Chapter 5
This next section goes from verse
one to chapter six, verse nine.
Introduction
1. There are three phases to the
plan of God.
Phase one is salvation, Jesus Christ bearing our sins in His own
body on the tree, becoming our substitute and taking our place, propitiating
God the Father, providing reconciliation of man to God. In one moment of time,
the moment we believe in Jesus Christ, we enter the plan of God. God does, at
the moment we believe, 40 things for us. Some of these are done by the Father,
some by the Spirit, and some by the Son so that all members of the Godhead have
a part in our salvation. Though Jesus Christ is the only saviour.
Phase two begins one second after we
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the Christian in time. We are now
members of the royal family of God, we are a kingdom of priests. Our objective
is to follow a course of progress called spiritual growth. We start as a baby
and if we continue to function under GAP we move to adolescence and
eventually to maturity of the super-grace life. If we neglect Bible doctrine
then we follow a course of retrogression called reversionism. Phase two, the
believer in time, ends with either death or the Rapture, whichever occurs
first. At which point we enter into phase three, absent from the body and face
to face with the Lord. That is the believer in eternity.
Our passage, chapter 5:1 to 6:9,
deals with phase two — the challenges, the handicaps, and the problems of it.
Outline of the passage
Verse 1-13, the imperatives of the
super-grace life.
Verses 14-18, the principle of
redeeming time.
Verses 9 through 6:9, the
relationship in the royal family.
Verse 1 is incorrectly translated.
“Be ye” is a present active imperative of the verb ginomai which does not means “to be.” It means to become something you are not
or to become something you should be or that is important in the plan of God.
The present tense is a static present, it represents the condition of the
super-grace believer. The spiritual condition of the super-grace believer is
becoming an imitator of God. The active voice: the super-grace believer
produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood designates a command to
become a super-grace believer. This command can only be fulfilled in the status
of super-grace, which is synonymous to spiritual maturity.
The doctrine of super-grace
1. Definition. Super-grace is the
final stage of spiritual growth in the Christian way of life. It is the stage
which makes the transfer from the completed ECS to the maximum growth
status. It is the ultimate is spiritual achievement in phase two and is the
basis for the normal function of the royal priesthood of the believer. It is
the area in which Romans 8:28 is fulfilled. In other words, the super-grace believer
reaps what God sows. The reversionistic believer reaps what he sows. The
nomenclature for super-grace is derived from the Greek of James 4:6. In the
English is says, “He giveth more grace.” In the Greek it says “He giveth
greater grace.” The Greek word is equivalent to our “super” grace.
The super-grace life has three
general characteristics: occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, capacity
for life and blessing, and the super-grace blessings designed for the believer.
2. Characteristics. The super-grace
life is characterised under an analogy. There is no capacity for divine
blessing until a believer has GAPed it consistently in the intake of doctrine
so that he has constructed inside of his soul a cup. The cup is capacity for
blessing. This cup is composed of doctrine. When the cup is constructed
remember that as long as you live in this life God is your host, and you are
His guest in cosmos diabolicus. Therefore when you have a cup God pours. You
have a cup when you reach the super-grace life. God pours for you whatever
blessings He has. It includes, of course, sharing His happiness [+H], the
promotion, prosperity, wealth concepts. And remember, this is how God is
glorified. God does the pouring; God gets the credit. The host pours; the host
is glorified. We are the guests of God on this earth. When David reached
super-grace he said, “My cup runneth over” — Psalm 23:5. The next verse says
literally, “Dogmatically, grace will pursue me all the days of my life.” When
grace starts to pursue you, that is super-grace. When you are pursuing grace,
that is growth; but super-grace is grace pursuing you. So the cup is
super-grace capacity through Bible doctrine in the soul. Pouring into the cup
is God providing super-grace blessings. The believer reaps what God has sown in
eternity past.
3. Categories of grace.
a) Salvation grace,
called phase one grace. In other words, all the Trinity does to save you. It
involves the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, Christ dying on the
cross. It is non-meritorious where we are concerned, we enter salvation by
faith in the living Word, Jesus Christ.
b) Living grace, called
phase two grace. This is everything that God does to keep us alive in the
devil’s world. This includes also the principle of dying grace.
c) Super-grace. This is
maximum growth, again resulting in maximum blessing, maximum activity for God;
this is the place of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.
d) “Exceeding riches of
his grace” — Ephesians 2:7. A literal translation from the Greek is “surpassing
“ grace. Surpassing grace is all that the Trinity will do for each one of us
forever and ever.
4. The illustrations of super-grace.
The best way to illustrate super-grace is to take the line of the Jewish race,
beginning with the father of the Jewish race [Abraham], right down to the
apostle Paul. The purpose of this point is to illustrate the fact that while we
have certain things in common when we reach the super-grace life we also have
something very special which God has for each one of us in the super-grace
status. For example, Abraham. Abraham had all of the blessings of super-grace.
He was occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, he had great capacity in
super-grace, he had all kinds of blessings and the sharing of God’s happiness.
But his outstanding super-grace blessing was sexual prosperity whereby he
became the father of a new race as well as the father of many Gentile nations.
Next one in the line is Joseph who had all of the blessings of super-grace, yet
the emphasis in on his promotion in super-grace prosperity with emphasis on
ruling and being a blessing to a Gentile empire. The third is Moses who had all
of the blessings of super-grace, and yet the outstanding one is his super-grace
leadership making him the father of the Jewish nation, even as Abraham is the
father of the Jewish race. The next is David, again an illustration of
super-grace leadership making David the greatest king of Israel and one of the
greatest kings in all of human history. Then, Isaiah whose area of super-grace
blessing included many of the things that are mentioned as super-grace
blessings, and yet the outstanding thing was the fact that he was the greatest
prophet and Bible teacher during the monarchy period of Israel’s history.
Jeremiah, who in super-grace blessing at a time of national disaster
demonstrates the principle that while he did not have many of the super-grace
blessings that go with national prosperity he was the great man in time of
disaster. Greatness under pressure is the outstanding super-grace blessing. He
also holds the record for old age super-grace blessings and prosperity. Next is
Daniel who had super-grace blessing and promotion outside the land in Gentile
empires. Then Paul who represents super-grace blessing in the time of Jewish
dispersion. While the apostle Paul did not have all of the areas of blessing
that are specified in the Word, yet he is the greatest person of all time in
the field of Bible doctrine.
5. The promotion of super-grace is
the subject of Psalm 84. The super-grace believer is always God’s man for the
crisis, and if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. The only
guarantee for promotion is to reach the super-grace status.
6. The love problem and super-grace.
First of all, God loves every believer with a maximum amount of love because of
propitiation. Secondly, the believer does not love God in return until he knows
Him. “We love him because he first loved us” of 1 John 4:19 can only be
fulfilled in the super-grace status. In other words, no believer gets to know
God apart from the consistent intake of Bible doctrine. Capacity to love God is
based upon Bible doctrine in the soul. This means that the believer’s love for
God varies according to the amount of doctrine he has in his soul. The
super-grace believer loves God, as per Romans 8:28; Ephesians 3:19; 1 John
4:19. God expresses, therefore, His love to all members of the family of God in
one of two ways. To the super-grace believer he expresses His love through
blessing; to the reversionistic believer He expresses His love through divine
discipline: “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”
7. The role of happiness in
super-grace. The key to super-grace is happiness or sharing in God’s happiness
in time. God has found a way through grace to share with us His +H
which takes the place of -H and neutral H. Happiness has many
manifestations in the +H spectrum. The same doctrine which provides +H
also is the doctrine that provides the super-grace life because the top floor
of the ECS is +H and that is the point at
which we enter into super-grace, as per Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16.
The fulfillment of +H through the intake of Bible doctrine and the
entrance into the super-grace life is covered in 1 John 1:4.
8. The reality of the celebrityship
of Jesus Christ. In the super-grace life occupation with Christ or maximum
category #1 love is the first and most important characteristic of this status.
Therefore the super-grace believer has maximum love for and appreciation of the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, as per Lamentations 3:22-25; Hebrews 12:2;
Colossians 3:1,2. Our test of this comes at the communion table.
9. The areas of super-grace
activity. In the function of our freedom and privacy — Romans 8:21; 2
Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1; James 1:25-2:12; in the field of living — 1
Samuel 17:47; 18:5,14; in the field of love: category #1 love — Deuteronomy 6:6;
30:20; Joshua 23:10,11; 1 John 2:5; 4:19; category #2 love — Song of Solomon
8:6,7; category #3 love — 2 Samuel 1:26. We also have super-grace capacity in
the field of happiness — Psalm 9:1,2; 21:1; 31:7; 43:4; 97:12; John 17:13; 1
John 1:4. In the field of suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
“therefore” — the inferential
particle o)un denotes what is introduced
as a result of a preceding paragraph. What precedes is Ephesians chapter four
where we had a dissertation on the royal family of God. The inference from the
previous chapter is that the believer has now recovered from reversionism and
reached the super-grace status. Therefore he is ready for the commands or the
imperatives of the super-grace life. So here we have the first imperative,
“Become therefore [in view of the previous chapter].”
“followers” is not correctly
translated. It is a predicate nominative plural from the Greek word mimhthj which actually means an imitator. This noun demands
recognition of the fact that all believers are members of the royal family of
God in this dispensation, and because of this our objective must be the
super-grace life for this is the only place in which the royal family can
imitate the basis for our royalty. Of the five things that God the Holy Spirit
did at salvation one of them is baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the Holy
Spirit takes us at the moment of salvation and enters us into union with Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and this is our
position in Christ. Because we are in union with Christ we share His life,
eternal life; we share His righteousness, +R; we share His priesthood, we share
His Sonship, His heirship, His destiny; His election. We also share His
royalty. We are royal family. Christ is King of kings, we are in union with
Christ, therefore we are different from all members of the family of God in the
past.
We now have a command to “Become
therefore imitators of your God,” literally. This means that the super-grace
believer fulfills the commands of nobility of life, nobility of soul, the
poise, the dignity, consistency, the stability of life tat has always characterised
true nobility. Let’s face it, you are nobility. But if you are nobility in
reversionism then you act as the most common type of a person and this is
dishonouring to the Lord.
“of God” — tou qeou. The use of the definite article is entirely
different from the use of the definite article in English. We use the definite
article to emphasise. In all of the original Indo-European languages based on
Sanskrit the absence of the definite article emphasised the quality of the
person or thing in the noun. The adding of the definite article to the highest
quality noun — like qeoj for “God” — indicates that
the definite article is not a definite article but, as is often the case, the
definite article was used for some sort of a pronoun. It could be a
demonstrative pronoun or a possessive pronoun. Here it is a possessive pronoun
and this is a standard Attic Greek characteristic which is carried over into
the Koine Greek. So this is called a substantive use of the article, and there
are numerous examples in both Classical Greek, rarer examples in the New
Testament. Here it should be translated as a possessive pronoun in the second
person plural, to whom everyone is being addressed here, you take that from the
imperative in the verb. Literally, “Become therefore imitators of your God.”
“Your God” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The command to imitate Jesus Christ
involves those principles of experiential sanctification, namely, the filling
of the Spirit, the daily function of GAP, the inevitable result of
these things in the attainment of tactical victory — the super-grace life.
The principle of imitating “your God”
1. Jesus Christ our God is in
hypostatic union. The essence of His deity cannot be imitated. It is
blasphemous and unthinkable that a human being with an old sin nature could
even approximate imitating God. Furthermore, it is inscrutable as well as impossible
for anyone to even come within a billion miles of the sovereignty,
righteousness, justice, love, eternal, life, or any of the other attributes of
God. So when we are commanded to imitate God we are not commanded to imitate
the deity “of your God.” Your God refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is true
deity but He is also true humanity in one person forever. Therefore it is the
humanity of Christ that we are commanded to imitate. When the definite article
in verse 1 is a possessive pronoun it can only refer to the second person of
the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As true humanity Christ was sinless
and impeccable, and this we cannot imitate because we possess and old sin
nature and we do sin. Therefore the imitation of Jesus Christ must be limited
to His humanity and it must be limited to something we can do, not something we
cannot do.
2. The humanity of Christ was
constantly filled with the Holy Spirit and sustained by the indwelling third
person of the Trinity. When the believer is filled with the Spirit, therefore,
he becomes the imitator of Jesus Christ. The principle of imitating Christ is
related to a secondary command, “Be filled with the Spirit” or “Walk in the
Spirit.”
3. A second thing is noted about the
humanity of Christ which we can emulate and imitate. Jesus Christ GAPed it to
the super-grace life, according to Luke 2:40,52. Therefore in imitating “your
God,” Jesus Christ, you are commanded in effect to close in on the super-grace
life.
4. Believers of the Church Age are
members of the royal family of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore we should bear family resemblance of nobility, as per Ephesians 5:1.
The doctrine of the royal family
1. Definition. All believers of the
Church Age belong to a unique system of royalty. This royalty is based upon the
spiritual principle of doctrine and, again, while regeneration occurs in every
dispensation as the salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit it is only the
regenerate of the Church Age who form this royalty.
2. The basis of royalty in the
Church Age. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the basis of royalty. No believer
before the Church Age and no believer after the Church Age receives the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. It is unique, it belongs to this dispensation only. In
every dispensation the believer is regenerated by the Holy Spirit at the moment
he believes in Christ, but in the Church Age the Holy Spirit also baptises into
the body of Christ making each one of us royalty forever.
3. The precedent for royalty is
found in the order of battalion of Melchizedek which provides both pattern and
precedent. However, it should be noted that Melchizedek acquired his royalty by
becoming king of Salem whereas Jesus Christ was born royalty in the line of
David. The royalty of the Church Age believer comes at regeneration through the
baptism of the Spirit and the precedent is the order of Melchizedek.
4. The relationship to the King.
a) While Jesus Christ
was alone on the cross God the Father has provided for Him a body and a bride.
b) Through the baptism
of the Spirit every believer is entered into union with Christ.
c) On earth, therefore,
the believers are known as the body of Christ.
d) Being the body of
Christ makes every believer of the Church Age personally related to the King of
kings.
e) Positional
sanctification places every believer in the palace.
f) When the body of
Christ is completed on earth the Church Age terminates with the Rapture or the
resurrection of the Church.
g) At the Rapture the
body of Christ becomes the bride of Christ.
h) During the
Tribulation the bride is prepared for operation footstool, the second phase of
the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus.
5. The sign of royalty is the
unprecedented universal indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit
indwells every believer as the sign of royalty. Never before in history has the
third person of the Trinity indwelt every believer,. The purpose of this
indwelling is to glorify Jesus Christ — John 7:37-39.
6. The security of royalty. Both the
sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit as well as positional sanctification
provide eternal security for the royal family.
7. The function of royalty is
twofold. First, moving toward the objective of the super-grace life in which
the believer receives the accouterments of royalty as well as the tactical
victory of the angelic conflict. Secondly, the function of royalty is the modus
operandi of the priesthood.
8. The teacher of royalty. As a
member of the body of Christ and the royal priesthood all Church Age believers
will return with Christ at the second advent to participate in operation
footstool. Operation footstool includes the overthrow of Satan as the ruler of
this world. He is replaced by the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler. After the
Millennium the royal family will be with Christ forever in the new heavens, new
earth, and new Jerusalem. So it is a permanent status.
Next we come to a comparative
particle o(j translated “as.” Actually,
this is a relative adverb derived from the relative pronoun. It introduces a
true analogy. We are members of the royal family of God, therefore we should
imitate our God. Royalty must imitate royalty.
“dear” is one of the mistranslated
words. This is a verbal adjective from the nominative plural of a)gaphtoj which means “beloved.” This means we are the
objects of a perfect maximum love from the time we are saved and forever.
Whether we are spiritual or carnal, whether we are babies, adolescent, mature
or reversionists God found a way to love us without compromising His character,
and this is called propitiation. A)gaphtoj
or
“Beloved” was originally a title for the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of the
Father’s love — Ephesians 1:6; 2 Peter 1:17. But because of positional truth it
becomes a title for every member of the royal family of God in the Church Age.
So it is also used for each one of us — 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 6:9; 2 Peter
3:1,8,14,17; 1 John 3:1,2; 4:1,7,11.
“children” — the nominative plural
of teknon. It emphasises children in
the sense of people being under authority. It was used for the relationship of
parents to children, children under the authority of parents. It also has the
connotation of our royal posterity. Our royalty comes from our God, Jesus
Christ, we are in union with Him. Therefore we must become imitators of our
God, Jesus Christ. Again, this is accomplished by the filling of the Spirit,
GAPing it to super-grace.
Translation: “Become therefore
imitators of your God [Jesus Christ], as beloved posterity [members of the
royal family of God].”
Verse 2 — a second imperative. “And”
is the connective use of the conjunction kai
indicating that these imperatives are related. The first command deals with
doctrine in the soul — the only way we can become imitators of Christ — while
the second command is an application of doctrine from the soul.
“walk” — present active imperative
of peripatew. Walking obviously means to
take one step at a time and is therefore for the modus operandi for the royal
family, as well as in many cases simply for all believer priests, regardless of
their status. The present tense is an iterative present tense which means that
this walking recurs at successive intervals or is conceived of as being in
successive periods of time. It is called the present tense of repeated action
and refers primarily to the filling of the Holy Spirit, and it goes with the
command of verse 18. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the
verb by means of the filling of the Spirit. This is an imperative of command, a
command given to all members of the royal family of God.
The sphere of walking is said to be
“in love” — e)n plus the locative of a)gaph. The filling of the Spirit produces a)gaph type love, as per Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22; and
the entire chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians is talking about the filling of the
Spirit producing this love. A)gaph type love is strictly a
mental attitude, the repercussion of which are many. But a)gaph type love means a complete absence of mental
attitude sins — no jealousy, no bitterness, no vindictiveness, etc. The
principle of loving the brethren is only found in this area. The love which is
commanded by God for us as members of the royal family is a love which is impossible
to fulfil in the energy of the flesh. A)gaph
love is a mental attitude which is characterised by the filling of the Spirit.
The repercussions of a)gaph love are described under
the word “charity” in 1 Corinthians 13, but in this passage a)gaph love is simply that relaxed mental attitude that
comes from the filling of the Spirit and becomes consistent with the intake of
Bible doctrine in the daily function of GAP.
So literally, “And be walking in the
sphere of love.”
This means three things: a) Walking
in the sphere of love represents the doctrine of spirituality and the normal
function of the super-grace life. Walking in the sphere of love can be
accomplished by three categories of believers. It is possible for a spiritual
baby to be filled with the Spirit and to manifest this love, however it is
still the love of a baby believer. It is possible for an adolescent to be
filled with the Spirit and produce this love. But this love reaches its maximum
peak of effectiveness under the filling of the Spirit when the believer is
mature. The mature believer logs more time in the filling of the Spirit and
therefore this becomes more meaningful as the believer reaches the super-grace
life and as he is occupied with Christ which is maximum category #1 love. b)
Walking in love represents the filling of the Spirit, as per Romans 5:5;
Galatians 5:22. But in 1 John 2:5 this same a)gaph
love represents not the filling of the Spirit but the construction of the ECS. c) Walking in love is the third floor of the ECS, namely that relaxed mental attitude. The context in verse 18 indicates
that walking in the sphere of love here refers primarily to the filling of the
Spirit.
Now we have an illustration, the
adverb comparison kaqoj, translated “just as,”
after which we have the perfect illustration of relaxed mental attitude love.
The illustration is described in the Greek as o( Xrisotj, “the Christ.” Again, the definite article can also be used for a
possessive pronoun and this could be translated “your Christ.” It is addressed
to believers and each one of us personally possesses the Lord Jesus Christ.
Next comes the adjunctive use of kai — “just as your Christ also.”
“hath loved” is the aorist active
indicative of the verb a)gapaw. This is the verb that goes
with the noun. A)gaph is the cognate of a)gapaw. The aorist tense here is a dramatic aorist. This
is an idiom in the Greek to state a present reality with the certitude of a
past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis, it is used for the statement of
a doctrine or a principle which has been taught or realised. Apparently the
congregation in Ephesus had come to realise this principle, that Christ loved
them. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb toward
each member of the royal family of God. The indicative mood is a declarative
indicative for a dogmatic assertion.
“us” is the accusative plural from
the second person pronoun su, it should be translated
“you.” It is the accusative of direct object of the verb and refers to all
members of the royal family. It is very personal. In the hypostatic union there
are two categories of loved involved. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as
a royal priesthood, we have to become aware of the fact that Christ loves us.
Even though we are aware of it at the point of salvation this isn’t enough. We
first become aware of the love of Christ on the cross from the standpoint of
His humanity, but Christ is also God. As God His love is without compromise
when it is directed toward us because of propitiation, but at the same time He
is true humanity. He has a body, a soul, and a human spirit. He is in
hypostatic union, He is the God-Man. So in the hypostatic union there are two
categories of love involved when it says that Christ loves us. His love stems
from two sources, separate and yet part of the same person. His divine love,
therefore, is timeless; it is a part of His essence. But His human love stems
from the filling of the Holy Spirit, from the fact that Jesus Christ
constructed an ECS early in the period of His
incarnation, and the fact that Jesus Christ very quickly arrived at the point
of super-grace status so that the love that He bears from His humanity is very
strong. United with His deity it becomes the strongest love in all of the
universe. The principle of Christ’s love for us therefore demands some
analysis.
Christ’s love for us
1. A person’s love for another
person is no stronger than the character of the person who initiates the love.
In other words, when someone says “I love you” it is just as strong as that
person is. If the person is weak you have nothing. Love is no stronger than the
person who declares it.
2. The character of Jesus Christ is
both perfect and impeccable. Therefore Christ has perfect love. When Christ
loves someone that love is perfect because the one who declares it is perfect.
3. The perfection of Christ’s love
cannot be matched by the believer (No one loves Jesus Christ without Bible
doctrine in his soul), therefore we cannot return to Him perfect love. We are
imperfect, we cannot love perfectly. Consequently, His love for us does not
depend upon our love for Him.
4. Therefore the love of Christ does
not depend on us but it does depend on who and what Christ is.
5. Therefore the love of Christ
expresses itself for us always through the principle of grace. We do not earn,
deserve, or work for it. Someone has worked for it, however, and that takes us
right back to propitiation.
6. Consequently, Christ must provide
a way for the believer to respond to the perfect love He has initiated from His
perfect character.
7. Doctrine is the mind of Christ —
1 Corinthians 2:16. Doctrine has been provided for the believer as the means of
responding to the love of Christ and to fulfil the principle of 1 John 4:19.
“We love him because he first loved us.”
8. But doctrine must be in the soul
of the believer before the believer can respond and initiate love toward the
Lord Jesus Christ.
9. We cannot love Christ unless we
know Christ. We cannot know Christ apart from Bible doctrine in the soul.
Therefore our most important function under the royal priesthood is the daily
function of GAP.
“and hath given” — the connective
use of the conjunction kai is correctly translated
“and.” But “hath given” is incorrect. The verb to give is didomi but that isn’t the verb we have here, we have paradidomi which means to betray, to deliver over or to
deliver up. The verb actually emphasises the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus
Christ in eternity past and the human volition of the incarnate Christ in time
— “and has delivered up himself .” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The verb gathers into one
whole the work of Christ on the cross. The active voice: Christ produced the
action of the verb by delivering up Himself to the cross. He made the decision
in eternity past, that was the sovereignty of His deity. He made the decision
in time — “Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not
my will but thine be done.” The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic
assertion.
“himself” is the accusative singular
direct object of the reflexive pronoun e(autou. “And has delivered himself up,” not given, it was more than that. He
betrayed or delivered Himself up. It has to be paradidomi rather than didomi because the Lord Jesus
Christ was perfect in His deity, could not have any contact with sin His deity.
He was also perfect and impeccable in His humanity and therefore sin was
totally repugnant to Him, so that in His humanity He wanted to say, as it were,
No, I don’t want to have anything to do with sin. And yet, because of us, He
betrayed or delivered up Himself to the cross for us, not for Himself. The
benefit comes to us as He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
“for us” — the preposition u(per plus the ablative plural of e)gw means “on behalf of.” It is substitutionary. This
prepositional phrase connotes expiatory substitution.
“an offering” — the accusative
singular from prosfora refers to the Levitical
offerings; “and a sacrifice” — kai plus the accusative of qusia. Qusia means a sacrifice where blood is shed to kill it.
It comes from the Greek verb quw which means to kill an
animal in sacrifice with a knife, or to kill a sacrifice.
“to God” — literally, “to the God.”
The dative singular of qeoj plus the definite article.
This is the dative of indirect object indicating the one for whom the sacrifice
is performed (God the Father in this case). It represents Jesus Christ and His
work, it is performed for God the Father in order that He might express
propitiation in the ritual before the historic cross occurred. It should be
translated “an offering and a sacrifice to the God.”
The five Levitical offerings all
portray some aspect of the cross. They are mentioned in these two noun, prosfora and qusia. First of all there are
salvation offerings — the first three Levitical offerings. The burnt offering
represents the work of Christ on the cross from the standpoint of propitiation,
whereas the meal or the food offering depicts propitiation from the standpoint
of the person of Christ. The burnt offering and the meal offering go together,
both speak of the doctrine of propitiation. The third offering is the peace
offering which is the doctrine of reconciliation. The fourth is the trespass
offering, rebound emphasising the known sins of the believer. Together we have
a picture of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
“for a sweetsmelling savour” — this
is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of o)smh. E)ij plus the accusative means
“for.” However o)smh means “fragrance.” And then
we have something to describe this fragrance, a descriptive genitive e)uwdia. So literally we have, “for an odour of fragrance.”
This is the concept of propitiation. God the Father is satisfied with the work
of the Son. So the death of Christ on the cross bearing our sins and taking our
place is an odour of fragrance to God the Father.
Translation: “And be walking in the
sphere of love, just as the Christ also has loved all of you, and has delivered
up himself on behalf of you and offering and a sacrifice to the God for the
purpose of a fragrant aroma.”
The fragrant aroma is propitiation.
The principle of imitating God
1. Jesus Christ our God is in
hypostatic union. The essence of His deity cannot be imitated, such a thought
is blasphemous. But He is also true humanity, and as true humanity Christ was
sinless and impeccable. Neither can we imitate His impeccability or His sinless
state. The only way in which we can imitate the Lord Jesus Christ is limited to
Bible doctrine. As Jesus Christ took doctrine in His soul, so can we. As He
erected an ECS, so can we. As the Lord
Jesus Christ became super-grace status in His humanity, so can we.
2. The humanity of Christ was
constantly filled with the Holy Spirit and unstained by the indwelling third
person of the Trinity. When the believer is filled with the Spirit He becomes
an imitator of Jesus Christ — Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 4:19; 5:22,23; 2
Corinthians 3:3.
3. Jesus Christ GAPed it to the
super-grace life, according to Luke 2:40,52. The believer is commanded to
imitate Jesus Christ, therefore also GAPing it to super-grace.
4. Believers of the Church Age are
members of the royal family of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore we should bear the family resemblance of nobility. This principle is
emphasised in the closing statement of Ephesians 5:1.
The next three verses indicate that
reversion and carnality are not a part of God’s plan. Therefore, any time that
we log in carnality is not in the plan of God and any time that we log in
reversionism is not the plan of God — verses 3-5. The type of reversionism and
the type of carnality most common in Ephesus is phallic reversionism and this
becomes the background for this next passage. Remember that “fragrant aroma”
describes what Jesus Christ did for us. Fragrant aroma becomes the sign of the
royal family, the believer in this dispensation.
Verse 3 — “But” is the adversative
particle de. It is used to epmphasise a
strong contrast between the fragrant aroma of Jesus Christ and the stench of
the old sin nature and the believer’s negative volition. We have a strong
contrast between the impeccable life of Christ and the carnal and
reversionistic failure of believers in phase two. We go from the perfection of
Christ and what He has done to the failure of the royal family and how we have
failed. Obviously adultery isn’t going to catch all of us, so remember there is
a principle here.
“fornication” — porneia means normal illicit sex, sex between a man and a
woman in contrast to perverted illicit sex.
“and all uncleanness” — a)kaqarsia refers to abnormal sex. The word first came into
the Greek language meaning “refuse, dirt, impurity,” and in a broader sense it
came to refer to the defilement of the soul, and in the narrower sense it
refers to sexual profligacy. The noun also connotes the cultic impurities of
the Old Testament Mosaic law. The Hebrew equivalent is tame. For example, certain things made the Jews ceremonially
impure. There were impure objects — Leviticus 7:21. Touching an impure animal —
Leviticus 11:1ff. You could be in an impure place — Leviticus 14:40,45. You
could have contact with impure people, like lepers — Leviticus 13:11,46. You
could be in the presence of a woman after childbirth — Leviticus 12:5. You
could touch a corpse — Numbers 9:6. This was all considered to be ceremonial
impurity, ceremonial uncleanness. However, when this word comes to the apostle
Paul a)kaqarsia is changed from its Judaistic
connotation and instead of ritual or ceremonial impurity it refers to illicit
abnormal sex in contrast to porneia which means normal adultery
— fornication with a member of the opposite sex. A)kaqarsia refers to abnormal fornication, such as homosexuality, lesbianism,
pederasty, incest, bestiality, etc. “But fornication [normal illicit sex] and
all [uncleanness] abnormal illicit sex.”
“or covetousness” — pleonecia. In its basic concept this word means striving for
either materialistic things or striving for the object of one’s sexual lust.
This is how the word comes to mean frantic search for happiness. The manner in
which pleonecia is fulfilled is how it
often gets its translation. It can be dishonesty in business, or frantic search
for happiness in sex, or any frantic search for happiness. While greed or
covetousness is often used as the translation for this noun it is totally inadequate
in view of the technicalities related to this word. Basically, the noun means
an evil impulse leading to an evil deed, or a strong lust leading to the
attempt to gratify this lust and calling it happiness. In other words, pleonecia means a strong lust plus the attempted
gratification of that lust equals happiness. Therefore it comes to mean a
frantic search for happiness. If the evil deed is dishonesty the word “greed”
is used as the translation in the context. If the evil deed is illicit sex then
“lust” or “covetousness” is used for its translation. Actually, all of the
translations miss the principle whatever the context. There are many, many
types of frantic search for happiness. Everyone at some time will be tempted in
their own area of the frantic search for happiness. This is not limited to
illicit sex.
The doctrine of adultery
1. Definition. Porneia, a)kaqarsia, and other words for
adultery are used in the sense of any sexual activity outside of divine
institution #2, i.e. marriage. Sex is designed, of course, by God for right
man, right woman relationship only. This marriage relationship protects the
right man and the right woman. But it must be remembered that sex is not love,
sex when properly used is an expression of category #2 love relationship.
Adultery may be categorised as fornication, seduction of a member of the
opposite sex, or it may be categorised as abnormal as previously noted.
2. The Bible prohibits adultery. It
is prohibited in the Mosaic law — Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18. It is
prohibited in the New Testament — 1 Corinthians 6:18; Acts 15:20; Colossians
3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Incidentally, mental adultery is prohibited — Matthew
5:27,28. Incest is forbidden — Leviticus 18:6ff; 20:14; 1 Corinthians 5:1-7;
Deuteronomy 27:20. Homosexuality is forbidden — Leviticus 18:22; 20:13.
Bestiality is also forbidden — Leviticus 18:23;20:15; Deuteronomy 27:21.
3. There are two passages which
indicate the reversionistic destruction of the soul through adultery as a
frantic search for happiness. The reversionistic destruction of the soul comes
from the wrong attitude toward Bible doctrine resulting in setting up in the
soul reactor factors of one kind or another. The reactor factors always begin
with something like negative volition toward any authority of any kind. Boredom
or disillusion or discouragement, frustration, are all intensified by mental
attitude sins such as bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, pride, hatred,
and so on. These are the reactor factors that start because a believer is out
of sorts with regard to the Word of God. In other words, he has the beginning
of his negative volition. Reactor factors under the activity of the old sin
nature always lead to a frantic search for happiness. The one in this context
is adultery, there are many other types. There are even trends. The frantic
search for happiness, once begun, intensifies whatever reactor factors were
involved here. The three stages — reaction, frantic search for happiness,
intensification — are already based upon apathy and indifference to the Word of
God. But now comes the strong negative volition, the total antagonism or total
apathy, or total rejection of the authority of the pastor, or conflict with
someone in the congregation. Whatever it may be, all of these things start the
next phase of the destruction of the soul which is the confirming of negative
volition toward doctrine. This negative volition automatically starts the
opening of the mataiothj, the vacuum, through which
come the doctrine of demons of 1 Timothy 4:1. And as this sort of information
comes into the left lobe the believer is now under the influence of doctrine of
demons. This is called demon influence in contrast to demon possession. No
believer can be demon possessed, believers can only be under demon influence.
