1Timothy Notes

Chapter 1

Outline of chapter One:

Verses 1-2, Prologue.

Verses 3-7, the purpose of the pastor.

Verse 8-11, the purpose of the Mosaic law.

Verses 12-17, the purpose of grace.

Verses 18-20, combat orders for Timothy.

The subject if the chapter, which is really an introductory chapter: Purpose in the Church Age.

Verse 1 — the human author. “Paul” — this is the name he adopted after salvation: Pauloj. The word means “little.” His pre-salvation name was Saul. Saul is Hebrew. He was from the tribe of Benjamin and a lot of people in that tribe were named Saul. The assumed name connotes grace orientation — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Timothy 1:12-16 explain his name as well as it can be explained. “apostle” — this is one time when the human writer pulls his rank. The Greek word is a)postoloj. This is rank. “Apostle” is a Greek word, not a Latin word. It is a navy word The highest-ranking admiral in the fleet was called A)postoloj. It doesn’t refer to a missionary. The word is taken from the Greek a)po; stolh means to send. The last apostle, John, died in AD 96, or thereabouts. There are no apostles today. Paul was not only an apostle, he was the highest-ranking apostle. No one in the Church Age ever had as much authority as Paul. The word was derived in the days when the Athenian navy ruled the seas. But people found that you couldn’t defeat the Athenians on the water, the only way they could be defeated was with money — bribe the admiral to throw the battle. The Spartans had a lot of money and they used to do that. So the council of ten finally got wise and the Archon who was the head of the council of ten would meet with the council. Outside would be four of the highest ranking admirals in the Athenian navy. The fleet is ready to set sail. The council of ten would then decide which one of the admirals was going to be a)postoloj to be sent to command the fleet. He was then escorted to his ship. He is then a)postoloj, sent to command that fleet. It doesn’t mean one sent, it means one sent to command. When God sent the apostle Paul into the church the church was in a state of confusion and consternation. The reason was that someone by the name of Saul was persecuting the church and the church couldn’t take it. The gift of apostleship is the highest rank that God ever gave in the church. Paul was an absolute dictator and an absolute communicator to all the churches. The apostle had the authority to establish churches, to appoint pastors, to regulate doctrine, to judge dissension, train pastors, until the canon of scripture was completed. He had the authority to write scripture. The gift was a temporary one carrying all of this tremendous weight. The doctrine of apostleship 1. The etymology of a)postoloj: Used for the Athenian admiral appointed by the Archon to command the fleet. The appointment was made just before weighing anchor to avoid bribery. It was used in the New Testament for the highest spiritual gift ever given in the Church Age. 1 Corinthians 12:11, 28; Ephesians 4:11 specify apostleship as a spiritual gift. 2. The function of apostleship. Since the gift carried absolute authority it was designed to carry the church during the pre-canon period of the Church Age (from AD 30-96). The function can be classified under two categories: apostles or someone closely associated with apostles were the human authors of scripture; apostles established the early local churches, communicated the doctrine, appointed and trained the pastors, acted as policy-makers, prior to the completion of the scriptures. Once the New testament is completed and the doctrine of the mystery is recorded then it is no longer necessary for apostles to set the policy, the policy is in written form. 3. The time of appointment. The apostles were not appointed until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the completion of His strategical victory — resurrection, ascension, session. This is taught in Ephesians 4:8 cf. verse 11. Jesus Christ did all of the appointing. There was no voting. Matthew 10 has twelve apostles but they were apostles to Israel and had nothing to do with the church. There were no apostles to the church until after the resurrection. That means that the eleven surviving apostles to Israel had to be reappointed before they were apostles to the church. 4. The extent of the gift. It carried as much authority as God ever gave in the Church Age or ever will give. The apostle had authority over all the local churches, in contrast to the pastor who has authority over one local church. It was a temporary gift removed at the completion of the canon of scripture. Today all local churches should be autonomous with authority vested in the completed canon of scripture and the local pastor-teacher. 5. The distinction between the apostles to Israel and the apostles to the church. Matthew 10:2ff — Jesus appointed apostles to Israel during the course of His earthly ministry. With the exception of Judas Iscariot the personnel were the same but with an entirely different function and ministry. Paul was appointed by God to replace Judas Iscariot — 1 Corinthians 15:7-10. In Acts chapter one Matthias was elected by the church but he was not an apostle because the church cannot elect apostles. They are appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ — Ephesians 4:11. All spiritual gifts today are appointed by the Holy Spirit but the apostles were appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. 6. The qualifications. Apostles were qualified by receiving the gift of apostleship from Jesus Christ — Ephesians 4:11. After the initial appointment all selection of spiritual gifts became the sovereign ministry of the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:11. All apostles had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Christ. This qualified the eleven but Paul was qualified on the Damascus road — Acts 1:22; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8,9. 7. The identification of apostles. Apostolic authority resides in the gift of apostleship. There were other gifts which went with apostleship — identification gifts. Paul had ID cards: the gift of healing, the gift of tongues, and the gift of miracles. All of the apostles had these three as ID cards. They were, by the way, inferior gifts. They were subordinate, temporary gifts — Acts 5:15; 16:16-18; 28:8,9. One the authority of the apostle was established and once he was identified as an apostle in the early church these ID cards were pulled away immediately. So when he wanted to heal Epaphroditus he had to pray for him, he couldn’t heal him — Philippians 2:27. The same thing is true of Trophimus in 2 Timothy 4:20. Everyone knew he was an apostle by this time, he didn’t need his ID card even though it would have been handy in those two cases. 8. The roster of the apostles. This includes the eleven minus Judas Iscariot. The election of Matthias — Acts 1:15-26 — was a farce. The twelfth who replaced Judas was Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, the human writer of 1 Timothy — 1 Corinthians 7-10. 9. The delegation of apostolic authority gives some people the title of apostle without the gift of apostleship. E.g. Barnabas was not an apostle but he had the delegated authority of an apostle — Acts 14:14; Galatians 2:9. John Mark was not an apostle but he was Peter’s delegate in writing the second Gospel and carried the title under delegated authority. James, the Lord’s half-brother was delegated by the Lord to write the epistle of James, and Jude , the Lord’s half-brother, also the same. Apollos, Paul’s delegate to Corinth — 1 Corinthians 4:6,9. Silas and Timothy were mentioned as Paul’s delegates in 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:6. They carried delegated authority for a short time. “of Christ Jesus” — the word “Christ” refers to Messiahship, David’s greater son. Whenever you fin Xristoj in the Greek it means the one anointed. It means the son of David and indicates the Davidic covenant. “Jesus” is the humanity of Christ. “by the commandment” — the preposition kata plus the accusative of e)pitagh, one of the strongest words for an order or a command. It should be translated “according to the command.” “of God” should be “from God” — the ablative of source from qeoj. “God” is the deity of Christ here. “our saviour” — swthr is His humanity. We have the hypostatic union here. Notice again that the apostle Paul was not self-appointed. He was the twelfth apostle and was appointed by the resurrected Christ — Ephesians 4:7-11. “and” is incorrect. This is “even.” The last word in verse 1 is the possessive genitive singular of the noun e)lpij and it means confidence or security. Hope these days implies possibility; hope in the Bible means absoluteness. So it should be, “even Christ Jesus our confidence.” Translation: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the command from God our Saviour, even Christ Jesus, our confidence.”

Verse 2 — the direction of this verse: “Unto Timothy.” Profile of Timothy 1. He was the son of an unbelieving Greek and a Jewess — Acts 16:1-3. 2. He possessed a spiritual heritage in Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 3:15. The spiritual heritage was of no use to him until he was born again. In other words, he was taught all of the Old Testament scriptures. 3. He was converted under the ministry of the apostle Paul in the second missionary journey at Lystra — Acts 14:6, 23. 4. Paul had him circumcised — Acts 16:3. 5. He was ordained to the ministry because he recognised his own spiritual gift — 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:5. 6. He went to Philippi with Paul, Silas and Luke — Acts 16:12. 7. However, Paul thought that he could trust him with a congregation so he was left behind at Philippi to supervise the new Philippian church — Philippians 2:22. 8. He was left behind with Silas at Berea — Acts 17:14 — and joined Paul in Athens. There was no problem with these churches where the congregation was positive to doctrine. 9. From Athens he was sent to Thessalonica — 1 Thessalonians 3:2, and there was no problem there because the Thessalonians were strong for doctrine. 10. He was sent to Corinth and this is where he washed out — 1 Corinthians 16:10 — and failed miserably because the Corinthians were tough, hard-nosed, realistic, hell-raising. They tossed him around like a football and punted him through the door. He failed completely. The only person who ever tamed Corinth was Titus. Timothy had to be hauled back under Paul’s wing and trained again. 11. He shared the first imprisonment in Rome — Philippians 1:1; 2:19; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1. This is a training period, he is licking his wounds from Corinth. 12. After his first imprisonment he went with Paul to Ephesus where he remained as the pastor. At the time of this epistle Timothy was the pastor of Ephesus and his failure at Corinth comes out. He was great where people were positive. Timothy was a great teacher. “my own son” — Paul is talking to his student, to someone who is under strict academic discipline to him. He is a general talking to a private. We have here a dative of possession of an adjective, gnhsioj; its meaning is explained two ways: “not a bastard” or “legitimate.” This also have a figurative connotation meaning “reliable.” In other words, “Timothy you are my legitimate son, you are always under my authority.” The word also means reliable, and by this he means a faithful student. This is what is going to cause Timothy to turn out all right eventually, after the canon is closed. No matter how he fails he stays in there with doctrine. So the dative of possession is followed by the dative of advantage of the noun teknon which has a dual connotation. It is a child with relationship to parents, under discipline to parents, but here it is technical for Timothy as Paul’s student — under discipline to Paul. “To Timothy, reliable student.” “in the faith” — preposition e)n plus the locative of pistij. Pistij has three meanings, here the meaning is doctrine. “Grace, mercy, and peace” — Xarij, e)leoj e)irhnh. This is a full salutation with great meaning. Xarij or grace = God’s plan. E)leoj [mercy] is grace in action and is what Timothy is going to get throughout this epistle. E)irhnh means here “prosperity,” the result of the plan. “from God” is the preposition a)po plus the ablative from qeoj. There are no verbs in the prologue. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in the salutation and this is compatible with the present ministry of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ — “from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Translation: “To Timothy, reliable student in doctrine: Grace, mercy, prosperity, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” The doctrine of grace Definition: Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His love for mankind without compromising or jeopardising His essence. No one can truly give and rightly give apart from freedom, and God gives out of total freedom because of the cross. Consequently, grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. Grace is both God’s plan and God’s policy regarding mankind. Grace therefore is the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi. Under grace God does all the work, all the providing; man does all the receiving, all of the benefiting. Under the concept of grace, grace depends on the essence or character of God. Therefore grace depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence. Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation. Grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity totally apart from man’s merit, ability, plans or talent. In other words, grace is the genius of God and doctrine is the manifestation of that genius. The great enemy to grace is legalism, reversionism, and evil. Legalism as the enemy of grace is man’s intrusion into the plan of God with his own works, ability, talents, plans, schemes, or man’s intrusion into the plan of God with his own spiritual declension — reversionism, or man’s intrusion into the plan of God under the influence of evil. That is why grace is so antagonistic to evil, to legalism, to religionism; and that is why when a believer is influenced by legalism or reversionism or evil he intrudes into the plan of God. The difference is that if he is influenced by legalism it is his own personal energy-of-the-flesh intrusion. If he is influenced by evil it is a Satanic intrusion since evil puts the believer under the influence of Satan and Satan’s policy. If it is reversionism it is an apostate intrusion which combines the first two. So the believer must learn to sort out the difference between grace and legalism, the difference between being influenced by doctrine and being influenced by evil, the difference between spiritual growth and super-grace versus reversionism or spiritual declension. The believer often clings to some talent, some ability, some plan, some gimmick by which he seeks to infiltrate the plan of God. Anything that man could throw into the plan of God would destroy the concept of grace. So the plan of God, operation grace, is never destroyed or neutralised because grace rejects human energy of the flesh, human ability, human talent, human viewpoint ideas. Legalism and grace cannot coexist, evil and grace cannot coexist, reversionism and grace cannot coexist. A little leaven of legalism or evil or reversionism leavens the whole lump.

Verses 3-7, the purpose of the pastor-teacher. This is not a detailed study of the pastor-teacher at this point. Timothy has already had that and understands all the principles of the pastor-teacher. These are special selected things to cause Timothy to refocus on his purpose, to fill in some gaps where he has failed to apply what he has learned from Paul.

Verse 3 — “As” is an adverb used as a casual conjunction: Kaqwj is translated better, “since.” “I besought” — aorist active indicative of parakalew, which means here to command. It means a command given in a nice way. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action in which Paul commands Timothy to remain at Ephesus. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb as an apostle and Timothy’s commanding officer. The indicative mood is declarative indicating the reality of Paul ordering Timothy to remain at Ephesus in spite of the fact that up to this point he has failed. In other words, failure is no reason to run. Principle: You don’t run away because you fail. “thee” should be “you” — accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su. “to abide still” — the aorist active infinitive of prosmenw which means “stay where you are.” “when I went” — present middle participle of poreuomai. The participle is a temporal participle and it should be translated “while I went into Macedonia.” “that” is the conjunction i(na introducing a final clause — purpose, aim, goal. “thou mightest charge” — aorist active subjunctive paraggellw which means to instruct by direct command. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the action of the verb. It takes the ministry of Timothy and gathers it into one entirety, regardless of its duration, and Timothy has to “crack heads,” he has to get tough, he has to use his authority. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb by commanding, instructing, directing pastors in Ephesus not to teach false doctrine. The subjunctive mood is used to state the objective as potential. “some” is the dative plural of disadvantage from the indefinite pronoun tij, it refers to those under the influence of evil, those in reversionism, those who are legalistic, all of those who are troublemakers, and those who are positive toward doctrine but troublemakers — “certain ones.” “that they teach no other doctrine” — all one verb: the negative plus the present active infinitive of e(terodidaskolew. Didaskw means to teach; e(tero means other of a different kind of doctrine. When put together it means not to teach heretical doctrine. The descriptive present tense denotes the teaching of false doctrine in the process of occurrence. The active voice: evil and reversionistic people are producing the action of the verb by teaching something wrong. The infinitive of intended result fulfills a deliberate objective to stop false teaching in the Ephesian church. Translation: “Since I ordered you to remain behind at Ephesus, while I went to Macedonia, in order that you might exercise command over certain ones not to teach heretical doctrine.”

Verse 4 — the second purpose: to orient to dispensational theology. The Old Testament scriptures can be easily distorted into legalism. That was one of the problems with the Mosaic law and one of the problems in Galatia. “Neither” is a negative disjunctive particle mhde and should be translated “Nor”; “give heed” is the present active infinitive of prosexw which means to occupy one’s self with something. The present tense is a descriptive present, which means to indicate what was going on at that moment in Ephesus. The active voice: people in the Ephesian church are under the influence of evil and are producing the action of the verb under those conditions. The infinitive plus the negative indicates a negative purpose. “fable” is muqoj, dative plural of disadvantage, from which we get the English words “myths” or “stories” — “Nor to become occupied with myths.” This refers to the pseudo spiritual heritage of the Jews. Not their true spiritual heritage but their pseudo spiritual heritage; not what is found in the Old Testament canon but what is found in the Jewish legends, legends which claimed that Moses had not written down all the mysteries that were revealed by God, and they claimed to have some extra information that Moses didn’t write. This is called the Kabbala in which certain legends and myths were accumulated referring to angels, philosophical concepts, miracles, and the myths of Gnosticism. The Ephesians had become fascinated by these. “endless genealogies” — the dative plural of disadvantage from genealogia, from which we get our English word “genealogy,” plus the adjective a)perantoj which means ‘limitless,” tiresome enumeration of detail. This is a reference to Gnostic aeons as a series of emanations from divine unity. It also refers to the Old Testament genealogies which had been allegorised. They were interpreted allegorically by Philo and made the basis of a system of psychology. The genealogies in the scripture are all important, and the Old Testament genealogies were taken away from their literal interpretation. So this is what is called a distortion of scripture. The genealogies have a purpose. For example, from David to Christ is very important. It establishes a literal purpose, a principle in the Davidic covenant. It is not designed to teach allegorical truth, it is a literal genealogy. But it can be distorted. This whole system was used by Judaisers to propagate their legalism and ignore the fact that the Age of Israel was interrupted and the dispensation of the royal family was inserted — doctrine of intercalation. Therefore myths and genealogies describe a failure on the part of Timothy to put a stop to these things, to take a stand. Myths and genealogies describe a system of false doctrine which disoriented believers and led them astray from the Church Age. They ignored the Church Age, so myths and genealogies were used to perpetuate the Jewish Age when a new dispensation had begun. The significance of the resurrection, ascension and session of Christ were lost to these false teachers, these Judaisers, and the suspension of the Age of Israel for the purpose of calling out the royal family, the postponement of the Jewish Age, was completely ignored. They went right on with the Jewish Age. “which minister” — the nominative plural qualitative relative pronoun o(stij — “which category of things minister” — plus the present active indicative of parexw which means to be the cause of something. The present tense is the customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs. The active voice: categories of pseudo doctrine produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative. “questions” is literally, “useless speculations” — e)kzhthsij. “rather than godly edifying” is wrong. It should be “rather than the dispensation of God” — o)ikoinomian qeou. There is no “edifying” here. This is a reference to the Church Age which is being ignored by these false teachers. Jewish myths and genealogies are seeking to perpetuate the Age of Israel and cancel out the Church Age. This was a Satanic attack upon Church Age doctrine. The people and the “sharers” who have succumbed to this heresy and apostasy have failed to orient to dispensational theology, therefore Timothy must emphasise dispensational theology. Every pastor in interpreting the Word of God must emphasise dispensational distinctions. “which” is a definite article used as a relative pronoun; “is in faith” — there is no verb here, but there is a preposition plus the instrumental of pistij,. and it should be translated “which comes by means of doctrine.” Translation: “Nor become occupied with myths and endless genealogies, which category of things [false doctrine] are the cause of useless speculations, rather than the dispensation of God [Church Age doctrine] which comes by means of doctrine. Principles 1. Ephesus and all local churches will succumb at certain times of false teaching unless there is an emphasis on dispensational theology. All believers of this dispensation must first be oriented to the Church Age. 2. No pastor can lead his congregation to spiritual maturity or fulfill his ministry apart from dispensational orientation. 3. Therefore it is important to review dispensational categories of doctrine when they occur in expository teaching.

Verse 5 — the objective of the ministry, the purpose for our being here. Everything revolves around doctrine. The objective of the ministry is to fulfill the objectives of Bible teaching in the sphere of capacity for love. There are three capacities which are absolutely necessary in the mature believer: capacity for life, capacity for happiness, capacity for love. Without these capacities nothing in life is very meaningful. Of these capacities the capacity for love is foremost, this is the every key to the spiritual life. “Now” — a postpositive conjunction de, it is used as a transitional or continuative participle to make a transition from the negative to the positive side of the gospel ministry. Since the transition is in the nature of a contrast between false doctrine in the previous verse and the truth of this verse it becomes therefore an adversative conjunction and it correctly translated “But.” “the end” — the noun teloj is used here and it means the end in the sense of a goal or objective. Therefore we translate, “But the objective.” “of the commandment” — this is a descriptive genitive of paraggelia which means “command, precept, instruction.” Arndt and Ginchgricht contends that it is equal to preaching; “is” — present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb of absolute status quo. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing throughout the Church Age. There never will be a time when the teaching of doctrine does not produce a true capacity for love. “charity” — the predicate nominative of the noun a)gaph which means love. This word actually implies five different doctrines of scripture: the doctrine of love, the doctrines of categories 1,2,&3 love, and the doctrine of spirituality. “But the objective of preaching is love [or capacity for love].” The doctrine of love 1. Definition: a) Love is maximum concentration. Love is so concentrated as to exclude others from the same consideration. It is maximum concentration, maximum affection and personal attraction emanating from the soul of mankind, and exercised in the direction of God, persons, things. b) Love is a soulish predilection expressed in admiration, devotion, craving, delight, pleasure, caresses, passion, show of affection, resulting in intimacy toward God, human beings, or even things. c) Love in the embodiment of soul function and concentration directed toward someone else with or without intimacy. d) This means that sometimes love is not returned. e) Love is awareness and tenderness of soul producing emotional sensitivity toward a person or object. f) Love is devotion, concentration, dedication to, and consecration of maximum esteem and intense loyalty to the object of attraction. g) Attraction in itself is not love but a preliminary to love or hate. h) The perpetuation of love is attachment, affection, stimulation of soul (in the case of category #2 it is also stimulation of body), devotion, consecration, intimacy, passion, enthusiasm, and adoration. i) However, passion is not always love. Passion is like a fuse of a fire cracker, it burns quickly, explodes, and that is all. In contrast, love is like an old yew log in a fire place. Sometimes it bursts into flames and sometimes it glows but always with a steadiness and always with a white-hot heat. j) There are some comments on love which are not true, some definitions of love which are erroneous, anti-scriptural. For example, “love is an egotism of two.” That is pseudo-love. For example, “love is a long lesson in humility.” Some definitions are humorous. For example, “she loves so many soldiers it is platoonic.” Some definitions are catchy. For example, “ a loveless faith is cruel and a faithless love is sentimental.” 2. There are some interesting words for love found in Greek literature. However, in all of the realm of the Greek language the Bible only uses two of these words. The Attic Greek word e)roj is much more extensive than simply sexual love, it is love of symmetry, love of beauty, as well as sexual love. It is not used in the New Testament. A second Attic Greek word is storgh, used for love of parents, for children, or some form of family love. This word is never used in the New Testament. The Koine Greek word a)gaph also has a cognate noun a)gapaw. These two words are a specialised type of love which is strictly mental. This is love which exists only in the mentality of the soul, therefore in humanity a thinking type love. In God this would be essence type love. This love can be summarised quickly as a mental attitude. The next word found in the Bible is the verb filew and its cognate filoj. This word has been badly abused. This is a general type love related to all facets of the soul. Generally in the Bible this type of love is more mature, it expresses greater capacity for love as in the indignation of the apostle Peter in John 21:15-17. The passage in the English doesn’t tell us a thing. In fact, two different Greek words are used throughout. John 21:15 — “Simon … lovest thou me ...? The present active indicative of a)gapaw is used in the question. It refers to a relaxed mental attitude, a mental attitude love free from mental attitude sins. This type of love is basic to the spiritual life of the believer and is found under the concept of the filling of the Spirit — Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22; and the third floor of the ECS — 1 John 2:5. This is a sense is a great insult to use a)gapaw. A)gapaw is a mere mental attitude. It has the concept of merely a relaxed mental attitude toward someone. It is not the highest word for love in the Greek language. Peter answers: “You know that I love thee.” Now he uses the present active indicative of filew. He answers with indignation: “It is not a)gapaw with me, it is filew.” Filew is a total rapport love. Peter’s first answer therefore distinguishes between a)gapaw as a relaxed mental attitude and filew as an advance on this. There is a bad tendency to slur the distinctions, to go to John 3:16. Since God is the subject of a)gapaw in John 3:16 it must be the highest type of love, so this is called divine love and filew is called human love. That is not only oversimplification but it is failure to recognise the very distinctions that the Bible itself makes, especially in time where God is the subject of filew as well as a)gapaw. Therefore to make one divine and one human love is to ignore the scripture itself. Not only is God the subject of a)gapaw at certain times but He is also the subject of filew. Not only is man the subject of a)gapaw but unbelievers are the subject of a)gapaw — Man loves darkness [a)gapaw].” A)gapaw is used with God as the subject when it is a relaxed mental attitude toward some very unlovely people. God loves sinners — John 3:16. This means that God had a relaxed mental attitude toward the sinner in that He provided him eternal salvation, but it does not mean the intimacy of love of filew. Archbishop Richard Trench wrote a book on Greek synonyms. On page 41 of that book he made a great discovery, one which philologists have known for many years, that in the time of the Roman empire at the time when the Bible was written there was a language division. Everything west of the Adriatic the Roman empire spoke Latin; everything eats of the Adriatic they spoke Greek, the change in Greek which had come about through Alexander’s conquest and the Hellenistic empires. By the time that the New Testament was being written Latin and Greek had become exact equivalent languages. In other words, there were certain words in the Greek that had been brought into the Latin, there were certain Latin words that had been brought into the Greek. So whether you spoke Latin or Greek — and all Roman officials were bilingual — you could understand and translated exact equivalents. This was true of a)gapaw and filew, both were used in the Greek of the Roman empire. So in studying New Testament words we can sometimes pick up some etymology by going to the Latin. The Latin had two words which were exact equivalents to the words we have here. One of these was diligo and the other was amo. Diligo was simply a mental type of love, a relaxed mental attitude toward someone. The mind was totally free from hatred, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability. Amo was a very strong type of love, a more advanced type of love, it involved not just the mentality but the emotion and all facets of the soul. Trench demonstrates in his book how in the two literatures these words become exact equivalents. In that way he helped us to understand that with a)gapaw and filew one was not divine love, the other human , because it all depends on the subject. If someone says, “I love you,” that kind of love depends on who “I” is. If it is God, that is divine love; if it is a human being, that is human love. It is always the subject. Now we have a command in verse 15. “Peter, if it really is filoj, if you have a total love, then do something: Feed my lambs.” The word “feed” is the present active imperative of the verb boskw. It means to feed as a shepherd with faithfulness in the true sense of responsibility. So this emphasizes the importance of the pastor’s self-discipline in studying the Word and communicating doctrine to the sheep. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which will perpetually exist throughout the Church Age. In every generation, depending on where positive volition is, God will provide faithful pastors to study and teach. The active voice: the pastor teacher produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood: this is a command to all pastors. “My lambs” is the accusative plural direct object of a)rnion which refers to new believers, ignorant believers, believers who do not understand what is going on in the Christian life. This refers to the basic category of believers, the ones who are just saved or the ones who have been saved for fifty years and have yet to learn a point of doctrine. “Feed my little lamb.” These are the most helpless in the flock. Verse 16 — “Do you love me?” He repeated a)gapaw again. This time it is a retroactive progressive present to indicate what has occurred in the past and continues into the present time. Peter’s three denials before the crucifixion indicate a weak mental attitude and therefore Jesus is reminding him of this. The second interrogation therefore indicates that no one can love Jesus Christ apart from Bible doctrine in the soul, and that merely to say that you love Jesus Christ is not enough. Peter had previously declared his love in words but the words are no stronger than the person who utters them. Therefore for a second time Jesus asks exactly the same question, same morphology in the Greek language. And He received the same answer, “You know I love you.” Again filew is used. Peter is indignant that that Lord would insult him for a second time, and therefore the Lord gave a second command, “Feed my sheep,” but He used a different verb — the present active imperative of poimainw which means to shepherd the sheep. It connotes to lead, to feed, to protect, to exercise authority over sheep as a shepherd. “My sheep” indicates the fact of adolescent sheep — probaton. These are the ones who are the most dangerous, they know a little doctrine, just enough to be dangerous. Verse 17 — a third time Peter gets the question. But this time the Lord changed up the verb. Instead of a)gapaw as previously we have this time the verb filew. This time it is to follow Peter’s answers. Peter has said twice, filew. Is it really true? This is the great challenge. Peter, instead of realising the challenge, reacted. He did not respond, he reacted. “Peter was grieved” is the aorist passive indicative of the verb lupew, and in this verb we have exasperation of grief. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views Peter’s exasperation in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its results. As a result of persistent interrogation Peter had become exasperated. The passive voice: he receives exasperation. The indicative mood is the reality of his exasperation. In his third answer he replied as he had before, “You know.” This, again, is a reference to the omniscience of Jesus Christ as God. “Thou knowest that I love thee.” He uses o)ida again for the great omniscience of God. Then he adds to o)ida the word ginwskw which is to know from the experience of observation. “Lord you know all things; you know from observation that I love you.” Then the Lord said to him, “Feed my adult sheep.” In this passage we are dealing with the distinctions between two biblical words for love. No passage ever dramatised the difference between these two words more than this one. 4. A summary of distinction between the two biblical words for love.

 a) A)gapaw and a)gaph. This is a mental attitude love and its basic characteristic is freedom from mental attitude sins. In other words, it is a mental attitude toward all believers that is commanded. We are commanded not to be bitter or jealous or vindictive, etc. toward any other believer. These are mental sins. This love is free from mental sins. b) The noun filoj is maximum capacity for love. it is capacity for love which is the objective in 1 Timothy 1:5; to so communicate Bible doctrine that you will have true capacity for love. All believers are commanded to have a relaxed mental attitude love. The filling of the Holy Spirit produces this. But the capacity for love in filoj only comes through maturity. This, therefore, is the great difference. When you are filled with the Spirit at that moment all sin is excluded from your mind and therefore you have a)gaph type love. Then when you grow up to super-grace you have filoj. In fact, as the ECS is developed you will first of all have grace orientation. Then the second floor that will be built up and constructed in your soul, the mastery of the details of life. This is the construction built up in our soul on the basis of e)pignwsij type doctrine. Then the relaxed mental attitude where you get a)gaph love. Then you finally go to the fourth floor where you get filoj or capacity for love. That takes you to the fifth floor of +H which moves you into the super-grace life. 5. Both types of love are found in the believer’s balance of residence. One of the great doctrines in the doctrine of the balance of residency. Actually there is a combination of doctrines. The first deals with the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit in ever believer at the point of salvation. He is said to specifically indwell the body of the believer, He is never said to indwell the soul. But there is an issue. We are never commanded to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it is automatic at the point of salvation. We are told that we never lose this indwelling, God the Holy Spirit remains whether we are carnal or spiritual, whether we are in reversionism under the influence of evil, or whether we are in super-grace receiving super-grace blessings. But there is a command related to the Holy Spirit and it has to do with the soul. We are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit and this is accomplished by means of the rebound technique. It has no manifestation in the early spiritual stages because there is no doctrine. As long as you are minus doctrine the filling of the Spirit has no manifestation. It must be remembered that those who were gathered on the Day of Pentecost and were filled with the Holy Spirit were mostly mature believers and their maturity had manifestation in certain spiritual gifts and functions. But the filling of the Spirit does not manifest itself until there is spiritual growth. The first function of the filling of the Spirit is the function of GAP, and when that has occurred over a period of time so that the believer is mature there is manifestation. Both types of love are found in the balance of residency in the soul. 6. Scholarship in fundamental circles has declined to a point of being ludicrous and we have to recognise failure in scholarship occasionally. 7. There are three general categories of human love. Category #1 is toward God. Category #2 is toward right man and right woman. Category #3 is human friendship. Category #1 is for super-grace believers only. Category #2 is for the human race. Category #3 is for the human race. 8. The problem of divine love toward man. a) Because God is absolute righteousness and justice it is impossible for God to love sinful man without compromising the holiness of His essence. God cannot love sinful man, He can only judge him. b) Therefore when John 3:16 says that God so loved the world it demands that God’s righteousness and justice remain uncompromised. It is a biblical fact that God loves sinful man and therefore we must look for some way in which God has resolved the problem. c) God cannot love on a sentimental or emotional basis, it would compromise His holiness. d) God’s love is no stronger than God’s righteousness. (This is true of human beings as well) e) The true basis for love is always righteousness, character, honour, integrity. f) Therefore Jesus Christ had to go to the cross not only to bear our sins but to propitiate or protect the righteousness of God the Father is loving the world. That frees the Father to love the world and still not compromise His righteousness and His justice. So for God to love the world cost God the Father a great deal more than we realise. g) Because Christ was perfect in His deity and humanity on the cross the Father is propitiated, His righteousness uncompromised, and the way is paved for God to love the world. h) Therefore propitiation makes it possible for God to save man and love the believer with maximum love. When you and I come to the cross and believe in Christ we pass the point of propitiation and God now loves us with maximum love no matter what kind of a believer we are. i) At the point of salvation every believer passes the point of propitiation whereby God loves that believer with maximum love and without compromising His essence — 1 John 2:2. j) This was portrayed in the Old Testament through the ark and the mercy seat in the holy of holies. k) In addition to propitiation positional truth for the Church Age believer guarantees that every member of the royal family of God will be loved with the same amount of love that God the Father has for God the Son — 1 John 3:2. l) This means that God loves the carnal believer as much as the spiritual believer. God loves the reversionist as much as the super-grace believer. God loves the believer influenced by evil as much as the believer influenced by doctrine. This is grace; this is divine love. In this particular passage there is an emphasis on category #1 love. The doctrine of category #1 love 1. Definition. Love comes in three categories: #1 toward God; #2 right man, right woman; #3 friendship. In addition there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family of God, better known as loving the brethren. Category #1 is the believer’s capacity to love God and to respond to God’s love based on Bible doctrine resident in the soul. When the believer reaches maturity — known as super-grace status — this category #1 love is called occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. The command to category #1 love is first found in Deuteronomy 6:5 as an expression of worship. 2. The means of category #1 love. Since God is invisible and since at same the time He is the object of category #1 love we must see and love God through His Word. In other words, you cannot see God, therefore the ordinary means of loving is out. It is Bible doctrine resident in the soul that makes it possible for us to love God. The reversionistic believer, for example, is incapable of loving God because he lacks the basic ingredients: doctrine in the soul. The immature believer does not love God because he lacks doctrine in the soul. And while for different reasons they do not love God, nevertheless the fact remains. You cannot love God unless you know God. You cannot know God unless you have Bible doctrine resident in your soul. You cannot have Bible doctrine resident in your soul unless you are positive toward doctrine — “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together” and putting yourself under the authority of your right pastor-teacher. Without this it is impossible to love God. 1 Peter 1:18 — Jesus Christ is invisible, and to love the invisible God requires more than a lot of emotional nonsense, it requires doctrine in the soul, Ephesians 3:18,19. 3. Category #1 loves sets up a standard for grace — Psalm 119:132; 31:32. So the command is to love the Lord and the basis for doing so is doctrine in the soul. 4. Category #1 love is the basis for super-grace blessing — 1 Corinthians 2:9; Psalm 37:4,5. “Delight” is making love to. Making love to the Lord is taking in doctrine, taking in doctrine, taking in doctrine, and capacity for loving Him develops from that doctrine. 5. Category #1 love is the basis for personal as well as national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15-20. So the principle is that your personal blessing and your national blessing are tied up in your attitude toward Bible doctrine. Maximum doctrinal in your soul leads to another principle, the salt principle, whereby you are the preservative of the national entity. 6. Category #1 love motivates combat courage and military victory. The believer in a combat situation is in a maximum pressure type situation, and in this situation doctrine makes the difference — Joshua 23:10,11. One super-grace believer with maximum category #1 love puts to flight a thousand enemy soldiers. As you are occupied with the Lord you are able to face maximum pressure in life, whether it is combat or something else. 7. Category #1 love provides strength for adversity and pressure — Hebrews 11:27; 12:3. 8. There is a special curse on believers who fail to become occupied with the person of Christ under category #1 love — 1 Corinthians 16:22. “Anathema Maranatha” is really not Greek, it is Aramaic. It means “cursed until our Lord comes.” For the believer who does not get with doctrine, who does not take in doctrine, he will not be occupied with Christ, and he will be under a curse. The curse continues until the Rapture. This curse dramatises the fact that divine discipline is the life of all believers who neglect Bible doctrine. In other words, the plan of God is something that all believers are involved in. Both the mature believer and the reversionist is in the plan of God. The former is going to super-grace, the latter is under divine discipline. There is no in between. Either the plan of God carries you to great blessing or the plan of God crushes you, but there is no in between. Your attitude toward doctrine determines which it will be. 9. Witnessing must be motivated by category #1 love — 2 Corinthians 5:14. 10. A description of category #1 love — 1 John 4:15-19. When a believer has maximum doctrine in his soul he has maximum category #1 love, He is occupied with Christ. Therefore the fear factor is eliminated and love and capacity for love becomes the great factor in his life. “out of a pure heart” — the word “heart” always refers to something that processes the thoughts in your soul. It refers, therefore, to the mentality of your soul. Heart is used in the Bible for your mentality. “Out of a pure heart” is a prepositional phrase and it starts out with the preposition e)k plus and adjective kaqaroj. Kaqaroj is in the ablative — e)k plus the ablative. Then we have the ablative singular of the noun kardia. Kardia refers to the thinking part of the soul. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” The passage here should read, “From [the source of; e)k plus the ablative] a pure heart.” In other words, love is from the source of a pure heart. Love is a characteristic of the soul with emphasis on what you think in your right lobe. Love is thinking, thinking about something else. Love has an object and you think about that object in one of many categories. Love is what you think about someone else. Capacity for love therefore demands that in your heart or right lobe you have the proper accouterments. For example, you must have a frame of reference for the object of your love. You must have a memory centre. All categories of love are related to memory. And you must have vocabulary. Then there are the norms and standards; the conscience, a very important part of the function of love. Your conscience automatically eliminates certain crude types as the object for love. Then you must have a launching pad where all love goes out, first in thought and then expressed in action under certain categories. “Purity” here has the concept of freedom from evil, freedom from reversionism, freedom for things which are anti-doctrinal. Love is a mental attitude, it expresses itself in many ways but it still is a mental attitude. The adjective kaqaroj, “pure,” indicates that all true lovers have a certain kind of righteousness, integrity, character, honour, freedom from mental attitude sins, freedom from evil. A person who is jealous or vindictive or implacable has no capacity for love in any of the categories. Such a person is not a lover, nor can such a person respond to true love. So love demands righteousness, integrity, honour, character, freedom from mental sins, from reversionism, from evil. The doctrine of the heart 1. The physiological heart is in the human body and is a very intricately-woven muscle which by contracting rhythmically causes circulation of the blood. It is a double pump composed of two valves and the pumps and valves circulate the blood n much the same manner as doctrine is circulated in the right lobe of the soul. It is for this reason that the very close correlation between the mechanical function of the heart and the mechanical function of our mentality that the heart is a Bible word for the right lobe or the mentality of the soul. 2. The Bible heart. The word heart has many connotations in the English language. For example, it is called the part nearest the centre, like the heart of the earth, the core of something. It is sometimes used in connection with cards. The heart has a shape, like on Valentines Day. It is the seat of the spiritual or the consciousness of life, the soul. So the word “heart” as used for the soul is also found in the English as well as the Greek and the Hebrew. Sometimes “heart” in the English has an emotional connotation; the heart has no emotional connotation in the Bible. Whenever you see a verse with heart in it, it does not refer to emotion. For emotion we have such words as “bowels” and “kidneys.” The Bible never uses “heart” for the emotions in a physiological sense. In other words, the Bible heart is used always for the mentality of the soul. The heart in the Bible is the organ of thinking — Proverbs 23:7; 1 Samuel 16:7; Genesis 6:5 distinguishes between imaginations and thoughts of the heart. The heart is the residence of Bible doctrine in the soul — Proverbs 2:2,10; 3:3; 15:14. 3. The essence of the heart. The heart is composed of parts. The first part is the frame of reference, the basic area of the heart where all thought receives its basic training for function in your own soul. The frame of reference is mentioned as a part of the heart in Proverbs 4:4, it is a sort of antechamber for understanding life. Secondly, we have the memory centre which is a pump which circulates doctrine into the various parts of the right lobe as well as the soul. The memory centre should be related to the doctrine of memory. The vocabulary storage is a supply place to develop thought. Your ability to think depends upon your vocabulary. The greater your vocabulary the greater your capacity for thought. Words are the vehicle for thinking. Then we have conscience, the norms and the standards which you develop in life. This is a constantly changing thing. Your norms and standards will change as you learn about life. If you are an advancing believer your norms and standards will advance so that they will be doctrinal in their viewpoint. If you are in reversionism your norms and standards will decline until the decline of your norms and standards leads to being influenced by evil. Once all of your norms and standards are evil then you are a candidate for the sin unto death. This is a very important function in your soul. Then there is the application of these things to life, so you have a launching pad where you apply these various concepts in your soul to life. 4. Therefore the doctrinal content in your soul resides in your heart or your right lobe — Proverbs 2:2,10; Psalm 119;11; 19:14; Proverbs 15:14; Job 38:36; 1 Kings 3:9,12. 5. The facets of heart function. The heart can reject Bible teaching — Proverbs 5:12,13. The heart is the source of discord and trouble-making — Proverb 6:14,18. The heart of the prostitute is said to be subtle is Proverbs 7:10. Hatred is related to the heart in 2 Samuel 6:16. The heart suffers disappointment from promises not kept — Proverbs 13:12. The heart promotes mental attitude sins — Proverbs 14:10; sorrow and disappointment — Proverbs 14:13; pride — Proverbs 21:4; Obadiah 3; worry, Ecclesiastes 2:23. It is said in the Bible that women use the heart to trap men — Ecclesiastes 7:26. The frantic search for happiness is related to the heart — Ecclesiastes 1:13. Reversionism is described in terms of the heart — Jeremiah 17:5,9; Zechariah 7:12. Revolution, insubordination is described as being in the heart — 2 Samuel 15:6; Jeremiah 5:23; Ezekiel 6:9. Hypocrisy is in the heart — Job 36:13; Psalm 55:21. Now you are to deduce from these various facets of heart function that the heart can be influenced by evil, that the heart becomes a major factor in reversionism as well as a major factor in spiritual growth. The heart can be influenced by doctrine, the heart can be influenced by evil. Whichever way it goes determines your function in the plan of God. You can be blessed if your heart is influenced by doctrine, you can be disciplined and cursed if your heart is influenced by evil 6. The heart is related to the function of thinking and perception. The heart related to the function of GAP is thinking and perception — Deuteronomy 29:4. The thinking of a reversionist is related to the heart — Psalm 10:6,11,13. The atheist also uses his heart for thinking — Proverbs 14:1. The rationalising of education — Ecclesiastes 1:13-18 is the heart related to thinking. The rationalising of mental attitude sins — Isaiah 47:10. False teachers communicating deceit from their heart — Jeremiah 14:14. The heart is used for meditation on doctrine — Luke 2:19. Thinking superiority comes from the heart — Luke 9:46,47. 7. In the analogy of right man and right woman the heart comes into the picture. The heart is analogous to the right man even as the emotion is analogous to the right woman in the various functions of the parts of the soul. Psalm 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10; 20:12. 8. The heart is also related to capacity for life (not your emotion). The capacity for life is in the heart, not in the emotion. Your capacity for life is in what you think, not in what you feel. Emotion is a responder to capacity for life but there is no capacity for life in emotion. All capacity for life resides in your frame of reference, your memory centre, your vocabulary thinking, categorising, the conscience of your right lobe. From these areas the heart initiates and the emotion responds. It is the same way in sex: the man initiates, the woman responds. After she responds she becomes an initiator. There are positive and negative capacities for life. On the positive side is love — Deuteronomy 6:5; 11:13; Joshua 22:5. Happiness — Psalm 19:8; 28:7; dynamics — Job 9:4. On the negative side we have sorrow — Leviticus 26:16; pressure — Psalm 34:18; cowardice — Joshua 14:8; 1 Samuel 17:32; discouragement — Numbers 32:7,9. 9. Therefore the heart is the basic area for happiness or unhappiness. The emotion merely reflects what is in the heart. 10. The heart is an area for cursing in the soul. Reversionism in the heart results in national disaster — Deuteronomy 28:47,48. Revenge is a malfunction of the heart — Proverbs 24:1,2; Ezekiel 25:15-17. The heart is related to psychosis in Isaiah 13:7,8. Mental sins relate to the old sin nature in the heart. In other words, all mental attitude sins come from the old sin nature but they are transmitted through the heart — Psalm 66:18; 101:5: Proverbs 6:18; Matthew 12:35; 15:18,19. 11. The heart is a blessing to the growing believer because the heart is related to grace function — Proverbs 24:17. The heart is related to grace orientation — Exodus 23:9. Id related top happiness 1 Samuel 2:1. Is the basis of stability in the crisis — Psalm 112:7,8. 12. The heart is also the motivator of life: for temporal life — Exodus 35:25,26,35; 36:8; for spiritual life — 2 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Kings 8:17. 13. The heart is related to positive volition — Romans 10:9,10. 14. The heart is used as an anthropopathism. In other words, the heart of God becomes an anthropopathism — 1 Samuel 2:35; Psalm 78:72; Jeremiah 23:20; 30:24. Verse 5c — “and a good conscience.” We have a connective use of the conjunction kai, then a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of suneidhsij. Sun is a preposition meaning “with,” and e)idhsij is taken from o)ida which means to know. So it means to know along with something. The something with which we know is simply a norm or a standard we have in the soul and this becomes the basis for determining certain things in life — determining whether something is acceptable or not acceptable, good or bad, moral or immoral, and all of the many other concepts, true or false. The standards in life are designed for that and also for what we personally like and what we don’t like. The word for “good” is the ablative singular of the adjective a)gaqoj which is the word for good of intrinsic value, and here it refers to absolute good. A good conscience is one saturated with doctrine forming the norms and standards of life. Obviously there are various sets of norms and standards. For example, doctrine does not set up empirical standards. Empirical standards are based upon taste, sight, smell, hearing. In other words, the sensory systems. So the sensory system sets up its own standards. There are standards which are not covered in doctrine but you do have certain doctrinal standards. If there ever is a conflict between a doctrinal norm and any other standard you have established in your soul the doctrinal norm supersedes all others. The doctrine of conscience 1. A conscience is the accumulation of norms and standards in your right lobe or heart. The conscience is all of the norms and standards that you possess, whether they are right or wrong, good or bad. They are your very own norms and standards and they belong to your conscience. Doctrine and the learning of doctrine will correct many of your erroneous norms and standards. One of the many advantages in being a mature believer is to have good norms and standards about everything. A good conscience, in other words, is a conscience where Bible doctrine establishes all of your norms and standards. A conscience is that part of the soul’s right lobe where you have computerised all of your norms and standards. 2. The conscience is located in the right lobe or the thinking part of the soul — Romans 2:15; Titus 1:15. The conscience establishes norms for both human and divine relationships — Acts 24:16. 3. The conscience convicts of sin, evil, and wrong doing. In other words, the conscience is a warning. If you are in sin were it not for your conscience you would not know what to rebound. It also warns of evil as your conscience advances in the doctrinal field and as you mature. And so you are aware of reversionism, you are aware of evil, you are aware of sin — John 8:9. 4. The conscience establishes norms for both morality and the laws of establishment — Romans 2:15. 5. False norms and standards in the conscience produce legalism and self-righteousness — 1 Corinthians 8:7. Immediately after the fall of man false norms and standards were established in the conscience resulting in the first act of legalism in the Genesis 3:7 — operation fig leaves which was a conscience-type sin. A self-righteous conscience demanded that the man and the woman put on clothes. This was a false conscience function. Our norm and standard to day is to wear clothes. 6. The law of freedom and certain superseding laws such as love, expediency, supreme sacrifice, are also related to the function of the conscience in 1 Corinthians 10:24-29. In other words, your conscience also develops concepts of superseding laws where you are free to do something but because of the law of love [directed toward the weak believer] or the law of expediency [directed toward the unbeliever] or the law of supreme sacrifice [directed toward God] this means that you will have established norms which are superseded under the function of these laws. So your conscience knows when you have a correct, perfectly moral, upright norm or standard that must be superseded or set aside under these laws. 7. The conscience is the basis for patriotism — Romans 13:5. 8. Human happiness in the field of neutral H [legitimate happiness for believers and unbelievers] is based on compliance on one’s own conscience. When you meet your own standards this contributes to neutral H — 2 Corinthians 1:12. 9. Norms and standards reside in the conscience for the communication of doctrine — 2 Corinthians 4:2. This avoids intellectual dishonesty and intellectual snobbery. 10. The function of GAP builds up the divine standards in the human conscience — 1 Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9. 11. Conscience can be distorted or destroyed by negative volition toward doctrine — scar tissue of the soul, blackout of the soul, being influenced by evil — 1 Timothy 4:1,2. 12. Conscience establishes norms and standards for serving God — 2 Timothy 1:3; Hebrews 9:14. 13. Conscience containing doctrine is the basis for enduring suffering, maltreatment, misunderstanding, without trying to apologise for yourself, defend yourself in some way — 1 Peter 2:19; 3:16. In this sense, by the way, your conscience is a great protection in avoiding any ego trip. The way to protect from that is to develop firm standards from doctrine and stick with them. Your conscience is a computer that is related to your capacity for life, and that is why the conscience is mentioned so many times in the scriptures. The good conscience is one saturated with doctrine forming norms and standards and grace concepts in life. “and faith unfeigned” — again, a connective kai, the preposition e)k plus the ablative singular from the adjective a)nupokritoj. Krith is an actor; with u(po it means to act behind a mask. They used wax masks in the Hellenistic world of drama. The adjective actually means without hypocrisy. The a means without having on a mask. The word pistij refers to doctrine. So it should be, “from doctrine without hypocrisy.” Doctrine without hypocrisy means learning doctrine without using doctrine as an excuse for sins, for evil, or for some form of reversionism or rationalisation. The tendency in the adolescent stage of spiritual life is to start “using” doctrine as an excuse. Some people use certain grace doctrines to “raise hell,” some as an excuse to do something. Some people sit in Bible class waiting for some that resembles a biblical excuse for something they always wanted to do and the knew it was always wrong. The sophomore stage: the word is made up of two Greek words — sofoj which means wise; morh which means fool. A “wise fool.” The Greek had a beautiful way of describing adolescence. So we have the sophomore stage of spiritual life. Translation: “But the objective of preaching is love from a pure heart [right lobe], and from a good conscience, and from doctrine without hypocrisy.” The objective of communicating doctrine or preaching is to produce in the soul of the believer a tremendous categorical development of the soul’s norms and standards so that the individual recognises his slavery to doctrine and not his “using” of doctrine.

In verses 6 and 7 the purpose of the ministry: to avoid apostasy, arrogance, and stupidity.

Verse 6 — “From which some.” We have the ablative plural of the relative pronoun o(j plus tij, the indefinite relative pronoun which refers to pastors who have become reversionists who have become reversionists, which as resulted in arrogance, apostasy or stupidity. “having swerved” — aorist active participle of a)stoxew which means to swerve or to deviate or to go astray. The verb describes pastoral reversionism. It warns of the areas in which a pastor is hurt in communicating doctrine. The aorist tense of the participle is a constative aorist, it contemplates the three problems — arrogance, apostasy, stupidity — in their entirety. The active voice: the pastor produces these things to fail as a pastor. The participle is a causal participle. Reversionism causes pastors to swerve, to deviate, to turn aside. Furthermore, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, “have turned aside” —the aorist passive indicative of e)ktrepw, they have turned aside from their responsibility. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the result. The passive voice has a middle voice sense. It is an indirect middle emphasising the agent, the failing or reversionistic pastor, as producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is indicates the main verb: “they themselves have turned to.” “vain jangling” — preposition e)ij plus the accusative from the compound mataiologia. Mataioj is a vacuum. It means empty. Logia is taken from logoj: “words” or legw, “to speak.” It comes to mean empty or ineffective teaching, empty talk. Translation: “From which some pastors having deviated they themselves have turned to empty talk.” It is a reference to the teaching of reversionistic pastors who under the influence of evil cannot communicate doctrine. They are arrogant, stupid, apostate; their teaching becomes ineffective. It is not accomplishing the objective for which the Holy Spirit gave them the gift of pastor-teacher.

Verse 7 — the false standard. “Desiring” is the present active participle of the verb qelw. The present tense is a descriptive present, or called a pictorial present. It describes the action in progress. The active voice: the reversionistic pastor produces the action of the verb by trying to jump back into the dispensation of Israel and become a teacher of the law. This was the big problem in the first century. They were just a few years removed from the Age of Israel and as far as they were concerned there was no new dispensation. To them the big problem was, “There is no dispensation.” A far as they were concerned they were still in the Age of Israel, and the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and then the calling out of the royal family of the Church, didn’t exist. They were still living under the old dispensation. In other words, their stupidity was being anti-dispensational. This is a stupidity which had bugged in the last few hundred years of Church history, the fundamentalists. Their great problem has been that they are anti-dispensational and dispensational theology has not even been recognised, except in a handful of seminaries. All denominations are traditionally anti-dispensational. Were it not for the Plymouth Brethren who have always been very strong for dispensational theology, and places like Dallas Seminary and one of the independent Presbyterian groups, there would really be no emphasis on dispensational theology. The traditional theology is called covenant theology which destroys and blurs all dispensational theology distinctions. The active voice: the reversionistic pastor produces the action of the verb by ignoring dispensational distinctions. The participle is circumstantial. “to be” — present active infinitive of e)imi denotes an intended purpose, but really they can’t carry it out the way they want to. “teachers of the law” — predicate nominative plural of a sort of coined word, nomodidaskoloj which is obviously a teacher of the law — “Desiring to be law teachers.” The Judaisers have come to Ephesus. Many of them are believers but they are very legalistic. They are believers who are still depending entirely upon the Mosaic law and do not recognise any change in dispensations. Therefore they come to teach legalism, distorting the Mosaic law into a system of legalism. They emphasise the Mosaic law as the way of salvation, keeping the law as a way of spirituality. So keeping the law was a popular form of reversionism in the early church, a form of reversionism that belonged to pastors and teachers who did not know of the change of dispensation or were blanked-out on it. To become a teacher of the law is not only apostasy but, worse than that, it is dispensational disorientation. The doctrine of dispensations 1. Definition and description. A dispensation is a period of human history expressed in terms of divine revelation. God has divided human history into its proper segments. The dispensations as a whole become the divine outline of human history, as well as God’s categories for human history. History is often divided up by historians based upon certain functions, certain changes in history into periods, based upon their own interpretation or upon cataclysmic events in history. God also has the perfect interpretation, the spiritual interpretation of history, and this is called dispensations. It is God’s plan for man related to time. The believer’s orientation to time and to history is vitally necessary for understanding God’s plan and purpose in time. In every dispensation God administers His plan through specific agencies. That is where we get the word “dispensation.” It means stewardship. For example, God always has communicators. In the Age of Israel the communicators were the Levitical priests, the Levites, and the prophets. In the Church Age bona fide communicators were apostles — until AD 96 — and now pastor-teachers. Outside the local church there is a bona fide gift of communication called evangelism. God administers through specific agencies, He has His stewards in every dispensation. The progeny of Seth, the patriarchs, the nation Israel, were administrators in the past. Today the Church is the administrator. Salvation in each one of these dispensations was always the same, only the manner in which Jesus Christ was revealed has changed as history has developed. Jesus Christ was first revealed through animal sacrifices and since that time, right up to the present time, He has been revealed in different ways. After the cross he is revealed historically; before the cross He is revealed prophetically, as in the classical illustration of Isaiah 53. 2. There is a biblical vocabulary and it is necessarily Greek since dispensational teaching is revealed in the New Testament. There are quite a few words which refer to dispensations. Xronoj is the basic word for time in the Greek language from which we get the word chronology. it means time as a succession of events. It can be time as a succession of minutes, as a succession of hours. But Xronoj is often used in the Bible in the New Testament for time as a succession of events. This is a related dispensational word. Kairoj is much more specific in connection with dispensations. It denotes time as an epoch or an era. it is used for the organisation of historical events into their dispensational categories in 1 Thessalonians 5:1. A)ion refers to dispensations as ages or periods of time. it is a divine category of human history and therefore it is often translated correctly, “age”, as in Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25. Then the word “dispensation” itself: o)ikonomia. This word refers to management of an estate, administration of an estate. It also means dispensation or the divine administration of time. God has an administration in each one of His periods of time. 3. The first dispensation is the Age of the Gentiles covering Genesis chapters 1-11. It is divided into three periods: The period of positive volition — Adam in the garden with the woman; from the fall on we have negative volition; this is followed by the laws of divine establishment. The characteristics of this age are one language, one race [Gentiles], the angelic attack is on establishment — on free will in chapter three, marriage and family in chapter six, on nationalism in chapter 11. The scope of this dispensation goes from creation to Babel. There was no written scripture, all of it was revealed by God or through various agencies, there was no missionary agency but salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ. People reached super-grace on the basis of the doctrine they had received. We know this from a study of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. 4. In the second dispensation we have the Age of Israel which is, again, divided into three parts: the period of the patriarchs, the period of the law which was interrupted by the resurrection, ascension and session. The interruption is so that Jesus Christ who is alone at the right hand of the Father might have a royal family. The Church Age is the calling out of the royal family. Once the royal family is completed then the Age of Israel resumes with the seven years of the Tribulation. The period of the patriarchs goes from Abraham to Moses, the law from Moses to Christ, and then the conclusion of this dispensation, the Tribulation from the Rapture to the second advent. It is a period of many languages, many races, the development of Israel from a race to a nation — Abraham at the point of circumcision became the father of a new race, the latest and newest race. Moses is the father of the nation. The security of the nation came through its unconditional covenants and the whole concept of this dispensation is that there might be a custodianship for the scriptures as they began. This custodianship was the nation Israel. Everything centres around the Jews. Technically, when a Jew believes today he is a member of the royal family and in the royal family there is neither Jew or Gentile but an entire new category and concept. The national security, prosperity and blessing came through the delineation of the laws of divine establishment as they were portrayed in the Mosaic law. National discipline: the five cycles; salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ; spirituality was through the faith-rest technique, and a number of believers reached super-grace. The problem of the Judaisers of Paul’s day and the great attack upon the Ephesians complex all came because of ignorance on the part of pastors of the doctrine of intercalation. The doctrine of intercalation 1. Intercalation means insertion. The Jewish dispensation was interrupted by the insertion of a new dispensation. The strategical victory of Jesus Christ, the cross, resurrection, ascension and His session at the right hand of the Father immediately demanded that the Jewish Age be interrupted and that a new dispensation be inserted. 2. The new dispensation inserted was the dispensation of the royal family of God. It generally derives its name from its classroom. The local church is the classroom for the royal family. It is the only time they assemble and meet together without portfolio. When the royal family meets in the local church they have no rights or privileges, only the opportunity for concentration on the teaching under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. One teaches, all learn. That is why it is called the Church Age, but it is better termed the age of the royal family of God, an absolute unique age. 3. Intercalation is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The calling out of the royal family immediately intensified the angelic conflict. 4. The doctrine pertaining to the Church Age is called “mystery” because it was 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 scriptures. Where Church Age doctrine would have occurred there is a parenthesis. 6. Doctrine pertinent to the Church Age is intercalated, inserted, by the New Testament epistles. 7. Illustrations of the great parenthesis concept in the Old Testament: Daniel 2:40 comes right up to the Church Age. Between verses 40 and 41 the Church Age would be inserted but it was not mentioned because it was part of the mystery doctrine. We have the same thing between Daniel 7:23 and 24, between 8:22 and 23, and Daniel 11:35 and 36, or Hosea 3:4 and 5. 8. The Old Testament reveals doctrine up through the session of Christ and then skips the Church Age and reveals Tribulational information as well as the second advent and the Millennium. But never once does it say anything about the Church Age. That is why the baptism of the Holy Spirit was such a surprise on the Day of Pentecost and no one could understand it, and there is very little way of explaining it which is why a passage had to be lifted by Peter out of Joel to explain why they weren’t all drunk but were in something brand new. The Church Age is the key and the important factor, and it was being ignored by pastors, and we still have that brand of pastor today. He is called a covenant theologian and he does not see the Church Age as being any different from the Old Testament. In the writings of covenant theology you will find the word “church” used in connection with the Old Testament. We have an absolutely unique age. The baptism of the Holy Spirit made us royal family of God. The demand for our day is something that never existed before: the balance of residency. The body of the believer is always indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The soul of the believer never is indwelt by the Spirit but when the Holy Spirit controls the soul we call that filling of the Spirit. When the believer is carnal or when the believer is reversionistic he is either quenching or grieving the Spirit but the Holy Spirit, either in quenching or grieving, never leaves our bodies. Therefore there is no such thing as demon possession. There is something worse, the thing about which our Lord warns us: “Do not be afraid of that which destroys the body, beware of that which destroys the soul.” Being influenced by evil destroys the soul. Reversionism and influence of evil meet and that is where the soul becomes destroyed. Minus doctrine and the filling of the Spirit sets up an out-of-balance condition and this is balanced out through the daily function of GAP. The sanctification of the royal family is this balance of residency. So we have the baptism of the Spirit, the universal priesthood of the believer, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the sealing of the Spirit. We have a completed canon of scripture. We have all of these things that pertain to the royal family of God that are absolutely unique. Never in history has there been such an opportunity for believers as there is in this particular dispensation. This is what these pastors do not understand, this is what Judaism has done. In the middle of verse 7 we have the phrase, “understanding neither.” For “neither” we have the negative mh plus the present active participle of the verb noew. It should be translated, “not understanding.” The present tense is the retroactive progressive present which denotes what has begun in the past with reversionism and continues into the present under the influence of reversionism and evil. The pastors in the Ephesus complex had entered into legalistic or Judaistic type reversionism. The active voice: the Ephesian pastors and those of that area, the Roman province of Asia, produce the action of the verb by entering into legalistic reversionism. The participle is causal and should be translated literally, “since they do not understand.” Neither” is “either”; “what they say” — the present active indicative of legw plus mhte. Mhte is what is called a negative copula and it should be translated “either.” The nominative plural neuter of the relative pronoun o(j is also involved here: “either what they are teaching” is the best translation. The present tense indicates linear aktionsart, retroactive progressive present. They have been teaching in the past and they are teaching right now. They are law teachers, they know nothing of the Church Age, they know nothing of the royal family of God. “nor whereof” — whereof is a preposition, peri plus the genitive of the indefinite pronoun tij — it is “concerning the things.” “they affirm” — a fair translation. It is the present middle indicative of diabebaioomai. The word means to make confident assertions which are untrue. To be full of hot air and to be dogmatic about it is what it really means. We will simply translate it, “they make confident assertions.” Both verbs also are descriptive presents, they are occurring right now. We have the active voice in the verb legw for teaching here, meaning that the pastors are producing the action. But we have the deponent middle in the second verb, again meaning the pastors are producing the action. And we have the indicative mood for a declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is a fact, these pastors are arrogant and stupid. When it comes to the Mosaic law pastors are at their worst, it sneaks up on their blind side. Many pastors have a trend toward legalism anyway and this merely contributes to it. So without seeing objectively why the Mosaic law is in the Bible they just simply set that aside and become subjective about the Mosaic law and make it a basis for legalism. So you come up with salvation by keeping the law, which is apostasy; spirituality by keeping the law, which is also apostasy. Translation: “Desiring to be teachers of the law; since they do not understand either what they are teaching or concerning things about which they speak dogmatically.” 1. It is obvious that the reversionistic and apostate pastors in the Ephesus complex are teaching a legalism related to the Mosaic law. 2. They are teaching it from arrogance and dogmatism. They are dogmatically wrong. There are two doctrines which make the next paragraph which is the purpose of the Mosaic law. The doctrine of the covenants to Israel A. Definition. 1. The Hebrew berith and the Greek diaqhkh are two words which do not mean testament. A testament is some kind of official thing whereby you anticipate your death and you want your will to be superimposed on others after your death. Therefore you must die before this official document becomes operational. That is exactly what we do not have. What we really have is a new covenant and an old covenant. Berith in the Hebrew and diaqhkh in the Greek refer to a disposition made by party of the first part in favour of party of the second part. In other words, party of the first part is God in all these covenants, and He makes a disposition while God is alive and in fact God is still alive. Christ was alive and died twice on the cross. These covenants were made prior to the cross — all of them — so they are not waiting for the death of Christ; even the cross is not involved here directly. A covenant means party of the first part makes a favourable disposition to party of the second part, apart from party of the second part having to do anything. In other words, we are talking about the principle of grace. Party of the second part is generally regenerate mankind. The one exception is the Mosaic law which is addressed to the Jewish nation. 2. Neither of these biblical words refer to a will or testament, for a will or a testament is activated by the physical death of the testator. 3. Such is not the case with God. God lives and cannot die. 4. While the new covenant, for example, depends upon the spiritual death of Christ on the cross providing redemption, reconciliation and propitiation, it is not activated because of His physical death. 5. To the contrary it is guaranteed by His resurrection, ascension and session; it is guaranteed by His life, not by His dying. 6. Therefore both diaqhkh and berith require a compact between two parties with one party favouring the other. 7. All biblical covenants are made between God and man as the two parties, and always God favouring man on a grace basis. 8. Each dispensation contains one or more covenants. For example, the age of the Gentiles: the Adamic covenant, the Noahic covenant. The Age of Israel: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel. The Church Age: the new covenant to the Church. And to be fulfilled in the Millennium, the new covenant to Israel. 9. While some covenants to Israel have been classified as unconditional and others conditional, this is a misnomer. All covenants to Israel are gracious promises and provisions on the part of God as party of the first part toward Israel or toward individuals as undeserving party of the second part. B. General classification. There are five individual covenants to Israel or to individuals in Israel: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Mosaic, Davidic, and New covenants. C. The covenants of the Messianic line. Some covenants deal with the whole Messianic problem and therefore they are not confined to the Age of Israel, though Jewish covenants are also related since Messiah came from Israel. For example, by covenants of the Messianic line we again refer to five: the Adamic covenant of Genesis 2:15; 3:15, the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ will come as Adam’s seed when he is called the seed of the woman. In the Noahic covenant — Genesis 6:18; 8:21-9:17 — the seed of the woman or the humanity of Christ wll come through the line of Noah, specifically through Seth. In the Abrahamic covenant the seed of the woman will come from the line of Abraham’s descent. In the Davidic covenant the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ, will come from the line of David through Bathsheba and through two sons of Bathsheba — Solomon and Nathan. Then the New covenant to Israel: the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, will return to the earth to reign over Israel and to reign over the world forever. This is the restoration under the Millennial reign of Christ. D. The covenant to Abraham. The unconditional grace covenant in which God as party of the first part makes a favourable disposition to party of the second part, Abraham. Part of the disposition of this covenant promises to Abraham both a new race — the Jews — and a new nation — Israel. The original three-paragraph covenant in found in Genesis 12:1-3, with amplification which came later. It included the promise of real estate and so it has the seed for the Palestinian covenant. The geographical location, is described in the Abrahamic covenant — Genesis 13:14-16; 15:18-21. It includes an eternal city, the heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation 21:2,10. The covenant pertains to the seed of Abraham, specifically through Isaac and through Jacob. The covenant is the basis for the Exodus deliverance and the beginning of the nation in Exodus — Exodus 6:2-8. E. The covenant to Moses. Unlike all the other covenants this one as party of the second part is to a group of people, a nation. It is to the nation Israel. Therefore, since Israel is always made up of unbelievers and believers it is a slightly different type of covenant, but it is not a conditional covenant — only in the sense when anyone observes the laws of divine establishment certain blessings are going to accrue. So it is different from the other covenants in that its beneficiary is a nation. So it must be classified as the national heritage covenant because the national heritage of Israel is spiritual as well as establishment. It is a beautiful combination of spiritual factors and establishment factors. The spiritual factors teach grace — the Levitical offerings, the tabernacle, the Levitical priesthood; the establishment factors always made Israel a great nation and establishment blesses the unbeliever, gives the unbeliever the same freedom and opportunities that the believer has. It was definitely not given to the Gentiles and definitely not given to the Church. It is divided into three groups: the basic heritage for freedom, the spiritual heritage, and the establishment heritage. F. The Palestinian Covenant. God as party of the first part makes a land grant to party of the second part, the nation Israel in the Millennium. The nation Israel in the Millennium is going to be made up of believers and unbelievers, starting out with believers but ending up with believers and unbelievers. But this goes on forever so that eventually on the believers will enjoy this covenant forever and ever. The borders are described in Numbers 34:1-12; Deuteronomy 30:1-9; Joshua 1:3,4. The beneficiaries will be the nation Israel in eternity as well as the nation Israel in the Millennium. G. The covenant to David. H. The covenant to Jeremiah, called also the New covenant to Israel. God confirms the fact that He will keep all of these covenants. There is one covenant during Israel’s dispersion and that is the New covenant to the Church, the basis for the New Testament which is really the New Covenant. The doctrine of the Mosaic covenant 1. The Mosaic covenant is divided into three categories. The first part called the ten commandments is the freedom code. They do not describe morality, the describe freedom. The fact that morality is mentioned is simply to prove the fact that freedom is based upon establishment. Establishment functions on morality. You don’t have many sins mentioned, only those where freedom is violated. These commandments form the heritage of freedom for the Jewish nation. Human freedom is described in terms of establishment, it is described in terms of morality, the basis for human freedom and privacy. The second part of the Mosaic law called the ordinances is the spiritual or the theological code. This is the spiritual heritage of Israel recognising that this nation as well as this race was born from regeneration. When the race was born Abraham was born again, Isaac was born again, Jacob was born again. The nation was born from Moses, Moses was born again, and the Passover commemorates the fact that those liberated, 20 and over, were also born again or they died. So we have a great spiritual heritage in codex #2. This heritage includes primarily doctrines of soteriology and Christology. It emphasises the fact that believers are designed to function under both the laws of divine establishment as well as doctrine resident in the soul. It includes such subjects as the tabernacle, the holy days, Levitical offerings, modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood, and many other factors connected to the spiritual life. The third category under the Mosaic law, called the judgments in the KJV, is really the establishment code. It is perhaps the most understood of all and the one that is often distorted into some brand of legalism. It was definitely misunderstood in the days when Paul wrote to Timothy. It includes political as well as the functional heritage of the nation Israel. It covers many subjects: freedom, privacy, marriage, divorce, military service, taxation (tithing), diet, health, sanitation, quarantine, criminal law. And it delineates free enterprise as the only basis for national prosperity. 2. The recipients of the law was the nation Israel — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4. It was definitely not given to the Gentiles — Deuteronomy 4:8; Roman 2:12-14. It was, furthermore, not given to the Church — Acts 15:5,24; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:19. 3. Jesus Christ and the law. Jesus Christ kept the law perfectly during the period of His incarnation. This is a part of the doctrine of impeccability, it is also a part of His patriotism. Christ condemned the legalistic distortions of the law and the Pharisees who sponsored them. Christ fulfilled the law — Matthew 5:17, and Christ is the end of the law for believers — Romans 10:4. 4. Keeping the law is not a way of salvation, never was and never will be — Galatians 2:16. While the Mosaic law reveals the way of salvation it is not the means of being saved. The Mosaic law teaches the gospel but is not the way of appropriating the gospel. It is the way of human freedom, the way of human blessing and prosperity under establishment, but it is not the way of salvation. 5. Keeping the law is also not spirituality. Believers in the Church Age and/or the royal family of God are under the higher law of spirituality related to God the Holy Spirit, related to the function of GAP — Romans 8:2-4; Galatians 5:18,22,23; 1 Corinthians 13. 6. Therefore the Mosaic law is limited as far as this dispensation is concerned. We are in the intercalated dispensation and therefore its limitation: a) It cannot justify — Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20,28; Acts 13:39; Philippians 3:9. b) It cannot give life — Galatians 3:21. c) It cannot provide the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2. d) It cannot solve the problem of the old sin nature — Romans 8:4. 7. Other nomenclature for the Mosaic law. It is called the book of the covenant in Exodus 24:7,8; 34:27,28; Deuteronomy 4:13-16, 23, 31; 8:18; 9:9, 11, 15. In other words, throughout the Old testament in the Pentateuch you are going to stumble over the phrase “this book of the covenant.” This is a specific reference to the Mosaic covenant. The addendum to the Mosaic law found in Deuteronomy 29-32 is definitely a part of the Mosaic law. Prophecies of breaking the covenant are found in Deuteronomy 31:16, 20; Jeremiah 22:9. The book of the covenant is the subject of Jeremiah 11 but is not to be confused with the new covenant to Israel in Jeremiah 31:31ff. 8. The past purpose of the Mosaic law in the Age of Israel. The Mosaic law was the authorising agent for a specialised priesthood — the Levitical priesthood — Hebrews 7:11,12. It authorised the tabernacle as a sacred building and training aid for teaching doctrine — Hebrews 9:1-6. The law authorised Levitical sacrifices — Hebrews 9:12,13. It authorised the blood of animals as a dedication of shadows — Hebrews 9:18-22 cf. 10:1, and it established the pattern for blessing and prosperity in the nation for believer and unbeliever under the laws of divine establishment. 9. The present purpose of the Mosaic law in the Church Age. It is written for our instruction — Romans 15:4. Our confidence in certain areas, like free enterprise. It was written for our example — 1 Corinthians 10:11,12. It also has another purpose, to convince by divine standards that the unbeliever is a sinner and needs a saviour. In other words, it is a prelude to gospel presentation — Romans 3:20,28; Galatians 2:16. So the Mosaic law and its principles form the pattern of policy for all good national government. We are now dealing with the purpose of the Mosaic law which came out of the phrase about desiring to become law teachers and yet coming up with empty talk.

Verse 8 — the abrogation of the law does not imply that the law is bad. To the contrary, the law is good. It does not have the same purpose that it had in the Old Testament in many ways because Jesus Christ having come in the flesh, having gone to the cross, died for our sins, was raised again, ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, broke into the Age of Israel which came to a halt in order for a royal family to be formed. We live in the dispensation of the royal family of God. When the royal family is completed and we are all resurrected, then the dispensation of Israel will continue throughout the course of the Tribulation and to the point of the second advent. The Mosaic covenant was designed to set up for the nation Israel two things: their spiritual heritage and the basis of national prosperity in the laws of divine establishment The spiritual heritage came from codex #2 and was designed to portray who and what Christ is. The laws of divine establishment set up the principles of prosperity for a national entity as well as social, sexual, and spiritual blessing in a national entity. All of this is fine if you understand the law in its proper concept, but once we break into the Age of Israel with the Church Age, immediately these have a different purpose. Now instead of laws of establishment and instead of the spiritual heritage which moved with the Age of Israel we come to a stop and we learn that there is a purpose in teaching the law in this age but entirely apart from the purpose which the Judaisers have set up. In fact the law as the authorising agent for the Levitical priesthood and for the modus operandi of Israel is abrogated. The abrogation of the law does not remove the teaching of the law. “But we know” — you must understand doctrine to orient to any factor in the royal priesthood. We have a post positive conjunctive particle de used as an adversative conjunction and translated “But.” It sets up a contrast between the distortion of the law by the Judaisers, previously mentioned in verses 6,7, and the true perspective of the law for the Church Age. We have with this particle the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for knowledge in the frontal lobe — understanding of a doctrinal perspective. “that” — the conjunction o(ti is used after verbs of thinking, verbs of conclusion, to show the content of the conclusion or the results of the verb of thinking. ”the law” — o( nomoj. The law is used for the Old Testament scripture. It is used for the Pentateuch, it is used for the Mosaic covenant. Here it is used for the Mosaic covenant. “is good” — we have a predicate adjective, kaloj, not a)gaqpj. Kaloj means here “noble.” It is used here in its qualitative sense of noble, useful, blameless, good. “if” is a conjunction used to introduce a third class condition, e)an, and it means maybe yes and maybe no. “a man” — the indefinite pronoun tij and it means “anyone.” “uses it” — present middle subjunctive of the verb xraomai which means to employ, to make use of. The present tense is the tendencial present for an action which is purposed though not actually taking place. The middle voice for a deponent verb is the same as the active voice. In other words, someone might use the law properly and lawfully and when they do it still has function. The subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition for potentiality. “lawfully” is an adverb, nomimoj, and it means according to the rules or lawfully. Translation: “But we know that the law is excellent if anyone uses it lawfully. Principles 1. The law must be used according to the principles within its own context. The law itself will determine its usage. You do not have to go outside of the Word of God for the proper use of the law in any dispensation. 2. In view of dispensational teaching, which these pastors do not understand and the Judaisers are not aware of, this means that certain things that the law advocated in Israel are not transferred to the Church. This means that tithing as a system of taxation, the specialised priesthood, the observation of a Sabbath day, and other concepts which have been distorted in the Church Age, are no longer valid. 3. The law was used in the dispensation of Israel by the nation Israel within a lawful context of spiritual heritage and national blessing. Once Christ comes in the flesh and fulfills certain principles, certain shadows of the law, the law is immediately abrogated. Once the Church Age began the law was completely and totally abrogated. 4. Only evil and reversionism distort the law with an unlawful usage. The proper teaching of the law 1. The Mosaic law must be taught under the ICE principle for interpretation. I = isagogics; C= categories; E = exegesis. Under isagogics this demands that the law be related to the nation Israel in the dispensation of Israel. You must teach the law in its context. 2. Under categorical teaching the categories of the law must be delineated in biblical terms. For example, in the KJV we have “commandments.” That is codex #1. There are ordinances for codex #2, judgments for codex #3. Then we have to suddenly advance over 300 years of English and redefine them. Codex #1 is the spiritual heritage of freedom as well as establishment freedom. Codex #2 is the spiritual; heritage of the people, and codex #3, the laws of divine establishment which is the basis for good government in a nation. Under exegesis it is imperative that the Pentateuch be exegeted in the Hebrew language in analysing the Mosaic law. The ten commandments in relationship to human freedom. The only part that is really misunderstood is the ten commandments. They are designed to determine human freedom in the angelic conflict. It is not a system to define sin. There are certain prohibitions against certain sins because there are certain sins that destroy human freedom and privacy. There are very few sins mentioned in the ten commandments but all that are are designed to protect freedom and they are delineated as enemies of freedom. The Levitical offerings are a picture of salvation. Salvation is historically accomplished and therefore it becomes illustrative material to understand certain facets of salvation. Doctrinal teaching related to the tabernacle, like propitiation and the mercy seat, portrayed propitiation in the Old Testament but it now illustrates propitiation. It is still in the Bible, it hasn’t changed, but once Christ dies and fulfills propitiation then it becomes an illustration. 3. The abrogation of the Mosaic law in the Church Age demands that every believer, sooner or later, understands the book of Hebrews. No one truly understands the law until he has mastered the doctrine in the book of Hebrews. 4. However, though abrogated and rescinded in the Church Age the law continues to be in the scripture to validate and document certain principles of establishment. The principles of establishment found in the Mosaic law are as apropos right now as they were in the Age of Israel. For example, the Mosaic law says that if you want to maintain freedom you must have universal military training. The law says that if you want to stimulate your economy you must have free enterprise and you must have system of taxation that does not in any way hinder those who have business ability. In other words, a flat ten per cent for all people in the field of income tax. The law says that if you want to have certain proper functions in life then you must observe certain establishment principles — based on marriage, based on the family, based upon good law, and so on. In other words, the law defines freedom and privacy. The law relates prosperity and national blessing to establishment. it portrays the principle that man is a sinner and needs a saviour. The law reveals Christ in His saving work as the only way of salvation. These principles remain in their status regardless of the change in dispensation. So even though abrogated and rescinded the doctrinal content of the law has not changed. It simply had a direct interpretation to Israel and these things still have an application to any nation wise enough to pick up the concept. 5. The law must be revealed as a shadow pointing to the reality. The law is not the reality, so when teaching the law it must be made very clear that when you get to salvation and things of this sort we are talking about the shadows of salvation — shadow soteriology, shadow Christology. The reality is all fulfilled in Christ. 6. Keeping the law must be disassociated with either salvation or spirituality. The trend of legalism is to associate these things with the law. 7. Morality is the basis for the function of establishment and morality belongs to the human race in general, believer and unbeliever. Morality is the fuel that makes establishment function. The law was used in the Age of Israel as a means of condemnation. The law is also used in our time as a standard of condemnation.

So the correct use of the law in the Church Age is found in verses 9,10. The law is a means of condemnation, never a means of salvation.

Verse 9 — “Knowing” — o)ida, the perfect active participle. This is not used as a present but as a true perfect tense. The intensive perfect indicates something that happens in the past with the result that it is firmly fixed in your soul so that you will never have any doubts about the true function of the law in the day in which you live. “this” — the accusative direct object neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. You always have to watch out for these demonstrative pronouns. It is translated “this” but it goes far beyond that in its meaning. The demonstrative always calls attention with special emphasis to a designated object. The designated object under review is the Mosaic law and therefore o(utoj is used to refer to something close at hand, like the law, rather than something more distant. This what is called an immediate demonstrative pronoun to designate something in the context and to give it special emphasis in the context. So we translate it “this.” “that” — we have that conjunction o(ti after verbs of knowing to express the conclusion of the thinking of o)ida. “the law” — nomoj, but this time minus the definite article because this emphasises the qualitative aspect of the law. The law has high quality. Here is one of the fundamental differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament under the law blessing was related to establishment, except in rare cases where the blessing was permanent. In David is an illustration apart from establishment. David was one of the few people in the Old Testament who was totally influenced by doctrine. As a result, when he hit paragraph SG2 he first of all became the wealthiest man in the world. He not only kept all of that money but he never lost it no matter what he did because he was always influenced by doctrine and never by evil. In the Old Testament the law was the basis for prosperity for most people, exceptions were David and Saul. Most people in the Old Testament had their prosperity from establishment. There are two kinds of prosperity, establishment and spiritual. The difference is that spiritual prosperity has capacity; establishment: you have the prosperity and no capacity. In the New Testament establishment prosperity still exists but the emphasis is on the spiritual prosperity of the super-grace life which includes spiritual, material, and dying blessing. “is not made” — the present active indicative of the verb keimai plus the negative o)uk. Keimai means to validate, to apply. But the negative means “does not apply.” Then we have to insert something that is further down in our passage, the dative of reference, dikaioj, which means “a righteous one.” “Knowing this, that to the righteous one the law does not apply.” This does not mean legalistic righteousness, this means grace righteousness. In other words, the law is not validated for the righteous person. The righteous one is establishment righteousness apart from self-righteousness, or super-grace righteousness which is free from self-righteousness. Remember that self-righteousness or legalistic righteousness is never valid to the believer. What is the purpose of the law? The purpose of the law is now stated on the other side of the post positive conjunctive particle de. it is used as an adversative conjunction setting up a contrast between the righteous one for whom the law is not validated and the categories of persons to whom the law applies. These categories are picked by God the Holy Spirit. The first one is “for the lawless” as a general category. This is a dative plural of disadvantage from the noun a)nomoj — “lawless ones.” Lawless ones are antiestablishment types. So it connotes both those who reject the law and those who violate the law. Now to get down to specifics we start with the word “and.” This really sets up a colon, and on the other side of “and” we have the dative plural of disadvantage from a)nupotaktoj which means rejecters of authority. This is true of believer and unbeliever. Undisciplined people always have a miserable time in life. A person who has no self-discipline is going to be a miserable person all of his life. God has set up systems of authority spiritually, and He has set up systems of authority from the establishment side. When any type of authority is rejected then that person is in trouble. The people who do not accept authority: a) Those who are on an ego trip. Arrogant people do not accept authority, they resent it in any form. They also are jealous of authority and they set up a barrage of mental sins against authority that cause them to be jealous, and jealousy leads to them becoming unstable. Some people cannot stand anyone’s authority but their own and they are the leas capable of administering authority. b) Those, for example, who are against establishment. Those who are using establishment as a cover for crime. Generally the big problem is always arrogance. Pride is the basis for rejection of authority. “for the ungodly” — the dative plural of disadvantage, a)sebhj which refers to those influenced by evil — “ungodly ones.” “for sinners” — dative plural of disadvantage: “and to sinning ones.” These are the ones influenced by sin in contrast to those influenced by evil. This time the noun is a(martwloj. Sinning ones are not people who sin. We all sin. It means to be influenced by sin. To be influenced by sin is to be under the domination of a sin. If you reject authority, if you reject law, some type of sin will come around to influence you. For example, a murderer is a person influenced by sin. He keeps murdering people. That is being under the influence of a sin. “for unholy” — dative plural of disadvantage, a)nosioj, usually translated by such words as impious, but it means reversionistic believers. “and profane” — dative plural of disadvantage from bebhloj meaning reversionistic unbelievers. Now we get into something a little different: “for murderers of fathers” — this can be traced all the way through. A child resents the discipline of the parents, he gets into all kinds of trouble on the outside, resents the teacher at school, resents the coach, resents the police officer, resents everyone, and he winds up blowing his cork at some point and murders one of his parents. “manslayers” — simply a murderer in general. We have three words here. We have patrolwaj, someone who murders their father; mhtralwaj, someone who murders their mother; a)ndrofonoj, [onoj means to murder; a)droj means man] which is a murderer in general. Translation: “Knowing this, that to the righteous one the law does not apply, but to the lawless one [antiestablishment] and undisciplined ones [rejecters of authority], to ungodly ones [influenced by evil] and sinning ones [influenced by sin], to unholy ones [reversionistic believers] and profane ones [reversionistic unbelievers], to murderers of fathers to murderers of mothers, to murders.” The doctrine of murder 1. The devil was said to be a murderer from the beginning — John 8:44. 2. The devil motivated reversionistic Cain to commit the first human race murder — 1 John 3:12. 3. Mental attitude sins as reactor factors motivated the first murder — Genesis 4:5. Cain was jealous. 4. Murder is definitely prohibited by the Word of God — Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17; Matthew 5:21. The problem with the one in Exodus 20:13 is that it is mistranslated — “Thou shalt not kill.” The word for “kill” is qatal, and it is not found in this verse which does not mean “Thou shalt not kill.” What we have is the qal imperfect of ratsach which means to murder. It should be translated, “You will not murder.” There is a difference between qatal and ratsach. Qatal is what you do as a representative of your country in time of war; ratsach is what you do not do, which is to murder. 5. Capital punishment or the death penalty is the administration of justice for murder — Genesis 9:6; Numbers 35:30,31; Romans 13:4. Capital punishment is the basis for controlling crime. 6. Murder is listed as one of the seven worst sin in Proverbs 6:16-19. Furthermore, murder is the only overt sin in that list. 7. Anger as a mental sin is a cluster which leads to mental murder — Matthew 5:21,22. 8. Murder always involves certain mental attitude sins. There are two passages where jealousy precedes murder and becomes the motivator — Romans 1:29; Galatians 5:21. 9. Murder is a part of crime and should be punished by death — Matthew 26:52, gar o(i labontej maxairan e)n maxairh a)polountai: “For the one taking the sword [the criminal] by the sword shall be destroyed.” This has nothing to do with military service. 10. While murder is the worst of all overt sins it still can be committed by a believer out of fellowship or in reversionism. David is an illustration. Cf 1 Peter 4:15. 1 John 3:15 — “Every murderer does not have eternal life abiding in him.” The startling thing about that statement is that those who have eternal life do commit murder.

Verse 10 — “For whoremongers” is the dative plural of disadvantage, pornoj, simply means fornicators of all kinds (normal fornicators). “for them that defile themselves with mankind” — a)rsenokoithj, it includes homosexuality of all types. The doctrine of adultery 1. Definition. This refers to sexual activity outside of the divine institution of marriage. Sex is designed as an expression of love between right man and right woman. As an expression of category #2 love sex is not only legitimate but very beautiful. It expresses the coalescence of soul and body. Adultery may be categories as fornication, seduction of a member of the opposite sex. 2. The prohibition of adultery or fornication. The prohibition of the decalogue refers to freedom — Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18. In the New Testament it is also prohibited — 1 Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Mental adultery is prohibited — Matthew 5:27,28. Incest is also forbidden — Leviticus 18:6-17; 20:14; 1 Corinthians 5:1-7. Homosexuality is forbidden — Leviticus 18:22. It is never called a disease — “You will not have sex with a male as with a female, it is an abomination [not a disease].” Leviticus 20:13 — “a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.” Cf. Romans 1:26 — “degenerate passions.” 3. Phallic reversionism is destructive to the soul — Proverbs 6:32; Ephesians 4:18,19. 4. Fornication and the frantic search for happiness — Ephesians 5:3. 5. The destructive force of promiscuity is found in 1 Corinthians 6:13-18. 6. Adultery is a bona fide basis for divorce — Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Luke 16:18. The various stages of phallic reversionism destroy rapport between a husband and a wife. Deuteronomy 24:4 — if a marriage breaks up and there is interim sex they should never be reconciled. 7. Adultery or fornication is often used in a spiritual sense to describe reversionism and apostasy — Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-28; Revelation 17:1-5; Hebrews 11:16. 8. The sanctification of category #2 love is said to be marriage — 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4. 9. The glory of category #2 love is described in the spiritual analogy of Ephesians 5:28-31. 10. The biblical application of category #2 love for the single person: a) The right man and right woman were designed by God in eternity past. Therefore you must assume that there is a opposite number for you of divine design, or that God will provide something better. b) The exception is the rare case of celibacy or function under the law of supreme sacrifice, where the apostle Paul is the perfect illustration — 1 Corinthians 9:5. c) Every believer under the principle of grace and the plan of God will eventually meet his opposite number. At the right time and circumstances God will bring together right man and right woman. However, if you are in reversionism or under the influence of evil you may not identify. d) However, there is no benefit in meeting your opposite number unless you have waited on the Lord in faithfulness to that principle. This means from the negative viewpoint the avoidance of fornication or adultery. This means from the positive standpoint the capacity for category #2 love, for maximum doctrine in the soul. e) Consequently, the thought and life pattern must be based on the doctrinal principle that there exists on this earth your right man or your right woman designed by God, and no other person will do. It is not a case of cheap substitutes, it is a case of no substitutes. f) Fornication or adultery is accepting a cheap substitute in order to gratify and emotional or biological passion. Fornication or adultery is a part of the frantic search for happiness, the second stage of reversionism. g) The antidote to temptation in the area of fornication is found in spiritual growth, super-grace life, the erection of the ECS, the establishment of a command post in the soul. h) Under phallic reversionism fornication builds scar tissue on the soul while destroying the physical abilities and capabilities in the field of sex. i) Maximum doctrine resident in the soul plus abstinence from sex become the basis for maximum pleasure from sex in category #2 love. The persistence and daily function of GAP translates the principle of doctrine into the pleasures and realities of a great capacity for life and a great capacity for happiness. j) Therefore the preparation for life is a persistent and daily function of GAP as a member of the royal family of God. In this way part of the super-grace blessing is this wonderful blessing of sexual prosperity. Verse 10b — “for menstealers,” a)ndrapodisthj which means kidnapper. The law is very much against kidnapping and the abuse of children in any way. Children are to be disciplined but they are to be protected and never to be abused. They are not to be abused by kidnapping or stealing, they are not to be abused sexually, they are not to be abused by lack of discipline. Here the law is very strong against kidnappers. “liars” — the dative plural of disadvantage yeusthj which means liars and deceivers. This is the habitual sin of lying and deceiving as over against an occasional sin. We really have the case of a psychopathic liar here. “for perjured persons” — the dative plural of disadvantage e)piorkoj — e)pi means over; orkoj means oath. So over your oath means to violate your oath or perjury: “to perjurers”, those who lie under oath. We have enough categories here to see one of the great thrusts of the Mosaic law as a part of the Word of God, and one that jumps over the boundaries of dispensational teaching. However, this is not the type of teaching they were getting in Ephesus. They were getting teaching that you must keep the law to be saved; you must keep the law to be spiritual. In other words, they were getting legalism, not this particular thrust. “and if” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the conjunction e)i. E)i introduces a first class condition and it can be translated, “and whatever [else].” “there be” is not in the original, but we do have “any other things,” the nominative neuter singular of the indefinite pronoun tij. Also with that is the nominative neuter singular of e(teroj. These words really mean “whatever else.” “that is contrary” — the present active subjunctive from the compound verb a)ntikeimai which means to be hostile or opposed to. The present tense is the present of duration or the retroactive progressive present, something that has begun in the past and continues to the present time. The active voice: we have a middle in form but active in meaning, a deponent verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, certainty and fact. This is the mood of unqualified assertion, this is a state of simple fact. “to sound doctrine” — the dative of advantage of the definite article plus the dative singular present active participle of the verb u(giainw. This is a participle which means to be healthy, to be pure, to be correct. Since we have the ascriptive use of the participle here, the participle used as an adjective, the participle simply means “correct.” Then we have the dative of advantage didaskolia which means teaching or doctrine.

Verse 11 — the law is not the means of salvation. Instead the gospel is said to be the means of salvation, not condemnation, whereas the law is the means of condemnation, not salvation. “According to the glorious gospel” — kata plus the accusative singular of the definite article plus the accusative singular of the noun e)uaggelion. We also have with that an ablative singular of source from doca. Altogether it is, “According to the gospel from the glory.” “The glory” represents the essence of God. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The essence of God is the source of the good news of the gospel. All facets of the gospel, including redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, are all related to the essence of God. The doctrine of the gospel 1. Definition. To define the gospel you must look at the Greek word — e)uaggelia. It is compounded: e)u means good; a)ggeloj means message or news. The gospel, then, by definition is some kind of good news: the communication of doctrines pertaining to salvation. Gospel or good news pertains to the message and communication of doctrines pertaining to the work of Christ on the cross. 2. The boundaries of the gospel — 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. The first boundary is the fact that Christ died for our sins, and “according to the scriptures” refers to the Old Testament. It is taught in the Old Testament as well as in the New. “He was buried” is to indicate that after He died for our sins He died physically. So we have spiritual death; physical death. “That he was raised in the third day, according to the scripture.” So the gospel ends with resurrection. There are the boundaries. If you go away from the cross you are out of bounds; if you go away from the physical death you are out of bounds; if you deny the resurrection you are out of bounds. The playing field with boundaries is from death to resurrection. Note that the gospel the fact of sin or the penalty of sin. These are true doctrines but they are out of the boundary. In other words, when you give the gospel the doctrine of hamartiology is true but it is not the gospel. The good news is that Christ did something about it on the cross. Preaching the gospel is the explanation of salvation in terms of redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. The boundaries of the gospel run from the death of Christ for our sins to the resurrection of Christ. Those are boundaries. 3. The enemy of the gospel — 2 Corinthians 4:3,4. Satan is the enemy of the gospel. 4. Usage of the word “gospel.” Gospel is often used with other words. It is used with adjectives, participles, with all kinds of words. Therefore there are words with most contexts which describe certain emphases of the gospel. For example: a) We have “the gospel of Christ” in Romans 1:16,17. This is emphasis on the person of the gospel. b) We have the “gospel from the glory” in 1 Timothy 1:11. This gives us the source of the gospel which is the essence of God. c) We have “my gospel” or “our gospel” as in 2 Timothy 2:8; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4. This emphasises the fact that the gospel is the same but it belongs to us as believers. We possess it, therefore we propagate it. d) We have in Ephesians 6:15 “the gospel of peace.” This is not a different gospel but the emphasis in this passage is on doctrine and the doctrine is reconciliation. e) We have “the gospel of the Kingdom,” the same gospel exactly, found in Matthew 24:14. It emphasises the fact that the unconditional covenants to Israel are only fulfilled to those Jews who believe in Christ or appropriate the gospel. That is why it is called the gospel of the kingdom. f) In Revelation 14:6 we have “everlasting gospel,” which is the same gospel but the emphasis is on the preparation for eternity. All of these have the word “gospel” but they have defining words, emphasising words. The content of the gospel never changes but the emphasis of the gospel changes with the defining words in context. 5. The attitude toward the gospel is found in Romans 1:16. 6. The emphasis of the gospel — 1 Corinthians 1:17. Salvation is not by baptism even as salvation is not by keeping the law. “Not in cleverness of speech.” When you get clever about the gospel you void the power of the cross. 7. The place for the gospel — Romans 15:20. Proselytising is not preaching the gospel. 8. The gospel without charge — 2 Corinthians 11:7,8. 9. There is a false gospel — Galatians 1:8. 10. The gospel belongs to the Old Testament — Galatians 3:8, “preached to Abraham, saying ...” 11. The gospel is revealed by the Holy Spirit — 1 Peter 1:12.

Verse 11b — ”of the blessed God” — ablative of source from makarioj. God is the source of blessing. When makarioj is mentioned it also indicates something else. It indicates that is His objective where the believer is concerned. It is God’s objective to bless the believer in the devil’s world. he can bless you in heaven, he can also bless you in the devil’s world. He can bless us at any time but He has chosen to bless us on the basis that glorifies Himself. That is the whole principle of moving toward maturity or the super-grace life. Translation: “According to the gospel from the glory of the God, the source of blessing [or happiness].” The objective of God is to bless the believer. He is glorified when He can bless us. “which” — the accusative neuter singular from the relative pronoun o(j, and it refers back to the gospel. It should be translated “with which [gospel]” in the accusative. “was committed to my trust” should be translated, “I have been entrusted” — it includes the personal pronoun e)gw in the proleptic position. It indicates great stress on the apostle Paul as one who responded to his trust. The aorist passive indicative of pisteuw: we generally translate this verb “to believe.” However, it is in the passive voice. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It contemplates the fact that from the time that Paul was saved until the time that he died, as one with the spiritual gift of communication, God entrusted him with doctrine. God has not entrusted anyone except the pastor-teacher. The pastor-teacher is like the congregation’s trust fund for growing up spiritually. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb. He is entrusted with doctrine. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality. The passive voice again: doctrine is entrusted to the pastor-teacher and he must communicate it. That is his responsibility. Translation: “According to the gospel from the glory of the God, source of blessing with which I have been entrusted.”

Beginning with verse 12 we have a new paragraph: the purpose of grace — 12-17.

Verse 12 — Paul is going to use himself as the illustration. “And I thank” — there is no verb here for thanksgiving. We have Xarin e)xw, a noun and a verb. Xarin in the accusative singular direct object of the noun xarij; e)xw is the present active indicative. So it simply says, “I have grace.” But it is stronger than that and probably is best translated, “I keep having grace.” There is no conjunction here, so we can cross out the word “and.” The present tense is the present of duration, sometimes called retroactive progressive present, denoting what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, certainty, and absolute unqualified statement. This phrase is an idiom for gratitude but it is more than that. This is a paragraph of the dynamics of God’s grace. The next phrase is the basis for all of this, it is the dative singular of reference “Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is also the dative of indirect object, that is, the one for whom the act of grace is performed. “I keep on having grace toward Christ Jesus our Lord.” “who hath enabled me” — the articular dative singular aorist active participle of the verb e)ndunamow. E)n is the preposition; dunomow is power. It means to invigorate, to empower, to pour power into. The dative singular definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun for someone near at hand in the context, namely the Lord Jesus. It is not used as a relative pronoun as in the KJV translation. The aorist tense of the participle is constative, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, from the time that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to the time that you depart from this earth and live forever with God in eternity, there never will be a time when He ceases to turn away grace from you. The active voice: Jesus Christ pours the power into the apostle Paul who in turn teaches the Word, pours it out. The participle is circumstantial. This means it also has antecedent action to the main verb. “I keep on having grace to the one having poured the power into me to Christ Jesus our Lord.” The power poured into Paul was Bible doctrine resident in his soul; he became one of the great writers of the scripture. The source of the written Word is the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The pastor must be occupied with the living Word to communicate the written Word. And so it must be with the congregation. They must be so occupied with the written Word so as to be occupied with the living Word. “for that” is the conjunction o(ti used in a causal sense for a subordinate clause. It should be translated simply, “because.” The cause for doctrine resident in the soul is the faithfulness and consistency of the apostle Paul as a student of doctrine and the faithfulness and consistency of God as the provider of doctrine. “he counted me” — aorist active indicative of the verb e(geomai. The word means to think, to guide, to consider, to be an expert. A guide is an expert, because he knows something he can direct you to the right spot and explain it all to you, and so on. This should be translated, “he had considered.” God is the expert, and in eternity past God looked down the course of history considered and took the worst human creature who ever lived and made him the greatest man of the Church Age. That is exactly what grace does. This aorist tense is an occurrence in eternity, looking at Saul of Tarsus. The active voice: God produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint in reality. There is something that happened in eternity before time began. “me” — the accusative singular direct object from the pronoun e)gw. E)gw is not pride, it is self-consciousness. He uses the personal pronoun for himself, and that isn’t pride. Use of the personal pronoun is just good English/Greek and self-consciousness. “faithful” — the accusative singular direct object from pistoj. Pistoj as an adjective means faithful. It is sometimes used as a substantive to mean dependable. Whichever is used — dependable, faithful, or trustworthy — it was the one thing that always characterised Paul that was totally non-meritorious. Dependability is really the key. You could always depend on Paul to follow a certain pattern — “he had considered me dependable.” “putting me” is erroneous. This is the aorist middle participle of the verb tiqhmi. In the middle voice it means to establish. The constative aorist gathers the action of the verb into one entirety — the establishing of the apostle Paul. He was established in his lifetime and he is still established to day as the greatest believer of the Church Age. The indirect middle emphasises the fact that God in His grace as the agent produced the action, and the action is total establishment. The participle is circumstantial. We would simply translate it, “having established me.” “into the ministry” should be “with reference to the ministry” — e)ij plus the accusative diakonia. Translation: “I keep on having grace to the one having poured the power into me. to Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful [in the function of GAP], having established me with reference to the ministry.” Principles 1. Note that this verse is not referring to the bestowal of the spiritual gift of apostleship which Paul did receive at the point of salvation. It is referring to something that happened after salvation, the establishing of Paul as a minister, the establishment of his ministry. So it is not the gift in view here but the ministry that resulted from that gift. It is the ministry which is established on the basis of Bible doctrine in the soul. 2. We must learn to distinguish between appointment and establishment of the ministry. All pastor-teachers today receive their appointment at salvation. The spiritual gift of the pastor-teacher is a communication gift. That is appointment. The establishing comes with spiritual growth, preparation, faithfulness to the Word. The establishing is the super-grace status of the pastor-teacher. 3. The appointment occurs at the moment of salvation. This appointment is the sovereign decision of God the Holy Spirit who provided for Paul the gift of apostleship and provides for certain men the gift of pastor-teacher. 4. The establishment of the ministry comes through the consistent intake of doctrine over a period of time. 5. The inculcation of doctrine through the daily function of GAP not only results in super-grace status but establishes the ministry. 6. Note that for all believers the principle remains the same: Doctrine in the soul must precede service for the Lord. 7. Doctrine in the soul is the basis for service and doctrine in the soul establishes the ministry.

Verse 13 — the power of grace. We start out with the definite article, not the relative pronoun. The definite article goes with an articular participle here, it is used as a demonstrative pronoun. The phrase “was before” is a neuter singular from proteroj meaning formerly. Next we have the present active participle of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb. Proteroj plus e)imi and the present tense of the participle being a historic present which views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: Paul as an unbeliever produces the action of the verb. The participle is concessive and you always translate a concessive participle with the English word “though.” We have to translate this, “Though I was formerly.” “a blasphemer” — the accusative of general reference singular from blasfhmoj. This word means that Paul was once a slanderous critic of God. The accusative case matches the accusative case in the participle. So it is not a direct object, it is a predicate nominative type of thing. “and a persecutor” — the accusative singular of reference from diwkthj which means a vigorous persecutor of the Church. “and injurious” — another accusative singular of reference u(bristhj which means “arrogant, insolent, violent.” But the violence comes from arrogance. U(bristhj means a violent, insolent man. “Though I was formerly blasphemous [a slanderous persecutor of God], and a persecutor, and a violent, insolent man.” This takes us back to some of Paul’s testimony in the book of Acts. For, example, in Acts 22:3,4; 26:9-11. “but” is an adversative conjunction a)lla. It sets up a contrast between Paul’s unsaved state as Saul of Tarsus and his saved state as Paul the apostle. “I obtained mercy” — the aorist passive indicative of h)leeo. This means to find mercy. In the passive voice it means to receive mercy, and to receive mercy means to be graced out — “but I have been graced out.” The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certainty of a past event. This is an idiomatic device for grace emphasis. This is also a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety all the way from saving grace to living grace, super-grace, dying grace, and surpassing grace. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic unqualified statement of reality. “because” — the causal use of the conjunction o(ti; “I did it” — the aorist active indicative of the verb poiew which means here to produce or to cause, rather than to do — “because I produced these things.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist gathering all of Paul’s arrogant blasphemy, all of his murders, all of his persecutions of the Church, into one entirety. The active voice: Saul of Tarsus, the unbeliever, produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for historical reality where Paul was the worst person who ever lived before his salvation. “ignorantly” is translated like an adverb in the KJV, but actually it is a present active participle of the verb a)gnoew. The present tense of the participle is descriptive or pictorial describing Paul’s continual status as an unbeliever. The active voice: Paul the unbeliever, a zealous, legalistic Pharisee, produced the action in ignorance. The participle is a causal participle which should be translated here, “since being ignorant.” “I acted in unbelief” is the correct translation — e)n plus the locative of a)pistia. “Because since being ignorant I acted in unbelief.” Unbelief is not only the status of being unsaved but it is the condition of being totally ignorant of God. Translation: “Though I was formerly blasphemous [a slanderous critic of God], and a persecutor, and a violent, insolent person: nevertheless I have been graced out, because since I was ignorant I acted in unbelief.” Summary 1. The transformation of Saul of Tarsus into the apostle Paul was one of the greatest demonstrations of the power of God’s grace in human history. 2. God’s grace took the worst sinner and the most evil man in history and transformed him into the greatest member of the royal family of God. It is strictly a grace function. 3. Only grace could take such a person and not only save him but continue to mould him into the quintessence of spiritual greatness. 4. Saul of Tarsus not only took the road to Damascus but that was the road to saving grace, living grace, super-grace, dying grace, and surpassing grace. 5. His purpose in taking the road to Damascus was to extent his ministry of blasphemy, arrogance, violence, persecution, to all the Church everywhere. 6. But the grace of God changed all that. Grace found Saul at his lowest and raised Paul to the highest level of spiritual life. 7. Therefore Paul is the historical demonstration of the power of God’s grace. The doctrine of grace 1. Definition: Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. Grace is the genius of God directed toward man. Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His love toward mankind without the compromise of His essence. Grace is God finding a way to bless believers without putting His essence in jeopardy. God gives out of total freedom because of the cross. God had to be free to give and that means His essence was not put in jeopardy by giving to sinners. Consequently grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. Grace is both God’s plan and God’s policy regarding mankind. Grace, therefore, is the plan , the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi in blessing man. Grace is the genius of God and doctrine is the revelation of that grace genius. Satan’s genius is evil; God’s genius is grace. Under grace God does all the work, all the providing; man does all of the receiving, all of the benefiting , and receives all of the happiness. 2. The concept: Grace depends on the essence or character of God. Therefore grace always depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence. And there is no limit to what God can do for man under the principle of grace. The issue then: The great enemy of grace is evil. Evil includes many different types of concepts, everything but sin. Sin and evil often cross but sin and evil are not the same. Sometimes evil is motivated by sin but evil and sin must be kept separate. 3. Grace and the new contract for the Church. a) The glorification of Christ by His resurrection, ascension, and session, is the strategic victory in the angelic conflict. This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish Age in order that the royal family of God might be formed to commemorate that victory. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father alone. He is the only person in heaven with a resurrection body. When He sat down He was sitting in His resurrection body. The only royalty in heaven right now is Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. So in the future the Rapture of the Church will occur and at that moment all of the believers of the Church Age will receive their resurrection bodies and Christ will no longer be alone. Therefore the Age of Israel was interrupted, it was not finished, the Tribulation will finish it up. At the point of the interruption God begins to call out the royal family, the Church Age, which is really the dispensation of the royal family. When the royal family is completed the Rapture will occur. Then when it is all over the royal family comes back with Jesus Christ at the end of the Age of Israel. The royal family of God is formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and at the same time we are put under the New Covenant to the Church or the new contract to the royal family. The new contract is a grace contract, and under all grace contracts party of the first part is the members of the Godhead; party of the second part: believers, royal family of God. The royal family receives; doesn’t earn, deserve, but simply receives by grace. One of the great aspects of the new contract is sanctification. For example, positional sanctification. Never before in history did God take any believer and enter him into union with Christ. But God the Holy Spirit does it in the Church Age and it is called baptism of the Holy Spirit. In other words, baptism means to be entered into union/identification with Christ. At the point at which we believe God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with the person of Christ. This is called positional sanctification. b) The second paragraph in the new covenant provides for the tactical victory of the angelic conflict and basically this is the doctrine of the balance of residency. c) The third paragraph is ultimate sanctification, it deals with eternity. Again, we have been graced out forever. The royal family of God receives a resurrection body exactly like that of Jesus Christ, minus the old sin nature, minus human good, minus evil, minus the lake of fire. 5. There are five stages in the function of grace. a) Stage one is saving grace, that is what Paul is discussing in this paragraph of our chapter. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once in his life. That once was the day he personally believed in Jesus Christ. Salvation is called tasting both in Hebrews 6:4 and in 1 Peter 2:3. We have all tasted grace. The point is, once you have tasted grace the amazing this is when you don’t want more of it. Once you have tasted grace you should never, never think of anything else but how wonderful grace is and want to know more about it. So the moment of salvation brings the believer to that first taste of grace. In that first sip of grace by which we are saved we just simply say, “Father I believe in Christ.” The moment we do we receive from God at least 36 things which are irrevocable and they cannot be canceled by anything that we can ever do. because of propitiation every believer is also under maximum love from God, and maximum love from God frees God to pour out maximum grace. The pattern remains the same. We are saved by grace therefore we can only be blessed by grace. All of our blessing is related to the same principle by which we were saved. Therefore, of course, we move into the next stage of grace. Grace can only benefit where there is capacity for grace. All capacity for grace is based on Bible doctrine in the soul. Capacity for grace, like capacity for life, is always based upon the amount of doctrine in your soul and to what extent you are influenced by doctrine in your life. So the point is obvious. The believer is saved by grace, all of the Trinity are involved in this. The Father planned it, the Son executed it on the cross, the Holy Spirit reveals it. b) The next stage is living grace. Living grace is all that God is free to do for the believer on the basis of Bible doctrine. God does something totally apart from any merit, like keeping us alive on this earth. God provides for everything. He provides for spiritual growth by means of a right pastor-teacher, a classroom called the local church, a textbook called the Word of God. He provides every thing necessary through the Holy Spirit instinctive good manners, concentration, poise, academic discipline. For the negative believer God also provides something, and that is divine discipline. So He provides two kinds of academic training: classroom academic training or disciplinary training. c) The third stage of grace is super-grace which is synonymous with maturity. in 1 Timothy 1:14 super-grace is described as abundance. Super-grace is the adult stage of spiritual growth attendant by maximum blessing from God which glorifies God. Super-grace is the ultimate is spiritual growth in time, it is the basis for the normal function of the royal priesthood. It is the way in which God can provide maximum blessing which glorifies Himself. d) The fourth stage is dying grace. This is the transfer from time to eternity by way of dying blessing. Dying grace is the experience of physical death under special grace provision. However, it is not always accomplished by death. There are some cases where dying grace is walking over the high golden bridge while you are still alive, like Enoch and Elijah, and like super-grace believers at the time of the Rapture. But it is better than anything in life. Dying grace is better, surpassing grace is better than the best (super-grace is best). e) The next stage is surpassing grace. This is the final stage of special blessing and reward for all eternity. 4. The modus vivendi of grace. Grace is the means of growth — 2 Peter 3:18. This is the basis for stability — Hebrews 13:9. Your stability comes through grace. It is grace stability that keeps you consistent in the intake of doctrine. 1 Peter 5:12 — “stand fast in it.” 5. Grace is also then basis for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10. The failure to utilise grace — Galatians 5:4. 6. Grace in suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. 7. The axioms of grace. a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect. b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from the source of perfect God. c) If mankind can do even one meritorious thing in the plan of God that plan is no longer perfect because man is imperfect, he cannot contribute to a perfect plan. Imperfection cannot contribute to perfection. d) A plan is not stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in God’s plan. e) Grace excludes all human merit and ability, all human good and legalism, all self-righteousness and arrogance, all evil. f) Legalism is the special enemy of grace, there is no place for legalism and human good in the plan of God. g) All legalism and human good is associated with the great mental attitude sin of pride. Arrogance is where evil and sin cross. Arrogance is the motivator of most types of evil. Arrogance was the motivator of evil in the Satanic revolution against God and arrogance was the motivation of evil in man’s fall. 8. Four areas in which pride or arrogance rejects grace: a) The pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. The believer who rejects eternal security thinks that his sins are greater than the plan of God. He is the kind of person who thinks that he must do something to contribute to the plan and his failure to contribute is his sin, therefore he assumes that his failure to contribute cancels the plan. In other words, the old idea “it all depends on me.” Nothing depends on me, it all depends on God. b) The pride of the believer who succumbs to pressure or adversity. He thinks that his sufferings and adversity are greater than the provision of God, mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. c) The pride of evil which is also the pride of reversionism. The pride of evil is to assume that your thoughts are more important than Bible doctrine, that your opinions are more important than Bible doctrine, that what you think is more important than what the Word of God says. That is the pride of evil. d) The pride of pseudo-spirituality. This is the believer who thinks that his system of energy of the flesh spirituality is greater than the true function of the Holy Spirit in his life. In his arrogance he becomes a holy roller, or he enters into some form of taboos or, some form of asceticism, or some point program which impresses him or others and therefore he assumes it impresses God.

Verse 14 — the perpetuation of grace. It begins with the conjunctive particle de used as a transitional particle. it is used under the translation, “Moreover the grace of our Lord.” “was exceeding abundant” — the aorist active indicative from u(perpleonazw. This is a compound made up of the word u(per, the preposition “over,” and the verb pleonazw which means to increase or to abound. The entire word means to “superabound.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, i.e. super-grace status. The aorist denotes the process of GAP, resulting in taking the high ground and holding it. The active voice: grace produces the action of the verb: saving grace, living grace, GAP. The indicative mood is declarative for absolute dogmatic reality. It should be translated, “Moreover the grace of our had superabounded.” “with faith” — meta plus the genitive singular of pistij, and it should be translated “with doctrine [what is believed].” “and love” — the genitive singular of a)gaph which is the object of the preposition meta. Meta with the genitive has one meaning, with the accusative it means something entirely different. It should be translated “with love” or “associated with love.” The principle here is category #1 love, our great objective. When we reach that category and fulfill it we then have the capacity for living; we have the capacity for love, capacity for happiness, the capacity for every blessing that God could ever give us. Blessing is wasted on those who do not have the capacity for the blessing. Category #1 love 1. Definition. Love comes in three categories for the royal family of God. Category #1 is directed toward God; Category #2, right man or right woman; Category #3, friendship. In addition to that are obligatory type loves: relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family of God, commonly called “loving the brethren.” Category #1 love is the believer’s capacity to love God, and the believer’s capacity to respond to God’s love based on Bible doctrine. “We love him because He first loved us.” This category is perhaps the most difficult because it demands that we have Bible doctrine in the soul. Category #2 love does not call for Bible doctrine. The unbeliever actually has the opportunity of enjoying category #2 love. He experiences category #2 love and doctrine is not necessarily the issue. Also, category #3 love or friendship is open to unbelievers. But category #1 love is unique. In this dispensation it belongs to the royal family of God only and it requires maximum doctrine in the soul. While love does not make the world go around love makes our world function., and especially category #1. When the believer reaches maturity, known as the super-grace status, this category #1 is called also occupation with Christ. The command for it is found in Deuteronomy 6:5 — “power” simply refers to doctrine resident in the soul. 2. The means of category #1 love. The means is expressed under the principle that God is invisible. Not only is God invisible but God is unknowable by human systems of perception. The invisibility of God also has a corollary. God is His essence is sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, veracity. We know these things because of pertinent doctrine, but God is unknowable and invisible. Rationalism cannot know God. The same thing is true of empiricism. Neither empiricism nor rationalism are capable of understanding God in any way. Nor is faith in the unbeliever. The unbeliever also has faith, everyone has faith, it is the basic system of perception. But unbeliever faith definitely cannot understand God. None of these systems can even give us the beginning of an understanding of God. God must reveal Himself, and one of the sovereign decisions of God was to reveal Himself to the believer. The unbeliever cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are learned by the Spirit. But God has revealed Himself to the believer and in our dispensation we have the completed canon of scripture as the means by which He does. No one can understand God, and therefore no one can know God, apart from Bible doctrine in the soul. And, by the way, you can’t love someone until you know them and have some understanding of them. You do not love God because you’re saved. The day that we received Christ as saviour we didn’t know God at all, we just knew that Christ was our saviour and we believed in Him. We knew absolutely nothing., and our capacity to love God was exactly the same as a baby’s capacity to love its parents. That is the way we are, we are spiritual babies, and when we are born again we do not have any capacity, we do not have any love for God. Since God is invisible and since at the same time God is the object of category #1 love we must see and love Him through the Word and/or Bible doctrine resident in the soul. You cannot love God unless you know God; you cannot know God unless you have maximum doctrine resident in your soul. You cannot have doctrine resident in your soul apart from the daily function of GAP. So coming to love God is not an easy thing, it requires many, many hours of Bible study. 1 Peter 1:8; Ephesians 3:18,19 — “the surpassing knowledge-love of Christ.” The principle is also found in Hebrews 6:10; 2 Timothy 1:13,14. 3. Category #1 love sets up the standard for grace — Psalm 119:132; 31:23 [the “arrogant-doers” are reversionists]. 4. Category #1 love is the basis for super-grace blessing — 1 Corinthians 2:9 [Isaiah 64:4; 65:17]. Blessings come from maximum love of Him. If you are influenced by doctrine it is inevitable that you are going to be blessed by God, and that you will not only be blessed but have the capacity for it. If you are influenced by evil it is also inevitable that your life is going to be miserable and that your life will wind up under maximum discipline, your life is going to be one of a constant curse — constant misery and constant discipline — and you are minus category #1 because evil is also a minus doctrine situation. So the principle is that your occupation with Christ, maximum category #1 love, also is related to maximum blessing, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. Psalm 37:4,5 uses the background of right man, right woman. When it says “Delight thyself also in the Lord” it is incorrect. It is the hithpael imperative of anag and in the hithpael stem it means to make love. It is actually used for the category #2 amorous behaviour. It also means to take an exquisite delight in someone. “And he will give you the desires of your right lobe has to do with the super-grace blessings that come from maximum category #1 love. “Commit your way to the Lord [daily function of GAP], trust also in Him, He will do the work.” He works to provide you blessing. 5. Category #1 is also the basis for both personal and national blessing, as in several verses in Deuteronomy 30.

For example, verse 15 which gives alternatives. Attitude toward doctrine determines whether we are influenced by doctrine or influenced by evil. Evil is the genius of Satan; doctrine is the way in which the genius of our Lord is revealed — grace.

Verse 16 — category #1 love. Verse 20 — by loving the Lord, by obeying His doctrine, by holding fast to Him in category #1 love, this is your life. “your length of days, in order that may live in the land which the Lord has promised to you and your ancestors ...” 6. Category #1 love motivates combat courage as well as military victory — Joshua 23:10,11. One super-grace believer puts to flight a thousand enemy soldiers. 7. Category #1 love provides strength for adversity and pressure — Hebrews 11:27. 8. There is a special curse on believers who fail category #1 love — 1 Corinthians 16:22. In other words, if you don’t love the Lord you are going to be influenced by evil. If you’re influenced by evil your life is under a curse. This dramatises the divine discipline to the believer who neglects Bible doctrine and falls into reversionism. 9. Witnessing must be motivated by category #1 love, not by the boys or the girls of some rah, rah, rah organisation — 2 Corinthians 5:14, “the love of Christ controls us.” This is what is wrong with witnessing today. The believer is encouraged and bullied into witnessing as a means of spirituality when he is totally ignorant of doctrine and has never been encouraged to GAP it. We must be motivated by love to witness for the Lord. You can’t love the Lord Jesus Christ unless you have doctrine in your soul. 10. The description of category #1 love is found in 1 John 4:15-19.

Verse 16 — “we have come to know.” “love” here in verse 14 is category #1 love, occupation with Christ. Love must have two things. No matter what category it is it must have security and privacy. “which is” — there is no verse here, it is used to smooth out the translation and is legitimate in that sense. We have the definite article used as a relative pronoun. “in Christ Jesus” — there is love in its best concept of security and privacy. Each one of us is in Christ Jesus, e)n plus the locative. There are two principles that come out of this: the doctrine of positional truth and the doctrine of the royal family of God. Being in Christ is also security, every security imaginable. Translation: “Moreover the grace of our Lord had superabounded with doctrine and love which is in Christ Jesus.” This verse tells what happened after salvation. The key is the verb u(perpleonazw which means to superabound. Through the faithful intake of doctrine saving grace is parlayed into super-grace. In the status of spiritual maturity grace superabounds. This is accomplished with doctrine resident in the soul plus resultant occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

Verse 15 — this is a very poor translation in the KJV. It starts pistoj o( logoj, this is the name of a hymn here. It means “faithful is the word.” This was Paul’s favourite hymn. This phrase or title of the hymn occurs five times in the pastoral epistles: 1 Timothy 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Titus 3:8; 2 Timothy 2:11. It is interesting to note that the literal title of the hymn id “Faithful is the doctrine.” In each of these five references some aspect of the faithfulness of doctrine is discussed. Here is the faithfulness of doctrine related to saving grace. Remember that is simply a title and a reference to the hymn. “and worthy of all acceptation” — kai pashj a)podoxhj a)cioj, “and worthy of unqualified acceptance.” We have the genitive of paj and a)podoxh. With it we also have a)cioj used in describing things in relationship to things. The word “all” here is not all, paj is usually translated “all” but it here with a)podxh which means “acceptance” it means “unqualified.” The word a)cioj is “worthy.” Now he goes back to the hymn. Title of the hymn: “Faithful is the word/doctrine.” Paul adds “worthy of [your] unqualified acceptance.” Now he goes to the word which starts the quotation of the hymn. The word “that” is the conjunction o(ti used as quotation marks or to show the content of the hymn. This indicates the content of what is worthy of unqualified acceptance on the part of all members of the royal family of God. Xristoj I)hsouj {Christ Jesus], emphasising the hypostatic union,. Christ as the God-Man. “came” — aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai which means to come or to go. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety all the way from the incarnation and going all the way to the end of the cross, resurrection, ascension and session — Christ coming into the world — all of the way through the first advent but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results. The entire first advent had results, so this is a culminative aorist tense emphasising the results of the first advent — eternal salvation on the cross emphasised here. The active voice: Christ produced the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of unqualified reality. “into the world” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of kosmoj. This is the devil’s world, the devil’s kingdom. Satan is the ruler of this world. The other side of the coin is found in Hebrews 10:1-10. And Christ finally came into the cosmos as a member of the human race and He came to save. “to save” — aorist active infinitive of swzw used here for eternal salvation. The aorist tense is also a culminative aorist viewing the work of Christ on the cross in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of actual result. We have two aorists in this verse. One starts from the incarnation and goes down to the cross, and this second one simply covers the cross. We are now picking up the cross here and moving it into a second culminative aorist. A culmination of two culminative aorists is very unusual and wouldn’t be possible except that one is in the indicative and one is in the infinitive. The active voice: again Christ produces the action, on the cross this time. In the other one it was simply the incarnation in general. Now we have the infinitive and this is a result infinitive. The problem is there are three kinds of result infinitives. There is the conceived result {not here], the intended result when the result is represented as fulfilling a very deliberate aim or goal. This blends purpose and result, but it isn’t used here. This is an actual result. The infinitive related to the indicative mood of two culminative aorists always gives us an actual result. Christ came into the world to save, that is an actual result. “sinners” — the accusative plural direct object of the infinitive, a(martwloj which means “sinning ones” or “sinful ones.” A(martwloj, if it is taken as an adjective, simply means sinners, but here it is taken as a substantive and it means “sinning ones.” The adjective applies to the entire human race. The human race is sinful because of Adam’s sin which is imputed to each one of us at the point of our physical birth. The human race is sinful because each one receives the old sin nature at the point of human birth. And the human race is sinful because each one of us commits personal sins, and this is dealing with the personal sins from which Christ saved us. The whole thing is involved but the personal sins were the judgment of the Christ, the principle that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. “of whom” is the genitive plural of reference from the relative pronoun o(j. The relative pronoun here refers to the sinful ones — “with reference to which sinful ones.” It is a genitive of reference. “I am” — present active indicative of the absolute status quo verb e)imi, the verb to be. This is without equivocation. This is a static present., it represents a condition as perpetually existing. Paul will always be the worst sinner who ever lived. He becomes a trophy of grace, the monument of saving grace in human history has already been saved. Paul produces the action of the verb as the worst sinner in history. The indicative mood is declarative, this is an unqualified assertion of face. There never was anyone as bad as Paul. Now we have the predicate adjective prwtoj, translated “chief.” It connotes “foremost.” The word “chief” 1. The predicate adjective prwtoj connotes foremost or most prominent in rank and degree. 2. By degree is meant above all, first place, or record-holder. 3. Paul therefore is the worst sinner in all of human history. 4. Paul was the chief or foremost sinner because he was more saturated with religion than anyone who ever lived. 5. Since religion is the devil’s ace trump and one of the worst forms of evil it is religion that makes Paul the worst of sinners. 6. Saul of Tarsus, then, was the most religious, therefore the most evil, therefore the record-holder in the field of sinning ones. Paul isn’t bragging, he is simply stating fact in order to illustrate how great is grace. 7. God took the worst man who ever lived and made him the greatest believer. 8. This is the illustration of the transforming power of God’s grace, and therefore the transforming power of doctrine. The principle is grace, the mechanics doctrine. 9. If God can save the worst sinner who ever lived, God can save anyone. If He transforms by grace the foremost of sinners in the human race He can through grace transform anyone of us. Translation; “Faithful is the doctrine, and worthy of unqualified acceptance, that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinful ones; with reference to which [sinful ones] I keep on being the record-holder.”

Verse 16 — the prototype of grace. “Howbeit” — the adversative conjunctive particle a)lla, it always is used to set up a contrast or a transition. In this case we have the transitional use and it should be “Nevertheless.” “for this cause” — the preposition dia plus the neuter singular accusative of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Literally, it means “because of this,” but the preposition is idiomatic and it actually means “for this reason.” “I obtained mercy” — the aorist passive indicative of the verb e)leew. In the active voice this word means to show mercy or to express grace, but in the passive voice it means to receive or find mercy. We would say to be graced out. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event, and it is an idiom or a device for grace emphasis. This is also a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, including saving grace, living grace, and all of the other factors of Paul’s blessing in time. The passive voice: Paul received the action of the verb. So the constative aorist contemplates the first three stages of the grace plan — saving grace, living grace, super-grace. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of grace reality. “Nevertheless, for this reason I have been graced out.” “that” is the conjunction i(na introducing a purpose clause. I(na plus the subjunctive in the verb is what is called a final clause expressing aim, purpose, goal, or objective. “in me first” — the preposition e)n plus the locative of e)gw plus the locative of prwtoj. Prwtoj is a technical word in Timothy, in this passage it means record-holder. It should be translated, “in me, the record-holder.” Paul was the worst sinner in the record books and he is the great trophy of God’s grace. God took the worst person who ever lived and made him the greatest of believers. This was accomplished through the principle of grace and the mechanics of Bible doctrine in his soul. So Paul is the product of what grace can do. He is the prototype, the eternal illustration of the transforming power of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. More than anyone who ever lived Paul was a man of doctrine, doctrine was truly his life. “Jesus Christ might show forth” — the subject is I)hsouj Xristoj. I)hsouj emphasises the first advent and the objective of providing salvation for the human race. It is taken from the Hebrew “Joshua”; it means saviour in the Greek even as Joshua means saviour in the Hebrew. Xristoj emphasises the second advent. It means anointed one. When Christ came the fist time He came as saviour; when He comes again the second time He comes as the anointed one. He is the son of David. Just as David was anointed king so Jesus Christ was anointed, and Xristoj means Messiah, anointed one. The Davidic covenant is fulfilled in the word Xristoj. He is the Messiah, the son of David, the one anointed in the line of David to reign over Israel during the Millennium and then for all eternity. In addition to this we have a verb — “might show forth,” the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb e)ndeiknumi which means to demonstrate something by means of someone. Christ demonstrated grace by means of Paul. That is what this passage is about in the prototype of grace. Jesus Christ demonstrated grace by means of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the apostle. The aorist tense of e)ndeiknumi is constative, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. This demonstration of grace covers the span of time and eternity and is gathered up into a single whole by the constative aorist. The middle voice is permissive in which Jesus Christ secures the results of the action in His own interest. He uses Paul to demonstrate grace but it is in the interest of Jesus Christ that we have this great prototype. The subjunctive mood is a part of the purpose clause in which the divine objective or purpose is delineated. “all longsuffering” — the word “all” is the accusative singular direct object from a(paj meaning “entire,” plus the accusative singular direct object of the definite article used as a possessive pronoun: “his entire,” plus the accusative singular direct object from the noun makroqumia, meaning patience, steadfastness, endurance. It should be translated, “his perfect patience.” “for a pattern” — now we come to the prototype, proj plus the accusative of u(potupwsij. The word means a delineation, a pattern, a model, an example, or a prototype. The best translation here is prototype since it includes an original or model after which everything else is copied. Principles 1. Being the record-holder or the worst of sinners Paul becomes an example, model, pattern, prototype of God’s perfect patience. If God did not run out of patience with Saul of Tarsus He won’t run out of patience with you. 2. If God can save Paul through the blood of Christ God can save anyone through the blood of Christ. The worst sinner in history has already been saved. 3. The prototype of worst sinner in history has come and gone. 4. He made his record as the worst sinner, then believed in Christ, and broke a new record and became the greatest believer for saturation of doctrine. 5. Like all who believe in Christ for salvation he, the worst, was saved. 6. The prototype has been saved by grace through faith, the pattern of God’s grace has been established. 7. There will never be a worse person than Paul. If the worst person can be saved by the cross then all of us inferior types can also be saved — inferior in the sense that he was the worst, we cannot be the worst. 8. The greatest challenge of grace, therefore, was the foremost sinner Saul of Tarsus. 9. The challenge was met and overcome on the road to Damascus. 10. But the prototype of grace continues with the fact that the foremost sinner, the record-holder, became the greatest believer of the Church Age and one of the all-time great believers. 11. For Paul converted, living grace is parlayed into super-grace through the establishing of the command post of his soul. This command post was composed of maximum resident doctrine, including more about the doctrine of the mystery than anyone who has ever lived. “to them which should hereafter believe” — this includes the articular present active participle of the verb mellw which means to be about to be. It is often translated “about to.” With it we have the definite article, a genitive plural of reference of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun. It is the remote type for that which is relatively distant, like the 20th century believer. So, “to them who are about to.” The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already existing. The active voice: all Church Age believers produce the action of the verb when they understand this passage. This is a circumstantial participle connoting predestination or foreordination. With this is the present active infinitive of pisteuw which means to believe — “to them who are about to” means “to them who are destined to believe.” Paul didn’t know us personally but God knew in eternity past that we would believe. “on him” — the preposition e)pi plus the locative of the intensive pronoun autoj. E)pi is an interesting preposition. Certain little things must be remembered. E)pi with the genitive emphasises contact; with the locative case emphasises position; with the accusative case emphasises motion or direction. Here we have e)pi plus the locative case which emphasises position. The function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasise the identity of the one and only saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It should be translated “in him.” “to life everlasting” — another prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of zwh — “for life”; and with that an adjective, a)iwnioj which means eternal — “for eternal life.” Translation: “Nevertheless for this reason I have been graced out in order that in me the record-holder, the foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might have demonstrated his perfect patience, as a prototype to them who are destined to believe in him for eternal life.” Note that in this verse both the divine side of salvation, which is predestination, and the human side of salvation, faith in Christ, are mentioned. The human side of salvation 1. Clearly stated in this verse the human side of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ: the verb pisteuw, to believe. 2. Faith is a non-meritorious system of perception in contrast to rationalism and empiricism. 3. The present active infinitive of pisteuw is a transitive verb. This means that the pisteuw has a subject and an object stated or implied. All transitive verbs have a subject and an object. 4. The subject of pisteuw in salvation is any member of the human race. The object is always the same, the Lord Jesus Christ the only saviour. 5. All the believing in the world provides nothing but condemnation from God. You can believe in anything you want to and all you have is condemnation from God. We all believe, we all have objects of faith from time to time. Believing is the most common type of perception, it is the normal system of perception for all of us in the learning process. 6. However, the tiniest faith in Jesus Christ secures eternal salvation. In other words, all you have to do is have is as much faith as you would find in the nucleus of an atom, just a little more than no faith. 7. The efficacy of faith lies in the object of faith, Jesus Christ. 8. Since Christ accomplished all the work of salvation on the cross the only way of salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ. 9. Therefore faith is not something we do but the channel by which we appropriate what God has done for us. E.g. John 3:16-18; 6:47. The divine side of salvation In eternity past the omniscience of God had the good sense to know that certain members of the human race would believe in Jesus Christ — Ephesians 1:3-9.

Verse 17 — the doxology. “Now unto the King” starts out with the post positive conjunction de used as a transitional particle to introduce Paul’s burst of praise for the fact that, he, the worst unbeliever who ever lived was not too sinful for the grace of God. We have also the dative of the indirect object of the noun basileuj, indicating the Father as the member of the trinity for whom the praise is given. He is called “King” here which is not quite what it means. Basileuj also means sovereign, and it is the sovereignty of God the Father which is in focus at this point: “Now to the sovereign.” “eternal” is the descriptive genitive plural a)iwn — “sovereign of the ages.” God the Father is the King or the sovereign of dispensations. In the dispensation in which we find ourselves we have the record-holder of all time in two areas — the worst sinner and the one who knew more doctrine than any other believer in history. Satan is the ruler of the world but God the Father is the sovereign of the ages, and Jesus Christ controls history. “immortal” — dative of indirect object from the noun a)fqartoj which means immortal or incorruptible. It means here “incorruptible one.” The Koine Greek took its adjectives and often used them as a substantive, and that is exactly what we have here. As the sovereign of the dispensations God the Father cannot be corrupted by evil, He is totally free from evil, it is impossible for Him to be corrupted by any creature, and the greatest of all creatures is Satan, the father of evil. God can exercise His sovereignty without jeopardising or compromising His essence. This He does throughout human history. “invisible” — dative of indirect object from a)oratoj. It means “the invisible one.” God the Father has never been seen. “the only wise God” — dative of indirect object from the adjective monoj, meaning here “unique.” But the adjective here is used as a substantive. This only happens in the Koine Greek. Therefore it is translated “the unique one” or “the unique God.” God is unique in every sense. This is, of course, a burst of praise directed to God the Father. His uniqueness comes from His volition. His volition is always in existence, there never was a time when the sovereignty of God did not exist. “honour and glory” — timh kai doca, predicate nominatives. Translation: “Now to the sovereign of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, unique God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen [I believe it].” This is written as a result of grace. Grace is the genius of God, just as evil is the genius of Satan. Grace is manifest through doctrine; evil is manifest through everything from socialism, welfare, etc. This is really the end of the introduction. The rest of this epistle is a series of orders to a weak-sistered wimp by the name of Timothy, a person who was brilliant academically but a person who had a hard time applying what he knew. He was afraid of people.

Verse 18 — “This charge” is the accusative singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. O(utoj means near at hand; plus the accusative singular of paraggelia which means command, a very strong command. It is to be obeyed without question, it demands instant obedience. Everything in Timothy demands instant obedience. “I commit” — the present middle indicative of paratiqhmi. This is a banking term which means to deposit. He is making a deposit. Notice that the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj is in the accusative, it is not the subject. Also, paraggelia is the accusative. They are the direct objects of the verb paratiqhmi, and so it should be translated “I am depositing this order.” The present tense is the aoristic present, punctiliar action in present time. The middle voice is the indirect middle, stressing the agent Paul as producing the action. He is using his rank. The indicative mood is declarative for unqualified dogmatic assertion from a direct order, a series of direct orders in written command form. “unto thee” is not correct. This is the dative case, indirect object, of the personal pronoun su and it should be translated “with you.” “son Timothy” — teknon means “son” all right but it also has another meaning, a student. Teaching is a job for the pastor-teacher. Teknon means a student without portfolio. Timothy is Paul’s student. Paul is using his academic authority to deposit a series of commands with Timothy, and at the same time with us. “according to the prophecies” — there were no prophecies out on Timothy. This is the preposition kata plus the accusative plural of the present active participle proagw. The participle is sometimes used as an adjective, and so it is here. It should be “with reference to previous.” The final word is the noun that goes with the participial use of the adjective — profhteia which refers to the Old Testament doctrinal class. Paul taught Timothy Old Testament doctrine. So, “with reference to previous prophecy.” “which went before on thee” should be “communicated to you.” It is the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of the personal pronoun su. E)pi plus the accusative emphasises direction. He was taught these things. They aren’t about him, they are taught to him. It is a reference to Paul’s academic teaching of Timothy. Timothy had been Paul’s theological student. Paul now commands Timothy to apply what he has learned. Timothy must be influenced by doctrine rather than by evil. Doctrine must become Timothy’s life, it must become more important than anything else in life, and that has not occurred just yet. He is ahead academically, he is behind in application. “in order that” — the conjunction i(na introduces a purpose clause, a final clause which denotes purpose, goal, objective. “by them mightest war” — e)n plus the instrumental plural of the intensive pronoun a)utoj. This means by the same inculcated doctrine. With this is the present middle subjunctive of strateuw. It means to enter combat, to serve, and so on. The present tense is customary present to denote what may be reasonably expected to occur when you have doctrine in the soul. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising Timothy as producing the action as the agent rather than by participating in the results of the action. The subjunctive mood is used for part of the purpose clause with i(na. Then there is the cognate accusative strateia which means combat or campaign, and with it is an adjective also in the accusative, kaloj, which means “honourable” here. It does not mean to fight a good fight, this is an idiom for honourable combat experience. That is the problem at this point, he does not have honourable combat experience because he has not learned to apply doctrine. Translation: “I am depositing this order with you, student Timothy, on the basis of previous prophecies [Old Testament doctrines] taught to you, in order that by these same inculcated doctrines you might have honourable combat experience.” Summary 1. This first order deposited with Timothy embraces the entire epistle. Every command from now on in 1 Timothy is a new paragraph in this field order from headquarters. 2. The epistle is written like a

 postgraduate correspondence course.

 3. Paul the human author is the professor and Timothy is the teknon, the student under strict academic discipline. 4. The combat experience is a reference to Timothy’s ministry in Ephesus and the whole surrounding area related to the angelic conflict. 5. Honourable combat experience reduces itself to the believer in phase two/time being influenced by doctrine rather than by evil. 6. The believer influenced by doctrine receives blessing which glorifies God. 7. The believer influenced by evil receives cursing and discipline in the plan of God. 8. The believer influenced by doctrine reaches super-grace or spiritual maturity. 9. The believer influenced by evil passes through the various stages of reversionism and divine discipline culminating in the sin unto death. 10. The believer influenced by doctrine has both dying grace and eternal reward in phase three. The believer influenced by evil has painful disciplinary death and no reward in eternity. The doctrine of evil Introduction 1. Evil is a factor the believer must face which was not judged on the cross — Hebrews 5:13,14. The mature or super-grace believer can distinguish between honourable and evil things. He is influenced by doctrine rather than being influenced by evil. This gives him the ability to make the greatest distinction of the Church Age, the distinction between honour and evil. 2. The mature believer rightly divides the Word of truth so that he correctly distinguishes between sin and evil which both have their sources in Satan but have different sources in the human soul. In the human soul sin comes from the old sin nature, evil comes from the heart or the right lobe of the mentality of the soul. 3. This verse suggests that the mature believer distinguishes between doctrine as the manifestation of God’s grace and evil as the manifestation of Satan’s genius. 4. God’s grace, therefore, is the manifestation of God’s genius while evil is the manifestation of Satan’s genius. 5. The balance residence in the believer’s soul avoids thinking evil — 1 Corinthians 13:5. The body is balanced out at the point of salvation by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is a problem in the soul. The problem is in the balance of residency. Whenever a believer is in fellowship he is filled with the Holy Spirit. When he is out of fellowship he is said to be quenching or grieving the Spirit which indicates that the Holy Spirit has no control of the soul. You cannot lose the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but you can lose the Spirit’s control of the soul through sin or the influence of evil, or a combination of both. So that immediately we have a soul out of trim, and in order to trim it up there must be a balance. So we have a minus doctrine as we begin our spiritual life and that minus doctrine must become plus. The filling of the Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul equals the balance of residency of the soul and/or experiential sanctification. 6. Sincere do-gooders impress people at Easter, Christmas, and at other times. Sincere do-gooders practice evil — Romans 7:19, 21. Sincere do-gooders have no roots of the soul, no content of the soul whereby they can avoid evil; so in doing good it comes out evil. Being under the influence of evil their good always turns out evil or the policy of Satan. 7. Therefore the believer is warned to beware of evil practitioners — Philippians 3:2. Evil practitioners are those believers or unbelievers who through evil thinking are under the influence of evil. 8. Those under the influence of evil always have a price — 1 Timothy 6:10. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, which means that people under the influence of evil can be bribed. 9. Believers are specifically warned never to be influenced by evil but by doctrine — 3 John 11. 10. Influence by evil explains the basic reason why believers’ prayers are not answered — Job 35:9-13. 11. Submission to the authority of establishment prevents evil and the influence of evil — Ecclesiastes 8:2-5. 12. False doctrine is both evil and insanity — Ecclesiastes 9:3. To say that there is one faith for all men and that all roads go to the same place is declared to be an evil. To be under the influence of evil as a believer means to be negative towards doctrine. Doctrine insulates the believer from evil. To be under the influence of evil means loss of blessing in life, loss of dying grace, loss of reward in eternity. Definition of evil 1. Evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. 2. Just as grace and doctrine represent the genius of God in relationship to the human race so evil represents the genius of Satan in relationship to the human race. Doctrine is a series of thoughts; evil is a series of thoughts. Doctrine are God’s thoughts for the human race; evil, Satan’s thoughts for the human race. It is thought versus thought and the struggle is for your soul. Which type of thinking will control your soul? 3. Evil is the distortion of doctrine and establishment. Doctrine and establishment came first so evil always tries to distort. Evil is not only a Satanic system but it is also a distortion. Since the truth came before the false obviously one part of evil must be to distort the truth into the false. Add something to truth to make it false. 4. Evil, therefore, comes in many forms. Some of the forms of evil include religion, legalism, reversionism, socialism, welfare, political internationalism, religious practice of brotherly love, the attempt to abolish all human problems apart from doctrine and establishment. You can’t abolish problems by passing laws against problems. That is evil. 5. Evil includes such practices as social security, governmental welfare, governmental abuse of power, governmental interference with industry and free enterprise, governmental policy of curtailing the military, gun legislation, catering to minorities (There are citizens but there are no minorities). 6. Evil includes all systems of Christian function outside of and apart from the local church which was ordained and authorised by God as the only means of spiritual growth in the dispensation of the Church. 7. This means that not only are denominations evil but all organisations are likewise evil. They have distorted Christian service into growth. You cannot distort service into growth since spiritual growth only comes through doctrine resident in the soul. Spiritual growth, therefore, only comes through GAP and the only bona fide function of GAP is in the local church. 8. The worst and most detrimental thing that can happen to any believer is to be influenced by evil. Remember that evil is a system of thinking that captures your mind. Evil is the modus operandi of Satan as the ruler of this world. Evil includes many, many things besides sin (occasionally sin is included). It includes human good, the attempt to solve the problems of life apart from God and doctrine. Evil includes anthropocentric altruism, humanitarianism, philanthropy, socialism, sociology, public welfare. It includes the social gospel, social action, the restriction of human freedom for the greater good, the distortion of law, the distortion of any system of establishment in order to solve social and economic problems. Evil is religionism, legalism, reversionism, apostasy, every deviation from Bible doctrine and the laws of divine establishment. The super-grace believer is protected from evil — Psalm 21:11; Proverbs 12:12,20,21. Obviously the super-grace believer has doctrine in his soul. Having doctrine in the soul is insulation against evil. The doctrinal thoughts of the soul come through the daily function of GAP. Bible doctrine is communicated and this doctrine goes into the left lobe. There it becomes objective reality called gnwsij. It is understood by means of God the Holy Spirit who controls the soul at the time that the information is presented. God the Holy Spirit then makes it gnwsij or objective reality, but having it in the left lobe it is not useable, it is not practical as yet, it is strictly academic. At this point the human volition must go into operation. Positive volition toward gnwsij type information results in it being transferred to the human spirit where it becomes e)pignwsij. Now it is usable. E)pignwsij is cycled into the right lobe, the frame of reference or the heart. There it resides to become the basis of understanding and orientation to life and insulation against evil. Genesis 5:20 — the concept that evil is eliminated by the principle of Romans 8:28. Genesis 48:16 — all blessing, all happiness is based upon being free from evil. Psalm 37:16-19 — if you have abundance but have an evil soul then the abundance will make you miserable. Whatever it is that you attain it brings misery instead of happiness. Psalm 97:10 — you come to love the Lord by maximum doctrine in the soul. The more doctrine that you have in your soul the more that you are going to love the Lord. The greater your capacity for loving the Lord the more that you will despise evil. The thinking of evil will therefore have no effect in your soul. Thinking is using your soul as a battleground and all thoughts in life are actually fighting over your soul. When you take in doctrine this repels all of the thoughts which are related to Satan’s policy known as evil. Psalm 119:101 — restraint which guards doctrine. Psalm 121:7 — the Lord protects from evil, guards the soul. This is accomplished through Bible doctrine. Proverbs 1:33 — security and ease from the dread of evil. Proverbs 2:10-14 — application of doctrine delivers from the way of evil. Everywhere you turn in the Bible it is doctrine which protects from evil. Doctrine is divine thinking; evil is Satanic thinking. Proverbs 19:23 — never touched by evil. Doctrine in the soul is the only protection against evil. 9. Negative volition toward doctrine causes the believer to be changed by evil. When you reject doctrine you reject your only protection against evil. Proverbs 5:13,14 — “I have not listened to the voice of my teachers … I was immediately in all evil.” He did not listen to Bible teaching. Doctrine is our only protection, and therefore we are warned in Proverbs 3:7 — “Do not be wise in your own eyes, become occupied with the Lord so that you can turn away from evil.” You cannot turn away from evil unless you become occupied with the Lord. 10. The issue to the royal family of God: Are you influenced by doctrine or are you influenced by evil? Proverbs 11:18,19 — “The reversionist earns wages of deception, but he who sows super-grace has a true reward … he who pursues evil pursues his own sin unto death.” Proverbs 14:22 — “Will they not go astray who devise evil? But grace and doctrine to doctrine to those who devise the absolute good.” Proverbs 15:3 — “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good.” Divine omnipresence is a factor in providing discipline for the reversionistic believer, the believer who is influenced by evil, and at the same time providing blessing for the super-grace believer who is under the influence of doctrine. Proverbs 16:6 — “By grace and doctrine one recovers from reversionism, and by occupation with the Lord one is insulated from evil.” Proverbs 22:3 — “The wise (super-grace believer) sees the evil, and he hides himself; but the stupid one (negative toward doctrine) goes on into the evil and is punished by it.” Proverbs 24:1-4 — the warning never to be influenced by evil. It has a pseudo stimulation which is destructive. Ephesians 5:16 — “… redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Time is redeemed through the establishment of a command post in the soul, through the consistent intake of Bible doctrine. 2 Thessalonians 3:2,3 — “And that he may be delivered from perverse and evil men, for all men do not have doctrine; but the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from evil. ” 11. Doctrine neutralises evil. The is the basic concept of the recovery from the influence of evil. Psalm 54:5 — “The evil will return for those who lie in wait for me; put them in silence with your doctrine.” The concept of doctrine neutralising evil means that once you have come under the influence of evil the only possible recovery demands that you take in necessary doctrine in order to eliminate the erroneous human viewpoint thought, or the Satanic policy which lies within your soul. For that reason Romans 12:21 says, “Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with the absolute good [Bible doctrine].” 12. On the other hand evil distorts grace. In this distortion we have the concept of how one little evil thought, one Satanic viewpoint, can cause the infiltration of evil into the soul. Psalm 38:19,20. The concept is that any time a person follows the absolute good, any time a person begins to realise the importance of doctrine, he immediately is subjected to many subtle and many obvious attacks. The attacks of evil are subtle and they distort to the point where the person goes negative toward doctrine. Psalm 52:1 — “Why do you boast in evil O mighty man? The grace of God endures all day long.” The fact that the grace of God endures in spite of evil indicates that in spite of the fact that evil attacks by distorting grace, grace is the factor that brings us back around. 1 Corinthians 15:33 — “Be not deceived, evil company corrupts good morals.” Evil company refers to some of the nicest people, some attractive people, successful people, people in whom you enjoy their company. But in social intercourse it is inevitable that they will throw out thoughts, concepts that are evil, and when you accept these concepts because you accept the person, then you have been corrupted in the soul. It is the concept of corruption of soul that is found in this stage of 1 Corinthians 15. 13. Evil also distorts establishment — Psalm 50:16-21. Evil is related in this passage to the sins of the tongue. 14. Reversionists are influenced by evil — Psalm 36:1-4. In this passage we have the principle that evil begins at certain stages of reversionism. For example, in the opening stages of reversionism which is the reaction stage you generally have reactor factors such as self-pity, loneliness, and so on. But once you start the frantic search for happiness it is inevitable that you will contact evil, and while it is still in a stage where it isn’t dangerous by the time that you get into operation boomerang, the intensification of reaction, you’re off to a flying start. Then with emotional revolt, when the emotion revolts against the right lobe you are in trouble and once your negative volition is consolidated and the vacuum is opened up, through that vacuum go all the doctrines of demons or evil thoughts. This leads to blackout of the soul which leads to scar tissue of the soul, which leads to reverse process reversionism. And from emotional revolt on there is evil in every stage of reversionism so that evil and reversionism become the same thing at that point. In fact, evil becomes the thinking of reversionism. Psalm 36:1 — it is an arrogant thing that you relate yourself to people when the demand is that you relate yourself to God. Your job is to relate your life to God, not to people. When you relate your life to God you’re safe from evil but the very moment that you start relating your life to people you become arrogant. John 3:19 — “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The reason why people like certain forms and activities in life is simply because it matches what they are doing. What they are doing is evil, therefore they like to have it match up with what is in their souls, especially in the conscience of the soul. 15. Evil rationalises. One of the things that evil must do is to avoid any guilt reaction, and to do so evil therefore has its own system of rationalisation. In order to rationalise you must distort the conscience, and so the conscience ignores the norms and standards of the scripture and sets up its own human norms or standards. With these human norms and standards then you can go out and do anything you want to because the reality of what you are doing is lined up with the reality of the norms and standards in your soul. Therefore the Bible says, “Woe to them who call evil good, and good evil.” Once you set up a series of norms and standards in your soul you call those good. 16. Conspiracy and revolution is also evil — Psalm 64:4,5. Verse 4 describes assassination as murder, verse 5 describes it as evil. When you have sin plus evil you have the worst possible combination. Proverbs 17:11 — “A rebellious man seeks only evil.” Revolution and evil are synonymous terms. 17. Evil is obviously self-destructive. Psalm 34:21— “Evil shall slay the wicked, and they who hate the righteous will be condemned.” Evil people are always trying to solve the world’s problems by violence. Proverbs 24:19,20 — “Do not fret yourself because of evildoers, or be jealous of the ones who are evil; for there will be no future for the evil one; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.” The lamp of the wicked will be put out at the second advent of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, the lamp of the wicked is dimmed and put out in any generation by the saturation of Bible doctrine. This is the answer. 18. Evil seeks to build happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. Psalm 35:12 — “They repay me evil for good to the bereavement of my soul.” So when evil is repaid for good it always hurts the soul of the one who did the good. 19. The laws of divine establishment protect the human [believer and unbeliever] race from evil. We are all born unbelievers. How can we be protected until we get to the point of evangelisation? How can we be free to hear the Word? How can the gospel come to us under conditions of freedom? There must be freedom for evangelisation. The answer is found in the laws of divine establishment. That is why Bible Christianity is always pro-establishment. Romans 13:3,4 — “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behaviour [establishment], but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good [stay with establishment], and you will have praise of the same; for it [the laws of divine establishment] is a minister of God to you for absolute good. But if you do what is evil, then be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings judgment on the one who practices evil.” This time crime produces certain types of sin, and crime is not only sin but crime is evil. The evil in crime is antiestablishment. The sin in crime plus the evil in crime mean that you must have capital punishment to control crime because those who are involved in crime are also involved in evil. They must be extracted and removed from the human race, and capital punishment is the basic system for controlling crime, says the Bible. The reason why capital punishment is so important is because it eliminates from society those who are influenced both by sin and evil at the same time. 20. There is no evil in God. Psalm 5:4 — “Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells in you.” James 1:13 — “Let no man say when he is tempted, I have been tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, he himself does not tempt anyone.” 21. God judges evil. Psalm 34:16 — “The face of the Lord is against evildoers.” The face of the Lord is His essence. Every part of divine essence is opposed to evil. 22. In spite of evil Jesus Christ continues to control history. Proverbs 16:3,4 — “Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for his own purpose; even the wicked for the day of evil.” Isaiah 45:7 — “I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I, the Lord, do all these things.” The verbs for creation: a) bara, which means to create out of nothing. It was used in the creation of man’s soul; b) asah, means to manufacture something out of something, out of existing materials. It is used for the creating of man’s soul resulting in man’s personality. Man’s personality is related to his soul. Our soul is bara, [Ex nihilo] and from this comes a personality. Secondly, we have asah which is the personality which emerges from the soul. The soul was created out of nothing, the personality is derived from the soul — asah; c) Jatsar, has to do with the body in the human race. The man’s body is said to be moulded; d) bana, the woman’s body taken from the man’s body, means to build. Three of these words are used in Isaiah 45:7. “I form the light” — the qal active participle of jatsar. Not only was the body of man formed but light [Heb. or] was also moulded. This is an excellent way to describe light. Light generally represents truth and the wonderful things we see in colour, and so on, but the reason that it is said to be moulded is because light comes in waves. The waves of light are actually moulded and in light are all of the colours that we see. The previous verse, verse 6, said, “I am the Lord, there is no other.” Verse 7 — “Forming light.” This is the beginning of a structurised concept. A structurised concept in the Hebrew generally has four phrases. They are all qal active participles, so they are parallel and they all relate. Then we have the word bara, a qal participle. The qal participle sets up a structurised system in the Hebrew. The object of bara is different, it is choshek, “darkness.” Darkness is caused by the fall of Satan, according to Genesis 1:3-5. It is used, therefore, in connection with Satan. So we have an antithesis in the beginning of our structure, we have light formed and darkness created. Then fact that darkness comes from bara and light from jatsar is extremely important in this passage because there will be something set up to relate to this. Bara will be repeated. Darkness is not created directly by God, but God created the creature who brought darkness into the world. This is not darkness as we understand it when we walk outside at night but this actually refers to Satan as the author of darkness. God created Satan as Lucifer the angel of light. When God created him he was absolutely perfect, but in his volition were certain negative elements which were contrary to doctrine and contrary to God. And from those negative elements came darkness. So while God created Satan and gave him a free will, what did Satan do with it? He created darkness, the antithesis of the light formed by God. Since yatsar is used here we are to think of light not in terms of colour right now but in terms of wave length. Light travels in waves and darkness breaks the waves. So the point is, God created the creature, gave him a free will, and the first thing the creature did when he finally got oriented in heaven was to make sure that he broke the waves, the vibrations as it were, that God had set up. He went against them. Darkness is the creation of Satan, it was caused by the fall of Satan and by the angelic revolution. In preparing earth for man’s habitation God corrected the situation with light when He restored the earth. Light would provide heat energy which would melt off the ice pack and make it possible for man to live on the earth, for man was created to resolve the angelic conflict. But in this verse it declares that God created the darkness and bara is used because God created Satan who is called the prince of darkness as the ruler of this world. Satan is a creature; God is the creator. The whole blessing we are to derive from this structurised system is the fact that the creator continues to control even though the creature from his own free will went away from what God had formed. The point is, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” What this actually says so far is that Jesus Christ controls history even though the greatest genius that ever came from the hand of God was Lucifer the son of the morning, and even though Lucifer the son of the morning is the author of darkness. Now we go back to asah — “I make prosperity [not peace].” God is the manufacturer. He manufactures shalom which means “prosperity.” God manufactures prosperity, but asah says you do it out of something. God manufactures prosperity for us out of doctrine — paragraph SG2. Our shalom glorifies God. What doesn’t glorify God? What is the antithesis of the believer reaching SG2? Evil. Therefore in the antithetical structure of the second phrase , “and create evil,” we have the qal active participle of bara — to create out of nothing. Bara is used again because we are dealing with that same creature who was the author of darkness. Satan is the author of darkness, God is the one who created Lucifer son of the morning. Now you would think we would have the most common word for evil ra’a, but you can’t have this one because ra’a is a woman, feminine gender. Satan by sex is male. So instead of ra’a we have the masculine form, “the evil one.” Ra is an adjective used as a substantive just as in the Koine Greek we have the same concept of kakoj used as an adjective as well as a substantive. When it is kakoj or ra, as here, it is “evil one” referring to Satan — “the one creating the evil one.” Darkness is used in scripture not only for literal darkness but for the policy of Satan. Evil is the policy of Satan in action. So darkness and evil are synonymous terms for Satanic policy. What is in contrast to darkness and evil? Light [doctrine] and prosperity [result of doctrine]. “I, Jehovah, am the one manufacturing all these things.” This time He uses asah to indicate” All right, creatures have free will. Angels have it, man has it, but I still asah history; I manufacture out of history my plan and I am the sinner! Literal translation: “I am Jehovah, and there is no other. Forming light and creating darkness; the one manufacturing prosperity, and the one creating the evil one; I, Jehovah, am the one manufacturing all of these things.” 23. The saturation of evil means national destruction or the fifth cycle of discipline. Nothing is more destructive to a national entity than to become saturated with evil. People sin in a country but the country continues on. Vigorous nations have vigorous sinners but the nation goes right on. Sin is not the issue in the survival of a nation, it is evil that is the issue. This does not condone or excuse sin but it does make clear that sin in itself is not the cause of a nation’s downfall. It is evil that is the cause of downfall of a national entity. This is portrayed in Isaiah 47:10,11. Verse 10 — this is talking to the empire of Chaldea which has had a great spiritual revival after Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion. Men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo were not only great administrators in the Chaldean empire but at the same time they were a great spiritual influence. They were the salt of the empire. They had the privilege of leading many to the Lord, of dissemination of doctrine. Daniel himself was a communicator of Bible doctrine. Therefore the empire flourished. But in the time of Nebuchanezzar’s grandson the empire has reverted to the saturation of evil which existed in the early days of Nebuchanezzar’s reign. Therefore this warning prophecy to the Chaldean empire from the pen of Isaiah: “For thou hast trusted” is the qal imperfect of batach. This word is often used for the believer trusting but it is also used for anything in which anyone trusts. Here the trust is misdirected because it is said to be “in thy wickedness.” This is wrong, it should be “in your evil.” Altogether it should be translated, “Because you have trusted in your evil.” In other words, nations not influenced by doctrine, nations minus any kind of a spiritual life, inevitably are going to be taken over by evil because eventually the very structure of establishment is undermined. There are three protections from evil. The first is a spiritual vigour from evangelism — commonly called revival. Evangelism, however, does not mean spiritual growth. There is no spiritual growth in evangelising. Evangelism has a very simple objective, to lead the individual to the understanding of the issue of the gospel and to lead him to the place where he personally believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as his saviour. Evangelism and the perpetuation of missionary activity in a country is a protection against evil. The second and most obvious protection against evil is in the field of spiritual growth. Spiritual growth can only be accomplished inside of the local church. The only possible way to ever grow up is to be under your pastor-teacher, under his authority, under his teaching consistently, so that you can fulfill the function of GAP as recorded in the Word of God and grow up. This is the basis of the salt function. Salt is the preservative of the nation, and inevitably as in the time of the Chaldean empire, the time of this passage, the nation was preserved in the time of Nebuchadnezzar because men like Daniel communicated Bible doctrine. There is a third protection of a national entity against being overtaken by evil and that is in the field of establishment. The laws of divine establishment are for the entire human race. They are designed to perpetuate the human race during the course of the angelic conflict. Satan is a genius and he knows that the simplest way to win the victory is to destroy the human race or corrupt the human race. These are through principles of evil but establishment stands as a bulwark against the destruction and the corruption of the human race. When establishment goes in a national entity the national entity is overtaken by evil and the result is the destruction of the nation. Therefore we conclude that there are three things that a nation must have for survival: evangelism, the local church and the pastor-teacher communicating doctrine for the spiritual growth of those who are evangelised, and it must have the laws of divine establishment functioning within the framework of its government. These are absolute necessities without which no nation can be protected from evil. So nations not influenced by doctrine and nations not influenced by the laws of divine establishment have a tendency to be influenced, infiltrated, inculcated, and eventually destroyed by the principle of evil. Remember that evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. While both evil and sin originate from Satan, and both have the same source in that super angel, they have different sources in your life. The source of sin in your life and in the life of each one of us is the old sin nature. The source of evil is the heart or the right lobe in the mentality of the soul. And while both sin and evil originate from Satan they do have these two different sources in mankind. Evil includes human good, social and economic panaceas, trying to solve the problems of life through legislation, social gospel, social action, or through psychology, through some system of counseling, through socialism. Evil includes any form of anthropocentric altruism, humanitarianism, religion, legalism, reversionism. It includes victorious life panaceas, any system of pseudo spirituality of which fundamentalism is loaded down today. Sin was solved at the point of salvation, sin is solved in the work of Christ on the cross; evil was not even dealt with at the cross. Evil was, as it were, ignored at the cross so that evil could continue to be the issue in the angelic conflict all of the way to the second advent of Christ. The sins of humanity were judged on the cross but evil was not dealt with at all. The problem of evil will not be solved until Satan is removed as the ruler of this world, and that occurs at the second advent. Evil, therefore, can only be handled in each generation by those in a generation who are influenced by Bible doctrine. Sin can be solved in your life as quickly as you can rebound or cite the sins since it was judged on the cross. Anytime, however, a believer becomes legalistic that believer becomes influenced by evil. To be influenced by evil is the be under the direct policy and therefore the control of Satan himself. If you do not stay with Bible doctrine, if you do not get with Bible doctrine, if you do not grow up with Bible doctrine, if you do not GAP it daily, then you will eventually come under the influence of evil. So only the daily function of GAP can protect the believer from evil. And here in Isaiah 47 we find a nation which has trusted in evil. In other words, the Chaldean empire has become a Satanic stronghold, a place of national apostasy and reversionism, a place under the influence of many kinds of evil. The manifestation of Old Testament evil often takes the turn toward idolatry and this will be included in the context. “thou hast said” — the qal perfect of amar represents the concept of the people. In other words, this is public opinion at the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson. “None seeth me. Thy wisdom and they knowledge, it hath perverted thee.” So when public opinion says, Well no one is really checking on me, this means that establishment has gone. “None seeth me” means that establishment is no longer hindering or restraining people from evil. There is no system of establishment that is impressive enough to stop them. This is what happens when establishment itself is eroded away by bribery, or when it is administered by those who are evil themselves. “Thy wisdom and they knowledge, it hath perverted thee” is incorrect. The pilel perfect of shub. The pilel stem of this particular verb means to seduce — “Your wisdom and your knowledge have seduced you.” Both wisdom and knowledge here refer to a saturation of evil in the souls of the Chaldean people. Anthropocentric knowledge becomes evil. Evil is a thought; evil is humanitarianism in its thinking; evil is a thought in the right lobe that can make or break you, and it always breaks. What you think, therefore, influences you. And what the Chaldeans thought has influenced them and they are therefore about to be completely destroyed. “and hast said in thine heart” is “Therefore you have said in your right lobe” — and here it comes now. The word for arrogance in this case is ani — “I am.” Then to make sure you understand that this is not simply self-consciousness the next phrase is “there is no one else beside me.” This is the phrase of arrogance. Arrogance is a sin that always links up with evil. Arrogance and reversionism meet at the point of evil. In some stage of reversionism where arrogance exists evil is the result. Satan’s original sin was arrogance or pride from which Satan’s policy of evil originated. So this first verse says, “Because you trusted in your evil; you have said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge has seduced you; therefore you have said in your right lobe, I am, and there is no one else beside me.” This is the point at which sin and evil cross. Arrogance or pride meet reversionism and the result is evil. Verse 11 — “Therefore evil shall come upon thee.” “Shall come” is the qal perfect of bo and it is translated, “Therefore evil shall come upon you.” “thou shalt no know” — the qal perfect of jada plus the negative, and it means “you won’t understand its origin.” You won’t know what hit you! “mischief” is not quite correct. It is the feminine singular noun howah which actually means “disaster.” It is a reference to the destruction of the Chaldean empire because of the evil engendered within it. Evil is the source of national destruction; evil brings on the fifth cycle of discipline. “thou shalt not be able” — the hophal imperfect of the verb jakal plus the negative. Helplessness is the only thing that can occur when the fifth cycle of discipline is in the process. “thou shalt not be able to put it off” — the piel infinitive of kaphar means to avert it. “and suddenly destruction [5th cycle of discipline] shall come on you, and you will not understand.” Evil people cannot interpret history. Translation: “Therefore evil shall come upon you; you will not understand its origin. Consequently disaster [national] shall fall on you; you will not be able to avert it, and suddenly destruction [5th cycle of discipline] shall come on you, and you will not understand it.” There is no way that you will understand any disaster in history if you are under the influence of evil. This tells us something on the side. If you are under the influence of evil there is no way of coping with disaster. Your only hope in coping with disaster is to add disaster to disaster. This is why people get into narcotics and become drug users and use stimulants on which to lean. This is because they do not know how to cope with evil. They have no understanding of the problem and therefore they seek some easy way out which merely compounds the problem. 24. Evil never understands grace function. 25. Evil is distinguished from other categories in the scripture. There are three basic distinctions in the realm of evil. a) Evil is distinguished from war and disease — Jeremiah 28:8, “The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of evil and of disease.” Under the Hebrew language structure here war, evil, and disease are distinguished. Evil is distinguished from war and disease. In other words, war is not evil and disease is not evil. Evil is separated from war and disease. This passage is saying that evil must be distinguished from war, that warfare is not classified as evil; neither is disease. Warfare is the means of maintaining national freedom. It is a means of suffering as well as pressure but it is not evil. It is possible to take this separate entity and insert evil into warfare, or to insert sin into warfare; but warfare is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. Warfare is a part of the function of establishment whereby a national entity maintains its freedom. The infiltration of sin or sinful things done, or evil things accomplished during warfare, does not change the principle. The principle of warfare remains the same; it is a good principle, not a bad principle. The same thing is true of disease. Disease is not evil. People may have disease because of sin or because of evil but in principle disease in itself is not an evil thing at all. Both sinful and evil things may be done in war but war in itself is not evil. Sinful and evil things may be done and as a result there may be disease, but disease in itself is not evil. It may be punishment but in itself it is not evil. b) Evil must be distinguished from sin. 1 Chronicles 21:17 — “And David said to God, ‘Is it not I who ordered the census of the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned ...” David said, “I have sinned” — That is the qal perfect of chata — “and done evil.” Now we have the hiphil infinitive absolute and a hiphil perfect of the verb ra’a, which is different from chata. So David distinguishes between his sin and his evil, and he puts great emphasis on his evil because he doubles the verb. There are two hiphils. The hiphil is causative active voice. And we have the infinitive plus the perfect tense of the hiphil. It is very strong. “I myself have personally cause the evil.” “but these sheep, what have they done?” All of us are going to commit sins until the day we die because we have an old sin nature. And on the cross Christ died for every sin we will ever commit. Therefore we simply cite or name that sin and we are forgiven immediately. But evil was not judged on the cross. Evil is not judged until the second advent. At the second advent Jesus Christ will judge evil by the removal of Satan from the world. Remember that evil is not only the genius of Satan but evil is the policy of Satan. Everything related to evil is Satanic and Satan’s genius expresses itself through evil the way God’s genius expresses itself through grace, and grace is expressed in doctrine. So the great issue is always doctrine versus evil. David was a man of doctrine and avoided evil, but when he did not avoid evil he knew what he had done and he expressed it beautifully and distinguishes between sin and evil. He confesses his sin and he declares that he is the cause of the evil, but he makes the distinction between them. The sin, of course, is forgiven. Recovery from evil is something else and takes a little more time. But it brings up an issue. Satan himself, when he was Lucifer son of the morning, originated both sin and evil; he is the author of both. He is the evangelist of evil throughout all of human history. Since sin and evil have a common origin we often confuse them, but when it comes to man sin and evil are separated in man’s soul. The old sin nature is the source of sin but the heart or the right lobe of the soul is the source of evil. Evil is a thought, a Satanic policy, a Satanic viewpoint. Sin is a violation of the laws, the standards of God. They are separate and distinct in the human race even though they had a common origin in Satan himself. David knows all of this, so in the first half of this verse, 1 Chron. 20:17, teaches that sin and evil are not the same though both were involved in David’s numbering of the people. The sin of David was arrogance or pride of prosperity; the evil of David was in checking up on God. As it says in the same chapter, verse 1, “Then Satan stood up against Israel and motivated David to number the people.” Both sin and evil are involved here and are distinguished as separate categories of failure. c) Evil is distinguished from evil. Many times the Word of God talks about evil and evil, and makes a distinction. There are two kinds of evil found in the scripture. There is evil in a national entity when they reject (go negative) the laws of divine establishment, or when the believers reject doctrine and go into reversionism. This, when it reaches a saturation point, results in the fifth cycle of discipline. The fifth cycle of discipline is from the Lord, but when it is used to destroy a nation which is under the influence of evil it is called an evil to an evil nation. In other words, God matches the punishment and the crime and therefore we have the double use of evil. A good illustration of this is found in Jonah 3:10 — “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their way of evil; then God repented of the evil which he declared that he would do to them, and therefore he did not do it.” This is what made Jonah so mad. He was an unwilling missionary, not very much in favour of being a missionary to the Assyrians. It says God repented of the evil. The evil is the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. Evil destroys evil. God calls it fighting fire with fire or fighting evil with evil. He was about to destroy Assyria but He did not do so. They “turned away from their evil”; they actually made a recovery. So the distinction becomes obvious. The Assyrians practiced evil in the sense of following the Satanic policies; they were about to be overtaken by evil, God makes the punishment fit the crime. This is a manifestation of His perfect justice. Jonah’s great mission saved the day. This brings us to the concept that rightly dividing the Word of truth not only means recognising dispensational differences but it would mean recognising other differences when the Bible makes a distinction. These distinctions become the basis of great wisdom. 26. It is obvious, then, that evil is often mistaken for good. Micah 1:12 tells us about a little suburb of Samaria. Samaria became the final capital of the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom had many capitals after it broke away from the southern kingdom and from the house of David, but the city of Samaria finally became the capital and was the last capital. It was the Assyrians who besieged this capital and finally took it. One of the problems in the northern kingdom was the infiltration of evil. The only insulation against evil is Bible doctrine in the soul. The only protection against evil is the function of the laws of divine establishment. In the northern kingdom there was a dearth of both. “For the citizens of Maroth” — a little suburb of Samaria. Maroth means ‘bitterness’ — “waited anxiously for good.” In other words, they were waiting for something good to happen. Just like to day everyone thinks that something good is going to happen, someone is going to get in and change things. But the system is anti-doctrine and antiestablishment and has to be destroyed. No person can change things. Yet people are going to go right on “waiting for good,” and while people are standing around waiting for good, evil overtakes them. That is what this passage is all about. The citizens of Maroth had the same attitude, they became weak while waiting for good. While we wait for good we become weak. “but evil came down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem” — notice the evil came from the Lord. This means the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. While they are waiting around for good to come the fifth cycle of discipline takes them. What were they doing? They weren’t just waiting around by sitting down and looking heavenward, they were bucking the tiger for their own system. In 20th century terms they would be saying: “We’ve got to get more welfare; we’ve got to have more labour unions; let’s abolish war by abolishing our military; let’s solve crime by gun legislation.” This is what is called waiting for good. Everyone has an angle how it is all going to be solved and worked out. “Let’s put more taxes on industry, let’s nationalise industry.” This is called waiting for good. It means taking some solution other than Bible doctrine. The people of the northern kingdom thought that evil was good. When it says the citizens of Maroth became weak waiting for good we have an interesting verb in the Hebrew — chalah, which does not mean to be weak in muscle, it means to be weak in the soul, to be weak in the mind. It is what happens when you sit around and watch television too long, you get weak in the mind. 27. Evil provides false security for reversionism — Micah 3:11. “Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe.” Here are the judges in the northern kingdom and they are determining cases on the basis of who gives them the most money. “her priests instruct for a price” — the priests taught the written Word of God as it existed at this time — “her prophets divine for money” — the prophets taught the spoken Word of God. Both are doing it for money. This is evil. No one has the right to sell the truth. “yet will they lean on the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord in our midst?” — they try to justify the fact that they are charging for it by saying that it is the Lord’s truth. “No evil can come upon us.” They are involved in evil. Evil rationalises the existence of security from the Lord. Evil uses the Lord as a front for the false security. Verse 12 — “Therefore [on account of you evil types] Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins.” When you start selling doctrine the next thing is the destruction of a nation. Doctrine is free, it is not for sale. All doctrine is related to grace. Grace is not for sale. It is an evil policy for any Christian institution of any kind to ask for money. The truth is free; it is evil to charge for doctrine. 28. Evil national leadership is always opposed to God — Nahum 1:11, “From you has advanced one who plots evil against the Lord.” He is described as “a wicked counselor.” That is a mistranslation. We have the qal active participle of ja’atz which means to counsel or to decree, that much is all right; but the rest of it is beilial, and it means maximum evil. So it should be translated, “From you has advanced one who plots evil against the Lord, a counselor of maximum evil.” This is a description of the leadership in the land at this time. Nahum as a prophet is warning that the leadership of the land is evil and their policy is evil. Translation: “From you has advanced one who plots evil against the Lord, a policy-maker of maximum evil.” 29. Evil will be eliminated in the Millennial reign of Christ — Zephaniah 3:14,15. The two great issues that Satan brought up in the angelic conflict are sin and evil. They are separate issues. Sin was covered in the first advent at the cross. Christ was judged for our sins. At the second advent evil is handled. Verse 14 — “Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion; shout O Israel; rejoice and be happy with all your right lobe, O daughter of Jerusalem. Verse 15 — “The Lord has removed his judgments [fifth cycle of discipline], he has mopped up your enemy; the Lord is the King of Israel, he is in your midst, you will not see evil any more.” Evil is eliminated by Jesus Christ superseding Satan as the ruler of this world. 30. When Satan succeeds in inculcating evil, that evil is located in the soul of the individual whether he is a believer or an unbeliever — Matthew 6:23. The eye being evil is evil resident in the soul. Or, as it says in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts.” 31. Remember that evil is altruistic. Luke 11:13 — “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” This has to do with the previous dispensation when it was necessary to ask for the Holy Spirit to receive the Spirit; and this was on a limited basis, not like we have it in the Church Age. The point is that parents, even though they are evil, know how to give good gifts to their children. Evil knows how to give and the whole system of altruism comes out of that first phrase. 32. Evil is related to Satan in many ways. For example: a) Satan’s angels are called “evil spirits” in Luke 7:21; 8:2; Acts 19:12-16. b) Satan’s domain is called an evil world — Galatians 1:4. c) Satan’s policy is called evil — 1 Thessalonians 5:22; 2 Thessalonians 3:3. d) Those under Satan’s policy and influence are called evil men — 2 Timothy 3:13; Job 35:12; Matthew 12:35; “evil workers” in Philippians 3:2. e) Satan’s administrators are called inventors of evil things — Romans 1:30. 1 Timothy 1:19 — “Holding” is the present active participle of e)xw which means to have and to hold. Here is means to be having and holding since the participle takes the place of an imperative. This is an imperative participle The present tense is the present of duration, sometimes called the retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continues to the present time. Timothy is still positive toward doctrine, his problem is not reversionism, his problem is the failure to apply it under the authority of his own spiritual gift. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb. “faith” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun pistij. Pistij has three meanings. The first of these is that which causes trust or faith. In other words, faithfulness, reliability, pledge, proof, or solemn promise. This is perhaps the least used meaning of pistij in the New Testament but it does actually occur. Faith is the active sense is the second meaning of pistij, therefore it is translated in the active sense as faith, trust, or confidence. This also includes faith as recognition and acceptance of Christian doctrine. The third use is the one which is found most frequently in Hebrews and in the pastoral epistles: that which is believed, the passive sense of the noun, the body of belief or doctrine. Here we translate it simply “doctrine.” “Be having and holding doctrine.” “good” — a)gaqoj, the accusative singular direct object. It means good of intrinsic value and refers to doctrinal standards in the conscience; “conscience” — suneidhsij. O)ida means to know; sun means with: to know with. It means a norm or standard in the right lobe of the soul. Nearly all of the problems we will face in all of the commands Timothy will receive have to do with gaps or problems in his conscience where this fantastic amount of Bible doctrine resident in his soul has not filtered down into his conscience. “which” is the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j. The antecedent is the good conscience. “some” is the nominative masculine plural of the indefinite pronoun tij [no accent on the Greek pronoun] and it means “certain ones.” He veers away from Timothy for the moment. There are others who need the attention of the apostle, real recalcitrants who are bothering the local assemblies and they need to be dealt with. Since Timothy has not had the temerity to deal with it then Paul himself will step in and do so. In other words, here is a weakness of Timothy again. There are a couple of men who are completely out of line and who need to be removed. Timothy is just too nice. A weak conscience is a conscience which is missing certain norms and standards for certain situations. Here we have a good conscience required, a good conscience as in norms and standards for every situation. “having put away” — the aorist middle participle of a)poqew which means to push aside, to reject, to repudiate, to cast off, to thrust away. All of these meanings are pertinent because all of them deal with reversionism and the influence of evil. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which takes the occurrence of reversionism and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into a single whole. Therefore it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, namely the various stages of reversionism. The middle voice is indirect middle, it emphasises the agents, the reversionistic believers, the bad conscience types, as producing the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial for reversionism. It also has antecedent action to the main verb. “concerning faith” — peri plus the accusative definite article used as a possessive pronoun plus the accusative singular of pistij, used again for doctrine. It should be “concerning their doctrine.” “have made shipwreck” — the aorist active indicative of the compound verb nauagew. This is taken from two words, the Greek noun nauj, a word which means a ship. With it is the verb a)gnumi which means to break up, and both words together mean shipwreck. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event of reversionism in its entirety but it emphasises the results of reversionism: shipwreck of doctrine, the influence of evil, resulting in bad norms and standards. The active voice: certain reversionists produce the action of the verb by being reversionistic, coming under the influence of evil. The declarative indicative views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. The indicative mood also indicates the main verb and now we have a setup between the aorist participle whose action is antecedent to the main verb. The mood declares reversionism a fact. The prepositional phrase should follow this verb. Translation: “Be having and holding doctrine, and a good conscience [freedom from evil]; which certain ones [reversionists] having rejected have suffered shipwreck concerning their doctrine.” Verse 20 — the result of being influenced by evil and reversionism. This came out of the last phrase, “some have suffered shipwreck concerning their doctrine.” Shipwreck means not only being influenced by evil but it means the whole realm of reversionism. Now, two of these are mentioned specifically. “Of whom” is the genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j, and should be translated “among whom.” “is” — the present active indicative of e)imi. The present tense is a static present, they keep on being in this condition. Even though they will make one recovery attempt they will still fall back into it. This is not only what we have in the context here but there are other passages on these two men. The first of them is a man by the name of Hymenaeus. He is a reversionistic believer living in Ephesus. He is mentioned twice, here and in 2 Timothy 2:17. Hymenaeus is guilty of having a loose, fat mouth. He is a gossip, a maligner, a woman in his soul, is filled with all kinds of the influence of evil and reversionism. He is more or less a hopeless case because of in-built blind arrogance. The other man is Alexander, a reversionistic believer mentioned also in 2 Timothy 4:14 where he is called Alexander the coppersmith. He is the one who will eventually be responsible for the death of Paul. He is the one who betrayed Paul to Roman authorities so that he was apprehended, brought to trial a second time and executed. It was Alexander who brought in lying, perjured evidence against him. These two men are declared here to be reversionists, they are under the influence of evil, and their end is now described. “whom” is the accusative plural direct object from the relative pronoun o(j. Timothy is a wimpy type and has the tendency to procrastinate, to put off a strong decision of any kind hoping that the Lord will work it all out for him, or that if you ignore the problem the problem will go away. He allowed Hymenaeus and Alexander to run loose through the congregation, never challenged them, never did a thing about them in any possible way. As a result the apostle Paul had to lower the boom. To be turned over to Satan is one of the most horrible things that could ever happen to a believer in dying. It is not only the sin unto death but it is the administration of the sin unto death under maximum pain and disaster. This is exactly what happened to these two men. Paul turned them over to Satan for the administration of the sin unto death. “Whom” is a relative pronoun referring specifically to Hymenaeus and Alexander whose reversionistic and evil activities have gone unchallenged in the Ephesian complex. “I have delivered” — the aorist active indicative of the verb paradidomi which means to deliver over, when it was used of Judas Iscariot it meant to betray; “delivered over” is a good translation. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety paradidomi. It could be just a few seconds or a long period of time, but here it was the elapse of a very short time. Apparently this was accomplished through prayer. The apostolic authority included a great power of turning a reversionistic believer over to Satan for the administration of dying discipline. This was possible for apostles, it is not possible today for pastor-teachers. Paul did the same thing to the incestuous reversionist in 1 Corinthians 5:5. The active voice: Paul as an apostle produces the action of the verb which is maximum use of his apostolic authority. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of historical reality. “unto Satan” is a dative of disadvantage. Dying discipline administered by Satan has no advantage to the believer involved, it is misery all the way. The phrase implies intensive and dying discipline as the last two punitive stages of reversionistic discipline. “that” is the conjunction i(na used as a final clause. It is used with the subjunctive mood to denote a final clause which has aim, purpose, goal, or objective. “they may learn” — learning it the hard way. The aorist passive subjunctive of paideuw. Paidoj means child; paideuw means to train children with pain. It means to tell them not to touch a hot stove and let them touch a hot stove. It means they have to learn by being hurt. It finally came to mean training anyone by means of discipline. It should be translated, “in order that they may be taught by discipline.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views intensive and dying discipline in its entirety but it regards them from the viewpoint of the existing result. The results are potential, says the subjunctive, namely the recovery of those involved. This is the last great warning. Sometimes people realise what they have done and what they are involved in and they recover. Hezekiah is an illustration from the Old Testament, the incestuous Corinthian is an illustration in the New Testament. The passive voice: Hymenaeus and Alexander received the action of the verb, learning the hard way. The subjunctive mood indicates the fact that that this is last call to straighten out or die miserably. “not” — the particle mh is what is called qualified negation. It is in contrast to the particle o)uk which is very strong negation. When you have mh plus the subjunctive it implies uncertainty. Therefore the negative mh only denies hypothetically like o)uk would do. In other words, it is questionable whether they will straighten out or not. In the meantime they are blaspheming. “to blaspheme” — present active infinitive of blasfhmew which means here to slander God. It means to malign the character and the grace of God. The descriptive present indicates events in the process of occurrence which should not occur. The active voice: Hymenaeus and Alexander as reversionists are under the influence of evil and they produce the action of the verb which is maligning God’s essence and plan. The infinitive is the intended result. The result indicates the fulfilling of a deliberate aim or goal or objective. This is intended though not actually taking place. Translation: “Among whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered over to Satan in order that they might be taught by discipline not to blaspheme.” The doctrine of reversionism 1. By definition reversionism is negative attitudes toward doctrine on the part of the believer. Reversionism is characterised by two principles: negative volition toward Bible doctrine resulting in failure to function under GAP, and a system of perpetual carnality in the life which results in perpetual discipline. This is called being influenced by sin. There are two factors, then, in reversionism. It is one thing to sin, it is another thing to be influenced by sin. But reversionism has two factors: to be influenced by evil which means negative volition toward doctrine; to be influenced by sin, which results in perpetual carnality. All of us sin but that does not mean that we are influenced by sin. To be influenced by sin you have to be in a pattern of sin that excludes taking in Bible doctrine on a regular basis. So we have negative volition toward doctrine and/or influence by evil, perpetual carnality in the life resulting in perpetual discipline in the life, as in Hebrews 12:4-15. Reversionism is recession from any stage of spiritual growth, whether it is partial spiritual growth or the completed spiritual growth of super-grace and/or maturity. Reversionism, therefore, is lack of spiritual growth, it is neglect of Bible doctrine. It crosses a point with evil and becomes the principle of being influenced by evil. Reversionism crosses a pattern of sin at certain times and results in being influenced by sin. While the super-grace believer is in a progressive state in time the reversionistic believer is in a retrogressive state in time. Reversionism in the believer is analogous to apostasy. Reversionism in the unbeliever is rejection of and departure from the laws of divine establishment — 2 Peter 2:17-22. Reversionism must be distinguished from carnality in the same way that spirituality must be distinguished from super-grace. Spirituality is an absolute whereby God the Holy Spirit controls the soul of the believer. Super-grace is a relative status of maximum spiritual growth whereby the believer is under maximum influence of resident doctrine. Carnality is also an absolute state, the absolute state of being out of fellowship through sin. Reversionism is a relative status of varying degrees of spiritual failure. The carnal believer can be positive toward doctrine and recover through rebound; the reversionistic believer under the influence of sin can rebound but he is far from recovery. So reversionism becomes a technical theological synonym for being under the influence of evil, being under the influence of sin, being negative toward doctrine. God blesses the believer influenced by doctrine, He curses the believer under the influence of evil. Therefore reversionism can apply to apostasy, to influence of evil, to influence of sin or all of them, or part of them. 2. The mechanics of reversionism are divided into eight stages: a) The reaction stage means instability and includes discouragement, boredom, disillusion, inability to cope with loneliness, being overcome by self-pity, being in some stage of frustration. It includes also rejection of authority of one’s right pastor, personality hang-ups with members of the congregation or the pastor, hypersensitivity and lack of objectivity under rebuke or under normal conditions of life. It includes mental attitude sins such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, arrogance, guilt complex, operation vengeance, seeking to build you happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. It includes such things as distractions which lure you from Bible doctrine. Part of the reaction stage, but not quite as common, is drug addiction, mental illness, academic or mental incompetence which distract from one’s consistency and ability to take in the Word of God, even under GAP. b) The frantic search for happiness. This is how you try to assuage the reaction. The function of the reactor factors in the life of the believer result in the frantic search for happiness. This becomes the alternative to the daily function of GAP and is the accepted solution for the frustrations in the first stage called reaction. The frantic search for happiness follows the trend of the old sin nature. As a rule it follows your trend toward asceticism or your trend toward lasciviousness. Both exist in the old sin nature and everyone at some time or another will have one or both of these trends. The trend toward asceticism leads to the false emphasis on experience, construing Christian service as both spirituality and maturity. So-called victorious life gimmicks, emotional stimulation [the tongues movement is a part of this], legalism, the get-involved-in-works programs, spirituality by self-denial [fundamentalism flagellation], discipleship, throwing a fagot on the fire type of panacea — in other words, one shot decisions and everything is all right again., tabooism, getting involved, social action, the social gospel, loving everyone, trusting everyone [naive stupidity]. All of these are in the ascetic trend. Some of these are the beginning of evil and this is where evil often begins for some in reversionism. Then there is also a trend toward lasciviousness that hardly need amplification. Debauchery, drunkenness, chasing, seduction, becoming users of narcotics and drugs apart from medicinal purposes, female nymphomania, homosexual-lesbian activity. c) Operation boomerang. This means the frantic search for happiness intensifies the reaction stage. Frustration becomes intensified. In other words, greater frustration. Whatever the problem, whatever the search for happiness, it will only make the individual more miserable rather than solving anything. d) The emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion is a responder of the soul and it was designed to respond to the heart or the right lobe. Emotion is equivalent to the right woman whereas the heart is equivalent to the right man. The soul has male and female parts even as the body has male and female hormones. So the emotion is the female part of the soul designed to respond to the right lobe or the heart which is the male part. The heart or the right lobe of the soul is equivalent to the right man. Emotion has no doctrinal content, no mentality, no character, and it can only respond to what is found in the right lobe. It is designed in the spiritual life to respond to doctrine. Once emotion revolts it becomes the aggressor, it loses all capacity for life, it becomes distorted, it becomes the tool for the old sin nature, it becomes the basis for launching into many types of evil. The emotions of the reversionists resist Bible doctrine and resist Bible teaching. They do not find it pleasant, entertaining, or conducive to any type of blessing that they are interested in — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12. We are warned to stay away from people who are going in this direction — Romans 16:17,18. The emotional revolt of the soul causes the emotion to respond to the old sin nature instead of responding to the heart or the right lobe. The emotion, therefore, takes over the dictatorship of the soul, becomes aggressive, neutralises doctrine in the right lobe. The emotion becomes a tyrant, a nagging bitch, shutting out doctrine, short-circuiting grace in any form, causing malfunction of every normal function of the soul. Believers who live by their emotions or use their emotions as a criterion are invariably apostate, disoriented, flaky, degenerate, mentally ill and many other factors. e) Negative volition toward doctrine. This is characterised by many types: 1. Indifference or apathy to doctrine; 2. Too busy for Bible teaching; 3. Antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the pastor; 4. Antagonism or personality conflict with other members of the congregation; 5. Failure to utilise grace provision for GAP, including assembly at the local church, failure to rebound, lack of respect for authority, poor manners, lack of concentration, no poise, no objectivity in the function of the local church in the intake of the Word of God; 6. Inability to handle prosperity; 7. Disorientation to the factors of living grace. Under living grace God keeps us alive in the devil’s world. He provides food, shelter, clothing, transportation. Disorientation is failure to appreciate these factors and utilise them in the assimilation of doctrine; 8. An active campaign to discredit, remove or destroy the ministry of one’s own pastor. f) The blackout of the soul. This is the opening up of mataiothj, the vacuum through which doctrine of demons comes. These doctrines of demons include religionism, liberalism, every form of evil and therefore being influenced by evil. This stage always find anyone totally under the influence of evil. The infiltration of Satanic doctrine leads to demon influence, the blackout of the soul, and coming under the control of evil — Ephesians 4:17,18. g) Scar tissue of the soul whereby the valves of the soul are frozen, the right lobe’s frame of reference, memory centre, vocabulary, categorical storage, conscience and launching pad malfunction and doctrine is no longer applied. Doctrine is eventually destroyed by misuse or no use. It is also known as hardness of the heart. Proverbs 21:29-31. Scar tissue is also a state of revolt against the Lord — Jeremiah 9:16,17. Hardness of the neck is a synonym and it means insubordination to the point of revolution. Scar tissue of the soul, then, is related to negative volition toward doctrine — Jeremiah 7:25-27. h) The final stage is reverse process reversionism. This is the stage where all of the values are destroyed and one becomes occupied with the things that are the antithesis of spiritual values. In category #1, blind arrogance. In stead of occupation with then person of Christ, having the vocabulary [”Oh how I love Jesus”, etc.!] and on an ego trip. Common sense, judgment, poise, goes in a different direction. In category #2 love there are false lovers. In category #3 love, false friends. 3. The discipline of reversionism — 1 Timothy 1:20. There are three stages: a) The warning stage — Revelation 3:20. This is designed by God to give believers warning that they are going in the wrong direction. Disciplinary warning is designed to remind them that they are in the first stages of reversionism. Therefore these various types of things are brought about by God to hurt, to awaken, to make one realise that he is moving in the wrong direction. James 5:9. b) The intensive stage. For those who reject God’s knocking on the door of the life by discipline prosperity of every type begins to shrink away, is removed, and life becomes very miserable. This category of discipline is generally found in the last four stages of reversionism. It is best described by Psalm 38:1-14. It is also found under the category of strong delusion in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. This is getting very close to the next stage, the final stage, which is dying. c) The dying stage. This is equivalent to the sin unto death and generally this is exercised by Satan himself. God often permits Satan to take believers slowly out of the world in this manner. 4. The principle of reversionism is found in Galatians 5:4 — “You reversionists have become a casualty [ineffective, neutralised] from Christ, whoever are being vindicated by means of the law; you have drifted off course from grace.” Drifting off course from grace perfectly describes the principle of reversionism. 5. There are a number of categories of reversionism. a) Phallic reversionism — 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; Colossians 3:5; Revelation 2:14. b) Legalistic reversionism — Galatians 5:4; Colossians 2:16-18; Hebrews 5:11-6:16. c) Monetary reversionism — Ecclesiastes 5:10-16; James 4:13,14; 5:1-6; Revelation 3:14-20. d) Alcoholic and narcotic reversionism — Isaiah 28:1-9; Galatians 5:20. e) Anti-establishment reversionism — Romans 1:18-32; Hosea 4:1-7. e) Mental attitude reversionism. f) Verbal reversionism — James 5:9,12. g) Psychotic reversionism — 2 Peter 2:15-19. 6. The biblical nomenclature for reversionism is quite varied. Galatians 5:4 — drifting of the course from grace; Philippians 3:18 — being the enemy of the cross; Jeremiah 9:25,26 — being uncircumcised of heart. In other words, the evil has not been cut away from the heart; Hebrews 12:15 — failing from the grace of God; 2 Peter 2:7,8 — being a tortured soul; 2 Peter 2:14 — being an unstable soul; Revelation 2:4 — leaving your first love. Revelation 2:5 — fallen; Revelation 3:15,16 — lukewarm; 1 Timothy 1:19 — suffering shipwreck from doctrine. 7. A profile of a reversionist is given in Psalm 7:14-16. 8. The contamination of reversionism is found in Hebrews 12:15. 9. The psychosis of reversionism is found in 2 Peter 2:15-19. 10. Reversionism eliminates special blessing paragraphs for time and eternity — Hebrews 3:10-12. 11. Hebrew reversionism. Hebrews 5:11-14 — the recipients of Hebrews were involved in reversionism. As a result it says in verse 14, “But solid food [doctrine] belongs to the super-grace believer; because of self-discipline they keep having their perceptive faculties well-trained with reference to being able to distinguish between what is honourable and what is evil.” Hebrews 6:1-3, reversion recovery is impossible apart from the daily function of GAP in the field of doctrine. Hebrews 6:4-6, reversion recovery is impossible when religious reversionism is perpetuated. The blond arrogance factor takes over. 12. Reversion often leads to perversion — Romans 1:26,27 — and produces national disintegration — Romans 1:29, 32; Hosea 4:1-6. 13. Reversionism intensifies suffering — Psalm 77:1-10. 14. The doctrine of reverse process reversionism. Chapter 1 via Matthew 19:27-20:34 Principles 1. God’s standards for maturity and qualifications for blessing are the same for every believer. 2. It therefore becomes blind arrogance for any believer to imply that he has achieved what no other believer ever has, or that he has some unique experience or that his life is more important than anyone else’s. 3. Blind arrogance comes in many forms. Legalism is a manifestation of blind arrogance — legalism in three categories: salvation by works, spirituality by works, maturity by works. 4. Emotional arrogance of the Holy rollers who associate spiritual advance with an obsolete spiritual gift known as tongues is blind arrogance. Everyone involved in the holy-roller movement is a victim of blind arrogance. 5. The self-centred arrogance of that believer who assumes that his life, his activities, his opinions, are more important than those of anyone else is in blind arrogance. 6. The person who assumes that the plan of God stands or falls on the basis of his behaviour is in blind arrogance. 7. It is arrogance to assume that the plan of God depends on any believer. It is obvious that the plan of God depends on God, that’s grace. 8. The arrogance of the person who sets up false standards and then complies with these false standards, and by his compliance concludes that he is a great believer, is blind arrogance. 9. The person who assumes that any form of kindness or friendliness from the opposite sex means that the person is madly in love with him is in a state of blind arrogance. 10. The arrogance of assuming that a few dates is a declaration of love or a silent agreement of marriage is blind arrogance. 11. The arrogance of perpetuating your enthusiasms on others who are not interested, and judging them with harsh criticism because they are not interested, is blind arrogance. Matthew 19:27-20:34. In this passage we meet the blind arrogance of Peter the apostle, the blind arrogance of labour unions, the arrogance of the wife of Zebedee and Salome, the mother of James and John. We meet the arrogance of James and John, in fact the twelve disciples. We meet the arrogance of the mob of Jericho. Only three people in this entire concentration of the Word of God come up smelling like a rose — grace orientation. First of all a capitalist and two blind men from Jericho. We are going to see the principle reiterated twice, “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” The first refers to blind arrogant types under the influence of evil, and they are last in God’s economy of things. The last refers to super-grace humility from the influence of doctrine in the soul, and they are first for blessing in time, first for rewards in eternity. The occupational hazard of blind arrogance is obviously the subject of this area. While arrogance or pride is a sin it combines with reversionism to form a concentrated system of evil. Pride and evil meet to form the occupational hazard for believers, which we will call simply blind arrogance. Blind arrogance is the hindrance to and the frustration of spiritual advance to the high ground of the super-grace life. The outline of the passage is very simple. There are four paragraphs. Paragraph one is the case of the arrogant apostle — Matthew 19:27-30. Paragraph two is the grace illustration — Matthew 20:1-16. Paragraph three is the arrogant mother — Matthew 20:17-28. Paragraph four is the grace illustration — Matthew 20:29-34. Matthew 19:27 — Peter the arrogant apostle. There is a parenthesis beginning in verse 28 after the words, “ye which have followed me in regeneration.” The parenthesis is closed in verse 29 after the words “for my name’s sake.” The text within this parenthesis has nothing to do with the sentence which begins in verse 28. Remove the parenthesis and we have, “Ye which have followed me in regeneration also shall inherit everlasting life.” We begin in verse 27 with a correlative adverb tote. “then.” “Then answers” — the aorist passive participle from the verb a)pokrinomai, which means a reply as a result of a lot of questions which are not shown in this context. “Then Peter having replied said to him” — the aorist passive participle has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb is the aorist active indicative of legw which is translated “and said.” All of the way through this passage extra “ands” are thrown in which are not found in the original. “we have forsaken” — the first statement of blind arrogance, the aorist active indicative of the verb a)fihmi which means to leave, to abandon, to give up. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Peter implies that they had given up everything to follow the Lord. This is not true, this is blind arrogance. The active voice: Peter alleges to produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for implied reality, not actual reality. “all” — the accusative neuter plural of paj is the direct object. The neuter would imply more things than people. “and followed you” — the aorist active indicative of a)kolouqew. The word occurs twice in this context. Actually the chapter should have begun at verse 27 of chapter 19, and the chapter should end where it does in chapter 20:34, “and they followed him.” Our dissertation on blind arrogance starts with a)kolouqew in verse 27 of chapter 19 and goes to a)kolouqew in verse 34 of chapter 20. This time when the word is used it is a case of blind arrogance. As it is used at the end of chapter 20 it is a case of grace orientation and grace dynamics. Please notice that blind arrogance always emphasises the person. Notice that Peter emphasises himself. He puts it in “we” because he and the disciples have discussed this thing and they are all guilty of the same thing, they are carried away with pride, they are filled with their own self-importance, they have assumed that because Jesus has given them a little authority that somehow what they think and what they do is more important than anything in the world. Peter is trying to emphasise to the Lord just how important Peter is. So here is arrogance of legalism, reversionism and evil all tied up in the pride package. Here is what cause the fall of both Satan and the woman. “What shall we have therefore?” Here is the arrogance again. He is interested in what he is going to have by way of reward. The verse says literally, “Then Peter, having answered, said to him. We have given up all things and have followed you. What therefore shall we have?” In this passage we have a future active indicative of e)imi — “What shall we have?” — indicating Peter’s very arrogant confidence in future reward. Peter has lost the perspective of grace by emphasising what he has done for the Lord, rather than what Christ has done for him. So far all that Peter has done that counts is that he has followed the Lord in regeneration. So verses 27-30 gives us the picture. Note: When you come to the point of regeneration be sure to put in a parenthesis, for what is found in the parenthesis is dealing with the subject of reward in eternity and is not a part of the sentence which answers the question. The rest of the question is answered at the end of verse 29 with the adjunctive use of kai and is translated “also” — “also you shall inherit eternal life.” Within the parenthesis it says, “When the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, you also [and this includes the apostle Paul] shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up” — now He mentions things in the future that are rewardable but have no basis for reward now because they have not given up any of these things because of Bible doctrine. They have given up nothing for doctrine. Bible doctrine in the soul often displaces certain things in the life. They have made no doctrinal decisions and therefore they have no basis for reward at this moment.

Verse 30 — “But many first shall be last [in blessing and reward]; and many last shall be first [in blessing and reward].” The word “first” 1. The first are those guilty of blind arrogance. They are last in blessing in time and last in reward for eternity. In other words, the word for “first” here refers to blind arrogance. There are minus their paragraph SG2, they will be minus dying grace if they persist and will be minus SG3 in eternity. That is what last means. 2. The last are those who through doctrine resident in the soul have grace humility, grace orientation. They are moving toward the high ground. They will be plus SG2, plus SG3. In other words, they will keep advancing and follow the colours to the high ground. Matthew 20:1-16, the grace illustration. Jesus illustrates by setting up a parallel between God’s policy of grace and the policy of a capitalist in the agricultural economy of the ancient world. One of the great things about the Roman empire was its free enterprise. In this passage are found two kinds of labour. One is “union” labour. They are the first who are going to be last. They illustrate blind arrogance. Then we have “scab” labour. That means free labour, non-union. “Scab” labour illustrates grace orientation humility, and they will be first. The first will be last; the last will be first. Jesus advocated free enterprise. “For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder” is wrong. The word o)ikodespothj means a capitalist, a man who is the lord of an empire. A capitalist is a man who invests money into business. He is the one who declares the policy. It is his money that is invested in the business. He is the one who creates jobs for labour.

Verse 2 — he starts out with union labour. “And when he had bargained with the labourers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.” He went out at 6am and picked up the first group. These men are union men, they bargained for the day’s labour. They are the only bargainers in the whole setup.

Verse 3 — the third hour is 9am.

Verse 4 — “whatever is right I will give you. And they went their way.” No bargaining.

Verse 5 — “the sixth and ninth hour” is twelve noon and 3pm.

Verse 6 — “the eleventh hour” is 5pm. In all but the first group there is no bargaining, they trust management to do the right thing. The union crowd are the first, the last are the “scab labour,” non-union, who have no contract. Only the 6am union crowd have a contract. Note that in verse 2 we have labour union workers. They have bargained with the capitalist for a day’s wages, a denarius, and they have a union contract for that day. They were under contract to management. The capitalist needed more labour so he went out and hired non-union labour. Management invests the money, management makes the policy. Labour does not dictate to management under establishment, only under a principle of evil does labour ever dictate to management. It was the policy of this management to hire all of the non-union labour he could find and to treat them right. Under the laws of divine establishment capitalists, those who put up the money and management, have the sole right to make policy for their business. Neither the government nor labour have a right to make policy in free enterprise. Note that the non-union labour did not bargain with management but left it up to the discretion and policy of management what they should receive for that day’s work or part of a day’s work. In this way a parallelism is set up between labour unions and legalism on the one hand, and on the other hand grace orientation and non-union labour. In this way the labour union represents blind arrogance and the non-union labour represents grace humility.

Verse 8 — “And when evening [6pm] was come.” The non-union labour was divided into four groups. Each group had worked a different number of hours. This management has a policy, it is going to pay them all the same. He could pay them anything he wanted to. He chose to pay those who didn’t bargain with him the same, even though they didn’t work twelve hours. That’s grace. And if that is the policy, that is the law for that day. “beginning with the last to the first” —

Verse 9 — and when the 5pm group came each one received a denarius, a full day’s wages. They had no contract, they depended upon the policy of the capitalist.

Verse 10 — the labour union crowd came “they supposed that they would receive more.” They assumed it. It was blind arrogance on their part, they had a firm contract which they had bargained for. They assumed wrong, they held the capitalist to one denarius and he is going to stay with that contract. The non-union crowd made no bargain for labour but they trusted management to do what was fair. Their faith was met by grace. They did not earn or deserve by the bargaining standards, they received it anyway and that is grace. The union labourers who worked for twelve hours had contracted for a specific amount. The management was fair and just in giving them what they had bargained for. Not only does the parable advocate free enterprise in business but it emphasises the importance of God deciding the eternal rewards on the basis of His policy. Peter is trying to contract with the Lord for his reward in advance. You don’t bargain with the Lord for reward, for blessing, that is blind arrogance.

Verse 11 — they began to complain against the capitalist.

Verse 12 — “These last have worked only one hour.” Union doesn’t like it!

Verse 13 — “I am doing you no wrong: did you not bargain with me for a denarius?”

