience. It means to obey in Galatians 3:1; 5:7; Hebrews 13:17; James 3:3.

peiqarxew, a)rxew means to rule and so this is a very strong word for obedience usually used in connection with government with the laws of establishment, as in Titus 3:1, “obey the magistrates.”

5. The commandments from God principle. Every time we have a commandment from God stated in the scripture obviously this is authority. God has certain commandments, for example, which are directed toward believers and demand obedience. Such commandments are found in Deuteronomy 11:27; 1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4,7. These commandments stem from the omniscience and the sovereignty of God and they are to be executed by the believer through the function of GAP.

6. The scientific laws indicate God’s authority over nature. Divine laws have been established in the function of nature and the principle is that nature obeys God. In fact, the obedience of nature far exceeds our obedience because obviously nature has no soul, nature has no volition. Mark 8:27; Matthew 4:41; Luke 8:25.

7. The authority of God over angels. Angels are creatures, super creatures greater than we are by creation. Angelic creatures are subject to divine authority, even the fallen angels and even Satan who is an angelic creature. Mark 1:27; 1 Peter 3:22.

8. Authority in the human realm.

a) The pastor is the ultimate authority in the local church, 1 Corinthians 16:15,16; 2 Corinthians 10:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7, 17. Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper...”

b) The authority of the right man over the right woman. It provides great happiness in the realm of category #2 for the right woman. Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18.

c) The authority in business. Principle: Proper authority in business stabilises the economy. Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22.

d) Freedom through military victory is based on authority in the military establishment, Nehemiah 4:13-15.

“Children,” anyone from zero to 18 or 21, but the word also applies to anyone who is 80 and still living under the parents’ roof.

1. The word “children” is a vocative plural of teknon and it is an excellent choice of word because age doesn’t make the difference with teknon. Teknon plus the definite article means “the children.” And that is even stronger because it means age doesn’t make the difference. The word used here is not brefoj, which means baby on mother’s breast, it is teknon which is an ageless child.

2. Under the laws of divine establishment the basic authority in life is the parents and the home over the child.

3. Parents, therefore, become basic authority in life. This authority has the responsibility to train the children and orient them to the functions and principles of life.

4. The parents are not only responsible for food, shelter and clothing but they are also responsible for training as well.

5. This training or inculcation of children must include the fundamentals of freedom as well as the basic principles of authority. One depends on the other, these are not separated. Establishment makes it possible to have freedom and without establishment there is no freedom because under freedom you have the right to pursue a course in life, the right to your privacy, the right to property, etc.

6. Respect for authority, for the privacy of others, for the property of others, are basic concepts of life.

7. Add to this respect for law and order, respect for country under the principles of patriotism, instruction of all phases of the laws of establishment.

8. Add to this the responsibility of Christian parents to evangelise their own children. In addition to that parents provide doctrinal teaching, good common sense from doctrine, Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 7:9.

9. All children must be oriented to the local church and they must be taught to recognise the authority of the pastor-teacher. They must be taught to concentrate on his message, not his personality — Hebrews 13:7,17.

“obey,” present active imperative of the compound verb u(pakouw, to listen under the authority of. It means to concentrate. The verb actually connotes both authority and concentration. It is a retroactive progressive present, the action begins in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: the children produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to all children.

“your parents” — there is a definite article here and it should be “the parents.” A definite article separated by a verb and then another definite article indicates a syntactical principle. That is, all children have “parents,” the dative plural of the noun goneuj which means a father, but in the plural it refers to parents. This is a dative of indirect object and it indicates the one in whose interest the action is performed. It is to the advantage of children to be obedient to their parents.

“in all things,” the preposition kata plus the accusative neuter plural of paj which means “according to the standard of all things.” The standard of all things are the principles of authority under the laws of divine establishment. In other words, “in all things” means content of the laws of establishment.

“for,” an explanatory particle gar used as a conjunction; “this is,” present active indicative of e)imi. This is a static present which means it keeps on being. Active voice: always will be, it is a principle. Again, the static present which is assumed to be perpetual. It is taken for granted as existing in every generation.

“well pleasing,” e)uarestoj, meaning “commendable.”

“unto the Lord,” e)n plus the locative of kurioj, and it should be “in the Lord.” The absence of the definite article in front of kurioj indicates the qualitative stress on the noun. In other words, there is someone who rides heard over all parents and He is the supreme court for malfunction or for unfairness, and leave your parents to heaven. The definite article in the Greek always connotes the identity of the noun; the absence of the definite article is technical for the quality of the noun being emphasised. So the object of the preposition emphasises the quality of the one being pleased or the one who finds it commendable.

Translation: “The children, keep obeying the parents according to the standard of all things [the content of the laws of establishment]: for this is commendable in the Lord.”