Demon influence makes a patriot into a traitor, a conservative into a liberal,
etc. All of the demon influence concepts cause the person to take in the
doctrine of demons, and this is called “darkness.” This is blackout of the
soul. It causes hardness of heart or scar tissue on the right lobe. This leads
to the practice of reverse process reversionism. All of these stages are
destructive to the soul.
There are two verses that relate
these to adultery as a frantic search for happiness — Proverbs 6:21; Ephesians
4:19.
4. Self-betrayal and
self-destruction also exist in the field of fornication. Spiritual destruction
is brought out by pleonecia which is insatiability
toward things called greed, insatiability in the field of sex called
fornication, frantic search for happiness in the field of phallic reversionism.
The physical destruction of the body is also mentioned in 1 Corinthians
6:13-18. In other words, promiscuity does have a destructive effect on both the
male and the female body.
5. The sanctification of category #2
love is marriage — 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4; Hebrews 13:4.
6. The glory of category #2 love is
described in spiritual analogy — 1 Corinthians 11:7. The right woman is the
glory of the right man. The sign that she has her right man is her long hair.
7. Adultery is a bona fide basis for
divorce — Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Luke 16:18. The resultant blackout of the soul,
scar tissue of the soul, frantic search for happiness, intensified
reversionism, destroys rapport between husband and wife. All types of
compatibility have been destroyed by adultery. In Deuteronomy 24:4 the
principle of interim sex destroys soul love and sex capacity, and you can never
remarry a man and a woman who are divorced when one of them has had sex in
between. The interim sex destroys the relationship.
8. Adultery and fornication is often
used in the Bible to describe apostasy or reversionism — Jeremiah 3:8-10;
Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-28; Revelation 17:1-5.
9. The application of category #2
love to the single person.
a) The right man and
right woman were designed by God in eternity past. Therefore there exists for
you an opposite number by divine design.
b) The exception to this
is the rare case of celibacy or the law of supreme sacrifice designed by God
for maximum concentration and production — like the apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians
9:5; like Jeremiah, Jeremiah 16:2.
c) Every believer will
eventually come into contact or meet his/her right man or right woman. If you
come together on God’s timing it is going to work out beautifully. God has
perfect timing.
d) However, there is no
benefit in meeting your opposite number unless you have capacity for life based
on Bible doctrine, unless you have waited on the Lord in faithfulness to this
principle. This principle means the avoidance of fornication. It also means the
function of GAP which is extremely important.
e) Therefore, your life
and conduct must be based on the doctrinal principle that there exists on the
earth your right man or right woman designed by God and no other person will
do.
f) Fornication or
adultery is accepting a cheap substitute in order to gratify a biological or
emotional urge, or to enter into a frantic search for happiness at stage three
of reversionism.
g) Divine viewpoint plus
faith-rest say “Flee fornication.” Super-grace, the ECS, and growth under GAP reject the principle of
frantic search for happiness through fornication, or even being a holy roller.
h) Fornication builds
scar tissue on the soul, destroys the design of the body and organs related to
sex, as well as spirituality. Fornication, therefore, is the enemy of right
man, right woman relationship. It is therefore prohibited in Ephesians 5:3 in
the strongest terms.
i) Doctrine in the soul
is capacity for category #2 love. The greatest preparation for your right man
or right woman is GAPing it consistently.
j) Super-grace status
gives maximum capacity to express love in sex.
“let it not once be named” — we have
here a negative disjunctive particle mhde. This should not be
translated “let it not,” it should be translated “should not.” Then we have a
present passive imperative from the verb o)nomazw. It means to mention something — “should not even be mentioned.” The
present tense is a customary present, and plus the negative indicates that it
should not habitually occur. The passive voice: members of the royal family
receive the action of the verb. O)nomzw can be translated “Named”
or “mentioned” but what it really means is “think.” You have never mentioned
anything without thinking it. All verbal language is based upon thought in the
soul. The whole point is, don’t even in your soul tempt yourself with this type
of thing. The passive voice: this refers to all members of the royal family.
The imperative mood is not the imperative of command but the imperative of
prohibition. In effect, this is a prohibition of phallic reversionism and it
has to do with thinking rather than speaking.
“among you” is e)n plus the locative plural of the second person
pronoun su. It should be translated
“among you all.”
“as” is the adverb of comparison kaqoj; “becometh” is the present active indicative of prepw which means to be fitting, to be suitable, to be
proper, to be compatible with one’s status. There are certain things that you
do not do, not because they are wrong but because they are incompatible with
your status. “Proper” here is a good translation if you understand that it
means compatible with your status.
“saints” — dative plural of a(gioj. This means royal family. All “saint” means is set
apart. The Church Age is the set apart age, the royal family age. Therefore,
all the commands that are given are related to your royalty.
Translation: “But fornication
[normal illicit sex], and all uncleanness [abnormal illicit sex], or any
frantic search for happiness, should not even be mentioned among you, as is
proper with reference to royal family [saints].”
Verse 4 — “Neither filthiness” is
the connective use of the conjunction kai
plus a word that only occurs here, e)ij plus a)isxrothj. The reason it only occurs once is because it is a
vulgar word. It was a gutter word from Attic Greek and it is a word for
fellatio. “Filthiness” is simply a euphemism to obscure the fact that a)isxrothj refers to general areas of sexual activity which
were common in the phallic cult in Ephesus. It indicates, in this particular
case being outside of the marital bonds and being accomplished in the temple of
Aphrodite, any type of sex other than what you usually think of as sex, any of
the abnormal areas. Here it indicates the fact that there should never be
abnormal attentions to your date while dating. This word in itself actually
sets up a prohibition for these things and it indicates the fact that if a
single male is dating someone you have a responsibility to your date. Arousal
is not a part of the date. All this is doing is to indicate many of the
different things by which any female can be aroused because the average woman
to the highly above average has enough erogenous zones where she can be
attacked from a thousand different ways and therefore aroused. The Greek word
was also used for someone who was deformed, and this is how it had its origin —
a deformed person who could not have normal sex and therefore had to have sex
in some other way. So the word is a “dirty” word, but actually it is a
communicative word. It indicates the fact that every man on a date has a
responsibility to his date. So we translate, “And vulgar [common] arousal.”
“nor foolish talking” — mwrologia [mwro = fool]. However, the
meaning of a word is determined by its usage, and mwrologia actually means words which are used for sexual arousal as over against
the previous word which is techniques of sexual arousal. This is using words
for the same thing. The whole thing here is forbidding sexual arousal of your
date.
“nor jesting” — e)utrapelia is an Attic noun and it is based on a verb which is
very similar: e)utrapeleuomai which meant originally to
have ready wit, to have excellent repartee. But eventually the word changed and
it came to be used in a bad sense of being tricky, dishonest, a flatterer, or
what might be commonly called a teaser, which is exactly the way it is used
here. This has to do primarily with the woman. She is not to be a teaser. It
means a woman should not be a flirt.
Principles
On a date the male member of the
royal family is the guardian of the woman’s soul for the duration of that date.
You attack the soul through the body of a woman. But a woman responds in her
body when the right man comes into her soul. When the wrong man comes along and
attacks the woman through her body, this attacks her soul. It is the soul that
is attacked when the woman responds and becomes promiscuous. But when the right
man comes along he gets into the soul of the woman and then she of her own
volition gives her body to her right man. Therefore, on a date the male is the
guardian of the woman’s soul. On a date the man becomes the custodian of the
woman’s body. On a date he does not know whose right woman she really is.
Therefore it must always be assumed at the beginning that on a date you are
dating someone else’s right woman. You guard her soul and body just as you hope
someone else is guarding the soul and body of your right woman wherever she is.
This is the basic principle of dating in the royal family. The man must always
protect the woman from himself and herself, and in this the woman must
cooperate — no teasing.
“which are not convenient” — “which”
is a nominative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j and is correctly translated “which” to bring out
the neuter. The neuter also can be translated “which things.” Plus the perfect
active indicative of the verb a)nhkw. The word means to do one’s
duty. Here it is in the negative and should be translated “which is not one’s
duty [responsibility].” “Both tactile passes or verbal passes or teasing which
is not one’s duty.” The perfect tense means that it is not your duty now and
never will be, except in right man, right woman. The active voice: this is the
action you must take. The indicative mood is declarative, an absolute
statement.
“but rather” — the adversative
conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast to what
precedes; plus the comparative adverb mallon which means to a greater degree.
“the giving of thanks” — after all that, on
the contrast side we simply have giving of thanks. But it is not quite that simple.
The noun is e)uxaristia
which
refers to the communion table. It means thankfulness toward the Lord or
occupation with the person of Christ. Thankfulness toward the Lord for whatever
He gives you, occupation with the person of Christ for whatever He has
provided. Today He provides a date, tomorrow a date, the next day something
else. Eventually right woman or right man, whichever the case may be. E)uxaristia is used for the ritual of the Lord’s supper and
this is why the Lord’s supper is biblically called the Eucharist. It means
gratitude in the sense of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.
Translation: “Both tactile passes
and verbal passes or teasing which is not one’s duty: but rather to an greater
degree gratitude in the sense of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.”
Verse 5 — pimps and principle. So
far in this paragraph, verses 3-5, we have various aspects of phallic
reversionism and the point is that phallic reversionism is not a part of the
plan of God. Therefore, the royal family is presented with a series of
prohibitions. In the time in which this was written we have the phallic cult
and idolatry as inseparably united as the religion of the ancient world.
The phallic cult
1. The best attested operation of
the phallic cult in the ancient world is that of the Canaanites who lived in
the land before the Jews did.
2. The immorality of the phallic
cult is described in detail in Leviticus 18:3-25 in which all types of sexual
sins are all described. And with these the height of these things is a human
sacrifice — Leviticus 20:1-5. All human sacrifice in history has been related
to the phallic cult.
3. In Deuteronomy 12:29-31 the
phallic cult includes fornication, homosexuality, bestiality, and incest.
4. Behind all of this sexual
activity as a part of their worship is an actual system of doctrine — false
doctrine, doctrine of demons. The Canaanitish pantheon is like the Hellenistic
pantheon. It has a supreme being. The Canaanites called their supreme being El.
The Greeks called theirs Zeus. The Romans called Zeus “Jupiter.” But whether it
is any of these you have at the top a supreme being, and he was always the
greatest of all sex athletes. He is always portrayed as seducing goddesses in
heaven, women in the human race.
5. In the pantheon of the phallic
cult the supreme being always has a wife. The wife of El is called Ashera; Zeus
has a wife called Hera, and so on.
6. El and his wife have a son called
Baal. He becomes a counterfeit of Jesus Christ, just as Apollos is the son of
Zeus and becomes a counterfeit of Jesus Christ. Baal provides rain for the
crops — blessing in the economy of the ancient world; fertility for procreation
— social-sexual happiness implied.
7. In the Epic of Eugarit we have
the story which is repeated in all of the phallic cult systems of all the
people of the ancient world. Baal and Mot are great enemies. Mot is the god of
death and there is a fight between Baal and Mot. In this great struggle between
the two, since Mot is the god of death, Mot overcomes Baal and kills him. This
explains the long, hot summer. Every year when summer comes around it is hot
because Baal is dead. This is a counterfeit of Christ on the cross.
8. But Baal has a wife-sister. She
is always his wife, always his sister, and it is always incest. Ball’s wife is
called Aneth. She finds the body of Baal and brings him back to life — a
counterfeit resurrection.
9. Aneth is the goddess of sex,
warfare, murder and the prosperity in agriculture. In every phallic cult in
every part of the world there is always an Aneth. When the Jews conquered the
Canaanites on the battlefield the Canaanites later conquered the Jews in the
area of the phallic cult. This is why we have so much information about the
phallic cult in the Old Testament.
In verse 5 we go back to the phallic
cult and we notice something. This verse condemns pimps in the function of the
phallic cult. Pimps were recruiters for the male and female prostitutes of the
temples. There were many types of pimp at the time Ephesians 5 was written.
Ephesus was filled with pimps. They were well known to the Christian to whom
Ephesians was addressed.
“For this” — touto gar. This is the explanatory use of the conjunctive
particle gar plus the nominative neuter
singular of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj.
When these are put together in idiom it means “for this principle.” It always
refers to some principle near at hand, such as we have had in the previous
verse.
“you know” — second person plural,
which means all members of the royal family to whom this was addressed, present
active indicative of o)ida, to have inherent knowledge
of these things, to grow up knowing these things. However, added to the Greek
text we have another word — ginwskonthj which is the present active
participle of ginwskw. So we have two words for
“knowing.” Only one is translated. The present tense of ginwskw is a tendencial present which may be used to
represent a condition which is purposed but not actually taking place. It
represents an intended idea but not a fulfilled idea. The active voice: all
believers are members of the royal family of God and they should know this,
whether they do or not. The participle is a conditional participle and
therefore the whole thing should be translated, “For this principle you know if
you are learning anything.”
“no whoremonger” — the Attic Greek
noun is pornoj. Originally this was a male
prostitute. The female prostitute was called porneia which is simply the feminine form of the word. But pornoj eventually became a pimp rather than a prostitute.
The same word is found in 1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:19-21. With pornoj we have paj which means all or every.
It should be translated “every pimp.”
“nor unclean person” — a)kaqartoj refers to a person involved in abnormal sex.
“nor covetous man” — pleonekthj, “greedy.” The principle here is a general one.
Pimps were in it for the sex or for the money.
“who is an idolater” — this ties it
up with the phallic cult.
So far we have in this verse, “For
this principle you know, if you have learned anything, that every pimp either
perverted or greedy who is an idolater.” This relates phallic reversionism to
religion. It was a religion in the ancient world.
“who” is a nominative singular of
the relative pronoun o(j indicating that the pimp or
the recruiter for these various temples fall into two categories, either
perverted or greedy or both; “is” is the present active indicative of the word e)imi, absolute status quo verb.
“idolater” — the function of the
phallic cult in the Roman world.
The doctrine of idolatry
1. Idolatry is forbidden by the Word
of God — Exodus 20:3,23; 23:24; Deuteronomy 4:28; 5:7; 6:14; 7:16; 8:19. In the
ten commandments the first commandment prohibits mental or soulish idolatry,
the second commandment prohibits overt idolatry.
2. Idolatry is spiritual adultery,
an attack upon category #1 love — Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-30;
Revelation 17:1-5.
3. Idolatry of mind precedes
idolatry of practice. In other words, mental idolatry occurs before overt
idolatry — Judges 2:10-13; Ezekiel 14:7.
4. Idolatry is caused by rejection
of the Lord Jesus Christ or negative volition toward doctrine in the believer.
The principle with the unbeliever is found in Romans 1:18-25.
5. Demons function through idols and
the practice of idolatry — Zechariah 10:2.
6. Idolatry is called the devil’s
communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21.
7. Since idolatry is related to the
emotional revolt of the soul it often produces psychotic conditions like the
phobias, the fear psychoses of Jeremiah 50:38.
8. Idolatry is related to sexual
sins under the phallic cult — Ezekiel 22:3-18; 23:37-49. Consequently, idolatry
has an adverse effect on both soul and body — 1 Corinthian 6:9.
9. Idolatry causes national
judgement of the fifth cycle of discipline to a nation — Isaiah 2:8, 18-20;
21:9; 36:18-20; 37:12-19; Jeremiah 3:6-11; 2:27-30; 7:17-20; 17:1-4; Ezekiel
6:4-6.
“hath” — present active indicative
of e)xw has with it a strong
negative, o)uk. It should be translated “does
not have.” The present tense is a futuristic present used to denote an event
which has not yet occurred but it regarded as so certain in thought that it may
be contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the idolatrous
pimp involved in the phallic cult produces the action of the verb. Obviously
these pimps are not believers, though they could be in some stages of
reversionism, but they do line up with the demons in the phallic cult which is
indicative of the fact that they are not saved here. The indicative mood is the
declarative indicative.
“any” is not found in the original.
“inheritance” — the accusative of
the direct object of the noun klhronomia — “does not have
inheritance,” used for being in the plan of God forever, for being saved.
“in the kingdom” — e)n plus the locative of basileia. This refers to being in an empire, to the nature and state of a king,
and it is used generally in the Greek for royal rulership. Therefore it is
translated “in the royal empire of Christ.”
“of Christ” — genitive of
possession. Every believer in the royal empire possesses Christ.
“and of God” — literally, “even of
God.”
Translation: “For this principle you
know if you are learning anything, that every pimp, whether perverted or
greedy, who is an idolater, does not have inheritance in the royal empire of
Christ, even of God.”
Summary
1. The plan of God as designed in
eternity past under the doctrine of divine decrees does not call for carnality
or reversionism. So whenever we are carnal or in some stage of reversionism
while we are in the plan of God we are not functioning under the plan of God.
2. The illustration which best
communicates the principle to the believers in Ephesus is the pimp involved in
the phallic cult of Aphrodite in Ephesus.
3. To the Ephesian believer the pimp
was the lowest form of human life, so this immediately caught his attention.
4. It is obvious to the Ephesians
that the unbelieving pimp has no inheritance in the royal rulership of Christ.
5. But many of these Ephesian
believers had succumbed to the panderings of the pimps involving themselves in
either sexual carnality or in phallic reversionism.
6. This carnality, or in some cases
reversionism, is no more of the plan of God for the believer than the function
of the Ephesian pimps in the temple of Aphrodite.
7. Reversionism is not only loss of
time assigned and allotted — Ephesians 5:15-18 — but is a function outside of
the plan of God for any believer in phase two. So when the believer is out of
fellowship he is in the plan of God but is functioning outside of the plan of
God.
8. When a believer operates in
carnality or reversionism he is functioning outside of the plan of God. He is
in the plan of God but he is functioning outside of it.
9. Such function does not mean loss
of salvation but it does mean failure to enjoy the blessings of his paragraph
in the divine decrees. It means failure to attain the objective. The objective
after salvation is to get to the super-grace life. There is only one way to reach
super-grace and that is to take in doctrine consistently.
Verses 6 and 7, a warning against association with the
reversionistic believer.
Verse 6 — “Let no man deceive you,”
present active imperative from the verb a)pataw. It means to seduce, to cheat, to mislead, to seduce into error and
therefore to deceive by false teaching, to entice. With it is a compound
particle, mhdeij. It is composed of two
words meaning “not even one” or “no one.” Literally, “Let no one deceive you.”
The present tense of this verb is iterative, used to describe what recurs at
successive intervals. it is the present tense of repeated action. This means
that into your life sooner or later is going to come something which is false,
contrary to the teaching of the Word. If you are deceived by this then you are
taken into reversionism. You are often deceived by association with the
reversionist. He gives you a little human viewpoint, he says something that is
not true but you buy it because of your association with him. Therefore you are
led into reversionism not by the unbelieving pimp in the temple but by your
“dear Christian friend” who is all mixed up with regard to Bible doctrine and
is actually losing out in the Christian life. The active voice: the royal
priest produces the action of the verb of not being deceived by this false
teaching. The imperative mood is the imperative of prohibition used to express
a negative command.
“you” — accusative plural direct
object from the second person pronoun su,
“you all.” It refers to every member of the royal family of God, every believer
who is a priest. It should be translated, “Let no one be deceiving you all.”
“with vain words” — we have an
instrumental plural of an adjective, kenoj, which means empty, without
content, without truth, without power; plus the instrumental plural of the noun
logoj for words or thoughts,
thoughts expressed. Because both of these words are in the instrumental this
should be translated “by means of empty words.” Empty words are the means by
which you in association with a reversionistic believer enter into reversionism
yourself. So even empty words have power. They have the power to deceive you,
to lead you astray. They have the power to present to you something that is
attractive, and in effect your “dear Christian friends” who are in reversionism
are compared now to the Ephesians pimps. They are pimps drawing you into false
doctrine, drawing you into the various stages of reversionism.
“for” — the conjunctive particle gar expresses the reason for all of this; “because of
these things” — dia plus the accusative plural
of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Because of these false
doctrines, because of these false things.
“cometh” — the present active
indicative of e)rxomai now makes a point of what
these empty words do to the unbeliever. To the believer they merely seduce him
into reversionism so that he is deprived of blessing in time, but to the
unbeliever they deprive him of any chance of ever believing in Jesus Christ.
The unbeliever is more taken with false doctrine, the false things of the
doctrine of demons, than he is in the truth of the gospel. The present tense is
a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred — the last
judgement for the unbeliever — but it is regarded as very certain, it is going
to happen, and therefore the present tense indicates it will come to pass. The
active voice: the empty words in the soul of the unbeliever is the sign of his
rejection of Jesus Christ. He is said to be the dog who returns to his vomit.
The indicative mood is declarative indicating an absolute.
“the wrath of God” refers to the
last judgement of Revelation 20:12-15. The word for “wrath” here or o)rgh.
“the children of disobedience” — the
unbeliever has rejected propitiation. He is therefore going to be called a
“child of disobedience [or unbelief].” Grace demands that God be consistent in
His own essence or character. At the cross God the Father found a way to save
all members of the human race. God cannot have fellowship with sinful man —
Romans 3:23, that is from His righteousness. The wages of sin is death, that is
from His justice. God cannot have fellowship with sinful man and yet the grace
pipe extends to man. Grace is based on love plus giving eternal life to the one
involved. The only way God can do it and be consistent with His righteousness
and justice is the cross. When Christ was on the cross He was +R, satisfying
the righteousness of the Father. He bore our sins, satisfying the justice of
the Father. Now love and eternal life can come through the grace pipe by way of
the cross. So it is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
These people have rejected the
propitiatory work of Christ on the cross. Therefore the Father must now express
His righteousness and justice. The Father’s righteousness and justice are
expressed at the great white throne. The unbeliever is resurrected. He has
rejected Christ as saviour, therefore righteousness must express an attitude
toward him. Justice must be expressed. The unbeliever cannot be judged for his
sins, they were also judged on the cross. Human good was rejected. So the
unbeliever’s human good is brought up and analysed. it is minus R and minus R
cannot have fellowship with plus R. Justice therefore demands that minus R and
the person who possesses it go into the lake of fire forever because in effect
they stand upon their human good. These are called here in Ephesians 5 the
children of disobedience: the preposition e)pi
plus the accusative plural of u(ioj, which is “on the sons.”
With it is a descriptive genitive to see what kind of sons are involved, the
descriptive genitive of a)peiqeia which means disbelief or
unbelief. It refers, therefore, to those who have rejected Christ as saviour.
The rejection of Christ as saviour becomes the same as the fifth stage of
reversionism for the believer. Negative volition toward the gospel opens the mataiothj through which doctrine of demons enters into the
unbeliever and by which he becomes a reversionistic unbeliever.
Translation:
“Let no one be seducing [deceiving] you by means of empty words [doctrines of
demons]: for because of these things the wrath of the God is coming upon the
sons of disbelief.”
If reversionism brings the future
wrath of God upon the unbeliever what will it do to the reversionistic
believer, member of the royal family, in time. The answer is found in the fact
that it will bring discipline from the Lord.
Verse 7 — “Be not” is the present
active imperative of ginomai plus the negative mh. It means “Stop becoming.” The present tense is a
static present, it indicates a condition constantly existing. With the negative
it indicates a condition which must be stopped. The active voice: the believers
of Ephesus and those in the Roman province of Asia produce the action of the
verb through the various stages of reversionism in which they find themselves
at the time they receive this epistle. The imperative mood is negative
prohibition.
“therefore” — the inferential
negative particle o)un. This particle is never
used at the beginning of a Greek sentence, it is usually found in the second or
third word. It is an inferential particle which forms a conclusion, therefore,
from the previous verse. Hence, we have an inference from what precedes.
“partakers” — the predicate
nominative plural from the noun summetroxoj. It is a word for
partnership.
Principle
1. The reversionistic believer
becomes a partner with the unbeliever.
2. The reversionistic believer
imitates the unbeliever.
3. In reversionism the believer acts
and thinks like he would act and think if he were an unbeliever.
4. Reversionism is a compromise with
the unbeliever, and with the devil.
5. Reversionism is lack of
separation in the soul.
6. Since believers are members of
the royal family of God they must bear the family resemblance.
7. The family resemblance of
nobility and royalty comes from the filling of the Spirit, the daily function
of GAP, resulting in the ECS plus the entrance into the super-grace life.
“with them” — the genitive plural
from the reflexive pronoun a)utoj. It is a genitive of
reference translated “with reference to them.”
Translation: “Stop becoming
therefore partners with reference to them.”
As members of the royal family of
God our objective is advancing toward the super-grace life. This is the area of
maturity, the area where we are occupied with Christ and have maximum category
#1 love. This is the place where God pours His blessings upon us and we have
the capacity to appreciate it. There is a paragraph on each one of us in the
divine decrees in which are enumerated the blessings of the super-grace life.
The great hindrance to this is moving into some phase of reversionism.
Verse 8 — “For” is the conjunctive
particle gar which is used to explain
cause, inference, continuation or explanation. These particles often give us
the key and the continuity to a passage. This particle refers in this case to
continuation with some explanation to be added.
“ye were” — imperfect active
subjunctive of the verb e)imi. The imperfect tense needs
explanation here. It is a moving panorama. The aorist tense tells a simple
story; the imperfect tense draws a picture of that story. The course of the act
passes before the eye in a flowing stream of history in the imperfect tense, it
dwells on the course of events instead of really stating an occurrence as does
the aorist tense in the Greek. The progressive imperfect, which is what we have
here, denotes action in progress in past time. Like the present tense the
imperfect tense has linear connotation. This is a progressive imperfect tense
of description in which the process is vividly presented as going on in past
time. The process will be determined by the predicate nominative. The
subjunctive mood goes with the active voice. The believer produces the action
here and the subjunctive mood indicates potential. The potential subjunctive s
actually here a future reference and is qualified by contingency. In other
words, while you did this as an unbeliever whether you do it now as a believer
is potential depending on your status, whether you are reversionistic or
growing up.
Next we have another particle, and
enclitic particle of time, pote, which means formerly or at
one time. it describes the believer’s past when he was an unbeliever. Here is a
believer asked to recall what he was like as an unbeliever.
“darkness” — the predicate
nominative skotoj. It refers to the state of
ignorance of doctrine in which the unbeliever plus his old sin nature found
himself in the past — the state of ignorance as well as the state of spiritual
death. It refers to the unbeliever also in reversionism when the unbeliever
reversionist reaches the blackout of the soul, as in the case of the Pharaoh of
Exodus or Judas Iscariot. In other words, darkness of the soul is attributed
here to the unbeliever. This passage through the imperfect subjunctive is
saying this is what you were like as an unbeliever. You were in darkness as an
unbeliever, you are now a believer. Other passages referring to the unbeliever
in a state of darkness include 1 Samuel 2:9; Isaiah 42:7; 49:9; John 8:12;
Romans 1:21; Colossians 1:13. Now that the soul is saved the condition of the
unbeliever soul should no longer exist. As unbelievers we are in darkness. Our
soul is now saved as of the moment we believe in Jesus Christ, therefore light
ought to characterise the soul. As we will see, light refers to Bible doctrine
in the soul. If the believer lives a normal Christian life and functions in a
normal, progressive, growing way then he will have light in the soul.
“but now” — the adversative use of
the conjunctive particle de plus the adverb nun. Both together indicate the present status of the
individual to whom this epistle is addressed. Now they are believers. This is
contrast in the adversative conjunction between an unbeliever of the past and a
believer now.
“light” — the predicate nominative
of fwj. The word describes two
things: the ECS which is constructed on the
basis of Bible doctrine, and the reflected glory of God which results from a
completed ECS and entrance into the
super-grace life. The constant intake of doctrine in the human spirit as e)pignwsij which then goes into the right lobe, into the frame
of reference, into the memory centre, into the vocabulary, the categories, the
norms and standards, the launching pad, the construction of the ECS, moving into the super-grace life. Light is Bible doctrine in the soul
constructing the things designed for us by God in eternity past.
The doctrine of light
1. The literal use of light is
necessary for man’s existence on the earth. This literal light is found in
Genesis 1:3; Ecclesiastes 11:7; Jeremiah 31:35.
2. Light used as an illustration for
various aspects of spiritual life. Light illustrates the essence of God — 1
John 1:5.
3. Jesus Christ as the manifest
person of the Godhead is called “light” — John 8:12; 1 Timothy 6:16.
4. The gospel is called light in 2
Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Timothy 1:10.
5. Being saved by faith in Jesus
Christ brings the believer out of darkness into light — Luke 1:79; 1 Peter 2:9.
6. Light is used to portray Bible
doctrine in the soul through the function of GAP —
Psalm 119:105, 130.
7. The ECS is said to be constructed of light and/or Bible doctrine — Psalm 43:3;
Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 2:8; 1 John 2:8.
8. Light depicts the believer’s
entrance into the super-grace life — 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:14.
“in the Lord” — e)n plus the locative of kurioj.
There is no definite article. The absence of the definite article emphasises
the quality of the noun kurioj. This means that Jesus
Christ is Lord, the God-Man. It emphasises the uniqueness of the person of
Christ. It also emphasises the fact that Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ
or the thinking of Christ. When we learn Bible doctrine we actually have the thinking
of Christ in our souls.
“walk” — present active imperative
from the verb peripatew, the normal Greek word for
walking. It is also used in the New Testament to represent the various
functions of the Christian way of life. The present tense often has linear
connotations and generally it is a linear text. There are, of course, many
exceptions to this. It is possible for the present tense to be simply
descriptive and here we have a descriptive present to represent what is now
going on, plus a progressive present of existing results. This very rare use of
the present tense emphasises the continuance of the results through present
time in contrast to the perfect tense which stresses existence of results but
not their continuance. This is saying once you start to walk you take your foot
off the ground and when you lift your foot off the ground you have to put it
down again. That is the progressive present we have here. The active voice:
growing or progressing as a believer produces the action of the verb through a
consistent, positive attitude toward Bible doctrine. The imperative mood here
is an imperative of command. This is a direct command to every member of the
royal family.
“as” — the relative adverb w(j. It is used as a comparative particle designed to
tell us how to walk.
“children” — the accusative plural
of teknon. Teknon recognises that the child
here is not an adult. The word is used two ways in the Word of God. It is used
as children under the authority of their parents. It means then that you must
recognise authority if you are to grow up spiritually. Teknon therefore says you cannot grow up apart from your
right pastor-teacher. The second use of the word teknon
has to do with being a student. You are a student with one responsibility —
worship. All worship is listening to the teaching of the Word of God. Once
under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit you have assimilated a certain amount
of Bible doctrine then you are a student prepared to go out and fulfill your responsibilities
as a member of the royal family of God. “Children” has to do with the
recognition of someone else’s authority. A child must recognise the authority
of the parent or the parent cannot teach.
“of light” — the possessive genitive
of fwj, and the actual form is fwtoj. This genitive refers to what doctrine produces,
the ECS and the super-grace status which is the
status of maturity in the Christian way of life.
Translation: “For you were formerly
darkness of soul, but now light in the Lord: keep walking as light’s children.”
The doctrine of walking
1. The mechanics of walking depict
analogies relevant to the function of the Christian way of life. Walking
involves one step at a time which is analogous to the believer living one day
at a time — Romans 14:5,6; Ephesians 5:16-18; James 4:13-15. Walking is also
used for the consistency in being filled with the Spirit. Walking is used for
the function of GAP. Walking is related to the
erection of the ECS. It is also used to depict
the function, the modus operandi, of the super-grace life. All of these are
related in one passage or another to phase two or the believer in time.
2. The mechanics of walking are
related to the intensification of the angelic conflict. In walking, man is off
balance, at least for one instant. But he recovers his balance by putting his
foot forward and down to the ground. In the angelic conflict the believer is
off balance living in the devil’s world during the Church Age or the
intensified stage of the angelic conflict. But the believer is stabilised by
putting his foot down and forward — this is being filled with the Spirit plus
the consistent intake of doctrine through the function of GAP — Romans 13:13. 3. Therefore walking depicts the pattern and the
function of the royal family of God in phase two, the modus operandi of the
Christian life.
4. Walking is used to describe the
lifestyle of the reversionistic unbeliever — Ephesians 4:17.
This
describes the reversionistic lifestyle of thought and behaviour pattern of the
unbeliever.
5. Walking is used to describe the
modus operandi of the reversionistic believer — Philippians 3:18; Ephesians
4:17.
6. There are three spheres of
positive walk: a) In the Spirit — Galatians 5:16; b) By faith — 2 Corinthians
5:7; Colossians 2:6; c) In doctrine — 3 John 3.