Verses 14,15 — the capitalist has a right to do what he will with his own money. Blind arrogance does not understand grace, it maligns and judges grace. Blind arrogance has not doctrinal standard on which to appreciate grace. The evil eye is the evil thinking of the labour union. They are anti-establishment and condemned by our Lord. Like Peter, the labour union crowd suffered from their own blind arrogance. Blind arrogance keeps the believer from yielding to the superior standard of God’s matchless and perfect grace. Grace is related to doctrine, never to works.

Verse 16 — “Thus the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.

The last half of verse 16, “for many be called, but few chosen,” is not found in the original. Verses 17-19, the Jericho discourse (verse 29). Here is there answer to blind arrogance. Jesus is going to tell them what is about to happen. This is a week before the cross. They have been with Him for three years and still the only thing they understand is salvation. They are full of blind arrogance. “And the third day he shall be raised up.” This is the future passive indicative of the verb e)geirw and it refers to resurrection. This is the predictive future, He is announcing the fact that He is going to rise again. The disciples didn’t even start to grow until the resurrection.

Verse 20 — “the mother of Zebedee’s children”, i.e. Salome, the sister of Mary. She is the mother of James and John. Salome is guilty of the same blind arrogance as Peter. Like Peter she wants to bypass the objective of the first advent, the cross, and take the crown which is the objective of the second advent. She fails to see that the cross must come before the crown. Her pride has caused her to only listen when Jesus talks about the kingdom coming in the future and she wants to make sure that her boys are in the top rung of the future kingdom. Verse 21 — Salome’s blind arrogance. It ignores the very teaching which Jesus has just made. Verses 22 & 23, a dialogue with James and John. “You do not know what you are asking.” The cup is going to the cross. “We are able.” Blind arrogance! 1. This is arrogance, legalism and idiocy in view of everything that Jesus taught them. 2. The baptism of the cup is the cross where Jesus Christ is going to provide our so great salvation. 3. Neither James nor John could provide salvation on the cross, they could not die for the sins of the world, as per the baptism of the cup just stated. 4. If man can do anything to provide salvation then there is no salvation. 5. Man can appropriate salvation by faith in Christ but man cannot provide salvation by being judged for our sins on the cross. Only the God-Man Jesus Christ can do that. 6. Only a perfect man could do this, hence the impeccability of Christ. 7. Blind arrogance is a combination of the sin of pride plus evil thinking. Blind arrogance is minus the doctrine. The doctrine has just been taught, the doctrine has not been accepted. “Ye shall drink indeed my cup.” James was the first disciple to be martyred; John was the last one. James and John would die but not for the sins of the world. “But to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give” — The Father is the author of the plan — “but it is for those for whom it has been prepared in the past with the result that it stands prepared by my Father.” Verse 24 — the other ten were indignant with their arrogance. The concept behind blind arrogance 1. God’s standards for maturity and qualifications for blessing are the same for every believer. 2. It therefore becomes blind arrogance for any believer to imply that he has achieved spiritually what no other believer ever has, or that he has some unique experience, or that his life is more important than anyone else. 3. Blind arrogance comes in many forms: in the form of legalism, like salvation by works, spirituality by works, maturity by works. 4. The emotional arrogance of the holy rollers who associate spiritual advance with the obsolete spiritual gift of tongues is also blind arrogance. 5. The self-centred arrogance of that believer who assumes that his life, his activities, his opinions are more important than those of anyone else is also blind arrogance. 6. The person who assumes that the plan of God stands or falls on the basis of his personal behaviour is in blind arrogance. 7. It is arrogance to assume that the plan of God depends on any believer. It is obvious that the plan of God depends on the essence of God. This is the concept of grace, everything depends on who on what God is. 8. The arrogance of the person who sets up false standards and then by complying to these false standards concludes that he is a great believer. 9. The person who assumes that any form of kindness or friendliness from the opposite sex means that the person is madly in love with him. This is blind arrogance. 10. The arrogance that assumes that a few dates means a declaration of love and a silent agreement to marry is blind arrogance. 11. The arrogance of perpetuating your enthusiasms on others who are not interested and judging them with harsh criticism because they are not interested. This is blind arrogance. Verse 25 — Jesus called them to solve the problem of blind arrogance with doctrinal teaching. “rulers of the Gentiles (the Romans) lord it over them (the Jews), and their great men (who are in command of the province) exercise authority over them.” An historical trend which had been noted by all of the disciples. Verse 26 — “But it shall not be so among you” — Don’t learn anything from the Romans in their administration of the province of Judea, some of you are already acting like Romans — “but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant.” In the spiritual realm service must be based on grace orientation. Grace orientation is based on doctrine in the soul, the utilisation of the inner resources of doctrine. Verses 27, 28 — “And whosoever wills to be first among you shall be your slave: just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for the many.” In effect He has said this. In the royal family of God greatness is being under the authority Bible doctrine. There are all kinds of authority in life but true greatness for the believer and the avoidance of both evil and blind arrogance comes from being under the authority of doctrine, not exercising authority over others. This will come in due time for many believers. Believers will exercise and utilise authority. How they utilise that authority will be based on doctrine in the soul. Human standards always relate greatness to the obtaining of and the exercising of authority. Divine standards demand that all believers be under authority for greatness, and the authority is Bible doctrine in the soul. Therefore the importance of the principle of learning doctrine, the function of GAP to establish an inner dictator of the soul. Maximum doctrine in the soul insulates the believer from the influence of evil and protects him from blind arrogance. All believers must come under the authority of the Word of God and Bible doctrine. We now come to the grace illustration. We are going to get a transition, some blind arrogance, but now the entire situation switches to show us true greatness in two that you would never think of as being great. Verse 29 — we have the Lord Jesus Christ leaving the area of Jericho, the place of the curse, to go back to Jerusalem — “a great mob followed them.” Verse 30 — the word for “sitting” in the Greek is the present active participle of the verb kaqhmai. The present tense is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a picture of an event in the process of occurrence. In other words, you have to picture the Lord Jesus Christ on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. It is a gradual climb but it gets very steep. Behind Him are the twelve disciples and behind them a tremendous mob of people who have been under the ministry of our Lord in Jericho, people who have been curious, people who have sought miracles, people who have heard something of the controversy about our Lord and about the Sanhedrin; but regardless of what it is they are now following the Lord out of curiosity, at least for a short time. Everything about these blind men speaks of helplessness. They are not moving with the crowd, they are not following the Lord, they are blind, they are dumped, as it were, out of life by the side of a road. Their helplessness is described by the fact that both of them have physical blindness. When they heard that Jesus was passing by the shouted, they didn’t cry out, saying, kurei, the vocative of the Greek word kurioj which stands for deity. We now have two blind men who as soon as they hear that Jesus has just moved by they identify Him as God. The recognise Him for what He is, that He is God, that He is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Then they cry out, “Have mercy on us” — the aorist active imperative of the verb e)leew which means here, “Grace us out.” Then they cry out, “son of David,” speaking of the humanity of Christ. So add to the deity of Christ perfect humanity. Jesus is going to use this as the illustration. He is followed by twelve arrogant disciples. There is also in that mob the mother of two of the disciples, Salome the wife of Zebedee, and she is arrogant. Everywhere our Lord has encountered blind arrogance and this hinders the intake of the Word of God, it hinders the concept of grace orientation. Jesus illustrated that it wasn’t what the blind men could do — they could do nothing but sit — it was what the blind men were thinking. Jesus gives a perfect illustration not only to His disciples but to us today. These two men were sitting, they were blind, they were handicapped, they were helpless, hopeless, useless. They were out of society as it were, they were dragged upon life, absolutely and completely helpless. Yet the Lord says that these two were the only two great ones that He encountered in all of His trip to Jericho. These two were great not because of what they could do, they greatness lies in what they were thinking. A thought can make or break you. Greatness lies in the soul, not in the service and in the function. What you think is infinitely more important than what you do. Believers who are under the influence of evil, believers who have rejected doctrine, are spiritually blind. So we have a whole crowd of spiritually blind people following the Lord, they have blind arrogance. Believers influenced by doctrine, even though they are physically blind, are spiritually very alert and they see with the eyes of the soul, they have the sight of grace orientation. Verse 31 — the blind mob: “multitude” is o)xloj which does not mean a multitude, it means a mob. This refers to a mob of people with blind arrogance. Many of these people are saved, some are unbelievers, but they are still blindly arrogant. Mobs 1. Mobs cannot think, cannot reason, cannot accomplish anything worthwhile in life. Mob activity and mob rule is absolutely contrary to the laws of divine establishment. 2. Mobs are the historical illustration of mass blind arrogance. 3. Mobs are the are the antithesis of the laws of divine establishment by which we have our freedom. 4. Mobs destroy freedom, privacy, and hinder spiritual growth. 5. Mobs are anti-authority, anti-discipline, anti-establishment, anti-revival. 6. This mob was typical. It was a case of non-authorised persons sticking their nose into someone else’s business, a typical invasion of the privacy and freedom of the two blind men. Blind arrogance is always guilty of the long proboscis. 7. The doctrine of the long proboscis is a great detriment to spiritual growth. 8. Nosy-type people who invade your privacy are reversionistic, influenced by evil, and guilty of blind arrogance. 9. The mob is guilty of blind arrogance. The two blind men have not gained the approbation of the mob, and that speaks well for them, the mob is very antagonistic. If the judgment of the mob had prevailed these two blind men would have been ignored. “and the mob rebuked” is wrong. It is the aorist active indicative of e)pitimaw which actually means to censure or reprimand very severely. It can be translated, “and the mob severely rebuked them.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the manifestations of blind arrogance as they existed in the mob, sticking its nose into the business of the two blind men, and gathers it all into one entirety. It was a reprimand for speaking up and declaring true doctrine. It was not only the fact that the two blind men were shouting, but it is the content of their shouting. The mob did not understand what was being said — the hypostatic union, the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, any more than they understood the resurrection of Christ which Jesus had just discussed with them. The active voice: the mob in blind arrogance produces the action of the verb. Blind arrogance always censures, always criticises. In other words, blind arrogance always goes where angels fear to tread. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that the mob was in arrogance. “them” is the dative plural indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which refers to the two blind men sitting by the road of Jericho. The intensive pronoun emphasises their identity as two grace oriented persons, entirely different from those who were rebuking them. We might translate this, “these same ones.” “because” — the conjunction i(na which introduces a final clause. It denotes purpose, objective, and here is should be translated “that.” “they should hold their peace” — in other words, this is what the mob gives by way of advice. The aorist active subjunctive of the verb siwpaw means to shut up, stop speaking, keep silent. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety, regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The active voice with the subjunctive mood indicates that the mob intended for the two blind men to blend into the background and be neither seen nor heard. The subjunctive mood is potential, it goes with the conjunction i(na for the final clause. “the mob severely reproved these same ones in order that they might keep silent.” Now we have the word “but,” the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de. This sets up a contrast. We have a contrast between the persistence of the super-grace vision versus the blindness of evil arrogance. The mob has that same evil eye as the union labourers in verse 15. “they shouted the more” — they began to shout all the more. Now we have the word krazw for shouting. They not only wouldn’t shut up but they even made more noise than they did before. This is the loudest possible shout. The ingressive aorist means that they began to shout louder. The active voice: while physically blind these grace oriented believers persisted in expressing their doctrinally oriented humility. The indicative mood is declarative. Historically this is what they did. They were not intimidated by the mob. They could easily be abused by the mob and yet they stuck to their guns. The dynamics of life are not in physical activity, the dynamics of life are always found in the soul of the believer. It is a thought that makes or breaks you. “Have mercy” — this should be “Grace us out.” Again we have the same aorist active imperative of the verb e)leew. The culminative aorist regards grace in its entirety but emphasises the result. The active voice: Jesus Christ must produce the action. They are helpless, this is the contrast with blind arrogance. The imperative mood: the command is based on maximum knowledge of doctrine, especially the hypostatic union and the Davidic covenant. Translation: “And the mob severely reproved these same ones, in order that they might shut up: but they began to shout all the more, saying, Grace us out, O Lord, son of David.” Verse 32 — “And Jesus stood still” is the aorist active participle of i(sthmi and it really means here to stop. The aorist tense here is the constative aorist, it refers to momentary action. Jesus produces the action by stopping as he hears these shouts. The participle is circumstantial. “and called them” — the word fonew means that He summoned them. In the aorist tense it means a momentary summons. “what do you wish” — the mob could not handle them and therefore the Lord turns around and handles the whole situation. We have an interrogative pronoun for “what,” the present active indicative of qelw which means a desire. He is still dealing with the soul. He knows what they think. “that I shall do to you?” — the future active indicative of poiew indicates that He will do whatever they want. They’re straight, their doctrine is straight, they now have His attention as it were, and He is ready to do whatever they want. Notice the emphasis on free will and human volition in the historical stage of the angelic conflict. Principle: The free will of man never detracts from the sovereignty of God under grace. Under grace these men have made their grace appeal. Doctrine is the basis for their appeal. Under grace the sovereignty of God says to their volition, “What do you wish?” Under grace free will compliments, glorifies the sovereignty of God. Only arrogant blindness is in opposition to the sovereignty of God. Jesus Christ as God made an issue of their free will by asking them what they desired. This is because their volition so orients to the will and plan of God as to be non-meritorious, totally compatible with grace. They are grace oriented, they are the antithesis of blind arrogance. So here is grace humility in contrast to blind arrogance. Verse 33 — the grace petition. The blind men ask for something which they could never do themselves. Grace always puts the emphasis on the sovereignty of God; they put the emphasis there. “You can do something that no one in the world could do for us, you can heal our blindness.” Their case is hopeless. “They said to him” — the historical present is often translated like a past tense. Plus the dative of indirect object, “They said to this same one.” “Lord”, and then they used the final clause, “that our eyes may be opened.” In their request they merely asked for sight in the sense of opening the eyes. The aorist passive subjunctive of a)noigw is the word that is used here. Actually, the Lord is going to do more than that, He is going to make it possible for them to have perfect eyesight. The word a)noigw merely means that they will be able to see a few things. Verse 34 — the dynamics of grace oriented humility, or how the last shall be first. Remember that the first are those guilty of blind arrogance. The last are those who through doctrine resident in the soul have true grace humility. Throughout this passage there is a contrast between blind arrogance and grace humility. They see with the eyes of the soul, their sight is based on doctrine, they do not have that evil eye of verse 15. “So Jesus had compassion” — the aorist active participle of splagxnizomai which means here to be moved with compassion. The constative aorist refers to the action of the verb in its entirety. As God Jesus always had compassion. As member of the human race the son of David He has compassion in a moment of time. So the constative aorist gathers up eternity past and links it with this point of time, it is all gathered together. The active voice: the Lord Jesus as the God-Man produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. The word “and” is not found in the original. “So Jesus moved with compassion touched their eyes.” The aorist tense indicates that He simply did it momentarily, so it is what is called an instant constative. The word is a(ptw. “and immediately” — literally, “at once”; the words “their eyes” is not found in the original, it simply says “at once they recovered their sight.” The word for recovering sight is the aorist active indicative of the verb a)nablepw. Blepw means to see; a)na means again and again and again, which means that they had perfect eyesight. This is a culminative aorist to indicate the result of the grace dynamics in their thinking. “and they followed him” — this is in contrast to the following which we saw in chapter 19:27 where we find blind arrogance following the Lord. Now we have grace humility following the Lord. This is a dramatic aorist. it presents the reality of the fact that they went with Him wherever He went. They could see now, they no longer had the handicap, which implies that they went on and took in more and more doctrine, always understood the point of the first advent, were never shook up like the disciples. Principles 1. To follow Christ initially is to believe in Him. 2. To follow Christ for the believer is to be faithful in the intake of doctrine. It is what you think that counts, the content of your soul. 3. There is only one way to follow Christ after regeneration and that is to be consistent in the intake of doctrine, following the colours to the high ground which is super-grace. 4. Once the believer has established a command post of doctrine in the soul he is free from the influence of evil. But more than that, he is free from blind arrogance. 5. He sees with the perceptive grace eyes of the soul. He fulfills the phrase which occurs twice in this context, “the last shall be first” in reward and blessing. 6. The super-grace believer is first in blessing in time, first for reward in eternity, whereas “the first” is blind arrogance, last for blessing in time and in eternity last means none at all.

Chapter 2 Some historical background While 1 Timothy was written around 66 AD the impact of Bible doctrine had not yet changed the course of Roman history. Rome had enjoyed during its empire period the first of its two glorious periods. The Augustan age was past, but the Augustan age was not quite the impact of doctrine that the age of the Antonine Caesars would be. But one thing is obvious: One man of genius turned around the whole course of Roman history. He was an unbeliever, Julius Caesar, a man who understood establishment better than anyone and because of his fantastic genius Rome had 500 more years. He did it first of all by being a great military genius, by his conquest of Gaul. He did it by his fantastic gracious policies. He emerged one of the greatest men of history. The genius of this man paved the way for the golden age of the Roman empire, paved the way for Bible doctrine to reach out as never before, paved the way for thousands of local churches to spring up all over the empire by which Rome would be changed forever. Caesar’s statesmanship is obvious in putting the entire Roman empire under equal laws and paving the way for establishment as the vehicle for disseminating Bible doctrine. There were three great dangers that Caesar faced. First the corruption of the Roman citizens — their influence of evil, degeneracy had already taken over —, the danger of Barbarian invasions and a corrupt Roman government, especially in the provinces. In five years with total and absolute powers Caesar was able to completely rectify this situation. Even his greatest enemy, Cicero, said he had genius, understanding, memory, taste, reflection, industry, exactness. Caesar was great as a soldier, a statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, a historian, a grammarian, a mathematician, and an architect. The ascendancy of Caesar prevented the collapse of SPQR and prepared the way for the famous Pax Romana which would first break out in the Augustan age and then break out for over 100 years in the period of the Antonine Caesars, 96-192 AD. Then a fantastic thing occurred. During a period of 100 years there is a maximum number of super-grace believers in one national entity, and all of that is because Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “Start praying for the empire. Start praying for those who rule. Start praying for the leadership of the empire. Start praying for establishment.” What Rome needed was establishment. This would be the mean of evangelising millions of people and would turn the Roman empire upside down. Paul is now going to send out a few commands in order to straighten out the prayer life of Timothy. As a result of the prayer passage that we have in the first part of this chapter some great things began to happen. In the period of the Antonine Caesars and in the period that occurred just before this we have for the first time establishment throughout the world of the mystery doctrine. Church Age doctrine was well established. One hundred years of world peace resulted. Outline of chapter two: Verses 1-8 — the challenge to pray for establishment Verses 9-15 — the dynamics of the Christian woman Verse 1 — “I exhort” is a mistranslation. The present active indicative from parakalew means to give an order, to make a command decision. The word means to request or command, but it means more than that, it means to give an order in a nice way. This word means to give an order in a normal tone of voice but nevertheless carry the same power. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals and therefore it is a present tense of repeated action. The active voice Paul as an apostle issues these periodic commands. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that Paul is really giving a command about prayer that has been omitted. This is not a dissertation on prayer, this is a command to start recognising the relationship between the power of prayer and the laws of divine establishment. “therefore” — the inferential o)un introduces a relationship between prayer and the laws of divine establishment. “that” is not found in the original MSS; “first of all” — the adverb prwton which means first of all rather than first place or the most. “First of all, therefore, I keep commanding” would be a better translation. In the Greek text the infinitive comes next, but since we have the accusative of general reference we will follow the KJV. “supplications” — the accusative plural of the noun dehsij. Dehsij is a part of the accusative of general reference. This is a case of where you have an infinitive and the subject of the infinitive is not found in the nominative case but in the accusative. Generally the accusative case is the objective case, like in English, but here is an accusative which becomes the subject of the infinitive. An accusative of general reference means that whatever is in the accusative produces the action of the infinitive, which is tantamount to making the accusative the subject. So dehsij actually means not supplications but prayer-type entreaties. We might use the word “entreaties” or “personal prayers.” “prayers” — proseuxh. What is the difference between entreaties and prayers. It is the difference between praying for someone you know (dehsij ) and principles of establishment. The entreaty is praying for someone that you know personally, prayer is praying for the principles that surround these people. “intercession” is a general reference for prayer on behalf of others. Sometimes they are in the royal priesthood, sometimes they are not. Intercession really covers the first two as a catchall. Intercession means to pray for those under the principle of establishment and then pray for those who are individuals under establishment. “giving of thanks” — also the accusative plural of general reference from the noun e)uxaristia. Put these three previous words together with the giving of thanks and you actually have a prayer for establishment. Now we have the verb which goes with the four accusatives to make up the general reference concept. “be made” — the present middle infinitive of the verb poiew. The present tense is a customary present for what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur in the royal priesthood. It is expected that all members of the royal priesthood will start doing this. The middle voice: the subject, the prayer warrior, participates in the results of the action as he prays in this direction. The middle voice relates the action more intimately to the subject. This is the permissive middle in which the agent, the royal priest, voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action. The infinitive is the imperative infinitive, this is a command. “for all men” — a prepositional phrase, u(per plus the ablative of paj plus the ablative plural of a)nqrwpoj. U(per plus the ablative is very strong for “on behalf of.” Translation: “First of all therefore, I continually command [in the form of a very strong command decision] that entreaties, prayers, intercession, thanksgiving be made on behalf of all mankind.” “All mankind” is next going to be qualified in terms of establishment. Verse 2 — “all mankind” is limited here to establishment, a specific prayer for establishment as the basis for the spiritual advance of the royal family in this generation. “For” — u(per is repeated, plus the ablative of basileiaj “on behalf of.” This means any kind of a ruler in government. So we can say, “On behalf of rulers.” That means those who are governmental type rulers. Then to make sure that we understand that in the Roman empire they had many types of rulers we have, “and all that are in authority” — kai pantwn twn e)n u(perokh o)ntwn, which means “on behalf of all who are in authority.” We have the conjunction kai here and it means that we are still in that prepositional phrase, it indicates that what is on the other side here belongs to that same preposition u(per as what preceded. So it is all a prepositional phrase. The words “in authority” here is another preposition added — the present active participle of e)imi, also in the ablative, and it should be translated “all who are.” Then, “in authority” adds a second prepositional phrase, e)n u(peroxh — “in authority.” This refers to any area of establishment. In other words, pray for establishment. This is the means of perpetuating the human race in the angelic conflict. This guarantees evangelism in any generation. It makes it possible for believers to take in doctrine so that they reach the high ground of super-grace and become the salt influence of a national entity. “that” is the conjunction i(na and it introduces final clause — “in order that.” “we may lead” — present active subjunctive of the verb diagw. This is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs under the laws of divine establishment. The active voice: mankind living historically in the angelic conflict produces the action — member of the royal family of God in this case, but also all those in his vicinity lead the same kind of a life. The subjunctive mood is potential, it goes with i(na, it has not been fulfilled which is why it is a prayer request. “quiet” — this doesn’t mean quiet as over against noise. This is the accusative singular direct object from the adjective h)remoj and it means tranquillity (outer); “peaceable” — the accusative singular direct object from the adjective h(suxioj which means inner tranquillity. “life” — bioj connotes pattern of life. This is in contrast to the word zwh which connotes function of life. “in all godliness” — believers have to do the praying and believers get something out of this along with the rest of the population. Anyone can be tranquil in a population but not anyone can be godly. We have e)n plus the locative of paj plus the locative of e)usebeia. In the Attic Greek this word is quite common and it connotes piety in fulfilling human relationships. In the New Testament it also connotes something else. It actually connotes experiential sanctification or the doctrine of the balance of residency, which combines a number of doctrines. The Koine usage comes under the heading of duty which a man owes to God in time. “and honesty” — the locative singular of semnothj which means dignity, respectfulness, holiness, probity, and probity in the sense of integrity is what it means here. Translation: “On behalf of kings, and all who are in authority; in order that we may lead an undisturbed and tranquil life in all godliness [balance of residency] and integrity.” The doctrine of godliness 1. “Godliness” is derived from the noun e)usebeia which in the New Testament connotes duty and responsibility of the royal priesthood to God under operation grace. 2. Godliness refers, then, to the balance of residency and therefore becomes synonymous with experiential sanctification [phase two]. 3. Godliness is based on the escutcheon of the royal family or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 4. Godliness is that balance of residency in the soul of the believer by which we have the filling of the Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul. This is the result of the function of GAP. 5. Godliness is the status quo of the super-grace/mature believer. Godliness is a synonym for maturity/super-grace. 6. The establishment and human authority is necessary for the function of GAP and resultant godliness — 1 Timothy 2:2. 7. Godliness is related to knowledge of doctrine — Titus 1:1. 8. Therefore godliness demands discipline — 1 Timothy 4:7. The word “discipline” refers to the self-discipline that comes from concentration on the teaching of the Word of God. 9. Godliness is profitable for both time and eternity — 1 Timothy 4:8. 10. The basis for godliness is the strategical victory of Jesus Christ in the first advent — 1 Timothy 3:16. 11. Godliness is distorted by reversionists under the influence of evil — 1 Timothy 6:3-5. The reversionist under the influence of evil has a form of pseudo godliness which is another distortion mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:2-5. 12. The great gain of true godliness is found in 1 Timothy 6:6. 13. Godliness is attained under the principle of living grace — 2 Peter 1:3. 14. Godliness is a Christian virtue — 2 Peter 1:6,7; 3:11. The doctrine of divine institutions/establishment 1. Establishment is defined for us as divine laws for the orderly function and survival of the human race during the angelic conflict. These laws operate from the fall of man to the second advent of Jesus Christ. They apply to believer and unbeliever alike. They provide blessing and protection for the human race. They guarantee the perpetuation of the human race in history, the perpetuation of evangelism in history, the perpetuation of Bible teaching in history. 2. The basic concept around which all of the laws of establishment function is volition. Volition is known as divine institution #1. It is the divine law of free will which guarantees both human freedom and human privacy. This freedom of choice and right to live gives the human race the right to life, freedom, privacy. While there is a variation in ability, both in human and acquired, all members of the human race are free to believe or to reject Jesus Christ as saviour — John 3:18,36 — and then after salvation we are free to accept or reject Bible doctrine as God’s plan for phase two. Freedom is the basis of true evangelism and for the true function of GAP. 3. God has designed that the love second only to category #1 is category #2 love — right man, right woman. Right man, right woman must have freedom. They must both be free to enter into the relationship. They most both have mentality by which they identify the relationship. 4. Divine institution #4 is the family. Physical birth finds the baby helpless and useless but very much alive. God has provided protection, provision, the training of children through parents. Once couples have children they have responsibility. Parental authority is the basis for authority in life. In addition to providing food, shelter and clothing parents have to train children in the functions and the principles of life. This includes the inculcation of the principle of authority, the respect for the privacy of others, respect for the property and rights of others, respect for law and order, patriotism. In Christian families is added to that the responsibility of the parents to evangelise and train their children in the content of doctrine. Next for content of doctrine their must be taught respect for the pastor-teacher and his authority — Hebrews 13:7,17. 5. The principle of nationalism. Nationalism is the guardian or custodian of freedom. Internationalism is the great enemy of freedom. In this guardianship of freedom we have a very strong principle. It is found in Genesis 10:5; Acts 17:26,28; Deuteronomy 32:8. This divine institution is not only the guardian and custodian of freedom and rights of X number of people in the human race but it is the basis for blessing and prosperity in the human race. All verses and passage teaching nationalism define nationalism on the basis of racial, geographical and linguistic categories. Most of them are a combination of these things. When you have in a national entity a combination of races you compound your problems, but like being in the royal family of God where there is neither Jew nor Gentile when you become a citizen of a country you are no longer what you were formerly in your background. Under the national entity you have interior protection of your privacy, your freedom, and your property. The interior protection of these things is law enforcement. First of all proper law and then the enforcement of that law. And where there is failure to meet that law judicial administration for punishment. Secondly, there is an exterior protection which is the military. This is the importance of the military establishment. The principle of government which protects the rights and freedoms of the citizens is any form of government administration which has sound laws and fulfills all of the areas of government. The economy under the laws of divine establishment must be free enterprise. This means that under free enterprise the function of business in an economy. It makes no difference what the size of the business is the investor and management have the sole right to formulate policy in a business. Neither the government nor labour nor any criminal organisation have the right to make policy for any business. There must be a common law with objective type legislation to protect the freedoms, the privacy, and the property of individuals. The law must not be subjective so as to invade individual rights or steal personal property. There must be a common culture which reflects the spiritual life, the morality, the nobility of essence, the patriotism of a nation, through its literature, art, drama and music. 6. Divine institutions and laws of establishment protect human freedom, making evangelism a bona fide function in every generation. The national entity must separate religion and state to protect the freedom, the rights and the property of individuals. The state must never penalise anyone for rejecting Christ or accepting Christ. There must not be a state church. The state must never coerce or force anyone to believe in anything or to reject anything that has to do with the field of evangelism, or even religion and that which is false. Within the national entity a person’s relationship with God, or his lack of it, should be a matter of his own personal choice. He has a right to privacy, to own property, and he has the same right of protection against criminal activity as one who is born again. This is the principle of separation of church and state, a principle of establishment. 7. As a part of the angelic conflict Satan attacks both the gospel and Bible doctrine as well as the laws of divine establishment. 8. When a national entity begins to enter declension certain alternate divine laws, national judgments, become the basis for national disaster. They result in degeneration, destruction of the nation: from the outside the fifth cycle of discipline, from the inside the removal of establishment means chaos within a national entity. The doctrine of authority 1. 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 the enforcement of establishment and for the protection of others. Authority exists in both temporal and spiritual realms, according to the Word of God. 2. Authority in the fall of man. Rejection of authority on the part of the woman contributed to her fall. The woman failed in the garden because she rejected two kinds of authority: the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ who was her Bible teacher; the authority of the man who was both divinely commissioned as the ruler of the world as well as the ruler of the woman. 3. Areas of authority in life include the authority of God Himself revealed through Bible doctrine, the authority in the spiritual realm — the local church has the pastor as the authority, the authority in the divine institutions. There is also academic authority — the teacher is the authority. Under athletics the coach has the authority. In business management has the authority. In the military the superior officer has the authority. 4. There are words in the original language for authority. 5. The commandments from God carry a principle of authority. God has certain commandments in the Bible — any imperative mood, any participle used as an imperative, the infinitive use as the imperative — for obedience, as in Deuteronomy 11:27; 1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4,7. These commandments stem from the omniscience and sovereignty of God and are executed by the believer through the function of GAP. 6. There are divine laws which have been established over nature. They are often called scientific laws but they are laws from God Himself. Nature obeys God, says Matthew 8:27; Mark 4:41; Luke 8:25. 7. Angelic creatures are also subject to divine authority — Mark 1:27; 1 Peter 3:22. 8. There is authority in the human realm. For example, 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. There is the authority of the right man providing great happiness in the realm of category #2 love — Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18. There is authority in business — Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22. Freedom through military victory is based upon the authority in the military establishment — Nehemiah 4:13-15. Verse 3 — “For.” There is no particle gar in the best of texts here. We begin with the word “this” — the nominative singular neuter from demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. The demonstrative here in the neuter refers to what precedes: to pray for establishment, every aspect of establishment. “good” — the predicate adjective kaloj means this is noble, this is honourable. It is noble to pray for establishment. “and acceptable” — the predicate adjective neuter from a)podektoj. It means acceptable. “in the sight of God our Saviour” — e)nwpion tou swtjroj h(mwn queou. This is an unusual phrase. It includes the improper preposition e)nwpion, and with it is the genitive for saviour, and with it is also the genitive for qeoj and it should be translated “in the opinion of our Saviour God.” Why all of a sudden is God called “our Saviour God”? Because establishment gives us the freedom to accept Jesus Christ as saviour or reject Him. The passage is addressed to those who have believed in Christ and they are reminded that they would not be saved were it not for the fact that establishment existed in the Roman empire at this time. Establishment means the freedom for the function of evangelism. Evangelism means people responding. Translation: “This is noble and acceptable in the opinion of our Saviour God.” Notice that the two predicate adjectives do not have a definite article preceding them. In the Greek this emphasises the high quality of the two adjectives. It is high nobility, it is highly acceptable. Principles 1. Prayer is noble and an acceptable function of the royal priesthood during the course of the Church Age. 2. The nobility of prayer is emphasised here in relationship to authority and establishment. 3. The theological implications of this verse are very important. Not only did Jesus Christ have to be a man to be our saviour but this emphasises the fact that He also had to be God, as per the hypostatic union. He is called the “Saviour God” — i.e. hypostatic union. 4. The importance of prayer in the field of establishment guarantees the perpetuation of evangelism and Bible teaching. Verse 4 — “Who” refers to our Saviour God, it is the relative pronoun o(j; “will” — the present active indicative of the verb qelw. The word “have” is not found in the original and this should be translated “The one who wills.” The present tense is static present. He always wills it, there never was a time when He didn’t will it. The active voice: Jesus Christ wills it. The indicative mood is declarative expressing the will or purpose of God the Son. “all men” — the masculine accusative plural of paj and the accusative plural of a)nqrwpoj. It means “all mankind.” This is the accusative of general reference and the accusative here — “all mankind” — is tantamount to the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive “to be saved” — aorist passive infinitive of swzw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the history of the human race in the course of the angelic conflict and regardless of the duration of that history gathers it up into a single whole. The passive voice: the human race receives the action of the verb. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result which blends purpose and result together and states the divine will in the matter. It should be translated, “The one who wills all mankind to receive salvation.” Principles 1. Since it is the sovereign will of God that all members of the human race be saved, and since Christ died for all on the cross, it is obvious that man’s free will plays an important role in resolving the angelic conflict. In other words, the doctrine of unlimited atonement says in effect that man’s free will plays an important part in resolving the angelic conflict. 2. This phrase establishes the existence of man’s free will to act in conjunction with the will of God, or to act independently and against the will of God. 3. The fact that God wills all mankind to be saved, and some are not saved, indicates the reality of free will or human volition in the soul of man. 4. This free will is part of man’s creation to resolve the angelic conflict. 5. It is both awesome and thought provoking to realise that sinful, spiritually dead mankind can set his volition up against the perfect volition or sovereignty of God. 6. Truly, therefore, God has a sense of humour to permit man’s free will and to make human volition the basis for resolving the angelic conflict. 7. In God’s plan this human volition can only respond to grace in a non-meritorious way. He did not design human volition for any merit in entrance into the plan of God. 8. This means salvation is by faith. It also implies that spiritual growth in the royal family of God is a grace system, a non-meritorious system of perception. 9. The doctrine of unlimited atonement is compatible with this phrase in that Christ was judged for the sins of the entire human race on the cross. He did not die for the elect, He died for the entire human race. 10. Since angelic volition was involved in Satan’s fall and the angelic revolution against God, man’s volition is used under grace for resolving that entire revolution. 11. Human history is the record of man’s volition subordinated to divine sovereignty versus man’s volition revolting against divine sovereignty. 12. Evangelism is the first issue and man’s subordinating himself to the sovereignty of God by personally believing in Jesus Christ. 13. Every time a person believes in Christ for salvation the fallacy of Satan’s position and the doom of Satan’s revolution is demonstrated. The volitional issue is now carried into the Christian way of life or phase two of God’s plan. We now move on to find that the same volitional issue which we find at salvation is carried into the Christian way of life or phase two of God’s plan. “and” — the connective use of the conjunction kai. This extends the angelic conflict from the point of salvation into the life of every believer. “to come” — the aorist active infinitive of the verb e)rxomai. The word can mean to come or to go. Here it means to go or to advance. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb or following the colours to super-grace and establishing the command post in its entirety, but it regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The existing results are emphasised in the culminative aorist, which means reaching maturity is the great objective which becomes the result — reaching maturity or super-grace as the tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb by consistent positive volition toward doctrine. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose. It should be translated, “And to advance.” “unto the knowledge” is a prepositional phrase — e)ij plus the accusative singular of e)pignwsij. E)pignwsij is generally translated “full knowledge,” which is what it means. It is technical for Bible doctrine resident in the human spirit and in the right lobe of the believer’s soul. “of the truth” — the possessive genitive singular from the noun a)lhqeia, referring to Bible doctrine. So that the entire phrase says: “and to advance to the full knowledge (e)pignwsij) of doctrine.” This is the continuation of the concept of the angelic conflict in phase two. The believer enters the angelic conflict and the great issue is the influence is by doctrine or whether the influence is by evil. The objective is stated here to be influenced by doctrine in the sense of advancing in that direction. Translation: “The one who wills all mankind to receive salvation, and to advance to the full knowledge (e)pignwsij) of doctrine.” The general concept of this verse 1. Here is the will of God stated for mankind in two parts. Furthermore, it is the will of God related to man’s volition. The first part is the issue of salvation. Salvation of the human race by faith in Christ is an act of volition, non-meritorious, which breaks the back of Satan every time it happens. It becomes an additional demonstration that God is totally right and Satan is totally wrong. Secondly, the spiritual advance of the believer through full knowledge of doctrine becomes the perpetuation of that concept, so that the real battleground in human history is the soul of every believer — in a sense the soul of all mankind, but the first stage is that the soul of man must be saved and this is accomplished in a manner to demonstrate the fallacy of the Satanic revolution. 2. The first objective demands the function of the laws of divine establishment plus true evangelism through the true and accurate communication of gospel information — soteriology and Christology. 3. This is accomplished in three ways: a) Through the gift of evangelism; b) Through Bible teaching of the pastor in pertinent salvation passages; c) Through the personal witnessing of any member of the royal family of God. 4. The second objective is accomplished through the function of GAP which demands the classroom of the local church, the textbook of the Bible, and the prepared authoritative teaching of the pastor-teacher. 5. You can now begin to see the importance of believers praying for establishment. 6. All spiritual blessings from salvation to super-grace are based on the principle that the freedom of the individual to hear the gospel and respond by faith in Christ, plus the freedom of the believer to hear the teaching of the Word and respond in growth, all come by courtesy of establishment. God has ordained establishment as the very vehicle, the very principle by which these things are accomplished. 7. The laws of divine establishment are designed by God to perpetuate the angelic conflict on planet earth even though Satan is the ruler of this world. 8. Establishment is the means of freedom, evangelism, and the fulfillment of the role of the local church. The local church depends upon the laws of divine establishment. 9. This is why war is good because it preserves the freedom of the national entity engaged in evangelism, engaged in missionary effort, and the true function of the local church for teaching doctrine. 10. We as members of the royal family of God have failed to utilise our spiritual weapon which is a barrage of prayer put out for establishment. 11. Again therefore the important of the doctrine of establishment as the means for effective prayer as commanded in this context. Verse 5 — we move into the basis for all intercessory prayer. The divine basis for it is found in verses 5 and 6 which in effect are a parenthesis, still dealing with the subject of prayer but departing from the specific command to pray for establishment. “For” is the explanatory use of the post positive conjunction gar, and it can be translated “For you see.” The phrase “there is” is not found in the original, it is added to smooth out the translation. It is all right to put it in but the actual Greek says, “For one God” — e(ij qeoj. The word e(ij refers to the essence of God. It is the numeral “one.” There is no definite article because of the very high quality of the numeral and of the name for God. It means that God is regarded from the standpoint of His essence, even though there are three persons, because we are about to deal with the subject of mediatorship. As we will note, mediatorship requires two parties. E(ij, the numeral, indicates party of the first part. “and one mediator” — e(ij kai mesithj. Mediator refers to one who mediates between two parties to remove the disagreement between them so they can reach a common goal. The word mesithj means mediator or arbitrator, and even umpire. The doctrine of mediatorship 1. Etymology. Mesithj is an old Hellenistic word coming from the ancient Greek and it means to represent, or to have someone who is neutral who can represent or can act as a umpire between two contesting sides — someone who was neutral. So the word came to mean an arbitrator, a person having the power to decide, to judge a dispute between two parties. As an arbitrator he is chosen to settle the differences between the two parties in the controversy. Therefore there was a verb in the ancient Greek, mesiteuw, and it means to act as an umpire or a peacemaker. It means to establish a relationship between two previously unrelated parties, to mediate their coming together. This is where the word receives its origin. 2. Definition: A mediator removes estrangement and disagreement between two contesting or antagonistic parties. He brings them to unity or a common goal. Therefore a mediator arbitrates between two hostile parties establishing peace or reconciliation. The problem is that the mediator must be agreeable to both parties, and in the case of the hostility between God and man the mediator must be equal with both parties. To have the authority to mediate, to arbitrate, to reconcile two hostile parties a mediator between God and man must be God and must be man. 3. The Old Testament use of mediatorship. The earliest and most basic concept of a mediator is found in Job 9:9,32,33 — “there is no umpire between us who can lay his hand on both of us.” The Hebrew word for umpire is mokiach. It is the hiphil participle of the verb jakach. The hiphil stem is the causative active voice. It means to cause to arbitrate and it is translated umpire or mediator. A mediator must be equal with both contesting parties. 4. The hypostatic union qualifies Jesus Christ as the mediator between God and man — 1 Timothy 2:5. 5. The work of Christ on the cross forms the basis for mediatorship. For example, a mediator removes the estrangement between the two hostile parties and brings them to a common goal. The estrangement between God and man is sin and spiritual death. Sin is not personal sin. The estrangement starts at birth. We are born sinners with an old sin nature, with the imputation of Adam’s sin. The reason we sin personally is because we have an old sin nature. So being born makes us automatically hostile to God because we are born in status quo spiritual death. So we need an umpire, a mediator. Jesus Christ on the cross provides the umpireship. The blood of Christ is the basis for mediatorship. In order to summarise the work of Christ on the cross and relate it to the Levitical offerings which were shadows of the cross the phrase “the blood of Christ” is used. For example, Hebrews 9:12-15 relate the blood of Christ to the doctrine of mediatorship. Since the blood of Christ is described as the saving work of Christ on the cross the blood of Christ provides the work of mediatorship. Therefore we understand that the blood of Christ = redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. It is redemption that is always related to mediatorship because redemption is toward sin whereas reconciliation is toward man and propitiation is toward God. 6. The law anticipated mediatorship — Galatians 3:19,20. Several things to be noted: a) The Mosaic law under the supervision of the mediator, Jesus Christ, was taught by the angels to Israel; b) The purpose of the law was designed to define the hostility between God as party of the first part and man as party of the second part; c) When Christ became man He was qualified as mediator. In the meantime the Mosaic law defined both the hostility and the estrangement as well as anticipating the solution in the shadows of Codex #2. 7. Jesus Christ the God-Man fulfills mediatorship — Hebrews 8:6. “between God and men” — we do not have any word for “between” in the Greek. However, between is added because we have two ablatives here, the ablative of qeoj and the ablative of a)nqrwpoj. God and man are the two parties that are hostile. When there are two ablatives separated by the word “and” these are called ablatives of separation. These are translated by the word “between.” If God the Father was propitiated at the cross then all members of the Godhead are satisfied by the cross, and all members of the Godhead are protected in their essence from anything that would compromise their essence in saving man. “the man Christ Jesus” — this is not what it says in the Greek. The absence of the definite article in front of a)nqrwpoj emphasises the qualitative aspect of the verb. A)nqrwpoj is the word for man here. In the English translation it says “the man,” but there is no definite article because the man is unique and therefore to get a qualitative aspect of a noun you must deliberately omit the definite article. This means a unique man. Translation: “For you see there is one God in essence and one mediator between God and mankind, unique man Christ Jesus.” Verse 6 — “Who” is the relative pronoun o(j referring to the Lord Jesus Christ; “gave” is the aorist active participle of the verb didomi which is the regular word for giving in the Greek. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Since it refers to the cross with specific reference here to redemption it refers to the spiritual death of our Lord bearing our sins and taking our place. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through the incarnation, hypostatic union, impeccability, and the cross. This is a circumstantial participle to denote the point of our salvation as far as its provision. “himself” — the accusative singular direct object of the reflexive pronoun e(autou which emphasises the fact that there is only one saviour and that He is absolutely unique. He is different from God in that he is man; He is different from man in that He is God. “ransom” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun a)ntilutron. It actually means a redemptive ransom. It is something given in exchange for something else that is the price of redemption. So redemption’s ransom from the slavemarket of sin is the full meaning of the word. “for all” — the preposition u(per plus the ablative plural of paj, indicating unlimited atonement. The doctrine of redemption 1. The etymology of the Greek word for redemption. There are Hebrew and Greek words: a) a)ntilutron which is a compound of two words, the preposition a)nti plus the noun lutron. The preposition means on behalf of and has a substitutionary connotation; lutron means money. So it means substituting money for the freedom of a slave or a prisoner, or payment for the freedom of a slave from the slavemarket. b) a)polutrwsij, a noun meaning deliverance from. This word for redemption actually means deliverance secured by the payment of a ransom from the slavemarket. c) lutron, which means the payment of a ransom. d) lutrow, a verb which means to release from a slavemarket, release from prison on the payment of redemption money. e) lutrwsij, a noun which means deliverance or freedom or redemption. f) lutrwthj, meaning a redeemer, the one who pays for the freedom. g) a)gorazw, a verb which means to buy or to purchase. Sometimes this is used for purchasing freedom from slavery. h) e)cagorazw, which always means to purchase the freedom of a slave from the slavemarket. i) Then we have in the

 Hebrew two verbs: gaal and padah.

 2. Definition: a) Redemption is the work of Christ on the cross directed toward sin. There are three aspects of the cross that must be fulfilled to have a complete salvation. There must be the work toward God, the work toward man, and the work toward sin. The work toward God is called propitiation, the work toward man is called reconciliation, and the work toward sin is called redemption. This is actually the full meaning of the blood of Christ. b) The human race is regarded as being born with an old sin nature and therefore born spiritually dead to God. We are not spiritually dead because we sin, we are spiritually dead because we are born with an old sin nature. c) This means that the human race is born into what is tantamount to the slavemarket. We are all born slaves. All members of the human race, including the virgin Mary, were all born into the slavemarket of sin. The only exception is Christ. There has to be someone on the outside to pay to get us out. Christ was born into the world spiritually alive, not spiritually dead. e) Redemption, then, is the saving work of Christ by which He purchased our freedom from the slavemarket of sin. f) The coin of the realm by which the purchase is made is called the blood of Christ, which is tantamount to Christ being judged for our sins, as per Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14. 3. Jesus Christ is the only qualified redeemer. The qualification begins with the virgin birth by which He came into the world without the imputation of Adam’s sin and without an old sin nature. His personal life of impeccability resulted in His being perfect humanity. This means that He was qualified as perfect humanity to go to the cross to be judged for our sins and effect our release by His blood. This is taught in such passages as Isaiah 53:9; John 8:46; 19:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 1:3; 4:15; 7:26-28; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:18,19. 4. Christ was willing to redeem mankind. Without His willingness, without His human volition there is no redemption. (His divine volition is a part of the divine decrees). The redemptive work of Christ on the cross was an act of His own free will. This means that in eternity past His divine sovereignty was willing to redeem mankind on the cross. So a part of the divine decrees is the record of the sovereign decision of Jesus Christ in eternity past to go to the cross for us. Long before we existed He made that decision. This means that in time His human volition had to coincide with His divine sovereignty. And in His human volition He was also willing to go to the cross. Jesus Christ was totally obedient to the Father’s plan in His sovereignty and in His human volition. His human volition — Luke 22:42. When He said “Father” he was speaking from His humanity. The sovereign decision was made in eternity past and wasn’t even the issue, but when he said “Father” He was speaking from His humanity. By “my will” He meant His human volition. In Romans 5:19 we read from the Greek, “For as through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of one [the obedience of Christ] many will be made righteous.” Philippians 2:8 — “And being found fashioned as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death.” The word “obedient” indicates His volitional involvement in His impeccable humanity. 5. The doctrine of redemption was taught in the Old Testament by means of animal blood from animal sacrifices — Hebrews 9:22. Cf. Job 19:25,26 — redemption and resurrection. 6. The blood of Christ is the ransom money or the purchase price of redemption — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14. The blood of Christ depicts by analogy the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross in which He was judged for our sins. The blood of Christ mechanically is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24. 7. It is the soul of the believer which is redeemed in salvation. There is the doctrine of the redemption of the body, it is not related to salvation, it has to do with resurrection. It is the soul of the believer that is redeemed in salvation — Psalm 34:22. 8. Redemption removes the condemnation of the Mosaic law — Galatians 3:10,13. 9. Therefore the results of redemption are many: a) Deliverance from the curse of the law, as per Galatians 3:13;4:4-6. b) Cancellation of forgiveness of sins — Isaiah 44:22; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians; 1:14; Hebrews 9:15. c) Redemption is the basis for justification — Romans 3:24. d) Redemption is the basis for sanctification — Ephesians 5:25-27. e) Redemption is the basis for eternal inheritance of every believer — Hebrews 9:15. f) Redemption is the basis for the strategical victory of Christ in the angelic conflict — Colossians 2:14,15; Hebrews 2:14,15. g) Redemption of the soul in salvation leads to redemption of the body in resurrection — Ephesians 1:14. h) Redemption of the body is the ultimate or the phase three status of the royal family of God — Romans 823; Ephesians 4:30. 10. Redemption is related to the mediatorship of Christ — 1 Timothy 1:5,6; Hebrews 9:14,15. “to be testified in due time” is not the way it goes in the Greek. The corrected translation is a new sentence and it says, “His testimony in his own time.” “to be testified” — the accusative absolute of the noun marturion. With it is a definite article used as a possessive pronoun, so that we translate this much: “His testimony,” referring to the Father’s testimony. The Father gives testimony of the mediatorship or the redemptive work of Christ, the entire picture. “in due time” — kairoij i)dioij, both locative plurals. It is translated “in his own time,” and it means in His dispensation. (This is an additional point in the doctrine of dispensations. God the Father uses dispensations to give testimony concerning Jesus Christ) This is an accusative absolute which is used here without the participle. Generally an accusative absolute will have the participle with it. It is grammatically set off from the rest of the sentence. We have here also the locative of sphere, translated “in his own time.” Translation: “Who having given himself a redemptive ransom on behalf of all — His Father’s testimony in his own time.” What does this mean? 1. The accusative absolute followed by the two locatives of sphere make the phrase “a testimony in his own time” totally independent from the rest of the paragraph. 2. This means that the redemptive work of Christ plus His mediatorship is God the Father’s testimony regarding Christ in His own time. 3. The definite article used as a possessive pronoun refers to God the Father, not God the Son. God the Father is the author of the plan. God the Son is depicted as the mediator and the redeemer in this passage, He executes the plan. 4. The plural of the noun kairoj refers to epochs of time and/or dispensations in which the Father testifies regarding the Son. 5. This anticipates Paul’s statement of his authority in the dispensation of the royal family of God and/or the Church Age. Verse 7 — Paul’s authority in the new dispensation, the dispensation of the Church. The uniqueness of the Church Age 1. The uniqueness of the Church Age is based upon the uniqueness of the person of Christ in the previous age. The uniqueness of Christ culminates in His strategic victory in the angelic conflict — the strategic victory of the Christ, resurrection, ascension and session. From this strategic victory comes the break-off a dispensation, the beginning of a new dispensation and the calling out of a royal family. The believers in this dispensation are different from believers in any other dispensation, we are royal family of God forever. 2. Every believer in this dispensation is royal family, royal priesthood, and actually lives in the holy of holies or the palace forever. In the previous dispensation the Jews could not enter the holy of holies. Only the high priest once a year on the day of atonement could enter the holy of holies twice, and he had to carry the proper animal blood from the proper animal sacrifice, he had to be wearing the proper garments, he had do the proper thing, the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat. He could not slip up on one bit of ritual. It meant death. Outside of that one person no one ever entered the holy of holies in the previous dispensation. Today we live in the holy of holies and we get their by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and resultant positional sanctification. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The moment that you believe in Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit picks you up and enters you into union with Christ, you share everything that Christ has. 3. As the sign of royalty every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This never existed before, God the Holy Spirit never indwelt the body of any believer before the Church Age. Remember to distinguish between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit controlling your soul. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit inside of your body. You are never commanded to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is always there and He will always be there whether you are carnal or spiritual. All believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The issue: Does the Holy Spirit control your soul? When He does you are filled with the Spirit, when He doesn’t you are said to be grieving or quenching the Spirit. 4. As a sign of royalty every believer is indwelt by God the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ actually indwells us and this never occurred before in all of history. 5. We also have a new contract called the New Covenant (not the New testament). A new dispensation means a new contract authorising a new priesthood. Each one of us as believers is not only royal family forever but royal priests forever. 6. The royal family of God has a completed canon of scripture. We have our instructions in writing. All divine revelation to the royal family of God is in written form, there is no extra-biblical revelation — no dreams, no visions, no trances, no voices. Furthermore, we have a new communicator called a pastor-teacher. He is also the guardian of the local church. And there is a new classroom, the local church. There was no church before the day of Pentecost. 7. The believer does not live under the Mosaic law but the new covenant or the new contract which not only abrogates but supersedes the Mosaic law. Therefore we have a clearly defined grace way of life. 8. The objectivity of maturity is now constructed through the ECS rather than the shadows of the Old Testament. The edification complex is formed in the soul by Bible doctrine. 9. Every member of the royal family of God is in full-time Christian service. There is no such thing as a layman. Every member of the royal family of God is an ambassador personally representing the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation. 10. The strategic victory of Jesus Christ plus the interruption of the Jewish Age leads to the intensification of the angelic conflict. “Whereunto” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. The prepositional phrase is not brought out, it should be translated “Into which.” It is a reference to the dispensation of the Church and it should be translated so you understand and relate it to the previous verse, “Into which dispensation.” “I am ordained” — the aorist passive indicative of tiqhmi plus a strong proleptic pronoun e)gw. Tiqhmi means to be appointed. The dramatic aorist tense states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is an idiom for a device of emphasis, it refers to a result which has been accomplished, and it should be translated like the perfect tense: “I have been appointed.” The passive voice: Paul received in the past the action of the verb, he received it by grace. The indicative mood is declarative expressing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. “a preacher” — the noun khruc, a royal herald, a man close to the king and representing the king in some kind of a parlay. He is a representative of the king, he communicates for the king the king’s policies. The point is that a herald is not some town cryer, a herald is highest royalty next to the king, speaking for the king, giving the king’s policies. That is what “preacher” means. Not only is Paul a herald proclaiming God’s policies for the Church but with that he has the highest rank ever given in a spiritual gift, the gift of apostle: “and an apostle” — nominative of appellation from a)postoloj. Since the nominative case is by nature the naming case it is no too awkward to find the object of the verb in the nominative case. We have two nominative cases. He says “I have been ordained” or “I have been appointed a royal herald and an apostle.” The point is that you would expect these in the accusative case but both of them are in the nominative of appellation. In other words, when you are naming these titles as great as khrc and a)postoloj instead of putting them in the usual accusative which is the accusative of direct object you switch to the nominative because you are dealing with titles that are too high to be reduced to any other case. Next we have a parenthesis. Timothy is such a wimp that he has forgotten the authority of the apostle Paul who appointed him to take charge of the Ephesian complex. So we have a parenthetical statement for Timothy but it has an application to us which is why it stands in the Word of God. Authority is authority. A pastor may be your best friend but if for some reason he must use his authority you aren’t his best friend, you are another member of the congregation about to be sliced to ribbons! “I speak” — present active indicative of legw. This is a pictorial present, it denotes events in the process of occurrence. He is explaining to Timothy that he is still in charge. The active voice: Paul is doing the communicating. The indicative mood is a declarative for reality. It should be translated “I am speaking.” “the truth” — the accusative singular direct object of a)lhqeia which means doctrine here. He is speaking doctrine when he speaks about his authority. The fact that he is a royal herald and an apostle is doctrine. “in Christ” is not found in the original. “I am speaking doctrine: I never lie” — the present middle indicative of the verb yeudw plus the strong close-the-door type of negative o)uk. The present tense is the static present. Paul says, “I never lie.” The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising Paul as the agent producing the action of the verb, and it is declarative for historical reality. End of parenthesis. Now we have a new sentence but it is still within this verse: “I am a teacher of the Gentiles in doctrine, even truth.” “a teacher” — this word is not a nominative subject but a predicate nominative, and we have to add the words “I am.” It is the predicate nominative singular of the noun didaskaloj. It is minus the definite article and the absence of the definite article emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun. In other words, this is the highest function today in the royal family of God. The translation so far in this passage should be, “Into which dispensation I have been appointed a royal herald, and an apostle, (I am speaking doctrine, I never lie;) I am a teacher.” The doctrine of didaskoloj 1. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom of the royal family of God for this dispensation. It requires both the pastor as the teacher and the congregation as students without portfolio. 2. The pastor must have complete authority as well as the proper spiritual gift, study preparation along with moral courage and academic honesty. 3. In the public assembly of the local church we have the concept didaskoloj to cover the pastor-teacher or the guardian. The pastor-teacher is known by the word e)piskopoj which means overseer or guardian. In keeping with the principle of the privacy of the royal family the believer assembles himself with others under the title of maqhthj, which means to be a disciple or a student without portfolio. The one who faces this person is called didaskoloj. The word means a communicator to a group, never to one person. 4. Therefore only in public communication of doctrine in the classroom of the local church does the royal family have the necessary privacy for learning, for personal application, for fulfilling the principle of living your life as unto the Lord, as per Colossians 3:16,17. 5. Personal time with an individual — the one on one system — is an intrusion upon the freedom and the privacy of the royal priesthood of the believer. it is a violation of freedom, it becomes a system of dictatorship through either coercion, bullying, or salesmanship. It violates the right of the royal priest to live his life as unto the Lord and it becomes a system of personality pressure, a system of promoting pseudo spirituality and legalism and forcing on the believer a system of pseudo spirituality, legalistic gimmicks, evil, reversionism, in effect. The pastor is the teacher of doctrine. No one ever grows up apart from the function of didaskoloj. That means he is not a coach, he is not a physical training expert, he does not teach the congregation salesmanship, he does not teach his congregation anything except Bible doctrine. What they do with it is their volition processing the entire matter. It is not even the responsibility of the pastor to counsel. If you take in Bible doctrine as you should you don’t need counseling. 6. Primarily the pastor is a teacher, a policy-maker, a super student of the Word of God, an administrator in the sense of finding men who have the gift of administration. He is also the spiritual leader of the local church. All of these are accomplished without intrusion into the privacy of anyone in the congregation. 7. Didaskoloj must have the absolute authority in teaching. This authority is derived from the verb that goes with the cognate. The verb is didaskw which means to teach with authority, to teach with confidence, to teach in monologue form. The objectives of didaskoloj and his teaching function are: * To construct the inner altar of the soul in the royal priesthood. There must be an altar before you can serve the Lord. Your service as a priest depends on possessing an altar. The altar is made up of Bible doctrine. No altar; no service. * To lead the believer to the tactical victory of the super-grace life. This is accomplished by consistent teaching of the Word. * To maintain super-grace. This is called equipping the believer with the full armour from God — Ephesians 6. * To challenge the royal family of God to pick up the cross and follow Jesus Christ, which means the primary priestly function of the believer in this dispensation is the daily function of GAP. “of the Gentiles” — the objective genitive plural of e)qnh means “to the Gentiles.” The greatest expert in the Church Age on the Jews is a teacher to the Gentiles. That means that his Jewish background was so great in the field of doctrine that by combining the doctrine in the Hellenistic language of the Koine Greek with his own theological background he had the greatest framework in the world to be a communicator of the doctrine of the mystery. “in faith and verity” — e)n plus the locative singular of pistij, which means doctrine here; the ascensive use of kai is used for an apposition and it should be “even a)lhqeia,” which also means doctrine or truth. We can translate it, “in doctrine, even truth.” Translation: “Into which dispensation I have been appointed a royal herald, and an apostle, (I am speaking doctrine, I never lie;) I am a teacher of the Gentiles in doctrine, even truth.” Principles 1. The highest spiritual authority of the Church Age is derived from the communication gifts such as apostle or pastor-teacher. 2. This type of spiritual gift carries the authority to teach doctrine, to rule the local church, to discipline the royal family in the local church. 3. Paul has this authority as an apostle. Timothy has this same authority as the pastor in Ephesus. 4. Timothy has been reluctant to use this authority, and by this verse Paul suggests that he get with it. Verse 8 — the second command to prayer. Remember that the background is to pray for establishment. “I will” — the present active indicative of the strong verb boulomai which means decision all the way., decision of will after careful deliberation. Therefore once again we have the phrase “command decision.” With that we have the inferential particle o)un, and it should be translated “Therefore I have made a command decision.” The present tense is the aoristic present for punctiliar action at that moment. The active voice: Paul the apostle produces the action. The indicative mood is unqualified assertion of a command decision. After this command decision we get an accusative of general reference. [An accusative of general reference is a combination of a noun in the accusative case plus an infinitive. While technically it is not the subject the accusative of reference describes the person or persons connected with the action of the infinitive] And here it is, “that men pray.” The word “men” is the accusative plural of the definite article to denote individuals who are qualified members of the royal family of God. Remember that only the royal family of God is qualified to pray, only the royal priesthood. In other words, every believer. We are all royal priests and we are qualified to pray. Also with the definite article is the accusative plural of a)nhr, used for men in contrast to women or boys. It is used for a man with special emphasis on his manliness and his leadership. It suggests here that men lead the way in prayer rather than women as is so often the case. We also have the present active infinitive of the deponent verb proseuxomai, a strong verb for prayer. It is in the present tense, the tendencial present for an action which is commanded but is not actually taking place at the time. Reason: Wimpy Timothy has caused wimpyism to spread throughout the Ephesian church. The infinitive is the imperative infinitive, it denotes a very strong command. Real Christian men produce the action of the verb. “every where” — e)n plus the locative of paj plus the locative of topoj: “in every place,” literally. “lifting up holy hands” — the words “lifting up” is the present active participle of e)pairw. This is a temporal participle and it is used in a figurative sense for intercession, the same way that Moses lifted up his hands and prayed for establishment. He prayed for the military. The idea is that you don’t have to lift up your hands like Moses did, it means intercessory prayer. It is a figure of speech for intercessory prayer and leadership in intercessory prayer. The Greek language is filled with figures of speech. The words “holy hands” is the accusative plural direct object from the adjective o(sioj which means devout or pleasing to God. It connotes being in fellowship. We also have with this the word xeir, the word for hand. So, “devout hands, pleasing to God hands.” “Devout hands become a metonym for the believer in fellowship, advancing daily through the function of GAP and applying his doctrine in a prayer life. It refers to a growing believer positive toward doctrine applying his doctrine in intercessory prayer. So the devout hands simply indicate the fact that it is the growing believer, the believer who is functioning daily under the principle of GAP, the believer who is getting into the category of spiritual maturity, who is following the colours to the high ground. “without wrath” — the adverb xwrij becomes an improper preposition here. They are really not prepositions in the Greek but they become prepositions and actually take an object. In this case the object is o)rgh in the genitive, and it is used for the mental sin of anger. Anger 1. The mental sin of anger is characteristic of the carnal believer, the reversionist, and the believer influenced by evil, because anger is antagonism of soul. Anger becomes irrationality of soul. There is a difference between mental and emotional anger and the Greeks recognised that by using two words: o)rgh is mental anger; qumoj is purely emotional anger. 2. Anger results in self-induced misery — Proverbs 22:8. 3. Anger also produces chain sinning — Hebrews 12:15. 4. Anger causes misery to others in the periphery — Proverbs 21:19; 22:24; 25:24; 29:22; Amos 1:11. 5. Anger is also related to cruelty, a more permanent mental sin — Proverbs 27:4. 6. Anger is related to stupidity — Ecclesiastes 7:9. 7. Anger is related to reversionism — Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8. 8. Anger frustrates prayer and hinders the ministry of intercession in the royal priesthood — 1 Timothy 2:8. “doubting” — incorrect translation. This is an object of the improper preposition and the Greek noun is dialogismoj which means reasonings, opinions, and thoughts which are in dispute with doctrine. Hence, it comes to mean a skeptical, critical attitude toward doctrine. Such an attitude results in dissension and the word comes to mean “dissension” — dissension from antagonism toward doctrine. The phrase should be translated, “without anger and dissension.” This passage is also suggesting that mental attitude sins are a great hindrance to effective prayer, whether anger, pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, guilt complex, or any mental attitude which rejects the authority and the teaching of the Word of God. Translation: “Therefore I have made a command decision for men in every place, to pray while lifting up devout hands, without anger and without dissension.” Introduction 1. In the paragraph now coming up (Verses 9-15) we have a dissertation about the greatest thing about the woman — inner beauty. Every female member of the royal family can be and should be beautiful. Just as manliness in the male is found in the soul so beauty in the woman is found in the soul. 2. Women are responders. Whatever a woman becomes as a result of responding is good. A woman may be very loving, very aggressive, very animated, very stimulated because she is a responder. 3. Whatever a woman becomes as a result of reaction (a negative factor) is bad. This leads the woman into women’s lib, frustrations, bitchiness, abnormal ambition. 4. Jesus Christ was very tender and compassionate toward women. As a result they responded to Him and learned doctrine so that many of the most mature believers in His earthly ministry were women. 5. The response of women to doctrine is the basis of their being influenced by doctrine. 6. The illustration of this response is marriage or category #2 love. The woman is her most beautiful, most animated, when she is responding to the man she loves. She is so occupied with the man she loves that other things in life become insignificant, do not disturb her, and her animation and her obvious warmth from the response to her right man seems to bless all in her periphery. 7. A woman’s occupation with her right man illustrates the believer’s occupation with Christ — Psalm 37:4,5. Outline of the paragraph The principle of feminine pulchritude — verse 9. The principle of feminine royalty — verse 10 A parenthesis — verses 11-15a, the woman in the church, the woman in creation, the woman in the fall, the woman in metamorphism. The principle of feminine godliness — verse 15b Verse 9 — the principle of feminine pulchritude. “In like manner also” — the adverb w(sautoj. It is made up of two pronouns, the relative pronoun and the intensive pronoun. They are combined to make an adverb which changes the subject and begins a new paragraph. It can be translated literally, “Likewise” or “In the same manner.” This adverb indicates a second command decision. It refers back to verse 8 and picks up boulomai for a second command decision. So it should be translated, “Likewise I have made another command decision.” This phrase implies that women are also commanded to pray and avoid mental attitude sins. They are also to pray for establishment. “that women adorn themselves” — we have another accusative of general reference. We have an infinitive and the subject of the infinitive is in the accusative case to describe the persons who are performing the action of the infinitive. The word “woman” is going to be in the accusative case, the word “adorn” is the infinitive and women are actually doing the adorning, says the accusative of general reference. Remember again, the accusative of general reference is the noun in the accusative case acting as the subject of the infinitive to describe the persons connected with the action of the infinitive. Here we have the accusative plural of gunh and it is correctly translated “women” — “adorn themselves” is the present active infinitive of the verb kosmew. It means to decorate, to adorn, to make beautiful, to make attractive. The present tense of the infinitive is a customary present to denote what should habitually occur with female members of the royal family of God. This is also a tendencial present used for an action which is commanded but not taking place. In other words, these women who were bullying Timothy were actually poorly dressed. The active voice: Christian women at Ephesus are to produce the action of the verb and, of course, it refers to all Christian women, this is a part of the Word of God. The infinitive is the imperative infinitive used to denote a command and to follow up on boulomai of the previous verse. The object of the infinitive is the word “themselves,” the accusative plural direct object of the reflexive pronoun e(autou. The genitive is the vocabulary form for this particular pronoun — very unusual. Translation so far: “Likewise I have made a command decision, that women should make themselves beautiful.” Summary 1. The first attack upon the woman in the garden dramatised the importance of the woman’s soul. 2. It is not the appearance of the woman that counts but the condition of her soul. 3. The man is never commanded to be beautiful, only the woman is commanded by the verb kosmew. It has to do with exterior beauty and it means to make the most with what you have. 4. All Christian women can be beautiful. This is the implication of this passage. 5. Because of reversionism and the influence of evil the modern emphasis is placed on overt beauty gimmicks and so-called sex appeal. 6. Clothes do not make the woman, the woman with inner beauty makes the clothes. 7. Inner beauty refers to the condition of the woman’s soul. 8. This verse anticipates the true emphasis of feminine pulchritude, the beauty of the woman’s soul. But when a woman has a beautiful soul with maximum doctrine she knows how to clothe herself. Application and anticipation 1. If a woman is commanded to make herself beautiful it immediately discounts the fact that women are born beautiful. 2. While some women have better features and better symmetry than others these human standards are rejected by the Word of God as not the true standards of beauty, they are merely the accouterments of beauty. 3. A woman’s face and body are not her beauty or lack of beauty. The issue in feminine beauty is the soul. The body merely manifests what is in the soul. If you have grace orientation of soul you will have poise, and whatever you lack in symmetry of body poise of soul and a little ingenuity in dress will take care of the whole thing. 4. This verse emphasises the fact that what women wear on the body do not constitute their real beauty, it is what a woman possesses in her soul. These things are legitimate accouterments, that is why there is a command decision here for the women to stop neglecting the way they dress. 6. In other words, what women wear on the outside is not as important as what they wear on the inside, but when what they wear on the inside is good what they wear on the outside is good; it matches. There is a parallel passage in 1 Peter 3:1-6, and when you take 1 Timothy 2:9-15 and put these together one thing emerges with regard to the woman’s overt appearance. She is to be as well-dressed as possible. There is no excuse for a woman being sloppy. Sloppiness is not spirituality. These two passages of scripture are not opposed to wearing nice clothes, not opposed to good styles, not opposed to elegance and good taste. What both of these passages say is: Overt charm is meaningless without inner beauty. Overt charm becomes false and empty without inner beauty. It is the inner beauty of the royal priesthood, the soul clothed with maximum doctrine, that makes the woman’s elegance, good taste, grooming, poise, etc. so attractive. 7. Without the inner beauty of super-grace the best of exteriors become useless. The passage does not oppose exteriors but merely says they are useless without the inner beauty of doctrine. 8. Therefore the female member of the royal family of God cannot afford to be dressed in the filthy rags of reversionism, she cannot afford to have her soul influenced by evil. “in modest apparel and shamefacedness” — the Greek doesn’t say all of this. “in modest apparel” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of the adjective kosmioj. With this we are going to have one other word in this prepositional phrase, the noun katastolh. Instead of modest apparel it comes to mean “by means of respectable well-arranged clothing.” The adjective kosmioj means “respectable.” The noun katastolh means well-arranged. What does “respectable” mean? Sometimes certain ladies are so dumb that they often emphasise in their dress what they think a man likes, or what they think the men like. Respectable means that you don’t have to uncover your anatomy for any male to get the idea! Therefore the implication is, whatever your weaknesses of symmetry cover them. Whatever your strength of symmetry show it by what you wear but don’t uncover it. “shamefacedness” — the preposition meta plus the genitive singular of a)idoj, a poise word which means modesty, reverence, respect, but it really connotes the concept of the inner poise of the soul that comes from Bible doctrine. We could translate it “associated with respect.” Principles 1. Since the woman is a responder her capacity for love is related to her respect for the object of her love. A woman should dress to please the man, that is what the phrase “associated with respect” really means. 2. No woman can truly love a man she does not respect. 3. A woman must not confuse feeling sorry for a man with love. Sympathy is not love. 4. Somewhere in the garden the original woman began her ego trip when she lost respect for Adam and his authority over her. 5. This started her with social unfaithfulness. It started her social intercourse and unfaithfulness with Satan. She began by talking with Satan who approached her in the body of the serpent. 6. Eve’s social unfaithfulness, disregarding the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ her Bible teacher, and disregarding her husband, had tremendous repercussions — the fall. Her social unfaithfulness disregarding the authority of Jesus Christ disregarding the Word. Therefore she did not understand certain things when Satan began to talk with her. 7. Eve’s social unfaithfulness disregarded the authority of Adam, her right man. 8. Now she must recover from the consequences of the fall and the evil of Satan’s policies. Her recovery is the way she left. She must develop respect for the Word in the spiritual realm and respect for her right man. “and sobriety” — genitive singular. It is the object of the preposition meta. It is meta plus swfrosunh which does not mean sobriety, it means the ability to think clearly, the ability to think objectively, the ability to assemble the facts and make a decision on those facts. It comes to mean good judgment as a result of good common sense. This prepositional phrase actually refers to the woman’s inner beauty of soul. Since the woman is a responder she must be under well-defined authority before her beauty of soul can develop. The authority begins with the realisation after salvation that Bible doctrine is more important than anything in life. Once you realise that then you find your first authority. Once the woman accepts the authority of her right pastor her life can be relatively simple. All of her relationships will be based on concepts of Bible doctrine. Good judgment or soundness of mind is based on residence of maximum doctrine in the woman’s soul. “not” — the negative mh, a qualified negation in contrast to o)uk. This does not prohibit the woman’s use of a hairdo, expensive clothing, or expensive jewelry. The passage, however, does emphasise that overt dress must not be expressed to the exclusion of inner beauty. The negative mh emphasises relative importance. With the next word “with” it means “not with emphasis on.” “with” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of the noun plegma which means high fashion hair styling. It should be translated “not with emphasis on high fashion hair styling.” In other words, it is permitted to have it, says the negative mh. If we had the negative o)uk there would be no permission at all. What you have in your soul is a thousand per cent more important than your hair style. “gold or pearls” — the best types of jewelry for a woman are gold and pearls. The Word of God not only says that ladies are not to emphasise these things but it does something else. It also emphasises that when you get around to wearing jewelry wear things that are feminine and are complementary to the woman. The word “gold” is xrusion which means golden jewelry — “not with emphasis on golden jewelry.” The emphasis must be on the soul. Then we have “or pearls” — actually and ‘either/or’ here. The word for pearl is margarithj. “or costly array” — literally, “expensive clothing.” Translation: “Likewise I have made a command decision that women should make themselves beautiful by respectable, well-arranged clothing, associated with respect for authority and good judgment; not with emphasis on high fashion hair styling, golden jewelry or either pearls or expensive clothing.” Summary 1. This verse begins with a great emphasis on the woman’s inner beauty in contrast to her overt grooming and appearance. They are first of all set up in contrast and then the verse goes on to show how they can compliment each other. 2. Overt grooming and appearance are very important in the dress of a woman but not nearly as important as her inner beauty of soul. 3. Note again that the negative mh does not forbid or prohibit elegance. It does not prohibit expensive clothing and accessories, but it demand that emphasis be placed on inner beauty. The command post of the soul must have maximum Bible doctrine. 4. Therefore the importance of the woman being controlled by doctrine rather than by evil. This issue is found in Hebrews 5:13,14. 5. Clothes do not make the woman but the super-grace woman makes the clothes. 6. The finest appearance and apparel are ruined by the soul in reversionism or under the influence of evil. 7. The soul possessed of evil, of mental attitude sins, of pride, arrogance, envy, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, guilt complex, or any form of pettiness is an ugly soul. 8. The soul under the principle of the balance of residency — the filling of the Holy Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul — is the source of real beauty. It is the source of the woman’s inner beauty. 9. Spiritual pulchritude is far superior to physical pulchritude. Grace beauty is far more impressive than inherent or cultivated beauty. 10. The reflected glory of God is far greater than the narcissistic glamour of cosmetic concinnity. Verse 10 — the pulchritude of royalty. “But” is the adversative conjunction a)lla. It sets up a contrast between what the woman puts on her body and what she wears in her soul. The word “which” is the nominative neuter of the relative pronoun o(j — “which” or “what.” “becometh” — the impersonal verb prepei, “fitting.” “But what becomes fitting for women” — the dative plural indirect object of gunh. This indicates the one in whose interest the action is performed. So it becomes the dative of advantage for every Christian woman to possess inner beauty of the soul from resident Bible doctrine. “professing” — incorrect. The phrase is “being promised,” the present passive participle, dative feminine plural of e)paggellw which means to promise. It means to be promised blessing. All women are promised blessing. It is to the advantage of every woman to know that the moment that she believes in the Lord Jesus Christ she is promised blessing. The plural of the participle: All women regardless of their physical appearance are promised blessing. The feminine gender of this participle says for women only. We are talking about women only in this context. The present tense of the participle is a static present, it represents a condition which perpetually exists. The inner blessing of the female super-grace believer is a part of the eternal decrees. The intensification of her blessing is related to Bible doctrine. The passive voice: all women of the royal family of God receive the action of the verb, namely blessing and inner beauty as a part of their super-grace paragraph. The participle is a telic participle, it denotes God’s purpose in eternity past to provide blessing, inner beauty for every woman who saturates her soul with Bible doctrine. “godliness” — the accusative singular direct object of qeosebaia, a compound word made up of the word qeoj plus the verb sebomai which means to worship, to stand in awe of or to reverence. Qeosebaia means to be occupied with the person of Christ, to be in super-grace status. It is a synonym for balance of residency in the soul — “being promised super-grace status.” “with good works” — dia plus the genitive of e)rgon and a)gaqoj — “accomplishment” and “good of intrinsic value.” It should be translated literally and correctly, “through intrinsic good accomplishments.” Intrinsic good accomplishments refer to the daily function of GAP as the means of reaching the super-grace status. Intrinsic good accomplishments refer to being influenced by doctrine rather than by evil. It is in the plural to indicate the multiplicity of times that a woman must expose herself to Bible teaching in order to have a saturation of doctrine in her soul. A))gaqoj or intrinsic good means that the royal family is in a status of intrinsic good and therefore have the simple principle of following the colours to the high ground. Translation: “But what becomes fitting for women being promised super-grace status through intrinsic good accomplishments.” This passage is addressed to believers, to ladies who are born again. A question immediately arises. Is it possible for a woman who is an unbeliever to have any measure of inner beauty. The answer is yes, but very limited. To the extent to which an unbeliever woman follows establishment principles, to the extent to which her soul is free from mental attitude sins she may have inner beauty. But remember that the inner beauty of a woman who is an unbeliever is limited to the concepts of establishment. She cannot go beyond that and therefore the unbelieving woman can never attain the magnificent inner beauty that belongs to the super-grace woman in the royal family of God. Verse 11 — the beginning of the great parenthesis which goes through to the beginning of verse 15. It begins in verses 11 & 12 with the woman in church. Principles 1. At this point we begin the parenthesis in which the woman, as in the previous two verses, is the exclusive subject. Everything in this parenthesis speaks about the woman. 2. The extent of the parenthesis, verses 11-15a, is an interruption of the sentence begun in verse 10. The sentence will be completed in the last half of verse 15. 3. The closing part of verse 10 is found in the last half of verse 15 which actually defines the intrinsic good accomplishments in terms of continuation of the intake of Bible doctrine. 4. Therefore the intrinsic good accomplishments at the end of verse 10 will be clearly defined after the parenthesis. Let the “woman” — this is the vocative singular of the noun gunh. This is the first word in the sentence. The vocative singular begins the sentence and the parenthesis. We also have the absence of the definite article which emphasises the quality of woman. The absence of the definite article reminds us of the fact that this passages designed so that the woman will be exactly what God intended her to be — the most wonderful thing in life. However, her response can be active or passive. Active response explains the beauty of the woman’s aggressiveness in love. This aggressiveness only becomes distorted into something which is non-feminine when the woman reacts in her aggressiveness rather than responding in her aggressiveness. It is not impossible for a woman to learn but it is much more difficult for a woman to learn because she was the first arrogant member of the human race. Arrogant people are not teachable. The most arrogant person in the human race was the woman in the fall, and women are just as difficult to teach today, they want everything the way they want it. If you have mental attitude resentment you can’t learn. The verb “Let learn” is the present active imperative of manqanw, and this confirms that ladies can be taught. Manqanw means to learn from instruction through a teacher with authority. The verb implies the basic means by which God tests the spiritual reflexes of the woman as to whether she is a responder or a reactor. The woman’s attitude toward doctrine as it is taught from the pulpit determines whether she is going to be a responder or a reactor. Reaction is negative, response is positive. Learning is silence not only means not talking, but also a mental attitude resentment means lack of silence — loss of what might be called an open mind. Silence is not only listening and concentrating but an open mind, objectivity of the soul. The present tense of the word “learning” is both iterate and tendencial. The iterative present describes what recurs at successive intervals. Learning doctrine in the assembly of the local church occurs at successive intervals. The tendencial present indicates the action which is purposed is not taking place at the moment that Paul writes to Timothy. In other words, the ladies were not attending Timothy’s Bible classes. The active voice: women in the royal family of God produce the action of the verb by assembling in the local church, recognising the authority of their right pastor-teacher, as per Hebrews 13:7,17. The imperative mood: this is a command to all lady believers. This means that first of all they must find a right pastor-teacher and once they do they must settle down and stick with it. Women are not to be church hoppers. “in silence” — e)n plus the locative of h(suxia. H(suxia is a lot more than it appears. it doesn’t mean simply to be quiet. It means concentration and mental attitude sins destroy concentration as much as verbal conversation while the message is being taught. So what does “silence” or h(suxia mean? 1. Silence is the response of interest, good manners, concentration, respect for authority. 2. No one can learn doctrine while talking. Talking in church during Bible teaching is more than poor manners, it is reaction, it is thoughtlessness, it is the quintessence of arrogance to think that what you are saying or whispering is more important than what is being taught from the pulpit. 3. H(suxia means more than this, however. It goes right back to the soul and inner tranquillity. It means quietness of mentality of the soul, quietness or an undisturbed inner life. 4. Therefore the first issue with the disturbed woman is not the content of the doctrine, it is the matter of authority. 5. When women react in their souls they always want to talk! 6. In reaction the most reticent of women have a lot to say. Angry words spill out of their mouths regardless of the circumstances. 7. Being in the sacred assembly of the local church means nothing to a reacting woman. 8. When she verbalises her reaction she has ceased to concentrate on the subject being taught and has made an issue of herself rather than doctrine. To make an issue of doctrine is objective, to make an issue of herself is subjective. 9. The only real issue in teaching the Word of God is Bible doctrine. 10. Therefore when the woman interposes with the reaction of mental attitude sins she interrupts with verbal vituperation, or written vituperation. When this happens in this pattern the woman of the 20th century fails in the same way that the first woman failed in the garden. The first woman failed to respond to the communication of Bible doctrine from her right pastor, Jesus Christ Himself, because she had rejected the authority of Adam, her right man; she have conversations with Satan and social infidelity; and she had now come to the point of not listening in Bible class when Jesus Christ came every day to teach. “with all subjection” — the preposition e)n plus the word paj. Paj means not only all but entire. These are both in the instrumental. With paj is u(potagh, and the best translation is “with entire subordination.” U(potagh 1. The noun u(potagh is both the instrumental of means as well as the instrumental case of manner. 2. Subordination to the pastor’s authority is both the means of spiritual growth and the manner of the function of GAP. 3. The noun u(potagh is a strong military word for subordination to authority. 4. No woman can advance spiritually until she accepts the authority of her right pastor-teacher. 5. She does this by assembling in the local church or classroom to be taught under the concept of monqanw. 6. The woman must make constant decisions from her own free will to assemble in a local church, to subordinate herself to her own pastor-teacher by silence. 7. The pastor-teacher has both acquired and developed categories of authority. U(potagh means two kinds of authority: developed and acquired. One is by appointment, one is by cultivation. 8. Acquired authority is the spiritual gift received in grace at salvation from the Holy Spirit. It is to male believers only, no woman ever has the gift of pastor-teacher. Developed authority: the pastor must be a diligent student of the Word of God. In this way he acquires the content of doctrine to communicate. His developed authority comes from study-and-teach. The woman must respond to the message for her spiritual growth and blessing as well as her inner beauty. Translation: “Women be learning in silence with complete subordination.” Principles 1. The original woman in the garden came to the point where she failed to fulfill this principle. 2. In her arrogance she resented the teaching of Jesus Christ and reacted to monologue type teaching. 3. So Satan began to share with her. Dialogue always appeals to the woman. 4. With her right man the woman uses dialogue to undress her soul. She undresses her soul before the one she loves as with no other human being. This is a legitimate function of dialogue in the life of the woman and this is why she is so inclined to talk when she should be listening. 5. There is no place for nakedness of the woman’s soul in the assembly of the local church. The nakedness of her soul is in the intimacy of her conversation with her right man. 6. Just as a woman undresses her body for her right man so she undresses her soul. But assembly worship is not category two love. 7. The issue in the assembly of the local church is always category #1 love, and that always has as its object Jesus Christ the revealed member of the Godhead. 8. It is the local church and its doctrinal teaching that gives the woman her capacity for love in all categories and keeps her priorities straight. 9. The woman in church must be silent, concentrating on the doctrine, that she might become occupied with the person of Christ as a result of inculcation. Subordination to right pastor protects the woman’s soul from evil just as love for her right man protects her body from sinfulness and infidelity. Therefore discipline and authority are necessary for learning, for clothing the soul with the garments of super-grace blessings. 1. The woman’s capacity for life, for love, for happiness are related to her subordination to the authority of her right pastor for doctrinal teaching. This subordination begins before she comes to church, it begins by the fact that she gets here even though she is distracted by many things. Then when she arrives she must make the decision to concentrate at the proper time. 2. The woman often becomes infatuated with or falls in love with her doctor, her lawyer, her milkman or her husband’s friend. This can be innocent or result in something as bad as social and sexual unfaithfulness. This affects the body and temporarily the soul. However, to fall in love with your pastor is much more devastating because it involves the soul being damaged by evil instead of spiritual growth and doctrine. Spiritual growth is frustrated, doctrine is neglected, and for the same reason the woman therefore cannot concentrate. Therefore this passage is explicit that women must not and do not have the right to anything except respect for the authority of the pastor and concentration on what he is saying. And all of this means to be learning in silence with total subordination. Verse 12 — “But” is the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de to set up a contrast between the woman in her right place, as per the previous verse, and the woman out of place in this verse. This is concerning the woman in church where she must be silent. The woman in the local church must be submissive to the authority of her right pastor. In this verse she is warned against overstepping the boundaries ordained by God. The overstepping is to set herself up as a teacher and to set up her opinions in opposition to the pastor-teacher. “I suffer not” — present active indicative of e)pitrepw which means to permit, plus the strong negative o)uk. Translation: “But I do not permit.” The present tense is a static present for a condition which perpetually exists in the Church Age. The active voice: Paul is speaking and producing the action of the verb. Here is the first of several indication in the epistles that Timothy is having a hard time from the ladies. Timothy did not know how to cope with insubordinate women. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. The strong negative is a command of unqualified assertion. This does not mean that ladies cannot teach children. Up to a certain age a child learns more from a woman than he ever will from a man. What this passage does say is that no woman teaches a congregation. “a woman” — gunh, dative singular of indirect object, indicating the one in whose interest the prohibition is cited. It is in the interest of the woman never to have authority over a man or to teach a man. This is where we get the dative of advantage. Summary 1. It is to the advantage of every lady to refrain herself from ever usurping authority over a man. 2. Since this is a dative of indirect object and since the meaning of indirect object is interest this becomes also a dative of advantage. It is a dative of advantage in prohibition form and therefore the prohibition is in the interest and advantage of the woman. 3. The absence of the definite article emphasises the high quality of the lady. 4. The high quality of the lady is destroyed when she is permitted to exercise authority over the man in any way, including teaching. 5. To rob a woman of her femininity is to rob her of her greatest influence and blessing to others. 6. To take away a woman’s responsiveness is to destroy her charm, her beauty, and her dynamic influence in the human race. 7. Without responsive women there can never be a civilisation. There is no blessing for man, and for many in the human race there is nothing worth fighting for and there is nothing worth dying for. 8. The responsive woman becomes the man’s love life, the domineering woman becomes the man’s downfall and misery. 9. So the difference between a magnificent woman and a horsy bitch depends on which side of authority the woman jumps, submissiveness to the man or revolution against the man — insubordination. 10. When a woman responds with subordination to a man she enters into the super-grace glamour of the royal family. Her response has to be in the field of doctrine. When she has this doctrine she has capacity for love, and somewhere there is a man to whom she can respond as no one else. 11. When a woman reacts by exercising authority over a man she becomes a reversionistic, evil harridan. 12. So the woman’s attitude toward authority determines whether she is a blessing or a cursing in life. “to teach” — the present active infinitive of didaskw. It means to teach a group of people authoritatively, to teach from the pulpit. Hence, the intellectual, authoritative communication of doctrine must come from the man who has the gift of pastor-teacher. The present tense is a static present, it represents a situation which perpetually exists. God has never called a woman to the pastorate. While all women have the natural gift of teaching not one of them has the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. The active voice: women produce the action of the verb, namely they are prohibited forever the office of pastor-teacher. The infinitive is a resultant infinitive. There are three kinds of resultant infinitives — the actual result, a conceived result which assumes as a consequence, and an intended result which is the fulfilling of a deliberate aim or goal. Here we have the infinitive of intended result. Summary 1. This prohibition applies to teaching with authority in the public assembly of the local church. 2. Remember that the primary purpose of the local church is a classroom for teaching Bible doctrine to the royal family of God. 3. All women are natural teachers where children are concerned. 4. Women should teach their children. Women are great teachers as well in the academic realm. 5. Women are great teachers of children in Sunday schools. 6. However, women should not have authoritative teaching responsibility over adult men. 7. Such a teaching assignment requires authority which has never been given to woman. 8. In Titus 2:4 we have another aspect of a woman as a teacher. Older women who are widows are encouraged to teach younger women how to love their husbands — which implies that women do not know how to love their husbands. There are some things that only a woman can teach a woman. 9. But to give a woman authority over a man or to permit her to teach from the pulpit of a local church is to destroy her inner beauty, to convert her blind arrogance into reversionism, and to put her directly under the influence of evil. It also manufactures out of her revolt against authority a revolutionist, a troublemaker, and an evil person. “nor to usurp authority over the man” — the present active infinitive of a)uqentew which means to exercise authority, not to usurp authority. We have a very strong negative here. It is the negative conjunction rather than the negative particle. We have o)ude which is much stronger than the particle negative, and it joins two negative clauses. It should be translated, “nor to exercise authority over man.” The present tense of the infinitive is a perfective present, it denotes the continuation of existing results. In other words, this is the law and always will be, it will never change. The active voice plus the strong negative conjunction o)ude indicates that the woman is commanded never to produce the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result in which the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate goal, hence the blending of purpose and result. The objective genitive singular for “man” here is a)nhr and there is no definite article. This emphasises the qualitative aspect of man. The noun a)nhr emphasises the manliness of man, a man as distinguished from a boy, a man as distinguished from wimpy type male. “but to be in silence” — the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up the strongest possible contrast. It denotes a contrast between what a woman should not do and what a woman should do; “to be” — present active infinitive of e)imi. The static present represents a condition as perpetually existing in the local church during this dispensation. The active voice: the woman produces the action of the verb when she attends the local church. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result in which the result is indicated as fulfilling a very special goal (the growth of the woman), therefore the blending of purpose and result; “in silence” — e)n plus h(suxia. Silence denotes a positive response to doctrine with good manners, self-control, concentration, respect for the authority of her right pastor. Translation: “But I do not permit a woman to teach, nor do I permit her to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence.” Verse 13 — the woman in creation. This is the first woman, the woman who later became known as Eve. At this point she is simply called Isha. “For” is a conjunctive particle, gar, used as an explanatory conjunction. It is translated in detail, “For you see.” “Adam” refers to the original man in the garden; “first was formed” — the adjective prwtroj means first in order of time as well as authority. The aorist passive indicative of the verb plassw, meaning to mould. This word is equivalent to jatsir in the Hebrew which means to sculpt, and it has to do with the body of man. Simultaneously the soul of each was created but here we have the body of Adam first to be created, and the soul was placed in the body. So he was “first formed” and this is a reference to the creation of his body. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. That is, it takes the creation of the man’s body and gathers it into one very quick point of time. The passive voice: man’s body receives the action of the verb, it was moulded around the man’s soul and the body became a house for the soul. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute and historical reality. This is a statement of dogmatic and unqualified assertion, man was created first in time, man was created to have the authority over the woman. “then” — the temporal adverb e)ita is translated “then” or “afterward.” “Eve” — E)ua which means giver of life. Paul uses the woman’s name after her salvation, he does not use gunh which is equivalent to Isha, because this passage is dealing with regenerate woman of the royal family of God and therefore he uses a dignified name for the first woman. This verse says in effect: 1. In creation God appointed the man the authority over the woman. 2. In the perfect environment of the garden there was still authority — the man over the woman. 3. From the very start of the human race the man had the authority over the woman. 4. Even after the fall God did not change the order. Man’s failure did not change the principle. Verse 14 — “And” is the continuative use of the conjunction kai. This conjunction indicates that now we have had our setup and we get to our principle of the woman. “Adam was not deceived” — this is talking about the fall. There is a very strong negative, o)uk, it denies the reality of an alleged fact. Since the negative o)uk is stronger than mh it indicates that this is an absolute fact. There was not point at which in the entire fall Adam was deceived. With this negative we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)pataw which always refers to deception. It describes the condition of the woman at the fall. The constative aorist gathers into an entirety action of the verb, the enticement of the woman and the deceit of the woman. Adam was not deceived, the woman was. The passive voice plus the negative o)uk indicates that Adam was not deceived as the woman was. Adam understood doctrine, he did not enter into any conversation with Satan. Satan at no point tried to talk to the man, he knew it would be futile. A direct attack upon man as the authority would not have worked. The man was too strongly entrenched in the doctrine that he has received every day in the garden from the Lord. Therefore Satan had to attack at the weakest point and he picked the woman because apparently he had already noted that she was not paying much attention in Bible class and therefore was a sucker for what he had to say. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of dogmatic reality. “but” — the post positive conjunctive particle de used to set up a very mile contrast. It emphasises the contrast between the fall of the man and the fall of the woman, and de is used rather than a)lla because both eventually fell but they took as different route. The woman was deceived by Satan and the man was enticed by the woman. “the woman” — the nominative singular of gunh plus the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun — “but that woman.” This emphasises that this passage is talking about the woman, not about the man. “being deceived” — the aorist passive participle but instead of simply a)pataw we have e)capataw. We have added, then, the preposition. The preposition e)k means outside. E)xapataw means to be enticed, to be deceived from an outside source. This means to be completely deceived from an outside source. “But that woman having been completely deceived” is the corrected translation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it views the woman’s fall in its entirety from her first conversation with Satan disguised as a serpent to the moment she ate of the forbidden fruit of the garden and became the first sinner in the human race. During this entire function of the temptation and the fall of woman she was totally confused, totally ignorant, helpless, arrogant. Everything that happens to a woman who removes herself from any divine authority is found in the case of the first woman to fall. The passive voice: the original woman received the action of the verb during the process of her temptation and fall. She was easy to deceive because she was arrogant. Blind arrogance is always easy to deceive. This is a concessive participle. Concessive participles are generally translated “though.” “was” is a perfect active indicative of ginomai and it means to come to be, with the result that she remained. The perfect tense is the dramatic perfect, the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect always indicates a completed action with an existing state of result. In this case the existing result was spiritual death. The active voice: though totally deceived the woman’s volition was involved in her disobedience, and therefore deceived or not she did what she wanted to do, she sinned and ignorance is no excuse. Her volition was involved so she is involved in the sin. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of theological dogmatism. This is an absolute in theology. “in the transgression” — the preposition e)n plus the locative of parabasij. The absence of the definite article in front of parabasij calls attention to the prominence of that noun in this prepositional phrase. Translation: “But although that woman had been completely deceived, she had come to be [in the transgression] with the result that she remained in the transgression.” Principle 1. Ignorant woman was as guilty as cognisant man in the fall. 2. Two violations were involved. Two people were in the transgression and resultant spiritual death. 3. The fall took place on the act of negative volition carried out into action. In other words, the eating of the forbidden fruit. 4. Satan tempted the woman and his whole setup was deceit. It is easy to outthink and arrogant person. 5. The woman tempted the man with the obvious. The man knew what he was doing, he followed the woman. He rejected the principle of authority that God had given to him and followed the woman when he should have been leading. 6. The point is that both fell, both sinned, both died spiritually immediately. 7. There is, however, a distinction in their sin and fall. Verse 15a — the woman in the metamorphism. “Notwithstanding” — the emphatic use of the conjunctive particle de. It should be translated “In fact.” “she shall be saved” — future passive indicative of swzw. The future tense is a gnomic future, which is a statement of fact expected as a result of the first advent of Christ. The first advent was future but it was regarded as absolutely occurring. Even though it is future in God’s plan Christ will come in the flesh. The passive voice: the woman receives salvation through the virgin birth, the incarnation of Christ, His impeccability, and His death on the cross. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of dogmatic, unqualified reality. The reality doctrine here is the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. “in childbearing” — dia plus the genitive of teknogonia: “through childbearing. “In fact she shall be saved through childbearing.” This is a reference to the virgin birth. The doctrine of the virgin birth A. Definition: 1. The virgin birth refers to one birth in human history, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. 2. Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, therefore born apart from human copulation. 3. In this way, Christ came into the world without the imputation of Adam’s sin and without the old sin nature. B. The necessity for the virgin birth: 1. The necessity for the virgin birth is based on the fact that the old sin nature is passed down to each member of the human race through the human father. 2. This is because man sinned in cognisance while woman sinned in ignorance — 1 Timothy 2:14. This means that because the woman was deceived in the fall the old sin nature is passed down through the man in copulation. 3. All members of the human race are born spiritually dead because they are born with an old sin nature. 4. The old sin nature is passed down through the father in copulation. 5. Therefore the virgin birth is the only way to become a member of the human race apart from spiritual death and the imputation of Adam’s sin. 6. Jesus Christ had to enter the human race apart from sin and live a perfect life to qualify for saviourhood at the cross. 7. Therefore no virgin birth; none of us are saved. Our salvation hinges on the virgin birth. You cannot be saved unless Christ was born of a virgin. C. The first prophecy of the virgin birth — Genesis 3:15,16, speaking to Satan: “And I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed [unbelievers] and her seed [believers]; he [Christ, the seed of the woman] shall crush your head [second advent, operation footstool], but you [Satan] will crush his heel [first advent and the cross]. Unto the woman he said, Multiplying I will multiply your pain in your pregnancy; in sorrow you will bear sons; and to your right man you will have the strongest desire; therefore he shall rule over you.” In other words, man regained his ascendancy over the woman because of sex. She had a strong desire for him and was willing to submit to him, and therefore she had to rebuild his authority over her. The word “strong desire” is talking about her sexual desire. She had no respect for him at the point of the fall, he was a “dumb butt.” Once God started to activate her ability to reproduce she had a desire for the man she had never had before, and from that time on she was under his authority. 1. This passage says that the human race is now divided into two conflicting camps. 2. The historical phase of the angelic conflict includes the seed of Satan — unbelievers influenced by evil — versus the seed of the woman — believers influenced by doctrine. 3. Just as the angelic forces are divided into two categories of fallen and elect, so the human race is divided into two categories based on attitude toward Jesus Christ — John 3:36. 4. The entire doctrinal structure of the two advents of Christ depends on the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ. 5. The virgin birth is the mechanics for the incarnation and first advent by which Christ accomplishes the two victories of the angelic conflict. The first victory is at the first advent — cross, resurrection, ascension, session. The seed of the woman is superior to all angelic creatures. The second victory is at the second advent — operation footstool by which Christ takes over the rulership of the world from Satan, abolishes evil, and replaces Satan as the ruler of this world. 6. The woman lost out in the garden because of the rejection of authority, both that of Christ as her teacher and Adam as her husband. 7. The woman regains through receiving Christ as her saviour plus the authority of GAP. 8. The woman listened to the voice of evil in the garden. Now she recovers by listening to the voice of doctrine in the local church. 9. All of this is prophesied through the principle of childbearing, i.e. the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. D. The Jewish prophecy of the virgin birth — Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a supernatural sign; Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel.” The word “therefore” is an inferential conjunction laken, and it is correctly translated “therefore,” it demands a strong conclusion — the fact that God the Father will provide for Israel a sign or a miracle beyond the depth or height of verse 11. “shall give” — the qal imperfect of nathan. It is used as the jussive and the jussive expresses a command, a wish, advice, or as here, a blessing. “a sign” — “you” refers to Ahaz of verse 10. The word for sign is oth. It connotes a supernatural sign. The supernatural sign: “Behold the virgin” — ha elmah. Elmah also means a young woman but not where a supernatural sign is concerned. In both the Septuagint and the quotation of it in Matthew 1:22,23 there is no question as to what is meant here, this is not a young woman, this is a virgin. We know that from the quotation in the New Testament where the Greek word parqenoj means virgin and nothing but virgin. “shall conceive” — the qal perfect of harah which means to become pregnant. The perfect tense is a prophetic perfect, it is so certain to happen that it is put in the past tense as if it had already happened. So, “the virgin shall become pregnant.” “and bear” — an inferential waw plus the qal active participle of the verb jalad : “consequently bearing a son.” The word for “son,” ben, is very strong and it is found in Isaiah 9:6. “shall call his name Immanuel” — which means “God with us.” E. The historical fulfillment — Matthew 1:19-25. Joseph is not the real father of the Lord, the Lord is virgin born. Nathan’s line goes right down through Mary. Joseph is from the kingly side, and both are direct descendants of David and Bathsheba. F. The result of the virgin birth — John 1:14, “The Word [eternal God] became flesh, and pitched His tent with us (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the unique one from the Father), full of grace and doctrine.” The anticipation of the results are given in 1 Timothy 2:15. “she shall be saved through childbearing.” Now the parenthesis is closed. The doctrine of metamorphisms A. Definition. 1. The word “metamorphism” is a biblical term, it is derived from the Greek word metamorfow and is used throughout the scripture. It means to transform, a change in form. 2. The verb can be used for an outward visible transformation like the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain in Matthew 17:2. The mount of transfiguration is the mount of metamorphism. 3. The verb can also be used for an inner invisible transformation, as in Romans 12:2 where it is so used. 4. However, the theological connotation has to do with a striking change of form, thought, or action. 5. There are six metamorphisms in the scripture of great significance, of doctrinal connotation. B. The first metamorphism. The first metamorphism can be summarised as innocent man in the garden becomes a sinner by his own act of volition and spiritually dead by an act of divine judgment. Both Adam and the woman became sinners and spiritually dead. As spiritually dead people they were both immediately under the new ruler of the world, and the first thing they did was human good — operation fig leaves. C. The second metamorphism is described shortly after the fall. It has to do with the woman. When Jesus Christ came after operation fig leaves the first thing He did was to make an investigation. The second thing He did as the result of His investigation was to make a series of judgments. Among the judgments the second metamorphism occurs. The woman after the fall became the child-bearer — Genesis 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:15. Childbearing is the means of bringing the saviour into the world and the means of salvation for all of us. D. The third metamorphism. Eternal God, the second person of the Trinity, also comes into the world through childbearing. Childbearing is the means of perpetuating the human race and this is the means of bringing Jesus Christ, eternal God, into the world as humanity. The metamorphism of the second person of the Trinity is that He became flesh and dwelt amongst us — Hebrews 10:5,10. E. The fourth metamorphism. Sinful man through faith in Jesus Christ becomes regenerate. This causes the spiritually dead to be alive to God forever — Titus 3:5. F. The fifth metamorphism is a temporal metamorphism of the royal family of God in time. This is the daily function of GAP resulting in godliness, balance of residency, super-grace, etc. G. The sixth metamorphism is the eternal metamorphism of the royal family of God. In eternity we possess a resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus human good and evil, minus the lake of fire. This terminates our parenthesis which was begun in verse 11. Now we continue what was begun in verse 10 with “if they continue ...” in verse 15. Remember that there is no relationship between the first part of verse 15 and the last part. “if they continue in faith” has nothing whatever to do with childbearing, it has to do with verse 10. The word “if” is a conjunction in the Greek, e)an, which introduces a third class condition. The conditional clause is the statement of a supposition always, the fulfillment of which is assumed to secure the realisation of the potential fact expressed previously. The clause containing the supposition is called the protasis. That is the “if” clause containing the supposition. The clause containing the statement based on the supposition is called the apodasis. A third class condition is what is known to Greek grammarians as a more probably future condition. The prodasis is always introduced by e)an and the verb always has a subjunctive mood because the subjunctive is the potential mood. The assumption is stated as a potential from which a conclusion is drawn or a statement is made. “they continue” is the aorist active subjunctive of the verb menw. It is the intransitive use of the verb, it means to remain, to stay, to last, to persist, to continue. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, namely the balance of residency — the filling of the Holy Spirit plus maximum doctrine resident in the soul. That is the point at which the woman achieves her total beauty of soul. The active voice: the woman believer produces the action of the verb by reaching the high ground of super-grace. The subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition as a potential — if they persist. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. “in faith” — e)n plus the locative of pistij for doctrine. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the qualitative aspect of doctrine. Doctrine is the highest and most important thing in our life. Doctrine is the means by which the woman not only achieves spiritual maturity but inner beauty as well. “and charity” — the locative singular of a)gaph, used here for the filling of the Spirit. “and holiness” — the ascensive use of kai, meaning “even” plus the locative of a(giasmoj which is better translated “sanctification.” “and sanctification” is a reference to experiential sanctification; “even sanctification” is the corrected translation. The whole phrase now says, “if they persist in doctrine and the filling of the Spirit” then both of these together are called “even sanctification,” sanctification being the balance of residency of the soul. The doctrine of sanctification 1. Definition: Sanctification means to be set apart as sacred, or consecrated to God. It comes to mean, then, belonging to God. It becomes a technical theological word for the status of Church Age believers in the three phases of the plan of God. Phase one sanctification = salvation; phase two sanctification = experiential; phase three sanctification = ultimate. This word is only used for Church Age believers or the royal family of God. Sanctification means to be under a grace contract to God forever. Since the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, His resurrection, ascension and session, the old contract or the Mosaic code has been abrogated and the new contract and the royal family are authorised for this dispensation. The contract of the Church Age [the new covenant] authorises a royal priesthood for all believers and it consecrates the royal family under the categories of sanctification. Believing in Christ during the Church Age is tantamount to signing an inviolable contract with God. The new covenant to the Church recognises three stages of consecration or sanctification in the royal family: positional at salvation, experiential, and ultimate. 2. The etymology of the Greek vocabulary of the New Testament. a) a(gioj which is translated “holy” and “saint” describes the royal family of God in terms of a permanent grace contract. All believers in this sense are holy and all believers are saints. A Christian is a saint because he is royal family of God, and the word “saint” merely means to be set apart by God for a special; purpose. He is set apart for the special purpose of being royalty forever. Only the Church Age has this set-apartness and that is why the baptism of the Holy Spirit only exists in this dispensation. b) a(giothj is translated “holiness,” and it simply means the status quo of being royalty forever. Under the new contract or the new covenant to the Church it describes the doctrinal principle by which all Church Age believers are appointed royalty forever. c) a(giosunh simply means sanctification or the doctrine of sainthood, or the doctrine of the royal family of God. It means being under the new contract to God and, again, it is for Church Age believers only. It occurs under three categories: salvation or positional, experiential, and ultimate. d) a(giasmoj means consecration or sanctification, or the status quo of being royal family forever. e) There is also a verb, a(giazw, which means to be holy, to be a saint, to be sanctified. In addition to these there are two words which are found for the head of the royal family of God, the Prince Ruler — o( a(gioj tou qeou. This is translated “the holy one from God.” This is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ in John 6:69. Here is one of the recognitions of the fact that Jesus Christ was royalty. As God He is royalty, as humanity He is royalty, and He was so recognised. 3. Phase one sanctification. This is known as positional truth, positional sanctification, or salvation sanctification. It refers to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. At the point of salvation 36 things are accomplished for every member of the royal family of God. One of them is to enter the believer into union with Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. This is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is a principle whereby God the third person of the Trinity takes each one of us when we believe in Christ and enters us into union with Christ. This is the means by which we become royalty. God the Holy Spirit actually does five things for us out of the 36 at the point of salvation which simply regenerates us. That makes us simply family of God. He did that for Old Testament saints when they believed in Christ. Secondly though, the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes us royal family of God forever. Then, in addition to that, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is the escutcheon of the royal family. We have the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit which is the security of the royal family. Then, He bestowed upon each believer a spiritual gift and that is the temporary talent of the royal family. Positional sanctification, then, is God the Holy Spirit entering us into union with the Lord Jesus Christ forever — 1 Corinthians 1:2. “Sanctified in Christ Jesus” is a technical biblical phrase for positional sanctification, phase one sanctification. That is the one that gives us eternal security, the one that puts us into union with Christ and nothing can take us out. 4. Phase two sanctification — the experiential realm, the believer in time, the period between salvation and physical death. This is called “godliness” and is also known as experiential sanctification. It is also known as the balance of residency, the tactical objective of the royal family for this dispensation. Your objective after salvation is to reach the high ground of the super-grace life, to reach spiritual maturity, to reach the status quo called “godliness” in 1 Timothy. The accomplishment of the balance of residency or experiential sanctification is known as spiritual maturity. This is the objective: to take in doctrine until this stage of spiritual growth is reached. Since the royal family of God on earth is called in scripture the body of Christ the royal family in heaven is known as the bride of Christ. We must learn to distinguish between royalty on earth and royalty in heaven. 5. Phase three sanctification. This is known as ultimate sanctification, the believer in eternity. The is the final status of the royal family of God. The ultimate sanctification principle occurs for us at the Rapture of the Church, at which time each member of the royal family of God in the Church Age receives a resurrection body. Ultimate sanctification is the status quo of the royal family in resurrection bodies, presentable for the Lord Jesus Christ as royal family at the second advent. This stage of sanctification for the royal family is necessary for operation footstool. The resurrection body is our status forever. The Church or the royal family of God is that resurrected aristocracy which shares in the coronation and the triumph of Christ at the second advent — Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 John 3:1,2. 6. The agents of sanctification are three. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the first agent. He is the agent for phase one sanctification — Hebrews 10:10,14. He is our saviour, therefore He is the agent for positional sanctification. The Holy Spirit is also said to be the agent of sanctification, He is part of the agent in phase two — Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13. The Word of God is the third agent — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26. 7. All phases of sanctification are related to the angelic conflict. Like phase one: regenerate mankind or the royal family of God of the Church Age is positionally higher than angels. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. That is the highest place. He sits as humanity. Angels are below Him, says Hebrews chapters one and two. So angels are inferior to the resurrected humanity of Christ. On earth, when we believe in Christ, God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ so that positionally we are now higher than angels — not experientially but positionally. In phase two the super-grace believer is occupied with Christ, shares the happiness of God, establishes a command post of doctrine resident in the soul, receives blessings that glorify God, and this all results in a tactical victory of the angelic conflict. So that the believer in phase two who has reached super-grace is minus evil, minus Satan’s policy, and therefore he has tactical victory in the angelic conflict. Phase three: the royal family of God of the Church Age in resurrection body become physically superior to all angels. So, again, all phases of sanctification are related to the angelic conflict. 8. The present emphasis on phase two sanctification. a) Between salvation and eternity the believer spends a certain amount of time on earth. The time is determined by the sovereign plan of God. b) The purpose of this time spent on earth is to achieve the tactical victory of the super-grace life, a tactical victory resulting in spiritual blessing, temporal blessing, dying blessing. c) When God can bless a believer in the devil’s world on the basis of doctrine resident in the soul tactical victory is achieved. This tactical victory is achieved totally apart from anything Satan can do. God gives wealth totally apart from Satan’s ability to enrich his own servants in the devil’s world. He gives wealth, success, prosperity, happiness, capacity for life, totally apart from any Satanic policy. In the devil’s world tactical victory is achieved and God is glorified. d) Therefore the reason for keeping the royal family of God on earth in phase two is to bless them in every category. You are left on this earth to be blessed totally apart from cosmic diabolicus. This means spiritual blessing, material blessing, dying blessing. e) It is the objective of God to keep you on the earth for a little while to provide super-grace blessings compatible with His eternal decrees. God is glorified as the provider and we are blessed as the beneficiaries. Whatever he provides it always starts with spiritual concepts like occupation with Christ, perfect happiness, the inner residency of doctrine to meet every exigency of life, the inner residency of doctrine for capacity for life. All of these things fit together and they result in temporal blessings — wealth, success, prosperity of all kinds. f) God’s objectives for us in time can only be accomplished through Bible doctrine resident in the soul. g) Therefore the issue of phase two is influence. either doctrine is going to influence you or evil. Doctrine was here before we came, doctrine will be here after we are gone. Doctrine is an absolute resident in the Word of God. Doctrine is the manifestation of the genius of God’s grace. Evil was here before we came, evil will be here after we are gone. Evil is the manifestation of Satan’s genius, the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. You and I cannot change doctrine but doctrine can change us. You and I cannot change evil but evil can change us. The issue is: Which one influences us? Which one changes us? After salvation we never remain the same. Either we become worse or better. h) The believer’s soul is the battleground on which doctrine and evil engage in this conflict. i) Doctrine represents the grace genius of God while evil depicts the genius of Satan as the ruler of this world. “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” j) Every believer is in the plan of God. Either the plan of God will bless or crush you, depending upon what influences your life. k) To be influenced by doctrine means blessing. To be influenced by evil means cursing, discipline, sin unto death. l) For an analogy the plan of God is like being on a bulldozer. Either you ride on top or you are crushed underneath. There is no middle ground. If you get off you go under the bulldozer, you are crushed. If you stay on (GAPing it) then you go on to blessing. m) Experiential sanctification depends upon your consistent attitude toward Bible doctrine. n) Phase two is either blessing (of experiential sanctification) or cursing (of divine discipline). o) Super-grace believers have a balance of residency (experiential sanctification) which is called the state of godliness. This is the objective of sanctification in time, as per 1 Timothy 6:3-6; 2 Peter 1:3. “with sobriety” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of swfrosunh which means stability of mind: “with stability of mentality.” The doctrine of mental attitude 1. Definition. Mental attitude is the function of the right lobe of the soul. The right lobe is called the heart. It has a frame of reference, a memory centre, vocabulary, categories, norms and standards, and a launching pad for application. This is the function of the heart or the right lobe and that is what mental attitude is all about. The sum total of all thought impulses which emanate from the launching pad of the believer’s right lobe comprise the subject of mental attitude. There are two viewpoints in mental attitude, one of the human viewpoint. This is an expression of cosmic norms and standards, this is the influence of evil. The antithesis is divine viewpoint which is the doctrinal viewpoint resident in the soul. Every though impulse that you will have as a believer can be categorised into divine or human viewpoint — influenced by doctrine; influenced by evil. 2. Your thinking is your real personality. Your real personality is the sum total of your thought. Therefore there is nothing you can do about improving your personality by overt superficialities. The real personality is what you think. Mental attitude determines both the character and the life of a person — Proverbs 23:6,7 which portrays the hypocrisy principle as a part of personality, and hypocrisy is always in the realm of thinking. 3. The conflict of mental attitudes in the believer is found in Isaiah 55:6-9. 4. The command to divine viewpoint is given in 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5. This command is obeyed by the consistent and daily function of GAP, maximum doctrine resident in the soul fulfills the command which is also found in 2 Corinthians 10:4-6. 5. Rapport in the royal family of God is based on divine viewpoint — Philippians 2:2. 6. The function of the royal priesthood demands a new mental attitude — 2 Timothy 1:7; Romans 12:2. 7. Divine viewpoint from doctrine produces confidence — Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1 with 5:6-8. 8. Areas of life involving mental attitude: a) Stability is a mental attitude — James 1:8 b) Prosperity is a mental attitude — Philippians 4:7 c) Giving is a mental attitude — 2 Corinthians 9:7. d) Worldliness is a mental attitude — Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2 e) Evil is a mental attitude — Matthew 9:4 f) Arrogance is a mental attitude — Galatians 6:3 g) Inner beauty is a mental attitude — 1 Timothy 2:9,10,15b. Translation: “ … if they persist in doctrine and love [filling of the Spirit], even experiential sanctification stability of mind.” Summary 1. The woman’s inner beauty is related to doctrine resident in her soul. Her outer beauty is nothing without her inner beauty, it is an empty shell. 2. Doctrine becomes resident in the soul through the consistent function of GAP. 3. Therefore in commanding women to make themselves beautiful the Word emphasises the beauty which comes from doctrine resident in the soul. 4. This same inner beauty which comes from doctrine resident in the soul also becomes the source for capacity for love, capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for blessing. 5. Inner beauty becomes the mental attitude, then, of doctrine resident in the soul. 6. The super-grace woman, or the godly woman, always possesses this inner beauty no matter what her age. 7. Overt grooming merely complements the inner beauty of the super-grace woman. 8. The real beauty of the woman, therefore, is her inner beauty. 9. The secret to inner beauty is the balance of residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine. This comes from the daily function of GAP. 10. Overt beauty and grooming must not be neglected but the Bible emphasises the importance of inner beauty in the royal family of God. 11. Inner beauty is a part of the principle, then, of mental attitude dynamics.

Chapter 3 Leadership qualification is the subject of chapter three. All fields of activity must have leadership norms and standards, qualifications for moving up, whether it is business or some profession or any organisation. Even the simplest and smallest of organisations have leadership norms and standards. Outline of the chapter Verses 1-7, the qualification for highest leadership: the qualifications for pastors. Verses 8-13, qualifications for deacons — administrative leadership. Verses 14-16, authority in the royal family of God: the authority of the Word, verse 14; the authority of the pastor-teacher, verse 15; the authority of Jesus Christ, verse 16. Verse 1 — the principle of aspiration. Pistoj o( logoj was Paul’s favourite hymn. It means “Faithful is the Word.” The hymn has to do with doctrine and the importance of doctrine. This particular hymn and fragmentations from it are found in 1 Timothy 1:15; 4:9; Titus 3:8; 2 Timothy 2:11. When we put these together we have to say this has to be the greatest hymn of the early church. In the first quotation in 1 Timothy 1:15 faithfulness is related to saving grace. Here is the fragment of the hymn deals with the communicator of the Word, the pastor-teacher. After he gives the title of the hymn he quotes from it: “If” — the conjunction e)i which introduces a first class condition called a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. This condition is used when the writer wishes to assume the reality of his premise. We translate it, “If and it is true.” “a man” — the indefinite pronoun tij which is used to represent a certain category of the royal family of God. This category is top leadership category. It is covered here from the standpoint of aspiration. Since it is already recognised that Timothy has the spiritual gift it is going back now and examining his aspiration. “desire” is the word of aspiration. It is the present middle indicative from o)regomai which means to reach out, to aspire to, to seek to attain something high or great, to seek to attain a place of leadership. The present tense is a tendencial present, it is used for an action which is purposed or attempted but right now it is not taking place. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view towards participating in the results of the action. It is a permissive middle, it represents the agent as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action or seeking to secure the results of the action in his own interest. It might be said that this verb comes in at the point at which any male believer has reached the point of spiritual growth leading to awareness and aspires to become a pastor. “the office of a bishop” — the genitive singular from the noun e)iskopoj from the which we get the word “Episcopal.” The word e)piskopoj is actually a noun means a superintendent of a factory, an overseer of a plantation. However, the basic meaning of the world is guardian. It is used of persons who have a definite function or a fixed office within a group. The translation “guardian” is the best here — guardian of the local church. This is one of the many words for the pastor-teacher and this also is one of the responsibilities of the pastor-teacher. He is the guardian of the local church: the guardian of the pulpit, the guardian of the flock. It refers to the pastor of the local church with emphasis on his policy-making and decision-making function. “he desireth” — the present active indicative of e)piqumew. It means to desire or to long for. The historical present tense is used when a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. So Paul takes Timothy back to his aspiration days when he came under Paul’s teaching. The active voice: a certain category of male believer in the local church aspires to the pastoral office and has the desire for and honourable thing in doing so. Aspiration is related to having a certain amount of doctrine in the soul. The indicative mood is declarative for an historical reality. “a good work” — the word for good is the objective genitive singular from the adjective kaloj. Kaloj means here “honourable.” The word for “work” is not work at all here, it is the objective genitive singular from e)rgon which here means “office.” Translation: “Faithful is the word, If anyone aspires to the office of guardian of the local church, he has desired an honourable office.” Summary 1. Note that this passage does not cover the office of guardian of the church from the viewpoint of spiritual gift — the spiritual gift is pastor-teacher — but from the principle of aspiration. 2. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, the communicating part of the guardian, is sovereignly bestowed by God the Holy Spirit to certain male believers at the point of salvation. 3. The prerequisite, then, to aspiration is simply this. Aspiration demands that you have the gift and a certain amount of doctrine. Aspiration comes as result of spiritual growth, the consistent function of GAP, the academic discipline of the local church. It is followed by the individual recognition of possessing the spiritual gift. 4. Possession of the gift is not enough to reach the pulpit, the office. After aspiration there is still another stage. 5. One must not only possess the gift but through maximum doctrine in the soul aspire to the office, and aspiration becomes the basis for preparing for the ministry. 6. Aspiration becomes motivation for training, preparation, and provides the self-discipline necessary to attain the office. 7. This verse 1 recognises that those who aspire to the office of pastor or guardian of the local church have previous received the gift at the point of salvation, have previously taken in a lot of doctrine under the function of GAP, have previously been motivated to continue until they reach this point. They have endured all of the trials and testings that God has for them in their preparation. 8. Not all who receive the gift of pastor-teacher at salvation aspire to attain the office. Lack of aspiration means lack of doctrine in the soul. It takes doctrine for aspiration. Notice: Inspiration is not aspiration. Inspiration is a tank full of gas and when you run out you’ve had it. Aspiration is biblical and doctrinal, inspiration is emotional. Inspiration is a “preacher boy” walking an isle and saying, ‘God helping me and in obedience to mother’s prayers I am going into the ministry’! Inspiration doesn’t mean a thing; aspiration means everything. Aspiration is the gutting motivation that keeps a person going during his training. 9. Each step of preparation must be accomplished with large doses of doctrine which identifies the gift, aspires to the honourable office, motivates the preparation, provides the self-discipline to complete the preparation for the ministry. The doctrine of pastor-teacher 1. Definition and concept. Since every believer is a royal priest it is important to understand the system of authority which God has ordained for this dispensation. It is the system whereby God must have the royal family under human authority. There are two basic systems of authority in this dispensation, the overt authority and the inner authority. The overt authority is God delegating the authority of communication of the Word to the pastor-teacher, but the actual authority is the Word itself. The pastor-teacher is simply authorised by God to communicate what is found in the scripture. The inner authority is found in the soul of every believer. it must be subordinated to the higher authority of the pastor-teacher in the communication of the Word. 2. Nomenclature. a) The authority of the pastor is bound up in the noun presbuteroj which is generally translated “elder.” It should be translated “commanding officer.” And there is only one. No plurality of elders. The word elder means ‘old man’ or commanding officer. b) Poinhnoj kai didaskolouj, the accusative plural from Ephesians 4:11 — pastor-teacher is the function of the guardian of the local church or the commanding officer. c) E)piskopoj which is mistranslated “bishop” — this is the policy-maker and decision-maker, and it should be translated “guardian.” d) Diakonoj is often translated “minister” which means a servant, a waiter. He waits on the flock with Bible doctrine. 3. The purpose of the pastor-teacher is found in Ephesians 4:12,13 — “For the purpose of training and equipping the saints [royal family] for combat” — That is the angelic conflict. Remember that the battleground of this combat is your soul. That means that training and equipping means to provide doctrine to insulate you against evil and reversionism; “for the purpose of the vocation of the ministry” — ministers train potential ministers — “for the purpose of the edification of the body of Christ [spiritual growth], until we all [the royal family] have attained the goal of super-grace because of the consistency of doctrine, and the e)pignowsij of the Son of God, with reference to a mature nobleman, to the standard of maturity which belongs to the fullness of Jesus Christ.” 4. The function of the pastor-teacher. Ephesians 3:20,21— a brief statement. The point of these two verses is that the principle of teaching the Word of God is something that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself provided for the local church. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom in this dispensation. The pastor is authorised to be the professor or communicator and the congregation are students without portfolio during assembly. The pastor establishes authority by faithful teaching of the Word of God under ICE principles. You don’t walk in and throw your weight around, you walk in and establish your weight by your teaching. Heresies come about by too many lightweights functioning in the pulpit. They’re light on doctrine, light on exegesis, light on verse-by-verse analysis of the scripture, and therefore their authority is not established. In every work of life you establish your authority by your efficiency and professional skill in the field where the authority should exist. 5. The appointment of the pastor-teacher. The man who exercises the gift of pastor-teacher was appointed by God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, he did not earn or deserve or work for it. 6. The principle of right pastor, right congregation is found in 1 Peter 5:2, “Feed the flock of God among you … not under compulsion, but voluntarily; not for gain, but for enthusiasm.” 7. The concept of the pastor as the total product of grace is found in 1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Timothy 1:12-16. 8. Biblical documentation for the pastor — Ephesians 3:7-13; Colossians 1:23-29; 1 Timothy 2:24-26; 3:1-9; Titus 1:6-9. 9. In Hebrews 13:7,17 we have two great passages on the pastor’s authority. Remember that the authority is unique because it is the only authority not related to the evil of cosmos diabolicus. 10. The reward of the pastor-teacher is found in Hebrews 6:10; 1 Peter 5:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20; Philippians 4:1. Verse 2 — The word “bishop” is a translation of the accusative singular here of e)piskopoj. It looks as though it is in the nominative, but it isn’t because we are still dealing with the longest accusative of general reference … It goes with the infinitive e)inai, the infinitive “to be", and it should be translated “A guardian of the local church.” “then must be” — the word “then” is the inferential particle o)un. This is a very strong inference and therefore it should be “therefore.” This is a post positive conjunctive inferential particle and therefore it is second, but we will put it in front: “Therefore the guardian of the local church.” “Must be” — two verbs here, the impersonal verb dei which connotes compulsion of duty and the present active infinitive of the verb e)imi. This completes the accusative of general reference. When you have an infinitive as the verb you often have the subject in the accusative rather than the nominative because you have a description of those involved in the action of the verb in a very strong way. While the infinitive and the accusative with the infinitive is not properly the subject it does describe the person or persons connected with the subject. Here we have the guardian of the local church. The pastor-teacher is described as having to do this, he is duty bound to get involved in this. “blameless” — this is a part of that accusative singular of general reference with the verb to be and the actual substantive itself is quite a long one: a)nepilhmptoj. It means irreproachable or above reproach. It means that the guardian of the local church must be not in a higher level of conduct but he must be isolated in a sense from the rest of the congregation because of the nature and function of his duties. As the guardian of the local church he must have a maximum amount of time in the Word of God. He must have as quickly as possible spiritual maturity. This is not a morality word, it is a leadership word for tops in the profession. The profession here is understanding of the Word, so it also implies spiritual maturity and compliance with the laws of establishment. In other words, a minister cannot be a criminal. He must be pro establishment. That means that all pastor-teachers should political conservatives. They should also be pro military, pro free enterprise, pro doctrine, and should achieve super-grace as quickly as possible. This is not a morality word, establishment takes care of morality. A pastor’s attitude comes from the Word of God, and he is not a “joiner.” He doesn’t have to join anything. He doesn’t have to lean on the fellowship of organisations of one kind or another. He must get his information from the Word and not depend on any organisation. “the husband of one wife” — miaj gunaikoj a)vdra. This includes the accusative of general reference from a)nhr plus the genitive singular of relation of the numeral e(ij plus the genitive singular of relationship gunh. it can be translated “the husband of one wife” but it actually means “the man of one woman.” That allegedly means wife, but it has nothing to do with divorce. Divorce is not an issue here. The issue at the time this was written was polygamy, so no one can really be a pastor of a local church and have a number of wives. This is teaching that you can’t be a pastor and be a polygamist. No man can have a multiplicity of wives and rule the local church. A man over one wife deals with a problem which existed in the ancient world. “vigilant” — nhfalioj means temperate. It is used of someone who drinks but never drinks too much, never gets drunk. “sober” — this means sound mind, the accusative of general reference from the compound noun swfron [swj means sound; frhn means mind]. It means that the pastor must have good common sense so that the application of doctrine never destroys the perspective of doctrine, so that whatever advising he has to do it does not get way out and distort biblical principles, and that it does not lead people into legalism or any other thing that is false. “of good behaviour” — kosmioj means honourable. It does not refer to the behaviour pattern but it refers to the life of the soul in general. We know this from Plato and Xenephon, both who used this word quite extensively. They used it for self-discipline — one who disciplines himself and therefore is regarded as honourable because of his self-discipline. In other words, to be well-disciplined to the point of being recognised as honourable. Therefore it should be translated as either “honourable” or “well-disciplined.” The pastor must be well-disciplined to study and teach, study and teach. This is the way his honourableness is recognised, his consistency of teaching the Word of God. Honourable or well-disciplined is the manner in which he establishes his authority as the pastor. “given to hospitality” — filocenoj actually means hospitable in the sense of kindness, generosity in dealing with people. It also connotes concern for members of the royal family by protecting them from legalism, bullying, false doctrine, reversionism, and evil. It also emphasises the pastor’s prerogative and responsibility in protecting the privacy and the freedom of the members of his congregation. This connotes the idea of live and let live. “apt to teach” — didaktikoj which means skillful in teaching. This is the primary function on the guardian of the local church. As the communicator of Bible doctrine he must be skillful in teaching. Translation: “The guardian of the local church therefore must be above reproach, husband of one wife, temperate, of sound mind, well-disciplined, hospitable [in the sense of live and let live], skillful in teaching.” Verse 3 — “Not given to wine.” We have a negative mh here which is the particle of qualified negation. This is the negative that leaves the crack in the door. It is in contrast to the o)u or o)uk which is the strong negative that always shuts the door. The door is not shut in this case. This particle merely denies subjectivity and it denies with hesitancy, it is the negative which does not wish to be too positive and it leaves the question open for further remarks or entreaty. In other words, the negative mh does not forbid the use of wine but it restricts and qualifies its use. The Greek word for wine is here a compound noun, paroinoj. It is made up of the preposition para [beside] and o)inoj [wine], and immediately you get the picture. It means to be sitting beside your wine; the wine is on the table and you are sitting beside it. The one who sits beside his wine was the way it was originally used but it came to mean someone who sits there and drinks until he becomes quarrelsome or abusive. That is because he has imbibed too much. Today we would say someone who has a drinking problem. Wine was a very common beverage in the ancient world, it was never forbidden to believers or anyone else. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself drank wine. There were certain restraints which had to be observed because drunkenness is a sin. The Bible does not command total abstinence from wine. It does command temperance and judgment in its use. Actually, what we have here is not simply drinking alone but abusiveness connected with drinking. It should be translated, “Not abusive drunkenness.” The doctrine of drinking 1. Drunkenness is always condemned as a sin — Isaiah 5:11,22; 28:7,8; Proverbs 20:1; 23:20; Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:18. 2. Drunkenness is to be avoided in certain categories of humanity where leadership is involved. Drunkenness is a double sin when anyone in leadership becomes inebriated and starts to make a lot of policy decisions. The wrong person in leadership makes the wrong decisions when under the influence of alcohol. Therefore kings are commanded never to make decisions and to get involved in heavy drinking — Proverbs 31;4,5. 3. Drunkenness is condemned in certain Bible characters. All of these Bible characters with the exception of one were believers: Noah — Genesis 9:21; Nabal — 1 Samuel 25:36,37; Ephraim in Isaiah 28:1 refers to a lot of believers in the northern kingdom becoming alcoholics and contributing to the downfall of the nation; Lot — Genesis 19:32-36. 4. Drinking of alcoholic beverages is condoned under certain circumstances — Proverbs 31:6,7; 1 Timothy 5:23. Medically speaking, a limited amount of alcohol can be beneficial in three areas: the brain and nervous system. While moderate and average amounts of alcohol can act as a sedation, too much has a very toxic effect; the stomach. Alcohol stimulates the appetite through increasing gastric juices; the circulation in older people. Prescriptions are given containing alcohol, or a glass of wine a day dilates the blood vessels and improves the circulation in old people. 5. The adverse effects of alcohol. Excessive use of alcohol leads to impulsive and abusive behaviour. The reason for this is that alcohol is not really a stimulant, it is a depressant, and as such it lowers the inhibitions, dulls the reflexes, and at the same time as it lowers inhibitions and dulls the reflexes, it amplifies the mental attitude. 6. The Lord Jesus Christ did turn water into alcoholic beverage — John 2:1-11. The incident at the marriage feast at Cana was a case where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself manufactured miraculously alcoholic beverage, not into grape juice. However, it should be pointed out that by so doing the miracle neither condones nor condemns drinking. The miracle was designed not to be a brief on drinking but to focus attention on who and what Christ was — the unique person of the universe, the Messiah to Israel. Very briefly, the six water pots were filled with water (which has an analogy, the water of the Word). The water was then turned into wine to replace the shortage of wine at the wedding. The wine produces joy in the human heart — Judges 9:13; Psalm 104:15. The principle is that when the daily function of GAP converts doctrine into super-grace status this is the place where God shares His happiness with the believer, and this was the analogy of the passage. But in the literal function of the passage the miracle not only focuses attention on the hypostatic union, the uniqueness of Christ, but at the same time it illustrates the manner in which Bible doctrine in the soul is converted into capacity for life, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, and so on. But the actual point is that Jesus is not condemning or condoning drinking. He is certainly not condoning drunkenness. It was alcoholic beverage. The people who at the wedding feast complimented the host on the fact that he served his best wine last rather than the usual procedure and custom. 7. Alcoholism is a part of national disaster — Joel 1:4-6. In Joel 1:4 it is related to economic depression. When too many people are drinking business judgment goes down, and this contributes to economic depression. In verse 5 it contributes to frustration of people so that you multiply psychosis in the land. In verse 6 it is related to military invasion. In other words, an alcoholic people are easy to conquer and therefore are quickly invaded by someone who wants their land for some purpose. 8. The conditions under which drinking is retrained are three: the law of liberty says you have the right and freedom to drink; the law of love which is directed toward believers says if it makes someone stumble then you can’t; the law of expediency toward unbelievers is used when the gospel and drinking become a false issue. You are presenting the gospel, drinking is a false issue and therefore you don’t drink on that occasion; the law of supreme sacrifice is directed toward God. When drinking hinders a specific ministry then you don’t drink. Remember that while our Lord turned the water into alcoholic beverage at Cana of Galilee He refused a drink on the cross before He bore our sins. He would not go to the cross and bear our sins with any possibility that alcohol might have an adverse effect. (The word “vinegar” in the crucifixion scene is not vinegar, it is wine) 9. Drinking is also related to reversionism — Jeremiah 13:12-17. Wine is used in the scripture to represent the entire principle of sublimation involved in rejecting Bible doctrine. Rejection of Bible doctrine is the rejection of category #1 love. 10. Common sense and the concept of drinking. a) Abstinence is a good thing on the job, in young people, and because of the frustrations and unhappiness that come from the situation getting out of control. b) While moderate drinking is not prohibited by the Word it belongs to those who have the maturity to handle it, and young people therefore should abstain. c) Drinking is not for young ladies on dates with strange men or in an unknown crowd. d) No one should ever drink when alone or upset. e) Never drink with strangers in strange places. f) Never drink while working on the job. g) Never drink while operating a motor vehicle, flying an aeroplane, or driving a motorcycle. Notice that the pastor is not to get drunk and abusive” verse 3 — “Not abusive, quarrelsome inebriation.” A pastor cannot do his job and drink. “no striker” — has to do with punching people, mh plhkthj. Obviously this means more than just going around punching people. The principle behind it is, first of all, the exercise of pastoral authority demands objectivity and fairness. Punching is usually making a hasty decision or a reflex decision without having all the facts. The pastor must fulfill a ministry without intruding upon the privacy of the royal family in his charge and subjecting them to bullying or coercion. It doesn’t only mean simply physical bullying, it means legalistic coercion. This has to do with the idea that the Bible itself must be the director. You must build up doctrine in your soul and eventually have your own inner dictator. But you can’t be bullied into a legalistic course of action. “not greedy of filthy lucre” — just one word in the Greek, the accusative of general reference from the compound a)filaguroj with the negative: filoj is love; a)guroj is money. It should be translated, “not avaricious.” No lover of money. The pastor or guardian of the local church must not be a lover of money. He must not be greedy of covetous, he must never be a votary at the altar of Plutoj, the god of money. In that same regard, no pastor should ever handle the money. This is an administrative function that he should appoint and stay as far away from as possible. Love of money brings the pastor under the influence of evil. The biblical concept of giving is often distorted when the pastor’s love for money turns him into an extortioner or a con artist, and embezzler, a plunderer of believers. “but patient” — the only way that any man ever stays in a local church. This is an adversative conjunction which sets up a contrast between negative and positive qualifications. The word is e)pieikhj and it does not mean patient, it means to be fair and reasonable. A pastor must be fair and reasonable in all of his dealings with his flock. His leadership authority demands the exclusion of prejudice. He must rule in all cases on the basis of facts and doctrinal principles rather than on personal antagonisms or personality conflict. “not a brawler” — this doesn’t really refer so much to fighting as it does to being contentious. This is a)maxoj and it means he must not be contentious. He must be very careful not to allow his prejudice to in any way cause him to use his authority to hurt people. “not covetous” — not greedy for money. Again, “not avaricious” and it really comes at this point at the end of the sentence. There is one word that is not actually found here. Translation: “Not abusive, quarrelsome inebriation, not a bully; but fair or reasonable, not contentious, not avaricious.” “Not avaricious” is at the end, there is no word for covetousness. In verses 4 & 5, the minister in relationship to his family. The whole principle is, if a pastor cannot rule his family he cannot rule the local church. The family is merely a test in that direction. Verse 4 — “One that ruleth” is the present middle participle from proisthmi. This word means to govern, to manage, to rule, to be the head of something. The descriptive present tense describes what should now be going on. It is the pictorial present, it represents the pastor’s government or rulership of his family as in the process of occurrence. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the pastor as the agent producing the action. The participle is an imperative. A pastor who cannot run his family cannot run the church. “well” — the adverb kaloj means “in the right way”; “household” includes anyone under the roof, including wives, children, servants, relatives; anyone attached to the household. “having” — the present active participle of e)xw is “holding” here. The present tense is customary present, it denotes what should habitually occur. The active voice: the pastor must control his children. The participle is circumstantial. The “children” are the children during their period of minority. A pastor has no control over his children after they have become adults. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the pastor’s children. “in subjection” — e)n plus the locative of u(potagh, “in subordination.” A pastor must use his disciplinary activity to produce respect. A pastor who cannot rule his family cannot rule the congregation of the royal family of God. Translation: “He should be ruling his own household in the right way, holding children in subordination, associated with all respectfulness.” Principles 1. The proper use of authority and discipline produces respect from the recipients. 2. Respect leads to subordination to the authority of the leader in the organisation whether family, local church, or business. 3. A leader does not have to possess the love of his subordinates but it is absolutely essential to possess the respect of his subordinates. 4. Those who lack respect must be

 eliminated or disciplined or both.