Verse 21, the other side of the picture. Anyone who has authority must be careful how he uses that authority. “Fathers” is a vocative plural of pathr, it does not refer to fathers as the male member of the family, it refers to parents. So it should be translated “parents” in this case. It has the definite article which identifies the authority.

“provoke not,” present active imperative of e)reqizw which means to exasperate, to irritate, to embitter, to antagonise. In this context where parents are guilty of abuse of their authority in this way it means to nag about inconsequential things to the point of irritating children. Most parents do not have the ability to see what should be hit hard and what should be bypassed lightly and easily. A second area is to exasperate your children by poor judgement and unfairness. One thing about children is that they can pick up unfairness in a hurry. A third area is to provoke or embitter by bullying exactitude — expecting your children to act and think like an adult, setting up standards which push them way ahead of their time, depriving them in effect of childhood.

The tense here is iterative present tense which describes what recurs at successive intervals. This is the present tense of repeated action. It doesn’t mean that you provoke your children all the time, but it means that you do provoke them. The active voice: the parents produce the action of the verb by abusing their authority.

“children,” accusative plural of teknon plus the genitive plural of the pronoun su, “your children.”

“lest” is the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh, a negative purpose clause.

“they be discouraged,” present active subjunctive of a)qumew. Children did not select their parents! Therefore, because they did not, they have a tendency to become very discouraged or despondent. A)qumew means to be despondent. Again, it is the iterative present tense which is the present tense of repeated action. The subjunctive mood says this is potential. Good discipline does not make children despondent. It is poorly administered discipline which causes the discouragement and the despondency.

Principle: Human authority is designed to train and bless, it is designed to improve. It is not designed to discourage or destroy. The abuse of authority pays dividends in misery, suffering, loss of tranquillity.

Verses 22-25, establishment and labour. This passage deals with advanced authority, or an illustration of authority in the field of business relationships. Since most believers are employed by someone else or work as employees this principle is covered first.

Verse 22, “Servants,” douloj, vocative plural, “slaves.” By application this verse refers to believers living in the Church Age who work for someone else. If you work for someone else you don’t have to like your boss but you have to recognise their authority. The issue is obedience.

“obey,” present active imperative of u(pakouw, one of the strongest words for obedience. It means to submit to the authority of. This is a static present, the present tense of repeated action. You have to constantly do this when you are on the job.

“in all things” is incorrect, it is kata plus the accusative and should be translated “according to the standard of all things.”

“your masters,” “to your masters”, dative plural of kurioj. The dative of indirect object indicates the one for whom the object is performed and the one who is blessed by the performance of the action. The action is performed for management and labour, the employee, is blessed.

“according to the flesh” indicates business relationship under the laws of establishment, kata plus the accusative of sarc.

“not with eyeservice,” the negative plus e)n plus a compound noun, o)fqalmodouleia (douleia means slave; o)fqalmoj means eye), “eyeslaves” is what it means literally, and it comes to mean service only while being watched or hypocritical type working.

“as menpleasers,” the adverb o(j used with the compound adjective a)nqrwpopareskoj. it means desirous of pleasing men at the sacrifice of principle, studying to please or to court favour. This is the fawning sycophant, servile flattery, obseqiousness. In other words, every believer must do his job as unto the Lord. The believer’s job, duty or work is not only his means of livelihood but is a part of the function of the royal priesthood. Therefore the believer should do his job with the same vigour and enthusiasm as he would with any phase of Christian service. Furthermore, he must do the job to please the Lord and not men, and this means both respect for authority on the job and doing the job well whether supervised or not.

“but in singleness of heart,” the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of a)plothj plus kardia. The instrumental should be translated “by means of integrity in the right lobe.” A)plothj means integrity. In other words, a)plothj connotes virtue of a believer who is free from pretense, free from dissimulation, honest. The right lobe or the heart means he has doctrine there which motivates him.

“fearing” is a present middle participle of fobew and it means “respecting.” The static present represents a condition assumed as perpetually existing.

“God,” it is the accusative of kurioj here which is “Lord.” In other words, occupation with the person of Christ makes it possible to handle any problem in the field of authority. Respect for the Lord will cause a believer to do a good job.

Translation: “Labour, keep on submitting to the authority of the lord’s according to the flesh; according to the standard of all things [the laws of divine establishment], not in the sphere of eyeslavery as menpleasers; but by means of integrity of the right lobe, respecting the Lord.”

Principle: How you do your job indicates your respect for the Lord.

Verse 23, “And” is not found in the original. It starts out with the word “Whatsoever” which is o( e)an, an idiom meaning “whatever.” It indicates the activity of labour in the business world, “Whatever [in the business world].”