7. Therefore walking summarises
experiential sanctification. Walking depicts the Spirit-filled life — Romans
8:2-4; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 5:2 cf. 5:18; 1 John 1:7. It includes the
function of GAP — Romans 13:13; Ephesians
5:15; 3 John 3. As a part of experiential sanctification walking describes the
production of that status — Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:10. It describes the
erection of the ECS and the entrance into the
super-grace life — Romans 6:4, “walk in newness of life”; Ephesians 5:18, “walk
as light’s children”; Colossians 1:10, “walk worthy of the Lord.”
In verses 9,10 we have the
experiential production of light.
Verse 9 — “For the fruit of the
Spirit” is incorrect. It is literally, “For the fruit [or production] of
light.” There is no word for Spirit in the passage at this stage. The word
“for” introduces a parenthesis, it is the explanatory use of gar and the beginning of a parenthesis. The sentence
which was begun in verse 8 will be concluded in verse 10. So verse 9 is
parenthetical. In it we have the production of light stated not in detail but
in three generalities which become principles of production rather than then
eliciting of production categorically.
“the fruit” — o( karpoj which refers to production. The fact that we
constantly take in doctrine does not mean that we should be concerned about
doing something for the Lord. These things will come at the right time and the
right place, whether it is witnessing or prayer or anything else that someone
has emphasised to you as being spirituality or virtuous or the Christian way of
life. Production is always a result, it is never the means.
“of the Spirit” — this is fwj, not pneuma. As a descriptive genitive
this should be translated, “For the production of light.” This is the
production of doctrine from the soul, the production of the ECS, the production of the super-grace life. It is a reference to
production from experiential sanctification and/or progress in the Christian
way of life.
Principle
1. The production of the light
includes the filling [or walking in] of the Spirit — Galatians 5:16; Ephesians
5:18.
2. It includes the consistent intake
of Bible doctrine, i.e. the daily function of GAP —
Ephesians 5:15; 3 John 3.
3. It emphasises the production of
divine good from the combination of these two things — Ephesians 2:10;
Colossians 1:10.
4. It includes the erection of the ECS and the entrance into the super-grace life where we have maximum
effectiveness in the function of our priesthood — Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:11;
5:8; Colossians 1:10.
“in all” — the preposition e)n plus the locative singular of paj. Then we have three words which are the object of
the preposition. Each one will be in the locative singular. Each one of these
represents some facet of the principle of the production of light. Not actual
cases of production of light, but principle.
“goodness” is the first — the
locative singular of a)gaqwsunh. This word is a little more
complicated than to simply translate it by the word “goodness.” The base for
this word is a)gaqoj which means intrinsic good.
But more than that, it is the principle of intrinsic good because of the suffix
sunh. This suffix was never used
in the Greek language until the time of Attic Greek when people began to think
and write in the abstract. Once they did they had to invent a series of
suffixes to cover concepts. A)gaqoj became a)gaqwsunh which means the principle of intrinsic goodness, a
goodness that is always good. In other words, it has to be the principle of
divine good. In other words, it is good based upon Bible doctrine.
“and righteousness” — the locative
singular of dikaiosunh. Eventually this word came
to mean righteousness or justification in the Koine Greek, but that isn’t what
it means here. Recogising the principle here, we have a word with a suffix
dealing with abstract thought, a suffix which deals with a word in principle.
Therefore what it means here is grace virtue.
“and truth” — the locative singular
of a)lhqeia which actually means truth
or residual doctrine, doctrine in your soul, doctrine in the human spirit.
Translation: “For the production of
the light [doctrine] in all intrinsic goodness and grace virtue and residual
doctrine.”
Notice that the sentence begun in
verse 8 is not concluded until verse 10. The entire sentence reads: “For you
were formerly darkness of soul, but now light in the Lord: keep walking as
light’s children: putting to the test what is well pleasing to the Lord.”
Verse 10 completes the sentence of
verse 8. “Proving “ is the present active participle from the verb dokimazw which means to test for the
purpose of approval. It is used also
for testing metal to determine its value. This is translated “Putting to the
test.” The present tense is a progressive present denoting continuation of
existing results which are, in this case, learning Bible doctrine. The more
doctrine the believer learns the more he can put anything in life to the test.
The active voice: the believer with doctrine in his soul produces the action of
the verb. This is a telic participle denoting purpose as far as doctrine in the
soul is concerned. Doctrine in the soul is the means of testing the value of
anything in life. Without doctrine in the soul no matter how smart you are, no
matter how discerning, you do not have the ability to test what is valuable and
what is not in this life.
“what” — the nominative neuter from tij, meaning content; “is” — present active indicative
of e)imi, “keeps on being,” plus
“acceptable” which is the predicate nominative of e)uarestoj which means well pleasing.
“unto the Lord” is the indirect
object of the dative case and it indicates the one in whose interest the act of
testing is performed. If you have doctrine in the soul you have the ability to
test everything in life. The more things you can test the more you enter into
the angelic conflict.
Translation: “Putting to the test
what is well pleasing to the Lord.”
You can tell what pleases the Lord
and what doesn’t if you have doctrine in your soul. Doctrine is the norm or
standard whereby you determine these things.
Verses 11-13 are an amplification of
this principle.
Verses 11 — the beginning of the
amplification. “And” is the connective use of the conjunction kai; “have no fellowship” — present active imperative
from the verb sugkoinwnew. This particular word means
more than fellowship, it means partnership, to be very much involved. Perhaps
the best translation here would be, “stop involving yourself in.” The present
tense is an iterative present describing what recurs at successive intervals.
It is called the present tense of repeated action. The negative mh indicates that this is an imperative of
prohibition. The reversionists produce the action of the verb from the active
voice.
“the unfruitful” — locative plural
of a)karpoj which means “barren.” “Stop
involving yourself in barren works [production].”
Barren
production is the activity of the old sin nature in the sphere of sins, lust
pattern, and human good.
“darkness” indicates a phase of reversionism.
This is the ablative of source from skotoj — “from the source of
darkness. It is that stage of
reversionism known as blackout of the soul. In other words, by the time you
reach blackout of the soul your production is all bad. You are producing
maximum human good.
“And stop involving yourself in the
barren production from the source of darkness.” All human good is a combination
of the blackout of the soul plus the area of strength of the old sin nature.
The blackout of the soul gives false doctrine, false concepts.
The doctrine of human good
1. It is impossible for God to be
unfair, it is incompatible with His essence. Therefore the believer is capable
under grace of producing divine good, good which is rewardable. But if the
believer is in reversionism it is impossible to produce divine good. Therefore
he can only produce human good.
2. Human good is dead to God’s plan,
therefore it is called “dead works” in Hebrews 6:1.
3. Since God is perfect human good
is not acceptable to God at any time — Isaiah 64:6.
4. However, distinction must be made
between human good and morality — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is a part of the laws
of establishment and is necessary for the perpetuation of the human race under
the angelic conflict. Human good is pseudo morality and pseudo good and
destroys man in the angelic conflict.
5. Human good will not save mankind
— Titus 3:5.
6. The believer’s human good is
revealed and destroyed at the judgement seat of Christ — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.
7.
Human good is the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgement —
Revelation 20:12-15.
8. Human good can only produce human
boasting — Ephesians 2:9; Romans 4:2.
“but rather” — the adversative use
of the conjunction de plus the comparative adverb
mallon. It always means “rather to
a greater degree.” It introduces a thought which is supplemental and thereby
adds to what has preceded.
“reprove” — the present active
imperative e)legxw which means expose them,
roast them, clobber them (verbally). The present tense is a retroactive
progressive present denoting that which was begun in the past and should
continue into the present. It is called the present tense of duration. The
active voice: the correct function of a royal priest in phase two is to expose
human viewpoint, to expose Satanic doctrine. That means the exposure of
socialism, the exposure of the social gospel, the exposure of religion and
revolution, and anything that is anti-establishment. And it is the imperative
mood of command. And you don’t do it once either, you keep doing it. “But
rather be exposing them critically.”
Translation: “And stop involving
yourself in the barren production from the source of darkness, but rather be
exposing it.”
Verse 12 — “For” is gar, used here to express cause. Why should we expose
in our generation the evils of Satanic doctrine, religion, socialism,
communism, revolution, anti-establishment?
“it is” — present active indicative
of e)imi, a static present. It is
now and always will be; “a shame” — the predicate adjective from a)isxroj which means “disgraceful.”
“even to speak” — to speak in the
sense of upholding or being for it. The ascensive use of kai, the present active infinitive of legw. Legw here in the infinitive denotes a purpose. A person
is for a Satanic principle. The present tense of legw
is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals
whenever the believer gets to the sixth stage of reversionism. He starts
talking up that which is false. In the status of blackout of the soul you start
to advocate whatever Satanic doctrine appeals to you. The active voice: the
reversionist produces the action of the verb in the sixth stage of
reversionism.
“those things” is the accusative
neuter plural plus the definite article, and should be “the things.”
“which are done” — the accusative
neuter plural present active participle of ginomai, should be “coming to pass.”
“of them” should be “by them,” u(po plus the ablative means “by” — “by means of them.”
“in secret” — this is the locative
used as an adverb and should be translated “secretly.”
Translation: “Because it is a
disgrace even to speak of the things which are accomplished by them secretly.”
All of this takes us back to that
first word in verse 10 — prove by testing. How do you prove by testing? By
getting doctrine in your soul. Doctrine gives the ability to see the difference
between right and wrong, the difference between establishment and the sincere
do-gooder who is all mixed up.
Verse 13 — “But” is the adversative
use of the conjunctive particle de; “all things” — ta plus paj. Both are in the accusative
neuter plural and they actually refer to the things that need to be exposed,
the things that are Satanic and evil, the things that are anti-Christian and
anti-God and anti-establishment
“are reproved” — e)legxw. “But the things that are being exposed” — present
passive participle. The passive voice makes the difference in the translation
here.
The
passive voice means that these things receive. Reversionistic type evil things
receive exposure. The present tense is a progressive present of description
indicating what is now going on. It is also called the pictorial present since
it focuses the mind in a picture of events in the process of occurrence. The
participle is a temporal participle and therefore it should be translated, “But
the all things when being exposed.” They are not exposed all the time, but when
they are exposed.
“are made known [not ‘manifest’]” —
present passive indicative of fanerow. The present tense is a
static present representing a condition which is perpetually existing. The
passive voice: the evil thoughts of legalism, religionism, revolution,
socialism, reversionism, are constantly being exposed by the Word of God and/or
Bible doctrine. The declarative indicative says this will always be true, and
those who have doctrine in their souls will respond and understand and take a
stand in the angelic conflict. Those who do not will fall by the wayside.
“by the light” — u(po plus the ablative of fwj.
U(po plus the accusative means
under the authority of, but u(po plus the ablative means
agency — “by agency of the light.” The light is Bible doctrine.
“for” is the explanatory use of gar — “for you see.”
“whatsoever” should be “everything”
— paj; “doth make known” — should
be “being made known,” the nominative neuter singular present passive
participle of fanerow which means to make known
or make manifest. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present, it
denotes that which was begun in the past and continues into the present time.
Bible doctrine in every generation exposes that which is anti-God. When a
person has Bible doctrine in his soul as a royal priest he always understands
the difference and he is capable of handling contemporary history in the light
of the Word of God, in the light of absolute standards. The passive voice: the
believer receives the action of the verb through the intake of Bible doctrine
in his soul. The participle is circumstantial to indicate that the continual
intake of Bible doctrine gives the royal priest tremendous discernment in every
field of life.
Translation: “But the all things of
reversionism when being exposed are made known [through doctrine] by agency of
the light [Bible doctrine]: for you see all things being made known is light.”
Doctrine exposes reversionism.
Verse 14 — “Wherefore” should be
translated by the inferential concept “therefore.” This is the inferential
conjunction dio. Because of the preceding
commands to teach the royal family it is necessary to recover from reversionism
and press on to the objective which is the super-grace status. Remember that
the Christian way of life is not defensive. A super-grace believer or a growing
believer takes the offensive and moves toward his objective of the super-grace
life. He never bothers to apologise for the Lord Jesus Christ or to apologise
for anything Christian. Everything Christian is completely, totally, infinitely
superior to anything else this life has to offer, anything in the devil’s world,
any combination of things in the devil’s world. Christianity is not cowardly,
it does not take the defensive; Christianity is on the offensive. The only
people who stand around and take the defensive or do nothing are reversionists
who are outside of the plan of God even though they are members of the royal
family of God. There is only one celebrity in the Christian way of life and
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many heroes — anyone who reaches
super-grace.
“he saith” — present active
indicative of legw is used to introduce a
quotation. The present tense is an aoristic present. It is actually quoting two
passages of scripture by paraphrase — Isaiah 26:19; 60:1. These two verses are
combined by paraphrase to actually form a new verse and to form some analogies
— three analogies. Any time that you as a member of the human race find
yourself standing still you have the right to recognise that you are standing
still, that you are not advancing, and you have the right to ask yourself why.
If you are careful in your analysis you will discover almost every time that as
a member of the royal family of God that if you are not positive toward
doctrine you are standing still.
The first of the analogies in this
verse is directed toward awareness of reversionism. The command which is given
at this point, the present active imperative of e)geirw, translated “awake” or “wake up,” is to make you alert to the true
condition. It means to wake up to your status, to wake up to a bad situation.
Remember that reversionism is loss of time. The moment that you believe God
assigns to you time. But this time is no good if you are on the reversionistic
road, you are losing time completely and totally. So “wake up” is the first
command. It is used here for the command to become aware that you are a
reversionist, to see yourself as you really are in the light of the Word of
God. Again, the present tense is an aoristic present used for punctiliar action
in present time. The active voice: the reversionistic believer must become aware
of his spiritual condition, and the imperative mood is a command. No one ever
recovers from reversionism until he is aware of his condition. The importance
of becoming aware of reversionism, its symptoms, its causes, its cures, is
vitally important. You have to know that you have a spiritual problem.
Prosperity or even tranquillity does not mean spiritual advance, spiritual
success, or even spirituality. Therefore it is a little more difficult to
recognise your condition, but God has provided some helps in the form of
Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” The knockings on the
door are sudden disasters in the life to make you aware of the fact that all is
not well. These disasters are intensified in the long-range suffering for the
reversionist, and long-range suffering ends up in the sin unto death. Sometimes
it isn’t even long-range. Obviously in this passage the analogy must be carried
out with the concept that reversionism is the loss of time. When you are asleep
you are not aware of time.
“thou that sleepest” — the definite
article used as a personal pronoun plus the present active participle of the
verb kaqeudw. Sleeping describes the
status of reversionism: loss of God’s grace time provided for you for phase
two. “Wake up you sleeping one” refers to the believer in reversionism. The
present tense is a static present used to represent a set of circumstances assumed
as perpetually existing as far as the writer is concerned. The active voice:
the reversionistic believer produces the action of the verb, he is a spiritual
Rip Van Winkle. The participle is circumstantial. This means that you must
become aware that your basic spiritual problem is reversionism if you are ever
going to recover, and that a spiritual problem may have with it many other
problems — physical, mental, social, all kinds of problems. But all of these
problems go right back to the fact that you are a reversionist. To solve this
problem you need: a) Awareness; b) Repentance (change your mind); c) Rebound;
d) GAP. These are the things that are going to get you
back into the time situation.
The doctrine of reversionism
1. Definition.
a) The status quo of the
believer in phase two who is negative toward doctrine.
b) Reversionism is the
recession from the stage of growth, including the partial or completed ECS, and even super-grace. (Growth is no protection, it is persistence in
the intake of doctrine)
c) Reversionism is one
of the two states of phase two, the other being super-grace.
d) Reversionism in the
believer is analogous to apostasy.
e) There is also
reversionism for the unbeliever, describes in 2 Peter 2:17-22, in which the
unbeliever departs from the laws of establishment to a condition of total
apostasy and liberalism.
f) The mechanics include
rejection of the gospel, which opens the flood gates for Satanic propaganda in
the soul — the dog returning to his vomit.
g) Reversionism must be
distinguished from carnality. The carnal believer is simply a believer
temporarily out of fellowship but a reversionistic believer is a believer
negative toward doctrine and more permanently out of fellowship. The
reversionistic believer is not inclined to rebound, though that may be the one
thing that he will remember all the way to the sin unto death. On the other
hand a carnal believer rebounds, he usually keeps very close accounts with the
Lord.
h) The carnal believer
rebounds and continues to grow while the reversionistic believer does not
rebound and continues to move toward the sin unto death.
2. The stages of reversionism.
a) Stage one: the
presence of reactor factors in the life because of neglect of doctrine. Reactor
factors such as rejection of authority, discouragement, disillusion, boredom,
overcome by self-pity, inability to handle loneliness, frustration intensified
by mental attitude sins. These reactor factors combine difficulties in the life
with indifference or lack of exposure to Bible teaching. The result is stage
two.
b) Stage two: the
frantic search for happiness. The reaction to reactor factors leads to some
sort of a frantic search for happiness in order to resolve the frustration part
of the reactor factors. The frantic search for happiness follows the trend of
the old sin nature. Asceticism leads to legalistic victorious living, super
extra natural experiences which have no spiritual qualification — holy rollers,
healers, and so on. The trend toward lasciviousness leads to drunkenness,
debauchery, and so on.
c) Stage three: the
intensification of reversionism. The frantic search for happiness results in
operation boomerang in which the particular type of frantic search merely
intensifies the original reactor factors without any resolving of the
difficulty. The frustration becomes greater frustration, the bitterness becomes
greater bitterness, jealousy becomes extreme jealousy to the point of being
psychotic, and so on.
d) Stage four: the
emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion of the soul is designed to respond to
the right lobe of the heart. The heart or the right lobe is equivalent to the
right man while the emotion is equivalent to the right woman. Emotional revolt
shuts down all the valves of the right lobe, destroying the function of
doctrine in that area, leading to stage five.
e) Stage five: negative
volition toward doctrine. As a result of the presence of reactor factors, the
frantic search for happiness, the intensification and the emotional revolt, a
certain type of very consolidated negative volition exists. For example, indifference
or apathy toward Bible teaching, being too busy and too preoccupied for Bible
teaching, antagonism or personality hang-ups toward the one communicating
doctrine, i.e. a pastor, antagonism or conflict with other people in the
congregation, failure to utilise the rebound technique and under lack of the
filling of the Spirit to become involved with reactor factors, inability to
handle prosperity.
f) Stage six: the
blackout of the soul. This is an attack on the left lobe but it results in
darkness of the soul. The negative volition produces the vacuum which sucks
into the left lobe doctrine of demons — 1 Timothy 4:1. The mechanics of this is
found in Ephesians 4:17 and this is known as demon influence in contrast to
demon possession. The unbeliever is demon possessed; the reversionistic believer
is not demon possess, he can only be under demon influence.
g) Stage seven: hardness
of the heart, hardness of the neck, or scar tissue of the soul. This is an
attack upon the right lobe or the kardia. It is coterminous with and
usually in some ways follows or is related to blackout of the soul.
h) Stage eight: reverse
process reversionism. This is the final status of reversionism, the antithesis
of super-grace in which the believer loves and desires the opposite of what the
Bible commands. It is a distortion of love, it is a reversal of all the objects
of love, it is a total destruction of any true scale of values according to the
Word, and therefore the person lives in a state of total confusion before he is
removed by the sin unto death.
3. The discipline of reversionism is
divided into three categories: a) the warning stage — James 5:9; Revelation
3:20. This is the category of discipline in which rebound with GAP can produce the recovery; b) the intensive stage — Psalm 38:1-14. Not
only is the discipline intensified but this is the stage called strong delusion
— 2 Thessalonians 3:11. Repentance, and in some cases even recovery of health,
are necessary before one can continue to GAP it back to super-grace —
James 5:14-16; c) the dying stage. This is related to the doctrine of the sin
unto death — Psalm 118:17,18; 1 John 5:16. Reversionism is always the cause of
the sin unto death — Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation
3:16. Relationship between negative volition toward doctrine and reversionism
and the sin unto death is found in 1 Chronicles 10:13,14.
4. The principle of reversionism is
found in Galatians 5:4. This is reversionism in a nutshell — “You have drifted
off course from grace.” This is comparable to Ephesians 5:14 — reversionism is
loss of time.
5. Reversionistic believers reject
the authority of their right pastor. They reject the authority of Bible
teaching in general but they reject the authority of the one who communicates
to them doctrine. The illustration of Moses in the days of the Exodus — Exodus
16:20; 17:3; Numbers 11:5. Jeremiah in his day — Jeremiah 44:16. In Jeremiah’s
day the reversionistic believers spent a great deal of time listening to false
teachers. The apostle Paul led many of the Corinthians believers to the Lord
and yet they turned right around and rejected him — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12; plus
chapters 7,10,11.
6. In reversionism the believer uses
mental attitude sins to perpetuate carnality. This results in contaminating
others — Hebrews 12:15.
7. The biblical descriptions of
reversionism are many.
a) Drifting off course
from grace — Galatians 5:4.
b) No one failing from
the ultimate source of the grace of God — Hebrews 12:15.
c) An uncircumcised
heart/right lobe — Jeremiah 9:25,26.
d) Tortured souls
(psychopathic personalities) — 2 Peter 2:7,8.
e) The unstable soul — 2
Peter 2:14.
f) The lukewarm —
Revelation 3:15,16.
g) An enemy of the cross
— Philippians 3:18.
h) Leaving your first
love — Revelation 2:4.
i) Fallen — Revelation
2:5.
8. The recipients of the book of
Hebrews were involved in reversionism and we have a description of them in
Hebrews 5:11-14.
9. Reversion recovery is impossible
apart from the daily function of GAP in the field of basic
doctrine — Hebrews 6:1-3; Revelation 3:19-20.
10. Reversion recovery is impossible
under the practice of religion — Hebrews 6:4-6; or the function of the phallic
cult — 2 Corinthians 12:20-21.
11. Reversionism leads to perversion
— Romans 1:26,27; and also produces national disintegration — Romans 1:29-32.
12. Reversionism intensifies
suffering — Psalm 77.
13. The principle of reverse process
reversionism. Reverse process reversionism means to face in the opposite
direction. It means a reversal of judgement, a complete change of values. It
means to invert or reverse the objects of what the Bible describes as the true
objects of love or the true objects of evaluation so that reverse process
reversionism is a distortion of love, it is the reversal of its objects when
the believer is under reversionism. Mechanically, under reversionism the
believer departs from the true objects of love defined by Bible doctrine and
goes for pseudo objects. Bona fide objects of love receive blasphemy (that’s
God) or become objects of hatred, bitterness, cruelty or vindictiveness or
revenge tactics. Pseudo objects are called inconsequential persons; pseudo
objects receive love, flirtation, attention, resulting in social or sexual or
both types of unfaithfulness to the bona fide objects of love. Reversionists
find it easy to give their attention, their love, their affections, their body
and even soul to inconsequential persons because of a desire for
self-gratification. There are a number of illustrations of this. In category #1
love — Jeremiah 8:9-11,15-20; Revelation 3:14-21. The true object of love
should have been the Lord Jesus Christ but instead, as in the Nicolaitanes, as
in the days of Jeremiah, Baal. In category #2 love — Proverbs 5; Ecclesiastes
7:26-29; Song of Solomon 8:6,7. Category #3 — James 2:1-5, the case of the
shortsighted usher.
14. Reversionism and psychosis is
the subject of 2 Peter 2:15-19. In reversionism and the practice of reverse
process reversionism the believer’s behaviour pattern becomes psychopathic, and
neurotic and psychotic believers live to haunt us on this earth. Most
reversionists lose their common sense, they lose their discernment, and when
they lose their sense of humour they are usually neurotic or psychotic. This is
illustrated by Balaam in 2 Peter 2:15,16,18.
15. The categories of reversionism.
a) Phallic reversionism
— 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; Colossians 3:5; Revelation
2:14,20-23.
b) Ritual reversionism,
which is both legalistic and religious — Hebrews 5:11-6:6; Colossians 2:16-18.
c) Monetary reversionism
— James 4:13,14; 5:1-6; Revelation 3:14-20; Ecclesiastes 5:10-16.
d) Drug addiction type
of reversionism — Galatians 5:20. It also includes alcoholic reversionism —
Isaiah 28:1-9.
e) Antiestablishment
reversionism — Romans 1:18-32.
f) Mental attitude
reversionism — James 4.
g) Verbal reversionism —
James 5:9,12.
i) Mental illness
reversionism — 2 Peter 2:15-19.
16. Reversionism destroys
super-grace living or any progress made in the Christian way of life. Just as
reversionism kept the Jews of the Exodus out of the land of Canaan so
reversionism keeps the believer from developing an ECS or entering the tactical victory of the super-grace life. Hebrews
3:10-12. Just as the reversionists put the Exodus generation under the sin unto
death so it puts believers today under this maximum penalty — 1 John 5:16.
17. The profile of the reversionist
— Psalm 7:14-16.
There is no solution to reversionism
until you recognise the condition for what it is. Reversionism is like sleeping
in this analogy, we lose time without being aware of that loss of time. The
second analogy deals with reversion recovery.
“arise” is an aorist active
imperative of a)nisthmi which means to not arise
from the dead but to stand up, to get up, and sometimes it even means to get
out. It is a compound of the word a)na meaning again, and isthmi which means to stand up. The aorist tense is a
constative aorist which contemplates the action of reversion recovery in its
entirety. It takes the recovery and regardless of its extent of duration
gathers it into a single whole. The entirety or the whole includes every act of
rebound as well as every act of GAPing it. The active voice in the Greek always
has the subject producing the action of the verb and in this case the
reversionistic believer produces the action by rebound, subsequent filling of
the Spirit, assembling in the classroom of the local church, concentration,
learning doctrine under the ministry of the Spirit. The imperative mood is a
command to the reversionistic believer.
The next phrase is incorrectly
translated in the KJV. “From the dead” is the
preposition e)k plus the ablative plural of
nekroj. The ablative means “from
among.” With the definite article it is “from among the dead ones.” Literally,
“Get up [or, rise up] from among the dead ones.” The dead ones in this analogy
is used to describe reversionists. There are several principles we need to
recognise. Reversionists flock together. Compatibility is developed in
reversionism that would not otherwise exist. You never grow up as long as you
associate with people who are negative toward Bible doctrine. Reversionists are
called here “dead ones” because they are headed toward the sin unto death. This
is a command to break away from reversionists.
The doctrine of the sin unto death
1. The sin unto death is maximum
punitive discipline for the reversionistic believer. The sin unto death is only
administered to members of the royal family of God. It is a discipline for
nobility in this dispensation. This discipline is also the only exception to
dying grace for the believer in this dispensation. The object of this
discipline is the believer in reversionism. It includes maximum misery, maximum
pressure terminating in the physical death of the believer before his time. Two
passage which deal with the principle in definition: Psalm 118;17,18; 1 John
5:16.
2. However the sin unto death does
not mean loss of salvation — 2 Timothy 2:12,13.
3. Reversionism is the cause for the
sin unto death — Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation 3:16. It
is a possibility that if you neglect Bible doctrine long enough you will be
under the sin unto death.
4. There are four causes of death
for the believer. a) Your work on earth is finished. God has assigned to you a
certain amount of time after your salvation and when that time has elapsed God
takes that believer to be with Himself. The principle is found in 2 Timothy
4:7. b) Glorification of God in a very special way, as in Philippians 1:20,21.
Sometimes God takes the believer out of this world in order to accomplish in
our dying what could never be accomplished in our living. This is a special
case type of death where we glorify God to the maximum, where the impact of our
death is greater than the impact of our life, and where in this death God is
going to be glorified in a special way. c) Maximum discipline for reversionism.
This is the sin unto death — 1 Chronicles 10:13; 1 John 5:16. d) There is also
an offshoot of this which is really a fourth reason: suicide. Suicide is
generally the result of psychotic or neurotic reversionism. Because of this the
individual superimposes his will over God’s and takes his life. The first two
categories have dying grace — those whose work is finished and those who die to
glorify God in a special way. The last two categories are the result of
reversionism and are not related to dying grace.
5. Case histories of the sin unto
death. (The sin unto death is for believers only)
a) Monetary reversionism
— Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5:1-10. They were greedy and had a problem with
money.
b) Moral reversionism.
The incestuous Corinthian — 1 Corinthians 5:1-5.
c) Ritual reversionism:
participation in the communion service without the use of rebound, therefore
grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit
—
1 Corinthians 11:30,31.
d) Mental attitude
reversionism: rejection of Bible doctrine. Saul was the king of Israel. He had
a command to go out and annihilate the enemy and he refused to kill Agag. For
this Saul died the sin unto death — 1 Chronicles 10:13,14.
e) Antiestablishment
reversionism. Trying to solve the world’s problems
through socialism and bureaucracy. Isaiah 30:1-3; 31:1-3. Hezekiah’s foreign
policy caused him to be put under the sin unto death.
f) Verbal reversionism.
This is the reversionistic believer involved in blasphemy or maligning, and so
on — 1 Timothy 1:19,20.
6. Reversion recovery eliminates all
discipline and removes all sins. Even under the sin unto death you can recover
through reversion recovery — 2 Corinthians 2:5-10; James 5:15, 20.
7. The cancellation of the sin unto
death.
a) Repentance — James
5:14,16, a complete change of mental attitude, to completely change your mind
about doctrine. It causes a change of policy in life — to take in doctrine
until you recover and move on to your objective, the super-grace life.
b) Rebound for those not
under the sin unto death — 1 Corinthians 11:31.
c) The daily function of
GAP — Hebrews 6:1-6.
d) The erection of the ECS — Ephesians 4:24 — and entrance into the super-grace life — James
4:5-8.
The third analogy has to do with the
super-grace status. Super-grace blessing is what happens when you recover from
reversionism. At this point we have an erroneous word order in the KJV English: “and Christ shall give thee light.” The Greek is kai e)pifausei soi o(
Xristoj. Kai = and; e)pifausei is a future active
indicative of the verb e)pifauskw which means to enlighten or
to shine. The future tense is a progressive future in which the context
requires the use of the future tense to be construed as denoting the idea of
progress or growth in future time. The active voice: the subject produces the
action of the verb. Sometimes the definite article helps us to find the
subject. Here o(
Xristoj is
the subject — “the Christ.” The indicative mood of the verb is the declarative
indicative and it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.
Super-grace blessing is a reality. “And he will shine” is what we have so far —
kai e)pifausei. The word “thee” is the dative
of indirect object from the personal pronoun su.
The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act is
performed. Reversion recovery is for your benefit. Reversion recovery glorifies
God but it is for your benefit — “on you” is a believer recovering from
reversionism.
Then we have the last two words,
“the Christ” — “and he will shine on you the Christ,” the inevitable result of
super-grace blessings from the Lord Jesus Christ. Reversion recovery is more
than recovery from something terrible, it means entrance into something
wonderful designed for you by God in eternity past.
Translation: “Therefore he
communicates, Wake up you sleeping one [reversionist], stand up from among the
dead ones [reversionists with whom you associate], and the Christ will shine on
you.”
The doctrine of rebound
1. Rebound is a technical term for
the believer’s restoration to fellowship and recovery of the filling of the
Spirit.
2. The concept of rebound.
a) Rebound must be
understood in the light of relationship with God — Jeremiah 3:13. Rebound has
to do with temporal relationship with God.
b) Rebound must be
correlated with positional truth by the royal family of God — Romans 8:1.
c) The frame of
reference for rebound is the efficacious death of Christ on the cross being
judged for our sins. The spiritual death of the Lord Jesus Christ solves the
problem of the old sin nature’s area of weakness which produces sins. These
sins were poured out on Christ and judged. When a believer commits a sin he
either knows it was a sin or he does not in the case of an unknown sin. But
whether he knows it is a sin or not he still does it from his volition, and
that sin was poured out upon Christ on the cross and judged. When the believer
commits a known sin he names that sin to God. That sin was judged on the cross,
he is forgiven immediately. He also at the same time is forgiven the unknown
sins. 1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:7; 2 Corinthians 5:21.
d) Rebound means
restoration to fellowship with God plus the recovery of the filling of the
Spirit. When we are in fellowship we are controlled by the Spirit. How
effective the filling of the Spirit is depends upon the stage of our spiritual
growth. Proverbs 1:23; Ephesians 5:14 cf. 5:18.
e) Eternal security is a
prerequisite to understanding the rebound technique — Romans 8:38,39. The
believer sins after salvation but such sin is carnality, not loss of salvation
— 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; 1 John 1:8,10.
3. The mechanics of rebound.
a) You confess a sin to
God — 1 John 1:9. The Greek word for confess is o(mologew and it means to cite or to name, it does not mean to feel sorry for.
It has no emotional connotation.
b) Isolation of
sin — Hebrews 12:15.
4. The alternative to rebound. This
is simple. If you do not want to name your sins to God and be forgiven the
alternative is twofold: carnality and/or reversionism. They are the results of
rejecting the rebound technique — 1 Corinthians 11:31. Hebrews 12:6 is the
inevitable result of failure or neglect of rebound.