 5. Generally, how a minister handles his family is the index as to how he will handle his congregation. 6. The pastor who cannot control his family cannot control the congregation. Verse 5 — “For” is the post positive use of the particle de and here means “In fact.” “if” is the conjunctive particle e)i introducing a first class condition. This is a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. The protasis is assumed to be true and here it is a fact that if the pastor cannot rule his family he cannot rule a church. “am man” — tij is the indefinite pronoun used for a category (pastors); “know not” is “do not know” — o)ida; “how to rule” — poisthmi; “his own household,” literally; “how” — the interrogative particle o(j introduces a rhetorical question. The question demands, by the way, a negative type answer. “take care of” — the future middle indicative of e)pimelomai which means to take care of. This is the deliberative future which is a rhetorical question handling a problem of uncertainty. The idiom for the rhetorical question takes place in a direct assertion here. “How can he take care of the church of God” — this demands a negative answer: He cannot. Translation: “In fact if anyone (pastor-teacher) does not know how to rule his own household, how can he take care of the church of God?” Answer: “He cannot.” Verse 6 — “Not a novice.” This is one of the most disqualifying factors with those who have the gift of pastor-teacher. A man who has the gift of pastor-teacher and does not have any spiritual growth in his life is never qualified to take the pastorate. The word for novice is neofuton which is a compound noun. It is compounded from neoj, meaning new, and fuw which means to plant. It means a new plant. This is where we get the English word “neophyte” and it is a good translation. This refers not only to new believers but to immature believers. In connection with the pastor it refers specifically to immature believers. The pastor of the local church cannot be spiritually immature. He cannot lead people past his own maturity and if his own maturity is nil then no one will ever mature in his church. “lest” is a negative purpose clause made up of the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh. It is correctly translated “lest.” “being lifted up with pride” — the aorist passive participle from tufow which means to be blinded or conceited. It comes to be blind conceit. Tufow indicates where a lot of men go astray in the pastorate; they have blind arrogance. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the believer in blind arrogance and it takes his stance in this field of reversionism and gathers it up into a single whole or one entirety. The passive voice: immature believers receive the action of the verb. Not only those aspiring to the pastorate but all immature believers have some phase of blind arrogance. And if time elapses without spiritual growth blind arrogance is inevitable. In other words, the only way that blind arrogance can be offset is the daily function of GAP which moves you up. The phrase “being lifted up with pride” can be translated, “let having received blind arrogance.” This is a circumstantial participle as well as having antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb comes up on the next word, “he fall” — the word for “fall” here, however, is a compound — e)mpiptw which means to fall into, to get involved in. This is a culminative aorist viewing the event of blind arrogance in its entirety but picking it up from the standpoint of its existing results. Obviously blind arrogance is a trap for the immature believer of the royal family, to fall into something indicates that. The active voice indicates that only immature believers fall into this trap. The potential subjunctive indicates the fact that if you GAP it daily then you won’t fall into this particular problem. “into the condemnation of the devil” has to do with divine discipline. The prepositional phrase “into the condemnation” — e)ij plus the accusative of krima, it means a judgment where all the facts are in and the judge has the facts and makes a correct decision. As God is the judge Himself condemnation then means He is following through with discipline. The devil is related to this, the objective genitive of diaboloj, one of the many words for Satan, plus the definite article indicates several things. This means slanderer and this is one of the great functions of Satan, he is a slanderer of believers. Translation: “Not a neophyte [which is an new/immature believer], lest having received blind arrogance he might fall into the condemnation of the devil.” Summary 1. The greatest occupational hazard of the new or immature believer is blind arrogance. This is dealing with the leadership characteristics of the pastor at the point of aspiration, however this has application to all. 2. Blind arrogance not only hinders and frustrates spiritual growth by systems of legalism and pseudo spirituality but it takes a limited or negative view toward Bible doctrine communicated from the pulpit of the local church. 3. Blind arrogance guarantees that the individual so infected will be influenced by evil rather than by doctrine. 4. Blind arrogance follows the pattern of the Satanic fall of Lucifer. The result in the royal family is reversionism and the accompanying stages of discipline. 5. One of the best areas for summarising blind arrogance is Matthew 19:27-20:34. 6. Blind arrogance neutralises the purest and highest type of authority given by God in human history. 7. The authority of the pastor-teacher or the guardian of the local church is the only authority in all of human history that is not related to cosmos diabolicus. Verse 7 — “Moreover” is a post positive enclitic conjunctive particle used in a transitional sense here, de. With this we have a continuation of the concept of blind arrogance, immaturity. etc.; “he must” — the impersonal verb of compulsion dei denoting what is fitting. The adjunctive kai means “also”; “have” — present active infinitive of e)xw. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: the pastor of the local church produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result used for fulfilling a deliberate qualification, therefore a blending of purpose and result. “a good report” — usually blind arrogance means that people who are normal, people who are squared away, people who are clear thinkers and have good common sense do not care for those who are involved in arrogance. The accusative direct object of marturia means “reputation.” It does not mean witness. And with kaloj it means noble or honourable reputation. “And he must also be having an honourable reputation.” This means 1. This relates the pastor to the community in which the local church is located. It doesn’t mean that he has to get involved in community activities. 2. By honourable reputation, then, is meant what the pastor must be to outsiders in the community. He must be pro establishment. He must be a supporter of the local police, a supporter of the military establishment, a patriot. He must have good financial credit. He must be free from liberal or criminal activities. “of them which are without” — the preposition a)po plus the ablative plural of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, plus an adverb, e)cwqen. It should be translated, “from those outside [of the local church],” anyone who is not a member of the local church or in the local church where the minister is the guardian or pastor. “lest” — i(na mh, “in order that” with the negative; “fall into” — e)mpiptw: “in order that he not fall into” is what this is saying. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the blind arrogance of the pastor in its entirety, it emphasises the existing results. The existing results are falling into the reproach and snare of the devil as the ruler of this world. The active voice: the immature pastor becomes a pastor influenced by blind arrogance and he produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood goes with the negative purpose clause. “into reproach” — a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of o)neidismoj, and it should be correctly translated “into disgrace”; “in order that he might not fall into disgrace,” meaning under the influence of evil which is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Many pastors fall into disgrace by advocating evil systems such as gun legislation, government interference with business, or government interference with anything. “snare” — pagij refers to reversionism; “of the devil.” Translation: “And he must also be having an honourable reputation from those outside [of the local church]; in order that he might not fall into disgrace [under the influence of evil] and a snare [reversionism] of the devil.” The doctrine of GAP 1. Definition. GAP is the acrostic representation for grace apparatus for perception and it is the doctrine which deals with the assimilation of doctrine, the means of spiritual growth. it is the system which God provided in eternity past long before the human race existed whereby every believer is able to understand divine revelation, whereby every believer is able to understand the content of the written Word, and whereby in the past before the canon was completed people (prophets, priests) were able to understand and communicate to the people. So it is God’s grace provision for spiritual growth and advance. God has found a way for every believer, regardless of human IQ or educational background, to perceive and assimilate Bible doctrine. 2. There are three basic systems of perception. The first is rationalism. It uses reason as the source of knowledge, making it superior to and independent of any sensory perception. Reason becomes a norm or criterion for reality and rationalism, then, is the adherence to the supremacy of reason in matter of belief, conduct, and perception. Subjection of Bible doctrine and scriptural interpretation to the test of human reason is the rejection of dogmatic authority and many of the trends in modern Christendom today are taken from rationalism. A perfect illustration is neo-evangelicalism. Another is neo-orthodoxy, and another is existentialism. Empiricism is the second system of meritorious learning. It is learning by observation or experimentation. We call it the scientific method. Reality lies in the senses relaying their observations to the brain for conclusions. Key words are experience, observation, experimentation. If I can smell it and come to a conclusion, taste it, observe it, and so on, then draw conclusions from that. The third system is faith: learning by accepting the authority of the criterion. Reality of the unseen is a system of thinking but it is non meritorious. All of us in beginning our life learned everything by faith. There is no way that we could prove anything, there is no way that rationalism or empiricism could come into the picture. Faith is building knowledge on the basis of an absolute authority or axiom whether it is God exists or one plus one equals two. Faith as a system of perception has been gradually eliminated from academic life. The attempt has been made to do so in such subjects as the new history, the new math, and so on. The validity of faith depends on the criterion of the object of faith. In salvation the object of faith is Jesus Christ. This is the validity of faith. In the function of GAP faith is the system of perception. The object of faith is Bible doctrine as taught from pulpits, never on the outside. In other words, a bona fide pastor teaches with academic discipline and that is the only way people learn. There is no such thing as a self-taught believer. No pastor is a self-taught believer, all learn Bible doctrine from someone else. 3. The distinction between spiritual and human IQ. IQ is not an issue in learning Bible doctrine. Grace eliminates the whole IQ system and substitutes a non-meritorious system of perception. 4. The exclusion of human IQ from GAP is very important. Human IQ has often been considered a factor in learning doctrine and this would imply that low IQ believers are handicapped and cannot, and some of the greatest believers in history are low IQ types who stuck with it and stuck with it and stuck with it — persistence, motivation, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, faithfulness in taking in the Word, is what counts — 1 Corinthians 1:19-2:16. 5. The grace provision for learning doctrine includes: a) Formation and preservation of the canon of scripture. The canon of scripture is under constant attack. All of these attacks are destroyed because “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” The 20th century believer, therefore, has the Bible intact, preserved in the original languages of Hebrew, Chaldean and Greek, so that the meaning of any given passage can be determined and communicated by those so qualified. b) The divine authorisation of the local church as the only classroom. The Bible is the text book, the local church is the classroom, and only in the classroom of the local church can the royal family learn doctrine and grown up. The royal family of God [Church Age believer] is assembled, therefore, in a classroom and the only right of the congregation in assembly in the function of worship is concentration. The local church must assemble, therefore, under the principle of strict academic discipline. The pastor has the absolute authority to teach in monologue compatible with his spiritual gift and function. The pastor is the ruler of the local church, the deacons are administrative under him. As doctrine is transferred from the written page to the individual in the congregation this inner residency of doctrine becomes a dictator, and this dictator or command post must be developed so that when you step outside of the local church you can move into any situation in the world and take your orders from your own soul. This is the objective which is accomplished when you reach the super-grace life. The local church continues to be the classroom during the Church Age, surviving all attacks to replace it. c) The right pastor. The spiritual gift of pastor provides authority and ability to communicate doctrine in the local church by means of monologue. The spiritual gift is sovereignly bestowed by the Holy Spirit. Then comes the point of aspiration, and eventually comes the point of fulfillment of the gift. Preparation begins after aspiration and goes to the point of taking one’s first church, and preparation can include many things. It must include spiritual growth, it must have anything from academic, military, and other functions which produce self-discipline as well as good steady habits. d) The royal priesthood of the believer. This is the only dispensation which actually has a formal classroom called the local church, and organised classroom. The reason for it is because everyone in this dispensation is royal family and everyone knows that royalty is much more difficult to teach than anyone else. So royalty demands certain things. The royal priesthood gives us the greatest opportunity to learn because our priesthood means privacy and freedom in the perception of doctrine. Even though we are gathered together in a public place we still have our privacy, we still have our freedom to receive and to function under the principles of GAP. But each believer must have doctrine resident in his soul for growth. To ensure privacy and to avoid bullying and give every believer a chance to learn doctrine he enters the congregation of the local church for instruction. Therefore his identity, his talent, his ability, his success are not the issue and they are obscured. Here he concentrates as a novice, learning doctrine and advancing to the high ground. The criterion for these things, then, is doctrine and forgetting about what you were all day, moving in a sitting down under the ministry of the Spirit concentrating and taking in the Word of God. Therefore the creation of a public relations image or getting involved or social action or working around the church or improving your personality or observing certain religious and legalistic taboos is not the objective. All of these things are no substitute for doctrine resident in the soul. Every royal priest through the function of GAP must construct his own altar. (Service begins after that altar is constructed) e) The ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is always related to who and what the Holy Spirit is. The ministries of the Holy Spirit at salvation remind us of the fact that He has a very definite part in phase two. His primary objective in controlling our souls is the intake of the Word of God and then the proper utilisation of that doctrine. f) At the point of salvation we receive a human spirit in order that we might have a repository for doctrine as it is processed into the right lobe of the soul. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit — Romans 8:16,17. g) The provision of the laws of divine establishment. Under the laws of divine establishment national government is responsible to protect the privacy and the freedom of the local church. This is the first function of freedom and it is known in our governmental documents as religious liberty. Under this principle there is separation of church and state. There is another law which is pertinent here and that is the fact that this freedom is maintained through military victory. Military victory guarantees the perpetuation of freedom for the function of the local church. Also there is the internal function of law: the judge on the bench, the police officer on patrol. These are also part of the reason why we have freedom. This is protection from crime, protection of privacy, property and life. h) The principle of grace in human anatomy whereby we are able to have brain cells, oxygen, the blood flow through the body, etc. 6. The principle of receptive comprehension. 7. The actual mechanics of GAP. 8. The primary result of GAP: spiritual maturity resulting in glorifying God as part of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. The results are best expressed in terms of synonyms. a) The language synonym — chakmah on the Old testament; e)pignwsij in the New. b) The theological synonym — James 4:6, “more grace.” This is “greater grace” or super-grace.” c) The priestly synonym of the altar of the soul — Hebrews 13:10. This is the one related to our service. d) The building synonym, the ECS — Ephesians 4:12,16. e) The time synonym: redeeming time. God provides the believer one day at a time and the capital for the purchase of time is Bible doctrine which is resident in the soul. The purchase of time with doctrine has two directions: toward God — Ephesians 5:16,18; toward the unbeliever — Colossians 4:5. f) Central control synonym, the dictator of the soul. Inner residency of doctrine sets up its norms and standards and actually sets up a central control centre — Ephesians 6:10. g) Military synonyms for the results of GAP in maturity: Putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-13; Following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; The establishment of a command post of the soul — Colossians 2:5-8. h) A crucifixion synonym: Take up your cross and follow me. Taking up your cross is the actual attendance at your local church in spite of distraction or opposition. “Follow me” is the daily function of GAP eventuating in spiritual maturity. i) The chemical synonym of sodium chloride: we are the salt of the land. Salt is used here as a preservative. j) A sanctification synonym: godliness — 1 Timothy 6:3-6; 2 Peter 1:3. 9. There are other results of GAP: a) Reversion recovery including the removal of scar tissue of the soul, freedom from the influence of evil, cancellation of divine discipline. b) The glorification of God in the angelic conflict through the attainment of the super-grace status of spiritual maturity. The attainment of super-grace results in super-grace blessings, paragraph SG2, and it also results in great blessings in eternity, paragraph SG3. All of these blessings come totally apart from the Satanic system. c) It equates the royal status of the believer with the function of his priesthood. The normal function of the royal priest begins at the point of spiritual maturity or the point where the altar of the soul is established. d) It leads to occupation with Christ and other capacities for life. Inner residency of maximum doctrine results in capacity for love, category #1 love toward God. You cannot love God unless you know God, you cannot know God apart from the inculcation of doctrine. This same residency for doctrine gives capacity for love in other categories, capacity for happiness, capacity for life, capacity for blessing. e) It provides maximum influence in history. Super-grace believers have maximum impact on the thinking of their own generation. Super-grace believers are the basis for preserving and blessing everything with which they associate, whether it is family, business, organisations, cities, states or nations. f) It provides the basis for a bona fide production. The super-grace believer is qualified for Christian service. He produces divine good in contrast to human good. He is insulated from evil and pseudo Christian activity. g) It becomes the basis for eternal reward or paragraph SG3. Paragraph SG3 depends on seizing and holding the high ground and this can only be accomplished by the continuation of the function of GAP after reaching maturity. Verse 8 — “Likewise” is an adverb, o(sautoj to indicate a parallel situation between deacons and pastors when it comes to qualifications. It means likewise or in the same manner and, again, it is simply an adverb of similarity. It sets up a similarity of qualification in all categories of leadership in the local church, whether pastors or deacons. Therefore this will be something of a repetition in part when we get into this passage. “deacons” is the masculine accusative plural of general reference from diakonoj. It is a transliteration here. Actually, the word means a waiter or a minister and it is used in many ways in scripture. The noun, therefore, is very diversified. It means to render service or administration, to be a deputy in the field of the local church in spiritual service. A deacon is a church administrator, he is under the authority of the pastor. The pastor is the primary policy maker. This does not mean that deacons cannot make policy but they make policy in the sphere of administration. We have here a word which means many things which have to do with administration and the function of business. The word originated in our use here in Acts 6:1-5. The word “to serve tables” is the present active infinitive of the verb diakonew from which we get “deacon.” The cognate is diakonoj. The absence of the definite article in our passage in front of diakonoj calls attention to the quality of these administrators. That is the way it should always be: high quality in the field of administration. The masculine gender calls attention to the fact that this office is office is open only to male believers. The plural number indicates that a local church has a multiplicity of administrators, but one pastor. The accusative case is a part of the accusative of general reference which goes back all the way to verse 2. It should be translated: “In the same manner deacons must be.” “grave” — the accusative plural of general reference of the word semnoj, which means “worthy of respect, honourable.” It is a reference to the fact that deacons must have advanced in spiritual growth. There is a good reason for that. Generally with men who serve as deacons, until they serve as deacons the are in Bible class about every night. It is important that these men be mature spiritually. The reason for that is obvious. The pastor is the policy maker of the local church and as a policy maker he must make decisions and the administration of his policy doesn’t belong to the pastor — he makes the policy and the policy is based upon his study and understanding of the Word. But the deacons must be administrators to carry out the grace policy of the pastor. Therefore they must have enough divine viewpoint to recognise grace policy when they see it and to carry it out vigorously in compatibility with their spiritual gift. Therefore it is imperative that they be exposed to the teaching of the pastor so they know what his teaching is, and therefore there is no lapse between his teaching and the policy which they should understand. This means that a deacon must be under the influence of doctrine and never under the influence of evil It further implies that the deacon must never be in a state of reversionism. His continued positive volition toward doctrine is the subject of the next verse. No one must be more positive toward doctrine than the deacon administrator of the local church. In that sense he must lead the way in exposure to the teaching of the Word and his own personal spiritual growth. His administrative function must line of with the grace concepts which are taught from the pulpit and they must be compatible with the policies of the pastor as the ruler of the local church. “not double-tongued” — mh dilogouj, to say one thing and mean another. No one can ever be effective in administration when they say one thing and mean another. This word comes to mean deceitful, hypocritical in speech. The deacon must have integrity of character rather than be a phony and be influenced by evil opportunists. So we would translate this in modern English, “not given to double-talk.” Administration in the local church demands honesty, honour, integrity of character. “not given to wine” — they can’t be alcoholics. They can drink but they can’t be going around constantly under the influence of alcohol. This doesn’t forbid drinking, it forbids drunkenness. “Be guarding against much wine.” “Not given to” is a present active participle of prosexw plus the negative mh. Prosexw means to turn one’s mind to, to pay attention to, to give heed to; but here with the negative mh it means to guard against. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur. The customary present has linear aktionsart. The active voice: the deacon produces the action of the verb, namely being very moderate in his drinking. The participle is imperative and it should be translated, “be guarding against.” Too much wine here means excessive to the point of drunkenness. No one in leadership responsibility, whether spiritual leadership, government leadership, business leadership, or professional leadership, should ever be a slave to alcoholic beverage. Leadership cannot afford to be a slave to anything except its responsibility. There is one slavery for leadership and that is slavery to responsibility. No great leader in history has perpetuated his leadership when he becomes addicted to alcoholic beverage. The greatest illustration of this is Alexander the Great whose genius was never realised to the maximum because he died from alcohol abuse at age 32; he simply drank himself to death. The limitation on wine drinking demonstrates that self-discipline and concentration so necessary to succeed and assume leadership responsibility in any field of life is there. “not greedy of filthy lucre” — mh a)isxrokerdeij e)xontaj, “do not have a fondness for dishonest gain.” It is the pastor who cannot be a slave to money but the deacon cannot be a slave to dishonest gain. Every believer has a right to make money but it cannot be dishonest, that’s all. “Dishonourable gain” is the noun a)isxrokerdiej which means dishonourable or indecent or dishonest profit. Dishonest business practice or cheating in business to make an abnormal profit eliminates a man from serving effectively in deacon leadership. Under the laws of establishment dealing with economy and free enterprise any man in business has a right to legitimate profit, but this is talking about illegitimate profit because of an abnormal love for or slavery to money. Dishonesty in business automatically disqualifies a properly gifted believer from serving as a deacon in a local church. Translation: “In the same manner deacons must be worthy of respect, not given to double talk, be guarding against much wine [not a slave to alcohol], not be having an eager desire for dishonest profit.” Verse 9 — spiritual qualifications. “Holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience” is not correctly translated here. The word “holding” is the present active participle of e)xw which means to have and to hold. The present tense is the present tense of duration, the retroactive progressive present to denote something begun in the past and continuing into the present time. That is, in the past every deacon should be a student of the Word, should be taking in the Word consistently, and this means that he should continue to do so. The active voice: every deacon produces the action through his own daily function of GAP. The participle is an imperative participle — “be having and holding.” This is a reference to consistent and daily function of GAP whereby the deacon continues to maintain his spiritual life and continue his growth. The deacon must be under the influence of doctrine to avoid reversionism as well as the influence of evil policies in his function. “the mystery” — a beautiful way of emphasising Church Age doctrine, the accusative singular direct object from the noun musthrion. This word refers to the entire realm of Church Age doctrine from the baptism of the Spirit all of the way to the Rapture of the Church. “of the faith” — the genitive singular of pistij. This is a genitive of apposition. It refers to doctrine, the body of what is believed by the royal family. “Be having and holding the mystery, even the doctrine.” The genitive of apposition is translated “even the doctrine.” The doctrine of the mystery 1. Etymology. The noun musthrion was originally a Classical Greek word and it denotes the secrets and the doctrines of the ancient Greek fraternities. They had many doctrines and principles which they kept to themselves. One had to be initiated into the fraternity to know these things. They were called secrets or mysteries. From this we also have another Classical Greek noun, musthj, which was someone being initiated into the fraternity. The initiation was a concentrated period of learning doctrines and once they mastered the doctrines they had a ritual by which they were inducted into the fraternity. There is also a verb that goes with this called muew. It is derived from the Attic verb meaning to initiate or to instruct, or to teach doctrine. The doctrines of the fraternities were not known to outsiders, only to those who were initiated into the fraternity. The Lord Jesus Christ first used this word in His ministry on earth and gave it the meaning which herein after would be used throughout the New Testament, with some refinements. Jesus used this noun when talking to the disciples. The disciples were confused sometimes because our Lord talked in parables and therefore they would ask Him the meaning of a parable after He had taught it publicly. Matthew 13:11 — “… to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have to do with Church Age doctrine. It was unknown to the Old Testament writers, it was unknown at this time to the disciples, but once the Church Age began they would have a great deal of revelation in this field. But then Jesus makes it clear that He spoke in parables for this reason: “but to them it has not been given.” So by using a parable Jesus could teach a lesson to the people on the outside and at the same time use this parable to expatiate coming things of the Church Age. The same principle is found in Mark 4:10,11 — “And as soon as Jesus was alone, those around Him [the twelve] began asking Him about the parable. And He began saying to them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, they get everything from parables.” So the point was that Jesus used the parable in order to teach something to the people on the outside but at the same time to begin to open up a new subject. A whole system of doctrine was about to be formed on earth, a system of doctrine that dealt with a new dispensation; a system of doctrine that had never once been written in the Old Testament canon, a system of doctrine that had been completely and totally unknown to any person in Old testament times. Something absolutely new was about to exist, and therefore Jesus Christ used the parable system to introduce it. 2. Definition of “mystery”: Generally speaking, the word “mystery” refers to Church Age doctrine which was not revealed in Old Testament times but after our Lord’s resurrection, ascension and session it was made known to the royal family of God, primarily through the epistles of the New Testament. There is very little Church Age truth in the Gospels, almost none at all except for the upper room discourse in John chapters 15, 16, and part of 17. Outside of that and an occasional reference in the book of Acts most of the doctrine of the mystery is found in the epistles. The leading proponent of the mystery is the apostle Paul himself. 3. The relationship of mystery doctrine to the divine decrees. The divine decrees actually encompass God’s foreknowledge, omniscience of everything that would ever happen, and the divine plan is inserted into all functions of life. The divine decrees was really a meeting in eternity past between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The three members of the Trinity pulled together a perfect plan for the human race, anticipating every problem that would ever exist and providing not only every need but every blessing. Your blessings, in other words, existed long before you did! The mystery as a Church Age doctrine was a part of the divine decrees in eternity past. This means that when the Church Age was intercalated or inserted we then had the age of the calling of the royal family of God. It is called the age of the body, the Church Age. When this royal family is completed there will be a resurrection — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. This is the time when the body of Christ is converted into the bride. And it is a great time for Israel because although under adverse circumstances things will get very bright when our Lord returns. When He returns He returns with His own royal family, a family that had to be formed and a family that could not be formed without the interruption of the Jewish Age. The insertion of the Church Age after the session of Christ means that there has be doctrine to explain it all. There is no doctrine in the Old Testament that even comes close to explaining anything about the Church Age, therefore an entire new system of explanation has to come into existence, it has to be revealed. That is why we have a New Testament, that is why the canon of scripture was not completed with the finishing of the book of Malachi. And that is why it takes the epistles of the New Testament to clarify what this age is all about, and to keep us out of the Jewish Age. God says, in effect, stay out of the business of Israel. 1 Corinthians 2:7 — “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden plan [for the royal family only], which God predestined before the ages to our glory.” In other words, this verse has a great deal to say. Paul is saying in effect that he is now communicating to the Corinthians the doctrine of the mystery. It is God’s wisdom, it is in a mystery form, it was hidden from the past, and God did predestinate these things. And then he adds, “to our glory.” Why to our glory? The intake of Church Age doctrine is the means by which we glorify God and become honourable members of the royal family of God. In Ephesians 1:8,9 we have a similar type phrase: “From which grace he [God the Father] caused to super abound toward us by means of all doctrine and divine viewpoint, having made known to us the mystery” — the mystery is no longer obscure, it is ‘made known, it is a part of the canon of the New Testament, it is communicated by pastor-teachers — “of his will, according to the standard of his good thinking from which he [God the Father] pre designed it in him.” In other words, the whole thing was pre designed around the baptism of the Holy Spirit or being in union with Christ. 4. There is also a relationship of the mystery doctrine to the first advent of Christ. Not only is the mystery doctrine related to eternity past but it is also related to the incarnation. 1 Timothy 3:16 — “...great is the mystery doctrine with reference to godliness.” In the first advent our Lord went to the cross and provided salvation. Then He was resurrected, then He ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father. This is His strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Now we have the interruption of the Age of Israel and the Church Age is now in progress. In this there must be something complementary to our Lord’s strategic victory. Right now our Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father, there must be something to complement His being seated there. As a matter of fact there is something. We are ambassadors. Being ambassadors for Christ on the earth as believers makes us something very special. We are the representatives of the Lord, we are all in full time Christian service. How can we as ambassadors complement the strategic victory of Christ on the cross. The answer is by tactical victory. The greatest part of our full time Christian service is the daily function of GAP and the spiritual growth which takes us to super-grace. Then the Lord complements us. When we reach super-grace He gives us great blessing. He provides in time these things when His ambassadors reach the high ground of super-grace. When they establish a command post we have the tactical victory of the angelic conflict which complements the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. This is a part of the mystery doctrine. 5. There is also a relationship of mystery doctrine to the Church Age. The Church Age is the dispensation of the formation of the royal family of God. The session of Christ caused the dramatic interruption of the Jewish Age. A new dispensation, a new family of God, a royal family of God, demands explanation. The explanation is in the form of mystery doctrine. The intercalation or the insertion of the Church Age and the formation of the royal family of God demands that we understand, that we orient, to the dispensational situation. So in Ephesians 3:2-6 we have such a summary. Also we should notice that the Church Age with its distinction between Jew and Gentile which existed in the Age of Israel has been removed by the formation of the royal family of God. This was signified when our Lord died on the cross and the veil in the temple that separated the holy place from the holy of holies was torn from the top to the bottom, indicating the fact that all royal family of God are in the holy of holies. We live in the holy of holies forever and ever. By positional truth we are in the holy of holies now, though the holy of holies is in heaven. In reality we are a heavenly people and our eternal home is the holy of holies. 6. The divine blackout of the mystery doctrine in the Old Testament is very important to understand. It cannot be overemphasised. The strategic victory of Christ and the dramatic interruption of the Age of Israel with the insertion of the Church Age calls for briefing. In effect, mystery doctrines are the briefing for the royal family of God. We must understand why we are here. We must understand what constitutes glorifying God, what is the true victory, and in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict we should understand these things in detail. These doctrines which belong exclusively to the royal family of God in the Church Age were not previously revealed. While the Old Testament prophets were aware of many future things — the incarnation, the death of Christ, His resurrection, His ascension, His session — when you come to the day of Pentecost, the baptism of the Spirit, the beginning of the formation of the royal family of God, there is not one word. This means that Church Age doctrine as found in the New Testament is absolutely unique, and there has to be some nomenclature to describe this unique doctrine. The unique Church Age doctrine is therefore called by the title “mystery.” So we have in Romans 16:25,26 a statement of the blackout of Church Age doctrine in the Old Testament . Cf. Colossians 1:25,26. There are ten Church Age doctrines not found in the Old Testament: a) The existence of a royal family of God. Throughout the Old Testament it was simply: When you are born again the Holy Spirit regenerates you and makes you a member of the family of God. Regeneration has always been a ministry of the Holy Spirit since the beginning of human history. But in the future certain people, when they were born again, would be born again royalty instead of simply born again family of God. This was never known in the Old Testament. The interruption of the Jewish dispensation before the second advent of Christ to call out a royal family was unknown. The strategical victory of resurrection, ascension, session at the right hand of the Father was known to the Old Testament, but the fact of an intercalation, and insertion of another dispensation in order to call out the royal family was entirely unknown. The fact that the royal family of God would be composed of Jews and Gentiles (believers) was blacked out in the Old Testament. So there is no royal family of God information in the Old Testament. The only royal family the Old Testament recognised were historical royal families like the royal family of David. b) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and positional sanctification. This is illustrated by Noah in the ark but no doctrine. Noah in the ark is an historical fact. When you get to the Church Age and find out that every believer is entered into union with Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, then you need illustration. You can illustrate from human life or you can illustrate from the Old Testament for these are written as illustrations. This is one of the uses of the Old Testament. Every believer in this dispensation lives in the holy of holies but believers avoided the holy of holies in the previous dispensation because they knew they would die the sin unto death. c) God the Holly Spirit actually indwelt the body of every believer. God the Holy Spirit had never indwelt anyone’s body until the day of Pentecost. God the Holy Spirit controlled the souls of certain people — like Saul, David, the writers of the Old Testament in writing down those portions of revelation that God wanted preserved forever. So there was a ministry of God the Holy Spirit to a very few believers, and more could have had this ministry by asking. But indwelling of the body was unheard of, unknown, totally without precedent. The fact that the Holy Spirit indwells the body is emphasised in 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20. d) The indwelling of Christ. Obviously there was no indwelling of Christ in the Old testament. Primarily Christ revealed Himself in the Old Testament times as an angel, the angel of Jehovah. This was the greatest of all the theophanies. Here we have something that was never revealed before, the fact that the God-Man, Jesus Christ, would indwell every member of the royal family of God. This is special fellowship with the royal family, it is accomplished when God the Son indwells members of the royal family. e) A new contract. The old contract is called the Mosaic law. It was a very excellent contract, its establishment principles are still pertinent and have been revealed in many ways. But the worship system for believers and the system of communicating doctrine has changed. Doctrine is no longer communicated by those who have the gift of prophecy and by Levitical priests, a specialised priesthood. Now all doctrine is communicated by a pastor-teacher known as the guardian of the local church. So a new contract is necessary. When you have a new royal family and at the same time give them a universal priesthood a new contract is necessary. So the new contract or the new covenant to the Church was something never revealed in the Old Testament. Jeremiah wrote about a new covenant but it was a new covenant to Israel to be fulfilled in the Millennium. But the new contract to the Church was never revealed in Old Testament times. f) A new priesthood. The fact that every believer is a priest is absolutely revolutionary, it is a very startling change. In the Old Testament they only knew of specialised priesthoods, the Levitical priesthood, the family priesthood. There was no such thing as every believer being his own priest. This is a brand new doctrine. But the interruption of the Age of Israel abrogates the old covenant, abrogates the specialised Levitical priesthood. Now every member of the royal family of God is his own priest under the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. This universal priesthood of the believer was never revealed before. g) The new ministry of God the Holy Spirit. For the first time in all of history the royal family of God is commanded to be filled with the Spirit, a command which was never given before. The Holy Spirit was given to special people in the Old Testament, given to Moses, given to others writers of the Old Testament, those who made the priestly garments and manufactured the tabernacle, etc. But we now have a new ministry which was never revealed in the Old Testament, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit controlling the soul of every believer, and when not in control the Spirit is said to be grieved or quenched. Be filled with the Spirit is a command in the New Testament. Walk in the Spirit is a command for the New Testament. h) Eventually there would be a completed canon of scripture which would radically change divine revelation from God to man. Until the canon of scripture was completed there were certain systems of revelation in the Old Testament. For example, there were voices, there was teaching by angels, dreams, visions, trances. All of these things were used by God to communicate doctrine in the Old Testament and there was no reference to the fact that the time would come when God would no longer speak in dreams, visions, or trances; where angels would no longer come down and personally communicate doctrine, where the phrase, “Thus saith the Lord” would no longer be used. All of these things are a reminder of the fact that the canon of scripture is closed and God only reveals Himself through the written page and no other way. i) A new type of service. Always before in the Old testament certain people were called into service. The general run-of-the-mill people were evangelised but very rarely did the common man have any kind of a service. But a new type of service exists for the first time in human history, a type of service which was totally unknown to the Old Testament types. For the first time in human history every believer from the moment of his salvation to the end of his life is in full time Christian service. He is an ambassador, a royal priest, he is in service. This was never found in the Old Testament. This service depends on the function of GAP and resultant maximum doctrine resident in the soul. j) The completion of the Church Age before the Age of Israel is completed. 7. Mystery doctrine is only understood by the function of GAP — Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9. 8. The communication of mystery doctrine. The pastor or the guardian of the local church is the communicator to the royal family of God. The local church is the place of communication and in the assembly of the local church we have strict academic discipline as the means of fulfilling this function. 1 Corinthians 4:1. 9. The Rapture is a part of the mystery doctrine — 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52. “in a pure conscience” — this is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of the adjective kaqaroj. Kaqaroj is translated “pure” which is a good translation if we understand that pure means flushing. We also have the noun suneidhsij. A pure conscience is a conscience which has been cleansed of all of the evil doctrines which have to do with norms and standards. Evil has been flushed out of the conscience. Any phase of apostasy has been flushed out of the conscience. When the believer follows the colours to the high ground he is consistent in the function of GAP, and as he establishes a command post in the soul he has actually gone through a process not only of growing up spiritually but of flushing out the conscience from all forms of legalism and evil, false norms and standards. To be continually influenced by doctrine as you go through life means to change your norms and standards to conform to God’s .A pure conscience can reside in an impure person (that describes all of us), but we must have pure norms and standards. Pure norms and standards refer to divine norms and standards residing in the soul. With divine norms and standards in the human conscience the believer is qualified to use the administrative gift of deacon if he is a male and has a spiritual gift. This passage can also be translated, “With a pure conscience be having and holding the mystery, even doctrine.” The doctrine of the conscience 1. Definition and etymology. Conscience is a compound noun, suneidhsij, composed of sun, a preposition meaning “with” and o(ida, meaning to know. And it means to know with. In other words, the conscience is a concentrated system of knowledge which is located categorically in your right lobe. The English word “conscience” is the Latin translation of suneidhsij. Conscience is simply the Latin con which means “with” and cienta which means to know. It is exactly the same as suneidhsij. Both words mean joint knowledge, cognisance, therefore to be conscious of certain things in life as being right or wrong, good or bad, black or white, on the basis of knowledge. Conscience is knowledge that provides your norms and standards of life. Your conscience is the sum total of all the norms and standards that you have in your soul. All normal persons have norms and standards and these are related to their cognisance of life. 2. The location of the conscience. The conscience is a repository for norms and standards of life. Since the norms and standards are related to cognisance of life the repository is located in the right lobe of the mentality of the soul. Romans 2:14,15 — Gentiles who had never heard of Moses, the Old Testament, seen a Jew, heard a Jew, didn’t know the Hebrew language, had no contact with Israel at all, did by instinct the things of the law. The Gentile could do it because in his own Gentile language he had developed a vocabulary and categories, and in the process of doing so he had developed norms and standards. So by instinct means that he had these norms and standards totally apart from divine revelation and totally apart from the Mosaic law. Titus 1:15 — “To the pure all things are pure.” This means that if you set up norms and standards and you say certain are pure things are not you have set up standards. The reason you consider things are pure is because you learn the word “pure,” it is in your vocabulary. Eventually, if you get enough vocabulary in other areas you get to categorical purity and it is inevitable that you will set up standards called purity. Once you set up standards and comply with it, then anything that agrees with that standard is pure. So to the pure all things are pure. Purity for the believer is Bible doctrine dealing with what is right and what is wrong, not only spiritually but at the same time morally and establishment. “but to those who are defiled” — the perfect passive participle of miainw — “and unfaithful nothing is pure.” This is in the perfect passive participle to indicate something else, that it is not the person who is defiled but the soul filled with defilement [of evil]. 3. The conscience and the function of GAP. Obviously there is no way to line up with God’s plan for your life and to be blessed by God until your norms and standards are divine norms and standards. And God has to get a way by which He can do it. The only way we can have God’s norms and standards is to learn God’s Word, to transfer God’s Word from the page of the Bible to the right lobe. You have to have doctrine in your frame of reference, in your memory centre. You have to have a new vocabulary for doctrine, you have to have categorical doctrine. From this it is inevitable that you will set up norms and standards, and those norms and standards are your conscience. The function of GAP provides divine norms and standards for the human conscience. One of the characteristics of maturity is to possess a conscience with a maximum number of divine norms and standards. This is based upon maximum doctrine resident in the soul. The conscience is related to the communication of doctrine in 1 Timothy 1:5. 4. The apostles of apostasy and teachers of evil possess a distorted conscience — 1 Timothy 4:1,2. No man can teach doctrine who has a branded conscience. If his conscience is branded with evil, with legalism, with all the forms of reversionism and apostasy, there is not way that he can teach the Word of God. He is blinded to doctrine to the extent that his conscience has been seared with a hot branding iron of reversionism and evil. 5. Legalism has a false conscience — 1 Corinthians 8:7. Legalism is any rejection of grace, any system or do-it-yourself kit by which you seek the approbation of God. Legalism is salvation by works, spirituality by works. 6. The standards of conscience have directions — Acts 24:16 gives us two, but there are several directions. “A blameless conscience.” Conscience has standards directed toward God, directed toward people. 7. The super-grace believer possesses a conscience which is compatible with the whole plan of God’s grace — 2 Corinthians 1:12. The super-grace believer has a conscience which is divine viewpoint, it is compatible with grace, it is therefore compatible with God’s attitude toward everything in history. The conscience therefore is very effective. It is a conscience of testimony, and this means high esprit decor. The conscience testimony is experiential sanctification, doctrinal discernment, freedom from the influence of evil, and by the grace of God having a manner of life in this world. 8. The communicator of doctrine must appeal to the conscience of his congregation. It is the teaching of the Word that straightens out the conscience, that shapes up the conscience, that tears the conscience to bits and reforms it with the correct norms and standards. 2 Corinthians 4:2 — “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame — “ That is, false doctrine, apostasy, and evil — “not walking in craftiness, or adulterating the Word of God, but by the unveiling of doctrine commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” “In the sight of God” means the pastor is responsible to God for his ministry. “Commending ourselves to every man’s conscience” is the pastor so teaching the Word that true norms and standards are built and false norms and standards are destroyed. All pastors must depart from that which is false. The “shame” is false doctrine, apostasy and evil. “Not walking in craftiness”: a pastor must never teach the people simply what they want to hear, cater to the people. That is being crafty. It is the pastor’s responsibility to unveil doctrine as found in the Word of God. 9. Conscience is the basis for spiritual and establishment type service. a) The believer’s conscience demands that he submit to establishment type authority. b) This means that the believer is patriotic, pro military, pro free enterprise, pro law enforcement, anti-communistic, anti-welfare state, anti-liberal. Doctrine resident in the conscience establishes the basis for being patriotic. Romans 13:5. c) The principle is true also of spiritual service. As born again believers we have not only temporal service in establishment but we have spiritual service as members of the royal family of God living on earth. 2 Timothy 1:3. Prayer is a spiritual service and an effective prayer warrior has a clear conscience. Hebrews 9:14. One of the worst things that can happen to our conscience is to be bogged down with dead works. 1 Corinthians 10:24-29 — the law of freedom or liberty and the superseding laws of love, expediency, and supreme sacrifice, all are related to the function of the conscience where doctrine is resident. 10. The conscience is related to unjust suffering. Unjust suffering, persecution, various types of maltreatment, are related to your conscience as a believer. A conscience inculcated with doctrine is the basis for enduring maltreatment and misunderstanding without defending ourselves. 1 Peter 2:18,19. Verse 10 — the deacon must pass the adversity test. “And let these also” — the adjunctive use of kai plus the post positive conjunctive particle de. With this we also have a nominative masculine plural demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. It calls attention with special attention on deacons who are qualified to serve in the local church. O(utoj is what is called the immediate demonstrative pronoun in contrast to another Greek demonstrative, e)kainoj. Both have very definite functions. E)kainoj is called the remote demonstrative, something far away from the context is being referred to. But the immediate demonstrative emphasises something near at hand — the deacons here. “Moreover these [deacons] also.” “first” is used here in its temporal sense, prwtoj. First in point of time is what it means. That is, before serving as a deacon the individual man should qualify by passing an adversity test or two. Why? Because every deacon has special adversity after he gets into the office. “be proved” — the present passive imperative of the verb dokimazw. This is an assayer’s term. It means to be tested and to be found approved. It means to pass the test, to qualify for the diaconate by passing the adversity test. The present tense is a tendencial present for action which is anticipated but not actually taking place at the time that Paul writes. The passive voice: the believer to qualify for deacon must receive the action of the verb. That is, he must face adversity and pass it by the use of doctrine resident in his soul. The imperative mood is not the imperative of command but the imperative of commission for a manifest inclination on the part of one who is the object of the command, thus involving his consent as well as the command connotation. “Moreover these also must be tested first.” This means that every deacon has to be combat tested before he gets the diaconate. Pressure, disaster, suffering, combined with the proper use of doctrine resident in the soul, applied, produces spiritual victory and it produces a qualifying step toward serving as a deacon. There are several things that a deacon should do. He should be able to control his household, he should be able to control his wife. “then” is an adverb, e)ita, meaning afterwards. After they have passed an adversity test or two. “let them use the office of deacon “ isn’t quite correct. The word diakonew means to serve as a deacon, they are not using the office. In fact, the office is using the deacon. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain once the believer passes the adversity test that it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the believer who passes the adversity test fulfills the action of the verb by serving in an administrative capacity as a deacon. The imperative mood is a command to those who have the proper administrative gift and have qualified in other categories. “being” is the present active participle of e)imi, the verb to be, the status quo verb. The present tense is retroactive progressive denoting something which has happened in the past — being irreproachable regarding establishment, law and justice, and having passed the adversity test. The active voice: the deacon must qualify as well as pass the adversity test. The participle is conditional and it should be translated, “if they are blameless.” “blameless” — the predicate nominative masculine plural from the compound noun a)negklhtoj. The a means negative; e)gkalew means to be accused, and it was used technically not to be arraigned in court, not to be charged before the law, and therefore it means to be unaccused before the law or to be blameless or irreproachable under establishment. it should be translated, “if he is irreproachable from the standpoint of establishment.” This means that to qualify for a deacon the male believer must be free from criminal activity. Translation: “Moreover these also must be tested; then afterward serve as deacons, provided that they are blameless under the laws of establishment.” Verse 11 — “Even so” is the adverb w(sautoj. This adverb is used to connect things together and here to qualify the deacon’s wife with special emphasis at this point. It is translated “In the same manner” or “Likewise.” This adverb refers back to verse 2, to dei e)inai. Dei is the impersonal verb of duty, compulsion of duty, and e)inai is the present active infinitive of e)imi, and these two words must be added in the translation: “Likewise, wives of deacons must be. “wives” — the accusative plural of general reference from gunh and it acts as the subject of dei e)inai. “grave” — this word doesn’t mean too much any more. This is an accusative plural of general reference from the noun semnoj, it means “worthy of respect, honourable.” It is a reference to the fact that the wife of a deacon must have some advance in her own spiritual growth. This means that the wife of a deacon must be under the influence of doctrine and not under the influence of evil. She must not be indifferent to the Word of God or negative toward it. It further implies that the wife of the deacon must not be in any phase of reversionism. Just as with the deacon, so also with his wife. Both must consistently function under the principle of GAP, both must persist in positive volition toward Bible doctrine. Worthiness of respect or honour comes from the intake of doctrine for all of us. Her worthiness must therefore come from the consistent function of GAP, following the colours to the high ground of super-grace, establishing a command post of inner residency of Bible doctrine. This is the first function connected with anyone’s wife, in fact any woman. “not slanderers” — the negative mh plus the accusative plural of diaboloj. Diaboloj in the singular is used for the devil, it means to slander. Here it means “not malicious gossips.” It means to slander or to be guilty of the various sins of the tongue. Deacons’ wives must avoid the sins of the tongue. “sober” is another accusative plural of general reference from the word nhfalioj. It means to be temperate in the use of wine. “faithful in all things” — the adjective pistoj which means faithful-dependable. “in all things” — e)n plus the locative of paj. Translation: “Likewise wives [of deacons] must be honourable, not malicious gossips, not lushes, faithful in all things.” The key here and the thing that causes the most problem is the area of the sins of the tongue. The doctrine of the sins of the tongue 1. Category and definition. a) Sin is defined as transgression of the law of God. b) A known sin is a transgression or violation of divine law by cognisance. c) An unknown sin is also a transgression of divine law. You don’t know what you’re doing and you do it. d) Whether the sin is known or unknown in both cases volition is involved — you wanted to do it and you did it. e) The difference between a known and an unknown sin is the matter of cognisance of divine law or an understanding of the biblical doctrine of hamartiology. f) Whether the divine law is known or not human volition is involved in transgressing any law of God. g) All sin, therefore, combines the function of the old sin nature’s area of weakness with human volition. Sin does not become a reality without the volition being involved. h) There are three categories of sin in the human race: i) the imputation of Adam’s sin directly to each member of the human race. This occurs at birth. ii) inherent sin or the perpetuation of the old sin nature through physical birth, causing a person to be physically alive while at the same time to be spiritually dead. iii) Personal sin. This does not occur at birth, the first two do. Personal sin occurs some time after birth. The acts of personal sin which do occur after birth all occur after birth and before physical death. i) Three categories of personal sin exist in the human race: i) Mental sins such as envy, jealousy, pride, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, guilt reaction. ii) Verbal sins such as gossip, slander, maligning, judging, lying. iii) Overt sin, such as adultery, murder, stealing, drunkenness. j) All personal sins originate from the old sin nature. k) This means that verbal sins originate from the old sin nature, activated by human volition. l) Human volition is involved in all sins. m) The instrument of verbal sins is that portion of the anatomy known as the tongue — James 3:6. The tongue is so placed in the structure of our anatomy as that which contaminates the entire body. 2. Out of the list of the seven worst sins three are the sins of the tongue — Proverbs 6:16-19. 3. Verbal sins and reversionism. a) Verbal sins are motivated by mental attitude sins, especially pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, and pettiness — Psalm 5:8,9. b) The verbal sin of judging is a sign of reversionism — James 4:11. c) The same concept is found in James 5:9. d) Verbal reversionism causes the believer to fall under very heavy discipline — James 5:12. e) Verbal reversionism produces treacherous and unreliable people — Psalm 12. 4. The sins of the tongue produce triple compound discipline. Because other sins are always related to verbal sins they have an intensified type of discipline that generally does not go with other types of sins. The triple compound concept is made up basically of three principles. The motivator for verbal sins — mental attitude sins. Mental sins lead to verbal sins, and that is divine discipline twice. Verbal sins always mention the sins of others. The difference between gossip and slander used to be that you picked your victim and you mentioned sins that you imagined about him. In other words, he really didn’t commit them. In slander you knew his sins and spread them verbally. Both are sins, so there is discipline there. In verbal sins you mention the sins of others, real or imagined. When you mention them whatever divine discipline exists for those sins it is also poured on you at the same time. So you get discipline for mental sins, discipline for verbal sins, discipline for the sins you mentioned in verbal sins. Matthew 7:1,2. 5. God protects the super-grace believer who is the victim of verbal sins — Job 5:19-21. 6. The congregation and the tongue. a) Control of the tongue plus avoidance of verbal sins is a sign of spiritual maturity in the congregation — James 3:2. b) Verbal sins can destroy an entire congregation of the local church — James 3:5,6. c) Since the sins of the tongue can destroy an entire congregation of believers it is the solemn responsibility of the pastor to warn against this category of personal sin — 2 Timothy 2:14-17. d) Troublemakers in the congregation are characterised by sins of the tongue. This principle is found in Psalm 52:1,2. e) Separation from those guilty of the sins of the tongue is commanded in Romans 16:17,18. 7. The blessing from avoidance of the sins of the tongue is mentioned in Psalm 34:12,13. Verse 12 — the marital and family standards for the deacon. The words “Let be” is the present active imperative from e)imi. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs or should be expected to occur. The deacon produces the action. This is the imperative mood of command. With this is the vocative plural of diakonoj and it should be translated “deacons.” “husbands” — the predicate nominative plural from a)nhr, often used in the sense of manly man, noble man. “of one wife” — genitive singular of relationship from the numeral e(ij, plus gunh — “deacons keep on being husbands of one wife.” What does this mean? 1. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. 2. This phrase applies to the heathen practice, as well as a Jewish practice, of polygamy. 3. This phrase by interpretation prohibits polygamy for deacons. 4. Polygamy is not God’s order or God’s plan. 5. While the harem was permitted in the Old Testament it was never condoned by the Word of God. 6. This is not the interpretation, but by way of application there is the concept of divorce here. However, it should be emphasised that deacons can qualify to function in that office as divorced persons under the following conditions: i) Former wife is dead — Romans 7:1-4; ii) Divorced for adultery — Matthew 5:32; iii) Divorced for desertion — 1 Corinthians 7:15; iv) Divorced before salvation — Isaiah 44:22. The Bible never condones divorce for incompatibility. You can get divorced before the law, but when the Bible uses the word “divorce” it means the right to remarry. “ruling” — present middle participle from proisthmi. The word is compounded from pro, meaning before or in advance of, and i(sthmi which means to stand. It means to be in advance of the troops, to be the head of the troops, to govern, to manage, to rule. It should be translated “they should be ruling” because this is a participle used as an imperative. And this is a descriptive present representing what should now be going on, or a pictorial present depicting the deacon’s government or rulership of his family as in the process of occurrence. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the deacon as the agent producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. “their children” — the objective genitive plural as well as the possessive genitive plural of teknon. Teknon is used here for a child under age [before they have reached adulthood] under the control of their parents. “and their own houses” — the objective genitive twn i)diwn o)ikwn which refers to the deacon’s family and household. There may be a mother-in-law there too! “well” — the adverb kaloj, meaning right, well, free, and so on. Translation: “Deacons keep on being husbands of one wife, they should be ruling well their children and their own household.” Note that this verse relates the deacon to several divine institutions. The first is the divine institution of freedom of his own volition: he should be able to do this. The second divine institution is marriage: he should rule his wife. The third divine institution is family: he should rule his children. So it becomes important for local church leadership to understand divine laws of establishment and observe them. Furthermore the deacon cannot exercise authority in the local church when he can’t handle and exercise authority over his own family. Also, the objective genitive plural of i)dioj connotes privacy in freedom. The deacon who cannot rule his own household is not qualified to exercise authority in the local church. The deacons blessings and rewards are of a special nature. Verse 13 starts out with a post positive particle gar used as an explanatory conjunction — “For.” “they that use the office of deacon” — this is not correct. Diakonew means to serve as a deacon. The constative aorist gathers the action of the verb into its entirety. The active voice: the deacon produces the action of the verb — serving. The participle is circumstantial, it also has antecedent action to the main verb. “For they who have served as deacons honourably [kaloj again]” or “the who have served honourable as deacons.” “purchase” — the present middle indicative of peripoiew which does not mean to purchase here at all, it means to obtain or to acquire, to gain for one’s self. The present tense is a perfective present which approaches the kindred perfect tense, it is used to denote the continuation of existing results but emphasising the present reality of those existing results. The middle voice is a direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. The subject or the agent works with a view toward participating beneficially in the outcome. Therefore in this case he participates and becomes the beneficiary by paragraph SG2 as well as SG3. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that the super-grace deacon receives paragraph SG2 in time and SG3 in eternity. “to themselves” is literally “for themselves.” It is a dative plural from the reflexive pronoun e(autou. “a good degree” — the adjective kaloj plus the noun baqmoj, and it should be translated “a noble rank” or “a profitable standing,” meaning that the super-grace deacon will receive and enjoy a special paragraph SG2 in time and have special decorations under SG3 in eternity. “and much boldness” — the word poluj means “much” and with the noun parrhsia it means “much confidence.” “in the faith” — e)n plus the instrumental of pistij, there is no definite article. The absence of the definite article emphasises the high quality of doctrine. It should be translated, “in doctrine.” The deacon with maximum doctrine in his soul is considered, therefore, high quality. This is an instrumental so it should be “by means of doctrine.” “which” — the instrumental of association from the definite article. This is personal association in which Christ supplies the means of fellowship with God as royal family. It should be translated, “associated with being in Christ Jesus.” Translation: “For they who have served honourably as deacons have acquired for themselves a noble rank, and much confidence by means of doctrine [resident in the soul] associated with their being in Christ Jesus.” Note 1. The emphasis on doctrine in the soul is always the key. The deacon by serving doesn’t get SG2, he gets it by doctrine in the soul; but his SG2 paragraph has special things that relate to his serving as a deacon. 2. These blessings belong to the deacon serving as a deacon in super-grace status. 3. Every male believer serving as a deacon in the local church should be spiritually mature. 4. No deacon can effectively use his administrative gift apart from super-grace status and spiritual maturity. 5. Therefore it takes balance of residency in the soul [filling of the Spirit plus maximum doctrine] to effectively and honourably function as a deacon in the local church. We now come to the subject of authority. In this verse we have the authority of the Word. In verse 15 we have the authority of the pastor. In verse 16 we have the authority of Christ. The reason we have this transitional three verses is to prepare for the fourth chapter where we will see apostasy rearing its ugly head, and we will see some defenses against the attacks of apostasy. The defense against apostasy is the Word of God. The counter attack against the apostasy is the pastor-teacher communicating the Word. So in the sense this is a transitional paragraph. The transition pulls together the dissertation on leadership in chapter three and the dissertation upon the Satanic attack of apostasy in chapter four. Beginning now with the principle of authority in the royal family of God: verses 14-16. Verse 14 — the authority of the Word of God. “These things” — the nominative neuter plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which calls attention to doctrine with special emphasis on the Bible. “These things [doctrines]” and application which we have had so far in this book. “write I” — present active indicative of grafw. This verb brings up the subject of the formation of the canon of scripture, specifically the New Testament portion of the canon. The present tense of grafw is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind the events of inspiration in the process of occurrence. When Paul wrote the canon of scripture was in the process of being formed. It should be translated, “I am writing.” This is also a static present to indicate that Bible doctrine in the canon of scripture written once perpetually exists. This letter was not lost, it was reproduced on a very limited scale in the first century and by the present time it has been reproduced literally millions of times in the printing of Bibles. The active voice: Paul as the human author of the epistle produces the action of the verb under the concept of verbal plenary inspiration. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute dogma. “unto thee” is the dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun su. The personal pronoun refers to Timothy who is the original recipient of this epistle. By now, of course, we are all recipients. This is a dative of advantage by application because it is to our advantage to study this fascinating epistle of application. “These things I am writing to you.” The doctrine of inspiration 1. Definition: God so supernaturally directed the writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings, or any other human factor, His complete and coherent message to man was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture, the very words being the authority of divine authorship. 2. The mechanics of inspiration. The principle is found in 2 Timothy 3:16 — “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” This is an incorrect translation. There is no verb to give, there is simply the substantive qeopneustoj which means “God-breathed.” Qeoj refers to God, pneustoj is a substantive meaning breathe. This means that the mechanics are found in this one word. The mechanics: The inhale and exhale are both involved in breathing. The inhale deals with the source, God the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity. It is God the Holy Spirit who communicates to human authors the complete and coherent message both for that generation in which it was written and all generations of history. While the writers of scripture had other messages for their generation and did a lot of preaching, it isn’t written down. What is reduced to writing is what God wanted reduced to writing. Only what God wanted and which is pertinent to all generations was actually recorded. This concept of inhale is taught in 2 Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 22:42,43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. The exhale is reducing the Word to writing. In the exhale the human writer of scripture wrote down in the language in which he thought — Hebrew, Chaldean, or Greek — the divine message to man. In writing the scripture they did not waive their human intelligence, their vocabulary. The words were expressed through their own personality. Their writing was recorded with perfect accuracy in the languages of scripture and then preserved by God right down to this moment. This, of course, will continue forever. 3. The writers of scripture. There are two kinds: those who were the human authors of the Old Testament and those who were the human authors of the New Testament. The Old Testament writers were all prophets. They had to be a prophet to write. No one wrote an Old Testament book without being a prophet under one of three categories: the unique prophet, the office of a prophet, or the gift of prophecy. The difference between the gift and the office: the office was a prophet or a communicator who was like a pastor today, the gift was anyone in life who was a believer and given the gift of prophecy to write. For example, David was not a prophet, he was a general and a king. Therefore when you come to David’s writings they are in the third category. David had the gift of prophecy but he did not have the office of a prophet. The office of a prophet in David’s day went to Nathan and Gad, they were actual communicators of the Word of God. In our English Bibles the Old Testament is scrambled in certain parts, but there is a very clear delineation in the Hebrew Old Testament. For example, the unique prophet wrote the Torah. The Torah refers to the first five books of the Old Testament. They were written by the unique prophet, Moses. There were several other unique prophets in history, e.g., Jeremiah. The last of the unique prophets was the Lord Jesus Christ but the most famous of the unique prophets was Moses. What is a unique prophet? A unique prophet has both the gift and the office of prophecy. The second section of the Old Testament canon is called Nebijim which means prophets. Those who had the office of prophet are the writers of this section. Joshua wrote the book of Joshua, he had the office of prophet. Samuel wrote the book of Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel up to his death. He had the office of prophet. What Samuel did not write was written by Nathan and Gad who wrote both Kings and Chronicles. Then we have Isaiah. Jeremiah had the office of prophet but he was also unique. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Habbakuk, Zechariah, Malachi were all men who wrote. In the second section of the Hebrew canon you have everything from Joshua through Malachi. The third section is called the Kethubim which means writings. This section was written by those who had the gift of prophecy but did not have the office. This includes David, Solomon, Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah. None of these men had the office of prophet. The New Testament writers are not based upon the concept of prophet, that is Old Testament communication. The New Testament writers wrote as those who had the gift of apostleship or one closely associated with an apostle. Mark was associated with Peter, Luke was associated with Paul. 4. The problem of the pre-canon revelation. The scripture was not reduced to writing until the days of Moses but there were already 2000 years of human history by the time we get to Moses. So what about revelation before they had Bibles? Pre-canon revelation from God still came through the Holy Spirit. We know this from 2 Samuel 23:2; Ezekiel 2:2; 8:3; 11:1,24; Micah 3:8; Hebrews 3:7. The Holy Spirit used elect angels for teaching. There was a great deal of angelic teaching prior to the time of Moses and the beginning of the canon of scripture. God the Holy Spirit Himself used dreams, visions, and trances. God the Father also came into the picture: voice, verbalised divine revelation. So that no one ever lacked divine revelation before the canon of scripture was started and during the process of the completion of the canon of scripture. No one has ever lacked doctrine from Adam and Eve in the garden right down to the present day. The only things that keeps the believer from doctrine is his own negative volition. 5. Once the canon of scripture began there were four categories of Old Testament revelation. God the Father and the spoken Word; dreams, as in Genesis 15:12; 31:10-13; Numbers 12:6; Daniel 10:9. A dream is divine revelation involving a sleeping state; a vision — you’re wide awake and ecstatic: Isaiah 1:1; 6:1; 1 Kings 2219. A trance means to be wide awake and super stimulated. The most common way of teaching was angelic teaching and while the canon was being formed angels were very busy — Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 68:17; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19. Once the canon begins to be formed it provides its own nomenclature. The word “canon” is not the artillery piece. This is the Greek word kanwn which means a rule or a ruler, or a norm, or a standard. This became the commonly accepted theological nomenclature for the Bible or any portion of the Bible. 6. There are within the canon of scripture certain descriptions. The most common to us is Hebrews 4:12. The canon of scripture, then, is known by the Word of God. This relates the Bible to God the Father. In 1 Corinthians 2:16 the canon is referred to as the mind of Christ. This relates the Bible to God the Son. In Hebrews 3:7 the canon is called the voice of the Spirit. This relates the Bible to God the Holy Spirit. No one in the Trinity is left out in descriptive terms for the canon of scripture. 7. The origin of scripture. All scripture originates from God. In the mechanics, God the Holy Spirit. But God the Father spoke in the Old Testament: “Thus saith the Lord.” God the Son taught on earth, and God the Holy Spirit is the one who communicated to human writers. So that the Trinity is the source of the scripture. Perfect source means perfect book. No scripture originates with human volition, human design, or human purpose — 2 Peter 1:20,21. 8. The value of the canon of scripture is found Psalm 138:2 — God has placed the highest possible value on the scripture. 9. The extent of inspiration. What does the scripture cover? What does God accurately discuss with us? a) It deals with the otherwise unknown past. What was the universe like before man was here? How did the universe come into existence? What caused the universe to change? All of these details are found in the first chapter of Genesis, and occasional references in books like Isaiah. So that we know all that is necessary and all that is accurate from the Word of God. Furthermore, there were very few records that came through the flood, but we have a totally accurate picture of the early civilisation called the antediluvian civilisation. The only accurate record of the antediluvian civilisation is contained in the first nine chapters of the Bible. The post-diluvian civilisation and the problems pertaining to it is also found in Genesis 9-11. The “unknown past” is not unknown. Whatever God wanted us to know we have in detail in these 11 chapters. b) The Bible is not an historical textbook but the Bible is the only accurate book on ancient history. It contains many historical citations which are related to doctrine. All of these historical records in the canon are accurate and provide background for the communication of doctrine under isagogics. Furthermore, when the Bible makes an historical reference that reference is accurate. If there is a contradiction between modern historical interpretation of the ancient world and what the Bible says, the Bible is always right. We earn something else from this concept of the canon of scripture. We learn when we get an actual historical fact about which we know something, and we see how the liberal history professor deals with it, and then we see how the Bible deals with it, we learn how to correctly interpret history. c) Objective type law. The Bible is the only book that teaches the true meaning of law. The Bible contains a complete and correct definition of law. First of all, law must have an incorruptible judge. The Bible teaches this principle. There must be bona fide evidence brought into the trial and the Bible has a clear delineation of the principles of evidence, the laws of evidence. Hearsay is completely eliminated and there must be at least two or three witnesses. The law must deal with certain subjects. It must deal with property, the life and the privacy of individuals. Objective type law is a part of God’s plan for mankind. It is a part of the establishment of a nation. Law is designed by God to make sure that the human race will survive throughout the entire course of this phase of the angelic conflict. In the Bible God has provided all true basis for law. d) Dictation. Some portions of the Word of God simply contain direct quotations from God. The doctrine of inspiration guarantees that such commands and quotations are properly recorded in the exact way that God spoke them or in the exact way that God wills them to be recorded. However, remember that dictation carries no more weight than any other portion of scripture, it is merely another vehicle for bringing in the divine viewpoint. e) There is an area in the scripture which we must call devotional literature — the Psalms, Proverbs. By devotional literature is meant man in relationship to God, practical application, man in relationship to man, man in relationship to materialistic things, man even in relation to animals; all of these things form an area of scripture. Devotional literature means that God uses the relationships, the problems, the pressures, the prosperity, the failures, the happiness, the sadness of certain believers to reveal principles, provisions, and blessings of the grace plan. f) Prophecy. Inspiration involves both the selection of the prophetic material and their complete accuracy. Many of the things that were once prophesied in the Old Testament have been fulfilled, but there are many unfulfilled prophecies dealing with the second advent, the Millennium, the destruction of the universe, the creation of the eternal state. g) The recording of that which is false — false doctrine or lies. The scripture records lies, untrue statements, blasphemies, even false viewpoints. Inspiration does not sponsor these things but it guarantees their accuracy. When Satan said to the woman, “Thou shalt not die,” that is what Satan really said. The scripture guarantees that is what he said but the scripture does not condone what he said. Verse 14b — “hoping” is the present active participle from the verb e)lpizw. Hope in the Bible means a sense of expectation or a confidence in expectation. Here is has the concept of a sense of expectation. The present tense is a descriptive present which indicates what is now going on. The active voice: Paul is producing the action. The participle is a concessive participle denoting a sense of concession. It should be translated, “though hoping” in the sense of expectation. “Though expecting” would be a good translation. “to come” — the aorist active infinitive of e)rxomai. This is correctly translated, except that the constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and it takes Paul’s hope to come and gathers it into a single whole. In other words, even though Paul anticipates being with Timothy very shortly. This was an anticipation which did not take cognisance of the fact that already Romans were on the lookout for the apostle Paul. Therefore Paul was not going to see him and the writing was more important than the seeing. The active voice: Paul produces the action. The infinitive expresses a purpose. With the concessive participle it indicates this is what he wants to do and everything seems to be clear for the moment, it just didn’t work out that way. “unto thee” — proj plus the accusative singular of the personal pronoun su. This is one of the cases where it means face to face with — “face to face with you.” “shortly” — this is an adverb, and in the original text we have a prepositional phrase, e)n taxei, the instrumental of taxoj. The word means speed and with the preposition e)n it should be translated “with speed.” It comes to mean “without delay.” Translation: “These things I am writing to you, though expecting to come face to face with you without delay.” Verse 15 — the authority of the pastor is given. The big thing is the authority of the Word, he puts it in writing, it is a part of the canon of scripture. Once it is a part of the canon of scripture you can’t read it or memorise it and grow spiritually. The principle is that pastor-teachers are designed by God to communicate the Word. “But if” — the post positive conjunctive particle de used as an adversative conjunction to anticipate the alternative, plus the conjunction e)an used to introduce a third class condition. The conjunction which introduces a third class condition must have a subjunctive mood in the verb of the protasis. “I tarry long” — he put it is the third class condition for the simple reason that he was becoming aware of the fact that maybe he wouldn’t get to Ephesus after all. The word for tarry is not a Pentecostal word! This is just an old English word which means to delay. It is here a present active subjunctive of bradunw and it means to delay. The present tense is a tendencial present for an action which is purposed or attempted though not actually taking place. The active voice: Paul produces the action of potential delay. The subjunctive mood is potential to form the third class condition. Because the subjunctive is used in the protasis uncertainty is implied in the aposdasis. This is the intransitive use of the verb and it can be translated, therefore, like a passive voice which makes better English. Insert at this point the word grafw, as per verse 14. “But if I am delayed I write” is what he is saying. “that” — the conjunction i(na used for a final clause, denoting objective, goal, purpose. “In order that” is the correct translation. “thou mayest know” — the perfect active subjunctive of o)ida. O)ida in itself is a perfect used as a present, but this is the perfect use of o)ida and it is a consummative use presenting a consummate process which makes it quite different from the culminative aorist in that the process is emphasised along with the results. In the consummative perfect it is not merely the process which is denoted but a consummated process. Consummation implies results — “in order that you may know.” The active voice: Timothy will GAP the epistle with the implied results of transferring doctrine into his soul. The subjunctive is potential implying a future reference and contains the element of contingency based on Timothy’s function of GAP with regard to this epistle. “how” — the interrogative particle pwj used as a particle of determination. It determines how something should happen. It can be translated “how” or “in what way.” “thou oughtest” — impersonal verb of duty, dei — “how one ought.” “to behave thyself” — present middle infinitive of a)nastrefw which means to function or to conduct one’s self. The present tense is a customary present for habitually occurs or may reasonably be expected to occur after Timothy takes in the epistle. The middle voice is something of a problem here, therefore a few principles: The middle voice is that use of the verb which describes the subject as participating in the results of the action. It differs from the active voice. The active voice emphasises the action but the middle voice emphasises the agent producing the action. The middle voice relates the action of the verb more intimately to the subject than the active voice. This is what we call a direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. “But if I am delayed, I write in order that you may know [by GAP] how one ought to conduct himself.” “Himself” — the reflexive translation comes from the direct middle. The infinitive of intended result which indicates the fulfillment of a deliberate plan, a blending of purpose and result. Where? The place where no one knows how to conduct himself, “the house of God.” The church was called the house of God because they met in houses. “in the house of God” is a prepositional phrase — e)n plus the locative of o)ikoj, plus the possessive genitive of qeoj. The possessive genitive means that whenever a group of believers meet together having a pastor-teacher, under the authority of that pastor-teacher, that is a house of God. The local church is referred to by this phrase, the local church which is the only authorised classroom for spiritual growth in this dispensation. God has ordained and authorised the local church as the means of attaining all spiritual objectives related to the angelic conflict. No matter how the local church fails in any generation it has never been superseded by any outside organisation, and never will be. The local church is here to stay until the Rapture. Even though there are abuses in the local church from time to time, even though the local churches often suffer from apostasy or sometimes just from weakness [sometimes a local church is afraid to stand as a local church so they must associate themselves with another local church]. The local church does fail, but the failure of the local church is something that God knew would happen from time to time — form denominations or break down and become apostate — but God never called or authorised any outside organisation to take the place of the local church. The organisation outside of the local church which claims to provide spiritual growth automatically qualifies itself under the title “evil.” Many service organisations are service organisations but somewhere in their service they make a transition and they declare themselves causing or producing spiritual growth. When they declare that, that is the end; they have no moved into the sphere of evil. All spiritual advance comes from the teaching ministry of the local church. This is not to imply that all local churches advance believers spiritually. There must be a solid teaching ministry, a consistent teaching ministry. Summary 1. Basic worship is the daily function of GAP. 2. This is accomplished in the house of God, known today as the local church, and it is accomplished under strict academic discipline. 3. God has ordained the authority for the local church. 4. The absolute ruling authority is the pastor-guardian of the local church. 5. His authority is established by consistent studying and teaching from the pulpit. 6. The administrative authority is vested in the board of deacons, but policy-making is the function of the pastor. This does not mean that deacons are not in the policy-making business but their policies must comply with the overall principles of grace as delineated in the messages from the pulpit. 7. There is no plurality of elders. The only place where you have a plurality of elders is in a city where there are numerous local churches. An elder is the pastor, and you have one elder per local church. 8. All other facets of worship must conform to and be standardised by policy from doctrine resident in the soul. 9. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul under the filling of the Spirit produces other forms of worship. Such as: the giving of money, the word of praise or testimony, singing, the observation of the communion service or the Eucharist. There are worship forms and they comes as a result of basic worship — GAP. Basic worship is always being filled with the Spirit and listening to doctrine. 10. For the congregation worship consists basically of concentration on the teaching of the Word, good manners and silence while the pastor is speaking, poise so as to maintain concentration when others are disturbing, submission to the authority of the pastor in his teaching function. 11. Timothy is an epistle on the function of the local church. It is already apparent that Timothy was not in control of the local church at Ephesus. “which” is a nominative feminine singular qualitative relative pronoun w(stij. The house of God falls into a categorical concept and this relative pronoun is to indicate this — “which category.” “is” — the present active indicative of e)imi. The present tense is a static present for a condition which will always exist. The active voice: the house of God, the local church, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative for the statement of an absolute dogma in the field of ecclesiology. “the church of the living God” — the nominative feminine singular of the noun e)kklhsia. This is used here for the local church. We have the ascriptive present active participle of zaw. The participle of this verb in the ascriptive sense is used as an adjective and is correctly translated “living.” Then we have with that the possessive genitive of qeoj, God Himself possesses the local church. The local church is in the devil’s world but it is God’s property. Remember that this passage is describing the local church, the place of discipline and authority, not the church universal. Church is also used for the royal priesthood but here it refers to a specific geographical location, a group of people assembled together. We should also note that discipline and authority are the foundation principles for learning doctrine in the local church. Learning doctrine is necessary for the spiritual growth of the royal family of God. It should also be noted that the pastor receives from God the only authority in human history which is not related in any way to cosmos diabolicus. Therefore guardianship of the local church carries the highest type of authority in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Translation: “But if I am delayed, I write in order that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which category keeps on being the church of the living God.” The doctrine of the Church 1. Nomenclature and definition. The church goes by a number of names: a) The royal family of God or positional sanctification. The Church is called the royal family, and every believer is in union with Jesus Christ. b) We have two words which relate to the Lord Jesus Christ as our prince ruler. In relationship to the person of Christ the Church on earth is called the body of Christ, the Church in heaven is called the bride of Christ. Therefore quite frequently have the words body and bride. Body = the Church on earth in this dispensation; bride = the Church in heaven after the Rapture. c) But by far the most common word we find throughout the epistles of the New Testament. It is a very, very old noun, e)kklhsia. It is a noun which is taken from Classical Greek or Attic Greek. (The correct terminology for Classical Greek is Attic Greek. Attica was the state in which Athens was located) The first use of this word in the Attic Greek is when occasionally the citizens of the city would gather together in the amphitheater to conduct business. They had a democracy and they only proved that democracy doesn’t work. The second use of the word e)kklhsia came in the second century BC when the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek — the Septuagint. When it came to certain words where the Jews would gather together and assemble the translators translated “assemble” in the Hebrew into the Greek word e)kklhsia. So when you get to the New Testament, e.g., Acts 7:38 you actually have an historical record of the Jews’ assembly, the assembly was called e)kklhsia. You can see that translating this word “church” doesn’t really make sense. If there is one word in the English language that there is no excuse for, no basis for, no reason for, it is the word “church,” because e)kklhsia does not mean church, never did mean church, it means assembly. The idea to use the word “church” came from Romanism. There is a third use of e)kklhsia in which the second use is brought into New Testament times. Prior to the first advent of Christ and during the first advent of Christ the Jews had a word which they called for their assembly. They called it from the Greek word sunagwgh which also means assembly. From that it is translated into our English, synagogue. Matthew 18:17 — the word is used for the assembly of a Jewish synagogue. It has nothing to do with the church, it is a Jewish synagogue assembling. A fourth use of e)kklhsia came into existence. In the time of our Lord and in the time of the writing of the New Testament there were some leftover fragments from the Hellenistic monarchies. When Alexander died his kingdom was broken up into various monarchies: the Seleucid kingdom, the Egyptian empire under the Ptolemies. Here and there were little fragments of these monarchies still in existence during the course of the Roman empire, and one of them is mentioned in Acts 19:25. Under Hellenistic culture and government the assembly of the government in the Greek city state was called e)kklhsia. The fifth and last use of e)kklhsia is the technical one, the theological use. It is the one that we have under the misnomer called “church.” The technical use in Christianity is e)kklhsia. However in the technical use we have a breakdown of the two different uses. E)kklhsia or church is used for all believers on the earth — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:25-27; Colossians 1:17,18. The universal church is simply believers anywhere and everywhere — royal family. So all of us are church in the sense of universal church. And the royal family since the first century is located in heaven and on earth so we have the word church applying to believers in this dispensation whether they are in heaven or whether they are on earth. The word which has been abused most of all is the concept of the local church, what we have been calling the classroom for the royal priesthood. This is located is a specific geographical area and is made up of at least two or three gathered together in His name — 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Revelation chapters 2 & 3 actually mention local churches. The local church is in view in 1 Timothy 3:15, the house of God which is the church is the local church in contrast to universal church. Note concerning the local church a) It is made up of believers only — the assembly of believers only. The local church is not a house of evangelisation, though that does occur. The benefit is primarily for believers only. b) Dispensational orientation. This is the mystery age — Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1-5; Colossians 1:25,26. Under the concept of the doctrine of the mystery the church was never known before this dispensation. Therefore, dispensationally it is an inserted age, and intercalated. The reason for this is that when Christ died on the cross bearing our sins, the objective for the first advent, and then was resurrected, ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, something new was in heaven: royalty in heaven in a resurrection body. But the problem is one royalty in heaven with a resurrection body, the only member of the human race in a resurrection body. Therefore there has to be a royal family formed, and so the Age of Israel in which the death, burial, resurrection and ascension occurred, was dramatically interrupted on the day of Pentecost. On that day God began to call out the royal family or the church. Therefore, any person who believed in this dispensation immediately was baptised by the Holy Spirit into union with Christ — because we are royal family of God. The Church Age will continue until its conclusion when the royal family is completed, and then you have the Rapture of the Church in which all royalty will have resurrection bodies. Royalty has its privileges and our privilege is to have a resurrection body before any person who was born again in Old Testament times. c) The beginning of the Church Age. This is very important. We must remember once again that the Jewish Age was halted, interrupted, seven years short of its completion. The Jewish Age will not be completed until the Tribulation. God never mixes Israel and the Church, the Rapture occurs before the Age of Israel resumes. The reason for the interruption is the calling out of the royal family of God and the intensification of the angelic conflict. The Church was future from the time of Christ’s ministry, very easily provable from the future tense of o)ikoidomew in Matthew 16:18 when the Lord said to Peter, “On this rock (Jesus Christ) I will build my church.” The Church would be built on the acknowledging of Christ. Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the future tense, the Church wasn’t in existence then. The beginning of the Church Age began on the day of Pentecost, roughly AD 30. It begins with the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which the royal family of God was formed — Acts 1:5 it was prophesied. The baptism of the Spirit is not an experience, it is God the Holy Spirit entering each one of us into union with Christ — 1 Corinthians 12:13. The day of Pentecost brought in the new dispensation with a great spiritual party in which the whole realm of spiritual gifts were exercised — apostleship, tongues, evangelism, miracles, etc. By the time the end of Acts comes along the party is over and many of the gifts which were temporary are no more. The baptism of the Spirit occurred on the day of Pentecost. The Lord predicted it in Acts 1:5. The fulfillment is declared in Acts 11:15,16. d) The termination of the Church Age. The Church Age terminates with the resurrection called the Rapture of the Church. The celebration at the end of the Church Age is going to be much greater than the celebration at the beginning. It will be the greatest party of all time. There are many passages on this: 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 which emphasises the resurrection body we will possess; Philippians 3:21 which emphasises the fact that we will have a body exactly like that of Jesus Christ; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which emphasises the reuniting of loved ones; 1 John 3:1,2 which emphasises royal family relationship forever. All of these passages tell us something about the termination of the Church Age and the great resurrection which will occur at that time. e) Synonyms. The Church is such a fantastic doctrine, so great in its perspective, so wonderful in aspect that it demands the use of many doctrinal synonyms in order to bring out all of its beauty and facets. i) The last Adam and the new creation. The last Adam emphasises the royalty of the Lord Jesus Christ and His rulership of the world. The new creation is the royal family made up of believers. This particular synonym is found especially in Corinthians and Galatians — 1 Corinthians 15:45,47; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15. ii) The head and the body is the manner in which the authority of our Lord as the King of kings over the Church is described. Christ is the head, we are the members of the body. Being members of the body emphasises our difference in personality, our difference in spiritual gifts — Ephesians 1:22,23; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23. It is also the subject of the book of Colossians and is found as a great passage in 1 Corinthians 12. iii) The Shepherd and the sheep. This is one is used first in the Gospels, in John 10 prophetically, but it is found in Hebrews and Peter. This is not one that Paul uses, this is one which is used by the two greatest of the old apostles, John and Peter. Jesus Christ is the shepherd and we as members of the body of Christ of the Church are His sheep. John 10; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:4. iv) The vine and the branches — to emphasise royal familyship and to indicate why they had that great party on the day of Pentecost. It is found only in John 15. There is a very strong relationship between vine stem and its branches. They are actually integrated together and this emphasises the baptism of the Holy Spirit. v) Christ is the chief cornerstone and we are the stones of the building — Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4-8. Christ is the founder of the Church, the head of the Church, and we are the stones in the building, we are in union with Christ. vi) The high priest and the royal priesthood, a functional synonym — Hebrews 7:25; 10:10-14; 1 Peter 2:5,9; it is found three times in Revelation, beginning in 1:6. vii) The groom and the bride, the future of the Church as royal family — 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:6-8. f) The uniqueness of the Church Age. The Church Age is absolutely different, absolutely unique from any other dispensation or function. The members of the royal family of God through the baptism of the Spirit and positional sanctification are royalty forever in union with Christ. The universal priesthood of the believer makes every member of the royal family at the same time a royal priest. The Church is a kingdom of royal priests with the Lord Jesus Christ as the high priest and the supreme ruler. His representative on earth for the function of the priesthood is the pastor-guardian of the local church. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the sign of royal family of God. We have the indwelling of the person of Christ for fellowship. We have instructions of the royal family all reduced to writing so that all divine revelation is now on the written page. We have a new classroom, a new means of growth, a new means of communication. We have supernatural way of life. Every person who is a believer in Christ has a life full of meaning, purpose and definition. We are the personal representatives of the Lord on the earth, and therefore we are called His royal ambassadors. g) The objective of the Church Age believer, then, is balance of residency, following the colours to the high ground, seizing and holding the super-grace life until one is taken by the beautiful principle of dying grace. We move by GAP to the high ground. There we establish a command post of doctrine resident in the soul. There God provides something, a paragraph SG2 which was designed for us in eternity past. There for the first time we understand paragraph SG2 in terms of spiritual blessing: occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, having the very happiness which God Himself possesses, the inner utilisation of Bible doctrine in such a wonderful way. We at the same time have temporal blessing: wealth, success, promotion, prosperity, material prosperity, sexual prosperity, social prosperity, leadership prosperity, technical prosperity, professional prosperity. Then we have dying blessing. God takes us over this high golden bridge, we have a permanent change of station from time to eternity. In other words, dying is a greater blessing even than living. Then on the other side we have paragraph SG3, our decorations, our rewards, our castles, everything that we have that is used for our eternal blessing and reward. But this is only true of super-grace believers. For those who neglect doctrine, instead of this they go through three stages of divine discipline. And then there is the worst of all, the low crawl through ground glass for a few miles into eternity; in other words, the sin unto death, and then they are minus SG3 — minus SG2 in time, minus SG3 in eternity, minus dying grace as a transition. This is not the way to go and your attitude to doctrine determines into which category you fall. So the Church Age, then, becomes the most dramatic of all dispensations. It is more meaningful to every individual believer than any other dispensation ever has been or ever will be. Verse 15c — “the pillar.” The word for pillar or column is stuloj. The pillar or column which was used in ancient construction as the basic system for supporting the building. It was the relationship between the foundation and the roof of the building. You cannot have a roof sitting on nothing! The pillar or column was the support of the building in the ancient world, it was both a decoration as well as a support. The roof supported by the pillars is analogous to the super-grace believer, the spiritual support that comes from doctrine. The pillar is the doctrine, the foundation could be analogous to salvation. In order to have the roof or the super-grace life we must have a doctrinal support, so the pillar is doctrine. “and ground” — the word ground is e)draiwma and it means foundation. “of the truth” is incorrect. This is a genitive of apposition and should be translation “even the doctrine.” We have the noun a)lhqeia which means doctrine. The genitive of apposition indicates that Bible doctrine in the foundation must extend to the pillars. We are saved by responding to doctrine; we believed in Christ. We understood about Christ from the gospel, the gospel is salvation type doctrine, the simplest type: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Therefore we started that way and we must continue that way. Once you lay the foundation of salvation you must continue the same way. The royal family must continue to live on doctrine, so after the foundation up go the pillars to support everything. The pillars not only supported the roof but they supported walls as well. The pillar, therefore, is extremely important. Translation: “But if I am delayed, I write in order that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which category keeps on being the church of the living God that is pillar and foundation, even doctrine.” The real key to the local church is the fact that doctrine is taught. This is the real secret, this is the pillar of the local church, this is the excuse for the existence of the local church. The local church is a classroom and this is where the pillars which support the entire thing, doctrine, is transferred from the page of the book into your soul. That gives us, then, the authority of the Word of God. Now we come to the authority of Christ as we conclude this chapter. Verse 16 — “And without controversy.” We actually have for this phrase an adverb derived from a noun, o(mologoumenwj. The adverb is taken from the verb o(mologew and it means “by consent of all,” “confessedly.” Everyone is in agreement on this, this is something to which everyone subscribes. “great is” — the nominative neuter singular of megaj is now referring to a specific type of doctrine. It is in the neuter and refers to doctrine; plus the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb of absolute status quo, the verb to be. “the mystery” — the whole doctrine as comprising the Church Age. The Church Age was not known to the Old Testament, neither was its doctrine. It’s doctrine is now very important to us: the whole concept of the royal family, its relationship to God, following the colours to the high ground, the great blessings that come to us, how God is glorified by our being blessed, all of these things are a part of that mystery. “of godliness” — e)usebeia. The whole objective of Church Age doctrine is to bring us to e)usebeia. The problem is, just how dose one become godly? You don’t have to be self-righteous, austere, an ascetic. You do not have to be any religious type that you have ever formed in your mind. This is not what godliness is. Godliness is the balance of residency in the soul that comes from putting up some pillars — doctrine in the soul.; the roof — super-grace. Godliness is on the roof. In other words, when you as a believer have balance of residency in your soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine in your soul, that is godliness. At this point we have to stop because the way in which godliness was accomplished is about to be emphasised. Godliness was accomplished in a very difficult way. It is easy for us. In fact, it is so easy that it is almost shocking to realise that all you have to do is to continue to take in the Word. Our consistent function in GAP is involved in godliness. There is nothing else we have to do, there is nothing else we can do. It is a wonderful grace system, it is the reason why we have the local church, it is the reason why the gift of pastor-teacher is distributed to certain men. Jesus Christ had to do something to make all of this possible. He did something to give us salvation. When it comes to doing the Lord Jesus Christ has to do the doing. We simply respond to what He does. In salvation Christ went to the cross, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He did all of the work. The same thing is true in the pillar concept. We have our foundation, that’s salvation. Now the pillar has to go up. The pillar is the daily function of GAP, following the colours to the high ground of super-grace. This, again, is provided for us. Everything that Christ did in coming in the first advent not only provided salvation but provided the system whereby we go from zero to the high ground. You are going to be on that roof because of what happened in the first advent. so this passage interrupts the principle that great is the mystery doctrine of godliness to tell us how it was provided for us. It begins with the phrase, “God was manifest” — not the way it is in the Greek. There is, first of all, a relative pronoun o(j instead of qeoj. O(j refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man. It should be translated, “He who.” It is referring to a specific member of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus. Christ is the antecedent of this relative pronoun. With it is the aorist passive indicative of the verb fanerow which means to be manifest, to be revealed, to be made known. In the passive voice it means to become visible as well as to be revealed. Here it means to become visible. Jesus Christ is God — essence box. All of His essence is invisible, it cannot be observed. Furthermore this essence makes it possible for Jesus Christ to become our saviour: eternal life cannot die; sovereignty is not subject to death, etc. So Jesus Christ in His deity is invisible God. Invisible God has to become visible. To do so He becomes a member of the human race with a body, a soul, and a human spirit. He becomes, as it were, the last Adam. “He [Christ as eternal God] who became visible.” The aorist tense of the verb to become visible is a constative aorist, it contemplates the incarnation in its entirety from the virgin birth all of the way to the ascension. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the action of the verb. The passive voice: Christ receives the action of the verb by becoming true humanity. The passive voice, therefore, emphasises the hypostatic union by which the Lord Jesus Christ became the unique person of the universe. The indicative mood: this is the declarative indicative for a dogmatic and unqualified assertion of doctrine. “in the flesh” is the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of sarc and it refers to the fact that He became true humanity. So we have so far, not God was manifest in the flesh but “he [Christ] who became visible by means of the flesh.” By means of humanity Christ became visible. This is a reference to the hypostatic union. The doctrine of the hypostatic union 1. Definition: In the person of Jesus Christ are two natures inseparably united, without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss of transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal. 2. Scripture: John 1:1-14; Romans 1:2-5; 9:5; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14. 3. The incarnate person of Jesus Christ includes His deity. By this is meant the fact that Jesus Christ when He became man did not erase His deity, did not surrender His deity. The incarnate person of Christ includes the fact that Jesus Christ is God. he is coequal and co-eternal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. The incarnation does not diminish His divinity, He is undiminished deity. In other words, Jesus Christ in the incarnation continued to be — essence box. Jesus Christ continues to be God. he always was God, always will be, and again, immutability: He cannot change the essence of His deity. 4. The incarnate person of Christ was also true humanity. Jesus Christ is bona fide humanity with a body soul and human spirit, minus the old sin nature, minus the imputation of Adam’s sin; and He lived a life of impeccability free from personal sin. Through the virgin birth Jesus Christ avoided both the imputation of Adam’s sin and spiritual death by the old sin nature. So the incarnate person of Christ includes perfect humanity. Jesus Christ is God. He is the God-Man forever. Therefore Jesus Christ emerges absolutely unique because He is God, therefore infinitely superior to humanity. Jesus Christ is perfect humanity therefore superior to sinful humanity. Jesus Christ is different from God in that He is humanity; Jesus Christ is different from humanity in that He is God. Jesus Christ is not angelic, He is not the God-Man-Angel; the reason being that He came into the world to resolve the angelic conflict and He came as a man because man was created to resolve the angelic conflict. Since man was created to resolve the angelic conflict it is the man Christ Jesus who does so. 5. The two natures of Christ are united without transfer of attributes. In other words, the attributes adhere to their corresponding natures. The attributes of deity remain the attributes of deity. As God Jesus Christ is sovereign but He does not transfer His deity to His humanity. The attributes of His humanity remain the attributes of humanity. The continue to adhere to their corresponding natures. The deity of God cannot be changed — immutability; the humanity of the Lord Jesus is not changed. The infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To rob God of a single characteristic of His essence would destroy His deity, and to rob the humanity of Jesus Christ of a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His humanity. There is no destruction of His deity, there is no destruction of His humanity, each remains in status quo in this union of the God-Man. 6. No attribute of deity was changed by the incarnation. In fulfilling the purpose of the first advent certain attributes of deity were used but this does not imply that they were either surrendered or destroyed, as per the false doctrine of Kenosis. The true doctrine of Kenosis as taught by the Word of God says that the Lord Jesus Christ, during the period of His incarnation, voluntarily restricted the independent use of certain divine attributes in keeping with the Father’s plan for the first advent. In other words, during the period of the incarnation Jesus gave up the independent exercise of certain divine attributes in living among men with man’s human limitation. But none of them were changed at any time. 7. Therefore the union of divine essence and the human nature of the incarnate Christ are considered hypostatic and personal. The word “hypostatic” comes from the Greek word u(postasij. It means to stand under, taking one thing upon one’s self. Jesus Christ took upon Himself true humanity, as per Hebrews 1:3, and this is where we get the term “hypostatic union.” Hypostatic actually refers to the entire person of Christ as distinguished from His two natures, divine and human. When we say that this is also personal it refers to the emergence of a unique person. Jesus Christ is unique. As God He is co-equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, as man He is superior to all mankind, different from man in that He is also God. 8. There is a false interpretation of the hypostatic union. False interpretations try to get around scriptures dealing with this subject. The imply that deity possessed humanity. Just as the deity of Christ indwells us, so the deity of Christ indwelt the humanity of Christ. That is false. Furthermore, the union is more than harmony or sympathy. This is called modern Gnosticism. The scripture says it is a personal union. The two natures, divine and human have been combined into one hypostasis or essence forever. It is personal and it is eternal. 9. Therefore Jesus Christ the God-Man has one hypostasis, one essence forever. The attributes of both the divine and human natures belong to the person of Jesus Christ. The characteristics of one nature are never attributed to the other. This means that during the first advent Jesus Christ could be simultaneously both omnipotent and weak. He could be both omniscient and ignorant. As God He is omniscient but as a baby in the cradle He had to grow up and He had to grow in grace, He had to GAP it all the way to super-grace. The first chapter of John deals with His super-grace status in His humanity. However, the ignorance of His humanity was quickly overcome by Hs daily function of GAP and His entrance into super-grace — Luke 2:40, 52; John 1:14. 10. The necessity for Jesus Christ becoming human. Four reasons: a) The matter of salvation — Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15. In the deity of Christ sovereignty is not subject to death, even the death of the cross; eternal life cannot die; His omnipresence cannot reduce itself to one point; His immutability, none of this can be changed. So as deity He cannot go to the cross. He had to become not only true humanity but He had to be perfect humanity — free from the imputation of Adam’s sin (virgin birth); freedom also from personal sin. Whoever redeems man must be a free man on the outside. b) The concept of mediatorship — John 9; 1 Timothy 2. A mediator must bring together two estranged parties: God and man. There is a barrier, there must be a way of drawing them together. Whoever acts as the mediator must be equal with both parties. Jesus Christ is God, therefore He is co-equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. But He had to become humanity in order to be equal with man and to bring together God and man. Jesus Christ is God and man, and therefore He is qualified to bring together both God and man. He is equal with both parties and brings them together. But He was not the mediator until He became true humanity. Another factor involved is that Jesus Christ had to true humanity be a high priest, for a priest is always a man, a member of the human race representing man before God. Jesus Christ is God but as God He is not qualified to be a priest. He had to become God-Man, and as God-Man He is the royal high priest and therefore He is the prince ruler of the Church and we become a kingdom of priests. This is taught in Hebrews 7:4,51428; 10:5, 10-14. Then He had to become King under the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89. The Lord Jesus Christ could not fulfill the Davidic covenant to Israel until He became a man, and He had to become a man in the line of David, which he did. So the Davidic covenant is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore Jesus Christ is the ruler of Israel forever. 11. Everything verbally communicated by Christ during the incarnation came from one of three sources. Either it came from His deity or His humanity or His hypostatic union. E.g. the deity of Christ: “Before Abraham existed in time I existed eternally.” In other words, when He said that He was not speaking of His humanity. His humanity was born in time long after Abraham. He preexisted Abraham. But then on the cross in John 19:28 Jesus said, “I thirst.” Deity doesn’t thirst, deity cannot thirst. Only His humanity could thirst and therefore that came exclusively from His humanity. Sometimes He spoke from His hypostatic union: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” was a salvation invitation. It was an invitation He could not give as God, an invitation He could not give as man, it was an invitation He could only give as the God-Man. That was given on the basis of the fact that He would go to the cross and die for our sins in hypostatic union. So it is the God-Man who is the only saviour and every salvation invitation He ever gave during His earthly ministry was actually spoken from His hypostatic union. Verse 16b — “justified in the Spirit” is not a correct translation. The word “justify” is the aorist passive indicative of the verb dikaiow. It means to vindicate, to be treated as just, or to be justified. A better translation here means to be vindicated. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The entirety begins with the virgin birth which brought the last Adam into the world without either the imputation of Adam’s sin or the acquiring of an old sin nature. Furthermore it takes into consideration that Jesus Christ lived an absolutely perfect life while on earth, and all of this is gathered up into one entirety which begins with the virgin birth and goes to His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. This is the constative aorist gathering into one entirety the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. The passive voice: Jesus Christ as a result of this perfection received vindication. His vindication was received through the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative for dogmatic reality: the impeccability of Christ and the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit to the humanity of Christ, making this impeccability possible. Next is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of the noun pneuma. Pneuma refers to the Holy Spirit. In the instrumental case it means “by means of the Spirit.” Actually there is no definite article here. The absence of the definite article emphasises the high quality of the noun referred to. The noun refers to God the Holy Spirit in His deity, co-equal with the Father and with the Son. It should be literally translated, “He was vindicated by means of the Spirit.” What does this actually mean? The doctrine of the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit to the incarnate Christ 1. Definition. During the period of the first advent (the time of the incarnation on earth) the humanity of Christ was sustained in a very personal way by the presence, indwelling and filling of God the Holy Spirit. This ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the incarnate Christ went from the cradle, to the grace, to the resurrection, to the ascension and the session. So the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit encompasses the period of the first advent, the period of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. The prophecy of the Spirit’s ministry to the incarnate Christ. There are three passages in Isaiah. The first is in Isaiah 11:1-3: “Then a root shoot will spring from the stump of Jesse [the stump of Jesse refers to the Davidic line. Out of this stump will come a root shoot which will be the basis of a great tree. It is a reference to the first advent of Jesus Christ], and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit [the bearing of fruit is a Millennial reference to the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. he will be the ruler of all the earth then]; then the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him [the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit — indwelling of His body and the filling of His soul], the Spirit of wisdom and understanding [God the Holy Spirit makes it possible for the humanity of Christ to GAP it quickly to super-grace, as per Luke 2 and John 1:14], the Spirit of counsel and power [Jesus Christ always said the right things in the power of the Spirit], the Spirit of knowledge and occupation with the Father [the Lord Jesus was occupied with the Father’s will every moment He spent in the incarnation], and he will delight in occupation with Jehovah the Father; and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor will he make a decision by what his ears hear [there is no human viewpoint in our Lord during the first advent].” Remember that this is a prophecy of what it would be like when Jesus Christ came into the world. He would be sustained by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would give Him wisdom and understanding, He would reach super-grace in His humanity. He would be great in the field of counsel, the great power from the Spirit. He would have knowledge, He would be occupied with God the Father, with His plan. He would delight to be occupied with the Father’s plan and He would not in any way be tricked by empiricism. The second prophecy is found in Isaiah 42:1 — “Behold my servant, whom I sustain; my chosen one, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the gentiles.” Notice a very clear reference to the fact that when He comes the Father delights in Him, He is the chosen one, and when the Father says, “I will put my Spirit upon him,” this again is a total ministry of God the Holy Spirit. By total ministry God the Holy Spirit is related to the body of Jesus Christ by indwelling, He is related to the soul of Jesus Christ by filling. A third prophecy is found in Isaiah 61:1a — “The Spirit of the Lord [God the Holy Spirit] is upon me, because Jehovah the Father has anointed me [Christ] to bring good news to the humble [grace oriented].” So we do have prophecies with regard to this very special ministry of God the Holy Spirit. 3. The sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit and the virgin birth. Matthew 1:20 — “But while he [Joseph] was pondering this, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to retain Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is from the source of the Holy Spirit.” So at the point of the virgin birth we already see a sustaining ministry. This means that the Holy Spirit is the agent of conception in the virgin birth — verse 18, “… she was discovered to be with child by means of the Holy Spirit.” The conception of Christ originated with God the Holy Spirit and this fulfills the phrase in Psalm 40:6 which is quoted in Hebrews 10:5 by our Lord in the cradle when He said, “A body you have prepared for me.” God the Father planned His human body, God the Holy Spirit was the agent of conception of that human body. The Holy Spirit is the agent in the execution, then, of the hypostatic union. Here is the beginning of that fantastic sustaining ministry. Apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit the virgin could not conceive, there could be no pregnancy apart from His agency. In this way Jesus Christ was born without the imputation of Adam’s sin, He was born without an old sin nature, therefore He was like the first Adam and consequently is called the last Adam because He did not have an old sin nature or the imputation of Adam’s sin. He lived His life different from the first Adam in that He lived a perfect life without ever once committing a personal sin. 4. Once Jesus Christ comes into the world as true humanity there is the total ministry of the Holy Spirit to the humanity of Christ. John 3:34 — “For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God [Jesus Christ spoke doctrine]; for he does not give him the Spirit by measure.” In other words, the Holy Spirit was never measured out to the Son. “By measure” describes the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to human beings in the Old Testament. “By measure” goes to men like Moses, Elijah, any of the writers of the Old Testament, David. It is said for the first time in human history that the Father did not give the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ by measure. This means a total ministry. Summary: a) When it says in John 3:34 that the Holy Spirit was not given by measure to the incarnate Christ this means that not only does the Holy Spirit indwell the human body of Jesus Christ [this makes Him spiritual royalty] but the Holy Spirit filled or controlled the soul of the humanity of Christ. A total ministry is a ministry to the body and the soul. This is the total sustaining ministry of God the Holy Spirit to royalty, i.e. this is the manner in which it was accomplished. The scripture calls that being filled with the Spirit or walking in the Spirit, and today it is also called putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. b) Jesus Christ in His humanity was born royalty. He is the son of David by birth, He is Jewish royalty by birth. c) Spiritual royalty is a different factor, it is being totally sustained by God the Holy Spirit; which means, again, the indwelling of His body, by the filling of His soul. So spiritual royalty must be distinguished from human royalty. Christ was born human royalty, He is the son of David. Christ at the same time was spiritual royalty because from birth the Holy Spirit filled His soul and indwelt His body. So there were two kinds of royalty that belonged immediately to the baby in the cradle: by birth and by genealogy the son of David and true royalty of Israel — Jewish royalty; and He had spiritual royalty. d) There was no spiritual royalty in the Old Testament — many times royalty but no spiritual royalty. Therefore the Holy Spirit did not have a total ministry to any Old Testament believer. The Holy Spirit did not indwell the body of any Old Testament believer. He was given out by measure to sustain the souls of certain Old Testament believers. e) The glorification of Christ by means of the session at the right hand of God the Father has instituted royalty of a spiritual nature. f) Therefore the Age of Israel was interrupted so that the royal family of God could be formed. g) This is accomplished by the means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in this dispensation whereby each one of us at salvation is entered into union with Christ by agency of the Holy Spirit. Identification with Christ is the basis of our royalty. h) The believer of the Church Age therefore is royal family of God. i) Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords is true royalty. Therefore both His body is indwelt and His soul filled by the Holy Spirit. j) This is why believers in this dispensation as royal family of God have both the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. (We are never commanded to be indwelt, that is automatic at salvation; we are commanded to be filled). k) The total ministry of the Holy Spirit to Christ has been continued in this dispensation of the royal family of God. 5. The Holy Spirit was related to the baptism of Jesus Christ — Matthew 3:13-17. The reason the dove is used is because it speaks of the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit; the vigour, the power, the dynamics. At the beginning of the ministry of our Lord there was a special demonstration in which Jesus Christ through baptism dedicated Himself to going to the cross. Therefore the Holy Spirit came to Him again in a special way and God the Father expressed His delight in the decision so recorded in that baptism. 6. The Holy Spirit, therefore, was related to the public ministry of our Lord. a) Jesus quotes the prophecy of the Spirit’s sustaining ministry — Isaiah 42:1 in Matthew 12:18. In that same context Jesus indicates that His miracles were performed not in His own deity independently of the Father but through the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 12:28 — “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then has the kingdom of God come upon you.” So we see a principle: Our Lord performed His miracles, had a dynamic spoken ministry, all of which was accomplished in the power of God the Holy Spirit. b) The same principle is brought out by a second passage — Luke 4:14,15,17,18,21. We have here a series of verses which demonstrate that the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit was involved in the verbal ministry of our Lord. 7. The sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit was discontinued when Christ was being judged for our sins on the cross — Matthew 27:46. When Jesus said this He was quoting from the prophetic Psalm of the cross, Psalm 22:1. The first vocative was addressed to God the Father, the second vocative was addressed to God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit sustained Christ in getting to the cross, but once Jesus Christ began to bear our sins then the Father forsook Him and the Holy Spirit forsook Him. Psalm 22 answers the question. The reason they forsook Him is because He who knew no sin was made sin for us, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. In Psalm 22 He says, “I am a worm and no man.” The word for “worm” is a worm that was crushed in order that its blood might be used for the famous crimson dye of the ancient world, and Christ was being crushed for our sins that we might be royalty forever, that we might wear the crimson robes of royalty, as it were. So the Holy Spirit could not and did not sustain Him when He was made sin for us. There was a break, then, in the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit. For three hours on the cross our Lord was being judged for us. This was His saving work and He had to accomplish the saving work alone. He was totally alone on the cross, he was not sustained by the Holy Spirit. But immediately after this was completed and He spoke those last words, He again was sustained by the Holy Spirit. 8. However, the Holy Spirit did have a part in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ — Romans 8:11. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of resurrection. The Holy Spirit indwells us not only as a sign of royalty but also as a guarantee of resurrection. The Holy Spirit sustained Christ on a post resurrection trip to Tartarus to announce to the incarcerated angels the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — 1 Peter 3:18,19. 9. The sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit is transferred to the royal family of God. a) Just as the Holy Spirit sustained the humanity of Christ during the incarnation, so no He sustains the believer, the royal family of God during our life in this earth. b) Christ was sustained as royalty; we as Church Age believers are also sustained as royalty. The only difference: Christ was perfect royalty, we are sinful royalty. c) The strategic victory of Christ, culminating with His being seated at the right hand of the Father, demands the tactical victory of the royal family on earth during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. d) The total ministry of the Holy Spirit, which never occurred before Christ, includes both the indwelling of our human body and the filling of our human soul. e) This is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to royalty only. f) This ministry of the Holy Spirit to the royal family of God demands the balance of residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine in the soul. We gain or lose the Holy Spirit’s filling by means of carnality but we never lose the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When we lose the filling of the Spirit we lose part of the total and therefore we are not sustained experientially, we cannot GAP it, there are many things we cannot do, no spiritual function is possible. So in order that the filling of the Spirit might have an outlet of expression the minus doctrine with which we begin our Christian life must become a plus and it must become a maximum plus. When we are in super-grace or mature this is the place of dynamic impact for the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. g) This is why Paul wrote to the Galatians in 4:19, “My children in whom I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you.” Christ formed in the royal family is the balance of residency which is achieved by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the soul. We start out with the filling of the Holy Spirit and we emphasises the filling of the Holy Spirit (the Holy Spirit always indwells) because the only way we can learn doctrine, the only way we can assimilate doctrine, the only way that GAP can function, is under the filling of the Spirit or the Holy Spirit controlling the soul. Therefore the primary function of the Holy Spirit in filling with a new believer is to get doctrine from the written page of the Bible into the soul of the believer, and this is accomplished through the ministry of the filling of the Spirit. GAP only functions through the filling of the Spirit. So the filling of the Spirit is not outward but inward until we begin to mature. So a new believer filled with the Spirit doesn’t show you anything. The only thing the filling of the Spirit can do for him is to get the minus into a plus as quickly as possible so that he can begin to show some signs of royalty. h) Therefore we have a command. If the Holy Spirit is the key to the balance of residency then the command of Ephesians 5:18 becomes important — “Be filled with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:16 — “Walk by means of the Spirit.” This command, therefore, is imperative to gaining the balance of residency or spiritual maturity. i) The sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit is then transferred from the resurrected, glorified Christ at the right hand of the Father, to the royal family of God on earth. j) The believer is commanded to avail himself of this sustaining ministry of the Spirit — Romans 13:14 is such a command. 10. The royal family’s glorification of Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. a) The purpose of the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age is to glorify Christ — John 7:38,39. Christ is talking about the transfer. He has the total ministry of the Holy Spirit, He is looking down the line to when the Church Age begins. These “rivers of living water” are the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit for the Church Age believer. The Spirit was not yet given, there was no total ministry of the Spirit to the Age of Israel. b) John 16:13,14, a similar type statement. “But when He, the Spirit of doctrine, comes” — this is a title of the Holy Spirit in communicating doctrine — “He will guide you into all doctrine [truth]; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come [mystery doctrine, Church Age]. He [the Holy Spirit] shall glorify me [Christ]; and He will take of mine [doctrine] and disclose it to you. ” This is the prophecy of the balance of residency. c) It is the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, then, to glorify Christ. He accomplishes this through the teaching of doctrine, the establishment of the balance of residency, and then the multitude of expressions that come from maturity or the balance of residency. d) The balance of residency of the soul causes the believer to be a letter of commendation, written by the Holy Spirit, and read by men of our generation — 2 Corinthians 3:1-13. e) The letter of commendation principle is the royal family in super-grace status or spiritual maturity. f) At the point of super-grace there exists in the soul of the believer a balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and maximum Bible doctrine resident in the soul. g) At this point Christ is formed in the believer, as per Galatians 4:19. h) At this point the indwelling of Christ becomes a reality — Ephesians 3:16,17. i) So the Holy Spirit accomplishes His ministry of glorifying Christ in the believer through the balance of residency in the soul. j) This is tantamount to spiritual maturity through prolonged and consistent function of GAP. k) The fulfillment of the transitional ministry of the Spirit and its results in the life of the believer are found in Philippians 1:20-21, verses which belong only to the super-grace believer. Super-grace blessing is great; dying grace blessing is greater. Surpassing grace blessing, then, becomes greater than the greatest. “seen of angels” — the aorist passive indicative of o(raw means careful scrutiny and observation. He was observed by angels. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety angelic observation of the incarnate Christ from the cradle, to the grave, to the resurrection, to the ascension and session. The angels saw it all. The entire first advent of Christ, then, is gathered into one entirety in the action of this verb. Angelic observation of the first advent is a part of the angelic conflict since the first advent broke Satan’s back — specifically the cross. The first advent terminated in the strategic victory of our Lord at the right hand of the Father. After the session of Christ everything else is tactical victory and mop-up. The passive voice: Christ received the action of the verb, i.e. being observed by angels during the entire course of the first advent. The indicative mood is declarative for the triumph of Christ in the angelic conflict. His strategic victory of the first advent produces tactical victory in the second advent. The second advent is merely a tactical victory, the strategic victory has already been accomplished. “By angels” is e)n plus the instrumental plural of a)ggeloj — “observed by angels.” The doctrine of the angelic conflict 1. The Bible reveals the existence of a higher category of creatures known as angels living throughout the universe. This higher category of creatures we call simply “angels” — Psalm 8:4,5; Hebrews 2:6,7; 2 Peter 2:11. In Psalm 148:2-5 we have a significant statement, they are created beings, creatures which came from the hand of God. Even as we are creatures which came from the hand of God by creation they were created too. They are superior to us categorically at the present time but they are created beings. There are two general categories of these angelic creatures which are found in the scripture. First of all there are angels that are saved and have been saved for a long time. They are called “holy” in Mark 8:38, “elect” in 1 Timothy 5:21. In contrast to these elect or saved angels there are unsaved angels which fall into two sub categories: fallen angels — those in prison as a result of Genesis 6:1-9, described 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6 where the word “hell” is a mistranslation. They are presently incarcerated and that means that they will not be operative until the end of the Millennium at which time they will be loosened for a little revolt and then cast into the lake of fire forever; operative fallen angels, the second category, are often known as demons — Mark 5; 1 Timothy 4; 1 Corinthians 10. 2. The unsaved or the fallen angels in the past before human history began were sentenced to the lake of fire — Matthew 25:41. The sentence has not been carried out. In their judgment God pronounced the sentence that they would live forever in the lake of fire. Obviously Satan appealed immediately. In order to resolve the appeal God created an inferior creature called man and gave him one thing in common with the angels — free will. This free will or volition is the issue. Man was created in perfect environment with only one test for his volition, one tree was forbidden out of all the trees in the garden. The reason why man was created in the first place was to resolve the angelic conflict and to resolve this appeal of Satan and to demonstrate that God is fair in casting his creatures, Satan and the fallen angels, into the lake of fire; just as He will be fair in casting His creatures, unsaved mankind, into that same lake of fire. 3. During the course of human history, then, the case is under appeal. Satan is the chief of the unsaved angels, he has appealed the case on their behalf. In objecting the sentence he impugned the character of God. This is a deduction based on the lapse of time between the passing of the sentence and the execution of the sentence. It is also based upon the title of Lucifer the son of the morning. He received the title in the Greek, diaboloj, which is translated “devil.” It means slanderer, enemy, adversary. His objection can be reconstructed. He said, “How can a loving God cast His creatures into the lake of fire.” The defense: The answer to this objection by Satan is found in the character of God Himself. It is impossible for God to be unfair, unjust, or ever to be wrong. So a new creation was necessary to reveal the principle that different attitudes bring out different characteristics of God. For example, salvation doesn’t bring out everything in the essence of God, but it brings out His sovereignty, His love, His eternal life, His immutability. On the other hand judgment manifests other characteristics of God: His sovereignty, His righteousness, His justice, His omniscience, His omnipresence. Faithfulness brings out His immutability, love, and veracity. 4. The pattern of angelic negative volition is expressed in two ways: Satan’s original sin of negative volition — Isaiah 14:12-14; the angelic rejection of Christ which is possibly alluded to in Hebrews 2:2. 5. The creation of man resolves the angelic conflict and answers the appeal of Satan. To resolve the angelic conflict and inferior creature, mankind, is placed on one planet, possessing one thing in common with the super creatures, angels, namely free will — the bona fide function of creature volition. Psalm 8:3-5; Hebrews 2:7. 6. Human volition, then, is tested in exactly the same pattern as angelic volition. i) Angels began in status quo innocence; mankind began in status quo innocence. ii) Angels sinned — the negative volition of Satan; mankind sinned — the negative volition of Adam. iii) God provided salvation for angels in eternity past; God provided salvation for mankind in time or human history. iv) Angels, therefore, are divided into two categories — Hebrews 2:2: saved or elect, fallen or lost; mankind is divided into two categories — John 3:36: believers and unbelievers, saved and lost. 7. Two tests are instituted for man’s volition. The first test is called innocence. Under perfect environment mankind is prohibited the use of one tree — Genesis 2:17. This is a volitional test. Hence, in the status of innocence man could only sin in one way. Man could not lie, steal, commit adultery, think evil thoughts, be guilty of the sins of the tongue. There was only one way to sin. He could only sin by negative volition, by eating of one tree forbidden to him, the tree of the knowledge of God and evil. Not good and sin but good and evil. Man did not know the difference between absolute good and the policy of Satan which is evil. The penalty of sin is spiritual death — Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12; 6:23. When man finally got around to sinning through negative volition he didn’t die physically because the wages of sin is death but not physical death. The wages of sin is spiritual death. He didn’t die physically immediately but he died spiritually. So the wages of sin is death — spiritual death, separation from God, no fellowship with God, no relationship with God. The second test is sinfulness. After the fall of man salvation is promised to the human race — Genesis 3:15. Such salvation involved Christ dying twice on the cross — Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21. The issue is now positive volition instead of negative volition. Positive volition expressed in a non meritorious manner compatible with grace — Ephesians 2:8,9. The mechanics of positive volition: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 8. Man’s entrance into the plan of God through faith in Christ destroys the devil’s appeal and resolves the angelic conflict. This is the cake and everything else becomes the icing — the super-grace life, and so on. The issue: Will man, inferior to angels, equipped with the same free will, choose for or against the plan of God, i.e. operation grace. The solution: If in all of human history even one member of the human race accepts Christ through faith the angelic conflict is resolved — Hebrews 1 & 2; Colossians 2:14,15. This is interesting because of the principle involved. Once Adam and Eve accepted Christ as saviour He could have stopped it right then and there. But this has been going on for 6000 years and we are saved also. He sort of rubs the devil’s nose in it! The work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is all of the merit and all of the efficacy, and man merely responds to this and believes in Christ. This brings up the issue of angelic observation. Why do we have angelic observation? Angels learn through the conversion of the sinner that the free will of man does not necessarily choose against God and for Satan as the fallen angels did before human history existed when millions of angels said no. Other millions of angels said yes. Eventually the angels were divided, and that was it. This explains, for example, the rejoicing of elect angels over one sinner who repents. He doesn’t repent of sin, sinner is the subject, sinner is a title of the human race from birth to salvation. We are all sinners — Romans 3:23. We do not repent about sin, we repent about the work of Christ on the cross. By repentance the Bible means a change of mind. We change our minds about Christ, we recognise that He is the only saviour, and we believe in Him. Angelic observation, according to Luke 15:7,10, has to do with that critical moment when any one of us accepts Christ as saviour. 9. The results of the angelic conflict. Phase one is salvation. It takes place in a second of time when you believe in Jesus Christ. Phase two: Believer in time. Phase three: Believer in eternity. The results are related to the three phases of the plan of God. Phase one, salvation: Regenerate mankind is positionally higher than angels because of union with Christ. We are royal family. When we accept Christ there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and we enter into union with Christ and that puts us positionally higher than angels. Christ is higher than angels, He is seated at the right hand of the Father. We are in union with Christ, we are higher than angels positionally — Hebrews 1:4-14. Phase two is the believer in time. Through suffering regenerate mankind uses doctrine, is occupied with the person of Christ, uses doctrine resident in his soul — the inner resources. This maximum function of faith-rest produces a glorification of the Lord — Romans 5:2-4; 1 Peter 1:7,8. At the same time we become experientially better than angels through reaching the super-grace life. Phase three: the believer in eternity. Regenerate mankind is physically superior to angels by means of his resurrection body exactly like that of Christ. 10. Through the fall of man Satan gained control of the world but not necessarily control of mankind. We have several issues involved here. The issue of human volition or free will makes man a free agent in the devil’s world. Satan is the ruler of this world but man is a free agent. Man can choose between the plan of God — operation grace, or the plan of Satan — operation evil. The issue: Salvation through faith in Christ frees mankind from Satanic control and domination. The exception, of course, is reversionism, the believer influenced by evil, the believer in apostasy. After salvation the more the believer GAPs it the greater his freedom and capacity to operate independently of cosmos diabolicus and at the same time to glorify and serve the Lord. Remember again that the ruler of this world is Satan — 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2. 11. The doctrine of angelic observation. Angels observed the Lord Jesus Christ during the course of His first advent on the earth — 1 Timothy 3:16. Elect angels observe and rejoice over sinners who believe in Christ or utilise the grace of God. Fallen angels are organised under Satan’s command to resist and oppose the believer — Job 1:6; 2:1-3; Ephesians 6:12. Obviously then, fallen angels must observe and find weaknesses and seek to attack. Angels observe believers — 1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:12. We are under angelic observation constantly. The reason for this is because we are royal family of God. God the Son was under angelic observation and now that He is at the right hand of the Father the observation has switched to us. We are in the middle of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Verse 16c — “preached unto the Gentiles.” This is not quite correct, it is the aorist passive of the verb khrussw Khrussw really means a proclamation from a representative of the king. A representative in this case is generally called an herald. This means a proclamation by a herald. The word “preached” is a very poor translation when you realise that the herald was generally some nobleman representing the king and spoke as having the authority of the king. This is the way it is with the pastor-teacher on earth. In his study, his exegesis of the Word, and in his communication he is authorised by God for this office — first by spiritual gift, then by recognition and aspiration, then by preparation and finally by function. When you put all of these things together you have the highest spiritual authority which exists today. So the word actually means communication with authority. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it fulfills the prophecy that Christ would be a light to the Gentiles, as per Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47. Since the Lord Jesus Christ is making the proclamation — khrussw, He is the herald of God the Father — and He is now seated at the right hand of the Father this responsibility belongs to the pastor-teacher. In this case the passive voice of the verb refers directly to Jesus Christ during the period of His incarnation. He received proclamation by several categories of herald. He was proclaimed by apostles, then by prophets, evangelists, and today pastor-teachers — all communicating royal priests. The indicative mood is declarative for reality of the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ during His incarnation and thereafter when the Church Age began was so proclaimed — by heralds. “unto the Gentiles” is the preposition e)n plus the locative plural of e)qnh, and it means “among the nations.” This means that after His strategical victory at the right hand of the Father the Age of Israel was interrupted. Ten days after our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father the Jewish Age came to a halt. It was interrupted in order that a royal family might be called out. The age of the royal family is called the dispensation of the Church. And He was proclaimed among the Gentiles during this age and, of course, this is a continuous process in the nations, it exists today. The word “nations” is preferable to Gentiles in this particular case because the word “nations” represents the principle of the laws of divine establishment whereby there is freedom to evangelise, whereby local churches are free to be formed, and the preaching in the local churches is accomplished under the protection of the national entity where the local church exists. “believed on in the world” is not quite correct. The word “believed on” is the aorist passive indicative of pisteuw. The passive voice does not lend itself to good translating into English, so we translate this, “he became the object of faith.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing saving faith in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results. When a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ the result is eternal salvation, and the culminative aorist sees the individual believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, regarding it from the viewpoint of its existing results which is eternal salvation. The passive voice: Christ receives faith in Himself for salvation. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative for absolute dogmatic reality that salvation always has been, always will be, by personal faith in Jesus Christ alone. Christ became the object of faith. He is the only saviour, you have to believe in Him for salvation. The doctrine of faith 1. Definition. There is no such thing as blind faith, all faith has an object which can be seen by the individual. Blind faith is a meaningless phrase that people have dug up. Faith is never blind, it is always looking at an object. The object it sees and trusts in may be good or may be bad but it is there. It is an object. So faith is a non meritorious system of perception in contrast to rationalism and empiricism which are meritorious systems of perception. it is the non meritorious system that counts — faith; when the object is Christ, when the object is Bible doctrine. 2. Greek etymology. There are five words that have almost the same base. a) Pistij — it has an active meaning and a passive meaning. The active meaning means faith, faithful, or reliable. The passive meaning: what is believed or doctrine. The body of doctrine. So pistij means both faith and doctrine, the context determines. It is used technically in the New Testament epistles for doctrine resident in the soul. b) Pistoj, an adjective. It means dependable, inspiring trust, believing. c) Pisteuw, a verb. It means to believe, to be convinced of something or someone. d) Pistow means to show one’s self faithful, to feel confidence in something. e) Peiqw, a verb. Different meanings depending upon the tense. In the present tense it means to obey. In the aorist tense it means to believe. In the perfect tense it means to have confidence. 3. Hebrew etymology. There are ten of them. a) Amen, which is used in Genesis 15:6 and means to use something as a foundation, to use God as a prop or a foundation is the meaning in the hiphil. Its use in Genesis 15:6 is where Abraham’s salvation is declared. Abraham believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness. From this root there are five other Hebrew words: b) Emun, a noun which means faithfulness. c) Emunah, a feminine noun which means truth or steadiness. d) Amen, meaning truth. e) Omen, another noun, very close to Amen, which means faithfulness or dependability. f) Batach, a wrestler’s term for a body slam, used for the faith-rest technique — Psalm 37:3; 91:2, etc. g) Chasah — a rabbit is being chased by a wolf and the rabbit runs into a little crack in the rock and the wolf can’t get to him. So obviously this means to hide in the cleft of a rock and take refuge from danger. h) Jachal, found in Job 13:15 — “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” This means to trust God in pain, in pressure, or in disaster. It is used in Lamentation 3:21,24. i) Qawah, represents a little string that you can snap by grabbing it with your hands and pulling. You can break it. But when you wrap that little thread into a great rope then it can’t be broken. So it means to weave the thread of our life, easily broken in itself, into a great rope which cannot be broken. It means to bind or twist the strands together, it is the strongest word for faith and is generally mistranslated “wait” — like “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” 4. Some biblical definitions of faith as far as the word is concerned which means having revelation about the unseen and believing that revelation, as in Hebrews 11:1 or 2 Corinthians 4:18. 5. The grammar of the verb. Grammatically the verb to believe is a transitive verb. A transitive verb is one that has a subject and has an object. The object is either implied or stated. This means that whenever we believe in something there is an object. When we believe in Christ there is the unique object, the only saviour, Jesus Christ Himself. Since faith is non meritorious perception the whole value or efficacy of faith lies in its object. For salvation, if you believe in Christ you have eternal life. So the point is, there is only one saviour, Jesus Christ. 6. Classification of the objects of faith. The plan of God is divided into three parts: phase one, salvation; phase two, the believer in time; phase three, the believer in eternity. Faith is only involved in phases one and two. In eternity we will see Him even as we are seen, we will know Him even as we are known. In phase one the object of faith is Jesus Christ the only saviour — Acts 16:31. In phase two the object of faith is the Word of God or Bible doctrine — 2 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 4:1-3; 11:6. 7. The concept of faith. a) All the believing in the world secures nothing but condemnation from God. b) However, the tiniest bit of faith in Christ secures eternal salvation. c) Therefore the efficacy of faith lies in the object of faith. For salvation, Jesus Christ; for spiritual growth, Bible doctrine. d) Since Christ did all the work for salvation on the cross the only way we can respond when the work is already finished is to believe because that is the only non meritorious system of perception. e) Therefore faith is nothing we do but a channel whereby we appropriate what God has done for us. 8. After salvation faith develops in at least five ways. a) The primary development of faith is the balance of residency in the soul. The Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believers. That is the escutcheon of the royal family of God. We start out with the filling of the Spirit. We lose it periodically when we sin. We rebound and we recover it. But we start out minus doctrine and this minus must become a plus. Therefore the first key to developing faith is the intake of Bible doctrine — Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” b) A second way of developing faith is the filling of the Spirit. However, the filling of the Spirit only produces faith as it has doctrine resident in the soul — Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of the Spirit is faith.” These two together form the function of GAP and the spiritual exercise which is necessary for temporal sanctification. The filling of the Spirit plus the daily function of GAP resulting in doctrine in the soul = experiential sanctification. Once you are in progress — the filling of the Spirit plus the function of GAP — it is going to be tested. You are going to have tests in your life. It is just like the filling of the Spirit and the function of GAP is nourishment. We eat and we have energy and are mostly very well nourished, but nourishment produces energy and energy must be used in exercise. Even though you eat and eat you do not get big and strong, you get big and fat! Therefore it is important to exercise, to take nourishment and through the channel of exercise produce something that is presentable. c) The function of the faith-rest technique. How do we put muscle on our faith? How do we develop spiritual muscle? We take the doctrine we have learned and use it in pressure, use it in adversity, use it in some disaster situation. This is called the faith-rest technique — Hebrews 4:1-3. We find the charge of the flea and we shoot down fleas with scripture — when we start. Every time a flea charges us we whack him down with the Word of God. We don’t know much yet, that is why our calibre is only for shooting fleas. d) The testing that comes as we take in large amounts of doctrine. But as we begin to take in more doctrine and take in more doctrine then we get some real tests — the charge of the elephant. To knock the elephant down we have to have a large calibre. When the real test comes it takes the big chunk of doctrine to knock these disasters down. So we have 1 Peter 1:7,8. e) The principle of occupation with Christ is the final manner in which we face every exigency of life and demonstrate the greatest possible power. This is the principle that belongs to the super-grace believer only — Hebrews 12:2. This is maximum faith, faith in its greatest power. 9. The victory of faith — 1 John 5:4,5. The utilisation of doctrine in the soul under super-grace status is found in Romans 4:17-21. Here is the amalgamation of non meritorious positive volition with Bible doctrine provided for us by God in eternity past and recorded under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to human writers in time. “in the world” — He was the object of faith in the world, e)n plus the locative of kosmoj. Kosmoj is the title for planet earth under the concept of Satan as the ruler. We are in Satan’s domain, having the Word as our object, and believing in the Lord in this world. That’s the thing that breaks Satan’s back in the angelic conflict. “and was received up” — the aorist passive indicative of the compound verb a)nalambanw. A)na means “up” here, lambanw means to take. He was taken up. This is a reference to the ascension. The doctrine of the ascension 1. Definition. a) The ascension is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to the change of residence of Jesus Christ after His resurrection. b) The session (session means seating) of Christ is the doctrine of Christ pertaining to the glorification of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union being seated at the right hand of the Father. c) These doctrines are closely related to and based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. d) Both the ascension and session of Christ were accomplished in resurrection body. e) These two doctrines form the climax of the strategic victory of Christ in the angelic conflict. 2. The capabilities of the resurrection body. The resurrection body of Christ was capable of both horizontal and vertical travel. This includes unlimited space travel. It includes the fact that horizontally Jesus Christ could walk through walls or closed doors or anything, and that vertically He could travel anywhere in space. In fact, the resurrected body of Jesus Christ traveled through three heavens in His trip to the right hand of the Father. 3. The historical account of the ascension is found in Acts 1:9-11. 4. The significance of the session of Christ: a) The prophecy of the session — Psalm 110:1. b) The session and the authority of Christ — Romans 8:34. c) The session and the ministry of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 1:20. The seating of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father brings about the first advent of the Holy Spirit who comes to form the family of God on earth. He indwells us; He enters us into union with Christ through baptism; He seals us at salvation; He gives us spiritual gifts; He regenerates us. d) The session and mental attitude — Colossians 3:1,2. e) The session and the celebrityship of Christ — Hebrews 1:3. Jesus Christ is the only celebrity of the Church Age. f) The session and the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:13. The angelic conflict has been won strategically, the tactical victories are in the process. g) The session and the royal priesthood — Hebrews 8:1. h) The session and the sacrifice — Hebrews 10:12. His session indicates the efficacy of His sacrifice and the fact that Christ is the only saviour. i) The session and occupation with Christ — Hebrews 12:2. j) The session and strategic victory — 1 Peter 3:22. 5. The session confirms the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. The ascension and session of Christ complete His glorification and He is now the unique person of the universe. He is in hypostatic union forever because of the resurrection. He is different from God in that He is man; He is different from man in that He is God — Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9. As eternal God Jesus Christ is preeminent. As the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ has unique and overwhelming distinctions. He is King of kings, Lord of lords; He is royalty forever, and that is why we have the dispensation of the Church: for the formation of a royal family to accompany Him forever. 6. The strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The ascension and session of Christ formed the basis for the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Hebrews chapter one. Furthermore, the ascension and session of Christ begin a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20-22 tell us that we live in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The dispensation in which we live is much more intense than the Tribulation even. The same concept is amplified in Ephesians 4:7-10. This means that the Church Age is the dispensation of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. 7. The ascension and the royal family of God. Jesus Christ in His resurrection body is seated alone at the right hand of the Father. He is alone in a resurrection body. No one else has been resurrected since our Lord. Jesus said about the first Adam, “Not good that man should be alone.” God the Father says, “Not good that Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, should be alone.” The Age of Israel, then, was stopped, interrupted, and a new dispensation was inserted or intercalated. The Church Age is designed to call out the royal family of God so that the last Adam will not be alone. That is why our dispensation is completed before the Age of Israel. The royal family is formed by something that never occurred before the Church Age and will never occur after the Rapture. Jesus prophesied when he said, “John baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” For the first time in history God the Holy Spirit actually takes every believer at the point of salvation and enters him into union with Christ. This could not occur until Christ was glorified, says John 7:37,39. 8. The ascension also deals with our new priesthood. The ascension and session of Christ abrogated the Levitical priesthood. When God the Father stopped the dispensation of Israel the Mosaic law was abrogated, the Levitical priesthood was replaced by the royal priesthood. So now you and I and all believers are not only royal family but are royal priesthood forever — 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father is a royal priest, a new priesthood has been founded, and we are in it forever. 9. The ascension verifies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as he was bearing our sins — Hebrews 9:23,24. The day of atonement in the Old Testament was a portrayal of this. 10. The ascension and ultimate defeat of Satan are related subjects. The ascension and session of Christ began operation footstool. The second advent will terminate operation footstool. Christ will supersede Satan as the ruler of this world when he returns — Daniel 7:14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15. Translation: “And by consent of all, great is the mystery doctrine with reference to godliness: the one Christ who became visible by means of the flesh [hypostatic union], the same one was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit, he was observed by angels, he was proclaimed among the nations, he became the object of faith in the world, he was taken up into the place of glory.” Principles 1. This is why the royal family has godliness or balance of residency as its objective in time. 2. This is why Bible doctrine is so important to the royal family. 3. Bible doctrine transferred from the Word to the soul of the believer is the means of accomplishing the objective of godliness — experiential sanctification. 4. The glorification of Christ brings the Age of Israel to a halt. 5. The dispensation of Israel has been interrupted. The Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God, inserted. 6. Because Christ was taken up into the place of glory there now exists a royal family of God on earth as a preliminary to the second advent and the overthrow of Satan as the ruler of the world. 7. When the royal family [the body of Christ] is completed it is resurrected [Rapture of the Church] and the Age of Israel then resumes. 8. When Christ returns to terminate the Age of Israel He will be accompanied by the royal family or the Church Age believer. Conclusion: Godliness becomes the reminder to Satan as the ruler of this world that he has no control over those believers who have maximum doctrine in his domain. Chapter 4 The doctrine of godliness 1. Definition. a) Godliness is a word in the New Testament derived from two different Greek words: e)usebeia and qeosebeia. Both mean duty toward God and both are technical for the balance of residency in the soul. By balance of residency in the soul is meant: When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are born again as royal family of God. So God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us and this is the escutcheon or the sign of the royal family. Then we have in the soul (when we start) the filling of the Holy Spirit, and that lasts until the first time we sin, at which time we lose the filling of the Spirit. When we rebound — 1 John 1:9 — we are again filled with the Holy Spirit. We start out with minus doctrine in the soul and the minus has to become a plus. The daily function of GAP eventuates in balance of residency between the filling of the Holy Spirit and maximum doctrine resident in the soul. This is also known technically as experiential sanctification, but we are studying it under the title “godliness.” So godliness means our duty toward God. The second noun, qeosebeia also means “reverence for God.” They are both very technical words with a slight difference in the meaning. E)usebeia is actually the establishing of the balance of residency in the soul through the function of GAP. Qeosebeia is the result of this in occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. b) Godliness therefore refers to the balance of residency and becomes a synonym for experiential sanctification — phase two sanctification or occupation with Christ. c) Godliness is based on the escutcheon of the royal family or the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. d) Godliness is that balance of residency in the soul of the believer whereby he is filled with the Spirit and possesses maximum doctrine in the soul as a result of the function of GAP. This also produces maximum category #1 love. e) Godliness, then, is the status quo of the super-grace or mature believer. The second noun qeosebeia indicates his occupation with Christ. 2. The establishment and human authority is necessary for the function of godliness — 1 Timothy 2:2. 3. Godliness is also related to knowledge of doctrine — Titus 1:1. 4. Therefore godliness demands discipline — 1 Timothy 4:7. 5. Godliness is profitable for time and eternity — 1 Timothy 4:8, SG2 and SG3. 6. The basis for godliness is the strategical victory of Jesus Christ in the first advent — 1 Timothy 3:16. 7. Godliness is distorted by reversionists under the influence of evil — 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 3:2-5. 8. The great gain of true godliness is found in 1 Timothy 6:6. Contentment is capacity for life, for love, for happiness, for blessing, based on inner doctrine. 9. Godliness is attained under the principle of living grace — 2 Peter 1:3. Godliness is a Christian virtue — 2 Peter 1:6,7; 3:11. In chapter four we deal with Church Age apostasy. The chapter is divided into three points: a) The evil attack of apostasy, verses 1-5. b) The doctrinal defense against apostasy, verses 6-10. c) The pastoral counterattack against apostasy, verses 11-16. Verse 1 — the source of apostasy. “Now” — the adversative use of the post positive conjunctive particle de. It emphasises a contrast between the strategic victory of Christ in the first advent and the Satanic offensive which goes on during the Church Age and results in apostasy. This is very important. Satan has launched a great offensive since the strategical victory of Christ. He is the source of the attack of apostasy against the royal family of God. The attack originates from his policy as the ruler of this world. The policy is known in the Bible under the nomenclature of the word “evil.” Evil is the policy of Satan. This verse will teach the principle that Satan administers his policy of evil through creatures (angelic creatures) and doctrines. Satan has his doctrine just as the Church has its doctrine. “the Spirit” — the nominative neuter singular of the definite article and it is used as a demonstrative pronoun to match the nominative neuter of the word pneuma, used here for the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. It is preceded by a definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the importance of the ministry of the Spirit in this Church Age. It should be translated, “But that same Spirit.” What is means is, “that same Holy Spirit who vindicated the incarnate Christ.” In 1 Timothy 3:16 we have seen the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in sustaining and vindicating the humanity of Christ during the period of the first advent. The Spirit’s ministry of vindication is directed towards each one of us as believers. In other words, toward the royal family of God. It is accomplished by the formation of the canon of scripture, its preservation , and its communication through the pastor-teacher of the local church. “speaketh expressly” — present active indicative of the verb legw. The present tense is a static present, it represents the communication of the Holy Spirit as a part of the permanent record of the Bible. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit is the communicator producing the action of the verb. He communicates to the apostle Paul, the human author of 1 Timothy chapter four. God the Holy Spirit so communicated to Paul that without waiving his intelligence, his individuality, his literary style, his personal feelings, or any other human factor, God’s complete and coherent message is recorded with perfect accuracy in the Koine Greek, the very words of the scripture bearing the authority of divine authorship. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic assertion of verbal plenary inspiration. Legw here means to make a very clear, lucid, explicit report — “explicitly reports.” The word “expressly” is an adverb, r(htoj, which means explicitly. “that” — the conjunction o(ti is used after words of speaking, reporting, communicating. It is used to express the content of the report. Now here is the report. “in the latter times” — one of the most abused, misunderstood words in the epistle. Most people think the latter times either refers to the Tribulation or the end of the Church Age, but “latter times” refers to each generation actually. We have the preposition e)n plus the locative plural of the adjective u(steroj. U(steroj is used as a comparative adjective and the comparison is between the Church Age and the Age of Israel. Then we also have the locative of kairoj. Kairoj means an age or a dispensation here. Sometimes it means time, it usually means an epoch of time. Here it means a period of time or a dispensation. It is in the plural, so “in latter periods of time,” literally. It refers to every generation of the Church Age. The plural covers not only the dispensation of the royal family of God but the conclusion of the Age of Israel which is known as the Tribulation. In other words, this prepositional phrase e)n u(steroij kairoij covers the period between the two advents of Christ. In every generation between the first advent and the second advent there will be apostasy, that is the Satanic offensive which follows the glorification of Christ at the right hand of the Father. The strategic victory of Jesus Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father after His resurrection calls for all of the energy, all of the genius of Satan, and all of his vigour. His vigour is unlimited, he attacks every generation from the time of the day of Pentecost all of the way to the second advent. No generation escapes. Satan is vigorous in his attacks of apostasy. It is noteworthy that the great apostasy which continues throughout the Church Age is perpetuated beyond the Rapture to the Tribulation. This prepositional phrase does not refer to the end of the Church Age. Apostasy or reversionism runs concurrently with the super-grace attainment and status throughout the Church Age. Every generation has two options: To follow the line of Satan — apostasy, evil, reversionism — or to follow the plan of Christ after salvation, the concept of the function of GAP, the inculcation of Bible doctrine. There never has been a generation in the Church Age which did not have running simultaneously both the Satanic attacks of apostasy and the divine plan, the option of going to the high ground of the super-grace life. The two states coexist and conflict throughout this dispensation. There will always be those who are influenced by evil in every generation; there will be those influenced by doctrine in every generation. This is the characteristic of the epochs between the advents, and it is also taught in Matthew 24:6,7. “some” — the nominative masculine plural from the indefinite pronoun tij. The indefinite pronoun is used to express categories. It expresses a certain category, in this case the category is the royal family of God, believers in this dispensation — “some [believers].” This is talking about the attack on believers. “shall depart” — the future middle indicative of a)fisthmi. Some believers will become apostate, is what it means. The word a)fisthmi means to stand away from, to revolt, to abstain from, to depart, to withdraw, to fall away from, to become apostate. The verb defines apostasy for us. Apostasy is some form of rejection of Bible doctrine. This means rejection of Bible teaching from your right pastor. This in effect becomes reversionism and is tantamount to being influenced by evil. The future tense is a gnomic future, it states the fact of apostasy or reversionism anticipated under the conditions when the believer rejects Bible doctrine and comes under the influence of evil. The middle voice is an indirect middle, it emphasises the believer as the agent producing the action. The middle voice sets up a very close relationship between the subject and the verb. In fact the subject becomes involved with the verb. The believer who rejects doctrine inevitably falls into apostasy. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Apostasy will occur throughout every generation. The indicative mood, then, is the reality of this great Satanic offensive and the fact that some believers fall into it. “from the faith” is the ablative of separation from the noun pistij, used here for what is believed, i.e. doctrine. It should be translated, “from the doctrine.” Translation so far: “But that same Holy Spirit who vindicated the incarnate Christ explicitly reports that in latter periods of time [between the advents of Christ] some believers will become apostate [will revolt against doctrine].” Verse 1b — “giving heed” is the present active participle of the verb prosechw. It means to apply the mind to a thing, to concentrate on something, to adhere to something, to be occupied with something, to pay attention to something. The present tense is a pictorial present, it connotes a picture of events as in the process of occurrence. Also it is known as a static present, representing this condition as constantly existing under conditions of reversionism. The active voice: the reversionistic believer produces the action of the verb, he is under the influence of evil and therefore produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated either “paying attention to” or “concentrating on.” “seducing spirits” — the dative plural of reference as well as the dative disadvantage from the adjective planoj plus the noun pneuma. This refers to fallen angels who communicate Satanic doctrine and also act as Satan’s teachers for the dissemination of the policy of evil. Remember that Satan has his pseudo pastors, those who are effective in communicating his doctrine. This is how people get converted to becoming liberals, bleeding hearts, how they become sincere do-gooders. “Seducing spirits” is better translated “deceitful spirits.” They are teaching demons, they are described as the messengers of Satan in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. “and doctrines of devils” — the word for “doctrine” is the dative plural of reference as well as the dative of disadvantage in this case of didaskalia which means the teaching ministry of doctrine, it means the communication of doctrine. It is correctly translated either “teachings” or “doctrines.” With it is the ablative plural of source from the noun daimonion, and it should be translated “demons.” Demons is the accepted word for the fallen angels under the function of Satan. So we have “deceitful spirits and doctrines from demons.” Translation: “But that same Holy Spirit [who vindicated the incarnate Christ] explicitly communicates, that in latter periods of time [the time between the advents] some believers will become apostate [depart from, fall away from, revolt against, abstain from, withdraw from] doctrine, paying attention to deceitful spirits and concentrating on doctrines from demons.” Note that the verb prosexw is repeated to clarify the meaning of the Greek text. The word occurs only once but we have two objects of prosexw, so it is repeated in this way: “Paying attention to [prosexw] deceitful spirits and concentrating on [prosexw] doctrines from demons.” Since prosexw means both to pay attention to and concentrate on it is apropos to repeat it because both the demon teacher and the false doctrine are linked together. Two great doctrines are involved in this last phrase: the doctrine of reversionism and the doctrine of evil. Concentration on doctrines from demons indicates the believer in reversionism under the influence of evil. It is one of the latter stages of reversionism. Paying attention to deceitful spirits is the last stage of reversionism. Concentration on doctrines from demons begins when the mataiothj or the vacuum opens into the soul. Now we move on to the apostles of apostasy in verses 2 — “Speaking lies” is the ablative of source plural. It is from a compound, yeudologoj, and it can be translated “liar.” The translation should be, “From the source of liars.” These false communicators, these Satanic preachers, are liars. “in hypocrisy” actually comes first in the Greek text — e)n plus the instrumental of u(pokrisij. It is transliterated rather than translated in the KJV. U(pokrisij means to speak from behind a mask, to be an actor as in Greek drama. “By means of hypocrisy from the source of [human] liars.” This is talking about a congenital liar, a pathological liar, a person who would rather lie than tell the truth. Notice 1. The liars who use hypocrisy to lead the royal family into apostasy are the human agents of Satan. In the previous verse we had the angelic agents of Satan, demons. In this verse we have human agents, the liars who use hypocrisy to lead the royal family into apostasy are the human agents of Satan. 2. These human agents might be classified as the apostles of apostasy. 3. They exist in every category of the human race, from the highest to the lowest walk of life. 4. Politicians, followed very closely by religious leaders, generals, admirals, judges, educationalists, psychologists, students, rabble-rousers, can all be apostles of apostasy and have been in our history. They all have one thing in common when they are in this category, they are under the influence of evil, they are under the policy of Satan. “having their conscience seared” — the perfect passive participle of the verb kausteriazw. It means to be branded with a branding iron. It should be translated, “having been branded with a branding iron.” The branding iron is evil. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, emphasising the existing results of being branded by evil. The passive voice: the apostles of apostasy receive the action of the verb, that is, their conscience is branded with a branding iron, Satan’s policy of evil. This is a causal participle. With this we have the phrase “their conscience” — the accusative singular of the definite article used as a possessive pronoun plus the accusative singular of reference from the adjective i)dioj, meaning one’s own, and the accusative singular of reference from the noun suneidhsij for “conscience.” It should be translated, “their own conscience.” Translation: “By means of hypocrisy from the source of [human] liars; who because their own conscience has been branded with the branding iron of evil.” Asceticism 1. Asceticism is lack of capacity for life, austere self-denial as a means of gaining the approbation of God. 2. Two forms of asceticism were used in the attack upon Ephesus. Prohibition of marriage, and along with it, prohibition of sex, and prohibition of any food that tasted good or looked good or was good. So it was to live minus sex and normal eating. These were the two forms of asceticism in Ephesus because Ephesus had once been a hell-raising town with a hell-raising population. This meant a whole lot of people who had lived it up for a long time and then went in the opposite direction to make it up to God by way of asceticism. 3. The result of this was twofold in Ephesus. Salvation came from abstinence in sex and good food; spirituality came from abstinence in sex and good food. Good food stimulates the palate, sex stimulates the body. Anything that stimulates is wrong, says the ascetic. If it’s fun, if it’s a pleasure, if it’s stimulating, it’s wrong. 4. The prohibitions regarding food and sex actually had their origin in ascetic gnosticism. That means that later on the representatives of ascetic gnosticism in history are people like Marcion, Saturnius, etc. They were uncomfortable in a sensuous world controlled by the demi urge, therefore to get comfortable they said you must abstain from certain foods and sex. They claimed this on the basis of the fact that each one of us has a soul, which they called an eon, and the eon is trapped by the world of the demi urge — which they called the God of the Old Testament — and you must break out into the heaven of plhrwma. And the only way that you can get your eon out of your body and into heaven is to starve your body and keep your body away from sex or anything that is stimulating. There were many groups, organisations of people, in Israel at this time and that actually spread throughout the ancient world. The Pharisees were the theological legalists. The Saduccees were the rationalistic legalists. The Zealots were the hippie-type revolutionists. Then there were the reactors to everything in society called the Essenes, and they went out into the desert and practiced these various forms of asceticism. Verse 3 — “Forbidding” is the present active participle from the verb kwluw. It means to hinder, to prevent, to forbid. The present tense is a descriptive present for what was going on at the moment. The active voice: the apostles of apostasy, these false teachers representing the Satanic viewpoint, produce the action of the verb by teaching, by evangelising, by leading away, by seducing spiritually members of the flock in Ephesus. The participle is an imperative use of the participle but it is the imperative as a prohibition. It should be translated, “They forbid.” “to marry” — the present active infinitive of the verb gamew which means to marry. This is the Greek word for marriage with emphasis on sexual relationship. This is the substantive use of the infinitive, so that it is used as an object of the participle and therefore should be translated like a noun. “They forbid marriage.” Ascetic reversionism rejects the legitimate expression of sex in category #2 love. It becomes, therefore, a form of legalism to gain the approbation of God. These people thought they could get God’s attention by not having sex, based on the reaction to the sexual excesses which always exist in heathenism. Many of these people were reacting to the famous phallic cult of the ancient world. There were two categories of people who taught this. Those who taught that you can’t go to heaven if you ever have sex. The second thing was, you can go to heaven if you have sex but you’re going to be “out in the cotton fields picking cotton in heaven” if you do. Furthermore, God will never bless you in time, they said in their apostasy. “to abstain” — the present middle infinitive of the verb a)pexw which means to hold one’s self away from something. It has an intransitive use meaning to be estranged. It has an active meaning, to receive a sum in full or to give a receipt for money. The middle voice use is to keep away from something or to abstain. Since this is a present middle infinitive it is correctly translated by the word to abstain or abstinence. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present which denotes what has begin in the past and must be continued into the present time. It says, then, that you must continue to abstain. The infinitive is a substantive use of the infinitive and therefore better translated commanding abstinence. “They forbid marriage and command abstinence.” “from meats” — the ablative plural of separation from the noun brwma which means food, any kind of food. This introduces the principle of salvation, spirituality, and maturity by works. This is all legalism as well as apostasy. In the middle of this verse we have the reputation of ascetic reversionism. With the word “which” in the middle of the verse we are going to see a short statement of reputation. It goes through half of verse 3 and all of verse 4. It was say in effect, “What I have just taught you about what they teach is all wrong. They are wrong, out of line; they are apostate.” “which” is a nominative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j whose antecedent is brwma in the plural for food — “which foods.” “God” — o( qeoj, “the God.” “hath created” — God created food for man. The word for “create” is the aorist active indicative of the verb ktizw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence, for example, of animal life being created on the fifth and sixth days of the earth’s restoration and gathers it into one entirety. Asceticism is rejecting what God provided for man’s health and blessing physically. The active voice: God the Son produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is doctrinal and historical reality. “to be received” — a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of metalhyij which means taking or receiving. Genesis 9:3. “with thanksgiving” — the preposition meta plus the genitive singular from e)uxaristia. Meta is the preposition of association. We call that “grace” or thanking God for the food and asking it to be sanctified so that whatever impurities exist will be set aside, and that even impure food or spoiled food will be for the nourishment of our bodies. The taking of food can be a pleasure as well as a necessity. “of them which believer” — the instrumental plural of the definite article plus the instrumental plural of the adjective pistoj. It means “by dependable believers.” “and” — the ascensive use of kai, translated “even.” “know” — prefect active participle of e)piginwskw which means maximum knowledge of doctrine; it is the verb that goes with its cognate e)pignwsij, doctrine resident in the soul. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. It represents the status of maturity or super-grace in a very vivid and realistic way. Emphasis is placed on the existing status of spiritual maturity by the one who is blessing the food. The active voice: the mature or super-grace believer produces the action. The participle is circumstantial for believers who have followed the colours to the high ground, who have established the command post of doctrine resident in the soul. Translation: “They forbid marriage, and command abstinence from certain foods, which the God has created for receiving with thanksgiving by faithful believers, even those who have full knowledge of the doctrine, with the result that they have maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Verse 4 — “For” is the causal conjunction o(ti and it means “Because.” It explains everything in the previous verse. “every creature” — the nominative neuter singular from paj for “every,” plus ktisma for “creature.” Ktisma means everything created. It is a reference to the animal world here. There is no such thing as any kind of meat that is not fit for human consumption. Some meat is better than others. “of God” — the ablative of means from qeoj. It is correctly translated, “by God.” The ablative is not the regular case for expressing means, it is only used to express means when it is accompanied by the implications of origin. The absence of the definite article emphasises the perfect quality of the creator who knows exactly what He is doing in providing animals for food. “is good” — the predicate nominative of kaloj. This is a neuter form to indicate food. It means good for food. This not only knocks out asceticism but it also indicates that God has provided in His grace all kinds of creatures for food. “and nothing to be refused” — kai o)uden, i.e. nothing in the types of animal life; “to be refused” is a nominative neuter singular from the adjective a)poblhtoj. This is the predicate adjective and it means to reject something as unclean. The verb to be is inserted because of the fact that we have a predicate adjective type of construction. “if it be received” — the present passive participle of lambanw. It means to receive food in the sense of eating it. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time, the present time being the point of eating. The passive voice: the believer receives the food by eating. The participle is conditional as correctly translated, “if the food is received.” “with thanksgiving” — meta plus the genitive singular of e)uxaristia. That means don’t eat without sanctifying it. Translation: “Because everything created by God is good for food, and nothing is to be rejected as unclean, if the food is received with thanksgiving.” Verse 5 — “For” really is “for” here, the post positive conjunctive particle gar. With it is the principle that actually applies when you are facing food: it is sanctified. Here is the reason for your prayer before eating. “it is sanctified” — the present passive indicative of a(giazw. The present tense is the perfective present, it denotes the continuation of the results. The result is that the food, even if it is somehow dangerous, is now without danger and the food is turned into nourishment. The passive voice: the food is the subject so the verb receives the action of the verb. It is set apart for the physical nourishment of the body as well as protection of health. The indicative mood is declarative for reality. When a person says grace before meals he sanctifies or sets apart or consecrates the food. This means that whatever may be injurious or harmful is set aside and the otherwise dangerous food is rendered harmless, and at the same time rendered nutritious. “by the word of God” — dia plus the genitive of logoj is “through the agency of the Word.” The genitive of qeoj is a genitive of source or an ablative of source — “from God.” The word from God has promised that animal and plant life will sustain and nourish the physical body so that human life can be maintained during the course of the angelic conflict. Genesis 1:29,30. “and prayer” — this is the completion of the prepositional phrase. It is also the object of the preposition, the genitive singular of e)nteucij which is an intensive prayer of intercession. Translation: “For it is set apart for nourishment through the word from God and prayer.” Principle 1. Bible doctrine guarantees both spiritual and physical food. 2. The prayer or saying grace of the super-grace believer removes the problem of impurities in food. 3. The principle of grace before meals is also found in 1 Samuel 9:13. 4. Jesus Christ offered prayer before eating the loaves and the fishes — Matthew 14:19; 15:36. 5. Paul on ship board offered prayer before meals before the seamen ate — Acts 27:35. The doctrine of reversionism 1. Definition. a) Reversionism is the negative status of the believer in phase two. The believer is negative toward doctrine. He is called a reversionist, he is called apostate, he is called many things. He is under the evil. b) Reversionism is characterised by two principles: negative volition toward Bible doctrine and resultant failure under GAP, and resultant carnality resulting in a life of perpetual discipline — Hebrews 12:4-15. c) Reversionism is recession from any stage of spiritual growth, partial or complete; or even a retreat from super-grace status. d) Reversionism is lack of spiritual growth. It is neglect of Bible doctrine which is the only means of spiritual growth. e) While super-grace is the progressive state of the believer in time, reversionism is the retrogressive state of the believer in time. In other words, you never stand still. You are either moving forward or going backward. f) Reversionism in the believer is analogous to apostasy or being under the influence of evil. g) Reversionism in the unbeliever is rejection of or departure from the laws of divine establishment. So there is an unbeliever reversionism as well. h) Reversionism must be distinguished from carnality in the same way that spirituality must be distinguished by maturity. There is a difference between spirituality and maturity, even as there is a difference between reversionism and carnality. i) Spirituality is an absolute status whereby the Holy Spirit controls the soul of the believer. Super-grace is a relative status involving maximum growth or maturity. j) Carnality is also an absolute state of being out of fellowship through sin. Reversionism is a relative state of varying degrees of spiritual failure. k) The carnal believer is positive toward doctrine, or can be, but the reversionistic believer is always negative toward doctrine. The carnal believer recovers from his carnality in the instant that he rebounds. The reversionistic believer takes many years and sometimes never recovers. l) Reversionism is a technical theological synonym for being influenced by evil. Remember that evil is the Satanic policy, reversionism is the result of that Satanic policy influencing a believer. God blesses the believer influenced by doctrine; God disciplines the believer influenced by evil. 2. The mechanical stages of reversionism. A. The first stage is the reaction stage. a) First of all, the presence of reactor factors in the life causes the believer to react. These factors include many things: disillusion, discouragement, boredom, inability to cope with loneliness, frustration overcome by self-pity. All of these things have a way of causing reaction unless you have doctrine in the soul to meet these situations. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul causes the individual to meet any exigency in life but minimum or no doctrine means that you fall into the reaction factors. b) It includes rejection of the authority of your right pastor — one of the first things to go, personality hang-ups with members of the congregation or the pastor, hypersensitivity, lack of objectivity under rebuke or reprimand. c) It includes mental attitude sins such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, arrogance, guilt complex — all mental sins that work into the picture. d) It includes operation vengeance or getting even, which in effect is seeking to build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. e) The reaction stage includes distractions which lure the believer from the routine of the consistent perception of doctrine. There is the “social-sexual” distraction, pleasure, entertainment distractions, family distractions, health distractions, gossip distractions, policy distractions (when I canned the choir we lost half the choir). f) Part of the reaction stage, but not quite as common, are such things as drug addiction. People under the influence of narcotics and drugs of one kind or another, from glue sniffers all the way to cocaine simply cannot GAP it. Mental illness: neurotics and psychotics. Academic or mental incompetence can distract from consistent learning of Bible doctrine — you don’t understand so instead of sticking it out you say to Hell with it. B. The reaction to reaction, which is a frantic search for happiness. You go out somewhere else and show how happy you can be without doctrine. This includes: a) The function of the reactor factor in the life of the believer resulting in moving toward a frantic search for happiness. b) The frantic search for happiness becomes the alternative to the daily function of GAP and the accepted solution for the frustrations resulting from reaction. c) This frantic search for happiness follows the trends of the old sin nature. The trend toward asceticism leads to the false emphasis on experience — so-called victorious life decisions, conferences, emotional stimulation, pseudo-tongues, holy rollers, legalisms, getting involved in works programs, spirituality by self-denial, faggot-on-the-fire one-shot decisions, and all kinds of energy of the flesh activities including tabooism (giving up anything that’s fun). e) The trend toward lasciviousness, which includes drunkenness, debauchery, chasing, seduction, becoming users of narcotics and drugs (apart from medicine), female nymphomania, homosexuality, lesbianism, etc. C. Operation boomerang. A frantic search for happiness intensifies the original reaction. D. Emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion is the female part of the soul designed to respond to the right lobe or the heart. The body has male and female hormones. Whether you are a man or a woman you still have both types in your body. The soul has male and female parts. The male part is the heart or the right lobe with its frame of reference, it’s memory centre, vocabulary storage, categorical storage, norms and standards (called conscience), and launching pad. This is the right man or the male part of the soul. The female part of the soul is called the emotion. The female part of the right woman is a responder to what you have in your right lobe (where you do your thinking). This is the responder to what you think. This is the concept of this fourth stage. The heart or right lobe of the soul is equivalent to the right man while the emotion is equivalent to the right woman. In effect, emotional revolt of the soul is tantamount to the emotion fornicating with the old sin nature instead of responding to the right lobe. The old sin nature has an area of weakness which produces sins, and area of strength which produces human good. It has a lust patterns and it has trends. All of this is a part of the picture. The old sin nature is constantly trying to seduce the emotion away from the right lobe. When this occurs you have holy rollers, for example. They are nothing more than emotional rejects. Emotion has no doctrinal content, no mentality, no character. Emotion is a responder, it can only respond to what doctrine is found in the right lobe. And when the emotion fails to respond to the right lobe and revolts from it then you have the fourth stage of reversionism. Once emotion revolts it becomes the aggressor, it loses all capacity for life, it becomes distorted and a tool for the old sin nature. In Revelation 2:23 we have a description for emotional revolt — “… I am he who searches the emotions and the right lobe, and I will give each one of you according to your deeds.” Influence by doctrine versus influence by evil. The emotion of the reversionist resists Bible doctrine and Bible teaching — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans 16:17,18. The emotional revolt of the soul causes the emotion to respond, then, to the old sin nature. The emotion takes over the dictatorship of the soul. It becomes the aggressor, it neutralises doctrine in the soul, and eventually it causes doctrine in the right lobe to dry up. The emotion becomes a tyrant, it shuts out doctrine, it short circuits the grace apparatus for perception, it causes every portion of the soul to malfunction. Believers who live by emotions or use their emotions for the criterion are apostate, they are under the influence of evil, they are disoriented, they are degenerate, reversionistic. They are under discipline, they will wind up under the sin unto death. This does not imply that there is anything wrong with emotion, far from it. There is nothing wrong with emotion. Emotion is the manner in which we express our capacity for life, it is the way in which we respond to so many things that we enjoy. Emotion always responds to what you have in your frame of reference. None of us want to be without is, but none of us want it as a dictator. E. Negative volition toward doctrine. (These stages overlap to some extent) The characteristics of negative volition are: i) Indifference or apathy toward Bible teaching, toward right pastor-teacher. ii) Too busy for Bible teaching — any old excuse will do. iii) Antagonism or personality hang-ups with regard to the pastor or his authority, or both. iv) Antagonism or personality conflict with other members of the congregation. v) Failure to use grace provision for GAP. This includes the assembly at the local church, failure to rebound, lack of respect for authority, poor manners, lack of concentration, no poise, no objectivity. vi) Inability to handle prosperity. vii) Disorientation to the factors of living grace. This includes: under living grace God keeps the believer alive in the devil’s world by a number of ways — food, shelter, clothing, transportation, everything necessary to assemble to hear the Word of God taught. F. The blackout of the soul. We are now dealing with something that starts in the left lobe, the nouj which is translated “mind.” The right lobe is called in the Bible “heart” — kardia. Blackout starts in the left lobe, scar tissue starts in the right lobe. Both have a starting place and they spread throughout the soul. The stages: Negative volition produces a vacuum in the soul called mataiothj. Through this vacuum comes the doctrine of demons. All of the doctrine of demons — the demons are the communicators in the vacuum system — is the communication of evil. Evil then comes into the left lobe and blacks out the entire soul. You get strict human viewpoint, Satanic viewpoint, liberalism, bleeding hearts, antiestablishment, anti-authority, etc. Many of the things we are brainwashed into thinking are wrong are actually biblically right, they are not wrong at all — e.g. serving in the military. Through this vacuum, then, we have the doctrine of demons, being influenced by evil. This results in becoming religious, liberal, human viewpoint, social action, getting involved. All of this is a part of being influenced by evil. A believer cannot be demon possessed. He can be evil possessed. The infiltration of Satanic doctrine or demon influence leads to the blackout of the soul — Ephesians 4:17,18. G. Scar tissue of the soul. This refers to the freezing of the valves of the right lobe or the heart. The heart or the right lobe has a number of valves to circulate thinking. In the frame of reference there are two valves. One is on each end of the memory centre. This valve goes down into the chambers where the conscience, the norms and standards, are stored. The other valve goes up into vocabulary storage where new words develop the basis for new thinking. Next door to that is categorical storage which is the result of increasing vocabulary and getting technical vocabulary. Then all of these have valves which lead to the launching pad where we make application of doctrine. When all of these valves freeze then doctrine can no longer be circulating and doctrine, as it were, atrophies and hardens into scar tissue of the soul. John 14:20 — “He has blinded their eyes, he has hardened their right lobe, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive by means of the right lobe, and be turned around, and I should restore them.” Scar tissue of the soul or hardness of the heart rejects, for example, military preparation and de-emphasises national defense — Proverbs 21:29-31. Hardness of the neck is insubordination to the point of revolution. Scar tissue of the soul is related to this negative volition — Jeremiah 7:25-27. H. Reverse process reversionism. This is the antithesis of super-grace. The believer in reverse process reversionism cannot be distinguished from the unbeliever. As far as his pattern of life, his thinking, his viewpoint, or anything about him, there is no way that he can be distinguished from an unbeliever. In this final stage the believer reverses the object of his love, his attention, his occupation. He becomes enamored with pseudo objects compatible with his spiritual condition. In category #1 love he seeks personal glory — blind arrogance rather than occupation with Christ. In category #2 love, false lovers instead of the right man or the right woman. In category #3 love he has false friends instead of true friends. He has no capacity for life and so all of the objects are completely reversed. 3. There is discipline for reversionism, discipline at every stage of reversionism. a) The first stage of discipline is called “warning.” It is designed by God to give the believer warning against his spiritual condition. It is the type of discipline found in the first four stages of reversionism which are the reactionary stage, frantic search for happiness, operation boomerang, and emotional revolt. This stage includes both adversity and prosperity. You have things to earn you. You might have prosperity and then have it removed. You might have success and have it removed, have something that you value very much and then have it removed as a reminder that God is still in heaven making sovereign decisions and that any blessings that really count must come from Him. Revelation 3:20 is a passage on warning discipline. b) Intensive stage, for those who reject the Lord knocking on the door of the life by discipline. Prosperity is removed and the person moves into a totally miserable situation. Sometimes the prosperity is not removed but the person is so miserable that the types of prosperity he possesses are meaningless to him. Psalm 38:1-14. This is also the category of strong delusion which is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. c) The final stage of discipline is dying discipline, equivalent to the sin unto death. Reversionism is the cause for the sin unto death, as per Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation 3:16. The relationship between negative volition toward doctrine and the sin unto death is spelt out very clearly in 1 Chronicles 10:13,14.

 4. The principle. It is found in the corrected translation of Galatians 5:4 — “You reversionists have become a casualty [ineffective, useless, or neutralised] from Christ, whoever are being vindicated by means of the law; you have drifted off course from grace.” So reversionism is drifting off course from grace. The principle of reversionism drifting off course from grace implies that the drift leads to shoals, to disaster of one type or another. 5. 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) Legalistic reversionism — Colossians 2:16-18; Hebrews 5:11-6:16. c) Monetary reversionism — Ecclesiastes 5:10-16; James 4:13,14; 5;1-6; Revelation 3:14-20. d) Alcoholic and narcotic reversionism — Isaiah 28:1-9; Galatians 5:20, farmakeia referring to those using drugs. e) Antiestablishment reversionism — hippies, longhairs. Romans 1:18-32; Hosea 4:1-7. f) Mental attitude reversionism. g) Verbal reversionism — James 5:9, 12. h) Psychotic reversionism. 6. Biblical nomenclature for reversionism. a) Drifting off course from grace — Galatians 5:4. b) Being the enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18. c) Uncircumcised of heart — Jeremiah 9:25,26. d) Failing of the grace of God — Hebrews 12:15. e) A tortured soul — 2 Peter 2:7,8. f) An unstable soul — 2 Peter 2:14. g) Leaving your first love — Revelation 2:4. h) Fallen — Revelation 2:5. i) Lukewarm — Revelation 3:15,16. k) Shipwrecked — 1 Timothy 1:19. 7. The profile of the reversionist — Psalm 7:14-16. 8. The contamination of reversionism — Hebrews 12:15. 9. Psychosis and reversionism — 2 Peter 2:15-19. 10. Reversionism eliminates the special blessing paragraph for time and eternity — Hebrews 3:10-12. 11. Hebrew reversionism — Hebrews 5:11-14. In 6:1-3 we see that reversion recovery is impossible apart from the daily function of GAP from the field of basic doctrine; 6:4-6, reversion recovery is impossible when religious reversionism is perpetuated in the life. 12. Reversion leads to perversion — Romans 1:26,27; it produces national disintegration — Romans 1:29-32; Hosea 4:1-6. 13. Reversion intensifies suffering — Psalm 77:1-10. 14. The doctrine of reverse process reversionism is covered in its mechanics, its definition, its details, and some of its activities. In verses 6-10 we have a doctrinal defense against apostasy. Verse 6 — “If thou put in remembrance” is a present middle participle of the verb u(potiqhmi. In the active voice this means to lay down, to risk something. In the middle voice is means to point out something to someone in order to do something for someone, to teach something to someone from the position of authority. Here it means to teach with authority. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what should habitually occur in every local church. Every pastor should study, study, study, so that he can teach with authority. It is impossible to teach with authority unless you study. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the agent, the pastor or guardian of the local church, as producing the action of the verb. In other words, the middle voice sets up a very close relationship between the subject and the verb. Once a man enters the ministry and has his own congregation his life and most of his time should be devoted to studying the Word of God. The participle is an instrumental participle and therefore it is incorrectly translated in the KJV. The first words in this verse are “By teaching the brethren.” That is the responsibility of the pastor-teacher. “of these things” — the accusative neuter plural direct object from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. This word emphasises the doctrinal content of this epistle. This is the primary function of the pastor-guardian of the local church. He cannot accomplish it without studying. He cannot be a student of the Word without many years of preparation — not simply his own academic preparation, not simply his own spiritual growth, but everything that goes to make up his self-discipline and consistency of study. This means that his own congregation as members of the royal family of God are insulated from evil and able to advance. First there is a defense perimeter established and then from that there is an attack. But you must be on balance before you take the offensive. Any time an offensive is launched there must be stability. You must have initiative from a stabilised situation. The same thing is true of every generation: it is the stabilised congregation that finally makes the attack. It takes a lot of doctrine from which to launch the attack. Every great attack in history has been launched from a stabilised perimeter. We have an instrumental participle and it should be translated, “By teaching these things.” The demonstrative pronoun emphasises doctrine. There is no substitute for doctrine, there never will be. “thou shalt be” — the future active indicative of e)imi. The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance rightly expected when the pastor is faithful in the function of study and teach. The active voice: the pastor produced the action in fulfilling his communicative ministry. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. “a good minister” — kaloj diakonoj. Kaloj is the key here. As an adjective here it means honourable. No pastor can be honourable unless he teaches the Word all the time. “nourished up” — the present passive participle of the verb e)ntrepw. This is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what happened in the past from studying the Word and continues into the present time. The pastor can never stop being a devoted student of the Word of God. The passive voice: the pastor himself receives spiritual growth from his own study of the Word. He is an exception to the rule. The congregation gets its spiritual growth by listening to the teaching of the Word, he gets his by studying. This is a circumstantial participle and it should be translated, “constantly being nourished.” “in the words” — the locative plural of logoj here means “principles”; “of faith” — the ablative singular of source from pistij for “doctrine,” what is believed or doctrine. “By teaching these things to the members of the royal family of God you will be an honourable minister of Christ Jesus, constantly being nourished in the principles from the doctrine.” “and” is not correct. It is sometimes translated that way. It is the conjunction kai but it is the ascensive use and is translated “even.” “of good doctrine” — the ablative singular from the adjective kaloj and it should be, “even from advantageous [or honourable] doctrine.” Didaskalia is the word for “doctrine” here and it means teaching or doctrine. Principles 1. The adjective kaloj means both desirable and advantageous. Doctrine is more desirable than anything in life, and for the royal family of God doctrine is more advantageous than anything in life. 2. Doctrine is advantageous to the believer as the means of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. The tactical victory comes at the point of super-grace when God can provide paragraph SG2. 3. Doctrine is advantageous in glorifying God. 4. Doctrine is advantageous in spiritual growth and fulfilling all the objectives of this life. 5. Doctrine resident in the soul has every positive spiritual advantage as well as protecting the believer from apostasy. 6. This means that doctrine is kaloj, advantageous in protecting the believer from divine discipline, the influence of evil and failure. We are designed for victory, we were never designed for failure. The only reason that we are failures is because we fail to take in doctrine. Sin is not the issue in the Christian life, it is doctrine versus evil, it is what you think: being influenced by doctrine or influenced by evil. “whereunto” is the dative singular from the relative pronoun o(j and it should be translated “on which.” “thou hast attained” — the perfect active indicative from parakolouqew. The word means to follow with the mind, to concentrate on, to make something one’s own. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect emphasising continual results and faithfulness in the function of GAP. The active voice: the pastor produces the action in initiating to the congregation with that which is a blessing to them. The indicative mood is potential indicative used in a claim of obligation. Every pastor is obligated to communicate doctrine to his congregation. Translation: “By teaching these things to the brethren, you will be an honourable minister of Christ Jesus, constantly being nourished in the principles from doctrine, even from advantageous doctrine on which you have concentrated, with the result that you possess it.” You cannot teach what you do not know; you cannot communicate what you do not possess; you cannot give what you do not own. The pastor must own doctrine in his soul, it must be his personal possession before he can give it to his congregation. Principles 1. No minister is qualified for the pastorate or guardianship of the local church until he has saturated himself with doctrine. It is a continual process, he never quits studying. 2. This means the intense function of GAP under the strictest academic discipline. 3. Until the man who has the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is a man of doctrine he is not qualified to function as the pastor-guardian of the local church. 4. Doctrine is the key to the pastor’s life because doctrine is the key to the function of the royal family. 5. Bible teaching from the pulpit, then, is the only defense against Church Age apostasy and the only hope for our country. 6. Therefore the pastor must constantly exegete, teach, verses by verse in an expository manner. This means there is no substitute for the communication of the Word of God. 7. There is no protection against apostasy apart from the daily function of GAP. That demands that the pastor take the initiative and be aggressive in communicating God’s Word. The doctrine of the importance of doctrine 1. Definition. The word “doctrine” itself means teaching. Bible doctrine is the content of Bible communication by teaching and instruction. Doctrine is the communication of Bible subjects based upon exegetical analysis from the original languages, context analysis, classification of subject, and teaching which analyses and interprets every passage in the Word of God. Doctrine is what the Bible teaches. Grace in the genius of God, doctrine is the manifestation of His genius. 2. Biblical nomenclature. 3. The legacy of believers is Bible doctrine — that is, the believer’s legacy in time. Psalm 138:2. 4. In His dying breath Jesus Christ made doctrine the spiritual legacy of the royal family of God — a comparison of Luke 23:46 and Psalm 31:5. “Into your hands I deposit my Spirit Father, for you have delivered me, O Jehovah, God of doctrine.” Doctrine was the great motivator of our Lord during the first advent and during His saving ministry on the cross. 5. Bible doctrine preexisted the human race — Proverbs chapter 8 records how Bible doctrine was with God in eternity past, before the creation of the universe. 6. The attitude toward doctrine determines whether the believer is blessed or disciplined in time. A continuous positive attitude means to be influenced by doctrine. A continuous negative attitude means to be influenced by evil. Therefore attitude toward doctrine determines whether the believer is blessed or disciplined in time — Proverbs 8:33-36. The real issue is doctrine versus evil. Doctrine is a system of thought; evil is a system of thought. A thought can make or break you. What you think is more important than what you do. If your thinking is doctrine then you go on to blessing and glory. If your thinking is evil then you go from one stage of discipline to another until you have died the sin unto death. 7. Therefore doctrine is the basis for the distribution of super-grace blessings — Isaiah 53:12. The daily function of GAP means maximum doctrine in the soul. This means following the colours to the high ground, establishing a command post of Bible doctrine resident in the soul, setting up you own inner dictator, having the great blessings which come from maximum doctrine in the soul, which come from maturity. God is free to give you your own paragraph SG2 with its spiritual blessings, its temporal blessings, and its dying blessings. Really the only reason that you are still alive right now is so that God can bless you. We are left here to take in doctrine so that God is free to bless us, so He is free to provide us on the basis of our doctrinal capacity. Isaiah 53:12 — “Therefore I [God the Father] will distribute the plunder of victory [SG2, SG3] to him [to Christ at the right hand] because of the many [believers of the royal family], then he [the glorified Christ] will distribute the plunder of victory [SG2 and SG3] to the great ones [super-grace believers of this dispensation], because he [Christ] poured out his soul to [physical] death; prior to this he was identified with the offerings for sins [spiritual death]; because he himself carried the sin of the many, and about the offering for sin [basis of saving grace] it caused to fall upon him.” 8. Doctrine, then, is the basis for the distribution of surpassing blessing [SG3] for eternity — Hebrews 11:9,10 cf.. 11:13; James 1:25 cf. 2:12,13. 9. Principle: Bible doctrine must be more real than empirical knowledge — 2 Peter 1:12-21. What the Word of God says must become more real than what you see, taste, touch, smell, hear. If there is a conflict then the Bible is always right. Bible doctrine is the criterion for the royal family as well as the means of blessing. 10. Lack of Bible doctrine destroys a nation — Hosea 4:1-6. 11. Bible doctrine is part of the principle of living grace for phase two. Under living grace God keeps us alive to take in doctrine, to move to the high ground and to receive blessing. 12. The plan of God is both advanced and vindicated through Bible doctrine — Isaiah 53;10; Romans 3:4. 13. The pastor or communicator of doctrine establishes the balance of residency in the soul of the believer. The principle of residency is threefold. It includes the indwelling of the body by the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 6:19; the indwelling or controlling of the believer’s soul by the filling of the Spirit, and the indwelling of Bible doctrine by means of GAP. We call this the balance of residency or GAP. Bible doctrine is transferred from the canon to the believer’s soul by Bible teaching from authorised personnel — right pastor. The purpose for this transfer of doctrine from the written page to the right lobe of the believer’s soul is to establish balance of residency whereby God can be glorified in the life, whereby He can bless you, whereby He can provide you everything apart from cosmos diabolicus. So the Holy Spirit has chosen in this dispensation to work through the Word. The vacancy of doctrine in the soul creates a demand for Bible teaching for the function of GAP. The daily function of GAP creates a balance of residency and the pastor communicator is the key in that communication. 14. Therefore the importance of the consistency of GAP — Hebrews 10:25, 35,36; Colossians 2:6,7. 15. The results of doctrine in the soul are many: a) It produces confidence in time — Job 5:24-27; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Hebrews 10:35. b) It produces the divine viewpoint of life, it gives the dynamics of soul before anything else — Isaiah 55:7-9; 2 Corinthians 10:5. c) It orients the believer to the plan of God — Isaiah 26:3,4; Romans 8:28. d) It produces stability of mind — James 1:8 e) It is the basis for divine guidance and the execution of the will of God — Romans 12:2,3. f) It leads to occupation with Christ, the capacity and ability to love God — Philippians 3:10; Ephesians 3:19; Hebrews 12:2,3. g) It attains and holds super-grace status — Philippians 3:12-14. h) It attains surpassing grace blessing in eternity — Hebrews 11:9,10,13; James 1:25; 2:12,13. 16. There are many synonyms for doctrine in the soul: a) The language synonym — chakmah and e)pignwsij. These two words both means the same: maximum doctrine resident in the soul. b) The theological synonym — James 4:6, meizona xarin. It is a comparative and should be translated “greater or super grace.” Super-grace is a synonym for maturity. c) The priestly synonym — Hebrews 13:10, “altar of the soul.” d) The building synonym — the edification complex [ECS], Ephesians 4:12,16. e) The time synonym — redeeming the time. Toward God — Ephesians 5:16-18; toward the unbeliever — Colossians 4:5. f) The central control synonym, the dictatorship of the soul — Ephesians 6:10. g) Three military synonyms: Putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-18; following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; establishing a command post of the soul — Colossians 2:5-8. h) The crucifixion synonym — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27. “Take up your cross” is Bible class attendance in spite of evil, in spite of opposition, in spite of disillusion, in spite of distractions. “Follow me” is the daily function of GAP. i) The chemical synonym: salt of the earth/land — Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34; Colossians 4:6. Salt is that doctrine resident in the soul of the super-grace believer that preserves the nation, the city, the community, the business, the organisation. j) The sanctification synonym: Godliness — 1 Timothy 6:3,4; 2 Peter 1:3. This is known as the balance of residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine. This, too, is a synonym for maturity. Verses 7 — the defense of spiritual growth. “But” is the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de, correctly translated “but.” “refuse” is a very strong verb, the present middle imperative of paraiteomai. The word means to excuse one’s self, to decline, to avoid, to reject, to refuse. Reject is the strongest word and the correct translation here — “But keep on rejecting.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it depicts the action in the process of occurrence. The middle voice represents a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The reflexive concept of this verb comes from the meaning of the verb and not from the middle voice. The imperative mood is a mood of command. What do you have to reject if you are going to grow up, if you’re going to glorify God, if you’re going to defend against evil, if you are going to establish a stabilised defense perimeter from which to launch a counter attack against Satan? You must have spiritual growth, you must have Bible doctrine for that spiritual growth. In verse 6 we saw the Bible doctrine you must have. In verses 7 we now see the results in spiritual growth, and we have a negative approach. If you are going to grow up spiritually you have to refuse something, you have to keep on rejecting something — “profane and old wives’ fables.” “profane” — it is an adjective, the accusative plural direct object of bebhloj. As an adjective it is translated here “profane.” But remember it is in the plural, we have no such English word as “profanes.” It means also, “desecrated.” It denotes a place which may be entered by anyone, a place where trash can came in. In other words, it means no an exclusive club. Bebhloj means a desecrated place because the peasantry can come in. In the Koine Greek the word became technical for Gnostic doctrine, for any false doctrine, for any false system. It came to mean eventually any system of legalism. You must reject as profane any legalism. Bebhloj means where the stupid peons go. And where do the stupid peons go? Where there is false doctrine. We are royalty and royalty does not cater to peasants. We are catering to peasants when we get into legalism, false doctrine. Bebhloj is forbidden to royalty. As long as you carry the cobwebs of peasantry in your soul you can never move into the beauty of the aristocracy in the palace, and there are blessings in the palace for you. The word bebhloj is used here not just for Gnostic type reversionism but every type of reversionism, and the Bible says keep on rejecting it. “and old wives’ fables” — and it is really not an old wives’ fable at all. The connective conjunction kai is correctly translated “and.” The word for “old wives” is grauj and it means “old woman.” It is the accusative plural direct object from grawdhj which comes from grauj. It is literally, “old women’s fables.” And what is an old woman’s fable? They called an old woman a grauj and it was a sort of an insulting term, and they called anyone who acted like an old woman grawdhj. There is nothing wrong with being grauj but there is everything wrong with being grawdhj. A male who is grawdhj means that he is simply a petty, effeminate type person. It also means silly and absurd. The adjective here means characteristic of old women or something which is only fit for old women. “tales” — muqoj, which is a story, a legend, a myth. “Myth” is actually taken from muqoj. This refers to any system of false doctrine which brings the believer under the influence of evil. Remember that evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. When a believer in reversionism goes into this he has accepted evil, which is called here “myths and tales fit for old women.” The lack of discernment which comes from being under the influence of evil and resultant susceptibility to any type of false doctrine — but especially the false doctrine which appeals to the emotion or the approbation lust — is the meaning of this phrase. Timothy is being bullied by old women of the church who are apostate and reversionistic and under the influence of evil. These women have succumbed to very deceitful and sometimes very sweet hypocrisy. This is the negative side. You as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ advancing in Bible doctrine must have wisdom from that doctrine. Wisdom means discernment. You will be people smart, you will be very wise to detect false doctrine. You will have a built-in warning system when any type of false doctrine is presented and therefore you will never fall into the system of grawdhj, a silly old woman. Not all women are silly, but a silly old woman can be taken in by anything or anyone. Now we have the positive side, “and exercise” — the adversative use of the post positive conjunction de and it means “but” rather than “and,” plus the present active imperative of the verb gumnazw. This is where we get our word for gymnasium. It actually means “exercise.” It means to be in a system of exercise that constitutes training for something. The present tense is a present tense of repeated action, it has strong linear aktionsart. The action is also iterative representing the function of the pastor for successive intervals for the rest of his life. The pastor must be in constant spiritual training. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb by studying and teaching. The imperative mood is a command to all pastors. “thyself” is the accusative singular direct object from the reflexive pronoun seautou. When the action expressed by the verb is referred back to its own subject it is called a reflexive. Here we have the reflexive pronoun, the action is referred back to the pastor. Once a man who has the gift of pastor-teacher starts studying and teaching he must do it for the rest of his life. Principles about gumnazw 1. This verb for exercise is used because it requires great self-discipline to be consistent. This verb applies to pastors only. 2. The pastor must consistent in his exegesis and analysis of the Word of God. This is a part of his spiritual training. 3. The verb gumnazw means to exercise naked. The Greeks did not wear clothing. This implies that the pastor-guardian of the local church is naked before God, he has no merit in himself. 4. God in His matchless and perfect grace has provided the means to dig out of the scripture the meaning of any specific passage so that it can be communicated. 5. While the pastor has great authority in the local church he is helpless, therefore the beneficiary of grace. 6. The pastor must be a drudge, he must be a plodder. He must do so in self-discipline. He must persist in the daily study of the Word of God no matter what. 7. He must not be distracted by tradition — calling up all of the sick people in hospital, calling on people, etc. “unto godliness” — the preposition proj plus the accusative of e)usebeia. Proj plus the accusative also means not only means face to face with godliness but for the purpose of godliness. This is what it means here. Proj plus the accusative is used often to state an objective or a purpose. So it should be “for the purpose of godliness.” Translation: “But keep rejecting profane [or reversionistic] myths and tales fit for old women, on the other hand be exercising yourself for the purpose [or objective] of godliness.” Conclusions from verse 7 1. Nourishment from Bible doctrine in the previous verse emphasises the analogy to the body absorbing food to be sustained and produce energy. 2. The believer must absorb the spiritual food of doctrine for the sustenance of his spiritual life and spiritual energy. 3. This spiritual energy must be used in spiritual exercise for spiritual growth, spiritual development, spiritual strength. We are here to become strong spiritually, that is an issue in the angelic conflict. 4. The believer develops the spiritual muscle of super-grace status through the constant, consistent exercise of the function of GAP. Your daily intake of Bible doctrine under the function of GAP is analogous to an exercise program that keeps you physically fit and in good health. 5. While the previous verse emphasises the defense of Bible teaching, this verse emphasises the result of Bible teaching in spiritual growth. 6. The command to Timothy applies to all believers. Our defense against apostasy and the influence of evil is the constant function GAP — spiritual exercise resulting in great spiritual stamina, resulting in the coordination of the super-grace life. 7. The emphasis of this verse is exercise which demands total self-discipline as well as the understanding of the objective. 8. For the pastor like Timothy the daily function of GAP is self-discipline, plodding, studying and teaching. The pastor’s studying and teaching is the intense spiritual exercise which is beneficial to him and to his congregation spiritually, just as physical exercise is beneficial. 9. For the royal family in the congregation of the local church there must be self-discipline. This self-discipline is analogous to exercise — assembling to attend Bible class, concentrating on the teaching of the Word of God, good manners [silence, not disturbing, not moving], concentration, poise, objectivity, persistence in spite of distraction or disillusion. All of this is the spiritual exercise that takes each one of us to the high ground of maturity. Verse 8 — the importance of spiritual growth. “For” is a post positive enclitic particle gar, it is used as an explanatory conjunction. It reminds us that there is an analogy between the previous verse and this one, and physical exercise is used as the illustration. “For example” or “For you see” is a more expanded translation of gar. “bodily exercise” — the adjective nominative feminine singular of the word swmatikoj which means something pertaining to the body, referring to the body. With it is a noun, the nominative singular of gumnasia. It means exercise, training, a vigorous system of physical training. This is a reference to physical exercise, setting up an analogy. A few moments are necessary for examining the concept of bodily training. No matter what you do for exercise, categorically there are only three systems. a) There is the respiratory system [heart/lungs] — leg-lungs system of exercise. This is represented by running or by running sports. This is good for the respiratory system. b) Coordination. This is exercise used in sports — skill type of stamina. c) The muscle-building type which provides strength, symmetry, definition. All systems require strong motivation and strong self-discipline. That is, to be consistent, to be persistent. “profitable” — the present active indicative of the verb e)imi which means “to be.” The present tense is a customary present, this is what you would expect from exercise. It is the active voice: the one who enters into physical exercise. The one who enters into physical exercise is the one who will be benefited. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative for a dogmatic fact of reality. The word “profitable” is a combination of the present active indicative of e)imi plus a predicate nominative, w)felimoj which actually means “beneficial.” “little” — there is no word for “little” here. It is a prepositional phrase, the preposition proj plus the accusative singular of the adjective o)logoj which means “with reference to a few things.” Physical exercise is beneficial with reference to a few items. For example, health, strength, physical beauty, athletic success, coordination, stamina on a job. This passage does not deny the benefits of exercise but limits them. It is limited to, for example, it is beneficial for a short time — you have to do it again. The point is we are now setting up an analogy by contrast. While exercise has limited benefits in time spiritual exercise has eternal as well as temporal benefits. You GAP it today, tomorrow, the next day, throughout your life time, you are going to have the most wonderful blessings spiritually — occupation with Christ, maximum category #1 love, capacity for life, capacity for blessing, capacity for happiness, you are going to share the happiness of God, have a wonderful life in material and temporal blessings. So limited exercise has limited benefits in time, spiritual exercise — the daily function of GAP — has benefits day by day and forever and ever. Your spiritual exercise is more important than anything that you do in life. This will be the basis for blessing and capacity in life and fantastic, indescribable blessing in eternity. “but” — now we have the definite article used to further the analogy. It should really be translated “on the other hand.” We have two definite articles, h( h( and then the adversative conjunction de. There is an analogy but a contrast. Physical exercise has time benefits which are limited but spiritual exercise has temporal plus eternal benefits which are non-limited. “godliness” is spiritual exercise — e)usebeia. This is spiritual maturity emphasising balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine resident in the soul. It comes through the daily function of GAP. E)usebeia is the result of a lifetime in the royal family of God under the daily function of GAP. “is profitable [beneficial]” — e)imi plus w)felimoj again; “unto all things” is another prepositional phrase, proj plus the accusative plural of paj which means “with reference to all things.” All things in time and eternity. Principle: There is no aspect of life which is not benefited by spiritual exercise, the daily function of GAP. Godliness or super-grace is more important than health, muscles, strength, stamina, athletic ability. All facets of life, whether adversity of blessing, are benefited from spiritual exercise. For the royal family of God spiritual exercise is more important than physical exercise and obviously more beneficial. “having” — present active participle of e)xw which means to have and to hold. The present tense of this participle is a static present, it represents a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: Godliness or spiritual exercise to the point of maturity produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “promise [of benefit]” — the accusative singular direct object from e)paggelia, and it actually refers to the benefit, so “promise of benefit” — in two areas. Notice the two areas. “the life that now is” — there is the spiritual blessing, the temporal blessing, prosperity blessing and the dying blessing. This is a descriptive genitive singular of zwh which refers to the function of life; plus the genitive of reference of the definite article, plus the adverb nun — “for the present time.” There is no area of life where God will not bless the super-grace believer, and that is spiritual exercise. Spiritually there is no way to get around this, there is only one way to get there — Bible doctrine in the soul. “and of that which is to come” — the genitive of reference of the definite article. The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun. There is the present active participle of the verb mellw and it means something about to come — “and for the life about to come.” In other words, mellw is used here for future, eternity, decorations and rewards for all eternity. Translation: “For on the one hand the training of the body [physical exercise] is beneficial with reference to a few things in life: but on the other hand, godliness [spiritual exercise resulting in super-grace] is beneficial with reference to all things in life, having promise of benefit for the present time, and for the life which is about to come.” Principles 1. Physical exercise is beneficial in time; spiritual exercise is beneficial for time and eternity. 2. Physical exercise is beneficial in limited areas of life — health, strength, physical beauty, athletic achievement. 3. Spiritual exercise is beneficial in every aspect of life, providing capacity for life, blessing for life, glorifying God. 4. Physical exercise has some benefit but spiritual exercise has maximum benefit. 5. Self-discipline in spiritual exercise — the consistent function of GAP — is infinitely superior to self-discipline required for physical exercise. 6. Spiritual exercise is the daily function of GAP resulting in maximum growth, the super-grace status. 7. Physical exercise is only beneficial in time but spiritual exercise is beneficial for time and eternity. 8. Physical exercise is the key to certain functions in life but spiritual exercise is beneficial in every function of life. .Verse 14 — “Neglect not” is the present active imperative of the compound verb a)melew. The a is a negative, the impersonal verb melh means to care or to be concerned. Put together it means not to care, to neglect, to disregard. It should be translated here, “Stop neglecting.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what Timothy has failed to do in the past, a failure which has continued into the present time. The negative mh plus the active voice indicates that Timothy should stop neglecting his spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. The imperative mood plus the negative is called the imperative of prohibition. It is something that is prohibited to all pastor-teachers, and that is neglect or disregard for the spiritual gift and its function in the communication of the Word of God. “gift” is the objective genitive singular from the noun xarisma (which has been abused in modern times). The word belongs to the pastor-teacher only as far as the Word of God is concerned. It means something that is freely and graciously given. It means a favour bestowed by one who is wiser than the recipient. Obviously, because every pastor believer is responsible to God, God is wiser than any pastor-teacher will ever be or ever could be. It is a specific reference, then, to the pastor-guardian of the local church. “that is in thee” is simply made up of three words, tou e)n soi. Tou is an objective genitive of the definite article, it belongs with the noun xarisma. Then follows the preposition e)n plus the locative of the personal pronoun su. When this is put together it is translated, “resident in you.” Steps involved in becoming a pastor-teacher 1. At the point of salvation, at the point when a male believer puts his trust in Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit in His perfect wisdom sovereignly bestows the spiritual gift of pastor-guardian to certain members of the royal family — male types only. This does not means that they will ever function as a minister, as a pastor-teacher of a local church; it means they should. 2. If the individual after salvation is exposed to good consistent Bible teaching in a classroom situation [local church], resulting in enough doctrine resident in the soul for awareness, then he will reach the second stage. Between stages one and two many, many men lose out. Very few men ever get to the stage of awareness of the proper way which is spiritual growth through the proper function of GAP. 3. Awareness of the gift leads to aspiration. This is the first serious step that demands preparation. In the early church the pastor was always trained by gifted men in his own congregation. We live in the 20th century. Certain practical and academic preparation is generally, though not always, followed. 4. Completed preparation and transition. This is the confusing stage because the Lord may or may not open a local church immediately. Some men get a church and it is not their right church. They are led to the wrong church. This church is a special training ground for some men. This will only last for a brief period until the man is emitted at the other end a wiser person. This church is made up of kookoo clocks and weirdoes, legalists, bullies, etc. and this is a threshing machine to put the finishing touches on some pastors. So the Lord may provide a temporary small congregation for further training. 5. The pastor receives his right church. This is where the congregation are generally responsive to and positive to the teaching of doctrine from their own right pastor. This doesn’t mean that it is just one long honeymoon, there is going to be a lot of differences of opinion. This is the stage in which the pastor begins the hardest and most rewarding work of his life — exegesis, analysis, communication. This is where he settles down to be a very strong student of the Word, and it is also a danger stage because enthusiasm with regard to his early messages often misleads the pastor into thinking that he has already arrived and therefore should write books, have a tape ministry, etc. Somewhere the pastor is generally examined, tested, and ordained by his own local church or a church of his choice. This ordination is the public recognition of his spiritual gift and it is the local church then saying in effect, We recognise you, local pastors all recognise you. This ordination, then, becomes public recognition of what the Lord has done in the life of a pastor-guardian. It is also a constant reminder that he must never neglect the gift by failing to consistently teach the Word of God to his congregation. The ceremony, therefore, becomes a daily reminder that as a recognised and ordained pastor he has continuous responsibility to teach Bible doctrine for the rest of his life on earth. He has no excuse to avoid it, he must do it for the rest of his life. The tragic thing at this point is that there is another issue. When a man is ordained he himself says in effect, I believe that there is only one elder in any local church — one ruler. Any man who believes in plurality of elders should never be ordained. “which” is a relative pronoun o(j referring to the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher; “was given” — Timothy had the gift. This is the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the giving of the spiritual gift in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The passive voice: Timothy, and all pastors, received the spiritual gift totally apart from human merit or ability. As xarisma indicates this is both a gracious and undeserved provision from God. The indicative mood is declarative, it views the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality. There must be in every generation X number of men who function as pastor- teachers. They are not called prophets because prophets means an unfinished canon of scripture. They are not called priests because in this dispensation every believer is a priest. “thee” is a dative singular indirect object as well as the dative of advantage from the personal pronoun su. “by prophecy” — dia plus the accusative plural from profhteia. Plus the accusative always means “because of” or “for the sake of.” It should be translated, “for the sake of prophecies.” Timothy had previously learned doctrine, and prophecies refers to doctrine which Timothy learned from Paul which had not yet been reduced to writing. This is also brought out in 1 Timothy 1:18 where Paul says, “I am depositing this order with you, student Timothy on the basis of previous prophecies...” Under the hermeneutical law that the meaning of a word in context is determined by its first usage the plural of profhteia in 1 Tim. 1:18 as well as here refers to doctrines which had not been reduced to writing as yet. “with the laying on of the hands” — after Timothy had passed his courses there was the laying on of hands. This is a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive of e)piqesij. Here it means “associated with the laying on of hands.” Like baptism the laying on of hands represents the principle of identification with like kind. Pastors lay their hands on the ordained person to indicate that they recognise him as a fellow member of the ministry. Deacons of his local church lay their hands on him to indicate that they recognise his spiritual gift. Identification of gifts, aspirations of the ministry, preparation for the ministry, readiness for the high office of pastor-guardianship are then recognised by pastor or pastors in the area and a council of deacons in that local church. “of the presbytery” is the ablative singular from the noun presbuterion. In this singular it means a council involved to recognise this. The council must be made up of those who are recognised as pastors. The ablative is not the regular case used in the expression of means but it is ablative of means here. When ever there is an ablative case used to express means it means that the origin or source is involved. In other words, those who possess the authority recognise one who is qualified to possess that same authority. The ordaining council therefore must include at least two pastors and the administration of a specific local church. The modern use of the word “presbyterian” or any other denomination by that name has nothing to do with this passage. Translation: “Stop neglecting the spiritual gift residing in you, which was given to you for the sake of prophecy [doctrine previously learned], associated with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.” Verse 15 — “Meditate” is the present active imperative from meletaw which means to care for, to bestow thought on, to take care of, to think about, to meditate, to cultivate. Here it means to cultivate. Once you are recognised your responsibility for the rest of your life is cultivation. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected from the pastor-teacher of the local church. By receiving remuneration, by receiving help from a local congregation in the priestly function of giving he is free to devote his time to cultivating exegesis, expository teaching of Bible doctrine. In this way Timothy will stop neglecting the spiritual gift which is resident in him. The active voice: Timothy must produce the action of the verb. The active voice: all men who have reached this stage must produce the action of the verb. This is a command, therefore translated “Be cultivating.” “these things” is the accusative plural direct object from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. This calls special attention to a designated object, in this case the designated object is found in verses 13 & 14, namely studying and teaching of the Word of God. “give thyself wholly to them” — this is a present active imperative of e)imi plus a prepositional phrase e)n plus o(utoj. It should be translated “keep on being in these things” or “occupied with these things.” In other words, the pastor’s life is study-teach, study-teach, study-teach. This is more than occupation it is an inescapable preoccupation with the principle found in verses 13 & 14. The pastor must be persistent, he must be preoccupied with doctrine, doctrine must be an obsession. “that” is the conjunction i(na — “in order that”; “thy profiting” — prokoph means advancement: “in order that your advancement [progress].” “may appear” — present active subjunctive of e)imi. That subjunctive is very potential, it depends on whether you study or not. Studying is the key to everything. With it is the adjective faneroj — this is where the congregation receives the blessing from your study in communication: “might be conspicuous” or “might be apparent.” This is a perfective present tense, it denotes the continuation of existing results of diligent study of the Word of God. The active voice: the subject is prokoph, spiritual advance, progress. The subjunctive mood plus the conjunction is not only for a purpose clause but to indicate this is only potential. Any time that a man who has this gift and is so recognised discontinues his study of the Word of God he loses his personal advancement in the Word and his congregation loses with him. “to all” — to all of the pastor’s own congregation. Translation: “Be cultivating these things [keep on being occupied with these things], in order that your progress [spiritual advance] may be conspicuous to your entire congregation.” We need to notice three things that are very important in our passage. The doctrine of godliness [review] 1. Definition. Godliness is derived from two nouns, e)usebeia and qeosebeia. Both words mean duty to God, they both are technical for the balance of residency. Both nouns actually refer to occupation with Christ, reverence for Christ. 2. The establishment and human authority is necessary for the function of GAP and resultant godliness — 1 Timothy 2:2. 3. Godliness is related to knowledge of doctrine — Titus 1:1. Full knowledge of doctrine is according the standard of godliness. 4. Therefore godliness demands discipline — 1 Timothy 4:7. 5. Godliness is profitable for time and eternity — 1 Timothy 4:8. 6. The basis for godliness is the strategical victory of Jesus Christ at the first advent — 1 Timothy 3:16. 7. Godliness is distorted by reversionists under the influence of evil — 1 Timothy 6:3-5. 8. The great gain of true godliness — 1 Timothy 6:6. 9. Godliness is attained under the principle of living grace — 2 Peter 1:3. 10. Godliness is a Christian virtue — 2 Peter 1:6,7; 3:11. The doctrine of surpassing grace 1. Definition. In eternity past as part of the divine decrees, the basis for glorifying God in the angelic conflict, two special blessing paragraphs were designed by God the Father for every believer. One is temporal, the other is eternal. One pertains to time and one to eternity, both are related to the believer’s growth in time. You do not get one in eternity for anything you do in eternity, both paragraphs are related to the believer in time. Both of these paragraphs were designed in eternity past as a part of the doctrine of divine decrees. Paragraph SG2 is blessing in time; paragraph SG3 is blessing in eternity. Both are related to the function of GAP in time. What you are doing in time is to build up blessing for time and eternity. Everyone gets blessing in eternity but this is referring to special blessing that is unique to you as a believer. The mature believer is known as the super-grace believer. Maturity is based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of GAP. 2. The eternal holy city is designated as the surpassing grace reward and blessing for those in the past who have been great: patriarchs and leaders of Israel — Hebrews 11:9,10,16,23; Acts 7:20; Revelation 21:2,10-11. 3. Crowns are used to designate surpassing grace reward and blessing for the royal family of God. The word “crown” is stefanoj and it means “wreath.” For the Romans it was a wreath of gold oak leaves, a decoration for honour. There were also two other types of stefanoj. The highest decoration of all was the one that Julius Caesar won. He won all three of the stefanoj type decorations. So they gave him a title that went with it: Emporator, which meant that he now held the highest decoration that Rome could give. So stefanoj is a military term, a term that connotes the highest decoration for the royal family of God. The stefanoj of life is found in James 1:12. It is one which belongs to every believer who reaches super-grace and holds the high ground. This is the wreath of life, it is connected with all kinds of future blessings in eternity. To hold until death means that every believer who does in the royal family will receive this stefanoj. Cities are related to the rewards of Old Testament saints, but stefanoj is related to those who seize and hold till death brings them into eternity. The stefanoj of glory is the highest decoration available to the pastor-teacher. This is a special decoration for faithfulness in the communication of doctrine on the part of those who have the spiritual gift. It is inevitable that diligent and faithful study will lead to super-grace and this perpetual study will eventuate in the wreath of glory — 1 Peter 5:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20; Philippians 4:1. The stefanoj of righteousness is another surpassing grace reward for eternity. It is simply, again, holding the high ground. It involves another set of rewards in eternity which are not distinguishable simply because they are not revealed in the scripture. In Hebrews 11:5,6 we learn that the key to surpassing grace is attitude toward doctrine in time. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we learn that Jesus Christ will give these decorations to those who have earned them in the future after receiving a resurrection body. There is an application from this: Therefore we are not to judge the spiritual life of another believer, we let the Lord do it at the judgment seat of Christ. There is in 1 Corinthians 3:11-16 a special reference to the crown of glory, not directly but in the function of the pastor-teacher. In Hebrews 6:7-12 the fact that the reversionistic believer, the believer who is negative toward doctrine, will not have any reward in eternity. He will be minus all decorations. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 — the reversionistic believer can lose both his super-grace blessings, his surpassing grace blessings, and can arrive in eternity without any rewards. But he cannot lose his salvation. Loss of reward for eternity does not mean loss of salvation, it means that you miss something that God designed for you in eternity past. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 — the apostle Paul used the Isthmus Games to dramatise the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 9 — “This is a faithful saying.” It is not a faithful saying, it is simply the title of a hymn. Pistoj o( logoj is the name of the hymn, Paul’s favourite. It means “faithful is the word” or “faithful is doctrine.” This title occurs five times in the pastoral epistles — 1 Timothy 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Titus 3:8; 2 Timothy 2:11. This means that quoting a line from a hymn five times in these epistles give the hymn great significance. And at least this portion of the hymn is a part of the Word of God and a part of divine revelation to us in the 20th century. Each time that Paul quotes from the hymn he quotes from a different part of the hymn. This fragmentation, along with all of the others, emphasises something different. We can take the five fragments of the hymn and put it together and begin to see that the whole realm of doctrine was sung whenever they sang this hymn. For example, in 1 Timothy 1:15 where we have the first fragment of this hymn that faithfulness of the Word is related to saving grace. So there is a portion of this hymn that deals with salvation. We have seen from 1 Timothy 3:1 that the faithfulness of doctrine, or the Word, is related to honourable aspiration in becoming a pastor-guardian of the local church. In 1 Timothy 4:9 we see the faithfulness of the Word related to the exhausting work of the function of the pastor. “and worthy of all acceptation” — this is a quotation, a refrain, from the hymn. This same refrain was also found in 1 Timothy 1:15, but not in 3:1. It is kai pashj a)podoxhj a)cioj — “and worthy of unqualified acceptance” is a better translation. “All” is a descriptive genitive of paj and it is really “unqualified.” While paj means “all,” in the descriptive genitive it means “unqualified.” There is also the descriptive genitive of the noun a)podoxh, and with a)cioj it means worthy of acceptance, and with paj it means unqualified acceptance. Translation: “Faithful is the word and worthy of unqualified acceptance.” This is a reminder to each one of us that there is no spiritual growth apart from doctrine, no spiritual advance in life apart from doctrine resident in the soul. Therefore the only attitude that we can take toward Bible doctrine is unqualified acceptance. The fragmentation of the hymn 1. This fragment from the ancient hymn was the refrain sung by the congregation to indicate their positive volition toward Bible teaching, their acceptance of the authority of their right pastor-teacher. 2. This phrase from the hymn represents what every member of the royal family of God must think of Bible teaching. 3. This represents the mental attitude of the believer who is positive to doctrine and functioning consistently under GAP. 4. This phrase represents the importance of doctrine in spiritual advance, spiritual growth, and blessing. 5. The next verse emphasises the results of the consistent function of GAP and occupation with Christ. 6. Occupation with Christ is the believer’s defense against apostasy, evil, and reversionism. Occupation with Christ is a maximum intake of the Word leading to the spiritual advance of maturity, and the mature believer with doctrine resident in his soul is insulated against evil and reversionism. Verse 10 — “For therefore” is e)ij touto gar. The post positive conjunctive particle gar is used to make an explanation. It is explanatory and correctly translated “for.” The preposition e)ij plus the accusative neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj — o(utoj is a demonstrative pronoun which calls special attention to and emphasises the importance of spiritual exercise in the royal family of God, the importance of the daily function of GAP. “For because of this” — that is, benefit from the daily function of GAP or spiritual exercise and resultant super-grace status. The grace provision for learning doctrine 1. The formation and the preservation of the canon. There would be no intake of doctrine, no inhale of the Word, no spiritual growth, no paragraph SG2, no paragraph SG3, were it not for the fact that God has graciously preserved the canon of scripture all of these centuries. This includes the mechanics of inspiration, the faithfulness of God in protecting the written canon against all Satanic attacks. The result is quite obvious. Here in the 20th century the believer has an intact canon of scripture. It is preserved in the original languages so that the meaning of any passage is as perspicuous today as it was in the day in which is was written and originally taught. So over a period of 2000 years we have exactly the same thing that God the Holy Spirit gave to the human author, the apostle Paul. 2. The divine authorisation of a classroom. The classroom today is called the local church. The local church is a classroom for learning Bible doctrine and therefore is the place of assembly for all members of the royal family in a specific geographical area. There is always more than one local church in any geographical area. The prescribed organisation is very simple. There is first of all a pastor as the absolute ruler and policy-maker, deacons as administrators of the policy, and a congregation to be benefited through the teaching of the Word of God. All worship is centred around learning doctrine and therefore there must be very strict academic discipline. When the royal family assembles to take in the Word of God each member of the royal family is a student without portfolio from the time the teaching begins until the last Amen. The only right of a student without portfolio is to learn and everything must contribute to his learning. The continued existence of local churches where doctrine is taught is a matter of grace in every generation of the Church Age. In spite of the fact that the local church has often failed in apostate generations and in spite of all of the attacks against it, in spite of the formation of denominations on the one hand and service organisations on the other hand, the local church continues to be the only means of spiritual growth. 3. Whenever there are positive people in a geographical area God will anticipate that by preparing, and will at the right time, providing a right pastor-teacher for that geographical area. 4. The royal priesthood of the believer. Any congregation of believers is very special because they are royalty. In this dispensation there exists a universal and a royal priesthood of believers, and the purpose of this priesthood is for privacy and reception of doctrine. Each believer must have doctrine resident in his soul and must grow in grace through the intake of doctrine. Therefore each royal priest must live his life as unto the Lord, to ensure his privacy, to avoid bullying, to give him a chance to learn doctrine, he enters the congregation with others, sits down, maintains his privacy and receives his instructions. There is no such thing as one on one or person to person teaching or sharing in the local church. 5. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit from the time of salvation. 6. The provision of the human spirit. The unbeliever is dichotomous, having only a body and soul. When a person is born again and becomes a believer he becomes trichotomous — body, soul, and spirit. Adam lost the human spirit at the point of his fall. He recovered it by salvation. We are born dichotomous, we become trichotomous. The human spirit is added as a means whereby doctrine is taken from the left lobe of the soul and transferred to the right lobe where it is usable. Romans 8:16 is the mechanics of transferring that doctrine. 7. The laws of divine establishment. Under the laws of establishment the nation protects the freedom and privacy of the local church. This is the importance of the principle of freedom through military victory and the importance of true law enforcement in a national entity. The system of authority that exists through the laws of divine establishment is the basis for the orderly function within the local church. Establishment demands respect for authority of all kinds. The believer who rejects the authority of the police officer will reject the authority of the pastor-teacher. The believer who rejects the authority of the school teacher or the coach or the boss will reject the authority of the pastor-teacher. Therefore the very function of the laws of establishment promote the principle of respect for authority which is necessary to focus attention on the biblical communication of the pastor-teacher. 8. Human anatomy. All functions of anatomy are grace as they relate to the intake of thought, whether it is oxygen in the blood or sugar derivatives which go to the neurons in the brain. These are grace systems of assimilation. “we both labour and suffer reproach” — the word for “labour” is a present active indicative of kopiaw which means to become weary, to become tired, to work hard. It means to work hard to the point of exhaustion. This is something that should be a very ordinary experience for any pastor-teacher who does his job right. The most exhausting work in the world is mental labour. It means to become mentally fatigued from extensive study, extensive concentration. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Paul’s intense study of doctrine and continuous study into the present time is noted. The active voice: the pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb. He produces it by plodding, plodding, plodding. There is no shortcut to getting there. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that many pastors do study and teach to the point of exhaustion. And if you study and teach this way it is obvious that people are not going to like it or understand it. “and suffer reproach” — present middle indicative from a deponent verb, a)gonizomai, which means to compete in athletics, it means to fight, to contend. The cognate noun a)gwn meant a stadium or a place where athletic games were held. While the verb originally had an athletic connotation it finally came to mean any kind of a conflict. Actually it means combat. So the point here is that every pastor who is faithful in his studying and teaching has entered into the combat of the angelic conflict. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past continuing into the present time. The middle voice is deponent, therefore active in meaning. It indicates that every pastor who does his job right is in the centre of the angelic conflict in his generation. The indicative mood is declarative for reality of a continued conflict as a pastor is faithful in the principle of study and teach. Translation so far: “For because of this benefit from spiritual exercise and resultant super-grace status, we work hard to the point of exhaustion, and we keep on contending [and idiom which means actually to hang in there tough].” “because” is the causal use of the conjunction o(ti and it gives the reason for the pastor-guardian working hard to the point of exhaustion and hanging in there tough. “we trust” — the perfect active indicative of the verb e)lpizw which means to hope, but it doesn’t mean hope in the modern connotation of the word. Hope is confidence, especially in the perfect tense. Hope in the aorist tense means expectation, but e)lpizw or hope in the perfect tense means confidence, absolute confidence. So we have the phrase, “because we have confidence.” The prefect tense is a dramatic perfect. This is a rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, the intensive perfect says the action is completed and the results continue. In other words, the action of confidence has been completed at the point at which the believer reaches super-grace. Once he reaches spiritual maturity he continues to possess confidence as long as he continues to have maximum doctrine resident in the soul. The active voice: Paul is producing the action, and Paul refers to himself and all future pastor-teachers who reach to high ground of super-grace, who keep on studying and keep on teaching. The indicative mood is declarative, it expresses the verbal idea from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality. Paul has had maximum doctrine in his soul, he continues to study, he continues to increase that doctrine. “in the living God” — the preposition e)pi plus the locative of qeoj. With this is a present active participle used as an adjective, zaw, correctly translated “living.” E)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact and it would be translated “at” or “on.” E)pi plus the locative emphasises position — “in” or “upon.” E)pi plus the accusative emphasises motion or direction, therefore it would be translated “on” or “over.” In other words, the true motivator for the pastor-teacher, and eventually the true motivator for his congregation, has to be occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. Occupation with Christ actually comes through maximum Bible doctrine in the soul. The doctrine of occupation with Christ 1. Definition and description. Occupation with Christ is the highest spiritual function of the royal family in time. It is category #1 love carried on by the mature believer. Occupation with Christ or category #1 love is maximum in the mature believer. Maximum doctrine in the soul causes the believer to have maximum love toward God. The representative and the manifest person of the Godhead is Jesus Christ and therefore occupation with Christ is a synonym for maximum category #1 love. Therefore occupation with Christ is a maximum expression of category #1 love. Deuteronomy 6:5 commanded the Old Testament saints to have occupation with Christ. The same thing is found for us, royal family, stated in a different way: Hebrews 12:1,2. 2. Occupation with Christ begins at the point where the believer enters super-grace. When a believer GAPs it daily, follows the colours to the high ground, establishes a command post of resident doctrine, and holds on the high ground, this is the point at which he enters into occupation with Christ as a part of paragraph SG2 — Colossians 3:16,17. 3. Occupation with Christ also glorifies Christ — Ephesians 3:19-21. You can’t love Christ unless you know Christ. True love demands that you know the object of your love. 4. The means of occupation with Christ is the daily or consistent function of GAP (Grace Apparatus for Perception, the intake of doctrine through the spiritual grace system set up in the Word). The persistent perception of doctrine accumulates maximum doctrine in the soul. It transfers doctrine from the printed page to your own soul and the part called the heart. This maximum doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for spiritual maturity known as super-grace. The basis characteristics of super-grace begin with the principle of occupation with Christ or maximum category #1 love. Jeremiah 9:23,24; Ephesians 4:20; 3:18,19. 5. Occupation with Christ eliminates the superficialities of human celebrityship — Philippians 3:7,8. 6. Occupation with Christ also motivates the pastor-teacher to communicate doctrine so that the royal priesthood reaches its objective — Hebrews 6:10. 7. The mechanics of GAP produce the dynamics of occupation with Christ — James 1:19,21; 2:20-23. 8. The illustration of occupation with Christ is found in the doctrine of right man, right woman — Ephesians 5:25-33. 9. Occupation with Christ is related to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Colossians 3:1,2. 10. Characteristics of occupation with Christ include: a) Occupation with Christ is the basis for the super-grace believer contributing to national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15,16,10. b) Occupation with Christ produces combat courage and victory in battle — Joshua 23:10,11. c) Occupation with Christ is the basis for preservation in time of testing — Psalm 31:23,24. d) Occupation with Christ is the basis for stability and great happiness — Psalm 16:8,9. e) Occupation with Christ results in super-grace blessings — Psalm 37:4,5. f) Occupation with Christ is the basis for strength under pressure — Hebrews 11:27. g) Occupation with

 Christ avoids fatigue — Hebrews 12:3.

 “who” is the relative pronoun o(j and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we have our confidence as members of the royal family of God. “is” — the verb to be, e)imi in the present active indicative. The present tense is linear aktionsart, it calls for an understanding of the situation that has always existed. This is a static present, there never was a time and there never will be a time when Jesus Christ is not the saviour of all men. He is unique, He is the God-Man. The active voice of the verb: the Lord Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for an absolute and dogmatic principle of doctrine. “Saviour” — swthr refers to everything that Jesus Christ did on the cross; “of all men” means that Jesus Christ, when He was on the cross, was judged for all members of the human race. This particular phraseology actually deals with one aspect of salvation known as the atonement. He is the saviour of all men. The doctrine of the atonement 1. Definition. a) Atonement refers to the efficacious work of Christ on the cross on behalf of mankind. b) Atonement as a noun means reconciliation after enmity or controversy. c) A second definition means satisfaction or reparation made for a wrong or injury. d) The actual verb to atone has various related meanings, such as to be at one, to be in accordance with, to make amends or to make reparation, to make up for errors or deficiency, to reconcile or bring into fellowship. In the Old Testament we have a verb, kaphar, which means to cover. It was actually used in the sense of the day of atonement when the high priest would carry the blood of an animal sacrifice into the holy of holies and sprinkle it onto the mercy seat so that the blood was now covering that golden throne. Then righteousness looked down and was satisfied, justice looked down and was satisfied, and this was also called kaphar or atonement. So the Hebrew foreshadowed the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in providing for eternal life. So in the Old Testament God forgave and restored where sins were covered by the blood of animal sacrifices. The true basis for atonement was not found in these animal sacrifices, they merely portrayed by training aids the ministry of Christ on the cross. The animal sacrifices were actually used as a cover for sin until God the Father could be propitiated by the work of God the Son on the cross. So atonement in the Old Testament refers to animal sacrifices — the Levitical code actually, but the atonement in the New Testament refers to the actual saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The two concepts are actually brought together in one passage in Romans — 3:23-26. Ultimately atonement must be defined as the efficacious saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 2. The atonement is said to be unlimited. Unlimited atonement means that when Christ was judged on the cross He died for all. it is only beneficial to the one who appropriates. Appropriation only comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:14 — “… that he died for all.” He didn’t die just for the believer, He died for the entire human race. Cf. 1 Timothy 2:6 — “… ransom on behalf of all”; 4:10 — “… who is the saviour of all men.” Titus 2:11 — “… bringing salvation to all men.” Hebrews 2:9 — “… should taste death on behalf of the entire world.” So atonement extends to every person in the human race. 1 John 2:2 — “… and not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world.” 3. Unlimited atonement eliminates sin in the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgment. When Christ died on the cross He was judged for the sins of the entire human race. At the cross human good was rejected, not judged along with sins. Sins have been judged on the cross, human good was not judged. Human good will be part of every unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgment. Since sins have been judged they cannot be judged again. Revelation 20:12-15. 4. The unbeliever is indicted at the last judgment because he did not believe in Christ while on earth. “specially of those that believe.” The word “specially” is a superlative, malista. It is the comparative of mala which means most of all, above all, or especially. This is the superlative, it marks out a certain category of beneficiaries of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, only believers benefit. Christ died for all, the beneficiaries are those who appropriate. This is described in the last phrase, “of those that believe.” This is not actually a phrase in the original, it is a genitive plural from the adjective pistoj. Pistoj has a substantive meaning here and should be translated “believers.” This is both a genitive of relationship to indicate that only those who believe in Christ have eternal life. It also is a descriptive genitive to indicate the category of the human race who benefit from unlimited atonement or the saving work of Christ on the cross. The absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasises the quality of mankind who believe in Christ. The quality is royal family of God forever. The quality is based upon the 36 things that each one of us receives at salvation, 36 indestructible things. Translation: “For because of this benefit from spiritual exercise, we work hard [to the point of exhaustion], we hang in there tough, because we have confidence in the living God [Jesus Christ], who is the Saviour of all men, especially of believers.” Principles 1. While Jesus Christ is the potential saviour of the entire human race, He is the real saviour of those who believe. 2. The pastor’s work to the point of exhaustion with constant and consistent plodding, hanging in there in the principle of studying and teaching, is emphasised because salvation means a royal family. A royal family means the necessity for spiritual growth; spiritual growth comes from Bible teaching. 3. As a result of this process of communicating doctrine in the local church classroom the believer royal priest becomes mature in status quo occupation with Christ. 4. This is category #1 love or occupation with the person of Christ. At the same time we receive super-grace blessings. This category #1 love or maximum doctrine resident in the soul also protects the royal family from apostasy, evil, reversionism, bleeding-heart do-gooders, religious cranks, legalistic Pharisees, etc. 5. Protection from apostasy and blessing from God are two sides of the same super-grace coin. God keeps us in this life after salvation to bless us. This blessing comes when we reach the super-grace status. 6. This verse anticipates the next paragraph in which the pastor-guardian of the local church, through his teaching ministry, counterattacks apostasy. 7. In the angelic conflict defense is not enough, there must be the offensive. Good defense means stability to launch the offensive. 8. To win a victory the royal family of God in each generation and attack, attack, attack. Attack is only possible when the pastor-guardian communicates, when the congregation responds with positive volition, and they take the high ground by following the colours of Bible doctrine. The doctrine of category #1 love 1. Love comes from three categories: category #1, toward God; category #2, toward right man or right woman; category #3, friendship. In addition there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family known as “loving the brethren.” This is a mental attitude that does not necessarily have any overt manifestation. Category #1 love is the believer’s capacity to love God and to respond to God’s love based on Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This is the believer’s capacity, then, based on doctrine. When a believer reaches maturity, known as the super-grace status, this category #1 love is called occupation with the person of Christ. The command to category #1 love is found in Deuteronomy 6:5. It must be remembered that it is impossible to achieve any love for God apart from Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the sole source of capacity for love, and this must be Bible doctrine resident in the soul. So apart from the daily or consistent function of GAP it is impossible to love God in time. 2. The means of category #1 love. Since God is invisible and since at the same time God is the object of category #1 love we must see and love Him through the Word and/or Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The reversionistic believer is incapable of loving God because he lacks doctrine in the soul, he lacks capacity for love, and he is under the policy of Satan’s known as evil. The immature believer does not love God because he too lacks doctrine in the soul. In other words, you cannot love God unless you know God, and you cannot know God unless you have GAPed it long enough to transfer pertinent doctrine. You cannot have doctrine in the soul, then, apart from the daily function of GAP. 1 Peter 1:8; Ephesians 3:18,19. Hebrews 6:10 tells us that this is a pastoral function, i.e. the communication of doctrine by which to grow up. 2 Timothy 1:13,14. 3. Category #1 love sets up a standard for grace — Psalm 119:132; 31:23. 4. Category #1 love is the basis for super-grace blessing — 1 Corinthians 2:9; Psalm 37:4,5. 5. Category #1 love is the basis for both personal and national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15. 6. Category #1 love motivates combat courage and military victory — Joshua 23:10,11. 7. Category #1 love provides strength in adversity and pressure — Hebrews 11:27;12:3. 8. There is a special curse on believers who fail under category #1 love — 1 Corinthians 16:22 (Cursed until the Lord comes, i.e. cursed until the Rapture). This dramatises divine discipline for those believers who are inclined to neglect Bible doctrine. 9. Witnessing must be motivated by category #1 love — 2 Corinthians 5:14. 10. The description of Category #1 love is found in 1 John 4:15-19. “Perfect love” is maximum category #1 love. The new paragraph is the pastor-guardian counterattack Verses 11, the modus operandi of the pastor since the pastor is the key in the counter offensive. The counter offensive has to do with the communication of doctrine, the responsibility of the pastor-teacher. “These things” — the accusative neuter plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. The demonstrative pronoun always calls attention with special emphasis to a designated object. Here it emphasises the doctrinal teaching of the pastor-guardian of the local church. The accusative is used for the direct object of two verbs. “These things” refer to doctrines from the Word. “command” is a present active imperative from paraggellw which means to give orders, to command, to instruct. No pastor can give orders every day unless he is thoroughly prepared to do so. The ability to give the right order in any profession always depends upon maximum understanding of that profession. Giving a proper command always requires knowledge, understanding, in relationship to the specific profession. The pastor-teacher cannot fulfill this verse of giving commands unless he is prepared by diligent study of the Word of God. The second verb deals with the actual function of GAP. In the mechanics the pastor has the right and the authority to demand certain things of his congregation. He has the right to demand privacy for each member of his congregation. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs of may be reasonably expected to occur. The pastor has the right to demand privacy for each member of the royal family, manners, concentration, that people behave themselves in the assembly. The active voice: Timothy by interpretation must produce the action of the verb. This verb applies to every pastor-guardian of every local church. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. “and teach” — present active imperative of didaskw. Remember that didaskw does not means sharing, it means one person is the expert and everyone else is a student without portfolio; and that the opinions of students is not important, it is the communication of the policy-maker, the pastor-teacher. So didaskw means one man communicating to a group under strict academic discipline. This, again, is the mechanics of the function of GAP. Again we have a customary present that indicates that this teaching denotes the habitual activity of a pastor. It is what is expected to occur. The pastor-guardian of the local church produces the action of the verb. And again, this is the imperative mood of command. Translation: “Command and communicate these things.” This verse is made up of two verbs which actually give two separate public functions of the pastor-teacher. The first verb, “command,” is related to the pastor using his authority academically to focus attention on his teaching. Didaskw is using his authority to teach. a) He must command attention; b) he must communicate doctrine. In teaching the Word of God both authority and communication are involved. No pastor can teach without authority. His communication of doctrine is monologue, there is no place for sharing or dialogue. The pastor is the only one who has the authority to communicate and therefore the pastor’s policies and opinions derived from the Word of God are the only ones that count. Every member of the congregation must have confidence in the pastor’s judgment or move on. Verse 12 — the authority and leadership of the pastor. “Let no man despise” is an adjective, mhdeij. It is used as a substantive here and it means “no one.” With it is a present active imperative from a compound verb, katafronew. Kata means “down” here; fronew means to think. To think down means to despise, to scorn, to treat with contempt, to care nothing about someone’s authority, to disregard authority. And the command is, “Let no one disregard your authority.” The present tense is a tendencial present used for an action which is not taking place. In other words, everyone despises Timothy’s authority. He is a wimp who has been shoved back in a corner and the church is going crazy. So it represents here, then, the idea of what is intended, not what is happening. The active voice: the congregation should not produce the action of the verb, namely treating the pastor with contempt because he is young, or disregarding his authority because he is young. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, it is the imperative of prohibition. “thy youth” — this is an objective genitive of neothj, telling us that Timothy is still very young. Older people have a tendency to reject the authority of those who are younger. So a better translation : “Stop permitting anyone to reject your authority because you are young.” “but” — a strong adversative conjunction, a)lla. It sets up a contrast between a pastor being pushed around by his congregation and a pastor properly exercising the authority of his high spiritual office; “be thou” is not a correct translation, it is the present middle imperative of ginomai which means to become something you were not — “but keep on becoming.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or may be reasonably be expected to occur. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent as producing the action of the verb rather than as participating in the results of the action. Generally the middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action of the verb. The active voice emphasises the action; the middle voice emphasises the agent. In this way the middle voice relates the action of the subject more intimately to the verb. The imperative mood is the imperative of entreaty, it carries the force of urgency. Since the imperative is the mood of volition it expresses an appeal to Timothy’s volition or will as well as an appeal to him in that area. It is the appeal, then, to Timothy’s volition. “an example” — a predicate nominative from tupoj [from which we get the word “type]. Tupoj means a pattern, a model or an example. “of believers” should be “to the believers” — the genitive plural of pistoj plus the definite article. “in word [doctrine]” — e)n plus the locative of logoj. The pastor must be an example in doctrine. Logoj often means “word,” it means “thought,” it means a lot of things. But here it means principle of doctrine. The e)n and the locative together mean “in doctrine” and there is no definite article, it emphasises the quality of doctrine. The pastor-guardian should lead the advance and the function of GAP, having the greatest inner resources of doctrine through his own personal diligent and even sacrificial study of the Word of God. This does not go as far as to say that the pastor should ever become a counselor. When that happens the pastor starts leading your life. You get to depend on him and in that case you are not living your own life, he is living it for you. That is wrong. “in conversation” — e)n plus the locative of a)nastrofh, which means way of life. Here it means grace way of life. “in spirit” is not found in the original MSS. “in charity” — e)n plus the locative of a)gaph. This means “in relaxed mental attitude.” It means in the filling of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces this a)gaph — Romans 5:5. “in faith” is e)n plus the instrumental of pistij and should be “by means of doctrine.” “in purity” — e)n plus the locative of a)gneia. A)gneia is used primarily for purity of mind. In the translation of the Septuagint it denotes cultic or ceremonial purity. It only occurs twice in the New Testament, here in verse 12 and once in 5:2, and both times it refers to purity of mind or occupation with doctrine leading to occupation with Christ. A)gneia as purity of the mind is in contrast to a common word for purity, kaqaroj which is used for purity of life or moral purity. Kaqaroj can apply to a believer or an unbeliever but a)gneia is a specific category of believers only. Translation: “Let no one look down on your youth; but keep on becoming a pattern to the believers in Bible doctrine, in the grace way of life, in love [filling of the Spirit], by means of doctrine resident in the soul, in the sphere of purity of mind.” What does this mean? 1. Purity of mind through Bible doctrine resident in the soul means that doctrine must be the motivator of the pastor — just as doctrine must be the motivator of anyone in the royal family. 2. Through purity of mind through Bible doctrine resident in the soul the pastor establishes his authority in the local church without abusing his authority [without bullying]. 3. Abuses that a pastor could fall into include blind arrogance, approbation lust, omnivorous ambition. 4. Most pastors today want to start at the top — publishing of books, tape ministry, etc. These people lead with their ambition, they lust for approbation in the field of the ministry, and it destroys them. 5. No pastor can properly exercise authority over his congregation without doctrine in his own soul producing purity of motivation which completely neutralises pride, ambition, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, pettiness, and academic dishonesty. Verse 13 — the word “Till” is a temporal conjunction, e(wj. This particular conjunction means “until” in modern English and it is used to denote the end of a period of time. “I come” is the present active indicative of the verb e)rxomai. This is the ordinary verb for coming. The present tense is tendencial for an act which is intended but not taking place. Paul intends to come but he has not come as yet. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb in the sense of his desire to come back to Ephesus after he is finished with his fourth missionary journey. The indicative mood is declarative indicating the reality of Paul’s intentions — which were never fulfilled, by the way. “give attendance” — present active imperative of the verb prosexw. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected of any pastor whose time is free to study. The word means to turn one’s mind on a subject, to pay close attention to it, to devote one’s self to a subject. It therefore comes to mean concentration — “be concentrating on.” Timothy and all pastors of the Church Age are to produce the action of the verb. This is the imperative mood of command. It is inevitable that the life of the pastor must be a life of concentration on the teaching of the Word of God. “to reading” — dative singular of the definite article plus a dative singular of a noun, a)nagnwsij. This is a compound: a)na means “again and again”; ginwskw means to “know.” When the two words are put together it means to go over a passage again and again and again. It means actually to exegete, to analyse, to break down a passage point by point, word by word, and actually put it all together. The noun is the dative of advantage as well as the dative of indirect object. It is to the advantage of the local congregation to have the pastor study, analyse, exegete, and come up with the exact interpretation of every portion of the Word of God. Therefore it should be translated so far: “Until I come be concentrating on the exegesis.” Principles 1. Exegesis is the interpretation of the Bible on the basis of grammatical, syntactical, and etymological analysis of each context. Exegesis can only be accomplished when a student knows the original languages. Whenever you analyse an English text you are analysing a translation. 2. The result of exegesis is

 expository teaching of the Word of God.

 3. Every pastor must be a master, then, of the original languages or must be dependent on someone who is. 4. The Bible cannot be interpreted in translation. The translation may be wrong, therefore the interpretation will also be wrong. 5. In other words, no interpretation can be any better than the translation from which it is taken. 6. To know what the Bible is really teaching one must therefore be a master of biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek, as well as a student of the ancient world. 7. The foundation for preaching an teaching doctrine is correct and accurate exegesis of the original languages of scripture. 8. To become a master of these languages and a good student of the Word of God takes many years of diligent study. It is a life of concentration, not an occasional concentration. 9. The pastor must have time. This is provided through the congregation giving as unto the Lord and the remuneration which results. This is in keeping with the command of the Word of God that a pastor’s time should be free so that he can concentrate on the teaching of the Word of God. “to exhortation” is a dative singular of advantage as well as a dative of indirect object from paraklhsij which means comfort, encouragement which comes from doctrine which has been transferred into the soul. Doctrine is never an encouragement or comfort or blessing until it belongs personally through the transfer of the daily function of GAP. “to doctrine” — dative singular of advantage as well as the indirect object of the noun didaskalia. It means teaching, instruction, or doctrine. Translation: “Until I come be concentrating on the exegesis, the encouragement-comfort, the teaching of doctrine.” Principles 1. All of these things are tied into the basic and fundamental concept of the pastoral modus operandi — study and teach, study and teach. 2. Exposition or public analysis of the scripture, comfort-encouragement and doctrine make it possible for the royal family to mature spiritually so that they can glorify God in their royal priesthood. 3. Note what is omitted from this verse. There are seven very important things omitted: a) There is no reference to “programism.” Church programs are never, never in order. A program is a system to take a weak pastor and try to give him a backbone. b) There is no reference to raising money. It is not the job of the pastor-teacher to run around begging for money. c) There is no reference to friendliness gimmicks or operation lonely-hearts. d) There is no reference to psychology and counseling. e) There is no reference to establishing a social structure in the church. f) There is no reference to choirs and big music programs. g) There is no reference to plurality of elders, rotating the pulpit between arrogant, egotistical, power lust laymen. The doctrine of GAP 1. Definition: GAP is an acrostic, it represents the principle of grace apparatus for perception. This is simply a grace system for perspicacity in the field of Bible doctrine. The Bible was designed to be understood. The Bible is a revelation from God. It is not obscure, it is not abstruse, it is not designed to be mysterious and not quite comprehensible. The Bible is designed to be understood, every portion of the Word is designed to be understood. You cannot understand some portions until you understand simpler portions but the Bible is all locked together is a perfect system, and there is no part of the Word of God that cannot be understood by someone. GAP is the system, the spiritual IQ of the royal family of God. 2. There are three systems of perception: a) Rationalism which is a meritorious system of perception. Reason is the source of knowledge superior to and independent of the sensory system. Reason becomes the norm or criterion for reality under rationalism. Rationalism, then, is the adherence to the supremacy of reason in matters of belief and content. The subjection of Bible doctrine and scriptural interpretation to the test of human reason rejects the principle of dogmatic authority just as grace rejects legalism and legalism rejects grace. b) Empiricism, learning by observation and experimentation. The reality of this system of perception lies in the function of the senses, relating their observation to the lobes of the brain. Key words are: experience, observation, and experimentation providing the basis for reality and perception. c) Faith, learning by accepting the authority or the criterion or both. Reality of the unseen. Faith is a system of thinking but it is a non-meritorious system of thinking. Faith is the means by which we learn anything from 70 to 95 per cent of everything we ever learn. Faith is building knowledge on the basis of an absolute authority or an axiom, whether it is God exists or one plus one equals two. The validity of faith depends upon the criterion or the object of faith. In salvation the object is Jesus Christ the only saviour. In the function of GAP the object is the content of the scripture, specifically Bible doctrine, promises, principles, the absolute criterion of the Word of God. 3. There is a distinction between human and spiritual IQ. Human IQ is not a factor in learning Bible doctrine. Resident doctrine in the soul is called in the Hebrew, chakmah, and in the Greek, e)pignwsij. These two words indicate the principle of non-meritorious perception. Spiritual IQ, then, is the amount of Bible doctrine resident in the soul, the amount of chakmah, the amount of e)pignwsij. 4. The exclusion of human IQ from the function of GAP. Human IQ has often been considered a fact in learning doctrine and this is a myth. It would imply that low IQ believers would be handicapped in learning doctrine. However, in eternity past God found a way through His grace for every believer to learn doctrine totally apart from human ability and human IQ. For this reason at the point of salvation every believer receives not only the ministry of God the Holy Spirit but a human spirit corresponds so that he can assimilate all the doctrines of the Word of God — 1 Corinthians 1:19-2:16. 5. The grace provision for learning doctrine: a) The formation and preservation of the canon of scripture. Were it not for the fact that the canon was formed and then preserved down to the present moment there would be no textbook. This simply proves that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world, for since the ascension of Jesus Christ and the completion of the canon of scripture Satan’s main objective is to discredit the Bible, distort the Bible, get the Bible away from the royal family. b) The divine authorisation for the local church which is the only way any of us will ever grow up. The Bible is the textbook, the local church is the classroom. Only in the classroom of the local church can the royal family under strict academic discipline grow spiritually. c) The provision of the right pastor. Everyone has a right pastor. This is the means of spiritual growth. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher involves both authority and ability to communicate doctrine in the local church by means of monologue. d) The provision of the royal priesthood of the believer. We are royal family as of the moment of regeneration. As members of the royal family of God we are also a priesthood. As a royal priesthood it is imperative that we be briefed, that we clued into actually what it is all about in the Church Age, as quickly as possible. In order to recognise the privacy of the believer’s priesthood and to establish a system of objectivity in grace perspicacity every believer priest has privacy as he assembles himself with other believers in the local church. This privacy must be guaranteed by the leadership and the authority of the pastor so that each believer can concentrate as a novice, learning doctrine, advancing to the high ground, without distraction and without interruption. e) The ministry of God the Holy Spirit. f) The provision of the human spirit. The human spirit is the means of transferring doctrine from the left lobe to the right lobe. Doctrine in the left lobe is mere academic understanding, doctrine in the right lobe is the utilisation of the dynamics of the Word of God. Romans 8:16,17. Reality comes in this relationship: the Spirit to the spirit. g) The laws of divine establishment. Under divine laws of establishment national government is responsible to protect the freedom, the privacy of the local church. The first function of freedom is known as religious liberty. Under this principle there must be a separation of church and state. A second law is also pertinent which is freedom through military victory. Military victory guarantees the perpetuation of freedom, the perpetuation of evangelism in that national entity and the perpetuation of the function of GAP in the function of the local church. A third law which is pertinent is the function of law — the judge on the bench, the police officer on patrol. The fourth law is the principle of human authority. The pastor-teacher has the authority in the local church. Any person who rejects the authority of parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, etc. will also resist the authority of the pastor-teacher to their own spiritual detriment. h) The principle of grace in human anatomy. 6. The first target for GAP is receptive comprehension. The first thing you do when you come into church is to listen to what is taught. Whatever is taught to you goes into the left lobe, called the nouj, where you may understand. There the information resides but it is absolutely of no use. It is the transfer of this information to the right lobe that counts. That is why we have the human spirit as a processing area. Doctrine must go into the human spirit and then it must go up into the right lobe, the frame of reference, and from there it is properly distributed under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. There is a real challenge in this field, found in James 1:19-25. We are to become not just hearers of the Word but doers. A hearer is a person who gets the doctrine in his left lobe; a doer is a person who gets the doctrine in his right lobe, who transfers it over there. The primary result of GAP is spiritual advance, spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, reaching maturity as a believer. Maturity is best expressed in a number of different biblical synonyms. We have already noted the language synonyms, e)pignwsij and chakmah — maximum doctrine in the human spirit and in the frame of reference. There is a theological synonym found in James 4:6 — “He gives more grace.” Actually, it is “greater grace” and should be translated literally, “super-grace.” There is also a priestly synonym, “altar in the soul” — Hebrews 13:10. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the altar of the royal priesthood on which he offers his priestly sacrifices. First you must have an altar before you can offer sacrifices, you must be a mature believer before you can utilise properly Bible doctrine. Another synonym is a building synonym, the edification complex of the soul. There is a time synonym, redeeming the time or purchasing time which comes from maximum capital. Maximum capital is maximum doctrine in the soul — Ephesians 5:16-18; Colossians 4:5. Another synonym is a central control synonym, the dictator of the soul. The dictator is inner residency of Bible doctrine through the consistent function of GAP — Ephesians 6:10. The inner rule of His endowed power is maximum doctrine in the soul. Bible doctrine resident in the soul becomes the inner dictator causing the believer to become spiritually self-sustaining, independent of human viewpoint, bad advice, independent of evil, of reversionism, of legalism, of religionism. Doctrine in the soul becomes the basis of discernment in life. There are many military synonyms. Putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-18; following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; establishing a command post in the soul — Colossians 2:5-8. There is a crucifixion synonym which has nothing to do with Jesus on the cross, it has to do with the Roman custom of crucifixion. The Romans, long before Jesus went to the cross, crucified over a million people. Crucifixion was a well-known and well-established system of capital punishment among the Romans. So when Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me,” it refers to Bible class attendance, the daily function of GAP in spite of opposition and in spite of distraction. “Follow me” is the daily function of GAP eventuating in maturity — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27. A chemical synonym is salt. The salt of the land is the believer with maximum doctrine in his soul. In the ancient world salt was a means of preservation. Salt as a preservative means that a believer with maximum doctrine resident in his soul, or a number of believers with maximum doctrine in their souls, are the basis of preserving a national entity. There is a sanctification synonym known as godliness. Other results of GAP include reversion recovery. This is the removal of scar tissue from the soul, freedom from the influence of evil, the cancellation of divine discipline. Another result is the glorification of God in the angelic conflict through the attainment of super-grace status or spiritual maturity. This attainment results in super-grace blessings. All of these blessings are the result of the daily function of GAP. Another result equates the royal status of the believer with the function of the royal priesthood. Normal function of the royal priest begins at the point of spiritual maturity or establishing the altar in the soul. Spiritual maturity or super-grace, then, begins at the point when any believer has maximum doctrine in his soul as a result of consistent, faithful function of GAP. Another result: GAP leads to the principle of occupation with Christ and other capacities for life. Inner residency of doctrine results in capacity for love, especially category #1 love toward God. No-one can love God unless they know God and therefore knowing God comes from the inculcation of Bible doctrine. This same residency of doctrine in the soul produces capacity for love in other categories — #2 and #3. It produces capacity for happiness, capacity for life, for blessing. Another result of GAP: It provides maximum influence in history. The super-grace believer has a maximum impact on thinking in his own generation. Furthermore, super-grace believers are the basis for preserving blessing of everything with which they are associated. For example, they bless their family being associated with them. Their business is blessed by association. Organisations in which they take part are blessed. City, State, or nation are blessed because they are related to it. Another result: It provides the basis for bona fide production. Super-grace believers are qualified for Christian service, no-one else really is. He produces divine good in contrast to human good, he is insulated from evil and pseudo Christian activity. He has discernment to see through the phonies who are running loose and therefore he avoids that type of service. Maximum doctrine in the soul becomes the basis for eternal reward. Paragraph SG3 glorifies God forever. Your rewards in eternity do not glorify you, they glorify God. They glorify God and you are benefited, that is the grace way. “Neglect not” — present active imperative of the compound verb a)melew. The a) is simply a negative; the verb melh is an impersonal verb, it means to care, to be concerned. When put with the negative it means not to care for, not to neglect or disregard. It should be translated, “Stop neglecting.” The imperative is translated “Stop neglecting.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, denoting what Timothy had failed to do in the past, a failure which was continued into the present time, and a failure about which he is warned. The active voice plus the negative mh — the negative mh is out of context as to its usual meaning — is really set up here to be a prohibition, but the active voice plus the negative mh indicates that Timothy should stop neglecting his own spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. Here is a case of where he is the right pastor for that congregation. If that had not been so Paul would not have left him with this key congregation at this time in church history. But Timothy, even though he is the right pastor, is neglecting his responsibility. The present active here implies that Timothy is not consistently teaching the Ephesian congregation which is entrusted to his care. The imperative mood plus the negative mh indicates a prohibition. “the gift” — xarisma refers to spiritual gifts in the royal family of God and not to talent in the human race. It means literally, freely and graciously given, a favour bestowed. It is a specific reference to an technical principle: spiritual gifts. It refers here to the gift of pastor-teacher which is the highest extant gift in the Church today. The doctrine of spiritual gifts 1. Definition. Spiritual gifts is derived from the world xarisma meaning something which is graciously bestowed by God. Spiritual gifts are a part of the distribution of spoils as a result of the strategic victory of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. The strategic victory was accomplished by Christ bearing our sins on the cross, by providing salvation, dying physically, three days later being resurrected, ascending, and being seated at the right hand of the Father. Being seated at the Father’s right hand broke the back of Satan and the strategic victory in the angelic conflict has been accomplished. As a result of this there are spoils of victory, and those spoils of victory include spiritual gifts. In other words, we are royal family of God. Never before in history was there such a distribution of spiritual gifts, never did spiritual gifts exist before. Remember that everything hinges on understanding the royal family of God. There are spiritual gifts but like all of the spoils the exploitation demands doctrine in the soul. There are many categories of spiritual gifts. Some are revealed, some are not. Enough are revealed for us to know the full realm of the subject. In the Church Age spiritual gifts are the Father’s organised witness to grace in salvation as well as the dividing of the spoils from the great strategic victory of Jesus Christ. When the believer receives Christ as saviour God the Holy Spirit gives him a spiritual gift. But it isn’t necessary to know right now, or perhaps at any time, what that spiritual gift is because it functions automatically at any time that the believer has matured to the point of super-grace. 2. The subject of distribution. The initial distribution of spiritual gifts began at the time the royal family was formed, i.e. at the beginning of the Church Age. The spiritual gifts were provided by the victorious Christ and the doctrinal account of this is found in Ephesians 4:8-11. The subsequent distribution of spiritual gifts during the Church Age is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit who in effect has computerised the situation, so that in every locale at any given time every spiritual gift necessary for the function of the Church is present. There may not be the exploitation but it is all there. In other words, this is a divine function of the omniscience of God the Holy Spirit. The principle is found in 1 Corinthians 12:11. These gifts do not depend upon human ability, morality, talent, achievement; but they are a sovereign decision from God the Holy Spirit. 3. The principle of function. At amy point of the Church Age each spiritual gift in any geographical area is necessary for the function of the royal family in that area — 1 Corinthians 12:27-31. All spiritual gifts function through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit related to doctrinal content of the soul — 1 Corinthians 13. Functional spiritual gifts also depend upon maximum doctrine in the soul, as per Romans 12:3. The true perspective regarding spiritual gifts is found in 1 Corinthians 12. 4. There are two categories of spiritual gifts: party gifts and permanent gifts. The party gifts were a part of the celebration. The celebration took place in the pre canon period of the Church Age. The fact that a royal family of God existed on the earth called for an extensive party. The party was made up of a diversified set of spiritual gifts. But that party has been over for nearly 2000 years. Once the canon of scripture was completed the party gifts were removed. For the gift of tongues the party was over in August of AD 70. For the other spiritual gifts, like apostleship, the party was over in AD 96 when the last line of the book of Revelation was written by the apostle John. We now had a completed canon of scripture and the royal family settled down in every generation to whip Satan tactically, just as our Lord whipped him strategically, and to fill in the time until the great activity of the second advent at operation footstool. So we have now settled down to the type of life that the Lord has provided. There were certain gifts which were given for the party that no longer exist. They include the gift of apostleship, the gift of tongues, the gift of healing, the gift of miracles; none of those temporary gifts that existed in the pre canon period. The temporary gifts are gone. They were necessary to take up the slack in the Church Age until the canon was completed and circulated. Once this had occurred it was all over. There are permanent gifts, however, and these exist in every generation of the Church Age and will continue to do so until the Rapture of the Church. The permanent gifts are mentioned in many passages — Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 help us with the classification of these gifts. 5. The time of distribution. All spiritual gifts were distributed for the first time after the resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ — Ephesians 4:8. They were given for the first time on the day of Pentecost when the dispensation of Israel was interrupted and the Church Age began. 6. The abuse of gifts. This is merely a recognition of the fact that many people have tried through emotion, through some psychological problem, some system of pseudo activity, to perpetuate the party or the temporary gifts. When anyone claims the temporary gifts beyond AD 96 that person is reversionistic and in the realm of apostasy. 7. Communication gifts are very important. The surviving communication gifts are twofold. One is outside of the church and one is in the church. Inside the church is the pastor-teacher. The authority for his gift is found in Hebrews 13:7,17. The purpose for his gift is found in Ephesians 4:11-13. The other communication gift is evangelism designed to be outside of the church, designed to lead people to Jesus Christ. This particular gift does not carry any authority in the local church. “that is in thee” — tou e)n soi. The objective genitive singular of the definite article tou belongs with the noun xarismoj — “Stop neglecting the spiritual gift in you.” The definite article simply indicates that it is resident. The preposition e)n plus the locative singular from the personal pronoun su, and the best way to translate this is simply, “Stop neglecting the spiritual gift resident in you.” This brings us to the steps from salvation to the pastorate for any male believer who has this gift. Step #1 is salvation. At the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit through His divine sovereignty bestows the gift of pastor teacher on certain male believers, apart from any merit on their part. It is bestowed apart from his cognisance. No one is aware at the moment of salvation that he has the gift of pastor-teacher. Step #2. The man who has the gift of pastor-teacher at salvation must immediately get into a congregation where the Word of God is taught, not “the church of his choice” which could be the weirdest place in town. He needs to go somewhere where doctrine is taught. The reason for this is that he needs to grow up to the point of recognising the gift he has. The only way he can grow spiritually is to GAP it daily, so exposure to Bible teaching in the classroom of the local church results in enough doctrine resident in the soul to become aware of the gift. So stage two is awareness. Between salvation and awareness there must be spiritual growth which produces the awareness, not emotional type activity. Stage #3 is aspiration. 1 Timothy 3:1. Aspiration provides motivation to go into training. Step #4 is awareness and aspiration leading to preparation — academic, even military training, etc., being under discipline. Step #5 is completed preparation and transition. This is the confusing stage because the Lord may not open a local church immediately, the pastor is not fully prepared, and the pastor has to cool his heals for awhile. Or, the Lord may provide a temporal and rather insignificant job or a small congregation, full of mean people, bullies, etc. This is further training for him. God deals with each pastor candidate in a different way at this point, there is no standardised procedure, but there is an transitional procedure for every pastor. Step #6 is where the pastor finally receives his right church. This is where the congregation is generally responsive to and positive toward the teaching of doctrine by their own right pastor. This is the stage at which the pastor begins his hardest and most rewarding studying of his life. This is also a danger stage because enthusiastic response to his early messages often misleads the pastor to thinking that he has arrived. Somewhere in stages five and six the pastor is generally examined, tested by his own local church. If he passes he is ordained, either by his own local church or the church of his own choosing for ordination. This is public recognition of his spiritual gift. Step # 7 is really a stage in which at some time there is an ordination service. It is this ordination service which is about to be mentioned — the significance of it, the reality of it, the authorisation of it. It is a bona fide ceremony in the history of the Church Age. “which was give” — the word “which” is a relative pronoun, o(j. It refers to the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher and it indicates that it was not earned or deserved nor worked for, and that there is no such thing as a standardised type of pastor. The spiritual gift is a matter of grace like every other blessing in the Christian way of life; “was given” is the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi, the ordinary Greek word to give. This is a culminative aorist tense which views the spiritual gift as given in its entirety, but the point of the entirety is the end of the entirety, the results. That is why it is called a culminative aorist. It views the spiritual gift in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of results. The results are the various stages of growth, awareness of the spiritual gift, the preparation; everything that is necessary to finally bring a man to his right congregation as a pastor-teacher. The passive voice: Timothy and all pastors of the Church Age receive the action of the verb, totally apart from human merit or human ability. There never was a pastor who earned or deserved the right to be a pastor. The indicative mood is declarative, it view the provision of the spiritual gift at salvation from the viewpoint of an actual reality. The Holy Spirit has computerised a system, He knows how many congregations there will be in any part of the world at any time, and He has made provision for pastors for every hungry congregation positive toward doctrine. “thee” refers specifically to Timothy. It is a dative singular, a dative of advantage, it would be translated in modern English by the word “you.” It is su, a personal pronoun referring to the fact that Timothy was given the proper spiritual gift, sovereignly bestowed by the Holy Spirit at salvation, and that since that time he has undergone a tremendous amount of preparation. “by prophecy” — the preposition dia plus the accusative of the noun profhteia. Dia plus the accusative should be translated “because of prophecy.” The principle goes back to 1 Timothy 1:18 where we have the same word. We have to go on the principle that there it meant doctrine taught to Timothy while a student. Therefore it has the same meaning here under the hermeneutical principle that the meaning of a word in context is determined by its first usage. The first usage was in 1 Timothy 1:18, and now we have it again here in verse 14 where it means the same thing. Dia plus the accusative can also be translated “for the sake of prophecy.” This is actually the academic study that Timothy had under the apostle Paul. He has previously learned eschatology under Paul. So the phrase, “for the sake of prophecies” means because of previously learned doctrine in the classroom. Timothy must not neglect his spiritual gift, he has been trained for it and properly prepared; something has happened to him since his preparation. Now something else is added. There came a time when there was a special ceremony in which a local church and a group of pastors recognised that Timothy had the gift of pastor-teacher and in their recognition they really launched him. Paul says, in effect, “you have forgotten this ceremony.” This ceremony was called then, as now, ordination. “with the laying on of hands” — a part of the ordination ceremony. The preposition meta plus the genitive of e)piqesij means “associated with the laying on of hands.” This is actually the ceremonial part, the climactic point of the entire ceremony where the pastors present who have been involved in the interrogation and the representation of the church through its board of deacons place their hands upon the individual’s head, and he prayed for an recognised by the ceremony. Laying on of hands is like baptism, it is an identification principle. It represents the principle of identification with like kind. Pastors lay their hands on the ordained person to indicate that they recognise him as a fellow member in the ministry. Deacons lay their hands on the ordained person to indicate they recognise the work of God in bringing this person from their own local church to the point of being ready for the ministry. In effect this ordination says: “We the members of the local church recognise that this individual is qualified to function as a pastor-teacher.” “of the presbytery” — presbuterion. The ion suffix indicates it is a council of pastor-teachers. The council must be made up of those who are recognised as pastors — there must be at least two, this is in the plural — the ablative singular for the council but there are at least two people in the council. The ablative is not the regular case for setting up or expressing means, the instrumental case expresses means. Whenever you have an ablative doing it it has a special meaning in the Greek which is necessary for interpretation. It may be used to express means when there is an implication of origin or source. Those who possess the authority recognise the one who is qualified to possess the authority and the ordaining council do not have the authority over the person, they merely indicate that he now has the same authority. It is a sort of a welcome-to-the-club type of thing. Those who possess the authority recognise, then, one who is qualified to have the authority. That is what is meant by the phrase, “by a council of elders.” The ordaining council therefore must have at least two pastors. Again, the deacons represent the local church on the ordaining council while the pastors represent the office of the pastor-guardian. Neither the modern use of the word “Presbyterian” nor any denomination has anything in the world to do with this passage or with the Bible. The local church was designed to be autonomous and independent, never to be under any kind of a hierarchy, and never to lean on anyone else. Translation: “Stop neglecting the spiritual gift resident in you, which was given you for the sake of prophecies associated with the laying on of hands by the assembly of elders.” Verse 15 — the pastor is supposed to make progress. This progress is in the field of study and teach. “Meditate” is the present active imperative of the verb meletaw. Meletaw means to care for, to bestow careful thought on, to take care, to think about, to cultivate. It can even mean to meditate but here it means to cultivate. It should be translated “Be cultivating.” The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected from any pastor-teacher. By receiving remuneration from a local church his time is properly devoted to cultivating. He exegetes the passage, he studies it, he teaches. As a result of teaching doctrine his congregation grow in grace. In this way Timothy will stop neglecting his own spiritual gift when he starts cultivating. Cultivating means breaking ground. He has to study the passage and break the ground. It means planting. He has to be able to find the classified doctrines in other areas that help to illuminate the passage. He has to get the exact meaning of the passage, the exact purpose of the passage, and how it relates to everything else in the context. The imperative is a command. The active voice: this is what pastors do. “these things” — the accusative plural direct object from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. The demonstrative pronoun calls special attention to a designated object. In this case the designated object is found in verses 13 and 14, namely the study and teaching of the Word of God on the part of the pastor-teacher. “give thyself wholly to them” — a pastor’s life must be occupied with these things. Present active imperative from the verb e)imi, the verb to be. This is a static present” keep on giving yourself wholly to it. But it doesn’t say that, it says, “keep on being in these things” — e)n plus the locative of the same o(utoj again. It should be translated “in these things.” This is an idiom meaning “keep on being occupied with these things.” “that” — purpose. The conjunction i(na which indicates a final clause. A final clause denotes an objective, a purpose, a principle. Here we have a purpose. “thy profiting” — the noun prokoph which actually means progress, furtherance. With it is a personal pronoun. “may appear” — the present active subjunctive of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. With it is a predicate adjective faneroj. Altogether it says, “in order that your progress might be conspicuous [or apparent].” The verb to be here, e)imi, is in a perfective present tense and it denotes continual results. The result of studying should be teaching, teaching, doctrine so that believers can grow. The active voice: the subject is prokophj, spiritual advance through study of the Word. The subjunctive mood indicates that this is a purpose and it is for all pastors. “to all” — it is to the benefit of the whole congregation. The dative plural indirect object. In this case it refers to Timothy’s congregation in Ephesus. it is quite obvious that Timothy is not studying and not teaching. Translation: “Be cultivating these things; keep on being occupied with these things; in order that your progress may be conspicuous to all your congregation.” Verse 16 — “Take heed.” The present active imperative of e)pexw means “Keep on paying close attention to.” In other words, Timothy is warned that if he doesn’t discipline himself God will do it for him. The customary present: what may be reasonably expected of any pastor who loves the Word. Both Timothy and all pastors produce the action, says the active voice. And it is a command. “unto thyself” is a reflexive pronoun, used to refer the action of the verb back to the subject. It is the dative of indirect object, it means it is of interest to Timothy and all pastors to discipline themselves so that God doesn’t have to do it. “and unto doctrine” — in addition to self there is the importance of being occupied with doctrine. This is the dative singular indirect object from the noun didaskalia. Didaskalia plus the definite article means “to that doctrine.” It emphasises the importance of doctrine, that doctrine is the only things that is beneficial to a congregation. “continue” is the present active imperative of the verb e)pimenw, and it means to persist. Here is where the pastor must be a plodder. We have a static present used for a condition taken for granted, a condition which should always exist. The active voice: the pastor produces the action. The imperative mood is a command. A better translation would be “persist in these same things.” Then we have an explanation. The word “for” is a post positive conjunctive particle gar, it means we are entitled to an explanation as to why a pastor’s job is not to run around and call on people, to raise money, to handle all the administration himself, but his responsibility is to study and teach. “for in doing this” — the present active participle of poiew describing the modus operandi of the pastor-teacher. The present tense is static, he must keep on doing this. The active voice: all pastors do it. This is an instrumental participle — “for by doing this.” “thou shalt both save” — the future active indicative of swzw does not refer to salvation, it refers to deliverance. It means that the members of the congregation are going to be delivered from many, many things. They are going to be delivered from disaster, delivered in their daily walk and daily life. They are going to find deliverance in great prosperity apart from cosmos diabolicus, they are going to have capacity for life. This is called a gnomic future, it states the fact of deliverance from evil, apostasy and reversionism, as well as the performance of deliverance. The active voice: the pastor by plodding, by studying and teaching, is going to bring his congregation to this point of prosperity. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic fact of reality that when a man stands still in one place and studies and teaches he delivers himself and his congregation. “and them that hear you” — the congregation. This is an articular present active participle of a)kouw. A)kouw means a lot more than just listening, it means to listen under strict discipline. Translation: “Keep on paying close attention to yourself, and to that doctrine; persist in these same things: for by doing these same things you will be delivering both yourself and the ones [in your congregation] who consistently hear you.”