“you do” is the present active subjunctive of poiew. Next we have a present active imperative — “keep functioning,” e)rgazomai. This is a static present.

“heartily” is literally, “from the soul,” e)k plus the ablative singular of yuxh. In other words, you must be motivated by Bible doctrine.

“as to the Lord, and not to men,” this does not mean that you ignore or reject authority, it does mean that you accept authority on the basis that you belong to the Lord, you are a member of the royal household of God, and therefore you do your job as unto the Lord.

Verse 24, “Knowing that” indicates where you get your application, the perfect active participle of o)ida used as a present active participle. O)ida is used for doctrine you have on the launching pad of your right lobe. The word “that” is the conjunction o(ti used after verbs of knowing to indicate the content of what you know.

“of the Lord,” the preposition a)po plus the ablative of kurioj, “from the source of the Lord.”

“ye shall receive,” future middle indicative of a compound verb, a)polambanw, which means to receive from the ultimate source, to receive back, to receive in return. The future is a gnomic future, it is used for a statement of fact or performance which may be rightfully expected under normal conditions. The middle voice: the subject, the supergrace believer, participates in the results of the action. The middle voice relates the subject more intimately to the action of the verb here.

“the reward,” the accusative singular of a)ntapodosij which means to receive more than you could ever dream by way of a reward. It means to receive an unexpected reward.

“of the inheritance,” the ablative of klhronomia means “from.” The inheritance concept here comes from the fact that you are going to have forever and ever in heaven fantastic and phenomenal blessings, and you can start having them now.

“for,” the enclitic particle gar used as an explanatory conjunction.

“you serve,” douleuw in a static present. It means you are the servant, the slave.

“the Lord Christ,” “to the Lord Christ,” dative of indirect object.

Translation: “Knowing that from the ultimate source of the Lord you shall receive in return the reward from the inheritance; for you are the servant to the Lord Christ.”

Principle: Under these circumstances life has meaning. Every believer is in full-time Christian service and therefore there are no “laymen.” Function in the business world is just as a part of full-time Christian service as function around a church. There are grace rewards for faithfulness to the Lord in the business world, and these rewards come in time.

Verse 25, some time is spent in carnality and in reversionism with most believers and time spent under divine discipline is not rewardable. Time spent in reversionism is not rewardable.

“But,” again, it is the enclitic particle gar, used this time as an inferential conjunction. It should be translated “Therefore.”

“he that doeth wrong,” the present active participle of a)dikew. It refers to a believer in reversionism, in status quo carnality, working on the job.

“shall receive,” future middle indicative of komizw. This is a gnomic future which indicates the reality of divine discipline as well as self-induced misery on the job. The middle voice is an intensive middle, it indicates the great pressure of self-induced misery. The declarative indicative mood is an unqualified assertion. If you stay out of fellowship for any period of time, if you neglect Bible doctrine, if you are in reversionism, you are going to be a lousy employee. But that isn’t all. You are going to be disciplined on the job.

“for the wrong” is incorrect. We have the nominative neuter singular of the relative pronoun o(j, “for the thing which” is the way it should be translated. Instead of “wrong” we should have “for the thing which.”

“he hath done,” a)dikew again, aorist active indicative, “he has done wrong.” The constantive aorist gathers up into one entirety all the sloppy mental attitudes, all the gossip, all of the insubordination, all of the things that have been done on the job wrong. The reason they have been done wrong is because of a lousy mental attitude. In other words, the believer might as well understand that his involvement in the business world has spiritual factors. Spiritual factors are only correctable by the daily function of GAP and constant growth.

“and there is no respect of persons,” God is no respecter of persons. This should be “and there is no partiality.”

Translation: “Therefore the one doing wrong shall receive back for the thing which he has done wrong: and there is not partiality.”

Chapter 4 verse 1 really belongs in chapter 3, “Masters.” This is the management side. The vocative plural of kurioj means “lords” and it is used for management.

“give,” present middle imperative of parexw which means “be rendering from your own resources and power. It means to hold beside, to furnish, to render out of your own resources. The present tense is retroactive progressive — keep doing it. The middle voice: you yourself do it management, you have authority, you have responsibility. The imperative mood: this is an order to all members of the royal family of God who are involved in management; “unto your servants,” employees.

“that which is” is not found in the original.; “just and equal,” dikaioj means that you must always be fair. That is management’s character. The more authority a person has the more character he must have. “Equal” is sothj and it means equal proportions.

“knowing that,” o)ida; “you also have” management in heaven. Present active indicative, static present, e)xw. There never will be a time when you do not have management in heaven. Christian management is responsible to the Lord for their treatment of employees.