5. There is also a discouragement to
rebound. Legalism is the enemy of rebound. Luke 15:11-32; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.
6. The technique belonged to the Old
Testament saints as well as to the royal family of God in the Church Age —
Psalm 32:5; 38:18; 51:3,4; Proverbs 28:13.
7. Some biblical synonyms for
rebound. Confess or name it — 1 John 1:9; Judge self — 1 Corinthians 11:31;
“Yield” in the aorist tense — Romans 6:13; 12:1; Lay aside every weight —
Hebrews 12:1; Be in subjection to the Father — Hebrews 12:9; Lift up the hands
that hang down — Hebrews 12:12; Make straight paths — Matthew 3:3; Hebrews
12:13; Arise from the dead — Ephesians 5:14; Put off the old man — Ephesians
4:22; Acknowledge thine iniquity — Jeremiah 3:13.
8. There is a principle of helping
others to rebound — Galatians 6:1. There must be an accompanying mental
attitude — Matthew 18:23-35. Grace orientation must always be applied —
Colossians 3:13. There is a reward for helping other members of the royal family
to rebound or to use the technique — James 5:19,20.
Verse 15 — “See” is the present
active imperative of the verb blepw. While this word often
means to see it does have other meanings. It means, for example, to beware in
the present imperative, and that is the translation here. The present tense is
a static present, which means that as long as we live in this life we must be
constantly alert with regard to our attitude toward Bible doctrine. The word
“beware” here is a warning that there is one thing that you must do every day
of your life on earth and that is take in the Word of God. The active voice:
once recovered the super-grace believer must be alert to maintain his status
through the consistent intake of doctrine. Alertness toward doctrine is
extremely important. The active voice of this verb means that once recovered
the believer must be alert to maintain his super-grace status and this means
listening to the teaching of the Word of God regardless of the subject. The
imperative mood is a command to all members of the royal family of God to move
in the direction for which we are left in this life which is the super-grace
life. The thing that has to be emphasised is the fact that all of us have to
grow up spiritually.
“then” is an inferential particle, o)un, used as a transitional conjunction to remind us
that every time we get a command, every time we are called upon for spiritual
alertness there must be behind that some inference, some conclusion. So it
should be, “Beware therefore.”
“that” is incorrect, this is the
interrogative particle pwj which means “in what way.”
“you walk” — present active
indicative of peripatew. The present tense is an
iterative present, it denotes what recurs at successive intervals or conceived
of in successive periods. This is the present tense of repeated action. Your
are supposed to walk. Peripatew means more than walking, it
means advance, to move toward your objective, to close in on the target. The
target is the super-grace life. There is only one way to advance spiritually
and that is consistency in the intake of doctrine. The active voice: the member
of the royal family, the believer priest, produces the action of the verb. The
indicative mood is an interrogative indicative, this is because of the word pwj. It assumes that there is an actual fact,
super-grace, which is now under question.
“circumspectly” is the adverb a)kribwj which means “accurately.” Accuracy is what is
needed in the Christian life. When you get away from doctrine you get away from
accuracy. Accuracy means that you take in doctrine, that you live by doctrine,
that your viewpoint in life becomes Bible doctrine. The divine viewpoint is the
only accurate way to live in this life. Advancing with accuracy means the
maintenance of the super-grace status through the consistent intake of Bible
doctrine. As long as you live doctrine is going to be your spiritual food and,
if anything, it is much more important than your physical food. Just as
physical food provides physical energy, so doctrine provides spiritual energy
to redeem the time in phase two.
Now there is a negative challenge:
“not as fools” — the negative mh is used here and it is
subjective. We can become a fool at any time that we cut loose from Bible
doctrine; “as” is the comparative particle o(j;
the word “fool” here really has another meaning — a)sofoj [sofoj = wise; a = negative] which means not wise or unwise. The
positive challenge follows with the adversative conjunction a)lla — “but.” This introduces a contrast after the
negative and the contrast is between the believer minus doctrine and the
believer plus doctrine; “wise” — sofoj.
Translation: “Therefore beware how
accurately you advance, not as unwise ones [minus doctrine], but as wise ones
[positive toward doctrine].”
Principle: Reversionism is avoided
in the same way in which super-grace is attained. Consistency in the intake of
doctrine.
Verse 16 — the purchase of time is
the tactical victory in the angelic conflict. “Redeeming” is the present middle
participle from e)cagorazw. This word means in the
business world to purchase, it was used to buy things. It was often used for
purchasing slaves. There was another word, a)gorazw, which meant to go into the market and buy something, but it couldn’t
be taken away because the person’s credit wasn’t good and he had to pay cash
for it first. So a)gorazw eventually came to mean
going into a market or square, or place where you shopped, paying cash and
walking off with something because you did pay for it. But e)cagorazw means that your credit is so good that you could
just say you would buy something and walk away, and it would be delivered
because you had good credit. So a)gorazw means to buy something
simply on a cash basis whereas e)cagorazw means to do business, to
have such good credit that you can purchase and say “I buy it” and it is yours,
without showing any money at the particular time of the transaction. From that
we see that this e)c which comes from the
preposition e)k means “outside.” It means
that whatever you purchased in the market you can take it outside with you
right now, your credit is good. It becomes a very good word for the doctrine of
redemption because it helps us to understand that every person who believed in
Jesus Christ in the Old Testament was saved before Christ actually paid for his
sins on the cross historically. The credit of the Lord Jesus Christ was so good
with God the Father that Abraham believed in the Lord and it was credited to
for righteousness, and every person who was saved in Old Testament times was saved
right then and there even though the cross had not occurred historically.
“Redeeming” is all right here so long as it is understood that this word means
specifically here to purchase the freedom slaves out of the slavemarket. The
present tense is a progressive present to signify action in progress or a state
or persistence. It denotes here the continuation of existing results. The
intensive or dynamic middle indicates the part taken by the subject in the
action of the verb. The subject or the agent is the believer. The believer is
buying time. We actually purchase time on the basis of our credit. E)cagorazw is not used here in connection with the cross, it
means we have believed in Jesus Christ. Since the moment we believed God has
assigned to us X amount of time from the time that we are saved. That time is
credited to us so that when we have all these allotments we also have enough
time credited to us so that we can take in doctrine and enjoy the allotments.
For example, there is an allotment for war, an allotment for sex, an allotment
for dancing, for dying, for different things; and the capacity to enjoy all of
these things is based on doctrine. So time is assigned and we actually purchase
every allotment of time with doctrine so that doctrine becomes cash. Doctrine
is the medium of exchange where time is concerned. We buy time with doctrine in
the soul. We have the only cash of the realm as far as God is concerned, we
have capital with which to buy time. It is Bible doctrine that gives capacity
for life. So we have a present middle participle. It is a telic participle
indicating purpose, but it is more than that, it is a participle used as an
imperative. Sometimes the participle is used in place of an imperative and this
is one of those places where redeeming is a command — “Constantly buying the
time.” How are you going to buy time? The only possible way you can, with Bible
doctrine. That is your cash.
“the time” — the accusative singular
here is the direct object, the definite article plus kairoj. The definite article is used to define the
objectivity or the reality of a substantive or a noun. The definite article was
used in Classical Greek for demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, or
personal pronouns. Here we have a possessive pronoun, the definite article is
used in that sense. You can’t buy anyone else’s time, you can only purchase
your time. So the definite article is used as a possessive pronoun, you have
time; time belongs to you. God has assigned to you time.
“because” — the causal conjunction o(ti gives us the reason for buying the time that is
allotted to us.
“the days are evil” — every day that
you live on this earth is an evil day. What makes the day evil is what the word
“evil” really means. Ponhroj is a predicate adjective.
This means Satanic evil. Ponhroj means socialism,
revolution, antiestablishment, Jesus freaks and hippies, government control of
industry, disarmament of a nation, bleeding-heart human good, most of the
thinking done by politicians today. Ponhroj means a system whereby
Satan tries to control the world. Satan is basically an evil being and every
bit of good that he does is just evil as every bit of sinning he does. “The
days” is the nominative plural of h(mera. Life for the believer is
assigned in terms of days. God gives us one day at a time until our assignment
runs out. These days that God gives us are in cosmos diabolicus. That means
Satan is the ruler of the world. These days in time are a part of the world
system. The present tense of e)imi is a static present
representing a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: the days
in the assignment of time are under the rulership of Satan, therefore evil. The
indicative mood is the reality and the certainty of the fact that every day
that you live on this earth Satan is the ruler of this world and every day is
evil. And only you can purchase that day from the evil grasp of Satan. Bible
doctrine is the way that you purchase a day from the evil grasp of Satan.
Translation: “Constantly buying the
time [assigned to you], because the days [in your assignment] are evil.”
The doctrine of a day at a time
1. The believer with the ECS and super-grace life learns to regard every day alike — Romans 14:5,6.
He regards every day as from the Lord, it is a grace gift given to him as an
assignment, as part of an allotment. The purpose of that day is to purchase it
with Bible doctrine.
2. Only the believer has the grace
provision to purchase that day — Ephesians 5:15-18. The super-grace life gives
perfect purchase of every day. John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.
3. Every day we as believers in
phase two live that day as a gracious gift from God. The only time we possess
in which we can honour God is the number of days God has graciously provided
for us in time — Psalm 90:12; James 4:13-15.
4. The fact that the believer lives
another day on the earth is a sign of divine grace and faithfulness —
Lamentations 3:22,23.
5. God has provided soul capital in
the form of Bible doctrine for the believer to purchase each day — Jeremiah
15:16; Matthew 4:4.
6. Every day, therefore, becomes a
special day in phase two — John 11:9,10.
7. Each day in phase two the
believer must avoid mental attitude sins which produce self-induced misery —
Proverbs 27:1. These same mental attitude sins characterise reversionism,
especially those stages including 4, 5, 6. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 cf. Psalm
102:1-3.
Verse 17 — “Wherefore” is actually a
prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative neuter
singular of the demonstrative o(utoj. Dia plus the accusative means “because of.” It should
be translated “Because of this.” Because of the importance of buying or
purchasing time because the days are evil.
“be ye not” — the present active
imperative of ginomai plus the negative mh, the subjective negative which doesn’t quite close
the door, should be translated “stop becoming.” The present tense plus the
imperative carries the force of a prohibition.
“unwise” — the predicate nominative
plural from a)fron. Since it is in the plural
it should be translated like a plural, although that is difficult because a)fron really means ignorant. About the only way to make a
plural out of ignorant is to say “ignorant ones.” This indicates the fact that
there was a large number of believers in the church at Ephesus who were
ignorant of Bible doctrine and therefore were incapable of purchasing time. So
this is a reference to the believer in reversionism with emphasis on the
negative volition at every stage of reversionism.
“but” is the adversative conjunction
a)lla, it sets up a contrast
between ignorance of Bible doctrine and cognisance of Bible doctrine. This
separates the sheep from the goats, the men from the boys, the adults from the
children, as far as the spiritual life is concerned.
“understanding” — present active
imperative, sunihmi, which means to gain
insight into something by understanding the various aspects of that something.
“Something” could be a category of doctrine. You gain insight into a category
of doctrine by understanding all the points in that doctrine. Sumihmi is the highest form of understanding of any
principle of the Word of God, or any point of Bible doctrine. The present tense
is a progressive present which indicates the action in progress or state of
persistence at that time. In other words, it is linear aktionsart — “keep on
understanding.” The active voice: the believer must produce the action of the
verb in order to have capital, in order to have cash to purchase time. The
imperative mood is the command, therefore, to GAP it
daily, and consequently as a result of GAPing it daily to understand God’s will
and God’s viewpoint in life.
“what” — the nominative neuter
singular of the interrogative pronoun tij.
In the neuter it means content. What is the plan of God? What is the will of
God? What is God’s purpose in keeping us in time? etc.
“the will of the Lord” — to qelhma means will, plan, purpose, design, and even stands
for the concept of policy. The possessive genitive of kurioj is correctly translated “of the Lord,” or it could
be translated “belonging to the Lord.”
Translation: “Because of this, stop
being ignorant, but completely and thoroughly understand the will [purpose,
policy, design] of the Lord.”
The doctrine of GAP
1. GAP is
a coined word to describe the whole system of spiritual perspicacity. G =
grace; A = apparatus; P = perception. The grace apparatus for perception. It is
the grace system whereby God has made it possible for all believers to learn
doctrine and to advance to the objective of the super-grace life. Consequently
it is the divine provision for spiritual growth and advancement. God has found
a way to take every believer, regardless of IQ, and enable him to learn
doctrine. Human IQ is not a factor in learning
doctrine.
2. There is a distinction between
human and spiritual IQ. Human IQ is the number assigned to a person through testing. The number is
based upon dividing the mental age by the chronological age. The number is
supposed to determine your quickness in the field of perspicacity or how
rapidly you can learn. However, spiritual IQ is not based on any such
thing. It is found in the Hebrew under the noun chakmah, often translated “wisdom.” It is also found technically
under the Greek word e)pignwsij, translated full knowledge
and sometimes just knowledge. The amount of doctrine you have in your soul
determines your spiritual IQ.
3. There is no place for human IQ in the study and the assimilation of the Word of God. The exclusion of
human IQ from GAP is taught in 1 Corinthians
1:19 through 2:16.
4. Receptive comprehension.
Everything that we ever learn goes through a process in the soul. It is related
to the two frontal lobes connected with the mentality of the soul. These are
defined in the Greek as nouj or mind, kardia or heart. The mentality of the soul is therefore
divided into two parts.
a) The believer’s soul
possesses mentality and that mentality is divided into two frontal lobes.
b) The left lobe is
called nouj and/or mind. It is designed
to assimilate objective information. Therefore, when doctrine comes into the
left lobe through the teaching of the Word it is called gnwsij — objective information. It means that you
understand what is being taught, it doesn’t mean you agree or disagree. To
understand doctrine is all that is required in receptive comprehension. The
problem with receptive comprehension is giving the information or the passage a
hearing regardless of personal prejudice or negative reflexes.
c) Gnwsij as objective understanding can never be applied to
experience. It is doctrine in the left lobe. Doctrine in the left lobe can
never be applied to experience. d)
The residence of doctrine in the perceptive lobe/left lobe makes the believer a
hearer of the Word but not a doer of the Word. Doctrine in the right lobe makes
the believer a doer. The left lobe is the staging area for doctrine.
e) The thinking of the
left lobe is called noew in the New Testament.
f) All noew in the left lobe is divided into two parts, fronew or dokew. The difference is very
simple. Objective thinking is fronew; subjective thinking is dokew. So thinking in the left lobe can be objective or
subjective but not applicable to experience.
g) All of this has some
classroom names. Receptive comprehension is all the data understood but not
applied or even accepted. Receptive comprehension involves a lot of concepts.
It is necessary but not applicable. You have to hear before you can do.
Receptive comprehension involves the
following:
i)
Attendance at a local church where the pastor teaches the Word of God. The
local church is the classroom for receptive comprehension.
ii) The
ministry of God the Holy Spirit converting the content of the message into
receptive comprehension along the lines of 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 or 1 John 2:27.
iii) The
residence of doctrinal data in the left lobe as the staging area. This
doctrinal data is gnwsij, it can be understood but
not applied.
iv) The
acceptance of the authority of the one who communicates doctrine.
h) It must be remembered
that gnwsij can exist to a large degree
in the left lobe of the believer without any spiritual benefit. In fact, some gnwsij may result in the subjective thinking of dokew while other categories of gnwsij may continue as objective thinking or fronew. So remember that gnwsij
has no spiritual benefit nor application of divine viewpoint to life. This is
why believers appear to know a great deal but in reality have no advance in
their spiritual status. One thing should be pointed out. The same information
that you would have in your left lobe as gnwsij
has all kinds of application once that is in the frame of reference of the
heart.
5. The grace provision for learning
Bible doctrine.
a) The formation and
preservation of the canon of scripture. The doctrine of inspiration applies.
b) Divine authorisation
of the local church as a classroom for learning doctrine. All worship is
centred around learning Bible doctrine. The believer assembled in the local
church, therefore, becomes a student without portfolio.
c) The spiritual gift of
pastor-teacher which provides both authority and ability to communicate
doctrine in the local church. The gift sovereignly bestowed at the point of
salvation is not merited.
d) The royal priesthood
of the believer which is designed for the privacy and freedom of reception of
doctrine.
e) The indwelling of the
Holy Spirit for the function of GAP — 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.
f) The believer must be
filled with the Spirit, and there must be a grace way to be filled with the
Spirit — rebound.
g) The human spirit, one
of the 36 things that every believer receives at salvation, is the first target
for GAP — Job 32:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12.
h) The laws of divine
establishment whereby the nation protects the freedom and the privacy of the
local church.
i) The anatomy of grace
whereby certain non-meritorious functions of the body provide the ability to
think and concentrate: oxygen in the blood, etc.
6. The mechanics of GAP are divided into stages.
Stage 1 — Operation ICE. This indicates the communication of the Word of God from the
pastor-teacher to the members of the congregation. The pastor communicates
doctrine to the local church under the concept of the Greek verb didaskw. The word means public teaching of doctrine giving
the believer priest the privacy and privilege to assimilate this doctrine.
a) I = isagogics, which
means the interpretation of the Bible within the framework of its historical
setting. The principle of hermeneutics: the Bible must be interpreted in the time
in which it was written. Therefore there must be the recovery of all of the
historical background, and this is called isagogics.
b) The C stands for
categorical teaching. Categorical teaching is based upon the hermeneutical
principle of comparing scripture with scripture to determine classification of
doctrine, to take all of the occasions in which a doctrine is mentioned in the
scripture to show its various concepts.
c) The E stands for
exegesis which is the analysis of each verse in its context, emphasising the
grammar, the syntax, the etymology of the words from the original languages of
scripture.
Stage 2 — Operation gnwsij. Gnwsij means doctrine in the left
lobe. The left lobe is called the nouj or the mind, it is simply a
staging area for doctrine. This is being a hearer of the Word, not a doer of
the Word. This is equivalent to receptive comprehension which means the
perception of doctrine, principles, promises, names, dates, places, categories,
and so on. Receptive comprehension or gnwsij
is achieved by means of God the Holy Spirit. The two requisites include
positive volition toward doctrine, recognition of the authority of the pastor,
good manners in the assembly, poise, concentration, alertness. Receptive
comprehension does not mean agreement or disagreement but merely comprehension
of what is taught.
Stage 3 — Operation e)pignwsij. Gnwsij must be converted to e)pignwsij which is doctrine in the human spirit or doctrine in
the heart or right lobe. What you really are is what you think in your right
lobe. In this third stage the objective is to get doctrine from the left lobe
into the human spirit where it gets taken into the right lobe. Before doctrine
is usable for growth, production, dynamics, gnwsij
must be converted to e)pignwsij. The converter is your
volition of the soul. From the human spirit doctrine remains to become building
material for the ECS.
7. The function of the frame of
reference of the right lobe.
a) It is the basis for
the comprehension of more advanced doctrine when such doctrine is taught.
b) It establishes a new
conscience which is compatible with divine norms and standards.
c) It forms divine
viewpoint dynamics.
d) It deals with the
problems of subconscious and neutralises guilt complex.
e) It provides an alarm
system to detect false doctrine, false teaching, and the false teacher con
artist of this age.
f) It provides soul
capacity and discernment to detect important relationships in life, e.g. right
man, right woman.
g) It provides the
furniture of soul whereby God is able to share His happiness with the believer.
h) It provides the basis
for the production of divine good, such as correct content of prayer, accuracy
in witnessing.
i) It causes the proper
function of the priesthood until the believer reaches super-grace which is the
normal function of the royal priesthood.
8. Results of GAP.
a) The removal of scar
tissue from the soul plus other facets of reversion recovery.
b) It constructs the ECS which is the backbone necessary for super-grace.
c) It leads to the
attainment of the super-grace status, including occupation with Christ,
capacity for life, super-grace blessing. This is the tactical victory of the
angelic conflict.
d) It provides a basis
for production of divine good.
e) It glorifies God in
this dispensation and in this stage of the intensified angelic conflict.
The doctrine of divine guidance
1. There are three categories of
will in history. a) There is the will of God which is the sovereignty of God;
b) There is angelic will or volition; c) There is human will or volition in the
souls of mankind.
2. The cardinal principle in divine
guidance is found in 1 John 3:23. This is a brief summary of God’s will for
each one of us. The first part of the verse says, “For this is the will of God
that you believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.” It is God’s will for
all members of the human race to believe in Jesus Christ. It is obvious that we
have human volition because people reject Christ as saviour. So the cardinal
principle of divine guidance: for the unbeliever, salvation; for the believer,
spirituality.
3. We start with the incarnate
person of Christ. The humanity of Jesus Christ had free will — Matthew 20:22;
26:42; Hebrews 10:7,9. The implications are quite obvious. Jesus Christ as
deity had sovereignty [divine volition]. As perfect humanity He had a soul and
human volition. No free will in mankind means no free will in the humanity of
Christ. No free will means no redemption, no salvation. However, the principle
of divine guidance is based upon the fact that man does possess volition and/or
free will designed to resolve the angelic conflict, designed to respond to
God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s policy, God’s law. That is the basic concept
of guidance. We have volition which must become totally subordinate to and
compatible with divine volition. That presents a number of problems. We have to
know what God’s policy is, what His will is, what God’s desire is on any given
subject. Then it is simple. All we have to do is do it and do it in the power
of the Spirit.
4. Types of the will of God.
Basically there are three categories of the will of God for any believer. These
are all illustrated from the life of Balaam who was a believer. a) The
directive will of God — Numbers 22:12. God told Balaam not to go to curse Israel,
not to go to the king of Moab; b) There is the permissive will of God — Numbers
22:20. Balaam superimposed his volition over the divine policy and went to the
king of Moab. But he was still alive, therefore this is regarded as the
permissive will of God; c) The overruling will of God. Balaam tried to curse
Israel but God would not permit it — Numbers 23:5,12,26.
Bible doctrine in your soul must
dictate how you live your life. With doctrine in your soul you will know what
the will of God is.
5. Academic principles of guidance.
a) Knowledge of doctrine
— Psalm 32:8; Proverbs 3:1-6; Isaiah 58:11; Romans 12:2. God’s will in known
only through doctrine in the soul.
b) Yieldedness — simply
a technical term for the filling of the Holy Spirit, as per Romans 6:13. It is
found in Romans 12:1, “present,” which is yieldedness or the filling of the
Spirit. It is found in Ephesians 5:17,18. Basically the concept comes from 1
John 1:9, the mechanics of yieldedness.
c) Growth. Attainment of
the super-grace status means guidance comes easy — 2 Peter 3:18.
6. The phase two categories of the
will of God.
a) The viewpoint will of
God: what does God want me to think?
b) The operational will
of God: what does God want me to do?
c) The geographical will
of God: where does God want me to be?
7. The mechanics of the will of God.
There is one chapter in the Bible that actually summarises all of the mechanics
of divine will — Acts chapter 11. There we find guidance through prayer in
verse 5l; guidance through thinking in verse 6; guidance through the Word,
verses 7-10; guidance through providential circumstances, verse 11; guidance
through the Holy Spirit, verse 12; guidance through fellowship and comparison
of data, verses 13,14; guidance through scripture memory, verse 16.
Verse 18 tells us of the second way
to buy time — the filling of the Spirit. However, we begin with the negative
approach to things.
“And” is the adjunctive use of the
conjunction kai and it tells us that the
subject continues about purchasing or buying time. Capital is Bible doctrine.
“be not drunk” — the present passive
imperative of the verb mequskw which does refer to
inebriation, plus the negative mh. The present tense is a
progressive present signifying that the action is in progress. It is also a
descriptive present to indicate what is now going on or the events in the
process of occurrence. The passive voice indicates the fact that drunkenness is
received by too much imbibing. This should be translated, “stop becoming
intoxicated.” The imperative mood is the imperative of prohibition with the
negative mh. This is the negative
approach given to this passage for a very simple reason. It is actually what is
called teaching by antithetical parallelism. To become drunk is obviously
antithetical from being filled with the Spirit. Yet the phenomenon is parallel
in the sense that alcoholic goes inside of the individual and changes the
personality, the attitudes, the entire behaviour of the individual who become
inebriated. When the Holy Spirit controls the life there is change as well. One
is a negative change, prohibited; the other is a positive change, commanded.
But they both follow the same principle: something on the inside makes a person
different on the outside.
“with wine” — the instrumental
singular of o)inoj and refers to only one type
of alcoholic beverage in the ancient world. Drinking is not forbidden here.
Drunkenness is not only forbidden but is characterised as a sin.
“wherein” — the prepositional phrase
e)n plus the locative of the
relative pronoun o(j. This combination should be
translated “in which,” and by that it means in the sphere of drunkenness there
is a result. The result must be described in terms of principle rather than the
individual characteristics of the inebriate. Therefore we have the present
active indicative of e)imi, “is,” to state the
principle.
“excess” is the predicate adjective a)swtia which does not mean “excess,” it means “debauchery”
or “dissipation.”
Translation: “Also stop becoming
intoxicated by means of wine, which is dissipation.”
This is a passage which does not say
yea or nay about drinking alcoholic beverage, this is passage must be regarded
very carefully in its context.
Summary
1. Drunkenness and dissipation in
this context is called a waste of time.
2. While drinking is not forbidden
in the scripture, except under certain circumstances, drunkenness is always
forbidden.
3. However, this verse goes beyond
the prohibition of drunkenness.
4. This verse teaches that
drunkenness is a sin, but it teaches more than that. The negative command sets
up an analogy for the last half of the verse.
5. The indwelling presence of
alcohol in large amounts changes the character and personality of the imbiber.
This is because alcohol is a depressant and it removes inhibitions.
6. Principle: Things on the inside
change us on the outside for better or for worse.
7. We are both activated and
motivated by what is on the inside of us. Therefore alcohol on the inside is a
chemical illustration of the spiritual principle of the filling of the Spirit.
8. In addition to this principle and
amplified to be filled with the Spirit instead of spirits, there is also
obvious historical implications. When God the Holy Spirit so directs the human
author to get some information on paper it must have also historical
implications.
9. In addition to analogy there is a
special warning to the believers of Ephesus and the surrounding Roman province
of Asia regarding the use of alcoholic beverage as a tranquiliser or as a
frantic search for happiness. When the believer so uses alcohol as a
tranquiliser or as a frantic search for happiness he is obviously failing in
his primary function in this life which is the daily intake of doctrine through
GAP, the construction of the ECS, and the achievement of the tactical victory of the super-grace life.
10. The Christian lush is a
reversionist who has failed to utilise God’s gracious provision in the
indwelling Holy Spirit plus everything He provided in GAP. Therefore he has missed the blessing of true capacity for life.
11. The Christian lush is filled
with alcohol instead of the Spirit. He is therefore filled with alcohol instead
of doctrine.
The biblical doctrine of drinking
1. Drunkenness is always condemned
as a sin. (Drunkenness and drinking are not the same) — Isaiah 5:11; 20:2;
28:7,8; Proverbs 20:1; 23:20; Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:18.
Drinking is not classified as a sin in the scripture.
2. Drunkenness is to be avoided in
certain categories of humanity: Kings — Proverbs 31:4,5; pastors — 1 Timothy
3:3; Titus 1:7; deacons — 1 Timothy 3:8.
3. Drunkenness is also condemned in
certain Bible characters: Noah — Genesis 9:21; Lot — Genesis 19:32-36; Nabal —
1 Samuel 25:36,37; Ephraim, the tribe — Isaiah 28:1.
4. Drinking of alcoholic beverage is
condoned under certain circumstances — Proverbs 31:6,7; 1 Timothy 5:23.
Medically speaking, a limited amount of alcoholic beverage is beneficial in
certain areas. a) In the brain and nervous system; b) Moderate amounts of
alcoholic beverage acts as a sedation; too much always has a toxic effect; c)
In the area of circulation. Older persons often have prescriptions containing
alcohol or are told to take a glass of good wine a day to dilate the blood
vessels and improve circulation.
5. The adverse effects of alcohol.
a) It leads to impulsive and abusive behaviour. As a depressant it lowers
inhibitions, dulls the reflexes, amplifies mental attitude sins; b) Vernices
disease. Too much alcohol causes paralysis of the eyes, uncoordinated walk,
clouding of the consciousness, a final coma, and you’ve had it; c) Excessive
alcohol destroys brain tissue; d) Destruction of the liver; e) The Dts —
confusion, anxiety, terror, visual hallucinations or delusions.
6. The incident where Jesus turned
water into wine — John 2:1-11. a) Jesus truly turned water into alcoholic
beverage, it was not grape juice; b) However, the performance of this miracle
neither condones nor condemns drinking; c) The miracle was designed not as a
brief on drinking but to focus attention on who and what Jesus Christ was in
the hypostatic union. It was to focus attention on Jesus Christ as the only
saviour as well as Israel’s legitimate King; d) The six water pots which were
filled with water (to wash feet) are analogous to the water of the Word —
Ephesians 5:26. The water was then turned into wine to replace the shortage at
the wedding feast; e) Wine produces joy in the human heart — Judges 9:13; Psalm
104:15; f) When through the daily function of GAP the
believers converts doctrine into super-grace status God shares His happiness
with the believer. The water pots are analogous to a believer filled with water
[doctrine]. The doctrine is then converted into +H, God sharing His +H with the
believer; g) So the miracle not only focused attention on the hypostatic union
but illustrated the manner in which Bible doctrine in the soul converts the
believer into super-grace status.
7. Alcoholism is a part of national
disaster — Joel 1:4-6. It is related to economic depression — Joel 1:4. It is
related to soul frustration — Joel 1:5. It is related t military invasion in
Joel 1:6. This concept is also found in Isaiah 28:1-9.
8. The conditions under which
drinking is restrained: a) The law of
love applied toward believers; b) The law of expediency applied toward
unbelievers. Used when presenting the gospel drinking becomes a false issue; c)
Under the law of supreme sacrifice which is directed toward God when drinking
hinders a specific ministry.
9. Drinking is related to
reversionism — Jeremiah 13:12-17. Wine is used in the scripture to represent
the entire principle of sublimation involving the rejection of doctrine. The
rejection of doctrine is the rejection of category #1 love and the substitute
for this in Jeremiah 13 is heavy drinking.
10. The principle of common sense in
drinking. a) The importance of abstinence on the job and in youth. b) While
moderate drinking is not prohibited by the Word it belongs to those who have
the maturity to handle it. c) Drinking is not for young ladies on dates with
strange men or with an unknown crowd. d) Never drink alone or when upset. e)
Never drink with strangers or in a strange place. f) Never drink while on the
job. g) Never drink while operating a motor vehicle or flying an aeroplane.
“but” is the adversative conjunction
a)lla setting up a contrast
between the filling of the Spirit and drunkenness. The filling of the Spirit
produces spirituality; the filling of spirits produces drunkenness. A person is
drunk when wine controls. Now we have the analogy. When the Holy Spirit controls
we are filled with the Spirit.
“be filled with the Spirit” — the
present passive imperative of plhrow which has a number of
meanings. It means to fill up a deficiency. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
fills up all deficiencies the royal family possesses on earth. The deficiency
is knowledge of doctrine and the function of grace. This word also means to
fully possess. The indwelling Holy Spirit must fully possess the believer for
both the function of GAP and the execution of phase
two. The word also means to fully influence. Only when the believer is
controlled by the indwelling Holy Spirit does God fully influence that believer,
that member of the royal family of God. The Christian way of life is a
supernatural way of life, it therefore demands supernatural execution. There is
no way by which we can execute the Christian way of life. If we could we would
be in the plan of God on the doing end, and God’s plan is perfect, we are on
the receiving end only, not on the doing end. It also means to fill with a
certain quality. The Holy Spirit is God, only God can glorify God and fulfil
phase two. Human helplessness demands divine indwelling. That is the principle
of plhrow. The present passive
imperative demands a little attention. The present tense is an iterative
present, it is used to describe what recurs at successive intervals. It is also
called the present tense of repeated action. That means that if a believer
lives a normal life of progress, because of spiritual growth he will be out of
fellowship and he will rebound. So the iterative present recognises the fact
that you do not spend your entire life under the control of the Spirit, but
every time you sin you are out of fellowship and must get back in again. The
imperative mood here is the imperative of command in contrast to the previous
one which was an imperative of prohibition.