Chapter 5 The doctrine of the royal family of God 1. Definition. The royal family is the family of the King, Jesus Christ. As God and as deity He is a sovereign King. As humanity, by physical birth He is a King; He is the son of David. He is descended from the royal family — the tribe of Israel, the family of Jesse, the son of David. As the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father as a result of the ascension He is spiritual royalty. There are many who are descended from the human royalty of David, many ancestors in the human royalty of David, but only those who are born again in the Church Age are a part of the spiritual royalty which comes from the strategic victory which comes from the right hand of the Father. So the royal family is the family of the King. The family of God includes all persons in human history who have believed in Jesus Christ. The royal family of God is made up of believers from Pentecost to the Rapture or believers in the Church Age only. To whom much is given much is expected. Everything has been given to us and therefore everything is expected from us under God’s plan. We are royal family, we have been given things that no-one ever possessed before — spiritual blessings, temporal blessings. Our briefing day by day in Bible class is the means by which we fulfil the expectations of grace in the establishing of a royal family of God. The principle is that regeneration means to be born again. While regeneration has occurred in every dispensation it is only in the Church Age that the royal family of God is actually formed. All believers of the Church Age are then known as royal family. 2. The setting for the royal family of God. a) The first advent of Christ occurred in the dispensation of Israel. This includes the death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. b) Ten days after Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father the Age of Israel was interrupted before its conclusion and a new dispensation was started. The Age of Israel was brought to a halt in order to insert a dispensation whose sole purpose was to call out a royal family for Jesus Christ. So a royal family is in the process of being called out today. c) Jesus Christ was royalty by birth, royalty by deity, and He became royalty by strategical victory — session at the right hand of the Father. d) The spiritual royalty of Christ occurred as a result of His ascension — His death on the cross for our salvation, followed by His physical death, followed by His resurrection, ascension and session. All of these things occurred in order to provide a spiritual royalty. e) Seated at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ has a new title — King. That makes Him King of all kings, a super royalty. He is Lord of all lords. Because He is King of all kings and Lord of all lords, as a man, He is a new type of royalty, a superior royalty, a permanent royalty, and a spiritual royalty. At this moment His title of King of kings and Lord of lords means that even though Satan rules this world, and even though Satan often administers through various world rulers, the Lord Jesus Christ is superior to all of these as the God-Man and that He is now a new type of royalty and a permanent type of royalty. f) Therefore as the King of kings and Lord of lords Jesus Christ must have a royal family to share His reign. It is unthinkable that a royal family would exist with only one person in it. g) Therefore the Age of Israel had to be halted in order to introduce a dispensation in which the specific objective is to form a royal family for Jesus Christ, a royal family forever. 3. The documentation for this royal family. The documentation is so extensive that it covers the entire book of Ephesians as well as Hebrews. It covers many passages of the scripture but two areas of documentation alone pretty well cover it. Ephesians emphasises the position of the royal family forever; Hebrews emphasises the priesthood of the royal family forever. 4. The formation of the royal family of God. There are three basic principles in the formation of the royal family. The first of these is the baptism of the Spirit, the second is positional truth, the third is some of the principles found in sanctification. The formation of the royal family from the standpoint of its inception, i.e. the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are many different kinds of baptisms in the scripture. Seven are mentioned specifically. The baptism of the Holy Spirit as a forming principle is the unique activity of God. It occurred for the first time with those who were adult believers beginning the new dispensation. Only in one spot did it occur and God took Jerusalem, the place of the crucifixion, and took a group of believers — the eleven disciples to Israel plus about 200 other people — to fulfil the prophecy of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. These believers were taken by God the Holy Spirit, totally apart from their human merit, and entered them into union with Christ. Immediately the royal family went from one to roughly two hundred and something. So now the royal family is off to a start. This took place on the day of Pentecost and at that time the Age of Israel came to a halt. The thing that causes everyone to be royal family is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which enters everyone into union with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself foretold the baptism of the Holy Spirit — John 14:20; Acts 1:5. The Bible takes time to explain the mechanics of the baptism of the Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:13. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at salvation — Colossians 2:12. Positional truth means that we are royal family of God. This is also known as salvation or phase one sanctification which enters us into the royal family of God. 5. The royal family relationship then becomes an issue. The spiritual royalty of Jesus Christ is unique. As God He is sovereign, as man He is Jewish royalty, but as the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father in His resurrection body of His humanity He is a new type of royalty — spiritual royalty, permanent royalty, King of kings, Lord of Lords. Jesus Christ in hypostatic union at the right hand of the Father was also alone when he arrived there. There was no royal family. He had no royal family at the moment of His session and so God the Father makes provision ten days later to establish a royal family for the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the first Adam in the garden was alone and God provided a help meet, so the last Adam was alone and God the Father provides a bride for the Lord Jesus as King of kings. That bride is made up of the entire royal family, believers of the Church Age. The Age of Israel was interrupted and the purpose of forming a royal family then becomes obvious. There are two designations of this royal family used in a technical sense in the Bible. The word “body” is for the royal family on earth, the word “bride” is for the royal family in resurrection body in heaven prepared to return with our Lord. The first term is a pre-Rapture term, the second is a post-Rapture term. When the body of the royal family is completed the dispensation is terminated with the Rapture of the Church, the resurrection of the royal family, both living and dead. During the Tribulation the bride will be getting her new dress, the removal of all human good, all legalism, and so on. The Tribulation will continue its course, finishing the Age of Israel, and when Christ returns we return as His bride, royal family. Positional truth is the result of the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at salvation, we enter into union with Christ by means of the ministry of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit means the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ; that is called our position in Christ. The baptism of the Spirit is the mechanics, positional truth is the result. Our position belongs to all kinds of believer, the carnal as well as the spiritual believer, to the mature believer and the immature believer, to the reversionist, to the believer under the influence of evil. It belongs to all believers regardless of their category in time, every believer is in union with Christ. This positional truth makes it possible for us to be royal family. It never existed before the Church Age, it will never exist after the Church Age. Positional truth, then, belongs to all believers, it guarantees that there will be no judgment for any of us in eternity — Romans 8:1. It guarantees that we have eternal life and also explains the mechanics by which the righteousness of God is imputed to us in this dispensation. It is the key to election and predestination, both of which are related to positional truth and to nothing else. It also explains why we are new creatures in Christ Jesus and even though we are new creatures in Christ Jesus we are still very sinful and we fail many times. Being a new creature is strictly a positional concept, it is a synonym for the royal family. When it says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature” is has no experiential connotation. Positional truth makes us new creatures, says 2 Corinthians 5:17. It also guarantees eternal security, it means that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It has all kinds of implications. But when you take the baptism of the Holy Spirit and its results in positional truth and put it all together you have to note certain characteristics. a) For example, the baptism of the Spirit and positional truth is never an experience. It is not an emotional experience, it is not ecstatics, it is not speaking in tongues, etc. b) It is not progressive, you can’t improve upon your salvation, you can’t improve on what God does; and the implications are that these people who give up everything are improving on what God has done. c) It is not related to human merit, ability, or good. It is not related to getting involved in anything by way of social action. The implications of retroactive positional truth indicate that there is no place in the plan of God for “getting involved.” d) It is eternal in nature. Once you believe in Jesus Christ the baptism of the Spirit occurs and you will be a member of the royal family of God forever, nothing will ever change it. You are royal family of God and there is no act on your part, no sin, no failure, no power in this world or in heaven that could ever change that. e) The whole concept of the baptism of the Spirit and positional truth that causes us to be members of the royal family is taught by the Word of God. It is known only by the Word of God, it is a part of divine revelation. It is obtained all at the moment of salvation so that what you do after salvation has nothing to do with the fact that you are royalty forever. It is obtained en tot at that moment and is one of the 36 things at salvation and nothing is ever going to change it. 5. The royal family relationship. The spiritual royalty of Jesus Christ is unique. As God He is sovereign, at the point of physical birth He was royalty because He was related to David, but as the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father He is a new type of royalty. In eternity past Jesus Christ as sovereign God was royalty. At the moment of the virgin birth He was human royalty — the son of David. The Son of God and the son of David is a double royalty system. He went to the cross, was resurrected, ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father, and there is where He had the unique royalty as spiritual royalty. But He was alone and that is where we come in. The Age of Israel was halted, the Church Age was begun so that a royal family of God might be formed. This is the royal family of God concept. Jesus Christ in hypostatic union at the right hand of the Father is alone, there is no royal family with Him at the moment He was seated at the right hand, and therefore the Church Age was begun with the baptism of the Spirit and from that point on the royal family is being formed. We are a part of the formation of that royal family. 6. The escutcheon or coat of arms of the royal family. Inasmuch as the royal family lives in the holy of holies [the royal palace] forever God the Holy Spirit sets up an escutcheon for us. He indwells the body of every believer — 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. Never before in human history has God the Holy Spirit made His residence in the body of any believer. This is the escutcheon or the coat of arms of the royal family of God. And again, we must distinguish between the indwelling of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit. They are different concepts. The scripture never commands indwelling but the scripture does command the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit means the Holy Spirit controls the soul. When the believer is out of fellowship we grieve the Holy Spirit, we quench the Holy Spirit; He doesn’t control the soul. But He is always in the body. The coat of arms will not be removed because you and I are royal family forever. Once royal family, always royal family; doctrine of eternal security, you cannot lose your royalty. It is the work of God and the work of God is permanent, it is never dependent upon us. 7. The security of the royal family. The 36 things accomplished at the point of salvation provide perfect security for every member of the royal family. God is perfect; His plan is perfect. That is the basis of our security. The perfection of God’s grace plan is seen in the fact that there is nothing man can do to gain salvation, there is nothing man can do to lose salvation. Positional sanctification and the sealing of the Holy Spirit are the testimony to this principle. God the Holy Spirit not only indwells us but He seals us to the day of redemption — receiving a resurrection body. 8. The royal family in time — phase two. a) The objective of the royal family in time is to follow the colours to the high ground of the super-grace life, establishing a command post of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Or, if you prefer, it is to grow in grace until you reach spiritual maturity. b) The believer must move to maturity through the daily function of GAP. This is the tactical victory of the angelic conflict and it is achieved not by works or even Christian service, it is achieved by cognisance. We must have maximum doctrine in the soul. c) God is glorified when he can provide each believer his paragraph SG2. This is where He pours into the cup. The categories are three: i) the spiritual blessings of occupation with Christ, sharing God’s happiness, the inner residency of doctrine to meet every exigency in life, capacity for life, for love, for happiness, for blessing; ii) temporal blessings — promotion, success, wealth, prosperity of every kind, leadership dynamics; iii) dying blessing. These are all a part of paragraph SG2 and every believer who is consistent in taking in the Word of God eventually reaches the point of where he reaches the high ground and God provides these things. 9. The royal family of God in eternity is also an important principle. After the Rapture every member of the royal family of God will possess a resurrection body exactly like that of Christ. This resurrection body will be minus the old sin nature, minus human good, minus the lake of fire or any condemnation. The royal family will return with Christ and share in His coronation, His millennial reign, as well as His eternal rule. Those members of the royal family who reach maturity through the daily function of GAP will have great rewards and decorations through all eternity. There is a wide variation among believers in eternity. While all have a resurrection body that is where all common things stop. Some will be highly decorated and blessed to a greater intensity than those who failed in time. There is a vast difference in rewards. The outline of chapter five is very simple: Verses 1-7 — royal family relationships Verses 8-16 — royal family responsibility. Verses 17-25 — royal family authority. In royal family relationships, which is the first paragraph, we not in verses 1 and 2 that relationship is among varying age groups. Most people seek those of their own age for any kind of social life, relaxation, or fellowship of any kind. It is only in the royal family where fellowship can actually exist between people of wide age variations and people of vastly different personalities. It does not exist anywhere else. Principles 1. It is inevitable that every local congregation of believers will be composed of varying age groups of both sexes. 2. Variation is personality, variation in activity of life, and variation in age could lead to personality conflicts. These conflicts would distract from the consistent function of GAP which is the major factor of the local church. 3. Consequently certain procedures are set up by the scripture to anticipate these problems. 4. General concepts are found in other passages dealing with academic discipline, recognition of then pastor’s authority, loving the brethren and other functions of the royal priesthood when gathered together or assembled. 5. In this context reference is made to age variation. 6. Male and female members of the royal family of God are handled separately in this context. 7. In anticipation of verse 1 dealing with male variations notice the parallelisms that are set up as guidelines . In verse 2 in the variations of age between women notice that guidelines are set up which are familiar — father, brother; mother, sister. Verse 1 — “Rebuke not” is the aorist active subjunctive from e)piplhssw. The word means to punch, to rebuke, to reprove, to reprimand. It means to reprimand here — “Do not reprimand.” Sons do not reprimand their fathers. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: this is a general concept for members of the congregation. The subjunctive mood is the subjunctive of prohibition with the negative mh. An elder is not a pastor here. The word is presbuteroj but it is non-technical presbuteroj. It refers to anyone who is older than you are. “but entreat” — the adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up a contrast between a younger person and an older person, plus the present active imperative of the verb parakalew which means here to appeal. The present tense is a customary present which denotes what should habitually occur when a younger man is in some kind of a conflict with an older man. There should be some deference with regard to age where certain little problems will arise. The active voice: the young person is free from blind arrogance and so he easily produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to younger people, and a command to youthful pastors. “as a father” — the adverb o(j is used as a conjunction of comparison to set up a standard, plus pathr which is correctly translated “father.” “Do not reprimand an older man [in a congregation], but appeal to him as a father.” Here is a principle of respect for age. Humility and grace orientation provide the younger set with objectivity toward the older members of the congregation. Principles 1. The possession of authority should never be abused. 2. Thoughtfulness and courtesy toward older men keep them concentrating on Bible teaching in the critical sunset years of their life. 3. Young people full of ambition and arrogance often distort their own importance into a system of bullying and abusing older people in the congregation. 4. Unless the older man is just a total ass he is entitled to a certain amount of respect and veneration because of his advancing years. “and the younger men” — the accusative masculine plural from newteroj. It is the comparative of neoj, meaning young or youthful, and so this should be translated “younger men.” “as brethren” — the accusative plural of a)delfoj, used here for members of the family. This means in the presence of authority, and you are in the presence of authority when you come to church. Therefore you treat men who are your contemporaries as you would treat men in your own home when the parents are present. In other words, everyone has a right to their privacy, everyone has a right to be here without someone making fun of them, someone ridiculing them, someone making life miserable for them. This emphasises the importance of several things. First, as far as Timothy is concerned, the importance of a young pastor establishing his authority by consistent Bible teaching rather than by being a rank-happy martinet. This also provides the emphasis on grace since God has provided the authority of the pastor-teacher. No pastor ever earns or deserves the authority given to him by God in grace, therefore he is to use the authority in a grace manner. Therefore since the authority of a pastor is the only authority in the devil’s world it should be guarded by grace function rather than by taking ego trips and being carried away by one’s own self-importance. In the case of one’s own contemporaries in youthful vigour in the congregation, if you have avoided blind arrogance and have listened to Bible teaching then you are going to respect the privacy and individuality of the other members of the royal family present in such a way as not to interfere with their life or in any way cause them harm or concern. Translation: “Do not reprimand and older man [in the congregation], but appeal to him as a father; younger men as brothers.” Verse 2 — “The elder women” is really “the older women.” It is the accusative feminine plural of presbuteroj and it refers to the fact that women also get old. How should the older women in the congregation be treated? Here again we set up standards to make it clear that this is over and above loving the brethren. Loving the brethren doesn’t mean to even pay any attention to them, it just means that you are free from any mental attitude sins toward them. “as mothers” is o(j denoting a comparison, setting up a parallel standard to help us out; plus mhter which means “mother.” So what is the real suggestion here? Mothers should always be treated with respect by their children. Whether they are good mothers or bad mothers is totally inconsequential. “the younger as sisters” — the accusative plural feminine from newteroj is the comparative of neoj which means “youth,” and in the feminine gender it means “the younger ladies” or “the younger women”; “as sisters” means to treat them with respect. The passage says so far, “Older women as mothers; younger women as sisters.” Notice that we have the absence of the definite article emphasising the quality of the royal family in the eyes of God. It must be remembered, then, that what this is saying by the absence of the definite article in front of “older” and “younger” is calling attention to quality, and whatever you think of older ladies or younger ladies in the congregation God says they are the highest quality in His eyes. Therefore you treat ladies in the congregation through the eyes of God, not through your own judgment. God views each lady in the congregation as being of supreme value. You treat them the same way, they are valuable to God. If they are valuable to God then you are to show them the same deference, that is what it is all about. Remember that it is the divine viewpoint that counts in everything. This principle of doctrine must be kept in mind for true royal family sensitivity. It is being sensitive to the divine viewpoint. It is not only looking at life from the divine viewpoint but operating from that basis. The final phrase has to do with women; men toward women: “with all purity” is e)n plus the instrumental singular of paj plus the instrumental singular of a)gneia. Paj is the word “all” ; a)gneia is used primarily for purity of mind. Your attitude should be purity of mind. This often causes people to stumble a bit because they don’t really understand what purity of mind is. Purity of mind is integrity and honour in the soul of a man that gives him enough poise to be a gentleman under every circumstance of life where the ladies are concerned. Ladies can be obnoxious, ladies are often obnoxious, but it takes a lot of character, poise, honour and integrity to maintain a calm relaxed attitude toward ladies when they get that way. In the Attic Greek this noun a)gneia always refers to a state of purity. But we are dealing with the Koine Greek where it came to mean purity of mind in the sense of integrity of the individual’s soul, based on Bible doctrine resident. Actually in the Koine Greek there are two words for purity. We also have kaqaroj which is used for purity of life; a)gneia is used for purity of soul in the sense of integrity of soul, honour of soul. Kaqaroj can apply to believers or unbelievers, and often does, but a)gneia applies to believers only. It is Bible doctrine in the soul that produces the integrity, the attitude. Translation: “Older women as mothers; younger women as sisters, with all purity [integrity].” This is not only a generalisation for the congregation but it has to do with Timothy too. These two verses have another application, they emphasises the importance of mutual respect between a pastor and his congregation as well as congregation and congregation. Principles 1. Mutual respect is not based on social life, sexual life, legalistic bullying, or austere fanatical leadership. Mutual respect between a pastor and his congregation is based upon the consistent function if GAP. 2. Mutual respect is centred in the most important function of the royal priesthood, the daily assembly of the church for the purpose of transferring Bible doctrine from the printed page of the canon to the right lobe of the Church Age believer. 3. The pastor respects the believers who are positive toward doctrine, those who consistently show up for the intake of the Word and who demonstrate that academic discipline that indicates inner positive volition. 4. The congregation respects the pastor who through diligent study presents Bible doctrine which nourishes the soul and produces the spiritual growth necessary to glorify God in time. 5. Therefore mutual respect is centered in the communication and reception of the Word of God. 6. No church program, no effervescent pastor or personality, no system of gimmicks, no display of emotion, will ever replace the primary system of worship in the royal family of God. The primary system of worship is the function of GAP. Remove expository Bible teaching from the local church and the local church has no excuse for existence. It becomes a hollow shell of religionism. 7. Insert expository Bible teaching into the local church and the church becomes the basis for both personal and national blessing. It becomes the basis for national blessing without interfering in national government. 8. Therefore, as goes the function of GAP so goes the historical trend in any generation. The mutual respect portrayed in these two verses has an application to the pastor, his communication of doctrine, the congregation, and their response to doctrine. The doctrine of old age 1. Definition. Old is a term of time, it connotes having exited a long time, having advanced far in years and having lost the vigour of youth. The age of sixty is the line of demarcation as a general principle — 1 Timothy 5:9. 2. Old people are to be respected — Leviticus 19:32; Proverbs 23:22; 1 Timothy 5:1,2. There is one category who will never respect older people: invading armies. That is why the military must always exist to keep them out. Invading armies destroy older people — Deuteronomy 28:50; 2 Chronicles 36:17. 3. The problems of old age. a) Old age is a time of being unteachable (generally, though there are exceptions) — Ecclesiastes 4:15; b) Old people are also helpless — John 21:18; c) Old people are more vulnerable to disease — 1 Kings 15:23; d) Old people become security conscious — Psalm 71:9. 4. Divine discipline makes people old before their time — Psalm 6:7; 32:3. 5. However doctrine learned in youth is profitable in old age — Proverbs 22:6; Psalm 71:17,18. 6. The blessings of old age. These blessings are primarily to the super-grace believer. The believer who has followed the colours to high ground of maturity and has established a command post in the soul not only has dying grace when dying comes but he has a marvellous and wonderful old age. Therefore there are many blessings set up for him. For example, old people join all categories of super-grace believers in praising the Lord and occupation with Christ. Old people with maximum doctrine have fantastic capacity to enjoy the Lord in their sunset years — Psalm 148:12-14. Old people in super-grace status have great security and blessing from that super-grace status — Psalm 37:25. Old people in super-grace status also have honour — Proverbs 17:6. Grandchildren are the crown of old men and the glory of the sons of their fathers — Proverbs 20:29. Old men in super-grace have blessing in dying — Job 42:17, “full of days” means full of blessing; 1 Chronicles 23:1; 29:28. Old age is used as an analogy for blessing in Isaiah 46:4. 7. Old age is blessed in the Millennium — Isaiah 65:20; Joel 2:28; Zechariah 8:4. 8. Those in authority have been ruined by ignoring the advice of older people — 1 Kings 12:6-8,13. 9. Standards for old people in the royal family are found in many passages. E.g. Titus 2:2,3. In verses 3-6 we have relationship with widows in the local church. Verse 3 — “Honour” is the present active imperative of the verb timaw. The present tense is the present tense of duration, it has the connotation of linear aktionsart, and it means a continuous function throughout the Church Age. The active voice: the royal family in the local church produces the action of the verb. The specific reference to authority in the local church, like Timothy as pastor-guardian, is very much in view. It is not just Timothy but the entire that fulfils this function. The imperative mood is a command. “widows” — the accusative plural of direct object from the noun xhra. There is a place for honouring of one of the more helpless categories in the human race. “that” — the accusative plural of the definite article used as a relative pronoun. The antecedent to the pronoun is the word “widows” or xhra. So we now change the word “that” to “who.” “Honour widows who.” “are” is the present active indicative of e)imi, the state of being verb. The word is not actually found in the text but it definitely is implied. The adverb o)ntwj demands the existence of the verb to be. It means “really.” And then we have the word “widows” again. Translation: “Honour widows who are really widows.” The adverb implies that all widows are not widows. Some women are divorced and not really widows. As will be pointed out in verse 6 these women are troublemakers. The verb timaw means more than just to honour in this passage, it means also to treat graciously as well as to honour. It also demands charity from the “shepherding committee” under certain conditions. At the time of writing widows were often destitute and helpless because of the persecution to the early church. So in the following verses Paul categorises those who can legitimately claim support and those who cannot. Every local church should have what could be called a charity fund. The doctrine of widows 1. Definition. A widow is a woman who has lost her husband by death. A widow is also a woman who has legitimately divorced her husband under one of four kinds. A widow is also someone who has divorced her husband under no legitimate count. But a widow is a woman who has had at least one husband. She is then the female survivor of a marriage. In our context she represents a very helpless situation on the one hand and a very dangerous situation on the other. 2. The principles of protection of the helpless apply to widows and children — Exodus 22:22. God Himself protects widows and orphans in the helpless category — Psalm 68:5,6; 146:9. God punishes those who attack or abuse the helpless — Psalm 94:6-12. Divine judgment is pronounced on those who bully and abuse the helpless — Malachi 3:5. 3. The law of the levirate marriage. a) It was considered a tragedy in Israel for a man to die without an heir. b) It was desirable to perpetuate the name of everyone in Israel and avoid the inheritance transferring to another family. c) Therefore a law. The law is derived from the Latin word levir which means the dead man’s brother or the husband’s brother. d) It was the custom when a Jew died without male issue or male heir that his nearest relative, generally his brother, should marry his widow and continue the family of the deceased man so that every family in Israel would be perpetuated. e) The firstborn son of the marriage between the deceased man’s brother and his widow would be the man’s heir to perpetuate his line. f) Therefore the family name is perpetuated through this stated law which is found in some detail in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. g) A pre-Mosaic law illustration. The levirate marriage actually occurred before the law was stated — Genesis 38:6-11. This same levirate law of marriage was used by the Sadducees to attempt to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:23-33. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection so they used the levirate law to try to trip up our Lord regarding resurrection. 4. Widows are used in the condemnation of the Pharisees. The Pharisees who were highly religious and full of all kinds of pious activity had abused the most helpless class, the widows. So: Matthew 23:14. The same principle is found in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47. 5. Widows and the origin of deacons. The origin of deacons in the local church came out of a problem regarding widows — Acts 6:1-6. 6. The apostle Paul advises widows to remain unmarried — 1 Corinthians 7:8,9. 7. Paul indicates widows qualified for support in the local church — 1 Timothy 5:3-16. Verse 4 — “But if” is e)i de. These are two conjunctive particles. The first one, e)i, introduces a first class condition. The second, de, emphasises a contrast between widows in the local church who are honoured and supported by the charity list, and those who are exceptions because they are troublemakers, and so on. “any widow” — an enclitic indefinite pronoun tij, it is used to represent a specific category of widows who are not to be supported. They are instead troublemakers. With this we have the nominative singular again of xhra for widows, and the two together means “if any widow by category.” “have” is the present active indicative of e)xw and should be translated “has.” The present tense is a customary present to denote what ordinarily occurs. The active voice: a certain category of widows produce the action of the verb, namely those with children or grandchildren in this particular verse. The indicative mood indicates the first class condition. “children” — the accusative plural direct object of teknon; “nephews” is an incorrect translation. It is the accusative plural direct object from e)kgonaj and it means “grandchildren.” “let them learn” — present active imperative third person plural of monqanw. Monqanw means to learn by practice or experience, to learn from someone as a teacher, and sometimes just to learn by hard knocks. Here it means to learn by practice from someone who passes on this great tradition. The present tense is a customary present from what may reasonably be expected to occur under the circumstances. A woman is a widow, she is helpless, she is over sixty, she has no means of support; her children or grandchildren should provide that for her. The active voice: the children or grandchildren learn from the experience of supporting the widowed mother or grandmother — a very wonderful principle. The imperative mood: this is a command, so this particular category is not to be enrolled on the charity list of the local church. “first” is an adverb, prwton. It is used three ways in the Greek. It is used of time, of sequence, and of degree. Degree is the meaning here. Therefore it should be translated, “above all.” “to shew piety” — present active infinitive of e)usebew, the verb for godliness. There is the balance of residency again. First of all, the body is always indwelt by the Holy Spirit, this is a sign of royal family. The Holy Spirit does not indwell the soul, only the body. The relationship to the soul is called the filling of the Holy Spirit. The first function is to assimilate Bible doctrine. All believers start out minus doctrine, so there is no balance. But when this minus becomes a plus you have balance of residency. To show piety means devoutness, but it means because one is occupied with Christ he is willing to assume responsibility where even establishment demands responsibility. In other words, the believer who has reached spiritual maturity assumes all of his obligations and responsibilities, whether it is the fact that his word is his bond or whether it is the fact that someone in his family is helpless and needs help, he assumes responsibility for his own. It can be translated, “let them learn above all to assume responsibility [or to show respect].” The present tense of duration or the retroactive progressive present denotes something begun in the past and continues into the present time. This is something that all super-grace believers do, they take responsibility wherever they have to no matter what the conditions. The active voice: the children and grandchildren of the widows actually produce the action here. The infinitive is an infinitive of result. However, there are three categories of infinitive of result. There is the infinitive of actual result, there is the infinitive of conceived result [assuming as a consequence], there is the infinitive of intended result which fulfils a deliberate aim. We have here number three, this is an intended result. It also blends purpose and result. And since this is the protasis of a first class condition it is fulfilled. “at home” means “to their own family,” literally — ton i)dion o)ikon. “and to requite” is the present active infinitive of a)podidomi. A)podidomi means to give back, to recompense, to give out. It has the connotation here of charity. It has with it the accusative plural from a)moibh which means remuneration, monetary support. Put the infinitive and the noun together and you have, “and to provide monetary support.” “to their parents” — progonoj which means both parents or grandparents. This is a dative of indirect object which indicates the ones in whose interest the action of charity or remuneration is performed. Then we have an explanatory word, the conjunctive particle gar is used to explain why all of this. “that” is the nominative neuter singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj and it should be “this deed [of remuneration].” The demonstrative pronoun always emphasises something near in the context, and that something near in the context is providing support for a widowed mother or widowed grandmother. It demonstrates the respect for parents or grandparents, mother or grandmother who is widowed. So the demonstrative pronoun places a tremendous emphasis on providing charity or support for those in your own family who are helpless. “is” — present active indicative of e)imi, “keeps on being.” The word “good” is not found in the original MSS, the word “acceptable” is — predicate nominative, neuter singular from a)podektoj, and it means to be pleasing. “before God” is literally, “in the sight of God,” the improper preposition e)nwpion plus the genitive of qeoj. The principle is quite obvious. God is pleased with children or grandchildren who support that widow. Here is a place where doctrine and establishment actually meet. This shows that the welfare state is totally rejected by the Word of God. Charity is acceptable but the welfare state is completely and totally out and, in effect, evil. It destroys the population, it destroys the mortal fibre or the character and the integrity of the population of a national entity. Welfare states either produce slaves or degenerate people. It is both evil and sinful for the believer to neglect destitute members of his own family. The Bible always rejects socialism. Socialism inevitably leads to the intrusion upon the privacy of the national entity and therefore destroys its freedom. Translation: “But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn above all to show respect to their own family, and to provide monetary support: for this deed [function] is pleasing in the sight of God.” Summary 1. While not apparent on the surface this verse has a dynamic impact on the field of Bible doctrine. 2. Not only does this verse recognise the principle of divine establishment (laws of establishment from God) but it emphasises the importance of charity as originating not even in the church. Charity originates in the family. Divine Institution #3 is the origin of true charity. Charity spreads to other places. Charity and welfare are not the same. Welfare stems from socialism; charity stems from truly helping the helpless. There is never anything wrong with helping the helpless but someone who can get out and work for five cents an hour is not helpless. 3. The responsibility for the members of one’s own family providing charity is a principle of Christian doctrine as well as a principle of divine establishment. 4. Where the widow has no surviving family she becomes the responsibility of the local church — that is, the believing widow. If not a believer then she becomes a legitimate ward of the state, she is truly a helpless person. Remember in Israel every third year they took up an additional tithe as a tax for the poor of the land, so that is a bona fide function. 5. This is bona fide charity in contrast to socialism or the welfare state. 6. There are three areas of responsibility in charity. a) The immediate family; b) The local church for believers in its local church; c) The state government for truly helpless people. 7. This principle is clearly understood by certain ethnic groups, such as the Jews, the Japanese. 8. This passage deals only with the responsibility of the family in charity. .Verse 5 — “Now she that is a widow indeed.” The adversative use of the post positive conjunctive particle de should be translated “But.” This is to indicate a contrast. Then we have a word that is very deceptive, it is actually an adverb, o)ntwj. It looks like a participle but it is actually an adverb based on present active participle of e)imi, and it should be translated “really.” Then there is a definite article used as a relative pronoun, and finally the nominative singular of the word xhra for “widow.” “But the one who is really a widow.” “and desolate” — the ascensive use of the conjunction kai and it is always translated “even.” The perfect passive participle of the verb memow is the word for “desolate,” but “even the one who has been left alone” is what it really means. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect which emphasises the results of the action in that here is a real widow past her peak who has no one to support her, she has really been left desolate. The passive voice: through no fault of her own the widow receives the action of the verb which is aloneness. The participle is circumstantial. “trusteth” — the perfect active indicative of verb e)lpizw which is this particular tense means to have confidence. The word generally means to hope but in the perfect tense it means to have very strong confidence. Again, it is an intensive perfect indicating the fact that her confidence in doctrine is more real than the adversity of her aloneness. The active voice: the widow in super-grace status produces the action of the verb from doctrine resident in her soul. She demonstrates a strong faith-rest. “in God” is a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of qeoj. “and continueth” — she occupied with a great ministry of prayer. One of the things that is so dynamic in the life of many older people is their prayer ministry. We have proj menw in the present active indicative meaning to persist. The present tense is the present tense of duration, it that it started in the past and has continued right up to the present time. It has strong linear aktionsart. The super-grace widow cut off from the mainstream of life actually produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is reality for absolute reality in the dynamics of her prayer life. “in supplications and prayers” — both of these words are locative plurals indicating the sphere of her effectiveness. The first one is dehsij which is a prayer for her own personal needs. It means that she legitimately has the right to bombard the throne of grace on behalf of whatever needs she has at the moment. The rest of it is strictly intercessory — proseuxh. Translation: “But the one who is really a widow, even the one who has been left alone, has confidence in God, and persists in petitions and intercessions night and day.” Principles 1. The widow represents those believers who have matured spiritually and at the same time have been cut off from the normal social life and normal function of life, out of the mainstream of life. 2. However, being a super-grace believer she is occupied with Christ, she has maximum doctrine resident in the soul and is using it with maximum effectiveness. 3. It becomes obvious that when a person is in this state of maturity she does not depend upon people or things or circumstances for her happiness. 4. She has passed the point of useless lust for life and things but she has not passed the point of capacity for life or capacity for happiness; she has both. 5. Such people as the widow here are neither to be pitied nor deprecated. 6. They are not the subjects for condolence but congratulation. 7. Their priestly life is occupied with persistent, effective, dynamic prayer. 8. Her service in the royal priesthood is maximum, her recognition by others minimum. Which all goes to point out that recognition by others doesn’t mean a thing. It is what God thinks that counts. 9. But these widows are totally content. They have won the greatest victory of old age. God is the total source of their blessing and no person on planet earth can contribute an iota to their happiness. 10. Therefore they have reached old age and helplessness without being obnoxious. They have avoided all the problems of old age. What are some of the problems of old age — especially if you fail to take in doctrine? 1. No capacity for life. Old people minus doctrine lose the power of thinking and concentration. They have a tendency to doze and dream and become vegetables. 2. Old people are disoriented to life, they have no capacity for love, for blessing, for happiness or grace; they seem to have passed all these things and become indifferent to them. 3. They have intensification of mental attitude sins with emphasis on vindictiveness and implacability. 4. They have a lack of a sense of security, they are unstable and poorly motivated. 5. In old age one of the problems is thoughtlessness, selfishness in demanding attention. 6. Old age is a time of being critical and unteachable. 7. Old people are defeated by time, become bored, and in some cases even troublemakers. — but not this widow. Verse 6 — we have the post positive conjunction de again, used as an adversative conjunction to set up a contrast between this widow qualified for financial help from the local church and one who is not qualified for help from the local church. “she that liveth in pleasure” — present active participle from spatalaw. The word means to live voluptuously, to live riotously, to live in indulgence. With it is the definite article used as a feminine pronoun, and it should be translated, “But the widow who constantly indulges is sensual or wanton pleasure.” The participle is circumstantial. The active voice refers to any widow who spends her time in sensual, sexual pleasures to the exclusion of everything else. This is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and has continued into this point of old age. “is dead” — the perfect active indicative of the verb qneskw, used here for that category known as reversionistic death, the believer under the influence of evil. The doctrine of the classification of death 1. Spiritual death, the first death we experience. We experience it when we are born. Spiritual death is no fellowship with God in time. It means no relationship with God in time because we are born with an old sin nature, born with the imputation of Adam’s sin. Spiritual death is the original penalty of sin — Genesis 2:17. Cf. Ephesians 2:1,5; Romans 5:12. 2. Physical death which is separation of the soul from the body — Matthew 8:22, Let those who are spiritually dead bury the ones who are physically dead. Cf. Philippians 1:20,21. 3. The second death is the perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity. It is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. The second death is for unbelievers only in the human race, plus fallen angels in the angelic sphere — Hebrews 9:27. The act of judgment is the second death. Cf. Revelation 20:12-15. The second death perpetuates spiritual death. 4. Positional death. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the Church Age believer or the royal family of God is identified with Christ in His death. This is known also as retroactive positional truth, it is the subject of Romans chapter 6 and it is mentioned briefly in Colossians 2:12. Cf. Colossians 3:3. 5. Reversionistic death. This is the believer in reversionism under the influence of evil — James 2:26; Ephesians 5:14; Revelation 3:1. 6. Carnal death. This is the believer out of fellowship through sin or being in the status of carnality, but it is not the same as reversionistic death even as evil and sin are not the same. It must be distinguished, then, from operational death which is the believer in reversionism. Romans 8:6,13; James 1:15. The prodigal son is an illustration of this. he was a son when he started, he was a son when it was all over. There never was a time when he wasn’t a son and there never wasn’t a time when his father wasn’t his father. But when he recovered from his carnality the father said in Luke 15:24, “For this son of mine was dead, he has now come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” Carnal death is in view here. 7. Sexual death which is the inability to copulate — Romans 4:17-21 is the illustration of this. “is dead” — the perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it recognises the completed action and the existing results but emphasises the process which was consummated. In other words, she has gone through a process of being out of fellowship, carnality through reversionism, until she is totally under the influence of evil. This widow is saved, she is negative toward doctrine, she is under the influence of evil, she is under reversionistic death. The active voice: the reversionistic widow produces the action of the verb in the function of reverse process reversionism. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality that certain widows become reversionistic in their frustration of widowhood and eventually come under the tremendous influence of evil. “while she lives” — present active participle of the verb zaw. Zaw is used for the function of life. The descriptive present tense indicates what is now going on. It presents to the mind a picture of an event in the process. The woman so involved is in wanton pleasure. In other words, she has totally given herself up to a completely selfish idea that excludes doctrine and actually destroys her life so that she is dead while she is living. The active voice: the reversionistic widow produces the action of the verb. The participle is a temporal one. Translation: “But the widow who constantly indulges in wanton pleasure has died while she is still alive.” Summary 1. This not only applies to the specific case in context of a widow but this also applies in other areas of the spiritual life which runs parallel to this. Believers who live for pleasure and self-gratification are in effect the living dead. 2. In this passage the category is widow, but the principle applies to all categories of the royal family of God who become involved in reversionism. 3. Reversionism involves a frantic search for happiness and coupled with the influence of evil results in the Christian zombie or the living dead believer. 4. Without Bible doctrine in the soul, the believer has no capacity for life, no capacity for love, no capacity for happiness or prosperity. So no capacity to appreciate God, no capacity for grace and all the other capacities produces a zombie. 5. The sooner that life becomes occupation with Christ the better life is. Occupation with Christ is maximum category #1 love, the experience of the super-grace believer. 6. Occupation with Christ is the status of the mature believer, the royal family with maximum doctrine resident in the soul. 7. Obviously the Christian zombie has both rejected and neglected the principle of the daily function of GAP. 8. We might call this, as stated in this verse, zombie reversionism. 9. Zombie reversionism is a believer so glutted with pleasure in the status of reversionism, and so under the influence of evil, that any pleasure in life or all accumulated pleasure in life leaves him totally dissatisfied. 10. To be minus Bible doctrine and its accompanying capacities is to be the living dead, waiting under divine discipline for the inevitable maximum discipline of the sin unto death. So the living dead are waiting to die miserably. This brings us in verse 7 to the pastor’s responsibility in the field of human relationships. Verse 7 — “And these things” is the adjunctive use of the word kai which means also, plus the accusative neuter plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. O(utoj emphasises the field of human relationships as portrayed in this passage. The demonstrative pronoun is the direct object of the verb. “give in charge” — present active imperative of paraggellw which means to command. When things get bad Timothy has to use his authority, he has to step in and command. As the pastor-guardian he has the authority to straighten things out and it demands giving commands. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs and what should be expected to occur. The active voice: Timothy as the pastor must produce the action, he must straighten things out by the use of his authority. The imperative mood is a command. So we translate this, “Also be commanding.” “that” is the conjunction i(na used in the final sense to denote a purpose, a gain, a goal, objective. “they may be” — present active subjunctive of the verb e)imi. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: the royal family of God in Timothy’s congregation produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood goes with i(na to form the final clause. “blameless” — a predicate nominative plural from the adjective a)nepileptoj, and it means to be irreproachable. This has to do with the administration of the deacons with regard to widows. Translation: “Also be commanding these things in order that they may be irreproachable.” Once again the emphasis is placed on the pastor taking command of the local church, enforcing biblical principles, whether they have to do with privacy or good manners or administration. A pastor must inevitably be responsible for his own congregation. Verse 8 — “But if” is e(i de. E(i is a conjunction introducing a first class condition; de is a post positive particle used in a rare way as an emphatic particle. It should be translated “If however.” Next is an enclitic indefinite pronoun tij which always refers to a category. A negative category is coming up — reversionism. “provide not” — present active indicative from the compound pronoew — made up of pro which means before, and noew which means to think. It means to think beforehand, to foresee something, to provide beforehand, to anticipate, to provide something ahead of time. (There is a cognate noun that goes with it: pronoia which means foresight, forethought, vision, and providence) With this is a negative o)uk. “If anyone does not provide.” The present tense is retroactive progressive present, plus the negative denoting that here is a head of a family, the man of the house, and he has not provided for his family. The active voice: certain reversionistic male believers under the influence of evil have failed to provide for their families. This evil can be operation bleeding heart altruism. The indicative mood indicates that this is a first class condition. “for his own” — a genitive plural of the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, plus the genitive plural of relationship from i)dioj used here for family. “and especially” is the ascensive use of kai plus the adverb malista which is the superlative of mallon, and it should be “and most of all those of his own family.” This is a first class condition, this actually occurs among believers. All of this is a protasis of a first class condition, it is known as a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. In every generation of born again believers this actually occurs. The indicative mood of a verb assumes the premise the premise is true. The protasis which began with e)i and includes the indicative mood is the protasis of a first class condition. It is assumed to be true and it is true in every generation that certain believers in reversionism under the influence of evil, for one reason or another, do not support their immediate family because they’re involved in something that prevents them from doing it, something that is evil, something that is related to reversionism. Christian giving was never designed to cause one’s family to be starved or poorly clothed. So what is the divine attitude toward men who are responsible for providing for their wife and family and they fail to do so? “he hath denied” is the perfect middle indicative of a)rneomai which means to deny, to refuse, to repudiate. The perfect tense here is the intensive perfect, it represents a completed action with existing results. This is the emphatic way in the Greek of presenting a fact or a condition. It is a strong way of saying that a thing is. The believer in view has rejected or repudiated Bible doctrine with the result that his reversionism leads to his rejection of responsibilities to his family. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action. The active voice emphasises the action, the middle voice emphasises the agent. The middle voice relates the action, therefore, very intimately to the subject and this is what is called an intensive middle. It emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of both reversionism and the influence of evil in the life of some male believer who is married, who has children. For some reason or another — emotional giving, compulsive gambling, a drunkard, etc. — his family is deprived and destitute. “faith” — the accusative singular direct object from pistij refers to doctrine. Principles 1. Two doctrines are pertinent to understanding this verse: reversionism and evil. Both explain why men come to this situation. 2. These two doctrines are two sides of the same coin. The coin is called apostasy. One side is reversionism, the other side is the influence of evil. 3. Reversionism is the mechanics of apostasy while the influence of evil is the result of apostasy. 4. This believer has entered into some stage of reversionism where he is giving or spending money which deprives his family of food, shelter, and clothing. 5. In the second stage of reversionism it could be exhausting his financial resources in a frantic search for happiness. 6. In the second or fourth stages of reversionism it could be emotional — emotional giving, compulsive gambling, which exhausts the family treasury and causes starvation. 7. The influence of evil always results in one man either giving or gambling or spending his money so that his entire family is impoverished, starving, in rags, suffering because of his stupidity in the handling of money. 8. This is why compulsive gamblers should never marry. 9. This is why emotional revolt is incapable of any relationship in life, incapable of taking responsibility. 10. On the other side is the fact that insurance programs give poor and moderate income men a chance to provide for their families. “and is worse” is wrong. The word “and” [kai] is adjunctive — “also” present active indicative of e)imi, “he keeps on being; plus the comparative xeirwn, it is the comparative of kakoj which means “evil.” It should be translated, “also he is more evil.” “than an infidel” — a)pistoj is an unbeliever. Translation: “If, however, anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for the members of his own family, he has denied the doctrine with the result that he has repudiated Bible doctrine; also he is more evil than an unbeliever.” Principles 1. There are numerous cases within the framework of reversionism where believers under the influence of evil are more evil than the unbeliever. There are at least seven cases that we have already observed: a) Emotional giving from emotional appeals. Emotional giving from an emotional basis keeps a man from providing for his own. b) Evil altruism which deprives a family of needs. Operation bleeding heart. c) A frantic search for happiness by spending in a way that deprives the family of necessities. d) Compulsive gambling, compulsive drinking and drug addiction. e) Loss of a sense of responsibility through reversionism. f) Irresponsible stupidity in getting married when you shouldn’t and then making a botch of it after you do — a sexual relationship that produces more children than you can afford. g) Overextension in business or business investment without using capital for making provision for family or loved ones. 2. Whatever the mechanics the cause is always the same. A male believer is involved, he rejects Bible doctrine, enters into some stage of reversionism, comes under the influence of evil and does not provide for his own. 3. The growing believer or the mature believer never falls into this rat race. 4. The reversionistic believer practicing any form of evil becomes more evil than an unbeliever — says verse 8. 5. Why? Because the believer has more safeguards against evil than the unbeliever. The believer has doctrine as well as the laws of establishment to protect him from this. While the unbeliever is limited to his own integrity and the laws of establishment the believer who repudiates Bible doctrine always becomes more evil than any unbeliever. Note that while this believer is more evil than the unbeliever he does not lose his salvation, he cannot lose his salvation. Verses 9 and 10: the enrolment of qualified widows. Remember that the widow is taken as a category of helpless individual. However, we have noted that some widows are not helpless at all, they are totally capable of taking care of themselves. Verse 9 — “Let not a widow be taken.” The present passive imperative of katalegw doesn’t mean anything about taking at all, it is an incorrect translation here. The subject is xhra, widow. What it is actually saying is “Widows may be enrolled on the church charity list.” The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but widows enrolled for support is regarded as so certain in thought that there will be a need for it and therefore a principle must be passed in favour of certain qualified widows. The passive voice: qualified widows receive the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the mood of command. “Widows may be enrolled on the charity list.” “into the number” is not found in the original, it was just an attempt on the part of the early translators to indicate the fact that the Word of God for the Church Age authorises a charity list. “under threescore years old” — mh e)latton e)twn e(ckonta which means “not less than sixty years old.” Notice: 1. This passage does not teach the existence of deaconesses. 2. The enrolment is for charity or support of widows over sixty who are otherwise destitute. 3. The age of sixty indicates that by that time all other sources of income have disappeared and in the case of a believing widow who is otherwise qualified she become a ward of her local church. 4. Her helplessness which requires financial help from the charity committee of the local church would only occur after sixty. 5. This also implies that women under sixty should not be given charity as they will up to that time have other means of support. 6. Widows to be qualified for the charity list, then, must be over sixty years of age. “having been” is the perfect active indicative of ginomai. The verb goes with the previous paragraph. It should be translated, “Widows may be enrolled on the charity list having become not less than sixty years of age.” The perfect tense is an intensive perfect which means that they must arrive at sixty before they are eligible. “the wife of one man” — the nominative singular of gunh plus the descriptive genitive singular from e(ij, plus a)nhr for husband. Literally, “the wife of one husband.” It is an idiom that means married only once. Apparently some women had more than one husband. This qualification is obviously designed to indicate some stability factor. The principle was that a widow who had been married once and had successfully served a housewife under that marriage had a certain amount of stability. She had the stability to stay with it whether it was a good or a bad marriage. Secondly, this would imply also maturity, lack of promiscuity or approbation lust. The enrolment of widows on the charity list implied some function around the local church which required stability. A widow can have just as wonderful life as anyone else, and under the principles of Bible doctrine and capacity for life all of these things add up to the fact that no one should feel sorry for a widow, that in effect a widow can have just as wonderful a life as anyone else. Verse 10 — “Well reported” is a present passive participle from the verb marturew, and this doesn’t mean “martyr.” In the active voice means to bear witness in a trial. In the passive voice it means to be approved, to be well attested, to be verified, or to be certified. The present tense is retroactive progressive present which denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time, the time of her enrolment. She is well certified as a mature believer. The passive voice: the qualified widow receives the action of the verb — verification of her dynamic spiritual life. The participle is circumstantial, it acts as the apodasis of five first class conditions which are in the passage. “She is certified” is the apodasis. To certify means to endorse as a part of administration as being under the right standard for qualification. “for good works” is the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of e)rgon which refers to occupation or deed or accomplishment. With it is the adjective kaloj, modifying e)rgon, and kaloj means here “honourable accomplishments.” In other words, her honourable super-grace production from maximum doctrine resident in her soul is certification of her qualification. Honourable accomplishment or occupation is a sign of maturity in the spiritual realm. Maximum doctrine in the soul will reveal itself over the long haul by kaloj or integrity. The standards for certification are based on the content of the following first class conditions. The word “if” brings the prodasis in last instead of the usual first. It starts out with the conjunction e)i. This introduces a first class condition. A conditional clause is always a statement in the Greek of supposition, the fulfilment of which is assumed to secure the realisation of a potential fact. The clause containing the supposition is called the protasis. It generally occurs first and is introduced by the English word “if.” There are four different types in the New Testament: 1st class — if and it is true; second class — if and it is not true; 3rd class — if, maybe yes, maybe no; 4th class — if, I wish it were but it isn’t true. Always they have a great deal to do with the understanding of a given passage where they are used. So the clause containing the supposition is called the protasis. This is the introduction of a protasis. The clause containing the statement based on the supposition is called the apodasis. This is where we get our conclusion. This rarely ever comes first. Here is verse 10 we have one of the cases where it does. We have here a first class condition, it is a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. In other words, these five realities must be fulfilled before being qualified to be helped financially by the local church. It is a legitimate function but there are certain administrative standards which are set up in the Word of God, indicating a principle: Administration is not some helter skelter emotional activity. The key to understanding conditional clauses, then, is not just the conjunction here, e)i which introduces it but the mood of the verb. The mood of the verb is indicative which indicates reality. “if she have brought up” is the aorist active indicative of a hapax legomena verb teknotrofew. This is made up of two words: teknon is a child; trepw means to support, educate, or to rear. It means, “if she has reared children well.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it gathers together into one entirety her rearing of a family. She doesn’t have to have children but this particular one comes in if she does have children. The active voice: the widow over sixty must have been at some time in her life a good mother. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the first class condition. What does it mean to be a good mother? It means training, teaching, influencing, inculcating in both physical and spiritual areas of life. That means a lot of things. It means, for example, that where the son is concerned, when a woman has a male child that man’s attitude toward the female of the species for the rest of his life is going to depend upon how well he respected his mother and how beautifully she trained him in those first years of his life when he was highly impressionable. Many men are not born gentlemen but they grow to be gentlemen because their mothers did such a magnificent job. Again, the constative aorist gathers into one entirety her rearing of the family. The active voice: the widow over sixty must have been a good mother. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality. “if” — this time we have e)i, the conjunction introduces the first class condition; “she have lodged strangers” — the aorist active indicative of cenodoxew which actually means to exercise hospitality, to show hospitality. Here in the aorist tense it means to demonstrate hospitality. This is a constative aorist which covers her adult life from the time that she began as a wife or a mother or as a woman in her home, and right up to the point of her qualification for being on the charity list of the local church. The qualified widow produces the action of the verb. This is a declarative indicative mood for the first class condition. What does it really mean? It means the type of character which is outgoing. (Inhospitable people are subjective people) Hospitality is an attitude of soul. It is integrity of soul, it is an attitude of being outgoing, thoughtful of others, and sensitive to the needs of others without being subjective in any way or without seeking to gain anything from it. “if she have washed the feet of saints” — “if” is a first class condition and is a qualification; “she have washed” is the aorist active indicative of niptw which means to wash, to bath. It is a constative aorist, it would cover the entire the entire realm of her life, it is a general characteristic. The active voice: she must do it. The indicative mood: first class condition; “the saints” refers to the royal family of God, male and female — the possessive genitive of a(gioj; “feet” is the accusative plural direct object from pouj — “if she has washed the feet of the saints.” Summary 1. This does not refer to the foot washing ceremony practised by the River Brethren, a famous German group. 2. The foot washing ceremony accomplished by our Lord in John 13:4-20 has nothing to do with the Church Age. It was to teach a principle of doctrine for every dispensation but it was not a command to continue the process of washing the feet of believers. 3. In John 13 the disciples had been guilty of a breach of etiquette. They had been guilty of entering the upper room where they would hear one of the greatest messages ever with unwashed feet. That means that they went through the streets of the city where they accumulated dust and dirt on their feet. They came to the upper room where they were about to observe the Passover in this condition. They had what might be classified as stinking feet. They were an offensive group to the Lord, not only from the standpoint of etiquette but they were also malodorous. 4. Consequently the disciples were also occupied with a debate as to which of them was the greatest, that none of them would wash anyone else’s feet when they came in. They refused to take the place of a servant and wash the feet of anyone else before entering. Cf. Luke 22:24. 5. So Jesus washed their feet demonstrating the principle of doctrine that greatness cannot exist apart from flexibility, grace humility. Great people are never degraded. In their souls they have those principles of doctrine, character and integrity so they cannot be degraded. Even degrading circumstances cannot degrade a great person. Only blind arrogance is degraded by degrading circumstances. 6. Furthermore, there was an analogy in our Lord’s washing of the disciples’ feet. The disciples are bathed before coming to the last supper — a picture of salvation. The idea in salvation is once bathed, always bathed. 7. It was customary to wash one’s feet before entering a home or a hall in the ancient world. This is analogous to rebound. The principle by analogy: one salvation, many rebounds. 8. In coming to the upper room the filth of the streets has accumulated on the feet of the disciples, analogous to carnality. 9. The disciples could not have fellowship with the Lord and have dirty feet simultaneously. So Jesus washed their feet. This is analogous the provision for rebound on the cross. 10. Therefore the analogy which emerges: One bath — salvation; many foot washings — rebound. 11. Jesus commanded rebound in John 13:15, not literal foot washing. The heritage of grace is perpetuated through rebound is the principle of the foot washing ceremony. 12. If the significance of foot washing had been in the literal ceremony then Peter would have understood the Lord’s command. 13. But Peter did not understand because the significance of foot washing is not in the literal ceremony, it is in the doctrinal analogy to the rebound technique. 14. Jesus, in John 13:16, emphasised the importance of grace orientation, taking the place of the servant. 15. To the widow, “if she has washed the feet of the saints” refers purely the fact of her grace orientation. Her grace orientation refers to the content of doctrine in her soul — if she has taken a place of serving without feeling degradation, if she has maintained her poise through degrading circumstances of life. These could never be degrading because they could never touch her soul when she has doctrine. “for” — e)i for the first class condition; “she has relieved” is the aorist active indicative of e)parkew which means to help or aid someone, to be of assistance. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety all the help given to others in distress, whether it is a mental distress or a physical distress. The active voice: the qualified widows produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a supposition from a first class condition. “the afflicted” — present passive participle from qlibw which means to be oppressed or to be afflicted. The present tense of qlibw is an iterative present, it describes what recurs occasionally at certain intervals, it is the present tense of repeated action. The passive voice: believers receive suffering, pressure, affliction. The participle is circumstantial. It is in the dative case which is the dative of advantage. It is to our advantage to have adversity, pressure, and difficulty. This is also the dative of indirect object indicating that the one’s in affliction for whom she performed the acts of aid were benefited by this. “if she have diligently followed” — e)pakolouqew which means to devote one’s self to something. The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the application of resident doctrine in the soul producing devotion to all intrinsic good production. The active voice: the qualified widow produces the action of the verb. “every good work” should be “every intrinsic good production.” This does not means that there is any such thing as a perfect widow for there is no such thing as a perfect person. These are administrative guidelines. What does it mean? 1. This means production totally divorced from every form of evil and every stage of reversionism. 2. It means production based on Bible doctrine resident in the soul under the principle of balance of residency. 3. It means production from the super-grace life — the filling of the Spirit plus maximum doctrine. 4. It means production which is sacrifice on the altar of the royal priesthood. The altar itself is doctrine in the soul. The sacrificing is the actual offering on the altar — production. 5. This means production totally divorced from any form of apostasy, religionism, legalism, reversionism. Translation: “Certified by honourable accomplishments; if she has reared children well, if she has demonstrated hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has helped those being afflicted, if she has devoted herself to every intrinsic good production.” Verse 11 — “But” is the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de to set up a contrast between qualified widows and young widows not qualified for the shepherding fund of the local church. “the younger widows” — the accusative feminine plural direct object of newteroj; it is taken from neoj which means young, and this is the comparative. “refuse” — present middle imperative of paraiteomai which means to excuse one’s self, to avoid, to decline, to reject, to refuse. The present tense is a pictorial present which actually depicts refusing certain ones. The middle voice is a deponent verb, it is actually active in meaning. It means that the deacon board must definitely refuse non-qualified types. The must be no emotional involvement, it must be based upon biblical principles. The imperative mood is a command. “But keep rejecting younger widows.” “for” is an explanatory use of gar — “for you see.” “when they have begun to wax wanton” — the aorist active subjunctive of katastrhniaw which means “when they have maximum libido.” It means to have strong or unusually strong sexual impulses. The present tense is a constative aorist for a pattern of strong libido, intense sexual desire. The active voice: younger widows have waves of strong, intense desire. The subjunctive mood is potential. With this is a temporal particle, o(tan, it is used for an action which is conditional, which is repeated; it is always used with the aorist active subjunctive for a subordinate clause which precedes the main clause and it is temporal in its connotation. “against Christ” is wrong. It is the ablative of separation for Xristoj used here for alteration in status of occupation with Christ. It should be translated, “which separates them from Christ.” That is, the younger widows and their maximum libido become so distracted by their sexual impulses that they become apathetic toward doctrine, toward Christ and they enter into the worst thing that could ever happen to an older woman: an adult stage of being man-crazy. The whole principle is that they lose occupation with Christ , they enter into reversionism, they become involved in the adult stage of being man-crazy. “they will marry” is not what the Greek says: “they will” is a present active indicative of qelw and it means a strong emotional desire here. It is not a rational desire because they under the condition of being man-crazy, but it is a strong emotional desire. The present tense is a static present representing perpetual libido which makes the woman emotional instead of rational. The active voice: many young widows produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for perpetual desire from intense libido — “they keep desiring.” Then there is the present active infinitive of gamew which means to marry. The present tense is a perfective present, it means the continuation of existing results. The result is the fulfilling of a deliberate aim on their part. Translation: “But keep rejecting younger widows: for you see when they have maximum libido which is separating them from Christ, they keep desiring to marry.” Principle 1. Category #2 love can be a distraction to category #1 love. This is true in the category of young widows. 2. The young widow in the stage of man-craziness is the worst of all. 3. The widow so afflicted loses all of her perspective and discernment from doctrine or from common sense. 4. She usually makes a mistake in marriage or has an affair with a total jackass. 5. However, the only reason for category #2 distraction from category #1 love is reversionism, neglect of doctrine. Verse 12 — “Having” is the present active participle from e)xw, meaning as a rule to have and to hold. The present tense is a present tense of duration which denotes reversionism begun in the past and continuing into the present time, resulting in the extreme libido and the desire to marry. The active voice: women under the influence of reversionism under the influence of evil, and having intense libido, produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “damnation” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun krima which refers to judgment, and here it refers to the various stages of divine discipline for the reversionists. The doctrine of divine discipline 1. Definition. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive measures by which God corrects and judges the believer in time. All believers receive a certain amount of divine discipline administered from God Himself. Discipline is always the alternative to blessing in the Christian way of life. Two areas of discipline actually exist in phase two. There is discipline for carnality and there is discipline for reversionism. Discipline for carnality is always temporary, it is cancelled by the rebound technique. Discipline for reversionism is a permanent type of discipline, it always terminates in the sin unto death. Divine discipline never implies loss of salvation no matter how severe the discipline may be. The purpose of divine discipline in time is to correct the believer, to bring the believer to the point of reality with regard to either carnality or reversionism, to produce rebound for carnality and to produce recovery for reversionism. 2. The principle of divine discipline is found in Hebrews 12:5,6. The punitive action from God is for the believer only. Divine discipline is actually an extension of God’s love to the believer, it is an indication of relationship. Discipline is for children — “my son.” Proverbs 3:12 — “For whom the Lord loves he judges by punitive action; therefore like a father to a son in whom he delights.” 3. The purpose of divine discipline — Revelation 3:19. “Those whom I love I punish and correct...” The purpose of the discipline there is to get them to change their mind about doctrine and recover from reversionism. This is called the warning stage of divine discipline. 4. Divine discipline never implies loss of salvation — Galatians 3:26. Once a child, always a child. 5. Divine discipline is confined to time — Revelation 21:4. No one will ever be disciplined in eternity. 6. Discipline, therefore, is designed to turn cursing into blessing — 1 Corinthians 11:30,31. Rebound generally cancels discipline which is related to carnality. However, if the believer and suffering continues the purpose of that suffering is blessing, it no longer has any punitive connotation — Job 5:17,18. 7. Divine discipline or reversionism includes self-induced misery — Psalm 7:14-16. 8. The principle of triple-compound discipline where there is self-induced misery with divine discipline. Remember that everything that happens to you which can be regarded as punitive is not necessarily from God. Much punitive activity is self-imposed. First of all in triple-compound discipline you have three areas of failure and there is discipline in each area. The first is in the area of mental attitude sins. These sins always motivate verbal sins. Verbal sins are of a very peculiar nature in that if you gossip or malign or speak disparagingly about someone else — speaking in terms of sins which you allege they have committed — you have committed ma verbal sin for which there is divine discipline. But more than that, your verbal sins have mentioned sins which you have ascribed to others — they may be real or imagined. Whether you have told the truth or have told a lie you are the one who is out of line and therefore whatever sins you mention in your judging of others, each one of them carries a divine discipline which is also added to you. The first stage of triple-compound discipline — mental attitude sins, some reaction to someone mentally. Secondly, the verbal sins are the basis for further punitive action from God — Matthew 7:1; Psalm 64:7,8; James 4:11; 5:9. The third category: whatever sins are attributed to the victim of your maligning or judging carry a discipline which is transferred to the maligner, the gossipper, the judge. God has a perfect sense of justice. 9. Three categories of discipline in reversionism. a) The warning stage — Revelation 3:20. This is a warning that the judge is standing at the door ready to judge, as per James 5:9. The warning stage has a relatively simple recovery involving rebound and the persistent function of GAP. In this warning stage too much doctrine has not been lost in the right lobe; b) The intensive stage — Psalm 7:14; Psalm 38:1-14; c) The dying stage — Revelation 3:16. “Constantly having discipline” — the worst thing that can happen is to get to the sin unto death. The sin unto death 1. Definition. The sin unto death is the means by which the reversionistic believer is transferred from time to eternity. It is dying by means of maximum punitive measures from God. Dying is horrible, painful, miserable, the obvious exception to dying grace which is the way the super-grace believer is transferred from time to eternity. There will be no rewards in eternity. 2. Documentation. Psalm 118:17,18; 1 John 5:16 — “there is a sin unto death.” 3. The cause of the sin unto death: Prolonged and unchecked reversionism is always the cause. When you get into prolonged and unchecked reversionism you are also under the influence of evil. The combination of things leads to the sin unto death — Jeremiah 9:13-16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19. 4. The sin unto death does not mean loss of salvation — 2 Timothy 2:11-13. 5. There are only four ways to transfer from time to eternity: a) The sin unto death; b) Dying grace which is for super-grace believers only; c) PCS under paragraph SG3 — e.g. Enoch, the illustration in Hebrews 11:5; Elijah. This means crossing the high golden bridge between time and eternity without dying physically. The Rapture generation will have that opportunity; d) Resurrection, as the Rapture generation. 6. Case histories of the sin unto death. Monetary reversionism took Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-10. Phallic reversionism took the incestuous Corinthian in 1 Corinthians 5. (He repented). Ritual reversionism took the carnal Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 11:30-31. Mental attitude reversionism such as Saul refusing to kill the enemy — 1 Samuel 13:9-14, and his neglect of the Word — 1 Chronicles 10:13,14. Hymenaeus and Alexander through verbal reversionism — 1 Timothy 1:19,20. Anti-establishment reversionism such as King Hezekiah was guilty of — Isaiah 30:1-3; Isaiah 38. He, too, repented. In most of these cases the people were able to reverse it once they were under the sin unto death by repentance and by reversion recovery. 7. Rebound is also a factor in reversion recovery — 1 Corinthians 11:30-31; James 5:20. 8. The consistent function of GAP is absolutely necessary for reversion recovery — James 4:4-8. “because” — the causal conjunction o(ti, explaining why they are constantly having discipline. “they have cast off” — aorist active indicative of the verb a)qetew which means to declare invalid, to set aside or reject, to swerve from. It is a verb of negative volition toward doctrine as related to reversionism. The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety the various stages of reversionism involved in the phrase “they have cast off.” The active voice: the reversionistic widows produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that these widows are in reversionism and they have swerved from something. “their first faith” — the accusative singular of the definite article used as a possessive pronoun; the accusative singular direct object of prwtoj. Prwtoj is a superlative of pro connoting rank or degree meaning first, foremost, or most important. And finally we have the accusative singular direct object of pistij used here for Bible doctrine. Translation: “Constantly having divine discipline because they have swerved from [or rejected] their previous doctrine [resident in their souls].” Verse 13 — “And withal” is a post positive conjunction particle de, it should be translated, “And at the same time.” With it is the adverb a(ma which indicates the coincidence of two actions in time. “they learn” is the present active indicative of manqanw which means to learn from someone else. This verb emphasises reversionists associating with reversionism and when this occurs it intensifies the reversionism. “idle” is a predicate nominative from the adjective a)rgoj with the infinitive understood. The infinitive would be from e)imi and the predicate adjective is correctly translated “idle,” it means lazy or nothing to do, or useless. In fact they have to learn to be idle or useless and this indicates that at one time they were in super-grace, they were productive, and they did have great capacity for life and blessing. Now they have retrogressed into reversionism associated with others who are reversionistic, and they have learned from their association to be idle and useless. From idleness and uselessness they become very harmful. No one ever stands still, you are either moving forward or moving backward. Here is a picture now of those moving backward. “wandering about” — the present middle participle of perierxomai. It means to wander without having any objective or goal, merely trying to find someone to please you or to make you happy. It has to do with a life of no direction. The present tense is a present tense of duration, it denotes something begun in the past and continuing into the present time. It is generally associated with the adverb a(ma and when it is it is always translated like a perfect tense and should be translated “having wandered around.” The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the reversionistic widows as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results of the action. The participle is circumstantial. With it is the accusative plural direct object of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, plus the accusative plural of o)ikia. With this verb o)ikia means from house to house. Literally in the English it would be “houses.” Principle 1. The demonstrative pronoun is not translated in the idiom, it emphasises the identity of the houses where the idle widows are moving to and from. It indicates that they have associated with those who are reversionistic. Like associate with like kind, and when this occurs they influence each other. They have inbred idleness. 2. The wandering indicates a life without direction or purpose or definition. 3. There is no preposition here, the idiom is rendered into the English “from house to house” rather than “houses.” 4. It is inevitable that people whose life has become meaningless and without purpose become idle, have nothing to do, and inevitably become trouble makers. 5. There is never enough time in a day for those who have a meaningful life. For the super-grace believer with doctrine in the soul he has the capacity for life, for happiness, for blessing and there never is enough time in the day. “and not only idle — this is the first step in retrogression from uselessness. They are not only idle. Idleness is merely a status quo, a temporary place from which they go down. The circumstances for every kind of trouble making always are based upon idleness or uselessness — no enthusiasms in life of any kind. Idleness becomes a supply base or support base. It becomes a fire support base for both mental attitude and verbal sins as well as a variation in the function of evil. In this case these widows who have now come to this stage of reversionism are now declared to be “tattlers also” — the conjunction a)lla for once is not used in its usual adversative sense, but it is used here when a whole clause is compared. So we have a comparison on the downward trend. There is also the adjunctive kai to indicate that this is retrogression. It is translated “also.” “busybodies” — the nominative plural of fluaroj and it means “gossips.” The verb fluarew is the source of this noun and it means to throw up bubbles. From there it came to mean empty and foolish talk. It finally came to be a more serious type of thing — maligning, gossiping, unjustified charges or motivated by mental attitude sins to run down someone else. We translate this, “but also gossips.” The doctrine of the sins of the tongue 1. Definition. a. Sin is defined as transgression of the law of God. b. A known sin is a transgression or violation of divine law. c. An unknown sin is likewise a transgression of divine law. d. In both cases the violation is involved. Whether you know it or not you’ve done it and your volition is involved. e. The difference between an known and unknown sin is cognisance of divine law [Bible doctrine], especially in the field of hamartiology. f. Whether the divine law is known or not human volition is involved in transgression of the law. g. All sin, therefore, combines the function of the old sin nature’s area of weakness with human volition. h. Three categories of sin exist in the human race: i) The imputation of Adam’s sin to each member of the human race directly. ii) The perpetuation of the old sin nature through physical birth, causing the individual to be physically alive at birth and simultaneously spiritually dead. iii) Personal sin which occurs after birth and before physical death. i. There are three categories of personal sin: i) Mental sins such as envy, pride, arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, etc. ii) Verbal sins such as gossip, slander, maligning, judging, lying. iii) Overt sins such as adultery, murder, stealing, drunkenness, and so on. j. All personal sins originate from the old sin nature involving the human volition. k. This means that verbal sins originate from the old sin nature and are activated by human volition. l. Human volition is involved in all sins. m. The instrument of verbal sins is that portion of the human anatomy called the tongue — James 3:6. 2. Out of the list of the seven worst sins three of the worst sins are sins of the tongue — Proverbs 6:16-19. 3. Verbal sins and reversionism. Verbal sins are always motivated by mental sins. Sins of the mental attitude which motivate verbal sins are generally pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, pettiness — Psalm 5:8,9; James 4:11. 4. The sins of the tongue produce triple compound discipline. First of all there is discipline for the mental attitude sins, there is discipline for the verbal sins which result, and whatever sins are mentioned with regard to the victim whatever the judgment is for that sin it is transferred to the one who judges. 5. God protects the super-grace believer from verbal sins — Job 5:19-21. 6. The congregation and the tongue. a) Control of the tongue plus avoidance of verbal sins is a sign of spiritual maturity — James 3:2. b) Verbal sins can destroy an entire congregation — James 3:5,6. c) Since the sins of the tongue can destroy an entire congregation of believers it is the solemn duty of the pastor-teacher to warn against them — 2 Timothy 2:14-17. d) Trouble makers in the congregation are characterised by sins of the tongue — Psalm 52:1-4. e) Separation from those guilty of the sins of the tongue is commanded — Romans 16:17,18. 7. Blessing from the avoidance of the sins of the tongue is mentioned in Psalm 34:12,13. The “lips from speaking deceit” refers to gossiping, maligning or judging. “and busybodies” — the nominative plural from the compound adjective periergoj [peri: around; e)rgon: work], hence working around someone in a sneaky way is what it connotes. It means to be meddlesome, to intrude into things that do not concern you. it means violating the privacy of others. We can translate this, “and invaders of privacy.” Every believer is protected by a double privacy. First of all being a member of the human race he is protected by divine institution #1. He is entitled to his privacy as long as he is not a criminal. Secondly, as a member of the royal priesthood he is entitled to privacy to live his life as unto the Lord. All born again believers have a double privacy. The doctrine of privacy 1. Privacy is a state of being apart from observation and the company of others. 2. Privacy is the innate right of the human race to seclusion. 3. Privacy is that principle of freedom whereby the individual member of the human race has the right to retire from the company of others, remaining in seclusion from the knowledge or observation of others. 4. Privacy and property and life are the basic concepts of human freedom. 5. The laws of divine establishment guarantee the privacy of every member of the human race so that he can exercise his freedom uncoerced. Exception: criminals. 6. In addition to freedom and establishment every believer has additional privacy from his royal priesthood to fulfil the principle of living his life as unto the Lord. The principle of privacy and the royal priesthood — 1 Peter 2:9. The royal priesthood must have privacy to fulfil its mission in phase two. It must be able to function so as to live individually as unto the Lord — Colossians 3:17 demands privacy. No believer has the right to intrude into the privacy of another believer. Violation of privacy means judging. When you judge other people you are violating their privacy — Romans 14:4,10. Privacy includes, then, the principle of live and let live — 2 Thessalonians 3:11,12. Reversionists always violate the

 privacy of others — 1 Timothy 5:13.

 Violaters of the privacy of others is comparable to other freedom violations. In other words, when you stick your nose into someone else’s business you are violating the very principle by which you live — freedom. Property is violated by stealing. Intrusion into the privacy of others in effect is compared to murder and stealing in 1 Peter 4:15. “speaking” is the present active participle of the verb lalew which means to speak. It includes here sins of the tongue as well as nosiness and other soul kinks. The present tense in the Greek is a customary present, indicating what habitually occurs when a busybody starts trying to live some one else’s life. The active voice: the meddler or the busybody produces the action of the verb through violation of privacy by means of the sins of the tongue. The participle is circumstantial. “things” is the accusative plural of the definite article which is used here as a demonstrative pronoun. The demonstrative pronoun emphasises the sinful and evil content of gossip. “which they ought not” — present active participle from the impersonal verb dei. With it is the negative mh. The participle is in the accusative, it is a direct object, and it should be translated, “those things which ought not to be spoken [mentioned].” Translation: “And at the same time also they learn to be idle, having wandered around from house to house; and not only idle, but also gossips and invaders of privacy, constantly saying those things which ought not to be mentioned.” Verse 13 — “And withal” should be “And at the same time.” The word “withal” is a post positive conjunction de used as a transitional particle, translated “and,” plus an adverb a(ma meaning “at the same time.” We also have an adjunctive kai, translated “also.” “they learn” — present active indicative of the verb manqanw which means to learn from someone else, to learn by imitating someone else, to learn by association. The present tense means that they are in bad company and learning rapidly from them. They are concentrating on their bad company instead of concentrating on doctrine. The active voice means that these widows are producing the action. The indicative mood is for the historical reality of their condition. The verb emphasises reversionists associating with reversionists. “to be idle” — the verb to be is the infinitive that follows manqanw and it doesn’t actually occur, but in the idiom it demands it. We have a predicate nominative adjective a)rgoj. It should be translated “idle, useless.” The fact that they have to learn to be idle or useless indicates that at one time these ladies were in super-grace, were productive, were enjoying a life full of blessing and activity. Now they have retrogressed from that point into reversionism, are associated with other reversionists, and they are learning from their association to be idle and to be useless — idle in the sense of having nothing constructive to do and useless in the sense of having no capacity for life, so no matter what they do they don’t enjoy it. From idleness and useless they also become harmful. Remember the principle: No believer ever stands still. Verse 14 — “I will” is the present active indicative from the verb boulomai. This is a verb used for the decision of the will after careful deliberation. Always when used by an apostle, as it is in this case, it is tantamount to a strong command decision. The present tenses is a static present for circumstances which perpetually exist. The active voice: the apostle Paul under the ministry of the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of such a command decision. “therefore” is a post positive inferential conjunction, o)un. It refers back to the younger widows and states a conclusion about them. Since they are not qualified for charity from the local church, since they have their own brand of problems, since some of them are in reversionism, we have now reached a decision about them, says the apostle. “Therefore it is my decision that” is the way it should be translated. “the younger women” — the accusative feminine plural from newteroj. This is an accusative of general reference and it acts as the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive is the verb “marry,” the present active infinitive of gamew. This is a customary present, what is reasonably expected for some woman who is out of line; a man has to straighten her out. The active voice: the younger widows produce the action of the verb by getting under their right man — authority. The infinitive expresses purpose. Principles 1. It is assumed that the younger widows have not necessarily married their right man. If they had they wouldn’t be in the shape they are in now that they are widows. They would have learned something from their first husband. 2. They are commanded to marry again for several reasons. The first reason is obviously to avoid the influence of evil described in verses 11-13. 3. It is obvious that they needed to be under the authority of a man who is a man. 4. This also helps them to recover from reversionism because a reversionist is always in conflict, even with his right pastor. 5. Having accepted the authority of her husband who is either her right man or a real man who assumes the spiritual leadership of the family she will also accept the authority of and the teaching of the pastor from whose messages she recovers. 6. They will enjoy all of the benefits and all of the blessings of category #2 love which keeps a woman out of trouble. 7. Therefore here is a case where it is beneficial to the spiritual as well as the physical life of a certain category of woman to get married. 8. This command has exceptions of all kinds in widowhood. It also has exceptions for anyone who has the gift of celibacy or the law of supreme sacrifice. “bear children” is the present active infinitive from the compound teknogonew. The present tense is a customary present for what would be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: obviously these are younger widows, they produce the action of the verb in their second marriage. This is the antithesis of verses 11-13. It is an infinitive of purpose. We do not say “bear children” any more, we say “have children.” “guide the house” — present active infinitive from o)ikodespotew. Despotew means to rule, to administer; o)ikoj is “house.” Together they mean “manager of the house,” but it doesn’t mean that at all here, it means “be mistress of the home.” The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected to occur in the second marriage. The active voice: the younger widows produce the action of the verb, instead of the action in verses 11-13. Again, it is an infinitive of purpose. She is now going to advance spiritually instead of retrogress. “give none occasion” — the word “give” is a present active infinitive of didomi. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: again the younger widow produces the action. The infinitive is not the infinitive of purpose this time, it is the imperative infinitive. In other words, added to the authority of a real man whom she marries or a right man there is an additional authority, this is a command to those ladies in case they do not quite catch on as to what that second marriage is all about. “None occasion” is the accusative singular direct object from mhdeij, which can be not, none or no; and with it is the accusative feminine singular direct object a)formh, and it means “opportunity” — “give no opportunity.” “to the adversary” — dative singular from the articular present active participle a)ntikeimei. A)nti means against; keimai means to occupy against, and it comes to mean “enemy.” The participle should be translated like a noun. This is a dative of reference referring to Satan himself. The doctrine of the devil 1. The person of the devil. a) The devil is the highest of all angelic creatures — Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:8,19. b) The devil is the prehistoric super creature — Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19. c) The devil has three falls — Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Revelation 12 and Revelation 20. His first fall was his revolt; he led the angelic revolt. His second fall is when he loses rulership of the world, and his third fall is when he is cast into the lake of fire forever. d) The devil also has two advent. In his first advent he came into the garden, found man in perfect environment and led him astray. The second advent of the devil: again he comes in perfect environment at the end of the Millennial reign of Christ and he leads another revolution. These two advents are related to two revolts against God. e) The devil is the central antagonist of the angelic conflict. He is the enemy; all demons are enemies; all unbelievers are the enemies of God; all reversionists are the enemies of God; but the devil is the enemy — Hebrews chapters 1 & 2; Genesis 6; 1 Peter 3:18-22. f) The devil has an organisation — Ephesians 6:10-12. g) The devil is a murderer — John 8:44. h) The devil is the opponent to Bible doctrine — Matthew 13:9,39. i) The devil is the enemy of the Church, the royal family of God — Revelation 2:9,13,24. 2. The principle that the devil is the ruler of this world — Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. He took over the rulership at the fall of man and will continue to rule until the second advent. 3. Therefore the devil has a strategy regarding the nations of the world — Revelation 12:9; 20:3,8. The strategy generally makes him the opponent of doctrine and the opponent of establishment. He either tries to duplicate in a pseudo way what God has accomplished or he is directly opposed to what God has given. 4. Therefore the devil has a strategy regarding unbelievers in the world. This is stated in many passages — 2 Corinthians 4:4, to blind the unbeliever to the true principles of the gospel. This is illustrated in 2 Peter 2. His strategy regarding the unbeliever is found also in Luke 8:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:8; the entire 17th chapter of Revelation. Religion is the devil’s ace trump. It isn’t his only system, every system of evil is a part of Satan’s strategy in blinding the unbeliever but the ace trump of all and the worst thing that ever happened to this world is religion. 5. Therefore the devil has strategy regarding the believer as well. We are a challenge to Satan in this Church Age. We are the royal family of God, we are the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Therefore he has a sevenfold strategy: a) To accuse us — 2 Corinthians 2:11; Job 1:6-11; Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10; 1 John 2:1,2. b) He is the sponsorer of reversionism — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3,13-15. c) To frustrate the will of God under 3 categories. He frustrates the mental will of God by means of the influence of evil in one’s life — Ephesians 4:14; he frustrates the geographical will of God — 1 Thessalonians 2:18; he frustrates the operational will of God — James 4:7,8. d) To neutralise doctrinal application, especially in the field of worry and anxiety — 1 Peter 5:7-9. e) To destroy the believer’s focus as a believer, to destroy the believer’s perspective — Jeremiah 17:5, getting eyes on people; 1 Kings 19:10,14, getting eyes on self; Hebrews 13:5,6, getting eyes on things. f) To get the believer to become involved in some form of evil, especially the improvement of the devil’s world. The believer under the influence of evil becomes humanistic, occupied with temporal solutions to life, altruistic, advocating systems to improve man’s environment, he becomes socialistic, becomes involved in social action, and becomes a bleeding heart. g) The inculcation of fear regarding physical death — Hebrews 2:14,15. This only works with the reversionist and/or the believer under the influence of evil. 6. Religion is a part of the devil’s strategy. Basically religion has been created by the devil tocounterfeit the plan of God. Christianity is not a religion; Christianity is a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. It is always a grace relationship, a relationship by which the believer enters the royal family of God forever through the baptism of the Spirit. Religion, by way of contrast, is man seeking to gain the approbation of God through his own plans, his works, his merits, his systems, his deeds. While religion as a principle represents the evil genius of Satan it is viewed here from the standpoint of its many counterfeits. Religion has a counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; it has a counterfeit system of ministers [clergy] — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; it has counterfeit doctrines — 2 Timothy 4:1; it has a counterfeit communion table — 2 Corinthians 10:19-21; it has a system of counterfeit spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3; it has a counterfeit righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28; it has a counterfeit modus vivendi — Matthew 23:13-26; it has a counterfeit power, dynamics [tongues] — 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10; it has counterfeit gods — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4. 7. False teachers are a part of the devil’s strategy. Most of the clergy today are false teachers. a) False teachers always have a phoney and hypocritical facade. You will never meet a false teacher but what he will give you the impression that you are the most important person in the world. He’ll make you feel wanted, he will stimulate your ego to the point where you will be arrogant until you will think he is the nicest man! But he does that to all of the people and you are just one of the many victims of his con-artistry. Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18. b) False teachers use human public relations systems and legalistic flirtations to court believers — “I never do it that way, I think that’s wrong.” In this way they always court the legalistic. “You know Reverend, you’re right,” and they form a mutual admiration society; and they’re both full of hot air. c) False teachers appeal to human pride — 2 Corinthians 10:12. d) False teachers promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table — Habakkuk 2:18,19. e) False teachers promote legalism and self-righteousness — 1 Timothy 1:7,8. f) False teachers continue throughout the intensive period of the angelic conflict, which is the Church Age — 1 John 4:1. “to speak reproachfully” — a descriptive genitive singular from loidoria which means abusive, abuse, or reproach; plus the accusative singular from xarin which is not an adverb. It is erroneously translated in the KJV and it should be, to reproach or abuse grace.” Translation: “Therefore it is my decision that the younger widows marry, have children, be mistress of the home, give no opportunity to the enemy to abuse grace.” The doctrine of Grace 1. Definition. a) Grace is all that God is free to for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. b) Grace is God’s freedom and God’s consistency to express His love to mankind without compromising or jeopardising His essence. c) No one can truly give and rightly give apart from freedom, total freedom without compromising His character. All of this is because of the cross. d) Consequently grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. e) Grace is both God’s plan and God’s policy regarding mankind. g) Grace therefore is the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi. h) Under grace God does all the work, all the providing. Man does all the receiving and all the benefiting, totally apart from merit. Concept: Grace depends on the essence or character of God, therefore grace always depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence. Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation. Grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity, totally apart from man’s merit, ability, his talent or his plan. Grace in the genius of God and grace is the manifestation of that genius. The issue, then, is God doing it [grace] versus man doing it [legalism]. Legalism is man’s intrusion into the plan of God by his ability, works, talent, schemes, etc. The believer must learn therefore to sort out the difference between grace and legalism. The believer often clings to something that he thinks will impress God because so many people are impressed by it. Grace and legalism cannot exist together. They are mutually exclusive, antagonistic. 2. Grace and the new contract for the Church. The church is under a special contract, this is a special dispensation. The Age of Israel was interrupted, so the glorification of Jesus Christ by resurrection, ascension and session — the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — was the victory which interrupted the Jewish Age in order that the royal family of God might be formed. The royal family of God is formed by means of the baptism of the Spirit, and the new covenant or the new contract to the Church is related to Bible doctrine in the field of sanctification. Grace found a way to take man created inferior to angelic creatures and make them superior. This is accomplished in the three phases of sanctification. First of all, there is positional sanctification that makes us in union with Christ higher than angels. Paragraph one of the new contract (the entering paragraph) provides for royalty the fact that every member of the royal family is positionally higher than angels. This is grace, we didn’t earn it. In addition the royal family have signs of that royalty in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the sealing ministry of the Spirit, and so on. The second stage is experiential sanctification, the second paragraph of the new contract, and here again we have strictly grace provision. God in His grace has provided numerous things for the tactical victory. He has provided, for example, living grace by which we remain alive and well in the devil’s world. He has provided a pastor-teacher, the local church which is the classroom, and the Bible as the textbook. He has provided a grace apparatus for perception of doctrine so that no matter what a person is by way of human IQ he can receive the Word. He has also provided the ministry of the Holy Spirit to take the doctrine in the soul, put it in its proper categories and relate it to life and application. He has provided the perpetuation of wonderful blessings which glorify God. So experiential sanctification is actually the balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine in the soul. The third paragraph deals with eternity where we have the believer in a resurrection body, living under perfect environment forever and ever. This is a place of grace and blessing even though we do not earn it or deserve it, and even though some will not be decorated. 3. Review of the concept. a) Saving grace. Every believer has tasted grace at least once — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3. The moment a person believers, not matter how he felt or where he was, he believes 36 irrevocable things. b) Living grace. Because of propitiation every believer is also under maximum love from God — 1 John 2:2. This maximum love frees God to pour out maximum grace, and grace can only benefit where there is capacity for grace. Living grace falls into two categories. God can express His love to you in grace in one of two ways, thanks to propitiation. He can express His love in blessing or He can express His love in discipline. It all depends whether the believer is influenced by doctrine or influenced by evil. Living grace means that God keeps us alive in order to provide blessing and in order to be glorified. When God can bless any believer totally apart from cosmos diabolicus, this glorifies Him. c) Super-grace or reaching the high ground. This is the point of maturity where we receive various categories of blessing — Paragraph SG2, spiritual blessings: occupation with Christ, capacity for category #1 love based on doctrine, the sharing of the happiness of God, maximum application of doctrine, great capacity for love and happiness blessing in life; temporal blessing: wealth, success, promotion, various types of prosperity; dying blessing. The only way to reach maturity is maximum doctrine in the soul. Paragraph SG3 is the area of eternity. 4. The modus vivendi of grace. a) Grace is the means of growth — 2 Peter 3:18. Grace is the basis for stability — Hebrews 12:28; 13:9; 1 Peter 5:12. b) Grace is the basis for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1. c) Failure to utilise grace means discipline — Galatians 5:4; Hebrews 12:15. That discipline falls in three categories: warning, intensive and dying. d) Grace is also related to blessing in suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. 5. The axioms of grace. a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect. b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from the source of a perfect person — members of the Godhead. c) If mankind can do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect. Man is imperfect, he cannot therefore contribute to a perfect plan. d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. There is no weak link in God’s plan because God does all the work. e) Grace excludes all human merit and ability, all human good and legalism, all self-righteousness and arrogance. f) Legalism is the enemy of grace. There is no place for legalism or human good in the plan of God. g) All legalism and human good is associated with the greatest of mental attitude sins, the original sin of Satan himself which is pride or arrogance. 6. Therefore there are four areas in which pride or arrogance rejects grace. a) The pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. Anyone who rejects eternal security has to be arrogant, he always assumes that his sins are greater than the grace of God and greater than the plan of God. b) The pride of the believer who succumbs to pressure or adversity. He always thinks that his sufferings, his adversities, his difficulties are greater than the grace provision of God. c) The pride of reversionism. The reversionist assumes that his form of reversionism is greater than super-grace blessing. He assumes that his ecstatic experiences, his functions of legalism, are more important than Bible doctrine. d) The pride of pseudo spirituality, the pride of the believer who thinks that his system of spirituality is greater than the filling of the Holy Spirit. Verse 15 — “For” is the explanatory conjunction gar, “For you see”; “some” — the nominative plural of the indefinite pronoun tij. This pronoun is always used to emphasise a special category, a certain category of believers. This category might be classified by the rest of the verse as reversionistic believers, believers under the influence of evil. “already” — the adverb of time h(dh, indicating that these people are already in reversionism. “are turned aside” is the aorist passive indicative of the verb e)ktrepw. It means to turn away, to turn away from, to swerve, to avoid. The implication is that some believers have already swerved away from doctrine and therefore are in some stage of reversionism. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which always contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, regardless of its extent or duration, and gathers it up into a single whole. The passive voice: this is a deponent verb, passive in form, middle in connotation. It emphasises the reversionistic believer as producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. In every generation there will be certain believers who swerve from doctrine and enter into reversionism, coming under the influence of evil. When they do they have turned aside to Satan. “turned aside after Satan” — they are Satan’s servants even though they are born again and are members of the royal family of God. Technically they are the Lord’s servants but they are actually serving Satan. The word “after” is an adverb, o)pisw. This is an adverb used as an improper preposition. The object of the improper preposition is the genitive of the word satanaj, referring to the devil/Satan. The prepositional phrase implies the present active participle of the verb a)kolouqew. It has great linear aktionsart — “following after Satan.” In other words, all reversionists come under the influence of evil. Evil is the policy of Satan. A person may be a believer but if he is functioning under Satan’s policy he is Satan’s servant. Translation: “For certain believers [reversionists] already have turned aside [from doctrine], following after Satan.” Verse 16 — the division of responsibility. “If” is the conjunction e)i, it introduces a first class condition. This is the protasis and it assumes it to be true; “any man or woman that believeth” is not really what the Greek says. It says “if any believer” — tij pisth. Tij is the indefinite pronoun and pisth is only one word, so obviously we don’t have any man or woman in here. Tij is the nominative masculine singular of the indefinite pronoun, and the indefinite pronoun represents a specific category. This category may be classified as those having widows in their family. The word pisth is the nominative feminine singular of the adjective pistoj. The adjective actually means believers male or female. “If any believer.” We see a potential failure coming up. There are widows and there are believers related to them. “have” — present active indicative of e)xw which means to have and to hold. The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: certain believers produce this action. They have related to them widows. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. “widows” is the accusative plural of direct object of xhra. “If any man has widows [dependent on them].” “let them relieve them” — present active imperative of e)parkew which means to aid, to help financially, to assist. The present tense is a customary present. This is what you would expect from someone with a sense of responsibility in this field. The active voice: the believer with dependent widows produces the action. The dependent widows may be members of his own family, or it may be an aunt, or a servant who is a widow and who has faithfully served over the years. The imperative mood is a command and it should be translated, “be assisting them financially.” We also have the accusative plural direct object of the intensive pronoun a)utoj for these helpless widows. The intensive pronoun is in the feminine gender referring here to widows, it empahsises the identity of these helpless and dependent people. “and let not the church be charged” — in other words the church will always have certain people who have no relatives. We have a connective conjunction kai, the nominative singular e)kklhsia for the local church, the negative mh, the present passive imperative of barew which means to be burdened and this is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected not to occur. In other words, if a widow has relatives they should assist financially and the church should not have to carry that extra burden, the church will have sufficient who are totally dependent upon the charity list. The passive voice: the local church receives the action of the verb of not being burdened. The imperative plus the negative becomes an imperative of prohibition. It should be translated, “do not let the local church be burdened.” “that” introduces an important final clause — i(na, “in order that.” This final clause always denotes a purpose, an objective, an aim or a goal. “it may relieve” — e)parkew, meaning to help financially, but this time it is in the aorist. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, which means that from the time the widow qualifies until the time that she dies it is gathered up into one entirety. The active voice: the church produces the action. The subjunctive mood introduces a purpose. “them that are widows indeed” — this is actually, “those who are really widows. Translation: “If any believers has widows dependent on him, be helping them financially, and do not permit the local church to be burdened; in order that it [the local church] may help financially those who are really widows.” Verse 17 — “Let the elders that rule well” — the nominative plural of presbuteroj, “pastor-guardian.” There are a lot of pastors, but only one per church. The definite article in Greek is used as a demonstrative pronoun and should be translated, “Those pastor-guardians.” The verb: “that rule well” — proisthmi which means to rule or to govern. This is a perfect tense, perfect active participle. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. It describes the existing state of honourable rule by a pastor in an unusual and dramatic way. It emphasises both the existing state and the results of the action of the verb. This is the status quo and this is the way it will always be. You will never grow unless you are in a local church, and in a local church there is only one final authority and that is the pastor. There is in essence only one teacher, only one declarer of policy, and that is the pastor and he communicates it all through Bible doctrine. He communicates with authority, he has a spiritual gift which makes it possible for him to teach doctrine. Scripture must be transferred to the soul as categorical doctrine and there is only one person who can do it, your right pastor. He does it by study and teach, study and teach. That is the perfect tense. He rules, he has to rule to communicate, to be the policy-maker. The active voice: certain pastors in each generation produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “Well” is the adverb kaloj which means “honourably” or “well.” “Those pastor-guardians who have ruled well with the result that they keep ruling honourably.” That is the intensive perfect. “be counted worthy of double honour” — present passive imperative of a)ciow. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present or the present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. In other words, in every generation pastor guardians must be given double honour. They are the highest authority extant in the Church Age and therefore they are worthy of double honour. The passive voice: the pastor-guardians who have ruled well produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to the congregation whose pastor has ruled well. It should be translated “be considered worthy of”; the word “double” is the adjective diplowj, and with it the noun timh. Both are in the objective genitive. The translation so far: “Those pastor-guardians who have ruled well with the result that they keep ruling honourably, they must be considered worthy of double honour.” Double honour is “respect” which goes with authority, “remuneration” which is how their time is liberated to do their job. Remuneration: The pastor’s income must come from congregational giving. This is the primary purpose for the worship function of the royal priesthood called giving. Respect: The pastor has the highest authority and the purest authority in the world today. Respect for the pastor’s authority is related to positive volition toward his teaching. What you think of him personally is of no consequence. What God thinks of him personally is of every consequence. So respect for the pastor’s authority is related to your attitude toward the Word. From here evolves the positive volition principle into respect for the policy which emerges from Bible teaching. From the divine viewpoint this phrase has another connotation by way of application. The pastor receives double blessing when he is straight and double discipline when he is out of line. “especially” — malista is the superlative of the adverb mala and it means “above all.” The pastor who should receive double honour is “above all.” “they who labour” — is defining the pastor who is worthy of double honour. His function is the issue here — study and teach. This is the articular present active participle from kopiaw which means to work to exhaustion. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected of an honourable pastor. His honour comes from his hard work. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to pastors only. The active voice: the pastors produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated, “those who work hard.” That means study and teach, not visiting hospitals, calling on people, counselling, etc. It is the teaching of doctrine that counts. “in the word” is the preposition e)n plus the locative of logoj, and it means “in the sphere of the word” or in the sphere of doctrine.” “and doctrine” is a continuation of the prepositional phrase — didaskalia. What is the difference between logoj and didaskalia? The word is where you find it, the textbook. Logoj refers to the page of the book. But didaskalia is having it in your soul. Doctrine in the page of the Bible must be transferred to your soul, the only place it is any good — “in the study of the word and teaching.” This is the story of the pastor’s life, his primary function to which all other activities are totally secondary. The pastor much be a student and communicator of the Word of God. Translation: “Those pastor-guardians who have ruled well with the result that they keep ruling honourably, must be considered worthy of double honour, most of all those who work hard to the point of exhaustion in the study of the word and the teaching of doctrine.” Principles 1. The two basic functions of the pastor are mentioned in this verse: ruling honourably, which is the exercise of his authority; studying and teaching, which is the exercise of his spiritual gift. 2. Both the gift and the authority were sovereignly given by the grace from God. 3. Therefore the entire life of the pastor is based on grace gifts from God plus grace provision for his daily life. 4. The pastor, then, is the maximum product of grace in the Church Age. 5. To whom much is given much is expected. Therefore we have the principle of double honour, double blessing, as well as double discipline. Verse 18 — We have here biblical documentation for that part of the pastor’s double honour known as remuneration. The double honour of the previous verse is respect and remuneration. “For” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar which elaborates one of the two points of double honour. Double honour is really the subject of the next few verses and gar is going to give us an elaboration. “the scripture” — the nominative singular of grafh refers to the canon of scripture as it existed at that time in writing. The canon was not completed, it was in the process of being completed and so at this particular moment it is referring actually to the Old Testament scriptures. The citation recognises the fact that the Old Testament has the same honour as the New Testament as far as being canonical. “saith” is the present active indicative of the verb legw. The present tense is the static present and recognises the eternity of the scripture. The active voice: the subject produce the action of the verb, and the subject is the Old Testament canon now in writing and now recognised by the Church as a part of their holy scripture. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality. Paul quotes from the Old Testament and he also quotes something that has already been quoted in other passages in the New Testament. Part of the New Testament has already been formed and in this way the New Testament is considered on a par with the Old Testament and the Old Testament is considered on a par with the New Testament, and that satisfies both the Old and the New dispensations. It also verifies the fact that the Old Testament and the New Testament together form the sacred canon of scripture. There are two quotations actually given in this passage. The first is taken from Deuteronomy 25:4 but it is also quoted in 1 Corinthians 9:9. The very fact that Paul uses a word that he has already quoted in a previous epistle indicates that Paul himself was aware that what he was writing was a part of the scripture. “Thou shalt not muzzle” — future active indicative of qimow plus the strong negative o)uk. The future tense is called the imperative future and with the negative it means the imperative future of prohibition. In other words, in the Greek it carries the same strength as the decalogue “Thou shalt nots.” “the ox” is the accusative singular direct object of the masculine gender of the noun bouj which is a bull, a hardworking bull around the farm. “that treadeth out the corn” is wrong. it is a present active participle of a)loaw which means to thresh. We have a threshing bull, he is actually pulling an instrument for threshing. The present tense is the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: the owner of the bull produces the action, he remunerates him by not muzzling him. The participle is temporal and it should read: “For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle the bull while he is threshing.” This is the principle of remuneration. The same thing is true of the congregation. The church releasees the time of the pastor so he can study and teach, and as a result he feeds himself while he studies. He feeds himself spiritually by taking in the Word and he feeds himself by being remunerated for studying the Word. The second quotation is also found in Deuteronomy 24:15. It is quoted in Luke 10:7. The word “and” is incorrect. This is the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai which should be translated “also.” In other words, also from the two references where this is previously used. “the labourer” — the nominative singular e)rgathj which means a person who is working for someone else for wages. It means “labour” as a principle. “is worthy of his reward” — “worthy” is a predicate adjective of a)cioj; “reward” is misqoj which means wages. This indicated that in the ancient world management set up standards and then paid on the basis of the standards being fulfilled. The word “worthy” means that there were previous standards which were fulfilled. Translation: “For the scripture says, You will not muzzle the bull while he is threshing. Also, the labourer is worthy of his wages.” Summary 1. The passage teaches, first of all from its surface examination, the principle of fair remuneration. This principle is quoted here as documentation for remuneration of the pastor-guardian of the local church. 2. However, the principle applies to every facet of life. The dignity of humanity, the poise of mankind, is related to productive capacity. 3. In other words, man must work for a living since the fall of Adam. 4. Management must apply this principle in dealing with labour. 5. People must apply this principle in paying their doctor bills, their dentist bills, their plumber bills, or any profession or trade where knowledge or skill is required. In other words, we are not only talking about remuneration of the pastor, we are talking about remuneration as a principle in life. 6. This means paying your bills to doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, or any professional category where years have been spent in acquiring this knowledge or profession. They have a right to charge. 7. In effect, this bill should pay for knowledge and education of the professional type, his skill, his honour, his integrity. 8. This means that the Government should pay well its honourable profession, such as the military category. 9. This means that local government should pay well its professional employees — police and fire-fighters, for example. 10. This means that the individual should pay well the tradesman, the professional, who has acquired both technical knowledge and skill in a specific field. The abuses of labour do not change the principle of remuneration. Verse 19 — the principle of reprimand of the pastor. “Against an elder” — the words “plurality of elders” equals apostasy. There is no such thing as plurality of elders in a local church. There was a plurality of elders in Ephesus but there were numbers of local churches. There is only one elder for a local church. So we start out with a prepositional phrase, kata plus the genitive of presbuteroj, and it means a pastor-guardian of a local church. This is minus the definite article, and the absence of the definite article says you may have a complaint against the pastor but not to push it too much. The absence of the definite article refers to the high authority of the individual involved, and if you are just wrong in one count then you are going to get the whole thing right back in your face. The reprimand from the congregation must be handled in such a way so as not to bring discipline on the congregation or any individual. But there is a way to handle this. Since the pastor-guardian is responsible to God, God disciplines him. Reprimand or censorship would only exist where someone in the congregation has been wronged. “receive not” is incorrect. It is the present middle imperative of paradexomai and is addressed to the representatives of the congregation which would be the board of deacons. This is a command to the board of deacons since it is in the imperative mood, but it is in the imperative mood plus a negative. The imperative plus the negative means a prohibition. Paradexomai means to acknowledge or to accept. The present tense is an aoristic present for something that might occur at some time, so it is a punctiliar concept in present time. The middle voice is the direct middle which refers the results of the action directly back to the agent. “an accusation” — the accusative singular direct object from katagoria. It does mean accusation. The congregation or some portion of the congregation may approach the administrative representatives of the congregation, the board of deacons. They are never to acknowledge or entertain an accusation against the pastor from one person in the congregation. This is a principle that also applies to law. Principle 1. There is always someone in the congregation who is dissatisfied. There are two very real types of antagonism: a) He is doing a good job and yet steps on someone’s toes; b) He is doing a very bad job. 2. These antagonisms should never be permitted by the congregation as a means of rejecting the authority of the pastor. 3. Again the principle: The pastor is responsible to God who knows all the facts in the case and not only disciplines him in a just manner but where you get single discipline he gets double discipline. 4. In fact, from God the pastor receives double discipline. 5. Those who seek to malign or accuse a pastor receive intensified discipline for their efforts. 6. Therefore in the normal course of action in the congregation maligning, gossiping, judging, accusing, condemning a pastor is prohibited by the Word. 7. The exception is stated in the rest of this verse but first there must be some emphasis on the actual prohibition. 8. Remember that the pastor should receive double honour — respect and remuneration. In the previous verse remuneration is covered, in this verse respect is covered by this prohibition. 9. A liar, an implacable or jealous person, may malign a pastor to someone else. This someone else may be impressed with the person who maligns and believes the lie. This someone else has no discernment or common sense to detect the vindictiveness or the jealousy. Therefore this someone else believes what is said. 10. This causes someone in the congregation to lose respect for the pastor, thus depriving the pastor of half of his double honour — respect. 11. Furthermore, this is the half of the double honour which produces spiritual growth in you. Therefore maligning and gossiping about the pastor of any local church, whether he is good or bad, is forbidden in very strong terms. “but” is the Greek e)i mh and should be translated “except.” “before two or three witnesses” — the preposition e)pi plus the genitive, and it should be translated “except of the basis of testimony of two or three witnesses.” As soon as we get into the “two or three witnesses” we get into the biblical laws of evidence as stated in Deuteronomy 19:15 — “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of his iniquity, or any sin which he sins; on the evidence of two or three witnesses an indictment will be rendered.” One person saying it makes it hearsay, and hearsay is not admissible as evidence. The testimony of one person is never conclusive. The reprimand or discipline of a pastor demands a formal procedure in which true evidence is introduced by a group of witnesses. Verse 20 — now we come to the discipline of the congregation. We all understand that the discipline is first of all from the Lord but when a congregation comes together and there is someone who is disruptive as far as the function of the local church is concerned, then that person is disciplined within the framework of the local church. This is a biblical principle. “Them that sin” — the accusative plural of the definite article is used as the direct object of the verb. The definite article is used for a relative pronoun to indicate the congregation of the local church. The congregation in assembly are students without portfolio. Their purpose in assembly is to take in the Word of God, there is no other objective. This intake and perception of the Word results in spiritual growth. Spiritual growth results in glorifying God as well as receiving blessings designed in eternity past. God knew that in this stage of human history Satan would be the ruler of the world. Therefore it is God’s objective to provide blessing for you totally apart from the Satanic system. The Satanic policy is called in the Bible, evil; and totally apart from evil and apart from any system under evil, you can receive wealth, success, prosperity, every type of material blessing and spiritual blessing. “Those in the congregation who continually sin” is the meaning of the present active participle of a(martanw. This is not referring to the general realm of carnality which is divided into three categories: mental sins, verbal sins, overt sins. So we have all categories of personal sin but they are not involved in the function of this particular verb. The present tense here is a retroactive progressive present or a present tense of duration, and it indicates what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: the believers in the congregation produce the action of the verb through maligning and gossiping about people in the congregation or the pastor or someone. In other words, this particular type of sin is the invasion of the privacy of other members of the royal family of God. The principle that applies to this area is the principle of live and let live. Everyone has a right to his privacy. The sinning that is in this passage is related to the general context. It has to do with the violation of someone’s privacy — either gossiping or maligning or judging them, or some intrusion upon their privacy. The participle is circumstantial for various sins committed by the congregation in rejection of the pastor’s authority and teaching. In other words, members of the congregation who continually sin in this matter is what is being said. That is. the congregation who rejects one half of the pastor’s double honour, respect and remuneration. This particular section is dealing with respect for the pastor, for when you respect his authority you respect the privacy of the congregation as well as the privacy of the pastor. Mental sins which reject the pastor’s authority include arrogance, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, bitterness, hatred, antagonism. Verbal sins such as gossip, maligning, judging, accusing, are all included as being sinning in this matter. Since the pastor’s double honour includes respect it is his responsibility to use his authority for the maintenance of the privacy of the royal priesthood. “rebuke” is a present active imperative from e)legxw synonymous with our English word “reprimand” or to expose to discipline. It is the pastor’s responsibility to discipline anyone in the congregation who is intruding upon the privacy of someone else. This is talking about privacy as it relates to the assembly of the local church. The word should be translated “be reprimanding.” This is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Timothy must now begin a counter attack. He is on the floor, he has been trampled by everyone in his congregation, he is a “mouse” and now he must suddenly become a roaring lion. Every pastor-guardian of the local church in every generation must be aggressive. He must be aggressive in studying the Word of God, he must be aggressive in teaching the Word of God, and he must be aggressive in his counterattack of any type of bullying. A congregation must be protected by the aggressiveness of the pastor in cutting off this type of thing. The imperative mood is a command to all pastors. “before all” — when the pastor’s authority is challenged it must be handled in public. This is an improper preposition, e)nwpion plus the genitive plural of paj. E)nwpion is an adverb used as a preposition so it is called an improper preposition — “reprimand [or discipline] before all [the entire congregation].” The pastor must reprimand or discipline recalcitrants before the congregation or lose his authority over the congregation. No pastor can fulfil his ministry of study and teach without the double honour principle, and this is an attack upon the first phase of double honour which is respect. No pastor can teach without authority just as no pastor can devote his time to study without remuneration. Therefore to study the pastor must be paid; the pastor must have respect or authority to teach. The recalcitrant not only undermines the pastor but he undermines others as well. “that” — the conjunction i(na introduces a final clause stating the purpose for the objective, “in order that.” “others” — o(i loipoi is a nominative plural and it means the rest of the congregation. Then we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai which means “also.” “may fear” — this isn’t even there. First of all is the present active subjunctive of e)xw which means to have something. The present tense of e)xw is the perfective present, it denotes continuation of results from the present reality. The active voice: the o(i loipoi, the rest of the congregation, produced the action. The subjunctive mood goes with i(na as a potential subjunctive for future reference, and also to denote the objective. They must have something. The accusative singular direct object of the substantive foboj is what they must have. It not only means fear but it means respect. The subjunctive mood indicates that this is the purpose. Translation: “Those of the congregation who continually sin in this matter reprimand {discipline] them before the entire congregation, in order that the rest of the congregation also may have respect.” What does this mean? 1. We have now come to a full explanation of the double honour of verse 17. 2. Double honour refers to respect and remuneration. The pastor must have respect from the congregation to communicate doctrine to them. The reason is that doctrine is controversial, it cuts like a knife. Doctrine challenges, rips apart and rebuilds. 3. The pastor must have respect in order to effectively communicate doctrine to the congregation. He cannot do so otherwise. 4. Any attack upon the authority of the pastor from the congregation must be met with emphatic, vigorous, aggressive reprimand. 5. Timothy had lost control of his congregation, therefore he could not teach them the many wonderful doctrines which he knows. 6. Every revolution, every conspiracy in the congregation must be vigorously suppressed if the pastor is to continue having a ministry with the congregation. 7. No taper or member of this congregation should ever be guilty of revolt wherever he goes, no matter how bad the pastor is. 8. It is true that many pastors are ineffective in their teaching. This does not give tapers the right to malign or revolt, it gives them only the option of quiet departure without stirring up any fuss, without detracting from the authority of the pastor. 9. God must discipline such a pastor. Leave that to God! He does a better job. Do not bring discipline on yourself by starting a conspiracy, a revolution, or appointing yourself to be a committee to discipline the pastor. 10. This means that the matter of double honour has been settled at this point. There must be double honour for effective leadership in any local church. Verse 21 — the objectivity of leadership. “I charge” is the present active indicative of diamarturomai, it means to solemnly warn or to solemnly charge. The present tense is a descriptive present to indicate what is now going on. The form is middle voice but it is middle in form, active in meaning — a deponent verb. The apostle Paul is now using all of his authority as an apostle to command Timothy to a course of action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that Paul is pulling his rank on Timothy. This is a verb of command. The command is made in three categories: before God, before the Lord Jesus Christ, and before the elect angels. “before” is the same improper preposition having three objects in the genitive case, e)nwpion, which is an adverb used as a preposition; “God” — the genitive of qeoj refers to God the Father. He is mentioned because He is the author of the divine plan. As the author of the divine plan called grace He is often mentioned in this connection. Furthermore, He is the ultimate source of all provision to the royal family of God; “the Lord Jesus Christ” — literally, “and Christ Jesus,” who is the second person of the Trinity and the prince ruler of the Church. He is the head of the royal family of God. He is the high priest. So why don’t we have the Holy Spirit and round out the entire Trinity? Because the Holy Spirit remains in the background during the Church Age. His objective is to glorify Jesus Christ, to form the royal family, to shape up the royal family, to empower the royal family. Therefore it is the ministry of god the Holy Spirit to stay in the background and not be mentioned in order to glorify Jesus Christ. This is why many times only the two members of the Trinity are mentioned in the epistles. “and the elect angels” is also in the genitive and is a reference to the angelic observation of mankind during the course of human history, and especially during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict in which we find ourselves today. “that” — again we have that same conjunction i(na which introduces a final clause. The final clause is used in a periphrastic sense for the infinitive to denote the purpose, the objective, and it can be translated like an infinitive. “thou observe” — the aorist active subjunctive of fulassw which means to guard, to be alert as a sentry. It should be translated “guard” — in the sense of protect and preserve or in the sense of alertness. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers the action of the verb into one entirety. It takes the entire ministry of Timothy and demands that that ministry be characterised throughout his lifetime as a ministry of alertness, a ministry of protection and preservation of the Word of God. The active voice: Timothy as the pastor-guardian produces the action. The principle is that in every generation pastor-guardians are to produce the action. The mood is subjunctive. It is potential and is used with the conjunction to denote the objective of the pastor’s leadership. “these things” — the accusative plural direct object of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which emphasises the principles of leadership in context. “without preferring one before another” is not correct. There is here another adverb used as an improper preposition — xwrij which means “apart from” or “without.” The object in the genitive case is prokrima which means “prejudice.” What does this mean? 1. No one can have the extensive authority possessed by the pastor of a local church and be guilty of prejudice. 2. Authority demands maximum objectivity in dealing with personnel. Authority is abused when pride intrudes. Pride means prejudice. 3. The pastor can never allow his personal feelings, his likes or his dislikes, to influence him in the function of his ministry. 4. The pastor can never judge cases or administer discipline or handle false doctrine when he has the attitude “my friends, right or wrong.” He must also be free from doctrinal prejudice, legalism. 5. His sole criteria for everything includes the principles of Bible doctrine as he has studied them and as he has taught them, and as they become the grace policy of the local church. This, in effect, is the quintessence of objectivity in spiritual leadership. “doing nothing” — the present active participle of poiew. It is linear aktionsart, it means habitually doing. The word “nothing” is the accusative neuter singular the direct object from mhdeij, a compound: e)ij is one; mh is not, and it comes to mean nothing. “by partiality” — preposition kata plus the accusative proskrisij, and it should be, “doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.” Principle 1. There is no function in the ministry that calls for partiality or bias or prejudice. The life of the pastor is the Word and what the Word says is the only thing that counts. 2. While a minister may be closer to some members of the congregation than others he must exercise his authority in fairness and justice to all members of the congregation. 3. Personal relationships or friendships must never be a factor in policy, in command decision in the function of authority. That is true for life anywhere. 4. The greater the authority in leadership the greater the freedom from bias, the greater the freedom from partiality and prejudice. In other words, the higher the leader goes the more he must be absolutely stripped of any kind of prejudice. 5. No decision, judgment, policy, is made on the basis of influence by friends, loved ones, or relatives. 6. A pastor must use his authority, make his decisions, establish his policy, on the basis of what the Bible teaches. 7. Personal friendships have nothing to do with policy or the administrative functions of the local church. 8. People should never underrate the influence of doctrine. Translation: “I solemnly charge you before the God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that you guard [protect, preserve] these principles [of leadership] without prejudice, habitually doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.” Verse 22 — “Lay hands suddenly on no man” has to do with the fact that a pastor is often conned by other people into thinking they are something that they are not. “Lay hands” is the present active imperative of the verb e)pitiqhmi. The present tense is a customary present for what habitually occurs in recognition of a young man who is now qualified to enter the ministry. The active voice tells us that Timothy must avoid the action of the verb — not hurriedly ordaining young men. It must be done after proper and careful deliberation. This verse, therefore, is the result of the previous verse where impartiality is commanded. The imperative mood plus the negative is the imperative of prohibition, and Timothy is prohibited from ordaining unqualified in Ephesus from entering into the ministry. “suddenly” is the adverb taxewj which means “too quickly,” and it is used in an unfavourable sense. “Do not ordain anyone too hastily.” “on no man” is the dative singular masculine of the adjective mhdeij, “no one” or “anyone.” The dative case is the indirect object. This means: 1. This is the first sign of instability in the pastor’s leadership when on the basis of partiality, on the basis of emotional appeal, on the basis of a smoke screen of sincerity, the pastor feels compelled to ordain someone. This is really partiality and on the basis of partiality he is too hasty in the ordination of someone in his congregation. 2. Stability of leadership demands that all personnel administration in the local church be accomplished from good judgment without prejudice and without partiality. 3. Timothy had been over impressed with some of the young men in the Ephesian congregation. This is because he has a strong trend toward asceticism and because he is ordaining those who are just like he is. He has been over impressed with the wrong people in the congregation and some of them have been ordained too soon. Therefore the first area in which he is attacked for being unstable in this context is in his personnel selection. Ordination is taken as an illustration but personnel selection can go to any facet of a local church. “neither” is a negative disjunctive particle mhdh, and it goes from one negative to another — the purpose of the disjunctive particle. Each prohibition is a sign of instability in some area of leadership. The first prohibition was the sign of poor judgment in the field of personnel. The second prohibition is a sign of instability by being erroneously influenced, by being led instead of leading — “and stop.” “be partaker” is the present active imperative from koinwnew, a verb meaning to participate, to contribute, to share in — “and stop participating.” The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes something that happened in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice plus mhdh means to stop participating. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy and all unstable pastors in every generation of the Church Age. “of other men’s sins” — literally, “the sins belonging to others.” It means don’t participate in someone else’s sins. Timothy indicates that he is unstable as a leader because he is easily influenced by others. No one in leadership can be influenced by anything but Bible doctrine and grace policies which are found in the scripture. To be influenced by others is a sign of weakness. To be influenced by the sins of others so as to participate in them is a sign of maximum instability. The third prohibition is also related to instability in leadership: “keep” is the present active imperative of terew which means to guard. It is the customary present for what may be reasonably expected of a pastor. The active voice: Timothy as a pastor must produce the action. It is the imperative mood of command, and also a prohibition. “thyself pure” — the word “thyself” is the accusative singular direct object of the reflexive pronoun seautou. In the reflexive pronoun the action of the verb is referred back to the subject. It bounces back on Timothy. “Pure” is the adverbial accusative masculine singular a)gnoj which has to do with mental pureness. There is no such thing as a pastor or anyone else refraining from sin. There is no such thing as sinless perfection in this life, we have and we carry to the grave and old sin nature, and this means that we are going to sin as long as we live. But a pastor must be pure in one area, and he must have sinless perfection in this one area. It refers to mental pureness in the sense of freedom from mental attitude sins. The adverbial accusative performs a limited function which does not directly complement the verb, it qualifies it instead. It qualifies it in an indirect way. In other words, Timothy is to guard himself but he is to guard himself in a certain way which implies that he has been failing. Inadequate people always move to mental attitude sins. Mental attitude sins compensate for their inadequacies. Mental attitude is definitely related to leadership qualification. No one can exercise authority and be impure in the field of mental attitude sins. Translation: “Do not ordain anyone to hastily, and stop participating in sins belonging to others: be guarding yourself with reference to a pure mental attitude.” Summary 1. There are three weakness in Timothy which form a triad of leadership weakness, leadership instability. 2. Each one of these sentences relates to a different problem of instability in leadership, and also a different problem in the life of Timothy. 3. Timothy had strong partiality resulting in rashness with regard to hasty ordination of unqualified persons. 4. Weak Timothy was attracted to weak persons who impressed him as qualified for the ministry. 5. Timothy was creating a clergy of weak sisters, unstable legalists, an order of ascetic wimps. 6. Though obviously avoiding overt sins Timothy was petty, small, vindictive, prone to mental attitude sins which he shared with his weak, wimpy clique. 7. In his clique he accepted the attitudes and evaluations of his friends, resulting in more pettiness and more ascetic legalism. 8. Timothy needed to become alert with regard to the fact that he had an Achilles heel. 9. His mental attitude sins were destroying his leadership in the local church. 10. He needed to be a guardian and a watch dog on his own soul because of his vulnerability to mental attitude sins. 11. Timothy was, in fact, much like a person with the sword of Damocles dangling over his head, while walking on the edge of a volcano and nursing a viper in his bosom. Verse 23 — prescription. This is not a prescription for all. “Drink no longer water” — a very strong negative adverb mhketi which means “no longer”; plus the present active imperative of a compound verb, u(dropotew: potew means to drink; u(dror is water. Timothy has been drinking water all of his life, he was a total abstainer from alcohol. The present tense is a descriptive present to indicate what is now going on. The active voice: Timothy who had been abstaining from alcohol and drinking only water is now prohibited from water. The imperative mood is an imperative of prohibition. “but” is the strong adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up a contrast between drinking water and drinking alcoholic beverage. “use” — present active imperative from the verb xraomai which means to employ, to make use of. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at certain intervals, hence the present tense of repeated action. In other words, this is not linear aktionsart. The active voice: Timothy must drink moderately. The imperative mood is a command to drink moderately. “a little wine” — the dative singular advantage from o)inoj which is alcoholic beverage, not grape juice; plus the quantitative adjective o)ligoj which means a small amount. “for thy stomach’s sake” — dia plus the accusative of stomaxoj. This is the area of the stomach and it can be translated “stomach.” It is translated “stomach” here but it is really a transliteration. Apparently it is referring to the central nervous system in the solar plexus which is above the stomach. “and thine often infirmities” — the connective kai which continues the prepositional phrase plus the accusative plural of the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, plus the accusative plural of the adjective puknoj which means “frequent.” He is not a relaxed person. Translation: “No longer be a water drinker, but be making use of a small amount of wine because of your central nervous system and your frequent illnesses.” The doctrine of drinking 1. The importance of objectivity. a) We are interested in this study in what the Bible says about drinking and alcoholic beverage. b) Those who have had personal problems because of drinking or are related to those with drinking problems have difficulty in approaching this subject objectively. c) Those who have been reared in the atmosphere of Christian legalism will be shocked by what the Bible teaches. d) Those who are looking for an excuse to get off the wagon will think they have smelled a cork. e) No subject has more prejudice and less reason than the subject of drinking alcoholic beverage. f) What we are about to study is not a booze sermon, nor is it an excuse for some weak sister to start drinking again. It is none of these things. g) The objective is not to get believers on or off the wagon but to teach what the Bible says about drinking. h) The fact that the Bible has a lot to say on the subject merely proves that drinking has long been an issue in the history of the human race. 2. The classification of 20th century beverage. a) We live in a time of human history when there are numerous categories of alcoholic beverage, beverage which is not only available but made use of in many different ways for many different purposes. For example, medicine. Or, on the other hand, seduction. Or, escape or frantic search for happiness. Or stimulation. Also relaxation and celebration. b) It should be pointed out immediately that alcohol is both toxic and beneficial; it is both destructive and helpful; it is both a curse and a blessing. c) Therefore a classification of 20th century alcohol is helpful. i) Medicine. Alcohol is very good in compounding prescriptions, it is an excellent solvent and it is a preserving agent. ii) It also comes in the form of a whiskey, and alcoholic liquor which is distilled from serial grains. The term is derived from the Celtic “usquebaugh” and it means the plain spirit derived from grain. Later it included compounded beverages which added both sugar and flavourings, and finally it came to be called whiskey. Whiskey is often classified by geographical location. There are three general classifications: Scotch, Irish, and American. All whiskeys are manufactured by very much the same process. First of all there is the preparation of the liquor known as wart, the mashing. Then there is the fermentation of the wart to produce the wash, and thirdly there is the separation of the spirit from the wash by distillation. Irish whiskey uses both malted and unmalted barley, oats, wheat, rye. Scotch whiskey uses malted barley. These fall into four categories. The highland malts which have been cured over peat fires. There are lowland malts which have a full flavour but are not as distinctive as the highland so they’re used for blends. A third category is the Islay malts, used primarily for blends. Then there is the Campbelltown malts which have a more pronounced flavour. Three categories are used for blends, the highland is not. US whiskey falls into two categories: Bourbon and Rye. There is also a corn whiskey. iii) Vodka. It is an alcoholic beverage manufactured from potatoes and maze. iv) Gin. It gets its name from the juniper berry used as the principle flavouring. Gin is 76 per cent maze, 15 per cent malt, 10 per cent rye. Sweetened gin is obtained by adding sugar or syrup. v) Wine. This is the fermented juice of the grape. There are four general categories of wine today: Table wine, sherry, the fortified wines like port and Madeira, and then there are the sparkling wines like Champaign. vi) Brandy, which is fermented juice of grapes and other fruits, aged for some time in wood. The most famous brandies come from a district in France called Cognac. Brandy does not age in a bottle, it has to age in wood. vii) Liqueurs — flavoured spirits sweetened by the addition of sugar or syrup. viii) Beer. One of the oldest forms of alcoholic beverage. It is fermented of malted serials, usually barley malt, to which hops have been added. There is a record of Babylonian beer going back to 4000 BC. Ramses III of Egypt consecrated to the god of Egypt 466,303 jugs of beer. Historians like Herodotus, Pliny, Tacetus comment on beer in the ancient world. The art of brewing became well-known throughout the ancient world. The Chaldeans had it. The art spread to Egypt, Greece, and Rome, so that beer became quite a famous alcoholic beverage. 3. The Bible condemns drunkenness and makes it very clear that drunkenness is a sin — Isaiah 5:11,22; 28:7,8; Proverbs 20:1; 23:20; Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:18. Drunkenness is a handicap to those who are in authority, temporal authority such as kings — Proverbs 31:4,5; spiritual authority such as pastors — 1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7; or deacons — 1 Timothy 3:8. None of these categories are forbidden alcoholic beverage but all must be very temperate in keeping with the authority that they exercise. Those is authority, then, are not forbidden alcohol but they are warned against drunkenness as a possibility of abusing their authority. Not only is drunkenness a sin but people in that status abuse their authority. Drunkenness is also condemned in certain Bible characters. Noah in Genesis 9:21; Nabal in 1 Samuel 25:36,37; Lot is Genesis 19:32-36; the tribe of Ephraim in Isaiah 28:1. 4. The adverse effects of alcohol. a) Drunkenness or excessive use of alcohol leads to crime, suicide, divorce, traffic accidents, economic and industrial losses, loss of health, miserable circumstances, poverty, national disaster. b) It should be remembered that alcohol is not a stimulant, it is a depressant. As a depressant it lowers inhibitions, dulls the reflexes, destroys common sense and good judgment, and it stimulates mental attitude sins. c) But drunkenness also produces more than impulsive behaviour and social tragedy, it is the source of quite a number of diseases. It is also weakening of the health which leads to diseases not directly induced by alcohol. d) Excessive alcohol affects the brain in numerous ways, including cerebral hemorrhage, delirium tremens which produce mental confusion, anxiety, terror, auditory and visual hallucinations as well as delusions. Alcohol in excess also attacks the liver. It is the cause of vernicese disease: a paralysis of the eyes, uncoordinated walk, the clouding of consciousness, final coma and death. As a depressant alcohol cooperates with the old sin nature to lower standards of resistance to sins in all categories. This means that excessive drinking or drunkenness is not only a sin in itself but has dire spiritual consequences as well as physical. The Bible gives no encouragement and no excuse for excessive drinking. There are two types, however, of excessive drinkers. The first type is the type who drinks a large amount at one time. The other one goes for days and days, the one who drinks constantly day in and day out. There are two kinds of people who have a drinking problem. Those who can’t stop from the steady drinking and those who can’t stop from heavy drinking in a short period of time. Both of these types should avoid any use of alcohol except in medicine. The chemistry of the blood and individual metabolism is related to how much a person can assimilate — how much alcohol content in the blood, how much can your body take out per hour as to how much you are taking in. Inebriation is a sin and there is no benefit from having an alcoholic problem. 5. Proper and improper uses of alcohol. Proverbs 34:4-7 — wine attacks authority of leadership; wine attacks the function of leadership; the correct use of wine (Give strong drink to him who is dying); to those whose life is bitter. 1 Timothy 5:23 — a) This passage indicates that wine or certain alcoholic beverages had both a relaxing and beneficial effect on Timothy. b) Paul is prescribing a moderate amount of alcohol to relax the nervous high-strung Timothy. c) A limited amount of wine acts as a sedation; too much wine has a toxic effect. d) Wine stimulates the appetite through the increase of gastric juices while at the same time relaxing the solar plexus, the area of the central nervous system, the stomach muscles, and so on. e) The benefits of wine, then, can be summarised as follows: beneficial to brain and nervous system as a depressant producing sedation; beneficial to the stomach in terms of appetite, digestion; beneficial to the circulation, especially in the case of older people. Psalm 104:15 — “And the wine which makes man’s heart glad, maketh his well-nourished face radiant, and food which sustains man’s right lobe.” To have the heart glad refers to a limited amount. The passage is actually saying a little wine with food is a good thing. 6. The incident where Jesus turned the water to wine — John 2:1-11. a) Jesus was invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee, along with His disciples — verse 2. b) A crisis occurred when they ran out of wine — verse 3. c) Jesus replied to His mother in verse 4. “What is this to me or to you?” I.e. What difference does it make to us. Neither Jesus nor Mary were in any way hurt by the fact that they arrived late and hadn’t had any wine. d) However, Mary implied that Jesus should have left before the wine ran out. e) Jesus said to her, So what! You and I do not have to depend on wine for anything. f) Then Jesus challenged Mary’s subtle hint about departure by saying, “Mine hour has not yet come.” g) This was a reference to His saving work on the cross, and it is mentioned on numerous occasions: John 7:30; 820; 12:23,27; 16:32; 17:1. In other words, He begins with a very strong vocative of rebuke. It states that neither Jesus nor His mother depended upon wine for a good time. This verse states that His departure from the wedding and from this life had not yet come. This is a double entendre. Furthermore, Jesus implied that He would stay and rectify the situation. So His mother understood that He would stay and that He would do something about it. h) His mother said to the servants, “… do it.” What about the wine? It was a wedding feast and they were serving alcoholic beverage, which was the custom. They ran out of wine which did create a crisis for hospitality. So Jesus, to indicate that drinking wine was not an issue with regard to eternal salvation, now performs a miracle. Wine isn’t an issue. Now He provides more wine, and the best wine that anyone ever had. Jesus truly turned water into wine. The miracle, however, neither condones nor condemns drinking. Like all miracles, its purpose is to focus attention on who and what Christ is. it is to point out that Christ is the God-Man, the unique person of the universe. He is the son of David. This is the first advent. The issue is salvation, not whether you drink wine or not. The issue is Christ, not social crisis and not a social problem. There were six water pots, each one held 20-30 gallons. At 20 gallons that would be 120 gallons of water. Wine is composed of 70-80 per cent water. There is 12-30 per cent grape sugar, 12-14 per cent ethyl alcohol, there are other alcohols. Wine has carbon dioxide, organic acids, glycerin, organic colouring, microorganisms for fermentation. So water into wine is unexplainable, it is not a miracle if you can explain it. It was a miracle in which at least 120 gallons of water were turned into 120 gallons of wine. Christ, not wine, is the issue here. The miracle gave everyone in Cana a chance to be saved, for the miracle presents God’s plan of grace in the person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the only saviour. It was a miracle to focus attention on who and what Christ is. 7. Drinking should also be related to the divine laws of modus operandi. a) The law of liberty. Every believer has the right to drink a moderate amount of alcoholic beverage, it is not a sin. But then there are other laws that supersede at certain times. b) There is the law of expediency. It is expedient not to drink under certain conditions: witnessing, and so on. Or when drinking becomes an issue to an unbeliever. c) The law of love. It becomes necessary to refrain from drinking when it becomes a means of leading astray a weaker believer. d) The law of supreme sacrifice. Drinking is forbidden when it hinders a specific ministry or leadership function in life. 8. Alcohol is also a part of national disaster — Joel 1:4-6; Isaiah 28:1-9; Jeremiah 13:12-17. 9. The principle of common sense in drinking. Not only does the Bible have a lot to say about drinking — pro and con, when you should and when you shouldn’t — but even an unbeliever with an average amount of common sense ought to be able to handle the problem. a) Alcohol is wasted on young people. Young people ought not to drink. They are neither smart enough or wise enough to derive any benefit from drinking. b) Young people pick up all the pitfalls and none of the benefits of drinking. c) Do not drink while frustrated or unhappy. When you link emotion with drinking you are going to have a problem. d) Young ladies who date strangers should be non-drinkers (on that date). Never drink with a stranger, never drink at a strange place. e) Never drink alone. Moderate drinking is for social life. f) Never drink on the job or whole doing work. g) Never drink while operating a motor vehicle, flying an airplane, operating any type of machinery. h) Never mix gunpowder and alcohol. Never drink while hunting, plinking, shooting. i) When you get a little older drink moderately with friends whom you trust. j) Drunkenness and dissipation is a waste of time as well as life. While drinking is not forbidden by the Bible drunkenness is stupidity as well as a sin. k) The Christian lush is a reversionist who has failed to utilise the grace provision for learning doctrine, growing in grace, advancing to the objective. Verse 24 — “Some men’s sins” is the nominative plural of a(martia, plus the possessive genitive plural of the indefinite pronoun tij used to define a category, plus the possessive genitive plural from the noun a)nqrwpoj. Literally, it is “The sins of certain men.” This is a general principle but it applies specifically to Timothy. It means, first of all by interpretation, the sins of pastor-teachers. The indefinite relative pronoun here simply shows the fact that pastor-teachers are the category, are in the public eye, and therefore their failures and weaknesses as well as their strengths are obvious to all. All pastor’s sin. “are open” — the present active indicative of e)imi. With it is a predicate nominative plural from the adjective prodhloj which means “conspicuous, obvious.” Everyone sins, so immediately we see two categories: those whose sins are obvious and those whose sins are hidden. Principles 1. Some pastors have conspicuous, prominent, and obvious sins. Their congregations know their area of weakness as well as they know it themselves. By application, many people have obvious sins known to many; others have sins that are unknown. 2. You will note that this does not hinder the ministry or the teaching of the pastor-teacher of the local church. He has the gift of teaching, he recovers from his carnality, and under the filling of the Spirit he goes right on in his function — just like anyone who learns the grace principle of rebound and uses it. 3. Everyone knew Timothy’s failures and weaknesses, and many believers in the Ephesian congregation took advantage of them. 4. All believers after salvation continue to have an old sin nature and all believers after salvation continue to sin. Spiritual growth leads to change in the type of sins that are committed but they continue to sin. 5. Through the grace provision of rebound any believer can recover from carnality. 6. Sin is not the issue in the Christian way of life, evil is the issue — doctrine versus evil. The battleground is the soul and the devil seeks to control your soul through evil; the Lord seeks to control your soul through doctrine. In both cases volition is not in any way tampered with. You can choose what you wish to think and you can choose the content of your soul. 7. Sin was resolved at the cross. Evil and sin are not the same, though they occasionally overlap. 8. While the sins of the pastor may be obvious to the congregation, just as certainly certain sins of the congregation may be obvious to the pastor. This discernment of others’ sins does not deter the function of GAP and does not deter the spiritual life. 9. The pastor’s ministry depends on the Lord and no carnality has ever ruined a pastor’s ministry. 10. So while the pastor’s sins may be obvious it does not hinder the royal family from learning doctrine from that same pastor. 11. Again, sin is not the issue, evil is the issue in phase two. A pastor can sin and still have a wonderful ministry, courtesy of rebound. But he cannot be evil and have a ministry at all. 12. You can learn from sinful people. Everything you have ever learned you have learned from sinful people. 13. Everything you have ever learned in any realm of knowledge or category of life you have learned from sinful people, all people are sinful. The word “beforehand” does not occur in the original. “going before” is a present active participle from the verb proagw. It is a compound verb. Pro means before; agw means to lead. It comes to mean to precede, to lead forward, to go forward. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes divine discipline which has not yet occurred, but because of obvious carnality it is anticipated as already occurring. The active voice: obvious carnality on the part of a pastor, or anyone else who is a believer, produces the action of the verb leading to divine discipline. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated, “The sins of certain men are obvious, leading him.” “to judgment” — prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of krisij, correctly translated “judgment” or “discipline.” It refers to divine discipline. The doctrine of divine discipline 1. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive measures from God which are used to correct and also to judge the believer in time. Discipline is for time only. Discipline is the alternative to blessing. Two areas of discipline exist in phase two: discipline for carnality and discipline for reversionism, being under the influence of evil. Discipline for carnality is temporary and is cancelled by the rebound technique. Discipline for reversionism is permanent and terminates with the sin unto death. Divine discipline, however, never implies loss of salvation. The purpose of divine discipline in time is really to correct the believer, to bring the believer to the point of rebound or reversion recovery. Therefore to bring the believer to the place of blessing, for God is only glorified in the believer’s life when he reaches the high ground and he receives paragraph SG2. 2. Discipline as a principle. The principle of divine discipline is stated, for example, in Hebrews 12:5,6. Note that punitive action from God is for the believer only. Divine discipline is based on God’s love for the believer plus His relationship — He is our Father, we are His sons. Proverbs 3:12 says the same thing. 3. The purpose of divine discipline is stated in Revelation 3:19. 4. Divine discipline does not imply loss of salvation — Galatians 3:26 approaches this from the family viewpoint. Once you are in a family you cannot get out. Cf. 2 Timothy 2:11-13. 5. Divine discipline is confined to time — Revelation 21:4. 6. Discipline is designed, however, to turn cursing into blessing. Job 5:17,18. 7. Divine discipline of reversionism includes self-induced misery — Psalm 7:14-16. 8. The principle of triple compound discipline — Matthew 7:2. 9. There are three categories of discipline for reversionism. a) The warning stage — Revelation 3:20; b) The intense stage — Psalm 7:14; 38:1-14; c) The dying stage — Revelation 3:16; Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19. “and some” — the dative plural of reference to the indefinite pronoun tij. There is nothing indefinite about this, it merely means a category of individuals is involved and the word “indefinite” comes from the fact that they are not named. Tij is emphasising a category of believers. Here, by interpretation, the category is pastors like Timothy, but by application all believers. “and” is a post positive enclitic particle de and it has an adversative connotation. It should be translated “on the other hand.” “they follow after” — the present active indicative of e)pakolouqew which means to follow after, to appeal in sequel. Notice 1. In the second category of pastors who are especially involved, and all believers really, his sins are hidden from the congregation. Their sins are not obvious. 2. He sins but the congregation is not aware how he sins. They regard him as a plaster saint. 3. The congregation first become aware of the pastor’s carnality through his discipline from God in this case. 4. While his sins are obscure his discipline is perspicuous. 5. The point is, it does not make any difference whether you are cognisant or ignorant of someone else’s sins. 6. You are not the judge; you are not the disciplinarian. 7. In the case of the pastor he is responsible to God, just as you are responsible to God. 8. Therefore the pastor teaches you whether his sins are obvious or hidden. 9. You learn doctrine from the pastor whether you know his sins or not. Translation: “The sins of certain pastors are obvious, leading to divine discipline; on the other hand, with regard to another category of pastors they follow after.” “They follow after” 1. This is an evaluation of time or phase two. This evaluation refers to a specific category of the royal family — pastors. By application it refers to all believers. 2. The principle applies to all categories of the royal family of God. 3. The evaluation deals with carnality in time, it has nothing to do with eternity. 4. Where their sins and failures are well-known this requires patience, occupation with Christ, correct application of doctrine. 5. The concern of the congregation should never be over the sins of the pastor but over the content of his message. 6. The congregation must concentrate on the message, never on the person. No believer can have capacity for life and have his eyes on the pastor or someone else. Verse 25 — “Likewise also” is an adverb, w(sautwj, which means “In the same manner.” With it is an adjunctive kai, correctly translated “also.” “In the same manner also.” “the good works” — the nominative plural of e)rgon which means production, plus the nominative plural of the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, plus the adjective kaloj which means noble. “In the same manner also their noble production.” “are manifest” — an implied present active indicative of e)imi, which doesn’t actually occur here but is put in because next we have prodhloj as a predicate nominative, and it means “obvious.” What makes it obvious? Growth. When believers start to grow then it is obvious that the ministry of teaching the Word is having its proper effect. Noble production is the spiritual growth of the congregation. “and they that are otherwise” — it should be “and those deeds [production] which are otherwise.” “cannot be hid” — the negative o)uk plus the present active indicative of dunamai, is correctly translated “is not able.” The words “be hid” is the aorist passive infinitive of kruptw means really to be concealed [from God]. Translation: “In the same manner also their noble production is obvious; and that production which is otherwise cannot be concealed [from God].” Summary 1. The evaluation of the ministry of the pastor-teacher in the local church is God’s responsibility. 2. The congregation, therefore, should avoid judging or maligning a pastor. 3. This is an attack upon the sovereignty of God, upon God’s divine prerogative to evaluate His own slave. 4. Do not get out of fellowship by confusing the man with the message. 5. Objectivity concentrates on the message, subjectivity focuses on the person. 6. The pastor is a sinner but you can learn from sinners. 7. God has provided the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. He does the providing, the congregation does the concentrating, and everyone grows up together and avoids any problems.

Chapter 6 via Genesis 3:17-19 Genesis 3:17-19, the origin of business. Adam has just sinned. He had a choice between Jesus Christ in the garden and the woman outside of the garden. As a result of the fall Adam now discovers that he must enter the business world which is now under the control of Satan. Satan is the ruler of the world. Verse 17 — “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife.” This was one of his greatest mistakes. “Because thou hast hearkened” — the qal perfect of shama means to listen, to concentrate and obey. Adam should have been running the show. He had double authority over the woman. He was not only the ruler of the world but he was her right man. As the ruler of the world he should have had the respect of the woman, and Adam as the right man should have had the respect of the woman. Adam instead did not have the respect of the woman because the woman lost capacity for love and her loss of capacity came through indifference to Bible doctrine, as taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. So Adam finally came under the influence of the woman when he should have been influencing her. He decided to go with the woman, to follow her. He had one authority as the world ruler, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who appointed him. But he rejected Jesus Christ in the garden and stepped out of the garden to be with the woman. He should have recognised God’s authority but he did not, he only recognised the authority of the woman. When a woman is put in charge of any man there is always trouble. By subordinating himself to a creature over whom he had authority he lost dominion over the world, he lost his status quo of innocence, he too became spiritually dead as he ate from the fruit of the forbidden tree. Notice he obeyed the voice of his wife. In other words, by now she was giving commands. The Lord made the issue clear to the man as well as the woman and He kept repeating certain phrases. The sin of Adam’s disobedience is specifically mentioned while the woman’s part in the transgression is not mentioned. This dramatises the difference between the man’s sin and the woman’s sin. The woman with her free will is just as guilty and just as spiritually dead. Being “cursed” is a very important phrase. It indicates that business will never be easy and right from the start it was under a curse. The woman is under a curse, she is going to stay home and bare children, but the man is under a curse, he is going to work. He is going to find resistance in his attempts to earn a living. “Being cursed” is the qal active participle of arar and it has very strong linear aktionsart which says the business is always under a curse and always will be under a curse. The first system of free enterprise was agriculture, it begins at this point. It is the ground which becomes the industry of the ancient world and the ground is under the curse here. The curse, by the way, will be removed by the second advent of Christ and the Millennial reign, says Romans 8:19-22 and Isaiah 35. “for thy sake” is literally, “because of you.” “in sorrow thou shalt eat” — this means that there is great suffering in business. It is a great area for disappointment, for frustration, for temptation, everything that could cause difficulty in life, everything that could make you miserable. But God also makes a promise when He says, “thou shalt eat,” the qal imperfect of akal which also means earning a living. “In sorrow you are going to learn a living,” it is going to be difficult. “all the days of thy life” — not until he reaches 65 or until he gets fired. So it is an unending thing. Verse 18 — “Thorns also and thistles” simply refer to various types of plants that grow up and stick you. The point is that you are going to get hurt many times with many different types of adversity. In earning a living there is an awful lot of adversity, antagonism and misery in life. Verse 19 — “in the sweat of thy face” — this doesn’t mean that he is going to have to work physically necessarily. There are two kinds of sweat here. It does refer to physical labour but it also refers to mental labour. Both types are involved in the business world. “until you return to the ground” — eventually you are going to die and you can stop working. “because from it [the ground] you were taken: you are dust, and to dust you shall return” — so you spend your life in dust, you spend your life in work, you never get away from it. That is the concept here. The ground was cursed; Christ was cursed — Galatians 3:13. The earth produces thorns; Christ wore a crown of thorns. Man works either mentally or physically producing sweat of the face; Christ sweat great drops of blood on the cross. Man returns to the dust; Christ was brought up from the dust in resurrection. Man by an act of disobedience dies spiritually; Christ by bearing our sins died spiritually. Man dies twice — spiritual death, physical death; Christ died twice on the cross — spiritual death, physical death. Business 1. Business is a part of the laws of divine establishment: those laws of divine establishment that deal with the economy. 2. The principle of business is the antithesis of the principle of grace. You work for a living; you do nothing for blessing under grace. 3. In business you must work to produce; in grace you cannot work to receive divine blessing, whether it is salvation or some blessing in phase two, or some future blessing in phase three. The function of business 1. The function of the believer in business is found in a number of passages of the scripture. The royal family believer, Church Age believer, is found in Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-4:1; 1 Timothy 6. 2. It is a part of the divine plan for every believer in the royal family of God to represent the Lord in the business world in time. John 17:15-17 is a business passage. 3. God has a plan for the believer in the business world. His plan calls for believers to be blessed in the business world. 4. God’s plan calls for believers not only to be in the business world but to be fortified with doctrine in the business world. This, then, makes a believer in the business world a very definite part of the angelic conflict. Outline of 1 Timothy chapter six Verses 1-8 deal with labour Verses 9-19 deal with management Verses 20,21 is a final dissertation to Timothy. Verse 1 — relationship with unbelieving management. “As many servants as are” — nominative plural from a correlative adjective o(soj, and adjective of quantity which should be translated “as many as.” Plus the nominative plural of douloj which in the first century referred to slaves but here it refers to the working class, anyone who works for someone else. Plus the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. The present tense is a static present for a continued status in life. The active voice: certain believers produce the action of the verb being in the category of labour in the business world. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for historical reality. “As many as are workers.” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. This passage was written around AD 66, in the first one hundred years of the Roman empire. At this time slavery was one of the chief sources of labour, and the reason why slavery was the source of labour was because the labour unions had priced themselves out of the market. There was a strong labour union movement that began at the time of the second Punic war and it reached such a tremendous peak that it was impossible for industry to keep going with these labour unions. By application to the 20th century this passage refers to those who work for unsaved management under the category of labour. Christian slaves often had masters who were unbelievers. While slavery was in many ways a social evil Paul did not become diverted long enough to condemn it or to seek to rectify the problem. The answer was always doctrine and Paul stayed on the track. Therefore Paul’s approach is that of a super-grace believer rather than a reversionistic bleeding heart or some believer under the influence of evil. There are much greater issues than the problem of slavery — issues like salvation by grace, growth in grace on the part of believers, blessings of paragraph SG2, dying grace, and paragraph SG3. The angelic conflict, then, is more important than the status of the individual in the devil’s world. Once you believe in Christ you belong to Christ, so you need not be concerned about your own status. Your concern must be directed toward doctrine, the written Word, and Jesus Christ, the living Word. At this time of writing slaves had a great deal of freedom. They had working hours and then they could attend the local church and advance to the high ground of super-grace. It is important to realise that slavery did not ever hinder spiritual growth in the Roman empire, and furthermore slavery did not hinder evangelism in the Roman empire. Therefore, when we have the Greek word “slave” here it is simply referring to labour. “under the yoke” — the preposition u(po plus the accusative of zugoj. The thing that is important about yoke is the fact that it was originally a harness that put two animals pulling together. The idea with labour is that there are a lot of people around you, you are working with others, and yoke simply means that you are in the category of labour with other people, and you are not only working for management but you are working with others. But yoke has another connotation. It has the connotation of authority which must exist in the sphere of establishment and in the industrial complex of any national entity. No authority, no success in business. No success in business, no prosperity. No prosperity, no jobs. No jobs, eventually depression. No economy can survive the loss of authority. There must be a good labour market but that labour market must recognise the principle of authority. The believer in labour has a job which is his full-time Christian service. He is under the policy of management, he is under the payment of management. Part of the function of that job is obedience to the authority as well as obedience to the policy of that company. Economic prosperity and effectiveness in the industrial complex demands national freedom, individual respect for authority and management. Management makes the policy, management represents the investor, the investor is capital. The one who invests the money has the right to set the policy in the business. Bad management is never the excuse for the believer rejecting the principle of authority in business. “count” — e(geomai, present active imperative. The word means to think, to consider, to esteem, to regard. The customary present denotes what has happened in the past and continues into the present time for what may be reasonably expected to occur under the laws of divine establishment. This is a deponent verb, middle voice in form, active in meaning. Christian labour produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command. “their own masters” — touj i)diouj despotaj. All the way through here we have the accusative plural. Touj is the accusative plural of the definite article. I)diouj is the accusative plural of i)dioj which means one’s own; possession is the connotation of the word. Despotaj is also an accusative plural and it refers to management or capital. Management sets up the policy for business, not labour. The accusative of despothj is a feminine noun and it is used for a tyrant, but eventually it comes to mean someone who has absolute authority. Here it refers to management. It refers to those who invest their money in business who are commonly called capitalists. The principle is those who establish the business make the policy for the business. Labour has no rights except to do their job and to function under the policy set up for them. “worthy of all honour” — regardless of what a stinker a person may be in management he is to be regarded as worthy of all honour, the accusative plural direct object of the adjective a)cioj. This is an adjective that means that regardless of any personal conflict, personal feeling, you are to completely concentrate on the principle “worthy of.” Plus the genitive singular adjective paj and the genitive singular noun timh — “all honour.” These are descriptive genitives indicating the mental attitude with which everyone should go to work every day. “Worthy of all honour” is a mental attitude. This is a principle and the distortion of the principle does not change the principle. The violation of the principle by management does not give you an excuse to violate the principle as labour. Sinful man often distorts divine principles but this does not change or rescind the principles. The principle is not rescinded because it was abused. “All honour” is respect for the authority of management. The doctrine of authority 1. Authority is legal power delegated by God to the human race. The sum total of legal power delegated to the human race is summarised by a series of principles called the laws of divine establishment. So by its correct technical definition establishment represents the principle of authorised authority. Establishment indicates that certain members of the human race have received from God jurisdiction and responsibility for others in the human race. This principle of authority extends both in the temporal as well as the spiritual realm. In the temporal realm it is called establishment, in the spiritual realm it is called the church in this dispensation. 2. Authority has been an issue since the beginning of the human race. The fall itself is the first illustration of the rejection of authority in the human race. The rejection in the fall was twofold. The woman rejected the authority of God and accepted the authority of Satan under the principle of evil. In doing so she was deceived into the first sin in the human race. Man who had delegated authority from God over the woman also ate of the forbidden fruit by throwing his authority away and accepting the authority of the woman, not authorised in the human race. Therefore authority was the issue with both the man and the woman in the fall. The woman failed under the principle of authority, she rejected the authority of the Word as taught by Jesus Christ. She rejected the authority of her right man who was both the divinely-commissioned ruler of the world and her husband or right man. Man threw away his authority by accepting the dictates of the woman. So authority has always been an issue in the human race and man’s fall can be directly related to his rejection of authority clearly defined and clearly delineated. 3. It is obvious, then, that history is perpetuated by the perpetuation of the principle of authority. It can be categorised under at least seven principles: a) We have direct authority of God as revealed through Bible doctrine. God’s will, God’s plan, God’s authority, is clearly defined in the scripture. b) The authority related to the communication of doctrine: the authority of the pastor in the local church, the authority of the administrators in the local church. c) Life in general has authority called divine institutions. The first and most basic authority in your life is your own free will. This is the basis for every mistake you ever make, for every advance you ever make. Decision is a part of respect for your own authority in your own soul. Divine institution #2 is the husband having authority over the wife. Divine institution #3 is the parents having authority over the children. Divine institution #4 is the system of government having authority over the people. d) Academic. In academic life there are two basic categories of authority. First there is the policy system of authority. Any academic organisation has policy and the policy system is carried out by the administration. In addition to that there is authority in the local classroom — the teacher or the professor, whoever is the communicator in the classroom. e) Business has authority, like everything else. “that” is i(na, it denotes a final clause or a purpose clause. It means goal, objective, purpose. “the name of God” — to o)noma tou Qeou refers to the person of God, His perfect plan, His perfect essence. If you work for someone else and they pay your salary you are classified as labour. Your job is your full-time Christian service and you are to do it as unto the Lord. This means there must be respect for management. There is the principle of respect and there is the application of the principle. Capacity for life comes from doctrine resident in your soul. The more doctrine you have in your soul the more you will fulfil the principle of this verse as a part of your capacity for life, as a part of the function of your royal priesthood. The believer’s job, duty, skill, is not only his means of livelihood but it is an integral part of the Christian way of life, part of his function. “and doctrine be not blasphemed” — the name of God is the person of God: “that the person of God and doctrine be not blasphemed.” This is the present passive subjunctive of blasfemew which means to malign. This is the iterative present tense, it describes what occurs at those times when Christian labour revolts against the authority of management. If you go to work with a bad mental attitude, if you loaf on the job in some way, if you are not doing your job as unto the Lord, then this is for you. You are maligning God’s character and the Word. The passive voice: the name or essence of God and doctrine receive slander, defamation. The subjunctive mood plus i(na is a negative purpose clause. Translation: “As many as are servants [labour] under the yoke [authority of management] must consider their own masters [management] worthy of all honour, in order that the name [essence] of the God and Bible doctrine may not be maligned.” Principle 1. Every believer should do his job as if Jesus Christ was your boss, for in effect He is. 2. No matter how menial the job it should be done with maximum efficiency as unto the Lord. 3. Management may not always be around to supervise but the Lord sees you every minute — Hebrews 4:13. The doctrine of the function of the soul in labour 1. Self-consciousness is the place where you concentrate, where you merge yourself into the policy of your company, the policy of the business organisation where you draw your pay cheque. Self-conscious means your ability to concentrate on the job and to fulfil the job profile laid out and specified for your job. 2. Mentality. A good mental attitude on the job is the key. Some people have a little difficulty learning the job but with a good mental attitude they master the job. You cannot enter a job of any kind and have a bad mental attitude. A bad mental attitude contributes to doing a bad job. A good mental attitude reflects spiritual growth, Bible doctrine in the soul. 3. The function of volition, your free will. When you connect it with your mentality it means that your decisions are based upon maximum objectivity in every facet of your job: objectivity in relation to fellow workers, with regard to management. Freedom from mental attitude sins then hooks up with volition and you have a recognition of authority. All decisions on the job must be loyal to company policy. 4. The emotion then becomes involved. Appreciation for the Lord motivates the believer to function in his job under the principle of grace orientation. He expresses his love toward Christ as recorded in Colossians 3:17. His emotion never gets out of line with the job or out of line with who and what Christ is. 5. His conscience also enters the picture. The conscience is the residence for the integrity principle on the job — loyalty to management and honour and integrity no matter how menial the task. 6. The old sin nature seeks to frustrate all of these principles in working for someone else, in working for a living. Therefore the importance of rebound, the importance of the daily function of GAP to maintain proper perspective on the job. 7. Principles: a) Under the original interpretation of this passage in its application to the labour market of the first century Roman empire, which was primarily slavery, neither revolution nor manumission was recommended as a solution for anything. b) No social action is ever commanded by the Word of God. It is doctrine in the soul that changes things historically from the inside but the Word of God is opposed to social action. c) The Word of God condemns but never commends labour unions and guilds. A person must make it on his own, the Word of God emphasises the individual, not some organisation making it for you. d) It becomes obvious, then, that the solution to labour problems does not lie in strikes. Not working doesn’t solve anything, it merely changes the course of the industrial complex. Many, many machines were invented because people went out on strike and therefore jobs were destroyed. Things are solved by doing a better job and things are solved by doctrine but strikes are not the answer to anything ever. e) Doctrine resident in the soul makes permanent changes in life. Our blessing and our prosperity is related to Bible doctrine resident in our souls. Social action creates more problems; Bible doctrine is the solver. f) Regeneration, not legislation, is always the answer. Regeneration and spiritual solutions. Legislation is designed to stop crime, to protect freedom; to give you the right to live among other people, the right to privacy, the right to property, and the right to take your volition and to go as far as you can go inside the law. The law was never designed to try to solve problems in the industrial complex. Colossians 3:22. Verse 2 — Christian management. Just because you work for a Christian it doesn’t give you the right to take advantage of him. “And they that have believing masters.” The phrase is made up of a number of things., first of all the nominative plural of the definite article. It is used as a personal pronoun referring again to the labour market at the time of writing, slaves in the Roman empire. It refers now to labour in the 20th century. Plus the present active participle of e)xw recognising the reality of a situation. This is the iterative present which means not all believers work for a Christian. The active voice: the believer producing the action of the verb is in the category of labour working for someone else. The participle is circumstantial indicating that some believers do have Christian management as the authority over them. Also is the accusative plural direct object of pistoj, wrongly translated “believing.” Pistoj, and adjective, is also used as a substantive and this should be translated, “who have believers as their masters.” We also have here the accusative plural direct object of despothj for management, plus a post positive conjunctive particle de used to emphasise a contrast between Christian labour who have Christian management and non-Christian management. “Now on the other hand those who have believers as their management.” “let them not despise” — present active imperative of katafronew which means to look down on, to despise, to scorn, to treat with contempt. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: labour produces the action of the verb. The negative says they should not. They should not be disrespectful. The imperative mood plus the negative is a prohibition: “should not be disrespectful toward them.” Principle 1. There is a tendency on the part of some ignorant and reversionistic believers to take advantage of Christian management. 2. Being a fellow believer in the same local church does not give labour the right to take advantage of management on the job. 3. In the name of Christian brotherhood no believer in labour has the right to take advantage of Christian management by loafing on the job, being late, ignoring company policy, demanding special privileges and special consideration not extended to other people working in the same job. 4. Working for believers should not only intensify faithfulness and diligence, loyalty, but it should also mean your production is better. 5. As a believer under Christian management you should be the best employee in the industry. “because they are brethren” — the excuse to be slipshod. This is a causal use of the conjunction o(ti, plus the present active indicative of e(imi. The present tense is a static present indicating eternal security, indicating that they are born again — once saved, always saved. The active voice: management produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality in every generation. Plus the predicate nominative plural of a)delfoj, members of the same royal family. Principle: Spiritual equality does not set aside authority. As believers you are subject to many kinds of authority, including that from fellow believers. “but rather” — the adversative conjunction a)lla plus the comparative adverb of degree, mallon. It should be translated “but to a greater degree.” “do them service” — present active imperative of douleuw, literally, “be serving them.” That means respect, obedience and function under the profile of the job. The present tense is a descriptive present to indicate what should now be going on if you are working for Christian management. The active voice: Christian labour should produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood: this is an order. “because” — a causal o(ti; “they are” — present active indicative of e)imi. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: Christian management produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, this will always be; there will always be believers in management. “faithful” — pistoj, “believers.” This the predicate active plural. The adjective is used as a substantive: “because they are believers.” “and beloved” — nominative plural predicate adjective a)gaphtoj. God loves all believers. The doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit 1. The baptism of the Holy Spirit as a doctrine is absolutely unique. The uniqueness is based upon the fact that, first of all, prior to the Church Age it did not occur. It occurred only in connection with the Church Age, it is the monopoly of the Church Age. Reason: Because it is the mechanics by which we become members of the royal family of God. Learn to distinguish between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration, the one who causes you to be born again. Regeneration is the basis for establishing the family of God. At the point of salvation in the Old Testament when any person believed in Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit regenerated him. That ministry continues throughout all of human history, it makes the believer family of God. But the family of God is definitely divided into those who are in the ranks of the Old Testament saints, Tribulational saints, the Millennial saints and royalty — those who are in the palace. The Church Age are those who are in the palace. Therefore in the Church Age with Jesus Christ ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father, God the Holy Spirit in addition to regeneration does one other things. He takes every believer at the point of salvation and enters him into union with Jesus Christ. This makes it a unique doctrine and this gives our salvation a strong uniqueness that no other salvation has. The ministries of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, of which there are five, include some which are unique. The regenerative work of the Holy Spirit is peculiar to every generation and to all of human history. From then on things are different. The sealing ministry of the Spirit, the giving of a spiritual gift, the indwelling of the Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, are absolutely unique and belong to us, members of the Church Age only. Therefore the uniqueness of the doctrine must be emphasised. Them uniqueness of the doctrine is very important because morale in the royal family of God begins with an understanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Our esprit decor, living in the palace forever, living in the holy of holies, is based upon our orientation to this great doctrine. 2. The prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit was first accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. Just before the Age of Israel was interrupted, and just before the new dispensation began, Jesus prophesied in Acts 1:5. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was the first one to announce this unique factor. 3. By definition and by mechanics the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity taking every believer at the moment that he believes in Jesus Christ and entering him into union with Christ. Baptism means identification, it means union. Water baptism is a ritual and it means union with the water. Real baptism is an historical fact, a spiritual factor, and all real baptisms are real identifications. 4. The baptism of the Spirit is definitely, therefore, related to the essence of the royal family. The baptism of the Holy Spirit unifies all members of the body of Christ. We are unified whether we like it or not — Ephesians 4:5. All members of the body of Christ have the same baptism and there is an equality that is provided at the second that the baptism of the Spirit occurs that could never be provided at any other time. This equality is describes in Galatians 3:26,27. 5. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is related to positional sanctification, it is the basis for positional sanctification — Romans 6; Colossians 2:12; 3:1,2. The basis for current positional truth is found in Ephesians 1:3-6; Colossians 2:10. The royal family has a personal relationship with the King of kings forever as a result. The link between our royalty and the royalty of Christ is the baptism of the Spirit. Jesus Christ as God is eternal royalty. He is sovereign forever. Jesus Christ as a Man is royalty. He is the son of David. So as God he is sovereign, as the son of David He is royalty. He is a Jew born literally in the line of David. he is descended from David and Bathsheba through their son Nathan. But it is not in this area that our royalty exists. Jesus Christ now seated at the right hand of the Father is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords, and that is a new royalty that began with His ascension and session. So when Christ was resurrected He was unique, when He ascended that was unique, when he was seated at the right hand of the Father that was unique. The Father never said “Sit down at my right hand” to anyone else. The whole thing was unique. And Jesus Christ then becomes what He never was before. As God He was never King of kings, as the son of David He was not the King of kings; but as the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father He is the King of kings. And as King of kings there is a new royalty established on that basis, for this new and unique royalty demands a royal family. Now the uniqueness of the royalty of Jesus Christ also leads to the fact that the Church Age believer is unique in that he has a unique system by which he becomes royalty. That uniqueness is based upon the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is unique. 6. The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation — Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 12:13. Principle: The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience. 7. The baptism of the Holy Spirit interrupts the Jewish dispensation and begins a new dispensation — Matthew 16:18 cf. Acts 1:5 which have to be compared to Acts 11:15-17. 8. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of seven Bible baptisms: three ritual, four real baptisms. The result of this is positional truth. This means a lot of things to us. For example, positional truth means that whether you are carnal or spiritual, in super-grace or reversionism, you have it. Positional truth is the very foundation of the royal family. You have a position in Christ, you will always be in Christ. This is taught in 1 Corinthians 1:2,30. There is no judgment ever in eternity because you are in union with Christ — Romans 8:1. Positional truth qualifies you to live with God forever, you couldn’t live with God forever unless you were in union with Christ. Christ has absolute righteousness, you share His righteousness. That is the basis for imputation and justification. Christ is eternal life, you have His eternal life. If you have eternal life you can live with God forever. If you have justification you can live with God forever. Christ was elected from eternity past if you are in union with Christ you share His election. Therefore you are foreordained or predestined. You are foreordained or predestined because you share the destiny of Christ. Christ is a high priest, you share His priesthood. That is why all believers are members of the royal priesthood. Jesus Christ is the King of kings and therefore we are royal family. It all adds up to eternal security, you cannot lose your salvation either — Romans 8:38,39. You have eternal security because you have been born into the family, you cannot be born out. The baptism of the Holy Spirit resulting in union with Christ means that it is not an experience, you don’t have an emotional experience. It is not progressive, you cannot improve on it, eternity won’t improve on it. Verse 2b — “partakers of the benefit.” This is a nominative plural from the definite article used as an intensive pronoun. It should be translated not partakers but “these same ones.” Christians, your boss, whoever it is who has the authority over you in business. God loves that believer in management just as much as he loves the believer in labour. Then there is a present middle participle from the compound verb a)ntilambanomai. It means to be recipients — “these same ones being recipients.” It is a customary present tense for what may be reasonably expected to occur when any believer in management continues to take in the Word. The daily function of GAP on the part of Christian management leads to maturity and super-grace blessing. The indirect middle voice emphasises the agent, Christian management, producing the action of the verb. It is a causal participle. Also with this is an objective genitive singular from e)uergesia. Here is where we get the word “benefit” — “because these same ones are recipients of benefits.” There is also an intensive pronoun here emphasising the identity of these specific blessings which are designed for super-grace believers. Summary 1. This phrase says that first of all God has designed in eternity past special blessing paragraphs for every member of the royal family of God. 2. Furthermore, special blessing paragraphs, when they are received, always glorify God. When you GAP it daily and follow the colours to the high ground of super-grace you establish a command post in the soul. Here is the point of maturity, the super-grace life. At this point you receive paragraph SG2 and when you receive that God is glorified. Dying blessing is a PCS from phase 2, time, to eternity. If you get SG2 in time and hold, you get SG3 in eternity, and these glorify God. Your decorations in eternity are based upon your performance in time with regard to Bible doctrine. 3. Christian management and Christian labour are both beneficiaries of these same benefits. Whether management or labour benefits depends upon the attitude toward Bible doctrine, the daily function of GAP and following the colours to the high ground. 4. Therefore both Christian management and Christian labour must follow the colours to the high ground, possessing Bible doctrine resident in the soul. 5. So while one is working for the other both should be accumulating doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of GAP. 6. Therefore in the local church each category is royal family learning Bible doctrine. But outside of the local church one works for the other. Translation: “Now on the other hand they who have believers as bosses should not be disrespectful to them, because they are brothers; but even more [to a greater degree] be serving [with respect and obedience] them, because they are believers and beloved, because these same ones are recipients of the same benefits.” Verse 6:2c — “These things teach.” This command is a command to teach how to apply doctrine. The doctrine has been stated time and time again. “These things” is an accusative neuter plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Demonstrative pronouns are extremely important in the pulling together the continuity of the New Testament. O(utoj calls special attention with emphasis on a designated object. Here the demonstrative emphasises the doctrinal teaching of the pastor who encourages people to function well on he job, the doctrinal teaching of the pastor who emphasises the fact that as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are royal family of God forever and that you have been left on this earth to enter into full time Christian service. Therefore whatever your job is, no matter how humble, it is your full time Christian service and you therefore do your job as unto the Lord. “These things” refers to the various doctrines in the Word of God. The pastor has to dig them out and communicate them. Every pastor is sitting on a gold mine, but the gold is in the mine. Between “these things” and “teach” he digs. The word “teach” assumes that the Word has been passed from the Bible to the right lobe of the pastor-teacher. The only thing the pastor-teacher can communicate is what is on the launching pad. “Teach” is the present active imperative of didaskw — “doctrinise.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what should habitually occur in the assembly of the local church when the pastor-teacher has studied. The active voice: starting with Timothy and going to every pastor in the 20th century, that means that the man with the gift of pastor-teacher must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command not just to Timothy but to everyone who has the gift of pastor-teacher and have a congregation. The word didaskw literally means communication of doctrine. Didaskw 1. It means that God has ordained a classroom. Teaching must occur in a classroom. It can be anywhere, but wherever there are three believers and a pastor-teacher that is a classroom. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom for this dispensation. 2. It means authority, to communicate with authority — monologue, no dialogue, no sharing. 3. It means moral courage, the courage to teach what is said no matter what anyone thinks. Once you know you have the truth you communicate it. 4. Function. Function is communication. It demands that you concentrate, it demands that the pastor gets your attention and holds it. While it is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to give you concentration it is a part of the gift of pastor-teacher to illustrate, to lend colour to, and hold attention. 5. Observation. The pastor observes the congregation, he knows what is going on. This is important. There are times when the teaching must finish a little early because the congregation has had all it can take at the moment and it is no longer listening. Or it is getting restless. 6. Didaskw means a system of discipline in the association of the royal family. Not only does it mean academic discipline in the classroom, it means a system of discipline in the royal family. 7. It means a system of priorities for the royal family of God. Priority #1 is Jesus Christ, a priority you cannot achieve until priority #2 is fulfilled in part — doctrine. So priorities must be kept straight. Jesus Christ must be first, but that is simply a principle without practice when you are born again. The only way that it becomes a principle with practice is for priority #2 to come. Priority #2 during the early stages of your spiritual life is really priority #1, for all we know about the living Word we know from the written Word. Priority #1 is Bible doctrine until you reach super-grace and then occupation with Christ puts a mature system of priorities into operation: Christ is #1 and doctrine is #2. Next in your priorities must be the assembly in the local church to learn the Word of God. “and exhort” — didaskw means to lay out the principles of doctrine, then you must teach how to apply. To teach how to apply is “and exhort,” the present active imperative from verb parakalew which means to teach how to apply. There is a long way to go between learning it academically and putting it into operation. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what is reasonably expected to occur when a pastor is faithful in studying the Word. The active voice: the pastor produces the action in teaching you how to apply as he teaches the passage. The imperative mood is a command to all pastors of all generations to fulfil the second principle as well as the first. Translation: “Now on the other hand they who have believers as bosses should not be disrespectful to them, because they are brothers; but even more [to a greater degree] be serving [with respect and obedience] them, because they are believers and beloved, because these same ones are recipients of the same benefits. Be teaching and exhorting these things.” Verses 3-5 is one sentence and is a conditional clause. It is opposition from believers under the influence of evil. Some believers are not going to accept the principle of the authority of management. We have three verses to point out to labour that opposition to that authority is totally out of line, it is a matter of doctrine, a matter of the believer’s full-time Christian service. It is a matter of obeying your boss, management, the company policy, as unto the Lord. Verse 3 is the protasis; the apodasis is verses 4,5. Verse 3 is the protasis of a first class condition recognising the fact of opposition and then some conclusions that will be drawn from it. “If” is the key. The conjunction e)i introduces a first class condition. The protasis is true, there is opposition to what has been taught in verses 1 and 2. “any man” — an indefinite pronoun from tij. It is in the nominative case and the subject of the verb. The indefinite pronoun refers to a category in the royal family of God, believers who are working for someone else and who are in some stage of reversionism and under the influence of evil. They don’t like the idea of accepting the authority over them. It should be translated “If anyone.” “teaches otherwise” — present active indicative of a compound verb, e(terodidaskalew, a word which means to teach a different doctrine than what has been taught in verses 1,2. E(teroj is the adjective which means other of a different kind; didaskalia is the noun which means to teach. It means to teach a different type of doctrine in opposition to what has been specified in the context. “If anyone teaches a different doctrine.” The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and is continuing into the present time. The believer is never commanded to be disruptive of authority and this is the principle that is being advocated by false teaching in Ephesus. The active voice: the reversionist under the influence of evil produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that labour was antagonistic to biblical principles of their function. “and consent not” — the connective conjunction kai plus the negative mh, and with it is the present middle indicative of the verb proserxomai which means here to concur. It should be translated, “and does not concur with.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and is continuing at the present time, and therefore is wrong. It is wrong for anyone working for someone else to be disruptive and antagonistic toward authority. The conjunction actually separates two different types of apostasy. The first apostasy is to be under the influence of evil teaching, the second category is to be under the influence of evil rejecting doctrine. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the agent produces the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. The indicative mood is declarative, this was actually happening then. “to wholesome words” — the dative plural present active participle of the verb u(giainw which simply means to be healthy, to be well, or to be sound. The adjective is used as a participle here plus the dative plural of the noun logoj, referring to doctrine, to words, to thought. Here it means doctrine — “to sound doctrine.” The dative of indirect object plus the dative of disadvantage: it is to the disadvantage of any believer to ignore the teachings of the Word of God. The word for “words” is a dative plural definite article used for a demonstrative pronoun — “those words of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The second time we have the word logoj here it is used for the teaching or the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Next we have the ascensive use of the word kai which is not translated “and” but “even”; “to the doctrine” — dative singular of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, placing special emphasis on doctrine and its relationship to the prince ruler of the church, Jesus Christ, plus the dative singular of the noun didaskalia which means teaching or doctrine. “which is” is not found in the original, it is used to smooth out the translation. “according to godliness” — kata plus the accusative of e)usebeia, translated “pertaining to godliness.” Translation: “If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and does not concur with sound doctrine, namely those doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to that doctrine pertaining to godliness.” The doctrine of godliness 1. Godliness is derived from the Greek word e)usebeia. There is also another word that goes with it: qeosebeia. It actually means duty to God. But that doesn’t explain its technicalities. Technically, it is the doctrine of the balance of residency of the soul. It is a synonym for maturity actually. Godliness is a mature believer as over against an immature believer. The principle is found very simply in three different doctrines. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell your body. Reason: you are royal family of God forever. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit indicates that we are different from all believers in other dispensations, all believers in past dispensations. It also means that in this stage of the angelic conflict demon possession can never occur. There is also the filling of the Spirit. Spirituality and godliness are two simple doctrines that everyone must understand. Spirituality is God the Holy Spirit controlling your soul, not your body. Therefore you must learn to distinguish between salvation, the ministry of the Holy Spirit at salvation, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit after salvation. At salvation God the Holy Spirit does five things for each one of us in this dispensation. In the Old Testament he did one thing: regeneration. The Holy Spirit is the agent in every person being born again at the moment he believes in Jesus Christ. There are 36 things accomplished when you believe in Christ, one of them is regeneration. We have the vocabulary of Paul when he says, “Be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18; “walk in the Spirit” in Galatians 5:16; or John’s vocabulary “walk in the light” in 1 John 1:7. Peter also has his technical nomenclature for the Holy Spirit controlling the life — “partakers of the divine nature.” We call it simply the filling of the Spirit but there are a number of technical phrases for God the Holy Spirit controlling the soul. 2. There are two concepts of the believer basically and fundamentally: spirituality and carnality. Spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive, therefore they become absolutes in phase two — 1 John 3:4-9. Light and dark are mutually exclusive; spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive. 3. The great issue that starts your Christian life and becomes an issue always is imitation. Spirituality is imitation of God — 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 5:1; 2 Peter 1:4. On the other hand, carnality and reversionism is imitation of the unbeliever. All of your Christian life you are either imitating God or you are imitating the unbeliever. Carnality and reversionism, imitation of the unbeliever — 1 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 John 1:6. 4. Spirituality, then, is a function of the royal priesthood. Therefore it is not subject to the Mosaic law or any Levitical system of the previous dispensation — Romans 8:2-4; 10:4; 13:8; Galatians 5:18. All of these say that if you are filled with the Spirit you are not under the law. 5. In keeping with partnership with the divine essence through the filling of the Spirit — 2 Peter 1:4 — spirituality produces the character of the incarnate Christ. Now the character is produced to the extent that this also includes doctrine in your soul. Galatians 4:19 tells us that we are to become imitators of Christ, Christ must be produced in us. In the same context of Galatians 5:22,23 we find out what this means. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. This is the production of the character of Christ. The same thing is founds in 2 Peter 1:4 and 1 John 2:5,6. 6. The general objective, then, of the filling of the Spirit is the control of the soul. This has a relationship with at least five different factors in your life: a) It has to do with your partnership with divine essence. Since 2 Peter 1:4 says you are in partnership, the filling of the Spirit is the means of fulfilling it. b) It has to do with imitation of God — Ephesians 5:1. c) It has to do with glorifying Christ — John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. d) The law is fulfilled — Romans 8:2-4. e) The purpose of the filling of the Spirit in the new believer, the immature believer, and the adolescent believer is the proper function of GAP. The proper function of GAP always depends upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16. 7. Spirituality is lost through carnality but recovered through the rebound technique. Volition is always involved in sinning and therefore volition must be involved in recovery. The recovery is rebound. 8. Some results of spirituality. a) Christ is magnified in the life — Ephesians 3:16,17; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Philippians 1:20,21. b) You can understand doctrine when exposed to teaching — 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. c) You can be effective in witnessing — Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 3. d) You can have guidance from God and assurance under these conditions — Romans 8:14-16. e) It is the basis of all true worship — John 4:24; Philippians 3:3. f) It becomes the basis for effective prayer — Ephesians 6:18. g) it means to help carnal or reversionistic believers get back in fellowship — Galatians 6:1. 10. Spirituality, then, is one of the original sources for divine good. Divine good is rewardable — 1 Corinthians 3:12ff; human good produced in carnality and reversionism is destroyed at the judgment seat of Christ. 11. Nomenclature for spirituality. Positive, like “walk in the Spirit” — Galatians 5:16; “walk in the light” — 1 John 1:7; “be filled with the Spirit” — Ephesians 5:18; “be a partaker of the divine nature” — 2 Peter 1:4. When we sin under carnality, that is grieving the Holy Spirit.” Grieving and quenching of the Holy Spirit means you are not filled with the Spirit, but when you rebound then the Holy Spirit controls again and you go back to the filling of the Spirit — spirituality. Negative, like “Quench not the Spirit” — 1 Thessalonians 5:19. When a believer is under the control of his old sin nature it is because he has sinned. Quenching the Spirit is producing human good from the area of strength. 12. Emotion or ecstatics does not characterise spirituality in the Church Age — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans 16:17,18. Only in the Millennial dispensation is any spirituality related to ecstatics. In the Church Age the believer is representing the absent Christ in the devil’s world. Therefore since this is the devil’s world in the Church Age and every believer is an ambassador representing Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is not on the earth, therefore we represent Him. Therefore the filling of the Spirit does not have ecstatics related to it. Not that you won’t be emotional and not that your emotions won’t appreciate the Lord, but the actual filling of the Spirit has no ecstatics. You do have spiritual emotion but it is not the filling of the Spirit. In the Millennial reign of Christ, Christ will be on earth and therefore the filling of the Holy Spirit will be plus emotion. However, it does say in many passages that in the Millennium believers will be indwelt by the Spirit — Ezekiel 36:27; 37:14; Jeremiah 31:33 — and that the filling of the Spirit will produce within itself ecstatics — Isaiah 29:19; 32:15; 44:3; Ezekiel 39:29; Zechariah 12:10; Joel 2:28,29. 13. The royal family is in partnership with the Holy Spirit — Philippians 2:2. 14. Confidence regarding the filling of the Spirit comes from understanding doctrine — 1 John 3:20,21. 15. There must be a clarification between means and results. There is the power involved, the means of obtaining that power, and then the results of that power. There are two basic powers in your life as a believer. One is the power of the Holy Spirit and the second is the power of the Word. These are the two that lead to the balance of residency. The means of obtaining the power of the Holy Spirit is the rebound technique. The means of obtaining the power of the Word is the function of GAP. The results are often confused with the means and therefore we should notice that the results of spirituality are not spirituality itself. For example, the result of spirituality is the function of GAP, divine guidance, yieldedness, witnessing, prayer, legitimate functions of the spiritual life. But they are not the means. You are not spiritual because you witness, because you pray, etc. These are results, not the means. 16. Pseudo spirituality. a) Spirituality is not yielding. This system assumes that the believer is spiritual because of something he does such as yielding or dedicating, etc. Yieldedness to God is a result of the filling of the Spirit, it is not the means — Romans 6:13,19; 12:1. The state of being filled with the Spirit plus having doctrine in the soul is the state of yieldedness but never is yieldedness a means to an end. You don’t yield to anything. b) One of the great spiritual hazards in all periods of time is personality imitation, always trying to imitate the personality of someone you admire. c) Spirituality by self-crucifixion. This originated from the erroneous interpretation of Romans 6 whereby the believer claims spirituality or virtue by crucifying self. However, ego never cancels ego. Self is crucified on the basis of retroactive positional truth. A failure to understand positional truth leads to a pseudo experience of going around trying to crucifying self. d) Spirituality by tabooism, the idea that you are really not a great believer until you have given up something. A taboo is a prohibition set up by religious or social groups. The taboo is a forbidden activity which is not forbidden by the Word of God but is forbidden by this group. Taboos, therefore, are legalism. It is a legalistic superimposition on believers. It is spiritual bullying. Taboos are customs of the religious or the legalistic, self-righteous type of believer — e.g. don’t drink, don’t dance, etc. The doctrine of godliness 1. Godliness is derived from two nouns; e)usebeia and qeosebeia. These means duty toward God but they are technical for the balance of residency in the soul. The first noun and the second noun both have the connotation of responsibility to God. The second noun includes the connotation of occupation with Christ. Godliness, then, is a synonym for spiritual maturity. It refers to the balance of residency and is technical in emphasising that aspect. It refers also to the concept of experiential sanctification. Godliness is based on the escutcheon of the royal family of God in which God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believer. Godliness is that balance of residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and the possession of maximum doctrine through the function of GAP. Godliness is the status quo of every mature believer, every person who is occupied with Christ. 2. 1 Timothy 2:2, the importance of establishment and human authority for the function of GAP and the result of godliness. It is imperative that we recognise that our spiritual life and our spiritual growth is related to certain factors in life which are brought up under the concept of authority. There can be no spiritual maturity apart from the teaching of the Word. There must be maximum doctrine resident in the soul. There is no possible way to properly teach the Word of God unless certain authorities are established in the national entity and unless certain freedoms exist. 3. Godliness is related to knowledge of Bible doctrine — Titus 1:1. Godliness in this passage is simply a synonym for maturity. 4. Therefore godliness demands certain types of discipline. For example, in 1 Timothy 4:7, “Have nothing to do with worldly fables [evil] fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. So it must be recognised that no one ever achieves spiritual maturity without a certain amount of self-discipline. 5. Godliness is profitable. It comes through respect for authority, self-discipline, the filling of the Spirit, from the daily function of GAP; but however it comes it is profitable — 1 Timothy 4:8. 6. The basis for godliness is the strategical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ during the first advent. At the end of the first advent when Christ died on the cross, rose again, ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father, this became the strategical victory and on this godliness is based. 2 Timothy 3:16. 7. Godliness is distorted by reversionists who are under the influence of evil — 1 Timothy 6:3-5. Pseudo godliness is a form of blind arrogance where pride, reversionism, and evil all meet — 2 Timothy 3:2-5. Pseudo godliness is a distortion, it is the believer under the influence of evil, the believer who is in a phoney type of life. 8. The great gain of godliness is found in 1 Timothy 6:6. 9. Godliness is attained under the principle of living grace — 2 Peter 1:3. 10 Godliness is a Christian virtue — 2 Peter 1:6,7; 3:11. Principles 1. The only standard and the ultimate objective in phase two is godliness, spiritual maturity. 2. This spiritual maturity is accomplished through the daily function of GAP and/or concurrent with the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Concurrence demands consistent, daily concentration on the teaching of the Word of God. 4. Furthermore, it demands consistent Bible teaching and the function of GAP. 5. Therefore consistent positive volition is the secret to fulfilling godliness in contrast to negative volition expressed in this protasis. 6. In a conditional clause in the Koine the protasis contains a supposition. In the first class condition this supposition is said to be true, it is a supposition of reality. Therefore the protasis presents a fact that in every generation of the Church Age there will be those who do not concur with doctrine. Next comes the apodasis in the next two verses and it states the result of being a reversionist under the influence of evil. As we approach verses 4 and five, notice some principles: 1. The outline of verses 3,4 & 5: Verse 3 is the protasis of a first class condition. Verse 4 & 5 is the apodasis of that first class condition. The supposition from the viewpoint of reality and the conclusions based upon those realities. 2. The apodasis is the clause based on the supposition of the protasis, the if clause or conditional part of the sentence. 3. Therefore because certain believers are apostate, in reversionism, under the influence of evil, the fulfil the information given in the apodasis of these two verses. While the interpretation deals with labour only it is a general malady among believers who are not interested in Bible doctrine. 4. When the protasis is a fact, as here, then the apodasis is a resultant fact. 5. Therefore the conditional clause (verses 3-5) is a challenge to keep priorities straight. 6. In anticipation of the priority problem doctrine must be first. 7. Doctrine must be transferred from the written page of the Bible to the soul of the believer to avoid what happens in these two verses. 8. This can only be accomplished by consistent function under GAP. 9. Therefore the real issue in the Christian life is the believer’s attitude toward Bible teaching or doctrine. 10. The only way to progress, grow, be effective, is to have maximum doctrine resident in the soul. This is where the effective function of the royal priesthood begins. 11. Hence it is not what you do but what you think that counts in the Christian way of life. There is no substitute for doctrine resident in the soul, including working for God. Verse 4 — “He is proud.” We must remember that the difference between blind arrogance and arrogance is that a person is aware of his pride under arrogance. Under blind arrogance he isn’t even aware of his problem. We have here the perfect passive indicative of tufow and it should be translated, “He has received blind arrogance.” The reason is that it is the perfect tense and because the intensive perfect always indicates completed action and results which follow. And the results are emphasised. He has received blind arrogance in the past with the result that he remains an arrogant ass. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of theverb. The subject is a reversionist under the influence of evil. The indicative mood is declarative for reality. Blind arrogance is a condition of the soul. The indicative mood indicates the reality of the protasis. “knowing nothing” — all arrogant people are stupid, arrogance is a state of stupidity. It is inflating one’s self beyond one’s ability. This is the present middle participle of e)pistamai. The word means to comprehend, to perceive, to understand something in its entirety and to understand it’s mechanical functions. It is a technical word for perspicacity. With it is the accusative neuter singular of mhdeij, the direct object of the verb — e)ij means one; mh means none, and so we have not one or nothing. So we translate it, “Understanding not even one thing [of doctrine].” “but” is an adversative conjunction, a contrast. In contrast with his stupidity — a)lla. “doting” — present active participle of nosew which means to have a morbid craving for something, or to have an excessive and vicious fondness for something. It also means to be sick, which is where morbidity comes into it — “but he has a morbid obsession.” The present tense is a customary present, what you would expect from a reversionistic believer under the influence of evil. The active voice: the reversionistic believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. In other words, it is true that a certain number of believers are going to be arrogant and have even blind arrogance. They are also going to have morbid obsession which come from this. “about questions” — the preposition peri plus accusative of zhthsij which means controversies. Reversionism thrives on controversy. In other words, the reversionist like to become involved in controversy or likes to stir up controversy. He stirs up controversy by being jealous of someone and slandering them, or being implacable. “and strifes of words” — this is a compound noun, logomaxia; logoj means words; maxomai means war. Verbal conflicts is the more modern term. “whereof” is a preposition phrase — e)k plus the genitive of the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated “from which.” “cometh” is not a good translation of ginomai which means to become but it never means to come. It often means to originate and that is the meaning here. This is a present active indicative of ginomai. The static present represents circumstances which perpetually exist where the reversionistic believer under the influence of evil is a troublemaker, always causing trouble, always causing controversy, always using his mouth to start trouble between people, always having his nose into the affairs of other people, always upset about someone, always disturbed, bitter or jealous or reacting toward someone. The active voice: controversies and verbal conflicts among believers under the influence of evil produce the following list. The indicative mood is declarative: this really happens. “envy” — the predicate nominative singular from the noun fqonoj which means jealousy. The doctrine of jealousy 1. Definition. a) Jealousy is a mental attitude sin which demands exclusive devotion and is intolerant of rivalry. b) Jealousy is chagrin or discontent at the blessings, successes or status symbols of other people. c. Jealousy is the resentment of the attractiveness or the approbation that someone else has received. d. In the old English jealousy also had the connotation of ardent devotion. God would say, “I am jealous of my people.” So it has to be remembered that the old English has to antithetical meanings for jealousy, one is a mental attitude sin and the other is a synonym for love. e. This study will be confined to the mental sin of jealousy or envy. 2. The source of jealousy. There are two basic sources for all mental sins of jealousy. a) The old sin nature’s area of weakness. This produces the source of all categories of sin, including mental, verbal, and overt. b) It also emanates from reversionism or being under the influence of evil, as in this passage, 1 Tim. 6:3,4. 3. Therefore jealousy is a sin inevitably related to reversionism. Jealousy crops up in unbeliever reversionism, mentioned in Romans 1:28,29. Jealousy also crops up in any type of believer reversionism — James 3:14-16. 4. Jealousy rejects Bible doctrine, therefore jealousy characterises reversionism — Acts 13:45; 17:5. 5. Jealousy motivates religion — Mark 15:10. 6. Jealousy of authority — e.g. the authority of Joseph motivated his brothers to sell him into slavery — Acts 7:9. 7. Jealousy can split all kinds of organisations and jealousy actually split the nation Israel. We have the northern and the southern kingdom because of jealousy — Isaiah 11:13. 8. So great was the sin of jealousy in Israel that a special offering was designed for it under the Levitical code — Leviticus chapter 5:11-31. 9. Jealousy was the basis for the destruction of category #2 love. Any true love can be in danger when jealousy attacks — Song of Solomon 8:6. 10. Jealousy is a self-destructive sin — Job 5:2; Proverbs 14:30. 11. Jealousy, therefore, is the strongest of the mental attitude sins — Proverbs 27:3,4. “strife” — e)rij which means discord. Much of the discord among believers in the local church is motivated by jealousy: operation sour grapes. “railings” — the predicate nominative plural from blasfhmia and the word actually means “malignings.” This refers to sins of the tongue. The doctrine of the sins of the tongue 1. Category and definition: a) Sin is defined as transgression of the law of God. b) A known sin is a transgression or a violation of divine law. c) An unknown sin is likewise a transgression of divine law. d) In both cases human volition is involved. e) Therefore the difference between a known and an unknown sin is cognisance of divine law or the biblical doctrine of hamartiology. f) Whether the divine law is known or not human volition is involved in transgressing any law of God. g) All sin therefore combines the function of the old sin nature’s area of weakness with human volition. Therefore ignorance is no excuse. Therefore sins of ignorance get you out of fellowship as quickly as sins of cognisance. You did it because you wanted to. h) Three categories of sin exist in the human race. The first: the imputation of Adam’s sin to each member of the human race directly; inherent sin; personal sin. i) We also have three categories of personal sin: mental sins; verbal sins; overt sins. j) All personal sins originate from the old sin nature. This means that verbal sins originate from the old sin nature, they are activated by human volition. No one ever commits a sin unless he wants to. 2. Out of the seven worst sins listed by God, three are sins of the tongue — Proverbs 6:16-19. 3. Verbal sins are related to reversionism — Psalm 5:8,9. They are motivated by mental attitude sins like pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, pettiness. Verbal reversionism causes the believer to fall under heavy divine discipline — James 5:12. Verbal reversionism produces treacherous and unreliable people — Psalm 12. 4. The sins of the tongue produce triple-compound discipline — Matthew 7:1,2 in the Greek. 5. God protects the super-grace believer who is the victim of verbal sins — Job 5:21. 6. The congregation and the tongue: a) Control of the tongue plus avoidance of verbal sins is the sign of spiritual maturity, the sign of a super-grace believer — James 3:2. b) Verbal sins can destroy an entire congregation — James 3:5,6. c) Since the sins of the tongue can destroy an entire congregation of believers it is the solemn responsibility of the pastor-teacher to warn against this category of personal sins — 2 Timothy 2:14-17. d) Trouble makers in the congregation are characterised by sins of the tongue — Psalm 52:1,2. e) Separation from those guilty of the sins of the tongue is an absolute must — Romans 16:17,18. 7. The blessing which comes from the avoidance of the sins of the tongue is listed in Psalm 34:12,13. In other words, there are special blessings for people who avoid this area of sin. “evil surmisings” — predicate nominative plural of u(ponoia. This is a compound word: noia means thinking; noia means down or under. It comes to mean evil conjectures, evil speculation. In other words, you dislike someone, you are angry at someone, you are jealous of someone, and you begin to speculate. You are now guilty of looking at someone’s life, trying to penetrate the veil of privacy, and coming up with speculations about their failures, their weaknesses or their sins. The doctrine of privacy 1. Definition: Privacy is a state of being apart from observation and the company of others. It is the innate right of the human race for seclusion when desired. Privacy is the principle of freedom whereby the individual member of the human race has the right to retire from the company of others, remain in seclusion, or to associate with others and still keep his business to himself. Privacy and property and life are the three basic concepts of human freedom. The laws of divine establishment guarantee the privacy of every member of the human race so that he can exercise his own volition uncoerced. In addition to freedom in establishment every believer has the additional privacy of the royal priesthood. This is the double privacy. 2. Privacy and the royal priesthood. Every believer is a royal priest. We are a kingdom of priests, we are royal family of God forever. 1 Peter 2:9. We are here to live our life as unto the Lord. We therefore have our right to live as unto the Lord because we are priests. To live our life as unto the Lord we must have as our constant possession privacy to live our life as unto Him. So the royal priesthood does have as its basic connotation privacy to fulfil the mission of phase two and to live as unto the Lord, to fulfil Colossians 3:17. 3. No other believer has the right to intrude into your privacy or the privacy of another believer. Peter was guilty of the doctrine of the long proboscis when he inquired of the Lord how John would die. The Lord had to put him down, to tell him that it was none of his business — John 21:21-22. Peter had his eyes on John instead of being occupied with the resurrected Christ. 4. The violation of privacy always results in judging — Romans 14:4,10. 5. Privacy therefore includes the principle of live and let live — 2 Thessalonians 3:11,12. 6. Reversionists violate the privacy of others — 1 Timothy 5:13. 7. Violators of privacy of others is comparable to other freedom violations. Again, freedom means life, privacy, property. Life is violated by murder or tyranny of slavery. Property is violated by stealing. Privacy is violated by meddling or gossiping. Therefore an intrusion into the privacy of others can be compared to murder and stealing — 1 Peter 4:15. Verse 5 — “Perverse disputings” is a predicate nominative plural of diaparatribh which means constant irritation, constant friction, incessant quarrelling. Some people love to fight all the time. “of men” — the word for men here means male and female; it is the ablative plural from a)nqrwpoj which means a category of creation. The ablative plural is translated “between” instead of “of.” “corrupt minds” — the perfect passive participle of diafqeirw. It means to corrupt or to distort, and it is in the intensive perfect tense denoting something which is completed by way of action but the results are continuous. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer under the influence of evil receives the action of the verb: constant friction. The participle is circumstantial. With it is the accusative singular, the definite article which is used as a possessive pronoun, plus the noun nouj for “minds.” “Incessant quarrelling between people who have become distorted in their minds.” “and destitute of the truth” — the connective particle kai is a conjunction which connects one participle with the other, the perfect passive participle of a)posterew which means to be destitute or to be devoid of — “that doctrine.” The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, devoid in the past with the result that this void of doctrine continues in reversionism. The passive voice: negative volition toward Bible doctrine receives a void into the left lobe into which the policy of evil enters the soul. This is a circumstantial participle. With it is a demonstrative pronoun and the genitive singular of a)lhqeia for doctrine or truth — “having become devoid of that doctrine.” “supposing” is a present active participle from nomizw which means to presume. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. It is also a descriptive present to denote events in the process of occurrence. This type of present tense has great linear aktionsart and we translate it “constantly presuming.” The active voice: the reversionist always produces this action, he produces it constantly. He is always making estimates that are erroneous and out of line. The circumstantial participle with the other circumstantial participle indicates that we have a very bad case of reversionism described in the passage. “that gain is godliness” — one is the subject and the other is the predicate nominative, and they are linked by the verb to be. The question is, which is the subject and which is the predicate nominative. The only way you can tell when you have this kind of a situation is that the definite article always goes with the subject. Therefore it is actually “godliness is gain” because we have a definite article with e)usebeia, a synonym for maturity, the balance of residency in the soul. The word “is” is the present active infinitive e)imi. The reason it is in the infinitive form is because it follows a verb of presumption, nomizw. This is a customary present for an erroneous conclusion habitually occurring among reversionists. It is very rare for a reversionist to ever come up with a correct conclusion about anything. The active voice: godliness as the accusative of general reference with the infinitive acts as the subject and produces the action of the verb in this statement of false conclusions. The infinitive is one of conceived result. Gain or prosperity is assumed as being godliness. The word “gain” itself is the accusative which matches the accusative of general reference and acts as a predicate nominative. It is the word porismoj — prosperity. The presumption 1. Whenever a believer is prosperous it does not mean that he is also mature. Prosperity does not imply godliness. Godliness is the basis for true prosperity but prosperity does not imply godliness. 2. Because a believer becomes prosperous or successful, or even temporarily happy, it does not imply that he is in super-grace status. 3. While super-grace brings prosperity, prosperity is not super-grace. 4. While prosperity is one of the characteristics of super-grace it does not imply that all prosperity is super-grace status. 5. Therefore being prosperous does not mean super-grace or godliness. A prosperous believe cannot assume that he is also a mature believer. 6. To assume godliness or super-grace the believer must have functioned daily under GAP for a long period of time. It must be remembered that the devil is also in the prosperity business. He just has a different system of providing it and it doesn’t last very long, and what starts out to be fun turns out to be hurt under this system for the believer. The believer may receive a temporary happiness, a prosperity system, promotion or success from cosmos diabolicus. All that indicates is that he is in reversionism and certainly lining up with the policy of evil. However divine discipline removes the prosperity or uses the prosperity as the system of discipline. So while godliness is prosperity, prosperity is not necessarily godliness. We are godly because of maximum doctrine in the resident soul. .Verse 6 — “But” is the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de. We have a contrast between the false concept of prosperity given in the previous verse and the true concept of prosperity which will be given in this verse. In fact, this verse is the principle of prosperity from the divine viewpoint. The false principle was stated as the fact that anyone who is successful or wealthy or has any prosperity in life is automatically a super-grace believer. This is untrue. “godliness” here is the word used for super-grace status. It is the nominative singular of e)usebeia and is a synonym for maturity with emphasis in the balance of residency. Synonyms for maturity 1. The language synonym. It is almost untranslatable but generally it is translated poorly by the word “knowledge.” It might be translated super knowledge or resident knowledge or, better yet, resident doctrine. The Hebrew word for resident doctrine is chakmah and it is generally translated “knowledge” which is a little weak because it refers to doctrine resident in the right lobe, in the human spirit of the believer. It’s counterpart in the New Testament is e)pignwsij which is translated “knowledge” and occasionally a better translation “full knowledge.” it again refers to doctrine resident in the soul of the mature believer. 2. The theological synonym. It is one which comes from the literal Greek though it is not found in the English translation. James 4:6: “He gives more grace” — meizona xarin. These are both in the accusative, they are direct objects of the verb to give. One is a comparative, meizona is a comparative of megaj and it should be translated either “greater” or “super.” So it should be translated, “He gives greater [or super] grace.” This is the technical theological designation for the mature believer. 3. The priestly synonym. From the standpoint of our royal priesthood maturity is described as having erected an altar of the soul — Hebrews 13:10. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the altar of the royal priesthood and when the altar is completed the person has maximum doctrine in his soul and is able therefore to offer the various priestly sacrifices, many of which are mentioned in the context of Hebrews 13. 4. The construction of a backbone in the soul. This backbone is called an edification complex of the soul. It is mentioned in Ephesians 4:12,16. 5. Time. Redeeming the time is the function of the believer with maximum doctrine in his soul. The word to redeem means to purchase, and his capital for purchasing time is that same maximum doctrine which he possesses in his soul. The purchase of time with doctrine has two directions: toward God — Ephesians 5:16-18; toward the unbeliever — Colossians 4:5. 6. A central control system, which is really the dictator of the soul. The dictator is Bible doctrine in the soul controlling the life. In Ephesians 6:10 it says in the future, “Keep on becoming strong in the Lord (a reference to maturity) by means of the inner rule” — This inner rule is doctrine set up as the dictator; doctrine directing your life — “of his endowed power” — the endowed power is doctrine in the canon of scripture. It is transferred to the soul under the principle of “keep on becoming strong in the Lord.” 7. Military synonyms. a) Putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-13. Once you get it all on, that is maturity. b) Following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2. The high ground in maturity. c) Establishing a command post of the soul — Colossians 2:5,8. 8. The crucifixion principle, not used in connection with salvation and not referring to the cross of Christ which did not occur at the time our Lord said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Actually, this is a command to the function of GAP. It is not a command just to GAP it but a command to do it daily, in spite of everything, letting nothing get in the way. “Follow me” is the daily function of GAP eventuating in spiritual maturity — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27. 9. A chemical synonym: salt. Basically, when Jesus said “You are the salt of the land” He is referring to a mature believer with maximum doctrine in the soul. Because he is a part of a remnant this remnant becomes the preservative of the entire nation. 10. A sanctification synonym: godliness/ e)usebeia. When it says “godliness” in verse 6 it is a reference to getting to the high ground, establishing a command post and establishing paragraph SG2. Everyone of us in eternity past had from God a paragraph SG2. This is the sum total of our prosperity and blessing as a believer in time. This is the achievement of tactical victory. God provides this at the point at which we have contentment, we have capacity, we have the basis of enjoying this paragraph. He doesn’t give it to us too soon and He doesn’t give it too late. God’s timing is perfect. “with contentment” — these two words actually describe the difference between super-grace believers having blessings and unbelievers or reversionistic believers having these same things. This is the preposition meta plus the genitive of a)utarkeia. Meta plus the genitive means “associated with” and a)utarkeia means sufficiency, competence, contentment, or self-sufficiency. Here it connotes mental attitude capacity for life. It means contentment in the sense of great capacity for life when you have nothing or when you have everything. It doesn’t make any difference what you have or do not have. Contentment here is a technical word for capacity for life. A)utarkeia and a)utarkhj are both capacity for life words. Contentment is as close as you can come in a one-word translation. Self-sufficiency is good if you understand its implications, as is confidence. Philippians 4:11,12. The secret to life is not in pleasant circumstances but in capacity for life. Capacity for life comes only through doctrine resident in the soul. A)uatarkeia is also found in 2 Corinthians 9:8 and again it is a part of the concept of capacity for life. Hebrews 13:5,6. The doctrine of capacity for life 1. Capacity for life is related to the circumstances of life — Philippians 4:11,12. 2. Capacity is related to status quo in life or lifestyle — Hebrews 13:5,6. 3. Capacity is related to the super-grace life — 2 Corinthians 9:8. 4. Capacity is related to prosperity and blessing — 1 Corinthians 6:6. “is” is the present active indicative of e)imi. This is a static present tense for a principle of doctrine which always exists for the super-grace believer in time. The active voice: the super-grace status with capacity for life, love, happiness, blessing, produces the action of this verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action from the viewpoint of reality. This should be translated “keeps on being.” “great gain” — predicate adjective megaj followed by the predicate nominative of the substantive porismoj. It should be translated “a great means of prosperity.” Translation: “But godliness associated with capacity for life keeps on being a great means of prosperity.” Verse 7 — the promise of grace prosperity. 1. A conclusion is no stronger than its premise. 2. The premise stated in this verse is obvious. It is obvious that we brought nothing into the world and that we will take very little out. 3. We are born with nothing, we die with nothing [materialistic things]. So we might say both ingress and egress from the world are accompanied by nothing. Ingress is when you are born; egress is when you die. You are born with nothing, you die with the same. In between you have something. Whether you ever enjoy that something or make the most of that something depends on Bible doctrine. When you die you got out with nothing plus salvation, plus the fact that you had SG2 when you die means to have dying grace, plus SG3 forever. The unbeliever came in with nothing and goes out with the same nothing, but nothing is ever the same once you become a believer. If you get to super-grace then nothing will be something forever. 4. Whatever we have in time we have for a short time. But we are going to take things with us. Anything we can pack in our souls we will take with us, and anything we can pack in our souls we can use now. 5. Therefore happiness is not what we possess but the state of our soul. 6. The believer takes his soul with him to heaven. 7. The premise for verse 7 says that capacity for life is more important than what we possess. 8. We can only enjoy what we possess when it is accompanied by capacity for life. 9. So, once again, the soul and its capacity is the real issue in life’s happiness. You carry your happiness wherever you go or you carry your misery. 10. The soul of the believer, therefore, must be saturated with Bible doctrine for that capacity for life. “For” is the explanatory use of the conjunction gar. Now we are going to get an explanation of the previous verse. “we brought” — aorist active indicative of e)isferw. E)ij means into; ferw means to carry. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. The active voice: the human race is involved here but specifically the believer is producing the action of the verb in our context. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. It is true that all of us as believers carried nothing into this life. “nothing” is the accusative neuter singular direct object of o)udeij which can mean “not one thing” or “nothing.” “into this world” is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, translated “this.” Plus kosmoj in the accusative. It is translated correctly, “into this world.” This means: 1. We entered the world without things and without capacity for things. 2. Capacity is the inner soul attitude while things are the possessions of life generally associated with happiness. 3. This verse will go on to show that we can take nothing out of this world except that capacity for life based on the inner residency of doctrine. 4. The material things of life with which we have been blessed do not accompany us to heaven. 5. However, our soul goes to heaven so we do take our capacity — we’ll need it up there. 6. But we did not have capacity when we entered this world. We entered without capacity, we can leave with capacity. (Reversionists do not) 7. This capacity for life developed totally under the grace of God which began at the point of salvation and continues through growth in grace — constant study, persistent intake of Bible doctrine. 8. The capacity for life which results from super-grace status goes with us to heaven because it is directly related to doctrine. It is doctrine. 9. When the believer gets his priorities right his perspective is right. 10. When you have your eyes on the Lord or occupation with Christ you have your eyes on the source of blessing. That is a part of perspective, a part of priorities. The Lord must have # 1 priority. 11. Therefore the blessing becomes meaningful because it is always related to the source. 12. God’s gifts of prosperity are merely a reminder of His presence, that He is the source. 13. The only way to enjoy blessing is to enjoy the blesser. We may leave the blessings behind at death but we go on to see the blesser face to face, and the blesser who provides blessings in time provides greater blessings in heaven. 14. Doctrine resident in the soul not only causes us to see the unseen but doctrine in the soul guarantees that we will not forget the blesser while we are enjoying His blessings. We enjoy what we have but we always relate it to who and what Jesus Christ is. “and it is certain” — the conjunction o(ti which is generally preceded in the idiom by the word dhlon. But dhlon doesn’t occur here, yet it is implied, this is an idiom. And o(ti plus dhlon means “it is evident [obvious].” “that we can carry nothing out” — the adverb o)ude which means “nothing,” the present passive indicative of dunamai. The present tense is a static present, we never will be able. The passive voice means we do not have the ability to die and take things with us. The indicative mood is the reality of this. Then it is followed by the aorist active indicative of e)kferw which means to carry out. “nothing” — tij, the indefinite pronoun. This is a way of saying “nothing” but representing a specific category of things. “It is obvious that neither are we able to carry out anything.” In other words, when we transfer from time to eternity the only thing we carry with us is what is located in our souls. Translation: “For nothing have we brought into this world, it is also obvious that neither are we able to carry everything out.” Verse 8 — 1. This provides the minimum standard for contentment. 2. The minimum standard of necessities of life linked with capacity for life from doctrine resident in the soul produce maximum happiness. You can have just food and clothing and be very happy. 3. You do not have to have very much to be very happy. 4. Therefore the secret to happiness is not what you have but Bible doctrine resident in the soul. 5. With doctrine in the soul what you possess or do not possess is never an issue. 6. With doctrine in your soul you can be happy with the barest necessities of life. This doesn’t mean this is going to be your status, it means that you can be. 7. Therefore there is a principle which precedes prosperity which has been ignored by the reversionists of verse 5 who have assumed that being prosperous is being godly. Verse 8 — “And” is a transitional particle de without any contrast intended. It is really translated here “Now.” “having” — the present active participle of e)xw which means to have or to have and to hold. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonable expected to occur. If you have maximum doctrine in your soul you have capacity for happiness, for life, for love, for blessing. But the point is, even if all you have is clothing and food you still have the maximum happiness. In other words, anything you have above food and clothing doesn’t add anything to your maximum happiness. What you have in your soul is what counts. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb. The participle is a circumstantial participle. “food and raiment” — diatrofh means something that is edible and nourishing plus skepasma which means something that covers the body. Both of these are in the plural. It should be “nourishing foods and clothes.” The plural tells us that you have to have more than one change of raiment. The plurals indicate the need for some variety in food and for some variety in clothes. Here are two of the three basic necessities of life. What is missing is shelter. You can be very happy with food and clothing. They are necessary to be alive; shelter is not. So food and clothing are the minimum standards of possession for happiness. If you are not happy it is not because of what you have it is because of lack of doctrine in the soul. “let us be therewith content” — we have here the future passive indicative of a)rkew which means not only to be content but it is technical for capacity for life. It means here “we shall be content,” or emphasising the imperative connotation, “let us be content.” But the imperative does not come from the mood, it comes from the tense. This is the imperative future tense expressing a command to a believer with doctrine resident in his soul. All commands are generally given in the mood. The imperative mood in the Greek is the mood of command, and if it has a negative it is the mood of prohibition. There are other ways of expressing a command. A participle can express a command, but the most unusual way is to go to a tense to express a command. The future tense is sometimes used to express a command, a carry-over from the Hebrew where the imperfect tense often expresses the imperative mood, and the future tense is like the imperfect, it indicates that there is still something in the future that you must do. So the imperative future expresses a command to a believer who already has doctrine in his soul, and it anticipates the fact that he will obey the command or it will be fulfilled in his case. We do not need things or promotion or wealth or prosperity for happiness but we do need doctrine in the soul. This command can only be fulfilled, then, when the believer is in super-grace status, having maximum doctrine resident in his soul. This maximum doctrine gives him great capacity for life. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb. This is part of the imperative future, it is an idiom, and it should be indicated that only super-grace believers fulfil it. The indicative mood is the reality of the command from God, and we can translate it “let us have our capacity for life.” We also have with this a dative neuter plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Demonstratives are very important in the Coin Greek, they emphasise objects near at hand or objects far away. This word o(utoj always picks up an object near at hand and emphasises it. If the object is far away in the context then you have e)keinoj. The two things that are very close in the context here are food and raiment. This is a dative of reference indicating minimum standards of possession for capacity for happiness, capacity for life. Translation: “Now having nourishing foods and a change of clothes we shall be content with these things.” Summary 1. Believers under the category of labour can have minimal things in life and maximum happiness. The possession of things does not determine the happiness of the believer. 2. Happiness and contentment originates from super-grace capacity for life. It is a part of paragraph SG2. 3. Therefore you do not possess happiness symbols or status symbols in order to have happiness. 4. Happiness and capacity for life is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The doctrine of happiness 1. Definition. Happiness is defined as a state of well-being. Happiness is synonymous with welfare and prosperity. Happiness is the enjoyment of and the pleasure in one’s status in life, the enthusiasm about one’s circumstances, one’s possessions, and one’s relationships. Blessedness is another English word for happiness, it refers to happiness related to God and His plan of grace. For this reason “blessed” occurs frequently in the KJV. Happiness becomes the state of quality of being happy. Happiness in its full extent is the utmost pleasure we are capable of enjoying. Generally, then, happiness connotes welfare, enjoyment, comfort, security, stimulation, interest.Happiness is the awareness that one’s status is highly satisfactory, being in a favourable or advantageous set of circumstances, and all of this is related to the soul. 2. The relationships of happiness. a) In Psalm 128 happiness is related to prosperity. Occupation with Christ produces happiness. b) Happiness is also related to adversity — 1 Peter 3:14; 4:14. c) Happiness is related to the intake of doctrine — “happinesses” (pl), is related to paragraph SG2. Proverbs 3:13 relates happiness to Bible doctrine in the soul. The Hebrew word in that passage for “wisdom” is chakamah and it means doctrine in the soul. d) Happiness is related to grace function — Proverbs 14:21. e) Happiness is related to grace status — Psalm 146:5. f) Occupation with Christ characterises super-grace and happiness goes along with it — Proverbs 16:20; 28:14. g) Happiness is related to a clear conscience — Romans 14:22. h) Happiness is also related to the laws of divine establishment — Proverbs 29:18. i) Happiness is also related to total military victory — Psalm 137:8,9. j) Happiness is related to national prosperity — Psalm 144:15. 3. Happiness is related to the essence of God. There are three persons in the Godhead and they all have identical essence. When the Bible says God is one it is emphasising essence. When the persons of the Godhead are distinguished — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — then there is an emphasis on person. In essence the members of the Trinity all have sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, veracity. God in His essence, because He has these characteristics, also has absolute happiness. Psalm 43:4 — David’s dancing is related to the fact that God has perfect happiness and shares it through the race principle of the altar. Jesus Christ is God and He is said to be happy in 1 Timothy 6:15 (Greek). 4. Happiness must be related to the plan of God. God can’t have a plan without inserting happiness into it. A perfect God can only come up with a perfect plan. God has +H and it is inevitable that His plan will include provisions whereby the beneficiaries of His plan receive +H. That is the whole point of doctrine. Psalm 97:12. Christ satisfied the holiness of God on the cross. Therefore God is free to give us happiness under certain conditions of doctrine in the soul and still not compromise His character. Habakkuk 3:18; Psalm 9:4. 5. Happiness is accomplished through grace — Psalm 31:7. In grace God found a way to share His happiness with believers in time without compromising His essence, and now since happiness means benefit, welfare, grace happiness comes through the intake of Bible doctrine. Psalm 32:10 — “Many are the sorrows of the reversionist, but the one who trusts in the Lord grace will completely envelop him.” Psalm 32:11; John 17:13. Verses 9 & 10, the occupational hazards of management. Verse 9 — “But” is the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de which here sets up a contrast between labour in the previous paragraph and management in this section, verses 9-19. “they that will” is the present middle participle of boulomai. Boulomai means a sovereign decision that an individual makes. It means a decision based upon what you have in your soul. It should be translated so far, “But those who desire.” The present tense is a customary present indicating that it is honourable for certain believers, led of the Lord, to desire to go into the business of making money. The middle voice is actually a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning. Certain young people produce the action of the verb as they become desirous of making a lot of money in life. It is a legitimate thing, it is not wrong to want to make money. It isn’t evil to be rich. The participle is circumstantial to express a principle that it is a good thing, a right thing, a smart thing, to get into some ambition or desire to become a capitalist, to become great in management. “be rich” — the present active infinitive of the verb plutew. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs. The active voice: in this case the interpretation says that management produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose. It is God’s purpose for certain believers to be rich and then they get doctrine that purpose of God is transferred to them. And they desire to be rich, not in a wrong way in the sense of covetousness or lust, but in the sense of a legitimate desire before the Lord. Principles 1. This does not refer to an illegitimate desire. It is legitimate for certain believers to desire wealth. 2. However, there is an occupational hazard which we anticipate: If when you become rich you become reversionistic. 3. Under the influence of evil the reversionist seeks to become rich through cosmic systems of evil rather than the grace of God. 4. This means that the reversionist who has made money his master has mixed up priorities. 5. In other words, the principle of cheating, stealing, lying, misrepresenting, using extortion, flattery, hypocrisy, to become rich. 6. The believer who puts money first has the wrong perspective. He is the slave to money. 7. When money is first in one’s scale of values the believer can note the fact that he is now in reversionism. 8. There is nothing wrong with being rich, there is only something wrong with giving money top priority to the exclusion of doctrine or grace function. 9. Since wealth and money is in focus we will consider the issue that the super-grace believer is the master of money, and money is his good slave. The reversionist is the slave to money and money is a cruel taskmaster. The doctrine of money 1. Definition: a) Our English word “money” is derived from the Latin moneta which means a mint. It refers to a stamped coin of gold, silver, or other metals used in a medium of exchange. b) Money is the medium in which prices are expressed, debts are discharged, goods and services are paid for, and bank reserves are held. c) The term is synonymous with a circulating medium and may be regarded as comprising demand deposits, common money or currency. d) Money is one of those concepts which is like a teaspoon or an umbrella but unlike an earthquake or a buttercup, definable primarily by the use or purpose which they serve. Money must be defined, then, in terms of its function and related to its value. e) Money, then, is a medium of exchange whereby goods and services are paid for and debts are discharged. Money is the means of stating the prices of these goods and services as well as expressing debts, salaries, wages, rents, insurance, obligations, and innumerable contracts. f) Money serves as a reserve for ready purchasing power. Therefore money is the only complete liquid asset. g) In the ancient world money was used as a store of value. h) The rise of commercial banking and central banking resulted in a corresponding increase in the importance of money used as reserves for a banking system. i) Money is unique among economic goods. It is regarded not as wealth but as a device for exchanging and measuring wealth. j) An increase in the quantity of money in a country does not necessarily constitute and increase in the country’s wealth. 2. The history of money. Different objects have been used for mediums of exchange in the past: slaves, gunpowder, in primitive areas the jawbones of a pig, in Homeric times the ox was used, the elephant in Ceylon, wool, barley, wheat, timber. The most widely used monetary system is gold and silver. Before coins money was used in terms of rings or ingots, bars or shekels, talents or other weight demarcations. Coin type money was first invented by Croesus, king of Lydia, who lived between 561-546 BC. Darius, king of Persia, picked up the concept from Cyrus the Great who had conquered Croesus. Three kinds of coinage actually existed in the New Testament at the time of writing. First of all, the imperial Roman coins. Secondly, the provincial coins, and then the Jews had their own money coined at Caesarea. 3. The Bible teaches the legitimate function of money. a) For monetary transactions — Genesis 29:3; Jeremiah 32:44. In that span, from Genesis to Jeremiah, the principle is established many times over that money is a legitimate system for business transactions. b) Money was used to pay taxes — Matthew 22:17-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26. c) Money is necessary for the function of an economy, therefore it is not wrong or sinful for believers to possess money, even in large amounts. d) Money, therefore, becomes a very wonderful slave or a cruel master, depending upon one’s spiritual condition — Jude 11. e) The word for “deceit” in the Greek, planh, connotes three areas of deceit regarding money. First: Money is a means of happiness. But money is not the means of happiness, happiness comes from capacity for happiness and this comes from doctrine resident in the soul; second: Money is the means of security. But security is provided through living grace not through monetary principles — Matthew 6:24-33. Third: Money can buy anything. Anything money can buy that is corruptible is going to corrupt. Everyone has their price is not true of the super-grace believer. There is no price if you have maximum doctrine in your soul, but if you are in reversionism you have a price, and so it becomes a manifestation of reversionism. f) There are many things, therefore, that money cannot buy. Salvation, for example, true love, security, peace of mind, happiness or stability. f) While Balaam is an illustration of monetary reversionism the emphasis in doctrine is that money does not provide any of these things. g) The giving of money is an expression of the royal priesthood is a legitimate function in the Church Age — 2 Corinthians chapters 8 & 9. h) Consequently money is legitimate. It’s accumulation is legitimate, its spending is legitimate, its giving is legitimate. i) Therefore it is not carnal, it is not sinful for the believer to possess money. The believer with wealth is not required, by the way, to give all of his money to the church to prove his spirituality. The illegitimate uses of money of bribery, to buy power, to buy love, to corrupt character, are all forbidden. 4. The dangers of money to the unbeliever. The unbeliever cannot purchase with all of the money in the world salvation. Salvation is paid for by Christ on the cross. Money causes the rich man to have the wrong priorities often — Mark 10:25, which deals with a matter of priorities. Money hinders the unbeliever from seeking salvation — Luke 16:19-31. Money has credit with people but no credit with God — Proverbs 11:4, 28. Money does not mean capacity for life — Proverbs 13:7. 5. The principle of monetary reversionism. Three cases: Solomon — Ecclesiastes 5:10-6:2; Balaam — Jude 11; Annanias and Sapphira — Acts 5:1-10. Cf. James 5:1-6. 6. Monetary prosperity is a part of super-grace blessing under paragraph SG2. Men like Abraham, David, and Solomon were all blessed with monetary prosperity. Proverbs 13:8. “fall into” — present active indicative from the compound verb e)mpiptw. It means to fall into something where it is not pleasant. The present tense is a perfective present for the continuation of existing results. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past and emphasises its present reality now. The active voice: here we see the reversionistic believer producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that if you are in super-grace you are the master of money and you will make it a great slave. But if you are a reversionist then money is your master and you are going to be miserable. “temptation” — the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative of peirasmoj, and it means temptation in the sense of enticement to sin. “and a snare” — the accusative singular of pagij means a trap. While temptation is an enticement to sin the trap here is self-induced misery of the believer in reversionism having money but no capacity for life. The trap emphasises again the importance of Bible doctrine in the soul and resultant capacity for life. “and into many foolish and hurtful lusts” — the adjunctive use of kai which should be translated “also.” Then the accusative plural from the adjective poluj meaning numerous, plus the accusative plural of a)nohtoj which means here, “stupid.” The word “hurtful” is blaberaj which means “injurious.” The word “lusts” is e)piqumia. It should read, “also numerous stupid and injurious lusts [desires].” Summary 1. The lusts include approbation lust, power lust, sex lust, materialism lust, plus the many desires for money, wealth, success, power, status symbols, etc. 2. These desires are related to reversionism. This means a believer having false standards, a believer with confused priorities. 3. These desires are described as injurious and harmful because they exist apart from capacity for life based on doctrine resident in the soul. In other words, putting the cart before the horse. You must have capacity for life before you have the great blessings of life. 4. When doctrine is first these things come in God’s perfect timing and you enjoy them to the maximum. 5. When doctrine is rejected these things become stupid lusts and you walk into the trap of self-induced misery. 6. The objective of the royal family of God in life is to glorify God. This is to be done in prosperity as well as in adversity, but without doctrine you will never do it in prosperity or adversity. 7. The only way that you can fulfil your objective as royal family of God in time is to reach super-grace status and resultant blessings from God. Then the blessings are based upon God’s gracious gift to you and you have the capacity of soul to have maximum happiness from them. 8. But when wealth, success, prosperity, promotion, are attained in reversionism (and they can be) then God is not glorified, the believer is never satisfied; he becomes simply a miserable person with wealth, a miserable person with success, a miserable person with status symbols, nothing ever makes him happy. 9. If your priorities are right then doctrine is first. This principle perpetuated on a daily basis results in reaching the high ground of super-grace and God’s blessings for your life. 10. Right priorities lead to right priorities. Doctrine is that right priority which leads to occupation with Christ, sharing the happiness of God, capacity for life. In this way God is glorified in your life. “which drown men” — we have o(stij which is a qualitative relative pronoun used to indicate the result of any desire apart from Bible doctrine and doctrinal motivation. So the antecedent goes back to the world “lusts.” The word for “drown” is the present active indicative of buqizw which means to be in too deep, to be browned therefore. The present tense is a customary present for what may be expected to occur when a believer gets into reversionism and distorts doctrine. The active voice: lust or desire produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the viewpoint of the verb from the standpoint of its reality. We also have the accusative plural direct object of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the category of believer involved in this verse. He is a reversionist, he has distorted doctrine. The category is reversionist under the influence of evil and it should be translated “those.” Then we finally have the accusative plural of a)nqrwpoj which is translated “men.” Drowning actually illustrates the end result and becomes analogous to the sin unto death. Just as there is a painful struggle in drowning, so there is a painful struggle at the end of one’s life. It is an intense struggle. “in destruction” — e)ij plus the accusative of o)leqroj which means “ruin.” The life is ruined by reversionism. This is where the preposition e)ij takes over the function of e)n. Down toward the end of Coin Greek e)n disappears. It eventually disappeared and was replaced by e)ij, and in modern Greek e)ij does what e)n used to do. This actually started in the first century and this is a case of it. “and perdition” — a)poleia which means destruction, useless or wasteful destruction. This refers to the sin unto death. It is a waste when God has for each believer a paragraph SG2. Translation: “But those believers who desire to be rich [apart from super-grace blessings] fall into temptation and a trap, also into many stupid and harmful desires, which drown those men in ruin [reversionism] and wasteful destruction.” Verse 10 — “For” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. It means “for you see.” “the love of money” — this is two words in the Greek, the definite article h( and filarguria which is a compound word: filoj — love; a)rguroj — money or silver. This is, in effect, monetary reversionism. It is a root and the tree is full-blown reversionism. This is the occupational hazard of management especially. “For the love of money,” which mean avarice, cupidity, lust for wealth. It matches in the previous verse the desire to be rich. “is” is the present active indicative of e)imi. E)imi in the present tense is a static present, it means a situation that always exists under the circumstances portrayed by the subject. Monetary reversionism here. It keeps on being and it never changes, says the static present. The active voice: avariciousness, the love of money, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for reality in life. “the root” — the predicate nominative is singular and minus the definite article. The word for root is r(iza, and the love of money becomes a root. The tree of reversionism has a lot of roots. Love of money is only one of the roots that goes to make up the tree of reversionism. So it is “a root,” it is in the singular. The love of money is the status of the reversionist, and in this status money is the master, the believer is the slave. If money is your master and you are the slave you are in reversionism. “of all evil” — it should be in the plural here. We have the genitive plural of paj, the adjective translated “all,” and the genitive plural of kakoj, and in the plural it should be “evils.” We have a definite article with kakoj which is used as a demonstrative pronoun to indicate various categories of evil. Evil has many categories. Therefore a better translation is, “For the love of money is a root of all those different kinds [categories] of evil.” The doctrine of the categories of evil 1. Religion, the worst thing that ever happened to this world. Religion is the greatest expression of Satan’s genius, it is the policy of Satan using this policy as a pseudo grace system. Religion is of Satan. The greatest of all the categories of evil is religion. In religion we always have the Satanic principle of works, of legalism. In religion man seeks to gain the approbation of God by his own works. Christianity is not a religion because in Christianity God seeks man through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. There is a vast difference, then, between grace and legalism or grace and works. In religion we have, therefore, the quintessence of evil. The things that have been done in the name of religion are everything from murder to persecution, and one of them is to steal money from people: making them think that they are going to heaven because they have given money, or making them think that they’re spiritual, or making them think that if they contribute to some cause God is going to bless them. Bible Christianity never asks you for your money. 2. Legalism is a byproduct of religion which overflows into every facet of life, including taboos, social life, manner of dress, deportment, grooming, modus vivendi, etc. 3. Politics. Not all politics is evil, only that which pertains to socialism, social action, and the abuse or distortion of law to try to solve the problems of life. Politics related to the laws of establishment and the proper use of law is good, but politics which seeks to establish a welfare state, interfere with industry and free enterprise, cater to minorities, and establish a double standard for white and black, disarm law-abiding citizens, encourage loafing, and destroy the military, is evil. 4. Psychology is not all evil but it is evil in the sense that it is the human viewpoint of life. It represents two of Satan’s policies: a) that if you are sinful and evil and a nasty person in every way there has to be an explanation why you are the way you are, and if we go back far enough into your background we will discover there certain things that happened in your environment that explain you. b) the panacea is to take you and change your environment, give you better environment, improve your environment. This is evil because it isn’t the answer to life. Psychology and Christianity are antithetical in this area. Psychology also has related fields that express these ideas — sociology, counselling, and psychiatry. All these offer human viewpoint solutions that inevitably become evil. The evil is found in such conclusions as the problems of life are resolved by improved environment or abnormal behaviour that must be explained on the basis of past environment. There is some truth in these things up to a point but they are not panaceas for anything. 5. Revolution is evil as a system which seeks to overthrow the authority of establishment in nationalism. Nationalism is God’s order until the second advent, it is the protection of the human race from self-destruction. Revolution in the name of problem-solving transfers power from establishment to non-establishment types. Revolution is a power grab based on power lust. 6. Internationalism is also a category of evil. This is Satan’s system for the administration of this world in opposition to nationalism. Both political and religious systems of internationalism are in opposition to the Word of God. “For the love of money is a root of all categories of evil” 1. All these categories of evil have many roots, but the specific root in context is avariciousness. 2. While religion is avaricious people are constantly being victimised by evil gimmicks and money raising systems. 3. Legalism falsely contends that the giving of money to the church is a means of divine blessing. 4. Policy in politics: Money is always a big issue, influence peddling, bribery, plundering the law-abiding citizen in order to take care of the political group. 5. Avariciousness manifests itself in fields of psychology, revolution, and internationalism. 6. In all of these categories of evil — such as religion, legalism, politics, internationalism, psychology, revolution — avariciousness has only one root. Love of money is only one root. 7. Notice the absence of the definite article in front of “root.” There are many other roots which support the tree of reversionism. “which” — the ablative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. The antecedent is filarguria, “love of money.” The ablative is not the regular use for the expression of means, but it is here. That is why it should be translated “through which.” The reason that the ablative is used for means is when the expression of means is accompanied by an implication of origin or source. “some” is the nominative masculine plural of the indefinite pronoun tij describing a category of believers, specifically certain believers in management, whose reversion is characterised by avariciousness. By application it applies to any believer in any period of history who under his reversionism has his priorities mixed up and puts money before anything else. “coveted after” — present middle participle of o(regw which means to stretch out, to reach out for something. It also means to aspire to, to strive for, and it means to long for. It has a good and a bad connotation in the Greek language. Here it has an evil connotation to reach out for something with the idea of longing for it to the point of lust. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continues right up to the present moment. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the fact that the reversionistic believer is the agent producing the action, he is not participating in it, to his own benefit. The participle is circumstantial. “they have erred” — the aorist passive indicative from the compound verb a)poplanaw. A)po is a preposition meaning from or away from; planaw means to wander, but here it means to swerve from. to deviate from, to be perverted, to go astray. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety — the function of monetary reversionism. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of monetary reversionism, following the pattern of all other reversionists in the eight stages. “from the faith” is incorrect. This is a)po plus the ablative of pistij which here refers to what is believed: doctrine — “who have swerved from the doctrine.” This is the basic problem and why people get their priorities mixed up. “and pierced themselves” — peripeirw which means to skewer yourself, to impale. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises it from the standpoint of results. Here is the eight stages of reversionism, and in this case monetary reversionism. The result of these stages of reversionism is divine discipline. The indicative mood is the reality of divine discipline accompanying reversionism. This is an accusative plural direct object from the reflexive pronoun e(autou. When the action of the verb is referred back to its own subject it calls for a reflexive pronoun or the occasional use of the reflexive in the middle voice. “with many sorrows” — the instrumental plural from the noun o)dunh, and it means torments — of mind as well as body: “with many types of pain.” It refers to the intense stage of divine discipline. Translation: “For the love of money [monetary reversionism] is a root of all those different kinds of evil: through which certain reversionists by intensely desiring it [money], have swerved from doctrine, and have impaled themselves on many types of pain.” Principles 1. This verse not only amplifies the occupational hazard of certain believers but mechanically relates it to reversionism. 2. In the mechanics of reversionism the apostasy is broken down into two general classifications which coincide with the first four stages of reversionism and then the last four. In effect, this verse tells us when the intensive stage of divine discipline begins: somewhere in the middle of the fourth stage of reversionism. Verse 11 — “But thou, O man of God” is not referring to Timothy. This is any believer in discipline and it is a sarcastic reminder that you are still saved. This is a vocative to remind each one of us that God never welched on an obligation, never will. We call that immutability. Immutability applied: faithfulness. And you cannot change God. This is a reference to any believer in reversionism, he is still “O man of God.” Believers in management are the ones involved directly here. Their occupational hazard has been used as an illustration to all of us in this area. So this is a sarcastic vocative to teach you what little doctrine you have left. The one doctrine that you should cling to in reversionism is the doctrine of eternal security. “flee” is the present active of feugw which means to flee, to escape, to avoid, to guard against. Here it means to avoid or escape [reversionism]. This is a descriptive present, it describes what is now going on or will be going on in reversionism. It is a pictorial present which depicts events in the process of occurrence, the various stages of reversionism. The active voice: reversionistic believers are producing it. The imperative mood is a command. “these things” — demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, it refers to all kinds of reversionism but in context a specific kind which is monetary. “and” is the connective use of the conjunctive particle de and it should be translated here, “instead.” “follow after” — present active imperative of diwkw which means to pursue vigorously. The customary present is for what is reasonably expected of every believer, to GAP it today, tomorrow, the next, the next, etc., to keep pursuing Bible doctrine. The believer is to produce the action of the verb and it is a positive command in contrast to the negative of the previous. “righteousness” — dikaiosunh means super-grace, righteousness in the sense of the honour and integrity of the super-grace life. This is the righteousness of experiential sanctification, the righteousness that comes from maximum doctrine resident in the soul. It is another synonym for the super-grace life. “godliness” — emphasis on the balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and doctrine in the soul. We have e)usebeia. “faith” emphasises maturity on the basis of doctrine. We have pistij and it refers to doctrine resident in the soul. “love” takes us back to the relaxed mental attitude in the ECS. The accusative singular direct object of a)gaph which means the filling of the Spirit in passages like Romans 5 and Galatians 5, but here it refers to the relaxed mental attitude that comes to the believer who is constructing the ECS. “patience” means the one characteristic of self-discipline which is absolutely necessary for spiritual growth — u(pomonh. It doesn’t really mean patience so much as self-discipline plus consistency — “perseverance.” It takes a lot of self-discipline, consistent decisions, to come to Bible class or to listen to a tape recorder night after night after night. That is what is meant here, that the road to super-grace is one where you have to keep driving. “meekness” — you are not teachable unless you have praupaqeia which means a mental attitude of humility or grace orientation. Translation: “But you. O man of God, keep avoiding these things; instead keep pursuing righteousness, godliness, doctrine, love, perseverance [self-discipline necessary to get to maturity], humility.” Verse 12 — this does not refer to fighting, it is an athletic metaphor which summarises what we have had in the last few verses. It is a kind of crowning jewel on the solution to the problem of reversionism. We are told to be fighters in the KJV, but that is not correct. Beginning with the word “fight” we have the present middle imperative a)gonizomai. The word means to engage in competition, to compete in the Olympic Games, etc. It means to struggle, to labour, to strive, but its primary is an athletic connotation. It means to function athletically, to be a member of a team or to compete against someone else in some sport. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur for the believer who is positive toward doctrine. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the believer is the agent producing the action of the verb. The imperative mood is an order. The command, then, is to be competing in. “the good fight” is the accusative singular direct object of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun. The demonstrative emphasises an object in the immediate context. The definite article is translated “that.” We also have the accusative singular direct object of adjective kaloj which here means “noble.” Then there is a cognate accusative a)gwn which means a contest, a sport — “that noble contest.” “faith” — the descriptive genitive of pistij referring to doctrine. There is also a definite article used as an intensive pronoun, and it is translated “of the same doctrine.” “Be competing in that noble context of the same doctrine.” Timothy must get back to studying and teaching as a pastor. Timothy has failed as a pastor because he didn’t have the self-discipline to maintain his studying, and he didn’t have the proper use of his authority. So he needs to learn some doctrine again, study, and then teach. He has to teach with authority. Timothy is not doing his job. He is not studying, he is not teaching, he is doing everything wrong. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. This is an athletic metaphor and therefore we need to understand its background at the time of writing. 1. To qualify for any of the various games of the ancient world, such as the Olympics, the athlete had to train in the gymnasium for ten months prior to the contest. 2. The registration of the athlete is comparable to salvation and is analogous, then, to the citizenship. He had to prove he was a citizen. Citizenship is simply a demonstration here by analogy that you have personally believed in Jesus Christ, you are born again. 3. Then the athlete entered the gym for ten months of agonizing self-discipline under very strict rules enforced by game marshals. No wine, no women, no rich foods. Wheat, cheese, figs lean meat. 4. The training was also very physical, but they didn’t train in their event — as a boxer, a wrestler, etc. They had to do all kinds of exercises. When this was completed they were allowed to work on their speciality only at the end of the day. If an athlete loafed he was dismissed from the gym by the judges and was not eligible to compete. This is the word we have in our passage, a)gwnizomai. It means to be working out for ten months in that gym, it means tremendous self-discipline. It becomes a matter of recognising the authority of the system. All of the way through the system the men who won in games, who were able to compete, became famous in the ancient world. They were great lovers. Their self-discipline overflowed into their love life. They became great soldiers, and they also made great businessmen, successful statesmen. They were good in anything they did because they had all gone through this system and they had learned a principle that all capacity in life is based on self-discipline. “lay hold” — the aorist middle imperative from a compound verb, e)pilambanw. it is talking to believers so it is not telling believers to get eternal life, they already have it. This word means to take hold of, to seize, to grasp, to obtain, to be concerned with, to take an interest in. Here it means to take hold of. Timothy is already a believer so it means to take hold of the blessings associated with eternal life — paragraph SG2. If you get to this point and hold it over dying grace then you have the blessings associated with eternal life. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the acquiring of SG2 in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing result: If you seize and hold the high ground then you are going to have dying grace and paragraph SG3 forever. “on eternal life” — or literally, “associated with eternal life.” This is a descriptive as well as a possessive genitive describing phase three or eternity. This command, along with the first, indicates that Timothy has slipped into reversionism. Philippians 3:12-16 — “Not that I have before now received permanent super-grace status, nor have I before now reached the objective; now then I keep on pressing, that also I might seize and hold the high ground on account of which high ground I was also seized and held by Jesus Christ. “Brethren [royal family], I evaluate myself as not yet having seized and held [he has seized but he hasn’t held]; but one thing on which I concentrate, forgetting what lies behind, and pressing toward what lies before [he keeps plugging], I keep advancing to the objective [the high ground] for the purpose of reward of the upward station from God in Christ Jesus. “Therefore, as many as are mature [super-grace believers], let us continue objective type thinking; of you think differently in anything at all [sometimes you do], this God will reveal to you. “However, with reference to as far as we have progressed, keep moving [advancing] ...” 1 Tim. 6:12 — the blessings of time are related to the blessings of eternity. “whereunto” is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the relative pronoun o(j — “into which.” The antecedent is eternal life. “you are also called” — there is no word for “also” here, we simply have the aorist passive indicative of kalew. This is a constative aorist, it gathers the action of the verb into one entirety. In eternity past every blessing that will come from God in time and eternity was already provided. The only thing that has to come then is eventually in the sequence of time you must come into the world, live in the world, believe in Christ as God knew you would, and you must follow the colours to the high ground, and these blessings are yours under the principle of grace. You already know that if God did all of this for you in eternity past He is going to keep you alive long enough to GAP it, and He is going to provide for you. “and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” should be “and you have declared the honourable declaration in the presence of [or before] many witnesses.” “before many witnesses” is a prepositional phrase. The improper preposition e)nwpion is really an adverb used as a preposition, plus the genitive plural of an adjective poluj which means many, and refers to the fact that while you have privacy under the priesthood you also have contact with many people in life. The word “many” refers to all of the people that you will ever know or see or hear or be around in your life time. Then we have the genitive plural of the noun martuj which simply means here “those who observe you.” So we actually have “in the presence of many observers.” This is also applied to Timothy and in the past many believers observed Timothy’s progress. Many people would have something to say about Timothy. For example, Timothy has been intimidated in his ministry in Ephesus. The tragedy is that this bullying and baiting of Timothy has resulted in his neglect of Bible doctrine. He is looking for some gimmick to assuage the bullies. Timothy has also reacted and withdrawn, he has a very sensitive soul. His sensitive soul causes him to withdraw, this is his reaction. He is trying to be sweet and nice to all of the ladies in the congregation in the assembly. They are not ladies, they are horsy women who are ambitious, feisty; and they are trying to push Timothy around and are doing a good job of it. These are the many witnesses, there are his contacts. He has neglected the very source of his strength and nourishment which is doctrine, so Paul now commands him to get back with it. Translation: “Be competing in that noble contest of the same doctrine, seize now the blessings and rewards of eternal life, into which you have been elected, and you have declared the honourable declaration in the presence of those who observe you.” Timothy as a pastor cannot help management with their occupational hazards unless he is faithful in teaching the Word. He cannot help labour in their occupational hazards unless he is faithful in teaching the Word. But Timothy has been bullied into withdrawing. He has given up studying and teaching, he is in a state of shock, he is being pushed around by the bullies of the local church is Ephesus. Therefore, since he has neglected doctrine he cannot teach. If Timothy is to help those in the business world or labour he must return to the principle of study and teach, a principle which he used in the past in the presence of many witnesses. In verses 13 & 14 we change over to the importance of Bible teaching in problem-solving, a new paragraph. Verse 13 — “I give thee charge” is the present active indicative of paraggellw and it means to command. Paul is an apostle and he throws his rank — “I order you.” This is a direct order that the Church has ever had on earth, apostleship. The present tense is an aoristic present, punctiliar action in present time. He gives the order now before it is too late to both Timothy and the great church which is at Ephesus. The active voice: Paul uses his rank as an apostle. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of an order from the apostle. “in the sight of God” — once again we have that improper preposition e)nwpion, and with it the object of qeoj. “I order you before the God.” We also have a definite article use to denote the essence of God — “who” is used as a relative pronoun in the articular participle; “quickeneth” — the present active participle from a compound verb, zwogonew which means to preserve alive: “who preserves alive.” Once you have accepted Christ as saviour every day you live is by the grace of God. You and I are alive for one reason: because of who and what Jesus Christ is. The devil would have us out of here in two seconds were it not for the fact that greater is He that is in us than he which is in the world. We are here by courtesy of the Lord, we are kept alive by one thing: the Lord wants to bless us in time before we go to heaven. He wants to demonstrate to the fallen angels and to everyone that He can in the devil’s kingdom bless, promote, give happiness, everything that is truly great in life to His own royal family, totally apart from any Satanic system and totally apart from catering to a Satanic system. The active voice: God does the preserving. This is a circumstantial participle that says in effect, as long as you live after you are saved you live by courtesy of the Lord and any time He wants to take you home to heaven he can. But the Lord has a wonderful knack of preserving people on this earth in all kinds of historical adversity, all kinds of difficult situations. He preserves you with one thing in mind and that is to bless you; in effect, to demonstrate to you once and for all the phenomenon of grace, and not only to you but to all angelic creatures who observe. But this blessing depends upon the doctrinal content of your soul, not doctrine in the Word. The Bible must be transferred to your soul in doctrinal teaching. “all things” is the accusative plural of paj plus the definite article. It is correctly translated “the all things.”Notice that Timothy is alive because of God’s grace and for no other reason, the same reason we are alive. This principle is known to us as living grace by which God provides everything necessary to keep the believer alive in the devil’s world. “The all things,” then, refers to everything necessary to keep you alive in the devil’s world. God also provides the environment of life. That is, He provides the air that we breathe. “and before Christ Jesus” — Jesus Christ is their mutual boss, and the Lord Jesus Christ has done something successfully. “before Christ Jesus” is a continuation of the prepositional phrase without the repetition of the use of the preposition. This is known by the use of the genitive case for the phrase “Christ Jesus.” “who witnessed” is an articular aorist active participle from the verb marturew. Marturew does not mean witnessing as it is used today for evangelism or personal evangelism. Witnessing here has an entirely different connotation. It means first of all to testify in a court room. This is its correct and original meaning and this is its connotation here. It should be translated “who has testified.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers into one entirety the complete testimony of Jesus Christ before Pilate which caused Pilate to declare His innocence. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ in court was finally allowed to testify. In the several trials that He had He was permitted the opportunity of testifying. The active voice: Jesus Christ in the trials before Pilate produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. The testimony which our Lord gave is said to be … “a good confession” — the accusative direct object of an adjective and a noun, kaloj which means “honourable,” and o(mologia which refers to a deposition here. So it should be translated, “who has testified and honourable deposition before Pontius Pilate.” We have a problem here. Pontius Pilate is obviously the object of the preposition but the preposition is e)pi plus the genitive case. E)pi as a preposition has three different meanings depending upon the case of the object. For example, with the accusative case it emphasises motion or direction. It is translated “up to, to, or over.” With the locative case it emphasises position and means “on” or “over.” But, as here, with the genitive case it emphasises contact. Hence, e)pi means “on, at, or before.” Translation: “I order you before the God, who preserves alive the all things, and Christ Jesus who has testified an honourable deposition before Pontius Pilate.” This brings us into focus with the various trials of our Lord Jesus Christ. In some of them Jesus Christ was not permitted testimony at all, or His testimony was immediately distorted. furthermore, of the many trials which our Lord had some of them were illegal even by laws under which the trial was called. For example, our Lords first trial after His arrest is recorded in John 18:12-14. This was really not a legitimate trial at all because it was before Annas who was not at the time the high priest. Actually, Annas was a gangster dictator in Jerusalem. There was a time when he was the high priest but at the time his son-in-law Ciaphas was the actual high priest. So after the arrest of our Lord why did they take Him immediately to the palace of Annas? Contemporary Jewish history tells us that Annas was the political boss in Israel at this time. He had been the high priest personally for six years. During his time in office he had enriched himself to the point where he was a millionaire many times over as a leader of a gangster syndicate. After his tenure of office in six years he passed the office among his sons, so five of his sons in turn had been the high priest but in effect Annas was their boss. Now he had run out of sons so he came to his son-in-law, Caiaphas. So being wealthy and powerful and a gangster in his own right Annas had enjoyed the power lust principle of being the ruler of the Jews behind the scenes. Therefore any major decision being made at this time in Jerusalem had to be cleared with Annas. Inasmuch as our Lord had been arrested and this was going to cause a great deal of problems the first thing they had to do was to check it with Annas. Being a Sadducee Annas was not troubled by any religious fanaticism of any kind. Since he owned all of the concessions in the temple and made a great deal of profit every years from these concessions — like money changers — his objection to the Lord was that it broke in to his concessions to have our Lord driving the money changers out of the temple and demonstrating that they had no right to be there. It was his pocket book that was hurting and therefore as a political boss behind the scenes he was antagonistic toward the Lord, but not for the usual religious reasons. There is no biblical record of what happened before Annas. Apparently he gave his consent to go ahead and try to remove Jesus Christ from life. From the palace of Annas Jesus was taken to the palace of Caiaphas who was the legitimate high priest at the time. We have, then, what might be called a second trial — Matthew 26:57-68; John 18:19-24. Some of the things Matthew said: The court was assembled at night and under Jewish law this was illegal. The court indicated its own prejudice by attempting to find two witnesses who would purjure themselves. Under Jewish law there could be no indictment without two witnesses, and the two witnesses had to agree or there was no indictment at all. This court was really an attempt to railroad our Lord to death. There was also no defence attorney and this in itself was a violation of Jewish law. There was no indictment and there was no quorum. To try a capital case there had to be a quorum of 23 members of the Sanhedrin and there were not 23 members present. In capital cases the defenso always had the opportunity to speak first, and it was no so in this case. If the accused was acquitted he could be pronounced not guilty the same day, but if the accused was pronounced guilty he could not be sentenced until the next day. Therefore all of this procedure was set aside and the Jews violated their very excellent law. The two greatest systems of law the world has ever known met in these trials. There was Jewish law which was excellent, and there was also Roman law. The laws of both Rome and Israel met and historically throughout all of human history these are two of the better systems of law. The procedure against Jesus was illegal all the way. In casting the vote against a person for guilty they had to first start with the youngest members of the Sanhedrin, and each one cast his vote publicly. The youngest members were always supposed to go first because they had a tendency to be influenced by the older heads. But this was not the case in this trial. Furthermore, there was never to be violence in the courtroom and there was never to be violence toward the accused. This is the same as admission of prejudice. This trial concluded with great violence which, of course, had no place in their courts. There are about 15 different illegalities involved in this first trial of the Sanhedrin. Because of this a third trial was held after dawn in order to correct this procedure. In fact it was so gross that even the judges themselves recognised it and they decided to try and improve it in the morning and be a bit more legal about killing Jesus. Immediately you see the prejudice of the court. In daylight, therefore, we have a trial before the fully-assembled Sanhedrin in order to make it legal. There is more than a quorum now, and this particular trial is found in Luke 22:66-71. The details are a mockery. The attempt to conform to the daylight clause is ludicrous. In the trial they had already made up their minds, no evidence was forthcoming. There was no basis for an indictment and therefore under the principle that you are innocent until your are proven guilty Jesus Christ should never have even been brought to trial. But they had already decided that they were going to get rid of him and they were going to use the law in that regard. The Sanhedrin began to search for someone who would fulfil the principle of the law and make an indictment, declare themselves a witness, and they had to get two witnesses to agree. Furthermore, there was a great deal of violence in the courtroom, they slapped Jesus Christ, they punched Him, they spat upon Him, they mocked Him, they did everything that is absolutely contrary not only to Jewish law but any bona fide system of law in history. The questioning was designed to formulate a charge and they actually tried to get Him to convict Himself, which is illegal under Jewish law. They suddenly discovered, much to their amazement, that they were in the Passover season. They had a period of eight days, therefore, in which they could not even carry on a trial. First there is the Passover which is one day, and then there are seven days of the feats of unleavened bread. No courtroom procedure was legal during this time. They recognised that they had no means of killing Jesus Christ during the next eight days. Their desire to destroy Him immediately was obviously Satanic in its concept. In John 18:28-38 we have the first of two trials recognised by God the Holy Spirit in 1 Timothy 6:13. The Holy Spirit recognises only the two Roman trials. There were two trials before this. There were three trials before the Jews and there was one Arab trial and two Romans trials. It was the custom of Roman, wherever Rome went, to follow its laws assiduously. That means that any Roman governor as in the case of Pontius Pilate, when he becomes a judge, he must adhere to Roman law. There were three kinds of people in the Roman empire who were under this law. There was the senator and the aristocrat. The procedures of law were the same as for anyone else but when it came time to sentence a senator or an aristocrat the punishment was slightly different. The second were the Roman citizens wherever they were found, and the third were non-citizens living under the Roman empire. The procedure for determining innocence of guilt was the same in all three categories. Obviously the political crowd of the Sanhedrin and the religious crowd had combined to bring accusation. So first of all Pontius Pilate listened to these accusations, but it finally dawned on him that there was one thing that they kept mentioning: Jesus Christ was king of the Jews. He listened here because obviously this is a Roman province and a Roman province doesn’t have a king, it has a governor. Apparently out of all the things that these Jewish leaders were bringing into court this was the only thing that made sense. He began to interrogate our Lord as to whether He was the king of the Jews and Jesus said, “Yes.” So on what basis was He the king of the Jews? And before he was through Pontius Pilate himself was convinced that Jesus was the king of the Jews. He heard His genealogy, he heard the basis for the allegation, and his decision was that what Jesus Christ said in His testimony was correct and that he had in the court room the king of the Jews. Pontius Pilate never changed his mind about that. His weakness was that he was going to distort Roman law for political expediency. The Roman law was not weak, Pontius Pilate was weak. He was weak because for political reasons he accepted the testimony of Jesus Christ as correct, and not only so but he made public declaration that what Jesus said was true. He is the king of the Jews. Roman law had no prejudice in the matter. Therefore it can be seen why God the Holy Spirit would mention this trial. It can be seen why this whole case was a case of judicial murder. Having examined Jesus Christ as an unprejudiced interrogator Pontius Pilate had decided that He was innocent, but because of the great political pressure put on him he decided to pass the buck. Therefore we have a fifth trial, and Arab trial. He was sent before Herod — Luke 23:8-12. Realising that he had a political hot potato, Pilate was looking for an out and he found it. When it was stated that Jesus was a Galilean he sent Him to Herod. Herod being Arab and the ruler in Galilee, when Jesus came into his court, it was just a ludicrous and ridiculous function. Herod didn’t want a trial. In fact the Arabs had no law that could be applied. Herod had nothing to say but he had heard about Jesus and he considered Him a rival because He said He was the king of the Jews and it was Herod’s ambition at this time to be the king of all the Jews. He wanted to take over the Roman province of Judea as a part of his kingdom. But he had a typical Arab curiosity, he wanted to know about these miracles that had been performed. He was looking for a performance and there was none. He never forgave Jesus for that. What kind of a courtroom procedure was that? The miracles of our Lord were designed to prove His Messiahship, that He was what He claimed to be. They were not designed to simply entertain people or even to merely alleviate suffering. They were designed to demonstrate the hypostatic union. Therefore to show a miracle to an Arab was totally incompatible with the first advent. When Jesus wouldn’t perform a miracle He was abused. They dressed Him up like a king and He was mocked and ridiculed. The final trial was also a Roman trial — John 18:39-19:16. Convinced of the innocence of Jesus, Pilate now attempts to release Him. He made three attempts. Here is the judge who is hamstrung by political pressure but he is still trying his best to get Jesus off the hook. He sought to release Jesus through the custom at the Passover for a Roman governor to release to the Jews some notorious prisoner who had been already condemned to death. It backfired when the crowd demanded the release of Barabbas. His second attempt — Matthew 27:24,25. He had just declared the innocence of our Lord under Roman law and by a symbolic act he washed his hands publicly in front of the entire crowd, and in the custom of washing hands he indicated that this person was innocent and therefore if He is executed it is a judicial murder. Cf. Deuteronomy 21:6-9. Using this Jewish custom was most unusual for a Roman governor and must have shocked the Jewish hierarchy. Some thirty years later on the very spot on the pavement where he washed his hands the Romans crucified 36,000 Jews. In his third attempt Pontius Pilate steps out on the balcony of his Praetorium. He had once again discussed the whole thing with our Lord because He was innocent and he knew it. So he appealed to their sympathy. He sent Jesus Christ down into the basement of the Praetorium and this gave the Roman soldiers the chance for a little amusement. They stripped Him and they scourged Him. They then brought Him up on the balcony with the Roman governor and he put Him out before the crowd and said, “Here is your king.” He thought that the scourging would have brought the Jews to their senses, but it didn’t, and all he heard from that balcony was, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” A Roman at this point has the chance to go down in history as a great Roman or as a great coward. Pontius Pilate chose expediency and cowardice and he goes down in history just that way. The voice of the people doesn’t mean a thing, even the Romans understand that. Pilate’s weakness had to do with political pressure. The Jews had gone behind his back too many times to Caesar and as a result he thought he could win the Jews back to his side. Therefore he sent our Lord to the cross. There are many passage son this subject: 1 Corinthians 1:22 — the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. The Jews had seen the sign. When Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he had seen the sign. The Gentiles observed the trials. The centurion said, “Truly, this was the Son of God” — Matthew 27:54. Then we have the testimony of the apostle Paul speaking through God the Holy Spirit — 1 Timothy 6:13. Verse 14 — “That thou keep” is the aorist active infinitive of the verb threw. When you have threw with the accusative of the noun e)ntolh it is an order. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the action of the verb, i.e. the preservation of this order. Threw can mean a number of things that are related, to guard, to keep, to hold, to preserve. Timothy must produce the action of the verb by guarding or keeping this command. This is an infinitive of purpose. The accusative singular direct object of the definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun, plus the accusative singular of e)ntolh, and it is translated “I order you to keep this commandment.” It is a reference to the commandment which was given in the previous verse. “without spot” — the accusative singular direct object of the noun a)spiloj which means spotless or unsullied. It is actually a reference to grieving the Holy Spirit which is carnality or the production of sins from the old sin nature. This is followed by another accusative translated “unrebukeable” — a)nepilhmptoj which means irreproachable and refers to the quenching of the Holy Spirit. So when the two are put together we actually have a dissertation on the sins against the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of sins against the Holy Spirit 1. Inasmuch as the Holy Spirit has a certain specific relationship with members of the human race obviously there are certain ways in which the third Person of the Trinity can be offended. Remember that the Holy Spirit is God and it is easy for anyone with an old sin nature to specifically offend the third Person of the Trinity. Since the human race is divided into two categories, according to John 3:36, the sins against the Holy Spirit are also divided into two categories. The two categories of John 3:36 are believers and unbelievers. The cross is a divider, an attitude towards the cross divides the human race. Therefore it is quite logical for the scriptures to develop sins against the Holy Spirit which are committed only by unbelievers, and then sins against the Holy Spirit which can only be committed by believers. 2. There are two basic sins which only the unbeliever can commit against the Holy Spirit. The first of these is called blasphemy against the Spirit and it is found in Matthew 12:14-32. The second is called resistance of the Holy Spirit — Acts 7:51 These cannot be committed by a believer, they can only be committed by an unbeliever. Then we have a second category: sins which only the believer can commit against the Holy Spirit. There are three of them: lying to the Spirit — Acts 5:3; quenching the Holy Spirit — 1 Thessalonians 5:19; grieving the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 4:30. 3. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — Matthew 12:14-32. This is also called the unpardonable sin. It is to ascribe to Jesus Christ the works of Satan during the time when Jesus Christ was on the earth. Actually, there was a span of only about three years when this sin could be committed. During three years when our Lord was presenting Himself as Messiah to Israel and having a specific ministry it was possible for anyone who was an unbeliever who came into contact with Jesus Christ, who saw His miracles, who heard His messages, and who said that He is doing all of this in the power of Beelzebub to commit this sin. When this is a system of rejection the Holy Spirit was involved. This type of rejection of Christ, again, could only be committed during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, it can’t be committed today. It couldn’t be committed after the resurrection and it couldn’t be committed before Jesus Christ began His public ministry by turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. Actually, it is a sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as saviour and it was committed only by Jewish unbelievers who were reversionistic, who rejected the signs of Messiahship because of their unbelieving souls. It is called the unpardonable sin, and it is ascribing to Jesus Christ power from Satan to perform miracles, power from Satan to give great messages. It is tantamount, then, to rejecting Christ as personal saviour. It is no longer an issue today except that in Matthew 12 it demonstrates that when anyone refuses to believe in Jesus Christ in principle that person has committed a sin against the Holy Spirit. 4. The resistance of the Holy Spirit is any person during the course of human history, from the fall of Adam to the end of the Millennium, rejecting Jesus Christ as saviour. There are a number of passages dealing with it — Acts 7:51. The reason is found also in a number of passages, for example in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “the soulish man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.” One of the functions of God the Holy Spirit in human history is to act as a human spirit when the gospel is presented and to make the gospel clear. resistance of the Holy Spirit is the unbeliever who finally understands the gospel and says no. The unbeliever, again, does not have a human spirit nor any means of understanding spiritual truth and therefore God the Holy Spirit takes whatever gospel is given and makes it perspicuous to the unbeliever. This was first taught in Genesis 6:3 — “And Jehovah [God the Father] said, My Spirit [the Holy Spirit] shall not convince inside of man forever.” In this passage it says that the Holy Spirit would keep striving until the flood. Once the flood came all unbelievers were going to die and they wouldn’t have any more chance. The big thing about that verse is not the fact that they still have 120 years before the flood, it is that God the Holy Spirit as long as you are alive will keep working on the unbeliever. Once he has heard the gospel the Holy Spirit will bring that into focus as long as he lives. Therefore, as long as a person is alive he can be saved. The presentation of the gospel must be true and accurate, that is all. God the Holy Spirit does the rest. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is so described in John 16:7-11 — no royal family, no special ministry of the Spirit. Verse 8 — “ … He will convince you concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment.” These three are described so that we are not led astray. Verse 9 — “Concerning sin because they do not believe in me.” The only sin that the Holy Spirit deals with is the sin of rejection of Christ, for that is the issue in the gospel. This is not the multitude of personal sins, that is not the issue. The issue is believing or not believing in Christ. Verse 10 — “Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer see me.” In other words, once Jesus Christ is ascended He is accepted at the right hand of the Father. He has a perfect righteousness and when you believe in Christ you receive that righteousness and you are acceptable to God the Father. You can get into heaven in spite of what a mess you may be on the earth! So concerning righteousness deals with imputation and justification. Verse 11 — “Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world [Satan] has been judged.” He was judged at the cross. And therefore because of these things God the Holy Spirit has the wonderful and glorious ministry of taking gospel information and making it a reality in your soul. The sin of resisting the Holy Spirit, then, is found in certain passages where rejecting the gospel is resisting the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Notice that it isn’t resisting the one who is witnessing, it is resisting the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 1:18 — “For the preaching of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness; but to us who are saved it is the power of God.” Also 2 Corinthians 4:3,4. Note that this sin of resisting the Holy Spirit can only be committed by the unbeliever and it is tantamount to rejecting Christ as saviour. Therefore it is imperative to remember that whether it is called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit or resisting the Holy Spirit this is simply rejection of Christ as saviour. 5. Sins against the Holy Spirit committed only by believers. Lying to the Holy Spirit is committed by the believer in reversionism. Remember that Annanias and Sapphira were believers, jealous believers. They were jealous of Barnabas who had sold his property in Cyprus and had given all of the money to the church. He didn’t have to but he wanted to. In this case it was a bona fide gift from a believer with enough maturity to know what he was doing. Annanias and Sapphira up to this time were the biggest givers in the Jerusalem church and they were quite proud of it, they were arrogant. There had never been any pressure because they were the biggest givers. Now along comes Barnabas and drops a lot of money into the church and they suddenly have pressure on them which made them very jealous. Because they were jealous of Barnabas under this pressure they were not going to be outdone. They had a big piece of property and under the principle of reversionistic one-upmanship they sold this property and figured how much it would take to make it look a little bit better than Barnabas. So they put just a little bit more than Barnabas had in the coffers. The problem was they said they were giving all of the profits when they were not. It was a lie that they were telling, but it was more than a lie. A lie is a verbal sin. The problem here was that it was also a part of a mental attitude cluster — pride and jealousy. Pride is buried for the moment, jealousy emerges. Therefore they have committed this whole packet of sins which is called lying to the Holy Spirit. Peter asked: “Why hath Satan filled your right lobe?” The filling of the right lobe by Satan is the same as demon influence and it is the last three stages of reversionism. It wasn’t really the telling of the lie itself, it was the attempt to deceive everyone and to take credit to themselves under this system. 6. Grieving the Holy Spirit is a reference to the sins of the reversionistic believer. We must learn to distinguish between the believer out of fellowship while he is advancing to super-grace. He is still positive and he is said to be carnal. But he rebounds and gets back into fellowship very quickly, keeping short accounts, and he never neglects doctrine. That is carnality and is not the same as what we have in grieving the Spirit. When a negative believer gets out of fellowship he stays put of fellowship, it is a part of reversionism — rejection of rebound, along with other doctrines. This is the area of grieving the Holy Spirit. These two are not the same. Grieving the Holy Spirit must be distinguished from carnality, it is the persistent sinfulness of the reversionistic believer, as in Ephesians 4:30,31. 7. Quenching the Holy Spirit — 1 Thessalonians 5:19. This is a sin against the Holy Spirit emphasising the reversionistic believer under the influence of evil and producing human good. It must be remembered that the function of evil in reversionism produces both sinfulness as well as human good. Grieving the Spirit emphasises the sinfulness of the reversionist whereas quenching the Spirit emphasises the human good produced by the reversionist. Verse 14 — “I order you to keep this commandment unsullied, irreproachable, until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Rapture of the church, not the second advent. The doctrine of the Rapture of the Church 1. While rapture is defined as the act or fact of being transported, a state of emotional ecstasy, a state of being rapt or carried out of one’s self, it is used here in a technical theological sense of the resurrection of the royal family of God. There is a first resurrection. Jesus Christ is Alpha Company, He has already been raised from the dead and is the only one who has been raised. The Church Age is the age for the calling out of the royal family of God. The resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ makes Him a third category of royalty. He is royalty by deity, He is royalty by physical birth [son of David], He is royalty by virtue of being seated at the right hand of the Father where He receives the new title, King of kings and Lord of lords. Now He needs a royal family, so the Church Age is the calling out of the royal family. When the royal family is completed we have Bravo Company going up — the Rapture, believers of this dispensation only, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Then we have the Tribulation, the end of the Jewish Age, which is divided into two parts. In this period we have the greatest evangelism in history and at the end of that time we have the second advent, at which time we have the resurrection of believers in the Old Testament. Then at the end of the Millennium we have the resurrection of those believers who died in the Tribulation. The Rapture is the removal of the Church, the royal family of God, from the earth so that we can be prepared by the judgment seat of Christ to return with Christ at the second advent. 2. The doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. While the second advent cannot occur until certain prophetical events are fulfilled, the Tribulation and all that it contains, the Rapture or resurrection of the Church is imminent, it could occur at any time. 1 Corinthians 1:7 and Titus 2:13 tells us that it could have occurred during the lifetime of Paul. No scripture has to be fulfilled before the Rapture occurs — James 5:8. This means that the Rapture could occur at any time. No one knows the day, no one knows the hour. 3. The promise of the Rapture — John 14:1-3. The Rapture makes it possible for Jesus Christ to keep His promise to the Church. 4. The Rapture or the resurrection. The Rapture gives every member of the royal family of God [every Church Age believer] a resurrection body exactly like that of the Son of God, minus the scars in the hands and the feet — Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Corinthians 15:54-56; 1 John 3:1,2. 5. The principle of confidence in the Rapture. The daily function of GAP [intake of doctrine] produces confidence regarding the Rapture, according to Titus 2:13. To the believer with doctrine in the right lobe the Rapture is a source of comfort in time of bereavement — Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:18. Our old English word “hope” is the Greek word e)lpij and it is used many times in connection with the Rapture. It means confidence rather than hope, and it is used in connection with the Rapture. The Rapture is said to be a living hope in 1 Peter 1:3; it is said to be a blessed hope in Titus 2:13; it is said to be a purifying hope in 1 John 3:3. 6. Characteristics of the Rapture are at least fourfold. a) The Rapture takes the sting out of death — 1 Corinthians 15:54-56; b) The application of the doctrine of the Rapture provides stability for the royal family in phase two — 1 Corinthians 15:58; c) The Rapture removes hysteria and hopelessness in time of bereavement — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; d) The Rapture is the rendezvous for both the living and dead members of the royal family of God — 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. 7. The Rapture is a part of ultimate sanctification — Ephesians 5:27. The resurrection or the Rapture is also the means of providing each member of the royal family of God with a body minus the old sin nature. After the Rapture comes the judgment seat of Christ at which all of our human good is burned because there is no place in heaven or in the plan of God for human good once you are in a resurrection body. Verses 15 & 16 is a new paragraph dealing with the subject of occupation with the person of Christ. The Rapture becomes the basis of pausing to think about our Lord, to focus our attention on Him, and a reminder to Timothy that having once been more advanced than he was at this moment it is time for him to get back to that principle of getting his eyes on the Lord. The doctrine of occupation with Christ 1. Occupation with Christ is the highest spiritual function of the believer in time. It is not something that you develop or acquire by practice, it is something you receive by persistence in the function of GAP. It is the normal function of a mature believer. It is the inhale-exhale principle of the mature believer; it is category #1 love in a super-grace believer. Since Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead it becomes maximum love toward the Godhead, but specifically toward Christ. Therefore occupation with Christ is maximum expression of worship in time. E.g. Deuteronomy 6:5. The power is the inner residency of doctrine. Hebrews 12:1,2. 2. Occupation with Christ begins at the moment the believer enters the super-grace life. Up until that time we go in spurts. Occupation with Christ belongs to the believer with maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Colossians 3:16,17. 3. Occupation with Christ glorifies God. It glorifies the Father because it is His plan, it glorifies the Son because He is the object, it glorifies the Holy Spirit because you have logged maximum time in the filling of the Spirit producing that self-discipline necessary to take in doctrine. Ephesians 3:19-21. 4. The means of occupation with Christ is the function of GAP — Jeremiah 9:23,24. The Lord takes pleasure in the super-grace believer. The concept of GAPing it to super-grace is found in Ephesians 4:20; 3:18,19. 5. Occupation with Christ eliminates the superficialities of human celebrityship. Philippians 3:7,8. 6. Occupation with Christ motivates the pastor-teacher to communicate doctrine so the royal priesthood reaches its objective. Hebrews 6:10. 7. The mechanics of GAP produce the dynamics of occupation with Christ — James 1:19-23. 8. We have an illustration of occupation with Christ in the doctrine of right man, right woman — Ephesians 5:25-33. 9. Occupation with Christ is related to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Colossians 3:1,2. 10. Characteristics of occupation with Christ. a) Occupation with Christ is the basis for the super-grace believer contributing to national blessing. This is the salt principle. This is why we are still a nation today — Deuteronomy 30:15,16,20. There is a relationship between the number of super-grace believers in the land and national prosperity and nation blessing of that country. b) Occupation with Christ produces combat courage and/or victory in battle — Joshua 23:10,11. c) Occupation with Christ is the basis for preservation in time of adversity. How you handle adversity does not depend on how close your pastor is! Occupation with Christ is the secret to how you handle adversity of which all of us will have a certain amount — Psalm 31:23,24. d) Occupation with Christ is the basis for stability and great happiness — Psalm 16:8,9. e) Occupation with Christ results in the inevitable super-grace blessings — Psalm 37:4, a total concentration of love. f) Occupation with Christ is the basis for strength under pressure — Hebrews 11:27. g) Occupation with Christ avoids soul fatigue — Hebrews 12:3. Verse 15 — “Which in his times he shall shew.” We have the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j. O)j always has an antecedent and here it is the Rapture, the appearance in the previous verse — “Which appearance.” The words “he shall shew” in the KJV is wrong. It is the future active indicative of the verb deiknumi which means to point out, to make known, to prove, to explain, to demonstrate, to teach. Here it means to prove in the sense of execution or to bring about. “Which appearance he will bring to pass.” The Rapture is really going to occur. The future tense is a predictive future announcing the Rapture as being in future time. The Rapture or appearance of Christ for the Church is expected to occur in future time. The active voice: the Rapture produces the action as a future demonstration. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. “in his times” — the locative of time plural from the adjective i)dioj, meaning His very own. I)dioj as an adjective tells us once again that Jesus Christ controls history; He controls time. Then we have with the adjective the noun kairoj, often used for dispensations. Here it means proper time or convenient time. Kairoj is in the plural. The plural of the adjective plus the plural of the noun indicates that the Rapture divides two dispensations. It doesn’t make for smooth English but it makes for accurate doctrine. It divides the Church Age from the conclusion of the Age of Israel and/or the Tribulation. Jesus is called here “the blessed and only Potentate.” The word “potentate” is not really found here at all. The word “blessed” is makarioj and means that He is always happy. “and only” is kai monoj which means the only one of a kind here; dunasthj is the word translated “Potentate” and it means “sovereign.” It is a reference to the unique royalty of Jesus Christ. He has three kinds of unique royalty. He is royalty as God; He is royalty at the point of physical birth, He is the Son of David, He is Jewish royalty; and He is also victory royalty. The word “Potentate” which is really “sovereignty” refers to His deity royalty. “the King of kings and Lord of lords” is the royalty that came through victory, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. That is the royalty in which we are involved as royal family of God. There are two participles found here: the present active participle of the verb basileuw; and the second “king” — King of kings — is actually a present active participle. King of those who are going to be kings and who have been kings. We have a present active participle of kurieuw, and both of these verbs indicate literally, “the King of all who reign as kings, the Lord of all who exercise lordship.” This is the title for the aristocracy of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union seated at the right hand of the Father. So we have Jesus Christ seated alone at the right hand of the Father and that is why the Jewish Age was interrupted and the Church Age began. He became ruler of all creatures in the universe, both angelic and human. He is the last Adam, He won back more than the first Adam lost. The title is the basis for our Church Age aristocracy. A specific victory beginning at the cross, resurrection, ascension and session is the basis of royalty and the basis for this concept here — King of kings and Lord of lords. Remember that there is an authorisation in every category of our Lord. He was authorised royalty from His deity; He was authorised royalty from His birth [Son of David]; He was authorised royalty from the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, which is the meaning of King of kings and Lord of lords. The royal family aristocracy of the Church Age is authorised, then, from the third category. Translation: “Which appearance [Rapture] the happy and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will bring to pass in his proper time.” The doctrine of the royal family of God 1. The royal family is the family of the King. The family of God includes all persons in human history who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. At the moment of anyone’s salvation, from Adam and Eve right down to the present, God the Holy Spirit at the moment of believing in Christ is the agent of regeneration, and we are said to be born again, born into the family of God. So all believers since the beginning of time are members of the family of God. However, all members of the family of God do not have the same status, therefore it is imperative to recognise that there is a difference between the Old Testament believer and the Church Age believer. All of the believers from the time of Adam and Eve right up to the beginning of the Church Age are saved the same way, but due to a unique system of royalty which came to Jesus Christ as a result of the cross, resurrection, ascension and session, the Age of Israel was suddenly halted and the Church Age was begun to in order call out the royal family of God. This royal family comprises all Church Age believers from Pentecost to the Rapture. Once the royal family of God is completed at the Rapture we have the continuation and conclusion of the Jewish Age known as the Tribulation. By definition the royal family of God is every believer of the Church Age. It is a permanent appointment to royalty ad there is no cessation of it. 2. The setting for the royal family. The first advent of Christ occurred in the dispensation of Israel. This includes His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. Ten days after Jesus Christ was seated in the third heaven at the Father’s right hand the dispensation of Israel was brought to a halt and a new dispensation was inserted for the purpose of forming the royal family of which we are a part. The spiritual of Christ occurred as a result of His great victory in ascension and session. As the King of kings and Lord of lords He must have a family to share His reign, and therefore the halting of the Age of Israel, the inserting of the Church Age. 3. The documentation for the royal family of God is found primarily in Ephesians and Hebrews. 4. The mechanics for the formation of the royal family of God is entirely different from any other mechanics that occurs in the salvation of Old Testament believers or Tribulational believers or Millennial believers. The mechanics for the formation of the royal family of God are bound up in the baptism of the Holy Spirit which never occurred before the day of Pentecost and will never occur after the Rapture of the Church. It is this one mechanic that makes it possible for every one of us to be royal family. 5. The royal family relationship. The spiritual royalty of Jesus Christ is unique. As God He is sovereign, as Man He is Jewish royalty, but as the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father He is a new type of royalty. The best description of His title is King of kings and Lord of lords. At the point of session He has no royal family but He will have a completed royal family at the time of the Rapture. Just as the first Adam in the garden was alone when he was first created and God provided a help, so Jesus Christ as unique royalty was alone, seated at the right hand of the Father, and the Father has provided for Him a family. There are technical terms to describe this, one of which is the body of Christ. Body refers to the royal family on earth in the Church Age. The bride refers to the royal family in resurrection body after the Rapture. So the word “church” is encompassed by two words, body and bride. 6. The escutcheon or coats of arms of the royal family. Inasmuch as the royal family lives in the holy of holies, and inasmuch as we are in the palace forever, we do have an escutcheon. This is described in 1 Corinthians 6:19,20, it is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Never before in history has God the Holy Spirit indwelt the body of every believer, but He makes His residence in our bodies because we are different from believers before us in the Old Testament, we are different from believers after us in the Tribulation and Millennium. The difference comes from the fact that we are royalty, we are aristocracy forever, and this difference means in effect that God the Holy Spirit will indwell us forever. This is our coat of arms, this is God’s stamp of royalty, the escutcheon of the royal family forever. 7. The security of the royal family. Never before in history and never after the Church Age will each believer at the point of salvation receive 36 things. This is also unique to the dispensation in which we live. The Old Testament believer received six things, as will the Tribulational believer. These 36 things accomplished at the point of salvation provide perfect security for every member of the royal family of God. God is perfect and therefore His plan is perfect. The perfection of God’s plan is seen in the fact that there is nothing man can do to gain his salvation, and furthermore there is nothing that man can do to lose his salvation. Reversionism, apostasy, evil all combined cannot cancel salvation. Positional sanctification and the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit are the testimony to this principle. Specifically, then, our security lies in the 36 things we receive at salvation. The one which receives the most emphasis is that ministry of God the Holy Spirit called sealing. 8. The royal family of God in time/phase two. The objective of the royal family in time is to follow the colours to the high ground of the super-grace life. It is God’s objective to provide something unusual in history for the royal family of God while on earth. In phase two God has an objective, specifically to make sure that we get in the devil’s world certain blessings. In eternity past He designed for each member of the royal family paragraph SG2. That is the primary objective of keeping the royal family of God in time, keeping us on the earth in the devil’s world. We live in the devil’s world as a demonstration that God can do more than just save us, that God can provide for us in spite of Satan’s system all of the blessings that belong to our personal paragraph SG2 — spiritual blessings, temporal blessings, dying grace. Divine blessing in time falls into three categories but it is based upon capacity. It is based upon the fact that when we reach the high ground we at last have the capacity. The royal family has another object, and that is to effectively represent Jesus Christ while on the earth. We are said to be ambassadors representing Christ. 9. The royal family in eternity/phase three. After the Rapture every member of the royal family of God will possess a resurrection body exactly like that of Christ. The resurrection body will be minus the old sin nature, minus all human good, minus the lake of fire or any eternal condemnation. The royal family will return with Christ to the earth as the bride to share in His coronation, His Millennial reign, as well as His eternal rule. Those members of the royal family who reach maturity or super-grace in time through the consistent function of GAP will have great rewards, great decorations throughout all eternity. Those decorated will glorify God in eternity just as the super-grace believer glorifies God in time. The title for our Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, the title of His unique aristocracy, is also used in connection with the second advent — Revelation 17:14; 19:16. In both cases the title is used as an indication of His victory in the angelic conflict. The principle of occupation with Christ moves into verse 16. “Who only hath immortality” — o( monoj e)xwn. O( is the definite article, a nominative singular referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. It might be said to be a part of the participle and therefore an articular participial article. The adjective monoj modifies the definite article which refers to Christ and the two words when put together in the Greek means “the only [unique] one.” Jesus Christ is unique because He is the God-Man. He is also unique in the sense of royalty. Then we have e)xwn which is the present active participle. E)xw in the present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: Christ as the subject produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. The word “immortality” is the accusative singular direct object of a)qanasia. The a) is negative, meaning “not.” The noun qanatoj means death. Immortality means not subject to death. After resurrection Christ will never again be subject to death, cannot be subject to death. Since Christ is in hypostatic union forever this characterises both His deity and His humanity and His third category of aristocracy. There is no way this aristocracy could ever be removed. Our aristocracy will last forever because it is based upon the God-Man, Jesus Christ. The immortality of the deity of Christ is found in John 1:1-3; 8:58; 1 John 5:11,12. But it was His humanity which was in question, His humanity died twice on the cross. His spiritual death provided for us salvation. He also died physically on the cross. But in resurrection body His humanity is never again subject to death, He now has immortality in His resurrection body — Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27; 13:35-37; 1 Corinthians 15:53. Jesus Christ is immortal humanity, He can never lose the life of His humanity and therefore as the God-Man He will remain unique forever and ever. Therefore in heaven forever will be one person who is unique: different from the Father though He is deity, different from humanity in that He is deity and humanity in one person forever, the founder of a new dynasty, the founder of a new royalty, the founder of a permanent aristocracy. “dwelling in light which no man can approach” — not a good translation. We have fwj o)ikwn a)prositon. Notice that there is no word for man. The first word fwj is the noun “light.” We also have o)ikwn which is a present active participle of o)ikew which means to live or to dwell. A)prositon is the accusative singular adjective from a)prositoj, and it should together be translated “the only one having immortality dwelling in unapproachable light.” A)prositij is an adjective means “unapproachable.” The word “man” does not occur there at all. The doctrine of light 1. Sometimes the Bible uses light in a literal sense. It uses literal light for the purpose of reminding us that man’s existence on the earth depends on light — Genesis 1:3; Ecclesiastes 11:7; Jeremiah 31:35. 2. Light also illustrates the essence of God — 1 John 1:5; 1 Timothy 6:16. 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 because it deals with Christ — 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Timothy 1:10. 5. Being saved 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 resulting from the function of GAP — Psalm 119:105,130. 7. The ECS is said to be constructed of Bible doctrine and/or light — Psalm 43:3; Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:8; 1 John 2:8. 8. Light depicts the believer’s entrance into the super-grace life — 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:14. “Dwelling in unapproachable light” indicates once again the unique aristocracy of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, this type of light is of such a nature that it makes the Lord Jesus Christ invisible to the human eye. “whom no man hath seen” — this is literally, “whom not one of all mankind has seen.” We have the accusative singular relative pronoun o(j, referring to Jesus Christ. Then we have a negative adjective o)udeij referring to the human race in general, plus the genitive of a)nqrwpoj, plus the aorist active indicative of o(raw. The key here is the aorist active indicative to the verb o(raw. This word is in the constative aorist tense, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: no man can produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of the invisibility of the deity of Christ. Dwelling in light is a reference to His deity. We will be able to see Him but we will only see the resurrection body. “nor can see” — o)udh i)dein dunatai is literally, “nor is able to see.” There is no way that anyone can see the deity of Christ. The most real things, by the way, are often the most invisible. This brings us to the invisibility of God which is stated in John 1:18 — “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.” You can’t see Him but Christ has explained Him. John 6:46 — “Not that that any man has seen the Father, except the one who is from God, he has seen the Father.” This is an advance. Jesus Christ in His human form in the hypostatic union explains that you cannot see the Father, you can see Him because He is in human form, true humanity. He is also deity which you can’t see. Then in 1 John 4:12 — “No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love has been perfected in us.” You cannot see God, you can only see the results of having a relationship with God. The invisible God, therefore, has an advantage over us, one of many. Invisibility is mentioned to us to indicate a principle: the principle of uniqueness, the principle of royalty; a principle which we know belongs to the Father, also belongs to the Spirit, and here in this royalty passage is related to the Son. “to whom” — dative masculine singular of the relative pronoun o(j. This is a dative of reference and it is used for VIPs. “be honour”— timh means honour or reverence, and this is a permanent honour or reverence. It means the highest possible honour that could ever be given to anyone. Jesus Christ forever and ever will have the highest possible honour as the God-Man in hypostatic union with His third category of aristocracy. “power” — indicates that aristocracy has a job forever, kratoj means ruling power. Jesus Christ will supersede Satan at the second advent, rule for the Millennium, and rule for all eternity. So we have honour and ruling power. “everlasting” is the adjective a)iwnoj and it goes with kratoj, it actually means “eternal rule/everlasting rule.” There never will be a time when He doesn’t rule. That is His royalty, and we are a part of that eternal rule aristocracy. “Amen” is amhn. It is taken from the Hebrew which means to believe, but it is a particle of liturgy. In other words, the congregational response to who and what Christ is. “Amen” is the response, then, of the super-grace believer with maximum doctrine resident in his soul. Paul is the one who is saying Amen, not Timothy. The doctrine of category #1 love 1. Love comes in three categories for the royal family of God: category #1, toward God; category #2, right man, right woman; category #3, friendship. As a super-grace believer or as a growing believer you have the capabilities for all three. In addition, there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family called “loving the brethren” — a separate category. Category #1 is the believer’ capacity to love God and to respond to God’s love based on doctrine resident in the soul. When the believer reaches maturity he then has maximum category #1 love/ occupation with Christ. The command to category #1 love is found in Deuteronomy 6:5. 2. The means of category #1 love. Since God is invisible and since God is the object of category #1 love we must see and love Him through Bible doctrine. You cannot love God without Bible doctrine. You cannot love what you do not know, you cannot love what you cannot see. The only exception is when you have enough doctrine in your soul to see Christ as Paul saw Him. So the means is doctrine in the soul through GAP. 1 Peter 1:8; Ephesians 3:18,19; 2 Timothy 1:13,14. 3. Category #1 love sets up a standard for grace — Psalm 119:132; 31:23. 4. Category #1 love is the basis for super-grace blessing — 1 Corinthians 2:9. Your eye can never begin to see the wonderful things that God has for you in SG2. The only way you will ever discover it is to have capacity, and that capacity is super-grace and therefore maximum category #1 love. Psalm 37:4,5. 5. Category #1 love is the basis for personal and national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15,16,20. All believers with category #1 love are the basis for preserving the national entity and for providing for blessings overflowing in the national entity. 6. Category #1 love motivates combat courage and military victory — Joshua 23:10,11. 7. Category #1 love provides strength in adversity and pressure — Hebrews 11:27; 12:3. 8. There is a special curse on believers who fail to get category #1 love — 1 Corinthians 16:22. 9. Witnessing must be motivated by category #1 love — 2 Corinthians 5:14. 10. A description of category #1 love — 1 John 4:15-19. Translation: “The only one having immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom not one person of all mankind has seen, nor is able to see: to whom belongs honour and eternal rule. Amen.” Now we have a final charge which the apostle Paul must make to those in management in Ephesus since Timothy is too weak, too reversionistic, too much under the influence of evil to actually make the challenge. Verse 17 — “Charge” is the present active imperative of the verb paraggellw which means to command or to instruct. He it means to be commanding, for the present tense is a customary present denoting that which may be reasonably expected to occur from the pastor. The pastor should be constantly commanding, exhorting, showing people how to apply as he actually teaches Bible doctrine. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb, and Timothy is remiss in doing so. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy who has failed to function as a pastor. He has been bullied into a little corner, pushed around by all kinds of people, and the whole Ephesian church is about to fall apart. “Be commanding.” Paraggellw not only means to command but it means to instruct. No pastor can teach with authority apart from diligent study. Preparation is the real secret to fulfilling this command. The secret to being a pastor-teacher is plodding or plugging. “them that are rich” — dative masculine plural of the definite article plus the dative plural from the noun plousioj. This the dative of indirect object, it indicates the ones in whose interest the instruction or the command is about to be given. This phrase occurs first in the sentence placing great emphasis on management. The instruction which is about to be given is a reminder to those in the congregation who have wealth. Literally we have, “To the rich ones be commanding.” “in this world” is not found in the original. What we do have is “in this present dispensation” — the preposition e)n plus the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, plus the adverb nun, plus the locative singular of a)iwn. This prepositional phrase says, “in this present dispensation.” Why? Because God has designed that there is more wealth distributed to the royal family of God than to any other dispensation we have had in the past. In other words, it is the objective of God the Father from eternity past in the divine decrees, in conjunction with the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to give more wealth to more believers in super-grace than any in any other dispensation. There are two dangers here: “that they be not high-minded” — the negative mh plus the present active infinitive of u(yhlofronew. U(yhloj means pride; fronew means to think. Money doesn’t mean superiority. It can indicate great ability, great character, great integrity, but the possession of money suddenly as you get it under SG2 can also mean the danger of arrogance. We have the present active infinitive. This is a descriptive present for what is now going on in Ephesus because of Timothy’s vacillation. Then active voice: wealthy believers produce the action through the daily function of GAP. They have GAPed it daily, they have suddenly become wealthy, and they are now in danger of becoming arrogant as if wealth means superiority. Wealth is a convenience but it isn’t necessarily a superiority. The means by which wealth was acquired is often a superiority. The doctrine of pride 1. Pride is the basic mental attitude sin — because it always has a counterpart. Pride is the worst of the mental attitude sins — because it always has a counterpart. Long before Satan’s pride showed his approbation lust showed. As he went around heaven everyone was impressed with his beauty. Satan was listening to this impressiveness long before his pride ever showed up. Pride was the original sin of Satan, pride is a part of a counterpart. Pride is lofty self-respect, high esteem for one’s self, making an issue out of yourself. Vanity is empty pride in respect to one’s person. vanity merely means pride without even having an excuse for being proud. When pride is show in the field of contempt it is called superciliousness. 2. Pride was both the original sin of Satan and the motivator for his fall — Isaiah 14:12-14. Ezekiel 28:14-17 tells us how he came to say this. Pride is an angelic sin and the greatest of all creatures, Satan himself, fell in this way. 3. Pride is also a human sin. Categorically pride is the basic mental attitude sin, yet it never stands alone, it is never an island, it becomes a part of a counterpart. It is always joined or connected with some other sin. The pride in sin manifests itself when there is no pressure, but as soon as there is pressure up comes the counterpart, whatever it may be — jealousy, cowardice, maligning, judging, vindictiveness, implacability, etc. All arrogant people are totally different under pressure. 3. Pride is also said to be a human sin — 1 Timothy 3:6; 6:3,4. 4. Pride is related to personal reversionism. Pride is not only a sin but it is also a spiritual condition — Psalm 10:2-4. Believers rejecting Bible doctrine are also in a state of arrogance. It is arrogance to think that you can get along without something that God has provided — your daily spiritual food. Describing the unbeliever type reversionism in Romans 1:30, he is said to be a slanderer. This is a verbal sin which is a counterpart to pride. 5. Pride is related to national reversionism. There are five cycles of discipline in national reversionism. The second discipline is divine judgment against the economy. At this stage of discipline pride is mentioned as the biggest characteristic. In the second cycle of discipline when you have depression or recession and the economy falling apart the chief sin related to it is always the sin of pride — Leviticus 26:19. Often the reason why you have depression or a recession is because government officials interfere with the economy. The juggle the economy and interfere with business. There is a divine law that says that in the economy free enterprise must prevail, and wherever you have a recession under free enterprise it is to eliminate the unfit and to improve the quality of services rendered. 2 Chronicles 32:26 — there is an answer to this. It comes from the field of humility in government. Cf Isaiah 9:9. National pride is also associated with the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline — Isaiah 28:1-3. Hosea 7:10-14. 6. Pride in relationship to God — 1 Samuel 2:3. The Hebrew says, “Arrogance shall come out of your mouth, therefore do not boast [or multiply] conversations.” In other words, if you have pride and you put pressure on it out comes conversation — verbal sins. Pride also rejects the principle that Jesus Christ controls history — Daniel 4:37, Nebuchadnezzar recognised that when he was in pride he had rejected this principle, and because of it he was humbled. The principle of pride related to Jesus Christ is given in the dissertation on blind arrogance — Matthew 19:27-20:34. 7. Positive volition toward doctrine insulates the soul from pride. In his famous speech Elihu is Job 33:16,17 — the function of GAP and Bible doctrine in the right lobe is the way in which God stops His discipline and protects from the pride complex. Proverbs 8:13; 11:2 — the answer is wisdom, it removes pride. “nor trust in” — the perfect active infinitive of the verb e)lpizw means to have confidence; plus the negative disjunctive particle mhdh, used with a preceding negative to continue the prohibition. It is translated, “not have confidence in.” E)lpizw in the perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it is different from the usual type of perfect tense. Rather than emphasising the existing results, which is the usual purpose of the perfect [completed action and results], it is to explain the process by which the action was completed. That is what is in view here. To avoid having confidence in money or wealth the believer must have maximum doctrine in the soul. This not only gives him the capacity to enjoy his wealth but at the same time he keeps his eyes on the source, Jesus Christ, and he keeps his priorities straight. The daily function of GAP is the process by which the action is completed and the confidence is therefore based upon the daily function of GAP which give capacity for life, capacity for wealth, as well as the wealth of SG2. The active voice: the wealthy believer produces the action of the verb by his daily function of GAP. The infinitive plus the negative mhdh is used for an intended result. This blends purpose and result. The intended result denotes the policy with regard to wealthy believers in the Church Age, and the purpose of this passage by way of being prophetical is that during the Church Age it is God’s intention to make many believers in every generation wealthy. But receiving that wealth we should not ever have confidence in that wealth. We should always keep our priorities straight, we must have confidence in the Source of wealth who is the Lord Himself. “uncertain riches” — we have a prepositional phrase here and there isn’t even a preposition translated. We have e)pi plus the genitive. With it is the genitive singular of ploutoj. There is also an adjective here in the locative singular — a)dhlothj which means “uncertainty.” Literally, “nor to place their confidence on the uncertainty of wealth.” Here is a case of having the wrong priorities. The principle of capacity for life 1. Without capacity for life from doctrine in the soul no blessing is worth having. 2. This means self-discipline under the daily function of GAP. 3. Capacity for life, love, blessing happiness, means that the road blocks of the soul have been removed. They have been removed by reaching super-grace, and often by adversity. Sometimes one of the basic reasons for suffering is that you have almost reached the high ground but as you approach you have road blocks in the soul. This means you have the inability to enjoy the blessings you are going to have under SG2. That means that sometimes, just before you reach super-grace, you are going to have the greatest sufferings of your life. 4. When the super-grace believer has capacity for life he keeps his priorities straight. 5. When the super-grace believer has capacity for life he is occupied with the source of all his blessings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore he enjoys his blessings because prior to receiving them he was occupied with the source, and he continues to be occupied with the source. 6. The believer who becomes wealthy through super-grace blessings of his paragraph SG2 must maintain his perspective to enjoy those blessings. His perspective is in the soul, his priorities are in the soul, his capacity for life is in the soul. He can’t afford to lose that capacity. If you lose the capacity you lose the enjoyment of the things that God provides for you in SG2. 7. Maintenance of perspective and keeping one’s priorities straight is as simple as the continuation in the daily function of GAP. 8. Super-grace and its capacity is perpetuated by persistence in the function of GAP. 9. When the wealthy super-grace believer begins to neglect doctrine he becomes occupied with his wealth and his riches. Instead of being occupied with Christ he gets so occupied with himself that he has the arrogance against which he is warned in 1 Timothy 6:17. 10. Love of the blessor causes the blessee to continually enjoy his blessings. 11. Therefore our confidence must be in the source of blessings to really enjoy the content of blessings. 12. The pattern of discipline becomes obvious when the super-grace believer blessed with wealth and riches begins to neglect. He may retain his wealth as a means of discipline. God can take the very blessing that he gave in wealth and turn it around and make it a cursing. 13. For such a believer to begin to depend upon riches rather than God, the greater his priorities go out of whack the greater becomes the use of blessings as cursings. 14. Therefore the more he depends upon riches or wealth the more miserable he becomes. The possession of wealth does not mean happiness, happiness is vested in capacity of the soul. To lose capacity for life through reversionism and maintain the wealth means that the wealth becomes a source of discipline. Verse 17 — “but in the living God.” We have e)pi plus the locative of qeoj — “but on God.” It connotes occupation with the person of Christ, He is the manifest person of the Godhead. “who giveth us” — the articular present active participle of the verb parexw means to hold beside, to hold out, to offer, to present, to furnish, to provide. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The present tense of this participle is pictorial, it is used to denote God’s provision for paragraph SG2 category two — the temporal blessings which a believer has in super-grace. The active voice: God is the source of all super-grace blessings. The participle is circumstantial. The dative plural of advantage refers to the members of the royal family of God during the dispensation of the Church. It should be translated, “who furnishes us.” “Us” is dative of advantage of the personal pronoun e)gw. “Us refers to super-grace believers only. “richly all things” — the accusative neuter plural of the direct object paj, plus plousioj, an adverb meaning abundantly. “to enjoy” — prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of a)polausij which means pleasure or enjoyment. Everything you receive under category #2 of paragraph SG2 is for your pleasure and your enjoyment. God intends for every believer to have pleasure. But God intends for you to have the capacity for the pleasure before you have the pleasure. Translation: “Regarding those rich ones [in your congregation] in this present dispensation, be commanding them not to be arrogant, nor to set their confidence upon the uncertainty of riches, but on God who provides for us [super-grace believers] all things abundantly for our pleasure and enjoyment.” Conclusion 1. It must be emphasised again and again that capacity for life must precede blessings of life. 2. Furthermore this capacity for life originates not only from maximum doctrine resident in the soul but the removal of those roadblocks of the soul which hinder application of doctrine. Capacity for life is related to application of doctrine. If you cannot apply doctrine it is because of roadblocks in the soul. 3. Capacity for life is not only the possession of doctrine in the soul but the application of that doctrine from the soul. 4. Capacity for life is one of the blessings of paragraph SG2, category #1. Verses 18 — we actually have a passage which is in contrast to the phrase “not to be arrogant but.” This verse describes the overflow of super-grace blessings in the life of one believer to those in his periphery. Even if you do not reach super-grace as a believer you are going to be blessed by association with super-grace believers around you. If there are super-grace believers around you you will be blessed. “They that do good” — the present active infinitive of a)gaqoergew. A)gaqoj is intrinsic good; e)rgew is the production, it means to produce. So we actually have a contrast with the verb “not to be arrogant” in the previous verse — not to be arrogant but to keep on being a producer of divine good. Divine good comes from a)gaqoj in the compound; being a producer of divine good comes from e)rgew. When it is put together it means a super-grace believer is a producer. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what begins at super-grace and continues throughout the status quo — spiritual maturity. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb by performing divine good. You don’t have to be “doing something” to perform divine good. It is true that you can be in action and performing divine good. It is your mental attitude, it is the divine blessing that comes upon you and reaches out to others. As you prosper from the Lord others prosper too. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb in the production of divine good. And there is another principle here. You cannot expect the fruit of the Spirit apart from the roots of doctrine. The infinitive is an actual result of super-grace status. The road blocks in the soul have been removed, Bible doctrine in the soul is applied, divine blessing is upon the individual life, and those around are blessed in a fantastic way. Wealth is measured in terms of spiritual blessing for the believer. The doctrine of divine good 1. Divine good is the production of the believer who is grace oriented. There are two kinds of grace-oriented believers: those who are positive and growing, and those who are positive and have reached the high ground of super-grace. The growing believer and the mature believer are both in view under this definition. It is their production. Notice that the filling of the Spirit by itself does not produce, it produces through doctrine resident in the soul. When a new believer is filled with the Spirit he is not a producer. The filling of the Spirit is designed for him to take in doctrine, and it is always an inhale and never an output or an exhale with the new believer. Again, you cannot have the fruit of the Spirit apart from the roots of doctrine — an application of the balance of residency. 2. The source of divine good. Divine good originates from balance of residency. That is, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the soul related to Bible doctrine. The filling of the Holy Spirit is easy to attain, it is received at any point that the believer rebounds. But when you are minus doctrine the filling of the Spirit can only change the picture from minus to plus through the function of GAP. When you have maximum doctrine and the filling of the Spirit then you have balance of residency, and balance of residency is the source of the production of divine good, whatever it is. 3. The believer in time is the recipient of grace. Consequently he is designed for the function of divine good. In other words, we have saving grace. That is where our life with God starts, that is where royal family begins. Then you continue to live on this earth, that is living grace. God provides food, shelter, clothing, all of the necessities of life, including doctrine, a right pastor, a local church, etc. The next step is super-grace, and then to dying grace and finally to surpassing grace. This is the life of every believer who is progressing. The believer in time, therefore, is the recipient of grace. All of these graces produce in some way. Saving grace means that you are a member of the royal family of God, and that is where angels start to watch you. Living grace with the function of GAP means that you are advancing. Super-grace is maximum production of divine good, and because of the production of divine good and because of holding on to super-grace you are eventually going to have great rewards, great decorations under surpassing grace — Ephesians 2:10. 4. The grace principle of divine good is given in 2 Corinthians 9:8 — “for every good deed,” i.e. intrinsic good, production of divine good. 5. In the grace perspective GAP and the resultant doctrine resident in the soul is the means of production of divine good. Everything that counts for God must be related to grace, must be related to doctrine, must be related to divine dynamics, not human gimmicks. Colossians 1:9,10; 2 Timothy 2:21; 3:16; Titus 2:7. Your example of divine good is your soundness in doctrine. 6. Divine good produced by grace is both mental and verbal — 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17. 7. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21. 8. Divine good will be rewarded under the principle of surpassing grace — 2 Corinthians 5:10. “that they may be rich” — present active infinitive of ploutew which means to be rich. The present tense is a customary present for what is expected of any super-grace believer. It is customary for any super-grace believer to be rich in divine good production. “in good works” — e)n plus the locative of kaloj plus e)rgon is “in honourable deeds.” Your works are not honourable until you have enough doctrine to make them honourable. If they are not related to grace they are nothing. Honourable production is the result of the filling of the Spirit plus a certain amount of doctrine. “ready to distribute” — present active infinitive of e)imi which means to be; plus an object, the accusative masculine plural. The reason we have the accusative case of the verb to be is because the subject which is e)rgon, honourable deeds, is also in the accusative, but it is still a predicate nominative. So the accusative can be used as a predicate nominative when the subject is in the accusative. We have the accusative of general reference in which a category of persons produces the action of the verb — generous ones. So it should be translated, ‘honourable deeds to be generous.” It means more than being generous with money, it means generous with love, generous with manners, generous in thoughtfulness. The whole concept of capacity for life in the super-grace believer is generosity. “willing to communicate” — this is another accusative plural adjective, koinwnikoj, which means liberal in giving. Translation: “But to keep on producing divine good, to be rich in honourable deeds, to be generous, liberal in the giving of money.” Verse 19 — the eternal future of super-grace believers. “Laying up in store” is one verb. It is a present active participle, a a(pac legomena. Them participle is from the verb a)poqhsaurizw which means to store away treasure. Liberality in giving, generosity of s super-grace believer, is like treasuring a large account for eternity. It means to store up treasure or to accumulate treasure. The present tense is a perfective present, it denotes the continuation of existing results. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past — super-grace status — but is emphasised as a present reality. In other words, production from super-grace. The present reality is generosity of the super-grace believer depicted in the previous verse, generosity which has eternal reward. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb through super-grace function. The participle is circumstantial pertaining to the production of the mature believer. “for themselves” — this passage is talking to super-grace believers, “accumulating treasures for themselves” in the eternal future. “a good foundation” — kaloj plus qemelioj which means foundation or basis. Kaloj means honourable — “an honourable foundation.” “against the time to come” — there is no word “against” here. We have the preposition e)ij plus the present active participle mellw which is an idiom meaning “for the future.” Notice that the super-grace believer in generosity, whatever that generosity may be — generosity of love, of money, whatever form it may take in super-grace status — is accumulating an honourable foundation for the future, for phase three. “that they may lay hold on eternal life” — bad translation. The word i(na is a conjunction which introduces a final clause denoting a purpose, and objective. The conjunction is translated correctly “that” or “in order that.” The words “they may lay hold” is the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb e)pilambanw which means to take hold of, to seize, to grasp, to obtain, to be concerned with, to take an interest in. Here, as in verse 12, it means to lay hold of blessings, to seize blessings. This time it is the blessings of paragraph SG3. This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the acquiring of paragraph SG2 in its entirety. But remember that a culminative aorist always emphasises the results, and that is what we have here. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist referring to SG3. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the super-grace believer is the agent holding the high ground until death. Therefore the agent participates in the action of the verb — super-grace blessings in time and surpassing grace blessings in eternity. The subjunctive mood goes with the conjunction i(na indicating the objective. Our objective in being alive is to reach the high ground, to hold the high ground, to enjoy blessings in time from God, and then to spend all eternity with the decorations and the blessings that God has under SG3. “on eternal life” — the articular present active participle of e)imi, the verb to be, and with it the genitive singular of zwh. Put together in idiom it doesn’t mean eternal life, it means “of what is really life.” “Really life” is blessing in time from God and blessing in eternity from God. All believers have eternal life, no believer can lose his salvation. But decorations and blessing glorify God, it is done through grace. translation: “Accumulating treasures for themselves, an honourable foundation for the future, in order that they may take hold of the blessings of what is really life.” Summary 1. The reality of life is bound up in the soul’s capacity for life. 2. There is no capacity for life apart from maximum doctrine resident in the soul. 3. With maximum doctrine as the basis for capacity for what is really life the mature believer can enjoy the benefits of grace in time and enjoy the benefits of grace in eternity. 4. There is no status symbol, no blessing associated with happiness, which can produce happiness apart from capacity for life resident in the soul. 5. You will never enjoy what you have without capacity for life through doctrine resident in the soul. 6. You will always be looking around the corner for something more or something better unless you have capacities of super-grace. 7. These capacities are a part of category #1, paragraph SG2. 8. The capacity must come before the blessing. 9. The capacity for love must come before category #2 love. 10. The capacity for wealth and success must come before money, prominence, promotion, wealth. 11. The capacity for happiness must come before the accouterments of happiness. 12. The capacity for life must come before divine blessings in life. Verses 20-21 — the charge to the ministry. Verse 20 — a warning to the super-grace pastors, Timothy in view. “O Timothy” is addressed to Timothy at the lowest ebb of his life, a total failure as a result of reversionism. “keep” is the aorist active imperative of the verb fulassw which means to guard, to watch, to protect, to defend, and in military terms to stand guard. The constative aorist tense gathers into one entirety the action of the verb. Timothy must be alert for the rest of his life. The active voice: Timothy as the pastor-teacher is producing the action of the verb, constant alertness. The imperative mood is a command. “that which is committed” — the accusative singular direct object from the definite article is used as a personal pronoun. We also have the accusative singular direct object from the noun paraqhkh, a word used in the Roman empire for bank deposits. “O Timothy, guard your deposit” is a reference to doctrine deposited in Timothy’s soul. It is a reference to doctrine in the soul of any believer. In a chapter dealing with money and wealth it is fitting that the chapter should end with the greatest wealth and treasure of all which is doctrine resident in the soul. The deposit of doctrine in the soul is guarded by the daily function of GAP and the communication of that doctrine to the congregation in the case of the pastor-teacher. A better translation would read: “O Timothy, guard and defend your deposit.” This particular word occurs quite a few times in the pastoral epistles and actually forms a categorical doctrine. The doctrine of deposits 1. Definition. The noun paraqhkh is a compound of two words: para, the preposition, and the verb tiqhmi which means to put or to place. Put together we have to place something beside something or by the side of something. In the ancient world their banking system meant that each person had a certain urn or some kind of large box or chest, and it was placed beside his other chests in the particular bank vault. This was called paraqhkh or a deposit. So we have the concept of deposit in the ancient world very similar to ours except that we have a different system of administration in the paper work. 2. In our passage and in others the Greek word paraqhkh is used for spiritual truths. The believer makes a deposit with the Lord at the point of salvation — 2 Timothy 1:12. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, in effect faith in Christ is making a deposit. One little cc of faith in Christ and you have deposited your life in God’s hands forever. Your life is deposited in the plan of God, called grace, forever and it is a deposit that is totally secure. So we have the principle of eternal security. 3. God makes a deposit of doctrine in the believer. This deposit is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. It is preserved in the Word to be transferred to your soul — 2 Timothy 1:14. 4. This deposit is made through the doctrinal teaching of the pastor. In the mechanics of GAP every positive believer in Jesus Christ has right pastor. That right pastor is his only pastor. He is not to be compared with anyone else. Acts 17:2,3 — “… he deposited doctrine in them.” 5. The super-grace believer makes a deposit in phase two — 1 Peter 4:19. In times of adversity the utilisation of Bible doctrine makes it possible for you to produce divine good in adversity. Principles: a) The devil’s world is unfair and prejudiced. No believer should ever be blessed by the devil. b) Some believers in reversionism are rewarded by Satan. c) The battleground in this stage of the angelic conflict is the soul. d) Consequently some super-grace believers staying away from reversionism endure maximum pressure in the devil’s world. They suffer because the devil is unfair, because the devil is prejudiced. And God permits a certain amount of adversity in the life of the super-grace believer because it is one way of producing divine good. e) In the maximum use of the faith-rest technique, which is maximum application of resident doctrine, road blocks are removed by suffering. Certain believers under pressure must deposit their souls with Jesus Christ who, as the faithful creator, has provided both dying grace and surpassing grace as the basis for eternal reward. f) By depositing their soul with the Lord in time of maximum pressure — persecution, suffering — the super-grace believer glorifies God to the maximum and produces in a short time enough divine good to receive fantastic decorations for all eternity. g) The application of doctrine under pressure, the maximum use of faith-rest — road blocks are removed — that provides both dying grace and fantastic extra blessings forever and ever. This a specific application to the principle which is found in both Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. 6. The pastor or the seminary professor makes a deposit with his ministerial students. All ministerial students are male believers who have the gift of pastor-teacher. They get their first training in their local church. They may get their additional training in a formal academic pipe like a theological seminary. 2 Timothy 2:1,2. In Matthew 13:24, speaking of Jesus, He deposited another parable with them, saying… In other words, what Jesus taught in the parable they were to go out an teach in Israel. “avoiding” — the present middle participle from e)ktrepw. It means to run away from or to avoid. The present tense is linear aktionsart. It is a present tense of duration having very strong linear aktionsart: Keep avoiding, always avoid. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the agent producing the action of the verb. The participle is the imperative use of the participle. “profane and vain babblings” — incorrect. We have here the accusative plural from the definite article, plus the accusative plural of the adjective bebhloj which means polluted, plus the accusative, plus the accusative plural of the adjective kenofwnia which means empty sound. It should be translated, “polluted and empty discourses [messages].” A polluted message is a message that is infiltrated with false teaching. An empty message is a message given in the name of the Lord but does not follow any scripture, is not expository, does not teach any doctrine from the Word. So this phrase refers to the pastor’s failure to teach in an expository manner. There is no substitute for verse by verse teaching whereby the content of scripture with its doctrines, its principles, its promises, its blessings, its applications, are taught to the royal family of God in the local assembly of the church. Apparently Timothy had neglected such teaching and was following what is now called “Christian education,” philosophical speculation, and he was totally unprepared. “oppositions” — the accusative plural from the compound noun a)ntiqesij. It means oppositions. “of science” — there is no word for science here at all. The word is gnwsij and it means knowledge — “and oppositions from philosophical knowledge.” Speculative gnosticism is in view here. “falsely so-called” is a compound adjective, yeudoneumoj. The word means to falsely categorise — “from falsely categorised knowledge” is the correct translation. Translation: “O Timothy, guard and defend your deposit of doctrine [resident in your soul], keep avoiding polluted and empty discourses, and oppositions from falsely categorised knowledge.” Verse 21 — the failure of pastors as an expression of the failure of any given generation. Pastors in reversionism. This is an occupational hazard for all believers and pastors are no exception. “Which some” — the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j, refers back to falsely categorised knowledge; “some” refers to reversionistic pastors, it is the nominative masculine plural from the indefinite pronoun tij and it is used to represent a general category called reversionistic pastors. So in context the reversionistic pastors had defected into gnosticism and heresies which vary in each age and generation. “professing” — the present middle participle from e)paggellw which means to announce, to proclaim. It means here to preach or to proclaim. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present in which heresy, evil, reversionism of the past continues into the present time. The middle voice is an indirect middle in which the reversionistic pastor acts as the agent producing the action of the verb, teaching Gnostic heresies. The participle is instrumental and circumstantial, and it should be translated, “Which falsely categorised knowledge certain ones through proclaiming...” In other words, today we have the same type of things that were taught in gnosticism nearly 2000 years ago at the time of writing. “have erred” — the aorist active indicative of a)stoxew which means to miss the mark, to deviate, to go astray, to depart from, to swerve from. it is a verb which obviously connotes reversionism. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the pastor who becomes reversionistic. The active voice: the reversionistic pastor produces the action of the verb in swerving from doctrine. The indicative mood is the historical reality of apostasy or reversionism among pastors. “concerning the faith” — the preposition peri plus the accusative of pistij, used here for what is believed or doctrine — “concerning the doctrine.” “Grace be with thee” — H( xarij meq u(mwn. “The grace with you.” Translation: “Which certain ones [reversionistic pastors] by proclaiming have gone astray concerning the doctrine. The grace be with you.”

2Timothy Notes

Chapter 1 Introductory principles The first Roman imprisonment is recorded for us in Acts 28:16. In that imprisonment Paul was placed under house arrest for two years, waiting for his trial before Nero. This imprisonment is mentioned specifically in Philippians 2:23,24 and Philemon 22. During that first Roman imprisonment Paul wrote the four prison epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. This was around AD 62. He was then released for lack of evidence against him and he entered into the final stage of his active life of freedom. It is at this time that we have very little scripture on which to go but enough to more or less trace out what is commonly known as the fourth missionary journey. It began when Paul was acquitted and released in approximately AD 63. Paul left Rome almost immediately and went east to Asia Minor, to Macedonia — Philippians 2:24. He went on to Ephesus and on to the Lycus valley which he had never visited. He had not previously visited there but he promised to do so in the prison epistles. In the Lycus valley Paul had the privilege of stopping Gnosticism. In the next year, AD 64, he travelled west all the way to Spain as he should have done many years before. Romans 15:24,28 tells us that was his intention and he had failed to do so because of emotional reversionism. The trip was made by sea across the Mediterranean from Ephesus. He spent two years in Spain. From there he went back to Ephesus. He left Timothy in Ephesus to take command and become the pastor there. The Ephesian church was the key church of the ancient world at this time, and by leaving Timothy there Paul assumed that he was leaving one of his finest pastors in command. However, it did not turn out that way at all. The Ephesian church was out of hand and primarily because Timothy did not have the command ability to take charge. When it came time to select someone for this key spot Paul made a mistake. The mistake was rectified by Timothy’s own reversion recovery. While Timothy will become one of the great believers of his age after Paul’s death, up to that time he was the wimp of all wimps, the failure of all failures, and this key church was out of hand because the man in command had no command ability, no leadership ability, no moral courage, no concept of teaching the Word of God and establishing his authority on that basis. Leaving Timothy in charge, not realising what would happen, Paul went on to Macedonia where he wrote two epistles — 1 Timothy in AD 66 because of Timothy’s failure in Ephesus, and he wrote to Titus in AD 67. Other trouble spots now appeared and caused Paul to leave Trophimus at Miletus, and to leave Erastus at Corinth. At this point Paul began to advance into that Balkan area of the world and found a spot that needed evangelising, and so he wintered there in 67 and 68 AD. At the close of that winter he was seized and arrested and exported to Rome for his second imprisonment. This last epistle, 2 Timothy, was written during this second imprisonment. These are Paul’s last words. Paul was condemned before his trial, according to 2 Timothy 2:9, so that it was Paul’s forgoing conclusion that he would not be released this time, that he would die. When he sits down to write this epistle he knows that he is going to die, that he is going to be executed, and therefore this epistle becomes the words of a dying man. At this time Paul is almost alone. His only companion is Luke — 2 Timothy 4:11. All of Paul’s friends and companions have been involved in the great peel-off. They had been needed in certain areas. Paul had trained them and now this training is going to pay off. Timothy has gone to Ephesus — 1 Timothy 1:3; Titus has gone to Crete — Titus 1:4,5; Trophimus has been left at Miletus — 2 Timothy 4:20; Erastus has been sent to Corinth — 2 Timothy 4:20; Crescens has gone to Galatia — 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus has gone to Dalmatia — 2 Timothy 4:10; Tychicus is now going to Ephesus to replace Timothy so that Timothy can come quickly to Rome — 2 Timothy 4:12. This leaves Paul practically alone. But Paul is never alone because he has the great inner resources of doctrine. What a person truly is is what that person is when he is isolated and alone. A brief account of Paul’s Roman trial is found in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 14-17. It was during this second imprisonment, therefore, that Paul wrote to Timothy for the last time — 2 Timothy in AD 68. In verses 1 & 2 we have a preface which will bring out several things, one of which is that of all the members of the royal family there is no greater nobility than that man, the apostle Paul. Verse 1 — “Paul” is a Roman surname, Pauloj. His real name was Saul Benjamin Tarsus. Tarsus is the city from which he came. He was not of one of the original Roman families. His given name was Saul, his tribe was the tribe of Benjamin, he was a Jew. He came from the city of Tarsus, and Tarsus was the name of the city which they used instead of a family if you were not from one of the famous old families of original Rome. He is the human author of this epistle and he is one of the great believers of all time. Pauloj means “little.” In Rome surnames also designated special honour, and Paul considered it an honour to be little, this was his grace orientation. “an apostle of Jesus Christ” — a)postoloj is an appositional nominative and it indicates the highest-ranking spiritual gift that the royal family has ever known. It was used originally in the Classical Greek for Athenian admirals designated by the ruling council to command the fleet in any sweep that it was making. It carried the connotation of maximum authority. The spiritual gift includes the authority of absolute dictatorship over all members of the royal family, over all Christians in any locale at any time. But once the canon of scripture was completed in AD 96 when John wrote Revelation this particular gift ceased to exist. There must be a great distinction made between the apostles to Israel and the apostles to the Church. In Matthew chapter 10 those are apostles to Israel, having nothing to do with the Church Age. Paul was the twelfth apostle — 1 Corinthians 15:7-10. “of Christ Jesus” — the descriptive genitives of proper nouns have great significance here: Xristoj means “appointed one,” one who has been anointed or appointed and it refers to Christ as the Messiah, and is an exact equivalent of the Jewish word “Messiah”; I)hsouj means saviour, the equivalent of Joshua, it is a reference to the cross and it designates the battlefield royalty of Jesus Christ. Two types of royalty, then, are mentioned: Christ, His Jewish royalty, and Jesus, indicating that Paul understands thoroughly the change in dispensations. When Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father He had been rejected by Israel as their legitimate King, but He was appointed a new kind of royalty by being seated at the right hand of the Father. This brought to a halt the Age of Israel and now a royal family is called out for the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul recognises that he is standing at the beginning of a new dispensation that demands great explanation in every way. “by the will of God” — the preposition dia plus the genitive singular of qelhma. Qelhma is a strong word for purpose or design. Paul was appointed to apostleship for the purpose, design and will of God in eternity past. “of God” is a descriptive genitive from qeoj minus the definite article. The lack of the definite article emphasises the identity of God the Father, the quality of God is emphasised, the quality of divine essence. This is God’s plan. “according to the promise” — the preposition kata plus the accusative of e)paggelia. This is a reminder that your very life as a believer on this earth is a life of benefit through promise. You are under God’s promise forever. You have a promise or a pledge from God by virtue of the work of Christ on the cross and because you have responded to that work of Christ by believing in Him. “of life” — the descriptive genitive singular of zwh means eternal life. This eternal life began the moment you believed in Christ. It is also a guarantee that in eternity past God had you personally in mind and He provided for you a paragraph SG2, dying grace, paragraph SG3. All of this was provided in eternity past and awaits your spiritual growth for reality in time. You can lose this or you can have it, and this is another meaning of the word “pledge.” God has pledged this to you by reaching super-grace status. “which is in Christ Jesus” — we have the principle of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have all of the concepts related here to our perfect relationship with Him. This simply means, once again, that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is battlefield royalty. You and I are entered into union with Him and therefore we become royal family of God forever. We share His life which is eternal life, we share His destiny, we share His election, we share His righteousness, we share His priesthood, we share His royalty. We are in union with Christ forever and nothing can ever separate us from that union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Translation: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will [purpose, design] of God, according to the promise of life [eternal] which is in union with Christ Jesus.” Verse 2 — “To Timothy.” The dative of indirect object indicates the original recipient of the last epistle, it means that this is for Timothy’s benefit as well as for ours that it becomes a part of scripture. This is therefore the dative of advantage. Timothy has moved from disadvantage to advantage. He has gone from wimpy reversionism into dynamic super-grace status, and he has accomplished this in the two years between the writing of 1 and 2 Timothy. The profile of Timothy 1. Timothy is the son of an unbeliever Greek and a believer Jewess — Acts 16:1-3. 2. He was reared by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice — 2 Timothy 1:5. Both were super-grace believers representing two generations of super-grace believers. Consequently Timothy had a fantastic spiritual heritage. 3. Timothy was circumcised by the apostle Paul under unusual circumstances — Acts 16:3. 4. He was ordained to the ministry

 in 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:5.

 5. He went to Philippi with the apostle, along with Luke — Acts 16:12. He remained to supervise the main Philippian church. Timothy did a great job in Philippi. Those who were there were very responsive to his teaching ministry. He was himself at the time a believer advancing. 6. He was left behind a second time with Silas at Berea — Acts 17:14. Since the Bereans were positive to doctrine, again for the second time he had a great ministry. 7. Having joined Paul at Athens he next went to Thessalonica, according to 1 Thessalonians 3:2. 8. From there he was sent to Corinth, and there he failed. For the first time he came up against negative believers, he came up against reversionism, and 1 Corinthians 16:10 tells us that he was a total failure. He was too soft, too weak to handle the Corinthians. This failure foreshadows his failure at Ephesus. Timothy was not tough enough with bullies, he lost control of the local church; thus becoming disillusioned with people he moved into reversionism when he got to Ephesus. 9. He shared Paul’s first roman imprisonment — Philippians 1:1; 2:19; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1. 10. Afterwards he started out with Paul on his fourth missionary journey. He was left behind at Ephesus where he failed miserably. “dearly beloved son” — the word a)gaphtoj is an adjective. It does mean “beloved” and it does mean that he is an object of Paul’s category #1 love. Because of doctrine they have that mutual respect that developed into a fantastic friendship. He does not call him a son. The word teknon does not mean son here. It is used in a technical way. It is the word from which we get the English word “technical” and the word technical describes this word. It is used in the sense of a theological student. The dative of possession has no exact equivalent in English, it is a personal interest particularised to the point of ownership or supervision. Paul supervised Timothy as his former student. Hence it refers to permanent authority. Paul will always outrank Timothy as long as he lives. The point is that Paul is going to live long enough to see Timothy in super-grace. So it should be translated, “To Timothy, beloved student.” While teknon means a child it means a child under the discipline of the parent, and it comes to mean a student under the discipline of the teacher. “Grace, mercy, peace — Xarij, grace, describes the plan of God in principle. There is no place for works, for human ability, human ingenuity, for human function of any kind; “mercy” or e)leoj is simply grace in action; e)irhnh is the result of these two words and it means prosperity. It should be translated, “Grace, mercy, prosperity.” That is the normal function of a positive-toward-doctrine believer. He starts out with grace, grace is then administered to him as he takes in doctrine under the principle of mercy, and he reaches the point of prosperity in time, paragraph SG2. “from God the Father” — the preposition a)po plus the ablative of qeoj, indicating God the Father as the source of this blessing; we have a genitive of apposition, pathr, and it can be translated, therefore, ‘God, even the Father” or “God the Father.” “and Christ Jesus our Lord” — Xristoj is an ablative of source, a part of the prepositional phrase, and it indicates His Jewish royalty. The ablative of source “Ihsouj, battlefield royalty; “our Lord” is divine royalty. Every category of royalty is involved. Notice that there is no reference here to God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity in this salutation. This is compatible with the Church Age ministry of God the Holy Spirit which is to glorify Jesus Christ. He is not here to glorify Himself — John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. In glorifying Christ the Holy Spirit, therefore, remains in the background providing the power and the ability for the royal family to glorify Christ — 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 3;16,17; Philippians 1:20,21. Translation: “To Timothy, beloved student: Grace, mercy, prosperity, from the source of God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Verse 3 — “I thank God” is the present active indicative of the verb e)xw which means “I keep having.” The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing. This is linear aktionsart. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. He is filled with the enjoyment, the capacity for life. Nothing bores him. His circumstances are the quintessence of adversity but his attitude is one of great interest. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of certainty and reality. The question arises immediately: What does he keep having? The answer is found in the accusative singular direct object of the noun xarij. “I keep on having grace.” There is the secret for capacity for life. And what is the means of having grace? The next phrase, is the instrumental of means from qeoj plus the definite article. It should be translated “by means of our God.” The definite article is used as a possessive pronoun. “I keep on having grace by means of our God.” There is capacity for life. How does one keep on having grace? By the daily intake of Bible doctrine. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ at the cross. Grace is God’s freedom and God’s consistency to express His love to mankind without compromising and jeopardising His divine essence. Consequently grace is God’s plan of behalf of each one of us, the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi in relationship to each one of us. Under grace God does all of the work, all of the providing, and we receive all of the blessing and all of the benefiting. So by concept grace depends on who and what God is, on who and what Christ is, on the essence of each member of the Trinity. Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation. Grace is all that God can do for man after salvation throughout all eternity. Grace, therefore, is the genius of God and doctrine is the manifestation of that genius. No one can understand grace until he has maximum doctrine in his soul. The giver of life is the secret to life and the secret to life is grace. The secret to grace is doctrine. You can’t understand life until you understand grace, and you can’t understand grace until you have GAPed it daily under the principle of self-discipline. There is nothing in life that can give you blessing unless you have doctrine in your soul. “whom” is the instrumental singular of the relative pronoun o(j. The antecedent is God. “Through whom” would be a good translation of the instrumental of o(j. “I serve” — present active indicative from latreuw which means to serve with emphasis on the manner of service, to serve under a system of service. Here it refers to the serving under the system of grace. Paul served God under the system of grace — “through whom I am serving.” The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality, certainty, and dogmatic confidence. “from my forefathers” — the preposition a)po plus the ablative of progonoj which means ancestors. The ablative is not the regular case used to express means but it is used when the expression of means is accompanied by an implication of origin. What does he mean here? Is he referring to those in his immediate family? No, but he is recognising that in every generation of history that generation is carried by super-grace believers. He is in a generation of history, he is a super-grace believer, he is carrying his own generation. In every generation of Israel there were super-grace believers. On account of these super-grace believers the power of doctrine resident in the soul was seen in every generation. Paul is perpetuating the principle of his forefathers in his own generation. This refers to his understanding of and his perpetuation of the spiritual heritage. What makes history grow? The super-grace believer. Principle 1. Paul does not allude to his own ancestors and his own family genealogy but he refers to the spiritual heritage of Israel in the past. 2. This spiritual heritage is the existence of at least one super-grace believer in every generation. 3. The implication is obvious. Paul has seen a great improvement in Timothy. He has seen Timothy go from reversionism to super-grace in two years. Since the first epistle was written in 66 AD, up to the time of the writing of this one in AD 68, he has seen Timothy go from zero to one hundred. 4. Having recovered from reversionism Timothy has moved to the high ground of super-grace which is the only place he can receive from Paul the baton, the standard, and carry on for his generation. 5. Paul is counting, therefore, on student Timothy to perpetuate the spiritual heritage of the royal family for the next generation. 6. This can only be accomplished through maximum doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of GAP. 7. Paul, therefore, is encouraging Timothy to press on. Now that he has doctrine he must take in more and more and more. Note that Paul and Timothy have human family relationship. Paul is not Timothy’s father and Timothy is not Paul’s son. Paul is challenging to a more important principle. We have seen the principle that you can’t build your happiness on your children, and you don’t perpetuate greatness in another generation through your children. But there is the perpetuation of a spiritual heritage, doctrine passed from one generation to another. “with a pure conscience” — this does not mean that Paul has lived a good life, that Paul has always had clean hands. As an unbeliever Paul was the worst sinner who ever lived. As a believer Paul made one of the greatest mistakes that a great believer ever made when he refused to go to Spain and went back to Jerusalem in emotional reversionism. Yet he comes to his dying moment “with a pure conscience” — the preposition e)n plus the adjective kaqaroj in the instrumental, plus the noun in the instrumental suneidhsij. Doctrine resident in Paul’s right lobe is responsible for the purity of his conscience. “I keep on having grace by means of our God, through whom I am serving with a pure conscience as my ancestors did [literally, on account of my ancestors].” “that without ceasing” — the relative adverb o(j used as a conjunction to introduce a characteristic or quality of a person, translated “why,” plus the adverb a)dialeiptoj which means “constantly.” But here the adjective is used as a predicate accusative and that will change it a little. It is translated, “this is why I constantly.” “have” is the present active indicative of e)xw — “keep having.” We have a perfective present here, it denotes the continuation of existing results, namely Paul passing on to Timothy the spiritual heritage of human history. In every generation believers are challenged to the perpetuation of super-grace so that in every generation history will have those who hold up history. In every generation of history there can exist blessing from God based on Bible doctrine. The active voice: Paul has in his dying moments the memory of Timothy, a super-grace believer at this stage, one in whom he can pass the torch to carry for the next generation. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic reality of the fact that once-wimpy Timothy can now be the Atlas for the next generation and hold up that generation. “remembrance” is the accusative singular direct object from mneia, and it means to have a memory. Principle 1. Something has happened to Timothy in the two years since Paul wrote first Timothy. The wimp is now a super-grace believer, he has recovered from reversionism. 2. This contributes to Paul’s dying grace. Now that Timothy has reached super-grace Paul can die peacefully. He could pass the torch to someone as he departs for heaven. He is therefore dying with wonderful memories. 3. In every generation of history super-grace believers carry the torch, they carry that generation of history. 4. Divine blessing is directly related to the remnant of super-grace believers according to the election of grace. And that remnant always has one torchbearer. 5. Paul is dying and he sees history from the divine viewpoint. 6. He rejoices that Timothy will be the torchbearer. There are other super-grace believers and they will have a part, but the colour bearer is always the important one. So in dying Paul can see hope for the next generation. “of thee” is the preposition peri plus the genitive of the personal pronoun su — “concerning you.” This is a personal pronoun, it refers to Timothy as the one who will carry the colours. “in my prayers” is e)n plus the locative plural of dehsij. Paul has a lot of time to pray and he has the privilege of passing on the colours to Timothy, and he is doing this in prayer. “night and day” — the genitive singular of nuc, and then h(mera. Paul prays when it is still light in the dungeon and when it is dark he is still praying. Translation: “I keep on having grace by means of our God, through whom I am serving with a pure conscience as my ancestors did. This is why I constantly possess a memory concerning you in my prayers day and night.” Verse 4 — “Greatly desiring” is the present active participle from the compound verb e)pipoqew. E)pi means over and above; poqew means to desire. This means to long for someone’s presence, to have true category #3 love. It means to have capacity for love and capacity for life and to have an object for those in a true friend. The present tense is a descriptive present, it portrays the action of the verb in the process of occurrence. The active voice: Paul, incarcerated in Rome, produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. Paul is dying and he has great capacity for life, and one more time he wants to see his very dear friend Timothy. We could translated this, “Having a great desire to see.” “to see thee” — the aorist active infinitive of o(raw. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist in which a generally accepted fact is regarded as so certain that it is described by the aorist just as thought it was actually in occurrence at the moment. This is an idiom which is translated by the English present tense. The active voice: Paul produces the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose. It is Paul’s purpose as well as his desire to once again see Timothy before he dies. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the personal pronoun su, referring to Timothy. “being mindful” — incorrect. It is the perfect middle participle of the verb mimnhskw which means to remember. The perfect tense of existing state emphasises the fact that Timothy’s reversion recovery has resulted in Paul’s pleasant memories of him. The middle voice is the dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. This is the causal participle so it is translated, “because I have remembered.” “thy tears” — the objective genitive plural from dakruwn which refers to Timothy’s tremendous response to 1 Timothy. He didn’t get angry, he didn’t shake his fists at Paul, as it were, he didn’t condemn Paul. He realised how correct Paul was and he had a tremendous emotional response from his objectivity. “that” is the conjunction i(na used as a final clause to denote a goal, and objective, a purpose. “I may be filled” — the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb plhrow. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views Paul’s great happiness in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of existing results. Paul in prison has +H and one of the results is that Timothy’s recovery causes him to express this +H. He possesses something and it has great results. He can now be very stimulated and express his happiness with regard to Timothy. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb, being filled with happiness at his memory of Timothy. The subjunctive mood is not a potential subjunctive but used to denote the purpose clause and the fulfilment of the purpose. “with joy” — the objective genitive singular from xara, meaning inner happiness, +H as a part of Paul’s super-grace package. Translation: “Longing to see you, because I have remembered your tears, in order that I might have been filled with happiness.” Principles 1. Thanks to the grace and plan of God the human race will perpetuate itself physically. 2. God has guaranteed that the human race will exist throughout human history, all the way to the conclusion of the angelic conflict. So there will always be people for another generation. 3. This is a dogmatic fact dependent upon the sovereignty of God. No two generations are alike. Today’s generation is not like the last one. What makes the difference? There are always a few super-grace believers who carry a generation. The greater the number of super-grace believers the greater the blessing for that generation. The super-grace believers hold up that generation historically. Doctrine in the souls of a few people carry a generation. The perpetuation of spiritual heritage is dependent upon man’s response to grace in the area of his own non-meritorious volition. Spiritual heritage is perpetuated from the foundation of regeneration. Mankind must be born again to qualify for the perpetuation of spiritual heritage. In other words, it is not physical birth that perpetuates, it is spiritual birth. The number of super-grace believers in any generation determines the trend of that generation. The secret is Bible doctrine in the soul. Principle 1. Thanks to the grace and plan of God the human race will perpetuate itself physically. 2. God has guaranteed that the human race will exist throughout human history and all of the way to the conclusion of the angelic conflict. 3. This dogmatic principle of the perpetuation of history and the perpetuation of the human race is a matter of the sovereignty of God. 4. The perpetuation of the spiritual heritage is dependent not on the sovereignty of God but on man’s response to God’s grace, and always in an area of non-meritorious volition. 5. Spiritual heritage is perpetuated from the foundation of regeneration. Mankind must be born again to qualify for perpetuation of spiritual heritage. Salvation means qualification, it doesn’t mean you have arrived. 6. The key, then, to perpetuation is found in positive volition toward Bible doctrine, the daily function of GAP leading to the super-grace life. 7. Paul is no longer ashamed of Timothy because while Timothy has been a wimp, a failure, he has now recovered from reversionism and has moved on to super-grace. 8. Neither is Paul ashamed of Timothy’s mother, nor Timothy’s grandmother who represent one of the most unusual situations recorded in the Bible — a three-generation family and each one is in the spiritual heritage as well. Timothy is a third generation super-grace believer. Verse 5 — “When I call to remembrance” is an idiom. It includes the aorist active participle of the verb lambanw which means to receive. There is also the accusative singular direct object from the noun u(pomnhsij which means memory or remembrance — “When I receive remembrance.” This actually comes down to be an idiom which means “When I remember [or recall].” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Paul is recalling Timothy’s reversion, his reversion recovery, his arrival at super-grace status. He recalls that his mother went through the same thing. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb through the pleasant function of his memory centre during his dying moments. He has no regrets, he has perfect memory thanks to the fact that Timothy has recovered from reversionism. Timothy did it by his own consistent positive volition toward doctrine and Paul has a wonderful memory. The participle is temporal: “When I remember.” “the unfeigned faith” — whatever “unfeigned” is in the old English it is hiding a compound adjective in the objective genitive singular, a)nupokritoj, [a, negative; u(po, under; krithj, a mask] literally not under a mask. It means not speaking from under a mask. It means to be an actor. The idea came from Greek drama. An actor was a synonym in the Greek world for hypocrite. In fact the Greek word for an actor was u(pokrithj from which we get the English word hypocrite. Here, with an a in front of it, it means non-hypocritical. But in modern English it means real or genuine. The word “faith” is the objective genitive singular from the noun pistij meaning what is believed — doctrine. It should be translated, “the real [genuine] doctrine.” This is a reference to Bible doctrine, but it is also Bible doctrine located in a specific place… “that is in thee” — the preposition e)n plus the locative singular of the personal pronoun su — “in you.” So fare we have, “When I recall the genuine doctrine in you.” This is genuine doctrine in contrast to false doctrine, in contrast to evil. Here is a dying man and his pleasant memory is that once more Timothy has maximum doctrine in his soul and has recovered from his terrible case of reversionism. He has now joined the ranks of the next generation who will be the spiritual Atlases and will carry historically the generation coming up. “which” — the nominative singular from the qualitative relative pronoun o(stij. It emphasises the high quality of the doctrine inside of Timothy. Timothy has GAPed it to super-grace, he has recovered from reversionism. This is also an indefinite relative pronoun in contrast to a definite relative pronoun o(j. The indefinite pronoun plus its qualitative aspect it means we simply do not know what specific doctrine he had inside of him that made him a super-grace believer because the principle is being emphasised rather than the detailed content. Therefore the qualitative relative pronoun tells us that inside of Timothy at this moment is a maximum amount of doctrine that has put him in the super-grace bracket — “which resident doctrine.” “dwelt” is the aorist active indicative from the compound Greek verb e)noikew [e)n, inside : oikew, to dwell or to live]. It means to indwell, to inhabit, or to be resident. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This Greek idiom is a device for emphasis. In fact, Bible doctrine in the soul resulting in super-grace is a very dramatic principle. The active voice: doctrine produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality. “first” — prwton is used in its obvious temporal sense. The same doctrine which made Timothy a super-grace believer first resided in his grandmother Lois. “in thy grandmother Lois” — e)n plus the locative of mammh which means grandmother, plus Lwij which means “agreeable.” Here is a woman who many years ago had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only had she believed but she had persisted in the function of GAP after her salvation. She reached the high ground of the super-grace life. Many grandmothers have been the basis for the perpetuation of a great spiritual heritage. “and thy mother Eunice” — E)unikh, which means “great victory.” Eunice was taught doctrine from early childhood. “and I am persuaded” — a transitional de without any contrast intended, translated “now,” plus the perfect passive indicative of the verb peiqw. It is interesting that grandmother Lois trained daughter Eunice so that grandmother Lois had no regrets. But she had the monstrous privilege of watching her daughter make a total ass of herself, do everything wrong, go in the wrong direction. There was nothing she could do, her daughter was now an adult. We have the perfect passive indicative of peiqw. This is the intensive perfect for a completed action with results going on and on. The passive voice: Paul receives confidence [the perfect tense means to have confidence]. The indicative mood is declarative contemplating the action from the standpoint of dogmatic reality — “now I am confident.” Peiqw means to obey in the present or the aorist. Sometimes it means to believe, but in the perfect it always means to have confidence. “that in thee also” — should be, “that it [doctrine] is also in you.” We have the adjunctive kai, “also,” plus the preposition e)n, plus the locative of the personal pronoun su; plus the present active indicative of e)imi. Paul is not ashamed of Timothy or his wonderful spiritual heritage. The best thing parents can leave their children is Bible doctrine but to be effective this doctrine must be resident in the soul of the individual believer. Translation: “When I recall the real doctrine in you, which doctrine first resided in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice; then I am confident that it [the doctrine] is also in you.” This verse is a double illustration of Proverbs 22:6 — “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is not when he is a teenage, that is when he will. All teenagers go off at some point. But that isn’t the promise. “When he is old,” old in the sense of mature. Principles The grandmother, Lois, became a super-grace believer and had the privilege of passing the baton or handing the colours over to her daughter. Here is a woman who is the antithesis of the women’s liberation mob. Here is a woman who carried her generation. 1. Having trained her daughter in doctrine after salvation, what happened? In her early twenties Eunice reacted to her doctrinal training. She rejected what she had been taught. 2. The result: She made a bad marriage to a Greek whose name is never recorded in the Bible — Acts 16:1. 3. In reversionism Eunice married an unbeliever. 4. Obviously the unknown Greek was not her right man, says the adversative particle de which sets up a contrast in Acts 16:1 between the fact that she was a believer and he was an unbeliever. 5. However, the bad marriage in two benefits. God turns cursing into blessing where a person leaves reversionism and goes to super-grace. a) She recovered from reversionism and became a super-grace believer; b) She had a son whom she called Timothy, which means “he who honours God.” She name him Timothy because she knew Proverbs 22:6. She dedicated herself to training that child. This also bring in another principle. No matter how a child fails, if that child ever gets a hold of doctrine and goes with doctrine that child will never fail. There is no such thing as a child who cannot be recovered but they have to learn themselves. You cannot force doctrine on a child. 6. She followed the colours to the high ground of super-grace and established a command post of doctrine resident in her soul. 7. She had a son. 8. Her how was to perpetuate not a natural but a spiritual heritage. She was smart, she name her son Timothy because she was going to emphasise spiritual heritage. 9. She had to name him Timothy for she had dedicated herself to the principle that only through doctrine resident in the soul can there ever be happiness in this life. 10. So grandmother Lois had the privilege of seeing the fulfilment of Proverbs 22:6, for when Eunice was old she did not depart from her spiritual heritage but she received from her mother Lois and she carried the colours for her generation. Illustration Eunice trained Timothy in doctrine, Timothy was saved and advanced in a remarkable way until Paul left him at Ephesus where he failed. Like his mother before him he failed. But his mother, like her mother, claimed Proverbs 22:6. Timothy was already hurting but the shock of the first epistle came at a time when he was hurting the most. The discipline awakened him and he began to think and assimilate, and he recovered. He moved out of reversionism to the high ground, and when he was old he did not depart from that spiritual heritage of maximum doctrine resident in the soul. 1. Here is one of the most beautiful patterns of grace that helps to explain a great concept of history. Three generations related physically — grandmother, mother and son. 2. But a thousand times more important than the genes passed down was the spiritual heritage which carried human history for three generations. 3. We have three generations following the colours, three generations going from saving grace to living grace to super-grace to dying grace to surpassing grace. Three generations in the same family. 4. Parents who have been faithful in teaching doctrine to their children, training them in the function of GAP, getting them under the right pastor when they are tender, should never be discouraged when their children appear to turn out bad. 5. When their children begin to resist doctrine, become reversionistic, yield to the influence of evil, become apostate and blasphemous, if parents are believers with maximum doctrine they are believers with capacity and will never ever let their children ruin their life. They have to go right on living. The doctrine of historical interpretation It has to be remembered that interpretation of history is a very tricky principle and it has led many people down the path to evil and the influence of evil in reversionism. For example, historical interpretation generally depends on human viewpoint. 1. Jesus Christ controls history. a) Direct control through His divine essence. That means that Jesus Christ as God never loses control of anything. b) Indirect control through the laws of divine establishment. Jesus Christ set up a system of laws to perpetuate the human race and to allow freedom in every generation for believing in Christ, and freedom to express positive volition in the function of GAP. c) Permissive control permitting human volition to function in this phase of the angelic conflict. In other words, the angelic conflict must go on and this is why Jesus Christ permits evil to continue in the world. That is why evil and human good were rejected at the cross. 2. The Bible is the key to historical interpretation. Historical interpretation related to God, the unseen world of angels, and the visible world of mankind can only be put together properly through understanding Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the basis for the correct interpretation of history. To see history objectively one must possess the divine viewpoint. Through history is a series of facts about the human race but these facts can never be properly correlated unless one understands such simple doctrines as the old sin nature, power lust, materialism lust, and things of this sort. To correlate and interpret the facts of history Bible doctrine must be resident in the soul. This limits the unbeliever’s perspicacity in this field of his understanding, especially if he is out of the laws of divine establishment. To correctly interpret history one must understand evil, reversionism, apostasy, and be able to distinguish them from sin. Sin never kept a great man from being great; sin never kept anyone from doing anything. Sin never ruined a man’s ministry. But what ruins many a pastor’s ministry is evil and reversionism. Sin is not an issue because Christ destroyed it as an issue on the cross. He was judged for our sins. That is why we simply name our sins and we are forgiven immediately. In other words, carnality should never be a hindrance to anything, but evil is a hindrance to everything. To correctly interpret history one also must understand the doctrine of dispensations, the Church Age, the royal family of God. While many historians recognise, for example, simple facts like Rome as the centre of gravity in history, human genius is limited by ignorance of Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint. 5. Each generation of history is sustained by super-grace believers. What holds up every generation of history? The super-grace believer is the spiritual Atlas of his generation. He is responsible for blessing by association and prosperity by association. He is himself blessed of God and those associated with him are blessed by the association. The super-grace believer is the salt of the land. 6. And super-grace depends upon one category of the human race: pastor-teacher. There is no super-grace without pastor-teachers teaching the Word of God. Verse 6 — “Wherefore” is dia plus the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j, and also the accusative singular, the object of the preposition dia, of a)itia which means “cause.” Literally this would be translated “Because of which cause.” In other words, dia plus the accusative is translated “because.” Then the object of dia is a)itia, meaning cause. There is also a relative pronoun translated “which.” This is an idiom meaning “For which reason.” Because of the spiritual heritage principle in history, because every generation depends upon its own spiritual heritage and draws from its spiritual heritage and is blessed or cursed by spiritual heritage — super-grace believers or lack of them. Because of the spiritual heritage of doctrine in the soul carrying that generation we are now ready to understand something about the axle. There must be someone who communicates doctrine. In his generation the apostle Paul was the axle. “I put thee in remembrance” — the present active indicative from the compound verb a)namimnhskw. A)na means again and again; mimnhskw means to remember. To remember again and again means to be reminded. Literally, “I remind you.” We also have the accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su. he is still talking to Timothy, he is passing the guidon, the regimental colours. This is a descriptive or pictorial present tense, it depicts the event in the process of occurrence. He is in the process of reminding Timothy. The whole of 2 Timothy is instructions to the next person who will carry the colours, instructions to the super-grace believer who will lead super-grace believers in the next generation. Paul produces the action of the verb, he is, as it were, passing the regimental colours on to Timothy. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. “that thou stir up” — present active infinitive from a triple compound verb, a)nazwpurew. A)na means again and again; zwh means life; pur means fire. It means to put life back in the fire or, as we would say, to fire up, to rekindle. It doesn’t mean to stir up. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals. Timothy has gone through a period of reversionism and by his subsequent recovery he now needs to fire up and start using the gift again. The active voice: Timothy must produce the action of the verb and can do it in only one way, by studying and teaching. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose. This must be his purpose. Every generation historically depends upon the communicators of doctrine in that generation. “the gift of God” — the accusative singular definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, calling attention to the fact that Timothy has the gift of pastor-teacher, plus the accusative singular direct object of the noun xarisma which means a spiritual gift in the Bible. Today it has been given an entirely different meaning in the English. It really means to be a communicator of doctrine, and the doctrine changes the life. It is translated “gift” but if we transliterated it we might even see it a little better” “that charisma.” “Of God” is an ablative of source from qeoj. The ablative always gives the connotation of original source. God is the original source of Timothy’s spiritual gift. This means that you cannot elect people to becoming pastors. It is a sovereign decision of God the Holy Spirit. Three things about Timothy’s life: a) He was a plodder; b) Then he was a failure in the status of reversionism; c) He came out of it and went to super-grace. Being a pastor-teacher he is now commanded to fire up his gift. Verse 6b — “by the putting on of my hands.” We have the preposition dia plus the genitive of e)piqesij. Dia plus the genitive means through; e)piqesij means the laying on, and then we have the possessive genitive plural xeir for hands — “through the laying on of my hands.” Note that only Paul was involved in the laying on of hands. It only took one person who had the gift to perform this ceremony and recognise it in someone else. So the laying on of the hands is the ceremony of identification. The apostle was not only recognising the fact that Timothy had the gift of pastor-teacher but he identified himself with him. When Paul laid his hands on Timothy he didn’t know at that time that in a future time in this epistle he would also pass on to him the colours, which means that the next generation is going to have a super-grace leader and that super-grace believers will exist in the next generation to carry that generation of history. In anticipation of the next verse he also indicates the importance of both the authority and the function of the gift which had been neutralised in Timothy’s immediate past by his reversionism, the fear that came from his reversionism. A pastor can never be afraid of people, he must never be afraid of anyone, he must never be afraid of anyone under all conditions. Translation: “For which reason I remind you to rekindle [fire up] that gift from God, which is in you, recognised through the laying on of my hands.” Verse 7 — this verse is to those who have the gift of communication, those who are going to be the hub of the wheel, those who are going to be the source for all super-grace believers in any generation. All super-grace believers are like spokes in a wheel, and the source of their super-grace is the faithful teaching of some pastor. No believer ever grows up unless he gets under the ministry of his own pastor-teacher. “For” is the post positive conjunctive particle gar used here as an explanatory conjunction. It delineates the conditions under which the gift of pastor-teacher must function. It explains how a pastor remains normal. “God” is o( qeoj — “the God.” God the Father, author of the divine plan, is the source the pastor’s authority without which no man could ever stay in the ministry. The only reason a person does stay in the ministry is because of who and what God is. The issue is relationship with God. The pastor is directly responsible to and answerable to God for the function of his gift. “hath not given” — the aorist active indicative of didomi plus the strong negative o)uk. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. It is used for a state which has just been realised by the reader. A pastor can neither cater to people nor be afraid of people. The gift of pastor-teacher demands moral courage above and beyond the ordinary courage and integrity of life. No pastor can protect a congregation and be a coward. The active voice plus the negative indicates the fact that God has made no provision for cowards in the ministry. The indicative mood is declarative for historical and dogmatic reality. There is no place in the ministry for cowards. “us” — dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw. It is in the plural because there is more than one legitimate pastor in any given generation. The active voice plus the negative indicates that God has made no provision for cowards in the ministry. The indicative mood is declarative for dogmatic reality. “the spirit of fear” — the word “spirit” is the direct object of pneuma. Pneuma means something besides spirit. It means breath, sometimes to the human spirit, sometimes to the Holy Spirit, sometimes to life in general. Here it means the life or the state of mind. Then we have a descriptive genitive from the noun deilia which means “cowardice” — “a life of cowardice.” “but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast between the negative cowardice and the positive power; “of power” — a descriptive genitive singular from the noun dunamij which means inner power. The inherent or inner power here refers to Bible doctrine. The primary reason for the pastor possessing so much authority is doctrine — teaching doctrine, learning doctrine. Above all else a man who is in the pastorate must be a man of doctrine, it must be #1 priority in his life. “and love” refers to another inner power. It is a)gaph which means a relaxed mental attitude which comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit. It means a relaxed mental attitude toward people. Cf Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22. Power + love = doctrine + the filling of the Spirit. The positive side of this verse, therefore, describes the balance of residency in the soul. The filling of the Holy Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul [balance of residency] results from great self-discipline which is mistranslated here “soundness of mind.” “and of a sound mind” — descriptive genitive from a compound noun, swfronismoj. It means self-control or self-discipline, not sound mind alone. The meaning of a word is determined by its usage and this word is used in the sense of self-discipline. Translation: “For the God has not given to us [pastors] a state of mind of cowardice; but of power [maximum doctrine in the soul], and of love [filling of the Spirit], and of self-discipline.” Suddenly the message changes from the self-discipline of the function of GAP to the greatest subject in the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In verses 8-11 we have the principle of not being ashamed of Christ. Verse 8 — the relationship between category #1 and category #3 love. “Be not thou therefore ashamed” — the inferential enclitic particle o)un, correctly translated “therefore.” It is introduced as an inference from what precedes. We have an aorist passive subjunctive from e)paisxunomai which means to be ashamed. With the accusative it means to be ashamed of something. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. With the negative mh it indicates “not ashamed of Jesus Christ” who went to the cross and was judged for our sins, who handed us the regimental colours of doctrine in departing from this life, who was raised the third day, who ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father, at which point He received His battlefield royalty; and therefore this explains why we are royal family — union with Him, we are the royal family resulting from His battlefield royalty. So it gathers up into one entirety the attitude of any super-grace believer toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever He is contemplated, whenever He comes into the memory centre of the soul, there is no shame there of any kind. There is no being ashamed when you have maximum doctrine in the soul. Why is Paul not ashamed of Christ? Because in His soul he has maximum doctrine. If he didn’t have that doctrine he would be, that is a part of the angelic conflict. A very short time ago Timothy was ashamed of Christ because he was in reversionism. This is the natural thinking of the reversionist. The passive voice here: the subject Timothy receives the action of the verb. As a reversionist he was ashamed, but with the negative and recovering from reversionism he is not ashamed. The subjunctive mood indicates the potentialities of this which no longer exist. “Therefore do not be ashamed.” In view of Timothy’s reversion recovery, in view of the fact that Timothy has now become a super-grace believer, in view of the point of doctrine that super-grace believers are spiritual Atlases carrying their generation of history, in view of the fact that Timothy is a third-generation super-grace believer now, he must never again be ashamed of the Lord, nor of his friend Paul. “of the testimony of our Lord” — this includes the accusative singular direct object from marturion which does not mean martyr, it means evidence given in court. If you understand “Call the next witness” as a technical courtroom word, then witness is all right, but it is someone who gives a witness or a deposition. The marturion is a person who speaks, he communicates information about a case now under trial in court. The one who speaks or the marturion is the pastor communicating doctrine. The congregation listens and judges, and accepts or rejects. Do not be ashamed of the evidence. “Of our Lord” is the descriptive genitive of kurioj, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ — “of our Lord” or “with reference to our Lord.” In other words, don’t be ashamed of doctrinal teaching. So this in a sense is a prohibition related to the numerous doctrines that are taught concerning our Lord. The prohibition implies that during his time of reversionism Timothy was ashamed of Christ, and now all of this has changed. So in affect Paul is saying, Never get back into reversionism again, never neglect doctrine. When you neglect the evidence then you become ashamed of the person. So the prohibition emphasises the fact that Timothy must refrain from any future apostasy because he has a job to do now that he is back in super-grace, he is to hold up the next generation. “nor of me his prisoner” — Paul has been severely criticised and he is now ostracised by Roman society. Pseudo love would shy away from Paul. No one ever takes a step forward without having the step challenged. The subtlety of the challenges may not be recognised. “but” is the adversative conjunction a)lla, it sets up the contrast. How do you meet the challenge? “be thou partaker” — aorist active imperative from sugkakopaqew, composed of the preposition sun which means “with,” the adjective kakoj for evil, and paqew is from the verb pasxw to suffer. It means to suffer evil with [Paul] — “to join with me in suffering evil.” If you are going to hold up the world in your generation you are going to suffer from the world. The word throws at you the worst pressure possible — evil. Paul is pressurised by evil. When you advance up that hill to super-grace you are going to face evil. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist in which the action of the verb is contemplated as beginning. It means “begin to join me, now is the time.” It denotes the entrance into a status of expressing category #3 love toward Paul, category #1 love toward the Lord, and facing the same pressure that all super-grace believers face. Evil is the great enemy of the super-grace believer. The active voice: Timothy will produce the action of the verb through being under the pressure from evil. The imperative mood is a command. “of the afflictions” is not found in the original manuscript. “of the gospel” is a dative singular of reference — e)uaggelion means “with reference to the gospel.” Evil is not only opposed to the gospel but any manifestation of grace in history. The greatest historical manifestation of grace is the gospel and one’s attitude toward the gospel is one’s attitude toward grace. But remember that Satan and all of the fallen angels and all unbelievers have an attitude toward the gospel, and the attitude represents some facet of evil. “according to the power of God” — the preposition kata plus the accusative singular of dunamij which means inherent power, it is used for the omnipotence of God. The gospel is the manifestation of God’s perfect power. God offers everyone something free. Satan in his gross pride is opposed to such genius. Evil is the accumulation of Satanic arrogance, arrogance is angels and man which reject the gospel, reject what God has provided free. Since the gospel is doctrine obviously it will be opposed by evil. We also have the possessive genitive of qeoj minus the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the high and perfect quality of God. Translation: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the evidence with reference to our Lord, nor me his prisoner; but join with me in suffering evil with reference to the gospel according to the power of God.” Verse 9 — this verse is to make us realise that not only were we saved by grace but we are to live by grace. And not only are we living by grace but we are to grow in grace, and that means in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour. So the orientation to grace begins in this verse. There is an immediate question. What is the super-grace believer? James 4:6 tell us that God gives not “more grace,” as it is stated in the KJV, but meizona xarin which is actually two accusatives. One is the accusative singular direct object from a comparative adjective called megaj. Megaj means great. The comparative meizona means greater. With it is the object of the verb didomi, and with it is the accusative singular direct object of the noun xarij. This should be translated “greater grace.” Since grace in itself is an absolute the only thing that is greater than grace is super-grace. The only way you can glorify God is for God to take blessings which were designed for you in eternity past and give them to you in time. We God can bless you in time in the devil’s world, then God is glorified. He provides these for the super-grace believer. The super-grace believer is not the believer who has done something but he is the one who consistently takes in doctrine until he has his cup running over. He has doctrine and God fills his cup with blessings. These blessings are designed totally apart from the Satanic system. ` It all starts with a great principle found here: “Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling.” Not only were we saved but we were saved for a purpose which is called here “a holy calling.” “Who hath saved us” — descriptive genitive singular from the definite article, which is an articular participle, plus the aorist active participle of swzw which refers here to eternal salvation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action when the individual believes in Jesus Christ. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the action of the verb, which took place here in less than one second. In one instant of time you believed in Jesus Christ. The active voice: God does the saving. We also have an accusative plural direct object from the person pronoun e)gw which refers here to Timothy and to Paul… “and called us.” So we have “The one having saved us,” and next it is going to say, “the one having called us.” So we anticipate this personal pronoun e)gw twice. “The one” is the definite article referring to God. E)gw is the word “us” and it refers to a specific kind of believer. All believers are saved and all believers are called, but in this context Paul is a super-grace believer and Timothy is a super-grace believer and therefore a certain kind of believer is involved. All grace orientation begins with salvation. No one ever reaches super-grace without a thorough understanding of soteriology. “The one having saved us” is a circumstantial aorist participle. He saved us in the moment of time we believed. In that particular moment the constative aorist says that He provided salvation. We believed; He saved us. He also called us, but “called” will go back to eternity past. In eternity past God knew that we would believe in time, and therefore He provided for us a tremendous blessing. There are three basic principles that we must understand: redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. These are the three directional principles of soteriology. Each one goes in a different direction and each one summarises a part of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We will summarise the word “redemption” by saying it means to purchase from a slave market. All of the Greek words have a simple basic connotation. They all point out the fact that the person is shackled in a slave market. Only slaves are in the slave market. And someone comes along and purchases his freedom. That is what redemption means, to buy someone from slave market and then to free them. So by way of definition, redemption is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross which is directed toward sin. When Christ was on the cross His saving work went in three directions: toward God, toward man, toward sin. Redemption covers the principle of sin. The point is that the human race was born with a sin nature. We aren’t sinners because we sin, that is merely a result. We are sinners because when we were born into this world we had an old sin nature. We are in the slave market of sin because we were born with this old sin nature, we acquired it from our first parents. We are also born with the imputation of Adam’s sin, we are born with an old sin nature. So while we are physically alive at birth we are also at the same time spiritually dead, we are in the slave market. We are slaves to the old sin nature. No one with an old sin nature can help someone else get out of the slave market. The only way to get out is to have someone who is free buy their freedom. That someone is Christ. First of all, the virgin birth brought Him into the world minus the old sin nature, minus the imputation of Adam’s sin. Therefore, by living a perfect life He was qualified to go to the cross and to bear the sins of the world. The purchase price for freedom is to take the sins of everyone who ever lived and have them all poured out upon Christ on the cross, and there He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. That is called redemption, they way that we are purchased. The fact that Christ bore the sins of everyone who ever lived doesn’t mean that they are out of the slave market. They have to walk through the gate, and they walk through the gate by faith in Jesus Christ. Redemption, then, is the work of Christ on the cross toward sin. Redemption is the saving act of Christ by which He purchases our freedom from the slave market of sin, and the coin of the realm is called the blood of Christ. Jesus Christ, then, is the only qualified redeemer. The qualification begins with the virgin birth of Christ, His impeccability, and His humanity therefore is qualified. Romans 5:19 tells us that Christ was also willing to redeem us; Philippians 2:8,9. The blood of Christ is the ransom money — Ephesians 1:7. The doctrine of reconciliation is the work of Christ from the cross toward man. It merely recognises the fact that there is a great barrier between man and God. The barrier is made up of sin — “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The penalty of sin is death, spiritual death — Romans 6:23. The barrier contains also the problem of physical birth, we are born physically alive but at the same time is spiritually dead. And this barrier includes some other problems. There is the problem of relative righteousness. Man at his best is minus righteousness (-R); God is (+R), and -R cannot have fellowship with +R. There is the problem of the character of God. God has perfect character, man does not. How can man have a relationship when he doesn’t have eternal life. Then there is the problem of position in Adam. There is no way to get past this barrier. That is what religion tries to do. Religion tries to build up a system of works so you can climb over the wall, of to build up a system of works that digs you under the wall, or find a crack in the wall where you can help God! So, once again, the great issue is grace. The one who has saved us is strictly the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the one who has removed every item in the barrier. The problem of sin was solved on the cross — doctrines of unlimited atonement, redemption. The penalty of sin was paid — doctrine of expiation. Physical birth — the cross provides for the basis for spiritual birth. The problem of relative righteousness is solved by the imputation of divine righteousness to the person who believes in Christ — imputation and justification. The problem of the character of God is solved by propitiation. Position in Adam is solved by position in Christ. And now between God and man there is no barrier, the barrier is removed by the cross and man, therefore, can simply step over the line by believing in Jesus Christ. This work of Christ on the cross is said to be manward, Christ has reconciled man to God on the cross. The third factor is propitiation, and propitiation is Godward. The problem is, how can a loving God give eternal life to man who is a sinner. The only way this can be accomplished is by some to go to the cross who has an equivalent righteousness to the Father. That someone is Jesus Christ, who in His deity and in His humanity is perfect. The justice of God says the wages of sin is death so Christ pays that penalty on the cross. That is spiritual death. Therefore the sins of the world are poured out upon Christ on the cross and judged. So the righteousness of Christ on the cross satisfies the righteousness of the Father. Bearing our sins satisfies the justice of the Father. The wages of sin was paid on the cross — Romans 5:8. That is spiritual death, taking our place. Now love and eternal life are free to come through the grace pipe to man, but only by way of the cross. God the Father is propitiated, He is free to express His love to the believer, He is free to give the believer eternal life and not compromise His righteousness and His justice. That is propitiation. Righteousness and justice are not compromised in giving eternal life to any member of the human race who will believe in Jesus Christ. We have three different principles here, all of them are tied up in the phrase “the one having saved us.” “and called us” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai, plus the aorist active participle from the verb kalew, the ordinary Greek word which means to call. It also has a technical meaning, it means to call for the participation in the privileges and the benefits of something. The privileges and the benefits here refer to grace, and so it is a call related to the privileges and the benefits of grace. It is translated, “and called us” or “and elected us.” We have the aorist tense in this verb always meaning an invitation, that is, and invitation here to privilege and blessing. God wants us to have the best of everything in life, and nothing short of the best will do. He designed our life in eternity past with that in mind. So we have another advance in the sense that this verb connotes the entire doctrine of election is designed to remind us that since we are believers in Jesus Christ God has a purpose for our life. That purpose is blessing. We are invited to enter a plan, to enjoy its benefits, its privileges, and the way it functions under grace. Kalew: The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist tense which states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The present reality is the fact that salvation means sharing the election of Jesus Christ and being members of the royal family of God forever. There is another factor which is emphasised and it has to do with election. We have an invitation to enter into the plan of God and to enjoy its privileges and benefits. The invitation also has an alternative, not mentioned here, is divine discipline in time. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb in eternity past when He planned election as a part of operation grace. This is what is called a telic participle, it denotes the purpose of God the Father in the royal family of God. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb and the main verb in this verse will be “not being ashamed.” Inasmuch as we have been called we have been elected, we are not to be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ, the key to our election, the key to the invitation into a plan of blessing and benefit. “with an holy calling” — this really means a holy election. We have the locative singular from the adjective a(gioj. It is a counterpart to the word “saint.” Every believer is a saint by virtue of being in the plan, and therefore there is an adjective attached to each one of us, we are all called holy. The word “holy” actually refers to being set apart in the plan of God. Once you believe in Jesus Christ you are holy, you are set apart into the plan of God. That is what the locative of sphere is all about. With this adjective we have the noun translated “calling.” It is the locative of sphere from the noun klhsij. Klhsij has two meanings in this particular verse. It means a station of life. It also means technically election, which is our station in life. So we can translate, “and having elected us to a holy station of life,” i.e. into the royal family of God. The doctrine of election 1. The etymology. The Hebrew word from Isaiah is bachir. It is found in Isaiah 42:1, one of the key principles in understanding the doctrine of election. If you understand election you can understand predestination. There are three nouns in the Greek that are directly and correctly translated election in the New Testament. The first is e)klektoj. This is where we get the English word “election.” It is found in Matthew 24:22,24,31 where it is used for super-grace believers in the Tribulation. It is used for all believers in Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 1 Timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:2, and other passages. There is a noun which also occurs once, suneklektoj, meaning there are others in the plan with us — 1 Peter 5:13. The third noun which is directly translated “election” is e)klogh — e)k means out from; logh is from logoj, the word: “out from the word,” and it emphasises the doctrine of election as related to toe doctrine of decrees. It is found in Romans 11:5,7.28; 1 Thessalonians 1:4. In addition, there is the noun which is usually translated “calling” but often is technically used for election — klhsij. It is derived from the verb kalew meaning to call or to be invited into a plan for benefit. 2. Definition. There are several principles: a) Election is that doctrine which relates the believer to the plan of God from eternity past. God knew in eternity past that you would believe in Christ and He did something about it long before you existed. b) Therefore election is a part of the divine decrees. c) God had omniscience, always has omniscience, and there never was and never will be in history any person who was unknown to God in eternity past. There never was a time when He did not know you personally and every decision you would ever make from your free will. He knew every person who would believe in Christ, He knew every person who would not. For those He knew would believe in Christ he made plans for them. Every blessing was designed for you in eternity past. d) These plans are called decrees. They include provision, blessing, honour for believers in time and believers in eternity. Therefore election is defined as the plan of God for the believer predesigned in eternity past, fulfilled in time and in the eternal future. That is election. The key to understanding the doctrine of election is related to the fact that Jesus Christ was elected in eternity past — Isaiah 42:1. God the Father anticipated everything that Christ would need for the first advent and provided it then. God the Father can do no less for you, you are in union with Christ, you share His election. The election of the believer in the Church Age is different from the election of the Old testament saints because we are royal family. The Old Testament believers were family of God, they were regenerated, they were born again when they believed in Christ. But once Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father and was appointed battlefield royalty, at that moment He was minus a royal family. So the Age of Israel came to a halt and the age of the Church began in order to call out a royal family of God. We are royal family of God, that is why the baptism of the Spirit occurs only in this dispensation, and that is the mechanics by which we share His election and become royal family forever. 3. The election of Jesus Christ — Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4,6. While man rejected Christ during His first advent He is elected and He is important to God. Christ is described as elected and held in honour. Therefore the election principle from eternity past not only sustains Christ but He is said to be the elected one, He is also said to be the one who is held in honour. This means that if you are in union with Christ that God can hold you in no less honour. In the doctrine of election God doesn’t hold us in honour, He holds Jesus Christ in honour — just one person. There are millions of believers now and because Christ is held in honour, and because God the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ at the point of salvation, we are held in the same honour as Christ. That is election. So it is inevitable, therefore, that members of the royal family of God share this election through union with Christ. This is the subject of Ephesians 1:3-6. Essentially, election is being in union with Christ and sharing everything that Christ is. This is Christianity, not religion. 4. Election is the basis for Church Age royalty. At the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit is responsible for five out of the thirty-six things which are accomplished. The first is regeneration. God the Holy Spirit is the agent in making us born again. The second is the baptism of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ. The third is indwelling whereby God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell our bodies. The fourth is sealing whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption, the day of our resurrection bodies. That means we have eternal security. The fifth is the presentation to each one of us of a spiritual gift. All of these are accomplished by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. So the baptism of the Spirit is the basis for election, for entrance into the royal status of the family of God. Therefore, 1 Corinthians 12:13 connected with 1 Thessalonians 1:4 tells us the whole story. 1 Cor. tells us the mechanics. Through resurrection, ascension, session, Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father. He became battlefield royalty but without a royal family. The royal family is in the process of formation, you are a part of that royal family. Mechanics: baptism of the Holy Spirit which never occurred before the Church Age and will never occur after the Rapture of the Church. The principle: Under positional sanctification we both share His election and His royalty. 5. The election of the royal family of God [Church Age believer]. Union with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit means that we share the election of Christ, we share the royalty of Christ. Therefore, every Church Age believer is designated “called, saint, elected” — all interchangeable. Ephesians 1:4. The principle of this election is found in Romans 8:28-32. This is election related to every member of the royal family of God. 6. The objective of election in time is to encourage the believer to attain the tactical victory of the super-grace life. Ephesians 4:1. Every time there is something about our station in life there is also something about our election. 7. The Jewish believers also present problem. Today there are many Jews who have not accepted Christ and the question comes up: Has Israel lost out? In saying no to that answer election is discussed in Romans 11:1-7. 8. Election is used for super-grace believers of the Tribulation — Matthew 24:21ff, “...because of the elect.” This tells us that those who are under the plan of election who fulfil it in time always reach super-grace. And when they do they become a basis of blessing to all who are in their periphery. In other words, it is the believer in super-grace fulfilling the principle of election who is the spiritual Atlas in any generation of history. “not according to our works” — just as salvation is not according to works our election, the plan of God for each one of us, is not works either. It is not what we do, it is what he did, and He did it in eternity past. We have “not,” the strong negative o)uk, plus the preposition kata, plus the accusative plural of e)rgon, plus the possessive genitive plural from the personal pronoun e)gw. This refers to all believers in this dispensation. The plan, operation grace, excludes all human good, all legalism. There is no place in the plan of God for human ability, human merit, human planning, human good of any kind. “our works” — “our” is a possessive genitive plural. This anticipates the noun proqesij which means the plan purpose of God for each believer. In this plan all human thinking, all human merit is totally excluded. This is the word translated “purpose” — predetermined plan, prefabricated plan. We have, again, the preposition kata and the object is proqesij. “his own” — the adjective i)dioj which means privacy, private possession: “but according to his own privately possessed, predetermined plan.” God has a predetermined plan for each believer. As you grow in grace and as you take in doctrine this plan unfolds in terms of blessing, in terms of being able to cope with any disaster or any situation in life. “and grace” — the ascensive use of kai should be translated “even.” That means that whatever comes up after “predetermined plan” it has a synonym. That synonym is the word xarij, the accusative singular object of the preposition. The preposition kata has two objects: proqesij, the predetermined plan, and xarij which should be translated “even grace” — “but according to his own predetermined plan, even grace.” Grace is a simple title for the plan of God. Grace is not only the principle of the plan of God but the title, the concept, the mechanics. The doctrine of grace 1. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His love to mankind without jeopardising the rest of His essence. Grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s talent, man’s planning, man’s concepts. Grace, then, in one word is the absolute genius of God, and doctrine is the manifestation of that genius. The great enemy of grace is legalism, man’s intrusion into the plan of God with his works, with his thinking, with his ability, with his plans, with his schemes, and with his talents. The believer must learn to sort out the difference between grace and legalism. 2. Grace and the new contract for the Church. The Church is the royal family of God and is not under the Old Testament contracts of which there are several. We have a new covenant, not an old covenant. The glorification of Christ by resurrection, ascension and session is the strategic victory in the angelic conflict. This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish Age in order that the royal family of God might be formed to commemorate that victory. The royal family is formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. The new covenant or the new contract to the Church is related to Bible doctrine in the field of sanctification. Grace found a way to take man, created inferior to angels, and make him superior. This is accomplished in the three phases of sanctification. The first of these is called positional sanctification. The greatest thing that God the Father can do for any one of us is to make a believer in Jesus Christ exactly like His Son, Jesus Christ. This is accomplished through positional truth at the point of salvation. God the Holy Spirit takes each believer and enters him into union with Christ. Positional sanctification is the beginning of God’s great plan whereby we are going to be made exactly like His Son. Positionally we are in union with His Son. This provides for royalty plus the fact that each member of the royal family is positionally higher than angels. This is grace, we do not earn it or deserve it. In addition the royal family possesses the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is the royal escutcheon, the sign of our royalty. Experiential sanctification is the second paragraph of the new covenant to the Church. This, again, is strictly grace provision. God in His grace has provided numerous things for our tactical victory: the principle of living grace by which the believer remains alive in the devil’s world; the provision of a pastor-teacher — something that every believer has, either by tape recorder or face to face; local churches; the canon of scripture; the provision of a grace system for perception of doctrine. Experiential sanctification is the attainment of spiritual maturity, the perpetuation of super-grace status through constant positive volition toward Bible doctrine. This tactical victory compliments the strategic victory of Jesus Christ and therefore makes it possible for each one of us in the devil’s world to glorify God. Ultimate sanctification is the third paragraph in the new covenant to the Church, it deals with eternity. The royal family of God receives a resurrection body exactly like that of Jesus Christ and becomes physically superior to angels forever. This occurs when the royal family is completed — the Rapture of the Church. 3. There are five stages of grace, five stages involved in God’s plan. The first is saving grace. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3. The tasting of grace is called the point of salvation at which we receive 36 irrevocable grace items which cannot be cancelled or destroyed. Because of propitiation every believer comes under the maximum love of God — 1 John 2:2. Maximum love frees God to pour out maximum grace. But grace can only benefit where there is capacity for grace. This is based on the amount of doctrine resident in the believer’s soul. The believer is saved by grace which is all the Trinity has done to accomplish salvation. The Father planned it, the Son executed it, the Holy Spirit reveals it. Next is the principle of living grace which has already been noted — all that God is free to do for the believer to keep him alive in the devil’s world in phase two. The third stage of grace is super-grace and/or spiritual maturity in time. In 1 Timothy 1:14 the super-grace believer is described as having an abundant life. Super-grace is the adult stage of life on this earth for the believer, the ultimate in spiritual growth in time and the basis for the normal function of the royal priesthood. It is also the point at which production becomes effective for the Lord. Super-grace is the sphere of life in which the royal family reaps what God sows in eternity past, therefore the fulfilment of Romans 8:28. Super-grace is described by James 4:6 — “He gives greater [super] grace.” Ephesians 1:6 — God pursues us with grace. The fourth stage is dying grace. This is for the super-grace believer only. The person who is negative toward doctrine goes out under the sin unto death. The worst experience that a believer can have is the sin unto death. The super-grace believer has the antithesis, he makes the transition from time to eternity through great blessing. Dying becomes a greater blessing than anything in his life. Dying grace, then, is the experience of physical death under special grace provision whereby death becomes a tremendous blessing. The principle of dying grace links the super-grace believer of time with the surpassing grace believer of eternity. Therefore dying grace is the extension of the whole grace principle. We can’t earn or deserve great blessing in dying, it comes to those who are in super-grace, it comes through doctrine but it comes through a principle we can neither earn nor deserve. Cf. Philippians 1:20,21. 4. The modus vivendi of grace. It becomes obvious that grace is a means to many things. Grace is a means of growth — 2 Peter 3:18, we are commanded to grow in grace. Grace is the basis for stability — Hebrews 13:9; 1 Peter 5:12; Hebrews 12:28. Grace is the basis for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1. 5. The failure to utilise grace. Reversionism is basically the way of describing failure to utilise grace. It is described briefly in two passages — Galatians 5:4, drifting off course from grace; Hebrews 12:15. 6. The principle of grace in suffering. There is no disaster, no difficulty, no tragedy, no heartache in this life too great for the super-grace believer — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. 7. The principle of axioms of grace. a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect. b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from a perfect source — perfect God. c) If mankind can do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect. Man is imperfect, therefore if he contributes anything to the plan of God the plan of God is neutralised by his contribution, not advanced. d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in grace. e) Grace excludes all human merit and ability, all human good and legalism, all self-righteousness and arrogance. f) Legalism is the enemy of grace. There is no place for legalism in the plan of God. g) All legalism and human good is associated with the principle of arrogance or pride, and arrogance is also the great enemy of grace. 8. Four areas in which arrogance rejects grace. a) The pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. He thinks that his sins are greater than the grace of God. b) Pride of the believer who succumbs to the pressure of adversity. He thinks that his sufferings and his adversities are greater than the plan of God — 2 Corinthians 12:7. c) The pride of the reversionist. He assumes that his form of reversionism is greater than super-grace blessing. He assumes that the pseudo blessings that Satan provides are greater than anything that God could provide, and therefore until he is very close to death or under intense discipline he never gives doctrine a thought. d) The pride of pseudo spirituality. This believer thinks that his system of energy of the flesh spirituality is greater than the true function of God the Holy Spirit in the life. In his arrogance he becomes a holy roller, becomes involved in observing certain taboos, in various categories of legalism. “which was given us” — accusative singular of the definite article used as a relative pronoun, and it refers to grace, plus the aorist passive participle of the verb didomi. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views grace in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the believer becoming the beneficiary of grace in time. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. We also have the dative plural of advantage from the personal pronoun e)gw referring to Paul the human writer, Timothy the recipient, and all super-grace believers. It is translated, “which has been given us.” “in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative of I)hsouj and Xristoj. “before the world began” — the preposition pro plus the genitive plural of xronoj, plus a genitive plural from a)iwn — “before the times of the ages [dispensations].” This is an idiom which means before human history began. Translation: “The one having saved us, and having elected the royal family into the holy station of life, not according to our works, but according to his own predetermined plan, even grace, which has been given to us in Christ Jesus before human history.” Verse 10 — “But is now made manifest” is a Greek phrase beginning with an aorist passive participle from the verb fanerow. It is correctly translated to be manifest, to be visible, to become known, or to be revealed. We will use the verb to reveal here. “But at the present time grace has been revealed” is the concept for grace is the subject of this particular passage. The culminative aorist tense of the verb views the first advent in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, namely the strategic victory which gives us a special meaning and definition to our own lives. The passive voice: the predetermined plan of God, even grace, receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. With this we have a post positive conjunctive particle de used as a conjunction of contrast. The contrast emphasised is the fact that the plan of God was prepared in eternity past as a part of the divine decrees but revealed in time by the first advent of Christ. In other words, the whole key to the divine decrees is that in eternity past God the Son agreed to become man and to come into the world. The entire detailed plan for the first advent, including all provision for the Son in hypostatic union, was made in eternity past. This sets up a parallel because at a point of time you received Christ as saviour and yet the provision for you, as for the Son, was made in eternity past. All of this is brought together by the culminative aorist of fanerow which means to be revealed. We also have an adverb of time here, nun, which means now or at the present time. When this is all put together it should read: “But at the present time grace has been revealed.” The revelation of God’s grace is based upon the pattern of Jesus Christ at the first advent. “by the appearing” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of e)pifaneia, correctly translated “through the appearance.” This is a reference to the first advent of Jesus Christ which both resolves the angelic conflict, as per Hebrews 1, and provides eternal salvation for mankind, as per Hebrews 10:5-14. Grace or the plan of God is revealed in a very specific way through the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. “of our saviour” — this definitely refers to the first advent rather than to some of the previous appearances or appearances after the first advent. It helps us to tell us which of the four categories of appearances of Christ is involved here — Theophany, first advent, Christophany, or second advent. This category is easy to identify here because we have the descriptive genitive singular of the noun swthr which describes the primary objective of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first advent — getting to the cross and providing a complete salvation: redemption toward sin; propitiation toward God; reconciliation toward man. The word “our” is a possessive genitive plural from the personal pronoun e)gw indicating the fact that people are saved in every generation, including the one in which Paul wrote. “Jesus Christ” — the Greek says “Christ Jesus,” the genitive of apposition Xristoj. The reason that “Christ” comes before “Jesus” is because the passage is dealing with appearances, is dealing with chronology, and Xristoj comes before I)hsouj because in the order of the royal of Jesus Christ He is Jewish royalty before He is battlefield royalty. The order of His royalty — category #1, divine royalty, title: Son of God; royal family: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. Category #2, Jewish royalty, title: Son of David; royal family, the entire family of David, including his contemporaries, step brothers and step sisters. Category #3, battlefield royalty, title, King of kings and Lord of lords; royal family, the Church. This is all chronological. Xtistoj is used because it is equivalent to Messiah and indicates that Jesus Christ is the one anointed King, as David was before Him. The word for divine royalty is kurioj, “Lord,” which doesn’t occur in the passage. I)hsouj actually refers to the battlefield royalty, the cross and the subsequent events which resulted in battlefield royalty. He came to defeat Satan by the cross, resurrection, ascension and session where He was appointed battlefield royalty. He came to provide eternal salvation. So out of the four categories of appearances of Christ this passage refers to category #2 which is the field of the first advent. Theophany refers to the appearances of our Lord in many ways in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared primarily in Theophany as Malak Adonai, “Angel of Jehovah.” A Theophany is any appearance of Christ before the first advent and must be distinguished from Christophany which is an appearance of Christ in resurrection body after the first advent. “who hath abolished” — the aorist active participle of katargew which means to cancel, to render useless or powerless, to abrogate, to abolish, to wipe out, to make ineffective, to release from the association of one thing from another. With it is the Greek affirmative particle men plus the correlative use of de, which means on the one hand and on the other. The aorist active participle is an aorist which is a little different from the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it is a reference to the doctrine of expiation in which Jesus Christ released mankind from association with spiritual death. We were born in association with spiritual death because we were born possessing an old sin nature and the imputation of Adam’s sin. We are released from association with death the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. “death” is the accusative singular direct object from the noun qanatoj, referring to spiritual death. Next we have the particle de which means “and on the other hand.” “hath brought to light” — the aorist active participle from fwtizw which means to illuminate” : “he has illuminated.” This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the illumination of eternal life and immortality in its entirety but it emphasises it from the viewpoint of existing results. Life and immortality are illuminated by the death and resurrection of Christ. The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb by illuminating eternal life and immortality. Eternal life is revealed by the cross; immortality was revealed by resurrection. So the death and resurrection of Christ are put together here. “life” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun zwh, used here for eternal life — 1 John 5:11,12 helps to explain this: “The deposition is this, that God has given to us eternal life and this life resides in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God does not have life.” Cf John 1:4; 14:6; 20:31. Eternal life was always there but we couldn’t see it. The cross illuminated it. “and immortality” — accusative direct object from the noun a)fqarsia — not spoil, corrupt. When the negative is added it means incorruptible: “not corruptible” or “immortality” as translated. This immortality is explained in terms of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:33. Immortality means a believer in a resurrection body. “through the gospel” — dia plus the genitive of e)uaggelion which means gospel or good news. The gospel is the means of communicating the work of Christ on the cross, plus His resurrection, ascension and session. The gospel communicates the strategic victory of the angelic conflict as well as the way of salvation for mankind. As a result of the first advent and as a result of breaking the back of Satan at the cross we now have the angelic conflict shifting gears, and this is the most intense phase of the angelic conflict. Translation: “But at the present time grace has been revealed through the appearance of our saviour Christ Jesus, who on the one hand released us from association with spiritual death, and on the other hand has illuminated eternal life and immortality through the gospel.” This brings us to the fact that if all of the objectives, including the one implied by illumination, are to be accomplished there must be communication for illumination. No communication, no illumination. Principles 1. The strategic victory of Jesus Christ brings the Jewish dispensation to a sudden halt. 2. With Christ seated at the right hand of the Father He was appointed battlefield royalty (the great unseen conflict, the angelic conflict). 3. In this category of royalty Christ has the title of King of kings and Lord of lords but he does not have a royal family. In all other categories He has a royal family. 4. Therefore because He has not royal family the dispensation of Israel is halted and the Church Age begins to call out and form a royal family for battlefield royalty of Christ. 5. The interruption of the Jewish Age to form the royal family of God demands the communication of doctrine to that same royal family or Church Age believer. 6, Therefore three categories emerge from the completed canon of scripture. Category #1, the communicator. The pastor teacher who is responsible for teaching Bible doctrine to the royal family of God during the Church Age. There are no prophets in this dispensation after the completion of the canon of scripture, the pastor is the communicator. Category #2, the reversionistic believer. This category is negative toward doctrine. Inasmuch as the great issue of this dispensation is attitude toward doctrine it is not surprising that all categories who resist Bible doctrine are found under this one principle of reversionism. Category #3, the super-grace believer. He is positive toward doctrine on a consistent basis. 7. All three categories demand the transfer of Bible doctrine from the page of the Bible to the soul of the believer. 8. This can only be accomplished by authorised communicators. 9. Authorised communication is based upon the possession of the pertinent communication gift. Verse 11 — “Whereunto” is the preposition e)ij plus the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j. This should be translated “For which purpose.” For the purpose of communicating doctrine, for the purpose of tactical victory complementing the strategic victory of Christ, for the purpose of spiritual growth, for the purpose of fulfilling the very purpose for which all of us remain in this life, there must be communicators. “I am appointed” — aorist passive indicative of the verb tiqhmi. The aorist tense here can be translated like a perfect, “I have been appointed.” The constative aorist refers to a momentary action, the moment in which Paul believed in Christ God the Holy Spirit assigned to him the communication gifts of apostleship and pastor. The passive voice: Paul received the action of the verb in a moment of time at his salvation. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality. “a preacher” — there is no such thing as a preacher. The word here is the accusative singular direct object from the noun khruc which is the word for a herald, the communicator for a king. A pastor-teacher is a herald, a communicator for the King. The King is Jesus Christ. Khruc means the one who communicates for royalty. The official communicators of Bible doctrine are divided into two categories corresponding with the two phases of the Church Age — the pre-canon period of the Church and the post-canon period. The pre-canon period was from 30-97 AD; the post-canon period is from 96 AD to the Rapture, whenever it occurs. In the pre-canon period there were apostles and pastor-teachers, in the post-canon period there are only pastor-teachers. “and a teacher” — predicate nominative from didaskaloj. This word has quite a significant meaning. It carries a tremendous amount of weight, much more than appears on the surface. It actually means a communicator to a group of people. It means the communicator has authority and the group has none in the system of communication. The pastor must have complete authority as well as the proper spiritual gift and didaskaloj means a communicator in a public assembly. The public assembly is the meaning of the local church. In keeping with the principle of privacy the believer assembles with other believers. The believer also has a name. The pastor is called didaskaloj and there is both and noun and a verb for the believer. The noun is maqhthj, mistranslated “disciple.” It means one who learns doctrine under discipline. The objective of the pastor’s teaching under authority is that the believer might grow in grace, that he might have a tremendous amount of doctrine in the soul producing the ECS and leading to the super-grace life. This is the concept of didaskaloj. “of the Gentiles” — this does not occur in the original text. Translation: “For which purpose I have been appointed a herald, being both an apostle and a teacher.” The principle of deposit analogies 1. The analogy to evangelism. In the ancient world they had a system of banking similar to what we have today. There were two types. One was related to the heathen temples. All heathen temples were places where you could deposit money and the priests also acted as bank tellers. In the second system, great merchant systems of the ancient world also acted as bankers and you could carry a letter of credit from Rome to almost any part of the empire and receive cash. In this way commerce was carried on within the confines of the Roman empire. Therefore the word “deposit” was quite a prominent word and was used very extensively. Our first deposit is found in an analogy to evangelism. It is found in Acts 17:2,3. The deposit of doctrine this time is the gospel. The analogy is used for anyone who evangelises on a personal basis — sometimes, and perhaps mistakenly, called witnessing. The word “witness” as used in the scripture really refers to the principle of testifying in a courtroom and presenting truth. Therefore it is used more for the function of the pastor-teacher in the scriptures than for any other particular function. Consequently witnessing is really a misnomer. It should be personal evangelism, mass evangelism; but whatever type of evangelism is actually being used there is the sense in which the true concept of evangelism is to make a deposit of the gospel in the soul of another person or persons gathered together. When you make a deposit of the gospel it is God the Holy Spirit who actually does the work of making that gospel reality and bringing about the decision. 2. The next analogy is directed toward both salvation and eternal security — 2 Timothy 1:12, “ … to preserve my deposit against that day.” Faith in Christ at salvation is the deposit. When we respond to the deposit of the gospel in our souls in a positive way we believe in Christ. Believing in Christ becomes the second deposit. This faith deposit is a total dependence upon the essence of God regarding salvation. Hence, the principle of eternal security emerges from this. The approach to eternal security, then, comes into view and there are ten legitimate approaches found in the scripture: a) The positional approach of Romans 8:38,39. At the moment of salvation we enter into union with Christ, and we never get out. b) The logical approach of Romans 8:32. This means that when you approach the cross you have the fact that God has provided the most at this point, and when you believe in Christ and become saved you have received at that point the most. The question arises, what more can God provide for you? The answer is much more than the most — Romans 5. That “much more than the most” includes eternal security. c) The metaphorical approach called the anthropomorphism of God’s hand — John 10:28; Psalm 37:24. d) The reversionistic approach — 2 Timothy 2:12,13. “If we are unfaithful [reversionistic, under the influence of evil] he remains faithful ...” e) The family approach — John 1:12; Galatians 3:26. At the moment we believe in Christ we enter into the family of God. We are born into God’s family and once we are born into a family there is nothing we can do about it, we are there forever. The analogy is carried over into the spiritual realm. f) The inheritance approach — 1 Peter 1:4,5. We have an inheritance which includes the fact that we are secure forever. g) The divine essence approach — 2 Peter 3:9, which describes the Lord as not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a change of mind. Repentance is used to describe that. This passages emphasises the sovereignty of God in eternal security. Jude 24 emphasises the omnipotence of God in eternal security, He has the power to keep us saved forever. h) The body approach — 1 Corinthians 12. All of us are pictured as members of a body. Christ is the head and we are the members. The differentiation of the members is based upon the concept of spiritual gifts. In Colossians 1:18 compared to 1 Corinthians 12:21 one of the great principles that is made is that the head, Jesus Christ, cannot say to any member of the body, I don’t need you. No matter how insignificant any member of the body may be there can never be such a statement from our Lord. i) The royal family approach — 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30. This is the sealing of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the sealing of the Holy Spirit at salvation is to guarantee eternal security. j) The Greek tense approach, using the imperfect tense of swzw in Ephesians 2:8,9. The corrected and more expanded translation should read: “For by grace you have been saved in the past, with the result that you keep on being saved forever through faith...” 3. The third deposit is actually related to the analogy to the function of GAP — Matthew 13:24, “… he deposited another parable with them, saying...” In other words, Jesus Christ in teaching the disciples was actually making a deposit. The same thing is found in 1 Timothy 1:18; 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14. The guarding of this deposit includes the continuation of the function of GAP or the perpetuation of the super-grace status in phase two. The guarding of this deposit means the avoidance of reversionism and the influence of evil. In the mechanics of GAP every positive believer, therefore, has his own right pastor who communicates doctrine to him. As this doctrine is communicated it is deposited, and the believer’s guardianship of the deposit means perpetuation of GAP. 4. The training of other pastors — 2 Timothy 2:1,2. Both the recognition of the gift of pastor-teacher and the preparation for using the gift are related to the function of GAP under the strict academic discipline of the local church. 5. The faith-rest technique during any type of adversity — 1 Peter 4:19. There are some principles involved in this analogy that are very important. For example, there is no suffering for the believer in eternity — Revelation 21:4. a) The devil’s world is unfair to the believer. b) While the reversionistic believer is sometimes blessed by the devil as the ruler of this world this is a point of disgrace and failure. It is disgraceful to be blessed by Satan as a believer. c) To be blessed by the devil is to be under maximum influence of evil in the soul. d) This is pseudo maturity and the devil’s answer to super-grace. e) The believer’s soul is the battleground for the angelic conflict. f) Consequently the ore positive a believer is toward doctrine the more pressure from Satan. g) This means that the super-grace believer sometimes endures maximum pressure from cosmos diabolicus. h) This requires maximum use of the deposit of doctrine in the soul. i) The faith-rest technique transfers doctrine from the soul to the adversities of life. j) In the maximum use of the faith-rest technique believers in undeserved suffering [i.e. according to the will of God] must deposit their souls with the Lord Jesus Christ who is a faithful creator, who has provided living grace, super-grace, dying grace, and surpassing grace. k) By depositing the soul with the Lord in time of maximum suffering and pressure the super-grace believer glorifies God in the production of divine good. l) This divine good so produced under suffering will receive maximum reward in eternity. m) Here, then, is the application of doctrine under pressure, that maximum use of the faith-rest technique which provides blessing in living, blessing in dying, blessing forever. n) This is a specific application to that principle enucleated in the following verses: Psalm 55:22 — “Cast what has been given to you [pressure, adversity, difficulty, trial, etc.] on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never allow the righteous [super-grace believer under pressure] to be shaken.” 1 Peter 5:5-7; 4:19. Verse 12 — our first deposit in context, the deposit of salvation. “For the which cause” is the preposition dia plus the accusative singular of a)itia, plus the accusative singular of the relative pronoun o(j — “For the which cause.” This is literally, “Because of which cause” but it comes to be a Greek idiom meaning “For this reason.” “I also suffer” — the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai plus the present active indicative of the verb pasxw. The present tense is a descriptive present, it indicates what is now going on. Paul is suffering through Nero and the Roman empire through his incarceration. The active voice is the causative active voice in which the subject, Paul, is related to the action through an intermediary means. This is equivalent to the hiphil stem in the Hebrew. This idiom is a device of intelligent expression and is a form common to most languages. It often arises from the use of an intransitive verb in a transitive sense. The indicative mood is declarative from the viewpoint of reality. It should be translated, “Also for this reason I am caused to suffer these things.” “these things” — accusative plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. This is the accusative direct object and it calls special attention to and emphasises the fact that Paul is a herald of the King of kings as noted in the previous verse. The accusative case refers to the various types of suffering associated with his incarceration. These sufferings, however, do not hinder the blessings of dying grace, nor in any way do they detract from Paul’s paragraph SG2. Both the spiritual and temporal blessings of Paul’s surpassing grace, as well as his super-grace, are not in any way jeopardised. The doctrine of suffering 1. The general causes for suffering in life — believers and unbelievers. a) Loss of health, wealth, property, money, loved ones, or anything that you value. b) Suffering from people. This includes gossip, ostracism, persecution, violence, crime, warfare. c) Privation — hunger, thirst, cold, heat, storm, earthquake and other natural disasters, accidents in any variety. d) Suffering from the administration of law — mostly to criminals. e) Mental suffering — from sins, pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, guilt reaction, neurosis or psychosis, worry, anxiety, fear, etc. f) Suffering from rejection of authority. This includes rejection of authority in love. When the woman rejects the authority of a man she suffers. Failure in adulthood because of rejection of authority in childhood. Being fired from a job because of rejection of authority. g) Suffering from reversionism resulting in reaping what you sow. 2. Basic categories of suffering. a) In time; b) In eternity. For time, we now begin to break up into the categories of the human race. The human race is divided into two categories by John 3:36, believers in Jesus Christ and rejecters of Jesus Christ. The unbeliever suffers in time for rejection of the laws of divine establishment. He suffers through reversionism and other factors of self-induced misery. The believer also suffers in time. In eternity the unbeliever suffers forever the most intense of all sufferings, the lake of fire forever — Revelation 20:12-15. There will be no suffering for the believer in eternity — Revelation 21:4. 3. The premise for Christian suffering. a) All suffering is designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 4:14. b) The exception is divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6, for carnality and for reversionism. c) The exception is removed — 1 Corinthians 11:31 — for carnality: rebound; for reversionism: recovery through the consistent function of GAP. d) Cursing is therefore turned to blessing — Romans 8:28. So the premise: All suffering is designed for blessing. The exception is divine discipline. Exception removed: the result is cursing turned to blessing. 4. The categories of Christian suffering. There are two types of Christian suffering: a) Disciplinary suffering, called deserved; b) Suffering for blessing, called undeserved. A. There are ten categories of deserved [disciplinary] suffering: a) Suffering from divine discipline [deserved] — Hebrews 12:6. This is the only way God can express His love to the carnal or reversionistic believer. For carnality — Psalm 38; for reversionism — Ecclesiastes. Psalm 38 was written by David after operation Bathsheba. He was a super-grace believer and he stayed a super-grace believer. What he did with Bathsheba was carnality, not reversionism. So he suffered a lot of discipline. In Psalm 38 he got around to rebounding which is how he broke out of carnality. This is a perfect illustration of divine discipline to a super-grace believer for his carnality. Suffering for reversionism is under a different system. There is warning discipline, sharp pains to let you know that something is not right. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” If that doesn’t work there is intense discipline. Then if that doesn’t work there is dying discipline — a horrible death. The entire book of Ecclesiastes is a perfect illustration of this type of discipline. b) Suffering by association. One has to be carnal, one has to be reversionistic, or both has to be reversionistic, or both have to be carnal. This is a principle found in 1 Corinthians 12:26; Romans 14:7, illustrated by 1 Samuel 21. c) Suffering caused by having the wrong priorities — again two illustrations: Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. d) Suffering from guilt complex. This is isolated from other mental attitude sins which also cause suffering because a guilt complex is compounded suffering that you bring on yourself by reacting to your own failures — 1 Timothy 1:5,6,19,20; 3:9; 4:1,2; Titus 1:15. e) Suffering through national discipline. Five cycles — Leviticus 26. Illustrations — Isaiah 33, 59; book of Hosea. f) Suffering from rejecting the principle of right man, right woman. This is the type of suffering that can continue for the rest of one’s life because he has married the wrong person. It can be suffering for blessing or suffering for cursing: doctrine or carnality and reversionism. Ezekiel 16,23; Jeremiah 12:7; 15:7-12, 17,18. g) Suffering from failure to isolate sin [chain sinning] — Hebrews 12:15. h) Suffering from temporary loss of grace norms [when you get into legalism] — Jeremiah 2:24,25. i) Suffering from historical disaster, war and revolution are two illustrations. j) Suffering from reversionism — Psalm 77. B. There are ten categories of suffering for blessing [undeserved suffering]. a) We often suffer to glorify God in the angelic conflict. There are other types of suffering for blessing that are related to it. Job; Luke 15:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17. This is a noble and honourable type of pressure. b) Suffering to learn self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8. Our Lord Jesus Christ put Himself under discipline — Philippians 2:8. c) Suffering to demonstrate the sufficiency of grace —2 Corinthians 12:1-10. d) Suffering to eliminate the occupational hazard of pride and arrogance, and to relate it to the sufficiency of grace. You can never become an arrogant person without suffering horribly. If the purpose of the suffering is to eliminate arrogance it is suffering for blessing — 2 Corinthians 11:24-33; 12:1-10. e) Suffering to develop faith-rest technique — enough faith to function in the faith-rest technique. You must have pressure for any kind of development. B. There are ten categories of suffering for blessing [undeserved suffering]. a) We often suffer to glorify God in the angelic conflict. There are other types of suffering for blessing that are related to it. Job; Luke 15:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17. This is a noble and honourable type of pressure. b) Suffering to learn self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8. Our Lord Jesus Christ put Himself under discipline — Philippians 2:8. c) Suffering to demonstrate the sufficiency of grace —2 Corinthians 12:1-10. d) Suffering to eliminate the occupational hazard of pride and arrogance, and to relate it to the sufficiency of grace. You can never become an arrogant person without suffering horribly. If the purpose of the suffering is to eliminate arrogance it is suffering for blessing — 2 Corinthians 11:24-33; 12:1-10. e) Suffering to develop faith-rest technique — enough faith to function in the faith-rest technique. You must have pressure for any kind of development. The trigger mechanism by which you apply doctrine in your soul to experience is faith, faith-rest; and it has to be developed, it has to be strong — 1 Peter 1:7,8. f) Suffering to accelerate the construction of the edification complex of the soul and to enter into the super-grace status — James 1:1-6. g) Suffering as a means of witnessing for Christ — 2 Corinthians chapters 3 & 4. h) Sometimes suffering is very specialised. You suffer a special type of suffering ahead of someone else, using doctrine all the way, in order to be able to help some weaker believer when they go through the same thing. This is a specialised type of suffering in which God uses some stronger believers to encourage weaker believers — 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. i) Suffering to learn the value of Bible doctrine. This is for the silly person who won’t come to doctrine until he has tried everything else and then says nothing else works so he might as well try doctrine. Psalm 119:67,68,71. j) Suffering for the advance and impact of doctrine — 2 Timothy 1:12-14. 5. The concept of family suffering. a) Scripture for family suffering: Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10. b) The four-generation curse is specifically enumerated in two other passages — Exodus 34:3-7; Numbers 14:8 — where a curse in one generation goes down to the next, and the next, and the next. c) There is an entire chapter on the mechanics of this curse — Proverbs 30:11-17. d) The law of culpability — Proverbs 24:16. You are never included in the discipline of the next generation unless you become culpable under the same principle. e) The problem of children. This includes two basic principles: 1. Fairness toward children — Deuteronomy 21:15-17; 2. If bona fide discipline in the home fails, and occasionally it does, then the Bible says that when those children step out of line as teenagers they should be executed — Deuteronomy 21:18-22. f) Doctrine breaks the four-generation curse. This is a combination of four verses: Psalm 100:5; Deuteronomy 7:9; 6:6-13; 11:18-21, in that order. g) The children’s gimmick — Jeremiah 31:15; Number 14:31. This is where the parents suffer because they use their children as an excuse. They used their children as an excuse not to enter the land even though God promised them to enter the land. People today use their children as an excuse not to come to Bible class. That means family suffering. Whenever you use your children as an excuse not to do something that is commanded by the Word you are going to produce suffering in your life. i) The triumph of children with doctrine. It is possible that every category of suffering enumerated in the first six points can be eliminated by children moving to super-grace before they become adults. This was the case in Lamentations 3:21-31. 6. The concept of economic suffering. When there is freedom in the economy ad runs its normal course of supply and demand of free enterprise you are going to have periodic depression. The doctrine is that depression is an enema that eliminates the unfit people in a nation. A nation is weakened by not destroying what is weak from time to time. A house gets dirty if you don’t clean it; a nation gets weak if certain types of natural disaster, like economic depression, do not come along and eliminate the weak. It has nothing to do with race or any other factor, it has to do with the law that if you do not have a periodic depression then your nation will eventually be so weak that it will destroy itself. Welfare is a weakener of a nation. a) Inflation is a part of the fourth cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:26. b) Since depression should be a periodic thing the importance of solvency in a depression is the subject of Genesis 41. c) Depression also strengthens spiritually for it acts as a test for the faith-rest technique — Genesis 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7,8. d) Doctrine resident in the soul is the answer to depression rather than money in the pocket — 2 Chronicles 20:9. e) Divine viewpoint is necessary to survive economic disaster — Psalm 33:17-20. f) Depression is a part of divine discipline both to the nation and the individual reversionist under the influence of evil — Psalm 105:16; Jeremiah 11:22. g) False teaching in time of depression intensifies that depression — Jeremiah 14:13-16,18. h) God protects the super-grace believer in depression — Job 5:20; Romans 8:35. i) Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the solution to depression. Consequently, advance to super-grace restores the economy — Isaiah 37:30,31. 7. God can only demonstrate His love to the believers through suffering in time — 1 Peter 4:14,16. Whatever suffering is going to come to you it will only occur in phase two, time. Phase three, eternity, is minus suffering. a) There is no suffering for believers in eternity — Revelation 21:4. b) Furthermore, there is no suffering too great for the plan of God. The plan of God can meet any suffering in life. c) Divine provision for suffering is greater than any pressure of life. d) Super-grace is the status in which to experience this principle. You are fully prepared for suffering in super-grace; you are not prepared for suffering until super-grace. e) The super-grace believer is qualified through doctrine resident in the soul to weather any storm of life. 8. The unique sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross — Isaiah 53. Since Jesus Christ reached super-grace at a very early age obviously all of the suffering that he had was suffering for blessing. He was perfect, born minus the old sin nature, minus the imputation of Adam’s sin. He lived a life of perfection — doctrine of impeccability. All of the suffering that came to Him was undeserved, for blessing. But the intensification of suffering when He reached the cross was absolutely unique. Christ is unique; His sufferings are unique. Verse 12 — “Therefore” is laken in the Hebrew. It is the combination of a preposition and an adverb used to demand a conclusion, correctly translated “therefore.” This is an inferential conjunction. “will I divide” — the piel imperfect of chalak. This is a distribution of spoils in the piel stem, it is a distribution of spoils after victory. Out of the unique suffering of Christ comes the victory of the angelic conflict. Therefore unique suffering turns to our blessing. He suffered in an intensity we will never understand, no one ever had such suffering as Christ had on the cross. It is impossible for anyone to have the suffering that occurred with regard to Jesus Christ on the cross. Every blessing you will ever have in time or eternity comes out of that suffering. Literally we have, “Therefore I will distribute.” This is a distribution of the spoils of victory. “to him” — to Jesus Christ the victor. “with the great” is correctly translated “because of the many,” referring to those who will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and those who have in the past believed in Christ. “Therefore I will distribute the spoils to Christ because of the many believers.” The spoils or plunder are described in Ephesians 4:8-12. The strategic victory of Jesus Christ on the cross, followed by His resurrection, ascension and session, the honour to Him at the right hand of the Father, His battlefield royalty, means that there is a distribution of plunder. For Israel it meant transfer from the heart of the earth or Hades to the third heaven; from Paradise or Abraham’s bosom to the third heaven — Matthew 27:52,53. That was the distribution of spoils to Israel. The distribution of spoils to the royal family of God and/or the Church are phenomenal. “he shall divide the spoil” — again, the piel imperfect of chalak — “with the strong,” which is not quite correct, there is no preposition. There is a masculine plural adjective atsum, a reference to the royal family specifically but super-grace believers. We have therefore an order of distribution. God the Father distributes it to Christ, Christ distributes it to super-grace believers. All of this comes because of the suffering of our Lord on the cross. “because he hath poured out his soul to death” — this is a reference to physical death this time. After He died spiritually (three hours) He then died physically. In His physical death He said something which becomes the secret to the distribution of plunder. His last exhale was one breath, the length of one sentence. That one sentence is the heritage of doctrine passed on to the royal family in every generation. From this maximum suffering on the cross, which is also unique suffering, He now passes on to us a spiritual heritage. So that in dying physically He spoke, and what He said is very important. Prior to this He said that salvation was completed, “Finished.” Once He said that there is no more unique suffering, it is over. From that point on it was strictly a matter of dying grace all the way. We have in the Gospels a record of the various aspects of Christ dying physically. Each one of the Gospel writers developed a different aspect. In Matthew 27:50 we have Matthew emphasising one aspect, whereas Mark emphasises another. He emphasises the sound, that Jesus uttered a sentence and made a loud sound in doing so. Jesus, having shouted again with a loud voice sent away His breath [dismissed His spirit]. The thing that impressed Matthew was the loudness of His voice, He could be heard all over Golgotha. In Mark 15:37 we have the same subject covered but with a different emphasis. The thing that impressed Mark was the fact that He had perfect breath control in His last sentence, “And Jesus, having exhaled with a loud voice, expired.” This means He was in no pain. When you are in pain you do not have control of your breath, you automatically will gasp or groan. But Jesus Christ had perfect breath control. So Marks’ record is very important because it indicated no pain. He had just gone through the most unusual suffering that will ever occur in history. Then, when you get to Luke 23:46, you get for the first time the content of His last sentence in dying physically: “And having enunciated with a loud voice, Jesus said, ‘Father into you hands I deposit my spirit,’ and, having said this, he expired.” But it doesn’t give the whole message, it merely gives a hint as to what was actually said. So we actually have in the first three gospel writers enough that we can put together so that we can get the content of what was said. We know what was said from Psalm 31:5 which Jesus was quoting — “Into your hands I deposit my spirit, for you have delivered me, O Jehovah, God of doctrine.” Two words are important: deliverance and doctrine. They go together. It is the whole story, it is our spiritual heritage. It is the source of receiving our share of the plunder of the great victory of Christ on the cross. Is. 53:12 — “prior to this He was identified with offerings for sin [His spiritual, death]; because He Himself carried the sin of many, and about the offerings for sin the whole thing was caused to fall upon Him.” There is an emphasis in the 11th verse and a reemphasis in the 12th verse that in the spiritual death of Christ on the cross He suffered in an unusual and an intense way. In His physical death there was no suffering at all. The line of demarcation: “It is finished.” Translation of verse 12: “Therefore I [God the Father] will distribute the spoil [the plunder of victory] to him [Christ] because of many believers, then he [Christ] will distribute that spoil to the great ones [super-grace believers], because he [Christ] has poured out his soul to death [physical]; prior to this [physical death] he was identified with the offerings for sin; because he himself bore the sin of the many [on the cross], and about the offerings for sin the whole thing was caused to fall upon him.” There is no way we can ever completely enter in to what it means for the Lord to suffer in that way because none of us will ever suffer that way. The only thing that will come close is the unbeliever living forever in the lake of fire, and even that is not as intense as what our Lord went through during those three hours of darkness on the cross. Verse 12 — “For the which cause” is the preposition dia plus the accusative singular of a(itia, plus the relative pronoun o(j. It is an idiom which means “For this reason.” “I also suffer” — the adjunctive use of kai plus the present active indicative of pasxw. The present tense is a descriptive present, it indicates what is now going on. Paul is suffering pressure from the Roman empire through his incarceration. The active voice is a causative active voice in which the subject, Paul, is related to the action through an intermediary means. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is what is actually going on. “these things” — the accusative plural from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which calls special attention to and emphasises the fact that Paul is a herald of the King of kings, both an apostle and a communicator of Bible doctrine. The accusative case refers to the various categories of suffering associated with being incarcerated in the Roman dungeon. “Also for this reason I am caused to suffer these things.” “nevertheless” — the adversative use of the conjunction a)lla. It sets up a contrast between Paul’s suffering and the wonderful blessings he possesses simultaneously. In other words, you can have great suffering and adversity and at the same time have great happiness. So that suffering and adversity is a circumstance that does not dictate to you on your mental attitude or any other problems. When you have maximum doctrine in the soul your mental attitude is not a slave to your circumstances. “I am not ashamed” — present middle indicative from the compound e)paiskunomai which means having a direction for your shamedness. It puts shame in a direction. We have with it the negative o)uk. Paul is not ashamed in his suffering. He has too much capacity for love, he is too occupied with Christ, he has too many wonderful memories, too many things going for him, to let any kind of adversity be disturbing. “for I know” — the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for doctrine residing in the soul. O)ida indicates the way in which all of us come to love Jesus Christ. You cannot love someone unless you know that person. Paul loves Jesus Christ because he knows Jesus Christ. This is inherent knowledge. The more the believer knows about doctrine (the written Word) the greater his capacity to love Jesus Christ. Maximum doctrine in the soul means maximum category #1 love or occupation with Christ. “whom” — locative singular from the relative pronoun o(j. This is the locative of sphere, translated “in whom.” “I have believed” — perfect active indicative of the verb pisteuw. Pisteuw is a little more than simply believing in Christ here. It means that, of course, but it also emphasises the results of believing in Christ for salvation. The perfect tense here is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect which emphasises the action as being completed in the past. You believed in a second and the results go on forever — eternal life. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb, the point of salvation or when he believed in Christ. Paul believed in Christ with the result that he continued to be saved forever. The indicative mood is declarative, it indicates dogmatic assertion, dogmatic reality for salvation and eternal security. The next phrase goes on to express confidence: “and am persuaded” — perfect active indicative from peiqw. Peiqw in the present tense means to obey and to keep obeying. In the aorist tense it means also to believe. But here in the perfect tense it means to possess or have confidence. Again, it is a dramatic perfect and indicates that you have confidence in the past from doctrine in your soul with the result that you keep on possessing confidence from that same doctrine in your soul. The passive voice: the subject is Paul in prison, he receives the action of the verb through the daily function of GAP, the intake of doctrine, and he is now utilising that tremendous amount of doctrine resident in his soul. He exudes confidence, he has the inner resources of grace to the maximum. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the believer’s confidence in the super-grace status. The passive voice, by the way, with the implied intermediary agent of biblical doctrine resident in the soul, should be translated: “I have received confidence through resident doctrine.” “that he is able” — the conjunction o(ti used simply to indicate the content of that confidence, plus the present active indicative of the verb e)imi which has a static present, it represents a condition which is perpetually existing — eternal security. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic assertion of eternal security. Then we have a predicate nominative, dunatoj — “he keeps on being able.” Dunatoj refers to the omnipotence of God. “to keep” — aorist active infinitive of the verb fulassw which means to guard. This is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises the results. It views that one second in which he believed in Christ and it views it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The active voice: God does the guarding. The infinitive is the infinitive of actual result. The omnipotence of God guards your salvation forever, you can’t lose it. “that which I have committed” — there is not even a verb here, instead we have the noun paraqhkh which means deposit. We have the possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw, translated “my” — “to guard my deposit.” “against that day” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative singular of e)keinoj the distant demonstrative. The last judgment of the lake of fire is distant, the believer will never ever get to see it. This is the great white throne judgment. Translation: “Also for this reason I am caused to suffer these things: but I am not ashamed: for I know in whom I have believed, and I have received confidence [through doctrine resident in the soul] that he keeps on being able to guard my deposit against that day [of judgment].” Verses 13 & 14, the deposit of doctrine in the soul. Again, it explains why Paul is not ashamed. Verse 13 — “Hold fast” is not a correct translation. We have the present active imperative of the verb e)xw which means to have, to possess. Here it is correctly translated “Keep on having.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. This is why it is often called the present tense of duration. The active voice: Timothy is commanded to continue producing the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to not only stick with the principle of recovery but to continue to take in Bible doctrine. “the form” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun u(potupwsij which does not mean a form. It does mean an example, a standard, an outline, a delineation, a pattern, a formula, or a category. Several of the meanings are pertinent to this particular context. Remember that Timothy has arrived at the high ground of super-grace and must now hold that position. He does so by fulfilling this command of constantly having in his soul an outline of sound doctrine, the standard of sound doctrine, the delineation of sound doctrine. This boils down to keeping on having a categorical outline. “of sound words” — present active participle from the verb u(giainw which means to be healthy or to be sound. Arndt and Gingrich, page 840, says that this is used figuratively in the pastoral epistles with reference to Christian teaching. Thus, in accordance with the prevailing usage Christian teaching is designated as “correct doctrine.” We also have a descriptive genitive plural from the noun logoj, and the plural of logoj means doctrines. All together we have this: “Keep on having a categorical outline of correct doctrines.” The participle is used as an adjective and is correctly translated “correct doctrines.” “which” is the genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j, it has as its antecedent “correct doctrines” — “which correct doctrines.” “thou hast heard” — a constative aorist active indicative from the verb a)kouw. It means not simply to listen as in a casual manner but to listen under the principle of academic discipline. The aorist tense is a constative and it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Timothy has produced the action of the verb by GAPing it on a daily basis. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The reality is that Timothy has recovered through the daily intake of Bible doctrine. He has recovered from his reversionism and the influence of evil which was noted in the first epistle. The verb therefore connotes a very strict academic discipline which belongs to the function of GAP. “of me” — the preposition para plus the ablative singular from the personal pronoun e)gw — “from the immediate source of me.” The ultimate source of all doctrine is God, the immediate source is the one who communicates the doctrine. The grace provision for learning doctrine 1. The formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as God’s faithfulness in keeping and protecting the written canon. The Bible has always be subject to many attacks and yet the Bible today is the best seller throughout the world. The 20th century has an intact canon of scripture preserved in the original languages so that the meaning of any passage is as perspicuous today as it was in the day of the autograph. This is the principle of grace. We have more information today about the original languages of scripture, more papyri uncovered, more MSS, which tell us exactly what the autographs said. So that today we are in a better position to know exactly what the original said than ever before in history. 2. The divine authorisation of the local church. The local church is a classroom for learning doctrine, the place of assembly of all believers in a specific geographical location, and it is a classroom which is under very strict discipline. 3. A right pastor. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher provides both the ability and the authority to communicate doctrine via monologue. 4. The royal priesthood of the believer. In this dispensation there exists a universal and royal priesthood among believers. The purpose of this priesthood is for privacy of reception of doctrine. This prevents the intrusion of some legalist with his own ideas telling you how to live your life. To have the privilege of growing up spiritually you must have privacy. The royal priesthood is a grace gift that has many privileges — to ensure privacy, to avoid bullying, to give a chance to learn doctrine when you enter the congregation for instruction. Every royal priest must construct his own altar which is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. 5. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is related to this ministry. The Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation enters the body of every believer, He enters every believer into union with Christ — “I in you and you in me.” The Holy Spirit not only is indwelling the body of the believer for protection in the angelic conflict but He controls the soul of the believer under conditions of the filling of the Spirit. This is God’s grace provision for learning doctrine and for having the ability for fulfilling the objectives and to enjoy the blessings that God has for us. For the first time in history, and throughout the entire Church Age, the believer’s body is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the royal escutcheon of the Church Age. The sealing of the Spirit is the security of the royal family. He makes every believer a royal ambassador. In addition, the filling of the Spirit provides the means by which we learn doctrine. The doctrine of refreshment 1. Definition. While refreshment in the English language generally connotes food and beverage it has a much greater connotation in the Bible. It means to restore to strength of a soul, to revive the divine viewpoint in the function of a soul, and to do so apart from the pastor’s function of Bible teaching. In other words, to restore the soul of an individual, provide stimulation and blessing for the soul of the individual, without teaching them doctrine. It also means to supply what is necessary for spiritual blessing in time of adversity or disaster. Primarily there is one verb that brings out the subject, the Greek verb a)nayuxw [a)na means again and again; yuxw means the soul]. Put together it means to breathe again and again or to revive the soul. Your life should be a source of revival to individual souls in your periphery. 2. We see the ministry of refreshment in many areas. The alleviation of Saul’s psychosis. Saul apparently had a temporary psychotic condition which erupted from time to time in his life when there was any kind of pressure. 1 Samuel 16 23 — eventually someone came into his life who was able to be of some help. This, by the way, is permissive control of history allowing the function of demon influence in the life of reversionistic Saul. Saul became refreshed and well because the music that David played reached Saul’s soul and brought his soul back to reality, temporarily alleviating the psychotic condition that he had. Refreshment came to his soul which alleviated the suffering and caused him to calm down. Refreshment, then, is used for soul recovery from an adverse condition whether it is reversionism, psychosis, neurosis, the influence of evil, or some other form of apostasy. Always, refreshment connotes soul recovery and soul blessing. 3. In Proverbs we have a tristitch of doctrinal refreshment — Proverbs 25:13. Line one from the Hebrew gives us the illustration — “Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest.” The time of harvest is a time when the workers get very hot at their work. Water boys were often sent to some place where there was still snow. By the time it was down it had melted but was then cold water. The snow here is melted snow that is still cool and refreshing. They would bring it down in containers and the workmen would stop their work and take a drink of this refreshing water. Therefore this is to be the illustration for the next two lines. The second line is “faithful messenger to those who send for him.” The pastor or any communicator of doctrine is regarded in this analogy as a water boy. The final phrase says, “he refreshes the soul of his masters.” The water boy worked for everyone else. The principle is that the refreshment that comes to the believer comes from the one who is faithful in communication. The refreshment in the Bible, of course, is always connected with the soul. Hence, this is an analogy between a water boy during the harvest who brings the cold water down to the workers and the communicator of doctrine providing spiritual refreshment for the souls of the hearers. The teacher of doctrine is the key to the ministry of refreshment. And you ability to take in doctrine has everything to do as to whether you ever reach the point of refreshment. The point of total refreshment is a super-grace believer. This is a part of that paragraph, blessing by association. 4. The rejection of refreshment means national discipline — Isaiah 28:8-14. “Times of refreshing” are the only thing that can save a nation as far gone as the northern kingdom was in this passage — a revival of doctrine in the soul of believers. 5. Response to the Word of God is called refreshment — Romans 15:32. Paul wants to come and teach them doctrines they do not have. But he also says he wants to be refreshed by them. Paul is going to teach them but many of them are going to be a refreshment to Paul — because there is a rapport in category #3 love, their is a refreshment, many of his friends are there, people he truly loves, people who stimulate his soul. Cf. 2 Corinthians 7:13, the ministry of Titus to the Corinthians. A Bible conference can be a mutual refreshment if the communicator of doctrine teaches the Word and those who are his friends become a source of blessing while he is there. 6. The super-grace believer has a ministry of refreshment. This is a part of blessing by association. There are at least three illustrations of this in the New Testaments. a) Certain Corinthians believers — 1 Corinthians 16:17,18; b) The super-grace believer Philemon — Philemon 7, 20; c) 2 Timothy 1:16, the house of Onesiphorous. “in faith” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of pistij, which means “by doctrine.” But we must put in something else. This is previously-learned doctrine. There is no definite article in front of the word “faith.” The word pistij means doctrine more than it means faith in the new Testament, it means what is believed and/or doctrine. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of that doctrine. The quality is tops because it is in your soul where it is useable. It takes doctrine to learn doctrine. Basic doctrine must reside in the soul before advanced doctrine enters the human spirit and the frame of reference. “and love” — the connective kai plus the instrumental singular of a)gaph, so it should be “by means of love.” It doesn’t mean to love doctrine and it doesn’t mean to love each other, it is a synonym here for the filling of the Spirit. Romans 5:5 says that this love is shed abroad in our right lobes by means of the filling of the Spirit. Cf. Galatians 5:22; 1 Corinthians 13 are really talking about the filling of the Spirit and the relaxed mental attitude which results. “which is” is not found in the original. However the instrumental singular of the definite article is used here as a relative pronoun and it provides the same concept. So we can get the word “which” out of the definite article, and putting in the word “is” is legitimate in translation. “in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative of Xristoj and I)hsouj. Royalty related to Israel and royalty related to the Church is all here “in union with Christ Jesus.” Translation: “Keep on having a categorical outline of correct doctrines, which [doctrines] you have heard from me, by previously learned doctrines, and love [filling of the Spirit] which is in Christ Jesus.” Genesis 3:1-6 The tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil A. Man in the innocence of the garden had four categories of trees — Genesis 2:9, category #1, “...every tree that is desirable to the sight.” This is designed for man’s soulish pleasure. Man observed this category and was stimulated in his soul. These trees reminded man of his status of innocence provided by God’s grace. Innocence represents reaping what God sows and the stimulation of the soul by this category of trees was a reminder of the stimulation to man’s soul by the daily provision of doctrine which was taught by Jesus Christ every evening in the garden. Doctrine resident in the soul gave Adam capacity for life and appreciation for the trees of the garden in that capacity. In other words, category #1 took care of the fact that man had a soul and he had a house for the soul, namely the body. Category #2 is food for the body. Categories 3 & 4 for volition, man’s positive and negative poles. The volition of man’s soul is the purpose for which he was created, to resolve the angelic conflict. Principles: Before the fall man had a relationship with God. It was not eternal life, it simply is called relationship based upon creation. He had three categories which he was told to utilise: Category #1 for the soul; to eat from trees which provided food for the body; then, right in the middle of the garden there were two trees: one was for positive volition called the tree of lives (pl), and it meant that every day he had to have capacity for life. The only way that he could appreciate God’s plan — which was grace and excluded anything which was not grace — he had to have capacity for lives. He lived day in and day out, therefore it is plural. This is not eternal life, man was not given eternal life in the garden. Man ate of this tree, man was positive toward this tree, and this gave him the capacity to appreciate who and what God was (one of two ways, the other was the Bible class held every day in the garden). Also for negative, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was forbidden. Why? Because when you have a relationship with God there are two things you don’t need: a) You don’t need works; b) You don’t need evil. Evil is what you think and works is how you put your thinking into operation. Category #2, good for food. This is designed to satisfy and stimulate the human body. Again, in innocence man reaps what God sows. Adam did not earn or deserve the food provided. The stimulation to the taste buds was a reminder of God’s perfect grace. This category sustained the body as the house for the human soul. Category #3, the tree of lives in the middle of the garden. a) This was the tree of positive volition toward the plan of God. b) This tree was only available as long as man remained in innocence or positive toward the grace plan of God. c) The tree was no good to man in status spiritual death. Why? Because in spiritual death man has no capacity to appreciate God. And it is in the plural because this capacity had to be renewed every day. It has to do with capacity for life, not eternal life. d) This tree was provided for man as the ruler of the world. If man is going to rule the world under God he must have capacity to appreciate God, he has to have capacity for life, for love, for happiness, for perfect environment. These capacities are not something you work up by yourself, these are God-given in grace; and the tree of lives was so designed with that in mind. e) This tree was God’s grace provision for man who was created to resolve the angelic conflict. f) Man was created with free will in order to resolve Satan’s appeal of his judgment of the lake of fire — Matthew 25:41. g) The tree of life was provided to be associated with man’s positive volition in innocence to perpetuate grace blessing and man’s rulership of the world. h) The tree of life was associated with perfect environment and life in the garden plus the perpetuation of that life under positive volition toward God’s original grace provision for man — Genesis 2:9; 3:22. The unbeliever never does appreciate these things because he is spiritually dead. What is spiritual death? It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And with good and evil you do not know God, you do not appreciate God, you are dead to God. After the fall man is born a do-gooder, born evil, born with the knowledge of good and evil. And that is Satan’s plan, Satan’s project. i) When man sinned he was driven from the garden and cut off from the tree of life — Genesis 3:24. The next time we see the tree of life is in eternity. Why? It isn’t needed until then. It is instant capacity for life. k) If man in spiritual death had eaten from the tree of life his volition would no longer be the means of resolving the angelic conflict. Under spiritual death he could not even use the tree of life, it has no meaning to him at all. You cannot appreciate God under spiritual death, and spiritual death is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. l) The purpose in creation of man could not be perpetuated after the fall of man. m) But the purpose of creation is perpetuated after the fall by cutting off the tree of life. The tree of life is removed but the tree of knowledge of good and evil goes on into history, and it goes on and on in reversionism and being under the influence of evil. n) The tree of life is now the cross of Christ after the fall. That is the equivalent to appreciating God. What the tree of lives did in the garden doctrine does today for the believer. So it is the cross that provides redemption toward sin, reconciliation toward man, and propitiation toward God. Here is the beginning of appreciation for God. o) And man’s non-meritorious positive volition and/or faith in Christ is still the means of resolving the angelic conflict — Ephesians 2:8,9. p) By remaining in the garden after spiritual death man would be perpetuated under the domination of Satan which would have doomed him to perpetual slavery under spiritual death. In other words, if he had stayed in the garden then he would have stayed under slavery because Satan was now the ruler of the world. To keep man in the garden when Satan rules the world puts man in perpetual slavery. There is no way to get out of you stay in the garden. So man had to be thrown out of the garden to get back on the garden the new way — he must be born again. q) Furthermore, the tree of life in the garden could not provide the solution to man’s fall and/or spiritual death. r) The tree of life does not provide redemption, reconciliation and propitiation. s) Therefore the fall of man provides a new tree of life and perpetuates the solving of the angelic conflict. t) The salvation work of Christ on the cross is the new tree of life which perpetuates the angelic conflict into human history after the fall. u) So the tree of life was put out of man’s reach in the garden so that the cross of Christ can come into focus for man’s eternal salvation. v) By expulsion from the garden after the fall the cross becomes and remains the issue of salvation — John 3:36. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. a) This the tree related to man’s negative volition. b) This tree perfectly portrays man’s relationship to God in the garden as grace, grace, and more grace. c) In the garden man was the ruler of the world. Man’s rulership of the world depended on his relationship to God and God’s sustaining grace. d) This tree represents the entire policy of Satan as the ruler of the world: human good and human evil. The knowledge of good and evil is not the difference between good and evil, there is no difference! Good and evil are the same. e) This tree was forbidden because it represents everything that hinders man’s relationship with God. Human good hinders man’s relationship with God and so does evil. f) In innocence man did not have to know good and evil to have a relationship with God. g) Man’s relationship in the garden was grace. Grace excludes both good and evil. h) Along with the tree of life the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was located in the middle of the garden. i) This dramatises the importance of man’s positive and negative volition toward God’s plan represented by the tree of life and Satan’s plan represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. B. Hence the importance of the

 divine prohibition — Genesis 2:16,17.

 a) Note that spiritual death is not only no grace relationship with God but includes cognisance of systems of human good and evil. b) Human good and evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. c) The presence of this tree in the garden is a part of the angelic conflict. d) God has to present Satan’s plan as a choice for man’s free will. So God’s plan is there: tree of lives; Satan’s plan is there: tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long as man ate from the tree of lives he was choosing God’s plan, but one day he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and chose Satan’s plan, immediately making Satan the ruler of the world. e) But God also in grace prohibited the eating of that tree. He warned against it. f) For that tree is the sum total of Satan’s genius. g) That tree is the way Satan has been running the world since the fall. h) Therefore the tree of lives is provided for man’s eating under grace. i) But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is prohibited. j) The two tree represent the issue of man’s volition in history. k) One tree is grace blessing, the other tree is cursing from the evil genius of Satan. l) Disobedience to God regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil meant not only spiritual death but coming under the rulership of that creature genius, Satan. m) The summary of Satan’s rulership policy is, therefore, human good and evil. n) When you understand good and evil you understand the genius of Satan’s policy as the ruler of this world and how it differs from the superior genius of God’s policy of grace. o) There are two periods of human history where man rules the world under a grace policy from God: the garden and the Millennium. p) Both are characterised by perfect environment and both periods terminated with man in revolt against that perfect policy. q) The first revolution was the fall of man, the second is the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium. r) In both cases the revolution occurred because some segment of the human race did not understand Satan’s policy of human good and evil but accepted it instead of grace. s) For the unbeliever Satan’s policy of human good and evil can only produce spiritual death in time and the second death in the eternal lake of fire. t) For the believer Satan’s policy of human good and evil can only produce reversionism with resultant loss of grace blessing in time and loss of surpassing grace blessing and rewards in eternity. u) God has invented a protection against human good and evil: Bible doctrine. The protection in the garden was the tree of lives. The protection since the fall is Bible doctrine. v) Bible doctrine resident in the soul insulates the believer against evil as well as provides the blessings of grace. C. In the original temptation of the woman Satan used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by relating it to pride or arrogance — the pride and arrogance of the woman. Genesis 3:1-6. Satan, in approaching the woman, wanted to keep the issue on evil. Satan understood a principle: It is not the man, it is the message. If Satan had appeared to the woman in all of his beauty she would have followed him anywhere. Satan follows certain rules in the angelic conflict, and one of them is that if you are going to get someone away from God — man had a relationship with God through creation — you must stick with the message. The message is good and evil. That is his policy, his message. He has to win her soul. It is not the communicator, it is the communication. Eating is a non-meritorious function but when you hook it up with Satan’s plan non-meritorious function becomes violation of God’s plan, God’s will; and the act of disobedience was the first sin. In innocence mankind needed to know doctrine for orientation to grace but not human good and evil to orient to Satan’s plan. D. Therefore three principles must be perceived to understand the policy of Satan: the doctrine of pride, the doctrine of evil, and the doctrine of human good. The doctrine of human good a) Human good is dead to the plan of God and the policy of God — Genesis 2:17 where the forbidden tree is called the knowledge of goods and evil. Hebrews 6:1 — “… repentance from dead works.” You must change your mind about dead works because dead works or human good is the plan of Satan, it is dead to the plan of God. Spiritual death, therefore, includes all the evil that the unbeliever thinks and all of the human good that the unbeliever does, and all the evil and human good that the reversionistic believer accomplishes — thinking or doing. b) Human good is linked with arrogance to produce boasting — Ephesians 2:9; Romans 4:2. Human good always stimulates arrogance. c) Human good is never acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6. This is why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden. d) However, distinction should be made between Satanic human good and morality which is called good. There are three types of good: divine good, human good, morality or establishment good. Divine good: production of the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine; human good: the whole principle of Satan’s policy; morality or establishment good — Romans 13:1-7. e) Human good will not save mankind — Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 3:5; 2 Timothy 1:9. f) The judgment of human good. There are three ways in which human good is judged: i) Human good was not judged at the cross; ii) The judgment of the believer’s human good does take place after the Rapture at the judgment seat of Christ — Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; 2 Corinthians 5:10; iii. The judgment of the unbeliever’s human good occurs at the last judgment, the great white throne — Revelation 20:12-15. Verse 14 — “That good thing which was committed.” Here are six words to translate three in the Greek: thn kalhn paraqhkhn. There is no verb here and it simply means “That beneficial deposit.” Thn is an accusative singular direct object from the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the importance of doctrine resident in the soul. Remember that the definite article is often used for a pronoun; here for the demonstrative pronoun because the demonstrative pronoun emphasises doctrine resident in the soul. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from the adjective kaloj. Kaloj as an adjective has a number of similar meanings: noble, honourable, beneficial are the primary meanings. Here we have beneficial as the correct meaning in this passage. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the noun paraqhkh which means deposit. This is the Bible doctrine by which Timothy has recovered from reversionism and then moved on to the high ground of super-grace. The benefit resides in the fact that Timothy now has how own paragraph SG2. Next comes the verb, the aorist active imperative from fulassw which means to guard. The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises the existing results. The entirety contemplated here is the daily function of GAP that causes both reversion recovery and entrance into the super-grace life. The existing results which are emphasised is the maintenance of the super-grace status. The active voice: Timothy through the daily function of GAP produces the action of the verb — maintenance of super-grace. The imperative mood is the mood of command. It should be translated: “Guard that beneficial deposit.” “by the Holy Ghost” — dia plus the genitive of pneuma plus the adjective a(gioj: “through the Holy Spirit.” “which dwelleth” — the articular present active participle e)noikew. The definite article used here is for a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the Holy Spirit. It is translated, therefore, “who.” The present tense is a static present representing a condition which perpetually exists, namely the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The active voice: the Holy Spirit produces the action by indwelling the body of every believer. The participle is circumstantial for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. “in us” — e)n plus the locative plural of e)gw which means all believers. Translation: “Guard that beneficial deposit [maximum doctrine in the soul] through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” Principle 1. The second deposit in this context is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The first deposit was faith in Christ for salvation. 2. This is maximum resident doctrine compatible with reaching spiritual maturity — super-grace. 3. Once there the command to guard actually refers to maintenance of the super-grace status. We are to maintain the status of maturity, we are to hold the high ground. This is the principle of Philippians 3:12-21. 4. This anticipates the rest of the chapter in which the reversionist is ashamed of that second deposit. The reversionist is always ashamed of Bible doctrine; he rejects doctrine, he is ashamed of doctrine, and any thought which is based on doctrine or any divine viewpoint of life. The super-grace believer is never ashamed of divine viewpoint, never hesitant to bring out divine viewpoint. 5. Being ashamed of the second deposit of doctrine in the soul results in being ashamed of the first deposit, faith in Christ. People who are negative toward doctrine are ashamed of Christ. If you are ashamed of the written Word you are ashamed of the living Word. 6. First the believer is ashamed of doctrine, which he rejects, then he becomes ashamed of Christ. 7. It is fitting that the chapter should end with a super-grace believer who was not ashamed of the second deposit, therefore he became a pleasant memory under the concept of auld langsyne. Verse 15 — the reversionist who is ashamed and is not a blessing to anyone else by association. This is the one who doesn’t make it. “This” is an accusative singular neuter from another demonstrative pronoun, o(utoj which emphasises a designated object in the immediate context. This is what is called the near demonstrative. There is something in the immediate context that needs a lot of emphasis. In one word it is doctrine, in two words it is doctrine inside, in a phrase it is doctrine resident in the soul — through the daily function of GAP. This emphasises the principle that reversionism at that time, as well as in our day, always comes from rejection of that doctrine — getting our priorities confused, losing our scale of values. The word “this” when used in the accusative obviously must have a verb first, and it comes up next. “thou knowest” — the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for doctrine in the right lobe. In this case it should be translated, “You know this fact.” Timothy knows this; Paul knows this. So it is something that Timothy has discovered since reversion recovery and something that Paul knew all the time. “that” — the conjunction o(ti is used after verbs of cognisance. O)ida is a verb of cognisance. “all they which are in Asia” — the content of cognisance. This includes a nominative masculine plural from paj, which means an awful lot of believers. There is also a nominative masculine plural from the definite article, used this time again as a relative pronoun specifying a category of believers, namely reversionists under the influence of evil — “all who.” Then we have a descriptive genitive plural pronoun o(j, referring to believers in the Roman province of Asia. Plus the implied present active indicative of e)imi, plus a prepositional phrase, correctly translated “in Asia.” and referring to the seven churches of Revelation chapters two and three. So far we have: “You know this fact that all they who are in the Roman province of Asia.” The capital of the Roman province of Asia is Ephesus where Timothy is the pastor, and this is the key church at this time in church history. “be turned away” — the aorist passive indicative of the compound verb a)postrefw [a)po = from; strefw = to turn]. It means to turn away from, to repudiate, to revolt. So we have the fact that they have revolted. Reversionism is always a form of revolution, spiritual revolution. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The aorist tense here covers the various stages of reversionism which causes these believers to repudiate Paul. The passive voice is the voice for the implied intermediate agent of reversionism. It means through reversionism they have turned away from me. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality of a maximum number of reversionists now residing in the Roman province of Asia. “of whom” — the ablative plural of separation from the relative pronoun o(j, translated “among whom.” “are” — present active indicative of e)imi. This is an idiom which is better rendered “especially” or “namely.” “Phygellus and Hermogenes” — [“Fugitive” and “Great Public Speaker”]. These names have no significance as far as these two people are concerned. They were given the names at birth. They are actually both reversionists. Translation: “You are aware of this, that all they who are in [the Roman province of] Asia have turned away from me [through reversionism]; especially Phygellus and Hermogenes.” Verse 16 — we have a reference to God the Father under the title of kurioj, translated “Lord,” and it always refers to deity, more frequently used of Jesus Christ. God the Father is the author of the divine plan and the source of grace and mercy, and therefore kurioj is sometimes used of Him. This is equivalent of the Hebrew “Jehovah,” pronounced by the Jews, “Adonai.” It can be used for any member of the Godhead. “give” — the aorist active optative of didomi, the normal verb for giving. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is a Greek idiom and it is a device for emphasis used here for a result which is on the point of being accomplished. The active voice: only God, and in this case God the Father, can produce the action of the verb. Paul would not intrude on the sovereignty of God but simply state the application of doctrine which says this: Those who are associated with Paul or are intimately associated with a grace believer share their blessing. This is blessing by association and/or the doctrine of refreshment. The optative mood: this is the mood by which Paul does not dictate to God. In the optative mood you cannot dictate, you merely express a wish or desire. We translate this, “The Lord may give.” But in this case it is that type of optative that expresses total and strong contingency and therefore it is stated, “The Lord give.” “mercy” is the accusative singular of the noun e)leoj, and it is grace in action. To differentiate between the principle of grace and the action of grace we have two words: grace and mercy. The absence of the definite article here emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun, and since mercy is grace in action it is the highest possible quality. “unto the house of Onesiphorus” — this is a dative of indirect object and a dative of advantage from the noun o)ikoj. O)ikoj can mean a house or a household, it also means a family. It refers here to the members of the family of Onesiphorus, for Onesiphorus is definitely dead. The dative of the indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act of mercy is performed. Onesiphorus during his lifetime was a source of blessing to all who knew him. Now that he is dead, what happens to the members of his family? They continue to be blessed after his death. Any time a person dies under dying grace he leaves behind a grace obligation from the Lord to continue to bless the members of his family who are still alive in the devil’s world. We also have here a genitive singular of relationship from the proper noun O)nhsiforuj, meaning benefit-bringing or profit-bearing. He is used as one of the great illustrations of the ministry of refreshment. His family is still alive in Ephesus, we know this from 2 Timothy 4:19. “The Lord give mercy to the family of Onesiphorus.” The principle of blessing 1. Not only does God provide blessing for the super-grace believer under paragraph SG2 but He also provides an overflow of blessing to those associated with a super-grace believer in time and after his death. 2. The family of Onesiphorus still lives in Ephesus. 3. Paul recognises both their bereavement and anticipates their future blessings because they were associated with such a great believer. 4. Every super-grace believer is great, and spiritual greatness is numbered in any generation by the exact number of super-grace believers in that generation. 5. Not only does the super-grace believer carry his own generation in history but he both receives blessing from God and through association provides blessing from God for those who are in his intimate periphery. 6. Therefore a review of the blessings of the super-grace believer. In other words, the categories of paragraph SG2: Category #1, spiritual blessings: occupation with the person of Jesus Christ which is the ultimate objective, receiving God’s very own happiness, capacity for love, capacity for life, capacity for blessing, capacity for happiness, and the ability to face every suffering and pressure of life. Category #2, temporal blessings: wealth, success in any type of endeavour, promotion, prosperity [social, sexual, technical, and professional], temporal prosperity; establishment prosperity which includes freedom, protection from crime, blessing in battle, prosperity in the midst of depression and economic disaster; leadership dynamics. Category #3, blessing by association. Category #4, historical blessing. The super-grace believer holds up his generation historically. This is the spiritual heritage type blessing. Category #5, dying blessing. The super-grace believer has great blessing in dying. The next step is surpassing grace, blessing and reward forever above and beyond anything that the peons in heaven possess. “for” — the conjunction o(ti is “because,” used in a causative sense. “he oft refreshed me” — this includes an adverb meaning frequently, pollakij, plus the aorist active indicative from the compound verb a)nayuxw [a)na = again and again; yuxw = to breathe, to revive], hence to breathe again and again means to cheer up or to refresh. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality (refreshment) with the certitude of a past event — the intake of doctrine, the daily function of GAP. Here it states what has been accomplished and therefore it also could double as a culminative aorist viewing the super-grace Onesiphorus in his entirety but regarding him from the standpoint of existing results: he was a refreshment to Paul, he was a refreshment to Timothy, he was a refreshment to many. The active voice: Onesiphorus in super-grace status produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of super-grace overflowing from Onesiphorus to Paul. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the personal pronoun e)gw, referring to Paul during his second Roman imprisonment — “because many times he has refreshed me.” “and was not ashamed” — a part of the ministry of refreshment is true love. True love is not ashamed. Here we have the aorist passive indicative of e)paisxunomai [e)pi = toward; a)iskumomai = to be ashamed]. The verb is stated in the form of a negative reality by the use of o)uk. O)uk eliminates ashamedness totally, which indicates that Onesiphorus had great capacity for love. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the attitude of Onesiphorus and the various acts of refreshment. The passive voice is with the implied direct agent, which means that by means of doctrine resident in his soul and resultant capacity for category #3 love Onesiphorus did not receive shame when he came to Rome with regard to Paul. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. “of my chains” — this is the accusative singular direct object from the noun a)lusij, and it is a synonym for being in jail. With it is a possessive pronoun, the possessive genitive of e)gw, and it is correctly translated “and he was not ashamed of my chains.” Not only did Onesiphorus have great capacity for love in all three categories but he expressed that capacity in the direction of the Lord, in the direction of his family and friends, and especially in connection with this greatest of all people who ever lived. While he is dead and gone to heaven the memory of him lingers on with many people. Verse 17 — “But” is the adversative conjunction a)lla. Here it is used as a confirmatory or emphatic conjunction and is given the emphatic force of “In fact.” “when he was in Rome” — the aorist middle participle of ginomai. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the whole time that Onesiphorus was in Rome he always made it a point to see Paul. The middle voice is the intensive middle or dynamic middle which emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. The participle is temporal with the preposition e)n plus the locative, and therefore it is translated “In fact when he happened to be in Rome.” The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, which comes up next. He sought me out very diligently” — this includes an adverb, spoudaiwj, and it means diligently or eagerly. With it we have the aorist active indicative of the verb zhtew which means to seek. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. In other words, he did not know where to find Paul but he kept searching until he did. Once he discovered he was in jail he went to see him even though he was endangering his life and eventually lost his life because he did this. The active voice: Onesiphorus produces the action of the verb because he is truly a man. “and found me” — this is a culminative aorist in contrast to the ingressive aorist. The indicative mood is for reality. It should be translated, “and he discovered [or located] me.” Translation: “In fact when he happened to be in Rome, eagerly he began to search for me, and he finally located me.” In the course of this display of category #3 love Onesiphorus was seized and brought before a Roman tribunal where he refused to renounce Jesus Christ and he himself was quickly executed. The obvious conclusion is that Onesiphorus did not return to Ephesus but died in the function of the ministry of refreshment. The doctrine of refreshment 1. While refreshment in the English language generally connotes food and beverage it has a much greater connotation in the Word of God. It means to restore the strength of the soul, to revive the divine viewpoint function of the soul through fellowship, through social life, and the interchange of doctrine. It means to supply what is necessary for spiritual blessing in time of adversity or disaster. 2. The alleviation of Saul’s psychosis is classified as the ministry of refreshment. The refresher was David making his first great spiritual advance. 1 Samuel 16:23. Refreshment is used here for soul recovery from adverse conditions, whether reversionism, neurosis, psychopathic behaviour, or psychosis. Always, refreshment connotes a soul recovery. 3. A tristitch of doctrinal refreshment. A parabolic tristitch is one in which the first line gives an illustration for the second and third lines. Proverbs 25:13 — “Lie the cold of snow in the time of harvest.” This is ice-cold water brought down from high up in the mountains in order to quench the thirst of the men who were working in the harvest. They are refreshed when they drink the water after drinking and becoming very warm — “he refreshes the souls of his masters.” Note that the refreshment in the Bible, again, is always connected with the soul. Therefore this is a harvest analogy between the water boy during the harvest, bringing the water to the workers, and the communicator of doctrine bringing doctrine to those who are positive. Bible doctrine, then, is like cold water in a hot period; it refreshes. The teaching of doctrine is the key, then, to the ministry of refreshment. 4. The rejection of refreshment means national discipline — Isaiah 28:8-14. The only way in which the nation can recover is the ministry of refreshment, the communication of doctrine to the soul. 5. Response to the Word of God is called refreshment — Romans 15:32. This means a Bible conference in Rome. Paul wanted to come and give them doctrine and then be refreshed by social life with them. This means mutual refreshment. The same concept is found in the ministry of Titus to the Corinthians. Their response to his teaching is called refreshment — 2 Corinthians 7:13. 6. Super-grace believers all have a ministry of refreshment. This is a part of the super-grace package. For example, certain Corinthians believers — 1 Corinthians 16:17,18; Philemon 7. Verse 18 — we have the desire of the apostle Paul with regard to Onesiphorus, a desire that actually becomes a reality. “The Lord grant unto him” — the subject again is o( kurioj referring to God the Father as the author of the divine plan. With it is the aorist active optative of the verb didomi which means to give. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist it views the super-grace status of Onesiphorus in its entirety but it emphasises it from the viewpoint of existing results. In eternity Onesiphorus not only has left behind a super-grace refreshment that will mean blessing for those of his own loved ones who are still alive but it means that he will be highly decorated in eternity. He has a paragraph SG3. The active voice: only God can produce the action of the verb, only God can reward, only God can bless. Notice that this simply states the application of the doctrine which certifies that anyone who is a super-grace believer and has exercised the ministry of refreshment is obviously going to have both dying grace and surpassing grace forever. The optative mood: this is the mood by which Paul cannot and does not dictate to God. This is a voluntative optative expressing the wish of Paul. This wish of Paul happens to be correct doctrine. We also have a dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj emphasising the identity the person, Onesiphorus. he is a super-grace believer, he did hold the high ground until he departed from this life. He did have a ministry of refreshment even in his dying moments. He does have great blessings and great decorations in heaven. “that he may find” — the aorist active infinitive of e(uriskw meaning here to discover, because no one in this life knows how phenomenal are the rewards for the super-grace believer. The aorist active infinitive here repeats the last verb of the previous verse. In other words, in the previous verse Onesiphorus found Paul in prison. Now he is no longer on the earth, he is in heaven, and there he will e(uriskw his own paragraph SG3. So this is a culminative aorist, it views both the super-grace status and the ministry of refreshment in its entirety but emphasises its existing results. Onesiphorus is going to be highly decorated in heaven. The aorist infinitive denotes what is eventual or particular in contrast to the present infinitive which denotes process. The active voice: Onesiphorus in eternity produces the action. The infinitive is an actual result. “mercy of the lord” — e)leoj which is grace in action. Once in heaven grace in action will be an actual reality. Mercy here refers to the paragraph SG3 belonging to him. We also have para plus the ablative of kurioj — the ultimate source is the Lord. It should be “mercy from the Lord.” “in that day” is a reference to the judgment seat of Christ. “and in how many things” should be “in fact on how many occasions [at Ephesus] he ministered” — the aorist active indicative of diakonew. Every super-grace believer has a ministry. The constative aorist gathers the ministry of refreshment of Onesiphorus into its entirety. The active voice: Onesiphorus produced the action of the verb. “unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well” — literally, “you know better than I do.” Translation: “The Lord give to him to discover mercy from the Lord on that day: in fact, how many occasions at Ephesus he ministered [a service of refreshment] to me, you [Timothy] know it better than I do.”