Remember that plhrow is used a number of ways in the scripture. It is
used in the function of GAP, in the erection of the ECS, and the entrance into the super-grace life in such passages as Luke
2:40 where it applies to the Lord Jesus Christ, or for the royal family which
is the Church Age believer — Ephesians 3:19; 4:10; Colossians 1:9. It is also
used for the completion of the top floor of the ECS — 1
John 1:4 cf. Philippians 4:4. Plhrow is used for the believer
priest controlled by the indwelling Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18. It is also
used for the fulfilment of the law through the filling of the Spirit — Romans
8:4; Galatians 5:14. It is used for the reception of super-grace blessing for
super-grace believers — Ephesians 3:19; 4:10. It is used for the analogy
between right man and right woman and the body of Christ being fulfilled by
union with Christ — Colossians 2:10. It is used for the pastor-teacher
communicating Bible doctrine to his congregation — Colossians 1:25. It is used
for the production of divine good in the super-grace status — Philippians 1:11;
Revelation 3:2. It is used for the priestly function of the royal priest in
giving — Philippians 4:18. So it has a lot of uses but here in Ephesians 5:18
it applies only to the subject of spirituality.
“with the Spirit” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of pneuma, used for God the Holy Spirit, the third person of
the Trinity, and it should be translated “but be filled by the Spirit.”
Translation: “Also stop becoming
intoxicated by means of wine, which is dissipation; but be filled [be fully
possessed, be fully influenced] by the Spirit.”
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
1. Prophecy. In John 14:20,21 we actually have a
prophecy that there would come a time in human history when every believer
would be indwelt by the Spirit with the possibility of the filling of the
Spirit. This prophecy was given while Jesus was on earth during His incarnation
and He is looking forward to a time that had never existed in all of history.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit had never occurred before this time. At the
time Christ gave this prophecy it was still future when we would have all
believers indwelt by the Spirit. There is a reason for all of that. From the
very beginning of time God the Holy Spirit had certain responsibilities. Take,
for example, at salvation. The salvation work of the Holy Spirit was simply
regeneration. God the Holy Spirit was the agent whereby anyone who believed in
Christ in Old Testament times was entered into the family of God. So from the
time of Adam’s salvation we have the family of God on earth. In other words,
all believers. And that continued down through Old Testament times right up
until the incarnation of Jesus Christ. There were a few people who had been
given special power by the Holy Spirit. This is called the doctrine of
enduement. People like Moses, David, people who had special jobs that required
the ministry, the power, the omnipotence of the third person of the Trinity.
But no one could ever say that all believers were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Reason: You simply have in Old Testament times the family of God, that’s all.
Even kings who were saved were still just family of God. Then something
happened. After Christ died on the cross, rose again and ascended, ten days
later the Age of Israel was interrupted. When it was interrupted a whole new
thing began to happen. Christ was alone at the right hand of the Father and
technically still is. He is the last Adam, He is seated in the place of highest
honour. Therefore God the Father planned to have for Him a family, a special
family. Jesus Christ is royalty, He is the King of kings, and therefore
starting on the day of Pentecost, the beginning of the Church Age we have
something new. No longer do we have family of God, now we have royal family of
God. This means that at the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit not only
regenerates but He also indwells, He also baptises into the body of Christ;
that is how we become royal family. He seals. He does five things, whereas
before the Church Age began He did one thing at salvation. He did one thing for
a few believers after salvation, special enduement, and that is all. God the
Holy Spirit did not indwell Old Testament saints. In the same context is both
the prophecy of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit — John 14:16,17 — plus the
prophecy of the indwelling of Christ — John 14:18-21. The prophecy anticipates
the interruption of the Jewish Age with the dispensation of the Church plus the
intensification of the angelic conflict. Not until Jesus Christ was seated at
the right hand of the Father could He have a royal family. Now He has a royal
family. 2. The distinction is very important — Romans 8:9-11. The Holy Spirit
indwells the body of the believer permanently for functional reasons as well as
the sign of the royal family — 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20. However, Jesus
Christ also indwells but He is not said to indwell the body. He is said to
indwell the heart or the right lobe for the purpose of fellowship on the road
to super-grace — Ephesians 3:17. And that isn’t all. When a believer goes into
reversionism the indwelling of Christ ceases. In other words, if the believer
is progressing to super-grace he is indwelt by Christ, but if he is moving into
reversionism he is minus the indwelling of Christ — Christ is on the outside knocking
on the door, as per Revelation 3:20. So the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is
permanent, functional and representative of our royalty. The indwelling of
Christ is for fellowship and temporary, only when we are positive toward
doctrine and on the progressive road.
3. The fellowship concept of the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit is found in Romans 8:10; Galatians 2:20. There we
have the concept of fellowship. The only way that royalty can have fellowship
God and royalty can have fellowship with other members of the royal family is
through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
4. The indwelling of Christ is the
confidence of reaching super-grace — Colossians 1:27.
5. The purpose of the indwelling of
the Lord Jesus Christ, then, is different from the indwelling of God the Holy
Spirit. Each one has a separate and a distinct purpose. The purpose of the
indwelling of the Spirit is to give us the sign of royalty, in contrast to the
indwelling of Christ, to move us experientially to the point of manifestation
of royalty. So that basically the difference between the two is this. Inside
you have God the Holy Spirit, the sign of royalty. Inside you have the Lord
Jesus Christ to be the overt manifestation of royalty in super-grace. When you
are growing Christ is there, but the Holy Spirit is always there. Christ
indwells the right lobe or the heart, the Holy Spirit indwells the body. The
indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is the sign of royalty.
The doctrine of Spirituality
1. Introductory principles.
a) The essence of God.
The Holy Spirit who indwells us is God, so we have the sovereignty of God, the
righteousness, the justice, the love, the eternal life, etc. all of the
attributes of the essence of God, through the fact that deity indwells us. The
executor of phase one of the plan of God is Christ, second person of the
Trinity. The executor of phase two is God the Holy Spirit, third person of the
Trinity. The executor of phase three is God the Father, the first person of the
Trinity. So that the entire Trinity are involved in the plan from the
standpoint of execution.
b) The Holy Spirit is
deity. All Trinity passages reveal co-equality with other members of the
Godhead, e.g. 2 Corinthians 13:14. The Holy Spirit is called by the
tetragrammaton in certain passages: Jehovah in Isaiah 6:8,9 cf. Acts 28:25;
Jeremiah 31:31-34 cf. Hebrews 10:15. God the Holy Spirit is Jehovah, therefore
God. The sovereignty of the Holy Spirit is mentioned 1 Corinthians 12:11. The
omniscience of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2:1-11; The omnipotence of the
Spirit in Genesis 1:2. The omnipresence of the Spirit in Psalm 139:7. The
lordship of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3:17.
c) Who controls your
life determines how your life is going. The Holy Spirit can control your life
or the old sin nature. If the Holy Spirit controls your life this produces
spirituality in various degrees of growth. If the old sin nature controls your
life from the area of weakness it produces sins, the area of strength produces
human good, and the lust pattern of the Old sin nature becomes the motivator.
All of this is non-acceptable to God and only when the Holy Spirit controls the
life is there acceptability.
2. The distinction between the
salvation and the post-salvation ministries of God the Holy Spirit. At
salvation, God the Holy Spirit does five things.
a) Regeneration. This
means that God the Holy Spirit is the agent by which we are born into the
family of God — John 3:1-16; Titus 3:5. This is the ministry that God the Holy
Spirit has always had with every person who has ever been saved, the only
difference being that in the Age of the Gentiles and the Age of Israel —
skipping the Church Age — in the Tribulation, and in the Millennium, this is
the only ministry of the Holy Spirit at salvation. In the Church Age He also
has four other ministries and these all occur simultaneously.
b) The baptism of the
Spirit — Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13. This is the ministry by which He enters
us into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This ministry is absolutely unique,
this is the ministry whereby we become royal family of God. This is the
ministry by which we live in the palace forever, it is not something we
experience, it is something God the Holy Spirit did for us at salvation.
c) The indwelling of the
Holy Spirit at the point of salvation — Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. This
is the sign of royalty.
d) The sealing ministry
of the Holy Spirit. This is security for royalty. We have two kinds of security
as believers. We have security from salvation itself: we can’t lose our
salvation. We have security in our royalty: we can’t lose our royalty forever
and ever. We are sealed by God the Holy Spirit — 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians
1:13; 4:30.
e) The Holy Spirit gives
each one of us a spiritual gift at the point of salvation — 1 Corinthians
12:11. Every believer has a spiritual gift. It doesn’t mean that you have to
know it or understand it, unless it is a communication gift which demands preparation.
Generally speaking when you are filled with the Spirit and grow up your gift
functions without your cognisance, whatever it is.
The post-salvation ministry of the
Spirit is for phase two only, so it deals with the royal family in time. We
have the vocabulary of Paul — Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16. John’s vocabulary
is a little different, he calls it walking in the light — 1 John 1:7. Peter, in
2 Peter 1:4, calls it being a partaker of the divine nature or the divine
essence. In other words, Peter says the filling of the Spirit is partnership in
the divine essence. It must be distinguished between what God the Holy Spirit
did for us at salvation and what He does for us after salvation. God the Holy
Spirit regenerated you once, that’s over, you don’t have to be regenerated
again. Baptism of the Spirit: you are in the top circle, you will never get out
— royal family of God. He indwells you, that is the sign of your royalty. He
seals you, that is the security of your royalty. He gives you a spiritual gift,
that is your participation in the royal family as you move into phase two. But
when it comes to the function of phase two everything is related to the filling
of the Spirit.
There is a very bad tendency for
people to try to make spirituality the indwelling of Christ. They try to
practice the presence of Christ and they have little variations of this. None
of these things are correct, they are totally inaccurate. When it comes to
spirituality it is related entirely to the third person of the Trinity.
3. Spirituality and carnality are
mutually exclusive, therefore absolutes in phase two. Light and dark are
mutually exclusive, says 1 John 1:7; 2:10, and so it is with carnality and
spirituality. They are mutually exclusive — 1 John 3:4-9. John calls walking in
the light the filling of the Spirit; walking in darkness, carnality. It is an
either/or situation. Again, the moment you believe in Christ you enter into
union with Christ forever. Your positional sanctification is your badge of
royalty but you also have the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit. Sin makes
you carnal; rebound puts you back in fellowship.
4. Imitation becomes one of the
great issues of spirituality in phase two. Spirituality is the imitation of God
— 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 5:1; 2 Peter 1:4 — whereas carnality and
reversionism is the imitation of the unbeliever — 1 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians
5:19-21; 1 John 1:6. So believers either imitate the unbeliever or they imitate
God, they never imitate themselves.
5. Spirituality is a function of the
royal priesthood, therefore it is not subject to the Mosaic law of the
Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood function under the Mosaic law
and functioned to the nation Israel. But now we have a royal priesthood which
is not authorised by the law, it is authorised by God Himself and under the new
covenant we have the statement of it and so it is not subject to the Levitical
priesthood, it is not subject to the Mosaic law — Romans 8:2-4; 10:4; 13:8;
Galatians 5:18.
6. In keeping with partnership in
the divine essence through the filling of the Spirit (2 Peter 1:4) spirituality
produces the character of the incarnate Christ — Galatians 4:19 cf. 5:22,23; 2
Peter 1:4; 1 John 2:5,6. In other words, the filling of the Spirit produces the
character of Christ, the personality of Christ.
7. The general objective of
spirituality and/or the filling of the Spirit is a) Partnership with divine
essence — 2 Peter 1:4; b) Imitation of God — Ephesians 5:1; c) Glorification of
Christ — John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20; d) Fulfilment of the law —
Romans 8:2-4; e) Proper function of GAP — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1
Corinthians 2:9-16.
8. Spirituality is lost through
carnality but recovered through the rebound technique of 1 John 1:9. The
principle is stated in Proverbs 1:23.
9. The results of spirituality.
a) Christ is magnified
in the inner life — Ephesians 3:16,17; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Philippians 1:20,21.
b) The perception of
doctrine — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27.
c) Effective witnessing
— Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 3.
d) Guidance and
assurance in phase two — Romans 8:14-16.
e) True worship — John
4:24; Philippians 3:3.
f) Effective prayer —
Ephesians 6:18.
g) Helping the carnal or
reversionistic believer to rebound — Galatians 6:1.
10. Spirituality is the source of
divine good — 1 Corinthians 3:16. Divine good is the believer’s decorations in
eternity — 1 Corinthians 3:12-14. Human good, produced in carnality or
reversionism, is destroyed at the judgement seat of Christ because no member of
the royal family of God can be contaminated by human good in eternity — 1
Corinthians 3:12,15.
11. Nomenclature for spirituality.
Positive nomenclature: Walk in the Spirit — Galatians 5:16; Walk in the light —
1 John 1:7. Negative nomenclature: Quench not the Spirit — 1 Thessalonians
5:19, the production of human good; Grieve not the Spirit — Ephesians 4:30, the
production of personal sins.
12. Emotion or ecstatics does not
characterise spirituality in the Church Age — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans
16:17,18. When the Holy Spirit controls the life He does not produce ecstatics.
a) Only in the
Millennial dispensation does ecstatics characterise the filling of the Spirit.
b) In the Church Age the
believer represents the absent Christ in the devil’s world, therefore no
ecstatics.
c) However, in the
Millennium the believer filled with the Spirit appreciates the present Christ,
therefore ecstatics.
d) Believers in the
Millennium are also indwelled by the Spirit — Ezekiel 36:27; 37:14; Jeremiah
31:33.
e) Believers in the
Millennium are filled with the Spirit — Isaiah 29:19; 32:15; 44:3; Ezekiel
39:29; Zechariah 12:10.
f) Ecstatics
characterises spirituality in the Millennium because of the personal presence
of Christ — Joel 2:28,29.
13. The royal family is in
partnership with the Holy Spirit — Philippians 2:2.
14. Confidence regarding the filing
of the Spirit comes from knowledge of pertinent doctrine — 1 John 3:20,21.
15. The clarification of the means
and results in spirituality: the power, the means of that power, and the
results. The power is the indwelling Holy Spirit. The means of having Him
control the life is the rebound technique. The result is yieldedness to the
plan of God and the will of God at any or every point.
16. Pseudo-spirituality: the things
that are used as substitutes for the filling of the Spirit or spirituality by
grace.
a) Spirituality by
yielding. This system assumes that the believer is spiritual because of
something he does such as yielding himself or dedicating himself to God, doing
a certain amount of praying or witnessing or giving. This is putting the cart
before the horse because yieldedness of Romans 6:13,19; 12:1 is the state of
being filled with the Spirit and therefore positive toward doctrine. No one has
ever been filled with the Spirit by yielding.
b) Spirituality by
personality imitation. This consists of imitating some believer whom you
admire, associating some superficial mannerism with spirituality. Every
believer must learn to distinguish between spirituality and personality.
Spirituality comes one way — the filling of the Spirit. The Bible never
emphasises changing your nasty personality!
c) Spirituality by
self-crucifixion. This system of pseudo spirituality is closely related to the
above. It originates from a false interpretation of Romans 6 whereby the
believer claims spirituality by virtue of crucifying self. However, ego never
cancels ego; self cannot crucify self. Self is crucified by the principle of
retroactive positional truth. The believer is identified with Christ in His
death. In His death He bore our sins from the area of weakness of the old sin
nature but He rejected human good. By being identified with Christ positionally
we have rejected human good and that is what self-crucifixion is all about. It
is simply the rejection of human good through identification with Christ on the
cross. It is not a system of spirituality. So self is crucified by the
principle of retroactive positional truth whereby the believer becomes dead to
human good through the baptism of the Spirit.
d) Spirituality by
tabooism. i) A taboo is a prohibition set up by a religious or social group.
Here a taboo is forbidden activity but by our definition a forbidden activity
not forbidden by the Word of God. ii) Therefore taboos are legalistic
superimpositions on the Word of God. iii) Taboos are customs of legalistic and
religious or self-righteous types of believers in groups. iv) Basic taboos of
fundamentalism include the following: don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t smoke,
don’t play with cards, don’t go to movies. v) In addition, certain taboos
related to geographical locations — no use of cosmetics by the ladies, never go
swimming in the same swimming hole with the girls. vi) The principle: Anything
the unbeliever can do is not the Christian way of life. Whatever God has
commanded you to do is something that no unbeliever can ever do. vii) The
Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life executed by supernatural
means, i.e. the filling of the Spirit, GAPing it to super-grace. viii) No two
believers have attained the same degree of growth in phase two. That is the big
problem and why people come along with taboos. ix) Consequently the immature do
not handle taboos in the same manner as adult believers. Spiritual maturity
will eventually force out the truly objectionable things. A mature believer
will recognise that a young believer is having problems and therefore does not
make an issue of what he does. The self-righteous, legalistic people want to
make an issue out of everything. x) Legalistic bullying and/or the imposition
of taboos on new believers always has one of two results: response or reaction.
Under response the acceptance of the bullying always results in converting the
new believer into a legalistic hypocritical individual. Then there is the
reaction to this which is rejection of the taboos, resulting in conflict,
bitterness, disillusion. Here is where many new believers immediately enter
into reversionism. They react, they think the whole Christian life is just giving
up a lot of things and having no fun. So making an issue out of the taboos is
to destroy the whole concept of spirituality. xi) There is a bona fide place
for the observation of taboos: 1. The application of superseding law. There is
a time when the law of love, the law of expediency or the law of supreme
sacrifice causes you to discontinue something you are doing because of the
importance of the spiritual growth or blessing of others. Then, certain things
are given up as a result of growth and this is a bona fide give-up situation.
e) Spirituality by
relativity. This says I’m spiritual because my sins are more refined and more
respectable than your sins. In this comparison a subtle type of sinfulness is
compared to an obvious shocking type of sinfulness, resulting in false rationalisation.
Included in this notion is the delusion that there are degrees of spirituality.
There are degrees of growth but not in spirituality. Any sin, regardless of its
category, puts a believer out of fellowship, results in loss of the filling of
the Spirit; and no believer can be carnal and spiritual at the same time,
therefore the importance of rebound.
f) Spirituality by
ecstatics — the function of the holy rollers. It is known as the monopoly of
the emotional — I’m spiritual because I have some kind of ecstatic or
stimulating experience. Believers evaluate Christian experience by how they
feel rather than by what the Bible says. The emotion of the soul is not the
criterion for either salvation or spirituality. There is no such thing as
feeling saved or feeling spiritual.
g) Spirituality by
ritualism. I’m spiritual because I observe certain rituals of the church, such
as baptism or the Eucharist, or the observance of “Lent,” etc.
h) Program spirituality.
I’m spiritual because I conform to the program of the local church, because of
my attendance, my giving, because I participate in prayer meetings, because I
teach Sunday school, etc. The problem here is obvious. Action has been substituted
for the learning of doctrine, everyone must be put to work, and this becomes
mass negative volition toward Bible doctrine in the local church. This system
always caters to approbation lust, power lust, it ignores the fact that even a
right thing done in a wrong way in the energy of the flesh is wrong. The Word
of God demands that a right thing be done in a right way.
Verse 19 brings us to a new section
where we have the concept of relationship in the royal family, and the
paragraph goes from here to chapter 6:9. The chapter break does not follow the
continuity of subjects. “No man liveth unto himself and no man dieth unto
himself.” There is always some other member of the royal family under foot.
While you have the right to your privacy and while you have freedom as a royal
priest you also must recognise the fact that no matter how raunchy you are, no
matter how flaky, no matter how long you have practised the art of being a
screwball, there is always someone who is influenced by you. Therefore a
passage like this becomes extremely important.
Basic principle: Everything in phase
two must inevitably be related to the principle of relationship with God. Some
of you have forgotten from whence cometh your regeneration, your new birth.
Some of you have forgotten why you are going to heaven. Some have forgotten
what it is all about. When you believed in Jesus Christ God did something for
you that made a permanent relationship. You are in a permanent plan, and while
some may talk about it from time to time and listen to it as taught from the pulpit,
they have forgotten the basic fact: Your life on earth is a relationship with
God, not with people. And there is the salt in the wound!
Our first point in the paragraph is
relationship with God, verses 19-21. What is more important than anything else?
Relationship with God. When Bible doctrine becomes more real than anything in
your life then God will be more real than anyone in your life. The unseen,
invisible God will be more real to you than the visible scene smells people!
Things look bad out there, and they do. But look up instead of look out, once
in a while. Our attitude toward God is described in terms of worship. Worship
is an attitude toward God, it is a soul attitude toward God, a mental attitude
toward God, not an emotional attitude. The capacity to worship comes through
Bible doctrine in the soul and the expression of worship is related to the
vocal cords — singing, witnessing, speaking (not sharing).
Our first word in verse 19 is
“Speaking” — present active participle of the verb lalew,
used here for the communication or the expression of doctrine, for the
expression of doctrine or the viewpoint or the principles of the Word of God is
worship. The primary function of worship therefore becomes the communication of
doctrine to the congregation on the part of the pastor. In fact, several verbs
beside lalew are so used. Another is khrussw, mistranslated “preach.” It really emphasises the
authority of the one speaking because the word means the king’s herald, the
king’s representative, the one who goes ahead of the king when he is traveling
and comes to a town and announces the arrival of the king and demands the best
accommodation, and so on. This means a representative with authority, and the
pastor-teacher is God’s representative with authority. Didaskw is the second word and it indicates the mechanics
of communication and these mechanics have to do with one person teaching a
group. It emphasises the concentration, the submission of the believer to Bible
teaching, to the authority of the one who communicates. Then, lalew emphasises the communication of content of doctrine
with resulting application to the function of the congregation. Obviously, lalew is a good verb here. The present tense of this verb
is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs or may reasonably be
expected to occur. The action of the verb is assumed to be true in the past, in
the future, as well as in the present, says the customary present. The active
voice: the royal priesthood produces the action of the verb as a part of
worship. The participle is used as an imperative. The imperative use of the
participle means that this participle is actually a command, so it should be
translated “Be communicating.”
“to yourselves” — this is not what
is says at all. The locative plural of the reflexive pronoun e(autou is entirely different. It should be translated
“among yourselves.” Actually, what the participial concept develops is the fact
that when believers are assembled there must be communication of the divine
viewpoint, otherwise there will never be reciprocity known as worship. There
can never be on the part of any member of the human race any true or bona fide
worship of God without God’s viewpoint inculcated. This is a phrase of
inculcation.
The phraseology here indicates the
result of all this: “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” The word
“psalms” is the instrumental of means from the noun yalmoj
which is simply the Greek form of the Hebrew for psalms. The psalms refer to
that portion of the Word of God often classified as devotional, but what it
really means is passages of scripture which deal with God’s relationship with
man so that man can have a relationship and fellowship with God. So “psalms” is
mentioned because if you ever study the Psalms carefully you will find man’s
failure to have proper relationship with man because man does not have proper
relationship with God. Then the Psalms of praise: Man’s proper relationship
with God leading to the reciprocity of man’s worship of God, man’s occupation with
God, man’s love of God, man’s appreciation of God, man’s attitude toward God —
category #1 love. So, “Be communicating among yourselves [in the local church]
by means of psalms.”
“and” — the adjunctive use of kai should be translated “also” instead of “and.” The
adjunctive use of kai, meaning “also,” begins the
description of exhale of worship. The function of GAP is the inhale of worship; the exhale of worship is predicated on
residual doctrine in the soul. So by GAP you take doctrine into the
soul, and once you have it you exhale doctrine toward God in worship. So you
have two phases: worship is the inhale of doctrine; worship is the exhale of
doctrine toward God. The incoming of doctrine leads to the output of the
attitude of worship toward God. There is no worship of God apart from the
in-going doctrine into the soul. This means that all of the organisations which
have excluded exegetical teaching on a daily and consistent basis obviously are
running on false fuel. They are running on emotion, on doing things like
witnessing, and they have lost track. There is nothing wrong with witnessing
but they have lost track of the fact you cannot respond to the plan of God
apart from the intake of Bible doctrine. If there is anything that describes
worship, if there is any thing that describes your life, it is right here:
doctrine going into the soul through the function of GAP. This is where the local churches have all fallen apart and failed.
“hymns” — the instrumental plural of
u(mnoj, “also by means of hymns.”
Since music has been invented it has been the most common type of partying.
This has been a common expression of enjoyment of people for a long, long time.
Singing has been an expression of entertainment, of love, of relaxation. It is
the most common form of expression of mental attitude. “Hymn” means the song of
praise in honour of deity, of God. It can be God the Father or God the Son. You
can sing about God the Holy Spirit but He is not in the business of glorifying
Himself. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son and to
reveal the Godhead. It isn’t music that carries you, it is doctrine that
carries you. The tune appeals to the emotion, the doctrine appeals to the right
lobe. It is the perfect combination of the right lobe and emotion when music is
handled properly. There is one other connotation here: u(mnoj is never to be written in a minor key! A hymn
always means a song accompanied by musical instruments.
“and spiritual songs” — the
instrumental plural of pneumatikoj [spiritual] plus the
instrumental plural of o(dh which means an ode or a
poem set to music. An ode is always characterised by a noble sentiment. We have
“odes with spiritual lyrics” rather than “spiritual songs.” In other words,
doctrinal lyrics is the concept here.
“singing” indicates the fact that
this is a legitimate function of worship — the present active participle of a)do.
“and making melody” — yallw means playing musical instruments. So there is two
kinds of music here, the singing and making melody, and both are present active
participles. Both of them are customary presents denoting what habitually
occurs in worship. Both are active voices. The royal priest produces the action
of the verb in assembly worship. The participle is an instrumental participle indicating
the means by which the action of the verb is accomplished, but more important,
it is the imperative participle.
The source of singing or playing a
musical instrument: “in your hearts” — the locative of sphere of kardia,
indicating a very important principle. In the heart or the right lobe you have
to have a frame of reference for playing a musical instrument, you have to have
a memory centre for playing a musical instrument, you have to have technical
information to play a musical instrument. In other words, you are not up there
just to play emotionally, you are to play musically and correctly and
accurately in the sphere of your right lobe. Worship must be accomplished in
the sphere of the right lobe — doctrine in the heart. This is where the person
thinks, and this is the real you, and furthermore, true capacity for singing or
playing an instrument in worship comes from Bible doctrine in the right lobe.
“to the Lord” — the dative of
indirect object of kurioj, “toward the Lord.” The
dative of indirect object indicates the one for whom the act of worship is
performed. It is done for the Lord.
Translation: “Be communicating among
yourselves [in the local church] by means of psalms. Also by means of hymns and
odes with spiritual lyrics be singing and playing [musical instruments] to the
Lord in the sphere of your right lobes.”
Notice there are two sentences here
in the Greek. The first sentence gives us the basics for singing or making some
form of music through instrumentality. This indicates the basis for everything.
This is doctrine, and not only doctrine but doctrine which expresses who and
what God is, who and what we are in the plan of God, and how the relationship
functions through grace. That is important because doctrine in the soul is going
to make the difference.
Verse 20 — “Giving thanks” merely
once again demonstrates the principle of love. When you truly love someone you
are thankful for that person. You give thanks for that person, you are occupied
with that person. That person is in your soul, in your right lobe, in your
frame of reference, in your memory centre, and you are constantly thinking
about that person. Giving thanks is a mental attitude, it is a mental attitude
of thinking of someone else. It is a mental attitude of love and therefore a
mental attitude of appreciation. So we have the present active participle of e)uxaristew which means to be thankful, to give thanks. It is a
very strong word for a mental attitude of having a scale of values and of
relating that scale of values to a total appreciation for the source. The
present tense is a retroactive progressive present which denotes what is begun
in the past and continues into present time. This is called the present tense
of duration and this is the attitude of any believer who is closing in on the
objective of the super-grace life. If you are taking in Bible doctrine on a
daily basis you are growing in grace, If you are growing in grace it is
inevitable that you will have a mental attitude divine viewpoint and therefore a
mental attitude of thanksgiving toward God. The active voice indicates that the
royal priest is producing the action of the verb. It is a wonderful thing for
members of the royal family of God to be grateful to God in time for all that
He has provided, whether it is blessing or adversity, regardless of the
circumstances. Therefore it is a wonderful privilege of the royal priest to on
a daily basis express in his thinking and in his prayer, in his attitude of
love, in his occupation with the person of Christ, this thanksgiving. And where
there is growth in grace, and where the believer has the capacity to love Jesus
Christ, and where the believer is occupied with Christ, the communion table
then becomes a very meaningful and wonderful thing. But if you are not taking
in Bible doctrine, if you are not growing in grace, and if on the other hand
you are a reversionist moving away from doctrine, then the communion table
becomes very painful; ritual without reality is meaningless and you have no
ability to concentrate on who and what Jesus Christ is. The participle is used
here as the imperative mood. The imperative in the participle is a peculiar
idiom to the Koine Greek and is found only in the New Testament and in the
papyri which occurred at the time of the New Testament.
“always” is a very strong adverb of
time, pantwte. This adverb means “at all
time” or “always.” We can translate this phrase, then, “Be always thankful.”
This brings out the participial use of the imperative, this emphasises the
function of the royal family. People who are always thankful, always grateful,
and who have an object of thanksgiving as well as content of thanksgiving, are
the bets oriented people in life, and this is the normal procedure for the
royal priest in phase two.
Summary
1. Thankfulness is based on maximum
intake of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP.
2. The grace apparatus for
perception of doctrine causes the believer priest to appreciate the members of
the Godhead, the plan of the Father, the principle of grace. Therefore the
believer is in a constant state of thanksgiving regardless of the circumstances
of life. The adverb covers all circumstances.
3. Thanksgiving, then, is the state
of being occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, oriented to the plan of God,
and maintaining the divine viewpoint in the right lobe.
4. Thanksgiving involves grace
orientation. This is impossible apart from doctrine in the right lobe and human
spirit.
5. Doctrine in the human spirit and
right lobe is impossible apart from the daily function of GAP.
6. The greater the spiritual IQ the greater the grace orientation.
7. The greater the grace orientation
the greater the thankfulness of the royal priest.
“for all things” refers to a
prepositional phrase, u(per plus the ablative of paj. This includes thankfulness for suffering and
adversity as well as prosperity and promotion. The rest of the verse, by the
way, is in the wrong order in the KJV. It should be “Be always
thankful for all things in the sphere of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ to
God, even the Father.” We are not thankful directly to Christ, we are thankful
directly to God the Father, says the Greek here.
“in the name of” — comes after “for
all things” in the Greek text. This is e)n
plus the locative of o)noma and it means “in the sphere
of.” O)noma means more than name, it
also means personality. The key to everything is Jesus Christ. We are what we
are because of what Christ is. We are members of the royal family because at
the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit picked us up and entered us into
union with Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father. We are in union with
the King of kings, therefore we are royalty. Only Church Age believers are in
this status of royalty.
The rest of this verse says, “to the
God, even the Father.” This is the recipient of our thanksgiving.
Translation: “Be always thankful for all things in
the sphere of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”
Verse 21 — “Submitting.” In the
English it merely looks like you just submit to one another. But not at all.
This is the present middle participle from the verb
u(potassw, a military word for the
exercise of authority. It refers to being subordinate to authority. The present
tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or may be
reasonably expected to occur. The act of subordination to the pastor-teacher is
assumed to be true in the past and future, as well as in the present, says the
customary present. The middle voice: the subject, the believer priest
participates in the results of the action of the verb. The active voice
emphasises the action; the middle voice stresses the agent. The believer is the
agent. This is what is called a direct middle which refers the results of the
action directly to the agent with reflexive force. This should be translated
“Be subordinating yourselves.” You subordinate yourself as an individual, as a
member of the royal family of God, as a believer priest, as one who has
received at the point of salvation the same 36 things that the pastor received,
but there is a difference between the believer and the pastor. One spiritual
gift makes the difference, the gift of pastor-teacher.
“one to another” — the dative plural
of the reciprocal pronoun a)llhlon. It means one person,
yourself, submitting to another person of the same kind but who has authority.
The pastor is the “another.” This is the dative of indirect object indicating
whose interest this submission to pastoral authority is performed. It is to the
believer’s advantage as a member of the royal family of God and a priest
forever to be submissive to the pastor and the local church so that the
believer can learn doctrine, not so that the pastor can run the believer’s
life. There is no such thing as a simple solution. The complexities of doctrine
categorically is the simple solution to everything perceptively, is the
principle. That takes some submission. This is also dative of advantage. It is
to the believer’s advantage to have his own pastor-teacher. It is to the
advantage of every member of the royal family to be under the authority of a
pastor. In the kingdom of priests, the royal family of God, there exists
authority on the earth and this authority is vested in the pastor-teacher, as
per 1 Thessalonians 5:13; Hebrews 13:7,17.
“in the fear of God” — that isn’t
what it says at all. This is e)n plus the locative of foboj should be translated “in fear of” except for one
thing. Foboj means something besides
fear. Here it means “awe” and “respect.” The word translated “God” here in the KJV is Xristoj, and so it should be
translated correctly and literally from the Greek, “in respect for Christ.”