Chapter 2 In chapter one, and continuing to about the middle of chapter two, we have the principle of spiritual heritage. Spiritual heritage is the manner in which history is changed in any generation by super-grace believers. Many times people have said that they are doing thus and so in order that they might make a better world, a better environment for my children and grandchildren. The fallacy of this lies in the fact that there is nothing that we can do to improve this world in our own generation or in any generation, for Satan is the ruler of this world. The whole plan by which he rules the world is good and evil. Good and evil are the genius of Satan. Good and evil were never necessary when man had a relationship with God in the garden on the basis of creation. When man lived in the garden in innocence man had a relationship with God based upon creation. Under this relationship man came into existence as an adult, therefore he needed instant appreciation for grace, instant appreciation for the plan of God. The only way to provide this instant appreciation was to have a tree which epitomised the plan of God. That tree is called in the Hebrew “the tree of lives.” By eating of that tree one did not and could not have eternal life, it was simply a tree for capacity for life, for appreciation for the plan of God. This was one of the two ways in which man oriented to God’s plan and his relationship with God in creation. The second way was through a daily Bible class held in the garden “in the cool of the evening.” The issue, however, for man’s creation was to resolve the angelic conflict. Man’s positive volition toward God and God’s plan was indicative by the fact that he could eat of the tree of lives, and apparently did so with great regularity. This gave him instant appreciation and instant capacity to enjoy what God had provided. On the other hand we have the fall. The reason for the fall is because in the angelic conflict man must have a choice: to choose God’s plan, the perfect environment of the garden, and the tree of lives which gave him spiritual capacity; and also to make an issue for negative volition there was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man in his relationship with God in creation did not need either good or evil because this innocence relationship was a grace relationship. God did all of the work; God did all of the providing. Man simply had to understand and appreciate what God had provided and continue to enjoy it indefinitely. Therefore three categories of trees were for man in grace. Both good and evil represent the great genius of Satan. God is a Satanic device to intrude upon a grace relationship. To know good and to know evil is not necessary for relationship with God and therefore it was forbidden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil contained the elements of spiritual death. All human good is a sign of spiritual death, and the fact that man is constantly trying to do good is simply indicative of the fact that Satan is the ruler of this world and has been since man first partook of this tree. Once man understood good and evil, Satan’s plan — and they had instant understanding — then they were spiritually dead. They were operating under Satan’s plan, for in innocence and through the relationship of creation man was the ruler of this world. But the moment that man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he became not only spiritually dead but he lost the sovereignty of the world, and Satan now became the ruler of the world. From that time on we have Satan as the ruler of the world and he will continue to be the ruler of the world until the second advent and the Millennial reign of Christ. And now instead of coming into the world as complete adults we come into the world as babies, we are born into the world, and we are born spiritually dead, we are born under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are born to do good, we are born to think evil. Evil is a Satanic thought and good is a Satanic function. So we must be born again. And now, since the fall of man, grace relationship is no longer based on creation, it is based upon regeneration which is the technical theological word for being born again. We are born again by faith in Jesus Christ. There is a sense, then, in which the cross becomes the tree of life for us — not lives — because this is eternal life. The eating from the tree of lives was never eternal life, it was simply capacity to appreciate who and what God was and what He had provided in grace. There is a sense in which the cross and the daily intake of doctrine becomes the tree of lives. The tree of lives is comparable to the intake of doctrine after we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our tree of lives is Bible doctrine preserved in the Word. As we take this in on a daily basis, just as the man and the woman did, we come to have an appreciation of who and what Christ is and we break out from under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil is what Satan thinks and therefore becomes Satanic doctrine; good is how this Satanic doctrine is put into application in Satan’s attempt to control the world which he rules. The great frustration to all of this is the fact that not only does Jesus Christ control history but He has found a system whereby we can defeat Satan as the ruler of this world. We have seen that Jesus Christ controls history through direct control. This is accomplished through divine essence. Also there is indirect control which is accomplished through the laws of divine establishment. Finally, there is permissive control and this is accomplished through the permission of the angelic conflict to be perpetuated throughout human history so that the issue remains in spite of man’s fall. All of this is related to the fact that you cannot make a better world by anything that you do. That is simply improving Satan’s world, it is simply contributing to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there is one thing you can do which can change the very course of our generation. That is to reach the super-grace status. By reaching super-grace you become a spiritual Atlas holding up your generation. You can pass doctrine on to your children and as a result they can take it up and become the spiritual Atlas in their generation. As goes the super-grace believer, so goes every generation. A generation may be good or bad, it does not depend upon the previous generation, it depends entirely upon how many people reach super-grace in that generation. The second chapter of 2 Timothy is going to deal with the mechanics of spiritual heritage. The whole thing lies in the missing link between the Bible, the Word of God or doctrine in the Word, and doctrine being transferred to the soul of the individual believer. The missing link is the gift of pastor-teacher. It is the function of the pastor to dig it out and then communicating it to his congregation. This is really the key to history. This chapter is going to define for us why we have pastors, why people cannot sit down and read a book on spirituality or anything else and become a spiritual giant. They must get it by academic principles under one pastor, whoever their right pastor is, and stay with his ministry and grow under his ministry. There is a sense in which we might call 2 Timothy chapter two “Perspicuous pastors.” There are three paragraphs in this chapter. Verses 1-7, five analogies to pastoral discipline; Verses 8-13, three reasons why pastors suffer; Verses 14-26, the responsibilities of the pastor. Verse 1 — an analogy to a student. The student analogy is designed to teach the principle that grace is definitely related to discipline. So we have grace discipline. “Thou therefore, my son” — we have a proleptic use of a pronoun, su, “you.” It is addressed to Timothy as a pastor who has now recovered from reversionism. So having recovered from reversionism it must be defined once again what the role of the pastor is when he is out of reversionism. What is the function of the pastor? How does it relate to every member of the congregation? How does it relate to the royal priesthood? All of that is going to be answered in this critical chapter. We also have the post positive conjunctive particle o)un used as an inferential conjunction. It says. “Therefore in view of the fact that believers must grow up, in view of the fact that there must be a perpetuation of spiritual heritage (Chapter one). Therefore in view of the fact that the only way to glorify God and the purpose for which we remain in this life is to reach the place of tactical victory of super-grace, to complement the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict, this must be so.” There must be a relationship between a pastor and his congregation. It is a relationship of academic discipline in which the language, the personality, the peculiarities, etc. must be eliminated, and therefore must be a discipline and a rapport based upon the filling of the Holy Spirit and the communication of Bible doctrine. Plus the vocative singular from the noun teknon, and teknon is where we run into trouble because it is mistranslated here “son.” One hundred years before this was written Teknon meant a basic relationship between a child and a parent. But what is basic relationship? Discipline! By the time this was written it no longer was simply a child in relationship to the parent but it was a student in relationship to anyone who had the authority and was teaching the student. So it is used here for a theological student under academic discipline. The word “academic” in this sense means only in the classroom or anything related to the classroom. It also means matriculation. This would mean through your own free will coming regularly to Bible class. If you do so, this means you are positive toward the Word, you recognise the authority of the communicator, and you are under academic discipline. There is also a possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw. This refers to Paul as Timothy’s professor, pastor. “Consequently, you and you only my student.” Paul is the parent in the sense of being the professor. he is the one who has trained Timothy for the ministry. “be strong” is a present passive imperative from the verb e)ndunamow [e)n = inside; dunamow = to be strong], which means to become invigorated, to acquire strength, or to become strong. The emphasis is on inner strength, soul strength. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begin in the past with Timothy’s reversion recovery and continues into the present through the daily function of GAP. The passive voice: Timothy receives the action of the verb through the daily inhale of Bible doctrine which transfers that doctrine from the page of the scripture to his right lobe. The imperative mood is a command — “keep on becoming powerful.” In other words, the pastor must keep up his own spiritual life and advance, and he does it in a different way from the congregation. The pastor develops his spiritual life by personal study. This means he has the spiritual gift to go directly to the scripture and get it. Then his gift is the means of communicating it to the congregation. The congregation do not get it by their personal study, they get it through discipline as well as teaching. The type of teaching that produces growth is teaching that has a framework of discipline. God the Holy Spirit is the means of learning doctrine — John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. “in the grace” — e)n plus the locative of xarij, plus the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun — “in that grace.” The doctrine of grace 1. Definition. a) Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. The whole point of grace is that God is free to give. b) Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His entire essence to mankind without compromising or jeopardising any part of His essence. c) No one can truly give and rightly give unless they have the freedom to do so. Grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. It is both God’s plan and God’s policy regarding mankind. His plan and policy are both called grace because this is the way that God’s character remains intact. Grave therefore is the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi. Under grace God does all the work, all the providing, and man does all the receiving. And God does all the thinking. Grace isn’t designed for us to think, it is designed for us to accept God’s ideas. That is where doctrine comes in because doctrine is simply the thinking of God. Concept. a) Grace depends on the essence or character of God. b) Therefore grace depends on who and what God is. c) Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence. d) Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation (the beginning). e) Grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s talent, man’s thinking, man’s planning. f) Grace therefore is the genius of God and doctrine is the revelation of that genius. The great enemy of grace is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The “good” part is legalism, the evil part is merely the thinking of Satan superimposed or inculcated in mankind causing him to be working for everything, to be under the function of good. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil means a knowledge of Satan’s thinking. Evil is the knowledge of Satan’s thinking; “good” is how Satan’s thinking is put into operation, the application. Evil is merely Satan’s doctrine; “good” is merely Satan’s application of that doctrine. Evil and good were what man did not need in relationship with God. He doesn’t need either one of them, he never will. Whenever we are inculcated by Satan — reversionism and being under the influence of evil — then we function according to Satanic principles. So the great enemy to grace is legalism, man’s intrusion into the plan of God with his own works, his ability, his talents, his schemes, his plans; and good and evil is the sum total of the good, the schemes, the plans, the abilities, and the works of mankind apart from God. The believer must learn to sort out the difference between grace and legalism. Anything that adds to what God has provided, or throws into the plan of God, if accepted, would destroy the plan of God. Therefore the only way we can avoid intrusion into the plan of God with our works and our abilities is a maximum understanding of Bible doctrine. Anything, therefore, that man adds is contrary to the plan. The plan of God, operation grace, is never destroyed or neutralised because grace rejected human thinking, human energy of the flesh, human ability, human talent, human viewpoint plans. Legalism and grace cannot coexist, they are mutually exclusive. 2. Grace and the new contract for the church. a) The glorification of Christ by resurrection, ascension and session is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. b) This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish Age in order that the royal family of God might be formed to commemorate that victory. c) The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. d) The new covenant or the new contract to the church is related to the biblical doctrine of sanctification. e) Grace found a way to take man, created inferior to the angels, and make him ultimately superior to angelic creatures. f) This is accomplished through three phases of what the Bible calls sanctification. i) Positional sanctification. The greatest thing that God the Father can do for the believer is to make him exactly like His Son, Jesus Christ. This is accomplished positionally at the point of salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby we enter into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The act of regeneration is tantamount to entering the family of God but the baptism of the Spirit makes it royal family of God. This is called positional sanctification. All the Old Testament believers received at regeneration entrance into the family of God and received the righteousness of God by imputation. But we as royal family receive more than that. Paragraph one of our new contract provides for royalty plus the fact that each member of the royal family of God is now positionally higher than angels. ii) Experiential sanctification whereby the object is to achieve super-grace status. It is also called the balance of residency. We start with the filling of the Holy Spirit (which comes and goes with carnality and rebound) but we must balance it with doctrine. That balance of residency occurs at super-grace status, so when we reach super-grace we have reached the point of experiential sanctification. iii) Ultimate sanctification is the third paragraph in the new contract to the church. In this one we have a resurrection body minus the old sin nature, minus human good, minus the lake of fire, plus for those who maintain super-grace paragraph SG3 or surpassing grace blessings and rewards forever and ever. 3. There are five stages of grace. a) Saving grace. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once when he trusted in Christ — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3. At the moment of salvation every believer receives at least 36 irrevocable things from God. Because of propitiation every believer is under maximum blessing from God. God is free to exercise His love and still not compromise His character and provide the maximum for you. God is also free to exercise His love in giving all of the discipline necessary to bring you around to Bible doctrine. And if after the elapse of a certain amount of time you do not come around to Bible doctrine — positive volition and spiritual growth — then God feels perfectly free to make your life hell on earth, ending with the sin unto death, so that when you go to heaven you have been thoroughly wrung-out under the principle of divine discipline. “Whom the Lord loveth He chaseneth.” So saving grace is the beginning of the plan of God. This is a grace that comes through the work of Christ on the cross. Capacity for grace, like capacity for life is based on the amount of doctrine resident in the believer’s soul. b) Living grace. This is all that God is free to do for the believer while he lives under the rule of Satan in the devil’s world. Every moment in time you are living under Satan’s rule, the world is Satan’s domain. He is the ruler of this world and will be until the second advent. Therefore we live in an area of conflict of interest in which our soul is the battleground. So under living grace God must provide first of all for the body, and secondly for the soul. This is divine provision under living grace — our material needs plus a pastor-teacher for spiritual food. c) Super-grace. This is the point of spiritual maturity and where production really begins. There are five categories under our paragraph SG2: i. Spiritual blessings; ii. Temporal blessings; iii. The area of blessing by association; iv. Historical blessing, the spiritual heritage concept; v. Dying blessing. 4. A modus vivendi of grace. i. Grace is the means of growth — 2 Peter 3:18; ii. It is the basis for stability — Hebrews 13:9; 12:28; 1 Peter 5:12; iii. Grace is the basis for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1. 5. The failure to utilise grace — Galatians 5:4; Hebrews 12:15, two descriptions of reversionism. 6. Grace in suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. 7. The axioms of grace: a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect. b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from the source of a perfect God. c) If mankind could do anything meritorious in the pan of God it is no longer perfect. Man is imperfect, he cannot contribute to a perfect plan. d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in the grace plan of God. e) Grace excludes all human merit and ability, all human good and legalism, all self-righteousness and evil. f) Legalism is the enemy of grace. There is no place for legalism or human good in the plan of God. g) All legalism and human good is associated with the greatest of the mental attitude sins, pride or arrogance. 8. The four areas in which arrogance rejects grace. 9. Grace in innocence. Man’s relationship with God was based on creation rather than regeneration. Man came from God as a full adult. Therefore he had to possess instant appreciation for God’s plan of grace. This was provided in two ways, the tree of lives providing instant capacity for grace and daily Bible class providing the maintenance of this capacity. “that is in Christ Jesus” — the words “that is” in the English is a definite article used as a relative pronoun, so we translate it “which.” It implies the present active indicative of e)imi — “which is.” Then we have e)n plus the locative of Xristoj, plus the locative of I)hsouj. Xristoj is used for His Jewish royalty; the locative of I)hsouj is used for His battlefield royalty. Translation: “Consequently you, my student, keep on being strong in that grace which is in Christ Jesus.” Verse 2 — we have another type of discipline: academic discipline, and the analogy is made to banking. “And the things” — the connective use of kai plus the nominative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j should be translated “And what.” The word “things” refers to doctrinal teaching. “thou hast heard” — aorist active indicative from the verb a)kouw. This is used for concentration: academic concentration and recognition of authority, separate but related principles. The verb connotes positive volition toward doctrine, concentration, academic discipline, perception of Bible doctrine. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, it gathers into one entirety Timothy’s function of GAP under the authority of Paul. The active voice: Timothy did this. As a student he produces the action of the verb, the persistent function of GAP. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Timothy accepted the authority of the apostle Paul and recovered. “of me” is the preposition para plus the ablative of source of e)gw and should be translated “from me.” He had to take it from Paul. “among many witnesses” indicates Timothy in seminary — the preposition dia plus the genitive from the adjective poluj. Dia plus the genitive means “through” or “in the presence of” or “along with.” Poluj is an adjective correctly translated “many.” Where the problem lies is in the noun goes with the adjective in the objective of the preposition, the genitive plural from the noun martuj which means a judicial witness. That is, a legitimate witness who functions academically in learning doctrine under the strict academic discipline of Paul’s seminary. A martuj is a person who comes into court and gives legitimate evidence. a) Martuj means to be on the spot, to be there. You have to be in the classroom, the local church. b) He had to concentrate. c) As a result of concentration there is perspicacity, the assimilation of the facts. And that isn’t what makes a witness. What makes a witness? The communication of those facts. Timothy had the gift of pastor-teacher. He had to be there and be there and be there. He was under the ministry of Paul. Now he is communicating doctrine in Ephesus as a super-grace pastor-teacher. The etymology of this word find itself in the root of the word mermeroj [mer = remember; mer = remember again; oj = now I have it completely]. So mermeroj means to carry it in your mind, to bear in mind, therefore to remember. We get other Greek words from this: mermainw which means to remember; martuj which means not only to remember but to communicate it — “in the presence of many theological students.” “the same” refers to the accusative plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. The demonstrative emphasises the doctrine by which Timothy was ready and prepared to become a pastor-teacher. Doctrine does two things for anyone who is going into the ministry, assuming, of course, he has the gift of pastor-teacher. The doctrine first of all is the basis of his growth from babyhood to adulthood. This is accomplished by constant intake of doctrine, the function of GAP. In addition to that the doctrine retained in his soul is going to be communicated under his spiritual gift. So everything he learns in class he will eventually be able to communicate in some form or another to his own congregation. This is the twofold principle of the importance of doctrine. There is another reason. Timothy who was moving toward the high ground of super-grace took a nose dive and went into reversionism. That is why we have 1 Timothy. Now this same doctrine is going to be the way in which he can climb out of the hole and keep moving to the high ground. This demonstrative pronoun o(utoj places special emphasis on the doctrine which Timothy learned in the classroom of Paul’s seminary. It should perhaps be better translated “these doctrines.” This is the direct object of the verb. “commit thou” — the aorist middle imperative from the verb paratiqhmi which means to deposit. The ministry is now regarded from the viewpoint of a banking analogy. Among Timothy’s congregation are some who are going to have the gift of pastor-teacher. Therefore as he is giving out doctrine to all the members of the congregation he is also preparing in some stage other members of the congregation who have this spiritual gift. The aorist middle imperative: he is ordered to make a deposit with these people. He makes a deposit with everyone else at the same time but there is a difference in motivation. Those who are aware of the fact that they have the gift of pastor-teacher have a tendency to be a little more careful with their notes and to concentrate and to work a little harder. For the male believer who possesses the gift of pastor-teacher every assembly of the local church is a theological classroom for that individual so that the deposit of doctrine can be made in his soul. The aorist tense: the culminative aorist views Timothy’s doctrinal teaching in the local church in its entirety but emphasises the gift of the pastor-teacher training. For every believer it is spiritual growth, for the one who has the gift it is also spiritual preparation. The middle voice is a dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the subject, Timothy, in the action of the verb. Therefore every pastor in teaching his congregation must never forget that some of his congregation will eventually be teaching the Word from the pulpit. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, it demands that the pastor of the local church deposits doctrine with his congregation. This is his basic function as a pastor and the deposit of doctrine in the royal family is the only way that the royal family can grow. “to faithful men” — the word “men” simply refers here to the male believer who might have the gift of pastor-teacher, but the actual word here is mankind — in the plural — a)nqrwpoj. Pistoj is the adjective that goes with this — “faithfulness.” The meaning of “faithful men” refers to anyone, ladies included, who comes to Bible class consistently. The purpose of the deposit is to bear interest, compound interest, and the bearing of interest is your growth. Once you have a big enough deposit God starts pouring. It takes something to be persistent. Pistoj is another way of saying “guts.” “who” — nominative masculine plural from a compound relative pronoun o(stij. It emphasises the qualitative aspect of those who are consistent. The greatest believers are those who reach super-grace. They have one thing in common — “faithful.” “Who by there very nature” is the way to translate o(stij. “shall be able” — now talking specifically about those who have the gift if pastor-teacher, the future active indicative of e)imi. The future tense is a progressive future denoting the idea of progress in future time. The active voice: qualified pastors will produce the action of the verb by joining those members of the congregation in the action called “faithfulness.” The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historic and dogmatic reality. Someone will always be teaching doctrine. Constant study, the discipline as well as the doctrine, means future ability to communicate. It isn’t how you communicate, it is what you communicate. You don’t have to be a an eloquent speaker in order to be a pastor-teacher, it is the content that counts. If you have a content you will communicate it. Also here is the predicate nominative masculine plural from i)kanoj, and it means “qualified.” So the predicate nominative with the verb to be means “shall be qualified.” 1. These qualifications include being a member of a local church where Bible doctrine is constantly taught. 2. Being consistent in academic discipline resulting in following the colours to the high ground of super-grace. 3. Entering into whatever training and experience the Lord provides by way of preparation and seasoning for the ministry. 4. Note that qualification demands enough spiritual growth for the male believer to recognise the reality of possession of the proper spiritual gift. 5. A congregation should never be victimised by emotional pleas for full-time Christian service. People “come forward” for full-time Christian service and the whole thing is a hoax because all believers are in full-time Christian service. Summary of qualifications a) Must be a male believer in Jesus Christ who at the point of salvation received from God the Holy Spirit the gift of pastor-teacher. b) Must be under strict academic discipline of Bible teaching in a local church ministry with enough growth to recognise the possession of the gift. It takes a certain amount of growth to recognise the gift. c) Must complete growth to the point of super-grace by the intensification of the function of GAP. d) Must have academic training as the Lord provides. The Lord leads in different ways. e) Must have strong disciplinary training. The pastor must be the epitome of self-discipline. f) Must understand administration and the delegation of authority. g) Must have enough leadership ability not to abuse the tremendous authority vested by God in the pastor of the local church. Leadership ability will keep the pastor from both arrogance and the abuse of power. h) Must have moral courage to make decisions compatible with Bible doctrine. The pastor is responsible to God for his policy, his decisions, his teachings, his modus operandi. i) Must understand that his primary function is to study and teach. Therefore he must not be side-tracked from this objective by calling, by visiting the sick, by counselling, by catering to those who demand time and attention. “to teach” is the aorist active infinitive of didaskw — always means one person with the authority teaching a group. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the entire teaching ministry of the pastor-teacher but it emphasises the results — spiritual growth. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb in the local assembly when he teaches the Word. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result in which the results indicated follow a deliberate goal — for the believer to reach the high ground of super-grace so that God can bless him in the devil’s world. “others also” — other believers. The adjunctive use of kai is correctly translated “also.” So the pastor must learn doctrine but God will provide the hearers. God provides the hearers when the pastor is prepared. Translation: “And what things [doctrinal teaching] you have heard from me along with many theological students, you deposit these doctrines with faithful men, who by their very nature [as potential pastors] shall be qualified to teacher other believers also.” Note that God perpetuates the spiritual heritage during the Church Age through the function of the pastor-teacher in the assembly of the local church. There is no perpetuation of spiritual heritage without pastor-teachers. Therefore there is no substitute for the local church during this dispensation. The apostasy of some local churches and the moral cowardice in the form of denominations does not justify the rise of the independent movement. Each one misses the boat. All of these independent organisations and the denominations have missed the boat. There will never be a departure from the local church. You can only grow in a local church, there is no other place to grow. Verses 3 and 4 — self discipline. The analogy to the military. Verse 3 — “Thou therefore endure hardness.” There is no Greek word here for therefore but we do have a compound verb, the aorist active imperative of sugkakopaqew. It is composed of the preposition sun which means “with, along with,” and so on; kakoj means evil; paqew is taken from the verb pasxw which means to suffer. Put together the word means to suffer evil along with someone else. It comes to means to share hardship. Here it means to campaign with, it includes a lot of hardship. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Timothy who has now reached super-grace is commanded by Paul to join him in that phase of the angelic conflict carrying the colours. In effect, Paul is passing the colours to Timothy as he faces his own death. Paul carried his own generation, he was the leader of super-grace believers in that generation and carried it historically. The active voice: Timothy is going to produce the action of the verb by becoming a spiritual Atlas in his generation. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy. The preposition sun indicates that Paul recognises Timothy now as a super-grace believer. The adjective kakoj in the verb recognises the enemy of the angelic conflict, it recognises his strategy and summarises it with the word “evil.” The word pasxw which means to suffer indicates the suffering in the spiritual campaign of the angelic conflict. So we come up with the concept, “Bear hardship with me.” It means to campaign with Paul in the angelic conflict, or for a few moments to carry the colours with Paul before Paul dies and Timothy will carry on. “as” is going to set up an analogy. It is the relative adverb o(j used in the correlative sense to set up analogy. “a good soldier” — the adjective kaloj means “honourable,” and it is set up as the antithesis if kakoj; stratiwthj is correctly translated “soldier.” “of Jesus Christ” — the Greek reverses the word order. They are genitive of relationship. This indicates that all believers have a specific relationship to Christ. We are royal family; He is battlefield royalty and therefore in perfect analogy. Good soldiers are honourable soldiers “of Christ Jesus.” Translation: “Bear hardship with me (carry the colours) and an honourable soldier of Christ Jesus.” You are nothing in life without self-discipline. That is a principle that applies the believer and the unbeliever alike. We live under a principle called freedom, but freedom cannot be enjoyed without self-discipline because freedom does not belong just to you. Freedom belongs to everyone in the nation. Since every citizen has freedom it means that all citizens who are law-abiding are entitled not only to freedom but to the other side of the coin, privacy and property. Since everyone has this same freedom the only way you can enjoy your freedom and the next person can enjoy his freedom, privacy and property is through discipline. Freedom never works without self-discipline. Verse 4 — “No man that wareth.” We have the compound adjective o)udeij which means “no one.” Also the present middle participle from the verb strateuw which means to serve as a soldier in a campaign. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what is begun in the past and continues into the present time. It denotes everything it took to make the person into a military type — all the discipline, all the training, and then the application of that training in a combat situation. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent as producing the action of the verb. The participle is temporal (generally a temporal participle is translated by the adverb “when”). “No soldier when serving on active duty” or “No soldier when serving in a campaign.” “entangleth himself” — present passive indicative of the verb e)mplekw. It means in the passive voice to become antangled. “Entangle himself” would indicate a middle voice; “Become entangled” is passive voice. The present tense is a perfective present noting the continuation of existing results. The passive voice gives the connotation of being implicated. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic principle. “with the affairs of this life” — locative plural from the noun pragmateia which means “business, occupation, transaction,” and it refers to the activities of civilian life; plus a descriptive genitive singular of the noun bioj, referring to the pattern of life. This is an idiom which simply means the function of civilian life. Civilian life is comparable to reversionism, to being under the influence of evil. This means that the super-grace believer who as a spiritual Atlas carries his generation, or as Timothy here, becomes a colour-bearer, perpetuates into that generation the spiritual heritage of blessing. No person can have one foot in reversionism and one foot in super-grace. It is one or the other. If he is involved in reversionism then he is like a soldier on campaign trying to do a civilian job at the same time. It can’t be done. So we have a warning to Timothy to avoid any further reversionism or the influence of evil in his life. “that” introduces a conjunction which introduces a final clause denoting God’s purpose — i(na, denoting the principle of purpose, objective, goal. “In order that.” “he may please him” — aorist active subjunctive of the verb a)reskw which means to strive to please, to serve someone, to accommodate. Here it is translated “in order that he may strive to serve and please.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the soldier in ranks produces the action of the verb. Every believer is regarded here as a soldier in ranks. It is analogous to the super-grace believer. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive which has an element of contingency in fulfilling the objective. Contingency is based upon the continuation of positive volition. “who hath chosen him to be a soldier” — the articular aorist participle of stratologew [strato is from stratoj = soldier; legw = to call]. It means to enlist or to muster or to activate a military organisation. Today it would mean activation of an organisation. But the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and in the ancient world everyone activated his own organisation by picking out those basic trainees who he thought personally could fill in his sentries and his legion. It is very simple for us. The one who enlisted us is the Lord Jesus Christ. The definite article is the dative of indirect object indicating the one in whose interest the act is performed. Striving to serve is in the interest of our commanding officer, the Lord Jesus Christ. The aorist tense is constative, it gathers into one entirety the enlistment which caused the activation of the military organisation. In other words, the aorist tense here gathers into one entirety from the point at which you were born again to the point you depart from this life by death or the Rapture. The active voice: the ancient custom of the commanding officer producing the action of the verb, enlisting his own regiment, is in view here. The participle is circumstantial. Translation: “No soldier when serving on active duty in a military campaign becomes entangled in the functions of civilian life; in order that he may strive to serve and please his commanding officer.” Principle 1. Civilian life is analogous to reversionism and being under the influence of evil. 2. The striving soldier is the super-grace believer whose self-discipline is involved in the maintenance of super-grace. Verse 5 — an analogy to athletics: teaching the blessing and reward of discipline. “And if a man” includes the conjunction e)an which introduces the protasis of a third class condition. With it is the enclitic post positive transitional conjunctive particle de. It should be translated “Now.” Plus the emphatic use of kai which is translated “really,” plus an enclitic indefinite pronoun tij. Translation: “Now if anyone really.” The word “really” means that somewhere there are believers who are serious about doctrine, believers who have so disciplined their lives and understand the issue that everything is devoted to the intake of doctrine and everything else in life is on the periphery. These are the believers who have their priority straight. Question: Are you interested in doctrine because it is the mind of Christ or are you interested in doctrine because it means promotion, success, wealth, power, prosperity, etc. “strive for the masteries” — the present active subjunctive from one verb, a)qlew. It means to compete in an athletic contest in the Roman empire. The present tense is an iterative present describing what recurs at successive intervals. The active voice: the professional athlete, an extremely serious person in the field of athletics, produced the action. The subjunctive mood is potential, it is a part of the third class condition and it indicated that not everyone was interested in going this far with athletics. “Now if anyone really competes in the athletic games.” There were two kinds of established athletes in the day in which this was written. There was the athlete who went to the gymnasium where they lived for ten months. Then there was the other system where they could go down to a gymnasium which was not the official government gym where they could go for an hour or two and work out, and then come back in a couple of days — not really a very serious thing. So we have the serious athlete and the one who merely did it to contribute to his own social life and business life, i.e. just for fun and health and never took it too seriously. The serious athlete is comparable to the believer who is positive toward doctrine. The non-serious athlete is the believer who is indifferent to doctrine and will eventually move into some phase of reversionism. “is he not crowned” — present passive indicative of the verb stefanow. The cognate noun is stefanoj which is really not a crown; it is a wreath, a winner’s wreath. The verb here means to receive a winner’s crown. It should be translated, with the negative mh, “he does not receive a winner’s crown.” This is an aoristic present tense for punctiliar action in present time. It just takes a few seconds to crown a winner with a wreath. The passive voice: the winner in the athletic contest receives the action of the verb, namely a victor’s wreath or crown for a first place. There was no such thing as a second place. There was either a wreath or nothing. The indicative mood is potential, a rather rare type of indicative. The potential indicative sets up a hypothetical case to illustrate the point. The hypothetical case is viewed from the standpoint of reality, however. “except” is made up of two Greek particles, e(an plus mh. Here they are used as the Greek idiom “unless.” “he strive” — aorist active subjunctive from a)qlew which means to compete. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the function of complying with the rules over a period of ten months and gathering it up into one action. The active voice: the serious athlete who competes in any of the events of the games in the Roman world had to comply with laws and rules. The subjunctive mood is potential. Compliance was potential, depending upon the individual attitude. For a person who maintained a continual state of positive volition toward the job there was no problem. The rules were not impossible, they just demanded a gutsy type of self-discipline, that constant regulation of your own life. “lawfully” — adverb nomimwj, “according to the law.” He had to compete according to the rules. Translation: “Now if anyone really competes in the athletic games he does not receive a winner’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.” Summary of the rules 1. Firstly, the rule of matriculation. You entered into a gymnasium, signed up, brought something to prove that you were a citizen of the Roman empire. If you were not a citizen you could not compete. Principle: If you are an unbeliever you can’t go to super-grace. 2. The athlete must live in the gymnasium for a period of ten months. This is analogous to the basic principle of Christian self-discipline — rebound and separation. If you are going to regulate your own life the first thing you must do is to remember your sin and rebound. You have to have the good sense to know what kind of a person you should avoid — mostly believers. People influence you. Avoid the people who keep you out of Bible class! This is also analogous to entrance into one’s local church under the filling of the Spirit for doctrinal teaching. 3. They had to answer all trumpet calls. Basically the trumpet calls were divided into three categories: warning calls, assembly calls, and then they had to differentiate because they had warning calls to go out on the athletic field and then the assembly calls, then they had warning calls for meals — two each day. So they had to learn and obey all of the trumpet calls. This is analogous to the relationship between the persistent positive volition and personal self-discipline. 4. The athlete must exercise in all kinds of weather. This represents the stability of self-discipline, the stability of positive volition. No believer reaches super-grace without consistent self-discipline, consistent positive volition toward doctrine. 5. He must have no contact with the opposite sex during the training period of ten months. This is analogous to the distractions of reversionism. There are many distractions that would keep you away from the teaching of the Word. 6. Part of the training was dietary. They had to abstain from rich foods and alcoholic beverage of which there was an abundance at this time in the Roman empire. The athlete was on a rule diet for ten months. This emphasises objectivity in learning in which your preconceived ideas are set aside and there is reception of the Word of God. In other words, Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint must displace human viewpoint and Satanic doctrine known as evil. 7. Therefore you must obey every other law or rule or policy of the gumnasiarxoj, the ruler of the gymnasium. This was one of the highest systems of power and authority in the Roman empire. This office was comparable to the pastor of the local church who is given great authority by God over his own pastorate. It is inevitable that his study of the Word will produce policy. Therefore this rule says that any additional policies not prescribed by the Roman senate could be made by the gumnasiarxoj. There were two categories of athlete. There was the one called a)qlhtai, the one who went into the gym for ten months. He represents the quintessence of self-discipline, recognition of authority, and therefore the ability to exercise authority. This man was a future great in the Roman empire. The second category is called the a)gonistai. This was the kind of person who was merely trying to stay in shape, an amateur indulging for the purpose of health, etc. He is comparable to the negative believer. He is under no system of discipline for a prolonged period of time. So he is the kind of person who occasionally comes. The analogy to production 1. The games were always held in a stadium. This was comparable to phase two or the royal family’s life on this earth. 2. The training for the games was always held in a gymnasium. This is comparable to the local church. 3. In the stadium certain events were held in competition viewed by the crowd. The first of these was called dromoj, the running events. The second category of events was called palh — wrestling. The third category was called pugmh — boxing. There were two other categories in most of the games. One was called the pentaqlon, getting the most points in five events, and the final one was the pagkration, a combined wrestling and boxing in which few people survived. There was also another events, but only for those who could afford the equipment — chariot racing. The real secret to being a great athlete was not the performance so much as the attitude to the daily training; the self-discipline concept. The various events are analogous to the many areas of production which are open to the super-grace believer. Doctrine resident in the soul, however, must precede production in the Christian life. The profile of the super-grace believer is given in this passage as well as the great principle of self-discipline. 1. Like the athlete who qualifies to compete in the games the super-grace believer follows the colours to the high ground through the daily function of GAP, resulting in maximum doctrine resident in the soul. He arrives, he is qualified to compete, he is qualified for legitimate production in the spiritual life. 2. Like the athlete who wins the super-grace believer has his own paragraph SG2, and this is comparable to receiving the wreath on the victory stand — stefanoj. This means spiritual blessing, temporal blessing, blessing by association, historical blessing, dying blessing. Principle behind verse 5 1. Either regulate your own life or God will do it for you. If you regulate your own life you will end up under super-grace blessings; if God does it for you you end up under divine discipline. 2. Either you discipline yourself (rebound and +V toward doctrine) or God will discipline you. 3. Either you learn the easy way or you learn the hard way. Learning the easy way is GAPing it daily; learning the hard way is going through reversionism and going through whatever divine discipline it takes to wake you up. 4. The easy way, then, is the daily function of GAP. 5. The hard way is negative volition toward doctrine resulting in reversionism and a life of the various stages of divine discipline. Summary 1. The judges and marshals of the games had the responsibility of enforcing all discipline and rules pertaining to the games. 2. One act of disobedience you were disqualified. This meant no chance for blessing or reward. The analogy is obvious. The reversionist will not accept self-discipline, group discipline, or the authority of anyone but himself. 3. Obviously we have analogy here. Reversionism and evil not only disqualifies the believer for reaching super-grace status but results in maximum divine discipline or the sin unto death. The sin unto death is never for carnality, it is for reversionism. 4. Here is where an understanding of the cross begins to help us along. On the cross Christ was judged for the sins from the old sin nature’s area of weakness. But at the same time Christ rejected human good and evil which came from the old sin nature’s area of strength. On the cross the sins of the world were judged — spiritual death. But human good and evil was rejected because human good and evil must be perpetuated in the angelic conflict. This is the issue. 5. This means that sin and carnality do not disqualify the believer from super-grace, or from growth, because of the grace provision of rebound. 6. But negative volition toward doctrine and resultant reversionism means disqualification. 7. This passage relates the function of GAP and resultant super-grace status to the biblical concept of self-discipline plus group or academic discipline in phase two. Verse 6 — the analogy to farming: the dynamics of self-discipline. “The husbandman” — the accusative singular from the noun gewrgoj which means “farmer.” It is used here for an accusative of general reference and it becomes in effect the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive is metalambanw. The noun is not properly the subject of the infinitive but it acts as the subject because it describes the person connected with the action of the infinitive. With this is a present active participle from the verb kopiaw which means “hard-working.” Here the participle is used as an adjective, so we start out with the phrase, “The hard-working farmer.” A hard-working farmer has a lot of self-discipline, he has to regulate his own life. “must be first partaker” — an impersonal verb of compulsion, dei, denoting the custom; plus a temporal adverb prwton, meaning first in time; and the present active infinitive from the compound verb metalambanw which means to receives one’s share. This is a customary present which denotes what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: the hard-working farmer produces the action of the verb. This is analogous to the believer who is consistent in the function of GAP. It involves not only self-discipline but kopiaw means self-discipline when you are exhausted. The harvest is the reception of blessing — paragraph SG2 with its various categories of blessings. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result indicating the fulfilment of a deliberate plan or objective. “of the fruits” — the possessive genitive plural from the noun karpoj. It means “crops, production, profits, benefits.” Translation: “The hard-working farmer must first receive his share of the fruits [benefits].” Those members of the royal family of God who operate under grace must be the first to share the benefits of grace. No one can operate under grace apart from the daily function of GAP, and no one can function under the daily principle of GAP apart from strict self-discipline; consistent daily function of GAP is hard work, it requires great self-discipline. The great benefits cannot be reproduced by anyone or anything, including the ruler of this world who is Satan. Verse 7 — the real secret to life is what you carry around in your soul. What you carry around in your soul results in what you think. What you think determines what you really are. “Consider” is a present active imperative from the verb noew. It means here to concentrate, to perceive, and it has to do with academic discipline. Therefore it is translated “concentrate” or “be concentrating.” Of all of the factors in worship this is the most important. The present tense is a present tense of duration, it has very strong linear aktionsart. This is something you must do all of your life and this is really the secret to capacity for life — your ability to concentrate and to think, the ability to increase your vocabulary, your categorical understanding of things. The active voice: Timothy and all members of the royal family of God produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command. “what I say” — the nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun o(j actually deals with the content of Bible doctrine, the content which must be prepared on the part of the pastor-teacher. With this is the present active indicative of the verb legw which means to speak, to talk, to form words, to say. Here it means to communicate doctrine, the teaching of the Word of God. The customary present indicates what has to occur constantly. The active voice: Paul here is the communicator of doctrine, and this is what all pastors should do. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The reality of the existence of a right pastor-teacher for every believer is a true principle of doctrine. It is just a question of finding who that pastor is. “Keep concentrating on what I say.” This requires maximum academic discipline. The fulfilment of this command requires self-discipline and self-regulation of the life on the part of the individual. But this self-discipline is compatible with the principle of grace. The grace principle is found in the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit who indwells us and who when we are in fellowship controls our soul under the principle of the filling. John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14; James 1:21-25; 1 John 2:27. “and the Lord” — “and” is the post positive conjunctive particle gar used to express a cause or reason for concentration. The noun kurioj here refers to God the Holy Spirit. Kurioj in the Greek connotes deity and it is the same as the Hebrew “Jehovah.” These two words can be used for any member of the Trinity. Kurioj is used most frequently for the Son because the Son is the manifest person of the Godhead. Sometimes it is used for God the Holy Spirit and this is one of those passages. There is a parallel for this in 2 Corinthians 3:17,18 — “Now the Lord [kurioj] is that same Holy Spirit.” No doctrine is real apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. “give” is the future active indicative of the verb didomi. The future tense is a progressive future, it denotes the idea of progress in future time. The progress is “from glory to glory,” from super-grace to surpassing grace, from each facet of grace to another facet. Each one of these facets of grace has tremendous divine blessing. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit is the teacher of Bible doctrine and therefore He is the one producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic reality of this point of doctrine. No assimilation, no cognisance of doctrine apart from the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. This is the grace factor that links up with self-discipline. “thee” is old English for the second person singular personal pronoun su. This personalises the entire passage, it was originally addressed to Timothy but it is addressed to everyone of us who have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The dative of indirect object indicates Timothy and all believers in whose interest the act of teaching doctrine is performed. “understanding” — the key to spiritual growth, the key to everything. It isn’t works, it isn’t some system of legalism, of conformity with religiosity, but it is understanding Bible doctrine. It is the accusative singular direct object from the noun sunesij, a technical word for Bible doctrine stored away in the technical areas of the soul. Remember that the soul has self-consciousness, we are aware of our own existence and we can relate things to ourselves and to individuals, and the extent that we are normal we can relate our existence to the reality of life. Then we have two frontal lobes. The left lobe is called the nouj and is the staging area for Bible doctrine. The right lobe, called in the Greek kardia or heart, is the key to everything. The right lobe has a frame of reference, a memory centre, a vocabulary storage, categorical storage. When the categorical storage is empty it when there is no benefit in any way in life and cannot be happy in life. Then there are norms and standards or conscience and finally a launching pad. Then there is positive volition with its positive and negative poles, and emotion. Emotion is designed to respond to what is in the right lobe. So the key to everything is getting Bible doctrine in the right lobe. Sunesisj is a technical word for Bible doctrine in the vocabulary and in the categorical storage — total understanding. “in all things” is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative plural from paj. Translation: “Concentrate on what I say; for the Lord [God the Holy Spirit] will give you total understanding in all the categories of doctrine.” Therefore the chief objective of the spiritual life is the intake of Bible doctrine. God measures your progress in terms of the doctrinal content of your soul, not the activity of your life. God is only impressed with one thing, and from that one thing comes the whole principle of grace activity in your life. So if there is to be any grace activity in your life at all it is going to come one way only and that is through Bible doctrine resident in your soul or the balance of residency including the filling of the Spirit. The doctrine of GAP 1. Definition. GAP is an acrostic: G = grace; A = apparatus; P = perception. GAP is the system provided by God in eternity past whereby every believer is able to understand the whole realm of doctrine while living on this earth. Consequently is the divine grace provision for the believer’s spiritual growth, progress, and advancement. God has found a way for every believer, regardless of his IQ, of his educational background, to perceive, to understand Bible doctrine. In other words, to transfer Bible doctrine from the written page to the soul of the individual believer priest. 2. There are several systems of perception. In life there are three basic systems by which all members of the human race acquire knowledge. a) The first is called rationalism which is a system of reason where reason is the source of knowledge. Reason is superior to and independent of the sensory perception in rationalism. In other words, what you think, what you can draw from your frame of reference, your memory centre, your vocabulary and categorical storage, is reality totally apart from any other factor. What you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears, what you smell with your nose, what you taste with your mouth, is excluded from reality under the system of rationalism. Reason becomes the norm or the criterion from reality. Rationalism is the adherence to the supremacy of reason in matters of belief, conduct and thought. The subject of Bible doctrine and scriptural interpretation must be put to the test of human reason and therefore rationalism always rejects dogmatic authority. Rationalism is primarily for philosophers. Rationalism is a system of superiority in thinking, as it were. The higher the IQ the greater you can go into the principle of rationalism. It is a system which is not related in any way to GAP. b) Empiricism. This is the scientific system of learning, learning by observation and experimentation. Reality lies in the function of your sensory system relaying observations to the brain for analysis. Key words are: experience, observation, experimentation providing the basis for reality and perception. In anything in life people have a tendency to go toward empiricism or toward rationalism about anything. No one starts out as an empiricist or rationalist. A baby and then a child does not start out with either of these systems. These are systems for developed IQs, developed perspicacity. Both of these systems start the same way. They are both meritorious systems. The merit of empiricism is an observation and analysis. The merit of rationalism is in the extent of one’s vocabulary and categorical understanding of things in life. But all people start as babies, then as a child, in the principle of faith. c) Faith is merely learning by accepting the authority of the criterion, learning by accepting words as vocabulary. Faith must always have an object. In salvation the object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith which is a non-meritorious system of perception is the system brought into grace because under grace all of the merit belongs to God, and we are the beneficiaries of blessing from that. So faith is learning by accepting the authority of the criterion, it is the reality of the unseen. Faith is a system of thinking but it is always a non-meritorious system of thinking. Faith is building knowledge on the basis of an absolute authority or axiom, whether it is God exists or 1 + 1 = 2. So faith, then, is a valid system of cognisance and the most commonly used. The validity of faith depends upon the criterion or the object of faith. In salvation Jesus Christ is the object of faith, there is validity. In the function of GAP faith is the system of perception. The object of faith is Bible doctrine, the principles of the Word of God. The absolute criterion is the Word of God. Many times when the Greek word pistij is found in the New Testament it more frequently refers to doctrine than it does simply to the act of faith. So faith is a bona fide system of learning, a bona fide system of thinking. It is the secret to blessing from God in time. 3. The distinction between human and spiritual IQ. IQ means intelligence quotient. Human IQ is the number assigned to person on the basis of dividing his mental age by his chronological age. The mental age is determined by testing; the chronological age is determined by interrogation. The results are multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals. The cut-off date for IQ is, at beast, 14. No one has an established IQ after 14. So IQ does not really determine how smart you are going to be in life, it merely teaches the ability of your mind to absorb under certain preconceived conditions within the area of the English language. IQ is an excuse for an intellectual snobbery that does not and cannot exist. The only reason that IQ is a handicap is because if you have a genius IQ you sometimes never get over it. Remember that for every person who is a genius and makes it in life there are a hundred thousand people of genius category who are a total flop. More geniuses fail than stupid people. Genius develops hypersensitivity and it has a tendency to divorce itself from reality, especially through functions of rationalism. There are only a few people in history who have had genius that is meaningful. Genius is no good unless it stays with reality. Spiritual IQ is the issue for the believer. It is determined by the amount of Bible doctrine you have resident in your soul. This resident doctrine is called in the Hebrew language chakmah; in the Greek it is called e)pignwsij or sunesij. Colossians 1:9,10 is a dissertation on the principle of spiritual IQ. It says literally from the Greek, “Because of this, we also from the day we heard the report, do not cease to pray for you constantly, asking that you might be filled up with e)pignwsij [full knowledge of doctrine] of his sovereign purpose, design and will by means of all sofia [doctrine on the launching pad] and spiritual understanding [sunesij — doctrine in the frame of reference, vocabulary and categories], so that you might walk worthy of the Lord [based upon the doctrinal content of your soul, not what you are doing but what you are thinking], pleasing God in all things; constantly producing in every good work.” Human IQ is not the issue, spiritual IQ will always be the issue. 4. The exclusion of human IQ from GAP. There is no place for human merit or human ability in God’s grace plan. Human IQ has often been considered a factor in learning doctrine. This would imply that low IQ believers would be handicapped in learning. However, in eternity past God found a way through grace by which every believer can learn doctrine totally apart from human ability. For this reason at the point of salvation every believer receives God the Holy Spirit indwelling and a human spirit for the assimilation of doctrine. The human spirit by-passes human IQ in learning. So we have the Holy Spirit teaching the human spirit and this knocks all the merit out of perspicacity. For this reason, then, God the Holy Spirit to the human spirit is taught in 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 1:19-2:16. Job 32:7,8 — our lives, the glorification of Jesus Christ, our happiness, our capacity to love Jesus Christ, the ability to orient to the time in which we live, and to fulfil the objective for which we remain in this life, is all found in the principle found here. Verse 7 — “I said” is a phrase which means ‘I am repeating what I previously said.’ The word “Days” is simply a reminder of the fact that God gives each one of us one day at a time. In eternity past God provided everything you would need to stay alive long enough to reach super-grace. He provided for you a paragraph SG2. He also provided a paragraph SG3. In this principle of living grace He provided everything necessary. One of the things He has provided in living grace is one day at a time. God has given each one of us a span of life. He knows right now exactly how long you are going to live and how you are going to die if the Rapture doesn’t occur first. “I said” is a qal imperfect of the verb amar. The imperfect tense meant that this is being repeated, that it has been said before. Therefore it is something that should be said again and again. It is put this way for emphasis. “Days should speak” — the piel imperfect from the verb dabar. The piel stem is the intensive stem. It means to speak or to communicate doctrine. “Days should be devoted to the communication of doctrine.” “and multitude of years” — the continuous and faithful function of GAP until it adds up to a multitude of years. The accumulation of years should teach. “should teach” is the hiphil imperfect of yada. Hiphil is causative active voice, therefore it should be translated “should cause to teach” — to cause us to understand. “wisdom” — chakmah, the synonym for the Greek e)pignwsij and refers to maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Translation: “I am reminding you, Days [God gives us one day at a time] should be a basis for communication of doctrine, the multitude of years can cause us to understand chakmah [doctrine].” Verse 8 — “But there is a spirit in man.” “Spirit” here is ruach which can be a number of things. It means life, breath, or spirit. When it means spirit it means human spirit or Holy Spirit. Here it refers to God the Holy Spirit — “But the [Holy] Spirit inside of man.” Every believer has the ministry of the Holy Spirit in order to learn. “and the inspiration of the Almighty” — the word for “inspiration” is neshemmah and it refers to the spark of life. This is what happens when a person is born, they are not alive even yet until God gives the spark of life. Here in this verse it refers to the inhale of Bible doctrine, the function of GAP. So we have the Holy Spirit inside of man and the function of GAP from the Almighty — the constant inhale of doctrine as indicated in the previous verse. “giveth them understanding” — the hiphil imperfect from the verb bin. This hiphil, again, is a causative active voice and means to cause to understand. So we are given the means by which we can understand doctrine. 5. The grace provision for learning doctrine. a) The formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. Everything that Jesus Christ wanted us to know from His own thinking, as it were His own essence, He has provided for us in written form. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as the formation and preservation of the Bible through God’s grace. The canon of scripture is under constant attack from Satan, there is pressure constantly to destroy it. The preservation of the canon of scripture demonstrates that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The result is that the 20th century believer has intact everything that he will ever need in writing. It is merely a matter then of transferring from the written page to the soul the content of the canon. This is a grace factor. The very fact that you have a Bible, the very fact that Bibles exist, the very fact that the Bible is more widespread than any book in the world today is indicative of God’s fantastic grace and power in providing us this textbook. b) The divine authorisation for the local church. While the Bible is the textbook the local church is the classroom. In this case you take the textbook to the classroom. The classroom of the local church is the only place where Bible doctrine is taken in under the correct principles. Only in the classroom of the local church can the royal family actually learn Bible doctrine and grow up. The only person who can get it directly from the book is the one who has the gift of pastor-teacher. The royal family of God, the Church Age believer, assembles in the local church and the minute he does he is a student without portfolio, his only right in the congregation is concentration under the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the assimilation of the Word. The local church must assemble under the principle of very strict discipline, emphasising good manners, objectivity, poise, concentration, and the obvious motivation which comes from the filling of the Spirit. The pastor has absolute authority during the time of the assembly and his teaching must be compatible with the spiritual principles enjoined. Because the pastor does have tremendous authority from God his preparation period, however long it takes, must be under a system of unfair discipline. He must have lived a portion of his life under authority that was totally unfair and unreasonable, for in this way he learns to appreciate and to value the proper use of authority. The local church, then, assembles under the principle of authority, the pastor exercises his authority as the ruler of the local church in the teaching of the Word and whatever other functions may be necessary for the local church to continue to operate in a grace manner compatible with the Word of God. As doctrine is transferred from the written page to the individual believer’s soul a command post is established there by which the individual believer is able to regulate his life on the basis of doctrine which is resident in his soul. This becomes the basis for great spiritual progress. So the local church always will be the classroom until the Rapture occurs. c) The right pastor. You have only one right pastor. This means that if another pastor comes to town he is not your right pastor, you only have one right pastor. You have been given by God someone to communicate doctrine to you. It is not someone that you have to have any compatibility with, or rapport, it is someone who by the very nature of his preparation under God and by his spiritual growth is prepared to provide for you the spiritual food that you need. The spiritual gift is sovereignly bestowed by God on a few men in every generation. The spiritual gift is sovereignly bestowed by the decision of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. Spiritual growth leads to discovery of spiritual gifts, except in cases where your spiritual gift remains anonymous — it is not necessary to discover it, just stay with the spiritual growth. Once you do discover it, however, you are in for a long life of preparation — the daily function of GAP, the regulation of your life to the academic discipline, the various means by which you can receive the training you need. d) The royal priesthood to the believer. Every believer is royalty, every believer is a royal priest. In this dispensation only there exists, therefore, that universal priesthood which says, in effect, You are to become spiritually self-sustaining, you are to do your own thinking, you are to have your own privacy, you are to have your own freedom, you are to live your own life before the Lord on the basis of what you have learned in the Bible class of the local church. You are a royal priest, you are to build and construct your own altar. So the purpose of the universal priesthood of the believer is privacy, freedom of reception of doctrine. The reason that privacy is ensured in the local church is that you are there for doctrine. Once you get doctrine you can run with it in any direction you want to but while you are learning your privacy is extremely important to you. e) The ministry of God the Holy Spirit who makes all of this possible. This is where the word “grace” in GAP gets its origin. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is inevitably related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit whose function at salvation provides Jesus Christ with a royal family. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby we are entered into union with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration, He is the agent in making us royalty. He indwells us as the escutcheon, the coat of arms of royalty. He provides a sealing ministry or security. He provides spiritual gifts whereby we come to depend upon each other for spiritual blessing and sustenance. The objective is the balance of residency, and when the filling also includes a maximum amount of doctrine in the soul then the believer has arrived. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit offsets any lack of human IQ, and lack of human perspicacity, and inability to understand vocabulary and words and how they are put together; this is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. f) The human spirit which for a part of the function of GAP. The dichotomous unbeliever does not have a human spirit, only a body and soul. This means that he cannot understand doctrine, he cannot absorb spiritual phenomena, he doesn’t have the human spirit as the means of doing so. The human spirit is provided at the point of salvation as a basic receiver for Bible doctrine. g) The laws of divine establishment. Our national government is responsible to protect the privacy and the freedom of the individual as well as the local church. One of the great principle under this provision is the separation of church and state. This freedom is known as religious liberty. Under this principle of separation of church and state we have the concept of privacy. We have the right to accept Christ without the government giving you any trouble, you also have the right to reject Christ. You have the principle and the right to choose any religion or no religion, to have a relationship with God or not. The government merely ensures the privacy and the freedom of everyone within the national entity. Of course, this freedom must be maintained. It can only be maintained by military victory. Military victory is also military preparedness. Military preparedness demands universal military training. Universal military training means maximum male self-discipline which in turn gives capacity for life to believer and unbeliever. The function of law — the judge on the bench, the police officer on the street corner is the principle here. basically this is the way freedom is enforced. The principle of human authority is also involved in establishment. 6. The target for GAP. We must understand receptive comprehension. The mentality of the soul is divided into two lobes: left and right. The right lobe is the eventual location for Bible doctrine and is called the heart. There is the human spirit which filters in doctrine. But doctrine has to have a staging area and therefore the left lobe is the staging area for doctrine and, as a matter of fact, for almost everything in life. The left lobe is called nouj and is designed to assimilate objective information. The type of information it assimilates in the staging area is called gnwsij. Once you get information, including doctrine, in there that doctrine is called gnwsij. That is information that is in the staging area but not necessarily usable. It is information that you can even give back on an examination paper or repeat back, but it does not mean that it is usable information. The left lobe is simply the staging area for any information that is objective or appears to be objective. The reception of doctrine into this particular lobe classifies the believer as a hearer of the Word. This is where doctrine often stops, and yet the whole thrust of James says that you must be more than a hearer of the Word, that is only the staging area. You must be a doer, and a doer is one with doctrine in his right lobe — not someone performing deeds, not some function of good, not someone in the productive end of Christianity. A doer of the Word is someone who has doctrine where it is usable in the right lobe. The right lobe is called kardia or heart. Here when we have information it is called e)pignwsij and sunesij. The problem is to get doctrine out of the staging area and into where it can be used, assimilated, where it becomes doctrine resident in the soul. Receptive information will not get the job done, it must be transferred. Getting the information into the “impregnated” side is where the growth occurs, where there is eventual production in the life that counts. James 1:19-25. We also have some words for Christian thinking in the New Testament. a) Dokew which has the connotation of subjective thinking. That means it is a perfect illustration for receptive comprehension. b) Fronew is objective thinking, impregnated thinking, something that has been transferred from the left lobe to the right lobe. 7. The mechanics of GAP, the means by which all of this is going to be transferred. a) Stage one involves simply hearing the Word — operation ICE. You are assembled taking in the Word of God. I = isagogics; C = categories; E = exegesis. These are the ingredients in teaching the Word of God. The believer must be motivated by positive volition and his life must be regulated. Isagogics is the interpretation of the Bible within the framework of its historical setting. Categorical communication of doctrine fulfils the hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture in order to determine classification and in order to determine mechanics of operation. Exegesis is the analysis of each verse on the basis of its context to determine the exact meaning of that verse. The interpretation must be based upon the grammar, the syntax, the etymology, from the original language. b) Operation gnwsij or receptive comprehension. In the first stage you listen and get information. That information has to go somewhere so it goes into the “warehouse” — gnwsij. That is the same as receptive comprehension. You have the information stored and in a place where it can be delivered immediately or in the near future to where it is useful. That is stage two and all doctrine goes into this receptive stage of comprehension first. The big question is: How do we go from point A to point B? from the left lobe to the right lobe? from the nouj to the kardia? The answer to that goes right back to the faith-rest technique. The basic function of the faith-rest technique is to transfer doctrine from the left lobe to the right lobe. However, faith can only take it so far — as far as the human spirit. Then you actually believe what you know. In other words, the object of the faith-rest technique is to take the information in the warehouse and transfer it to your human spirit — from gnwsisj to e)pignwsij. c) Stage three is operation e)pignwsij — it goes into the human spirit. Once it is in the human spirit two things happen to it. The human spirit takes all doctrine from the left lobe. It retains doctrine as building material for your ECS. It transfers that same doctrine up into the right lobe where it becomes usable. It goes into the frame of reference, to the memory centre. Your memory centre has valves that send it to the categorical storage, norms and standards, and the launching pad. This is critical — to get it down to the human spirit. Once it is in the human spirit it becomes building material for the ECS. d) Stage four it goes to the heart, every category of the right lobe, and now that doctrine becomes usable. At that point you become a doer of the Word. e) The final stage is operation glory in which maximum doctrine resident in the soul causes the believer to advance to the place where he glorifies God — the super-grace status. At this point the royal priest or Church Age believer glorifies God as per Ephesians 3:14-21. 8. The primary result in the function of GAP is that spiritual maturity of the believer — super-grace — which glorifies God as a part of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. The results are best expressed in terms of synonyms for this spiritual victory. There are many ways of describing the super-grace life. a) There is a language synonym. In the Hebrew language is chakmah; in the Greek is e)pignwsij. These are synonyms for the super-grace life wherever they are found. b) Super-grace status — James 4:6, “He gives greater [or super] grace. This is the theological synonym. c) The construction of the altar in the soul — Hebrews 13:10. This is the priestly synonym. d) The building synonym known as the edification complex of the soul [ECS]. This is the principle of grace orientation, mastery of the details of life, the relaxed mental attitude, capacity for love, sharing the happiness of God. This is called ECS in Ephesians 4:12,16. When the ECS is completed you are in super-grace. e) The time synonym known as redeeming or purchasing time. God provides the believer with one day at a time — Job 32:7. The capital for the purchase of time is Bible doctrine resident in the soul — in the right lobe. f) The central control synonym known as the dictator of the soul — the inner residency of maximum doctrine in the life of a super-grace believer — Ephesians 6:10. g) The military synonym — putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-18; following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; establishing a command post of the soul — Colossians 2:5-8. h) A crucifixion synonym — “Take up your cross [Bible class attendance in spite of distraction or opposition] and follow me [the daily function of GAP].” Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27. i) The chemical synonym, “the salt of the land/earth” — salt used as a preservative. The super-grace believer becomes the preservative of his national entity. j) A sanctification synonym — godliness. 1 Timothy 6:3-6; 2 Peter 1:3. 9. The other results of GAP. a) Reversion recovery. This includes the removal of scar tissue of the soul, freedom from the influence of evil, cancellation of divine discipline. b) The glorification of God in the angelic conflict through the attainment of super-grace status or spiritual maturity. The attainment of paragraph SG2 glorifies God; holding the ground means dying grace and SG3, reward in eternity which also glorifies God. c) It equates the royal status of the believer with the function of his priesthood. The normal function of the royal priesthood only occurs after the believer reaches super-grace. d) It leads to the occupation with Christ principle and all of the capacities for life and love. The inner residency of maximum doctrine in the soul gives capacity for love, for life, for happiness, blessing, and so on. e) It provides maximum influence in history. The super-grace believer is the spiritual Atlas who holds up his generation, he is also the one who not only carries his own generation under that principle but often changes the course of his own generation. This is operation spiritual Atlas. f) It provides a basis for bona fide production. All bona fide production, dynamic production, is the result of balance of residency which means not only the filling of the Spirit but maximum doctrine in the soul. g) It becomes the basis for eternal reward or the production of paragraph SG3. Verses 8-13, three reasons why pastors suffer. Verse 8 — the first is to perpetuate occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. It begins with the present active imperative from the verb mnhmoneuw, translated “remember.” It means to fix your thoughts on something or someone, to call to kind, to remember, to keep in mind. We translate it here “Keep in mind,” remembering that it has to do with the function of the memory centre of the right lobe. The present tense is a static present used to represent a condition assumed as continually existing in the life of a super-grace believer, or taken for granted as a fact in the life of the mature believer. The active voice: Timothy has now recovered super-grace and as a super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. He must be occupied with the person of Christ, he must always have maximum category #1 love. The imperative mood is a permission here which is not a direct command. This is called the imperative of permission in which the command signified by the imperative mood is in compliance with the express desire or manifest inclination on the part of the one who is the object of the command. In other words, Timothy should always want to do this with or without the command. The doctrine of suffering 1. The general causes for suffering in life — that which is pertinent to believer and unbeliever. a) Loss of health, wealth, property, money, loved ones, or anything of value. b) Suffering from people. This includes gossip, ostracism, persecution, violence, crime, war. c) Suffering from privation. That includes hunger, thirst, cold, heat, storm, earthquake, disasters from nature, accidents of any variety. d) Suffering from the administration of the law: to be apprehended as a criminal or a violator of law, tried, sentenced, punished. e) Social suffering. Loneliness, boredom, neglect, ostracism, disapproval. f) Mental suffering — from mental pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, etc., from neurosis and psychosis. g) Suffering from rejection of authority includes anything from love, divorce, failure in adulthood because of rejection of authority in childhood, being fired from the job, dishonourable discharge, loss of citizenship, excommunication, cut from a team, expelled from school. h) Suffering from reversionism under the principle of reaping what you sow. 2. The basic categories of suffering. a) In time. The unbeliever, by rejecting the laws of establishment, self-induced misery and reversionism. b) In eternity. The unbeliever in the lake of fire forever — Revelation 20:12-15; the believer — no suffering in eternity — Revelation 21:4. 3. The premise of Christian suffering. a) All suffering is designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 4:14. b) The exception is divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6. c) The exception removed — 1 Corinthians 11:31. The exception is removed for carnality by rebound, for reversion by reversion recovery. d) Cursing is then turned into blessing — Romans 8:28. 4. The categories of Christian suffering. There are two basic categories: a) disciplinary; b) for blessing.. A. Disciplinary suffering: i. Suffering from divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6; for carnality — Psalm 38; for reversionism — Ecclesiastes or Song of Solomon. ii. Suffering by association. This is peripheral suffering — 1 Corinthians 12:26; Romans 14:7; and an illustration — 1 Samuel 21. iii. Suffering causes by having the wrong priorities — Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. iv. Suffering from a guilt complex — 1 Timothy 1:5,6, 19,20; 3:9; 4:1,2; Titus 1:15. v. Suffering because of national discipline — Leviticus 26; Isaiah 33; 59; the book of Hosea. vi. Suffering from the rejection of the principle of right man/right woman — Ezekiel 16,23; Jeremiah 12:7; 15:7-12, 17,18. vii. Suffering from failure to isolate sin — Hebrews 12:15. viii. Suffering from temporary loss of grace norms — Jeremiah 2:24,25. ix. Suffering from war, suffering from revolution. x Suffering from reversionism — Psalm 77. B. Suffering for blessing (undeserved): i. Suffering to glorify God in the angelic conflict — book of Job; Luke 15:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17. ii. Suffering to learn obedience from self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8; Philippians 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:1-7. iii. Suffering to demonstrate the sufficiency of grace — 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. iv. Suffering to eliminate occupational hazards for life, especially for the Christian life — pride and arrogance as it relates to the sufficiency of grace — 2 Corinthians 11:24-33; 12:1-10. v. Suffering to develop faith necessary for the function of the faith-rest technique — 1 Peter 1:7,8. vi. Suffering to accelerate the construction of the edification complex and to enter thereby into the super-grace life — James 1:1-6. vii. Suffering as a means for witnessing for Christ — 2 Corinthians chapters 3,4. viii. Suffering to help others who suffer — 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. ix. Suffering to learn the value of Bible doctrine — Psalm 119:67,68,71.x Suffering for the advance

 and impact of Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 1:12-14.

 5. The concept of family suffering. i. The basic passages on family suffering — Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10. ii. There is a four-generation curse listed in the scripture — Exodus 34:3-7; Numbers 14:18. iii. The mechanics of the four-generation curse — Proverbs 30:11-17. iv. The four generation curse is related to the law of culpability — Deuteronomy 24:16. v. The problem of children. Fairness toward the children — Deuteronomy 21:15-17; maximum discipline for negative teenagers is death — Deuteronomy 21:18-22. The problem of children is a part of family suffering. vi. The way in which the four-generation family curse can be broken. Doctrine breaks up the four-generation curse — Psalm 100;5; Deuteronomy 7:9; 6:6-13; 11:18-21. vii. The children’s gimmick. Children are very handy for excuses — blame it on your children. Numbers 14:31; Jeremiah 31:15. viii. Children can never be an excuse because of the triumph of children with doctrine — Lamentations 3:21-31; Psalm 119. 6. The concept of economic suffering. i. Inflation is a part of the fourth cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:26. ii. The principle of being solvent in a depression — Genesis 41. ii. The principle of depression. It tests the faith-rest technique — Genesis 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7,8. iv. Doctrine resident in the soul is the answer to depression rather than money in the pocket — 2 Chronicles 20:9. v. Divine viewpoint is necessary to survive economic disaster — Psalm 33:17-20. vi. Depression is a part of divine discipline to both the nation and the individual reversionist under the influence of evil — Psalm 105:16; Jeremiah 11:22. vii. False teaching in time of depression intensifies that depression — Jeremiah 14:13-16. viii. God protects the believer in depression — Job 5:20; Romans 8:35. More than that, these verses say that God blesses the believer in depression, so depression does not hinder divine blessing of the individual believer who is in super-grace. ix. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the solution to depression. Consequently, advance to super-grace is the true basis for restoring the economy — Isaiah 37:30,31. 7. God can only demonstrate to believers through suffering in time. There will be no suffering in eternity — 1 Peter 4:14,16. Furthermore there is no suffering too great for the plan of God. Divine provision for suffering is greater than any pressure of life. Super-grace is the status in which to experience this principle. The super-grace believer is qualified through maximum doctrine resident in his soul to weather any storm in life. 8. The unique sufferings of Christ — Isaiah 53. 9. The reason why pastor-teachers suffer. a) To perpetuate occupation with Christ — 2 Timothy 2:8. b) To disseminate Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 2:9. c) To fulfil the grace objectives of phase two — 2 Timothy 2:10. Verse 8 — Sometimes it takes suffering to convert the doctrine in your soul into occupation with Jesus Christ. This suffering has one objective in mind where the super-grace believer is concerned: to bring him back to spiritual reality the super-grace believer must be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for that occupation: maximum category #1 love. Jesus Christ” is literally “Christ Jesus.” “Recall to mind Christ Jesus.” “was raised” — the perfect passive participle of e)geirw. This refers to the physical, literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There is a change in the Greek words in the original MSS. The KJV has “Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead,” but that isn’t the way the MSS reads in the original. It says, “Recall to mind that Christ Jesus Christ, having been resurrected.” This is a perfect passive particle. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, it is a special rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. In other words, the action of resurrection has been completed with dramatic emphasis on the existing results both in the angelic conflict and in human history. The existing results include the strategic victory of our Lord in the angelic conflict and His appointment to battlefield royalty. The passive voice: Jesus Christ received this resurrection body from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit with the result that He still possesses it seated at the right hand of the Father, and with the result that He has received a third type of royalty (battlefield royalty) with the result that a royal family is being formed. “from the dead” is an incorrect translation — e)k plus the ablative plural of nekroj and it means “out from” literally, but it should be “out from deaths (plural).” And there is no definite article. Christ died twice on the cross, once for the sins of the world (spiritual death) and once physically because salvation was completed. Therefore this passages says, without any definite article, “out from deaths.” “of the seed of David” is next in its proper sequence in the original. We have the preposition e)k but this time we have the ablative singular of sperma. It is correctly translated “seed” but there is a great contrast, the singular here in contrast to the previous plural. There were two deaths on the cross but only one seed. So it is “out from deaths, out from the seed,” and then we have an indeclinable proper noun Dauid — “David.” This phrase places great emphasis on the Jewish royalty of David and the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant which is very closely associated with our Lord’s resurrection. The problems in the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant To fulfil this covenant there are some real problems. It must be remembered that this covenant is unconditional. That means that God has promised it without strings and that there is nothing that we can do for its fulfilment. It means that God Himself must fulfil this covenant or God is a liar, and that is blasphemous and unthinkable. Therefore a problem is proposed by this particular prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative singular of sperma plus Dauid, correctly translated “out from the seed of David.” 1. The big problem starts with the curse of Coniah — Jeremiah 22:30; 36:30,31. Coniah sometimes is called Jechoniah. He is also called Jehoiachin. He succeeded his father as the 19th king to rule over Judah, therefore he was descended from David and Bathsheba. There were four children who survived and Solomon became the ruling line. The line of Nathan is also recorded in the scripture. Nineteen generations down we come to Coniah, directly descended from David through Solomon. He reigned for three months and ten days — BC 597. He was told that he would never have a son who would rule under the Davidic covenant. But he did have several sons. One of his sons died childless. A second son, Shealtiel, had no children. So he found a nephew he could adopt, but he had to go over to the line of Nathan — Zerubbabel (of the book of Zechariah), the leader of the people in their return to the land. Therefore the legal line through Solomon and Coniah was cut off twice, once by his first son dying childless and secondly having to go to the other side of the family in order to get a son to continue the line. But that was cut off too because there were other people in this line who came down to Mary. Joseph was descended from the Zerubbabel side, he was the legal but not the real father and that was the final cut-off in the Coniah curse. There is a problem immediately, and that is, how can the Davidic covenant be fulfilled with the Coniah curse. The answer is found in the fact that the virgin birth brought in Mary who also was in the other line and also related to Zerubbabel, but not by physical birth. 2. The problem of the heraldry of Mary. Mary is descended from Nathan, the line of Joseph is descended from Solomon, and this poses something of a problem which is resolved by 1 Chronicles 3:5; Luke 3:31. 3. The physical death of Christ without heirs also poses a problem. This would appear to hinder the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant since Jesus Christ was not married, did not have any children, did not have any heirs, did not perpetuate the family line any further. This problem, however, is resolved by the resurrection of Christ and is so taught in Romans 1:3,4 — “ … resurrection from the deaths (pl).” Resurrection resolved the problem. Paul speaking before Agrippa in Acts 26:6-8 said the same thing. 4. The ascension of Christ in His absence from the earth. This is solved by the second advent of Christ. He left the earth to be rewarded His battlefield royalty, He will return to the earth with His battlefield royal family. The second part of this same problem is the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel so that the nation is scattered all over the world. This problem is resolved by the second advent of Christ when He returns, He will regather Israel and establish and fulfil the Davidic covenant. The final phrase in this verse, “according to my gospel,” is kata plus the accusative singular from e)uaggelion and it simply refers to the fact that “gospel” means good news, it refers to evangelism. And the whole point is that God’s promises to Israel are going to be fulfilled, and at the same time evangelism goes right on. The two work together under the genius of God without one hindering the other. Christ had to die on the cross, that didn’t hinder the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant will be fulfilled at the second advent, that does not hinder evangelism during the interim. They go together. So this verse really is a landmark in the field of theology reconciling the function of the Age of Israel with the function in the Church Age, and explaining their differentiation; yet, how at the same time, though different, they work together for good. Translation: “Recall to mind Christ Jesus, having been resurrected out from deaths, out from the seed of David, according to my gospel.” Verse 9 — the second reason why pastors suffer. It is to disseminate Bible doctrine. “Wherein” is a combination of the preposition e)n and the locative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated “In which [gospel].” “I suffer trouble” — the present active indicative of the verb kakopaqew, a compound from two words [kakoj = evil; pasxw = to suffer]. So it means to suffer evil. “In the sphere of which gospel I suffer evil.” The present tense is the aoristic present, punctiliar action in present time. Hence, as a present fact without reference to any progress whatever. The aorist tense is punctiliar action in past time; the aoristic present is punctiliar action in present time. So there is no linear aktionsart. The aoristic present denotes an event which is now occurring. The active voice: Paul in his second imprisonment is producing this action, he is suffering evil. He is not suffering physical pain but he is suffering in the soul from the great attack of evil. The declarative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality and adds a new dimension to suffering. At the same time dying grace negates any power that this suffering might have over Paul. Remember that super-grace means maximum doctrine resident in the soul, and this insulates a believer. “as an evil doer” — kakourgoj [kakoj plus e)rgon] means an evil doer, but an evildoer eventually became a word for a criminal. So Paul is not a criminal but he is suffering as a criminal. “unto bonds” — a prepositional phrase. “Unto” is mexri, and with the genitive of desmoj for “imprisonment” it should be translated “even to the point of being in prison.” “but” is the strong adversative conjunction a)lla to indicate that Paul is not concerned. This sets up a contrast between Paul’s pressure from evil and Paul’s freedom through doctrine. “the word of God is not bound” — o( logoj [Bible doctrine] tou qeou; “is not bound” is perfect passive indicative of the verb dew. The word means to imprison or to bind. There is a strong negative o)uk with it and it should be translated “but the word of God has not been imprisoned [incarcerated].” The perfect tense here is dramatic. There is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect is something that happens in the past (completed action) but the results continue. The existing results are therefore described in a very vivid and realistic way. In other words, Bible doctrine has no been confined to that dungeon. It is resident in the soul of Paul and even though Paul is confined the doctrine in his soul has never been in prison and cannot be hindered. Doctrine will advance regardless of what is done to the believer. That is the point of this verse. No matter what happens to believers God’s plan moves on and doctrine moves on, and there is no way to stop it, no way to hinder it. Paul’s imprisonment has not stopped the teaching of Bible doctrine. Paul’s epistles are being taught just as efficiently today as when they first were nearly 2000 years ago. Nothing has changed. There is no way that the plan of God can be changed by the death of anyone. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality and dogmatic certainty. Translation: “In which gospel I suffer as a criminal, to the point of being imprisoned; but the word of God [Bible doctrine] has not been incarcerated.” Verse 10 — “Therefore” is a prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Literally it means “Because of this,” but it is an idiom and should be translated idiomatically, “For this reason.” “I endure” — the present active indicative from the compound verb u(pomenw [u(po = under (authority); menw = to abide or remain]. It means here to be or remain under pressure, to endure as translated. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur. The devil’s world is unfair to devil’s own constituents but the devil’s world is twice as unfair to those who are in opposition to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is Satan’s system. So the devil’s world is unfair especially to the believer, and of all the believers the super-grace believer becomes the greater target. Of any super-grace believer, if anyone is a pastor, then he is a target. So the unfairness of Satan’s system often simply reflects his own inability for his genius to rule the world. While Satan is smarter than any other creature that has ever existed he is still not smart enough to put it all together, only God can do that. Therefore sometimes the unfairness merely comes from the fact that Satan doesn’t have the ability to be fair when dealing with masses of people historically, all going in different directions. Furthermore, Satan’s unfairness comes from the fact that Satan is opposed to the laws of divine establishment, the true supports for freedom. There is no freedom apart from establishment. So when it is all put together Satan is not only opposed to establishment but Satan doesn’t have the ability to come up with anything that will take the place of establishment and provide the same things. It must be remembered that it is a grossly unfair world in which you were born and in which you were born again. The only place you are going to have a fair shake is from God. Satan cannot stand to have anyone get a fair shake and the only way to get a fair shake is outside of Satan’s plan and inside the grace plan. But the only way to even begin to recognise the fairness of God is one’s own life is to have enough doctrine to do so. The only way you are going to get doctrine is from the pastor-teacher who is studying and therefore if any pastor-teacher studies he immediately puts himself under the academic discipline and pressure that comes from it. To teach regularly, consistently, daily, requires a tremendous amount of study and that builds its own pressure. So we have u(pomenw, present active indicative: 1. The customary present denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur: pressure, first for the pastor-teacher who communicates, and secondly for the congregation who listens. 2. The devil’s world is unfair to the believer who is advancing toward super-grace or who has reached that first objective. This is understandable since the devil is unfair to his own crowd. 3. While reversionistic believers are blessed by the devil of this world the super-grace believer is often subjected to maximum pressure from cosmos diabolicus. But it is healthy pressure because learning doctrine insulates against this pressure. 4. To be blessed by the devil is to be under the maximum influence of evil and to be in a state of reversionism. 5. Pseudo maturity or pseudo super-grace is the devil’s counterfeit for biblical super-grace. 6. Therefore, Satan within the framework of his great power provides a pseudo paragraph SG2 for reversionistic believers and unbelievers who serve him. Therefore there are some people in this world who are wealthy, who are promoted, who are prominent, who are successful, because Satan is in the business of counterfeiting God. 7. Insofar as he is able Satan puts maximum pressure on a) the pastor who communicates doctrine, b) the believer who is positive toward doctrine. 8. Therefore the customary present tense indicates what you can expect if you are positive toward doctrine. For this reason the apostle Paul endures various types of pressure a Satanic counterattack. 9. The active voice: The apostle Paul produced the action of the verb. He endured, he stayed under the pressure. 10. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. It is a real thing that a person can spend his whole life wrapped up in pressure and have great blessing. “all things” — the accusative plural direct of paj means all categories of suffering. At the end of 2 Corinthians chapter 11 there is a partial list of the sufferings of Paul. Paul had more pressure, more sufferings of all categories than anyone of his time and very few people in history have come close to what he endured. But he did endure it because this was simply a nice warm blanket wrapped around a super super-grace. The plural summarises the various categories of suffering and pressure from Satan, cosmos diabolicus, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “for the elect’s sake” — dia plus the accusative plural of e)klektoj is “because of the elect.” Paul is not only carrying his generation as a super-grace believer but he is demonstrating that there is a place beyond super-grace for those who will press on. But it starts to reverse itself. The emphasis on super-grace is blessing and the ability to meet pressure but in super super-grace the emphasis is on pressure wrapped around blessing and intensifying that blessing. But to go from super-grace to super super-grace means one’s whole life is going to be wrapped up in pressure and never be free from pressure. The elect is the believer in the plan of God. Every now and then God provides a person who is great, and blessed in his greatness, and wrapped up in pressure because of everyone else. So the apostle Paul not only was a super-grace believer but he was a blessing to his own generation, but as a super super-gracer he was a blessing to every generation since. The greatest books in the Bible are the Pauline epistles. “that” — the conjunction i(na introduces a final clause denoting a purpose, an objective, and a goal. It should be “in order that.” “they may obtain” — the aorist active subjunctive of tugxanw. It is correct to use the word “obtain” but we will use the word “acquire.” The verb means to acquire in the sense of obtaining by means of the daily function of GAP. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the function of GAP and regardless of its extent of duration it gathers it up into a single whole resulting in super-grace status. Here is one of the greatest encouragements to keep going. The constative aorist of tugxanw gathers up all it takes to go from believer, baby type, to super-grace type — every function of GAP to make that progress to maturity. The active voice: the believer who constantly functions under GAP, who is constantly positive toward doctrine, who regulates his life, is the believer who reaches the obtaining or acquiring area. The subjunctive mood is potential, it goes with i(na as a part of the objective. So i(na plus the subjunctive means objective. “the salvation” — the objective genitive singular from the noun swthria which can mean technically “salvation” but also means, and generally means, “deliverance.” If Paul wrapped up in super super-grace, in pressure all the time, can have maximum blessing that very few people in this life have ever had, can have maximum happiness, the very best of everything, a life that is so wonderful that death is like skipping into heaven and no change; that is how great it is. If he can have deliverance from pressures that are greater than anyone down here simply moving to the high ground of super-grace, if he can have deliverance under maximum pressure then they can have deliverance under minimum pressure. That is what swthria is all about. The objective genitive receives the action of the verb, therefore it is used as an object with the verbal idea of obtaining deliverance. That is why the object of the verb is in the genitive case and not in the regular accusative case. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the deliverance. Any time that God delivers under pressure that deliverance is perfect. “which” — this is a definite article used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is “deliverance.” No verb but the present active indicative of e)imi is implied — “which is [provided].” “in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative. The entire phrase denotes the fact that a believer who is positive toward doctrine will never have more pressure than he can bear, and a believer who is positive toward doctrine at any stage of his spiritual growth will have pressure which he can endure and in which he can find blessing. In other words, the secret is happiness and blessing from pressure. “with eternal glory” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of doch — “along with glory.” We have an adjective, a)iwnioj, which means eternal — phase three. Paul in heaven with all of his blessings and decorations will glorify God with those blessings and decorations. Just having them glorifies God. Translation: “For this reason I endure all things because of the elect, in order that they may acquire [through the daily function of GAP] deliverance which is provided for those who are in Christ Jesus, along with eternal glory.” Paul sets the precedent for the royal family of God. He endured every category of suffering and pressure as a super super-grace believer. This is not only a demonstration of the power of doctrine resident in the soul but it sets the pattern for deliverance from pressure through the constant inhale of Bible doctrine. This deliverance is one of the blessings of category #1, paragraph SG2. But for Paul it is category #1, paragraph SG2. It is provided for all members of the royal family of God. The doctrine of super-grace A. 1. The general definition and classification of grace which is necessary to understand super-grace and all of its components. a) Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. If God is going to give man blessing He must be free to do so. If He is going to be free to do so He must not in any way jeopardise or in any way compromise any characteristic of His essence. b) Because of the complexity of divine essence God must be consistent. No characteristic of divine essence can ever be jeopardised or compromised. So that when we have phrases such as “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” God isn’t giving mankind anything if it in any way becomes incompatible with His essence or compromises His essence. So God the Father’s freedom to give His Son is based upon the principle that God found a way to bless mankind in eternity past. c) Therefore propitiation is that work of Christ on the cross which frees God to bless man under the plan of grace. d) Grace is God’s freedom and God’s consistency to express His love though grace to mankind without the compromise of any part of His essence. e) Under the principle of grace God supplies a series of blessings for man totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s thinking, his energy. f) Under the policy of grace God gives and man receives. God does all the work, all the providing; while man does all the receiving, all the benefiting. g) Under the concept of grace everything depends upon the essence or character of God. Therefore grace depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and still be consistent with His own essence. h) Under the mechanics of grace man has a relationship with God in two categories. i. Before the fall the relationship with God was based upon creation. Man was created an adult. Everything had to be provided on that basis. We have an illustration of the divine provision of grace in the trees. The tress for the stimulation of the soul — pleasant to the eyes; the trees that were good for food — provision for the body; the tree that is related to the human spirit and to spiritual sustenance — the tree of lives (pl) representing capacity to appreciate what God has provided in grace (immediate capacity, immediate appreciation); then the test, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — the good and evil are Satan’s policy. This is a forbidden tree because good and evil result in spiritual death. Spiritual death is good and evil. Man in his creation relation to God was under grace and there were two things he did not need in that relationship — good and evil. Evil is the thinking policy of Satan, whereas good is the application of that policy to experience, to history. Good and evil are two things man did not need to know in his relationship with God. ii. After the fall the relationship is based upon regeneration. At the time of the fall man ate of the forbidden tree. He immediately understood good and evil and immediately, under the rulership of Satan, he performs good. He knows what good is and he does it — operation fig leaves. Good and evil are Satan’s plan. The original parents could choose Satan’s plan or God’s plan and eventually they chose Satan’s plan; that is the coup de tat whereby Satan became the ruler of this world. Now man no longer starts life as an adult, he starts life as a baby. With an old sin nature he is spiritually dead, and in his spiritual death he has to be born again to have a relationship with God. So there is grace provision mechanically both before and after the fall. i) Under God’s plan grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s planning, man’s behaviour, man’s talent, man’s reaction (sin and evil), man’s response (human good). j) Grace, therefore, is the genius of God and doctrine is the revelation and manifestation of that genius. 2. The categories of grace. a) Saving grace — Ephesians 2:8,9. This includes all that the Trinity has done to accomplish salvation. The Father planned it in eternity past, the Son executed it — the incarnation, the Spirit reveals it at any time in time. b) Living grace. This involves all that the Trinity provides by power, security and provision to keep the believer alive in the devil’s world so that the divine objectives in the historical part of the angelic conflict can be fulfilled in you. There are three categories of provision: spiritual provision — the Bible as the textbook, the local church as the classroom, the pastor-teacher as the communicator; temporal provision — food, shelter, clothing, transportation, friends; historical provision. The laws of divine establishment whereby the believer is free to grow in grace through the daily function of GAP c) Super-grace — the tactical victory of the angelic conflict or spiritual maturity. This is experiential sanctification or the balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine resident in the soul. d) Ultra-Super-grace — the sphere of the angelic conflict between the unfairness of the devil’s world and the total fairness of God to those super-grace believers placed under maximum pressure. Beyond the super-grace status in paragraph SG2 is a higher plane whereby you still have all of the blessings — the five categories — completely surrounded by suffering, pressure, and adversity which intensifies these blessings. It does not remove them, it only makes them better. It is a conflict between the unfairness of the devil’s world and the total fairness of God to the super-grace believer. Ultra-super-grace provides everything found in the five categories of SG2 plus the intensification of these blessings completely enshrouded in maximum pressure and persecution from the Satanic forces of evil. The principle of ultra-super-grace — 2 Timothy 2:10. The illustration of this is found in 2 Timothy 3:8-12. e) Dying grace. This is greater blessing in passing from time to eternity than all the blessings of life. In addition, it means leaving behind great blessings by association to friends, loved ones, family, etc. f) Surpassing grace. The blessings, rewards, decorations for super-grace believers and ultra-super-grace believers. This constitutes the quintessence of glorifying Christ — Ephesians 2:7. B. The definition of super-grace. 1. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace are conditions of spiritual maturity. 2. The nomenclature “super-grace” is derived from the corrected translation of James 4:6 — “He gives greater [or, super] grace.” 3. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace is related to God’s power. It is a demonstration of maximum power in grace — Ephesians 1:19. “What is the surpassing magnitude of his omnipotence on us [the believing ones]?” i. “According to the norm of operational power” — the power of the Holy Spirit. ii. “According to the norm of ruling power” — maximum doctrine in the soul. iii. “According to the norm of his inner power” — the Father’s inner power, His ability to make the plan work. 4. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace is described as pursuing grace in both the Old and the New Testaments — Psalm 23:5,6; Ephesians 1:6. 5. Super-grace and ultra-super-grace blessings are beyond human imagination — Ephesians 3:20,21. 6. In 1 Timothy 1:14 super-grace and ultra-super-grace is described as abundant. 7. By definition, therefore, super-grace is the adult stage of the spiritual life in the royal family of God. 8. Super-grace is maximum glorification of Jesus Christ complimenting His strategic victory of the angelic conflict with the believer’s tactical victory. 9. Super-grace is the status of spiritual maturity while ultra-super-grace is that maximum growth and blessing attended by maximum suffering which intensifies the blessing. 10. Super-grace is where the normal function of the royal priesthood and the production of divine good begin. C. Synonyms for super-grace. The Bible uses several ways for describing the super-grace believer. Some are functional and some are technical and some are very simply stated. a) Super-grace — James 4:6. “He gives greater [super] grace” — meizona xarin. That is the accusative singular from the comparative megaj plus the accusative singular direct object from xarij. It means super-grace or greater grace. b) The nomenclature for maximum doctrine resident in the soul is found in the actual language of the Word of God. In the Hebrew it is chakmah, in the Greek it is e)pignwsij. So we have language nomenclature from the standpoint of doctrine to represent the super-grace life. c) There is a priestly synonym, the altar of the soul — Hebrews 13:10. The altar in the soul is constructed and when it is the believer has reached super-grace or maturity. d) A building synonym is the edification complex. Once the ECS is completed the believer is said to be in a state of edification which is maturity — i.e. super-grace. Ephesians 4:12,16. e) There is a sanctification synonym — “godliness.” 1 Timothy 6:3-6; 2 Peter 1:3. f) The chemical synonym — salt. The salt of the land is the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer being a blessing to his nation or to others by association. g) The crucifixion synonym — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27. Taking up of the cross is the consistent function of GAP. Following Christ is the result in super-grace. h) There are three military synonyms: Putting on the full armour from God — Ephesians 6:11-18; following the colours to the high ground — Hebrews 12:1,2; establishing a command post in the soul — Colossians 2:5-8. i) There is a central control system called “inner strength” — Ephesians 6:10. This inner strength or central control is a synonym for super-grace or ultra-super-grace. “Endowed power” is the doctrine in the Word not yet transferred, the source of the power. So Bible doctrine resident in the soul becomes the inner dictator, the central control system for the super-grace believer. D. The blessings of super-grace. 1. Spiritual blessings. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, maximum category #1 love. This is intensified in ultra-super-grace. Sharing of God’s happiness or +H. Capacity for life, love, happiness, blessing, the plan of God, the ability to face any suffering in life. 2. Temporal blessings. These are for the super-grace believer and also for the ultra-super-grace believer — wealth, success, promotion, etc. 3. Blessing by association. Those in the periphery of a super-grace believer are blessed by their association or relationship. There are two categories involved here when there is blessing by association: a) Directly from God to the one in association; b) Direct blessing from the super-grace believer who is simply sharing his blessing. There are also peripheral areas of blessing by association: a) The loved one periphery — right man-right woman, friends, family; b) The business periphery; c) Social periphery. Any social organisation with which the super-grace believer is actively associated receives blessing; d) Spiritual periphery. This is blessing for the local church, the mission board, or other believers associated; e) Geographical periphery. The neighbourhood, the city, the state, the nation can all be blessed by the presence of super-grace believers as the salt of the earth principle. 4. Historical blessings. This is the doctrinal principle that the super-grace believer is a spiritual Atlas who carries his generation in history. In addition, the ultra-super-grace believer becomes a stabiliser for all future historical generations. The super-grace believer is said to be on the right side of history. As such he supports and sustains his generation in history. Except by rare cases of blessing by association blessing is not perpetuated from one generation to another. Every generation must stand or fall on the basis of its own super-grace remnant according to the election of grace. 5. Dying blessing. Every member of the royal family of God in time has a choice in his relationship with God. He can choose divine blessing through grace or divine discipline through grace. Attitude toward doctrine determines which way you go. For the reversionistic believer after a lifetime of misery and pain and unhappiness from divine discipline it is terminated by intensified discipline. God puts on this person a mantle of total discipline, the sin unto death. There is also a termination for the super-grace believer. It is called dying grace. He has the best of life and then in dying he has that which is better, resulting in surpassing grace in eternity — better than the best. Not only does the super-grace or ultra-super-grace believer, like Moses or Paul, have blessing in the manner of death but they leave behind the great blessing from God to all who are intimately associated with them in life. Verse 11 — “Faithful is the word: For you see if we died with Christ [and we have], we shall also live with him.” What this passage mentions now in the fragment of a hymn is positional truth as the point of beginning. We are brought into the plan of God by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit [the baptism of the Spirit] at the point of salvation. The doctrine of positional truth 1. Positional truth, equivalent to positional sanctification, refers to the Church Age believer in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the key to understanding the Church Age and God’s reason for interrupting the Age of Israel. It is the fact that distinguishes the Church age believer as royal family of God from all other believers ion human history. It is the basis for distinguishing between Christianity and religion which are antithetical concepts. Religion is man seeking to gain the approbation of God through man’s efforts. Christianity is man without any approbation from God, as far as his works are concerned, in union with Christ. It is the difference between grace and legalism. 2. The mechanics of positional truth — the baptising ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation — 1 Corinthians 12:13 — resulting in Ephesians 4:5, “One Lord [Jesus Christ], one faith [faith in Christ as the only means of salvation], one baptism [the only means of entering the royal family of God].” 3. Positional truth guarantees no judgment for the believer in eternity — Romans 8:1. 4. Positional truth qualifies the believer to live with God forever. To live with God forever you must be as good as God is good, as righteous as God is righteous; and this is accomplished through union with Christ. The Holy Spirit takes us at the moment of salvation, enters us into the Lord Jesus Christ, we share His righteousness. Having the righteousness of Christ who is God we are as good as God is good. This was always accomplished in previous dispensations by imputation. It is accomplished in a double way for the royal family: imputation at regeneration and sharing the righteousness of Christ by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Old Testament believer had it by imputation; we have it by imputation because we are also regenerated, but we have it by being in union with Christ. In addition to that we are going to live with God forever, we must have the same life that God has — eternal life, which we do. 1 John 5:11,12. 5. Positional truth guarantees eternal security of the believer — Romans 8:38,39. 6. Positional truth belongs to all categories of believers. Since positional truth occurs at the moment of salvation it is finished before the category of experience is determined. Therefore positional truth belongs to the carnal as well as the spiritual believer. All categories of experiential Christianity have exactly the same union with the Lord Jesus Christ — 1 Corinthians 1 dramatises this concept, verse 1, 30. 7. Positional truth creates a new creature. Union with Christ is unique to the Church Age, it is something that never occurred before the day of Pentecost and will never occur after the Rapture of the Church. So whether believers become mature or not does not make them new creatures. “New creature” is not experiential, it is positional. New creatureship is a relationship with God, not spiritual progress. A believer is a new creature because he is “in Christ,” not because he gave up something. The “old things” that have “passed away” are the old things dealing with spiritual death. Positional truth is designed for good production and a pattern of life compatible with our royalty but new creatureship is not in any way experiential. The fact that positional truth was designed for a life compatible with royalty is very definitely taught in Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his production, having been created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good production, which the God has prefabricated that in the sphere of them we may pattern our life.” But that is not new creatureship. But good production does start with positional truth in the sense that from positional truth to maturity it is a long haul, but when you get there you can produce. 8. Positional truth is the basis for grace blessing — Ephesians 1:3-6. 9. The implication of positional truth. a) We have eternal life because we are in union with Christ and we share His life — 1 John 5:11,12. b) We have God’s righteousness because we are in union with Christ and share His righteousness — 2 Corinthians 5:21. c) We have an election because we are in union with Christ we and share His election — Ephesians 1:4. d) We have a destiny because we are in union with Christ and share His destiny — Ephesians 1:5. e) We have a sonship because we are in union with Christ and share His Sonship — Galatians 3:26. f) We have an heirship because we are in union with Christ and share His heirship — Romans 8:16,17. g) We have a priesthood because we are in union with Christ and share His priesthood — Hebrews 10:10-14. h) We have a kingship, royalty, because we are in union with Christ and share His royalty — 2 Peter 1:11. Verse 12 — “If” — the conjunction e)i introduces a first class condition — e)i plus the indicative mood in the protasis. This is known as a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. The subject of the apodasis is based upon the assumption in the protasis. In a first class condition the protasis presents a fact which is the basis for conditioning another fact. A conditional clause is a statement of supposition, the fulfilment of which supposition is assumed to secure the realisation of a potential fact which is expressed in the companion clause. In other words, the clause containing the supposition is the protasis and the clause containing the statement of fact based on the supposition is the apodasis. We simplify this by saying first class condition, if an it is true. “we suffer” — present active indicative from the compound u(pomenw which means to endure, to remain under, to be under the pressure and to stay there. The concept of this verb is taken from verse 10. The present tense is a customary present for what is expected from a super-grace believer and what is anticipated as being continuous with an ultra-super-grace believer. The active voice: the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, this verb represents the principle of reality. There will be suffering in the life of a super-grace believer. There will be continual pressure and opposition from Satanic forces of evil in the life of the ultra-super-grace believer. But all of this suffering is designed to only make the blessings of paragraph SG2 that much sweeter, that much more intense, that much more enjoyable. The super-grace believer is equipped through the daily function of GAP to handle any adversity in life. The ultra-super-grace believer as the stabilising rod in history, much more so. “we shall also reign” — the word “also” is the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, plus the future active indicative from a compound verb sunbasileuw [sun = the preposition “with” or “along with;” basileuw = to rule, to reign] which means to rule with. The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact expected under the normal circumstances of reaching super-grace, holding super-grace to dying grace, or reaching super-grace going to ultra-super-grace and then going to dying grace. The active voice: either the super-grace or the ultra-super-grace believer produces the action. The indicative mood is eschatological reality of future blessing and reward for those who hold. In other words, this is the anticipation, the declaration of paragraph SG3. All super-grace believers and all ultra-super-grace believers are going to have a phenomenal paragraph SG3 in eternity. “If we endure suffering [as a super-grace believer], also we shall rule with him.” It all depends on your daily attitude toward Bible doctrine. The super-grace believer, therefore, must never neglect doctrine. “if we deny him” — this third conditional clause portrays the loss of paragraph SG2 and subsequent loss of reward in eternity. God has designed for every believer a paragraph SG3 that is phenomenal but it is based on first of all getting your paragraph SG2. Here we have again the conditional particle e)i introducing a first class condition, indicating the reality of the fact that there will be those who do deny. The future middle indicative of a)rneomai means to deny or to repudiate or to refuse. It also means to disown. The verb connotes the status of reversionism which comes from neglecting or rejecting Bible teaching. Again, we have a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance expected under conditions of reversionism or the influence of evil. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The reversionistic believer under the influence of evil produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality. The verbal action occurs in some phase of reversionism, under the influence of evil, and/or both. “he will also” — future middle indicative of a)rneomai, meaning again to refuse, to deny, to repudiate. Here it means to refuse. In the protasis it means to repudiate. If we repudiate Him He is going to refuse us something in eternity — not salvation, obviously. The concept here is very important: the predictive future this time, predicts an event which is expected to occur in the future time in the judgment seat of Christ as a result of reversionism and living in time under the influence of evil. Not only will human good be burned and destroyed but there will be no paragraph SG3. The middle voice: again the deponent verb, active in meaning even though it is middle in form. Christ produces the action of the verb when He gives us our efficiency rating at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. Also with this verb is kakeinoj [kai plus e)keinoj, the distant demonstrative] — “this same one also” or “he.” Translation: “If we endure suffering [as super-grace believers], we shall also rule with Christ; if we [as reversionists] repudiate the Lord [Jesus Christ], that same one [Jesus Christ] will also refuse us [the blessings and rewards of paragraph SG3].” Verse 13 — this explains the principle that loss of reward does not mean loss of salvation. The believer can lose the reward and blessing of paragraph SG3 but he cannot lose his eternal salvation. He cannot lose anything he gained in positional truth. “If” is the conditional particle e)i introducing the protasis of a first class condition. He is what is considered the worst thing you could do in time as a reversionist. “we believe not” — the present active indicative from the compound verb, a)pistew [a = “negative” or “not;” pistew = to believe] which means “not believing,” and therefore it means “disbelieving,” but it really comes to mean to be unfaithful.” What is the worst thing you can do as a believer in time? To be unfaithful. How do you become unfaithful? You neglect, you reject Bible doctrine and therefore you go through the inevitable eight stages of reversionism, and at each stage you accumulate a little more evil, a little more of the Satanic policy, until you have reached the point where you have total hardness of heart, blindness of soul, and reverse process reversionism. That is being unfaithful. The present tense of a)pistew is a pictorial present, it brings to mind a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. It takes reversionism as something now occurring in Ephesus and demonstrates that such reversionism may be loss of reward, loss of blessing, both for time and eternity. The active voice: under the ministry of Timothy at Ephesus are certain reversionistic believers under the influence of evil, they are producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood with the conjunctive particle indicates the fact that this is a reality at this moment in Ephesus. The apodasis says, “he abideth” — the present active indicative of the verb menw meaning to remain. This is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: Jesus Christ and all members of the Godhead produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for dogmatic reality. Plus the adjective pistoj — “he abides faithful.” He is faithful to us regardless of our experiential failures or successes. “he cannot deny himself” — gar is a post positive conjunctive particle and should be translated “for you see;” plus the present active indicative of the verb dunomai — “he cannot.” This is a static present, it represents a condition that is perpetually existing. it always is taken for granted. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood: absolute dogmatic reality; plus the aorist middle infinitive of a)rneomai — to deny, to repudiate. Here it means to deny. This is a gnomic aorist for a doctrine regarded as being an axiom. The middle voice of this deponent verb is active in meaning and therefore it is Christ producing the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of an actual result. The object of a)rneomai is the third person singular accusative reflexive pronoun e(auton, and it refers to Christ Himself. Translation: “If we are unfaithful [as reversionists], he remains faithful: for you see, he cannot deny himself.” Verse 11 — “It is a faithful saying” is incorrect. This is merely the title of the hymn, and this is the fifth time that the apostle has cited the title so we do know what it is: pitoj o( logoj, “faithful the Word” or “faithful the doctrine.” In each of the five quotations of this hymn there is some relationship in the lyrics to the principle of the faithfulness of Bible doctrine. We will see that as this particular section of the hymn unfolds. The actual quotation begins, “For if” — this is the first of four conditional clauses and it indicates that all members of the royal family of God are in the plan of God forever. This is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar, and explanation of the doctrines previously seen. It can be translated “For you see if,” the conditional particle e)i is correctly translated “if.” It is used with the indicative mood to introduce a first class condition. This protasis assumes the reality of the “if” clause — “if and it is true.” What is about to be said is absolutely true. “we be dead with [him]” — the aorist active indicative from a compound, sunapoqenhskw, correctly translated, “if we have died with [Christ]” and we have. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The past event: On the cross Jesus Christ resolved the problem of the sin nature that had to be resolved at salvation but not the problem of the sin nature that would have cut off the angelic conflict. The sin nature’s area of weakness produces sins in three categories: verbal, mental, and overt. All sins in the human race were poured out on Christ on the cross and judged. But the area of strength produces the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — good and evil. This was rejected at the cross because good and evil must exist as long as Satan is the ruler of this world and the angelic conflict must be perpetuated until the end of time. Since good and evil represents the genius of Satan, as well as his policy and function, it is perpetuated and therefore rejected. Now the dramatic aorist takes up the past event: Christ died for our sins. He was judged for our sins, that is His spiritual death. We are identified with Christ in His death so that we died when Christ died. We died, therefore, in the sense that since our sins were judged all we have to do to recover from carnality is to cite them, and that’s all. But being dead with Christ means that we in the plan of God must reject — as our original parents did not — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But it is impossible for us to reject it because Satan is a thousand-fold smarter than we will ever be. Therefore the only way that we will ever reject the Satanic plan is by the constant feeding on the Word, the constant and daily function of GAP, whereby we grow away from the plan and we discern the policy of it. The dramatic aorist, then, states the present reality with the certitude of a past event. It is true that Christ died 1900 years ago but we are seeing how we died with Him. That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The punctiliar action of this aorist refers to the moment of salvation when God the Holy Spirit entered every believer into union with Jesus Christ — the baptism of the Spirit. At that point the believer was identified with Christ in His death. This is known to us doctrinally as retroactive positional truth. The significance of retroactive positional truth is found in the fact that Christ rejected in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that He told the parents the day that they partook of that tree “dying, they would die” — spiritual death all the way. When you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you have no relationship with God. Believers in reversionism have no fellowship with God because they are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their souls are saturated with good and evil. But we died with Christ, and we were entered into union with Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, and have union with Christ at the right hand of the Father and union with Christ in His death. Therefore, the active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through the baptism of the Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative for the principle which views the verbal action from the standpoint of historical reality. This really happened. “we shall also live with” — the future active indicative of suzaw which means to live with. This is the other part of positional truth. We have an adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, always translated “also.” The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact under the normal circumstances of the baptism of the Spirit. If we are going to live with Him we are going to live with Him forever as royal family of God. If royal family is left on this earth they are left to produce something in royalty that was never produced before — super-grace. The indicative mood is the historical reality and the current reality that every believer is a part of current positional truth. Translation: “Faith is the word [doctrine]: For you see, if we have died with Christ [and we have], at the same time also we shall live with him.” The doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit 1. Definition: The baptism of the Spirit is one of five ministries of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. The five are regeneration: entrance into the family of God; baptism of the Spirit: entrance into the royal family of God; indwelling of the Spirit: the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the body of the believer as the escutcheon of the royal family; sealing of the Spirit: the guarantee of security and royalty forever; the reception of a spiritual gift which becomes the function of royalty. Hence, by definition the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that salvation ministry of God the third person whereby He enters every believer at salvation into union with Christ. Union with Christ is permanent, a permanent identification which distinguishes Christianity from religion and the royal family from the family of God [Old Testament believers, Tribulational and Millennial believers]. When Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of God the Father He became battlefield royalty. And unlike His other types of royalty He did not have a royal family. Therefore the baptism of the Spirit is unique, it belongs to the Church Age only. In this dispensation it is the mechanics for the formation of the royal family of God. When the royal family of God is completed it will be removed en toto from the earth by the Rapture and there will never again be the baptism of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13. 2. The baptism of the Spirit is one of seven Bible baptisms. Baptism is described under two categories in the Bible. The word means “identification.” Category #1 is Real Baptisms. These are actual identifications: the baptism of Moses — 1 Corinthians 10:2, Moses was identified with the cloud, the Jews were identified with Moses, as they passed through the Red Sea; the cross is said to be a baptism of the cup in the sense that the cup is used and portrayed as being filled with the sins of the world. This cup was poured out upon Christ on the cross and He was judged for our sins, He was identified with our sins and judged for them — Matthew 20:22; the baptism of the Spirit identification with Christ, union with Christ; the baptism of fire: the unbelievers of the Tribulation identified with fire — Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16. Category #2 is Ritual Baptisms. These are representative identifications in which water is used to represent in a ritual some principle of doctrine. Prior to the completion of the canon of scripture the believers in the Church Age were baptised. There is no evidence that water baptism was ever to be perpetuated beyond AD 96. It was, but there is no evidence that it should have been. The Bible very clearly indicates that water baptism was putting a believer in the water, indicating by ritual, teaching him by ritual, since he didn’t have the completed canon of scripture. It was teaching him by ritual that he was identified with Christ in His death. When he came up out of the water he was identified with Christ at the right hand of the Father. There is no evidence that it was ever any more than a teaching aid until the canon of scripture was completed. This baptism is generally found in Acts. There is only once reference to water baptism in the epistles and it was a source of antagonism, fighting and bickering, as it always has been and always will be, and the basis of water baptism was totally obscured. There was the baptism of John. The water there represented the principle of the kingdom of God. Those who believed in Jesus Christ under the ministry of John were identified with the kingdom of God and the ritual taught them that. When Jesus was baptised by John the water had a different meaning. The water had to do with the plan of God the Father designed in the divine decrees in eternity past. Jesus said at the beginning of His earthly ministry, “I will fulfil my ministry, and I will go to the cross.” The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an actual identification whereby the believer of this dispensation is entered into union with Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6:2 indicates a multiplicity of baptisms found in the New Testament. 3. The baptism of the Spirit did not occur until the Church Age. The Church Age did not exist until our Lord’s ministry on earth was completed. It did not exist until the first advent was completely concluded. In fact, Jesus prophesied while on the earth that the Church was still a future factor — Matthew 16:1, “I will build my church,” future active indicative. The Church was formed by the baptism of the Spirit which was prophesied by Jesus Christ in Acts 1:5. It was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost — Acts 11:15-17. 4. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at the point of salvation. This is also noted from the three factors of salvation in Ephesians 4:5. These occur simultaneously. Galatians 3:26,28. 5. The baptism of the Spirit is related both to retroactive and current positional truth in Romans 6:3-5. 6. Conclusion: a) Therefore the baptism of the Spirit is that unique ministry of God the Holy Spirit whereby at salvation every Church Age believer is entered into union with Christ, forming royal family of God. b) While the Holy Spirit regenerated all Old Testament believers at salvation, and continues to do so in this dispensation, He adds at the same time the baptism of the Spirit whereby to regeneration is added royal family. c) Therefore the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the means of forming the royal family of God and/or the body of Christ. Verse 14 begins the profile of the pastor-teacher. “Of these things” is the accusative neuter plural direct object from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. An accusative is the object of the verb, not the subject. The translator in the King James version translated it like a genitive — “of.” This is really the direct object of a verb and it is a demonstrative pronoun. A demonstrative pronoun always emphasises the doctrines which were previously presented. The hymn quoted dealt with retroactive and current positional truth, super-grace suffering and ultra-super-grace suffering in time, blessing and reward in eternity, reversionism, the influence of evil, and eternal security. “put them in remembrance” — the present active imperative of u(pomimnhskw. It means to remind someone of something they should already know, therefore to jog their memory. The preposition u(po in the compound therefore connotes the principle of deep down it is already there. U(po also indicates authority, it is a preposition of authority and therefore there is a connotation here of academic discipline of the local church involved in the fulfilling of this command. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what happens in the past — the teaching ministry of some faithful pastor — and continues into the present. It is also known, therefore, as the present tense of duration. When doctrines occur in the biblical context they should be taught and re-taught. The active voice: Timothy must produce the action of the verb. Every pastor must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood: it is an order. “Keep on reminding them about these things” or “Keep on inculcating them with regard to these things.” “charging them” — present middle participle from a compound verb, diamarturomai. This adds discipline to discipline. Dia = through or by; marturomai means to testify, to bear witness in a trial and to tell the truth. Therefore it comes to mean in the English “to affirm.” But there is a stronger meaning than that. It means to adjure. To adjure means to impose an oath on someone or a group, to solemnly charge them and to give them a charge under oath whereby they are bound by that oath to do what is commanded. It means to give a command under threat of court martial. The customary present denotes what habitually occurs or may reasonably be expected to occur when a pastor faithfully communicates Bible doctrine. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning. The pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb in the communication of doctrine. The participle is used as an imperative mood following an imperative. It expresses a command based on the previous command and therefore it is translated, “be adjuring them.” “before the Lord” — the adverb e)nwpion used as an improper preposition with the genitive case from qeoj. It means “in the presence of the Lord.” It means that you are responsible to the Lord for what you take in of the teaching of the Word of God. “In the presence of the Lord” is a reference to the assembly of believers assembled in the classroom. All the assembly of the local church or Bible class is in the presence of the Lord. When you are listening to Bible teaching you are in the presence of the Lord. “that they strive not about words” — we have the negative mh plus the present active infinitive from the compound logomaxew [logoj = words or doctrines; maxomai = to fight]. It means not to fight about doctrine, or better in our modern English, not to resist the doctrine. The present tense is a progressive present for events in the process of occurrence. At the time of the teaching or any time thereafter you are not to resist the doctrine. The active voice: the believer in the local church produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result indicating the fulfilment of a very deliberate objective, a blending therefore of purpose and result. The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular while the present infinitive always indicates a condition or a process. The negative here is strong prohibition with the infinitive. So far we have: “Be adjuring them in the presence of the God, not to resist doctrine.” Does this mean that you have to accept everything that is said? In essence it means that you must have an open mind, that there are things with which you will not agree but you are not to disagree. There are things which run counter to norms and concepts previously learned. A pastor is not going to be wrong about doctrine if he has had the right kind of training. “to no profit” — the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of the adjective o)uden plus xrhsimoj. E)pi plus the accusative means “up to.” Xrhsimoj means “useful, beneficial or advantageous.” O)uden means “nothing.” Therefore we can translate this literally, “up to nothing useful.” This is an idiom meaning “beneficial for nothing,” useful for nothing,” or “beneficial for nothing.” It comes to mean it is useless or non-beneficial for you to ever resist Bible doctrine. There must be added a verb to clarify the translation. There must be something like the present active participle of the verb a)gw for the English. These verbs were often understood by anyone who was familiar with the Greek. And there must be a connective kai with this so that we can translate “and leads to.” “the subverting” — the preposition e)pi plus the locative of katastrofh which means ruin or destruction. Reversionism causes ruin or destruction of your life on this earth and deprives you of many blessings forever and ever as well. The word “hearers” is the descriptive genitive plural, present active ascriptive participle of the verb a)kouw. An ascriptive participle is translated like an adjective and in some cases like a substantive. Used here in that sense the present tense is very strong linear aktionsart for a continual positive volition. The active voice: the believer produces the action. The ascriptive makes it an adjective or a noun — in this case a noun, “hearers.” The stated result is reversionism. Reversionism causes ruin or destruction to the hearers who are believers. Translation: “Be adjuring them [believers] in the presence of the God, that it is non-beneficial to resist doctrine, and leads to the destruction of the hearers.” The second purpose of the ministry is to fulfil the number one priority: study and teach. Verse 15 — this command is not given to every believer, it is given to Timothy as a pastor-teacher who has recovered from reversionism, who has attained super-grace, and who is now going to be a communicator in the key spot, Ephesus, for the next generation. We have the aorist active imperative of speudw which does not mean to study, it means to hurry. It somehow became related to zeal, so it meant to be zealous, to exert one’s self. to be diligent. People who move fast are industrious, it means to be industrious. Occasionally it even meant to strive. It can be translated here to strive, to be zealous, or to be diligent, but it does not mean to study. There are other passages which do so we do not exclude the concept, of course. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the daily function of GAP, including the positive decision to assemble and listen or the pastor’s decision to keep studying, it takes a daily positive decision, it takes concentration and avoiding distraction, academic diligence, and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into a single whole. The active voice: every member of the royal family should produce the action of the verb — the daily function of GAP, and this emphasises the diligence. The imperative mood is a command. “to shew thyself” — aorist active infinitive of paristhmi, and it means to present. “Be diligent [or strive] to present.” This is a culminative aorist, it views the function of GAP in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the achievement of approval or super-grace status. The active voice: the positive believer is diligent, a striving believer producing the action of the verb. It is the infinitive of intended result. When the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective it is called intended result, it blends purpose and result in the objective. We also have a direct object here, the reflexive pronoun seautou. When the action expressed by the verb is referred back to its own subject the construction is called reflexive. “Strive to present yourself,” or “Be diligent to present yourself.” “approved” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun dokimoj. It is a noun that means to be approved after testing, after examination, after trial. It refers to the judgment seat of Christ where every member of the royal family of God receives his efficiency rating — Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:12,16; Hebrews 6:7-12. The word “approved” here is based on reaching super-grace and holding until death, so that dokimoj is the reward, the blessing over and above blessing that the super-grace believer receives throughout all eternity. This is strictly over and above, it is beyond what is ordinarily expected. It is approval, therefore, based on following the colours to the high ground. The approval is parlayed into paragraph SG3. The one who approves is God. Therefore “unto God” is the dative of indirect object from qeoj plus the definite article. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the believer seizes and holds the high ground of super-grace, and in some cases even goes on to ultra-super-grace. Remember that dokimoj means to test for the purpose of approval. “a workman” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun e)rgathj which means a worker in the sense of a producer but it is used figuratively for apostles or pastor-teachers, a producer in the sense of a communicator. It should be translated not a workman but a teacher, a communicator. Timothy must be diligent to be a communicator, that is his job. This doesn’t apply to everyone. “that needeth not to be a shamed” is a compound adjective, accusative plural of a)nepaisxuntoj. The a is an alpha privitive, meaning negative; the preposition e)pi = upon, on, or at; eisxunomai = to be ashamed. Hence, it means without cause for shame. The only way a pastor-teacher can avoid shame at the judgment seat of Christ is to be diligent to study and teach. The pastor must avoid many things which detract from this pattern. “rightly dividing” — present active participle from the compound verb o)rqotomew which means to cut a straight line. It means to accurately handle something. It comes to mean to skilfully and accurately exegete the Word of God. It doesn’t mean to rightly divide in the sense of dispensations. There is no question about dispensations being there but what it really means is to skilfully examine and accurately exegete the Word of God. It means the Word of God must be approached with skill. And skill means preparedness. Preparedness means learning and work. No one should come into the pulpit unless he is skilled in exegeting and has thoroughly analysed a passage so that his presentation of information is based upon his skill in the languages and other things. Corrected translation: “accurately and skilfully exegeting.” The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected of that person who has the gift of pastor-teacher. The active voice: the pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb by diligent study. The participle is used as an imperative mood here (peculiar to the Koine Greek and the papyri of the first two centuries) — one imperative at the beginning of s sentence and the participles that follow are all imperatives. “the word of truth” — the textbook, o( logoj; a)lhqeia — doctrine. There is a definite article in front of a)lhqeia used as a possessive pronoun. So this should be translated, “the word with reference to its doctrine.” Translation: “Strive [be diligent] to present yourself approved to the God, a teacher not put to shame, accurately and skilfully exegeting the word with reference to its doctrine.” Verse 16 — We now move into the third function of the pastor-teacher. He is to avoid apostasy, reversionism and evil in the content of his message. This can only be accomplished, of course, by his own personal study. “But shun” — the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de setting up a contrast. This particular contrast is between what the pastor should have in the content of his message and what he should not have. The present middle imperative which is obviously in order is from the compound verb periisthmi [from peri = the preposition for around, and i(sthmi = to stand], “to stand around.” In the middle voice which intensifies it a bit it means to go around so as to avoid someone. In this particular case, then, it means to avoid — “But keep avoiding.” The present tense of duration, or retroactive progressive present, denotes what should be avoided in the past by pastors in the teaching of the Word and continuing into the present time. The more a pastor teaches the more vulnerable he becomes to making some mistake at some time along the way, whether he makes a grammatical error, whether he simply presents information which is not compatible with the subject, or whether he simply gives something that is totally inaccurate. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the pastor is the agent producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. This is the imperative mood of command and it is directed to pastors, and you can always identify your right pastor by this verse because the wrong pastor will be teaching evil and that which is compatible with Satan’s policy as the ruler of this world. “profane” — this word does not tell too much but in the Greek we get a little more help. It is the accusative plural from the adjective bebhloj, correctly translated “profane” if you understand that profane means to treat something of value with contempt. It means to treat doctrine with contempt, to ridicule Bible doctrine. “vain babblings” is all one word in the Greek, a compound noun in the accusative, part of the direct object — kenofwnia [kenoj = empty or void of content; fwnh = voice or sound] which simply means “empty talk.” So far, then, we have “But keep on avoiding anti-doctrinal empty talk.” “Anti-doctrinal” is used as a translation for “profane,” and “empty talk” is the noun. Summary 1. All words are formed in the mind. They reveal what the individual is thinking. 2. Talk, or chatter, is composed therefore of words formed in the mind. Every bit of preaching that has ever occurred came from the mind. 3. When the words formed in the mind are put into the vocal cords they represent the thinking of, on the one hand, reversionism and evil, or, on the other hand, grace and doctrine. In this passage we have anti-doctrinal, empty chatter which should be avoided. 4. Therefore the only way to obey this command is for the pastor to study. 5. Sermons which are called “empty talk” are sermons based on the influence of evil in the soul. The pastor involved, therefore, is in some phase of reversionism. 6. When the message is void of content the congregation cannot grow spiritually. 7. This means failure in the objective of the local church which is assembly for the purpose of communication and reception of Bible doctrine. 8. No pastor can lead his congregation to super-grace when there is no doctrinal content to his message. 9. Doctrinal content comes through diligent study which was previously commanded in verse 15. 10. The pastor must present the Bible viewpoint. He is God’s representative, he is therefore to present God’s viewpoint of the situation. This is only possible through careful study, including exegesis, analysis of the context, and classification of all doctrines found in a given context. 11. No pastor can be divorced from constant daily Bible study which is the source of his personal growth, the means of preparation of his messages, and the inevitable growth of the positive members of his congregation. “for they will increase” — we have the conjunctive particle gar which introduces a cause of a reason. With is is the future active indicative of the verb prokoptw [pro = “before” or “ahead”; koptw = to cut] which means to go forward, to make progress, to advance. Here we will use the translation to “make progress” — “for they will make progress,” or “they will advance.” But what it means here is its negative sense is that will get deeper into it. Whatever it is it is not pleasant and they are getting deeper into it. This is the pastor whose content of message is described as empty talk, i.e. human viewpoint representing the policies of Satan or doctrines which have in content evil. The future tense is a progressive future, it denotes progress or continuation in future time. In this case it is really retrogression but they are moving, moving in the wrong direction. This is advancing to the rear! The active voice: the congregation produces the action of the verb in getting deeper and deeper into reversionism when the content of the message from the pulpit is reversionistic under the influence of evil. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality. A reversionistic pastor means that the congregation is getting deeper and deeper into reversionism with him. He becomes an apostle of evil. “unto more ungodliness” is a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative neuter singular from pleion, a comparative from poluj which means “more.” The comparative means much more, more, over more, and therefore we translate it in correct English “further,” or “farther.” It means “they will get deeper into reversionism.” Translation: “Keep on voiding anti-doctrinal empty talk [in preaching], for they will get you deeper into reversionism.” Members of a congregation can never have a right pastor who is in reversionism. Verses 17-18, we now get into the first of several parenthetical principles. It says in effect as a conclusion that the reversionistic pastor is no believer’s right pastor. Verse 17 — “And their word.” “And” is not correctly translated. This is the conjunction kai but it has at least four different uses. It should be translated here in its emphatic use. It is translated “In fact.” Then we have the nominative singular o( logoj — “the word.” It refers to the preaching or the teaching or the communication from the pulpit of the reversionistic pastor. We also have an ablative of source from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. As an intensive pronoun this word is used to emphasise the identity of the false pastor, the one who is teaching evil. “In fact, the word from them.” “will eat” — the future active indicative of e)xw. E)xw means to have, to hold, or tow have and to hold. With this is the accusative singular direct object from the word nomh which is a pasture for feeding. So instead of “will eat” what we have is “In fact their teaching will spread.” The progressive future tense denotes the idea of progress or increase in future time. The active voice: the teaching of the reversionistic pastor produces the action of the verb — it spreads, there will always be someone who likes to hear a reversionistic pastor. But the royal family of God can bypass, avoid, and shun any form of reversionism taught from the pulpit. The indicative mood is the reality of the reversionistic or apostate pastors, they actually exist and they are spreading Satanic propaganda. “as doth a canker” — we have a comparative particle, w(j — “as”; then a relative pronoun, o(j, “also.” The two together should be translated “like.” Then we have the word gaggraina from which we get our English word “gangrene.” However, it does not mean gangrene, it means “cancer.” “In fact, their teaching will spread like cancer.” The analogy indicates the total evil of the teaching from reversionistic pastors. Cancer is always among the normal cells, and they may say some things that are correct but because their ministry is not founded in the Word they will inevitably deviate. In fact Satan likes to have his own representatives in the pulpit and say a few things that are true to attract the simple-minded, and then throw in the cancer. Since it is the devil’s world evil spreads very rapidly and evil in many forms is very popular. False teaching from reversionists is like cancer in the body, it spreads rapidly and eventually destroys the believer. The destruction of the believer, of course, in the analogy to cancer is reversionism ending in the sin unto death. “of whom” is literally “among whom” — the ablative of w(j again; “is” — Paul does not ordinarily spend any time naming names but occasionally it becomes necessary to do so and he is perfectly free under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to point out a couple of typical examples in Ephesus. Timothy has just recovered from reversionism. He has the first church in Ephesus. But there are other churches, there are splinter groups who have pulled out of the church when Timothy recovered. One of the people who pulled out was Hymenaeus. He was first mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:19,20. He has been under the sin unto death for several years and is still in that situation. He is guilty of every form of reversionism and has attracted a number of people out of the Ephesus church. They have formed a little splinter group. The other is Philetus, named here, also a pastor in Ephesus. He has special kind of heresy, he has disagreed with Timothy about the Rapture. There is a lot of trouble at this time in the Roman empire and he says that the Tribulation is already here, that the Church is going through it. He was teaching a Jewish form of legalism that you had to keep the Mosaic law and if you did then you would catch the Rapture at the end of the Tribulation. So these two men have formed splinter groups and they each have their own appeal. One has the appeal of his personality, the other has the fact that he has some truth and he mixes it in with false teaching with the result that the false teaching predominates, the cancer always dominates, and he teaches cancerous doctrine. When this is caught by the individual in the congregation he too goes into reversionism. Translation: “In fact, their teaching will spread like cancer: among whom there is Hymenaeus and Philetus.” Verse 18 — we have a qualitative relative pronoun o(stij beginning this verse. This is a nominative masculine plural referring to both Hymenaeus and Philetus. The qualitative relative pronoun emphasises the character of these reversionists and it should be translated “Such ones who.” These are specific people, this is a specific problem, and therefore the qualitative relative pronoun is used to indicate that this is not indefinite but these are both well-known pastors and everyone in Ephesus must be warned that they are teaching that which is false. They are apostles of evil. “concerning the truth” — peri plus the accusative singular of a)lhqeia meaning truth or doctrine. Peri plus the genitive means “concerning,” and that is the way it is translated in the KJV, but it is peri plus the accusative which means “from the doctrine” rather than “concerning the doctrine.” So we have “Such a category of individuals who have departed from the doctrine.” The word “erred” is translated “departed,” it is the aorist active indicative of a)stokew. It means to miss the target and it means to miss the point as far as life on this earth is concerned. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the various stages of reversionism which constitute a departure from doctrine and the intake of doctrine on a daily basis. The constative aorist represents the action of the verb in its entirety and therefore the stages of reversionism are gathered up into this punctiliar concept. Hymenaeus and Philetus produce the action of the verb, along with all of their hearers. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that this actually occurred historically and has been repeated many times in history. Now we have an illustration of their apostasy, it is related to the mid or the post-Tribulational Rapture. “saying” — present active participle of legw indicating that this is what is being taught from the pulpits of the false teachers. These men are believers, they are still false teachers. They are reversionists and as such are working for Satan. The spiritual gift which they possessed from God the Holy Spirit has been turned around and is now being used in a Satanic way. The present tense is an historic present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence in order to illustrate a point. The active voice: Hymenaeus and Philetus produce the action. The participle is circumstantial. “that” is not found in the original manuscript but is used as a translational device to denote the content of their heresy. Their heresy: the accusative of general reference of a)nastasij, referring to resurrection. The resurrection here refers to the time when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, as per 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. “is past” — the perfect active infinitive of ginomai which means to become, to occur, and it means here “has occurred.” The dramatic perfect, something that happened in the past and is completed action and the results are going on. The active voice: the Rapture is producing the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of conceived result which means that the Rapture is assumed as having already occurred because there is so much trouble at this time in the Ephesus area. But, of course, it has not occurred. “already” merely helps to dramatise this perfect tense. It is the adverb h)dh. Principle 1. Teaching the mid or the post-Tribulational Rapture is false, it is a sign of some kind of failure. It demonstrates two kinds of failure: a) Failure in the soul to have the correct doctrine; b) Failure from the old sin nature — pettiness, spite, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability. 2. The very fact that any pastor would ever stand up and teach such a thing in the pulpit indicates failure to understand the uniqueness of the Church Age and therefore failure to understand the objective for which we remain alive. The Church Age is absolutely unique and it means that God has a plan for each one of us, a purpose for each one of us. 3. Such a position reveals total ignorance of God’s plan or the deliberate tampering with the plan of God by misstating it. “and overthrow” — a)natrepw [a)na = again, above; trepw = to turn] which means to turn again, to overturn, to overthrow, to subvert, to corrupt, to destroy. Here it means to corrupt — “and they are corrupting.” The retroactive progressive present means they are corrupting in the past with the result that every time you go to hear them and every time they stand up to speak your soul is filled with further corruption, your mind is distorted, you are moving from one stage to another of reversionism. The active voice: the apostate pastor produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the historical reality of the fact that the apostles of evil, the evangelists of reversionism, exist in every generation and Timothy’s generation was no excluded. “the faith” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun pistij and it should be translated here “the doctrine.” “of some” — the descriptive genitive plural of the indefinite pronoun tij. The congregation are not named, the pastors are named because in Ephesus there must be a warning against these people. The category here is represented by the indefinite relative pronoun. The indefinite pronoun always depicts some kind of a category. The category represented here is reversionistic believers under the influence of evil. They had some doctrine when they started but that doctrine is being corrupted. “Of certain reversionistic believers” would be a better translation of the phrase. Those who are negative toward doctrine have found the ministry of the apostate Hymenaeus and Philetus enjoyable in contrast to the orthodox teaching of Timothy. So negative believers cannot take exegetical teaching, they cannot stand the truth. Translation: “Such a category of pastors who have departed from the doctrine, communicating that the resurrection [Rapture] has already occurred; and they are corrupting the doctrine of certain ones.” Verse 19 — make a constant issue out of doctrine. Doctrine is more important than the air that we breathe, it is the only way we advance in the spiritual life, it is the means of the tactical victory and therefore there must be a constant issue made about doctrine to those who are interested in doctrine. “Nevertheless” is an adversative conjunctive particle, mentoi. It means to set up a contrast between the reversionistic pastors of the previous verse and those pastors who are doggedly plugging away studying and teaching. Therefore it should be translated “However.” The principle here is that apostasy, reversionism, evil does not shake the foundation of this dispensation which is the preservation of doctrine in the canon of scripture. The continued existence of the local church and pastors who will be faithful in teaching the Word, and the perpetuation of super-grace pastors is always true in history. There always will be a few no matter what the circumstances. “the foundation of God standeth sure” — the word for “foundation” here is the nominative singular qemelioj. As the subject it is very important to understand this foundation. The foundation is spiritual growth through the daily function of GAP causing the individual to reach the objective of super-grace and to glorify God. This foundation is based upon the intake of doctrine, therefore the importance of stressing doctrine. Furthermore this is not a foundation that will ever crumble and so it is called the stereoj foundation. This is an adjective and the word means “solid.” The adjective modifies the foundation — “solid foundation.” The solid foundation means spiritual growth, the means of glorifying God, the means of our spiritual advance. This is Bible doctrine resident in the Word of God, in the canon of scripture, preserved by God. The local church which in spite of abuses by denominations or independent movements which are not local church and do not have a pastor-teacher as the leader, will continue to exist. There is no spiritual growth in any organisation outside of the local church. The solid foundation, then, is a threefold principle. Bible doctrine resident in the canon of scripture and a congregation of believers who are positive toward that doctrine. The missing link is the pastor-teacher who communicates to the believer in the local church. With this we have an ablative of source from qeoj referring to God, indicating the source of the solid foundation — “the solid foundation from the God.” This is a reference to the fact that God has a perfect plan and He has chosen to stabilise the human race on the basis of His perfect plan, and His perfect plan is communicated to those who are born-again in the human race by means of the teaching of Bible doctrine. Next we have the phrase “to stand.” In this case the KJV says “standeth sure,” but we actually have a perfect active indicative from the verb i(sthmi which does mean to stand. However, this is the perfect tense and the dramatic perfect emphasises not only the completed action but the results of that action in believers in every generation. God will never be without those who reach super-grace in every generation and many times these people are not known by name, they are not even identified in history. Many times these people are unknown but they are the ones who carry history. God has His spiritual Atlases in every generation who actually hold up history. This foundation is one that stands fast in the past with the result that it keeps on standing fast to be the stabiliser for every generation of history. The active voice indicates that the living grace provision of God is behind this foundation. The indicative mood is a dogmatic and absolute statement of fact, it is historical reality in every generation. “having” is a present active participle from the verb e)xw, meaning to have and to hold. The static present represents a condition as perpetually existing, there will always be believers in every generation, whether known to history or not, who will continue to be the spiritual Atlases that sustain the human race down through the period of the angelic conflict. The active voice: the sure foundation of divine provision of living grace for the positive believer produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle meaning that there never was in history, even if there was only one person in history who was positive, a person who was positive as a believer who did not receive from God everything necessary to go on, to advance to super-grace, and to act as the spiritual Atlas for that generation. “seal” — the direct object of the verb, the accusative singular of the noun sfragij. The use of seals is important to understanding its meaning here. With this word is a demonstrative pronoun emphasising a designated object in the vicinity of the writing. In this case it is God’s grace provision to keep anyone alive who as a believer is consistently positive toward doctrine in order that he might reach the point of super-grace and glorify God. What is sealing? 1. Sealing was used in the ancient world for many things. You cant even understand the use of the word “seal” in the Bible unless you understand its usage in the ancient world. A principle of hermeneutics: The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In the time in which this was written there was a certain usage of seals which is absolutely imperative to understand. 2. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. 3. First of all the seal was used as a guarantee of a transaction. Therefore it denotes for anyone who is going to stand up and look history in the eye and face it down, no matter how disastrous it is, the guarantee of life and provision for your spiritual growth and that you will survive through disaster periods of history. 4. The seal was used as identification of ownership. Therefore the believer must remember that the seal here means that God recognises you as belonging to Him. 5. The seal also indicates provision. The signet ring, by the way, was the way you signed your cheques in the ancient world. The signet ring of God indicates that He is constantly cashing cheques for us, He has provided the means whereby we spend our time in life glorifying Him and fulfilling the objectives of grace. This spending means capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing that comes to the believer who is loaded down with doctrine. 6. The seal was used to protect something of value. Every believer is regarded by God as something of value and the seal is used in that sense of protection. The seal of God is affixed to us, this is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. That sealing is a security and it means that as far as God is concerned we are something of value to Him. The thing that is sealed in our passage is of the utmost importance. It is the firm foundation, Bible doctrine contained in the scripture, Bible doctrine communicated to the local church. It is the importance of Bible doctrine that makes our life meaningful and fulfils the objective for which we remain in this life. Therefore the principle of sealing is brought out in the next phrase. “The Lord knoweth them that are his” — the word for “Lord” is the nominative of kurioj, it is minus the definite article. It refers to deity, to God the Father here who is the author of the plan. No definite article means that there is great emphasis on kurioj, on His essence. He has the ability to provide for us and to protect us. The word for “knoweth” is the aorist active indicative of the verb ginwskw which also means to acknowledge and to recognise and to understand. The culminative aorist views the punctiliar action of eternity past in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of the existing results — God’s provision. The active voice: God produces the action. The indicative mood is the reality of divine omniscience and the resultant divine decrees where grace provision was made for us. “them that are his” — the accusative plural definite article used as a relative pronoun plus the present active participle of e)imi. plus the possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. Together it all means “The Lord has acknowledged [recognised in eternity past] those who belong to him.” This phrase relates the omniscience of God to the doctrine of the divine decrees and the fact that God has not been caught off-guard by some unusual adversity of history. In eternity past He knew the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end and made provision long before we ever called out in prayer and asked for help. “And” is an emphatic use of the conjunction kai and it should be translated “In fact.” “Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ” — again we have a nominative singular from paj. “Everyone” particularises and specialises every believer. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ you are special to God; “that nameth” is the articular present active participle from o)nomazw which means to name or to use the name. The present tense is the perfective use of the present, it approaches its kindred tense, the perfect, when used to denote the continuation of existing results. Here it refers to the fact of something which happened in the past — God knew in eternity past that you would believe — and it emphasises the present reality of the things that He provided for you for your whole lifetime. It should be translated “use the name” and the perfective present indicates that principle of using it in the sense that you are now using what God provided in eternity past. The active voice: mankind using the name of the Lord is a reference to salvation and entrance into the plan of God, so the unbeliever at the point of his salvation produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. It comes to read: “In fact all who use the person of the Lord [for salvation].” In other words, this is where all of that grace begins. “depart” — the aorist active imperative of a)fisthmi. It means to withdraw, it is a word for separation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist indicating that all you have to do from the time you are born again to the time you depart from this life is to GAP it daily and you will fulfil the principle. The active voice: the positive believer toward doctrine produces the action. The imperative mood is a command. “iniquity” — a)dikia. It means “wickedness” if you understand that wickedness is evil. It means wickedness in the sense of all of the concepts of evil combined with every facet of reversionism. It is a part of a prepositional phrase, a)po plus the ablative, and it should be translated “withdraw from wickedness.” Translation: “However, the solid foundation from the God stands fast [holds its ground], having this seal, The Lord has acknowledged [recognised in eternity past] those who belong to him. In fact, all who use the person of the Lord for salvation withdraw from wickedness.” This brings us to our second parenthetical principle, the classification of the congregation. Verse 20 — the classification of the congregation. Eight principles 1. The objective of the ministry of the pastor is to lead his congregation to maturity. This is accomplished by the consistent studying and teaching of the Word. 2. Maturity in the concept here is called super-grace, as per James 4:6. 3. The super-grace believer is spiritually self-sustaining as well as being a beneficiary of his own paragraph SG2. 4. The super-grace believer glorifies Jesus Christ in receiving these blessings and he maintains these blessings by not being spoiled through success. 5. However, we will also find in this paragraph that every local church contains all kinds of believers. Some do not grow up, they are in the congregation but they do not benefit from the teaching of the Word. 6. Not all believers are positive toward doctrine. Not all are amenable to discipline and authority exercised by the pastor in the communication of the Word. Therefore not all believers in a given congregation are advancing to super-grace. 7. Therefore this second parenthesis introduces the objective of verse 21. 8. The classification of the congregation is portrayed through an analogy. “But in a great house” — the post positive conjunctive particle de used as a transitional particle. It should be translated “Now.” Then there is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of the adjective megaj plus the locative of the noun o)ikia. “Now in a large house.” In 1 Peter 2:5 the Church is called a spiritual house, so the word “house” for the local church is not foreign to the scripture. The local church is here compared to a large house, and a large house it must be. it is not that all local churches are large, far from it. Any place that royalty assembles there may only five people but it is still a large house. The word “large house” refers to the house, not the number of people in it. It refer to where royalty meets. The local church is always a large house because it is referring to the fact that royalty assembles there for its spiritual growth and to fulfil the basic principle in the plan of God. “there are” — present active indicative of e)imi. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs. With the indicative mood of the customary present it indicates the temporal element involved here. The following categories of believers are found in local churches in every generation is what the present indicative of e)imi says here. The active voice: various categories of vessels are going to be producing the action. That is, all kinds of vessels exist. The indicative mood is declarative indicating a temporal element, this happens in every generation. “not only vessels of gold” — the strong negative o)uk, then the adverb monon for “only,” and then the word for “vessel,” skeuh. What was a vessel in the time in which this was written? It referred to any kind of household furnishings. Skeuh can refer to a container but it can also be a chair or a table. There is also an adjective here, xruseoj which means golden. There is a noun, skeuoj, that always means a jar or dish or container, but that isn’t what we have here. These are two different words, even though they may be related. What is referred to here is a castle with all golden furniture, and obviously it refers to the super-grace believer. From the standpoint of positional truth we are all equal, from the standpoint of experience we are all completely unequal. The reason is because we all have a different attitude toward Bible doctrine. Some are positive, some are negative. There are variations, and some make it and some do not. “silver” is the adjective a)rgureoj. With skeuh it means “silver furniture.” The silver furniture is not a super-grace believer but it is the next stage down which is a positive and growing believer, someone who is consistent in the daily function of GAP but who has simply not been a believer long enough or been under the function of GAP long enough to reach the first objective which is maturity. The gold and silver furniture are both classified as honourable. “but also of wood and earth” — the strong adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast in the congregation between honourable and dishonourable. The honourable is gold and silver, now the dishonourable are the wood and earth. There is an adjunctive use of the conjunction here, kai, translated “also.” With it is the word culinoj for “wood.” It must be remembered that this is not a 20th century passage. In the ancient world the homes that were considered the best had permanent metal furnishings. Wood was only used because it was cheaper and because one couldn’t afford the other. So wood has a different connotation 2000 years ago than it has today. The wood furnishings refer to the carnal believer. We have noted the difference between the carnal believer and the reversionist. The reversionist is under the influence of Satanic thinking; the carnal believer is under the influence of sin. The carnal believer here is the one who permits his carnality to get in the way of the intake of Bible doctrine. Being out of fellowship he is grieving and quenching the Spirit and the spiritual teaching from the pulpit is not meaningful to him. It is true that all reversionists are carnal but all carnal believers are not reversionistic. “earth” is the predicate adjective of o)strakinoj which is clay or earthenware. Clay or earthenware household furnishings represent the reversionistic believer. Along with wood the clay represents the vessel of dishonour. “some to honour” — the nominative neuter plural from the definite article used as an intensive pronoun identifying the fact that believers who are positive toward doctrine consistently are considered honourable by the scripture, by God’s standards. Then we have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “in fact.” With it the affirmative particle men used correlatively, and we translate it “on the one hand.” “In fact on the one hand certain ones with reference to honour” — the certain ones refer to honour, e)ij plus the accusative of timh. “and some to dishonour” — the post positive conjunctive particle de; e)ij plus the accusative of a)timia — “with reference to dishonour.” There are positive believers toward doctrine who function consistently under the authority of their right pastor-teacher. The golden furnishings refer to the actual super-grace believer while the silver refers to those who are positive, who are advancing, who are closing in on the first objective. The wood and clay refer to dishonourable believers. The wood believers are carnal but their carnality gets in the way of the function of GAP. The clay believers are those who are reversionistic. Translation: “Now in a large house [the local church] there are not only gold and silver household furnishings [positive believers], but also wood and earthenware; in fact there are, on the one hand, certain ones referring to honour [believers who are positive], but on the other hand there are certain ones referring to dishonour.” Verse 21 — “If a man therefore purge.” This includes a conjunctive particle e)an, it introduces a third class condition — “if,” maybe it is true, maybe it isn’t. The protasis of a third class condition presents a supposition from the viewpoint of probability. The third class condition is more probable future, the fourth class condition is less probable future. Because of the subjunctive mood which is used uncertainty is always implied in a third class condition. The thought in the third class condition always has to do with something in the future, it may be immediate or it may be distant but it is future. With this we have an inferential particle o)un. This always means that some conclusion is in the vicinity. It is translated “therefore.” Plus the indefinite pronoun tij representing a category of believers and depicting them in terms of household furniture. Along with this is a verb which is mistranslated “purge,” the aorist active subjunctive of e)kkaqairw [e)k = out from; kaqairw = cleanse], to cleanse out from, to eliminate, to clean out, to cleanse thoroughly. In other words, we have something here that represents a concept that something needs to be completely and totally cleaned out. The culminative aorist tense of this verb contemplates reversion recovery in its entirety. The active voice: the believer who is in reversionism but who has turned around in his thinking and now is going for doctrine is going to produce the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is potential indicating a third class condition. “Therefore if anyone has cleaned out.” Then we have the object of the verb, a reflexive pronoun, the accusative singular of e(autou. This indicates that a part of reversion recovery is getting all of the evil thinking, the policy of Satan, out of the soul. So this means that the action of the verb is referred back to its own subject and that the reversionistic believer must use his own volition, constantly expose himself to doctrine and intensify his intake of doctrine with consistency and persistence. In this way he rids his soul of evil and reversionism. They are mentioned unto the prepositional phrase “from these,” a)po plus the ablative plural from o(outoj. This calls attention with special emphasis to reversionism and the fact that all reversionists are under the influence of evil. The plural stems from the fact that there are two sides to the coin of apostasy. On one side we have reversionism and on the other side we have evil. So a)po connotes ultimate source, the demonstrative pronoun is called the demonstrative of immediacy, denoting that which is relatively near — vessels made out of wood or clay. “he shall be” — future active indicative of e)imi. This verb begins the apodasis of the third class condition. A conditional clause is a statement of supposition. The fulfilment of that supposition is realised as a potential factor in the apodasis. This phrase is based on the supposition that apostate believers will, when they change their mind or repent about reversionism, turn around toward doctrine, become very positive about doctrine and take it in at every opportunity. They will overdose themselves with doctrine in order to clean out the evil from their soul. Evil and reversionism must go before there can be recovery. “he shall be a vessel unto honour” — the predicate nominative skeuoj which is a vessel, a container; plus e)ij plus the accusative of timh — “a vessel with reference to honour.” This honourable vessel is a super-grace believer. There are no super-grace believers apart from the faithful communication of Bible doctrine on the part of the pastor-teacher and therefore it takes consistent, faithful teaching from one’s right pastor-teacher to clean out the vessel of dishonour and fill it with honour. This is really a point of displacement. As evil is pushed out it is pushed out by doctrine going in. The doctrine of vessels 1. Definition and etymology. The doctrine is taken from both the Greek and the Hebrew. We have the Greek word skeuh which refers to any kind of household furnishing. But the second word we have is skeuoj which refers only to a vessel or a container. There is another Greek word which occurs occasionally, a)ggeion which is correctly translated “flask.” The first Hebrew word is keli which refers to any kind of household furnishing again. Another Hebrew word is maen which means vessel or container. There is another word used for a wine bottle, usually made out of skin, nebel. 2. Under the principle of election the believer is said to be a chosen vessel. Therefore as a chosen vessel he needs to be filled with doctrine — Acts 9:15. The word “vessel” is used because a vessel is no good while it is empty and is only usable while it is filled. The whole concept is that in the word “election” God has a plan for Paul’s life. The word “vessel” means that before Paul can be useful he must be filled with doctrine. So the in concept of election or the plan of God we are never usable, we are never utilised by God, we never fulfil the plan of God designed for us in eternity past, until we become filled vessels, until we contain Bible doctrine or maximum doctrine resident in the soul. 3. Vessels are used to demonstrate the essence of God, the essence of God in His treatment of believers and unbelievers. Illustration: Romans 9:19-23. It is impossible for God to make an unfair decision. a) The character of God is perfect; God can do not wrong. b) The sovereignty of God is a part of the character of God, therefore the sovereignty of God is perfect. c) God can make no bad or unfair decisions. If His essence is perfect and sovereignty is a part of His essence the sovereignty is perfect. And if His sovereignty is perfect it is impossible for His sovereignty to ever make a bad decision. d) With the believer propitiation makes it possible for God to provide grace blessing and to do so without compromising His character. e) With the unbeliever (he has rejected the cross, therefore there is no propitiation factor) God must curse him because the righteousness and justice of God have not been propitiated, that person has said no to the cross. Righteousness and justice must curse the person who says no to the cross. The unbeliever is a vessel of dishonour. The unbeliever superimposes his own volition over divine volition. In other words, the clay tells the potter how he is going to be made. The unbeliever is not willing to let God save him and mould him into a vessel of honour. The unbeliever chooses his own works for salvation. This is called “vessel of dishonour” in context. His own works make the unbeliever a vessel of dishonour in this context. 4. Vessels are used to provide an analogy between Bible doctrine resident in the soul and capacity of life for the super-grace believer — 2 Corinthians 4:7. The treasure in earthen vessels is Bible doctrine. Doctrine resident in the soul keeps us from tampering with the plan of God. 5. Therefore vessels are used to set up a contrast between the believer in super-grace status and the believer in reversionism — 2 Timothy 2:20,21; Proverbs 25:4 — “Take away the dross [evil and reversionism].” 6. Vessels are related to category #2 love and they always refer to the woman because there is a sense in which a woman without her right man is empty, like a vessel — 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Peter 3:7. 7. Shattered vessels are also used to describe personal judgment from God — Psalm 31:12; Jeremiah 22:28; 25:34. 8. Shattered vessels are used to describe national judgments — the northern kingdom, Hosea 8:8,9; the southern kingdom, Jeremiah 51:34; Gentile nations in the Tribulation — Psalm 2:9. “sanctified” is a perfect passive participle from the verb a(giazw which means to set apart. Here it means to be set apart in the plan of God and to be consecrated. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect emphasises the existing results of a completed action. Therefore this is dramatised to the extent that our sanctification is a continuous thing. The passive voice: the super-grace believer receives the action of the verb. This is the balance of residency in the soul. The participle is causal and should be translated “because he has been sanctified.” “and meet” — there is no conjunctive particle but there is the accusative singular direct object from the noun e)uxrhstoj which means useful or serviceable. Here it means “useful.” “for the master’s use” — the word for “master” is a dative singular indirect object from despothj. This word is very strong for the principle that the super-grace believer recognises his Lord and master, he recognises that He is the owner of the vessel. The super-grace believer glorifies Jesus Christ through the tactical victory of his status which complements the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. “prepared” is a perfect passive participle, e)toimazw. This is the dramatic perfect again, it means prepared in the past with the result that he keeps on being prepared. The passive voice: the super-grace believer is the only prepared one. The participle is circumstantial. it is translated “has been prepared.” “unto every good work” — e)ij plus the accusative of paj plus a)gaqoj for divine good, good of intrinsic value, plus e)rgon — “for the purpose of every good work.” Translation: “Therefore if anyone has cleaned out himself in these things [reversionism and evil], he will be a vessel with reference to honour, because he has been sanctified, useful to the Lord, having been prepared for the purpose of every good work.” Doctrine of divine good 1. Divine good is the production primarily of the super-grace believer. It is also the production of the growing or progressing believer. Divine good is the maximum and the most effective production that the believer can have in his life. The production has its source from God directly, mechanically the balance of residency. 2. There are three types of good in history. In the order in which they occur: a) Human good. This is the production of evil or Satan’s policy. It comes first because there was a tree in the garden called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil is the thinking of Satan and good is the application of that thinking to experience. b) Moral good is the observance of the laws of divine establishment. c) Divine good which is the production of either the growing or the mature believer. Human good can only be produced by the unbeliever or the reversionistic believer. Moral good can be produced by anyone who is a believer or unbeliever who understands and observes the laws of divine establishment. Divine good can only be produced by a growing or a mature believer. The word “good” is always defined by the context as to which type. 3. The source of divine good. Divine good has its production from the balance of residency in the soul. It takes two factors to produce divine good in God’s plan. The first factor is the filling of the Holy Spirit. It is simple because the filling of the Spirit is the result of rebound which is instant recovery from carnality. The filling of the Spirit can only be hindered by carnality. Rebound means instant recovery. So you can lose the filling of the Spirit through sin but you can recover it instantly. Reason: Because our sins were judged on the cross. The next factor is a matter of the balance of residency in the soul. We start out with minus doctrine and therefore are incapable of producing divine good. This minus becomes a plus through the daily function of GAP. When it becomes a maximum plus it will be maximum production of divine good which is simply a result of being a super-grace believer. The balance of residency and/or experiential sanctification is the normal super-grace life and it is the place for the production of divine good. When the royal priest has constructed his altar he then becomes a producer of divine good. The construction of the altar is synonymous with the super-grace life. There are four sources of divine good. a) The filling of the Holy Spirit is a source. Of course, it must be related to some doctrine in the soul. When God the Holy Spirit controls the soul and there is any doctrine also resident then there can be, and there is, an expression of this in the production of some divine good. b) The doctrine resident in the soul is a source. The consistent function of GAP increases the amount of doctrine in the soul. Doctrine in the soul displaces evil and the Satanic policies and principles and therefore it also becomes a source. c) The super-grace status is the point at which you have the dynamics of divine good. The super-grace believer in fellowship can only produce divine good. The super-grace believer out of fellowship may not produce much but he is not in the area of human good either. d) Ultra-super-grace status which adds one more ingredient to the filling of the Spirit, maximum doctrine in the soul, and that is continual adversity — the ultra-super-grace status where every function in life is the production of divine good in the midst of maximum pressure, opposition, and suffering. 4. The believer in time was designed to produce divine good. This is a part of God’s plan for the life of every believer. Ephesians 2:10. The only production that counts is production which is based upon something in the soul that is there as a result of grace. There are two things in the soul as a result of grace: a) The filling of the Spirit; b) The accumulation of Bible doctrine. These two, accumulate to a balance of residency resulting in the super-grace status. The super-grace believer when not carnal always produces divine good. 5. Therefore the production of divine good is related to living grace. Living grace is everything that God has done to keep us alive. The production of divine good is really related to your progress in the spiritual life, i.e. the intake of doctrine. 2 Corinthians 9:8 — it is all grace. 6. Therefore the production of divine good must be related to the function of GAP — Titus 2:7, “Showing yourself to be an example in the production of good deeds [divine good] by soundness of doctrine.” Colossians 1:9,10. 7. Therefore the production of divine good is related to super-grace status — 2 Timothy 3:16,17, “ … having been equipped for the production of divine good.” 8. The production of divine good, therefore, is an issue in the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21. 9. Therefore the production of divine good is related to surpassing grace status — 2 Corinthians 5:10. 10. The production of divine good is related to the believer’s honour — 2 Timothy 2:21. Verse 22 — Principle: 1. No pastor can lead to an objective which he has not attained himself. 2. No pastor can lead his congregation to super-grace when he has not reached super-grace himself. 3. The congregation under the ministry of the pastor cannot exceed the growth of the pastor. 4. The pastor must reach super-grace to lead his congregation to super-grace. 5. The only difference is that the pastor reaches super-grace by his own personal study, in contrast to the congregation who reach super-grace through the teaching of the right pastor. 6. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is the exception to reaching super-grace through academic discipline of the local church. 7. The pastor can reach super-grace through his own personal self-discipline of intensive and consistent study of the Word of God. 8. The possession of the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher makes the communicator of doctrine the exception. 9. Timothy recovered from super-grace through personal study. 10. But his congregation at Ephesus can only recover through Timothy’s teaching. He must inculcate them through doctrine. 11. The assembly of the local congregation must be under principles of strict academic discipline for the achievement of this objective. Verse 22 is addressed only to young pastors. “Flee youthful lusts” is not addressed to the congregation in general. The word “flee” is the present active imperative of feugw. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or what is reasonably expected to occur in a young minister. The active voice: the young pastor must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command. It can be translated one of two ways: “Be escaping from” or “Flee from.” “youthful lusts” begins with a post positive or enclitic conjunctive particle de used as a transitional conjunction, and it should be translated “now.” Plus the accusative plural definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun and translated “those.” Plus the accusative plural from the adjective newtrikaj. It is translated correctly “youthful” if it is understood that it means those who are at the beginning of the ministry, who are young, who have grand ideas about what they are going to do and how much better they are going to be than anyone before them! The word “lusts” is the accusative plural of e)piqumia. In other passages it means approbation lust, power lust, monetary lust, sexual lust, popularity lust. These are occupational hazards for believers, period. Here some of these are pertinent for a youthful pastor. The primary youthful lust is probably the one we would never pick — pride or arrogance. Note 1. Arrogance leads to the abuse of power and authority vested in the pastor-teacher. 2. The pastor is given authority from God and he is given power through Bible teaching, and he must not abuse his authority and power. 3. Connected with this arrogance is popularity lust which keeps the pastor from honesty and integrity in the accurate teaching of the Word. 4. Popularity lust linked with approbation lust also makes the pastor overly ambitious for renown and fame. 5. Most young men entering the ministry want to start at the top instead of using that dogged day-by-day plugging which is necessary for the mastery of the Word and its presentation from the pulpit. Related to this is another trap: monetary lust. Pastors are often out to make money rather than to teach the Word. “Be escaping from those lusts of immaturity.” “Youthful” means immature. “but follow” — the enclitic adversative conjunctive particle de to set up a contrast between what to avoid and what to pursue; “follow” means to pursue, the present active imperative of diwkw. The customary present denotes what is reasonably expected of a young pastor who has his head screwed on straight! He is expected to plug away at study, and communicate as he is able. The active voice: the young pastor produces the action. The imperative mood is a command to all pastors but this is especially true in getting started. “righteousness” — accusative singular direct object from dikaiosunh which means righteousness in the sense of fulfilling a divine principle. The divine principle is to study. A pastor-teacher is a professional student, he studies all the time. “Be pursuing righteousness” means two things: constant study and eventual growth. “faith” — the accusative singular of pistij, doctrine resident in the soul. His study is going to produce doctrine in the soul. This will start the balance of residency and lead to that pastor reaching super-grace. “charity” — accusative singular of a)gaph and it means the filling of the Spirit, as per Romans 5:5 where love is said to be the filling of the Spirit producing love in the soul; or Galatians 5:22, “the fruit of the Spirit is a)gaph”; or 1 Corinthians 13, the manifestations of a)gaph. “peace” — accusative singular of e)irhnh, used here for prosperity. It refers to temporal prosperity which comes from a pastor having his paragraph SG2. “with all them that call on the Lord” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of the articular present middle participle e)pikalew, meaning not only to call upon God in prayer but it means to make an appeal for aid and also to make an appeal in court, to call on someone as a witness; but it is used here in a technical sense with kurioj for the believer pressing toward super-grace by his consistent function of GAP. So the preposition meta indicates that this is done in the presence of other believers. The congregation is calling upon the Lord as a witness. In other words, the Lord does the transferring of the doctrine and the congregation is gathered together to take it in. The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise positive believers. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting what has happened in the past and continues into the present time — function of GAP. The middle voice is an indirect middle emphasising the agent: the positive believer gathering with other positive believers in the assembly of the local church. The participle is circumstantial. “out of a pure heart” — e)k plus the ablative of kaqaroj for “pure” plus the noun kardia. It means you must be in fellowship to take in doctrine. Translation: “Now be escaping from those lusts of immaturity: but be pursuing righteousness [super-grace status], doctrine resident in the soul, love [the filling of the Spirit], prosperity [paragraph SG2], with those positive believers who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.” Summary of the responsibility of the pastor 1. To maintain discipline in the local church — verse 14. 2. To fulfil #1 priority in the ministry: study and teach — verse 15. 3. To avoid apostasy, reversionism and evil in the content of his message — verse 16 4. The first parenthetical principle: the reversionistic pastor is no believer’s right P-T — verses 17,18. 5. To constantly make an issue out of doctrine — verse 19. 6. The second parenthetical principle: the classification of the congregation — verse 20. 7. By faithfulness in teaching to produce from the congregation vessels of honour — verse 21. 8. By faithfulness in personal study to also become a vessel of honour — verse 22. 9. By keeping his priorities straight to avoid false issues — verse 23. Verse 23 — “But foolish and unlearned questions.” The post positive conjunctive particle de used for emphasis and contrast. With it is the accusative plural direct object from the adjective mwroj which means “foolish”, plus the accusative plural direct object from the noun zhthsij which means controversies. Together it is translated “But foolish and undisciplined controversies.” There is one more word that needs very special emphasis, a)paideutoj. It means to discipline children and it comes to mean discipline. The a is negative and therefore it means undisciplined. It is possible to get into subjects and things that are taught that are totally apart from self-discipline, they encourage people to go in the opposite direction. “But foolish and undisciplined controversies.” “avoid” — present middle imperative of paraiteomai which means to avoid or to excuse yourself. It means to deviate from demands made by the congregation. Sometimes congregations demand certain kinds of subjects they think a pastor ought to emphasise. In other words, the idea of trying to run the congregation from afar by dictating to the pastor what he should teach and what he shouldn’t teach. This is undisciplined controversy. “Undisciplined” comes from the fact that the pastor is his own dictator, he must regulate his own life. In self-discipline he must teach whatever the passage teaches and not teach something that will cater to people who have some kind of influence on him. To be avoiding these things means that he must stick with whatever the passage teaches. The passage is really saying to excuse yourself from this type of activity. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected from a pastor whose priorities are straight. He must therefore avoid anything which he does not understand himself and which does not line up with the Word of God. The direct middle voice refers the action of the verb to the agent with reflexive force. The imperative mood is a command or an order. There are other areas in which this

 has great meaning to the pastor.

 Summary 1. In addition to what has just been noted foolish and undisciplined controversies refer to those functions of life which involve improving the devil’s world. There are a lot of things where pastors are not studying the Word, where they begin to get either grief-stricken or have a guilt complex, or somehow they feel they ought to become “more involved.” They do so by “brotherly love” sermons, getting everyone to love everyone else, or bless the United Nations, etc. This is also what is meant by foolish and undisciplined controversies. “Foolish” has to do with the fact that they represent evil, they represent the Satanic viewpoint; “undisciplined” has to do with the fact that they have nothing to do with the pastor’s discipline which is the study of doctrine. 2. These are functions related to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan’s policy for ruling the world. The pastor who eats at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil falls into the category found in this verse. 3. When a pastor has his priorities straight — doctrine is first — he will stick to study-and-teach resulting in the production of vessels of honour in his own congregation, or those who are super-grace believers. 4. Only the super-grace believer is on the right side of history. 5. Only the super-grace believer can carry his generation as a spiritual Atlas. 6. Undisciplined controversies are those outside of the academic discipline of the local church. 7. Undisciplined controversies are those functions which advance the plan, the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. For example, when Fabian socialism is taught from the pulpit, as some pastors do, it is a fulfilment of this verse. 8. We are on this earth to adhere to grace, not to advance Satan’s policy of good and evil. “knowing” — perfect active participle of o)ida used as a present tense for an established scale of values and correct priorities. The life of every pastor, as we have seen from this context, is one where his priority must be doctrine. He must have understanding of doctrine through his personal study, he must regulate his life accordingly. He must study and teach. “that” is the conjunction o(ti used after verbs of perception. The pastor must understand what he is doing. “they do gender” — the present active indicative of gennaw means to give birth. When a pastor is pregnant with evil he is going to give birth to a lot of false ideas. The aoristic present is for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: the foolish and undisciplined controversies produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. “strifes” merely means that some members of the congregation will be straight on points of doctrine, they will hear human viewpoint which contradicts that point of doctrine — contradicting divine viewpoint — and immediately there is a battle in the congregation which is divided by what is taught when it is human viewpoint. Now congregations will always be divided by what is taught but the pastor should represent divine viewpoint so that the legalists will understand that they are on the wrong side of the fence. The word “strifes” is the accusative plural direct object from maxh which means “battle.” It is a reference to false or useless battles. Useless battles result in spiritual defeat instead of victory, and useless battles squander resources without accomplishing objectives. When a pastor is presenting human viewpoint there are those in the congregation who will spot it because they are ahead of the pastor in spiritual growth, they have correct understanding from some other source. Therefore when the pastor does this there is a problem. They cannot fight the authority of the pastor and as a result there will be somewhere in the congregation some expression of correct and incorrect viewpoint, and there is the battle. It is a useless conflict, it accomplishes no objective. The pastor squander his grace resources, he becomes involved in crusades for the improvement of the devil’s world. Translation: “But excuse yourself from foolish and undisciplined controversies, knowing that they give birth to useless battles.” Summary 1. The pastor’s top priority is Bible doctrine. 2. He must personally grow spiritually by his own personal study of the Word of God. No pastor can grow apart from personal study. He is the only one who can grow by personal study, it is connected with his spiritual gift. The congregation cannot grow by personal study, it can only grow by being under authority. 3. He must constantly and consistently teach his congregation so that they can follow the colours. But you can’t teach what you do not know and the content of the message is what is important. The content of the message must be what any given passage of scripture is teaching. What kind of person he is is not an issue and never has been. The important thing is how he thinks. You can’t think evil and ever succeed in anything. 4. The pastor receives growth through his own personal study. 5. The congregation receives growth from the pastor’s teaching — which includes discipline. The pastor must discipline himself, the congregation exercises self-discipline by listening, by ignoring distractions, and so on. In verses 24 and 25 we have: By dogged determination every pastor must become a consistent plugger, avoiding the pitfalls of the ministry. Since the issue is what you think he must avoid mental pitfalls such as pride. The thing that knocks out a pastor is what he thinks. When he stops thinking doctrine he is knocked out. Verse 24 — “And the servant of the Lord.” That is not what the Greek says. We have a post positive conjunctive particle de which should be translated “Now,” plus “the slave” [the pastor-teacher] — douloj. The pastor is the direct slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church who is seated at the right hand of the Father. The pastor-teacher is directly under Him as a slave, but a slave with maximum authority over the congregation. “must not strive” is a combination of two verbs. The first is the impersonal verb of compulsion, dei, and it is correctly translated “must” or “it is necessary.” This is compulsion of inner necessity growing out of slavery. The pastor is the Lord’s slave, the absolute ruler of the congregation. But he must not abuse this power. Plus the present middle infinitive of the verb maxomai which means to fight, to quarrel, to dispute. It should be translated “Now a slave of the Lord must not be belligerent.” This is not belligerent in the sense of aggressiveness, it is in the sense of being bellicose or contentious or pugnacious. In other words, he must not ever use the power that God has given him in any personal fight or antagonism or contention with someone in the congregation. His authority is not given to him so that he can beat down his enemies in the congregation. That would be an abuse of power. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected from the pastor-teacher whose job is to rule the congregation and to teach Bible doctrine. The middle voice is a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The pastor-teacher produces the action. This is the infinitive of the imperative and it is used as a prohibition. It prohibits the pastor from wearing a chip on his shoulder or being quarrelsome or antagonistic toward some individual in his congregation. It does not keep the pastor from exercising authority in dealing with those who are recalcitrant, those who are gossips or maligners, or in any way infringe upon the privacy and freedom of other members of the congregation. Nor does it have anything to do with troublemakers. A pastor is to wipe out the troublemakers, to devastate them, and this is a legitimate use of his power. But what this is saying in effect is that he has no right to use his power in any kind of a personal vendetta. “must not strive” is a combination of two verbs. The first is the impersonal verb of compulsion, dei, and it is correctly translated “must” or “it is necessary.” This is compulsion of inner necessity growing out of slavery. The pastor is the Lord’s slave, the absolute ruler of the congregation. But he must not abuse this power. Plus the present middle infinitive of the verb maxomai which means to fight, to quarrel, to dispute. It should be translated “Now a slave of the Lord must not be belligerent.” This is not belligerent in the sense of aggressiveness, it is in the sense of being bellicose or contentious or pugnacious. In other words, he must not ever use the power that God has given him in any personal fight or antagonism or contention with someone in the congregation. His authority is not given to him so that he can beat down his enemies in the congregation. That would be an abuse of power. The present tense is a customary present for what is reasonably expected from the pastor-teacher whose job is to rule the congregation and to teach Bible doctrine. The middle voice is a deponent verb, middle in form and active in meaning. The pastor-teacher produces the action. This is the infinitive of the imperative and it is used as a prohibition. It prohibits the pastor from wearing a chip on his shoulder or being quarrelsome or antagonistic toward some individual in his congregation. It does not keep the pastor from exercising authority in dealing with those who are recalcitrant, those who are gossips or maligners, or in any way infringe upon the privacy and freedom of other members of the congregation. Nor does it have anything to do with troublemakers. A pastor is to wipe out the troublemakers, to devastate them, and this is a legitimate use of his power. But what this is saying in effect is that he has no right to use his power in any kind of a personal vendetta. Belligerency toward any member of the congregation removes the pastor’s objectivity in teaching. Therefore one of the pitfalls of the ministry is subjectivity with regard to a congregation. You cannot fight your congregation and teach them. “but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla, the strongest of adversative conjunctions, it sets up a contrast between subjectivity and the objectivity of a pastor in relation to his command or flock. “be” is a present active infinitive of e)imi. The static present represents a condition or a situation taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: the pastor-teacher as the Lord’s slave produces the action. The infinitive is an imperative infinitive. After the negative prohibition this is what the pastor is commanded to be — “but he must keep on being.” “gentle” — the accusative singular from the adjective h)poij. It means gracious in mental attitude, gracious to the point of not really being human, gracious where you do not react, where you are objective, where you stand up before there are no people that you love, no people you hate, no people you admire, no people you disdain; they are just sheep. In other words, when a pastor stands up and starts to preach he is not preaching to people he knows or people he likes or dislikes. He is not preaching to individuals, he is preaching to a congregation, he is communicating what the passage says, he is bringing the doctrine to their souls. He is not in any way dealing personally or individually with anyone of the congregation. This is an attitude. This is a predicate nominative but it is in the accusative case because it matches the accusative of general reference on the other side of the infinitive. That’s why we have a predicate nominative in the accusative. “But he must keep on being gracious.” This is not the ordinary word for gracious, this is the word for grace objectivity. So we might translate it: “but he must keep on having grace objectivity.” No pastor can teach the Word, cover what the passage says, and be angry and out to get someone in the congregation. “unto all” — the preposition proj plus the accusative of paj. Paj is in the accusative and proj plus the accusative, not always but frequently, means “face to face.” That is what it means here. Paj means “entire” here — “Face to face with the entire congregation.” That comes first. If his mental attitude is gracious objectivity then the next will follow. “apt to teach” is incorrect. This is the accusative singular from the adjective didaktikoj which means skilful in teaching. This adjective emphasises the primary function of the pastor, the only function of the pastor in the pulpit in which all others functions in his life must be totally subordinated to this principle. “patient” — no one can consistently teach the Word of God correctly without being patient. But it is a hidden kind of patience, the kind of patience where people don’t get something after you have worked on it. The pastor has to be patient in teaching. He has to be patient with himself. He has to get up and do it again, and do it again. This is not the ordinary word for patience, which would be u(pomonh, instead we have a long adjectives, a)necikakoj. It means persistence, but it means persistence in spite of evil. This is a compound adjective: a)nec is from the verb a)nexw which means to bear with or to endure; kakoj means evil. So it means to bear up under or to endure or to put up with evil. It means to bear evil without resentment, to be patient when wronged. It is much more than that though. No pastor is going to teach doctrine without getting opposition from the whole realm of Satanic opposition or evil. So in effect opposition to doctrine from Satan’s plan and policy — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil again — should not obstruct, prevent, impede or retard the dogged perseverance in plugging, in persistence in daily study, research, analysis of doctrine, daily reconnaissance of the Word. In other words, a pastor should never let what anyone thinks deter him. Translation: “Now the slave of the Lord [pastor-teacher] must not be belligerent [bellicose, pugnacious, contentious], but he must keep on being gracious [in his mental attitude] face to face with the entire congregation, skilful in teaching, persevering in spite of evil.” Summary 1. The opposition of evil places the pastor in many discouraging situations. 2. The more doctrine he learns the greater becomes his perception of human folly and national failure. 3. The application of his doctrinal teaching is a constant warning which runs counter to national and collective policy in the devil’s world. 4. The cutback of the military establishment, the attack on free enterprise, the distortion of the legislative branch of government passing laws which destroy freedom in the name of common good; all of these things are opposition to doctrinal teaching, but the pastor must persevere in teaching the truth. 5. The arrogance of mediocre government violating human freedom, human privacy, human property, human lawful enterprise, is opposition to the teaching of the truth. But the pastor must persist. 6. Pastors must persist in spite of the apparent triumph of evil for the only hope of any generation is centred in the nucleus of super-grace believers, and super-grace believers cannot exist apart from Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Bible doctrine resident in the soul cannot exist apart from the faithfulness of the pastor-teacher in study-and-teach. Principles in connection with verse 25 1. In the previous the occupational hazard of the ministry was failure to keep plugging in the area of study-and-teach plus being sensitive to, in an abnormal way, and discouraged by the pressure from some in the congregation and the opinions of evil in the world in general. 2. In this verse another occupational hazard is presented. It deals with the subject of pride. 3. Blind arrogance is the greatest killer of pastors. 4. Many pastors have removed themselves from serving the Lord through their pride and arrogance. 5. Next to teaching the most frequent use of the pastor’s authority is directed toward discipline of recalcitrants in the congregation. 6. The reversionistic believer who disrupts a congregation must feel the sting of the pastor’s authority. The pastor has received from God maximum authority. 7. No pastor can handle this authority if he is under the influence of pride or arrogance. Pastoral pomposity destroys the proper and necessary use of his authority in the protection of his congregation. Verse 25 — “In meekness” is the preposition e)n plus the locative of the noun prauthj which means humility, meekness, but really connoting here the concept of grace orientation which is humility and meekness in the true biblical sense. Self-effacement and false humility is merely a disguise for pride, but true meekness is grace orientation. The best translation here is “In grace orientation.” That is freedom from pride. No pastor can use his authority to discipline others if he is suffering from pride or arrogance. But then no believer can function with arrogance or pride. The doctrine of pride 1. Pride is the basic mental attitude of sin. It is the quality or state of self-esteem in conceit. It is a lofty self-respect, it is having an opinion of yourself that is totally divorced from the reality of Bible doctrine. Pride is high-esteem of one’s self for some real or imagined superiority. Vanity is empty pride in respect of one’s person, attainments, possession, coupled with an excessive desire for notice, attention, approval or praise from others. There are many synonyms, including conceit, egotism, haughtiness, vanity, arrogance, pomposity, vainglory, superciliousness, and when carried into psychosis, megalomania. The big danger in pride comes from the fact that it is never alone, it is never isolated. It is a no-pressure type of sin that always has a counterpart, and the counterpart is just as much connected with pride. For example, arrogance and cowardice are merely two sides of the same coin. Pride is no pressure. But you put pressure on pride and it submerges and hides, and up comes its counterpart which in this case is cowardice. Then, as soon as the pressure is off cowardice it disappears and again pride comes into view. 2. Pride was both the original sin of Satan and the motivator of his fall — Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14-17. 3. Pride also became a human sin. Categorically pride is the basic mental attitude sin. It becomes the counterpart to other mental sins such as jealousy and weaknesses of the soul such as cowardice. All arrogant people are totally different when under pressure, the pressure acts as a sensitivity point hiding the pride and bringing out the counterparts. Counterparts fall into several categories: mental attitudes sins such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, anger, antagonism. Or the counterpart can be verbal sins such as gossip, maligning, judging. Overt sins such as operation vengeance or put-down. The pastor, being a human being, is just as vulnerable to pride as anyone in the congregation — noted in 1 Timothy 3:6; 6:4. 4. Pride relates to personal reversionism — Psalm 10:2-4; Proverbs 16:18 — literally, “Pride precedes destruction, and before a fall is arrogance of spirit.” 5. Pride is related to national reversionism — Leviticus 26:19; 2 Chronicles 32:26; Isaiah 9:9. National pride is related to the fall of the Arab nation of Moab — Isaiah 16:6 — and is related to the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom — Isaiah 28:1-3; Hosea 7:10-14; the southern kingdom — Ezekiel 7:10. 6. Pride in relationship to God — 1 Samuel 2:3. Pride rejects the concept that Jesus Christ controls history — Daniel 4:37. The principle of pride is related to the Lord Jesus Christ who very strongly condemned pride in Matthew 19:27-20:34. 7. Positive volition toward doctrine insulates the soul from pride. A pastor must study and by his personal study he not only prepares to teach the congregation but he protects himself from the great danger of pride. In the famous speech of Elihu in Job 33:16, 17. This is emphasised again in Proverbs 8:13; 11:2. 8. Pride and psychology. a) Flaws are divided into two categories, real flaws or failures of character and pseudo flaws in which a person’s flare is mistaken for arrogance. b) A hang-up is an obstacle in the normal function of life related to pride or arrogance. c) A hang-up results in becoming snagged in some form of subjectivity or abnormality. All hang-ups are related to and manifestations of pride. d) Hang-ups are another counterpart to pride. If pride or arrogance is under pressure then hang-ups or real flaws appear in the life. e) There are two kinds of hang-ups as a counterpart to pride: i) Blind hang-ups from blind arrogance; ii) Known hang-ups from known arrogance. f) The symptoms of these hang-ups are called in psychology “syndromes.” Syndromes are symptoms which are typical of a condition. g) The condition is pride or arrogance; the syndromes are the counterpart of pride or manifestations of pressure on pride. h) Hang-ups are a hindrance to learning Bible doctrine just as hang-ups are a hindrance to teaching Bible doctrine. i) Pride rejects the authority of the Bible teacher. Pride refuses to attend Bible class or church services of one’s right pastor, or to continue listening to tapes, or failure to remain under the ministry of the right pastor. j) However there are certain occasions where the proud attend Bible class or church services. Usually the message puts them under pressure so that pride is submerged and up comes the hang-ups or the syndromes. These hang-ups result in resisting doctrine. This resistance may be any one of a number of syndromes — the legalistic syndrome, the guilt syndrome, the emotional syndrome, the cowardice syndrome, the inadequacy syndrome, the liberal syndrome, etc. 9. Pride and the laws of divine establishment — Matthew 24:12. “instructing” is a present active participle from paideuw which is not what it appears to be on the surface. It really means spank the little brats whether they need it or not at least once a week. It means “discipline children.” But sometimes it simply means to discipline. It means the practice of discipline, correction by discipline. So, “In grace orientation exercise disciplinary action.” The present tense is an iterative present, it is used to describe what recurs at successive intervals. The iterative present tense says that this will occasionally occur, not all the time. You only exercise disciplinary action when necessary, and it shouldn’t be necessary too often. The iterative present means on occasion. It is necessary to subordinate everything to the teaching of Bible doctrine. There must be order in the assembly teaching of the Word during worship, in the inculcation of doctrine, the instruction of the royal family of God, and the edification of the positive believer demand order, self-discipline, and respect for authority. The participle is circumstantial and because of the iterative present hopefully it is infrequent. “those that oppose themselves” is not a correct translation. This is the articular present middle participle from the compound a)ntidiatiqhmi [a)nti = against; diatiqhmi = a verb to ordain, to decree, or to issue a decree] which means to resist or to be against the decree or the plan of God — “to those who are in opposition to doctrinal teaching” is the best translation of this participle. The definite article is in the accusative plural and it is used as a demonstrative pronoun emphasising the opposition of reversionistic believers to Bible teaching. Reversionistic believers are under the influence of evil. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting something begun in the past and continuing into the present time. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the agent, the reversionistic believer, produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “if God” is incorrect. The word “if” includes a negative mh plus the enclitic particle pote used as a conjunction. It should be translated “so that perhaps.” Plus o( qeoj, “the God.” “peradventure will give them” includes the aorist active optative of didomi which means to give. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the occurrence of reversion recovery and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into one entirety. The active voice: God in His grace provides time, the right pastor, the right local church, and all of the temporal provision necessary to recover — food, shelter, transportation. The optative mood is the mood of strong contingency, strong possibility. This is called a voluntative optative mood which expresses the wish of the writer that all reversionistic believers would recover. With the conjunction mh pote this becomes a desirable possibility. There is also in this phrase the dative plural of the intensive pronoun a)utoj. It is used as an indirect object and the intensive pronoun emphasises the identity of the reversionistic believer. “repentance” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun metanoia [noia = thinking; meta = change]. Repentance is simply the old English way of saying a change of mind. Here the change of mind is toward Bible doctrine. The absence of the definite article in front of repentance calls attention to the quality of the noun. This noun is the key to reversion recovery. There must be a change of mind about the importance of doctrine. “to the acknowledging of the truth” — “to the acknowledging” is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of e)pignwsij which means maximum doctrine, full knowledge, doctrine resident in the right lobe. Plus “of the truth,” i.e. Bible doctrine. Translation: “In grace orientation [freedom from pride and arrogance] exercising disciplinary action toward those who are in opposition to doctrinal teaching; so that perhaps the God may give them a change of mind for the purpose of achieving full knowledge of the truth [doctrine].” Verse 26 — “And that they may recover.” This is a transitional use of the conjunction kai, plus the aorist active subjunctive of a)nanhfw which means that they should come to their senses. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety and emphasises the existing results — the existing results of coming to one’s sense. The active voice: the awakened reversionistic believer formerly under the influence of evil has now sobered up and is now taking in Bible doctrine. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference, becoming aware of reversionism through discipline and by realising that something must be done and doing it — the daily function of GAP. “out of the snare of the devil” — e)k is the preposition, plus the ablative of pagij which means a trap — “and be delivered from the devil’s trap. The devil’s trap is reversionism and evil, the two sides of the coin called apostasy. “who are taken captive” refers to believers getting into reversionism. This is a perfect passive participle from zwgrew which means to be captured in a battle. The battle is the angelic conflict and the capture takes place when the believer goes into reversionism. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it is used for a completed action of reversionism with the result that the believer is now completely in the Satanic trap of evil. He is feeding regularly from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives the action of the verb, he is captured by evil — the Satanic viewpoint and policy of life. The participle is circumstantial for a believer who has neglected Bible doctrine. “by him” is the preposition u(po plus the ablative from the intensive pronoun a)utoj referring to Satan, emphasising Satan — under his authority. The ablative of means is used here and that is unusual. The ablative is not the regular Greek case for expressing means but it is used when the expression of means is accompanied by an implication of origin or source. The origin or the source is mentioned by the word a)utoj — “by him.” “at his will” — i.e. at Satan’s will, e)ij plus the accusative of qelhma which means will, plan, or purpose. We also have a possessive genitive from the remote demonstrative pronoun e)keinoj, emphasising that Satan is behind the scenes. he is not going to make contact directly, he has all kinds of unusual personalities to handle that job for him. Corrected translation here: “having been held captive by him with reference to his plan.” Translation: “And that they should come to their senses and be delivered from the devil’s trap, having been held captive by him with reference to his plan.” There can be no great emphasis on the importance of teaching doctrine when there is a negative approach and when evil is in the soul. So God has to discipline, discipline, discipline, and wake up the individual. Summary of the 11 responsibilities of the pastor in this paragraph: 14-26 1. To maintain discipline in the local church — verse 14. 2. To fulfil the #1 priority of the ministry: study and teach — verse 15. 3. To avoid apostasy, reversionism and evil in the content of the message — verse 16. 4. The first parenthetical principle: The reversionistic pastor is no believer’s right pastor — verses 17,18. 5. To constantly make an issue out of doctrine — verse 19. 6. The second parenthetical principle: The classification of the congregation — verse 20. 7. By faithfulness and teaching to produce from the congregation vessels of honour — verse 21. 8. By faithfulness in personal to also become a vessel of honour — verse 22. 9. By keeping his priorities straight the pastor avoids false issues — verse 23. 10. By dogged determination the pastor must become a consistent plugger, avoiding the pitfalls of the ministry — verses 24,25. 11. Therefore to provide a teaching ministry for recovery from Satan’s trap of reversionism and evil — verse 26.

Chapter 3 The doctrine of the devil’s seven 1. The person of the devil. He is the highest of all angelic creatures, the ruler of all fallen angels. He is the greatest creature genius who ever lived. Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18. He is a pre historical super creature — Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11ff. The devil will have had three falls by the end of history — Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Revelation 12 and 20. The devil is the central antagonist in the angelic conflict — Genesis 6; Hebrews 1&2; 1 Peter 3:18; Jude 22. He has an organisation which has organised some of the greatest traps for the wrong side of history. His table of organisation is well declared in Ephesians 6:10-12. The devil is the original murderer — John 8:44; he is the opponent of Bible doctrine — Matthew 13:9; he is the enemy of the church, the royal family of God — Revelation 2:9,13,24. 2. The fact that the devil is the ruler of this world is well attested. The ruler of the world is so declared in Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31;14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. 3. Therefore the devil has strategy regarding the nations of the world and a part of this strategy is to put the entire human race on the wrong side of history. Therefore it is imperative that we study the wrong side of history to make sure as believers we never step over that line and get on the wrong side of history. 4. Therefore the devil has strategy regarding the unbelievers of the world. His strategy runs the gamut from blinding the minds of the unbeliever exposed to the gospel through every form of unbeliever reversionism — 2 Peter 2 is an entire dissertation on unbeliever reversionism. References to the devil’s strategy regarding the unbeliever are found in such passages as Luke 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:7,1o; Colossians 2:8; Revelation 17. In many cases religion is the devil’s ace trump. 5. Therefore the devil has a strategy with regard to believers, the royal family of God — 2 Corinthians 2:11. This strategy includes a number of things: a) To accuse the believer in heaven — Job 1; Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10; 1 John 2:1,2. b) To sponsor reversionism in all of its forms and therefore to get the believer on the wrong side of history — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15. c) To frustrate the will of God. The mental will of God is frustrated by Satan — Ephesians 4:14. Satan has offered today the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and more people are eating at that tree today than ever before in our history. The geographical will of God is frustrated — 1 Thessalonians 2:18. The operational will of God is frustrated — James 4:7,8. d) To neutralise doctrinal application and cause the individual believer to be filled with worry and anxiety leading to other mental attitude sins — 1 Peter 5:7-9. e) To destroy the believer’s focus, to get the believer to get his eyes on people — Jeremiah 17:5; eyes on self, self pity — 1 Kings 19:10; eyes on things — Hebrews 13:5,6. f) To get the believer to become involved in improving the devil’s world. The reversionistic believer becomes humanistic, occupied with temporal solutions to man’s problems, advocating systems to improve man’s environment , and therefore socialism, social action, social gospel become a part of that factor. g) The inculcation of fear regarding physical death — Hebrews 2:14,15. h) Getting believers into a trap called evil — 2 Timothy 2:25,26. 6. Religion is a part of the devil’s strategy, it was created by Satan to counterfeit the plan of God. As a result: a) There is a counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 4. b) Counterfeit ministers in 2 Corinthians 11. c) Counterfeit doctrine in 2 Timothy 4:1. d) Counterfeit communion table in 2 Corinthians 10:19-21. e) Counterfeit spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3. f) Counterfeit righteousness in Matthew 19. g) Counterfeit modus vivendi in Matthew 23. h) Counterfeit power and dynamics in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10. i) Counterfeit gods in 2 Timothy 2:3,4. 7. False teachers are a part of the devil’s strategy and a big part in the devil’s trap. False teachers have a phony and hypocritical facade — Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18. False teachers use human public relations and systems of public relations in legalistic flirtation to court believers — Galatians 4:17,18; 2 Timothy 3:5-7. False teachers appeal to human ego and human pride — 2 Corinthians 10:12. False teachers promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table — Habakkuk 2:18,19. False teachers promote legalism and self-righteousness — 1 Timothy 1:7,8. False teachers continue throughout the period of human history — 1 John 4:1. 8. The devil’s policy is evil. There are three areas: a) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the general doctrine of evil; the application of evil in the principle of human good. The doctrine of historical interpretation 1. Jesus Christ controls history in three ways: a) direct control through His divine essence. b) through indirect control through the laws of divine establishment. c) permissive control, permitting human volition to function in this phase of the angelic conflict, permitting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to continue throughout history until the last Gog revolution. 2. The Bible is the key to historical interpretation. a) Historical interpretation related to God, the unseen world of angels, the visible world of mankind. The Bible is the only book that clearly defines both the seen and the unseen issues of history. b) Bible doctrine is the basis, therefore, for correct interpretation of history. c) True history is a series of facts about the human race. d) To correlate and interpret these facts demands Bible doctrine resident in the soul, and therefore the daily function of GAP. e) This limits the unbeliever’s perspicacity in the field to the understanding of the laws of divine establishment and his ability to assimilate facts objectively. f) To correctly interpret history one must understand evil, reversionism, apostasy, and to be able to distinguish them from sin as well as distinguishing them from true Bible doctrine. g) To correctly interpret history one must understand the angelic conflict, the first advent, the cross, the second advent. h) To correctly interpret history one must understand the doctrine of dispensations. i) To correctly interpret history one must understand the Church Age and the royal family of God. j) While many historians recognise Rome as the centre of gravity in history they cannot relate it to the first advent of the beginning of the Church Age, and this in itself is where many historians stub their toe. k) The establishment student of history as an unbeliever can’t understand that while the Greeks made intellectual, political contributions to history their genius in literature, drama, history, philosophy is destroyed by their reversionism, and that the Greek had no vigour over any period of time because they were reversionistically degenerate. l) One of the greatest men of history was Alexander the Great. His intellect destroyed him because he couldn’t relate his genius to reality and he related it finally to the principles of evil, the Satanic policy of the ruler of this world. Therefore his human genius began to start one-worldism and that was the year in which he died. The Roman empire, then, is the central lake into which all the streams of ancient history flow and from which all the streams of modern history egress. Rome stands for government of law, government by establishment principles, and the importance of everyone using his freedom to exercise self-discipline as a citizen of a national entity. The Romans had respect for authority, respect for authority which resulted in stability. They had more from the laws of divine establishment than any group of people who have ever lived. It takes Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint to see what happened to the Romans and to see what has happened to our own country. The decline of Rome teaches many lessons which relate to our decline. Doctrine is the link that clarifies the parallels. So in modern history conservatives in the past have been landed aristocrats, peasantry, industrial and capitalistic hierarchies, and they have adhered very closely to the laws of divine establishment so that there have been flares of greatness in western European history. But all of these things are destroyed by various forms of evil. 3. There are partially correct interpretations of history. 4. The Bible sheds light on obscure historical events which result in interpretation of history. 5. Each generation of history is sustained by super-grace believers — 2 Timothy 1:5,6. 6. The principle of the wrong side of history — 2 Timothy 3. a) The description of the wrong side of history 2 Timothy 3:1-4. b) Opposition from the wrong side of history — 2 Timothy 3:5-12. c) Deliverance from the wrong side of history — 2 Timothy 3:13-17. Verses 1-4, the description of the wrong side of history. Verse 1 — Reversionism is related to being on the wrong side of history. To understand reversionism is to understand the modus vivendi of the wrong side of history. “This know also” includes the enclitic particle de used as a transitional conjunction meaning “Now.” Plus the present active imperative from the verb ginwskw which means to know, to learn, to understand, to comprehend, to have perspicacity. The present tense is a descriptive present, it describes the action in the process of through the function of GAP. It presents to the mind the events in the process of occurrence. In other words, there comes a period in your spiritual growth when you have to become an interpreter of history. If you don’t become an interpreter of history you are going to react against wrong historical trends and your reaction will lead you into reversionism. The active voice: the royal family must produce the action of the verb without which production you are going to wind up in reversionism. The imperative mood is a command from God. “Now be knowing.” Plus “also” which is the accusative neuter singular direct object from demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which should be translated “this” to place special emphasis on the importance of the interpreting contemporary history. Only the believer with doctrine in his soul can correctly interpret historical events, contemporary type. It is imperative that you can interpret history before history destroys you. “in the last days” — the preposition e)n plus the locative of the adjective e)sxatoj plus the noun h(mera which doesn’t always mean days. Sometimes it means a period of history, sometimes it means a second. The “day of Christ” is a second when the Rapture occurs. The “day of the Lord” is a thousand years or some portion of a thousand years. The days in Genesis one are literal 24-hour days. We have here the word “days” in the plural and it is correctly translated “in the last days.” It is a reference to one of two things: the last days of a dispensation or the last days of a nation. It describes both. This is what happened at the end of the Age of the Gentiles — the flood; then at the end of the Age of Israel — future, the Tribulation; then we have coming up sometime in the next event of eschatology the end of the Church Age and this would describe events at the end of that age. So it does refer to the end of an age or a dispensation but it also refers primarily in this passage to the end of a nation. This is what happens to all nations, these characteristics occur in all nations just before they disintegrate and disappear from the pages of history. he fall of every nation is accompanied by these characteristics. Every dispensation terminates with a great apostasy characterised by maximum reversionism and the influence of evil which is being on the wrong side of history. Every nation in the five cycles of discipline is also characterised by maximum reversionism, the influence of evil, with most people being on the wrong side of history. There is one thing that a believer can never afford and that is to be on the wrong side of history. Any time a disaster related to apostasy is about to occur in history it is defined by this phrase, “in the last days.” “perilous times” — the nominative masculine plural of the adjective xalepoj which means “difficult, hard,” or any word that denotes a total disintegration of life, of establishment, of law and order, and being totally helpless. The word for “times” is xairoj, the nominative masculine plural. It means time in the sense of a period, in the sense of a sphere of time, in the sense of a trend. It refers to a period of time in history characterised by maximum reversionism, the extensive influence of evil, and most people being on the wrong side of history. To be on the wrong side of history means to be totally disoriented to your own life and circumstances. Apostasy is a two-sided coin. One side is reversionism, the other side is the influence of evil. When a nation is being destroyed by the fifth cycle of discipline hard times set in. Hard times refers to the total influence of both evil and apostasy. One of the most influential things in hard times is religion. There is always a lot of religion and religion is always on the wrong side of history. Religion is of Satan himself, it is the devil’s ace trump, it is the most ingenious device that Satan has ever used to distract people from doctrine, from the gospel, and from God’s plan of grace. “shall come” is the future middle indicative from the compound word e)nisthmi, one of those very fascinating verbs that simply follows its compound [e)n = in; isthmi = to stand] hence, it means to stand in. But to stand in means to be imminent with the connotation of threatening. In other words, impending distress is the connotation. The future tense here is a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance which may be rightfully expected under conditions of apostasy — reversionism, the influence of evil, and maximum production of human good. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent: hard times as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. This is a declarative indicative mood for historical reality. Translation: “Now be knowing this, that in the last times [the end of a nation’s history] hard times [disaster from reversionism] will be imminent.” Principle 1. Here is the principle of people on the wrong side of history. This is the way in which they are introduced. They are on the wrong side of history, therefore they are caught up in the maelstrom of historical disaster. 2. Only the super-grace believer can carry his generation and only the super-grace believer is the dam that holds back the water of historical disaster. 3. There are five categories of super-grace blessing in paragraph SG2 which are essential to understand in their relationship to the individual and in their relationship to history. a) Category #1, spiritual blessings — occupation with Christ from maximum category #1 love, sharing the happiness of God and/or +H, capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for understanding and appreciating God’s plan, capacity for historical development as it occurs, and appreciation for the realities of historical success and historical failure in any past situation, the ability at the same time when you face anything in life whether it is blessing or disaster. b) The temporal blessings. Many of these go right on in spite of historical disaster. Wealth, success, promotion, advancement in any sphere of life, prosperity (social, sexual, professional. technical, mental, increased concentration and perspicacity within the soul, cultural prosperity, establishment prosperity — freedom, privacy, property, protection from crime and historical disaster, military prosperity, etc.) — leadership dynamics. Some of these things continue and for the ultra-super-grace believer they are intensified by suffering. c) Category #3 is blessing by association. The super-grace believer is on the right side of history. Being on the right side of history he has great category #3 blessing. This is blessing by association. The principle is obvious. Those in the periphery of the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer are blessed by their association or relationship. That means that two categories of blessing are involved: direct blessing from God because of association with a super-grace believer, and direct blessing from the super-grace believer himself. So the blessing can come from both or from one of two sources. d) Historical blessing of the super-grace believer. He is the spiritual Atlas who carries his own generation in history. In addition, the ultra-super-grace becomes the stabiliser for all historical generations. The super-grace believer is on the right side of history. As such he supports and sustains his generation in history. Except in rare cases of blessing by association blessing is not perpetuated from one generation to another, every generation must stand or fall on the basis of its own super-grace remnant according to the election of grace. In other words, how each generation goes depends on how many born-again believers are on the right side of history, or how many genius type unbelievers are also on the right side of history. The stages of reversionism 1. Stage one: Reaction. a) The presence of reactor factors in the life is the cause for the believer getting into this stage of reversionism. These reactor factors include discouragement, boredom, disillusion, inability to cope with loneliness, overcome by self-pity, frustration, and inability to interpret contemporary history. b) Reaction includes rejection of authority of your right pastor, personality hang-ups with members of the congregation or the pastor, hypersensitivity and pack of objectivity under rebuke or reprimand. c) It includes mental attitude sins such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, arrogance, guilt complex. d) It includes operation vengeance or seeking to build your happiness by putting someone else down. e) The reaction stage includes distractions which lure the believer from the routine of consistent perception of doctrine. Some of these are social/sexual distractions, sports, pleasures, entertainment, family, health, gossip, policy, historical distractions. f) Part of the reaction stage, but not quite as common, is drug addiction, mental illness, academic or mental incompetence (by taking drugs, being totally inebriated and unable to understand what is being taught) which distracts from consistency in learning Bible doctrine. g) For a believer with minimum doctrine resident in the soul reaction to the events of contemporary history puts him into reversionism, into the reaction stage. h) This reaction results in reversionism which places the one so involved on the wrong side of history. 2. Stage two: Frantic search for happiness. The function of the reactor factors in the life of the believer result in a frantic search for happiness. When a believer is reacting he is always looking for happiness — getting it where he can, how he can, as quickly as he can. The frantic search intensifies when there is a reaction to history. 3. Stage three: Operation boomerang. When you try to use some of these things for happiness they merely intensify the reaction. The search always misses and comes back. Frustration becomes intensified, etc. 4. Stage four: The emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion is the female part of the soul, it is designed to respond to the right lobe or the heart which is the male part of the soul. In effect, the emotion revolts against the heart [right lobe] and takes over. Emotion cannot think straight because emotion doesn’t think at all, it has no norms or standards, no capacity for life. Emotion, therefore, becomes the tool of the old sin nature and is disaster. This factor of emotion is always a part of reversionistic activity — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12. 5. Stage five: Negative volition toward doctrine. As a result of reactor factors the believer becomes confirmed in his negative volition toward doctrine. Such confirmation includes the following characteristics of negative volition: a) Indifference or apathy to Bible teaching from a pastor-teacher. b) Too busy for Bible teaching. c) Antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the pastor and his authority. d) Antagonism or personality conflicts with other members of the congregation. e) Failure to utilise grace provision for GAP, including the assembly at the local church, failure to rebound, lack of respect for authority, poor manners, lack of concentration, no poise, no objectivity. f) Inability to handle prosperity. g) Disorientation to the actors of living grace. Under living grace God keeps us alive in the devil’s world. He provides our food, shelter, clothing, transportation. Disorientation is failure to appreciate these factors. God provides a textbook (the Bible), a local church, right pastor, and negative volition rejects all of these so that there is a reaction resulting in failure to understand contemporary history, and getting on the wrong side of history. h) Active campaigning to discredit, to remove, to destroy the ministry of any pastor who teaches the Word. 6. Stage six: Blackout of the soul. This is where the soul is pumped full of Satanic propaganda called “evil.”This is where they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and while a believer cannot be demon possessed he is worse than demon possession when he is filled up with Satanic propaganda — Ephesians 4:17,18. 7. Stage seven: Scar tissue of the soul resulting from the blackout, the blinding stage, the hardness of soul whereby there is no way that any doctrine gets through, e.g. John 14:20. Scar tissue of the soul or hardness of heart rejects military preparation, de-emphasises national defense — Proverbs 21:29-31. Scar tissue is a state of revolt against the Lord — Nehemiah 9:16,17. 8. Stage eight: Reverse process reversionism. This is the antithesis of super-grace, the believer has his priorities exactly wrong. This is the believer on the wrong side of history. Verses 2-4, the characteristics of reversionism on the wrong side of history. Verse 2 — “For” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. It explains now how it is possible for any believer who fails to understand doctrine to handle historical events, to handle the unfolding of history as it occurs in his lifetime. “men” is the nominative plural from the noun a)nqrwpoj, a generic term for the human race in general, a reference to reversionists specifically in this passage. It can be reversionists in a national entity who are under the various cycles of divine discipline or it can be a reversionist at the end of any dispensation where there is always very strong and intensive apostasy. Whichever, it always refers to those members of the human race who are on the wrong side of history. No one ever survives as an individual being on the wrong side of history. It means a life of disaster, of misery, of failure to cope with life in general. It is your mental attitude that puts you on the wrong side of history. Those on the wrong side of history are reversionistic and their thinking is under the influence of evil. “shall be” — future active indicative of the verb e)imi. The future tense in the Koine Greek is primarily an indicative tense in which the element of time is very pronounced. To a great extent, however, it does not signify the character of a verbal idea but instead of presenting progress as the leading idea (as with the present and with the imperfect tense) it has the general significance of something indefinite. Once there is historical disaster those who are weak react. And the weak always are on the wrong side of history. History is cluttered with weak sisters. This is weakness of strength in the soul, not weakness of strength in terms of the body physical. The active voice: the reversionist under the influence of evil produces the action of the verb, he is a weak sister. Any time there is historical disaster he immediately reacts, gets on the wrong side of history, and for the rest of his life is out of step, under discipline and in trouble. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. This is an unqualified assertion of characteristics of those who are on the wrong side of history, and since this passage is addressed to believers it is the believers who are in mind in this particular concept. The characteristics of believers on the wrong side of history They are on the wrong side of history because they neglected Bible doctrine. By neglecting Bible doctrine they were unable to cope with history when any kind of historical tragedy, disaster, or difficulty came along. “lovers of their own selves” — a compound predicate adjective filautoj. The plural indicates there will be a lot of them and the characteristics of reversionism here emphasises the fact that one thing you count on is that a person who is so occupied with himself because of lack of doctrine is like a member of the human race suffering from lack of oxygen. Therefore he so centres in himself that he becomes weak, and any time any kind of disaster occurs in history he cannot cope with it. This is a characteristic of reversionism which emphasises blackout of the soul, hardness of heart, and reverse process reversionism. Being a lover of self is the sum total of reversionism, the antithesis of true love, it is capacity for pseudo love. If you love yourself you love anyone who caters to yourself, who is nice to yourself, and you dislike anyone who is contrary to that principle. Immediately you have set up a false set of standards with which you cannot cope with life. “covetous” is a predicate adjective from the compound adjective filarguroj [filoj = love; arguroj = silver or money] and it means “overs of money.” Now you would be some kind of a nut if you didn’t like money and if you didn’t realise that money has a lot of wonderful things with which you can do with it, and that money makes an excellent slave. But this is [filoj is that strong soul love] getting your priorities wrong, putting money above everything else. It should be recognised that the only thing wrong is the reversionism of the soul, there is nothing wrong with money. When money comes before doctrine, before any spiritual priority, then love of money is converted into a principle of evil — 1 Timothy 6:10. This means when a person will do something wrong for money he has “love of money.” It is when he will do something evil for money. “boasters” — predicate nominative masculine plural from the noun a)lazwn which refers to a person who in every breath is talking about himself. It is merely the verbalising of lover of self. A braggart, hot-air merchant. “proud” — this is really the villain. This is a predicate adjective but not the ordinary word for pride. This is u(perhfanoj [u(per = over and above; fainw = to appear] which means “arrogant ones, proud ones.” This is the vicious pride of the soul. “blasphemers” — the predicate nominative plural from the adjective blasfhmoj. It means slanderous ones. If all of the previous characteristics are true you are going to be a slanderer. Slander is one of the best ways to put someone else down. Slander is a verbal sin, it occurs when pride is under pressure from some type of rivalry. “disobedient to parents” is one of the greatest failures in a nation of weak people. Weak sisters are produced in homes. They are not born weak, they are produced by permissive parents. This is a very strong phrase — a)peiqej. The worst thing any kid can do is disobey any order, any command, any policy of a parent. The next worst thing is for the parent to let him get away with it. Why? Because that kid is weak and he will never be strong ever because he has violated the most basic principle in the world. It matters now how unfair an order or a policy is the worst thing in the world is for a child to disobey that. Implicit obedience is the order of the day. When they reject the authority of the parents they will reject every authority in life, and as adults they will be on the wrong side of history. Plus the dative plural of reference gogeuj. Cf. Ephesians 6:1-3. Summary 1. Under the laws of divine establishment the parents represent authority under divine institution #3. 2. Therefore parents are the original basic authority in life. 3. Parents are responsible to use their authority to train their children in both function and principle of life — both body and soul must be trained. 4. Consequently parents are not only responsible for such things as food, shelter, and clothing but they are responsible for their thinking, their mental attitude, their norms, their poise, their manners, their self-discipline, their respect for authority, and their respect for the privacy, the rights of other children and other people. 5. All children are born ignorant of these basic principles of life. Therefore they must be trained, disciplined, punished until they have been inculcated in the fundamentals of life. 6. Children have to be trained and instructed in respect of freedom, privacy, property, rights of others. 7. Children should be taught love of country, patriotism, respect for law and law enforcement, appreciation for the military, understanding of government, predilection for free enterprise. 8. They must be taught objectivity toward leadership and authority, discerning between the person and the principle. 9. Add to this the fact that all Christian parents have a responsibility in evangelisation and doctrinal communication under the principles of Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 7:9. 10. As children become oriented to the principle of GAP and the local church as a classroom they must be taught to recognise the authority of their pastor, as per Hebrews 13:7, 17. Opposition from the wrong side of history, verses 5-12. This opposition comes from apostles or evangelists of evil, verses 5-7. Verse 5 — “Having a form of godliness” is the present active participle of e)xw, meaning to have and to hold. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. In ever generation there are apostles or evangelists of evil and they are Satan’s most effective representatives in the human race. The active voice: the evangelists/apostles of evil produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the noun morfwsij. The word has several related meanings — a mould, an external appearance or outward form. Plus the descriptive genitive singular from the noun e)usebeia which has been abused in translation. It is a synonym for super-grace or advanced spiritual growth. “Holding to an external form of godliness” would be a good translation. Godliness 1. E)usebeia, and a word very close to it, qeosebaeia, meant originally “duty toward God.” It was used by the Greeks in relationship to the gods of Mount Olympus but it has, of course, an entirely different connotation in the Word of God. It means really duty toward God and it comes to denote a very technical principle to us, the balance of residency which characterises experiential sanctification. Godliness is that balance of residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine, it is called experiential sanctification/super-grace status when it relates to the spiritual growth concept. 2. The establishment of human authority is necessary for the function of godliness, according to 1 Timothy 2:2. There must be historically certain circumstances whereby positive volition can express itself in the daily function of GAP. because of the establishment of human authority there is freedom and because there is freedom the believer under the ministry of the Holy Spirit can assemble himself in a local church under the ministry of the pastor-teacher and grow up. 3. Godlines is related to knowledge of doctrine — Titus 1:1. E)pignwsij or a full knowledge of doctrine is related to the concept of godliness or super-grace. 4. Therefore godliness demands discipline — 1 Timothy 4:7. 5. Godliness is profitable both for time and eternity. Profitable for time: paragraph SG2; profitable for eternity: paragraph SG3. 1 Timothy 4:8. 6. The basis for godliness is the strategical victory of Jesus Christ at the first advent — 1 Timothy 3:16. 7. Godliness is distorted by reversionists under the influence of evil — 1 Timothy 6:3,5; 2 Timothy 3:5. 8. The great gain of true godliness — 1 Timothy 6:6. 9. Godliness is attained under the principle of living grace — 2 Peter 1:3. 10. Godliness is declared to be a Christian virtue — 2 Peter 1:6,7; 3:11. “Holding to an external form of godliness.” Principle 1. Here is Satan’s pseudo super-grace or Satan’s attempt to distort godliness by reversionism and evil. It is the means by which those under Satanic command are able to succeed in the evangelism to evil. 2. Satan has a pseudo paragraph SG2 in which he emphasises temporal blessing — rewards, power and influence for those who serve him and carry out his policy of evil. 3. To communicates Satan’s plan, his policy, his rewards the devil must have a few apostles and numerous evangelists of evil who are either reversionistic believers or reversionistic unbelievers. 4. To approach the believer successfully they adhere to external forms of godliness in order to set up a rapport with positive believers. The truth about these people 1. They are first of all believers on the wrong side of history and they are snared by rapport with the evangelists of evil. The rapport is the external form of godliness, policy, morality, whatever it appears to be; but it is merely a hypocritical faced for doctrine of demons. 2. The evangelists of evil offer great rewards from the ruler of this world to any believer who will serve Satan by advancing the cause of good and evil — the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil is Satan’s genius and plan, and good is the application of that plan to experience. 3. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the Satanic plan. It includes the morality of operation fig leaves which was the first historical example of pseudo godliness. 4. The power of true godliness and/or super-grace is maximum Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer. 5. Satan’s system of evil and the application of the system in human good inevitably excludes, rejects and squeezes out the issue of Bible doctrine. “by denying” — the post positive enclitic particle de used as a conversative conjunction. It is used to emphasise the difference between Satan’s human good policy of evil and divine good from Bible doctrine resident in the believer’s soul. With it is the perfect middle participle of a)rneomai which means to renounce, to refuse, to deny, to repudiate, to disown, to disregard — “but having renounced or repudiated” is good here. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect indicating a finished action with existing results of reversionism under the influence of evil producing human good. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the agent, in this case the apostle or evangelist of evil, producing the action of the verb which is renouncing, repudiating Bible doctrine. The participle is circumstantial. “the power” is an accusative singular direct object from dunamij which always refers to someone’s inherent power, therefore it is a perfect description of doctrine resident in the soul of the super-grace believer. Our inner power comes from the balance of residency — the filling of the Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul. “thereof” — the genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The intensive pronoun is very strong in its emphasis of something important. Here it emphasises godliness or the balance of residency or super-grace. It should be translated this way: “But having disregarded the power of that same [experiential sanctification, super-grace].” “from such” — the adjunctive use of kai is translated “also.” Plus the accusative plural direct object of the verb from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. O(utoj emphasises the reversionist as the apostle of evil. We translate “also be turning yourselves away from these reversionistic evangelists of evil.” With this is the verb a)potrepw. This is the verb of separation which means to turn one’s self away from, to avoid. The customary present denotes what habitually occurs when a believer is positive toward doctrine and when he is in super-grace status. The direct middle refers to the results of the action directly to the agent. The agent is a positive believer and it refers, then, with reflexive force. So it is translated “and be turning yourself away.” This is the imperative mood of command. Translation: “Holding to an external form of godliness, but having disregarded [renounced, repudiated] the power [Bible doctrine] of that same godliness: also be turning yourselves away from these [reversionistic evangelists].” The doctrine of separation 1. The principle of separation — 2 Timothy 2:3,4. The principle of separation is simply pleasing our commanding officer. As members of the royal family of God we are often called soldiers of Jesus Christ. As soldiers we are in full time Christian service. Separation or lack of separation is based upon the content of the soul. What you think determines whether you are separated or not separated. a) In the analogy to military life being in the military represents the believer who is positive toward doctrine on a consistent basis. b) Civilian life is comparable to the negative believer in reversionism and under the influence of evil. c) The consistent self-discipline of the positive believer causes him to constantly regulate his life. Therefore the analogy to the military. He regulates his life so that he rebounds, maintains the filling of the Spirit, and makes constant decisions toward expositing himself to the Bible teaching of his right pastor. d) By following the colours to the high ground of super-grace the believer positive toward doctrine pleases his commanding officer, the Lord Jesus Christ. e) Note, therefore, the overall principle of separation which is in effect a positive attitude toward doctrine which results in having it straight in your right lobe — your thinking is straight, your priorities are straight — because maximum doctrine resides in your right lobe. 2. The definition of separation. a) Separation is the consistent function of self-discipline and positive volition in the daily intake of Bible doctrine. It results in clear thinking and having the right priorities. b) Separation, then, is the action or function of always choosing for the Lord and His policy rather than choosing for and associating with Satan and his policy. c) All true separation is based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul. d) The action of separation is based upon the thinking and the application of Bible doctrine to experience. 3. Therefore when the Bible speaks of separation in a basic sense it is always separation from reversionism. Not from unbelievers or not from believers but first of all from the principle of reversionism. If you are in reversionism as a believer you cannot separate from anything, you are a part of the Satanic crowd. But of you are a positive believer advancing generally you are separated by virtue of the application of doctrine resident in your soul. The basic issue in separation is not carnality, it is reversionism — 2 Timothy 3:5. What rejects Bible doctrine is where separation begins. 4. As an application of this principle of separation other believers become involved. a) Separation from certain types of carnal believers whose carnality will inevitably lead to reversionism. There are certain types of carnality which squeeze out doctrine and you must avoid them. b) Separation from reversionistic believers — 2 Thessalonians 3:6, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you separate from every believer who leads an undisciplined life and not according to the tradition [daily function of GAP] which you have received from us.” An undisciplined life is rejection of doctrine. Also 2 Thess. 3:14. c) Separation from religious reversionism — Hebrews 13:13, “outside the camp” means separation from denominationalism, from independent organisations that are not local churches and do not comply with the principles involved there. These become traditionally accepted and they are considered to be a part of the life of a nation, so you have to go “outside the camp.” d) Separation from emotional reversionism. This includes the holy rollers, the tongues crowd, emotional legalists, emotional do-gooders, etc. Romans 16:17,18. The problem of these emotional believers is found in their rejection of doctrine, as found in 2 Corinthians 6:11,12. Emotion dominates their soul as one of the stages of reversionism and because they have phased out doctrine. 5. There is also a principle of separation from unbelievers. The believer is in the world but not of the world. The believer is God’s ambassador to the world, the ambassador of Jesus Christ. Therefore the royal family of God in time lives with and among unbelievers. So obviously they were not separated from unbelievers. The principle of separation which applies is relatively simple. The royal family of God only separates from unbelievers where Bible doctrine is compromised or where conformity means reversionism. 2 Corinthians 6:14 applies primarily to marriage; Romans 12:2, separation is mental; 1 John 2:15-17, the world includes a lot of Satanic thought. You and I cannot follow this until we have doctrine. The world is any policy of Satan that is operative in history. Socialism, communism, social action, social gospel; these are the things of the world. 6. Therefore separation from religion is commanded — 2 Corinthians 6:15-17. 7. Consequently separation is also related to social life. a) Separation from the fast crowd — 1 Peter 4:3,4. There comes a time when the believer positive toward doctrine begins growing spiritually and his first application and function is to separate himself from the crowd which used to lead him in another direction. b) The separation from a superficial social life or the apostate fun crowd — Jeremiah 15:16,17. They emphasise the details of life, they stimulate mediocrity, they substitute short-term fun for long-term payments of misery. 8. Separation from violence and criminal activity — Proverbs 1:10-19. Verse 6 — “For of this sort” begins with the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gar, giving us now an explanation of these apostles of evil who lead astray those who are members of the royal family of God so that they are divorced from the source of their strength which is Bible doctrine. With it is the preposition e)k plus the ablative plural of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which calls special attention to the apostles/evangelists of evil and reversionism. “are they” — present active indicative of e)imi used to introduce some characteristics and some of the modus vivendi of these people. “which creep” is the present active participle of e)dunw. It is interesting that the word “creep” is used because it is generally associated with the snake, and it was the serpent who reached the first parent, the woman, with the Satanic principle that there is nothing wrong with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that God is merely afraid that if you actually partake of this tree you will be as smart as God is. When it says, “Out of these are they which creep,” we are talking about nice personalities, pleasant people, people who are great salesmen, and they are selling Satanic doctrine, i.e. evil. E)ndunw means to go into, to creep, to insinuate, to worm the way into. They know how to worm their way into the affections of those who are anti-doctrine. The present tense is a customary present for what may be expected from these apostles of reversionism or evangelists of evil. The active voice: the evangelists of evil produce the action of the verb, they are able to infiltrate areas where the Word of God is accepted, areas where the Word of God is even in the process of being learned, and they are successful in turning it all around. Remember that in the angelic conflict the soul is the battle ground for the angelic conflict. The participle is circumstantial. “into houses” is mentioned here because in the ancient world at the time of writing local churches did not meet in public buildings. They did not do so for the first three hundred years of the Church Age. They met in homes, outdoors, in caves in some cases when they were being persecuted. The primary place of meeting during those first 300 years was in homes. This is e)ij plus the accusative plural of the definite article which is used as an attributive intensive pronoun emphasising houses as meeting places for the local church. Plus the accusative plural of o)ikia, “house.” It is correctly translated, “into those same houses,” referring to the local church. Acts 5:42; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Philemon 2. There was no public building for the local assembly until the Roman Catholic church became a denomination. When a pastor-teacher fails to communicate doctrine or when a congregation fails to respond then the congregation becomes very weak. They become weak spiritually. They may increase in number but they are still weak spiritually. One of their problems may be money and therefore they go outside of biblical principles in order to raise money, etc. “and lead captive” — the connective use of kai plus the present active participle from the compound verb a)ixmalwtizw [a)ixmh = a spear. In the ancient world when the captives were about to be counted they all had to pass under a spear. The spears were crossed so that only one person at a time could pass under these spears to be counted. Passing under the spear became a word for becoming a captive. The verb in the compound, a(liskomai, means to capture]. The word simply comes to mean “and taking captive.” The present tense is a descriptive or pictorial present, it presents to the mind an action in the process of occurrence, but in this way it is an analogy because Satan eventually converts many believers who have rejected doctrine. The conversion is called taking captive here. The ones who actually do the capturing are the evangelists of evil. The active voice: the apostles of reversionism/evangelists of evil capture believers. The participle is circumstantial. “silly women” — the ones who are taken captive. The accusative plural direct object of gunaikarion [gunai = women; karion is a diminutive form meaning little]. When used in a derogative way it means “silly women.” This refers to a woman whose brain has shrunk to the size of a pea and whose emotion has expanded to the size of a large basketball. In other words, she’s all emotion and no sense. Consequently, being a responder she is in trouble. We have a phrase here called “silly women” which has to be explained and it doesn’t apply to women. It is used in a spiritual sense for anyone whose volition is not working clearly and properly on the basis of good judgment, good judgment being doctrine. In other words, you are potential silly woman if you neglect Bible doctrine. If you neglect Bible doctrine you are vulnerable. And to what are you vulnerable? You are vulnerable to any system of evil or human good or any of the Satanic policies. Therefore it becomes an excellent analogy. You become vulnerable to false doctrine. Vulnerability also results in failure to interpret contemporary history. A believer on the wrong side of history is miserable and disoriented. He is under divine discipline, therefore he has self-induced misery, divine discipline, and any favours he gets he gets from Satan. And Satan, when he gives you favours, you have to pay the piper. In other words, Satan isn’t passing out things free, he demands that you do certain things and you are vulnerable to that whole package as a believer unless you have Bible doctrine which protects all of us from becoming silly women. “Silly women,” therefore, are reversionistic believers who have gone through one or more of the stages of reversionism of which there are eight. They have passed the stage where mataiothj is opened and they now have evil resident in their souls which has displaced whatever doctrine they have learned. And with evil in the soul they suffer from blackout of the soul. A silly woman is simply a woman who has no judgment and is vulnerable to a lot of things in life that no woman should be vulnerable to. Consequently it is a perfect description for any believer who is negative toward doctrine. “laden with sins” — “laden” is a perfect passive participle from the verb swreuw which is taken from a noun soroj which means a heap, so it is really a verb form from the noun for heap. It means to heap up, to pile up. It eventually came to mean to be overwhelmed by, to be burdened with. “Having been overloaded with” is the corrected translation. This is an overload which is brought on by poor judgment. All of us are going to commit certain areas of sins. All of us have areas of weakness and we continue to have an old sin nature but there is such a thing as being overloaded with carnality. The overload comes when you neglect rebound, when your judgment is impaired, and you use your volition to get into massive areas of sin that add to the divine discipline of reversionism. The intensive perfect represents a completed action with existing results in life, i.e. the intensification of the misery. The overload of sins or saturated carnality results from the earlier stages of reversionism. The reaction stage of reversionism merely starts the ball rolling. From there everything intensifies. These sins with which the believer is overload and does not rebound become a burden and they overload the life so that the judgment is further impaired. Failure to rebound overloads the life with extensive divine discipline. The passive voice refers to the subject receiving the action of the verb. Then believer who neglects doctrine receives the action. The participle is a causal participle which is translated “because.” “sins” — the instrumental plural of means from the noun a(martia, referring to anything that comes from the old sin nature’s area of weakness. When you put together all of these things with reversionism the judgment of the individual is further clouded and obscured so that the individual involved has no ability to break out of this. “led away” — present passive participle of a)gw. It means that you feel that you feel that your volition is not involved, and it isn’t. They are carried away or led away — present tense, retroactive progressive. It denotes what has happened in the past and continues into the present. The passive voice: the silly women or reversionistic believers receive the action of the verb, they are led captive by evil. And they make their decisions compatible with evil once they have been evangelised in the field of evil. Evangelisation in the field of evil is reversionism. “with divers lusts” is an instrumental plural from the adjective poikiloj which means various kinds. The word simply indicates the fact that one man’s meat is another man’s poison, so Satan has various systems of evangelism. There are some systems of evil evangelism that wouldn’t work on some people but there are other systems that would. So Satan has in his bag of tricks something for everyone to lure them away from Bible doctrine. Then we have the instrumental plural of means from the noun e)piqumia which means lusts. Translation: “For out from these [apostles of apostasy] are they who worm their way into those same houses [local churches], and capture silly women [reversionistic believers, male and female], because having been overburdened with sins they are carried away prisoners [of reversionism] by various categories of lusts.” This adds up to the fact that any time historical disaster overtakes such a believer he is completely destroyed, a total casualty. Verse 7 — we get a further description of those silly women, the reversionists or those who are vulnerable to reversionism, false teaching. “Ever learning” is the adverb pantote and means “always.” This is an adverb of time. With it is a present active participle manqanw which doesn’t mean simply to learn, it means to learn from someone else. The retroactive progressive present denotes what was begun in the past and continues right into the present time. The active voice: the silly women or reversionists produce the action of the verb of always learning from someone else false doctrine. The circumstantial participle indicates that this is the way the silly women go. This is the way that you get on the wrong side of history. “and” — the conjunction kai is used here to connect two clauses. This one introduces a result which comes from the preceding verse. It is translated “and so.” “never able” — another adverb, mhdepote which means “not ever” or “never.” Plus the present active participle of dunamai which is the verb for ability. The present tense is a customary present for what may be expected from a believer in reversionism and/or the silly women of the previous passage. Then active voice: the silly women or reversionistic believers produce the action of the verb. This is circumstantial for reversionism. “to come” — the aorist active infinitive of e)rxomai is a very strong change of tense. E)rxomai in the aorist tense is in great contrast to the previous present tense. The constative aorist gathers the action of the verb into one entirety, it take the occurrence of reversionism and regardless of its duration gathers it up into a single whole. In that sphere of reversionism there is no learning of doctrine. The aorist tense gathers up the inability to understand anything from the Bible as long as you are in the sphere or the category of silly women. The infinitive is a perceived result assumed as a consequence of being in reversionism and evangelised by evil. “the knowledge” — the object of the preposition e)ij, it is in the accusative case, and the word is e)pignwsij and it means a lot more than simply “knowledge.” It means doctrine in the right lobe as a result of the function of GAP. It can be translated “full knowledge.” There is no definite article here. The absence of the definite article emphasises the high quality of e)pignwsij doctrine. In other words, there are stages by which doctrine is taken from the Bible and transferred to your soul. It has to be transferred to the intermediary who is the pastor-teacher. The congregation has to assemble to listen and concentrate to the teaching to get it as far as the left lobe for gnwsij. But gnwsij doctrine does not help, it is only another stage and it must be transferred to the right lobe as e)pignwsij, that is where it is usable. This is how believers get away from serving Satan, it is the only way they can. “of the truth” — descriptive genitive from a)lhqeia, used here for Bible doctrine. Translation: “Always learning [false doctrine and principles of evil from the apostles of apostasy], and so they are never able to come to a full knowledge of doctrine.” Whenever a person is on the right side of history he is in for a lot of opposition, so we have in verses 8 and 9 opposition to those who are on the right side of history. In these two verses and all of the way through this passage we are going to see two people who are on the right side of history and who are the greatest people of doctrine ever known. We have seen the principle of being a spiritual Atlas, holding up your generation. All super-grace believers who seize and hold the high ground, establish a command post and retain it, become a spiritual Atlas holding up their generation in history. As goes the super-grace believer so goes that generation in history. We would never know about Jannes and Jambres were it not for the fact that they were made famous by God the Holy Spirit for one reason: they were in opposition to Moses in one period of the life of Moses. When Moses went back to free the Jews as God’s agent he was under great opposition — operation from Satan himself, opposition from demons, and human opposition. God the Holy Spirit focuses attention at this point on the human opposition to the greatness of the ultra-super-grace believer. “Now as Jannes and Jambres” — we have a post positive conjunctive particle de used as a transitional conjunction and translated “Moreover.” There is also a Greek phrase o( tropon, two accusatives — the first, o(n, is the accusative singular of the relative pronoun o(j, and tropon is the accusative singular of the noun tropoj which means mode, manner, or way. So o(j plus tropoj means “in which manner.” O(j as a relative pronoun means “which” here. It can be translated “with reference to which manner” which is an idiom and comes to mean “in the same manner.” Jannes and Jambres are two demon possessed wise men of the Egyptian court. They were men of great genius IQ in many fields and when Moses faces them it is the greatest battle of brains in history. In Exodus 7:11 — “Then Pharaoh also called for his wisest of men, even the sorcerers.” They were also the chartumim which were not magicians but those who had extra-natural powers. They were so wise, they had gone into so many scientific fields that they had extra-natural powers. The also did “unusual things in their secret arts.” Verse 22 — “ .. did the same with their secret arts: and Pharaoh’s right lobe was hardened, and he did not listen to them [Moses and Aaron].” In the throne room of Pharaoh there are the representatives of God, Moses and Aaron, and Satan is their, demons are there, and two very wise men are there. Chartumim not only means sacred scribes but they were skilled in a special language. They were so far ahead of their day. Chartumim means to be able to write in the scientific shorthand that only a few people could use. They had a prophetic ability given by demons. They were priests and were considered also to have magical powers which weren’t magical power at all but demon power. Their names are given in 2 Timothy chapter three but they are not found anywhere else. The Latin ruler and writer, Pliny, lived from 23 to 79 AD. He mentioned these two men by name, so their names had been passed down all of the way to the time of the Roman empire. The reversionistic opposition against the great men of super-grace and Bible doctrine often comes in the form of religious activity. By religious activity is meant Satan’s great thrust in that field for Satan has devised a series of counterfeits that all come under the category known as religion. All opposition to super-grace has religious tendencies and trends within that opposition. Religion A. Definition. 1. Religion is Satan’s answer to spiritual growth and Satan’s counterfeit for the super-grace and ultra-super-grace life of blessing and reward. 2. Religion is a part of Satan’s plan, a part of his strategy, and actually the ace trump. 3. Religion is the worst thing that ever happened to mankind in history, it is a soul-destroyer. 4. Religion also epitomises Satan’s policy of evil. 5. Religion is not the same as Christianity. Muslimism or the World Council of Churches is religionism but Christianity is not a religion. In Christianity there is a grace relationship with God; religion has no relationship with God. 6. Therefore religion and regeneration are opposing forces in the angelic conflict, they are antithetical and mutually exclusive. 7. In religion man by man’s efforts seeks to gain the approbation of God through his works, power, talent, abilities. Hence, religion is always a form of reversionism under the influence of evil and always includes some system of legalism. 8. On the opposite side, in Christianity God seeks and finds man through the work of Christ, and from that time on it is strictly a matter of grace. 9. Christianity is a relationship with God through regeneration while religion is a relationship with Satan through reversionism. It is possible, therefore, for a born again believer to be religious as a reversionist. B. The essence of religion. 1. Religion has its own gospel — 2 Corinthians 11:3,4. It is a gospel system that converts to evil, the policy of Satan. 2. Religion has its own doctrine — 1 Timothy 4:1, “doctrines of demons.” Satan has a systematic concept of teaching by which his servants are inculcated with Satanic policies and inspired to perform Satanic activities. 3. Religion has a system of ministry — it has its own ministers. The ministers of religion are found in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. 4. The system of religion has its own communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:20,21, the system of idolatry. 5. There is a system of self-righteousness which is a part of religion — Matthew 19:16-28. 6. Religion has its own system of spirituality [pseudo spirituality] — Galatians 3:2,3. 7. Religion also has a pseudo super-grace system — Matthew 23:1-35. This pseudo system has its pseudo rewards directly from Satan. 8. The system of religion also has a very strong concept of human dynamics — always the better life, more or greater impact on humanity, etc. — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10. 9. Religion also has a variation of gods which are simply representations of the same person, the creature Satan — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4. “withstood Moses” — the religious part of the opposition did not come from their great genius but came from the extra-natural performance, the Satanic miracle. “so do these also” — the adverb o(utoj setting up a comparison from ancient history to modern. It shows that there is an exact parallel in every generation of modern history and that if you are going to be able to interpret contemporary history you should understand all historical interpretations of the past. Then we have kai, the conjunction, used in its adjunctive sense for “also,” plus the immediate demonstrative o(utoj which means a near reference and emphasises the apostles of apostasy. By “near” demonstrative is meant that there is in the immediate generation of the writer Paul some people just like Jannes and Jambres in the generation of Moses. There are exact duplicates in Paul’s generation with the implication that there are exact duplicates in all generations. Satan always has some very brilliant an unusually smart people who under demon influence or possession, or both, are phenomenal people with a dynamic impact in history. “So also these [evangelists of evil]” is probably a reference to Phygellus and Hermogenes of 2 Timothy 1:15. Moses had his Jannes and Jambres, Paul had his Phygellus and Hermogenes. The two greatest leaders in history were constantly and intensively opposed by reversionism and evil. Those on the wrong side of history always oppose those on the right side of history. The right side o history is composed of believers in super-grace, believers in ultra-super-grace. The wrong side of history with unbelievers and believers in reversionism. This is where you have such great dissension between believer and believer. Some of the worst people you will ever encounter are born again believers and they are the strongest opposers to ultra-super-grace or super-grace. “resist” — the present middle indicative from a)nqisthmi which means oppose, to reject. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past history and continues into the present history. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the agent, evangelists of evil (Satan’s super-grace types), and they produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. Every generation will have one or two super-grace believers who will be opposed by the most brilliant men of the age — unbelievers or believers — under Satanic policies of evil and demon influence. “the truth” — dative singular indirect object as well as dative of disadvantage a)lhqeia. It is to their disadvantage not to have truth or doctrine. Summary 1. There are four great men of superior genius in human history. 2. Two are believers; two are unbelievers. 3. Most men, or even women, of genius are totally divorced from reality and they do not influence history with the magnitude of their perspicacity. Genius without reality is total disorientation. 4. Great men of genius are diversified in their genius expression and superimpose their genius on history so that they influence not only their own generation but all generations thereafter. 5. Of the four greatest men of genius in history two are from the ancient world and two are in more recent history. None of them are contemporary. 6. The two unbelievers are Caesar and Napoleon. They were establishment oriented and saw the need of establishment in the human race. The two believers were Moses and Paul. 7. It is fitting that Moses and Paul being on the right side of history should have phenomenal Satanic opposition from those on the wrong side of history. And they did. 8. Satan himself, though the ruler of the world, is on the wrong side of history and he is a creature of super genius, the greatest ever created. 9. Satan’s apostles and evangelists are also on the wrong side of history. 10. Therefore they are intensely antagonistic toward anyone who is on the right side of history. 11. Therefore since all super-grace believers are on the right side of history those evangelists of evil are opposed to all super-grace believers. But their opposition intensifies and becomes round the clock opposition if a believer happens to be in ultra-super-grace — like Moses in the context, like Paul in the context. 12. Since Moses and Paul are the greatest super-grace/ultra-super-grace believers it is fitting their names should be in this historical dissertation. “men of corrupt minds” — the nominative plural of a)nqrwpoj, plus the perfect passive participle from the compound verb katafqeirw [kata = norm or standard; fqeirw = the verb for corruption or destroyed] which means “having been corrupted.” The perfect tense in the intensive perfect, it indicates the completed action of reversionism and the existing results of a totally brilliant and totally depraved mind. Satan picks only the most brilliant kinds of people for opposition to ultra-super-grace believers. The participle here is ascriptive used as an adjective. These men reject the truth, hence they are men of corrupted mentality — corrupted by evil. “reprobate concerning the faith” — peri plus the accusative of pistij [doctrine] is “with reference to doctrine” or “with regard to doctrine.” In other words, pistij can mean that which causes trust, or faith and therefore translated reliability of faithfulness. It also means in an active sense, believing, and therefore it is translated “faith.” But it also means that which is believed [passive use] or the body of faith and therefore doctrine. So this is translated “disqualified ones with regard to doctrine.” Translation: “Moreover in the same manner that Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these [reversionistic evangelists of evil on the wrong side of history] reject the truth [doctrine]: hence, they are men of corrupted mentality, disqualified ones from divine blessing with regard to that doctrine which they have rejected.” Principle 1. There is no excuse for the believer in Christ being on the wrong side of history. The word “reprobate” at the end of this verse [a)dokimoj] means disqualified. There is nothing worse than being smart in life and disqualifying the use of your brilliance, or having some talent and disqualifying your use of your talent. 2. Grace has provided everything necessary for the believer to be on the right side of history — saving grace, living grace, super-grace, ultra-super-grace, dying grace, and surpassing grace. 3. Grace is the plan of God. It represents His perfection and His genius. 4. In the previous chapter we noted the importance of self-discipline in regulating our lives to conform to grace. 5. This self-discipline requires innumerable decisions regarding Bible doctrine. 6. Constant positive volition toward doctrine plus self-discipline which regulates the life with regard to the inculcation of doctrine results in both victory and divine blessing of paragraph SG2. 7. Those who hold super-grace status until death, or ultra-super-grace status until death (or the Rapture), also possess the eternal blessings of paragraph SG3. 8. While every believer has a paragraph SG2 designed in eternity past the rejection of Bible doctrine disqualifies that believer from receiving the five categories of paragraph SG2. Verse 9 — “But they shall proceed no further.” These evangelists of evil are filled with self-importance. They have the concept that life cannot exist without them, they are bolstered up with Satanic power. Some of them have extra-natural powers delegated to them by Satan, others are cases of sheer genius under the influence of evil. They have some kind of an impact, they have become human celebrities, they have become famous in some way, and along with all of the flattery they are carried away with their own self-importance. It never occurs to them that Jesus Christ controls history and it never occurs to them that they will have no impact beyond their own day. It is because Jesus Christ controls history that their action only functions in their own generation and their influence disappears from history. We have the adversative conjunction a)lla here, it sets up a contrast between those on the right side of history and those on the wrong side of history. Believers on the right side of history not only have all of those tremendous blessings of paragraph SG2 but then when they get to ultra-super-grace theses are intensified. But believers on the wrong side of history have the exact antithesis, continuous and constant misery of all kinds, and they they’re cut off, they proceed no further. So we have a contrast between the initial progress of reversionism in opposing super-grace types and their inevitable defeat by the Lord Jesus Christ controlling history. We also have a future active indicative from the noun prokoptw [pro = before; koptw = to cut off], and with the negative o)uk it means to make no further progress, to advance no further. We might translate this, “But they will make no further progress.” The future tense is the progressive future, it denotes an idea of progress in future time. With the negative it means it is cut off. They make some splash in history but they disappear. The active voice: the evangelists of evil, the reversionists on the wrong side of history, produce the action of the verb, making no further progress. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. This is an historical reality that people who make a splash in their own generation not only disappear from history after their generation and make no further progress but in addition to that if they are unbelievers they have the lake of fire, if they are believers they have a miserable life before they burn out under the sin unto death. Also there is the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the accusative neuter singular of pleion. This is a comparative from poluj, meaning much or more, and put together in the neuter gender the prepositional phrase is used as an adverb and it is translated “further.” The principle 1. This is a reference to the evangelists of evil, reversionistic believers in view here on the wrong side of history. The concept also includes reversionistic unbelievers but the passage isn’t discus them. 2. Opposition of this type can advance only so far before God cuts it off. 3. There are many ways to cut off opposition to those who are on the right side of history. 4. They function long enough to test positive believers to, oppose super-grace and ultra-super-grace believers, as a part of the angelic conflict. 5. Then they disappear. They are buried under the deluge of divine discipline. “for” — the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gar. It introduces a reason for the lack of progress of those who are on the wrong side of history. “their folly” — the possessive genitive plural from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. A)utoj calls special attention with great emphasis on the evangelists of evil and their folly. Plus the nominative singular from the compound a(noia [a = negative; noia = thinking] which means no thinking, lack of understanding. It means folly but that isn’t the meaning here. It means here lack of sense, lack of judgment, also it means madness — “for their own lack of sense [divorced from reality].” “shall be” — future active indicative of e)imi. This is what happens historically. “manifest” — the predicate nominative with the verb is e)kdhloj which means “obvious” or “quite evident.” Obvious to the flatterer. And when the reversionist loses his flatterers that means that he has lost everything. He lives for flattery and when flattery doesn’t come he is miserable. “unto all” — the dative plural indirect object from paj refers to that segment of the human race in the vicinity of the opposition of the evangelists of evil. They’re flatters, former admirers. It should be “to all.” “as theirs also was” — the correlative adverb o(j sets up an analogy with the time of Moses and the opposition of Jannes and Jambres. Remember that Pharaoh was in opposition, as were members of his court. Plus the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also,” plus the nominative singular of the definite article which is used here as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise opposition against Moses. Many times the definite article is merely placed here to be used for one of several others types of pronoun, generally a demonstrative, occasionally a relative pronoun, sometimes even a comparative, but quite frequently an intensive pronoun. We translate it, “as also that opposition.” Plus the descriptive genitive plural from the remote demonstrative e)keinoj. The remote demonstrative emphasises the persons who led the opposition over 1500 years before. The remote demonstrative is used to indicate that Jannes and Jambres are in view. They are cited as the opposition of evil to ultra-super-grace believers like Moses, like Paul, and possibly like Timothy. We also have the aorist active indicative of ginomai which means here to come to be. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states the present reality, the neutralisation of opposition, with the certitude of past neutralisation of opposition in the time of Moses. In other words, Satan threw everything he could at Paul and did not succeed. Satan has thrown everything at Moses and did not succeed. Translation: “But they will make no further progress: for their lack of sense will be fully evident to all their contemporaries, as also that opposition of those [Jannes and Jambres] came to be.” Principle 1. The opposition from the wrong side of history is covered in the lives of the two greatest men in history, men of great spiritual genius, Moses and Paul. Paul is in the immediate context as the contemporary and Moses is the historical illustration cited from 1500 years in past history. 2. Both men had opposition, but the opposition was neutralised by the grace of God and by a principle we must always remember: Jesus Christ controls history. 3. The analogy between the time of Moses and the time of Paul leads to the wonderful blessings of paragraph SG2. Therefore opposition is a sign of spiritual progress — if you are positive toward doctrine. 4. The analogy between the time of Moses and the time of Paul leads to a quick summary on how to meet and defeat such opposition. Therefore, verse 10. Verse 10 — how to meet and defeat the opposition. “But thou hast fully known” begins with the post positive conjunctive particle de used as an adversative conjunction to set up a contrast between the reversionism of Jannes and Jambres who followed Moses only to foster revolt and Timothy who followed Paul to reach super-grace to follow the colours for the next generation of human history. The aorist active indicative here, “thou hast fully known,” is taken from the verb parakolouqew and it does not mean to know. A)kolouqew means to follow; para means beside or near. It finally means to follow, to accompany, to attend, to follow with the mind, to follow as a rule, to follow faithfully. Here it means to follow with the mind. Timothy is in Ephesus but he can still follow with the mind. “But you have followed with the mind.” The dramatic aorist states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The present reality is Timothy’s super-grace status. The past event is Timothy’s reversionism of AD 66 and his recovery resulting in his present status, super-grace. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb in reversion recovery and his present super-grace status, and he is still moving toward the objective of ultra-super-grace. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. “my doctrine” — possessive genitive from the personal pronoun e)gw. This personal pronoun says that the apostle Paul had a type of doctrine that no other person who wrote in the scripture ever came close to having. In other words, while God the Holy Spirit gave it to him he is the first man who taught it, it was original with him, the concepts belong to him, and obviously means that a lot of people would try to steal it along the way and take credit for it. “My doctrine” — the dative singular from the noun didaskalia meaning teaching or doctrine, but it means doctrine or teaching to a group, never one on one. Doctrine and teaching are synonymous terms. The secret to recovery from reversionism and getting back on to the right side of history is to get under someone’s teaching and stick. No one can recover from reversionism apart from the intensive study of doctrine under the authority of one right pastor-teacher. “manner of life” — what was Paul’s manner of life? At this point he was in jail, he was single, he was under great pressure from the government, so obviously when it says “manner of life” this demands some attention. What is meant by manner of life? it is a dative singular, a dative of advantage as well as a dative of indirect object from the noun a)gwgh which means literally, “guidance, direction.” “Manner of life” is really not too good a translation, it does not take cognisance of the context, of the fact that Timothy has recovered from reversionism by emulation of Paul’s academic self-discipline, his positive, consistent intake of doctrine in spite of all opposition. Plutarch helps us to understand a)gwgh. He wrote: peri paidon a)gwgh — peri, “concerning,” paidon, “children,” a)gwgh “the instruction.” He called one of his books, The Instruction of Children. So a)gwgh means instruction, academic discipline. The verb a)gw is a very common verb in the New Testament and in all categories of Greek. It means to lead, but it didn’t mean that originally. It really meant to educate, to train. And a)gwgh, the noun, means academic discipline. “But you have studied intensively my doctrine, my academic discipline.” “purpose” is the dative singular indirect object from the noun proqesij meaning plan, purpose, design. It means a presentation based upon a lesson plan. We might use the word presentation if it is understood that this is a lesson plan. “faith” is the dative singular, both of advantage and an indirect object , from the noun pistij which has three basic meanings. In this case it refers to faithfulness. It means here that faith and trust or reliability that is involved in consistent intake of doctrine. The idea is that Paul was faithful in teaching the Word — no believer could recover from reversionism unless some pastor had the academic self-discipline to study and teach — and on the part of Timothy there is the reliability, the faithfulness, the stability in taking it in; but this is the reliability of the apostle Paul. “longsuffering” is one of the keys to the proper communication and the objective communication of Bible doctrine. This is the dative singular, both of advantage and the indirect object, from the noun makroqumia. It means steadfastness which includes a combination of stability and endurance. The pastor must have stability when he sees the instability of people in his congregation. He must also, therefore, endure while God deals with these people and just go right on with his business. This is actually what is meant here. The noun means that no pastor can really afford to be quite human and this is a part of having the gift of pastor-teacher. We translate makroqumia “steadfastness.” here. Steadfastness means the quality of being steadfast which is patience, lack of bitterness or any mental attitude sin because of the foibles of people. It connotes, therefore, a constancy, a fixity in purpose, a fidelity and affection to the Lord which transcends all human foibles and failures. It means unshakable, immovable resolution to go right on teaching no matter what people do what, when, where or why. “charity” does not mean to be generous with money or anything else, it means love. It is the dative singular, of advantage and indirect object, from a)gaph which is just another way of saying the filling of the Spirit which produces a relaxed mental attitude. it emphasises the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the teaching of the Word — John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14; James 1:21-26; 1 John 2:27. “patience” — dative singular from the compound noun u(pomonh [u(po = under the authority of; menw = abide]. To abide under the authority of means to stay under something. It means to endure hardship — and it is the pastor here who is enduring all these things in order to bring people out of reversionism — pain, annoyance, to put up with the bad habits of members of the congregation who are in reversionism or leaning toward reversionism and therefore reject the authority of the teaching of the Word. It means therefore to undergo, to bear, to sustain opposition and criticism, and annoyance of any kind. It means to do this without giving up, without running away, without backing off, and without letting anyone run over you. All of these characteristics in context belong to the apostle Paul. They also belong to any pastor who does his job correctly. Translation: “But you have studied intensively my doctrine, my self-discipline, my presentation, my faithfulness, my steadfastness, my love, my endurance.” Verse 11 — “Persecutions.” A lot of people imagine they are being persecuted. This is a form of mental illness called paranoia. But Paul was not in any way paranoid, he was definitely being persecuted. He was one of those rare people, like Moses, who was persecuted by Satan, by demons, by people who were both believers and unbelievers. He was persecuted by everyone on the wrong side of history. He was misunderstood, he was rejected, except where people responded to his ministry, like Timothy. “Persecutions” is a dative plural, which means all categories of persecutions. It is a part of an indirect object but it is a change of pace. The word is diwgmoj and it means persecution. The plural changes the subject. We have had a list and now it suddenly changes. it changes the subject from how Timothy recovered from reversionism to the opposition, pressures, and annoyances that the apostle Paul endured. Timothy recovered under the ministry of Paul but Paul had to persist under suffering, pressure, adversity, opposition, annoyance of every category, or there would have been no ministry of Paul by which Timothy could have recovered. The same thing is true today. It is still a part of the package for those who have the gift of pastor-teacher. it forces spiritual growth and it develops steadfastness. No pastor can be indefatigable until he endures these persecutions, endures the annoyances and the attacks, and grows by them. Therefore, like Moses, the apostle Paul endured more pressure than any believer who ever lived. The super-grace status, then, could be described as being indefatigable, incapable of being worn out or worn down by opposition. Hence unweary, untiring, unremitting in study and teach and the general functions of the ministry. “afflictions” — also a dative plural. The word paqhma means “sufferings.” This is a reference to undeserved suffering. Like everyone else a pastor brings a certain amount of suffering on himself. Pastor’s have old sin natures too! But this is talking about undeserved suffering, suffering for blessing. This is the suffering of the super-grace believer, the believer on the right side of history. Principle: These two words, “persecutions” and “sufferings,” are categories of suffering and they represent opposition from evil [Satan’s policy] and, if it is an ultra-super-grace pastor, possibly Satan himself. Also opposition from members of the congregation, opposition from the outside, in fact just about every opposition you can think of. This opposition is opposition from the wrong side of history. “which” — the nominative plural from the relative correlative pronoun o(ioj. It is translated “such as.” It introduces an historical illustration of what Paul is teaching here. “came” — the aorist middle indicative of ginomai which means to happen here, “such as happened.” The constative aorist gathers into one entirety all the opposition and pressure which Paul endured in his first missionary journey, but it also specifies in context what is in mind because there is a buildup, his opposition snowballed. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, it is middle in form but active in meaning. The subject is the pressure, persecutions, sufferings, Satanic opposition from those on the wrong side of history. This is the subject producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the standpoint of historical reality. “unto me” — the dative of advantage of e)gw, dative of indirect of object referring to the apostle Paul. “at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra” — Paul visited this area on his missionary journey of Acts 13. “what persecutions” — the qualitative relative pronoun o(ioj which indicates categories. This should be translated with the accusative plural of diwgmoj “such persecutions.” Diwgmoj refers to that mantle of persecution which belongs to the ultra-super-grace believer. “I endured” — the aorist active indicative of u(poferw [u(po = under; ferw = to bear], which means to bear up under, to undergo, to endure. The word for endure here means the power to undergo, to bear, to sustain opposition, criticism, annoyance, without giving up or succumbing to cowardice or self-pity. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The constative aorist takes up the principle of the mantle of suffering and persecution which intensifies the blessing of SG2 to the ultra-super-grace believer. The active voice: Paul produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality. “but out of them all” — the adversative use of the conjunction kai should be translated “and yet.” The prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative plural of paj should be translated “out from them all.” That is, all of the different categories of suffering, all of the opposition that Satan can muster against the ultra-super-grace believer. “the Lord” — o( Kurioj refers here to God the Father, the author of the divine plan — the predetermined, prefabricated plan. He is the one who does the delivering. “delivered me” — the aorist middle indicative from ruomai which means to rescue, to snatch from danger. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the pressures and the persecutions of the ultra-super-grace believer in their entirety. The middle voice is the direct middle which refers the action of the verb directly to the agent, God the Father, with reflexive force. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. Translation: “Persecutions and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; such persecutions I have endured: and yet, the Lord himself has delivered me out from all of these.” Principle 1. At Antioch Paul escaped unharmed. At Iconium Paul was warned and escaped. At Lystra Paul was stoned to death. He was delivered from all of them. 2. Our passage will not permit the conclusion that Paul was delivered at Antioch and Iconium but not at Lystra. The reason is because our passage had the culminative aorist of ruomai. Paul was delivered from every one of them. 3. Paul was rescued or delivered in all three places. 4. At Antioch and Iconium Paul was delivered from stoning, from violence, but at Lystra Paul was delivered through violence, through stoning. 5. At Antioch Paul was under pressure but was delivered from actual physical violence. 6. At Iconium Paul was under persecution but was warned and therefore delivered. 7. At Lystra Paul was stoned to death but was delivered through God’s resuscitation. 8. Therefore God delivers the believer from suffering but He also delivers the believer through suffering. 9. The believer cannot and must not question the judgment of God. 10. Sometimes it furthers the plan of God to deliver from suffering, but sometimes it furthers the plan of God to deliver through suffering. Verses 12 — the perpetuation of the Satanic opposition. “Yea, and all” — the post positive conjunctive particle de used in the explanatory sense and should be translated “furthermore” or “now.” Plus the adjunctive use of kai which is translated “also.” Plus the nominative masculine plural of paj, “all.” It is translated, “Now also all” or “Furthermore also all.” “that will” — the articular present active participle from the verb qelw which means here to desire. With the article it is used as a relative pronoun, so we translate it “who keep desiring.” The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs with the ultra-super-grace believer. The active voice: the ultra-super-grace believer in every generation produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “live” is the present active infinitive of zaw — “to be living.” “godly” — this is an adverb used as an adjective for ultra-super-grace, e)usebwj — “godly lives.” What it actually means is ultra-super-grace. “in Christ Jesus” merely describes the principle of positional truth, positional sanctification. This is for royal family only. “shall suffer persecution” — future passive indicative of diwkw, translated “will be persecuted.” This is a predictive future and indicates that Satanic opposition to the super-grace and the ultra-super-grace believer will exist in every generation of history. The passive voice: the ultra-super-grace believer receives the action of theverb — opposition and persecution from Satanic forces who are on the wrong side of history — and it is the highest honour that God can give any believer, the mantle of persecution. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of dogmatic theological reality that there is such a thing as ultra-super-grace, that there is constant pressure in that category. Translation: “Furthermore, all believers who keep on desiring to be living godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Principle 1. Opposition from the wrong side of history continues in every generation. 2. This opposition or persecution is directed partially toward the super-grace believer but constantly toward the ultra-super-grace believer who has achieved the ultimate in tactical victory. 3. Both the super-grace and the ultra-super-grace believer glorify Jesus Christ. 4. Therefore both categories of believer must be neutralised, discredited, removed from their lofty spiritual status of tactical victory. 5. Therefore all the forces of hell, angelic and human, are concentrated against them — super-grace believers part of the time; ultra-super-grace believers all of the time. 6. The continuation of the function of GAP plus the possession of paragraph SG2 provides insulation against opposition from all who are on the wrong side of history. 7. Therefore with suffering and pressure from the forces of evil under the command of the ruler of this world, Satan, God in His grace has provided the perpetuation of both protection and blessing whereby the opposition of those on the wrong side of history is neutralised; and, furthermore, whereby the opposition merely intensifies the fantastic blessing. The doctrine of suffering 1. General causes for suffering in life. a) Loss of health, wealth, property, money, loved ones, anything of value to the loser. b) Suffering from people — gossip, ostracism, persecution, violence, crime, war. c) Suffering from privation — hunger, thirst, cold, heat, storm, earthquake, disaster from nature, accidents of any variety. d) Suffering from the administration of the law. e) Social suffering — loneliness, boredom, neglect, ostracism, disapproval. f) Mental suffering from sins, neurosis, psychosis. g) Suffering from the rejection of authority — love, divorce, failure in adulthood because of rejection of authority in childhood, being fired from the job … h) Suffering from reversionism resulting in reaping what you sow. 2. Basic categories of suffering: a) In time; b) In eternity. In time: the unbeliever rejects laws of divine establishment, has self-induced misery and unbeliever-type reversionism. For eternity: the unbeliever has the lake of fire forever — Revelation 20:12-15; for the believer, no matter how terrible he was in life, there will be no suffering in eternity — Revelation 21:4. 3. The premise of Christian suffering. a) All suffering is designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 4:14. b) There is an exception called divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6. c) However, the exception is removed — 1 Corinthians 11:31. For carnality by the rebound technique; for reversionism by the recovery technique. d) Therefore cursing is turned to blessing — Romans 8:28. 4. The categories of Christian suffering: a) disciplinary or deserved suffering; b) blessing or undeserved suffering. a) Disciplinary suffering. 1. Suffering for divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6 (for carnality — Ps. 38; for reversionism — Eccl.). 2. Suffering by association — peripheral suffering of 1 Corinthians 12:26; Romans 14:7; 1 Samuel 21. 3. Suffering caused by wrong priorities — Song of Solomon & Ecclesiastes; 4. Suffering from a guilt complex — 1 Timothy 1;5,6, 19,20; 3:9; 4:1; Titus 1:15; 5. Suffering from national discipline — Leviticus 26; Isaiah 33, 59; Hosea; 6. Suffering from rejection of the principle of right man, right woman — Exodus 16, 23; Jeremiah 12:7; 15:7-12,17,18; 7. Suffering from failure to isolate sin — Hebrews 12:15; 8. Suffering from temporary loss of grace norms — Jeremiah 2:24,25; 9. Suffering from warfare and revolution; 10. Suffering from reversionism — Psalm 77. b) Undeserved suffering — suffering for blessing. 1. Suffering to glorify God in the angelic conflict — the book of Job; Luke 5:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17; 2. Suffering to learn obedience and self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8; Philippians 2:8; 3. Suffering to demonstrate the sufficiency of grace — 2 Corinthians 12:1-10; 4. Suffering to develop faith necessary for the function of the faith-rest technique — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 5. Suffering to accelerate the construction of the ECS — James 1:1-6; 6. Suffering as a means of witnessing for Christ — 2 Corinthians 3 & 4; 7. Suffering to help others who suffer — 2 Corinthians 1:3-5; 8. Suffering to learn the value of Bible doctrine — Psalm 119, but specifically verses 67, 68, 71; 9. Suffering for the advance and impact of Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 1:12-14. 5. The concept of family suffering. a) Family suffering is portrayed as a principle of doctrine in Exodus 20:4-16; Deuteronomy 5:8-10. b) There is a four-generation family curse — Exodus 34:3-7; Numbers 14:18. c) The mechanics of this curse are taught tin Proverbs 30:11-17. d) The law of culpability is involved in this curse — Deuteronomy 24:16. e) The problem of children falls into two categories: i) Parents must be fair toward their children — Deuteronomy 21:15-17; ii) At the same time they must discipline them, but if by the time they are teenagers they do not respond to parental discipline and are proved by the law of Israel to be incorrigible they are to be executed — Deuteronomy 21:18-22. f) Doctrine breaks the four-generation curse — Deuteronomy 7:9; 6:6-13; 11:18-21; Psalm 100:5. g) There is such a thing as the children’s gimmick — using the children as an excuse not to come to Bible class — Jeremiah 31:15; Numbers 14:31. h) The triumph of children with doctrine is taught in Lamentations 3:21-31. 6. The concept of economic suffering. a) Inflation is a part of the fourth cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:26. b) The importance of being solvent in a depression — Genesis 41. c) Depression is a test for the faith-rest technique — Genesis 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7,8. d) Doctrine resident in the soul is the answer to a depression rather than money in the pockets — 2 Chronicles 20:9. e) Divine viewpoint is necessary to survive economic disaster — Psalm 33:17-20. f) Depression is a part of divine discipline to test both the nation and the individual reversionist under the influence of evil — Psalm 105:16; Jeremiah 11:22. g) False teaching in time of depression intensifies depression — Jeremiah 14:13-18. h) God protects the super-grace believer in depression — Job 5:20; Romans 8:35. i) Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the solution to depression. Consequently, advance to super-grace restores the economy — Isaiah 37:30,31. 7. God can only demonstrate His love to believers through suffering in time — 1 Peter 4:14,16. This means there is no suffering for the believer in eternity, there is no suffering too great for the plan of God; divine provision for suffering [doctrine] is greater than any pressure in life. Super-grace is the status in which you experience this principle. The super-grace believer is qualified through maximum doctrine in the soul to weather any storm in life. 8. The unique sufferings of Christ — Isaiah 53. 9. The reason for the suffering of the pastor-teacher. a) To perpetuate occupation with Christ — 2 Timothy 2:8. b) To disseminate Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy 2:9. c) To fulfill the grace objectives of phase two — 2 Timothy 2:10. 10. The principle of ultra-super-grace suffering. a) The ultra-super-grace believer receives as the highest decoration in time the mantle of continuous undeserved suffering — opposition from evil and all Satanic forces. b) This mantle is called “participation in His sufferings” — Philippians 3:10. c) The mantle of two such ultra-super-grace believers is found in 2 Timothy 3:8-12. d) The sufferings of the ultra-super-grace believer are an accolade, the highest honour any believer can possess in time. e) The sufferings do not mean no blessing, they mean greater blessing, for the sufferings of the ultra-super-grace believer intensify the blessings of paragraph SG2. Philippians 3:1 There is a very definite relationship between the third chapter of Philippians written during Paul’s firstimprisonment and the third chapter of 2 Timothy written during his last imprisonment and just before he died. There are four paragraphs in this chapter: a) The priority perspective of super-grace — verses 1-8; b) The parenthesis of grace orientation — verses 9-11; c) The final objective in life: ultra-super-grace — verses 12-19; d) Surpassing grace — verses 20-21. Verse 1 — the command to continue in super-grace. Super-grace is the base from which we move to the final objective in time: ultra-super-grace. “Finally” is an accusative of general reference from loipoj plus the definite article. Loipoj is an adjective meaning “remaining.” Here it is a part of the idiom with the definite article and the idiom changes the subject which was being developed in chapter two. The subject in the last half of Philippians chapter two is a biography of two men and an autobiography of one, three great communicators of doctrine — Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus. Now the subject is changed to emphasise the importance of reaching that final objective. Once you reach super-grace don’t stop, there is something even greater. At the time Paul wrote Philippians he had not reached that objective. He has, in effect, just recovered from his reversion experience and he is once more a super-grace believer and realises he cannot stop here. Paul is about to conclude the epistle to the Philippians but he must add some vitally important information on the subject of ultra-super-grace. So “Finally” means that he is shifting now to an objective which is before him, not yet reached. As Paul saw the objective in Philippians 3, and for the rest of his life moved to it, so he wants Timothy to do the same in 2 Timothy 3. “my brethren” — the vocative is addressed to us. “Brethren” means members of the royal family of God. It refers to the Philippians as royal family, it refers to us as royal family. We also have a descriptive genitive from the personal pronoun e)gw — both descriptive genitive and possessive genitive. When he says “my brethren” as a possessive genitive he is saying, “All believers in my generation, I am your right pastor.” “rejoice” — it takes a lot of doctrine to have inner happiness. The present active imperative of xairw. Paul is talking to believers in the sense of, “I now have this +H, I’m in super-grace.” But there is something better, this same +H with the mantle of pressure and suffering — ultra-super-grace. The command, present active imperative, is “follow me.” The customary present tense of this verb denotes what habitually occurs or may be expected to occur when a believer stays with doctrine and stays with his right pastor. The active voice: the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command — “Keep on having inner happiness.” “in the Lord” — e)n plus the locative of kurioj. This is a monopoly of those who are members of the royal family of God, it has to do with positional truth. The result of the continual function of GAP and achieving super-grace status means advancing to the objective where God shares His happiness with the believer. In the construction of the ECS the top floor is +H or sharing the happiness of God. That moves the believer into the super-grace status where he has his paragraph SG2 with all five categories. These five categories are enhanced by the fact that you have God’s perfect happiness. The doctrine of happiness 1. Happiness is defined as a state of well-being, it is generally synonymous with welfare, prosperity. Happiness is the enjoyment of and the pleasure in one’s status of life, circumstances, relationships. Happiness becomes a state or quality of being happy in relationship to spiritual progress. Happiness in its full extent is the utmost pleasure we are capable of enjoying. The capability is in the soul, not exterior pleasant circumstances. Happiness is the awareness of one’s status in a highly satisfactory way, hence being in a favourable condition or advantageous circumstances — spiritually as far as we are concerned. 2. There are relationships of happiness. They are extremely important because we are now talking about the only happiness that counts — +H. Happiness is related to prosperity — Psalm 126. Happiness is also related to adversity in the status of ultra-super-grace — 1 Peter 3:14. Ultra-super-grace is the place where you can have every trouble, every adversity, every persecution and suffering in the world and it only makes you happier. The mantle of suffering around the shoulders of the ultra-super-grace believer, no matter how difficult it gets, only intensifies his happiness. Proverbs 3:13 — happiness is related to the function of GAP. Wisdom is doctrine in the soul. Proverbs 14:21 — happiness is related to grace function. Happiness is related to super-grace status — Psalm 146:5; Proverbs 16:20; 28:14. Happiness is related to a clear conscience — Romans 14:22. Happiness is related to the laws of establishment — Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation of doctrine the people are unrestrained, but happiness to the one who keeps the laws of establishment.” Happiness is related to total military victory — Psalm 137:8,9. Happiness is related to national prosperity — Psalm 144:15. 3. Happiness is related to the essence of God. God is perfect, His character is perfect. Perfect character must possess perfect happiness. Psalm 43:4, David’s dancing is related to the fact that God has perfect happiness and shares it through the grace principle of the altar. Jesus Christ is said to be happy — 1 Timothy 6:15. 4. Happiness is not only related to the essence of God but also to the plan of God. Inasmuch as God possessed perfect and eternal happiness He desires to share His +H with man. God imputed His righteousness to the believer at salvation and this righteousness is the basis of the believer’s happiness. Psalm 97:12; Habakkuk 3:18; Psalm 9:14. 5. This happiness is accomplished through grace. Grace is the way in which God can give His happiness to each one of us. Our happiness has come from His perfection and His stability and as a gift to us it becomes the basis for fantastic blessing. Psalm 31:7. In grace God found a way to share His perfect happiness with the believer in time. He found a way to share His happiness without compromising any part of His essence. Grace happiness comes through the function of GAP. 6. Happiness is the status of both the super-grace and the ultra super-grace believer. Nehemiah 8:10. Happiness is recovered for the reversionist when he recovers the super-grace status. Psalm 30:5,11. 7. Happiness is related to blessing. The word “blessing” is generally found in the plural in order to indicate the real intensity of the concept. In the Hebrew we find the word ashere. It is plural and it doesn’t mean “blessed” at all, it means “happinesses.” Then we have in the Greek makarioi. It is translated in the singular, “blessed,” but it is actually plural and should be translated literally. Everything in the Bible should be taken literally unless there is some syntactical or exegetical reason to the contrary. There are many analogies, synonyms and metaphors but they are clearly revealed through some syntactical arrangement so that these are indicated. So it is “blessings,” not “blessed.” The plural connotes many things. It connotes that the super-grace paragraph has numerous categories of blessings. 8. +H protects the believer from disillusion, of which there are many kinds: with the circumstances of life, for example — Philippians 4:11,12; the details of life — Hebrews 13:5,6; other believers — Hebrews 12:2. 9. +H therefore stimulates and enhances capacity for love. Capacity for category #1 love based upon inner happiness — Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24,25. Capacity for category #2 love is related to +H — Song of Solomon 3:1; 4:6; 8:6. Capacity for friendship, category #3 love is related to +H — Philippians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:5. 10. There is a future happiness beyond super-grace. Ultra-super-grace happiness — Philippians 3:1; Surpassing grace happiness — Jude 24. 11. There is also Millennial happiness for Israel — Isaiah 35:1,2; 64:4,5; 65:18,19; 66:10. 12. There are two categories of human happiness, i.e. a happiness which is open to and practiced by unbelievers as well as believers. a) Neutral H, a legitimate happiness and related to the laws of divine establishment; b) minus H which is a temporary and superficial pleasure in life. It is related to a relationship with Satan, it is a stimulating thing and it is followed by great misery. It is a happiness that depends upon and leans upon pleasant environment, upon the details of life, upon stimulating circumstances, upon having one’s own way and never being crossed. However, it is easily shattered and destroyed. Minus H does not sustain in any catastrophe, it is removed and replaced by great misery in time of catastrophe. 13. The negative principles of happiness: a) You cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. b) You cannot build your happiness on the details of life. c) You cannot build your happiness on pleasant environment. d) You cannot build your happiness on people you love. e) You cannot build your happiness on sex. f) You cannot build your happiness on fame or celebrityship. g) You cannot build your happiness on the overthrow of establishment by violence, by revolution. h) You cannot build your happiness on the lust pattern of the old sin nature. 14. On the positive side there are some wonderful principles derived from the Word of God: a) You can build your happiness on the balance of residency in your soul — the filling of the Spirit plus maximum doctrine. b) You can build your happiness on the daily function of GAP, erecting the altar of the soul and establishing the command post of super-grace. c) You can build happiness by reaching super-grace, moving on to the next objective, ultra-super-grace, moving from there to dying grace and forever having surpassing grace. d) You can therefore build happiness by glorifying God in time as well as in eternity. e) You can build happiness by holding the high ground of super-grace against evil and refraining from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. f) You can build happiness on the laws of divine establishment as an unbeliever as well as a believer. 15. The happy person provides blessing for others. As a super-grace believer: blessing by association; as an ultra-super-grace believer: blessing by association; as a dying grace believer: blessing by association. Philippians 2:28,29 — Epaphroditus; Philemon 7; Romans 16:32 — refreshing company is the company of super-grace believers. 16. The happy nation has both a spiritual and a military heritage — Psalm 89:15-17, “Hapinesses to the people who shall keep knowing [in their history] the sound of the trumpet.” In other words, there will never be a generation when the military does not play a dominant role in the life of a country. The nation that possesses super-grace believers is the nation whose heritage is perpetuated in blessing. Philippians 3:1b — Principles 1. Strong emphasis should be placed here on the importance of category #1 love as indicated by the phrase “in the Lord.” You cannot love God apart from doctrine resident in the soul. 2. As goes category #1 love so goes all capacity for the other categories of love. 3. As goes category #1 love so goes response to the authority and teaching of one’s right pastor. 4. The real issue in life is not your category #2 love life nor your category 3 social life but your occupation with Christ under category #1. 5. There is no problem in recognition of the pastor’s authority, there is not problem in responding Bible teaching, where the believer through maximum doctrine resident in the soul is occupied with Christ. He has an objectivity whereby the message of the pastor is the source of his concentration and he is not in any way deterred, irritated, or become a reactor to doctrine because of the personality of the pastor. 6. There is a sense, then, in which Bible teaching is the way in which the pastor makes love to his congregation. 7. The congregation responds through strict academic discipline — positive volition toward doctrine, concentration under the filling of the Holy Spirit, self-discipline, academic discipline, concentration, objectivity, poise, good manners, and indefatigable persistence in the function of GAP. 8. The right congregation is like the right woman, an empty vessel waiting to be filled with Bible doctrine. 9. In this way the ultra-super-grace pastor can bring his congregation to the point of occupation with the person of Christ or the achievement of mature status. “to write” — present active infinitive of the verb grafw, the verb to write. The aoristic present in punctiliar action in present time. Paul is writing at that moment under the principle of verbal plenary inspiration. This is Paul’s exhale of doctrine through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, using Paul’s vocabulary, personality, advanced spiritual status, and concepts. The inhale was the ministry of the Holy Spirit in communicating to Paul those doctrines that had to be reduced to writing. The exhale is the content of this chapter communicated in Paul’s vocabulary, his frame of reference, etc. The active voice: Paul as the human author of the epistle produces the action of the verb under the principle of verbal plenary inspiration of the scripture. The infinitive is an actual result and part of that accusative of general reference started with the first word. The accusative is used with the infinitive not properly as the subject but it describes in a reference way the action, the one who or the thing that is producing the action. Philippians chapter three is to the apostle Paul what 2 Timothy chapter three is to pastor Timothy. Eight years before Paul wrote 2 Timothy he went through the same experience that Timothy has gone through. Paul went into reversionism, he recovered from reversionism under intense discipline, he moved into super-grace, he writes as a super-grace believer advancing toward ultra-super-grace where he arrived shortly after the prison epistles. He sees in Timothy the one who will succeed him, so there is the changing of the guard here from apostle to pastor-teacher. This is where apostleship fades out and where pastor-teacher comes in as the chief communicator of Bible doctrine and the basis of leading people to maturity. “the same things [doctrine]” — the accusative plural of direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, it emphasises the category of doctrine being covered in this chapter — the ultra-super-grace objective. “to you” — dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun su. This is also a dative of advantage. The indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest Paul is writing: to us today as well as to his own generation. “to me indeed” — the dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw. With it is the Classical Greek, men de, two conjunctive particles which are translated “on the one hand, and on the other.” “is not grievous” — the strong negative o)uk plus the nominative singular neuter adjective o)knhroj, used here as a predicate nominative and should be translated “is not troublesome.” He is saying, repetitious teaching is absolutely necessary in the communication of Bible doctrine. It should not be tiresome to the pastor and it should not be irksome to the congregation. Repetition is the way to learn. “but” is not the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de but a part of a Classical Greek style of correlation. It should be translated “on the other hand.” “for you” — dative of indirect object of the personal pronoun su again, referring to the Philippian congregation but in effect referring to all of us. “safe” — a)sfalhj, an adjective in the nominative, a predicate adjective and should be translated “safeguard” or “secure.” “On the other had it is for you a safeguard.” Translation: “Finally, my brethren, keep on having happiness in the Lord. On the one hand, to be writing these same doctrines to you is not irksome, while on the other hand it is for you a safeguard.” Verse 2 — we now have the opposition set up to keep people from going from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. You do not have to have suffering to get to ultra-super-grace, you have to have doctrine to get there. When you get there you receive this mantle of continual opposition. Jesus Christ was constantly under opposition from Satan but He wasn’t unhappy. His blessings were only intensified by the opposition. There are degrees of maturity. For an ultra-super-grace believer someone who has just attained super-grace is a baby! So you keep pressing, you keep taking in doctrine. The mantle of suffering is the mantle of opposition from Satan and the forces of evil, human and angelic, and when you wear this mantle you are completely surrounded. When you start making progress from super-grace on happiness only gets better and suffering never makes any difference. From ultra-super-grace you go to dying grace where the happiness is more than you can stand. “Beware” — present active imperative of the verb blepw which means to look, to be alert, to be wary or to beware. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals. It is also known as the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. It is the imperative mood of command. “of dogs” — accusative plural direct object from kuwn. There is also a definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun calling special attention to a certain kind of dog. The dog that is in view here is the Judaisers. So we translate this “Beware of those dogs” — false teachers, apostles of apostasy, evangelists of evil. Summary 1. The phrase dogs does not refer to the literal canine species, it refers to Judaisers. 2. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. 3. In the time of writing this passage regarding dogs found the dog an animal which only inspired contempt. The reason is because the dogs in the ancient world traveled in packs, were often hungry, and were quite vicious. They were also carriers of all of the animal diseases. 4. The word “dog” was used in the ancient world in a very derogatory sense. The Jews in the ancient world called the gentiles dogs. So the fact that the word “dogs” was used as a derogatory word was very definitely understood. 5. Basically the dog of the ancient world was a scavenger. By nature he was unclean, he was the carrier of disease, and the carrier of other creatures which carried diseases — like fleas. 6. At the same time the dog of the first century was semi-wild, eating garbage, carrion, refuse, just about anything. 7. Just as dogs fed on garbage and dead bodies so the Judaisers fed on the principles and doctrines of evil. Therefore the apostle Paul calls them the scavengers of theology. 8. Just as rabid dogs infected others, so the Judaisers infected Paul’s world-wide congregation. They followed him and they constantly tried to insert legalism where Paul had taught grace. They infected with reversionism and evil their victims. 9. The dog cannot be better than his own nature, so the Judaisers cannot exceed the content of evil in their souls. 10. While the Judaisers passed themselves off as religious celebrities Paul in the power of the Spirit, using spiritual language, they were in reality dogs, scavengers, traveling in packs, and providing opposition for the apostle Paul. And while they were a part of the great mantle of opposition, and he could understand them and meet their opposition, his congregation could not. Therefore the warning, “Beware of those dogs.” 11. Hence the derogatory analogy to dogs indicates the personality, the essence of the Judaisers who constantly opposed the great apostle. They were a part of the honour that God bestowed upon him. The doctrine of dogs 1. Biblical references to dogs are derogatory. Therefore the dog is always represented in the scripture as cowardly, evil, or insignificant. The dog is the biblical figure of insignificance. 1 Samuel 17:43; 2 Kings 8:13. 2. One of the most disgraceful and dishonourable deaths in the ancient world was to be devoured by dogs. 1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:19,23; 2 Kings 9:10. 3. Dogs are used in analogies to reversionism — Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2. 4. Dogs are used to describe unbelievers — 2 Peter 2:22; Revelation 22:15. 5. Those who live by violence [assassins, not professional soldiers] are described as dogs — Psalm 59:6,14, they are hungry for killing. 6. A seducer of women was called a dog’s head — 2 Samuel 3:8. 7. Dogs were used in the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline — Jeremiah 15:3. 8. In making a grace appeal to the Lord dogs were used in the analogy and the Lord responded to this grace appeal — Matthew 15:25-27; Mark 7:25-28. “beware” — the active voice: alertness produced by super-grace believers who have doctrine resident in their souls. The imperative mood is a command. This time the object is … “evil workers” — the accusative plural from the adjective kakoj. This is a reference to human good. Evil is Satan’s policy. The word for “workers” is e)rgathj. The accusative plural of the definite article is also used as a demonstrative pronoun. “Beware of those evil workers,” describing the same people. Evil work is the work which was accomplished in stoning Paul and persecuting Paul and offering opposition to Paul’s ministry. Evil workers here are those who do something to set a system of opposition to the ministry or the teaching of the Word of God. “beware of the concision” is the final one. The same morphology for “beware” again, plus the accusative singular direct object of katatomh, mistranslated “concision.” It means “mutilation,” it is a reference to the use of the ritual of circumcision as a means of getting to heaven. The teaching of these Judaisers was that you had to be circumcised to be saved. Translation: “Beware of those dogs, beware of those evil workers, beware of that mutilation.” These people never left Paul, they were the mantle of suffering around him that made his paragraph SG2 so very happy, so very wonderful. It intensified his happiness. But his congregation, not being as far along spiritually, had to be warned that the Judaisers would infiltrate the local church and would come in an teach something that wasn’t true. They would come in and take the Old Testament and mutilate wonderful passages, take them out of their context and bring them over into evil. This is one of Satan’s greatest functions. The best means of doing this is legalism. The concept 1. Starting with the garden, evil or Satan’s policy, always seeks to take grace as it finds it and mutilate it. Evil always finds grace perfectly healthy, perfectly whole, and seeks to mutilate it. 2. Mutilation, then, is taking legitimate Bible doctrine or ritual and distorting it into something legalistic and reversionistic. 3. Mutilation is the Satanic distortion of doctrine so that it appears to be teaching his policy of evil. Many functions of evil today are related to the Word of God but they are distorted from the Word of God. Verse 3 — the royal family’s true circumcision based upon the concept of mutilation. “For we are the circumcision.” The explanatory use of the particle gar is the beginning of the passage. We are now going to get and explanation of that last phrase, “Beware of that mutilation” in the previous verse. The nominative plural from the personal pronoun e)gw is in the proleptic or emphatic position, translated “we” and only “we,” referring to the royal family of God, setting the royal family of God aside as being something very special in God’s plan. The Church Age is special, it is an interruption of the Age of Israel. Those who are saved in the Church Age are special, they are royal family of God forever, and as royalty they have been given an option that never existed before in history. They have been given a completed canon of scripture with exposure to that completed canon through the teaching of a pastor-communicator by which they can move in a shorter period of time than any period of time in history, right straight to super-grace and from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. This is the program, the agenda God has set up for every believer, and this is why you are kept alive under the principle of living grace. “we are” — the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “we keep on being.” This is the verb to be and the customary present indicates what may be expected when you reach super-grace. You keep on with doctrine, you don’t stop there, you press on, close in on the next objective which is ultra-super-grace. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood represents the action of the verb from the viewpoint of historical and doctrinal reality; “the circumcision” — the predicate nominative from the noun peritomh [peri = around; tomh = to cut]. It describes the operation of circumcision, the ritual of circumcision, the rite of circumcision. The previous verse says “Beware of that mutilation” which has to do with distorting a true Bible ritual into a false spiritual connotation. The true Bible ritual is circumcision, and the false connotation is to say that you have to be circumcised to be saved, that you have to be circumcised to be spiritual. The doctrine of circumcision 1. Circumcision is cutting away a portion of useless skin on the male phallus. The ritual is related to Abraham’s super-grace sexual prosperity plus the dedication of the male sexual organ to right woman and so one else. It is in direct opposition to the phallic cult of Leviticus 12:2,3. 2. The true meaning of circumcision cannot really be understood apart from the 17th chapter of Genesis, verses 1-14. Abraham was 99 years old and sexually dead when he reached the super-grace life. When he reached it his super-grace blessing was tied up in having a son from his own loins. In Genesis 17:5 the promise of sexual prosperity in super-grace was repeated to him. “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” How did he do it? He did it with a ritual that had never occurred before in history — circumcision. It indicated that although he was sexually dead there was no limitation. God made a promise, veracity must be satisfied, God cannot welch on an obligation, God will keep His word. The ritual of circumcision was a recognition of the fact that even though he was sexually dead God would revive his sexual apparatus as well as that of Sarah, his wife. Therefore Abraham through circumcision in super-grace became the father of a new race, and circumcision was the sign. The new race was the Jew. The sign of the new race was circumcision. (The sign of the new nation was the law. The Jews were never a nation until they received in the desert the law) 3. Circumcision is also related to the law — stated in Romans 2:5. It is related to the law in two ways. a) to establishment. The content of the law indicates the fact that national stability comes from establishment principles; b) Circumcision relates to Codex #2 or the spiritual part of the law, indicating that after salvation by faith in Christ faith must turn to the written Word and must link up with positive volition in the daily function of GAP. 4. Exodus 4:24-26. Moses almost died the sin unto death. He was about to enter Egypt without circumcision of his youngest son. This meant failure to perpetuate the relationship between the father of the new race and God’s promise to a new nation that would come out of that race. 5. From the race to the nation no Jew could partake of the Passover without circumcision which was related to the new race, the new nation, and the concept of on to super-grace — Exodus 12:48. The Jews were under the fifth cycle of discipline for lack of circumcision of the soul to accompany the ritual — Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26. Circumcision of the soul meant the unbeliever living under the establishment of the Mosaic law while it connotes the believer moving toward super-grace. Therefore circumcision of the soul was just as important as circumcision of the body. Physical circumcision occurred for Jews as babies, they were not believers or unbelievers, they hadn’t come to the point of decision yet. So a baby had to be circumcised, but that was physical. The circumcision of soul is important because it means salvation and spiritual growth to the point of super-grace. While all Jews were circumcised the circumcision of soul was the great issue and God’s plan for anyone in the Jewish nation. Circumcision connotes the spiritual heritage of super-grace to Abraham’s physical and spiritual heritage. Born again, Abraham became a Jew at the point of circumcision and therefore the distinction of the race, God’s purpose, God’s plan related to the race called for not only physical circumcision but something in the soul to match it. Note: All ritual in the Bible finds the individual performing something, doing something. But ritual without reality is meaningless. The reality is doctrine in the soul. 6. In the Church Age circumcision has no spiritual significance — 1 Corinthians 7:18,19; Galatians 5:2,3. Circumcision relates the Jew to his unique racial origin, his national origin, and the principle of super-grace. The origin of the Church is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which eliminates the spiritual connotation of circumcision in the Church Age. Illustrations: Circumcision was used to portray the function of GAP leading to super-grace — Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4; to portray the ECS — Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28,29; to portray scar tissue, emotional revolt of the soul, the last stages of reversionism — Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26; Ezekiel 44:7; Acts 7:51. 7. The problem of mutilation — Acts 15:1,24; Galatians 6:12,13. Mutilation of ritual has been one of the Satanic means of turning people away from doctrine, getting the soul straightened out, and opening up the soul to evil or the Satanic policy as the ruler of the world. “For we keep on being the circumcision,” Circumcision as a ritual has many analogies. In addition, it also indicates here that the super-grace believer has no more of the useless part of the foreskin of evil and reversionism, that evil and reversionism is removed as the dead skin is removed. To be uncircumcised of heart or right lobe means to have no Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This is caused by negative volition toward Bible doctrine on the part of the believer. “which worship God in the spirit” — incorrect. It says literally, oi( pneumati qeou latreuontej which means “who worship in the Spirit of God.” Them word “worship” is the present active participle from latreuw. The word means to serve at the altar, to carry out religious duties, and finally it comes to mean worship in the Koine Greek of the New Testament. It is a function of the royal priesthood. The present tense is a descriptive or pictorial present which presents to the mind a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. What are the events in the process of occurrence? To listen to the teaching of the Word of God is the highest point of worship. The centre of worship is the circumcision of the soul, it is the daily and persistent function of GAP, the inculcation of Bible doctrine. The active voice: the super-grace believer has produced the action of the verb many times, and he continues to do so. The participle is circumstantial, the universal royal priesthood of the believer plus the fact that every believer in the Church Age is also royal family of God, spiritual aristocracy, implies a unique form of worship for this dispensation. The uniqueness is found in the locative singular of pneuma, and it should be translated “in the Spirit.” It can be instrumental, “by the Spirit.” It refers to the third person of the Trinity. Plus the descriptive genitive from qeoj indicating that this is God the Holy Spirit.” This is an articular participle, the definite article is used as a relative pronoun. It refers to super-grace believers in the royal family of God “who worship in the Spirit of God.” The filling of the Spirit is necessary for the function of GAP. The filling of the Spirit is also necessary for any other facet of worship, this is summarised by John 4:24. “and rejoice in Christ Jesus” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai here means this is an extension of worship. But the word “rejoice” here is not rejoice-+H. Here it is a present active participle of a different verb from the one in verse 1, the verb kauxaomai which means to boast. It is a present active participle. It means to boast, to glory, to pride one’s self in something. Kauxaomai is used by Paul for boasting in someone else in relationship to a high spiritual condition. Boasting about Christ connotes love, concentration, appreciation. This is a super-grace characteristic and it is the result of maximum doctrine in the soul, it is an expression of category #1 love capacity in super-grace. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, denoting what began in the past when the person becomes a super-grace believer and continues while a person is in super-grace on the way to ultra-super-grace. This is also called the present tense of duration. We might translate it, therefore, “and glorying” or boasting” or “being confident in.” The middle voice: this is a deponent verb which is middle in form but active in meaning. The super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it is the highest form of worship, boasting in the Lord Jesus as a result of maximum doctrine in the soul. But we don’t call it boasting when we use it in the good sense in the English, we call it “glorying in Christ Jesus.” “and have no confidence in the flesh” — this includes a transitional kai, plus the negative o)uk, plus the perfect active participle of peiqw which means to obey. Peiqw means to obey, it is related to strict discipline, implicit obedience, self-discipline. The perfect tense of peiqw does not mean obedience, it means confidence. This is an intensive perfect for a completed action emphasising the existing results of that action. In other words, a total confidence. When you are on the way from super-grace to ultra-super-grace you develop an unshakable confidence which by the time you reach ultra-super-grace gives you the ability to cope with any disaster, any problem, any adversity, any Satanic opposition. The active voice: the super-grace believer advancing produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. There is also the preposition e)n plus the locative of sarc, and e)n plus sarc has two meanings here. It means first of all to have no confidence in human ability or thinking or talent, or any other factor which seeks to intrude upon the intake of doctrine. It also comes to have a relationship to the infirmities of the flesh. In other words, adversity. Translation: “For we are the true circumcision [for the Church Age], who worship God in the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, also we do not have confidence in the flesh.” The last phrase of verse 3 causes a digression. In verse 4 we have Paul’s human celebrityship. Paul’s reversionism Paul has just come out of reversionism, he is a super-grace believer, and he is now pressing toward the next objective which is ultra-super-grace. 1. It was the will of God that Paul’s third missionary journey should go west into Spain. Romans 15:24 — Paul was in Ephesus and he knew that he should have gone to Spain, that it was the Lord’s will. In 15:25 he states what is not the Lord’s will — “I am going to Jerusalem.” The only problem with what Paul states in 15:28 is that the Lord did not include Jerusalem it in Paul’s agenda for the third missionary journey. That was Paul’s idea, not the Lord’s. Three passages demonstrate that it was the Lord’s will for Paul’s third missionary journey to go west to Spain, not east to Jerusalem: Romans 15:24,25,28. 2. After Paul’s visit to Ephesus and the riot of the silversmiths’ union Paul was headed west, in the right direction. He was still in compliance with his orders in Acts 20. But in verse 1 the riot shook him up. He wasn’t hurt in the riot but it did cause something to happen. It was in the pastor’s conference at a seaport 36 miles from Ephesus that Paul told them of his determination to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost — Acts 20:16. 3. Paul was warned not to go to Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit — Acts 21:4-9, the first warning; 21:10-13, the second warning. God the Holy Spirit used people who warned Paul. 4. Paul is now in reversionism, he disobeyed completely — Acts 21:14-17. 5. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem — Acts 21 — he was now in full emotional reversionism and therefore he was susceptible to whatever the inclination of the geographical area was — Judaism. It is a form of reversionistic legalism. The church in Jerusalem was so infected that it had lost its leadership in the Christian world, it was now low in reversionism. The unbelievers were in a massive form of Judaism that would end up in the fifth cycle of discipline in 40 years. When Paul went in to meet with the pastors of Jerusalem he takes some bad advice from the leaders of the Jerusalem church — Acts 21:20,24. No Bible teacher ever has to compromise in order to gain a hearing for the teaching of doctrine. Paul is the greatest Bible teacher in all of history. Therefore when Paul goes into a town he doesn’t have to get into some kind of legalistic activity in order to attract a crowd. No one ever has to stoop and compromise the Word of God and set up a system of rapport. The Word of God has to stand on its own. Positive volition will come under the hearing of the Word of God regardless of any other factor involved. The Word of God stands on its own merits, it doesn’t need any public relations fronting, any system of hypocrisy to get a hearing. Paul got into the compromise of legalism — Acts 21:26. 6. This was the beginning of Paul’s discipline. In Acts 21:27-32, one week later Paul went back in order to complete the function of his vow in the temple. He was spotted by the Judaisers from Asia, from south Galatia, the very people who stoned him to death at Lystra. They immediately aroused the people. 7. It became obvious that Paul was not safe and that the first time he left the custody of the Roman military he would be assassinated. He was escorted to Caesarea where he was for two years. This was the time of his reversion recovery. 8. His imprisonment at Rome. Paul spent two years there and during those two years he put down all of the super-grace doctrine that is now contained in the prison epistles. Paul wrote Philippians at this time. He is in super-grace but he has not yet attained ultra-super-grace — Philippians 3:12-19. 2 Timothy 4:5-8 The changing of the guard has to do with the apostle Paul, the greatest of all the apostles and the obvious leader of the early church. He is now moving out through dying grace to be replaced by another type of communicator called the pastor-teacher. The changing of the guard is to pastor Timothy, and the reason for this is that Paul is anticipating that Timothy will move on from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. Therefore he is passing to Timothy the colours and there is a changing of the guard from the apostleship communication to the pastor-teacher communication. The changing of the guard is indicated in the Greek of 2 Timothy 4:1. “But watch thou in all things” includes an enclitic particle, a second personal singular personal pronoun in the proleptic position emphasising that not everyone can receive a change of the guard from the previous generation; there must be a qualification, and that qualification means to break the barriers that go to spiritual maturity. Then there is the first command, the present active imperative of the verb nhfw. Nhfw in itself in Classical Greek means to sober up after a lot of heavy drinking. It also means to be well-balanced, self-controlled, and here it means self-discipline. “But you be self-disciplined.” Self-discipline is the key to spiritual growth, without it no one ever grows up. The present tense is a present tense of duration, it denotes Timothy’s self-discipline and reversion recovery and now his self-discipline in moving to super-grace, and anticipates an intensification of that self-discipline in moving to the ultra-super-grace which is the final and greatest of all the objectives in time. The active voice: Timothy produces the self-discipline in his daily function of GAP, the same way by which he recovered from reversionism, the same way he followed the colours to the high ground of super-grace. In the same manner, therefore, he will continue and become an ultra-super-grace believer. In the future he will reach that point of dying with the greatest possible dying happiness that anyone could ever have. The imperative mood is a command to perpetuate the self-discipline by which Timothy has recovered from reversionism, attained super-grace, and by which he will move on to ultra-super-grace. With this is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative plural of the adjective paj, and it is translated “in all things.” This is not the type of self-discipline that is sheer drudgery, this is the type of self-discipline that leads to the greatest happiness in life. “do” is the aorist active imperative of the verb poiew. The aorist tense is culminative, it view the ultra-super-grace status in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results of ultra-super-grace in the field of evangelism. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command. “work” — e)rgon has several connotations. Minus the definite article here emphasises the high quality of both the office and the function of evangelism. This means to do the work in the office and in the function so that both the evangelist by gift and any believer who has broken the maturity barrier is in this command. “evangelist” is the descriptive genitive singular from e)uaggelisthj. In non-ecclesiatical literature the word means one who proclaims or communicates an oracle. In other words, he forecast the future. The noun only occurs three times in the New Testament — Acts 21:8; Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:5. It connotes here function of evangelism rather than office. Timothy was not an evangelist, he was a super-grace pastor, a great communicator, and therefore his personal witnessing was going to intensify with his spiritual growth. This is a sense is comparable to our 20th century missionary. It actually means to travel, it means that some day Timothy was not going to be able to stay at Ephesus because as an ultra-super-grace believer the apostles were going to be cleared up and someone was going to have to travel and start a lot of churches in a lot of places and get everyone squared away. That is what is means here to do the work of an evangelist. It means to travel, to train pastors and get an indigenous situation going in some locale. “Endure afflictions” should be “endure opposition from evil.” “make full proof of thy ministry” — the aorist active imperative from plhroforew [plhrhj = full or filled; forew = to bear or to carry] which means to carry out completely, fully, or to discharge. We’ll translated it “completely carry out.” The culminative aorist views ultra-super-grace status in its entirety and emphasises the results of super-grace status in the function of the ministry. The active voice: in anticipation of Timothy advancing to the next and final objective of ultra-super-grace the action of the verb is produced. In other words, the pastor who reaches ultra-super-grace will completely fulfill his ministry in that this principle applies: no pastor can take his congregation beyond his own spiritual growth; “ministry” is diakonia and it is used here for the believer who received at salvation the gift of pastor-teacher, who through his own spiritual growth reaches the point of function before his own right congregation, and he carries them as far as he has gone. Together it is translated “completely carry out your own ministry.” Translation: “But you [and especially you Timothy] be self-disciplined in all things, endure opposition from evil, execute the function of an evangelist, carry out to the maximum your ministry.” Principle 1. No pastor can carry out his ministry apart from the daily study of the Word of God. 2. The daily function of GAP is not only the means of his own spiritual growth but the means of feeding his congregation. 3. By constantly and consistently feeding his congregation the pastor leads his sheep to his own level of spiritual growth, which should be minimum super-grace, and much better, ultra-super-grace, the status of glorifying Jesus Christ in the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. 4. Furthermore, no congregation, however, can exceed the spiritual growth of the pastor and therefore the pastor has to study hard, stay ahead, and continually and faithfully teach the Word of God. 5. Therefore the pastor must press on to lead his congregation to the high ground of super-grace, lead them through the maturity barrier and to take them to ultra-super-grace, so that when they die they will have the greatest happiness that can be experienced in this life. Verse 6 — Paul is anticipating his own dying moment. “For I am now ready to be offered” is not quite what he said. The nominative singular proleptic pronoun e)gw emphasises that he is talking about himself and he has to talk about himself. Paul is the leader. There is also the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar — “for you see.” This conjunction anticipates Paul’s dying grace and also indicates that he is issuing the command to press on. Timothy must press on, all communicators must press on; “now ready” — h)dh, is “even now.” Plus a present passive indicative of spendw which means to offer a libation or a drink offering. It was used by the Greeks in worshipping their gods, their idols. It was poured out from some kind of a cup at the foot of the idol and it was called a libation to the god. Spendw is a perfect analogy to dying grace. The cup is the body of the apostle Paul. Inside is the content of the cup, his soul. When his soul leaves his body he is dead. So the pouring out of the cup is the perfect picture of the easy manner in which the believer under dying grace moves out of this life. This is the present passive indicative. The present tense is futuristic, it denotes an event, dying grace, which is right around the corner but isn’t occurring at this moment. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of his coming death. “and the time of my departure” — time = kairoj, which means an epoch of time, it means moving into another sphere of time. Kairoj means super-grace was a sphere, the next step up is ultra-super-grace, and the final one is dying grace. Time, then, indicates Paul on earth under dying grace. “Departure” is the descriptive genitive singular from a)nalusij which has five meanings in the Greek, each one related to the principle of dying. The military use means to strike a tent, to break camp. Paul’s tent is his body and the soul departs from his body, and it means that he will strike tent and leave the bivouac of life and move into eternity to his mansion in heaven. The second usage is a naval usage in which they used the hoisting of the anchor as the ship set sail. So in dying grace Paul is leaving the port, he is hoisting anchor and leaving the port of life for the port of heaven. Then there is an agricultural usage in which the farmer at the end of a long day of hard work unyokes the tired oxen and provides for them shelter and feed. Paul is being unyoked from life to enter into blessing and reward. There was also a prisoner usage in which the prisoner is released from jail. There was also a rather complicated philosophical usage which means to unravel a mystery or to solve a philosophical problem of some sort. Death unravels the mystery of eternity and dying grace solves all the problems of life. “is at hand” — the perfect active indicative of the verb e)pisthmi [e)p comes from e)pi = on, over, or by; isthmi = to stand, or to place] which means to place by, to stand by, to stand near. It comes to mean “imminent.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect indicating the action is completed and the existing results are there; the existing state, he is dying. The active voice: the greatest of all people of all time is about to depart from life. The indicative mood is declarative, this is a fact of history. Translation: “For you see even now I am being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure from life is standing by [imminent].” Verse 7 — a retrospective resume of Paul’s tactical victory. “I have fought” is the perfect middle indicative of a)gwizomai which means to engage in athletic contest. It was used in the sense of fighting with weapons. The intensive perfect denotes a completed action with emphasis on the existing results. In this case the existing result is obvious. Paul has broken the greatest barrier in life. When we start at the point of salvation we GAP it and keep going with the idea of breaking the barrier of maturity. When we do the first thing we receive is SG2, we are in super-grace. Then we keep moving up to ultra-super-grace and eventually to dying grace. The intensive perfect puts it all together. The middle voice is indirect middle emphasising Paul as the agent producing the action of the verb. He has moved to every objective in life, he has reached the pinnacle of life in every sense of the word. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. “a good fight” —the word for “good” is the adjective kaloj, the accusative form for the direct object. It means noble or honourable. Then we have a cognate accusative from the word a)gwn which is used for conflict. There is a definite article here, and so we translate “I have fought that honourable fight.” This is a declaration of the apostle Paul in the sphere of dying grace. This means that not only was the apostle a spiritual Alas for his own generation but he is a stabilising rod for every generation thereafter. Paul fulfilled every concept of the tactical victory. “I have finished” — another perfect and this time an active indicative of telew which has the connotation of to finish, to carry out, to accomplish, to perform. When Jesus Christ accomplished salvation on the cross He used this same verb, tetelestai, the same perfect tense from telew. It means accomplished in he past with existing results, the existing result is salvation. This is a dramatic perfect used by Paul, the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. It is a very strong principle, he has finished in the past and has not left anything unfinished, and it also says in the dramatic perfect, No regrets of any kind. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. “course” — dromoj which means a race course, it was used for the track which went around the inside of the stadium. It is also used for the course of life. “I have kept” — incorrect. Terew means to guard something that belongs to you. Doctrine belonged to Paul and he guarded it. This is a consummative perfect in which the completed process is emphasised. “faith” is pistij. This word means a lot of things but it can be divided into three categories. It means in the active sense “trust, faith, confidence.” But we do not have the active sense here. There is also a causative sense in which it means “faithfulness, reliability,” that which causes faith. But we have the passive sense here in which we have that which is believed, the body of faith or belief, and therefore it is often translated “doctrine.” “I have guarded the doctrine.” It refers to the doctrine resident in Paul’s soul. Doctrine is guarded or preserved in the soul by the perpetuation of the function of GAP. This is the written deposition of an ultra-super-grace believer. This testimony belongs only to the ultra-super-grace believer, it belongs to the person who has broken the maturity barrier. Verse 8 — the anticipation of surpassing grace reward. “Henceforth” — the adverbial accusative of time, also an accusative of reference, from the adjective loipoj and it should be translated “In the future” here. “there is laid up” — present passive indicative of the compound verb a)pokeinai [a)po = from or away from; kainai = to lie, to recline] which means to lie away, to put away, to store up, to preserve, to reserve, to be laid up. In other words, that which can be counted on in the future. The verb is a static present tense which indicates there are decorations for the ultra-super-grace believer and these decorations are going to be perpetuated forever in heaven. The apostle Paul will wear the highest decoration that can be received from God and every day that he wears that for billions of years he will never be without it in his resurrection body, it will be a wreath around his head and it will glorify Jesus Christ forever. “crown” — stefanoj is not a crown, it is a wreath. “for me” — the dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw. The indirect object indicates the super-grace believer in whose interest the decoration is given. So we have a dative of advantage, to have this wreath is the greatest advantage that ever existed. “crown of righteousness” — the nominative singular from the noun stefanoj; plus dikaiosunh , descriptive genitive singular from the noun. 1. It denotes righteousness or honour in the sense of fulfilling divine statutes or duty toward God. 2. Dikaiosunh represents the second stage of word construction in the philology of Hellenistic languages. That is, the primary word from which this is taken is dikh. And there is an adjective that went with it, dikaioj. But when the suffix sunh is added you have an entirely different meaning. Dikh means righteousness; dikaioj is the adjective’ so dikaiosunh represents a philological second stage. 3. The reason we know this in part is from the suffix sunh which indicates the development of the Greek sense of law. 4. Therefore the noun was not found in Homer. The suffix indicates the refinement of abstract thought, of which Homer had none (or the epic poetry period). 5. Dikaiosunh became therefore a word for civile virtue, a word for the observance of law and the fulfillment of one’s duty. This is how it crept into the fifth century BC, the highest period of the statement of abstract thought. 6. For example, Plato used the term dikaiosunh for his Utopia. In his Dialogue he links dikaiosunh with another word that helps us to understand its use here — sofrosunh which is very significant because it means to be rational, to be mentally sound, to be reasonable, to have common sense, to have the ability to be on the inside of something and to have so much frame of reference and ability to use your vocabulary that you can work yourself from an inner ignorance to an outer cognisance. Dkiaosunh is a word that goes with it, they are equivalents, so Paul uses it in that sense: as a state of life, as the fulfillment of a duty and responsibility toward God. Like Plato, he links the connotation of the noun with the content of thinking in the soul. Therefore dikaiosunh becomes a perfect way to describe breaking through that maturity barrier. So dikaiosunh is the fulfillment of the duty, the responsibility of the royal family of God whereby the believer breaks the maturity barrier and goes to every objective designed by God in grace for every believer. “In the future a wreath of that righteousness” means total fulfillment of spiritual progress from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. Verse 8b — “which the Lord” is the accusative singular of the relative pronoun o(j, plus o( kurioj, denoting deity and is a reference specifically here to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is going to give us all our “efficiency rating.” “the righteous judge” — o( dikaioj krithj. Ktrithj is where we get the English word “critic” and it means a judge or an evaluator. Dikaioj here is different from dikaiosunh, it means total objectivity, a perfect evaluation based upon all of the facts of the case. “shall give” is the future active indicative of the compound verb a)pididomi [a)po = from, away from; didomi = to give] which means to award, to give out, to give away. We translate it, “who will award.” The gnomic future is for a statement of fact that may be rightfully expected for any believer who breaks the maturity barrier and goes to super-grace, and from super-grace to ultra-super-grace, and so on. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ — Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 6:7-12. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality. This is the reality of that future event where every believer will receive an efficiency rating from day one, salvation, to the end of his life on this earth. There will be decorations for some, there will be loss of decorations for others, but those who have decorations will wear them on their resurrection bodies forever and ever and ever. And the wearing of these day in and day out for millions of years will continually glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. “me” — We also have a dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw. “at that day” is e)n plus the locative of e)keinoj, the remote demonstrative referring to something that is distant — the judgment seat of Christ. It should be translated “on that day.” “and not only to me” — o)u monon de e)moi, which is not only to Paul. “but unto all them also that love” — “love” is the perfect active participle of a)gapaw. Here it is used for category #1 love to the maximum. This is category #1 love on the other side of the maturity barrier. The definite article in this participle is used as a relative pronoun. The perfect tense is intensive perfect, it indicates a completed action — maximum category #1 love of the person who has broken the maturity barrier. It indicates that they have not only broken the maturity barrier but they have maximised it in the maturity barrier, they have gone all the way to ultra-super-grace. So the intensive perfect emphasises the existing results — maximum capacity for love, maximum capacity to love the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot have a sentimental love for Jesus Christ, that is not love at all. If you don’t have doctrine in your soul you do not love Jesus Christ. The active voice: super-grace/ultra-super-grace believers produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “his appearing” is a reference to the Rapture, it should be “his appearance.” Translation: “In the future [phase three] a wreath of that righteousness, is reserved for me, which wreath the Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award me on that day [judgment seat of Christ]: and not to me only, but also to those who have loved his appearance.” Crowns or wreaths are reserved as the highest decorations for the super-grace and ultra-super-grace believer, those who have cracked the maturity barrier. Crowns/wreaths do not express the entire range of decorations that will be given at the judgment seat of Christ, it only expresses the highest. In other words, those who have maximised it in life, they are the ones who get the wreath. But there will be other decorations. However, it should be understood that there will be a lot of people who will pass before the evaluation board of one, the Lord Jesus Christ, and will receive nothing except the burning of their human good. These people will have only ultimate sanctification, a resurrection body minus the old sin nature, minus human good, minus the lake of fire, and that is all. The doctrine of surpassing grace 1. The principle of nomenclature. The nomenclature is derived from a literal translation of Ephesians 2:7 — “That is the approaching ages [passing the eternity barrier, phase three] he might demonstrate his surpassing grace riches...” Surpassing grace is the optimum in spiritual achievement, the maximum in blessing and reward, the ultimate in glorifying Christ. Surpassing connotes something beyond super-grace as well as something beyond time. 2. There are two special blessing paragraphs in the grace plan of God. Paragraph #1 has to do with reward in time — SG2. Paragraph SG3 is reward and decorations in eternity. The special blessing and reward category for time: a) Spiritual blessing — occupation with Christ or maximum category #1 love, receiving from God +H (sharing God’s happiness), capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, total appreciation of God and God’s priorities, the ability to face any suffering or pressure or disaster in life. In ultra-super-grace the believer has an intensification of spiritual blessing under a maximum and continual opposition and persecution from Satan. b) Temporal blessings — wealth, success, promotion, advancement in some sphere of life, prosperity, social prosperity, sexual prosperity, professional prosperity, technical prosperity, cultural prosperity, establishment prosperity, economic prosperity, etc. c) Blessing by association. Those in the periphery of the super-grace or the ultra-super-grace believer are blessed by their relationship or association with that super-grace believer. The mechanics of this blessing is twofold: direct blessing from God in the association or direct blessing from the super-grace or ultra-super-grace believer. There are peripheral areas of blessing by association. There is the loved one periphery, the concept of category #2 love, or family or friends. d) Historical blessing. This is operation spiritual Atlas, the doctrinal principle that the super-grace believer is the spiritual Atlas of his generation. In addition, certain ultra-super-grace believers become stabilisers in all historical generations. The super-grace and ultra-super-grace believer is on the right side of history. As such he supports and sustains his generation in history. e) Dying blessing. Every believer has a choice in life of either going with God’s love for blessing or God’s love for discipline. Whichever way the believer goes is determined by his attitude toward Bible doctrine. The termination point for reversionism is the sin unto death; the termination point for those who break the maturity barrier is dying grace. Dying grace is a perfect termination point. The one who breaks the maturity barrier has the best in life. Then when he gets to dying he has something even better. When he moves into eternity he has better than the best. f) There is a special paragraph of blessing and reward for some believers in eternity. The word “some” merely means that while God has designed it for all only those who break the maturity barrier are going to be in for paragraph SG2. 3. Definition. Surpassing grace is the status of special blessing and reward in eternity for the believer who breaks the maturity barrier, for the believer who attains super-grace or ultra-super-grace in time. Surpassing grace is a status quo above and beyond ultimate sanctification. It is in the same sphere of ultimate sanctification — phase three — but it is above and beyond ultimate sanctification. Surpassing grace is the ultimate in regenerate mankind for glorifying God. 4. The judgment seat of Christ is the basis for the administration of surpassing grace blessings and rewards for mature believers. 2 Corinthians 5:10. 5. The reversionistic believer therefore can lose SG2 but not his salvation — 2 Timothy 2:11-13. 6. The judgment seat of Christ eliminates any necessity of judging or maligning another believer. It is not our responsibility at all to judge others. Romans 14:10. 7. The daily function of GAP is the key to breaking through the maturity barrier. Breaking through the maturity barrier includes advancing to super-grace, then on to ultra-super-grace, and concludes with dying grace. This is the basis for blessing and reward in eternity under paragraph SG3. Cf. James 1:25; 2:12,13. 8. The analogy to the judgment seat

 of Christ is found in Hebrews 6.

 9. Crowns are the highest decorations in eternity. All crowns or wreaths are given to believers who break the maturity barrier. There are three crowns. They are not all different in one sense, and yet they are different. The first one is called “righteousness,” the second one is called “life,” the third is called “glory.” The stefanoj of righteousness is the decoration given to either a super-grace or an ultra-super-grace believer for breaking the barrier. It means that he had SG2 in time and he will wear forever and ever this highest decoration. The second crown is for ultra-super-grace believers only. To wear this one requires wearing that mantle of ultra-super-grace for apparently a period of time. The third one is solely for the pastor-teacher who reaches super-grace or ultra-super-grace and leads members of his congregation by faithful teaching of the Word of God. All of these wreaths are related to breaking the maturity barrier. Beyond ultimate sanctification there are a series of decorations which, as they get greater and greater, glorify the Lord Jesus Christ to the maximum forever and ever. There will be great variations in heaven between believers, between their blessings and their decorations. All believers have in common ultimate sanctification, all believers will have a resurrection body. All believers will have a loss of the old sin nature and a total perfection forever. All believers will be free from the lake of fire, free from any future discipline or judgment; all of that will be behind, for one we pass into phase three, either by physical death or resurrection, there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things are passed away. There is no excuse for any believer in all of human history to fail to reach the top three decorations. They are open for every believer, they are decreed in eternity past for every believer, and it is attitude toward doctrine that will determine whether any believer reaches this sphere or not. There will be a large number of believers in ultimate sanctification minus any decoration. Then there will be those who will have varying decorations which are not revealed because the only ones worth revealing are the top three. The background for these decorations in the Roman army. All crowns or wreaths are given to believers on the basis of breaking the maturity barrier. These decorations are analogous to the decorations of the Roman soldier in the ancient world. They had a series of decorations. All campaign medals were worn on a piece or leather worn across the breast plate on special occasions. The highest decoration that any Roman soldier could receive would be around his head. He would wear a stefanoj, a wreath made of either oak leaves of gold, laurel leaves of gold, or a woven grass gold wreath. These decorations also carried an annual sum of money whereby a soldier could become very wealthy. The wreath or the stefanoj of righteousness 1. All who break the maturity barrier not only have maximum love for Jesus Christ but they love the Rapture as the parade in which they will receive their formal decorations. 2. The crown or wreath of righteousness is the total fulfillment of spiritual progress. You get this crown by breaking the maturity barrier. 3. This wreath or highest decoration belongs to all who reach and hold super-grace. The wreath or stefanoj of life This highest decoration belongs only to the ultra-super-grace believer. It includes the mantle of constant pressure, persecution, and opposition from Satanic forces. You do not receive this by suffering, you receive it by taking in more doctrine. It is mentioned in James 1:12. This highest decoration glorifies Jesus Christ forever, it is a part of the ultra-super-grace believer’s paragraph SG3. Revelation 2:10. The wreath or stefanoj of glory You have to have the other two to get this one but it is only open to one category. You have to be a male believer, have the gift of pastor-teacher, and lead a congregation to maturity. This is awarded to the pastor-teacher who attains super-grace, then ultra-super-grace, and leads some of his congregation to the same status. There is a principle here: No pastor can take his congregation beyond his own spiritual growth. Two things occur when a pastor is faithful and consistent in the study of the Word of God. He continues to grow spiritually through his own personal study and this results in breaking the maturity barrier for himself. Secondly, he communicates the results of his study to the congregation, he teaches in an expository manner, line upon line and precept upon precept resulting in spiritual growth of his congregation. Eventually, those who are positive and persevere and are consistent in positive volition will break the maturity barrier. In this way the pastor attains maximum spiritual growth without which he cannot lead his congregation to maximum spiritual growth. No congregation can grow on programs, devotionals, textual sermons, epigrams, counseling, operation lonely hearts, or any other substitute for consistent Bible teaching. The royal family of God can only grow spiritually under strict academic discipline and through the filling of the Spirit. The royal family of God can only grow through day by day intake of spiritual food or Bible doctrine. Without spiritual food there is no spiritual growth — 1 Corinthians 11:14,15. The Jews did not have in their dispensation the stefanoj or the concept of the crown, the only crown that they knew was the crown that a king wore. This was strictly a Greco-Roman concept, New Testament only, and there had to be some way of designating this for Moses. It is not technically correct to say that Moses will wear a stefanoj because God had another way of explaining the highest decorations for those who broke the maturity barrier in the Old Testament. This is found under the concept of the highest decoration given to the Old Testament believer, the one who broke the maturity barrier, it is related to the eternal holy city. This is found, for example, in Hebrews 11:9,10,13,16. Philippians 3:4-7 Verse 4 — Paul develops the concept of human celebrityship and how it must never be a hindrance in any way. Human celebrityship is not even usable in the spiritual life. Paul himself within the framework of Judaism was one of the greatest celebrities of all. It did not hinder him, it did not hold him back. Success did not spoil Paul, he ignored human celebrityship and went to something far greater. “Though” — the conjunction kaiper, composed of the conjunction kai and the particle per. Per does not occur except as a part of another word and it emphasises the meaning of the word to which it is affixed. Here it means “Although” or “Even though.” It indicates that Paul had a greater basis for confidence in the flesh than any of his critics. His critics all claimed to be great in Judaism. Paul was in human celebrityship the greatest of all people in Judaism but he is pointing out that none of the people have attained the ability that he attained in Judaism and yet they are trying to say that security is in human celebrityship, security is in human success. “I might also have” — the present active participle of e)xw plus the proleptic use of the personal pronoun e)gw. When you put these two together it is a very strong phrase of human confidence. “Even though I myself might be having.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it represents to the mind the facts which have occurred at this stage. Paul had reached the top of human celebrityship in the field of Judaism. The active voice: the apostle Paul produced the action in the past. The participle is concessive in which Paul recognises his own superiority over his critics who are struggling in the field of Judaism, whereas he attained in the field of Judaism. “confidence” — the accusative singular direct object pepoiqhsijij about as string a word for confidence as you can get. It has the active noun suffix and it has the prefix of the perfect tense of peiqw, so it is one of those coined words which is an extremely strong word for confidence. “in the flesh” — e)n plus the locative of sarc, and flesh here merely means in the human sphere. “If” introduces the first class condition. This is the conditional particle e)i which is the protasis of a first class condition which should be translated “If and it is true.” A conditional clause is the statement of a supposition the fulfillment of which is assumed to secure the realisation of the potential fact expressed in the companion clause. This means that every one of these clauses has a protasis and an apodasis. From this protasis, the “if” clause, will coma an apodasis which builds upon the assumption of the first clause. “anyone” — an enclitic indefinite particle tij, and this means the whole wide world here; “other” is simply a)lloj meaning other of the same category. “think” — present active indicative of dokew which means to assume. This is what Paul’s critics assume. They are looking down their nose at Paul and are saying they are high in Judaism and Paul as a Christian is way down low, and he will never be a good Christian because he isn’t high enough in Judaism. That is an assumption on their part and therefore dokew is used in the concept of subjective opinion or assumption. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs among those who are Paul’s critics and struggling in Judaism. The active voice: the Judaisers are producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for reality. “he hath whereof he might trust” — the perfect active infinitive of peiqw. Peiqw has three different meanings. In the present tense it is used for obedience. In the aorist tense it is used for faith. But in the perfect tense it is used for confidence. This is the intensive perfect tense in which we have a completed action emphasising the existing results of status quo. The active voice: the Judaisers produce the action of the verb. The infinitive is one of result. However, the infinitive of result can be expressed in three categories: actual result, intended result, conceived result. Here we have a conceived result and therefore goes on to take the position they have assumed. “I more” — the apodasis. This is Paul’s superiority and supremacy in the field of legalistic Judaism. Translation: “Even though I myself might be having confidence in the flesh. If anyone of the same category assumes to have confidence in the flesh, I more.” The false perspective of the old standards of Judaism is given in verses 5,6. Verse 5 — ritual confidence: circumcision. The dative of advantage from peritomh, the word for circumcision. Paul was circumcised by being born a Jew and he was therefore circumcised on the eighth day which was considered the first day on which an operation was safe on a baby because the eighth day was the first day of babyhood when the blood would coagulate. The Judaisers too the ritual without the reality of salvation and therefore used it as a basis for being critical of Paul. Paul did not teach circumcision as being necessary for salvation, he did not teach circumcision as being necessary for spirituality, and therefore they were very antagonistic. The key is in Bible doctrine, not in the ritual of circumcision. There are other people disinterested in the ritual related to any ecclesiastical organisation or to any group of religious people at any time in history. Their interest falls in the field of racial confidence. “of the stock” — e)k plus genoj is “from the race.” Paul was stating something that the Judaisers did not have. All of Paul’s critics were former Gentiles who had been proselytized, they couldn’t say that they were born from the race of Israel. So they had no racial confidence. Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin, the warrior tribe of Israel which had military celebrityship. “and Hebrew of the Hebrews — national confidence, E(braioj e)c E(braiwn, “a Hebrew from the Hebrews.” This refers to Jewish nationalism and patriotism. It also refers to the conservative Jewish culture in contrast to the liberal Hellenistic culture. “as touching the law, a Pharisee” — Paul’s religious confidence. Kata plus the accusative singular of nomoj, is “with reference to the law,” plus Farisaioj, the party of the scribes in the Sanhedrin. The word actually means a separatist, a conservative. The New Testament writers mention the Pharisees many times under the assumption that the readers knew and understood them. They emphasised not the general doctrines of the Pharisees but where those doctrines differed from our Lord. Our Lord in a sense was pro-Pharisee but legalism had destroyed the Pharisees during our Lord’s ministry and they opposed Him. Therefore in the four Gospels only where the Lord differed from the Pharisees are there references to any Pharisaical doctrines. The traditions of the Pharisees began with scribes or theologians. They were opposed to have begun in 459 BC with Ezra and continued through the second century. They were active supporters of Judas Maccabaeus and the struggle for freedom against Antiochus Epiphanes. Somewhere about 134 BC the Pharisees became known as Pharisees or separatists and they became powerful under the rule of John Hercanus seeking to control the religion of the state. This is where they begin to digress. The Pharisees represent religious confidence and legalism. Translation: “Circumcised on the eighth day, from the race of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew from the Hebrews; with reference to the law, a Pharisee.” Verse 6 — the function of confidence. “zeal” — kata plus the accusative of zhloj is “with reference to zeal.” “persecuting” — the present active participle of diwkw. The word has two meanings. It means to persecute, as here, but it also means to press, to pursue. This is an historical present. The active voice: Saul of Tarsus produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. The linear aktionsart is very strong. Until the very moment of his salvation Paul had a tremendous desire to kill all Christians in existence. So if the standard of measurement is zeal Paul was superior to his peers among the Judaisers for he had persecuted and killed all kinds of Christians. Whereas the Judaisers opposed Paul and only persecuted grace type believers Paul persecuted all kinds of Christians when he was a Judaiser. “touching the righteousness” — kata plus the accusative of dikaiosunh which this time is used for self-righteousness or human righteousness. So, “with reference to self-righteousness.” “which is in the law” is “in the sphere of the law.” Then we have to insert the aorist active participle of the verb ginomai which means to occur or to become. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes keeping the law as a way of life and resultant self-righteousness and arrogance, and gathers it up into one entirety. Paul was always smug and self-righteous. He kept the law and as he did his arrogance increased. He had a totally sanctimonious attitude at the point of salvation. “blameless” — the predicate adjective from a)memptoj, which means to be blameless or having become blameless with ginomai. Translation: “With reference to zeal, persecuting the church; with reference to self-righteousness in the law, having become blameless.” Verse 7 — the new perspective, new standard. “But what things” — “what things” is a qualitative pronoun o(stij, “But what quality of things.” It is a reference to the standards of human celebrityship, to the erroneous perspective and the false standards of the unbeliever in reversionism. “were” — imperfect active indicative of e)imi, in contrast to ginomai. The imperfect tense is a customary imperfect for what has regularly or ordinarily occurred in past time. The active voice: Paul as Saul of Tarsus produced the action of the verb in the field of legalistic self-righteousness. The indicative mood is for the reality of the fact. “gain” is an incorrect translation. It is the nominative plural of kerdoj which in the plural refers to all of these gains. He now consigns these gains to divine viewpoint attitude. “those” is the demonstrative pronoun nominative plural from o(utoj, a near demonstrative which refers to something in the same sentence — “those same gains,” in other words. “I counted” — the perfect middle indicative of the verb e(geomai which means to be a guide, to have knowledge as a guide, to be an expert in something through knowledge. Here it is to conclude as an expert. Paul draws a very strong conclusion. This is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, it places great emphasis on the results which have been completed and the action that follows. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome of the action of the verb. This middle voice stresses the subject as the agent of the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that Paul, having broken through the maturity barriers, now recognises that every area of human celebrityship when it conflicts with doctrine is out. “loss” — the accusative singular of zhmia. All of his human celebrityship areas he put together and called “gains.” Now he lumps them once more and superimposes divine viewpoint [doctrine] on that plural and makes them one loss. “for Christ” is dia plus the accusative of Xristoj which means “because of Christ.” Translation: “What category of things were gains to me, these same things I myself have concluded one loss because of the Christ.” Principle 1. This is the perspective of the one who breaks the maturity barrier. This is the attitude of the believer who is occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. 2. This attitude is not acquired by renouncing or giving up any human recognition or human achievement. Philippians 3:18 Verses 18-19, the opposition of reversionism. Verse 18 — “For many walk” begins with the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. It indicates the necessity for the continuation of the function of GAP after reaching super-grace status. The word “many” is the nominative masculine plural from the adjective poluj. This refers to the large number of believers who, when historical disaster occurred or because they reacted to something else, fell into reversionism, got under the influence of evil and became the greatest enemy of Christianity. The same thing is true today. Plus the verb, the present active indicative peripatew which has to do with modus vivendi, the way of life of the reversionistic believer. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present, it denotes reversionism begun in the past and continuing into the present time. The active voice: believers in various stages of reversionism produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Widespread reversionism and the influence of evil in the first century was the enemy of the truth. “of whom” is the accusative plural from the relative pronoun o(j. This is the adverbial accusative of reference. It should be translated “concerning whom.” “I have told” — Paul always levels and is straight to every generation. The greatest writer of scripture, the man who wrote the deepest and most important doctrines, the one who talks the most about advance in the Christian, the one who is always straight down the middle and levels with everyone in his generation and every generation thereafter, is the apostle Paul. His epistles show what an ass the believer is in reversionism. The imperfect active indicative of legw, which means to talk, to speak, to tell, and here has to do with communication of warning, is translated “I have communicated.” The customary imperfect denotes what has regularly occurred in the past. Paul not only taught new doctrine but he taught the old ones over and over again so there was no excuse for not know them. The active voice: Paul constantly taught that the reversionistic believer under the influence of evil produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is historical reality for Paul’s constant teaching on the subject. “you” — it is not “you” in the singular, it is dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun su and it should be correctly translated “you all.” “often” is an adverb of time, pollakij — “many times.” This describes how frequently and faithfully Paul warned the royal family of God about reversionism, about how easy it is to get into reversionism, and how far it carries one from what was once considered to be wonderful — the cross, grace. Therefore it becomes extremely important; “and now” is nun. “Many times and now.” This should be the motto of every pastor-teacher. “tell” — the present active indicative of legw again. This time it is a descriptive present for teaching in the process of occurrence. The active voice: Paul continues faithful teaching and warning to both Philippians and believers of all generations. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the perpetuation of the Pauline epistles as a part of the canon of scripture, the gist of his teaching which is a monument forever to the importance of persistence to study and teach and the true concept of communication by which all believers grow. “you” — there is no word for “you” here in the original manuscript. “now tell you” — this time with “now” there have been so many failures that he becomes emotionally involved (which is a legitimate function of emotion); “weeping” — the ascensive use of the conjunction kai plus the present active participle from klaiw. This is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time, it was a momentary weeping. But inside Paul could think of all of those people he had known in the past and what wonderful people they were, and yet at the very moment that he writes these people have not only turned against him, but worse, they have turned against the cross. They are anti-Christian Christians, they are reversionists; yet they were former friends. Manliness means that in the soul you are sensitive to others, not insensitive. “they are” — should be “they have made themselves,” added for the sake of translation. “the enemies” — the accusative plural direct object from e)xqroj, used here to describe reversionistic believers under the influence of evil. “of the cross” — descriptive genitive singular from stauroj, referring to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The cross epitomises the principle of grace. “of Christ” — the possessive genitive of the proper noun xristoj. Then we have a definite article to emphasise the uniqueness of the person of Christ. “They have made themselves the enemies of the cross of that same Christ.” Translation: “(For many [reversionists under the influence of evil] keep walking, concerning whom I have communicated to you many times, and now continue communicating even though weeping, that they have made themselves of the cross of that same Christ.” The doctrine of enemyship 1. Definition. The Bible specifies by category certain stated hostilities or alienations. Alienation is to be well acquainted with someone and not like them at all. Hostility is to be ignorant of them and not like them at all. While hostility seems to be irrational so is alienation. So enemyship is divided into two categories: a) alienation; b) hostility. Enemyship is based upon mental attitude sins. That is personal enemyship. There is legitimate enemyship where there is hostility and alienation gathered into one concept and this is based upon a national and historical enemyship. In historical enemyship the Bible often identifies one side as being right and one side as being wrong, and in historical enemyship of the Arabs and the Jews the Bible takes the side of Israel always. There is also an angelic conflict enmity in which Satan is constantly as the ruler of this world seeking to gain his won objectives by means of hatred, by means of enmity. 2. Satan and fallen angels are the enemy of the believer — 1 Timothy 5:14; 1 Peter 5:8. Even the believers he uses are his personal enemy. He does use reversionists. 3. Demons are said to be the enemies of God, operating under the command of Satan — 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 10:13. 4. Unbelievers are the enemies of God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21. All unbelievers are said to be in a state of alienation. 5. Both categories of enemies of God — demons and unbelievers, angels and human beings — will be judged by the lake of fire — Hebrews 10:27. The unbeliever is like the demon in that the demon has made his decision in some angelic history of the past and he has been consigned to the lake of fire. The sentence has not been executed even though it has been given, says Matthew 25:41, and it will not be executed until the end of human history, after the Millennium. The unbeliever is the person who is going to the lake of fire for one reason only: because he has rejected personally the Lord Jesus Christ — John 3:18. 6. The carnal believer becomes a temporary enemy of God by being out of fellowship — Romans 8:7,8. 7. God is the enemy of the reversionistic believer. That is the statement of 1 Samuel 28:16. 8. The reversionistic believer is the enemy of God — James 4:4. 9. The reversionistic believer is the enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18. 10. The pastor who counters legalism with truth is considered the enemy of the legalist. In other words, the pastor who is teaching the truth makes an enemy out of the reversionist, out of the legalistic believer — Galatians 4:16. 11. Those who resist his authority and resist the doctrine from the pastor who communicates it to them become the enemy of that pastor. Verse 19 — four characteristics of reversionism are given in this verse. a) The reversionist transfers to eternity through maximum divine discipline. “Whose” is a descriptive genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j. It has as its antecedent the reversionist of the previous verse who becomes the enemy of the cross. “end” — the nominative singular subject from the noun teloj. It means termination, cessation, conclusion. The termination here refers to the termination of life. Plus what is not found, the present active indicative of e)imi, a static present. This is what happens to those who are the enemies of God. They keep on being. We will translate it, “whose termination of life is.” Then we have a predicate nominative singular which is how we know e)imi is to be added. This is very elliptical, Paul is weeping here. Paul is seeing the principle of how the many times believers become the enemies of God, and he now uses the predicate nominative singular from the noun a)pwleia which denotes destruction which causes waste, or destruction which one experiences. The former is a transitive meaning and the latter is intransitive. The intransitive is correct here for this passage. Hence, destruction that one experiences is translated here “ruin” if it is understood that the word ruin here refers to the administration of the sin unto death to the born again believer who is the enemy of the cross. So our first characteristic: “Whose termination of life is ruin.” The doctrine of the sin unto death 1. Definition and description. a) Death is the usual way of transfer from time to eternity, but not the only way. b) There are three cause for Christian death. i. Dying grace for the advancing believer, the believer who cracks the maturity barrier. It is always related to blessing. ii. Disciplinary death. This is for reversionistic believers under the influence of evil. It is called the sin unto death and it is always associated with great failure in the spiritual life, suffering and pain, going through all of the eight stages of reversionism, through the stage of warning discipline, then intensive discipline, and finally dying discipline. iii. Reversionistic superimposition — Christian suicide. In other words, in suicide the reversionistic believer superimposes his own volition over divine volition and takes his life before it is God’s will to remove his life. c) There are four ways to transfer from time to eternity. The first is the sin unto death, maximum discipline in dying. The second is dying grace, maximum blessing in death. The third is resurrection or the Rapture. The fourth is transfer from time to eternity by surpassing grace blessing, like Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, or Elijah. d) The sin unto death is the means by which the reversionistic believer transfers from time to eternity. e) He does under the administration from God of maximum punitive discipline. God pronounces the sin unto death penalty on the reversionist but He delegates the responsibility of execution — for example, to Satan as in the case of the incestuous believer in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 5; for example, to divine establishment government — capital punishment; or He may utilise the very structure of the individual’s body and bring into his body some very devastating disease or series of diseases; for example, historical administration — battlefields, and so on, like king Saul. f) No believer will suffer or be miserable in phase three. There will be no pain or embarrassment. Revelation 21:4. g) Therefore the sin unto death is God’s greatest and last expression of divine discipline to the reversionistic believer. h) The sin unto death includes a painful, horrible, miserable death, plus loss of two categories of great divine blessing. One goes back to time and the other is in eternity. In time it is loss of paragraph SG2; in eternity it is minus paragraph SG3. 2. The documentation of the sin unto death. Old Testament documentation: Psalm 118:17,18; New Testament documentation: 1 John 5:16. 3. The cause of the sin unto death is reversionism. There are several passage which summarise the cause of the sin unto death as being reversionism — Jeremiah 9:13-16. The “law” here is the principle of establishment by which freedom exists; “not obeyed my voice” is rejection of doctrine by believers — reversionism. Jeremiah 44:12 is how they will meet their end. Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation 3:15,16. 4. The administration of the sin unto death does not mean loss of salvation — 2 Timothy 2:11-13. 5. Case histories of the sin unto death. Monetary reversionism — Acts 5:1-10; Phallic reversionism — 1 Corinthians 5:1-5; Ritual reversionism — 1 Corinthians 11:30,31; Mental attitude reversionism — 1 Samuel 13:9-14; 1 Chronicles 10:13,14; Verbal reversionism — 1 Timothy 1:19,20; Antiestablishment reversionism. Cf. Isaiah 30:1-3; 31:1-3; 38, the human viewpoint foreign policy of king Hezekiah. 6. The concept of reversion recovery. First of all you have to want to do something about it, and that usually occurs in intensive discipline, sometimes in dying discipline. So we have the principle of repentance in 2 Timothy 2:24-26. By constant teaching of the Word people respond to the doctrinal teaching and change their mind and decide to get with doctrine. The first part of reversion recovery is the principle of changing ones mind about doctrine. It is called repentance. The second is the role of rebound — 1 Corinthians 11:30,31. The ultimate factor in reversion recovery is found in James 4:4-8, the persistent, daily function of GAP. Verse 19b — reversionists are influenced by emotional revolt. “whose God is their belly” — “whose God” is the descriptive genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j which has as its antecedent the reversionist who is described in the first category as being under the sin unto death. Now we find that every reversionist has a god, and the god is definitely not God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. So this god , while it is the word qeoj, should not have a capital “g” but a small “g.” It does not refer to any member of the Trinity. We also have the present active indicative of e)imi because we have a predicate nominative coming up. E)imi is not found in the Greek text but understood. The word “belly” is a predicate nominative from the noun koilia, used here for emotion. There is also a definite article used as a possessive pronoun and the literal translation is, “whose god is his emotion.” All reversionists have emotion as their god. How they feel is their dictator. The doctrine of the emotions of the soul 1. Because emotion has several analogies to physiology we have three different words used for emotions in the Bible. For example, we have the word “belly” used in that way — Romans 16:17,18; Proverbs 18:8; 26:22; 13:25; Philippians 3:19. “Belly” means emotion. This is a good analogy for emotion because the stomach region contains nothing but it responds to food. It is empty and it is designed to respond. Then we have the word “bowels” which is also used for the emotions of the soul — Genesis 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Jeremiah 4:19; 31:20; Lamentations 1:20; 2:11; Philippians 1:8; Philemon 12,20. The emotion also handles waste of the soul like the physiological intestines, and therefore becomes another illustration. The third word is “reins” which is a portion of the anatomy, as per old English. The word simply means the kidneys. Psalm 7:9; 26:2; 139:13; Proverbs 23:16; Jeremiah 12:12; 17:10; 20:12. All this means that originally in the Hebrew and in the Greek there was no vocabulary word for emotions as such. In the English we have such a vocabulary word but the original languages did not possess it. Therefore other words had to be substituted to indicate that English word. Words of anatomy which have parallel functions to parts of the soul were used. 2. Definition and function of the emotions. a) Emotion is the responder and the appreciator and the responder of the right lobe of the soul. It is designed to respond to what you have by way of thought in the right lobe. This is a part of the principle of capacity for life, appreciation for life and enjoyment of life. None of us would be quite normal unless we had emotions. b) The right lobe therefore is analogous to the right man, while emotion is comparable to the right woman. c) Just as a woman has a body and a soul so the right woman of your heart — your emotion — has two parts. The woman’s soul responds to her right lobe just as she responds to her right man in life. She responds to her own thinking, or she reacts to her own thinking in which case the emotion then revolts against what is thought and this is when people become irrational because the emotion is empty, like a stomach. There is no capacity for thinking, no ability to determine what is right or wrong, to reason, to weigh facts, or to handle anything that is rational in life. It is merely a responder but it is a very poor ruler. When emotion starts to run the soul a man, for example, starts to wear his hair too long, a woman cuts hers off and tries to look like a man. So there are outer manifestations, there is a change of mental attitude. Emotional revolt of the soul is one of the most dangerous of all areas of life. The emotion, therefore, can produce a spectrum of response. It can include everything from tranquillity to ecstatics. The emotional response to the old sin nature produces a misery spectrum which we call carnality. In other words, there is competition between your heart or right lobe and the old sin nature which tries to compete. When the believer is carnal he often becomes irrational because the old sin nature is acting as the right man, and he is a pseudo right man, so that the emotion is responding to the old sin nature rather than to the conscience of the soul, doctrine in the frame of reference, categorical doctrine, or doctrine on the launching pad. So by definition the emotion is the appreciator/responder of the soul’s right lobe. By function the emotion responds to the heart as the right man of the soul. 3. Emotions have to be tested by God, and they are. Psalm 7:9; 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20;17:10; 20:12; Revelation 2:23. 4. Emotions can be tested and as a result of this testing they can be destroyed. Job 16:13; Psalm 73:21; Lamentations 3:13. Just as the kidneys can be destroyed by the bladder backing up, or refluxing, so emotions are destroyed by the old sin nature refluxing or by reversionistic refluxing. This means that once you destroy the soul in reversionism (carnality cannot destroy the soul as such) can absolutely destroy the emotion of the soul. Once you wipe out your emotion of the soul your reversion recovery is going to have limited capacity for life because you have lost your responder to what you have in your right lobe. There are two scars which can be received from reversionism. A person who goes into dope addiction is going to destroy brain cells, therefore he is limited in reversion recovery by the fact that he no longer has the function of his right lobe. The same thing is true when if your emotions are destroyed in reversionism there are limitations on your reversion recovery and your enjoyment of your paragraph SG2. The right lobe can be destroyed chemically, it can also be destroyed by the content of the right lobe or reaction against the content of your right lobe. 5. Emotions also react to tragedy — Jeremiah 4:19; Lamentations 1:20; 2:11. This reaction occurs under the status of emotional revolt in which the right lobe’s authority has been neutralised or destroyed so that you cannot see tragedy in the light of Bible doctrine. Emotion revolt is a reaction against divine design. Emotions also respond to tragedy but in the response the Lord gets the glory because the right man is controlling. 6. Emotion is the appreciator of love — Genesis 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Philippians 1:8; 1 John 3:17. When the right lobe has doctrine this means there will be capacity for love. When that same right lobe dominates the soul emotional response makes one very much aware of the fact that he is in love and that love exists in the soul toward God, toward a member of the opposite sex, toward other friends. 7. Emotion stimulates happiness — Proverbs 23:16; Philemon 7, 20. It does it in three areas: the right lobe’s frame of reference, the right lobe’s conscience, and the viewpoint on the launching pad. 8. Emotions and spirituality in dispensations is an important subject, especially in view of the rise of the holy-roller movement. In the Church Age Christ is absent from the earth and therefore the filling of the Spirit produces the character of Christ and the glory of Christ without emotion being a part of it. So the filling of the Spirit in the Church Age means minus emotion. You may have emotion when you are filled with the Spirit but the emotion is not the filling of the Spirit. In the Millennium the filling of the Spirit will be accompanied by emotion, there will be emotion involved in that dispensation because that is the dispensation of perfect environment. But today Christ is absent from the earth and each one of us is the ambassador for Christ, His personal representative. Therefore, according to Galatians 5:22,23 cf. 4:19; Romans 5:5 the Holy Spirit produces certain things in the soul, produces the character of Christ. Emotion was never designed to produce character but to respond to character. Just as grace glues the essence of God together, so emotion as a responder becomes distilled grace; emotion as a dictator is distilled legalism. Emotion and ecstatics have no spiritual content in the Church Age. You can be emotional and filled with the Spirit simultaneously but the two are not related. The tongues movement tries to relate emotion to the filling of the Spirit. In the Millennium it is different because Christ is present on the earth under perfect environment. The angelic conflict is suspended due to the incarceration of Satan and the fallen angels. As in the Church Age all believers are indwelt by the Spirit and commanded to be filled with the Spirit, but because Millennial conditions are given emotion is a bona fide part of the filling of the Spirit. There are certain passages which the holy-rollers try to bring into our age, passages like Joel 2:28,29 which indicate that in that dispensation there will be emotion as a part of the filling of the Spirit. That is because the filling of the Spirit in the Millennium is designed to appreciate Christ who is present rather than to produce the character of Christ in His absence. 9. The emotion of the negative believer hinders learning doctrine — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12. 10. Therefore believers are commanded to separate from believers having emotional revolt of the soul — Romans 16:17,18. The doctrine of historical interpretation 1. Jesus Christ controls history in three ways: a) Direct control through His own divine essence; b) His indirect control through the laws of divine establishment; c) The permissive control principle which permits human volition to function in this phase of the angelic conflict. 2. The Bible is the key to historical interpretation. Historical interpretation is related to God, the unseen world, the angelic conflict, as well as the visible world of mankind. Bible doctrine is the basis for the correct interpretation of history. True history is a series of facts about the human race. To correlate and interpret these facts demands Bible doctrine resident in the soul and therefore the daily function of GAP. This limits the unbeliever’s perspicacity and it also makes it possible for us to have a great advantage in this field because we can not only understand with the unbeliever establishment principles but we can understand the doctrine behind these. To correctly understand history, therefore, you have to understand the angelic conflict, the first advent, the cross, the second advent. To correlate history with what is going on today we must understand what has been going on before. 3. The Bible often sheds a great deal of light even on obscure historical events — Judges 3:31 which tells the story of the great movements of the 12th century BC and how the whole world was upset and why. 4. Each generation of history is sustained by super-grace believers — 2 Timothy 1:5,6. 5. The principle of the wrong side of history. There are three concepts taught in 2 Timothy 3 regarding the wrong side of history. a) Description — verses 1-14; b) Opposition from the wrong side of history — verses 5-12; c) Deliverance from the wrong side of history — verses 13-17. 2 Timothy 3:13 — the evangelists of evil, the apostles of apostasy, or those who confuse what is truth by obscuring the correct interpretation of history with a lot of Satanic propaganda. Principle 1. Every generation will possess its apostles and evangelists of evil. 2. Consequently eradication by violence is not the solution. 3. When you use violence to destroy even someone who is wrong you do not solve the problem. You destroy one, and two take his place. The solution to the problem of evil and human good is not found in the destruction of those on the wrong side of history. Violence is not the answer. But violence in the hands of the law and the military is a legitimate function. 4. The apostles of evil will continue in history and their persecution of the super-grace believer will continue unabated in every generation. The answer to this persecution from evil and reversionism is not found in resorting to violence. Bible doctrine transforms those who are on the side of Satan. “But” is the adversative use of the post positive conjunctive particle de. It sets up a contrast between super-grace believers and those under the influence of evil. “evil” — the nominative plural adjective ponhroj; “men” — the nominative plural from the noun a)nqrwpoj. “and seducers” — kai is the ascensive use and should be translated “even,” plus the nominative plural of gohj which means impostors or deceivers. An impostor is a swindler, a deceiver, a cheat. Today the word connotes one who assumes a false character or someone who passes himself off as someone other than he really is. This is what the apostles of evil do. They are always talking about good deeds, environmental problems, the greatest good for the greatest number, the downtrodden, one-worldism, etc. “shall wax” — the future active indicative from the compound verb prokoptw [pro = before; koptw = to cut] which means to cut ahead, to advance, to go forward, to make progress. Here it means to go on in what is evil. The future tense is a predictive future, it predicts what is excepted to occur in future generations. The active voice: evil men, even deceivers, produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for historical reality. “worse and worse” — the preposition e)pi plus the accusative neuter singular of xeiron which is used here in the sense of more and more. There is also a comparative of kakoj, meaning “more evil.” It should be translated so far, “But evil men, even deceivers, will cut there way forward to more and more evil.” In other words, there are two things that can stop evil, neither is violence. The first thing that stops evil is the spiritual factor: doctrine. First it is gospel type of doctrine which converts by faith in Christ. Then it is doctrine which causes growth and ultimately the cracking of the maturity barrier. The second factor that stops evil is the laws of divine establishment. “deceiving” — the present active participle of planaw which means to mislead, to deceive someone. The customary present denotes what habitually occurs. It also denotes what may reasonably expected to occur when mankind becomes involved in reversionism. The active voice: evil men produce the action. The participle is concessive, it concedes the fact that evil men deceive others — “though deceiving others.” “and” is incorrect, we have the adjunctive use of kai which means “also.” “being deceived” — the present passive participle of planaw. They are being deceived by Satan, they are passing their deceit on to others — “are also being deceived,” the customary present for what is expected to occur in the case of reversionists under the influence of evil. The passive voice: evil men who deceive others receive the action of the verb, they are deceived by Satan. The participle is circumstantial. Translation: “But evil men, even deceivers of others, will cut their way forward to more and more evil, though deceiving others they are being deceived [by Satan himself].” All reversionists have been influenced by Satan to the extent that they have been influenced by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is Satan’s plan, Satan’s policy. Satan started by deceiving the woman in the garden and at that time he was not the ruler of the world but he became that by the fall. The fall of man led to the Satanic coup de tat by which he became ruler of the world which added power to his deceit in the human race. So he now has both power and deceit going for him. The doctrine of Satanic strategy 1. The person of Satan. a) The devil is the highest of all angelic creatures — Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18,19. b) The devil is a prehistorical super creature, according to Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19. c) The devil had three falls. Two were in the past and one is in the future. They are described in Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Revelation chapters 12 and 20. d) The devil has two advents. His first advent is in Genesis chapter 3 which found man in perfect environment and he destroyed that by working on the free will of the woman who in turn worked on the man resulting in the fall. e) The devil is the central antagonist of the angelic conflict — Hebrews chapters 1 & 2; Genesis 6; 1 Peter 3:18-22. e) The devil has a tremendous organisation — Ephesians 6:10-12. f) The devil is a murderer from the beginning — John 8:44. g) He is the opponent of Bible doctrine — Matthew 13:9,39. h) He is the enemy of the Church, the royal family of God — Revelation 2:9,13,24. 2. The rulership of the devil. He is the ruler of this world — Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. 3. Therefore the devil does a strategy regarding the nations of the world. The fact that he does manipulate nations is taught in Revelation 12:9; 20:3,8. Hence, Satan or the devil is the chief opponent of the laws of divine establishment and he seeks to break down the sovereignty and freedom of nationalism and in this way control nations. Any system of internationalism is a Satanic system, a system whereby Satan is seeking to control the nations of the world — whether it is political internationalism or religious, it is always anti-doctrinal, anti-Christian, anti-God, and pro-Satan. This is the basic concept by which he controls the nations of the world which he rules. 4. The devil also has strategy with regard to the unbelievers of this world. Since all unbelievers are under Satan’s direct command and power his strategy runs the gamut from blinding the minds of unbelievers who are exposed to the gospel so that they will not be converted to every form of unbeliever reversionism whereby Satan seeks to put his policy of evil into actual operation. Second Peter chapter two deals with this subject entirely. Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; Luke 8:12. Satan uses various gimmicks, like the holy roller system — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:8. And Revelation chapter 17 tells how Satan uses religion to blind the minds of the unbeliever with regard to the gospel, the claims of Jesus Christ on the soul. So religion, therefore, becomes the devil’s ace trump as a part of his strategy against the gospel. 5. The devil has strategy also regarding the believer. The fact of this is found in 2 Corinthians 2:11. This strategy can be broken down into at least seven concepts: a) He tries to get believers under his control and then goes to heaven and accuses them of being under his control. He is the accuser of the believer, in fact that is what the word “devil” means — one who is a liar seeks to bring false information. Job 1:6-11; Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10. But we are represented by counsel in heaven, i.e. we have a defense attorney assigned to us at the point of our salvation — 1 John 2:1,2. b) He sponsors reversionism. It is one of the objectives of Satan to get believers into reversionism in order that he might control him. An unbeliever can be demon possessed; a believer cannot be demon possessed. However, he can be and often is completely under the dominance of Satan through the doctrines of demons which have infiltrated his soul. 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3,13-15. c) He tries to frustrate the will of God in the life of the believer. Since there are three categories of the will of God there is at least one verse in the Bible mentioning the fact that that category has frustration under Satanic attack. The three categories of the will of God: i) Mental — what you should be thinking; ii) Geographical — where you should be at any particular moment; iii) Operational — what you should be doing. Satan seeks to frustrate in these three categories: The mental will of God — Ephesians 4:14; the geographical will of God — 1 Thessalonians 2:18; the operational will of God — James 4:7,8. d) He tries to neutralise doctrinal application. This is through worry, anxiety, mental attitude sins, fear, reaction to historical disaster, panic with regard to the concept of security, etc. 1 Peter 5:7-9. e) He tries to destroy the believer’s focus. The believer must be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, he must keep his eyes on the Lord and keep them there. So to destroy the believer’s focus Satan has ways of causing the believer to get his eyes on people — Jeremiah 17:5; eyes on self — 1 Kings 19:10; eyes on things — Hebrews 13:5,6. f) He tries to get the believer to become involved in improvement of the devil’s world. The reversionistic believer becomes anthropocentric, humanistic, occupied with temporal solutions to man’s problems, trying to advocate systems where the greatest good for the greatest number come into focus, advocating systems of improving man’s environment, social action, social gospel. g) The inculcation of fear of physical death. This is a Satanic principle — Hebrews 2:14,15. 6. Religion is a part of the devil’s strategy. Religion is a creation of Satan’s genius to counterfeit the plan of God. Christianity and religion are not the same. In Christianity man is the beneficiary of God’s work; in religion man seeks to use his own works to gain the approbation of God. Christianity and religion are antithetical. Religion says that man hooks up with God through man’s works, man’s merits, man’s thinking, man’s planning, man’s systems. While religion as a principle represents the evil genius of Satan it has to be viewed some way in which it can be brought together, and one word does this: counterfeit. Religion is a counterfeit for the plan of God. It has at least nine different counterfeits which are taught in the scripture: It has a counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 It has counterfeit ministers — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 It has counterfeit doctrine — 2 Timothy 4:1 It has a counterfeit communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21 It has a counterfeit spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3. It has a counterfeit righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28 It has a counterfeit modus vivendi — Matthew 23:13-36. It has a counterfeit power and dynamics — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10 It has counterfeit gods — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4. 7. False teachers are a part of Satan’s strategy. Satan could get nowhere without his false teachers. False teachers often have a phony and self-righteous facade. They are bleeding-heart do-gooders, sweetness and light love everyone, they are international friendship and love the communists types. They always have a phony facade that impresses the idiot. Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18. These false teachers use human public relations systems and legalistic flirtations to court believers — Galatians 4:17-18; 2 Timothy 3:5-7. These false teachers appeal to human ego and pride — 2 Corinthians 10:12. They promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table — Habakkuk 2:18,19. They also promote legalism and self-righteousness — 1 Timothy 1:7,8. False teachers will continue throughout the angelic conflict and especially in this intensified period — 1 John 4:1. 8. The devil therefore has a specific policy: evil. It is broken down into three areas: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the doctrine of evil, and the application of evil and human good. Verse 14 — deliverance from evil and deceit comes through the daily function of GAP. “But continue thou” — the adversative use of the enclitic conjunction de plus the present active imperative of the verb menw which means here to be continuing, to abide, to remain — “But you be continuing.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. In other words, you have started with doctrine, stay with doctrine. The word “thou” is the proleptic use of the personal pronoun su. The proleptic use has great emphasis. “in the things” — a reference to Bible doctrine, the preposition e)n plus the instrumental from the relative pronoun o(j. This is literally, “by means of those doctrines [resident in your soul].” The pronoun o(j is often used as a demonstrative pronoun. This is a reference to Bible doctrine which Timothy has learned during his reversion recovery between AD 66 and 68. “thou hast learned” — the aorist active indicative of the verb manqanw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the continuous function of GAP. It takes every time a believer has assembled to learn doctrine and gathers it up into one whole. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb and he does it through the daily function of GAP which led to his reversion recovery. In effect, every believer should produce the action of this verb. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. It reminds Timothy that he has recovered by learning doctrine, he has now once again broken the maturity barrier, he is a super-grace believer, and the next objective is ultra-super-grace — “you have learned [from the function of GAP].” “and hast been assured of” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai; plus the aorist passive indicative of the verb pistow which means to show one’s self faithful, to prove one’s self faithful. In the passive voice, however, it means to receive confidence. This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the function of GAP in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results of taking in all that doctrine — you have confidence in life, confidence with regard to contemporary history, confidence with regard to our relationship with the Lord, your purpose for being here. The passive voice: the believer who is positive toward doctrine, constantly functioning under GAP receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic reality of the fact. “knowing” — the perfect active participle of o)ida. This is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect which simply indicates an action which has been completed but the result continues. “You have learned with the result that you keep knowing” is what it means. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb as a super-grace believer. This is a circumstantial participle for the daily function of GAP resulting in the super-grace status or spiritual maturity. “of whom” — para plus the ablative from the indefinite pronoun tij — “from whom.” Principles: The plural indicates the teaching ministry of the pastor who communicates the doctrine, plus God the Holy Spirit who makes it a reality and processes it in your soul. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in this teaching ministry is taught in John 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14; 1 John 2:27. But watch it! You don’t learn from the Holy Spirit, you learn from what is taught by your pastor from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Sprit does not teach you apart from the academic discipline of the local church. “thou hast learned” — the aorist active indicative from the verb manqanw which means to learn. From this verb we get the word translated “disciple.” A disciple is a student who is under discipline. He recognises the authority of his communicator. This is the dramatic aorist tense, it is used for stating a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis, it is used to state what has just been realised. The active voice: Timothy, as well as all believers, reach super-grace by strict academic discipline. Translation: “You however, continue abiding by means of those doctrines [resident in your soul], which doctrines you have learned [through the function of GAP] and have received confidence from them, knowing from whom [God the Holy Spirit and your pastor-teacher] you have learned those doctrines.” Principle 1. Bible doctrine is the only way that people grow. 2. There can be no transfer of doctrine without the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. 3. No one ever succeeds in anything in life whether it is in the human realm of the spiritual realm without discipline. Verse 16 — “All scripture,” pasa grafh. The nominative feminine singular of the adjective paj plus the nominative of grafh. This refers to the entire canon of scripture though all of it had not been written at the time of writing. Historically, “all scripture” refers to the Old Testament and the New Testament. Prophetically we have here the entire canon of scripture. “is given by” is not found in the original, there is no following verb at all. The absence of a verb often represents not only the elliptical concept which means great emotion, it also represents great emphasis. This is a very elliptical verse. Usually when a verb is absent and you have a nominative which is a subject followed by a nominative which is obviously a predicate nominative the verb in between is recognised in the idiom as being e)imi. But it is not written in. So, “All scripture is.” “inspiration of God” is one word — qeopneustoj. “Inspiration” means to breathe in; expiration means to breathe out. The KJV translation merely says by implication that when the writers took it in it was inspired but what they wrote wasn’t. So it is incorrect. The predicate nominative is a compound noun — qeoj = God; neustoj = breathed. Qeopneustoj means inhale and exhale: “All scripture is God-breathed.” Nothing is ever living unless it inhales and exhales. The scripture is a living thing because it represents the thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every kind of personality expresses itself and the exhale is just as much doctrine as the inhale. God the Holy Spirit inserted in the soul the information and the information comes out reflecting the personality and everything related to the time in which the man lived but it is still God’s Word. God the Holy Spirit communicated to human authors His complete and coherent message. This is known as “the mind of Christ” — 1 Corinthians 2:16. In it’s communication we call it doctrine. The message communicated by the Holy Spirit to the human authors of scripture was not only for their generation but for all future generations of history. While human authors of scripture had other messages for their own generation only what God intended for all generations was written down. Paul gave a lot of messages that are not recorded. What is recorded is what God wants us to know from Paul’s ministry. This concept is taught in many passages — 2 Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 22:42-43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. So the human authors inhaled that pertinent information provided through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Once inhaled into their souls the human authors of scripture wrote down in their own language of communication the divine message to mankind. In writing down this Spirit-given information the human author did not waive his own human intelligence, nor his vocabulary, nor his individuality, nor his personality, nor his personal feelings. These are all included in the written form of that message. The Spirit-given information to the human author was written within the framework of his human intelligence, his vocabulary, his individuality, his personality, his personal feelings. What the human authors wrote under these conditions was permanently recorded and preserved in perfect accuracy in the original languages of the scripture. The doctrine: God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the authors of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings, or any other factor, His own complete and coherent message to man was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship. “and” introduces the continuative use of the conjunction kai; “is” — there is no verb here in the original manuscript. The elliptical style in this verse which is here the absence of verbs emphasises the importance and the intense concentration of this verse. We have to provide a verb since in the English inserts the verb in order to understand the continuity of the sentence. Therefore we insert “and becomes.” “profitable” — here is the first profit of the Christian: doctrine. This is a predicate adjective from w)felimoj and it means useful, beneficial, advantageous, or profitable: “and become beneficial for doctrine.” “for doctrine” — the preposition proj plus the accusative of didaskalia which means teaching doctrine: “and becomes beneficial for teaching doctrine.” The source book for all messages must be the Word of God. It must be covered line upon line and precept upon precept. As a result it becomes beneficial for other things. “for reproof” — proj plus the accusative of e)legmoj which means “conviction” or “reproof.” This means learning the easy way rather than learning hard way. It is better to be reproved or convicted by the scripture, communicated by the pastor, than by God Himself. We can learn either by the Word of God (doctrinal teaching) or we can learn by divine discipline. “for correction” — proj plus the accusative of e)panorqwsij which means “restoration.” This means restoration from reversionism and the influence of evil. So reproof or conviction refers to carnality but correction or restoration refers to reversionism. “for instruction in righteousness” — proj plus the accusative singular from paideia which here means simply “for training.” Then we have dikaiosunh which means a lot more than righteousness. For the moment we will translate this “for training in the fulfillment of divine statutes.” That is, the training which advances you in the spiritual life. Summary 1. Note the progression of benefit. First, the believer must learn Bible doctrine to grow and reach the objectives of phase two. 2. But the believer must be filled with the Spirit and this is impossible apart from recovery from carnality. 3. Therefore the scripture is beneficial for conviction of sin so that the believer can recover from carnality and so that carnality does not hinder the function of GAP in the life of the believer. 4. The scripture is also beneficial for recovery from reversionism. 5. The believer who reaches super-grace must be trained in the sphere of the righteous objectives, those things that reflect the righteousness of God. 6. Consequently the believer who fails to learn doctrine and fails to use the scripture is on the wrong side of history. 7. For the believer to be on the wrong side of history means reversionism and terrible discipline from God. 8. For the believer to be on the wrong side of history means to be under the influence of evil and consequently the believer serving Satan. 9. To ignore and neglect the scripture means the royal family of God serving Satan and missing the fantastic blessings of paragraphs SG2 and SG3. No believer therefore can afford to be on the wrong side of history, and therefore no believer can afford to neglect the Word of God. Verse 17 — “That” is the conjunction i(na and it introduces a final clause. A final clause denotes and objective, a purpose, an aim. We translate it “In order that.” “the man of God” — nominative singular of a)nqrwpoj. This word is used in order to indicate that born again believers are a part of the angelic conflict and continue to be human beings. We have a genitive of relationship from qeoj, “the man of the God.” This is a reference to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has a relationship with God as indicated by the genitive of relationship. “may be” — present active subjunctive of e)imi. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur from the royal family of God. It is reasonable to expect the believer to be on the right side of history, to be an interpreter of contemporary history by sheer spiritual growth. No one ever breaks the maturity barrier without becoming an interpreter of contemporary history and are therefore fortified against the great danger of reaction to historical disaster. The active voice: the believer or royal family of God produces the action of the verb when under the consistent teaching of the Word of God. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive, it goes with the conjunction i(na to introduce an objective. “perfect” — there are no perfect people in Christianity, there are no perfect people on the earth. This is a predicate nominative, a)rtioj. It means able to meet all demands, proficient. Proficiency begins with maturity. This word is a a(pac legomena. It also means to be suitable or adapted for something. “thoroughly furnished” is the perfect passive participle from the compound verb e)cartizw [e)k = out from; a)rtioj = adaptable], which is translated “having been well prepared.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it denotes a completed action. The completed action is breaking through the super-grace barrier and becoming a super-grace believer. The completed action means that you are now ready for production. The passive voice: the super-grace believer receives the action of the verb, being well prepared. The participle is circumstantial. “unto all good works” — proj plus the accusative of the adjective paj, translated “all,” plus e)rgon, the word for “works,” plus the adjective a)gaqoj which is good of intrinsic value. Translation: “In order that the man of God may be adapted to his super-grace status by having been equipped for every production of divine good.” The doctrine of divine good 1. Divine good is the production of the mature believer or the progressing believer — both are oriented to grace, and it is the natural result, the follow-through, of the mature believer. The production of this good has its source from God. 2. There are three types of good in history: a) human good, the production of evil or the application of Satan’s policy and Satan’s genius to human history; b) moral good, which is the observance of the laws of divine establishment and the cloak in which freedom is wrapped; c) divine good, which is the production of the growing or the mature believer. 3. The sources of divine good. Divine good is the production of the balance of residency of the soul. Consequently there are four sources to be noted: a) the filling of the Spirit. When God the Holy Spirit controls the soul there is production. b) doctrine resident in the soul. The persistent function of GAP causes doctrine resident in the soul from which the filling of the Spirit can produce a more tangible production outside of the local church. c) The super-grace status, the status in which the dynamics of divine good are manifest in maximum production. d) Ultra-super-grace status where every function in life is the production of divine good in the midst of maximum suffering, pressure, opposition, historical disaster. 4. The believer in time is designed to produce divine good — Ephesians 2:10. 5. Therefore the production of divine good has to be related to living grace — 2 Corinthians 9:8. The production of divine good is the result of cracking the maturity barrier. 6. Therefore the production of divine good is related to the function of GAP — Titus 2:7; Colossians 1:9,10. 7. Therefore the production of divine good is related to the super-grace status — 2 Timothy 3:16,17. 8. For production of divine good is an issue in the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21. 9. Therefore the production of divine good is related to the surpassing grace status — 2 Corinthians 5:10. 10. The production of divine good is related to the believer’s honour — 2 Timothy 2:21.