This is the principle of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. So
subordination to the pastor-teacher is tantamount to showing respect for the
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the bishop and shepherd of our souls.
Bible doctrine in the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16; the pastor
communicates Bible doctrine from exegetical, analytical viewpoint and therefore
has the privilege of communicating to the congregation the very mind of Christ.
Therefore, it become imperative that each member of the royal family of God
exercises his priesthood by fulfilling the principle of GAPing it daily. This
is the way by which he becomes spiritually self-sustaining. To receive the
doctrine, to accumulate the doctrine in his soul, to live his life privately as
unto the Lord on the basis of the norms and standards of Bible doctrine in his
own soul. The recognition of the authority of the pastor-teacher and
subordination to his authority is the means by which this is accomplished.
The doctrine of authority
1. Definition; Authority is the
legal power delegated by God under the laws of divine establishment whereby
certain members of the human race have jurisdiction and responsibility for
others. Authority exists in both the temporal and spiritual realm under the
laws of divine establishment.
2. The principle of authority and
the fall. Rejection of authority on the part of the woman contributed to her
fall. The woman failed in the garden under two principles of authority. First
she failed under the principle of the Word which was taught by Jesus Christ to
both of them daily. Secondly, she failed under the principle of the authority
of the man who was both divinely commissioned as ruler of the world, as well as
the ruler of the woman under category #2 love. Under the original laws of
divine establishment Adam was the ruler of planet earth. Not only so, but he
was also the ruler of the woman. Both failures are emphasised in 2 Timothy
2:11,12. So the first civilisation really began with rejection of authority —
revolution.
3. There are certain areas of
authority in life which are established by God. These authorities are based upon
the laws of divine establishment.
a) The first of these is
God’s direct authority. God’s direct authority today is exercised only through
the Word, not through dreams, visions, trances, through the hallucinations of
those who claim they hear the voice of God, the delusions of those who are
looking for some special revelation from God apart from the Bible — it is only
through His Word.
b) The local church, the
pastor.
c) The divine
institutions of which there are four: volition, the authority in the individual
usually defined in terms of human freedom; the husband over the wife; the
parents over the children; government over people.
d) There is academic
authority, regardless of whether it is a public school, a private school, a
college, university, a graduate school, a Christian school.
e) Athletics. Coaches
ought to be the best disciplinarians in the world. They ought to have the right
to remove people from the team, they should have very strict code standards,
dress standards, morality standards, anything the coach wants. And he should be
backed up to the hilt.
f) In business. The
people who invest the money ought to set up the policy for an individual
business — not the government and not the employees.
g) In the military. RHIP (Rank has its privileges). The senior officer has authority over the
junior officer regardless of any other set of circumstances.
4. Greek words for authority.
a) u(pakouw means to obey or to be subject to — Matthew 8:27;
Luke 8:25; Romans 6:16; Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20,22; 1 Peter 3:6.
b) u(potassw means subordinate to or to obey, to be in
submission to — Romans 8:20; 1 Corinthians 14:32; Ephesians 5:22; Colossians
3:18; James 4:17; 1 Peter 5:5.
c) peiqw means to obey — Galatians 3:1; 5:7; Hebrews 13:17;
James 3:3.
d) peiqarxew which means to obey one in authority — Titus 3:1.
5. Commandments from God. God has
certain commandments directed to the believer for obedience — 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 are executed by the believer through
the function of GAP.
6. There is also authority over
nature. Divine laws have been established to control nature. Nature, in effect,
obeys God — Matthew 8:27; Mark 4:41; Luke 8:25.
7. There is authority in the human
realm. 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. For
example, the authority of the right man provides great happiness in the realm
of category #2 love — Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18. There is the authority
in business which stabilises economy. When you have free enterprise and when
management and capital has the authority you always and inevitably have great
economic blessing and prosperity — Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22. Another area
of authority: freedom through military victory is based upon authority in the
military establishment — Nehemiah 4:13-15.
Translation: “Be subordinate in
yourselves as one believer to the authority of another [pastor-teacher] out of
respect for Christ.”
There are three key words for the
rest of this passage. This passage has a phenomenal thrust that is often lost
in the detail. It is a simple one. Whatever relationship exists in this life,
in order for them to be successful, wonderful, having great content to them, it
demand self-discipline on the part of one person and authority properly
exercised on the part of the other. If the relationship is between God the
Father and the member of the royal family on earth, God the Father has the
authority. The believer priest not only submits to that authority but does so
under the self-discipline provided under the ministry of the Word of God and
the filling of the Holy Spirit. In the relationship of the individual to his
own volition, freedom, no one ever has that great capacity for life, that
enthusiasm for life in adversity as well as prosperity, apart from
self-discipline. In the relationship between right man and right woman the
authority and responsibility is with the man, and in this case the
subordination and the self-discipline lies with the woman. In the relationship
between parents and children the authority is vested in the parents. The
self-discipline and submission to authority belongs to the children. There
never was a child who at some time did not think that his parents were totally
unfair. But what children think is of absolutely no consequence. Children have
the responsibility of submitting to the authority and the policy of their
parents no matter how unfair they think it is, no matter how terrible it is to
them personally. They have only one responsibility — submission and recognition
of the authority of parents. The same thing is true in business life. All of
this is emphasised by the use of three verbs in this passage, beginning at
verse 22 and going through 6:9.
The first of these words is u(potassw. It connotes obedience, subjection to the authority
of another. It will be used in verse 22, chapter 6:1, 5. The second verb is a
verb for obedience — u(pakouw, and the third is fobew which does not mean fear but means respect.
Occupation with Christ is its technical meaning but in a general way it means
respect.
Verse 22 — “Wives.” A wife is a
female person who has made a decision to spend the rest of her life with a man
and lives a life of mostly bliss, happiness , ecstatics, and five per cent
misunderstanding. A(i, a definite article; gunaikej is the vocative plural from the verb gunh which is the word for the woman. The definite
article is used here as a personal pronoun. This is a Classical Greek form. It
should be translated “You wives.” In principle this refers to the right woman
married to the right man. In practice the command of this verse can become
intolerable slavery if the woman has married the wrong man. Notice that it
never says, if it is wrong, that the man married the woman, but the woman
married the man — if it is the wrong man. If it the woman’s right man, then he
married her! There are some principles to consider before any woman can jump
into marriage.
“submit” — actually the verb doesn’t
occur here in the original. The verb “submit” occurred in the previous verse
where it says “submitting yourselves.” The verb actually is used for both
verses and that is why it is repeated. The syntax of the Greek demands that we
recognise once again the present middle participle of the verb u(potassw which is a verb of subordination. “You wives be
subordinating yourselves.” The present tense is a customary present denoting
what habitually occurs. The act of subordination to the right man is assumed to
be true in the past and the future as well as the present time. The middle
voice is a direct middle referring the results of the action directly to the
agent with reflexive force. The participle is actually the imperative used as a
participle and is peculiar to the Koine Greek.
Such an all-embracing command
demands that the woman stop and consider the problems of marriage before she
becomes involved in it, not after. For those who consider the problems of
marriage after marriage they are in a very serious problem. For those who
consider the problems of marriage before marriage have every opportunity of
winding up with the right man and therefore in a state of bliss.
Taboos in the selection of a mate
1. Do not marry an unbeliever. If
you are born again you are a member of the family of God, you are not to
consort with darkness. You have no right under any circumstance to ever marry
an unbeliever.
2. If you are positive toward Bible
doctrine do not marry a believer who is negative toward doctrine. Compatibility
cannot exist between a growing believer and a reversionistic believer.
3. Do not marry as a teenager.
Marriage demands mental and spiritual maturity as well as capacity for life.
There is no such thing as a teenager who has it. Sexual and physical maturity
always precedes mental and spiritual maturity, and a teenager may have physical
maturity and sexual maturity but definitely not mental or spiritual.
4. Do not marry on a wave of libido.
A common failure of teenagers is to assume that libido or sex desire is love.
There is a vast difference between libido and love — until you catch up with
the right one.
5. Do not marry because of social
pressures. For example, an unhappy home life and you want to escape. An escape
hatch often becomes a source of slavery. Or panic. You are now 21, all of your
friends are married and this is your “last chance”! Or heard instinct: all my
friends are getting married, I must get married. Do not marry under social
pressure of the type called prestige. That is, don’t marry someone because they
are well thought of, is famous in the papers, etc. Do not marry because of a
mistake plus a sin. In other words, shotgun weddings are the worst kind of
weddings because you rarely get right man or right woman.
6. Do not marry with the idea of
solving your problems. A lot of people think that all they have to do is get
married and all of their problems are solved. That is naive. People do not get
married and live happily ever after, except in cases of right man, right woman,
and even then they have a few problems of adjustment from time to time.
Marriage merely intensifies problems.
7. Do not marry a status symbol. a)
The man is handsome, a physically attractive creature. b) The good personality
type — a salesman type. The personality is designed for selling, it is not
necessarily designed for marriage. c) The husband is attractive in other ways —
he has a deep voice, he has beauty in some physical feature which is important
to you: eyes, hair, face, body, muscles, whatever. These things may be all
right as a basis for original attraction but girls don’t want to live the rest
of their life with a set of muscles. d) The successful type. The smart girls
are the ones always looking for the successful type. In this case success may
be wealth, a good job, or some status symbol type of success but you marry a
status symbol instead of the right man. e) Marry because a man travels, has a
good social life. So for the rest of your life you are miserable having a good
social life and watching the sea gulls as they attack the ferry at Istanbul! f)
The husband represents security because he has wealth and success, but then
isn’t it nice to be miserable all of your life in security.
8. Do not marry a man unless you can
submit to him body, soul, and spirit. This is the importance of u(potassw in our passage. In marriage the woman should have
her divinely-designed right man. Her husband has to be the right man because he
is the shepherd and the bishop of her soul — 1 Peter 2:25 cf. 1 Peter 3:1.
9. Do not marry because you love
children or dogs or station wagons! In compatibility or desires do not make
good marriages. There is no substitute for love.
10. Do not marry a divorced man
except under the following circumstances dictated by the Word of God. a) The
divorce occurred before salvation, in which case any sin or every sin is
blotted out. The believer is never held accountable for sins committed before
salvation. Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 42:25; 44:22. b) The man was the innocent party
in an adultery divorce — Matthew 5:32. c) His divorce involved desertion of his
wife — 1 Corinthians 7:15. d) The man was the victim of a divorce gimmick — Deuteronomy
24:1,2. In this case he has the right of remarriage. e) The man’s former wife
has remarried. In other words, if a man is divorced after salvation from a
woman and then finds his right woman, and in the meantime the first woman has
married, he is free — Deuteronomy 24:3,4.
An extra set of taboos belong to the
divorcee
She is also a(i
gunaikej,
she has been divorced and the following taboos are for divorcees only.
1. If your ex-husband was your right
man, do not marry another man — 1 Corinthians 7:11.
2. If your former husband was not
the right man, and if you qualify from the five reasons previously given, there
is still a right man for you. However, do not jump into marriage again without
an intense period of studying the Word of God on a daily basis. GAP it daily for a year, preferably two years, before you ever begin to
think in terms of males again.
3. If you have children by your
former marriage the situation is more complicated. So remember the five
principles related to that problem. a) If the children are still young and must
live at home but a parent right man will not accept them, then do not marry
him. If there is non-compatibility between your young children and the man you
desire to marry, forget the man even if he is your right man, until your
children are adults. b) If the children are still young and must live at home
and the right man will accept them, and does, then marry him. c) If your
children do not respond to the man you propose to marry it does not signify
that he is the wrong man, it merely signifies that he is not their father. It
means that you have made a mistake in your previous marriage. d) If your
children by the previous marriage are adults and no hindrance you can marry
your right man without anticipating too many complications. e) If you are one
of those mothers completely occupied with adult children do not remarry under
any circumstances. You are not a woman, you are a frustrated mother with a
guilt complex, and probably emotional problems of a very serious nature. There
are some women who never get untangled from their children when their children
become adults. A woman’s obsessions with failures and successes of her adult
children will destroy not only her second marriage but will destroy most of her
relationships in life, unless she finds the small group of people who will lie
to her about how great her children are; in which case she is living in a dream
world.
4. The short-circuit or jealousy
problem. Before you remarry make sure that your intended husband is not jealous
or short-circuited by your former marriage. You are not coming to him as an
alleged or real virgin, therefore some males might have this problem without a
lot of doctrine. You must not marry because you are lonely and want a legal sex
partner. If you enter the second marriage having had a great deal of sex
experience the chances are that unless you have married a great spiritual giant
and super-grace hero the things that you thought you were going to have in
marriage will never materialise, because your past has already short-circuited
him so that he can neither perform sexually nor take the place of a man in his
soul knowing that you are occasionally or many times thinking about other men
in your life.
5. As the number of marriages
increase the possibility of happiness in marriage decreases. This means that
happiness in marriage, even to the right man, is severely tested. However, two
super-grace believers as right man and right woman have the best chance to work
out a second or third marriage. Doctrine in the soul makes the difference.
Six taboos for widows, in contrast to divorcees
1. If you are an older widow married
to the right man now deceased, do not marry again — 1 Corinthians 7:8; 1
Timothy 5:5.
2. If you are an older widow married
to the wrong man now deceased you can marry again, but only under very
stringent conditions where it is obvious that your right man has now arrived.
3. If you are a younger widow you
can remarry, according to 1 Timothy 5:14. This verse indicates that there is
still a right man for you if you are a younger widow.
4. Young widows must beware of
becoming troublemakers in the congregation. The Bible says that the most
troublesome people in any congregation are women who are either divorced or
widowed, relatively young, still having strong libido. They become maligners,
gossipers, judgers, they are filled with mental attitude sins — horsey females.
5. Young widows are prone to
reversionism — 1 Timothy 5:12.
6. Young widows are prone to marry
on a wave of libido — 1 Timothy 5:11.
The doctrine of category #2 love
1. There are three categories of
love in the human race: category #1 toward God — Deuteronomy 6:5; Romans 8:35;
1 John 4:19. Only the believer is capable of this kind of love; category #2 love
is between one right man and one right woman — Song of Solomon 8:6,7; category
#3 love is friendship — John 15:13; 2 Samuel 1:26.
2. The strength of category #2 love
is declared in Song of Solomon 8:6,7. It cannot be quenched by any pressure of
life.
3. However, death destroys both
pseudo love and mental attitude sins — Ecclesiastes 9:5,6. If you die before
you seem to have found the right one the pseudo love is gone.
4. The exclusiveness of category #2
love extends to one person of the opposite sex and all others are excluded.
Therefore happiness in sex love can only be found in one person — Proverbs
5:18,19. This excludes the following as a basis for such happiness: autoerotism
or masturbation, homosexuality or lesbianism, promiscuity or adultery, etc.
5. Category #2 love produces an
exclusive and perfect happiness which is self-sustaining as well as
partner-sustaining — Proverbs 15:17.
6. Therefore category #2 love is
protective. When the right one is absent — Song of Solomon 1:13; 4:6; when present
— Song of Solomon 2:4.
7. Category #2 love illustrates the
relationship with the Lord. The relationship between Israel and the Lord —
Jeremiah chapters 2 & 3; Ezekiel 16 & 23. The relationship between the
Lord and the Church — Ephesians 5:23-33.
8. Mental attitude sins attack all
forms of true love — 1 John 5:18. Jealousy is one of the greatest enemies in
this field — Song of Solomon 8:6.
9. Category #2 love is the provision
of God’s grace — Proverbs 18:22. “Whoever finds his right woman receives grace
from the Lord.” Divine institution #2 is designed for category #2 love —
Ephesians 5:25,28,33.
10. God has set aside time in each
life for category #2 love — Ecclesiastes 3:8. However, certain functions in
life can destroy this time, i.e. not waiting for the right man or the right
woman, adultery, drug addiction, alcoholism, mental attitude sins which destroy
right lobe capacity.
11. Women must be taught to love
under category #2 — Titus 2:4.
The doctrine of right man, right woman
1. There are three gifts from Jesus
Christ given in the scripture. The first is the right woman; He built it. The
second is salvation; He did it. The third is doctrine; He thought it. Doctrine
is the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16. Historically speaking the first
gift that Jesus Christ ever gave to man was a right woman.
2. Right woman is the oldest gift in
human history. When man was created Jesus Christ said, “Not good that man
should be alone” — Genesis 2:18. Therefore in grace Jesus Christ constructed a
right woman for the man and brought the woman to the man. The relationship was
established from the beginning during innocence and continued after the fall.
The fall did not change the relationship. It was designed for maximum human
happiness and even an unbeliever with failure and otherwise a miserable life
can find great happiness in this gift from Jesus Christ. So it is a gift for
the unbeliever as well as the believer — Ecclesiastes 9:9. The phrase “live
joyfully” is not correct. The qal imperative from raah means to see, but we have with it a plural noun chajiim, and together this phrase means
literally, “see lives.” However, it is an idiom which means “enjoy life.” Here
is a command to the unbeliever; the unbeliever can actually enjoy life provided
that the rest of this verse is fulfilled — “with the wife whom thou lovest.” He
keeps on loving her, this is linear aktionsart here. The principle is very
important. If a man is a total failure and he finds his right woman he is going
to he happier than the man who is a total success and doesn’t find his right
woman.
3. The greatest attack on the gift
and the divine law comes in the soul. Various stages of reversionism such as
blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, emotional revolt, are attackers
of this principle. The attack comes through fornication or promiscuity —
Proverbs 5; 6:20-32; 1 Corinthians 11:3-16; Jeremiah 31:22.
4. The perversions of the doctrine.
a) Autoerotism or masturbation. In this, self responds to self and that is a
perversion. b) Homosexuality or lesbianism — Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26,27.
Homosexuals are not sick, they are sinful. There never has been and there never
will be a sin for which there is not a solution, a spiritual solution from the
Word of God. c) Bestiality, sexual response to animals — Leviticus 18:23. d)
The only normal perversion of right man, right woman: fornication. This is
normal, it is a perversion of the divine institution — Exodus 20:14; Proverbs
5:20; 6:32.
5. Mental attitude sins are
destructive to right man, right woman relationship. Song of Solomon, chapter 8.
This passage is dealing with the Shulamite woman who is in love with the
shepherd. She is the most beautiful woman in the land. We know that because
Solomon has discovered her. He took her into his harem but was unsuccessful in
seducing her. In verse 6 we now see that the shepherd lover has rescued her
from Solomon who is the villain and he now speaks to the Shulamite woman which
is his right woman. They have a category #2 love. God did not use this woman
until she had been used to punish Solomon — Proverbs 5. She wore category #2
love in her soul like a chastity belt. Her love for her right man, her shepherd
lover, was stronger than anything in her life.
The soul relationship is expressed
when the shepherd lover says in verse 6, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart.”
‘Set me’ is the qal imperative of sum
and it means impress. The word for ‘seal’ means a signet ring which the woman
had been carrying around her neck. This signet ring signifies waiting for the
right man. And just as in category #2 love the woman gives herself soul and
body to her right man so she placed the signet ring on his finger to portray
the perfect relationship which would exist between them. He is saying in
effect, “The ring that you are carrying around your neck, put it on my finger.”
‘Upon thine’ heart refers to her right lobe. Because of the mental attitude
love she has in her right lobe the ring goes on his finger. So soul love
precedes sex love in this principle. The right man must be in the right woman’s
soul before she can respond to him and for this reason this woman would never
be satisfied with another. That is why she has rejected Solomon in all of his
glory. We actually have the principle here of soul climax which is found in 1
Corinthians 7:9 as well.
“as a seal upon thine arm” — the arm
here means her strength or her power. The word also means fingers, indicating
marriage. But the real concept here is that the woman has a great soul
strength, great soul energy which can only respond to her right man. A woman’s
animation comes from the relationship with her right man.
He expresses the principle of
category #2 when he says “love is as strong as death.” And then he states the
great enemy of category #2 love, “jealousy is as cruel as the grave.” In a
relationship between a man and a woman there is often a great deal of cruelty
and this is brought about by the mental attitude sins which attack the
principle.
“her flame [love] are flames of
fire, the flame of the Lord” [incorrect in the English of the KJV] — in other words, it is the same as the seal upon her arm, she has a
phenomenal soul love for this man. Her soul energy is a flame which, of course,
causes her body to turn into a flame. The origin of this great soul and sexual
response — “the flame of the Lord.” So all right man, right woman love is
divinely designed.
Verse 7 — “Many waters cannot quench
love” is literally, “not able to quench love.” Many waters referred to
pressures. Many pressures in life are not able to extinguish category #2 love.
The flame of verse 6 now takes us to water. What puts out a flame? Water. But
many waters are not able to extinguish the love. “Many waters cannot extinguish
the love, neither can floods of water drown it.” The principle: Mental attitude
sins can destroy right man, right woman relationship but apart from this there
can be no destruction of it.
6. Negative volition toward doctrine
destroys right man, right woman relationship. Jeremiah 15:15-21; 16:1,2;
17:9-11; 12:7-9; 15:8,9.
7. The analogies of right man, right
woman: a) Right man, right woman are used to teach many types of doctrine. This
is because this is one of the most common relationships in the human race. b)
The right man is the shepherd and bishop of the right woman’s soul, just as
Christ is the shepherd and bishop of the believer’s soul — 1 Peter 2:25 cf.
3:1. c) The right woman is the glory of the man just as the believer in
super-grace is the glory of God — 1 Corinthians 11:7.
8. This principle is also related to
the laws of divine establishment under the principle of monogamy. Monogamy is
ordained of God to remind mankind that there is only one right woman for one
right man, and visa versa. 1 Corinthians 7:2-4. Under the laws of establishment
the right man, right woman relationship becomes divine institution #2, or
marriage. Marriage is still the protection of category #2 love, as per Hebrews
13:4; 1 Corinthians 7:9; 1 Timothy 5:14; Romans 7:2,3; Genesis 2:24,25;
Ephesians 5:22,25, 28,31,33. Marriage forms the basis for stability in society
and rejects the theory of both anarchy, promiscuity, and communal living.
Anarchy and promiscuity comes when there is not a recognised system of
marriage. Since the right man, right woman relationship was designed for the
ultimate in human happiness marriage is both the protection and the boundary
for category #2 love. Marriage is also protected by the divine institution #3
where parents have the responsibility for training their children, not someone
else’s. The man is the authority in marriage. God protects the woman, however,
from tyranny. The man with authority is first a little boy trained and taught
by his mother. Mother teaches him respect for womanhood by both her teaching
and by her life, and this keeps him from becoming an animal — Proverbs 31:1,2.
9. The relationship at the fall of
mankind. This relationship preceded the fall. For a long, long time the man and
the woman lived in a state of innocence which means no sin and no sin nature.
But after the fall God confirms the fact that the husbands authority is not
changed. At the fall, the husband was listening when he should have been
talking. The woman did the talking, she offered the fruit and he took it. Even
after the man took the fruit God confirmed the fact that in the laws of divine
establishment with the old sin nature the man is still in charge — Genesis
3:16; Ephesians 5:22. However, in the fall man and the woman reversed their
roles — Genesis 3:6. Until this time sex had been a pleasure and total happiness
and now it becomes a means of perpetuating the human race as a secondary role
of sex. But it is the secondary role that always gets everyone because without
children they have only each other to think of. Once there are children there
is something else to think of and a new authority develops in the home, the
parents over the children. As a result of this there are some problems in right
man, right woman relationship.
10. The right woman is still a great
gift from the Lord — Proverbs 18:22 is not correctly translated in the KJV. It should be: “He who has acquired his right woman has acquired the
good from the Lord, and he has received the object of his delight from the
Lord.” The Lord brought the first woman to the first man in grace. Adam, the
man, recognised her in his soul. He called her Isha, part of himself. This
explains the burning of 1 Corinthians 7:9 which is not a wave of libido but the
soul climax every compartment of the soul’s essence is stimulated by total
concentration on the one you love. The word for ‘good’ here means that he has
acquired the original gift from God to man. The original gift was the right
woman.
5:22
— “unto your own husbands” is the dative plural of possession plus the definite
article used as a possessive pronoun. There are a series of words here, i)dioj, which means “your very own.” With it is a)nhr for “man” or “husband,” and also the definite
article used as a personal pronoun. It should be therefore translated “You
wives be subordinating yourselves to your very own husbands.” A)nhr stands here for what should be the right man and
therefore it connotes a man in the noble sense. The same concept is found in
Jeremiah 31:22 — “A female shall fit a hero.” When the woman finds her hero
[right man] she becomes his glory, as per 1 Corinthians 11:7. As the
super-grace believer is glory to God who provides for him, so the woman is the
glory for her right man, her hero.
“as” is the relative adverb w(j which is derived from the relative pronoun o(j. It is used as a comparative particle here to set
up a true norm and standard. A born again woman who is positive toward doctrine
is going to submit to the Word of God, and as she is positive toward the Word
she has the built-in norm or standard by which she is to be positive toward her
own right man.
“as unto the Lord” is a dative of
direct object indicating the one, Jesus Christ, for whom the act of submission
is performed. Every woman, once she finds her right man, is to submit to him as
she submits to the Lord. It is Bible doctrine which gives the woman the
capacity to submit to her right man, to appreciate her right man, to fulfill
her right man. Therefore this becomes a very important verse. Sometimes men are
jealous of their wives going to Bible class when in reality it is the wife who
gets here capacity for loving him from Bible doctrine, as well as her capacity
to love the Lord. Category #1 and category #2 love ride together in the
Christian life. As goes category #1 love, so goes category #2.
Translation: “You wives be subordinating
yourselves to your very own husbands, as to the Lord.” This can only be obeyed
by the filling of the Spirit and a positive attitude toward Bible doctrine.
Summary
1. The woman from her own volition
surrenders her freedom to her right man or whomever she marries.
2. Every woman should begin to think
in terms of the love test. Notes on category #2 love, Adam’s rib, right man,
right woman, marriage, so that she has already set up in her soul certain
criteria which will cause a person to flunk or pass the love test.
3. Our verb is u(potassw, translated “submit.” This asks the question: ‘Are
you single ladies willing to surrender to the man you propose to marry, your
body, your soul, and spirit, creating in him through the marriage vows the
ruler, the bishop of your soul.’
4. If you say no to this question,
and you are about ready to marry some one and are saying ‘I can’t quite
surrender my soul to this man,’ or there is something holding you back some
way, then you run from that man and put as much distance between you as
possible, and give him a firm no.
5. Are you willing to make this man
the Lord of your life, placing at his disposal your body and soul; a permanent
servitude. Are you willing to subordinate yourself to this man for life.
6. If not, you have the wrong man.
7. To become one with a man the
woman surrenders her volition and her freedom, and even much of her privacy, to
the man she marries.
8. In return for this submission —
body, soul, and spirit — she receives his love, his adoration, his protection,
his companionship, his sex; everything that will make her happy.
9. But if she marries the wrong man
marriage becomes the most intolerable slavery in existence.
10. If she marries the right man
life becomes unbelievably happy and full of blessing. This is the reflected
glory principle of 1 Corinthians 11.
11. There is no in between. It is
either hell or happiness, it is either misery or ravishing ecstasy.
12. The woman’s submission is much
more than sexual and physical, it is soulish and mental.
13. The woman’s soul must be
responsive before her body can be responsive. This is why courtship emphasises
the soul and not the body.
What can a man expect by way of response from a
woman?
1. In her self-consciousness, before
she finally falls in love, every woman is extremely vain. Mirrors were made for
girls before they fall in love! This is really an expression of her
self-consciousness. There is no such thing as love at first sight. But a woman
undergoes a phenomenal change when she truly falls in love. She switches her
self-consciousness from herself to a person and becomes occupied with that
person. It is quite a transition for any woman to make. A jealous, noble
gentleman will always make allowances for a woman’s self-consciousness, whether
it is his right woman or not. When a woman becomes aware of someone else in the
human race more than herself [this is not abnormal] she cuts out all the
teasing and all the flirting. She changes in her soul. These changes are quite radical
in the self-consciousness. Her awareness of her right man excludes all others
from that intimacy for which she was designed. Her instincts change to please
him in every way. She can’t do it at first and it take a while.
2. Mentality. Remember the two great
factors in love: a)gaph love which is strictly
mental attitude and filew love which is entire soul
love. These both exist in the mentality of the soul. The mental competition
between the sexes ceases to exist. He is in the norms and standards of her
conscience, he is in her frame of reference, all of her memory now relates to
him, she instinctively anticipates his desires and policies and fulfills them.
Sex is never a pressure but a desire.
3. Volition. When she says yes to
the right man she surrenders her volition to him. Her submission is both
soulish and physical. She uses her volition to make thousands of decisions
which please him, and which stimulate him, bless him, encourage him, resulting
in the woman becoming his reflected glory.
4. Emotion. Appreciation of the
right man in the heart or right lobe leads to emotional appreciation of the
right man. Up to now, before she has fallen in love, she like certain types of
music, certain types of activities. Now she has some with whom she can share
the things that she enjoys because her emotion is now linked to his in category
#2 love. No man should be such a fool as to squelch a woman’s enthusiasm is to
start to chip away at her love, at her response.
5. Trends of the sin nature. Every
man who is a Christian gentleman should become aware of the trends of the sin
nature of his opposite number. For some of them he will be patient, with other
he will be intolerant, with other he will assert his authority. But he must
understand her areas of weakness, her areas of strength, the pattern of her
lust, her trends. He must know when her trend is toward asceticism, when it is
toward lasciviousness, or something else. No man is worth his salt if he
doesn’t learn to know the soul of a woman as he knows his own soul.
There are some women who make a
mistake in marriage, or even make a right marriage, and have no concept of
slavery. They get in the saddle as soon as the marriage takes place and then
from then on they run their husbands completely and totally. There is nothing
worse than a female dictator, nothing worse than a woman who controls a man by
nagging, by making life uncomfortable for him. So the man who ought the be the
enslaver really finds himself the enslaved.
Verse 23 — The causal conjunction o(ti begins a subordinate clause to this subject. It
should be translated “because” instead of “for.” This clause is subordinate to
the fact that the wife must submit herself to the authority of the husband.
“the husband” — the nominative
singular of a)nhr minus the definite article.
The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun.
Therefore a)nhr should be the right man
designed by God in eternity past for the right woman. In other words, to avoid
the master-slave relationship or to involve the female-bullying ,
husband-succumbing relationship it is imperative that the woman get the right
man for her lord and master.
“is” — present active indicative of e)imi to indicate the principle in the status quo of
marriage. The present tense, therefore, is a static present. There is no
exception to this, it is always true.
“the head” — the predicate
nominative from the noun kefalh, which doesn’t mean ‘head’
here at all. The word means ‘head’ but it also means ‘chief,’ the ultimate in
authority in a stated set of circumstances. Again, the absence of the definite
article denotes the quality of the noun. In the marriage relationship we have a
divine institution and God has so appointed the man in the marriage, the
husband, as the absolute authority. Kefalh as a biblical term
signifies what is first or supreme. In Homeric Greek kefalh connoted head of a man or an animal but in Attic
Greek it connoted the top, the end, the point of departure, the top of a wall,
the top of a pillar. In the Attic Greek it began to be used for the one that
was high on the pillar. Kefalh was also used in secular
speech for the whole man. In the Septuagint the Hebrew noun rosh was also translated into the Greek
by kefalh. Rosh in the Hebrew means ‘head’ but it also means ‘prince,’ for a
head or a ruler of people. In the New Testament we find the literal use of kefalh in the veiling of the woman’s head in 1 Corinthians
11:3ff. Kefalh is also used for the Lord
Jesus Christ as the head of the church, and that is absolute authority. So when
kefalh is used for the husband,
again we have absolute authority. The fact that Christ is the head of the
Church has already been studied in Ephesians 1:22ff, 4:15ff. Now once again we
get the same thing. So obviously kefalh denotes man’s supremacy in
category #2 relationship in the field of authority.
“of the wife” is a possessive
genitive singular. In other words, man is only entitled to one gunh at a time. As such it also becomes a genitive of
relationship. This should be translated, so far: “Because a husband is supreme
over his wife.” Note that the definite article with the genitive of gunh is used as a possessive pronoun. Whenever you have
definite article with a genitive and it is a possessive genitive the definite
article then becomes a possessive pronoun. This is Attic Greek in form but
found occasionally in the New Testament Koine Greek.
The regular uses of the article in the Greek
Whenever a definite article occurs
with a noun in the Greek it denotes an individual, or secondly, it denotes
secondly previous reference, or thirdly, it simply is used to indicate an
abstract noun developing an abstract principle. This is how we have the article
with a)lhqeia which is used for truth or
doctrine. The definite article there indicates an abstract principle. It is
also used with proper names to indicate a person well-known to the reader. That
is why we have so many times, o(
Xristoj,
‘the Christ.’ Fifthly, it is used generically to denote a category. In addition
to these five the definite article is often used for a personal pronoun, a
possessive pronoun, or demonstrative pronoun. These are special uses of the
definite article and they came down to us from Attic Greek. The Attic Greek
used the article as a pronoun and the definite article distinguishes the
subject from the predicate in a copulative sentence. Sometimes it is impossible
to know. For example, in John 1:1 Qeoj and Logoj are used and they are separated by a verb, h)n, which is the imperfect of e)imi. How does one know which is which. It is kai qeoj o( logoj, so we know that even though it says
literally, “And God was the Word,” we know that “the Word” is the subject
because of the definite article. So it is “the Word was God.” “God” is the
predicate nominative and not the subject. This is very important in
interpretation of the Word of God. How do we know which is which? Because the
definite article denotes the subject as over against the predicate nominative.
Every time the definite article occurs in the Word of God it has a meaning and
sometimes even the interpretation of a passage is dependant upon understanding
that.
“even as” — the relative adverb w(j used for a comparative particle, plus the ascensive
use of the conjunction kai; “Christ” — and here we
have o( Xristoj, indicating someone we
know: “the Christ.” The function of the article in the Greek is to point out an
object, to draw attention to Him, and the basic concept of the article is to
point out individual identity. There is no more important individual identity
in our lives than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the definite article marks
a specific object of thought. At this point we turn from the subject of
marriage to the subject of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the use of the article
with Xristoj we have the God-Man
personality, the unique person of the universe, the only saviour, the one who
is responsible for everything we ever have or ever will have that is blessing,
whether in time or in eternity. Without the definite article with Xristoj it would signify His divine essence, but with the
definite article it indicates the hypostatic union. However, there is no verb.
It says “Christ is the head” in the English; there is no ‘is.’ The absence of
the verb again places great emphasis on the subject, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is said to be the predicate
nominative of kefalh. Again, minus the definite
article indicates the quality of the noun. He is the absolute authority over
the Church.
“of the church” is genitive of
possession and genitive of relationship all in one, and the noun plus the
definite article is e)kklhsia. Again, the definite
article is used as a possessive pronoun. So far we have: “Since an husband is
supreme over his wife, even as the Christ supreme over the church.” This sets
up a direct analogy between right man, right woman and the relationship between
Christ and the Church. Christ is the right man, the Church is comparable to the
right woman.
The doctrine of the Church
1. Nomenclature. The Church is
designated by other words than the Church.
a) Positional
sanctification is described under two biblical words: ‘saint’ and the phrase
‘in Christ.’ These two words are used to designate the Church as the royal
family of God in this dispensation.
b) Two words which form
another concept: ‘body’ and ‘bride.’ This nomenclature relates us to the
angelic conflict. The body is the Church on earth during this dispensation, the
intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The bride is the Church in heaven after
the Rapture. These two designations are very important and they cover many
concepts of doctrine.
c) The English word
‘church.’ The Greek word, again, is e)kklhsia. Five different meanings of
e)kklhsia:
i) The Attic Greek use, since this
word first in the Classical Greek of Athens where it was used for the assembly
Athenian citizens convened to conduct the affairs of state. The e)kklhsia was all of the citizens of Athens coming together
to make a decision.
ii) It was used in Old Testament
usage for the assembly of Israel — Acts 7:38. Whenever in the New Testament the
Old Testament assembly was mentioned e)kklhsia was used. Every time Moses
hauled the people together to chew them out during the period of the Exodus,
whenever they were together, they were called e)kklhsia. In other words, ‘assembly’ which is the literal meaning of e)kklhsia.
iii) Whenever Jews came together in
a synagogue they were also known as e)kklhsia
or an
assembly — Matthew 18:17.
iv) Under Hellenistic culture and
the governments that grew out of the Alexandrian empire we have the assembly of
a Hellenistic city state, as in Acts 19:25. Again, the citizens are called e)kklhsia.
v) The one found in the epistles of
the New Testament and often in the book of Acts in its technical sense. There
are two technical concepts. The most important, and the one that we find in
Ephesians 5, is the universal church. E)kklhsia is used for the Church universal, that is, for all believers on the
earth today — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:25-27. It actually refers to the residence
of the royal priesthood. The second technical use is the local church, the
classroom for the royal priesthood — 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1;
Revelation 2:3.
2. Dispensational orientation.
‘Mystery’ is the concept here. The dispensation of the Church is the mystery
age. According to Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1-5; Colossians 1:25,26 the
mystery refers to the fact that all doctrine pertaining to this dispensation
was unknown in Old Testament times, never revealed. Starting with the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and going all the way to the Rapture, and everything in
between — the whole concept of the royal family, members of the family of God
but royal family, the universal priesthood, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the
indwelling of the Spirit, the indwelling of Christ, are all doctrines
pertaining to this dispensation only and they simply were not known in the Old
Testament. The first reference to the Church was the prophesy of Jesus Christ
in Matthew 16:18. So this is why we have the word ‘mystery’, something
previously not understood but now known to those who are believers.
3. The beginning of the Church Age.
a) The Church Age
interrupts the dispensation of Israel seven years short of its completion. The
Church Age is an interrupting dispensation.
b) The reason for the
interruption of the Jewish Age is the glorification of Jesus Christ as a part
of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Therefore the Jewish Age must
be interrupted in order to call out a royal family identified with Christ forever.
Once Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father He is alone there.
He in King of kings, Lord of lords. He is our high priest, He is the last Adam.
‘Not good that Adam should ever be alone.’ Jesus Christ said this about the
first Adam; God the Father says this about the last Adam. So the last Adam
isn’t alone because He has us, His very own royal family.
c) The Church Age did
not begin in Abraham’s tent. This was taught by covenant theology; this is the
reformed theology system which came from John Calvin, John Knox, and others who
started the Church in Abraham’s tent. We know this from the very statement of
Jesus Christ for the Church was future when He said in Matthew 16:18, “I will”
— future active indicative of o)ikodomew — “build my Church.”
d) The Church Age begins
with the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which the royal family is formed. This
is something that happens to us at the moment that we believe in Jesus Christ.
Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 2:1-3 which doesn’t mention the baptism cf.
11:15,16 which does mention it.
e) The Church Age began
on the day of Pentecost in 30 AD.
4. The termination of the Church
Age.
a) The Church Age
terminates with the resurrection of the Church, called technically the Rapture
— 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 John
3:1,2.
b) By comparing the
original text of Colossians 2:15 with Revelation 19:6-8; Zechariah 13:2 plus 1
Thessalonians 3:13, it is concluded from the original languages that the body
of Christ will be completed when the number of believers in the royal family is
equal to the number of demons operating under the command of Satan today. This
is predicated on the fact that the believer bumps one demon when he returns
with Christ for that glorious victory of the second advent.
c) At the time of the
Rapture of the Church it is transferred by resurrection to heaven. That means
that the living believers go up, they are changed in the moment of a twinkling
of an eye. The body is completed and therefore it becomes the bride. The bride
goes through a period of preparation in heaven while the Tribulation runs its
course on earth.
d) The preparation of
the bride for the second advent is threefold. i) Every believer of the royal
family receives at the same time a resurrection body — the dead believers and
the live believers on earth — 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; ii) The removal of the old
sin nature in compatibility with ultimate sanctification — Philippians 3:21;
iii) The destruction of all human good accumulated during the believer’s life
on this earth. It is burned — 1 Corinthians 3:15.
5. Synonyms for Christ and the
Church are seven. Each one of these synonyms teaches an entire doctrine:
a) The last Adam
[Christ] and the new creation [the Church] — 1 Corinthians 15:45-47; 2
Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15.
b) The head and the body
— Ephesians 1:22,23; 2 :16; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18,24.
c) The Shepherd and the
sheep — John 10; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:4.
d) The vine and the
branches — John 15.
e) The chief corner
stone and the stones of the building — Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4-8.
f) The high priest and
the royal priesthood — Hebrews 7:25; 10:10-14; 1 Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6.
g) The Groom and the
bride — 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:6-8.
6. The uniqueness of the Church Age.
a) Members of the royal
family of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, leading to positional
sanctification, called by the title of nobility ‘saints.’ This is the only group
of believers who are members of the royal family of God forever.
b) The universal
priesthood of the believer.
c) The indwelling of the
Holy Spirit for every royal priest. Every believer is indwelt by God the Holy
Spirit.
d) The indwelling of the
person of Christ for fellowship as long as you are growing. If you stop growing
and turn into a reversionist He leaves you and starts knocking on the door, as
per Revelation 3:20.
e) Instructions to the
royal family in writing, the completed canon of scripture. When it comes to the
royal family God speaks through His Word.
f) We have a
supernatural way of life for the royal family with a supernatural means of
execution. This is experiential sanctification. Execution through the filling
of the Spirit and the intake of Bible doctrine.
g) Every member of the
royal family of God is an ambassador representing Christ on earth.
7. The objective of the Church Age
believer is to be filled with the Spirit consistently, to function daily under
the principle of GAP so that he reaches the
super-grace as quickly as possible. Super-grace is the normal function of the
priesthood as well as the spiritual circumstances which glorify God.
Super-grace is the tactical victory of the angelic conflict, therefore on to
super-grace!
“and” is the adjunctive use of the
conjunction kai and it should always be
translated “also.”
“he” is the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The intensive pronoun has reflexive connotation
and emphasises who and what Christ is, and it should be translated “he
himself.” There is no verb here. The absence of the verb places great emphasis
on the intensive pronoun as well as the next word, “the saviour.” Swthr here has a number of connotations in addition to
salvation. First of all it means that Jesus Christ is the source of eternal
salvation for each one of us. He is the saviour of the body, the body here is
the Church, not the physical body. It is the soul that is saved, body here
refers to the royal family on earth. So when it says that He is the saviour it
refers to the fact that He is the only way to enter the palace, He is the only
source of regeneration, He is the only source of salvation in this or any other
dispensation.
“of the body” is a possessive
genitive singular from the noun swma, technical in its use here
rather than literal. In the literal use it would refer to the physical body but
in the technical use it refers to the royal family on earth. The royal family
is formed by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit resulting in every Church Age
believer becoming royalty forever in the family of God. At this point three
doctrine are pertinent: the doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit, the doctrine
of positional truth, the doctrine of sanctification, and the doctrine of the
royal family of God. “Saviour of the body” means that Christ is not only the
source of eternal salvation by His work on the cross but it means that He is
the deliverer of each believer, the protector of the believer during his stay
on earth. During the believer’s stay in this world he lives in the devil’s
world, cosmos diabolicus. This means that against him is opposed great unseen
forces of demons under the command of Satan, as well as all unbelievers outside
of establishment. Then add to that reversionistic friends. So the believer has
about all the opposition that one person could ever stand and survive. Were it
not for this phrase, each one of us instead of being a person listening to
doctrine would be a grease spot on the street! In other words, none of us could
ever survive the devil’s jungle. This world is the devil’s jungle. We have
unseen opposition as well as visible opposition and consequently “saviour of
the body” means also deliverer of the body. Every moment that we stay alive in
the devil’s world we are alive because of who and what Christ is. You are I are
here and alive as the guests of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the saviour of the
body.
Verse 24 — “Therefore” is
erroneously translated. The Greek has two words, a)lla w(j, which means literally, “But as.” In other words, we have the
adversative conjunction a)lla with the comparative adverb
for a reverse analogy. The analogy continues with Christ and the Church, then
reverts back to right man, right woman.
“the church” — as we move into this
verse we are still talking about Christ and the Church. The church refers to
the Church Age believers, the members of the royal family of God.
“is subject” — present middle
indicative of the verb u(potassw. This is a static present
tense representing a condition as perpetually existing. The middle voice is the
indirect middle emphasising the agent as producing the action of the verb
rather than participating in the results of the action. In other words, the
believer as royal family, called here “Church,” is actually subordinate to the
authority of Christ on earth as well as forever. The static present says phase
two, phase three, but the middle voice says now and ever. The indirect middle
indicates the action of the verb is closely related to the subject. This is a
declarative mood, the mood of dogmatic assertion. “But as the church herself”
is the way you translate the indirect middle.
“unto Christ” — the dative of
indirect object of Xristoj, used for our Lord; plus
the definite article. The dative of indirect object indicates that Jesus Christ
is the one for whom the act of subordination is performed. The definite article
sets Him apart as the unique person of the universe, it emphasises the
hypostatic union — “to the Christ.”
“also” — o(utoj kai is literally, “in this way also.” This includes the adverb o(utoj, referring to what has preceded, plus the
adjunctive use of kai.
“the wives” — the nominative plural
of gunh means “all wives.”
“to their own husbands” — dative
plural of a)nhr plus the definite article. A)nhr means ‘man’ and it means here noble man in the
principle of right man. The definite article is used as a possessive pronoun —
“your very own husband.” The dative of indirect object indicates the ones, the
husbands, in whose interest the act of subordination is performed. So it is in
the interest of the man that the woman be subordinate to him.
“in everything” — or “in all
things.”
Translation: “But as the church
itself is subordinate to the Christ, in this way also the wives to their own
husbands in all things.”
The doctrine of the enslaved male
1. Most men as husbands become more
interested in peace than they do in assuming the responsibility and the
authority of the home — divine institution #2.
2. Peace at any price is the battle
cry of the average husband who has made a mistake in marrying the wrong woman.
3. This attitude results in male
enslavement, the reverse of what we have in this passage, just as it does in a
national entity. No one wants to live in a country under tyranny and no one
wants to live in a marriage under tyranny. Yet, in spite of what is said in
this passage many are slaves to their wives. The price that a man pays for
peace at any price is complete compliance with the policies, the wishes, the
desires, the whims, the bad judgements, and the bad disposition of his wife.
4. Control of the enslaved male is
maintained by the behaviour pattern of the woman — nagging, tantrums, sulking,
pouting, spreading a pall of gloom over the household, etc. In other words,
anything that destroys the peace and tranquillity of the home.
5. Most men by nature are much more
complex than the woman. For example, the man is very, very sensitive to this
type of behaviour in his wife. He finds it distressing, irritating,
incompatible with tranquillity and peace in the household. The results for this
man are his own destruction. When a woman enslaves a man she does more than
enslave him, she destroys him. A man is much more sensitive than a woman.
Authority increases the sensitivity of the soul.
6. Therefore the average male feels
that his only defense against a nagging woman, a tantrum woman, a woman who
makes life miserable for him, is capitulation. Marriage then becomes a series
of manipulation with the strings being pulled by the woman.
7. The wife controls the husband by
her behaviour pattern under these conditions. She enslaves him by nagging, by
embarrassing him, by making his life miserable; and soon she sets up a policy
which includes constant surveillance, curfews, interrogations by unexplained
absences, examination of his cheque book, searching his drawers and anywhere
else where he keeps anything to see if she can get any clues at to what he has
done. In other words, a woman who starts running a man makes him a slave. And
slaves have no privacy!
8. Another means of enslaving the
male is to ration sex, or ration kindness, unless the male complies with
whatever policy the woman has set up.
9. When the enslaving woman is
backed into a corner and proved wrong
then immediately she has a number of excuses by which she rationalises her
dictatorship. For example, she is either pre, mid, or post-menstrual; she is
either pre-menopausal, mid-menopausal, or suffering from some psychosis as a
result of the menopause, namely involuntary melancholia. Or, pressure from the
kids, or everything went wrong in the house today, as it somehow this was an
excuse for becoming a monster and a dictator. Operation patsy leads to
rationalising away this enslavement of the husband.
10. Most women have more endurance
than men — soul endurance, life endurance. Statistically they live longer, they
have unbelievable stamina for whatever their project is.
11. Because of the nature of the man
as the divinely-appointed authority in marriage, and as the aggressor, his enslavement
is far more tragic and, in our society, more frequent than the enslavement of
the woman. In a matriarchal society people loves dogs rather than human beings!
12. No one bemoans the fate of a
house cat, but how pathetic to see the king of the beasts, the lion, ensnared
in a trap. That is the principle. A right woman can never enslave her right
man, even in the most adverse conditions of reversionism. A right woman may
start it but she will grow up and will so adjust as to put the man on the spot if
he is in the wrong and leave the man in the hands of the Lord. But a right
woman will never enslave her right man.
13. A right woman may test her right
man’s authority by trying to pull a fast one from time to time, but the right
man knows exactly what to do and exactly how to handle it.
14. The right man is never afraid of
his right woman, but the bravest of brave are intimidated by the wrong woman.
It is a compliment, ladies, if a man is not afraid of you.
15. Let’s face the facts. Women do
enslave men in the framework of marriage. Such a woman is never happy and
obviously her husband-slave is miserable.
That is why God ordained
marriage to have authority vested in the man.
Summary
1. The authority of Christ over the
Church is used to establish the authority of the husband over the wife in
marriage.
2. This relationship, like all
others, demands the existence of authority.
3. Therefore the woman in
surrendering her volition to a man in marriage must be absolutely certain that
she has her right man designed for her by God in eternity past. For if she
doesn’t it is inevitable that either she will enslave him or he will enslave
her, and that marriage is a slave factory — one of them is going to be a slave.
4. Otherwise a state of slavery will
exist.
5. One wrong decision regarding
marriage and the woman has a lifetime of misery either as a slave or as a
master of slaves.
6. Therefore no one should ever
enter into marriage lightly, erroneously, under the influence of alcohol, or
anything else that takes away from the solemnity of the decision and the
ceremony.
Verse 25 — “Husbands” is the
vocative plural from the noun a)nhr. It takes more to be a
husband than anything else in life, yet this is addressed to husbands as though
it is the simplest instead of the most complex of all leadership
responsibilities. It is the only leadership responsibility where the squad can
be the most dangerous tactical squad in the world, never perhaps the most
compliant, and where the squad is made up entirely of female — one. To make a
mistake in asking a woman to marry you is probably the worst mistake you can
ever make in life, if it is a mistake. To either luck out, or to be graced out
as believers should be, and find the right woman certainly gives every man the
best command he ever had, the greatest command he ever had, and the greatest
challenge of his entire life. Just any idiotic kid can get married, but to
fulfill what is spoken here in a brief phrase requires more than any idiotic
kid or any male can really fulfill apart from the grace of God. While the noun
refers to husbands in general the principle must recognise it from the
standpoint of right man, right woman, even as it is with Christ, right ruler,
right church. All principles of doctrine related to marriage are based on the
concept that God has designed one right man for one right woman, that God in
the field of personnel has done exactly right in this field, and therefore the
ideal system of leadership should be one right man, one right woman in
marriage. The vocative of the definite article is used again for the personal
pronoun and it should be translated “You husbands.”
“love” is the present active
imperative of a)gapaw, demonstrating immediately
that this is the greatest of all leadership challenges. How dare any male of
the human race be stupid enough to lead with his sex organs in getting married.
This is a word for mental love, it is the most confining of all words for love
in any of the Greek languages. The present tense is the customary present, it
denotes that which should habitually occur. It should be translated, “You
husbands, be loving.” The active voice: the husband produces the action of the
verb. The imperative mood is a command. Since marriage is a divine institution
it is for both believers and unbelievers, but never mixed. The laws of divine
establishment apply to all members of the human race, whether believer or
unbeliever. In other words, the unbeliever husband is capable of mental
attitude love. The words that are not used here include e)raw which means to have sex, and filew which is total soul love. A)gapaw, used here, means metal attitude. There is no basis
for marriage unless first of all you have a woman in your frame of reference
that won’t leave under all conditions, that you have a woman in your memory
centre that is there for life, that you have a woman in your norms and
standards that is the woman for you, she fulfills those norms and standards;
that you have a woman to whom you can express from your very own vocabulary the
words and thoughts and concepts of love in a romantic way. There must be soul
love.
“your wives” — the accusative plural
direct object of gunh plus the definite article
has to be translated “your wives.”
The loving husband
1. The loving husband must has a
soul! A man is a man with what he has in his soul, not the male sex organ.
2. The chief characteristic in his
mental attitude love toward his wife must be patience. Nobility is related to
patience when it comes to the squad leader and his squad. In this case patience
and the relaxed mental attitude are synonymous. There never was a woman who was
truly ready for marriage and if a man has patience and nobility the transition
will be easy. If he doesn’t have this there never will be a really wonderful
marriage, one designed under the principles of the Word of God. In other words,
no woman is ready for marriage, she must grow up in the relationship.
3. The loving husband must have
freedom from mental attitude sins. In Colossians the husband is specifically
commanded not to be bitter toward his wife, but that includes also jealousy,
vindictiveness, implacability. Leaders cannot afford mental attitude sins and
the husband is the leader.
4. There is a sense in which a
leader is a protector. Then husband is the protector of the squad, he protects
his wife — from gossip and maligning, from all the dangers of life, from the
insecurities of life, from any physical harm of any kind. He never trots his
wife’s failures out in front.
5. He also provides in the physical
area for his wife — sex.
6. Leadership means sacrifice, and
there is a sense in which the husband must sacrifice for the blessing and
pleasure of the wife. That is a part of “love your wives.”
7. A husband must be a gentleman —
the instincts of thinking about someone else. No man can be an husband and
fulfill this principle if he is selfish. Therefore the principle of sacrifice —
honour and integrity, instinctive thoughtfulness for his squad.
8. As a result of all of these
things this kind of a husband is the source of respect and even awe, but he is
never source of discomfort or belittling to his right woman.
“even as” — the adverb kaqwj, used to denote a standard: “just as.”
“Christ “ — o( Xristoj, “the Christ.” The definite article points
attention to the fact that this is the unique person of the universe, the
God-Man, the absolute ruler of the Church; “also” — the adjunctive kai; “loved” — aorist active indicative of a)gapaw. We have to be doing something that He does instinctively
from His deity, from His humanity. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist
which views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of
existing results. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb from
two sources: from His deity and from His humanity. The indicative mood is the
declarative indicative for an absolute dogmatic statement of fact.
“the church.”
The Church
1. This is the accusative singular
of the direct object of e)kklhsia.
2. The church here refers to all
believers of the Church Age, the royal family of God, a kingdom of priests.
3. The church is analogous to and
compared to the right woman.
4. Because of the baptism of the
Holy Spirit the believer of this dispensation has a very perfect and very
intimate relationship with Christ. This is called positional sanctification.
5. Therefore the church and/or the
royal family occupies a very unique place in the angelic conflict.
6. There was no royal family until
Christ was glorified at the right hand of the Father.
7. The royal family is directly
related to the strategic victory of Christ on the cross, and all the way from
the cross to His session.
“and gave” — aorist active
indicative of paradidomi which means to betray or to
hand over, or to be delivered over. In this case it can’t mean to betray
because Christ handed over himself. The aorist tense is the constative aorist
which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, namely reconciliation,
redemption, propitiation, and so on; everything that was accomplished on the
cross. The active voice: Christ accomplished on the cross this delivering of
Himself over to. The indicative mood is declarative for dogmatic assertion. And
with this we have the accusative singular direct object of the reflexive
pronoun e(autou, emphasising the free will
of the humanity of Christ in going to the cross.
“for it” — u(per plus the ablative of the intensive pronoun a)utoj should be translated “on behalf of the same.”
Translation: “You husbands, keep on loving your wives,
just as the Christ has also loved the church, and has delivered himself over to
the cross on behalf of the same.”
Christ instinctively from His own
free will delivered Himself over, the highest possible sacrifice, the
efficacious sacrifice whereby we have eternal life. Therefore much is required
from any male the moment he becomes a husband. The whole principle here is
sacrifice. When you love someone more than you love yourself then you are
willing to sacrifice, and that is a mental attitude.
Verse 26 — “That” is the conjunction
i(na plus the subjunctive. This
indicates a final clause which introduces a purpose, a goal, or an objective.
Here all three are in view.
“he might sanctify” — aorist active
subjunctive from the verb a(giazw. The word means to set
apart, to consecrate, to sanctify, and the meaning is always determined by the
context. Here the verb means to dedicate or consecrate, to set something
special apart. The something special here is not that we are individually special
as far as this world goes but we are now, as the result of believing in Jesus
Christ in this dispensation, members of the royal family of God. While in the
past there has been royalty of many types, nobility of many types, all of this
royalty and nobility is canceled out at the point of death. When a king dies he
is no longer a king. We are royalty because we live in the Church Age, and
because we live in the Church Age we have been sanctified, consecrated. It is a
matter of timing, we were at the right place at the right time. The place is
the dispensation of the Church. In the Age of Israel there have been some great
kings. David was a great king but he is not even a king in heaven because he is
an Old Testament believer — like Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar. These people were
all famous but they are just peons in heaven because Christ had not yet gone to
the cross. But once He did and bore our sins in His own body on the tree, was
resurrected, ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, He was seated
there as the last Adam. And God the Father said, “Not good that the last Adam
should be alone.” The last Adam in the King of kings, the Lord of lords, He is
nobility forever, He is King forever. He is King because of the sovereignty of
His deity but He is also King because He is the son of David, He fulfills the
Davidic covenant. So He was alone, and is alone, as it were, at the right hand
of the Father. So God the Father decided to consecrate for Him a royal family.
Therefore every person who believes in Jesus Christ in the Church Age receives
36 things, whereas in the Old Testament all the believer received was
regeneration so that he would be family of God forever. In the Church Age God
the Holy Spirit not only regenerates us but He enters us into union with Christ
— royalty forever; He enters us into the palace. He also indwells us, this is
the badge or sign of royalty. He seals us for security of royalty. So God the
Holy Spirit does five things for believers in the Church Age whereas He did one
in the Old Testament. The aorist tense here is a culminative aorist, it views
the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing
results. God has done some consecrating for each one — there are some
exceptions, like the apostle Paul. So here is the principle of the culminative
aorist, the whole right man, right woman relationship. Every conversation,
every bit of social life together, every bit of sexual life together,
everything that right man and right woman have in their relationship with each
other produces happiness which causes other things to be wonderful. That is the
constative aorist of sanctify. The active voice: Christ by means of the Word
consecrates or sets apart the royal family in phase two. Just as the right man
and the right woman in their relationship have all these wonderful things, so
the royal family — which starts at the cross and ends at the moment you depart
from this life is all gathered up into one ball of wax and the results of it
are fantastic. Many believers have discovered what it means to be in the royal
family, what it means to have maximum doctrine in the soul, and how great in
every set of circumstances in life this is. The subjunctive mood is a potential
subjunctive used to indicate the final clause. It recognises the importance of
positive volition toward the Word of God. It also gathers up the concept of
phase two sanctification depending upon volition in the field of rebound and
volition toward Bible doctrine. Volition toward rebound means the filling of
the Spirit; positive volition toward doctrine means growth into the super-grace
life.
The doctrine of sanctification
1. Definition.
a) Sanctification means
to be set apart as sacred, to be consecrated to God.
b) It means more than
that, it means to be under contract to God forever.
c) The actual death of
Christ set aside the old contract, the old covenant, the Mosaic law. We do not
have a shadow contract.
d) The old contract,
therefore, is annulled or abrogated.
e) The new
contract/covenant, called new testament, is for the royal priesthood of the
Church Age. It is for royalty, it is for priests.
f) Therefore in the
strictest sense of the meaning sanctification connotes the believer of the
Church Age under contract to God forever. The contract calls for the believer
to be royalty.
g) The contract is
provided on the basis of the efficacious once-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ
on the cross.
h) You signed the
contract the moment you believed in Jesus Christ. Phase one sanctification:
baptism of the Holy Spirit; phase two sanctification: filling of the Holy
Spirit + positive volition toward doctrine = experiential sanctification and/or
super-grace; phase three sanctification: absent from the body, face to face
with the Lord in a resurrection body forever.
2. The etymology of the Greek words.
a) a(goij — translated “holy” or “saint.” It is used to
describe one who is under a new contract forever, member of the royal family of
God. All terms of saint and sanctification apply only to the royal family. All
believers of the Church Age are royal family.
b) a(giothj — holiness, the state of being under contract under
the new covenant to the Church. This is our status quo as members of the royal
family. It is called holiness, set apart, under contract, consecrated to God
forever.
c) a(giosunh — sanctification or the state of being under
consecrate.
d) a(giasmoj — consecration, sanctification, the state of being
holy, it emphasises the results of being holy or in the plan of God or under
contract.
e) a(giazw, the verb — to set apart, to sanctify, to
consecrate, to dedicate, but what it really means is to be under contract.
3. Phase one sanctification. This is
a reference to the fact that God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us at the
moment we believe in Jesus Christ and enters us into union with Christ. This is
called the baptism of the Spirit, the means by which we come under the contract
forever — 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; Hebrews 10:10,14.
4. Phase two sanctification. This is
fulfilling the tactical objective of the contract in phase two. Under the
contract God at the point of salvation has assigned us a certain amount of
time. He has also broken this assignment down into allotments — time to study
the Bible, social life, sex, business, and for everything. So the contract
calls for the assignment of time and the breakdown of that assignment into
allotments. Under phase two sanctification this time is enjoyed under the
principle of the filling of the Spirit — 2 Corinthians 2:13, and the daily function
of GAP — John 17:17. The royal family on earth is called
the body of Christ, the royal family in resurrection is called the bride of
Christ, and the body of Christ is therefore under the principle of phase two
sanctification.
5. Phase three sanctification. This
is ultimate in which the believer is in a resurrection body, minus the old sin
nature, minus all of his human good. This is the royal family living with God
forever — Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians
5:23; 1 John 3:1,2
6. The agents in sanctification. God
the Father is the author of the plan, therefore He is not an agent, but under
Him there are three agents. The believer is not an agent. The agents do all of
the work under the contract, and since under grace there is no place for human
good, no place for works, there is no place for the believer to do anything.
The believer is in the contract but he doesn’t work under the contract or you
don’t produce the work. You produce divine good under a grace system.
a)
The Son of God — Hebrews 10:10,14.
b) The Holy Spirit —
Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
c) The Word of God,
Bible doctrine — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26. The Word of God is the only source
of divine revelation to the royal family.
7. All phases of sanctification are
related to the angelic conflict. Phase one: regenerate mankind or royal family
is positionally higher than angels. This is why Christianity is not a religion.
Christianity is a relationship. God the Holy Spirit enters the believer into
union with Christ. We share the life of Christ — eternal life. We share His
destiny; we are predestined. We share His election; we are elected. We share
His sonship, His heirship, His priesthood, His kingship. We share everything
that Christ is. This is a relationship. Religion is man by man’s efforts
seeking to gain the approbation of God. Christianity is God coming to man with
a grace system where man doesn’t work. Religion is works; religion belongs to
Satan. Christianity is grace, it belongs to God. In the first phase God the
Holy Spirit puts us into union with Christ, Christ is seated at the right hand
of the Father higher than angels, so that right now positionally we are higher
than angels. Phase two sanctification is also related to the angelic conflict —
the super-grace believer occupied with the person of Christ, glorifying God,
resulting in the tactical victory. In other words, if the believer grows up in
phase two that is the tactical victory. The believer is super-grace has
capacity for life called the cup, and God pours blessing into that cup. God
does the pouring and God gets the glory. So by reaching the tactical victory of
super-grace we discover that God is the host and we are His guests in this
world. Therefore the angels observe God’s blessing the individual in tactical
victory. Phase three sanctification: The royal family in a resurrection body is
physically superior to angels. This we anticipate for the future in
resurrection bodies.
“That he might consecrate/dedicate
royalty.” In other words, we are in a contract forever. Under this principle
the right woman is set apart by responding to the right man only. Marriage is
actually a contract, just as our relationship with God is a contract. Our
relationship with God, however, is a permanent contract and marriage is the
illustration of it in this passage. So just as the contract with God is between
God and one believer so marriage is between right man and right woman. That is
the way God designed it. Just as the right woman is set apart by responding to
her right man so the Church is set apart by responding to the Lord. Jesus
Christ makes love to the royal family through Bible doctrine which is the
thinking or the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16. Doctrine is to the
believer what a right man’s lovemaking is to his right woman. When the believer
continues under doctrine he reaches super-grace. The right woman responds to
her right man and discovers why God put the body and soul together in the woman
to make her something fantastic.
“and” in not correct. The Greek text
has a)uthn which is the accusative
singular of the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The intensive pronoun is
used here as a personal pronoun. So it should be translated, “That he might
consecrate [dedicate] her.” Both “church” and “woman” are in the feminine
gender. This is a reference to phase two sanctification which is accomplished
by means of the filling of the Spirit plus the daily function of GAP. It is God’s objective to cleanse the believer as he goes through life
and we understand the principle by which he does it: rebound. It is also part
of the marriage contract that the right man cleanses the right woman. This is
accomplished through sex. So the cleansing here has a dual concept.
Verse 26 — “That he might consecrate
her.” You cannot consecrate someone you can’t control. No one can be
consecrated or dedicated or sanctified unless he responds to the authority of
another. Positional sanctification, phase one: response to the greatest
authority when believing in Jesus Christ and receiving Him as saviour. Pride
cannot stand authority, it resist authority. We came to the point in our lives
when we recognised authority in the form called the gospel. The good news that
Christ died for our sins. Phase one sanctification is the authority of the
gospel. Then in phase two: the authority of the Word, the authority of the Holy
Spirit. That is phase two sanctification.
No man can truly be the husband of
his wife unless he can consecrate her, dedicate her, as Christ has consecrated
or dedicated the Church. This reference to phase two sanctification has
tremendous teaching application in the right man, right woman relationship. In
the principle of marriage a right man cleanses his right woman by the rapport
of soul that leads to spontaneous sex. Where a woman’s soul is in respect and
love and awe of her right man she can’t wait for her right man to make love to
her. That is not biology, that is sanctification in marriage. The key that we
are emphasising here is authority. When a woman is not occupied with the right
man she also rejects his authority.
“and cleanse” — cleansing is
renewing, as with rebound. Kaqarizw means cleansing your face
so that the real you emerges. In sex, under the category of marriage, the woman
is cleansed. Just as she takes off her make-up and the real face emerges only
in bed with the right man does the real person emerge. So spontaneous sex is a
cleanser of the woman and if her right man has fulfilled all the principles
previously covered she is a very satisfied, relaxed, fulfilled woman after sex.
As happy and relaxed as it is possible for a woman to be in this life. She has
been cleansed, refreshed, blessed. The ingredients are authority and response.
The verb is kaqarizw, the cleanse. Consecration
is the one who has the authority concentrating on the one who is the recipient.
The cleansing or the purifying is an aorist active participle and here it leads
us into the spiritual realm. God makes love to us through Bible doctrine. The
doctrine carries the authority and when you receive it, like a woman yielding
to her right man in bed — that is positive volition toward doctrine — the
doctrine in the soul cleanses and you go away from the Word refreshed, relaxed,
satisfied. As a woman can only be satisfied by her right man sexually so you as
royal family can only be satisfied by the Word of God in your soul. Our
greatest refreshment and happiness and blessing comes from taking in the Word
of God. It is the Word of God which is alive and powerful. That is the principle.
The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the
ministry of cleansing or purifying. It gathers into one entirety salvation
where we simply believed, it gathers every time we are positive toward Bible
doctrine. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. He
produced it first by His work on the cross; He does it secondly by His Word.
The participle is antecedent action. The action of the aorist participle
precedes the action of the main verb, the main verb is “sanctify” or
“consecrate.” The dedication of the consecration comes from the fact that we
have responded. First we responded to the authority of the gospel, now we
respond to the authority of the Word of God.
“with the washing” — the
instrumental case plus the definite article of the noun lutron. This is “by means of the washing.” Notice that you
have to wash many times. You don’t wash once and then that’s it for life. You
have a habit of washing daily, and that is the concept here. Washing daily is
your daily intake of the Word of God.
“of water” — the ablative singular
of u(dor. Water means first of all
salvation — Isaiah 55:1, but that is drinking water. The water is used for the
Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39. But here it refers to Bible doctrine. Washing here
is refreshment, blessing, from the intake of the Word.
“by the word” — e)n plus the instrumental of r(ema. R(ema means the Word communicated
by a pastor-teacher, not what you read or get out of a book. This is a
pastor-teacher communicating to you responding to his authority. It is the
scripture communicated, the function of GAP.
Translation: “That having been
purified he might consecrate [dedicate] her by means of the washing from the
water with the word.” The Word of God is the water.
Phase two is our bathing time. Why?
Because after an elapse of so many hundreds of years of the Church Age we are
going to have a wedding. But you have to be clean. A lot of people have to be
clean — all the Church.
Verse 27 — “That” is the conjunction
i(na plus the subjunctive used
for the final clause again. The final clause denotes a purpose.
“he might present” — aorist active
subjunctive of paristhmi. This is where something
different happens to us.
Verse 27 — the first word introduces
the divine purpose. “That” — the conjunction i(na
plus the subjunctive indicates a final clause which denotes a goal, a purpose,
or a definition. Here we have a second purpose beyond phase one and phase two.
We have already seen how Christ is the saviour of the body — phase one. He died
for our sins, took our place, and provided for us eternal salvation. Phase two
is the believer in time. He has provided for us in time through Bible doctrine,
through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now we look into phase three, the
believer in eternity. There is a purpose beyond the grave.
“he might present” — aorist active
subjunctive of the verb paristhmi. This word has a number of
meanings. It means to place or to to put at someone’s disposal, to present, as
in Romans 12:1 where it really means to yield. It means here to present a bride
to a groom. “Present” is a very technical word, it means to present the bride
to the groom.The bride’s parents presented their daughter to the groom. This
means that the contract had all been settled, the dowry had been placed at
whatever place the groom demanded, and everything was now set. So presentation
meant an official marriage. In the Attic Greek this same word was used by
Xenophon is the sense of offering a sacrifice. In the middle voice it means to
bring to one’s side. It also means to bring before a judge or a magistrate. But
here in the Koine Greek the verb is linked with a certain type of thinking. The
transitive use of paristhmi means to place one at someone’s disposal. The
parents had placed their daughter at the groom’s disposal for life. This is
equivalent to marriage. The intransitive use of the verb means to approach or
to stand by. It also is used in relationship to spiritual service to God, and
in Romans 6:12 this same verb simply means to yield. But, again, here it means
the presentation of a royal bride to a royal groom since in the analogy we are
members of the royal family of God and Jesus Christ is the royal groom. The
aorist tense is a culminative aorist and it views ultimate sanctification in
its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Here we are
for all eternity, we have a royal groom, and we are a royal bride — royal
family of God forever. This means that God has something great and specific for
us in eternity. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the royal groom receives the
bride at the Rapture in resurrection bodies. The subjunctive mood indicates
this is God’s purpose for believers in this dispensation.
“it” — an intensive pronoun, the
nominative masculine singular of a)utoj. It is not the object of
the verb, it is actually a part of the subject, and it should be translated
with reflexive force, “that he himself might present.”
Then we have an object in the dative
case: “to himself.” This is the dative singular of the reflexive pronoun e(autou which means “to himself.” It is the dative of
advantage as well as the dative of indirect object. The translation: “that he
[Jesus Christ] himself might present to himself.” The dative of indirect object
indicates the one in whose interest the act of presenting the bride is
performed. Christ is alone at the right hand of the Father, we join Him in soul
only at the right hand. But the time will come at the Rapture of the Church
when we will in resurrection bodies join Him. This is a reference to the
Rapture of the Church at which time the bride is presented to the groom by the
groom. That is ordinarily a violation of the system, but the parents of the
bride in effect do not exist here because it is God the Son who purchased our
redemption. So Jesus Christ is both the parent of the bride presenting as well
as the groom. So He Himself presents the bride to Himself. This means we are
never out of the care of the Lord Jesus Christ from the time of our salvation
all the way to eternity.
“a glorious church” — the word
‘glorious’ is the accusative singular adjective e)ndcoj [docoj = glorious] which means
honoured, distinguished, eminent, splendid, glorious. Splendid and glorious are
pertinent here. The adjective is used here in the sense of splendid clothing.
It was often used for the glamorous clothing of a king or royalty — Luke 7:25
gives us that use of it. Each one of us is royalty from the day that we were
born again and now royalty forever. So by combining the concepts of the
adjectives which are pertinent here we have ‘splendid-glorious.’ Plus the
accusative singular of the noun e)kklhsia referring to each believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation. “That he himself might present
to himself the splendid-glorious church.” The definite article refer here to a
possessive pronoun and can be translated ‘his splendid-glorious church.’
The doctrine of the manifestation of the bride
1. The body of Christ is formed on
earth during the Church Age — Ephesians 1:22,23; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians
1:18,24; 2:19.
2. When the body of Christ is
completed the Rapture occurs — 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57.
By comparing Colossians 2:15 with Revelation 19:6-8; Zechariah 13:2; 1
Thessalonians 3:13 it is concluded that the number of believers in the body of
Christ will equal the number of demons operating under Satan’s command at this
stage of the angelic conflict.
3. During the Tribulation on earth
the bride is prepared in heaven in three ways. a) Resurrection body exactly
like that of the Son of God — 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:21; 1 John
3:1,2; b) The bride no longer has an old sin nature; c) The bride is cleansed
from all human good.
4. The bride returns with Christ at
the second advent. This is the manifestation of the bride.
5. Operation footstool which
immediately follows — Psalm 110:1. In operation footstool we have a picture of
the triumphal procession in which all demons are disarmed and publicly
displayed in the triumphal procession — Colossians 2:15. Satan is imprisoned
for 1000 years — Revelation 20:1-3. Church Age believers cast demons into
prison — Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:24,25.
6. The coronation of the groom —
Revelation 19:6.
7. The wedding supper of the Lamb —
Revelation 19:6-9. There are four categories involved: the groom, the Lord
Jesus Christ; the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints and the
Tribulational martyrs who receive their resurrection bodies at the second
advent. They are the friends of the groom. John the Baptist (John 3:29) is
called friend of the groom; the friends of the bride, the Tribulational
believers alive at the second advent who go into the Millennium. They will not
receive their resurrection bodies until the end of the Millennium. The friends
of the groom have their resurrection bodies, the bride has her resurrection
bodies.
“not having” — present active
participle of e)xw plus the negative mh. The static present indicates a condition
perpetually existing. We will never have these things in eternity. Why not use o)uk?? O)uk means the door is shut; it
is the definite negative. But mh means that a lot of people
are not going to understand this invitation even though it is clearly given, so
mh merely indicates the
present condition of the person who does not understand this doctrine, rather
than the actuality and reality of the invitation and how we will arrive. So the
bride is going to make it in perfect clothes. The static present indicates the
perpetually-existing wedding gown, as it were. The active voice: the Church in
ultimate sanctification produces the action of the verb. This is an ascriptive
participle which ascribes some fact or quality or characteristic directly to
the substantive which in this case is the Church.
“spot” — the accusative singular of spiloj. This noun teaches the removal of the old sin
nature at the Rapture as a part of sanctification. So “splendid-glorious”
clothes of resurrection body are unstained. The old sin nature stains anything.
We carry around an inner stain which is constantly messing up something. But
there is no old sin nature in eternity. Ultimate sanctification includes the
concept of no old sin nature in the resurrection body.
“or wrinkle — the accusative of r(utij refers to the human good which comes from the area
of strength of the old sin nature and its removal.
“or any such thing” — a general
catchall to eliminate other manifestations of the old sin nature. No pet areas
of self-righteousness. Literally, “any such [category of things].” This
accusative singular neuter of the indefinite pronoun tij plus the genitive
plural from the demonstrative pronoun toioutoj means any such category of things. That means that the pet area of
holiness goes.
“but” — an adversative conjunction
to set up the positive approach; “that it should be” — present active
subjunctive, third person singular of e)imi
— “but that she should be.” The subject of the verb is the Church, the feminine
noun calls for the feminine pronoun in translating the third person.
“holy” — a(gioj.
This time a(gioj is technical for what we
are in the future. This means “saints.” “Holiness” doesn’t mean anything here.
‘Saint’ is merely a synonym for royal family. All the subjunctive mood is doing
in its potentiality here is indicating that now we are plus the old sin nature,
then we will be minus the old sin nature, but basically we are the same people.
The present tense here is the futuristic present which goes with the predicate
nominative ‘without blemish.’ We are saints now; then we will be saints without
blemish. So it should be translated “that we will be.” It is so real that it is
put in the present tense.
Translation: “That he himself [Jesus
Christ] might present to himself the splendid-glorious church, not having stain
[osn], or wrinkle [human good], or any such category of things; but that she
[church] should be blameless saints.”
Verse 28 — marriage is for believer
and unbeliever alike. The divine institutions belong to the human race, the
Christian doctrines to the royal family. However, the emphasis is on the
unbeliever and the divine institution of marriage at this point, though the
analogies belong to Christ and the Church. The verse begins with the adverb o(utoj, usually translated “so,” but here it means “Thus.”
The purpose of this Greek adverb is to connect up with what precedes for the
purpose of application. In this case application to marriage results in further
analogy between Christ and the Church. “Thus” introduces application.
“men” — the nominative plural of a)nhr refers to the male in the marriage situation, and
as far as one woman is concerned that means noble man to her.
“ought” — present active indicative
of o)feilw, a verb of obligation. The
present tense is retroactive progressive present which denotes what has begun
in the past and continues into the present time. This is also called the
present tense of duration which means this is always true, there never will be
a time in history which is an exception to this. This is the principle of right
man, right woman in marriage. The active voice: the husband produces the action
of the verb. This is a potential indicative which is the mood of contingency.
It may be associated with three ideas of contingency: obligation, impulse, or
condition. Here it connotes obligation. “This you husbands ought.”
“to love” — present active
infinitive of a)gapaw. Once again, this is a
mental attitude, strictly a right lobe activity. This is a retroactive
progressive present t denote what was begun in the past and continues to the
present time. The husband produces the action of the verb as an obligation from
the finite verb which precedes. The capacity for love in the royal family is
based, however, upon the intake of Bible doctrine which produces the capacity
in category #2. Capacity for love in the unbeliever is based on an entirely
different analogy which will also be linked to the Church. The unbeliever is
not a royal priest, he does not have Bible doctrine, nor the ability to
assimilate Bible doctrine. Therefore when you set up an analogy for the
unbeliever, married-to-his-right-woman unbeliever, you have to set up something
entirely different. In this case, if a man loves his own body he ought to love
his right woman more than his own body. That is the standard for the unbeliever
in view of the fact that the unbeliever does not have doctrine, does not have
the royal priesthood, and therefore the capacity from it. The infinitive
denotes God’s purpose. It is God’s purpose that in the area of the unbeliever
that right man, right woman will have a beautiful relationship compatible with
their spiritual condition.
“as” is the relative adverb w(j used as a comparative particle to introduce the
analogy. The analogy indicates the manner in which something proceeds. there
are two analogies here. First in verse 25, taken from doctrine in the Church to
emphasise marriage from the doctrinal viewpoint, and second in this verse to
emphasise marriage from the standpoint of laws of establishment. In other
words, this is as far as you can go in a marriage between two unbelievers. The
husband ought to love his unbeliever wife as he loves his own body. But in
setting up this analogy under establishment for unbelievers you also set up
again an analogy, a relationship between Christ and the Church. As marriage is
a divine institution it is designed for the entire human race, believer and
unbeliever alike. The only prohibition is a marriage between a believer and an
unbeliever.
“their own wives as their own
bodies” — the accusative plural direct object swma.
There are some definite analogies here, they have to be related to the fact
that if a man loves his own body it will manifest itself in six ways. He will
feed it — food; he will provide shelter for it; he will provide clothing for
it; he will sleep; he will exercise; and he will look for something in life to
stimulate. These six provide an analogy between Christ and the Church.
a) Food. This is
analogous to soul provision and rapport. Just as an unbeliever will provide
food for his body, so he will provide for his right woman soul rapport. There
will be a soul relationship in the category #2 relationship between
unbelievers. This has another analogy to Christ and the Church. Our Lord has
provided food for us in the area of Bible doctrine.
b) Shelter. If a man
loves his own body he provides shelter for the extremes of weather, for cold,
and if it is hot he provides some place that is cool. This is analogous to the
right man protecting his right woman. The woman finds her shelter, as it were,
in her right man. This is a reminder of the fact that in this devil’s world our
Lord Jesus Christ has provided shelter for the Church — related to Bible
doctrine.
c) Clothing. If a man
loves his own body he clothes it. This is analogous to physical provision for
the right woman on the part of the right man. The provision also carries into
the analogy between Christ and the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ has provided
through doctrine clothing for us. This is the inner clothing of the soul, the ECS.
d) Sleep. If a man loves
his body he will occasionally get some sleep. This is analogous to the
tranquility and security that the unbeliever right man provides for the
unbeliever right woman. Again, it also is a reminder to us that through Bible
doctrine and the use of Bible doctrine in faith-rest tranquillity of soul is
provided for us by the Lord.
e) Exercise. If a man
loves his body he will have some kind of exercise for it. This is analogous to
the right man working by the principle of the sweat of his brow to provide for
the right woman. This is a part of the curse which God ordained in the garden.
It also is a reminder to us of the principle of grace whereby God works for us.
f) Stimulation. If a man
loves his body he provides stimulation for it. This is analogous to the right
man initiating a sexual relationship to the right woman. She is under his
sexual care. Again, it indicates the principle by a second analogy: Christ initiating
doctrine for us. In the expression of category #2 love the bodies of the right
man and right woman are also joined in sexual relationship. It is normal for a
human being to care for his body. The same principle of being joined in sex is
taught in 1 Corinthians 6:16 as well as Ephesians 5:31. The body of the right
woman really belongs to the man for he is the custodian of her body as well as
the bishop of her soul. Therefore the man takes good care of the body of his
right woman in both sex and love, just as Christ takes care of His body, the
Church.
“He that loveth” — present active
participle of a)gapaw. This is a retroactive
progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues into
the present time. It is the present tense of duration which always has linear
aktionsart. The active voice: the normal husband produces the action of the
verb. The participle is circumstantial. “The one who keeps loving his own wife”
is the best translation.
“loveth” — the present active
indicative of a)gapaw, “keeps loving.” In other
words, any man who has any self-consciousness, and from self-consciousness
self-respect, will obviously as an unbeliever have great love, tender care and
thoughtfulness for his right woman. This is a static present representing a
condition assumed to be perpetually existing under divine institution #2. This
does not infer pride but normal function of male self-consciousness. The active
voice: the man produces the action of the verb through the normal function of
the soul’s self-consciousness. The indicative mood is declarative indicating an
absolute principle.
“himself” — the accusative of direct object from the reflexive
pronoun e(autou. As a reflexive pronoun
this is a normal standard, not mental attitude sin pride.
Translation: “Thus your husbands
also ought to be loving their own wives as their own bodies. The one who keeps
loving his own wife loves himself.”
Verse 29 — the principle. “For” is
the conjunctive particle gar. This helps us to relate
the previous application to the principle now being advanced. The conjunctive
particle gar is used to express cause,
inference or continuation. Here it is actually used for explanation.
“no man” — o)udeij is a compound adverb meaning no one; “ever yet” —
the enclitic particle of time pote is correctly translated;
“hateth” — aorist active indicative of misew.
This is a constative aorist gathering up into a single whole the action of the
verb. It contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In the negative
it means no hate. The active voice: the principle applies to the male of the
human race. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the idea from certainty
or reality.
his own flesh” — the accusative
singular of e(autou plus sarc, translated correctly “his own flesh” or “his own
body.” “For no one ever yet hated his own body.” It must be understood that the
statement of this principle is in the normal person.
“but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast; “he nourishes” — the present
active indicative of e)ktrefw and is correctly translated
“nourish” but it means a little more than that, it means to promote health and
strength — nourishment in that sense. Once again, nourishing here goes back to
the analogy of the body. A man in the analogy will recognise certain needs of
his body. It is better translated, “but he promotes health.” The present tense
is retroactive progressive present, he always promotes his own health. The
active voice: the man produces the action of the verb. The declarative
indicative: this is a fact.
“and cherisheth it” — cherish
generally means to love your own body, and there is no narcissus complex
involved here. The verb is qalpw, it means to impart warmth,
to provide tender care. It should be translated, “but he promotes health and
provides reasonable care for it.”
“even as” is the adverb kaqwj used as a comparative conjunction. This is going to
set up a spiritual analogy. We are now going back into the realm of doctrine
for this double analogy.
“the Lord” — the Greek says o( Xristoj, “the Christ.” Kurioj
or Lord can be used for any member of the Trinity but Xristoj refers only to the second person of the Trinity;
“the church” — accusative singular direct object e)kklhsia.
Translation: “For no one has ever
yet hated his own flesh [body]; but he nourishes and provides reasonable care
for it, just as the Christ also does the church.”
The analogy
1. The analogy between the man and
his body, as well as Christ and the Church, is emphasised here by two verbs — e)ktrefw, normal nourishment providing food and shelter, and
so on, and qelpw which means reasonable
care. A reasonable person provides reasonable care. E)ktrfw meant to nourish or rear children originally, but here it means that
as Christ to the Church means to provide Bible doctrine for every member of the
royal family. How does Christ nourish us in the analogy? He nourishes us by
making available to us Bible doctrine.
2. The availability of Bible
teaching and Bible doctrine is equivalent to Christ nourishing the Church.
3. The verb qelpw, meaning to impart warmth, to provide tender care,
to comfort, also means here reasonable care. And this is analogous to the
utilisation of doctrine once acquired in the soul. Once the believer has
doctrine in the soul he begins to think divine viewpoint.
4. The two verbs together give a
perfect picture of the importance of Bible doctrine in the availability stage
as well as in the perceptive stage.
5. The analogy is based on the fact
that the right man initiates love toward right woman, just as Christ initiates
love through doctrine.
6. Through the function of GAP the believer receives doctrine and he responds to what the Lord has
provided, just as the right woman responds to her right man in sex.
7. As the result of receiving the
doctrine the believer, like the right woman, as it were becomes pregnant, bears
children, analogous to Christian production.
8. In summary, doctrine is the seed
that Christ uses for the believer’s production. Christ initiates doctrine
toward the believer. The believer responds to Christ through the function of GAP, the pregnancy occurs in the human spirit where doctrine becomes e)pignwsij, resulting in doctrine in the right lobe, resulting
in the construction of the ECS, resulting in the entrance
into the super-grace life and the reception of super-grace blessings. Every
objective that God has for the believer comes only through doctrine in the
soul.
Verses 30-33, the results in
marriage and a third doctrinal analogy.
Verse 30 — “For” is the conjunction o(ti and should be translated “Because.”
“we are” — present active indicative
of the verb e)imi. The present tense is a
static present representing a condition assumed to be true perpetually. The
active voice: we as members of the royal family produce the action of the verb.
The indicative mood is declarative, it denotes certainty, it is the mood of
unqualified assertion, a simple statement of fact.
“members” — predicate nominative
plural from meloj, referring to parts of the
body, The analogy is obvious. Each one of us is in the royal family, we are
parts of His body.
“of his body” — possessive genitive
singular swma. Swma is used for the royal
family on earth. The next phrase, “of his flesh and of his bones” is not found
in the original.
Translation: “Because we are members
of his body.”
Verse 31 — the analogy. “For this
cause” — preposition a)nti which means two things:
against or instead of. A)nti plus the genitive singular
neuter and the demonstrative pronoun here means “equivalent.” So it should be
translated, “Equivalent to this doctrine” or “Analogous to this doctrine.”
“a man” — nominative singular of a)nqrwpoj. This is a generic term for the entire human race.
The man here means no matter who gets married, whether he is believer or
unbeliever. The substantive indicates that category #2 love is composed of one
man and one woman.
“shall leave” — future active
indicative from kataleipw which means to leave
behind, to depart. Here it means to leave behind because of assuming
responsibility for your own command. The young man must be cut off from the
authority of his parents.
“his father and his mother” — two
accusative singulars of direct object, pathr
and mhter. There are also two
definite articles used as possessive pronouns. This is a reference to parents
under divine institution #3.
“and shall be joined” — future
passive indicative of the verb proskollaw. This is a compound verb [proj = face to face; kollaw
= sex]. It actually means, “and he shall have sexual intercourse.” The future
tense is a gnomic future and is a statement of fact or performance which may be
rightfully expected under normal conditions. The passive voice is very
deceptive because this is a deponent verb in which the form is passive but the
meaning is active. The husband produces the action of the verb. The indicative
mood is declarative, it denotes certainty, it represents the verbal idea from
the viewpoint of reality. This is dealing with the fact that if a man has a
soul and in his soul he has love for the woman then he can satisfy a woman.
“unto his wife” — the preposition proj plus the accusative of gunh
means “with his wife.” When this is translated “with” it means an association
in which both volitions are involved, in which the desire of both is involved,
in which two people express the love the soul in physical coalescence. The
marriage of right man, right woman is consummated by the sex act and sex love
is designed by God for maximum expression in he marital relationship.
“and they too” — o(i duo refers to right man, right woman relationship. It
views them in the state of marriage; “shall be” — future active indicative of e)imi, absolute status quo. This is a progressive future,
it has linear aktionsart in contrast to the Gnomic. It is the use of the future
tense with the idea of continuation or progress in future time. The active
voice: the right man and the right woman produce the action in marriage. The
declarative indicative denotes certainty.
“one flesh” — the Greek says “as one
flesh.” This indicates that their relationship in marriage is not only one of
the soul but one of the body, and it continues to be that way.
Translation: “Analogous to this
doctrine man shall leave behind his father and his mother, and shall have
sexual intercourse with his wife, and they two shall continue being one flesh.”
Verse 32 — now comes the doctrine on
which the entire analogy is formed. “This” is the nominative neuter singular
from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. It refers to the doctrine
of union with Christ in the royal family of God, the doctrinal side of the
analogy. The establishment side of the analogy is right man, right woman; the
doctrinal side is Christ and the Church. The Church is in union with Christ;
the Church is royal family on earth.
“is” — absolute status quo present
active indicative. This is a static present, always is: “a great mystery” — the
word ‘great’ is the predicate nominative neuter of the comparative adjective megaj. This means great in quality, more important, more
prominent, more outstanding. The word ‘mystery’ is musthrion. This word is derived from an Attic verb, muew,
which means to initiate or to instruct in the secret doctrines of an ancient
Greek fraternity. The person, after he learned the doctrines and was initiated,
was called a musthj. By definition, then, musthrion refers to the doctrine which was unknown in the
past but is now known to the Church Age. All doctrine pertinent to the Church
Age should be well known to the royal family, but it isn’t known outside the
palace, i.e. to the unbeliever, and was never known to the Old Testament
writers and/or believers. In other words, “mystery” here refers to the
doctrines of the Church. The gospel was not a mystery, it was well known by the
Old Testament writers. In this verse “mystery” refers specifically to
positional sanctification, to the fact that each one of us is a member of the
royal family of God, and that our tactical objective is also super-grace. God
the Holy Spirit does five things for us at the point of salvation, four of
which never occurred before. The Church Age believer, because he is royalty,
because he is in union with Christ, because he has a different relationship
with God from those who went before, is under a brand new set of doctrines,
called here the doctrine of the mystery.
The word mustherion here is a subject, not a predicate nominative. The demonstrative
pronoun “This” goes with “mystery” and it should be translated “This mystery is
great” or “This mystery doctrine is great.” The point is doctrine is great,
mystery doctrine is the greatest of all doctrine.
The doctrine of the mystery
1. The Greek word ‘mystery’ is
derived from an Attic noun musthj which refers to a person
learning doctrine as a part of his initiation into an ancient fraternity. Each
fraternity had its set of doctrines pertaining to its way of life. These
doctrines or secrets of the fraternity were only known to those initiated, they
were not known on the outside. Jesus used this meaning with the disciples in
Matthew 13:11 and Mark 4:10,11. In other words, the Church Age doctrines are
known only to the royal family, they were never known before.
2. In the epistles of the New
Testament the word ‘mystery’ refers to some aspect of Church doctrine —
Ephesians 3:2-6.
3. Mystery doctrine of the Church
Age was not revealed in the Old Testament — Romans 16:25,26; Colossians
1:26.27.
4. Part of the mystery doctrine
includes blindness or the hardness of Israel during the Church Age. This is
also a part of Israel’s fifth cycle of discipline. Romans 11:25.
5. Mystery as Church Age doctrine
was part of the divine decrees in eternity past — 1 Corinthians 2:7.
6. A new communicator is designed
for mystery doctrine. The pastor-teacher is responsible for communicating
Church Age doctrine, this is his stewardship in the mystery — 1 Corinthians
4:1.
7. The Rapture of the Church is part
of the mystery doctrine — 1 Corinthians 15:51.
8. Mystery doctrine is always
related to the dispensation of the Church and no other dispensation — Ephesians
1:9; 3:2.
9. Mystery doctrine is to be
understood by the royal family through the consistent function of GAP — Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9.
“but” — the particle de is commonly used to connect one clause with
another, and in the connecting of these clauses no contrast is intended and
when no contrast is intended we translate it “now.”
“I speak” — present active
indicative of legw, used here for
communication. He is now defining what he means. The present tense is a
retroactive progressive present, used as a descriptive present and should be
translated, “now I am speaking.”
“concerning Christ” — or “with
reference to Christ.” E)ij plus the accusative means
“with reference.”
“and the church” — the connective kai plus the preposition e)ij
plus e)kklhsia.
Translation: “This mystery doctrine
is great; now I am communicating with reference to Christ and with reference to
the church.”
The doctrine of right man, right
woman is used as the means of illustrating Christ and the Church, or the King
of kings and the royal family.
The doctrine of intercalation
1. The word ‘intercalation’ means
insertion. The Jewish Age was moving along in a normal way as far as the Jews
were concerned. Then there was the death of Christ, His resurrection, ascension
and session. Ten days after that the Jewish Age was interrupted but not completed.
The Jewish Age had seven more years to go. A new dispensation called the Church
was inserted in order that Christ, the last Adam, might have His own royal
family.
2. A new dispensation is inserted —
the Church Age.
3. Intercalation is the intensified
stage of the angelic conflict.
4. The Church Age, therefore, is a
mystery not known to the Old Testament writers — Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians
3:1-6; Colossians 1:26,27.
5. Doctrines pertaining to the
Church Age are not found in the Old Testament. You don’t find the baptism of
the Spirit, you don’t find the Rapture, you don’t find every believer indwelt
by the Spirit, or Jesus Christ indwelling the believer. Where Church Age
doctrine would occur in the Old Testament there is a parenthesis. In other
words, God just skipped over.
6. Doctrine pertaining to the Church
Age is intercalated by the New Testament, especially the epistles.
7. In the Old Testament where
doctrine regarding the Church Age would or should occur a great parenthesis
occurred. For example, the Church Age is a parenthesis between Daniel 2:40 and
41. It isn’t mentioned, it is just left out. Also between Daniel 7:23&24;
8:22&23; 11:35&36; Hosea 3:4&5; 5:15&6:1; Psalm 22:22&23.
Sometimes the parenthesis comes in the middle of a verse such as Isaiah 61
between verse 2a and 2b.
8. The Old Testament reveals
doctrine up to the session of Christ then skips the Church Age and reveals
Tribulation, second advent, and Millennial doctrine.
Verse 33 — “Nevertheless” is an
adverb used as a conjunction, plhn. Then follows an unusual
Greek idiom — kai
u(meij o(i kaq e(na e(kastoj thn e(autou gunaika. This is an idiom all the
way. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai
which should be translated “also.” U(meij is the nominative plural of
the pronoun su, meaning “you.” Plus the
preposition kata plus the accusative of e(ij which should be translated “with reference to one.”
Then we have e(kastoj for “each man,” plus a
reflexive pronoun, e(autou as a possessive genitive in
which right woman is defined by the right man as belonging to him and only to
him. It goes with the accusative of gunh which means his very own
wife. Literally, this phrase says “also you with reference to one woman each
man his very own wife.” There is a definite article also used as a pronoun here
and the verb fills in the missing part of the idiom with the word “love,” the
present active imperative of a)gapaw. The present tense is a
customary present denoting what habitually occurs between right man and right
woman. The active voice: the husband produces the action of the verb. The
imperative mood is a command, so it should be translated “be loving.” Then also,
not found in the English but found in the Greek text, is o(utoj which means “in this manner.” The way it should be
translated: “Also with reference to one woman each man in this manner be loving
his very own wife as himself.” The comparative particle indicates the manner in
which something proceeds.
“and” is really a connective use of
the conjunctive particle de; “his wife” — not “the
wife.”
“see that” is “be sure that she
reverence” — present middle subjunctive of the verb fobew
which means have respect for, have admiration for, or be occupied with. The
middle voice is an indirect middle which stresses the agent as producing the
action rather than participating in the results. The potential subjunctive
means that whether a woman could do this or not is potential depending upon the
following factors: a) That she marry her right man. But the fact that she has
married a husband whether it is the right one or the wrong one doesn’t changed
the command; b) If she married the right man it is easier. If she married the
wrong man (any old husband will do type of thing) the principle doesn’t change;
c) The woman is a believer and she married a believer. So as a believer
everything depends on whether it is plus or minus doctrine in her soul, because
her capacity for love comes from doctrine.
“her husband” — accusative singular
direct object of a)nhr. The definite article is
used as a possessive pronoun.
Translation: “Also with reference to
one woman each man in this manner be loving his very own wife as himself; and
his wife be sure that she is occupied [respects, admires] her husband.”