Chapter 4 The outline of the chapter: Paul’s last words of exhortation, verses 1-5. Paul’s last words of anticipation, verse 6-18. Paul’s last words of explanation, verses 9-22. Verse 1 deals with the changing of the guard or the transfer of the colours. “I charge thee” — present middle indicative of the verb diamarturomai [dia = through or by; maturomai = bear witness, affirm] which is a technical term. As a civilian term it means to put someone under oath and if they lie they are to be executed or destroyed in some way. In other words, to be put under and oath which if violated incurs being put under a curse of some kind. It also is used in the military sense for a solemn command issued in the changing of the guard or issued in the transfer of the colours. Perhaps the simplest of all translation is “I adjure,” which means to command solemnly. It means a command that is so solemn that if you violate your trust you are automatically executed, court-martialled, or destroyed. We very easily therefore translate it, “I give a solemn command.” The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. This is the point of time when Paul passes the colours to super-grace Timothy who is on his way to ultra-super-grace. He has commanded Timothy to keep going and warned him about the right and wrong side of history, and at this historical moment there is the changing of the guard. A message to the royal family of God: You will never grow one inch spiritually without taking in doctrine from a communicator of doctrine. A communicator of doctrine must be an authorised communicator. The authorisation and commissioning occurs at the point of salvation when God the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows the spiritual gift. This means that apart from the ministry of your pastor-teacher you cannot grow. The apostle takes the regimental colours [doctrine] and he passes them over to a pastor-teacher, a representative for all pastor-teachers. When Timothy accepted the colours and when Timothy accepted the command to carry on he not only accepted them for himself but he accepted them for all pastor-teachers throughout the Church Age, right down to the Rapture. The only way anyone has ever grown up in the Church Age is to get under their right pastor-teacher. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. Paul produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. The solemn connotation of the verb of adjuration, then, is in keeping with the occasion of passing the colours from Paul to Timothy, from one spiritual leader of one generation to another. But the historical emphasis is on the fact that from that time, in AD 68, right down to the present day the only way that spiritual growth is accomplished under the principles of the angelic conflict is through the pastor-teachers. “therefore” is not found in the original MSS; “before God” — an improper preposition, e)nwpion. The reason this is called an improper preposition is because it really isn’t a preposition at all, it is an adverb. But the Koine Greek had developed such a sophisticated form of communication that they took an adverb and converted it into a preposition. The equivalent to this in a preposition would be proj, a legitimate preposition. Proj would be Classical Greek, saying it in a way in which no one could understand it but everyone is impressed! The Koine Greek of the Bible is street language, down to earth language, “improper language.” One improper word communicates 1000% better than a lot of beautiful euphemisms. The object of this preposition, e)nwpion, is in the genitive case — qeoj. This should be translated “in the presence of the God [God the Father],” but it is not good Greek. it is good English because we translate as good English. “and the Lord Jesus Christ” — this is a transitional use of kai plus the continuation of the prepositional phrase with the genitive of Xristoj and I)hsou. Kurioj, “Lord,” is not found in the passage. “who shall judge” — the articular present active participle of mellw which means to be about to do something, to be on the point of doing something. Here it means to be destined. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun, it’s antecedent in Jesus Christ. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event [judgment seat of Christ] which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The verb itself connotes inevitability. The active voice: Jesus Christ is going to produce the action. The participle is circumstantial. With this is the present active infinitive of krinw which means to judge or to evaluate. it means both here because we have two categories. He will evaluate the believer and judge the unbeliever. The present tense is a static present, it assumes the fact that Jesus Christ will evaluate the royal family of God after the Rapture and also will cast into the lake of fire after judgment the unbeliever. This is confirmed by John 5:22,27. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb after the Rapture of the Church and at the end of the Millennium for the unbeliever. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result in which the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate aim or objective in the plan of God. This construction, therefore, is a blending of purpose and result — “who is destined to judge or evaluate.” “the quick” — the present active participle of zaw means “living.” It is a reference to those believers who are alive at the time of the Rapture. An entire generation of believers is going to be transferred into eternity without dying. This is the mortal putting on immortality — 1 Corinthians 15:53. “the dead” — an accusative plural direct object from nekroj. It refers to members of the royal family who die at any time during the Church Age. This is described as the corruptible putting on incorruption — 1 Corinthians 15:53. “at his appearing” — an accusative of reference from e)pifaneia, referring to the Rapture: “with reference to his appearing.” The appearing is followed by the evaluation of believers only and the next phrase refers to the judgment of the unbeliever. “and his kingdom” — an accusative of reference, basileia. This is used for the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ in other passages. We also have a possessive and descriptive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, emphasising the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world during the Millennium. He supersedes Satan as the ruler of this world and this is a judgment of unbelievers only. Translation: “I solemnly command you [Timothy] in the presence of the God, and Christ Jesus, who is destined to judge the living and the dead, both with reference to his appearance [Rapture] and with reference to his kingdom [the Great White Throne].” Summary 1. This verse sets up the occasion, the changing of the guard, the passing of the colours from one generation to another but historically from one type of communicator to another. 2. This is the passing of the colours from the communicator apostle to another type of communicator — pastor-teacher. 3. Note that in this verse the apostle Paul with his highest authority as a communicator recognises the mutual commander-in-chief of all communicators, whether apostles or pastors — “before the God and Christ Jesus who is destined to judge the living and the dead.” 4. Paul also implies the passing of the colours from an ultra-super-grace believer to one who is expected to reach ultra-super-grace very shortly. 5. The implications of future evaluations of both Paul and Timothy are extremely important. No member of the royal family should overlook that future evaluation resulting in an eternal efficiency report. 6. The implication, then, is obvious. What we do now can glorify God forever. What we fail to do now means that we will live in eternity without glorifying God. Both the super-grace and the ultra-super-grace status have great blessing in life, greater blessing in death, and even greater blessing in eternity. The doctrine of terminal judgments 1. There is a judgment terminating spiritual death. This is a reference to the judgment of the cross. With eternal life the believer is no longer spiritually dead, he is born again. 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21. 2. There is a judgment terminating temporal death. This is a reference to the self-judgment of the believer known as the rebound technique. 1 Corinthians 11:31; 1 Peter 4:17; 1 John 1:9. 3. There is also a judgment terminating human good. This is called the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 6:7-12. 4. There is a judgment terminating the unbelievers in the Tribulation — the baptism of fire. The termination for Jewish unbelievers — Ezekiel 20;34-38; for Gentile unbelievers — Joel 3:11,12; Matthew 25:31-46. 5. There is a judgment terminating human revolution. This is the judgment of the Great White Throne in Revelation 20:12-15. The last revolt is put down, the Gog and Magog revolt, and after that all human revolt is put to an end, all unbelievers either dead or resurrected or living unbelievers, and all are brought up before the Great White Throne judgment and cast into the lake of fire forever. That terminates human revolution. 6. There is a judgment terminating angelic revolution, the judgment of fallen angels — Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10. The termination of both angelic and human revolution means the eternal state begins at that point. Verse 2 — a command to carry on. The changing of the guard has a series of commands. All of these commands are related to one organisation giving way to another organisation. Paul has said to Timothy, “Carry on.” This is the way he says it: “Preach” — aorist active imperative of the verb khrussw. This means to make a public proclamation, a herald making a public proclamation. The verb comes from the herald representing the king — khruc, giving the policy of he king. The herald as the representative in this case is the representative of the King of kings, Jesus Christ. The word “preach” is inappropriate for khrussw because khrussw means to delineate policy. It means to give the policy of the King of kings. The pastor-teacher is the herald of the King of kings. The King is absent, He is represented by His heralds. Where does the pastor, the khruc, get his information? He does not get it directly from the King because the King is seated at the right hand of the Father and is not speaking any more because it is now in written form, the canon of scripture. The policies of the King, the plan of the King, everything that the King wants the Church to know is preserved in the canon of scripture. In order to read the scriptures you must know the language. The herald must know the languages, otherwise if he is depending upon a translation he cannot be sure. Often inaccuracies from the khruc come from a translation which is not inspired. All scripture is God-breathed, not translations! The word translated “preach” here means to function as a herald, to make a proclamation of policy. “Preach” does not mean shouting, it does not mean eloquence. “Preach” means the announcement of policy, the announcement of the doctrine of the King of kings. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the entire ministry — study and teach — and regardless of its extent or duration it gathers it up into a single whole. This is the first command ever given by the dying apostle to the pastor-teacher in the carry on principle. Every generation of pastors must carry on. They carry on by study and teach, study and teach… And if they do not you have disaster, spiritual disaster. In one word a good translation here for khrussw would be “proclaim” if you understand that the proclamation means a total familiarisation with divine policy and an eloquent enucleation of it to a group under strict academic discipline. “the word” — accusative singular direct object from the noun logoj, absolutely the most apropos word that could ever be used. Logoj means a word, any word. Logoj recognises the fact that all thinking in the human race is accomplished by the use of words and that no one can think without words, and that no one can express thought without words. Words have to be put in a certain order to think. They have to be put into sentences and paragraphs so that concepts are developed. But the word “word” here isn’t dealing with your thinking and my thinking, the word here, logoj, is referring to God’s thinking. Immediately we see the problem because God’s thinking is so infinitely superior to human thinking that the problem of communication appears on the surface to be impossible. But it is not impossible because God in His great genius has found languages in which everything that God wants us to know about salvation, His plan, His policies, about the angelic conflict and why we are here, and what we are doing, is communicated. It is all in the scripture in beautiful order but it is made up of words. Principle 1. The apostles are departing from phase two. When John dies in AD 96 the last of the apostles will depart. That stage of heraldry is gone. 2. The old guard has been removed from the scene to be replaced by the young guard, generation after generation of men with the gift of pastor-teacher standing before congregations and delineating the policy. 3. These heralds must reach super-grace and go on to ultra-super-grace. 4. As leaders if they cannot reach maturity by study then the congregation cannot break the maturity barrier by listening, for the congregation grows by listening to doctrine. The pastor-teacher breaks the maturity barrier by study. No congregation ever exceeds the spiritual growth of its pastor-teacher. 5. The pastor must lead his congregation to the objectives of tactical victory in the angelic conflict. He leads by study-and-teach. 6. Every generation of history must have a remnant of super-grace and ultra-super-grace believers to carry their generation as spiritual Atlases. “be instant” — the aorist active imperative of the compound verb e)fisthmi [e)p is the preposition e(pi = by or upon; i(sthmi = to stand] which means to stand by. This is a military verb which means to stand by, therefore it means to be alert. It also means to stick to it, to stand over, to be in charge. But the meaning that really applies here it to be alert or to stick to it. What gives a pastor alertness? Study of the Word. He goes to the canon of scripture and he digs it out. This makes him alert as he transfers the doctrine to his own soul. So it is “stick to studying.” The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states the present reality of alertness with the certitude of a past event, constant study. So the dramatic aorist, lots of constant study, means alertness. Hence, the dramatic aorist emphasises the fact that the pastor must study every day. The active voice: the pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb by constant study of the Word of God. The imperative mood is a command to the pastor to devote his life to the study of the Word. “in season, out of season” — two adverbs: e)ukairoj, it means in time of opportunity, when it is convenient. Do it when it is convenient; a)kairoj, which means “no time,” or in time of no opportunity, or at a time that it is not convenient. Summary 1. “Preach the Word,” which is the first command to carry on emphasises the public teaching of Bible doctrine, while carry on command number 2 emphasises the importance of studying the Word in order to have something to proclaim. 2. The consistency of study and teach is reflected in the two adverbs, e)ukairoj and a)kairoj. 3. Sometimes it is convenient to study. There are some passages that do not interest us as some others, but it is all the Word of God and all equally important. It is all a part of the proclamation passage and whether the pastor is personally interested or not he still studies, then teaches. Studying the Word is as important to the pastor as breathing or eating. He must inhale the Word on a daily basis, he must eat the hidden manna for his own nourishment as well as the nourishment of the sheep. “reprove” — this is a public thing, not a private thing. It is the aorist active imperative of e)legxw and it means to convict in a court of law. Conviction in a court of law is public speaking, the court is filled with people and you are proving that someone is wrong in front of everyone. This is talking about a public rebuke but it isn’t a personal public rebuke. The pastor may be teaching a passage and it covers a certain sin someone in the congregation may get the impression that the pastor knows something about them. He doesn’t but he is rebuking in public if that person is guilty. He doesn’t know who is guilty and who isn’t. And the public doesn’t know the person is being rebuked. This is a public reprimand, not a personal reprimand, except in the sense that all Bible teaching must be personal. If you are listening it is personal to you. It is for you and it is for all of us. E)legxw is a public rebuke but there is nothing personal in it. It means to rebuke, to discipline, to punish when necessary. You can get your discipline in Bible class with everyone else, and without anyone knowing that you are being disciplined or about what. Or you can say no, and not go to Bible class, and get all your divine discipline on the outside where it is painful and you learn the hard way. So you have a choice, and the high and honourable way to get it is to get it with everyone else in public assembly. This is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the entire ministry of the pastor-teacher and gathers it up into a single whole, the occasions when the teaching of the Word of God results in discipline, conviction, public rebuke, of someone sitting in the congregation with the rest of the congregation. The frequency is never noted by the constative aorist. Frequency depends upon the attitude of the congregation toward Bible doctrine and the authority of the pastor-teacher. The active voice: the pastor produces the action by teaching. Public teaching means that those who have failed in some principle are obviously going to be rebuked, convicted, reprimanded, disciplined by what they hear. Those who reject the authority of the pastor, therefore, must either be whipped into line by outside discipline which is painful or they can listen and get it the right way, the objective being to rebound and keep moving. The imperative mood is a command to the pastor. “rebuke” is not in the public assembly, although it can be. It is any time that someone is out of line and it could be in the office, in the hall, in public, in private, it could be anywhere. This is the aorist active imperative from e)pitimaw [e)pi = upon; timaw = to set a value]. To set a value on something means to set honour on something. Timaw means both to accord honour and to blame or punish, and the compound selects the antithetical meaning. It comes to mean to censor, to punish, to reprimand. This means apart from the teaching of the Word. Note that apart from Bible doctrine the pastor has the authority in the local church and has the right to reprimand an individual or a group of individuals not in teaching but in any function of the church action. Again we have the constative aorist which gathers it up into one entirety. The active voice: the pastor alone has this job, he produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to the pastor. “exhort” — while the Greek verb can be “exhort” it means something else here. It is the aorist active imperative of the verb parakalew. This word really means to come in alongside to help someone. It means to summon to one’s side for help, to comfort, to encourage, to cheer up. Xenophen uses this verb in the military context for the encouragement of troops. Actually, the word “exhort” means to encourage, to incite by words or advice. to advise or warn earnestly. We will use the translation “encourage” in the sense of comfort by doctrine. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the teaching of Bible doctrine in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the encouragement and the comfort of the royal family within the sphere of the communicator’s ministry. The sphere of the ministry may be the local church, it may be slightly more extensive. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb through consistent teaching of the Word of God. There is no comfort or encouragement apart from the Word. The imperative mood: this is a command to Timothy, but in reality it is a command to all pastor-teachers throughout the Church Age. “with all long-suffering and doctrine” — this is a preposition phrase with two objects. The word “with” is the preposition e)n plus paj as the adjective. E)n can mean several things as a preposition, depending upon whether the object is in the locative or in the instrumental. In this case we have the instrumental and it should be either “with” or “by all.” The first noun is the instrumental singular of makroqumia, meaning steadfastness, endurance, patience. It does not mean patience in the ordinary sense, no pastor has that much time. It really means tenacity in fulfilling the purpose of the ministry which is teaching. Makroqumia is in contrast to another word which is also translated patience, u(pomonh which means endurance against opposition, against pressure in the ministry. But makroqumia means steadfastness which is the quality of being tenacious. It means fixity of purpose, to have an unshakeable and immovable in the resolution to study and teach and to allow no one to detract from that function. “and doctrine” — a continuation of the prepositional phrase. Kai is simply a conjunction to show that there are two objects of the preposition. This time the instrumental is the noun didaxh which emphasises the message of the pastor. This message, of course, must be the content of the Word of God assimilated into his own soul and then communicated to the congregation. Without the missing link of the pastor-teacher there is no spiritual growth, there is no attainment of super-grace or ultra-super-grace, no tactical victory, no being on the right side of history. Translation: “Proclaim the word; be alert when it is convenient, when it is not convenient; discipline, reprimand, encourage [comfort] by means of steadfastness and by means of doctrine.” In the first three verses we have the changing of the guard. In verse 1 we have the ceremony: the changing of the guard; verse 2: the commands to the new guard in replacing the old guard; verses 3,4: those who will disobey the commands. In verse 5 there is a second set of carryon commands for Timothy in anticipation of recent ultra-super-grace. The doctrine of pastor-teacher 1. Definition and concept. Since every believer is a priest, a member of the royal family of God and therefore a royal priest, it is imperative to understand the system of authority which God has delegated to the pastor-teacher, as well as to understand something of his responsibility. Every believer needs to realise exactly what a pastor-teacher should do and exactly how much authority he possesses. 2. Nomenclature. Khruc, which means a herald. a herald is someone who announces the policy of a king. The pastor-teacher has the job of disseminating the policy of the King of kings. The policy of the King of kings is in the Word of God. The thinking of the King has been reduced to writing. Once the herald understands the policy of the King he communicates it. The King is absent. The herald carries the same authority as the King in delineating the King’s policy. Presbuteroj merely means “elder” or “old man” for the person with the authority. It should be translated probably either “overseer” or “commanding officer.” The function of the pastor is given in Ephesians 4:11 under the title of pastor-teacher, and it is really shepherd-teacher. Poimhnoj means a shepherd. A shepherd is a lot stronger and wiser than the sheep and his job is not only to feed the sheep but to protect them by his wisdom, his strength, and whatever he has organised. So the word “pastor” actually means shepherd and the implication is that the sheep must be fed, must be led, must be protected. The policy-making concept of the pastor comes from the noun e)piskopoj. This word is used many times in the sense of bishop [there really is no such thing] and it really means the guardian of the church, the policy-maker, the one who enforces the policy. The administrative function of the pastor is in the word “minister” — diakonoj. Actually, all administrative power is vested in the pastor. But the pastor must delegate administrative functions and therefore there is another use for the word diakonoj and that is where we get the word deacon. That means they have received administrative power delegated by the pastor in order to carry out administration. 3. The purpose of the pastor-teacher found in Ephesians 4:12,13. a) “For the purpose of training and equipping the royal family” — accomplished by teaching. b) “For the purpose of vocation of the ministry” — the administration. c) “For the purpose of the edification of the body of Christ” — the teaching leading to spiritual growth. “Until we all have attained the goal, because of the consistency of doctrine and the e)pigniwsij [full knowledge] of the Son of God, with reference to mature noblemen [mature believers], to the standard of maturity which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” 4. The function of the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 3:20-21. The function is summarised by the verb didaskw which means to teach. From this comes a title for the pastor: didaskaloj. Like khruc for herald it refers to the public assembly of the local church as a classroom for this dispensation. The pastor is the teacher and the congregation are students without portfolio. The pastor establishes his authority by faithful teaching of the Word of God. He must have the proper spiritual gift otherwise he will simply evangelise and give little devotionals, for without the proper spiritual gift he cannot go directly to the Word. He must also from his own gift study and mature personally. He must also have academic preparation, self-discipline. The public assembly of the church is designed to provide privacy for each member. The believer is assembled and when he comes in he is called maqhthj. Unfortunately this word is not really understood. It is translated “disciple,” a word that comes from discipline. It means to be under strict academic discipline. A disciple is a student or a learner, a person who learns doctrine under strict discipline. Since every believer is royal family he must learn under conditions of privacy which means monologue in a group — the public assembly. This is to offset the concept that the pastor sits around a table with a group of people and they exchange ideas. Verses 3 and 4, we have believers who fail to execute the carryon command. They are believers who resist the authority of the pastor-teacher. These are believers who are a law unto themselves. In their inflexibility they are not teachable. Verse 3 — “For the time will come.” The word “for” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. It emphasises the fact that many believers will not follow the colours by the daily function of GAP, they will become casualties in their own generation and they will live on the wrong side of history under the influence of evil. Some of these believers have learned enough doctrine so that they have made progress in the spiritual life. Some believers have started out with great enthusiasm for the Word and moved rapidly from babyhood to adolescence, have moved up to the maturity barrier, moved on the other side into super-grace, but they were overtaken by historical disaster and they didn’t have enough doctrine at that time to cope and therefore they took a nose-dive into reversionism. The ended up on the wrong side of history and never seemed to recover or catch on, and eventually lived a miserable life resulting in the sin unto death and departing from this life without any of the blessings of paragraph SG2, dying grace or surpassing grace. There is also a nominative singular subject from the noun kairoj, emphasising any generation in which the believer in the royal family will reject doctrine and enter into reversionism, or will be overtaken by some disaster which causes a reaction in which doctrine is included and the person dives into reversionism; “will come” is the future active indicative of e)imi which means “to be,” not to “come.” The future tense is a gnomic future, it states the fact that negative volition toward doctrine or resisting doctrinal teaching results in reversionism. It therefore further indicates a believer being influenced by evil and living his whole lifetime on the wrong side of history. The active voice: the negative believer produces the action of the verb. This verse emphasises the believer rejecting doctrine with the result that he goes into reversionism. “when they will not endure” — there is a temporal particle o(te here which is used as a temporal conjunction: “when.” It is literally, “For the time will be when.” Plus the strong negative o)uk portraying bullheadedness, strong negative volition toward Bible doctrine; plus the future middle indicative from the compound verb a)nexomai [a)na = again and again; nexw = to have] which means to have again and again, to have and to hold again. It means, therefore, to endure, to bear, to bear up with someone, to put up with someone. It means here to listen willingly but with the negative it means not to listen willingly. The future tense is a predictive future which foretells a trend which is expected to occur in any generation of the Church Age. The middle voice is the direct middle in which the agent, the believer who is negative toward doctrine and Bible teaching from a right pastor, acts with a view toward participating in the outcome of his negative volition. He is listening but he is negative, critical, and not absorbing. He becomes subjective in listening, not objective. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the verbal action from the standpoint of historical reality. “sound doctrine” — the objective singular from the present active participle u(giainw. It is where we get our English word hygiene from. It is used here as an ascriptive adjectival participle and we translate it “sound” or “healthy.” The objective genitive singular from the noun didaskalia is the word for “doctrine,” the public teaching of the Word. Sound doctrine is the communication of a passage accurately in the local church under strict academic discipline. The subject is the believer negative toward Bible teaching from whomever his right pastor happens to be. “but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up a contrast. They won’t listen to their pastor but they will listen to someone. The contrast is between the negative attitude of the reversionist toward doctrine and the positive attitude toward false doctrine. Whenever you find a person who resists doctrine and says no to true doctrine then you can count on it he is going to say yes to false doctrine, to Satanic policies, and accept them as true. This is why there are some generations where very few pastor-teachers are able to obey the carryon commands because there is no one to listen. “after their own lusts” — kata the preposition plus the accusative plural of the adjective i)dioj which means one’s own personal in contrast to public; plus the accusative plural from e)piqumia for the noun — but according to their own lusts.” This means that everyone has a different area of lust, everyone will not go for the same false doctrine, but everyone goes for something that is false. I)dioj mean that each one of us has such a potential lust in the old sin nature but no two of us have exactly the same. “shall they heap” — future active indicative of e)piswreuw which means to accumulate. The future tense predicts the positive volition of the reversionistic believer towards Satanic doctrine. He has a predilection for evil, he is evangelised by evil. The active voice: the negative believer in reversionism living on the wrong side of history produces the action of the verb, accumulating false teachers. The indicative mood is for the historical reality of this trend of apostasy. “to themselves” — the dative of disadvantage plural from the reflexive pronoun e(autou. The reflexive pronoun refers the action of the verb back to its own subject which is the reversionistic believer negative toward doctrine. “teachers” is the accusative plural direct object referring to false teachers here — didaskaloj. These are Satan’s apostles of apostasy, evangelists of evil. They communicate doctrine from pulpits, they communicate doctrine to groups in all types of circumstances. They are public communicators of information. “having itching ears” — present passive participle from the verb knhqw which means to itch, but in the passive voice it means to have an itch. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past with reversionism and continues into the present time. They are under the influence of evil and the more false doctrine they hear the more they want to hear and it becomes an itch which they scratch vigorously. This participle is a causal participle, so it should be translated “because they have an itch in their faculty of hearing.” They are consciously anxious to hear new false doctrine so that they can be stimulated in some course of what we call today “social action.” Translation: “For the time will come when they [reversionists] will listen not listen willingly to sound doctrine; but according to their own lusts they will accumulate to themselves false teachers, because they have an itch in their faculty of hearing.” Negative volition toward doctrine keeps the believer from obeying the command to carry on. Instead of following the colours to the high ground of super-grace and ultra-super-grace this believer becomes a casualty, he becomes a resistor of the doctrine, and by virtue of his intensity of resisting the truth he accepts all the false doctrine there is. This verse describes why so many believers live out their life on earth on the wrong side of history. They fall because they fail to seize the colours from the next generation. They instead are negative toward doctrine, they react, they become reversionistic, they live their lives on the wrong side of history and are deprived of blessing in time by their own negative volition, they have deprived themselves of blessing in dying and the most phenomenal blessing for all eternity. Verse 4 — “And they shall turn away” begins with the emphatic use of the conjunction kai. This conjunction is translated “In fact” here. Whenever you have an emphatic use of the conjunction it changes from “and, also, even.” There are many correct translations of kai, depending on its use in the sentence. Plus the future active indicative from the compound verb a)postrefw [a)po = away from’ strefw = to turn] which means to turn away from, therefore to reject or to repudiate. The future tense is a progressive future used to indicate retrogression. The active voice: the reversionistic believer continues to repudiate or reject Bible doctrine which is his only hope for understanding why he is here, why he is sustained, and what the objectives of the individual believer in the angelic conflict happened to be. The indicative mood is for historical reality. Plus the word “ears” which is the accusative singular from the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, plus the accusative singular direct object from the noun a)koh which means the faculty of hearing or, of course, the ear. Altogether, so far, we have, “In fact they will continue to turn away their ears.” This is an idiom in order to indicate negative volition toward doctrine. It is this negative volition that makes it impossible to carry on and fulfil the objectives for which God leaves us all alive in the devil’s world. All believers have a choice. They have a choice as of the moment of salvation to either go the way of doctrine or to go the way of no doctrine. Bible doctrine is the only information we have in this life with regard to God, His plan, the angelic conflict, the reason for sin in the world, all of the problems related to Satan’s rulership. All of these things are found in Bible doctrine. The believer who goes the way of Bible doctrine goes the way of blessing. The believer who rejects doctrine goes the way of cursing. Whichever way the believer takes he is a believer, he is born again, he is a child of God, and he will experience the love of God. This way is the love of God in divine discipline, whereas the positive believer takes the way of the love of God in divine blessing. “from the truth” is the deviation area, the preposition a)po plus the ablative of a)lehqeia. This refers to Bible doctrine taken from the Word of God by the pastor-teacher communicated to the congregation. “and” is the continuative use of the enclitic particle de. It is used to demonstrate the result of turning their hearing faculty away from doctrine, turning from doctrine, and it should be translated “then.” “shall be turned” — the future passive indicative of the compound e)ktrepw which means to swerve. The future tense is a gnomic future for the normal performance of the reversionistic believer under the influence of evil and on the wrong side of history. Any believer who rejects Bible doctrine is not only in reversionism, he is on the wrong side of history and he is constantly swerving and out of control. Being out of control he will accept anything that is false, i.e. in this passage “fables” or “myths.” The passive voice: the reversionist receives the action of the verb as a result of rejecting Bible doctrine. The indicative mood is for the historical reality of this type of reversionism. “unto fables” — the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of muqoj which is the Greek word for “myths.” Translation: “In fact they will continue to turn away their ears from doctrine, then they shall swerve out of control toward the myths [of evil].” No believer ever stands still with regard to indoctrination. Either he is indoctrinated into the plan of grace or he is indoctrinated into the plan of Satan, but no believer ever stands still. To reject Bible doctrine is to be indoctrinated into the plan of evil, Satan’s plan. Verse 5 — there is a second command to carry on, having noted those who will not. This command is given to the ultra-super-grace believer and this anticipates that Timothy very shortly will be in ultra-super-grace. “But” is the enclitic particle de here, it sets up a contrast this time, a contrast between those who are going to make it in this passage and in the previous passage those who are not. Believers in the previous passage swerved toward the myths of evil but the persons in this verse are going to turn toward God’s plan. So this word is translated simply “But.” Those who fail to execute the command are out and those who execute the command are in. We also have a second personal singular pronoun su in the proleptic position here which means that this particular pronoun is the means of emphasising Timothy and all communicators of Bible doctrine. The pronoun emphasises that Timothy as a believer has obeyed the commands of the Lord and has not only recovered from reversionism but has moved to super-grace and is now on his way to ultra-super-grace. “watch” — present active imperative from the verb nhfw which does not mean to watch, it means to be sober in the sense of non-intoxicated, to be self-controlled or self-disciplined. The present tense of duration denotes that Timothy’s self-discipline in reversion recovery and self-discipline in reaching super-grace is his present status, and it implies that his self-discipline will carry him to ultra-super-grace. The self-discipline for the communicator is his personal study of the Word of God on a daily basis. The active voice: Timothy produces the self-discipline through the daily function of GAP, his own personal study by which he not only recovered from reversionism but by which he attained super-grace, is now moving to ultra-super-grace, and will function as an ultra-super-grace believer. The imperative mood is a command to perpetuate the self-discipline by which he recovered from reversionism, by which he attained super-grace, and by which he will go on to ultra-super-grace. “But you be self-disciplined.” “in all things” — a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative plural of the adjective paj. This connotes subordination of everything in the life to the daily function of GAP and it brings up again the fact that the pastor is different from all other believers in that his spiritual gift of pastor-teacher takes him into direct with the Word in the original languages, and his spiritual growth as well as his messages, as well as everything that he will communicate to the congregation comes from his own personal study. Therefore every pastor-teacher, regardless of his personality or anything else, he must have phenomenal self-discipline and he must study all the time. The importance of self-discipline 1. Self-discipline links the believer’s volition with the function of GAP. You would never function under GAP unless you had self-discipline whereby you consistently took in the Bible classes. 2. Under self-discipline the believer links his volition with the number one priority of the royal family which is the inculcation of Bible doctrine. 3. Self-discipline, then, is the believer priest regulating his life in compatibility with the grace objectives of phase two. 4. Self-discipline sets aside the superficialities of life and concentrates on the essentials of life. 5. Self-discipline avoids distractions of pleasure, social life, and all the things which would conflict with the daily intake of doctrine. This does not imply that you do not have pleasure or social life but it does indicate that if it conflicts with the intake of doctrine it is placed into a secondary role as nonessential. 6. Super-grace is the beginning of spiritual maturity, not the end. It is achieved by self-discipline related to the function of GAP and it is perpetuated in exactly the same way. 7. Super-grace, therefore, not only is the place of great blessing — paragraph SG2 — but in a sense it becomes the staging area for the next objective which is ultra-super-grace. 8. The believer in the attainment of super-grace does not stop and try to rest on his laurels. To halt is to go backwards in the spiritual life. Therefore the believe must press on to the next objective which is ultra-super-grace. Continuous pressure and opposition from the Satanic forces of evil will be obvious at that stage. “endure afflictions” — the aorist active imperative of the compound verb kakopaqew [kakoj = evil; paqew comes from the verb pasxw which means to suffer] which means to suffer evil, to endure hardship. Here it means to endure opposition from evil. So it should be translated “endure opposition from evil.” This is very, very marked in going from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. In other words, once you crack the maturity barrier and you get into super-grace and start moving toward ultra-super-grace, this is where issues come into focus that have not been there for a long time, and there are three or four things that can cause you to crash and dive into reversionism. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the function of ultra-super-grace in its entirety. The ultra-super-grace believer receives from God the highest honour of the spiritual life for time when upon reaching ultra-super-grace he receives the mantle of perpetual opposition from the Satanic forces of evil. This honour is stated in Acts 19:15. Timothy will produce the action of the verb on reaching ultra-super-grace. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy on reaching ultra-super-grace to endure opposition from evil. This is the highest honour that God can give to a mature believer in time. “do” — the aorist active imperative of poiew. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist it views the ultra-super-grace status in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results of ultra-super-grace in the field of evangelism. The active voice: in anticipation of reaching ultra-super-grace Timothy will produce this action at that time. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy as a potential ultra-super-grace believer on the verge of ultra-super-grace to do a new type of work. Not evangelism, however. “the work” — the word for work is the accusative singular direct object from e)rgon minus the definite article. This is the anartharous construction and the anartharous construction, no definite article, empahsises the high quality of the function, whatever it is. “of an evangelist” — the descriptive genitive singular from the noun e)uaggelisthj. While this word is only used three times in the entire New Testament one time it does mean evangelist, but not here. Actually, e)uaggelisthj is a non-ecclesiastical word and it meant originally to communicate an oracle, to forecast the future. An evangelist was not someone who led people to the Lord, that is something every believer does, but it was a forecaster of some future event or activity. On the outside of the New Testament this word always means a forecaster r a prognosticator. It is used first in Acts 21:8 for Philip who was an evangelist in the sense that we understand it. Philip was a man who had the gift of evangelism and he went from place to place giving the gospel to crowds of people, and he had many converts. In Ephesians 4:11 it is used for the gift of evangelism which Philip had. So two of our passages use this word, e)uaggelisthj, for evangelism as we understand it. The third use is right here in our passage — 2 Timothy 4:5 — where as a command to Timothy in anticipation of reaching ultra-super-grace he is told to do the work or production of a e)uaggelisthj. The noun does connote both the function and the office of evangelism. There are other similar nouns that are generally used, however. Here, what is meant by an evangelist is something entirely different. It goes back to the Greek language as it was generally structurised at that time. What it actually means is to go from place to place and to perform certain functions. To do the work of an evangelist here means that there are some pastors who travelled. Paul travelled, and when he did he first of all evangelised. As soon as he had formed a church he left someone like Timothy in charge. This is what this means: to convert people but then to train them to reach the people in their own area. So actually what this means is to do the work of a missionary if you understand what it means to do the work of a missionary. Doing the work of a missionary is not beating the bushes for converts but it is to take the converts and train them to reach their own. This is what is called the indigenous missionary concept. So we will translate this “do the work of a missionary,” which means that Timothy is eventually going to leave Ephesus and become a travelling Bible teacher. He will go into places where he must give the gospel and convert people. Then after they are converted he will start teaching and training them. He will do exactly what Paul did. “make full proof of thy ministry” — this includes the aorist active imperative from the compound verb plhroforew [plhrhj = filled or full; forew = to carry] which means to completely carry out. The translation should be “completely carry out.” This is a culminative aorist, it views ultra-super-grace status in its entirety and emphasises the results in the function of the ministry. The active voice: in anticipation of Timothy reaching ultra-super-grace the action of the verb is produced. In other words, the pastor who reaches ultra-super-grace must completely fulfil his ministry and he will. The imperative mood is a command to Timothy as a potential ultra-super-grace believer, and this is a command for all pastors to press on in their own ministry. We also have the accusative singular of the noun diakonia. The doctrine of diakonia 1. This is also diakonoj from which we get the word “deacon” but it has many meanings. The political meaning of the word: The word minister is translated “minister” and that is all right if it is understood the command is “carry out to the maximum your ministry.” The political use for this word is found in divine institution #4 where diakonoj is used for the head of a state, one who has the authority to administer capital punishment — Romans 13:3,4. In other words, diakonoj was used in the Bible to indicate a political ruler, one who had the authority to administer in the political realm of the national entity. The second use of the word is the universal ministry of the believer. There is a sense in which every believer is a minister and has a responsibility before the Lord. This is for the royal family of God in the sense that all believers are in full time Christian service. It empahsises the royal priest as the ambassador for Christ. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 — “… who has appointed us ministers...” Also 2 Corinthians 4:1; 6:1,3. The third use of diakonoj is connected with the administration of the local church. The pastor has all of the authority but he delegates authority to certain men in the church in order to carry on administration. This is where we get the word “deacon.” Philippians 1:1. So a deacon is a man who has received delegated authority from the pastor in order to carry on the administrative activities of the local church. The fourth use is the pastoral use. The pastor is also called diakonoj or a minister many times, and this has to do with the original source of all authority in the local church. It is delegated to the pastor who in turn delegates it to certain members in the congregation. All members of the congregation are ministers in the sense of coming under the teaching of the Word. 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:7,23; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Timothy 1:12. This is a technical use of minister for a pastor-teacher. A fifth use of diakonoj is the evil usage — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Verse 6 — the statement that the apostle Paul is in dying grace. Dying grace is the fifth category of blessing under his paragraph SG2 and dying grace for the ultra-super-grace believer means that there is great opposition while he is dying and the opposition only makes the dying that much more peaceful and tranquil as well as that much more of a greater blessing. “For I am now ready to be offered.” This includes the nominative singular from the proleptic pronoun e)gw. E)gw emphasises the uniqueness of the apostle Paul as an ultra-super-grace believer, as the greatest of all the apostles. It emphasises his status of ultra-super-grace and it anticipates the great blessing that he will have in dying. With it is the explanatory use of the particle gar and it is translated “For you see.” Then follows a conjunction which anticipates Paul’s dying grace and his desire to press on in to eternity and to enjoy the blessing there — “even now,” referring to the fact that he is dying and that in effect he is passing the colours on to Timothy and to all pastor-teachers. The adverb is h)dh and it emphasises the fact that he is dying at the time that he writes. Paul is already in the sphere of dying. His dying will be very sudden, he will be executed by decapitation, and it will be two or three months yet before that occurs; but this is his dying bracket of life, ending up in his decapitation. “I am ready to be offered” is an incorrect translation. We have here the present passive indicative of the verb spendw: “For even now I am poured out a libation” is what spendw means. Spendw was a famous Greek word because the Greeks in their worship of their false gods always would go to the statue of the god carrying a goblet, if they could afford it. If they couldn’t afford a goblet they would carry a wine skin loaded down with the best wine they could find. People would save up for even a year just to take into the temple one goblet of the best beverage of the time. They would walk in with this and then they would stand in front of the statue of the god and then pour the whole thing out at the foot of the statue. That is called a libation offering and the Greek word for it is spendw. What is Paul saying? He is taking the custom of the Greeks which was passed on to the Romans and he depicts himself as being the wine in the goblet. That is his life, and his life is being poured out, he is dying. When the goblet is empty the soul of Paul will have left the goblet which represents his body. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event that is going on right then and there but it is not completed yet. It is in the process but it isn’t over. This becomes an analogy to dying grace. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb, he is dying. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of dying grace. There is another analogy given immediately. The first merely indicates that Paul is dying, the second indicates the honour and the blessing of his death: “and the time of my departure.” We have the continuative use of kai, the conjunction for “and.” With it is kairoj, a time word which refers to the final period Paul’s life which is his dying grace. The word “departure” gives us the next concept of his dying. This is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun a)nalusij. This word has five different meanings in the Koine Greek and each meaning is definitely related to Paul’s dying. First of all, this was a military word. It was a command given when the bivouac was about to be removed to get on the march again. It means in the military concept to strike the tent, to break camp. Paul’s tent was his human body, and when the soul departs from the body the tent will collapse and he will exchange the bivouac of life for the mansion in heaven. The navy also used a)nalusij for the hoisting of the anchor as the ship set sail. In dying grace Paul is hoisting his anchor and is sailing into the port of eternity. The farmer also used a)nalusij. His use was to simply unyoke the oxen after a long day’s work, and to shelter, feed, and reward them with rest. Paul is being unyoked from life to enter into the glorious blessings and honours that will belong to him in surpassing grace. Prisoners also used the word. When a prisoner was released from jail it was called a)nalusij. Paul is released from the prison of his human body, a body of corruption, into the glorious freedom of eternal heaven. The philosopher also used a)nalusij to unravel a mystery or to solve a philosophical problem. Death unravels the mystery of eternity and dying grace solves the problem of life. “is at hand” — perfect active indicative of the verb e)fisthmi [e)pi = over, above, by; isthmi = to stand] which means to stand by, to stand near, to be imminent, to approach. The perfect tense is the dramatic perfect, it indicates a completed action and the results are going on. The active voice: departure or release from life produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative, it views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of dogmatic and historical reality. Translation: “For you see even now I am being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure [from life] is standing by.” The doctrine of dying grace 1. There are seven different kinds of death in the Bible. a) Spiritual death, the one that occurs at the point of being born into this world. At the point of birth the human being is physically alive but spiritually dead. At physical birth God can only give physical life, He cannot give eternal life for we are all descended from Adam and when the man and the woman sinned they passed on the old sin nature, which means that the individual born into the world is physically alive but spiritually dead. He has no relationship with God. God has provided him physical life in order to enter into the angelic conflict. In his soul he also has volition and at a proper time he can respond to the gospel. He has to be born again because he is born spiritually dead. Spiritual death is separation from God in time. Spiritual death is the penalty of sin. When Christ was on the cross bearing our sins that is when He died spiritually. The sins of the old sin nature were poured out upon Christ and judged. When they were poured out upon Christ and judged Christ kept screaming, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken because He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” So He bore our sins, He took our place, He provided eternal salvation. That is spiritual death. His physical death has nothing to do with the phrase, “God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “Christ died for us” is spiritual death; Christ’s physical death was simply that His work was finished. While still very much alive Jesus said, “It is finished.” Salvation was completed, and therefore He could die physically because the ministry of the first advent was completed. In Romans 5:12 and 6:23 we have spiritual death, plus 1 Corinthians 15:52; Ephesians 2:1. b) Physical death. When the soul leaves the body you are said to be physically dead — Matthew 8:22; Romans 8:38,39. c) The second death is the final judgment of the unbeliever and fallen angels at the end of the Millennium. Revelation 20:12-15; Hebrews 9:27. d) Operational death is the believer’s failure to produce divine good — James 2:26. e) Positional death is a part of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. When the Lord Jesus Christ was dying on the cross for our sins all of the sins of the old sin nature were poured out and judged. But the old sin nature also has an area of strength from which comes all of our human good and all evil. In other words, this is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brought into the life of every person at the point of his physical birth. This part of the old sin nature was not judged, it was rejected because human good and evil must be perpetuated throughout all human history as a major issue in the angelic conflict. Therefore they were not judged and could not be judged. When the believer believed in Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit took him and entered him into union with Christ as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. That is called current positional truth, and at the same time He entered him into union with Christ as He hung upon the cross and that is retroactive positional truth. In other words, you are not only identified with Christ in His ascension and session at the right hand of he Father but you are identified with Christ in His death in order that you might understand that positionally you have already rejected human good and evil as a part of Satan’s great thrust as the ruler of this world. Evil is the policy of Satan; human good is the result of the success of that policy in the life of any individual, whether a reversionistic believer or an unbeliever. Therefore at the point of your salvation you have rejected evil, you have rejected human good, because you are identified with Christ in His death and He rejected them for you at that point. That is Romans 6. You are also identified with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session, and that is why you are a member of the royal family of God forever. So we have, then, retroactive positional truth as another type of death, positional death. Romans 6; Colossians 2:12,20; 3:3. f) Temporal death is simply the believer being out of fellowship. When we accept Jesus Christ as saviour we enter into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father and we never get out of that position. But we also have a relationship with God in time called fellowship — in this dispensation the filling of the Spirit. Every time we sin we are out of fellowship. Every time we rebound — 1 John 1:9 — we are restored to fellowship or the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit. So we have another type of death related to this: temporal death is being out of fellowship. When a believer sins he is out of fellowship. This is called being temporally dead to God — Romans 8:6,13; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 5:6; James 1:15; Revelation 3:1. g) Sexual death which is the inability to copulate — Romans 4:17-21; Hebrews 11:11,12. Both passages relate to Abraham who was unable to have sex at age 99. 2. Physical death. a) Physical death is associated with ending revolution — Numbers 16:25-31. b) Physical death is a matter of the sovereignty of God. God decides how every person is going to die — Psalm 68:19,20. c) There is one thing that is stronger than death and that is true love — Song of Solomon 8:6; 14:27. d) God can and does under certain conditions prolong human life. In other words, the death of an individual can be postponed for a certain period of time — Psalm 102:19,20,23,24; 118:18; Proverbs 14:27. e) Women are responders, and being responders they can never be equal with men and never will be. This is brought out in death where women must be taught to face the death of loved ones as responders — Jeremiah 9:20-25. f) The sin unto death does not bring glory to God — Isaiah 38:18. g) Physical death cannot be faced when the norm/standard functions of the right lobe are destroyed. In effect, we are talking about reversionism again. The reversionist always loses the norms and standards that are related to the divine viewpoint of life. Therefore he cannot face death, the reality of death overwhelms him, he constantly and completely falls apart when he realises he is going to die because the norm/standard function of his right lobe has been destroyed — Lamentations 1:19,20. h) Dying grace is promotion for the believer — Philippians 1:21. i) God provides in dying grace — Amos 5:8. j) God delivers the believer from death — Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8. 3. Definition: Dying grace is the death of any believer who by the constant function of GAP has cracked the maturity barrier, has reached super-grace, has received his paragraph SG2, and has moved on to ultra-super-grace. Therefore dying grace is the experience of physical death under special provision of grace whereby the individual is blessed to the maximum in dying, and the dying is greater than any blessing in life. This is minimum pain, maximum happiness, fantastic soul stimulation, during the process of dying. 4. Dying grace, then, is the missing link between time and eternity. It is the greatest link of happiness in life. 5. Dying grace is for the mature believer — Psalm 33:18,19. 6. Dying grace removes fear from death — Psalm 23:4. 7. Dying grace is the blessing of maturity — Psalm 116:15. 8. Dying grace is the bridge between super-grace blessings and surpassing grace blessing — Hebrews 11:13 cf. 11:11,12 with 11:9,10, the surpassing grace blessings. 9. Therefore the importance of the believer seizing the high ground of super-grace becomes the greatest issue in dying grace — Philippians 3:12-14. 10. The relationship between super-grace and surpassing grace is found in dying grace — Hebrews 11:13. 11. There are some exceptions to dying grace. There is the disciplinary exception — the sin unto death. There is the exception of resurrection for at least one generation, transferring from time to eternity without dying — the Rapture generation, 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. The best description of dying grace is probably found in Job 5:19-27. Verse 7 — a retrospective resume of a great man in dying grace, looking back for the moment and viewing the tactical victory of the ultra-super-grace believer. “I have fought” — perfect middle indicative of the verb a)gwnizomai which means to carry on a conflict. It also is used to engage in an athletic contest or competition. But its primary use at the time of writing is a military one, used by both Polibius and Plutarch in the sense of fighting in a military situation in a desperate fight. It is used in the sense of fighting with weapons and that is the sense in which it is found in this passage. The intensive perfect tense denotes a completed action with emphasis on existing results. Phase two is over for the apostle Paul a good . The existing result here is dying grace; the completed action is ultra-super-grace. The middle voice is an indirect middle, it emphasises the apostle Paul as the agent producing the action of the verb. He is an ultra-super-grace believer in this agency and it emphasises the fact that ultra-super-grace believers have as a part of dying grace the tremendous satisfaction of looking back on a life and saying, “No regrets.” The indicative mood is declarative, this is a historical fact that the apostle Paul has not only fought but as he goes on to say … “a good fight” — the word “good” is not the best translation. We have the accusative singular of the definite article used really here as a demonstrative pronoun. The demonstrative pronoun emphasises the life of Paul as a believer. Then we have the accusative singular of the adjective kaloj which doesn’t mean good so much as noble or honourable. The word for “fight,” the noun, is the cognate a)gwn which means a combat situation. It is a reference to the phase two struggle of the angelic conflict. Literally, we have: “I have fought that honourable combat.” This is a reference to the fact that Paul not only has recovered from his Jerusalem reversionism but he has followed the colours to the high ground of super-grace and from there he pressed on to the objective of ultra-super-grace. “I have finished my course” — the perfect active indicative of the verb telew. This word means to bring to an end, to accomplish, to carry out, to complete, to perform. Paul is referring to phase two, his life on earth. He has accomplished everything set out for him in eternity past in the divine decrees. Not only has he accomplished it but he has accomplished it well. The results of his accomplishing in his life go on for the rest of history and forever, for those results are recorded in the Pauline epistles. Then active voice: Paul himself produces the action. The word for “course” is the accusative singular direct object from the noun dromoj. A dromoj is a race track in a stadium. “I have kept” — perfect active indicative of terew which is a military term which means to stand guard over government property. In this case it means to stand guard over very valuable property, to guard something which is of great value. It means also to preserve something of great value. The something of value which is guarded or preserved is Bible doctrine which is resident in Paul’s soul. It should be translated “I have guarded [or preserved].” The perfect tense is a consummative perfect in which the process is emphasised as being completed. Paul has actually accumulated more doctrine than any believer in life. Only the Lord Jesus Christ had more doctrine at the point of departure from this life. It also indicates that the preservation of this doctrine has led to the dynamic results of his life. The active voice: Paul as an ultra-super-grace believer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative, this is historical reality. “the faith” — the direct object accusative of pistij means doctrine. This word has three meanings in the Koine Greek. The active meaning is to have trust, faith or confidence. The causative meaning is faithfulness or reliability. The passive meaning is that which is believed or doctrine. It should be translated “I have guarded the doctrine.” This is a reference to doctrine in his soul. Translation: “I have fought that honourable fight [the attainment of ultra-super-grace], I have finished the course [dying grace], I have guarded [or preserved] the doctrine [in my soul].” Verse 8 — Paul’s anticipation of surpassing grace reward. “Henceforth” is the adverbial accusative of time and a reference to the adjective loipoj. Loipoj has a number of meanings but here it means “in the future,” or “beyond this.” In other words, he has turned away now from time with no regrets and he is looking toward heaven where there is nothing but the anticipation of unspeakable blessing. “there is laid up” — present passive indicative from the verb a)pokeimai which means to lie away, to put away, to store up, to preserve, to reserve, to be laid up so that is can be counted on. Here we use the translation, “In the future there is reserved for me.” “a crown” — stefanoj which means a wreath, something worn around the head as the highest possible decoration. The predicate is the present passive indicative of a)pokeimai which means here to reserve. The present tense is a static present, it indicates the decoration for ultra-super-grace as perpetually existing in phase three. There never will be a time when he will not have this wreath. You will always be able to tell the apostle Paul in heaven because he will be wearing the greatest of all wreaths. That wreath that he wears glorifies Jesus Christ throughout all eternity. The passive voice: Paul receives this decoration at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic reality of the fact that the decoration will be worn by the ultra-super-grace believer in his resurrection body forever and ever. “for me” is one word in the Greek, the dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw. The dative of indirect object indicates the ultra-super-grace believer in whose interest the decoration is given. Therefore it is also a dative of advantage. “a crown of righteousness” — nominative singular from the noun stefanoj. It should be translated “wreath.” “Righteousness” here is dikaiosunh, and it is the suffix, sunh, that gives it an abstract connotation and makes it technical. The word here is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun and it connotes fulfilling a divine objective or statute. It does not mean righteousness in the English sense. Dikaiosunh means to fulfil every objective that God has set up for the believer in time, total fulfilment of objective. So dikaiosunh here only means righteousness in the sense of being a mature believer. It has to do with maturity, and that has to do with doctrine resident in the soul. Dikaiosunh is the fulfilment of the responsibility of the royal family of God on earth whereby the believer advances to maturity. “which the Lord” — the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j. The relative pronoun has an antecedent, the wreath; o( kurioj, title for the Lord Jesus Christ as the evaluator, means deity and is used in that sense here. As the evaluator Jesus Christ is God, He is omniscient and knows all the facts when evaluating any believer. “the righteous judge” — the adjective dikaioj means absolute incorruptibility, absolute perfection; the noun krithj means here “evaluator.” “shall give me” — the future active indicative of the verb a)podidomi which means to award. It is used in the Greek for the awarding of decorations, honours. The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact which may be rightfully expected for any believer who attains super-grace. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 6:7-12. The indicative mood is declarative for dogmatic reality. With this verb is a dative of indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw in which Paul is referring to himself. He is in dying grace, he is now anticipating his eternal rewards. “at that day” — the preposition e)n plus the locative of the remote demonstrative e)keinoj, a remote demonstrative which refers to something which is a long way off. It is relatively distant in actuality. With it is the locative singular from the noun h(mera, referring to that period in heaven which will be at the same time as the Tribulation on the earth. “and not to me only, but also” — the adversative conjunction a)lla which reads this into the picture; “unto all them that love” — the dative plural of paj which is an adjective which includes every believer, “all.” Plus the articular perfect active participle of a)gapaw, used here to indicate the fact that the love we have for Jesus Christ is not a strong emotional, sentimental love, it is a strong mental love and its development into anything beyond that must come through Bible doctrine in the soul. It is a love that is fed through the mentality. The perfect tense here is the intensive perfect, it indicates a completed action which is maximum category #1 love of the super-grace believer and it emphasises the existing results. The active voice: any mature believer produces the action of the verb which is maximum love of Jesus Christ and which, in effect, is occupation with the person of Christ. The participle is circumstantial and it should be translated “but also to all those who have loved his appearing.” “his appearance” — the accusative singular direct object from e)pifaneia. It means appearance and is a reference to the Rapture of the Church. With it is the possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which emphasises the one that all mature believers love, the one on whom they focus their attention. Translation: “In the future [phase three, eternity] a wreath of that righteousness [total fulfilment of spiritual progress] is reserved for me, which wreath the Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award me on that day [judgment seat of Christ]: and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his appearance.” The doctrine of surpassing grace 1. Nomenclature. This is derived from the literal translation of Ephesians 2:7 — “surpassing grace riches.” Surpassing grace is the optimum in spiritual achievement, the maximum in blessing and reward, the ultimate in glorifying God. “Surpassing” connotes something beyond “super” as well as something beyond time. 2. There are two special blessing paragraphs in the Word of God — above and beyond the normal blessings of the spiritual life: SG2 and SG3, for super-grace and surpassing grace. Surpassing grace is dealing with eternity, reward in eternity. This is a special blessing and reward concept above and beyond the basic concepts of ultimate sanctification. Ultimate sanctification is not a reward, it is a blessing that belongs to all believers. 3. Definition: Surpassing grace is the status of special blessing and reward in eternity for the believer who cracks the maturity barrier. These are rewards above and beyond the resurrection body. Surpassing grace is the status quo above and beyond ultimate sanctification. It is the ultimate in regenerate mankind glorifying God forever. The decorations worn not only represent great areas of space belonging to that individual in eternity — called in the Bible “ruling ten cities, ruling a hundred cities” — but it also reflects to Jesus Christ forever and ever. 4. The judgment seat of Christ is the basis for the administration of surpassing grace blessings and rewards. This is where every believer is going to get his efficiency rating. 2 Corinthians 5:10. 5. The reversionistic believer can lose his paragraph SG2 and his paragraph SG3 but this does not imply loss of salvation. 2 Timothy 2:11-13. 6. The judgment seat of Christ eliminates any necessity of judging or maligning another believer. Romans 14:10. 7. The daily function of GAP is the key to breaking through the maturity barrier. Breaking through the maturity barrier included advancing to super-grace, on to ultra-super-grace, and concludes with a life of dying grace. This is the basis for blessing and reward in eternity under paragraph SG3. James 1:25; 2:12,13. 8. An analogy to the judgment seat of Christ — Hebrews 6:7-12. This passage emphasises the importance of Bible doctrine being transferred from the Word, from the printed page, to the soul. 9. Crowns are the highest decorations in eternity. All crowns or wreaths are given to believers who break the maturity barrier by reaching super-grace and then moving on to ultra-super-grace. There are categories of crowns found in the New Testament. Stefanoj means wreath worn on the head as a high decoration, not a crown that a king wears [diadhma]. The stefanoj of righteousness is the highest decoration and it goes to the super-grace believer. The stefanoj of life represents the highest decoration for the ultra-super-grace believer — James 1:12. The steafanoj of glory is for pastors only, given for leading other members of he body of Christ, members of one’s congregation past the maturity barrier. 10. The highest decoration for Old Testament believers who break the maturity barrier is not called a crown or wreath. Cities are used to designate rewards in eternity. Hebrews 11:9. 11. The analogy of self-discipline as related to the rewards and decorations of eternity — 2 Timothy 2:5. To get into the system of games that the Roman empire had required maximum self discipline. a) Entrance into a gym. It had to be a state gymnasium and you had to prove Roman citizenship. Once you were in the gym it would be nine months of intensive training. This is a picture of eternal salvation, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. A person who entered did so under the strongest system of rules or laws. Breaking any rule meant that he would lose out and could not even compete in the games. There were two kinds of athletes in the ancient world. The first is called the a)gonistai, an amateur athlete who went to the local gym just to improve his health or to shape up. He was not an athlete, he was merely a body builder. The second was a very serious athlete called a)qlhtai who made a profession of athletics and was very self-disciplined. b) The athlete had to live in the gym for a period of ten months in most cases, prior to the games. This is analogous to finding your right church, getting under a pastor who is communicating doctrine and sticking no matter what. c) The athlete, during the time that he was in that gym, had to answer every trumpet call. They lived in a dormitory. There was another area where they ate plus acres of exercise fields. When a trumpet would blow for exercise, as it did about six times a day, there was first of all a warning trumpet indicating that they had 15 minutes to be ready. The trainer would then come in and rub them down with oil, the only thing they were allowed to wear on the exercise field. During ten months this meant they would endure all kinds of weather and many of these athletes were out naked on the training fields in the snow. Every trumpet call had to be answered. The warning call gave the athlete a chance to be prepared and then the trumpet call finally got him out on the field. In addition to that the athlete had to exercise under the direction of the exercise master and in all kinds of weather. This represents the stability of academic discipline and the importance of positive volition. No believer ever breaks the maturity barrier without maximum use of self-discipline and academic discipline. Another rule was that no athlete must have any contact with anyone outside and especially the opposite sex during the ten months of training. He must avoid distractions that would lead to a break in his training because a big part of his training was not the exercise but the self-discipline. The authority and enforcement of discipline was in the hands of a gumnasiarxoj [a)rxoj = ruler; gumnoj = gymnasium], the ruler of the gym. The people who most frequently held this job were retired Roman generals. The winner at the games received a stefanoj made of olive leaves, ivy leaves, pine leaves, whatever the local trees bore. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 portrays the principle. Verse 24 — “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Verse 25 — “And every one who competes in the games exercises self-discipline in all things. Now they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable wreath. Verse 26 — “Therefore I run in such a way as not without a goal [I have an objective]; I box in such a way as not to be beating the air; Verse 27 — “But I discipline my body, and I keep it in training [the constant function of GAP], lest having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified [from the blessings and rewards of paragraph SG3].” Principle 1. Self-discipline is living you life in the light of eternity. 2. Once you get even a small glimpse of eternity you are motivated to that function of self-discipline which is so necessary for the consistent function of GAP and resultant spiritual growth. 3. The overriding considerations of eternity are more important than the distractions of time. 4. Yielding to the distractions of time can only produce reversionism. 5. Self-discipline counters this tendency and brings the believer under the academic discipline of the local church where spiritual growth is accomplished. 6. The persistent function of GAP is the only source of spiritual growth in time. No system of works or human good can cause growth. 7. Spiritual growth occurs in the soul. a) The soul is the battleground of the angelic conflict. b) What causes growth in the soul is words, but these words have to be in the right lobe. c) Words produce concepts which in turn produce technical words. d) Technical words produce categories and these categories are a frame of reference for understanding Bible doctrine. e) Bible doctrine residing in the soul categorically means knowledge of doctrine. f) Knowledge of doctrine leads to understanding of doctrine, but it isn’t the same. 8. You cannot teach what you cannot understand. 9. Self-discipline is a major part of the spiritual progress of any believer. You cannot move forward without it. Verses 9-22, Paul’s last words of explanation. Verse 9 — “Do they diligence” is the aorist active imperative from spoudazw which means to hasten or to make every effort. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. This brings up an important point. Timothy has a pastorate, a very key one in that first century, at Ephesus. He is to leave Ephesus and come to Rome immediately. There comes a time in the life of every believer when he forsakes the routine of his life and drops everything to concentrate on one specific thing. That is exactly what Paul is telling Timothy to do. The active voice: Timothy is commanded to produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a personal command to Timothy. “to come” — the aorist active infinitive of e)rxomai. This is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, everything that Timothy has to do to get over to Rome. The infinitive is purpose. The infinitive may be used to express the aim or the action denoted by the finite verb. “shortly” — the adverb taxewj which doesn’t mean shortly at all, it means without delay. “unto me” — the preposition proj plus the accusative from the personal pronoun e)gw. Translation: “Make every effort to come [face to face with me] to me without delay.” Principle 1. Paul would like to personally talk with Timothy before he dies. 2. Timothy is not only the new colour bearer but he is a personal friend of the ultra-supergace apostle. 3. Therefore the importance of Christian fellowship in dying grace. It emphasises the importance of fellowship with believers in dying. 4. Paul expresses here and elsewhere the desire to have his personal friends around him in death. Verse 10 — we now have a duty roster. Only Luke is with him at the moment. Those on his missionary team are scattered all over the empire. This duty roster report actually expresses the status quo of these Christian soldiers who have served under Paul’s command. This is, in effect, Paul’s last morning report before his death. The first person on the duty roster is a casualty — Demas. “For” is an explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. It should be translated “For you see” because we now have an explanation of the team; “Demas” — Dhmaj, it is a shorter form, a representation and nickname for Dhmatriaj. The shorter form means “popular.” He was a part of Paul’s missionary team and was specifically mentioned along with Luke in Colossians 4:14. In Philemon 24 Demas is recognised as a fellow worker along with Mark, Aristarchus, and Luke, written during Paul’s first imprisonment. This means that six years before the writing of 2 Timothy Demas had been an active member of the team. Now he is a casualty. “hath forsaken” — aorist active indicative of the verb e)gkataleipw. This actually means to go AWOL, to desert, the abandon, to forsake. We will translate it the fact that he has “deserted.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers into one entirety the action of the verb. The action of the verb is desertion. It takes the occurrences of Demas’s reversionism and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into a single whole. The active voice: Demas through his own negative volition toward Bible doctrine has produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative recognising the historical reality of the fact that Demas is a deserter. All reversionists are deserters. Reversionism is the status quo of being AWOL. “me” is the accusative singular direct object from the personal pronoun e)gw. There is some explanation as to the nature of Demas’s reversionism in the participle which follows. “having loved” — the aorist active participle from a)gapaw, not used so much here for love as it is for setting up in one’s thinking a scale of values. Something went wrong with the scale of values of Demas at some point and he lost track of what was truly and really important. His scale of values changed. The culminative aorist views the reversion of Demas in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results. He went in a certain direction — the influence of evil and his scale of values was unable to cope with the great pressures that came his way. The active voice: Demas produces the action, he failed in the area of the scale of values. This is a causal participle plus the fact that the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The desertion came after Demas went into reversionism, after his scale of values changed. “this present world” — the accusative singular of the definite article plus and adverb of time, nun, translated here “present,” plus an accusative singular direct object from the noun a)iwn which really means “age,” and also means “life” and exactly what it means here. “For you see because he has loved the present life Demas has deserted me.” Whatever happened to Demas by way of the change in his scale of values he had opportunity for advancement in another place, in Thessalonica. So instead of staying with Paul, as was his particular responsibility, he took off for a place of better advancement, a place of convenience, a place that would lead to his own persona success and pleasure; an offer really by Satan himself to any believer who gets under the influence of evil. This is Satan’s way of distracting certain believers from the number one priority of the life of a believer which is doctrine. In order to understanding the noun a)iwn there are a number of things that need to be brought to our attention. The etymology is used in a prolonged sense and is translated in the prolonged sense “eternity.” Prolonged time is one of the meanings of a)iwn. A)iwn doubled means eternal life. It is also used in the sense of time in the world and is therefore the basic word for dispensations or ages. A)iwn is also used as time or the course of the world and is therefore translated “world.” The Hellenistic mysteries often equated a)iwn with kosmoj, the word for the organised world, the world that Satan rules. That is why it is occasionally translated “world.” Homer, in both the Iliad and the Odyssey used a)iwn as the force in life and finally life itself. Therefore this is one of the oldest meanings of the word. A)iwn was used by Xenephon for “generation,” so it has a variety of opportunities for translation and the general context has to determine which is the meanings is applicable in any situation. Here it has to do with life. There was something in life that was much more important to Demas than Bible doctrine and therefore he lose the whole meaning of life. Principles 1. When the believer enters the various stages of reversionism he eventually is taken over in the soul the Satanic policies of evil. 2. This influence of evil causes the believer to change his priorities so that they are totally incompatible with God’s plan of grace. Therefore he thinks like an unbeliever. 3. Two things, therefore, are excluded from the thinking of the believer under the influence of evil. 4. First, the priorities of phase two, namely the breaking of the maturity barrier and moving toward the objectives of super-grace and ultra-super-grace. 5. The second, the blackout of any blessings and rewards of phase three which glorify the God forever. Once your priorities are destroyed by the influence of evil then you lose SG2 and you lose SG3. 6. The reversionistic believer is totally ignorant of the three crowns or decorations which are not only heaven’s highest decorations for the mature believer but constitute maximum glorification of Jesus Christ forever and ever. The eternal future of phase three is a mental blackout to the reversionistic believer. A person like Demas is not living his life in the light of eternity, nor is he living his life under the divine blessings of time. Satan superimposes his genius type thinking on reversionists like Demas because reversionism makes them vulnerable. Reversionistic believers like Demas emphasise their own concepts in the present life rather than God’s concepts. In other words, for every believer there are two plans. There is God’s plan for his life and there is his own plan for his life. God’s plan calls for the advance from salvation, past the maturity barrier to ultra-super-grace and dying grace. But his own plan can only eventuate in his use of his own resources and going into reversionism. The ultimate in God’s plan is dying grace. The greatest blessings in life come to the believer in dying grace. The ultimate in our own planning will be the sin unto death for reversionism. So the type of death that we die definitely indicates whether we did God’s plan or our won. When, like Demas, you switch priorities from God’s plan to your own plan then the trouble begins. This is an explanation as to why Demas is a casualty on the morning report. “and is departed” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the aorist middle indicative of poreuomai which means to depart from someone. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it is used here for a momentary action that occurred in past time. The middle voice is a dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the agent or the subject in the action of the verb — the departure, desertion. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that Demas, once a vital member of Paul’s missionary team, has now deserted. “unto Thessalonica” — e)ij plus the accusative. This gives direction. Demas is a casualty in the angelic conflict. Having rejected doctrine, having changed his priorities, he became involved in some sort of a plan, his own plan for promoting and pushing his own life, his own seeking of happiness. Therefore he changed geographically from Rome to Thessalonica, and in that change he lost out completely. Apart from reversion recovery Demas will arrive in phase three with nothing to show for his life on earth and he will miss all of the blessings that God had for him in every phase of his paragraph SG2. The second entry on the morning report is Cressens. “Cressens” in the Greek is Krhskhj and it means “increasing.” If any significance could be attached to his name it obviously means that he is a super-grace believer and pressing on. It is interesting that his name should come after Demas whose name means “popular.” Apart from this reference we know nothing more about Cressens, but one reference is enough to recognise a principle: Every believer is as much in full time Christian service as any pastor, missionary, or evangelist. Therefore this one phrase, “Cressens to Galatia,” expresses the power of the ordinary life. The dynamics of the ordinary life 1. The ordinary Christian is defined as that believer whose spiritual gift is not related to spiritual leadership, i.e. his spiritual gift is not related to communication of doctrine. 2. Every believer or member of the royal family of God is in full-time Christian service. Whether in the ranks or an officer depends on spiritual gift, its exploitation, and the system of authority set up by God. The system of authority set up by God resides in the pastor-teacher. This means, of course, that there is no such thing as dedicating one’s self to “full time Christian service” because you are a full time Christian — either in reversionism or advancing. 3. Production or works is not the major issue in the Christian way of life or phase two. The major issue is growth, spiritual growth. The objectives are defined in terms of maturity — super-grace, ultra-super-grace, dying grace. Production is not the means of spiritual growth, production at best is a result of spiritual growth but never a means. All objectives in the spiritual life are attained by the transfer of Bible doctrine from the page of the Word to your soul by a pastor-teacher communicator. All objectives in the Christian life are attained through the persistent function of GAP. 4. Private Cressens is mentioned in the last morning report of Paul as a dedication to the ordinary Christian. Like Cressens, believers do not have to live in the limelight to be great with the Lord. 5. In many ways the ordinary life is the most difficult life. It has fewer moments of recognition, fewer moments of approbation and stimulation. Therefore the ordinary life requires greater self-discipline and persistence in the daily function of GAP. 6. Cressens in a Bible memorial to the ordinary believer who lives the extraordinary life without publicity, without recognition. He breaks the maturity barrier by his daily function of GAP, he goes to super-grace with the magnificent blessings of paragraph SG2, he presses on to ultra-super-grace without fanfare or encouragement from others. He is the kind who becomes a great prayer warrior because his maturity gives him the ability to produce. Therefore his works are effective. He is a great prayer warrior, he is a great witness for Christ, he becomes highly effective in the function of the local church and administration, there are many wonderful things that he does, he doesn’t talk about what he is doing, he does it as unto the Lord, and his greatness is registered forever in heaven and will become apparent at the judgment seat of Christ. 7. The believer in ranks may be out of sight in the Christian community, he may not have worldly recognition, but he is never out of God’s sight. a) His production reflects Bible doctrine in his soul. b) He is free from arrogance and its counterparts. c) He is free from the influence of evil and reversionism. d) He serves the Lord in his own quiet way without blowing his trumpet, like the Pharisees, or trying to impress others with what he is doing. e) He is free from approbation and power lust. His head is never turned by compliments. f) He is unknown to others but well known to the opposition, i.e. Satan and the demons. g) He carries his generation in history as a spiritual Atlas. h) He is a blessing to all associated with him and he enjoys in turn perfect happiness and blessing in life. 8. The believer in ranks has a true perspective regarding service. He understands that Christian service is not what we do for the Lord but what the Lord’s grace does through us. Therefore he sees Christian service as a channel for the expression of grace rather than the means of making Brownie points with the Lord. Therefore Christian service must reflect his spiritual growth in his progress. This is only possible where there is maximum doctrine resident in his soul. Therefore maximum doctrine resident in his soul exploits the balance of residency between the filling of the Spirit and that doctrine. The Christian way of life is not activity nor productivity but conductivity. We are transmitters of God’s grace, not creators of God’s grace. 9. Therefore the private in God’s army is just as much in full-time Christian service as the general in God’s army. The angelic conflict is resolved by the advance of ordinary people, like private Cressens, as much as the advance of great people like the apostle Paul. Here, then, is a monument to the effectiveness of the rank and file Christian: “Cressens has gone to Galatia.” Verse 10b— the combat officer. His name was Titus — Titoj e)ij Dalmatian. Titus was one of Paul’s theological students in the ambulatory theological seminary. He is called in Titus 1:4 Teknon which means “student,” not “son.” Titus a) He is probably the brother of Luke which explains the absence of his name in Acts. He was, incidentally, a test case in Jerusalem — Galatians 2:1-3. b) Titus could handle a tough situation where others failed, therefore he became the great troubleshooter in Paul’s missionary team. c) Timothy failed miserable at Corinth because Timothy wasn’t tough. In fact, Timothy had a tendency to be sweet and wimpyish so he failed miserably with the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 2:13; 12:18 we have two beautiful declarations that Titus went in there and squared them away but good. d) Having straightened out the Corinthians church Titus rejoined Paul and turned Paul’s depression into great happiness over the Corinthian case — 2 Corinthians 7:5-7, 13-15. e) During the first and second Roman imprisonments Paul and Titus visited Crete, a trouble spot. Titus was left behind to take command of a very sticky situation — Titus 1:5. f) Trouble had now broken out in Dalmatia, a Roman province in the eastern Adriatic. It is a part of the present Yugoslavia. g) Tradition indicates that Titus returned to Crete and commanded there until his death. He died at a ripe old age and he was the only one who could ever hold the Cretians in line in that generation. The Cretians were tricky, sneaky, liars, hypocrites, phoney, and an ordinary pastor could go in there and give them all that sweetness and light and brotherly love and the Cretians would laugh themselves sick and move into reversionism. Titus went in there, was smarter than they were, caught on to their hypocrisies, caught them in their lies, straightened them out, and kept them moving. The only reason there was anyone in Crete who ever became a super-grace believer in that generation was because of Titus. Translation: “For you see, because he has loved the present life Demas has deserted me, and has gone to Thessalonica; Cressens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.” Verse 11 — Luke is Paul’s executive officer. “Only Luke is with me” — the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. This is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has happened in the past and continues into the present time. This is the present tense of duration. The active voice: Luke produces the action of the verb. Here is a person whose profession was medicine but whose abilities were diversified and magnificent. He had true executive ability and he represents the whole concept of administration. While he is a writer of scripture, a great historian, and has written unique books of the New Testament, his greatness was really administration. No organisation of any kind can function effectively with a bunch of committees having meetings all the time, or just a group of people just deciding what to do. There has to be someone with authority who can make some instant decisions and get things cracking. So, the verb to be, “only Luke keeps on being.” That is, he has to be there. He is Paul’s administrator and therefore he is present. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. We also have an adjective, monoj, used as a predicate nominative. It means “alone.” Luke is alone with Paul. “With me” is a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive of the personal pronoun e)gw. The interesting thing is that apparently Timothy is going to inherit Paul’s combat team. Paul is passing the colours on to Timothy, therefore it is imperative for Timothy to get there, not only to see Paul but to be read into the picture by Paul’s executive officer, Luke himself. “Luke is alone with me” is the correct translation. Luke a) Background. Luke is an extremely well-educated Gentile from Antioch that he does and everything that is said about him speaks of education. He writes, by the way, in Classical Greek. Luke 1:1-4 is pure Attic Greek, demonstrating his phenomenal education. By contrast, many of the other men on the Pauline combat team are not educated at all. Education is really not for everyone anyway. But there is a place for it and there certainly is with Luke. Luke does not hesitate to advance himself also as an expert historian contending a thorough investigation and collection of data prior to his contact with Christianity. Luke had extensive contact with the early church leaders, including Paul, Timothy, Philip, Silas, Mark, Barnabas, and James. Therefore he qualifies in every way as an excellent historian. b) Luke is the brother of Titus. We learn this from the Greek of 2 Corinthians 8:18 in which the definite article is used as a personal pronoun in front if a)delfoj which means “brother.” The definite article means “his” brother, i.e. Titus. c) Luke has a great relationship with Paul. 1. He joined the apostolic team at Troy on the 2nd missionary journey — Acts 16:10-11. 2. He accompanied Paul to Philippi but was not involved in the persecutions of Paul and Silas recorded in Acts 16. 3. When Paul left Philippi after his deliverance from jail Luke remained behind in order to help out in starting the new church. Comparing the pronoun “we” in Acts 16:10, it becomes “they” in Acts 16:40. 4. Luke rejoined Paul on his third missionary journey when Paul came back to Philippi. 5. He was from that time appointed Paul’s executive officer and he remained with Paul until his death. 6. For example, Luke shared in Paul’s Jerusalem reversionism. Even though Paul went into reversionism Luke knew he was wrong and stuck right with him as a good executive officer — Acts 20:6-21:18. 7. He shared in the Caesarean imprisonment of two years. 8. He made the famous shipwreck voyage to Rome — Acts 27:1; 28:2. 9. He was with Paul during the first Roman imprisonment — Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24. 10. As noted in this context Luke was with Paul during his second Roman imprisonment — “Luke is alone with me.” 2 Timothy 4:11. d) The extra-biblical legend that Luke died in Greece at the age of 84. In addition to being the medical officer for the team was the team historian and he kept the duty roster for them. His loyalty and faithfulness to Paul is emphasised in this context. It takes a truly great believer with magnificent honour and integrity to take second place to the great apostle Paul. This is perhaps one of the most outstanding things about Luke. He had greatness of his own but he never allowed his own personal greatness to not subordinate himself to the great apostle. Even though he was great in his own right his personal greatness was never in conflict with the principle of subordination of himself to the authority of the ultra-super-grace apostle. He stayed with Paul to the very end of his life and not once did he ever think of bucking Paul’s authority or going out on his own. He had no hang-ups related to playing second fiddle to Paul. “Take Mark” — the aorist active participle from the compound verb a)nalambanw [a)na = again and again or up; lambanw = to receive, to take] comes to mean to take up in order to carry, which we call simply to pick up. This is exactly what it means here, to pick up en route. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. It is translated “Pick up Mark en route.” The active voice: this is a command to Timothy who on his way to Rome will pick up Mark and bring him along also. The participle is used here as an imperative. The imperative use of the participle is simply Paul issuing another command to Timothy. The word “Mark” is in the accusative singular direct object from the proper noun in the Greek, Markoj. “bring him” — present active imperative of a)gw. The imperative mood here is a command. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Timothy must obey the command. “with thee” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of a reflexive pronoun seautou which means “with yourself.” “for” is the explanatory use of gar; “he is” — present active indicative of e)imi, “he keeps on being.” The customary present denotes what may be reasonably expected from a believer who has recovered from reversionism and broken the maturity barrier. That is the story of John Mark. At this time Mark is either in super-grace or ultra-super-grace. Mark produces the action of being profitable. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that Mark who was once despised by Paul is now totally appreciated. “profitable” is the predicate nominative from e)uxrhstoj which means “useful, serviceable, profitable.” “to me” is dative of advantage, the persona pronoun e)gw. Paul is referring to himself. “for the ministry” — should be “with reference to the ministry,” e)ij plus the accusative of diakonia. Translation: “Luke is alone with me. Pick up Mark en route, bring him with yourself: for he is useful to me with reference to the ministry.” Mark a) John Mark was the son of Mary of Jerusalem whose home was the place of assembly for the Jerusalem church — Acts 12:12, 25. She was a famous and wealthy woman. Her brother appears to be Barnabas and was therefore either an uncle or a cousin. Therefore Mark comes from a VIP home. b) Barnabas s either his uncle or his cousin — Colossians 4:10. c) Mark was converted under the ministry of Peter — 1 Peter 5:13. Consequently the Gospel of Mark is really Peter’s Gospel, it presents Peter’s account of our Lord. It explains why it is terse and short, and when you read the Gospel of Mark in the Greek you know that you are seeing our Lord’s ministry on the earth through the eyes of Peter. d) Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey — Acts 12:25; 13:5. e) As a result of reversionism John Mark deserted the missionary team and returned to Jerusalem in reversionism and in disgrace — Acts 13:13. f) Mark recovered from his reversionism. Here is the mark of true greatness in the royal family of God — spiritual resilience, the ability to recover in spite of failure, and also the ability of withstanding shock without permanent detriment to spiritual life or rupture of spiritual life. g) The great controversy. During the planning stage for the second missionary journey Barnabas and Paul got into a real donnybrook over the person of John Mark. Paul did not want to take Mark, did not want to give him another chance. He didn’t want any unreliable, unstable, coward to go along. Barnabas had recognised Mark’s reversion recovery and wanted to give him another chance, so there was a great donnybrook. This was at Antioch of Syria which at that time had a flourishing church. And that church stayed out of the argument. In other words, there were people in Antioch who loved Barnabas. There were people who loved Paul. When they got into this controversy somebody could have said, “Paul is right.” Someone else could have said, “Barnabas is right.” Sides could have been taken on the basis of friendship. When two people get into a donnybrook they must be isolated. Wives get involved, and wives have friends, people get on telephones, people get talking and pretty soon everyone is divided into two camps. They don’t have the facts and even if they have the facts it is my friend right or wrong type of thing. This was a church of mature believers, the first such church. The next one was Ephesus. Rome never even came close. But notice the greatness of this church at Antioch, they did not take sides. The dynamics of grace 1. The church of Antioch delivered Paul into the Lord’s hands without censor and without approval.They continued to recognise Paul’s authority, understanding that the Lord, not they, possessed the authority to handle the matter. 2. This fantastic grace action on the part of Barnabas is the last major activity of that particular super-grace hero. Barnabas now disappears from the book of Acts. He was still alive at the time that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:6 — AD 57 — and he was still alive at the time of the writing of Timothy. 3. Historical tradition associates Barnabas with both Rome and Alexandria. In fact, because of his association with Alexandria, the Classical Greek academic centre, many conclude that Barnabas is the human author of Hebrews. 4. If Barnabas did write Hebrews he is second only to Paul in one of the greatest all-time teachers of doctrine. 5. The silence of scripture regarding Barnabas does not censure Barnabas but the spotlight from that time on is no longer focused on Barnabas who was right but it is now focused on Paul who in this instance was wrong. Being wrong didn’t hinder Paul from having the greatest ministry anyone has ever had in the communication of doctrine in history. 6. God had a wonderful plan for Barnabas, though not recorded in the scriptures. 7. Paul’s failure did not hinder the great plan that God had for him. Both men travelled the road to glory. 8. The super-grace believers at Antioch isolated the controversy by not taking sides. Super-grace Barnabas performed a great act that saved the ministry of John Mark. John Mark goes on to super-grace and a dynamic ministry. Likewise Paul, like wise Barnabas. So because of the wisdom of that particular congregation the ministries of three great men in the early church were saved. The controversy was finally settled. Paul in super-grace status during his first Roman imprisonment, both in Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24, mentioned the fact that he was wrong. Once again he implies it in 2 Timothy 4:11. 9. Mark’s future ministry after the death of Paul. Mark was sent on a mission to Egypt where he founded the Alexandrian church, or at least pastored it. As the pastor of that famous church Mark refused to renounce Christ during a Roman persecution and, once a coward and once a deserter, he bravely stood up to the Roman tribunal. The result was that one leg was tied to a Roman chariot going north, one leg was tied to another going south. he was given his last chance to renounce Christ and when he said no the Roman gave the command for the chariots to go, they ripped him to pieces, and his soul entered into eternity. Verse 12 — the replacement, Tychicus. “And Tychicus” starts with the post positive conjunctive particle de used to emphasise a contrast between those leaving Rome and those coming to Rome. With it is the accusative singular direct object from the proper name Tuxikoj which is transliterated Tychicus. “have I sent” is the aorist active indicative from the compound verb a)postellw. It means to send out on an important mission, to send into action, and in this case it is to send out a replacement for action. The dramatic aorist tense states the present reality with the certitude of a past event. The present fact: Tychicus has just left Rome on his way to Ephesus to replace Timothy at Ephesus. The past event: Tychicus was sent some time ago to replace Timothy at Ephesus so that Timothy could leave and get to Rome as quickly as possible. The active voice: Paul in anticipation of dying grace makes this personal change in personnel. The indicative mood is the reality of the change. “to Ephesus” is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative. Timothy has been stationed there but must be replaced so that he can come to Rome to be present for the changing of the guard. Translation: “I have sent out Tychicus to Ephesus to relieve you.” The principle behind this: The needs of the church must come before the personal desires of the great apostle. Paul would not permit the local church at Ephesus to be without a pastor, it is a key church at this time in church history. Therefore he sends a replacement to relieve Timothy while Timothy comes to Rome to receive the final instructions related to the changing of the guard and the passing on of the colours. So those who use authority best are those leaders who are the most sensitive to the needs and the problems of their command. Another principle comes out of this: Without thoughtfulness and loyalty to those you command authority is abused and distorted in any sphere of life. Tychicus a) He was associated with Paul during the third missionary journey — Acts 20:4. b) Along with Trophimus he is called a native of Asia Minor — Acts 21:29. c) Therefore Tychicus was the messenger who carried the prison epistles to their proper destinations. He carried Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon to Asia Minor. d) During Paul’s reversionistic journey to Jerusalem Tychicus remained behind at Miletus — Acts 20:15. e) However, Tychicus joined Paul during the first Roman imprisonment — Ephesians 6:21,22; Colossians 4:7,8. f) Paul found Tychicus very dependable for he then sent him to Crete — Titus 3:12. g) During Paul’s second Roman imprisonment he could only depend upon Tychicus to get to Ephesus to relieve Timothy so that Timothy would be free to come to Rome — 2 Timothy 4:12. h) Tychicus is mentioned in dispatches and commended for his faithfulness — Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7. Verse 13 — begins the logistical commands of the apostle. Logistics in the military science of supplying, transporting and quartering troops. In this case logistics are confined to supply alone. Paul needs something for the body and something for the spirit and this is brought out in this verse during this period of dying grace. “The cloak” — the accusative singular definite article plus the accusative singular of the noun felonhj. The ordinary word for a cloak would be i(matia. There is also a verb involved here and felonhj is the object of the verb to bring. Felonhj is actually a Latin lone word into the Greek demonstrating once again that the two languages were interchangeable at this time in history. The Latin word is paenula. It refers to a very heavy coat, a thick coat with a travelling hood. This kind of a coat was used for travelling in cold and stormy weather in Roman history. The Romans used the paenula for travelling instead of the toga, it was designed for protection against cold and rain and was considered to be the best of all the coats that the Romans had. It was made our of either wool or leather. So Paul needed something to warm the body and keep out the winter weather. “that I left” — the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j refers to this heavy Roman coat. With it is the aorist active indicative from the compound a)poleipw. This indicates where the coat can be found. It was left behind actually. The aorist tense is a constative aorist referring to a momentary action, it was left behind momentarily. The active voice: Paul in reversion left it behind. The indicative mood is declarative for reality. The aorist active imperative of ferw is the command to bring it along at this time; “at Troas” is really “Troy.” The coat was kept there at the house of a certain person called Carpus. There are several biblical references to Paul’s visits to the famous city of Troy. It is mentioned in Acts. In chapter 16 the great attempt to evangelise Philippi started from Troy. In 2 Corinthians 2:12 and here in 2 Timothy 4:13 Toy is mentioned again. It was during Paul’s fourth missionary journey that he stopped off at Troy and he left a winter travelling coat. Carpus was a believer who lived there. Paul in a sense is not only asking for the coat but is giving a brief memorial to an unknown believer who provided Christian hospitality and a relaxed atmosphere for one of the greatest men in history. “when thou comest” is a present active participle from the verb e)rxomai, the simple word for coming. This is a futuristic present for an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that in the mind of the writer Timothy is already there. Timothy did reach Rome in time. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb en route to Rome. The participle is a temporal participle. “bring” — the present active imperative of the verb ferw. The present tense is descriptive present, it presents to the mind a picture of the events in the process of occurring. The active voice: Timothy produces the action. The imperative mood: it is an order. “and the books” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the accusative direct object from ferw of biblion. It is correctly translated “books” and actually means the papyrus which would be equivalent to our modern paperback books. This would be a part of Paul’s reading library and in his dying days Paul intends to spend a lot of time reading. Reading is an excellent form of relaxation and Paul was stimulated in his mind by what he read. There is also a request for the spirit … “but especially the parchments” — the word for “especially” is actually malista, a superlative form in the Greek, a superlative of mala and is correctly translated “above all.” It indicates that these parchments are more important than anything else. We also have the noun in the accusative membrana from which we get our English word “membrane.” It refers to leather type parchments, vellum type books. This is a permanent type book and probably refers to Paul’s copy of the scripture as it existed at that time. He wanted his copy of the scripture for reading and study as well, indicating the fact that even in dying grace the great apostle did not give up his lifetime habit of study. Translation: “When you [Timothy] come, bring the heavy coat and the scrolls, especially the parchments which I have left behind at Troy with Carpus.” Summary 1. Paul’s approaching death does not hinder his enjoyment of life. This is indicative of dying grace. 2. Here is actually the blessing of ultra-super-grace. Even though Paul has been tried and condemned to death he is not brooding, pouting, or giving way to any type of vindictiveness. He is now in the sphere of dying and will very shortly be executed. He is not upset in any possible way. 3. Neither does he complain in the next paragraph about the miscarriage of justice. 4. Paul’s capacity for love, happiness and life, are placed in their proper perspective in this verse. When you have all this capacity for life it continues even in the sphere of dying grace. 5. Out of this comes a principle: The knowledge of death does not hinder either the super-grace or the ultra-super-grace believer’s capacity for life. 6. Breaking the maturity barrier takes the sting our of death. Dying will only be a greater blessing than the blessings of living. 7. Because of his capacity for life Paul intends to live in the best possible comfort in that uncomfortable dungeon. 8. Therefore the heavy coat to warm the body is still a factor in dying grace. He will remain warm and comfortable regardless of the weather. Why? Because he is enjoying life. 9. Paul will also be surrounded by friends, loved ones, and his favourite books. He will read and study the Bible parchments until the day of his execution. Life and all of its blessings goes on for the ultra-super-grace believer even while he is dying. He does not change his routine, he does not cater to the fact that he is dying, whatever he has been doing in life he continues to do right up to the moment of his last breath. Verses 14 and 15 — the mantle of Paul’s ultra-super-grace opposition. Verse 14 — “Alexander” is A)lecandroj. In a way he was famous as a part of Paul’s ultra-super-grace decorations. This man probably hated Paul as much as a person could hate another person. he was a reversionistic believer, he did everything he could to destroy Paul’s ministry. He never succeeded. Instead, God simply put him in that wonderful necklace around Paul’s neck, the highest honour in time. He made him a part of that ultra-super-grace decoration. “the coppersmith” — that is not quite correct: o( xalkeuj means a metal smith. It means one who works with bronze or silver or gold. Alexander in Ephesus was a part of Paul’s mantle of opposition in ultra-super-grace. He first comes into view in the famous Ephesian riot of Acts chapter 19 which was started by Demetrius the silversmith, and at that time Alexander was also a silversmith in Ephesus. Acts 19:23ff. The next reference to Alexander, after Acts 19, is found in 1 Timothy 1:19,20. The deliverance over to Satan is intensive discipline leading to the sin unto death. This passage indicates the perpetuation of the antagonism and persecution of Alexander of Ephesus toward Paul, opposition and antagonism which continued to the death of both of these believers. However, the problem here is that even though he was turned over to Satan he didn’t die because Satan is using this man and he will die at another time. “did we much evil” — this is not referring to Ephesus, the passage in 1 Timothy, it is referring to the trial of Paul in Rome. It was difficult to find someone who would speak against Paul. It needed accusation under Roman law, there had to be someone who would bring in an accusation. This is a reference to that fact. The Greek phrase, polla moi kaka e)nedeizatw is a slightly different phrase. It includes the accusative neuter plural of polluj — “much.” Alexander did many evils. With it is the accusative neuter plural direct object kakoj, the word for “evil.” This is the Satanic system of genius by which he runs the world. Since kakoj is in the plural we could say many evils, or many categories of evil. Plus a dative singular from the personal pronoun e)gw — “to me.” This dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the opposition is performed. Alexander as a reversionistic believer is under the influence of evil, he is the lifetime enemy of Paul, and it is for his purpose that he is doing this. He thinks it is to his advantage to get rid of Paul, to kill Paul, and therefore he becomes the accuser of Paul. So this is a dative of advantage from Alexander’s standpoint. It was to Paul’s advantage also to have this opposition because this opposition becomes a part of the intensification of Paul’s blessing. Alexander will be in heaven as a classical illustration of a believer in ultimate sanctification minus anything else. Principle: Why is Alexander still alive? The sentence was pronounced, he was under the sin unto death — 1 Timothy 1:20. Two years later he is still alive. God continued the intensity of Alexander’s discipline. Alexander is only more miserable, and the more miserable he becomes the more antagonistic he becomes toward the apostle Paul. So God permits Alexander to continue living in order that Paul’s blessings might be intensified right down to the moment of his death. And who is better motivated to intensify Paul’s blessings than this man who despises him so much? In other words, the mote intense the opposition to Paul the more intense the ultra-super-grace blessing. The word “did” is the aorist middle indicative of the verb e)ndeiknumi [e)n = to, among, on the occasion of; deiknumi = to exhibit, to show] means to show on certain occasions, and it comes to means to demonstrate or to give proof of. “Alexander the metal smith gave proof of, demonstrated many categories of evil to me.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the hatred, the antagonism, the opposition of Alexander. The middle voice: the agent Alexander voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action. “the Lord reward him” — o( kurioj refers to Jesus Christ who not only controls history in time but is the evaluator of all believers at the judgment seat of Christ. Jesus Christ has kept Alexander alive so that in the sphere of ultra-super-grace and in dying grace Paul might have an intensification of happiness and blessing that few have ever known before he departs from this life. Alexander contributes to that. The word “reward” is not quite correct. This is the future active indicative of a)podidomi which means to remit, to pay back, to recompense. “The Lord shall remit to him.” The future tense is a predictive future, it declares several events which will occur in the future: a) The execution of the sin unto death. No one will ever die a more miserable death than Alexander; b) At the resurrection there will be loss of reward, loss of eternal decorations and blessings, loss of paragraph SG3 for all eternity. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is both historical and prophetical reality. Plus the dative of disadvantage from the intensive pronoun a)utoj emphasising the total failure not only of Alexander but all believers who live in reversionism. “according to his works” — kata plus the accusative plural of e)rgon, “according to his deeds or “with reference to his deeds.” The point is that any time a believer gets into reversionism he always is under the mistaken idea that good works cause growth. Translation: “Alexander the metal smith demonstrated many categories of evil to me: the Lord shall pay back to him with reference to his deeds.” Principles 1. Paul makes it very clear that this source of opposition in Ephesus must not become a source of a personal vendetta by Timothy or anyone else. After Paul dies he does not want anyone to try to get even with Alexander. 2. After his death there is a possibility that some misguided believer will seek vengeance and therefore Paul must be very lucid. Alexander of Ephesus must be left entirely in the Lord’s hands. No believer must try to take vengeance into his own hands. 3. Principle: Stay out of the way of the Lord’s justice so that you do not yourself become hurt. 4. However, in the next verse Paul warns Timothy that not only is he passing the colours on to him but he is leaving him in Ephesus his mantle of ultra-super-grace opposition. Alexander is also from Ephesus. Verse 15 — “Of whom” is the accusative of reference from the relative pronoun o(j which means “With reference to whom.” This is a reference to Alexander the metal smith. “be thou ware” — the present middle imperative from the verb fulassw which means to be on guard or to be alert. The present tense is the present of duration demonstrating what Timothy has done in the past, he has been alert at the pastor of the Ephesian church and he must continue to do so. The middle voice is indirect middle in which Timothy produces the action of the verb as the agent. The imperative mood: this is a command to Timothy, a command to the one who is to carry the colours for the next generation. There is also the pronoun su and with the middle voice it gives a reflexive connotation — “you yourself be on guard [be alert].” “for” is the explanatory use of the conjunction gar; “he hath greatly withstood” — the adverb which is used first here, lian, is used with verbs preceding them. Hence, lian goes with fulassw. So it should be translated, then, “you yourself be extremely alert.” Then we have the aorist active indicative from the compound verb a)nqisthmi, translated “withstood” but it means actually to stand against or to oppose in every possible way. We will use the word “resisted.” The constative aorist gathers up all of Alexander’s into one entirety. For at least fifteen years now Alexander, day in and day out, has resisted doctrine and the ministry of the apostle Paul. This opposition is spread out into a long period of time but it is gathered up here into one entirety. The active voice: Alexander produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical fact. “our words” — the adjective h(meroj which means “our.” This word is very important because it indicates that both Paul and Timothy have studied doctrine and have learned doctrine, and in their understanding of doctrine have communicated it, therefore it belongs to them. The dative plural from logoj means “our doctrines.” Logoj actually means words, in the plural it refers to doctrines. Translation: “Also with reference to whom you yourself [Timothy] be extremely alert; for he has resisted our doctrines.” Paul and Timothy have faithfully taught in Ephesus and elsewhere. Alexander has constantly resisted their teaching ministry, their authority, everything connected with them. Beginning in verse 16, and for two verses, we have a summary of Paul’s last trial, held before Nero. Verse 16 — the trial is mentioned in the words “My first answer” — e)n plus the locative of the adjective prwtoj. The word prwtoj can mean first in time or first in sequence or first in space. Here it means first in rank or degree. It means foremost, most important or prominent. The noun as the object of the preposition in the locative is a)pologia. This is where we get the English word “apology,” but it is an official court action in this particular passage. There is also a possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw. All together we have literally, “In my most important [trial] defense.” This is a reference to Paul’s final trial before Nero. “no man” — o)udeij indicates the fact that there was not one believer who could be brought forth into the courtroom and actually give a testimony for Paul. “stood with me” — it has to be remembered that “standing with” here is a very technical term, it means to make a public appearance in court in order to give testimony that Paul was not against the Roman empire, that he was not a traitor, and that the charges against him were false. This is a reference to the believers in Rome. Many of them knew Paul and any one of them could have vouched for the fact that he was a loyal citizen of the Roman empire. But they also knew that Paul was persona non grata with the empire and they did not care to endanger their own lives by standing up and testifying. Many Christians in Rome could have come to court and given a simple deposition that would have solved the whole thing, but they did not. Luke was barred because he was a personal friend of Paul’s and he was disqualified. This is the aorist middle indicative of the compound verb paraginomai [para = beside; ginomai = to come beside or to stand by the side] which actually means to make a public appearance on behalf of an accused person and to give testimony on behalf of an accused person regarding his innocence. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event, and it is an idiom device for emphasis here. This is the indirect middle in which the agent, the believers of Rome, produce the action rather than participating in the results of the action. They were cowardly and they took off. There were several reasons. It was established not only by Timothy but by the book of Romans that the Roman church was never a strong church spiritually, and that when it came down to apostasy the Roman church would lead the way as it has down through the centuries. The Roman church was an apostate church even from the start. It was the Ephesian church that was the great church, the Roman church was the centre for reversionism, apostasy, cruelty, treachery, instability. And the Roman church never changed. “but” — a strong adversative conjunction a)lla and it sets up a strong contrast between the availability of qualified witnesses who could have refuted the charges against Paul and the fact that none of these qualified witnesses took the stand on behalf of Paul. “all men” — the nominative masculine plural subject from the adjective paj, meaning “all,” referring to all the believers in Rome who could have testified in the Roman court on behalf of Paul. Nero’s recent persecution of the Christians intimidated some of them but that isn’t the whole story by any manner of means. The Roman church was filled with reversionism. Most of the believers were under the influence of evil, many were serving Satan outright, so God uses Paul’s trial before Nero to demonstrate this reversionistic failure of the Roman church, a failure that continues to the present time. “forsook me” — the aorist active indicative of e)gkateleipw which means to desert. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one picture all of the verbal action of desertion. It takes the various reversionistic believers having opportunity and indicates that every one of them made a deliberate decision to turn away from Paul. The active voice: the reversionistic believers deliberately produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, this is an historical fact. With it is the object of the verb, the personal pronoun e)gw. “I pray God” is not found in the original. There is no prayer offered here. We merely have” that it ma not be laid to their charge,” but it should be translated, “may it not be charged to them.” There is a very strong aorist passive optative of the verb logizomai. With it is a strong negative mh. Mh is not usually that strong but with logizomai it becomes much stronger. It is not o)u or o)uk because he can’t dictate to God, but he can express his own mental attitude. We also have a dative plural indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which refers to all of the believers in the Roman church, the ones who had the opportunity of testifying and who deserted Paul during his final trial. “May it not be charged to them” is an aorist tense, a culminative aorist. It views the failure of these reversionists in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. They not only refused to testify but they actually did not. The existing result from all of this is the sin unto death discipline. Paul recognised that some of these reversionists under discipline will wake up, change their mind and repent, and will go into reversion recovery. Therefore it is not his desire that their desertion of him hinder reversion recovery. This is really what he is expressing and why he has to use the negative mh instead of o)uk. The passive voice plus the negative mh means that Paul does not desire that the deserting reversionists should receive the action of the verb, the sin unto death. The optative mood is rather rare, it is a mood of strong contingency, a mood of probability. It contains no definite anticipation of realisation but it represents the action as conceivable. This is what is called a voluntative optative in which the ultra-super-grace Paul expresses his personal wish or desire in the matter. It means he has an entirely relaxed mental attitude toward the traitors, those who are responsible for his being under a sentence and condemnation of death from the emperor of the Roman empire. Translation: “In my most important defense [the trial before Nero] no one made a public appearance in court to testify on my behalf, but all [reversionistic believers] deserted me: may it not be charged to them.” Principle 1. “May it not be charged to them” means “may they not be so disciplined for deserting me when they could possible come under reversion recovery.” If there is any possibility that they will change their attitude in the future and that they will desire doctrine and spiritual growth, “may they have the time in which to recover.” 2. The wish, therefore, expressed by the voluntative optative mood indicates the phenomenal grace orientation of ultra-super-grace Paul, and also a very strong relaxed mental attitude. 3. There is no bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, recrimination, or desire for vengeance. 4. Therefore this verse expresses the dynamics of ultra-super-grace mental attitude. There is no way you can shake the relaxed mental attitude, the tranquillity of soul that Paul possesses from doctrine. No matter what terrible things people do to him they cannot in any way disturb the tranquillity of doctrine resident in his soul. 5. Note that Paul is not offering a prayer for these reversionists, he is merely expressing a mental attitude. 6. Furthermore, the importance of the grammar here is that Paul is not trying to superimpose his own volition over God’s sovereign will. Divine sovereignty cannot be coerced and cannot be changed. 7. No believer can dictate to God or to the sovereignty of God. 8. Once again, therefore, Paul can only express his own grace mental attitude toward these reversionists but he does not and cannot try to dictate to God what should be done with them. 9. God is fair, He has all the facts and He will make the proper disposition. Therefore the whole thing is in the hands of the Lord. Verse 17 — “Notwithstanding” is simply an enclitic conjunctive particle de. It is used here to emphasise a contrast between believers deserting Paul in the previous verse and the Lord’s faithfulness to Paul in not deserting him. There is no accident in Paul’s life, there is no accident in the life of any ultra-super-grace believer. It was no accident that all of these phoney believers deserted him. A super-grace believer never depends on people. You are not going to get hurt by people and their failures when you are depending on the Lord. “the Lord stood with me” — the active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb. He stood by — paristhmi which means to stand by the side of. This is a dramatic aorist, it states the present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is an idiomatic device for the faithfulness of the Lord to an ultra-super-grace believer, even though everyone has deserted him. The declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of fact; “me” is the dative singular indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw. In the indirect object of the personal pronoun it indicates that it is in Paul’s interest the attitude of divine faithfulness is performed. So we translated, “the Lord stood by me.” “and strengthened me” — aorist active indicative from the compound verb e)ndunomow which means to pour strength into. So it means “and poured the power into me.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results of pouring power into Paul in this time of his trial. The active voice: the Lord did the pouring. He poured into Paul the strength over that period of time when he was under such pressure. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic and historical fact, the reality of divine empowering of the ultra-super-grace believer under pressure. “that by me” — the conjunction i(na, used to introduce a final clause which denotes a purpose or an objective. The conjunction was used sparingly in the Attic Greek compared to the Koine but becomes very popular in the New Testament because there are so many divine objectives that have to be marked out as a divine purpose, a divine goal. So this became a very important conjunction at the time of the writing of the New Testament. “by me” is dia plus the genitive of e)gw which is “through me.” “the preaching” — nominative singular subject from the noun khrugma which means an announcement, a proclamation by a herald. Here is the public inculcation and communication of doctrine, Paul’s reaching to the church. The proclamation is the summary of all Paul’s writings and a summary of all of his teachings that everyone remembered during his lifetime. “might be fully known” — the aorist passive subjunctive from the compound noun plhroforew [plhrw — filled; forew — to bear] which means to carry a full load, to be completely fulfilled, to be fully convinced, and it means to carry around a heavy load. That is exactly what many people did as a result of Paul’s ministry. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views Paul’s ministry of teaching doctrine, both his written ministry and his teaching ministry throughout his lifetime as a believer, and pulls it all together but emphasises the existing results of divine faithfulness and protection so that Paul could finish his ministry, especially his written ministry. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb. He receives time from God to complete his doctrinal ministry. The subjunctive mood goes with i(na to designate the divine purpose. “and” in the ascensive use of kai, translated “even.” And in order to smooth out the English we repeat i(na — “even that.” “the Gentiles” — e)qnoj, meaning Gentiles or nations; “might hear” — aorist active subjunctive of the verb a)kouw which means to hear and understand. It is a word used here for GAP. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the ministry of the apostle Paul to the entire world at that time. The fact that the Gentiles or the people of the Roman empire are the recipients is confirmed by Acts 18:6; 26:20; 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11. The word Gentiles here means the peoples of the Roman empire. The passive voice: the Gentiles receive the action of the verb through the written and verbal ministry of Paul. The subjunctive mood, again, goes with i(na to designate God’s purpose and objective. As long as God has a plan for your life you are going to stay alive is the principle from the subjunctive mood here. Summary 1. The objectives and goals of Paul’s life were all accomplished before the great apostle was removed from time to eternity. There is no such thing as a believer departing from this life until the objectives for his life are fulfilled. The objectives are cancelled in the case of reversionists and other objectives come into focus. God’s objective for the reversionist is to discipline him and he keeps him a live to spank him good since in heaven there is no discipline for the believer. 2. There was a strong possibility that Paul would never have written Titus and 2 Timothy. Right in the middle of his trial Nero wanted to send Paul to the lions. 3. However, it was the Lord’s intention to keep Paul alive to write two more books — Titus and 2 Timothy. Therefore even though there was a mantle of opposition in which Nero was a part the Lord kept him alive. No one can remove the believer from history until the Lord permits it. “and” — this is the emphatic use of kai and should be translated “in fact.” “I was delivered” — aorist passive indicative of the verb ruomai which means to snatch from danger, to rescue, to deliver. The dramatic aorist here indicates that this was a very dramatic moment in the history of Paul and in the history of the world. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb, deliverance from death. He was delivered from the lions. The indicative mood is the historical reality that even though Nero wanted to kill him he was delivered from the lions in the arena. “out of the mouth of the lion” — e)k plus the ablative of stoma is from the mouth; then we have the genitive singular leon. Nero’s attempt to throw Paul to the lions in the Roman arena was frustrated by the Lord Jesus Christ personally intervening in history. Nero’s revenge was probably forestalled by the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen and this was proved in court. At this time a Roman citizen could not be thrown to the lions or be crucified. He either had to be decapitated or executed in some other way. Translation: “But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me: in order that through me the proclamation [communication of doctrine] might be fully accomplished, even that all the Gentiles [population of the Roman empire] might hear: in fact I was delivered from the mouth of the lion to accomplish this purpose.” Principle 1. Until God is ready no person, no power, no angel, no human being can remove a member of the royal family from life. 2. Jesus Christ controls history even though Satan is the ruler of this world. Therefore no believer can be removed from the world apart from the sovereignty of God. 3. So Paul was not torn apart by the lions in the arena but he had a quiet pleasant death by decapitation several months after he wrote this passage. Verse 18 — the principle of Paul’s ultra-super-grace deliverance. He is going out under dying grace and he is not going to be thrown to the lions. “And the Lord shall deliver me.” There is no particular conjunction here, such as the word “and,” it should be literally translated “The Lord himself shall rescue me.” We have the nominative o( kurioj — The Lord,” referring to Jesus Christ who provided special protection for ultra-super-grace believers because they are always under maximum opposition and pressure from Satanic forces of evil. Because they are under such pressure they are given very special protection. An ultra-super-grace believer under maximum opposition from Satan himself is just as safe as anyone else not even known to the demons. The mantle of opposition includes many reversionistic believers and unbelievers under the influence of evil. Their opposition is very intense but the blessings of paragraph SG2 are intensified by that opposition. We also have a future middle indicative of the verb r(uomai which means to snatch from danger, to rescue, or to deliver. This is a gnomic future for the statement of fact and a performance expected under the status of ultra-super-grace. In other words, any ultra-super-grace believer can count on it: as long as God wants that ultra-super-grace believer to stay alive, alive he will be, and all hell can’t cut him down. He is perfectly safe. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which the Lord as the agent produces the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. In other words, this is a personal thing. However many ultra-super-grace believers exist at any time on the earth the Lord personally protects them. They have the greatest security that has ever existed. There is no security for the reversionist. The reversionistic believer is the greatest enemy of Christ on the earth — the enemy of the cross, he is said to be the enemy of Christ. The worst opposition that Christianity has is from Christians. There is nothing worse than a reversionistic believer. The indicative mood is declarative, it views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of historical reality and absolute dogmatic fact. There is indirect security for all believers, even reversionists, because they are assigned at salvation a guardian angel. But the guardian angel is merely a creature too, and there are other creatures equally as powerful — the fallen angels, the demons. But the Lord is the security for any ultra-super-grace believer. “from every evil work” — the preposition a)po, “from the source of,” plus the ablative of paj, “every,” plus the ablative of ponhroj, “evil,” plus the ablative of e)rgon, “work” or “deed.” Literally, “from every evil deed.” Evil is the nomenclature for Satan’s plans and policies as the ruler of this world. What grace is to the believer — the policy and the plan of God for the believer — evil is to Satan and Satan’s crowd. Evil and grace are mutually exclusive and antithetical. Grace is the policy of God; evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Grace is the modus operandi and modus vivendi of God; evil is the modus operandi and modus vivendi of Satan. So the whole concept of grace and evil is total antithesis. Just as grace is the name of God’s plan evil is the name of Satan’s plan. A principle of doctrine, then, emerges: Grace is always the source of blessing to the believer while evil is always the source of cursing to the believer. That is because the soul of the believer is the battleground in human history. It was the battleground in the garden and it is the battleground in history after the fall. The angelic conflict is being resolved in the souls of members of the human race. That is why what you think is so important. The words in your soul that form doctrines and categories and concepts of grace are more important than anything else. “and will preserve” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the future active indicative of swzw, sometimes translated “salvation” and it means “deliverance” — “and shall continue to deliver me.” Salvation is the deliverance. The gnomic future is for a statement of fact and a performance expected under the status of ultra-super-grace. The active voice: the Lord produces the action of the verb through the proper performance of the laws of divine establishment and Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The indicative mood is declarative, it views the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality. “unto his heavenly kingdom” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of the adjective e)pouranioj, plus the noun basileia, meaning “kingdom.” With it is the possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj emphasising the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the intensive pronoun emphasises the royalty of Christ, and this should be literally translated “into his heavenly kingdom.” Now after something like that a concept: Where there is deliverance in dying grace, even as there has been deliverance in ultra-super-grace, and having experienced this deliverance in three categories of maturity, he can only now conclude one thing. In the closing sentence of this verse he says, “to whom be glory” — the dative singular indirect object from the relative pronoun o(j refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has been preserving and pouring power into him. The antecedent, then, is o( kurioj. It is the dative of indirect object, it indicates the one, the Lord, in whose interest the action of preservation is performed. Jesus Christ as the controller of history decides when any believer is going to leave. It is strictly a matter of His will when they leave and under what conditions they leave this life. Therefore it is in the Lord’s interest to preserve ultra-super-grace Paul and all believers for His heavenly; kingdom and to preserve them under conditions which have been stated throughout this chapter. After the relative pronoun there is no verb, it is just “to whom glory.” It is the nominative singular, h( doca, and God is glorified by Paul’s advance to ultra-super-grace. God is glorified by blessing in ultra-super-grace Paul’s life, and God is glorified by Paul’s attainment of the tactical victory which complements His own strategic victory of being seated at the right hand of the Father. So God is glorified by the preservation of every believer, whether super-grace or even reversionist, whether spiritual or carnal. God preserves the reversionist as well, not only for discipline but to act as a testing ground for believers. The word “glory” here indicates that only God can be glorified by all of this blessing. The glory is not only in time but for eternity. “for ever and ever. Amen.” In other words, the plan of grace carries eternal glory with it and the glory of time. But the glory of time which Paul has experienced is nothing compared to the infinitely greater glory of eternity. The doctrine of glory 1. There is a Hebrew noun which occurs many times in the Old Testament — kadodh. It means not only honour or glory but it means riches, wealth, abundance, nobility, majesty, and splendour. Therefore glory always connotes connotes honour, distinction, greatness, fame, renown, being illustrious, eminence, nobility, and majesty. In the New Testament the word doca has the same connotation exactly. So glory is the sum total of divine blessing realised by the mature believer in time in anticipation of infinitely greater blessing in eternity. Glory first of all emphasises the source of the blessing as being God and nonne of the characteristics of the essence of God are compromised in providing blessing in time and infinitely greater blessings in eternity for the mature believer. Therefore glory indicates that God’s character remains intact in doing this for the mature believer. 2. Glory is used for the essence of God — Deuteronomy 5:24; Psalm 21:5; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:17. 3. Glory is used in the Bible for the indwelling of Jesus Christ — Colossians 1:27, “… Christ in you the confidence of glory.” The passage is dealing with the divine decrees and how it is fulfilled in spiritual maturity through the intake of Bible doctrine. The fact that God the Father decreed to make know His wealth is called “the glory of the mystery.” Again, the glory is used there for the essence of God the Father. 4. Glory is used to describe the maturity of the believer. For example, there is the mature believer from the basis of his recognition of glory. Mature believers do form a basis for recognition of glory — Ephesians 1:5,6. The riches of maturity are from the glory of God — Ephesians 1:17,18. Same concept in Ephesians 3:16. The source of everything that we have as a blessing is from the essence of God. Essence is glory and what is provided is glory. Philippians 4:19 — “riches in glory” refers to the fact that every blessing that you will ever have in time is from the essence of God. The mature believer is said to have received glory in 1 Peter 1:7,8. 5. Glory is also used to describe the strategic victory of Christ in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 2:10. Now glory refers to the blessings of eternity. 1 Timothy 3:16 — “… great is the mystery with reference to godliness: the unique one [Jesus Christ] who became visible by means of the flesh, that same one was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit, observed by angels, proclaimed among the nations, became the object of faith in the world, taken up into the place of glory.” 6. The royal family is called to eternal glory — 1 Peter 5:10; 2 Peter 1:3. 7. Therefore the resurrection body is described in terms of glory — 1 Corinthians 15:43; 2 Thessalonians 2:14. 8. The right woman is described as the glory of her right man — 1 Corinthians 11:6,7,14,15. 9. There are additional uses of glory in the Bible. Glory is used to describe the wonders of the universe — 1 Corinthians 15:40,41. There is a natural glory of the woman described as human glamour — 1 Peter 1:24; Philippians 3:19. 10. God is glorified and receives glory forever in the deliverance of the ultra-super-grace believer — 2 Timothy 4:18. In verses 19 and 20 we have a roster of super-grace heroes. Verse 19 — “Salute” is the aorist middle imperative of a)spazomai. The word means to greet, but in the ancient world they greeted in several ways. The men in the Roman world didn’t shake hands like we do, they saluted — in many ways. A close friend just grabbed the arm and shook it. A)spazomai is used for verbal saluting as well as simply the posturing of saluting. It should be translated here “acclaim,” as in Mark 15:18, rather than “salute.” The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist used to state a present reality with the certitude of a past event. “Priscilla and Aquila” — they have cracked the maturity barrier and have reached the super-grace status as a husband and wife. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it lays stress on the agent, Timothy, in producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. This is an imperative mood to Timothy, he is to acclaim Priscilla and Aquila — Priska kai A)kula. Priska is merely the nickname for the full name Priskilla. The husband’s name is A)kulaj. Priscilla and Aquila at the time of writing were super-grace believers residing in Ephesus where Timothy was the pastor. In the Greek A)kulaj means “eagle.” Along with his wife Priscilla, Aquila first met Paul when living in Corinth. When Paul went to Corinth he was broke so he got a job as a tentmaker and in this job he met Aquila — Acts 18:2. Aquila was a native of Pontus and a tentmaker by trade. At the time of this meeting the couple were refugees from a very cruel and unjust edict by Claudius which in AD 52 expelled all Jews from Rome. Priscilla and Aquila were Jews and therefore driven out of Rome. They sought refuge in Corinth where they met Paul during his second missionary journey. Being of the same trade they not only became acquainted but Paul led both of them to Jesus Christ. When Paul left Corinth Priscilla and Aquila went with him — Acts 18:18. After settling down in Ephesus they came into contact with Apollos there. They noted that Apollos was a very eloquent preacher but was limited in his understanding of doctrine. So they took him aside and they began to teach him a little more doctrine to line up with his eloquence — Acts 18:24-26. Priscilla and Aquila were in Rome on business when Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans in AD 58 and he sent them a personal greeting from Corinth — Romans 16:3,4. From Ephesus Paul wrote to the Corinthians. The church at Ephesus was meeting in the home at this time of Priscilla and Aquila — 1 Corinthians 16:19. It is the super-grace crowd that holds together any local congregation. “and the household of Onesiphorus” — the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai means “also,” plus the accusative singular direct object from the noun o)ikoj which does not mean household but simply “family.” So here is the case of an entire super-grace family acting as the basis for blessing of the local church at Ephesus. “Onesiphorus” means “benefit-bringing,” and he was a super-grace believer at Ephesus before he went to Rome and actually gave his life for Paul — 2 Timothy 1:16,18. Translation: “Acclaim Priscilla and Aquila, also the family of Onesiphorus.” This verse depicts super-grace status in relationship to two divine institutions: marriage and the family. Marriage is depicted by Priscilla and Aquila — divine institution #2; the family of Onesiphorus — divine institution #3. Not only does the stability of a nation depend upon these two areas of establishment but also spiritual stability and progress depends upon divine institutions #2 & #3. The doctrine of refreshment 1. Refreshment in the English language generally connotes food and beverage, or light meal. However it has a greater connotation in the Bible. It means to restore the strength of soul or to revive the divine viewpoint in the inner life of the believer. It is accomplished both with doctrine and with Christian fellowship. It means to supply what is necessary for spiritual blessing in time and to be able to handle the disaster of adversity. 2. The alleviation of Saul’s psychosis. This is a ministry of refreshment to a believer in reversionism. Interestingly enough, the thing that refreshes the reversionistic believer in this case is good music — 1 Samuel 16:23ff. We might call this a case of musical therapy and it did cause temporary alleviation of the symptoms of psychosis. So we note that refreshment connotes soul recovery from an adverse condition, which in this case is reversionistic psychosis or neurosis. Almost always soul refreshment connotes some form of soul recovery as well as soul blessing. 3. We have a tristitch is Proverbs on doctrinal refreshment — Proverbs 23:13. Cold water on a hot day. This is an analogy between the water boy during the harvest who brings the cold water to the workers and the communicator of doctrine providing spiritual refreshment for the soul through the communication of doctrine. The pastor-teacher is the water boy. 4. Rejection of refreshment means national discipline — Isaiah 28:8-14. They wouldn’t listen to doctrine so they got the gospel in foreign languages — the gift of tongues. The only way that refreshment can occur is through the intake of Bible doctrine. 5. The response to the Word of God is called “refreshment” in Romans 15:32; 2 Corinthians 7:13. 6. The super-grace believer has a ministry of refreshment — 1 Corinthians 16:17,18; Philemon 7; 2 Timothy 1:16. Verse 20 — the super-grace nucleus at this time was scattered all over the Roman empire. Paul is about to leave the scene of history where as an ultra-super-grace believer he has had a most dynamic impact. Other places also need the stability of ultra-super-grace, the mature leadership. Two additional super-grace believers are mentioned, one in Corinth and one in Miletus. “Erastus abode at Corinth” — this includes the nominative which is the subject of the proper name E)rastoj. Erastus was a VIP in the Roman empire. He was the treasurer of the city of Corinth. He is associate with Timothy being sent with him from Ephesus to Macedonia, as per Acts 19:22. Writing to Rome from Corinth Paul concludes in Romans 16:23, “ … Erastus the city treasurer greets you.” According to this passage Erastus continues at Corinth as a super-grace believer, a stabiliser, a leader of the local church. These great believers are scattered out. For a while they were together, they had a wonderful time together, and now it is all over. These men are going to be scattered all over the empire in key spots, and Corinth is a key spot. The word “abode” is the aorist active indicative from the verb menw which means to remain. The culminative aorist views the residence of Erastus at Corinth in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results. Corinth will have dynamic spiritual leadership from an ultra-super-grace believer. The active voice: Erastus produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. We should note a principle in passing. These names might be only mentioned once in the scripture but these are great believers that you will recognise in heaven as VIPs. From this scattering of the ultra-super-grace and super-grace believers we can begin to see that this is going to be an era of great blessing for the Roman empire. As these men are scattered out this means that there is great historical blessing for the empire. “but Trophimus” — the accusative singular direct object from the proper noun Trofimoj. With it is an enclitic particle which means “but Trophimus.” Trophimus was a native of Ephesus. He accompanied Paul on the third missionary journey, according to Acts 20:4; 21:29. He was the innocent cause of a riot in Jerusalem by which Paul was disciplined and arrested and taken into Roman custody — Acts 21:27ff. Trophimus was with Paul on his release from the first Roman imprisonment of AD 63. He travelled to Philippi and then to Ephesus, and then went with Paul to the Lycus valley. He was with Paul for two years in Spain and then came back with Paul to Ephesus. “have I left” is the aorist active indicative here indicates simply to be left or to remain behind. The concept is that he was not a deserter but he had to be left at Miletus because he was sick — the present active participle from a)sqenew. The present tense is an historical present, it views the past event (the illness of Trophimus) with the vividness of a present occurrence. It also has linear aktionsart, he kept on being sick. The active voice: Trophimus produces the action. This is a causal participle — “because he was ill.” Translation:“Erastus remained at Corinth: but I have left behind Trophimus at Miletus because he was sick.”Note that his illness does not connote either carnality or sinfulness on his part, or any type of divine discipline. Verse 21 — some orders and salutations to Timothy. “Do they diligence” the aorist active imperative of the verb spoudazw. It means to hasten, to hurry, to make every effort. This is an ingressive aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. The aorist denotes entrance into a state of hurrying. The active voice: Timothy executes the command. The imperative mood: it is a command. “To come” — the aorist active infinitive of e)rxomai. The culminative aorist views the coming of Timothy to Rome in its entirety and it emphasises the fact that he must hurry. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb by going from Ephesus to Rome. The infinitive is intended result, it indicates the fulfilment of a deliberate objective. It blends purpose and result and it means Timothy is going to definitely come. “before winter” — the prepositional phrase pro plus the ablative of xeimwn. “Eubulus” — E)uouloj means good counsellor or noble counsellor. He is one of four believers living in Rome at this time who continued to be a faithful friend of Paul in spite of the mass desertion of apostate believers of the Roman church. It is obvious that he is a mature believer in super-grace status because of his courage, his stability, his honour and integrity in standing by Paul at a time of inconvenience. “Greeteth thee” — the word “greet” is the present middle indicative of a)spazomai and it means to salute. It is an aoristic present tense for punctiliar action. The middle voice is an indirect middle in which Eubulus, Pudens, Linus and Claudia all produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality that these four people salute the church at Ephesus. The three words “and” should be “also,” being the adjunctive use of kai. “Pudens” — Poudhj means “bashful” or “modest.” A believer who remained loyal to Paul. “Linus” — Linoj. Tradition indicates that Linus was the pastor of the Roman church and that Claudia was his mother. “Claudia” — Klaudia, the wife of Pudens and the mother of Linus, according to Irenaus and Eusebius. All three are mentioned in the Epigram of Marshall. Claudia was the daughter of a British king. She was sent by her father to Rome to be educated. “and all the brethren” are growing believers who have not deserted Paul. Translation: “Make every effort to come before winter. Tubules greets you, also Pudens, also Linus, also Claudia, also all the brethren.” Verse 22 — death does not stop the plan of God. There is no one who is irreplaceable in the plan of God. Nothing can stop the plan of God. “The Lord Jesus Christ” is incorrectly translated. The last sentence here is very elliptical and it simply says O( Kurioj, “The Lord.” Neither “Jesus” nor “Christ” is here. Then meta tou pneumatoj — this is a great emphasis on the living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, Bible doctrine. Two things are necessary for the advance to super-grace: occupation with Christ which comes from maximum doctrine, and the continual intake of doctrine. So we have the living Word emphasised by o( Kurioj, “The Lord.” We have the written Word emphasised: “With your spirit” — meta plus the genitive of pneuma. “The Lord be with your spirit.” You can take disaster of any kind provided that you have in your human spirit Bible doctrine being pumped into the right lobe. Paul is saying in effect, “I am going but doctrine will still be here.” “Grace be with you” — h( xarij is “grace,” “the grace.” The subject is grace. The preposition meta plus of su — “with you.” We have two prepositional phrases. In the first we have a singular, in the second a plural addressed to the entire royal family of God. Paul is about to die but grace is something you will still have. The plan of God marches on, the name of the plan of God is grace. Translation: “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with all of you.”

1970 Titus Notes

TitusChapter 1

2 Corinthians 7:13 — “Therefore” is literally “Because of this.” “We were comforted” is a perfect passive indicative of parakalew which means to comfort and exhort. The context determines which of these antithetical words is to be used. Paul was comforted at the point of the coming of Titus with the result that he kept on being comforted, and also at the same time began to enjoy his inner happiness. The passive voice indicates that Paul received comfort by talking to Titus. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that you can find comfort in fellowship with other believers by being with them.

“in your comfort” — the preposition is e)pi which means “on the basis of.” The Corinthians rebounded, started to respond to the Word and they were comforted by so doing. When they were comforted Titus was comforted. When Titus was comforted and came home to Paul and told Paul, Paul was comforted. This is more or less the chain of events which is recorded here by the phrase “on the basis of your comfort.”

“yea, and exceedingly the more joy we joyed for the joy of Titus” — old English. It is literally, “more abundantly we had in a point of time inner happiness on the basis of the inner happiness of Titus.” Titus walked in happy. Immediately Paul snapped out of it. Titus was happy because in Corinth believers responded to doctrine. Titus is happy, he had an ECS, he was a person who lived on doctrine and had a strong right lobe. Titus had great moral courage.

“because his spirit was refreshed” — this means that the things that Titus taught came out of his e)pignwsij. This is the perfect passive indicative of a)napauw [pauw = refreshed; ana = above or again]. He was refreshed from above, he was dealing with doctrine. He was refreshed again because he had learned these things and was now exhaling them in Bible teaching. When you exhale Bible doctrine it is a source of refreshment.

“by you all” is literally, “from the ultimate source of you all” — a)po, the preposition of ultimate source. Verse 14 — “For if I have boasted anything to him [on behalf of] of you.” Even though they were saying all these nasty things about him Paul actually praised them. The perfect tense indicates that he had boasted in the past and now he can stick with it.

“I am not ashamed” — he is not ashamed of the fact that he bragged about the Corinthians: kauxaomai.

“but as we spake [communicate] all these things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which before is found [become = ginomai] a truth.” Paul boasted to Titus that the Corinthians would respond to doctrine. Their response came and the boasting stands.

Verse 15 — “And his inward affection is more abundant toward you.” This doesn’t mean that Titus had a real sweet relationship with everyone but it means that as they responded to doctrine he developed a great loyalty to them. The word for “inward affection” is splagnon. It originally meant bowels or entrails, and it finally came to mean emotional rapport and loyalty. They listened to the Word, they responded, and he became very loyal to them. “More abundant” means a depth of feeling that comes from a loyalty to the congregation who responded.

“whilst he remembered the obedience of you” — the word for remembering is a)namimnhskw. You remember it again and again. He would never forget it. The present tense is linear aktionsart. The principle: You can be benefited by certain types of memory. He remembered “the obedience of you all.” The word for obedience is u(pakoh which means respect for authority. And there is something associated with that, we have meta, the preposition of association. Two things are mentioned, the first is foboj which is generally translated “fear,” but also has the concept of occupation or concentration — “with concentration.” The word “trembling” doesn’t mean trembling, it means agitation of mind. They concentrated on what he had to say — foboj — and they were agitated in their minds. Notice that he developed a loyalty toward them at the beginning of verse 15 which increased day by day and he remembered them again and again. The thing that he remembered the most was their obedience, a respect for his authority which was associated with concentration and with agitation of mind. It didn’t come easy, they were often upset with him.

“ye received him” — dexomai which means to embrace [mentally]. They received his ministry.

Verse 16 — “I rejoice therefore.” Paul had inner happiness. This is present active indicative, linear aktionsart; “and I have confidence in you in all.” The word for confidence is qarrew which means to have a special confidence toward someone even though in the past there has been no reason for it. It means to have confidence in them with regard to a principle: not to have confidence in them that they will always be stabilised but to have confidence in them that they will stick with the principle which is the response to doctrinal teaching.

Titus: Introduction

Since the day of Pentecost there had been believers on the island of Crete — Acts 2:11. These believers had never been organised into local churches. They had no leadership such as a pastor-teacher or a pastor-bishop. Paul became aware of this situation so he stopped at Crete on his way to Rome — Acts 27:7-13. He wasn’t there long enough to do anything but get some idea of the situation. On Paul’s release from his first Roman imprisonment he took a fourth missionary journey. Toward the end of it he went to Crete, accompanied by Titus — Titus 1:5. Since Titus was a trouble-shooter Paul left him there.

Titus

1. Titus was one of Paul’s theological students — Titus 1:4.

2. He was sent by Paul to straighten out Corinth after Timothy’s failure — 2 Corinthians 2:13. 3. He straightened out and then joined Paul in Macedonia to turn Paul’s depression into happiness — 2 Corinthians 7:5-7, 13-15.

4. Between the first and second Roman imprisonment Paul and Titus visited Crete — Titus 1:5.

5. Then Titus is sent to Dalmatia — 2 Timothy 4:10.

6. Prior to all of this Titus had been a test case in Jerusalem — Galatians 2:1-13. He was a Gentile.

7. Speculation: There is some possibility that Titus is the brother of Luke. This might explain why Titus is not mentioned in Acts which was written by Luke.

8. Historical tradition indicates that Titus later on returned to Crete and lived there as its bishop until he died of a ripe old age.

Background of the epistle

It was written somewhere between 66 and 67 AD from Nacopalis where Paul was taken prisoner the second time before Paul was arrested. The occasion of the epistle is further instructions to Titus regarding the organising of the churches in Crete, and also to advise Titus that he is sending him some help — Zenas and Apollos. It was also to warn Titus that there were a lot of itinerant false teachers crossing over to Crete.

The outline of chapter one: “Christian leadership.”

Verse 1-4, the salutation to the epistle.

Verse 5-9, the appointment of leadership.

Verse 10-16, the necessity for that leadership.

Verse 1 — “Paul.” Pauloj is a Roman surname name, it is never used as a praenomen. It was the name which became his at the point of Roman citizenship. His father before him was a Roman citizen. But because he was a Jew by race and because he appeared to be a fighter right from the start, he was also given the name Saul. Saul always was a fighting name among the Jews. The word Pauloj actually means “little.” It indicates something that is going to happen to this man. He is going to be little and therefore used of God in a marvellous way. Little indicates the importance of grace.

“a servant” — douloj means “slave.” He calls himself Pauloj douloj and being a free Roman citizen it means he is laughing at himself. It is a pun and it is loaded with humour. No Roman citizen ever deliberately called himself a slave unless he had some good reason for it. The reason is because he is in the Church Age. He is in union with Christ and he is indwelt by Christ, just as we are. He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and so are we. What makes a douloj? Positional sanctification. He is an ambassador personally representing Jesus Christ, he was in full time Christian service, and so are we. So we are all servants — douloj. We are all in full time Christian service and the only difference between us is one of spiritual gifts.

“of God” — genitive of source from qeoj. Who made him a slave? God had a plan for him from eternity past.

“an apostle” — a)postoloj, [stoloj is from stellw = to send, to send out. But that isn’t what this means at all]. An a)postoloj was an admiral of the fleet in the Athenian navy. It is an Attic Greek word. It is a gift which means dictatorship, absolute authority.

The characteristics of an apostle

1. They were elected by God in His plan — Romans 1:1.

2. They were appointed by the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:11.

3. No apostle to the Church was appointed until after the ascension — 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11.

4. An apostle had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Christ ( Paul qualified on the Damascus road) — 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8,9.

5. An apostle had special gifts — the gift of miracles, as in Acts 5:15; 16:16-18; 28:8,9; he could turn any believer over to Satan for the sin unto death, as in 1 Corinthians 5.

The doctrine of inspiration

God so directed the writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their vocabulary and literary style, their personal feelings or any other factor, God’s complete and coherent message and plan was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages.

“according to” — kata, “according to the norm or standard”; “of faith” — the third function of GAP.

This is the standard whereby you understand Bible doctrine in the left lobe as gnwsij.

“of God’s elect” brings up the issue of the plan of God from the standpoint of the doctrine of election. The Greek word is e)klektoj and it means chosen as the recipient of special privilege. Every believer, regardless of who he is, is the recipient of special privilege. Every believer being in the plan of God has this privilege.

The doctrine of election

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

2. While the human race is potentially elected in time Christ was elected in eternity past — Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4,6.

3. The election took place as a part of the eternal life conference (the doctrine of divine decrees) — John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2.

4. Every believer in the Church Age shares the election of Christ through positional sanctification — 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:28-32.

5. Election is the present as well as the future possession of every believer — Colossians 3:12; John 15:16.

6. Election takes place at the moment of salvation — 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

7. Election is the foundation of the Church — 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

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

9. The regenerate Jews of the previous dispensation also had an election as a part of the plan of God — Romans 11:1-7 cf. Deuteronomy 32:8.

“and the acknowledging of the truth” — the word “acknowledging” is an accusative singular noun, e)pignwsij. This refers to doctrine in the human spirit, the result of the third stage of GAP; “of the truth” is a genitive of source, a)lhqeia refers to Bible doctrine categorically. Once you get e)pignwsij in the human spirit it goes into categorical areas from which it can be utilised.

“which is after godliness” — “after” is kata, or “according to the norms and standards”; the word “godliness” is e)usebeia. It started out as being a Homeric word and then it came into the Attic Greek where it was used for piety in the fulfilment of human relationships. It was used for piety with regard to fulfilling the responsibility to the pantheon of whatever Greek city you found yourself in. The Attic Greek always referred to outer piety, giving overt obeisance to the gods of the pantheon. But as it came into the Koine Greek it meant spirituality, a duty which the believer owes to God. So actually, e)usebeia is the principle of the filling of the Spirit.

In verse one we have all the ingredients of the function of GAP

1. We have the communicator or stage one of GAP — “Paul … an apostle.”

2. “According to the standard of faith” is the transfer of doctrine from the staging area or the perceptive lobe to the human spirit.

3. The divine provision for GAP is the word “elect.”

4. The principle of spiritual IQ — “acknowledging” is literally e)pignwsij.

5. The source of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is located in the scripture in an exegetical form but the categories are there.

6. The basis for the functioning of GAP — godliness or the filling of the Spirit.

Verse 2 — God’s plan must have stability. Once you enter God’s plan you must understand that no matter how badly you fail or how much you succeed you are still in God’s plan. We have here the stability of God’s plan in the doctrine of eternal security.

“In hope of eternal life” — the trouble with “hope” is that the modern word means like “I hope so.” The word e)lpij means the utmost of confidence. We have a preposition in front of it, e)pi, which means “on the basis of.” So we begin this verse, “On the basis of confidence in eternal life.” We have eternal life right now. What is the basis of our eternal life? God’s Word.

“which God” — literally, “which the God,” God the Father who is the author of the plan.

“that cannot lie” — there is no verb here at all. The word is an adjective, a)yeudhj which means “the non-lying God.” When someone tells you the truth all the time you believe what they tell you — because they are non-lying. You can always have confidence in someone who levels with you and tells you the truth. This is a part of God’s character, His essence — veracity. The non-lying God says we have eternal life. Since Cretans are “always liars” they have to be hit with the truth. This is a contrast.

“promised” — aorist middle indicative of e)paggellw [a)ggellw = to announce or promise; e)p — to undertake], which means to promise to undertake something, to promise to underwrite something.

“before the world began” — the non-lying God promised to underwrite us before creation. He promised to underwrite believers assembled in local churches.

Verse 3 — the communication of this plan in the Church Age. Preaching is committed to a few men with the spiritual gift. Titus has to comb the island to find those who have the gift of pastor-teacher.

“But hath is due times manifested” — in the old English they liked to split the verb: “hath manifested” is an aorist active indicative of fanerow which means to make known something through teaching, repetitive, authoritative teaching. Sometimes fanerow is used for the written Word and sometimes for the communication of doctrine verbally. Here we know that is has to do with verbal form. Manifestation here is the function of GAP. What was wrong with the believers on the island of Crete? No doctrine; “due times” is made up of the word kairoj which refers to dispensations. Along with it we have the word i)dioj which is a possessive noun — “his own.” So it should be translated, “he has manifested by means of his own dispensations [times].” Divine revelation, then, is based upon dispensational truth — the universal priesthood of the believer, positional, sanctification, the indwelling of Christ, all of the things which are unique to the Church Age were never revealed before but they are manifested now.

“his word” — Bible doctrine; “through preaching” — prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of khrugma. E)n plus the instrumental means public teaching and inculcation. Khrugma includes six principles:

a) There must be a textbook. Khrugma implies a written text which is the standard for the communication. Our textbook is the canon of scripture.

b) The noun also connotes communication in an authoritative manner. This is the provision of the gift of pastor-teacher, a communication gift.

c) It connotes reception. The recipients is the priesthood of believers. Khrugma indicates public reception, one person in authority speaking to a number of people and the privacy of the priesthood under GAP.

d) The importance of public assembly with authority vested in the communicator.

e) The principle of monologue in communication of Bible teaching.

f) Khrugma protects the individual believer from bullying and personality dynamics. He can take it or reject it, he can live it as unto the Lord or not.

“through [by means of] preaching which is committed” — aorist passive indicative of pisteuw, it means “entrusted” here. In a point of time a person who has the gift of pastor-teacher is entrusted.

“according to the commandment” — the word “commandment” is a very unusual word, e)pitagh, and it has great importance to the pastor-teacher. It means that the pastor-teacher is strictly under responsibility to God. It means strict authority and responsibility to that authority, and it means that the pastor-teacher is under divine authority and has a responsibility as a shepherd. It also means that no one can communicate Bible doctrine without authority from God.

“God our Saviour” reminds us once again of the basis of our stability. It is Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, absent from the earth and represented in this area by the pastor-teacher.

Verse 4 — the true recipient of this epistle. “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith.” Many people thought that Titus was a genuine son of Paul. Then they took two theories. One, that he was a legitimate son of Paul in wedlock, and two, he was not a legitimate son of Paul in wedlock — in other words, a bastard. This was debated quite heavily in theological classes. No one happened to think about the fact that Titus was a Gentile, and is so stated to be a Gentile in Galatians 2:3. He had a Gentile mother and father. That is why he was circumcised in Jerusalem, according to Galatians 2:3. Paul is a Jew. The word that caused all the trouble here is gnhsioj, a word which means genuine, lawful, legitimate, born in wedlock. But it also with teknon means “most reliable.” In this verse it means “most reliable.” Translation: “To Titus, most reliable son.” In other words, Titus was a son in the faith and was the most reliable member of the Pauline team. That is why he is a trouble-shooter. It means that Titus has an ECS and has been the greatest beneficiary of Paul’s ministry. It means that he has a strong right lobe and a phenomenal divine viewpoint. Here is a maximum responder to doctrine who becomes a maximum leader. Note: No one becomes a great leader in any field until first of all he is a good follower.

“after the common faith” is literally, “according to the standard of the common faith.” The common faith is Bible doctrine. Titus is the most reliable. Titus responded under GAP and then he became a leader. Reliability does not come from being a leader, reliability becomes from being a responder and a follower. You only become reliable in God’s sight through GAP.

“Grace,” xarij, is the whole concept of the plan of God; the word “mercy” is not found in the original; “peace” refers to reconciliation or what God had to do to provide grace; “from” is the preposition a)po which indicates ultimate source; “God the Father” is the author of the divine plan, grace; “the Lord Jesus Christ” is the executor of grace and entrance into the plan, and therefore He is called “our Saviour.”

The doctrine of grace

1. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the cross. Therefore grace is the work of God on behalf of man. Grace is the subject and the title of God’s plan for mankind. The word itself actually excludes all human ability, all human good.

2. The concept of grace. Grace depends on who and what God is. It never depends on who and what man is. In other words, grace depends upon the essence of God, the character of God. Grace is a word which is backed by divine essence.

3. The issue of grace. Grace is opposed by an antithetical principle called legalism. Legalism is the sum total of human viewpoint, human good, human works, human merit, and human ability.

4. Grace also is related to sanctification. The greatest thing that God can do for the saved person is to make him like His Son. This is accomplished in three stages of sanctification which are all related to the angelic conflict. For example, phase one sanctification is union with Christ. At the point of salvation we enter into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer by virtue of union with Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father is positionally superior to angels. Phase two sanctification has to do with the edification complex of the soul [ECS]. The soul of the believer with an ECS actually has that which is superior to the inner structure of the angels. Phase three: The believer receives a resurrection body which is superior to the angelic body, as indicated by the Lord Jesus Christ passing through all of the hostile angels on His way to heaven without being deterred in any way.

5. The entrance factor as far as the plan of God is concerned. At the moment the believer personally received Christ as saviour, at that moment he tasted grace — 1 Peter 2:3. Every believer has passed the point of propitiation — 1 John 2:2. So the believer’s eternal salvation is based upon grace.

6. The occupational hazard of grace. Disorientation to grace is the believer’s greatest occupational hazard in time — Hebrews 12:15 where disorientation to grace comes through mental attitude sins, and Galatians 5:4 where disorientation to grace comes through legalistic modus operandi.

7. The divine attitude in grace: God is constantly waiting to pour out His grace to every believer — Isaiah 30:18,19.

8. Grace in phase one: Psalm 103:8-12; Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 3:23,24; 4:4; 5:20.

9. Grace in phase two: a) Prayer — Hebrews 4:16; b) Suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10; c) Growth — 2 Peter 3:18; d) Stability — 1 Peter 5:12; e) Modus vivendi — Hebrews 12:28; 2 Corinthians 1:12; f) The production of divine good — 1 Corinthians 15:10.

10. Grace is the only answer to the intensified stage of the angelic conflict — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

11. Seven implications of grace: a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect; b) A perfect plan can only originate from a perfect God; c) If a man could do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect; d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link, therefore grace must exclude all weak links; e) Human ability, human good, legalism, is the enemy of grace, the neutraliser of grace; f) There is therefore no place in the plan of God for human good. Grace excludes all human good; g) Inevitably human good leads to mental attitude sins. For example, it is always associated with the mental attitude sin of pride.

12. Four areas where the pride cluster rejects grace. a) The pride of the believer who rejects eternal security. His pride is involved in the fact that he thinks that his sins are greater than the plan of God. b) The pride of the believer who succumbs to the pressures of adversity. He thinks that his sufferings are greater than the provision of God. c) The pride of pseudo-spirituality. He thinks his works, his morality, his self-righteousness, his taboos, or the changes in his personality are greater than the plan of God. In other words, pseudo-spirituality always has a gimmick, a gimmick whereby you have the intrusion of human ability of some sort — works, morality, self-righteousness, taboos, personality changes, unusual experiences. d) The pride of the emotional believer. He thinks his feelings are more important than Bible doctrine. He finds reality not in the Word but in how he feels.

13. The sufficiency of grace is found in the ECS — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10. The power of God rests upon us because of the sufficiency of grace. The strength of the Lord is imparted to the believer in the ECS, in the frame of reference.

In verses 5-9 we now take up the task of appointing leaders in Crete.

Verse 5 — “For this cause” is Toutou xarin. Xarin is the accusative of xarij which is grace. It should be “Because of this grace.”

“I left you” — aorist active indicative of a)poleipw which means to leave behind. The active voice: Paul made a decision of grace which was contrary to his own personal desires because he had the most fantastic respect and rapport with Titus. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that all of a sudden Titus is left by himself.

“in Crete” — e)n plus the locative of sphere which means “this is the sphere of your service.”

Crete

1. Crete is the most famous island of the ancient world because it was the seat of Manoan civilisation.

2. Cretans were present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost — Acts 2:11. Paul stopped at Crete on his famous voyage to Rome — Acts 27:7ff.

3. Although Crete is a famous island nothing was known about it until the last century. Sir Arthur Evans was one of those eccentrics who lived in England in the last century. He was considered to be eccentric because he was very wealthy, a millionaire, who though he had to work. He took a job at Oxford and became very interested in archaeology. He took a vocation (in 1889) and sailed on his yacht to Crete. The reason was that he had heard that they had some very interesting signet rings from Egypt. He landed at a town called Anossis and began digging. The first day he started digging he hit a bronze-age palace. He bought the site and went back to begin working on his second day. He came up with the most famous palace of the bronze age, the palace of Minos. He discovered this area where about 80,000 people lived. He began to dig up later on a lot of copper tablets with script known as Linear A. It was very difficult and no one seemed to be able to do much with it. But they finally worked out where Linear A had its source, and island 70 miles north of Crete called Thera. In about 1400 BC Thera erupted. The whole island blew up. Tidal waves hit Crete 160 feet high. Volcanic ash destroyed the Manoan civilisation and it was Sir Arthur Evans who dug it all up again.

There is a relationship between that and some other cataclysmic events. God was preparing the way for the Jews to go into the land. In 1440 BC they left Egypt. They came into the land forty years later in 1400 BC. Somewhere between 1440 and 1400 the island of Thera blew up in the Agean Sea. There is a reason for it. The Manoan civilisation would have been hindering here. Crete had been used as a stepping stone for Greeks, and one group of Greeks which are now called the Philistines had already landed in Egypt given a hard time and driven up into the area to the north. Then some other things began to happen in God’s preparation for the Jews. The Hittite civilisation was suddenly destroyed, but it had some very strong remnants as indicated when Moses came to Kadesh Barnea. So who should go into the land of Palestine but Thutmose III who destroyed some of the greatest Hittite armies. All of these mysterious things began to happen. All of these things are related, God was preparing the way for the Jews.

Later on, at the end of the Manoan civilisation, they discovered on the island of Thera, and then also when Sir Arthur Evans was walking one day he happened to come across a mound and he ordered some digging there. He came up with a brand new type of writing. This shocked him because Linear A was a pictographic type of writing but Linear B was entirely different. He finally cracked Linear A but he was never able to crack Linear B. He didn’t know what to do with it so he decided to go back to England, and when he was 84 years old in 1936 he began to lecture in London. There was a young boy, 14 years old name Michael Ventris, who began to listen to Sir Arthur Evans who was now an old man and admitted that he was never able to figure out Linear B. This 14-year-old boy decided he was going to come up with the answer. He asked permission of Sir Arthur Evans to go to Crete and look at the tablets. By the time he was 33 he had gone through three thousand of those clay tablets and their writing, and he cracked Linear B. He discovered that it was not what Sir Arthur Evans had suggested, it turned out to be a Greek language almost as old as Chinese. It was pre-Homeric Greek. They were finally able to establish that this language was 3,300 years old. When he was able to rack this language he was also able to crack the language used by the invaders from the north, the Doreans. The Doreans settled in three areas of the world — on the Greek mainland where the dominant Doreans became the Spartans who later fought the Athenians; they also settled on the island of Crete, and they invaded Egypt but they had a very small army and eventually they were driven up into five cities and called themselves the Philistines. The Doreans survived better on Crete than anywhere else, except for one thing: they loved to fight. So they built castles on different parts of the land on Crete until they literally fortified the whole island. Out of this came cities and they fought each other all the time. So every time we talk about the Cretans now in Titus we are talking about that wild, unruly Doreans.

So Titus is now standing on the docks with this great island behind him populated with the wildest bunch of people who for the last 600 years had been doing nothing but fight each other.

“that” — i(na introduces a purpose clause; “thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting.” We have an interesting word, e)pidiorqow. It means to correct: e)pi = to get on top of, to do it with authority. What is he to correct? — “the things that are wanting [deficient].” The aorist tense means that the answer to this is going to be to have Bible class every night in Crete. The aorist tense gathers up into a point of time the whole ministry of Titus on the island of Crete. They need divine norms and standards, they have not had them. The middle voice means you are going to have to do it and they are going to have to benefit. The subjunctive mood means that some of them will never benefit because some of them will never recognise the authority of the Word of God or the one who communicates it. Translation thus far: “I have deserted [left you flat] you in Crete for the purpose that you might correct with authority the things that keep on being deficient.”

“and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.” “Ordain” means to appoint according to a norm or standard — the verb kaqisthmi. The word for elders is presbuteroj which means “old man” from the standpoint of rank and authority rather than age. Presbuteroj is one of the words in the Bible for the pastor-teacher.

The doctrine of the ministry

1. The use of the word “ministry.” The word is a translation of the word diakonoj which is used three ways in the Bible. It has the political use for the leader of a state — Romans 13:4; it has a general use for all believers in full time Christian service — 2 Corinthians 3:6; 4:1; 5:18; 6:3. It also is used in certain passages in a specialised sense for the pastor of a local church, as in 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:23; 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Timothy 1:12.

2. Three Greek words are used to identify the pastor: presbuteroj which emphasises the person and the rank of the pastor. He is the highest authority in the local church; “bishop” is the Greek word e)piskopoj, it means “overseer, manager.” This emphasises work and function; “pastor” or “pastor-teacher” is poimhnoj which really means shepherd. Pastor-teacher is a hyphenated word and it also has the word didaskaloj — poimhnoj-didaskaloj, Two functions under the same principle. The shepherd keeps the sheep from straying and then the feeding is taken up under didaskaloj.

3. These words are interchangeable — Acts 20:17,28. In verse 17 pastors of Ephesus are called “elders” which is presbuteroj. In verse 28 the pastors of Ephesus are called “bishops — e)piskopoj — and are commanded by the aorist active imperative of poimainw to shepherd the sheep. All three words are used in verses 17 and 28 to indicate that elders, bishops and pastors are all the same person.

4. The three words all carry the connotation of authority , therefore the pastor is the ruler of the local church — 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17. Note Hebrews 13:7 — “Remember them who have the rule over you,” present linear aktionsart. How do you know those who have the rule over you? “ … Who have spoken unto you the Word of God.”

5. The pastor is the total product of grace — 1 Timothy 1:12-16; 1 Corinthians 15:10. He is responsible to God.

6. Some general passages which are pertinent to the pastor: Colossians 1:23-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-14; 2:24-26; 3:1-9; 2 Timothy 2; Titus 1:6-9.

“in every city” — kata means norm or standard; poluj — city. It should be “according to the standard of every city.” There are many cities in Crete, every city has a certain number of churches. Hence, every city needs a certain quota of pastors. Titus has to find among the believers of the native population those who have the spiritual gift. He has to provide the instruction and the training and then assign them. Paul recognises that there exists on the island of Crete X number of male believers with the gift of pastor-teacher. He does not seek to import pastors.

“as I had appointed” is the aorist middle indicative of diatassw which means that before setting sail Paul had given orders in detail as to how this project will be carried out. The plan for organising Crete was therefore planned by Paul and is now being executed by Titus.

Verse 6 — we now have some personal standards for the appointment of pastors in Crete. The word “if” introduces a first class condition. This is the protasis and “if any” is literally “anyone.” This is a specific reference to males who possibly might have the gift pastor-teacher.

“be” — present active indicative of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb: “If anyone keep on being.”

“blameless” — a)negklhtoj [a = negative; egkelew = to charge, to accuse, or to institute judicial proceedings], which means irreproachable. “If anyone keeps on being irreproachable.” When the status of the Cretans is considered it is obviously that this is going to be quite a task.

“the husband of one wife” — there is no word for wife in the Koine Greek, it is just gunh which means “woman.” The construction in the Greek here says, “a one-woman man.” The word for man here is a)nhr which means nobleman — which means right man, right woman. What is a one-woman man? It means two things: a) he should not be polygamous. But polygamy is not the basic idea because even in Crete they didn’t go in for polygamy; b) the basic interpretation here is that a pastor should marry the right woman.

Principle

1. A pastor should have right man, right woman relationship under the principle of a one-woman man.

2. Reason: The pressures are so great in the ministry that lack of domestic tranquillity can be the proverbial straw.

3. Of all people, the believer who has the gift of pastor-teacher has to be very careful he marries the right woman or not get married at all.

4. In the ministry especially, marriage to the wrong woman can be very difficult.

5. The pastor requires both self-discipline and concentration. Obviously there are a lot of things that would distract from that and one of them could be the wrong woman.

6. An unhappy marriage can become a source of pressure and this particular passage is designed to eliminate that pressure.

7. This passage does not eliminate a pastor because he is divorced.

“having faithful children” — the children must be believers. It doesn’t say having faithful children at all, it is “having children who are believers.”

“not accused of riot” — a)swtia means hell-raising or dissipation.

“or unruly” — a)nupotaktoj which means that no pastor should be involved in being a traitor to his country, no pastor should be in anything that defies authority. He should never be opposed to law and order, to the police force, encourage anyone to dodge the draft. He should never under any circumstances violate biblical principles and encourage members of his congregation to be cowards or conscientious objectors. In other words, a pastor should be strong in encouraging any type of authority which is authorised by the Word — the authority of the priesthood: every believer should have the privacy to live his own life as unto the Lord; the authority in the home: of the parents; the authority of law, of enforcement agencies; the authority within military. The pastor must never do anything that would destroy the principles of authority which line up with the Word of God.

Translation: “If anyone keep on being irreproachable, a one-woman man, having children who are believers, not in the sphere of accusation of riot, or insubordination principles.”

Verse 7 — “For a bishop.” Here is the word e)piskopoj which means overseer. It is a word of authority, a synonym for the pastor. This noun emphasises the function of leadership, the authority of a pastor. Literally, this verse starts out, “For it is necessary for a bishop to be blameless [irreproachable], as the steward. ” The word for steward is o)ikonomoj which means an administrator with authority; “of God” is a genitive showing possession, and it should be translated with e)piskopoj “as God’s administrative manager.” The connection here between o)ikonomoj and e)piskopoj establishes a principle:

Principle

1. Linking e)piskopoj with o)ikonomoj definitely subordinates the board of deacons or any other administrative board to the pastor of a church.

2. While the deacons function in administration and have administrative authority it is neither independent of nor is it higher than that of the pastor.

3. The concept of divided authority in different fields (within a local church) is destroyed by this phrase.

4. The idea that the pastor is a ruler in spiritual matters and the deacons in temporal matters is a house divided. 5. The pastor is the final authority in both spiritual and temporal matters of the local church — Hebrews 13:7.

6. This means that the deacons, or whatever administrative organisation exists within a church, are to help the pastor, not use the office to fight or destroy the pastor’s authority.

7. This does not imply a rubber stamp but a team concept of the local church. Remember that in Acts chapter 6 the deacons performed administrative functions to release the pastor’s time for more important functions for the pastor, things that only the pastor could do.

8. Therefore to fulfil 1 Corinthians 14:40 there must be one final authority in a local church. That authority is vested in the pastor by the Word of God — 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17.

Now the five negatives:

“not self-willed” — a)uqadhj means not to allow stubbornness and antagonism toward people to move a person to the place of where he is unfair. In other words, grace orientation, the first floor of the ECS. There has to be objectivity on the part of the congregation and there has to be objectivity on the part of the pastor. Under the principle of grace orientation the pastor must be fair. No prejudice must ever destroy his fairness.

“not soon angry” — this is the third floor of the ECS, relaxed mental attitude. Anger is a mental attitude sin. The word is o)rgiloj which is not quite correctly translated. It means not prone to jump to conclusions that lead to anger.

“not given to wine” — paroinoj means not prone to drunkenness, or not addicted to it. This doesn’t really forbid drinking but it prohibits drunkenness. This has to do with not using alcohol as a form of sublimation. The Christian leadership demands inner happiness as a function rather than dependence upon overt stimulation.

“no striker” — plhkthj means not a brawler. A pastor bishop, instead of slugging people, should love them. “not given to filthy lucre” — literally, “not eager for dishonourable profit,” a)isxrokerdhj.

These are five adjectives with negatives and each one is comparable to one of the floors in the ECS.

Verse 8 — six positives of spiritual leadership. Five of these are comparable to one of the floors of the ECS.

“But a lover of hospitality” — this is grace orientation, filocenoj which actually means a love of strangers, to do something for someone who doesn’t earn it or deserve it. Cenoj originally meant a stranger, but it doesn’t have to be a stranger as far as your knowledge of a person or a person in the periphery of your social life, it means someone from whom you are estranged also. It means to have a grace attitude toward people who have not earned it or deserved it. It means grace orientation, treating people in grace.

“lover of good men” — filagaqoj means a lover of divine good., not men [filoj is the noun = strong or maximum love; a)gaqoj = good of intrinsic value, used for divine good].

“sober” — swfron means stability of mind. This is the relaxed mental attitude, freedom from mental attitude sins. Any mental attitude sin causes instability in the right lobe.

“just” — dikaioj really means fair or equitable.

“holy” — o(sioj means a separation to and occupation with, or a pleasing of someone. This is capacity for life. Here it would be capacity for loving God, occupation with Christ.

“temperate” — e)gkrathj means self-controlled. It has to do with mastery of the details of life.

Verse 9 — there are some operational standards for appointment. “Holding fast” — a)ntexomai means to cling to someone. What we cling to here is sound doctrine. The present tense means that this is a continuous function, therefore GAP. The middle voice is reflexive which means you have to make constant decisions with regard to Bible doctrine. The participle indicates a divine law for the believer to cling to doctrine. The pastor-bishop is required to have a love affair with doctrine so that he can communicate doctrine so that every believer can fulfil his priesthood.

“faithful” here is the genitive singular adjective and means trustworthy, dependable, inspiring faith; “word” refers to the canon of scripture and that part of the content which is doctrine.

“as he hath been taught” is not correct — kata, the preposition of norm or standard, so it should be translated, “according to the norm or standard”; the object of the preposition in the accusative is the noun didaxh which means categorical teaching, public categorical teaching. Simply: “according to the standard of doctrine.” “Constantly clinging to the dependable word according to the standard of doctrine.”

“that” — purpose clause: “he may be able.” Two words here: e)imi plus the noun dunatoj which means “that he might be capable.” There is a purpose here.

“by means of sound doctrine” — e)n plus the instrumental case. That means we have to translate the preposition “by means of.” The word for “sound” is u(giainw which originally had a medical connotation finally came to mean in he Koine Greek “pure, uncorrupted.” Then we have the instrumental of the word didaskalia which means Bible doctrine categorically in the human spirit as a result of GAP.

“both to exhort” — parakalew, present active infinitive, which means to exhort, to encourage, to stimulate, to push; “and to convince” which means to reprove, the present active infinitive of e)legxw which means to chew out. Titus is going to have to be hard-nosed with some of these people.

“the gainsayers” — believers in opposition. A)ntilegw is a present active participle.

Translation: “Constantly cling to the dependable word according to the standard of doctrine, that he might be capable by means of pure doctrinal teaching to exhort and to refute those in opposition.”

In other words, the pastor-bishop must be able to assert his authority over a congregation, and especially those who oppose sound doctrine. Therefore he must have, as it were, a super knowledge of doctrine and the gift gives him the ability to apply it at all times under all types of circumstances. This means that before it ever comes to you it goes into his left lobe, down into his human spirit, cycles into his right lobe. He has had long exhale toward God, toward man, he has an ECS and as he takes the scripture which is in front of the congregation and begins to use it, he pulls from different categories information and uses a vocabulary which he has in common with the congregation. This is the operational standard which Titus is to use in the appointment of pastor-bishops in Crete. Titus is not to be the pastor in Crete, he is to get things cranked up on the indigenous basis.

Verse 10 — at the time that Titus landed there was a spiritual revolution. God does not approve of revolution in any form. There are certain principles of doctrine that belong to the establishment — the divine institutions, the concept of grace. These things are under attack, according to verse 10. This is an unruly population. The island of Crete is filled with many thousands of believers. They are unruly and in the midst of a spiritual revolution and these believers as such are sheep without a human shepherd and they cannot function under the plan of God as such. Titus as a trouble-shooter has the fantastic responsibility of bringing order out of chaos.

“For” is the word gar, and whenever you start with the world gar in the Greek that means there is always trouble. Gar is a particle which introduces problems, a particle which introduces the necessity for getting order and authority.

“there are” — present active indicative of e)imi which means this condition has been going on for some time and so far it is still out of control.

“many” refers to a large number of believers living in a state of spiritual anarchy. These believers are insubordinate to any type of authority, including that of the pastor-teacher. Rejection of such authority reveals negative volition toward doctrine and three characteristics of this revolt are described in this verse.

This passage is not without some application to us today. During any phase of the Church Age when believers begin to reject Bible doctrine they become floaters, they have no roots, and they hop from one church to another, they go from one place to another looking for entertainment, for something to stimulate, for some human viewpoint psychological thing that will somehow give them a few moments peace, a few moments of happiness.

Three things here which characterised spiritual revolt:

“unruly” — a)nupotaktoj. This word means insubordinate, undisciplined, rebellious. The noun connotes rejection of authority, the authority of communicators, the authority of doctrine itself. Therefore God’s plan is not only rejected on the island of Crete but people who are believers are in open revolt against it. Insubordination means that these people have rejected Bible doctrine, rejected the concept of reality in doctrine. The second meaning of the word is undisciplined. It means that they do not have that self-discipline necessary to submit themselves to the teaching of the Word of God daily. The third meaning of the word, rebellious, means that they are in rebellion against the plan of God even though they are members of the family of God.

“vain talkers” is the second characteristic of the spiritual revolt — mataiologoj. This is composed of two words; mataiothj indicates the vacuum which we have in the soul when scar tissue exists. Then the word logoj comes from legw which means to speak. These are people who express viewpoint from scar tissue, the same thing we find in our day when believers become liberals and when believers go for socialism, and believers because of some kind of a guilt complex start breast beating and blaming themselves for terrible conditions when nothing could be further from the truth. This means to be in rebellion to doctrine, to be in rebellion to the communicators of doctrine, and to speak in opposition to doctrine.

“and deceivers” — the third characteristic of spiritual revolt. The noun is frenapathj and should be translated “mind deceivers.” This is legalism, disorientation to the grace of God, their communication of false doctrine in opposition to true doctrine, every person is an island to himself, what he thinks is correct. This means that they are mind deceivers. They deceive their own minds and they speak to others and deceive them.

“they of the circumcision” — a small but very effective Jewish population on the island, most of whom were believers. They were involved in two types of false doctrine, Judaism and Gnosticism. So obviously at this point there was a case for strong Christian leadership in the form of pastors all up and down the island who can deal with this rebellion by teaching the truth.

This one verse establishes the problem — spiritual revolt. Believers in opposition to Bible doctrine.

Verse 11 — “Whose mouths must be stopped.” People think that you can toy around with insubordination, rejection of authority, rejection of establishment, and somehow get away with it. But it always works the other way, there is always death, and blood has to be shed before order can be restored. That isn’t true in the spiritual revolt. Instead, the mouths have to be stopped. There are several ways to stop a mouth.

The word “whose” is “whom,” referring to those in revolt. This is an accusative plural of a relative pronoun’ must” — “Whom it is necessary”; “to be stopped” is e)pistomizw, a term used in the cavalry which means to put a curb bit into action. A horse has a very tender mouth. A horse that is halfway sensible and will respond to authority can spend his whole life being happy because all he ever has is a snaffle bit which doesn’t hurt the horse’s mouth. But then there are these wild, unruly types, and sometimes you have to use a curb and a snaffle. A curb bit gives all the leverage in the world, it comes right back on the horse’s mouth. This is what the word originally meant. Eventually it came to muzzle or to gag, and so we translate it, “Whom it is necessary to silence.” One of the first jobs of a pastor-teacher walking into a rebellion is to silence the rebellion. A pastor has to get hard-nosed with the sheep. How do you stop the mouth of a sheep? You kick him in the tail! You can’t teach doctrine to people who are negative, they aren’t going to listen. But what are they going to do? They are going to take other members of the congregation and get them all dissatisfied. When you get enough dissatisfied sheep and they all say they are going in one direction when the pastor says go the other way (on the basis of doctrine) then the shepherd feeding the little lambs is replaced by the shepherd you never see but in reality he is always there — going around with a stick looking for that dumb sheep.

The word “mouth” isn’t found in the original, except in the verb here. Stoma is the Greek word for mouth but here we have stomizw, and e)pistomizw means you have to close their mouths. This takes courage in Christian leadership because it isn’t pleasant, it isn’t fun; but when you have spiritual rebellion it must occur.

What happens when you do not, silence these people? — “who subvert whole houses.” The word “subvert” is a)natrepw [a)na = again and again; trepw = to throw], it means to overthrow and eventually it came to mean to corrupt. It is a present active indicative, “they keep on corrupting.”

“whole [entire] houses” — the churches of the ancient world began to meet in homes — Philemon 2; Acts 12:12; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15. The word “house” here refers to a church. “They corrupt entire churches.”

Principle

1. False teaching destroys the local church when unchecked. It doesn’t even have to be false teaching like “I don’t believe in the virgin birth” type of thing, it can simply be human viewpoint. If a church is blessed of God it is grace all the way.

2. Legalism and false teaching is the leaven that leavens the whole lump.

3. There must be a strong doctrinal emphasis from the pulpit to protect the congregation.

“teaching” — present active participle of didaskw which means public teaching, teaching to a group things they ought not to teach but they do it for the sake of dishonourable profit.

“for filthy lucre’s sake.” Filthy lucre here is literally “dishonourable profit.” It means they take money for false teaching.

Now the real basis of this study is found in the next two verses. What can Bible doctrine do? The Cretians going to be described by a line of hexameter verse. One of the great Greek poets at the time of Solon wrote a line which Paul now quotes to Titus for a reason. It is necessary to have strong doctrinal teaching for this reason: it corrects racial and national weaknesses. Every nation has its strengths and it has its weaknesses. Why in the midst of all of this dissertation does Paul suddenly quote one line of verse. What is behind it? What is the reason for it? This is to show that Bible doctrine taught from a pulpit of a local church is the basis for changing the weaknesses of a national entity, the racial weaknesses of individual groups here and there. These weaknesses can be changed by doctrine. When a race has a weakness, when a nation has a weakness, all of the legislation in the world, all of the reform systems in the world, all of the schemes of socialism, all of the economic panaceas will not change the weaknesses of a race. Here we have a line of poetry to show that Bible doctrine taught from churches in pulpits has a way of taking the weaknesses or a race or a nation and turning them into strength.

Verse 12 — “one of themselves [a Cretian], a prophet of their own.” The word “prophet” is also used for poet — “one of their own poets.” Epimanaiades was his name, he was quoted by many of the writers of the ancient world. He was accepted as a prophet as well as a poet by the Cretians. He was also accepted by Cicero as a prophet as well as a poet. Paul is now going to quote him.

“said, The Cretians always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” — “always” — a)ei means forever. The Cretians in the 5th century BC, 600 years before this was quoted, always did the same thing: they lied whenever possible. The word for liar here is not the ordinary word for liar. The ordinary word would be yeudh, but this is yeusthj. The reason is the yeusthj means a lie that comes from mental attitude sins — a compulsive liar, lies built upon mental attitude sins. You can already begin to see a racial weakness as far as the Cretians are concerned. The Cretians were so famous for their lying during the past 600 years that the Attic Greek had a verb, krhtizw, which means to speak like a Cretian, which means to lie from mental attitude sins. The Attic Greeks also had a noun, krhtismoj, which meant to behave like a Cretian — to be full of mental attitude sins and to lie about someone or something. So we have a system of lies developed from mental attitude sins. The same word is also used for a system of lies developed from approbation lust, trying to lie your way to fame, in other words. Another system of lies for which this noun is used was a system of lies based on pseudo love. Of course, it was also used as it is brought into the Koine Greek for lies which include false doctrine.

The second characteristic in this line — “evil beasts.” The word for beast here is used for either a wild animal or a brutish man, qhrion. This is a person who has lost the function of the right lobe. He can be an unbeliever or a believer. There are several reasons why this occurs — mental attitude sins, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, fornication are some of the things that destroy the right lobe and lead to national weakness when you have enough people involved. So the Cretians have lost their right lobe and this has become a national weakness. This is in part why they reject any kind of authority.

The third characteristic — “slow bellies.” Literally, this is “idle gluttons.” This is a person who is minus self-discipline. All of these characteristics go together and they produce a strong tendency to become unstable, fluttering from one thing to another thing.

Verse 13 — “This witness is true.” All the genius in the world can define the weakness but never the solution. These people for 600 years had had mental attitude sins that had destroyed the right lobe. They have been liars, animals, and have lacked self-discipline. The word for “is” is e)imi, absolute status quo verb, and it keeps on being true and there never will be a time when it isn’t true. The word for “true” here is a)lhqhj which means the observation at the time was true and with e)imi it is still true. So now what?

“wherefore” is not wherefore at all — dia plus the accusative means “because of this,” because it took all of the genius of one famous Greek poet who was a Cretian himself to describe the problem, and 600 years later it is still there. All of Greek thought could not solve the problem. Genius does not correct weakness; genius does not correct problems. Genius does not change things, Bible doctrine does. “The Word of God is alive and powerful.” Bible doctrine is the deliverance of Western civilisation which has so many weaknesses and these weaknesses have never been corrected and cannot be corrected, they are only correctable through Bible doctrine. Yet, today the whole liberal tendency is to make the weaknesses weaker. Weakness whether in theology or any other form always makes weakness weaker. Only Bible doctrine can change the picture.

“rebuke them” — e)legxw, present active imperative. E)legxw means to discipline, to brace, to discipline and refute, to chew out. Who? Believers. Why? Because they are in the position to take in the doctrine and to change the picture for their nation. Crete can be delivered, become a great nation. The Cretians have a chance but their only hope is through believers. And if the believers are unruly and insubordinate and rejecting doctrine they will never make it.

Verse 15 — “Unto the pure” is a dative plural of the noun kaqaroj, a word that can actually refer to a literally pure person in the behaviour pattern but it is more frequently used in a technical sense for ceremonial purification, and even more technical in the concept of a believer in fellowship.

“all things” refers to various activities in life toward which you could have mental attitude, in fact about almost anything. Then we have a repetition of the word “pure” but this time we find it in the nominative singular instead of the dative plural. Therefore we have the readjust these words into the English language. This should read literally, “All things are pure to those who are pure.” As it stands this could read almost anything if you approached the scripture with a little bit of cynicism. The word “pure” can mean someone who is simply naive.

Four points of interpretation

1. The believer can have the capacity for the details of life without sinning. This is possible through GAP and an ECS because through GAP and an ECS he is free from mental attitude sins which make him impure. Kaqaroj here means mental attitude sins gone. It has the same connotation as the noun a)gaph which merely indicates the state of the mentality, here we have the state of the entire apparatus of GAP when there is freedom from mental attitude sins. As we begin this particular verse it says in effect that we can enjoy the details of life. The details of life are not sinful unless the Bible specifically declares them to be sinful. Therefore the details of life are to be enjoyed. It is mental attitude sins that take things that are pure and make them impure.

2. The principle, then, from this phrase: Mental attitude sins destroy innocuous things in life, they destroy the capacity for love, they destroy the capacity to enjoy things in life. The pure are those who are free from mental attitude sins and therefore have the capacity to love and have the capacity to enjoy the things of this life.

3. GAP is the only way to have capacity for love or to enjoy the details of life without becoming involved in mental attitude sins.

4. Mental attitude sins are the corrupters of good things. If you want to destroy or neutralise something that is innocuous, something that is not sin and is fun, mental attitude sins will do it.

“but to them that are defiled” — we have a contrast. We have the conjunction of contrast followed by the perfect passive participle of the verb miainw.

Etymology of the verb miainw

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

2. In the time of writing of Titus sewage or excrement was collected in chamber pots and dumped from the balcony to the street. This often resulted in clothes being stained or polluted. This is where we get the word miainw.

3. Miainw means to be walking down the street and the contents of the chamber pot are dumped on you.

4. Mental attitude sins are the sewage or excrement of the mind which pollute the mind and destroy capacity to enjoy good things in life. The reason a lot of believers are not happy is because they are full of mental attitude sins.

5. The same verb and the same concepts are found in Hebrews 12:15 — “ … Lest any root of bitterness defile [miainw].”

6. The verb is in the perfect tense. Mental attitude sins occur at some point but they have continual and perpetual repercussions. The passive voice: mental attitude sins cause the soul to be stained or polluted. You receive this. All you have to do is come up with a mental attitude sin and the soul receives pollution or staining. The participle introduces a principle: Mental attitude sins corrupt the soul and this is a perpetual law in the operation of the human race.

7. While the defilement represents the influence and the pollution of the soul through mental attitude sins the next noun refers to the malfunction of GAP and its results are the destruction of the norm and standard lobe.

“and unbelieving” — a)pistoj refers to a person who is not an unbeliever but is not believing [a = negative; pistoj = faith]. This is negative on faith, not at salvation but in the function of GAP. Mental attitude sins not only stop the cycling of doctrine but they destroy the function of the right lobe.

“but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” We have in this phrase mind and conscience, the frontal lobes of the human mind. The mentality of the soul has three parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, but the conscious mind is divided into two lobes. The first of these is described here by the word “mind.” That is the left lobe and the Greek word is nouj. This is the perceptive lobe, the area into which information is received. The next word is “conscience” — suneidhsij, and that is the right lobe. The right lobe performs many functions. It is not only the frame of reference but it is also your norms and standards, the basis for divine viewpoint in life and everything that is important to you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of conscience

1. The conscience is located in the right lobe or the norm and standard lobe of the mind in contrast to the left lobe or the perceptive part of the mind — Titus 1:15.

2. The conscience convicts of evil or wrongdoing — John 8:9.

3. The conscience establishes norms for both human and divine relationship — Acts 24:16. The believer who has a loaded up right lobe [norms and standards] will have correct norms, permanent norms for relationships in life.

4. The conscience functions on human thinking — Romans 2:15. In other words, the conscience has a great deal of influence on your thinking. But the conscience of the believer functions on divine thinking as it relates to GAP — Romans 9:1. Romans 2:15 tells us how the unbeliever has a conscience and how he uses it; Romans 9:1 tells us how the believer has a conscience and how he uses it.

5. Conscience is the basis for patriotism — Romans 13:5.

6. False norms or standards in the conscience produce legalism — 1 Corinthians 8:7.

7. The law of liberty and superseding laws are related to the conscience — 1 Corinthians 10:24-29.

8. There is a happiness based on compliance with the conscience — 2 Corinthians 1:12.

9. Doctrine must be communicated on the basis of conscience — 2 Corinthians 4:2 — otherwise intellectual dishonesty results.

10. GAP builds up the divine viewpoint in the conscience — 1 Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9.

11. The conscience can be destroyed with false doctrine or scar tissue — 1 Timothy 4:1,2.

12. Conscience establishes norms for serving God — 2 Timothy 1:3; Hebrews 9:14.

13. Conscience is the basis for enduring maltreatment and misunderstanding without defending self — 1 Peter 2:19; 3:16.

“but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” This is the perfect passive indicative of miainw and it has the same concept, mental attitude sins pollute the soul. This means that Christian leadership, the function of the pastor-bishop in communicating doctrine under GAP, is necessary for this to be eliminated. Only Bible doctrine in the human spirit cycled into the mind as divine norms and standards, plus the erection of the ECS, can handle the pollution problem in the soul. Mental attitude sins cause the pollution problem; GAP eliminates the pollution problem of the soul.

Verse 16 — there is a necessity for the production of divine good instead of human good. The word for “profess” is a present active indicative of o(mologew and it is not really correctly translated here. The word means to confess, to cite, to specify. Probably specify is the best here. These people actually say they know God and they do. The word for “know” here is a perfect active infinitive from o)ida and this infinitive actually means that they know that they do have a relationship with God. So we are talking about believers.

“but in works they deny him” — the word for “works” is the locative plural of e)rgon which means production. In their divine good production they deny Him because they simply do not produce divine good. Once you are born again you are designed to produce divine good. So, “but in production they deny or renounce or contradict him.” “Him” is not found in the original, they simply contradict their own profession. They are not contradicting or denying God, the word a)rneomai is the verb here and this means to contradict. They contradict their own profession. They do know God, they are saved, but they have no production. This means simply that the contradiction will exist at any time when the believer is not functioning under GAP, when he does not have doctrine in his left lobe and is not making that daily transfer so that there is e)pignwsij, when he does not have norms and standards and a frame of reference, no exhale toward God, and no exhale toward man. There is no divine good, no ECS. Their production contradicts their acknowledgement of God. Instead their production is said …

“being abominable” — bdeluktoj is an adjective which means “detestable” from the standpoint of God’s plan and God’s grace. This is what mental attitude sins do to the believer. It means also “loathsome.” Mental attitude ins indicate that no matter what you do you destroy the purity of your production of good. Bdeluktoj recognises the principle of mental attitude sins interdicting and destroying, turning divine good into human good.

“disobedient” is a reference to negative volition toward Bible doctrine; “unto every good work” — proj plus the accusative means “face to face with” or “face to face with the prospect.” There is the prospect of performing divine good but they are disobedient to that prospect because of negative volition toward doctrine.

“reprobate” — the noun a)dokimoj should not be translated “reprobate.” The word means “disapproved.” So they acknowledge that they know God, and they do, but in production they contradict this statement. With regard to the prospect of the production of divine good they are disapproved or worthless. In other words, there will be no trophies of grace as far as their future reward is concerned.

Chapter 2

Outline of the chapter

Verses 1-10, doctrine for all categories.

Verses 11-15, the importance of the communication of doctrine.

Verse 1 — the verse begins with a conjunction. It is not the usual conjunction but a particle used for a conjunction — de. This means that there is a vivid and sudden and striking contrast from the previous section. In the previous verse we had false teachers, now we have the communication of true Bible doctrine.

“speak thou” is the present active imperative of the verb lalew which means to communicate. In this case we are referring to the pastoral function of GAP. The active voice means only the pastor-teacher who is prepared to do it, because the present tense is linear aktionsart, you have to keep on doing it. The imperative mood: it is an order. The word “thou” is a proleptic pronoun that places emphasis on the ministry of Titus. Titus has the gift of pastor-teacher, he is a trouble-shooter, and “you and only you” crank it out Titus.

“the things” is a reference to the full content of doctrine; “which become” — present active indicative of an impersonal verb, prepei, which means simply “proper, suitable, fitting.”

“sound doctrine” — the word “sound” is a present active participle used as an adjective, which gives it great strength. The verb is u(giainw and it is a favourite of Paul’s at this time. It means to be healthy, to be sound, correct, accurate. And “doctrine” is the noun didaskalia which means the content of the message. The verb didaskw refers to the one who cranks it out.

The importance of Bible doctrine

1. Bible doctrine is the only way to know and love Jesus Christ. You cannot love Jesus Christ apart from the daily intake of Bible doctrine. This is the way you get to know Him, you don’t start loving Him. You have to get to know Him to love Him. There is no such thing as love at first sight in category #1 love. Category #1 love depends upon the intake of Bible doctrine under GAP — 1 Corinthians 2:16 cf. Philippians 3:10.

2. Bible doctrine (doctrine in the right lobe) leads to occupation with Christ — Hebrews 12:2,3. How much capacity you have to love Jesus Christ is dependent upon your knowledge of doctrine.

3. Bible doctrine perceived under GAP produces confidence in phase two — 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Job 5:24-27. 4. Bible doctrine is the source of divine viewpoint in the right lobe — 2 Corinthians 10:5; Isaiah 55:7-9.

5. Bible doctrine is the basis for orientation to God’s plan in time — Romans 8:28 cf. Isaiah 26:3,4.

6. Bible doctrine produces both sanity and stability of mind — James 1:8.

7. Bible doctrine is the basis for divine guidance as well as orientation to grace — Romans 12:2,3.

8. Without Bible doctrine Satan corrupts the minds of believers. There is no such thing as demon possession for the believer but he can corrupt your mind, your soul — 2 Corinthians 11:3.

Verse 2 — “That” introduces a purpose clause but there is no word “that,” it is simply picked up from the infinitive coming up.

“the aged men” — we have had a word before, presbuteroj, which is translated “old man” but means “authority.” An “old man” can be a very young man, he just has the highest rank. We have other words also, like presbuthj, and that is the word we have now. Presbuthj has a feminine suffix but it refers to the man. It means old in years and it refers here to believers who are men and old in years. In verse 3 we have presbutij which is an active feminine gender whereas the man when he gets old has a tendency to get a little too passive.

“be” is the present active infinitive of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb. The infinitive is where we get the “that.” This is a purpose. There is a purpose for old people in Christianity. Principle: Society rejects old age; God has a plan for old age.

“sober” — the plural noun nhfalioj which means temperance in the use of alcoholic beverage, it also means to be alert, it means to be attentive and especially attentive to circumstances of consequences. The plural here connotes the concept of self-discipline in old age. It doesn’t forbid wine but it does indicate that in old age you can have learned so much and be so vigilant and be so helpful that you will be a stabiliser. Nhfalioj simply indicates that you can’t do this while you’re “stoned.” But the real strength of this noun is in vigilance.

“grave” — semnoj in the plural. The word means “honourable, regarded with admiration.” Youth and vitality often hide the defects of the soul. Often young people will be bitter, vindictive, or implacable, but it doesn’t show because they have the radiance of youth and it is well hidden. While you are on your way to old age you must have and develop a relaxed mental attitude, freedom from mental attitude sins, because in old age they show. Old age brings out the worst of the soul kinks of scar tissue of the soul and mental attitude sins and does not have youth as a cloak to hide it. The meaning of semnoj in the plural is the fact that by the time that you are old physically you should have had so much Bible doctrine that you have the most beautiful soul in the world. Old age strips the body of its glamour in order to emphasise the beauty of the soul. That is why the greatest beauty belongs to old age.

“temperate” — also in the plural, the noun swfrwn [swj = stabilised or sound; frhn = mind] means stabilised mentality. In other words, the older you get the clearer your mind should become.

“sound” — again, the present active participle of u(giainw which means to be healthy, sound, correct, accurate; “in faith” is an instrumental — “by means of faith.” It refers to Bible doctrine being transferred from the left lobe to the human spirit [by means of] “charity” — instrumental for the relaxed mental attitude, part of the ECS; “in patience” is “by means of patience” which is the extension of the faith-rest technique into old age. Verse 2 actually says the emphasis is on the soul, the ECS which fulfils the soul and gives it the reflective glory of God. In effect, the greatest time in your life should be old age. Old age comes last because it is best! That’s God’s plan. Old age is only worse when people reverse the plan of God.

Verse 3 — presbutij is for an old woman.

Aged women

1. Definition of presbutij — “elderly ladies.”

2. This is a reference to those women whose desires regarding the details of life have changed in compatibility with their advancing years and body responses.

3. An elderly lady cannot and does not compete with the physical beauty of youth.

4. Often her right man is dead or she never found her right man.

5. But the frustrations of missing her right man are going to diminish slightly and her perspective of life is going to change. But the ECS offsets the frustration of the woman who has not known this experience of a right man.

6. Romance, sex, and beauty are not her primary emphasis.

7. Often her body has become wrinkled and ugly, too fat or too thin by beauty standards. She looks at her body and she reacts — her soul does not dominate her body, her body dominates her soul. If a young woman can have a breakthrough and recognise that her soul is more important than her face and her body, then she is in for a marvellous old age. The lady who is young and attractive who can get on GAP and stay with GAP as the beauty of the body fades, as the beauty of the face is destroyed by age, the beauty of the soul more than supersedes.

8. Her hair has turned grey, her face has lost that taughtness of flesh which reveals bone structure, her complexion is bad, wrinkled, skin has lost its smoothness — all these things describe presbutij — but with a Christian elderly lady her soul is now prepared to reveal all the beauty of the ECS, provided that during the intervening years she has functioned daily under GAP. This verses is set up with one purpose in mind: to warn elderly ladies of the pitfalls. There is a fantastic inner beauty that belongs to them.

The problems of old age

1. Lack of mental sharpness if the mind has been neglected or if Bible doctrine has been neglected.

2. Disorientation to life from the standpoint of success standards. By that, you have not realised your dreams of success. You take a look at your life and regard it in the light of failure. You had certain goals and concepts and you have not met those in old age. This is the danger of disillusion.

3. Old age brings on an increase of mental attitude sins with great emphasis on vindictiveness.

4. Old age has lack of security.

5. Old age has a problem of inability to concentrate.

6. Too much time for complaining because of lack of motive in life, lack of right bank activity, lack of employment — something significant to do.

7. Old age takes a long time to decide anything — the decider goes bad. For example, planning and executing a trip to town!

8. Old age often finds itself out of phase with the younger generation of children, grandchildren, and so on. Therefore, old age has a dangerous trend toward hyper-criticism.

“likewise” — an adverb , w(sautoj, means “in the same manner.” The problems of old age apply to both male and female but there are three primary problems for older women now stated in this passage. One in the field of behaviour, another in the field of the sins of the tongue, plus alcoholism.

“in behaviour” — e)n plus the locative of katasthma [kata = norm or standard; sthma = to stand, to take a position] which is behaviour based on norms and standards. The word means “behaviour, deportment, or demeanour.”

“as becometh holiness” — this word means “befitting sanctification.” Sanctification here is phase two sanctification or the erection of the ECS. In old age that ECS is vitally important. The implication of this is that the older women have a tendency to go wild in their behaviour pattern in old age. Their reactions and their responses are wider in their intensity. An older woman with an ECS, of course, operates so beautifully under her priesthood and manifests so much beauty of soul that she becomes a dynamic impact in the angelic conflict.

“not false accusers” — sins of the tongue. We have the negative mh plus the noun diaboloj from which we also get the word “devil.” Diaboloj means a slanderer, a maligner, or a gossiper. Old women have a predilection for gossip. The sins of the tongue reflect their mental attitude sins and their disorientation to God’s grace.

The doctrine of the sins of the tongue

1. The sins of the tongue emanate from the old sin nature — Psalm 34:13.

2. The sins of the tongue are sponsored by mental attitude sins. An old woman with a dirty soul will have a slanderous mouth. Psalm 5:9.

3. Of the seven worst sins — Proverbs 6:16-19 — three are sins of the tongue.

4. The sins of the tongue cause triple compound divine discipline — Matthew 7:1,2; Psalm 64:8.

5. Perpetuation of the sins of the tongue can produce enough scar tissue resulting in the sin unto death — Psalm 12:3.

6. God protects and blesses the believer who is victimised by the sins of the tongue — Job 5:19,21.

7. The believer can lengthen his life and find greater inner happiness by avoiding the sins of the tongue — Psalm 34:12,13.

8. Troublemakers are characterised by sins of the tongue — Psalm 52:2. Believers are specifically commanded to avoid troublemakers — Romans 16:17,18.

9. Control of the tongue is the sign of maturity, the sign of the erection of the ECS — James 2:2-13.

10. Since the sins of the tongue can destroy a congregation of believers it is the duty and responsibility of the pastor-teacher to warn and to exhort against this area of sin — 2 Timothy 2:14-17.

“not given to much wine” — the word “not given” is doulow [the word to give is not here at all] and it means to be a slave: “not enslaved.” The perfect tense means enslavement. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, and old women react to their frustrations, to their disappointments, and to their general state of unhappiness by becoming lushes. This doesn’t mean all of them do but this is an occupational hazard for old age. The participle indicates that this law is pertinent to whoever is addressed here — old women. And “much wine” indicates the difference between drunkenness and temperance; “not enslaved by much wine.” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and in the time in which it was written wine was a general beverage. However, it was not generally guzzled. In fact, the only people in the ancient world who did not drink wine were the Romans in the first 400 years of the republic. They drank water and milk. It was the influence of the Greeks that brought the introduction of wine.

There is a positive side in this verse: “teachers of good things” — all one word, kalodidaskaloj. Didaskaloj means communication of doctrine; kalw means honourable — “teaching honourable things.” These are women teaching women. They have been faithful in learning these things in their youth and now in their old age they have the opportunity of communicating these things to the young women. One of the purposes for the older women, beside prayer taught in Timothy, is to be a communicator to the young women. Often a generation of young women will become great in youth because older women have this ECS. The ECS is not only a stabiliser but in old age it is a communicator. The principles which one generation can hand down to another — didaskaloj in Bible doctrine — are brought out right here, but you cannot communicate these without an ECS and if you do not have an ECS then there are three pitfalls. The first, the wide behaviour pattern; second, the mental attitude sins producing sins of the tongue; and third is the alcoholics, the escapism.

Age can be the greatest part of your life. Therefore it is just simply a matter of one simple thing: the daily function of GAP, the intake of Bible doctrine, the development of your priesthood, the development of your ECS to the point where you personally as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ are not only prepared for old age but delight in it.

Verse 4 — “That” introduces a purpose clause; “they may teach” — we do not have the word didaskw or poimainw or khrussw or some of the verbs which are connected with the responsibility of the pastor-teacher. Instead we have the verb which we will see, along with the noun, several times in this passage — swfronizw [swfron = to think; the izw means in a specific field]. The verb connotes sanity of mind. This is a present tense. The woman who has an ECS, a mature believer, who has known the right man, right woman experience, the woman who has had the doctrine and the experience and is now past forty and has her sanity is a jewel. This woman can communicate the most valuable information to other women. She has swfronizw, she has the ability to keep on communicating this information. This is an active voice: the older women themselves have to do this. The subjunctive mood says this is potential, depending on whether these women can be found or not.

“the young women” — the word “young” means a fresh or a new female; “to be” — present active infinitive of e)imi, absolute status quo.

“sober” — swfron, which means to teach the young ladies to be, first of all, stable of mentality. The older ladies get the opportunity of teaching the younger ladies to be not sober but to be of sound mind. It is amazing how a little bit of information can stabilise the mentality, and that is the concept here. The sound mind means Bible doctrine taken in to the perceptive lobe, cycled into the human spirit, cycled up into the right lobe, and the sound mind comes from doctrine in the frame of reference plus the norms and standards based on doctrine or the divine viewpoint of life. The construction of the ECS stabilises the soul completely. A sound mind is a stabilised mentality — and you have to teach it. Swfronizw also means to train the mind, to restore someone to right thinking. The noun has the same concept; you are restored to right thinking. Here is one place where older people really shine, an older person with Bible doctrine, having an ECS, communicating information, first of all teaching the young ladies to be stabilised in their mentality. It takes doctrine and training to get a teenage girl into her twenties with her sanity.

“to love their own husbands” — this is not an infinitive, it is one noun, filandroj which is a compound noun [androj = hero; filew = means the strongest soul love] which means total soul love for her hero. Therefore it really doesn’t mean to love your husband at all, it means they must be taught to love their hero — right man. This really comes to mean that a woman when she is in her teens must have someone who is sensible, who has Bible doctrine, who can communicate information, to teach her how to respond; what to look for in a man with regard to the soul.

“to love their children” — everyone loves a baby, then there is a period when no one loves a child! There is always a period when the most wonderful child in the world is obnoxious. Some people do not realise their children are obnoxious because they pay no attention to them. Why is it so important to learn to love children? Because you cannot help but become deeply in love with your children. You become emotionally involved but your emotion but your emotion must never destroy your judgment in rearing them. You are responsible for their rearing and training and for their education, and all of the instructions that go with orienting to life. Some parents become so emotionally involved that they fail to use good judgment with regard to training and they fail to train their children. And the smarter you are the more difficult it is for you to love children, for this reason: you suddenly realise that you are doing all these wonderful things for a child and then someone comes along and gives him something and the kid loves them for life. In other words, children are very fickle. Parents some times get into the rat race of trying to bribe children with love instead of training their children. Therefore, especially with the women, they have to be taught to love their children. If you train and teach your child, discipline your child when necessary, if you are fair, if you teach the principles of life, the decorum, respect for privacy and all of the principles of volition, there are times when your children will despise you but they will grow to love you in maturity. So we have here the word filoteknoj, total soul love for your children, recognising that they know nothing and must learn everything.

Verse 5 is to all young women and really prior to marriage. The list continues. “To be discreet” — the noun is swfron again. It means to think in a stabilised manner. So again it is the idea of sanity, and sanity from doctrine. We are dealing with Christians and therefore we are dealing with Bible doctrine in the right lobe — norms and standards placed there, parents have a great opportunity to instil norms and standards into the conscience which line up with the Word of God. So the word means sanity of mind. Sanity cannot coexist with mental attitude sins, it cannot coexist with dope addiction, it cannot coexist with a person who is an alcoholic. Sanity has to be taught.

“chaste” — a)gnaj means to be pure in thought and act, to refrain from sexual relationship. It means really to avoid premarital sex. To the young teenage girl is the reminder that God has a right man for her and she is to wait for that right man.

The doctrine of adultery

1. Adultery is prohibited by the Word of God — Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18.

2. Mental adultery is condemned as a sin (mental attitude sin) — Matthew 5:27,28.

3. Adultery causes scar tissue of the soul — Proverbs 6:32; Ephesians 4:19.

4. The Greek noun pleonecia describes the frustration and the punishment to the one practising adultery. It is found in Ephesians 4:19; 5:3. The noun means both frustration and a frantic search for happiness. The more frantic the search the greater the frustration, so what you are looking for you are getting further away from it. This means that promiscuous activity to compensate sexual frustration is definitely out. You are programmed for one person. There is an effect upon the male and the female body, the principle is taught in 1 Corinthians 6:13-18.

5. Adultery is a bona fide basis for divorce — Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Luke 16:18. What is the reason? Because adultery destroys the compatibility between the husband and wife, both in the soul and in the body. It also results in jealousy which destroys relationship between right man and right woman.

6. Adultery or fornication is often used in the Bible to describe apostasy or repudiation of Bible doctrine — Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-28.

7. Marriage is the sanctification and framework for category #2 love — 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4; Hebrew 13:4.

8. The glory of category #2 love is declared in the analogy to doctrine — 1 Corinthians 11:7. As the believer with doctrine is the glory of God so the woman is the glory of the right man, the hero. Cf. Ephesians 5:25-31.

9. Application of category #2 love to the single person.

a) The right man and right woman were designed by God in eternity past. Therefore you must assume that you have an opposite number by divine design — Song of Solomon 8:6,7.

b) The exception is the rare gift of celibacy or the law of supreme sacrifice — 1 Corinthians 9:5. In such cases Bible doctrine takes the place of the right man or the right woman.

c) Every believer will eventually meet his opposite number. God often brings the right woman to the right man, as He brought the woman to Adam. In each case God’s timing is perfect — Genesis 2:18,22.

d) There is no benefit from meeting your opposite number apart from having a capacity for love based on GAP.

e) Fornication or adultery is accepting a cheap substitute not designed by God.

f) A strong norm-standard lobe recognises when it is libido and when it is not and you flee fornication, as per 1 Corinthians 6:18.

g) Fornication is not only sin but it builds scar tissue on to the soul which neutralises capacity for love. Therefore, when you meet right man or right woman it may not work out because you’ve been messing around too much prior to then — Ephesians 5:3.

h) Maximum benefit from category #2 love is derived from doctrine in the right lobe and the construction of an ECS.

i) Application: The framework for expressing category #2 love is marriage.

“keepers at home” — one word, o)ikourgoj [o)ikoj = home; e)rgon = worker] means a worker at home, domestic. There’s nothing glamorous about keeping a house. What does it take to really enter into housekeeping with joy and rejoicing? It takes the right man keeping you satisfied constantly and doing the job as unto the Lord.

“good” — a)gaqoj, divine good.

“obedient to their own husbands” — present middle participle u(potassw, “obedient, to submit from your own free will.” The middle voice indicates that the woman desires to do this. The middle voice is reflexive and it means that she acts upon herself to do these things. So obedience here means a mental, volitional, soulish submission. What isn’t freely given isn’t worth having. The woman must have free will to be obedient to the right man.

“that the word of God be not blasphemed [maligned]” — the house is a testimony. Blasfemew means to malign — present passive subjunctive. The present tense means it always must not be maligned. The passive voice: maligning is something that is received here. The subjunctive mood: maligning is potential. A woman who has her right man is going to be so responsive to him that there is absolutely no problem at all.

Verse 6 — “Young men exhort [admonish] to be sane,” present active imperative. Then we have swfronew — “sanity.” Sanity is the whole composition of a young man. When he reaches the time of manhood he has the norms and standards, the doctrine, and hasn’t been pushed into a mould, he is a real man all the way. That is the ideal condition.

Verse 7 — “In all things” is literally, “Concerning all things.”

“showing thyself” — present middle participle parexw. Parexw doesn’t really mean to show [par = preposition of immediate source; e)xw = to have], it means to have something from the immediate source and therefore to hold something. It means to be an inspiration, to be an occasion. In other words, the idea is leadership’ “Showing thyself” doesn’t mean to exhibit, it means to lead. There are two ways to lead: a) By brains and principle; b) By character. The emphasis here is on both. “Concerning all things asserting your leadership.”

How do you assert leadership? First of all, by good works.

“a pattern of good works” — the word “good” here is not the usual word. We have kaloj e)rgon. Kaloj means noble or honourable, good in quality; e)rgon means production. “Pattern” is tupoj and means a model. So, “a model of honourable production.” Kaloj is too wide a word for the Greeks, it is used in too many ways. Kaloj can be used for noble, good of quality, honourable, profitable. To show the true meaning of honourable here it is defined by the words that follow. What is exerting leadership under the model of honourable production? There are four principles which define honourable production.

a) “in doctrine” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of didaskalia which means to teach by principle or to teach by categories. It refers to doctrine taught in categorical form. In other words, sooner or later all doctrine under the reception of GAP must be in categorical form. It is “by means of [categorical] doctrine.” E)pignwisij is always stored categorically.

b) “uncorruptness” — a)fqoria means incapability of decay. This emphasises integrity, especially integrity of content. It means that a pastor must be objective in the communication of Bible doctrine. He must be relaxed about what he teaches. If a pastor is subjective, if he has hang-ups, he will never make it. This passage really means integrity and objectivity of communication and being relaxed about it.

c) “gravity” — this applies more to the person whereas “uncorruptness” applies to the message. Semnothj is the Greek word. The first thing that this word does not exclude is a sense of humour. What is does men is “majestic.” It is a word for ruling with a flare. The word “majestic” means that there is just one king. It also means poise and probity, but poise means to have such a strong grace pattern in your life that you are not surprised or shaken by the idiotic things that people can do within the framework of a congregation. So it means a person who keeps his cool under all conditions.

There word “sincerity” is not found in the original.

Verse 8 — we have our fourth word: d) “sound speech” — two words here, logoj which is used for the actual communication here, and u(gihj from which we get our English word hygiene, and it means “healthy, clear or lucid.” The word “sound” here means that the content of the message, however it is communicated in words, must be accurate in exegesis, in categorical approach, and in isagogics.

“that cannot be condemned” — the noun a)katagnwstoj means “non-condemnable.” This sentence introduces the principle of divine versus human good.

Translation of verse 7 — “Concerning all things yourself, constantly being leadership of a model of honourable production: by means of doctrine, accuracy [integrity] of communication, majestic in rulership, correct [accurate] exegesis, non-censorable.”

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “he that is of the contrary” — there is no verb here, it is a noun. It is “the one from the opposition” — o( e)x e(nantiaj. This is a recognition that a pastor will have opposition. What is the basis for opposition to a pastor who is following the biblical line? There are all kinds of things. People are “sincere” in thinking that the pastor is all mixed up and that their lifetime job before the Lord is to straighten him out. Then there is the type of person who is suffering from one of the lust patterns, like approbation lust, and can’t stand that anyone else get any attention. And it is aggravating. Therefore this type of person likes to play king of the mountains. He looks for your weakness, compares it with his own strength, and then talks about it. This is called maligning, judging. There is also the problem of power lust. There are some people who come into an organisation and can’t help trying to get pushy. So the lust pattern can play a part.

Connected with the lust pattern but in a separate category: mental attitude sins. This is where they are related, for example, to pride or jealousy, vindictiveness, hostility, antagonism, or hatred. So certain mental attitude sins arouse opposition.

There are also people who assume that they know all in the area of doctrine and they assume that the pastor is out of line in some way, that the pastor must be thrown out or corrected.

Then there are the people who simply do not understand. They are totally ignorant of what is required of a pastor, and they expect attention. So ignorance of what is expected of a pastor is another problem.

Another cause is negative volition toward doctrine. If the pastor is on the ball he is going to communicate doctrine. Yet another is programism.

Then there is another category of opposition which would have to be classified as Satanic. Unbelievers demon possessed, believers under demon influence. Very closely related are psychos.

Now opposition which is honest, objective, and bona fide in the biblical sense will always recognise the authority of the Word. Therefore, by teaching the Word “they might be put to shame” — e)ntrepw, aorist passive subjunctive. There is nothing wrong with bona fide objections, opposition. Opposition performs a very good function when it is honest opposition, when it is above board, when it is free from politicking and sneakiness. Objectivity in opposition out in the open is simply an objection to a policy or a principle. Objectivity in opposition means you are willing to hear the other side. “They might be put to shame” is in the sense of reversing their position. This is a reference to subjective opposition, it is the opposing for other than bona fide reasons. If they are going to stay it is doctrine that will have to straighten them out. The passive voice: they receive from doctrine information that puts them to shame. The subjunctive mood indicates that doctrine may or may not do it. If they are negative toward doctrine they will continue in their opposition until they either drive out the pastor or are removed from the congregation.

“Having no evil thing to say concerning you” — “having” is the present active participle of e)xw and it means to keep on having. This is simply a recognition of the pastor’s authority; “no” is literally “not one”; “evil” here is fauloj and it means “vile” or underhanded.”

Translation: “ … that the one from the opposition may be put to shame, not having one underhanded thing to say concerning you.”

Verses 9,10 — the category of slaves.

Verse 9 — the word “exhort” does not occur. “Servants” — douloj in the plural means “slaves.”

Servants

1. Douloj means slaves.

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

3. This word originally applied to slaves in the Roman empire. Christian slaves lived throughout the empire.

4. While slavery was a great evil Paul did not side-track himself by condemning it.

5. Instead Paul declared the greater issue of the gospel to unsaved slaves and Bible doctrine to born again slaves.

6. Under conditions of slavery believers could have maximum happiness from the ECS.

7. But this depended upon the daily function of GAP.

8. However, the application of this passage to our day extends beyond slavery to believers who are categorised as labour.

9. Therefore believers employed by someone else, believers under supervision, under authority.

10. The information provided in these two verses recognises the fact that every believer is in full time Christian service.

11. Believers who work under the supervision of management must regard their job as their area of full time service.

12. Therefore such believers must do their job as unto the Lord.

13. The first responsibility of such believers is to recognise the authority of management.

“to be obedient” — present middle infinitive of u(potassw, a verb for authority. It means to be subordinated, to be submissive to authority. This same verb is used for wives in submission to their husbands. It is from the free will. The infinitive is purpose. It is God’s purpose for the believer to function in this way.

“unto their own masters” — despothj is used here for management.

The doctrine of authority

1. There are two Greek words for authority: u(pakouw and u(potassw. U(pakouw is found in Matthew 8:27; Luke 8:25; Romans 6:16; Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20,22; 1 Peter 3:6. U(potassw is even stronger — Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18; James 4:17; 1 Peter 5:5; 1 Corinthians 14:32; Romans 8:20. Both words have the concept of voluntarily recognising some principle of authority.

2. Areas of authority:

a) As believers there is God’s authority — Bible doctrine.

b) There is the authority in the local church — the principle of the pastor-bishop.

c) There is authority in life — the divine institutions.

d) The academic field — the school administration and the teacher.

e) Athletics — the coach or the manager.

f) Military — the superior officer has the authority.

g) Business — the executive, the president, the boss, the supervisor.

3. God has a set of commands for the believer to obey — Deuteronomy 11:27; 1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4,7; Zechariah 6:15. Obedience to God is only possible through the function of GAP.

4. Nature obeys God — Matthew 8:27; Mark 4:41; Luke 8:25.

5. Just as nature obeys God children should obey their parents. Parental authority is designed to overcome the temper tantrums, the mental attitude sins, the disobedience of children. So parental authority is established by Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20.

6. By the same token authority must exist in business — Colossians 3:22; Ephesians 6:5.

7. Authority must exist in the local church. Therefore the authority of the pastor as the final ruler is declared in Hebrews 13:7,17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:15,16.

8. The authority of the right man is established by Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18.

9. Angels are subjected to divine authority — Mark 1:27; 1 Peter 3:22.

“to please them well” — i.e. to be acceptable or well-pleasing . The present active infinitive of e)imi. Present tense, linear aktionsart. Active voice: as unto the Lord do it. The infinitive expresses the purpose.

“not answering [back]” — a)ntilegw, to be insubordinate in answer.

Translation: “Labour to be obedient to their own management in all things, and to give satisfaction, not answering back.”

Verse 10 — “Not purloining” is the present middle participle plus the negative nosfizw. It means “Stop stealing.” The Cretians were stealing from their employers.

“but shewing all good fidelity” — honesty on the job.

“that” — purpose clause; “they may adorn the doctrine of God” — the believer wears the beautiful clothes of Bible doctrine when you do your job as unto the Lord. “That they may adorn” is kosmew which means to wear clothes that match up., to beautify, to make attractive. You make doctrine attractive when you do your job as unto the Lord.

“our Saviour in all things” — in all activity on the business, on the job.

Verse 11 — “For the grace of God,” h( xarij tou qeou — “the grace of the God.”

“that bringeth salvation” — the adjective swthrioj means “imparting salvation.” “The grace of God imparting salvation.” Salvation really means that the essence of God has found a way to love us forever, to give us eternal life, to provide for us forever, without compromising one characteristic of that essence. You have eternal life and God is not compromised. That’s the cross.

“hath appeared” — aorist passive indicative of e)pifainw. This is a manifestation of grace. E)pifainw means to make a clear manifestation. The aorist tense: it means throughout all time, in any point of time when the gospel is declared. The passive voice: this salvation is received. The indicative mood is the reality of this appearance.

“to all men” — all human race. The grace of God imparts salvation to all men without exception, no matter how bad they are, no matter how good, no matter what category of degeneracy, no matter what they have done.

“hath appeared to all men” — remember that imparting salvation was an adjective. God’s grace imparts salvation and sets the pattern. It is the most relaxing thing in the world to recognise that God loves us forever and ever, that He not only loves us but He has perfect capacity to do so. “Hath appeared” is an aorist passive indicative of e)pifainw. It means to manifest and to reveal to those who are special to the subject. The subject is God. “All men” refers to the human race. We are sinners in God’s sight, we are spiritually dead in God’s sight, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, we have every tag on us that makes us unlovely, and yet He does not leave us in the dark. He appeals to our volition through His revelation to all men. But this particular phrase has another connotation. What about those who have never heard?

The doctrine of heathenism

1. The problem stated: What about the people who have never heard or apparently never heard the gospel?

2. Historical evidence. We have enough historical evidence to tell us that our problem is ignorance of history. Because of this we fail to realise that there never was a generation which did not hear the gospel.

3. Biblical evidence: four passages which tell us in principle that always in every generation the gospel will go to everyone. Acts 17:6; Colossians 1:6; 1 Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:11.

4. The application of the doctrine of divine essence. In essence God has certain characteristics: sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, veracity. Because God is +R He cannot be unfair to any member of the human race. Therefore there never has been in the history of the human race a person who has had an unfair deal from God, regardless of the time in which any person lives, or any problems of geographical isolation, communication, and so on. So the essence of God has to be considered in this connection. Since God is perfect righteousness it is impossible for Him to be unfair or unjust to any member of the human race at any time.

5. Unlimited atonement is a doctrine found in many passages of scripture. 2 Corinthians 5 has three verses dealing with unlimited atonement — verses 14, 15, and 19. Also 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2. Since Christ died for all members of the human race it is His purpose to save all members of the human race. However, God cannot coerce human volition and therefore any unsaved person in the history of the human race must take the responsibility for his own decision — John 3:18,36.

6. The application of God’s sovereignty — 2 Peter 3:9. It is God’s decision and God’s plan for all members of the human race to be saved. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a change of attitude toward Christ. Only negative volition at either God-consciousness or gospel hearing hinders salvation. Under the sovereignty of God it is God’s will that all members of the human race be saved. Since it is obvious that all members of the human race are not saved then it becomes quite obvious that man’s free will is the basis for his unsaved status.

7. The application of the principle of God-consciousness. There are two areas where man is tested. The first is God-consciousness, the point of responsibility. Secondly, gospel-hearing. God-consciousness is where man becomes aware of the existence of God (no gospel involved). Gospel hearing is where mankind receives gospel information. At the point of God-consciousness you either say [+V] “I would like to know God,” or [-V], “I don’t care to know Him at all.” Gospel hearing which follows in sequence: +V toward the gospel — faith in Christ; -V toward the gospel — rejection of Christ.

The principle: If any member of the human race, regardless of geographical isolation or linguistic barrier, desires relationship with God after reaching God-consciousness then God will provide gospel information by which that person can be saved — Jeremiah 23:13; John 17:17; Acts 17:27.

This is often called accountability. People who do not reach God-consciousness are automatically saved at the point of death.

8. The principle of accountability. Man has the ability to arrive at God-consciousness through the activity of his own mind — Romans 1:20,21. When a member of the human race has reached the point of God-consciousness he becomes accountable. The age of accountability varies with culture, circumstances, and environment. Accountability is not fixed because there are too many circumstances to vary it.

9. Five mechanics of God-consciousness.

a) The religious approach. God must exist because people everywhere believe in God, in His existence. Creatures do not and cannot crave for what does not exist. God must exist because of man’s universal belief in His existence. Men do seek after God — Psalm 42:1,2; Acts 17:27.

b) The moral or anthropological approach. To a greater or lesser degree man is everywhere possessed with a conscience in his soul. This conscience has an urge to choose right over wrong — at times. The structure of society is based on human recognition of virtue and truth. This is a phenomenon which has no explanation apart from the existence and the influence of a supreme being. This supreme being is absolutely righteous. A material, ungoverned universe could know nothing of moral values or moral distinctions.

c) The ontological approach. Since the human mind possesses an ideal of a perfect and absolute being such a being must exist. Apart from the religious and moral tendencies just considered the existence of God is a necessary ideal tendency of the human mind. Beyond the relative which man measures there is the absolute. The absolute gives the character of value to the relative.

d) The teleological approach. Under this approach the structure of the universe demands a designer. This is empiricism. Romans 1:20. Whether you are looking into a telescope or into a microscope both reveal order, design, and arrangement. They reveal purpose and adaptation. This indicates a designer. Whether you are looking at the structure of an atom or the design of galaxies they can be no more accidental than the shuffling of 26 letters of the alphabet into a beautiful poem.

e) The cosmological approach. This is the intuitive law of cause and effect demands the existence of God. For every cause there has to be something behind it. In no sense can the universe be its own cause. Order and arrangement in the universe demand a creator and a preserver both. If God is left out design, arrangement, order, function, operation of the universe becomes an unsolvable problem of infinite proportions, or become subject to some of the most ludicrous ideas.

10. The explanation of heathenism. Heathen are heathen not because they have never heard the gospel but because they have heard and rejected the gospel — Romans 1:18-32.

11. Missionary emphasis. Where should missionaries go at any particular time? Missionary emphasis should be based on positive volition. This means that successful missionary function in every generation is based on following the will of God, not the emotional aspects of the past. Following the will of God means going where the fields are “white unto the harvest” or where positive volition exists. This varies from generation to generation.

12. Historical quotations from the Greek fathers indicate that in their generation various areas of the world were evangelised.

Justin Martyr — 103-165 AD. “There is no people, Greek or barbarian or any other race, but whatsoever appellation or manner they may be distinguished, however ignorant of art or agriculture, whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers and thanksgiving are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus to the Father.”

Tertullian — 160-240 AD. Addressing the Romans. “We are but yesterday and yet we already fill your cities, your islands, your camps, your palace, your senate, your forum. We have left you only your empty temples.”

Origen in the same generation wrote: “In all Greece and in all barbarous races within our world there are tens of thousands who have left their national laws and customary gods for the Word of Jesus Christ, though to adhere to this is to incur the hatred of idolatry and to have embraced the Word is to incur the risk of death as well. And considering how in a few years and with no great store of teachers, and in spite of the attacks which have cost us life and property, the preaching of the Word has found its way into every part of the world.”

Eusebius — “There flourished at that time many successors to the apostles who reared the edifice on the foundations which they laid, continuing the work of preaching the gospel and scattering abundantly over the whole earth the wholesome seed of the heavenly kingdom. For a very large number of disciples carried away by fervent love of doctrine which the divine Word had revealed to them fulfilled the command of our saviour, leaving their country, they fulfilled the office of evangelist to carry the gospel to those who had not heard the word of faith.”

Verse 12 — emphasis on phase two. “Teaching” — this is not the ordinary word for “teaching.” The ordinary word for teaching is didaskw, where the believer learns the easy way. The word here is paideuw, used for learning the hard way. Pai refers to children. Children have to learn by being spanked, by being disciplined. This word means to instruct by discipline. It means to teach with authority and discipline, to drill, to inculcate. Some things are learned the hard way, by being hurt, and that is exactly the idea here. This word paideuw is a present active participle and it means learning everything the hard way.

“us that” — purpose clause; “denying” — literally, “renouncing” or “disowning” or “refusing.”

“ungodliness” — a reference to legalism or any system of spirituality by works; “worldly lusts” — being motivated by approbation lust, power lust, materialism lust, or whatever lust may exist. “we should live” — zaw emphasises the function of life. The aorist tense gathers into one entirety every time the believer is filled with the Spirit and functioning under GAP. It actually refers to the operation of GAP in the life. The active voice: the believer is on positive volition. The subjunctive mood: this function of life is potential, depending on whether this person is filled with the Spirit or not and whether he is positive or negative toward the Word.

“soberly” — swfronoj means stability of mind. This means doctrine in the norm and standard lobe, doctrine in the frame of reference, doctrine in the right lobe; “righteously” refers to the production of divine good through doctrine: “godly” refers to the filling of the Spirit. These three adverbs give three aspects of phase two.

“in this present world” is literally, “in this now age.” It is a reference to the Church Age, the intensified stage of the angelic conflict, the day in which every believer is in full time Christian service.

Verse 13 — “Looking” is a present middle participle of prosdexomai. Proj is a preposition. When the object of the preposition is in the accusative it means face to face with. If the preposition takes the genitive case it means ”from.” If it takes the dative case it means “for the benefit of.” Here is a combination of for the benefit of and face to face with. Dexomai means to receive, to receive and embrace, to receive a gift, to receive something that is beneficial. When you put proj together with the verb [prosdexomai] it means to receive for the benefit of something, to wait for something with keen anticipation, to anticipate something that you know is going to make you happy. It has often been used as a retort in vindictiveness or in bitterness or in a lovers’ quarrel, “every dog has his day” — meaning I’m down now but I have something just around the corner. That is the use of this verb prosdexomai. It means that eventually there is going to be happiness. For every believer who experiences something negative as far as happiness is concerned, it won’t always be that way and there is a time coming when every believer in the Church Age will be happy, and all at the same time. There is a big Church party coming in which all members of the Church Age will be involved and all will be simultaneously happy. The present tense here is linear aktionsart. The middle voice means we act upon ourselves in this, we know what it is all about and therefore we anticipate it. The participle means that nothing can ever change this.

“for that blessed hope.” The word “blessed” is not blessed at all, it is the accusative of makarioj which means “happiness.” The word “hope” is e)lpij, a word of confidence, a word of guarantee and confidence. So we would translate” “Waiting with keen anticipation for that happy guarantee [confidence].”

“the glorious appearance” should be “the appearance of glory,” there is no adjective here. The noun “appearance” is e)pifaneia and it refers to the Rapture of the Church. With it is the genitive of doca which means “glory,” and with e)pofaneia it means “the appearance of glory.” But with the compound it means “the magnificent appearance of glory.” That is the happy event. Then we have the person about whom we gather…

“of the great God” is a reference to Jesus Christ with emphasis on His deity; “our Saviour” emphasises His humanity. “Jesus emphasises His humanity, “Christ” emphasises His appointment, and this phrase emphasises the hypostatic union, and it tells us that at the Rapture of the Church Jesus Christ is still God, He is still Man, and He is the God-Man forever and ever.

The doctrine of the Rapture

1. The function of GAP causes confidence regarding death for both the Rapture and the second advent. The second advent in GAP is taught in Job 19:25,27 — “I know my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth.” That is the second advent and it is related to GAP. The Rapture and GAP are found in Titus 2:13. In verse we have teaching, so we are functioning under GAP. Then in verse 13 we have keen anticipation — “looking.” Teaching precedes looking. The second advent, of course, has to do with Israel, the Rapture has to do with the Church.

2. The Rapture causes Jesus Christ to keep His promise — John 14:1-3. Jesus Christ keeps His promise to the Jews at the second advent, He keeps His promise to the Church at the Rapture. There must be a distinction between the two.

3. The Rapture gives every believer of the Church Age a resurrection body — Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; 1 John 3:1,2.

4. The Rapture, therefore, takes the sting out of death — 1 Corinthians 15:54-56.

5. The Rapture gives stability to phase two — 1 Corinthians 15:58.

6. The Rapture removes hysteria and the hopelessness of bereavement — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15.

7. The Rapture is the rendezvous for both the living and the dead of the Church Age — 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.

8. Confidence of the Rapture is based on the resurrection of Christ. He is our guarantee and our confidence — 1 Thessalonians 4:18. The principle of Christ the firstfruits — 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.

9. The Rapture is a source of comfort to all believers in bereavement — 1 Thessalonians 4:18.

10. The word “hope” is a technical designation for the Rapture in at least three passages — 1 Peter 1:3, the living hope; Titus 2:13, the blessed hope; 1 John 3:3, the purifying hope.

Verse 14 — “Who” is a relative pronoun referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“gave himself” — aorist active indicative of didomi, referring to a point of time. The aorist tense refers to the cross where He provided eternal salvation. The active voice: it was from His own volition. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that Christ gave Himself. The reflexive pronoun “himself” — e(autoj indicates that Christ provided Himself and refers to His death on the cross bearing our sins.

“for us” is a prepositional phrase of substitution — u(per. It refers to the spiritual death of Christ when He was bearing our sins and taking our place. It should be translated, “Who gave himself on behalf of us.”

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “he might redeem us” — lutrow means to release for a ransom, to deliver or free by paying a ransom, to set free on the basis of payment. The aorist tense is the point of time when we believe in Christ. Redemption is one of the 36 things we receive. The middle voice is reflexive as a rule but here it is beneficial, for our benefit. The subjunctive mood is potential depending on whether the person believes in Jesus Christ or not.

The doctrine of redemption

1. The principle of redemption is found in John 8:31-36 — being released from the slave market of sin.

2. Christ paid the ransom of sin on the cross [He purchased redemption] — Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 1:18,19; Psalm 34:22.

3. Redemption is a doctrine which the believer can apply in time of pressure or catastrophe and as a result fond blessing and happiness in that catastrophe — Job 19:25,26.

4. Redemption results in the biblical doctrine of adoption — Galatians 4:4-6. We are adopted as adult sons at the point of salvation.

5. Redemption provides the basis for the believer’s eternal inheritance — Hebrews 9:15.

6. The ransom money or the purchase price of redemption is the blood of Christ used to depict the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18,19.

7. Redemption provides the basis for justification — Romans 3:24.

“from iniquity” — the preposition of ultimate source a)po. We are redeemed from the ultimate source of iniquity. The Greek word for “iniquity” is o)nomia which means lawlessness. The ultimate source of lawlessness from which we are redeemed is spiritual death, the old sin nature.

“and purify unto himself a peculiar people.” The word “purify” is kaqarizw. It is an aorist active subjunctive and it means ceremonial purification, religious purification, moral purification. It also meant healing from a disease such as leprosy, a hopeless disease. Here it refers to phase one cleansing which is salvation, and phase two cleansing which has to do with any time the believer uses the rebound technique. Out of fellowship we are said to have temporal death, not spiritual death; “unto himself” — God is referring to our relationship with Him; “a peculiar people” — the adjective periousioj [peri = around; ousioj = the participle of the verb to be] which means “being around,” literally. But being around what? God has put a wall of fire around the believer as of the moment of salvation. That is the way he exists in this world. We might call this a special protected possession. That is what “peculiar” really means — “a special possession people.”

The next word is determined by the amount of Bible doctrine that you take in: “zealous” — zhlwthj, which doesn’t really mean zealous at all, it means a fanatic. The believer should be fanatical for honourable works.

“of good works” — “good” is kaloj meaning honourable, “honourable production.” This is achieved through the constant intake of Bible doctrine. So, “fanatical for honourable production.”

Verse 15 — the continuation of verse one; end parenthesis. “These things” refers to the doctrines of the Word; “speak” — present active imperative of lalew which means to communicate. “These things keep on communicating.” That is an order.

“exhort” — parakalew. This is a strange word because it has two antithetical meanings. It means to comfort and it also means to admonish. Whenever parakalew is followed by the next word, “rebuke [e)klegxw],” it means to admonish.

“rebuke” — e)klegxw is one of the strongest chew-’em-out, brace ’em words we have.

Lalew, the first present active imperative simply means to communicate it in an objective positive way. The second word, parakalew, means to sugar coat it on the one hand or a mild admonishing on the other. The third means to get out the big stick and whack ‘em.

Next is a prepositional phrase, “with all authority.” All three systems must be handled with authority. We have meta, a preposition of association. You should communicate in all three ways and associate it with authority; “all authority” — paj means no matter whether it is administration or whether it is spiritual life, or whatever a church might be divided into categorically the final authority is the pastor, the communicator, the one who does lalew, parakalew and e)legxw.

“Let no man despise thee” — this is all the women too, the word is mhdeij [mh = not; eij = one] and means “not anyone” [in the congregation]. The real problem is with the word “despise.” There is no way that a pastor can control the volition of a congregation. The objective of the communication of the Word is to allow the Word to influence the volition of the congregation. The verb is preifronew [peri = around; fronew = to think, or something that goes around in the mind], and with the negative mh plus the present active imperative it means to disregard, letting the mind work around what is said, therefore disregarding it. “Do not let anyone disregard what you say” or “Don’t let anyone reject what you teach.” You have to teach with authority.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 takes up the principle of grace orientation and authority. It is not degrading to recognise authority, it is a part of the principle under which you live as a believer.

Verse 1 — “Put them in mind” is u(pomimnhskw. This is a present active imperative, a command to Titus and by application it is a command to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to remind someone of something or to remember to think about something. You have to be reminded to think about certain things at certain times. Mimnhskw means to remember, u(po means under the principle of authority. The authority brought in by u(po is doctrine. There is a constant need to remind under authority and this is the principle here — present linear aktionsart, keep on doing it. The active voice: the one who is the pastor-teacher must constantly remind his right congregation of the importance of Bible doctrine and the principles of doctrine, including the principle of authority. This is a grace principle. The imperative mood: it is a command to all pastors just as it was a command to Titus to constantly remind under the principle of authority to communicate these things.

“to be subject” — present middle infinitive of u(potassw which takes us into the field of authority. The word means to be submissive or subordinate to some form of authority. It is the responsibility of the pastor to remind the members of his congregation, those who are believers in Jesus Christ, that authority exists on earth and authority must be recognised.

“to principalities and powers.” The word “principalities” is a)rxh which means those in high command. It is used for the ruler of a state. A)rxon is a commanding general. These words always refer to the highest rank and those who are rulers in a national entity. Notice that just as soon as those local churches are organised in Crete one of the first things they must learn is that they are in a state, a nation, a national entity; and they must have respect for the rulers of that national entity. In addition to that there are certain types of subordinate rulers mentioned under the word “powers.” These are both dative plurals and “power” is the word e)cousia which means authorities. It is a lower category of authority, however, it means those who have rule or jurisdiction in some area. There are many types of authority in a national entity. The Cretians were implacable, they resisted all kinds of authority, and they were doing it as believers. They refused to recognise the authority of doctrine, they refused to recognise the authority of anyone who communicated doctrine, they refused to recognise authority in the land under any circumstance. They lacked patriotism. So we have the command to remind believers to be subject, to be obedient, to be subordinate to the authority of national leadership, to be subordinate to powers, authorities.

“to obey magistrates” — peiqarxew [a)rxew = to rule; peiq = to respond or obey] which means here to obey those in authority, and it refers to authority found in the structure of society, in the political structure of a nation, and so on.

“to be ready” — present active infinitive of e)imi, “to always be.” Present tense: linear aktionsart. Active voice: you as a believer priest. Infinitive: it is God’s purpose for you; “ready” means prepared — e(toimoj.

“to every good work” should be “face to face with every good work.” In other words, a part of your recognition of authority is a part of your production of divine good.

The doctrine of divine good

1. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

2. GAP is designed for the production of divine good. The only way you will ever be a producer of divine good is through GAP — Colossians 1:9,10; 2 Timothy 2:21; 3:17; Titus 2:7.

3. Phase two was designed for the production of divine good in the believer — Ephesians 2:10.

4. The production of divine good is a sign of both maturity and stability — 2 Thessalonians 2:17.

5. Divine good will be rewarded — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

6. Grace is the basic concept of divine good — 2 Corinthians 9:8.

7. There are three sources for the production of divine good. a) From God the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Spirit produces divine good; b) The human spirit. Doctrine produces divine good when exhaled from the human spirit or when cycled into the right lobe from the human spirit; c) The soul. The ECS produces divine good. Even the believer’s respect for authority under the conditions of the Spirit-filled life, under conditions of application of Bible doctrine, is a producer of divine good.

Verse 2 — grace orientation and our attitude toward people. This does not imply being a doormat. “To speak evil of no man” — “to speak evil” is a present active infinitive of blasfemew which does not mean to blaspheme, it means to malign, to revile, to injure the reputation of someone else because of mental attitude sins toward them. This is a present active infinitive plus the negative which is found in the phrase “no man” — mhdiej which means “not even one” or “no one.”

The doctrine of the sins of the tongue

1. The sins of the tongue, like all categories of personal sin, originate from the old sin nature — Psalm 34:13.

2. The sins of the tongue, however, are generally sponsored by mental attitude sins — Psalm 5:9.

3. Out of the seven worst sins three are sins of the tongue — Proverbs 6:16-19.

4. The sins of the tongue result in triple compound discipline — Matthew 7:1,2; Psalm 64:8.

5. The continuation of the sins of the tongue can produce enough scar tissue to result in maximum discipline (the sin unto death) — Psalm 12:3.

6. God both protects and blesses the believer who is victimised by the sins of the tongue — Job 5:19-21.

7. Avoidance of the sins of the tongue produces longer life and great inner happiness — Psalm 34:12,13.

8. Troublemakers are characterised by sins of the tongue — Psalm 52:2. Believers are commanded to avoid fellowship with troublemakers — Romans 16:17,18.

9. Control of the tongue is a sign of maturity. It is also a sign, therefore, of possession of the ECS — James 2:12,13.

10. Since the sins of the tongue can destroy a congregation of believers it is the duty of the pastor to warn against them — 2 Timothy 2:14-17.

“to be no brawlers” — the word for “brawler” is a)maxoj. It doesn’t just mean avoidance of a fist fight which comes to blows, it really means to be non-contentious, i.e. a believers who refrains from sins of the tongue, who refrains from being a troublemaker. In other words, maligners and slanderers have mental attitude sin hang-ups, reject authority, become jealous, become vindictive and implacable. A contentious person has rejected authority.

“gentle” — e)pieikeij which doesn’t means gentle as such, it means reasonable and fair. It is a grace orientation word. A person becomes reasonable and fair by having a relaxed mental attitude, by being free from mental attitude sins.

“shewing all meekness” — e)ndeikneumi is the word for “showing.” It means to give an outward demonstration of something that is on the inside; the word “meekness” means grace orientation — prauthj, to be completely relaxed toward others.

“unto all men” — proj plus the accusative which is “face to face with all men.”

Translation: “To malign no one, to refrain from trouble making, reasonable, demonstrating [giving outward proof of] grace orientation face to face with all men.”

Verse 3 — “For we ourselves” puts us all in the same boat. We all have a past; “also” — that means cheer up, the person next to you has a past too; “were” — e)imi, the absolute status quo verb but in the imperfect tense, in the past. The imperfect is generally used to indicate something in the past. It may be linear aktionsart in the past or it may be just something that occurred at some point in the past. So how can we tell the difference between the imperfect past that is linear aktionsart in the past and the imperfect tense that only refers to some point of time? Generally there will be a particle or an adverb to help out. In this case we have an enclitic particle, pote. That word is translated in the English “sometimes,” but that isn’t what it really means. It means “at one time” or even “once upon a time.” We are dealing with the past in principle here in terms of at some time. The imperfect tense, “were,” plus the enclitic particle, “at one time,” indicates that we have come somewhere through the grace of God. Now we have a list of things that apply to us.

“foolish” — or stupid. If you are going to see your past in its true perspective you must see your present in its true perspective, and the greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine, maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine resulting in an ECS, the reflected glory of God. This is accomplished through the daily function of GAP, the erection of the ECS. The worst thing that ever happened in the past was our stupidity, ignorance of Bible doctrine. The word “foolish” doesn’t means foolish at all here. This isn’t talking about your personal past, this is talking about your past in principle — a)nohtoj. The word means stupid or ignorant. There are two categories of past stupidity: a) as an unbeliever — 1 Corinthians 2:14. The unbeliever has no human spirit, therefore has not provision for GAP and is therefore ignorant of spiritual phenomena; b) as a new believer or as a carnal believer. Negative volition toward Bible doctrine means ignorance — Romans 1:13; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13. The greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine. So the first thing that characterises our past is lack of understanding of doctrine.

“disobedient” — this means disbelieving. It is the noun a)peiqhj. This describes the malfunction of GAP. That means the doctrine did not get to the human spirit where it was usable. Disbelieving is failure to transfer Bible doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit. If you don’t get Bible doctrine into your human spirit you cannot use it. That is what you call being a hearer of the Word and not a doer. The only way that you can become a doer of the Word is to actually transfer the doctrine down to the human spirit and then up to the right lobe. Ignorance describes negative volition.

“deceived” — present passive participle of planaw and it refers to malfunction which is doctrine not being cycled into the right lobe., “constantly being deceived” or “led astray.” As a result of ignorance you were a servant, a slave. A person who is stupid is always a slave to something. Slavery is built upon stupidity.

“serving” means to serve as a slave — douleuw. It means to be in a service of slavery. And what is the slavery?

“divers lusts” — poikiloj which means various kinds; e)piqumia — “lusts.” What are the various kinds of lusts? In the past because of stupidity, because of ignorance of doctrine, we were slaves to approbation lust, materialism lust, lasciviousness, every kind of lust, and they all come from the same source, the old sin nature.

“pleasure” — pleasure is something that God has designed to be enjoyed but the old sin nature changes pleasure into slavery. This is a dative plural h(donh where we get the English word “hedonism” which means a love of pleasure. Actually, the word means sensual pleasure, gratification. The concept is that there is nothing wrong with pleasure but you have to have capacity. One of the greatest challenges in life is to have the capacity to enjoy any pleasure, a simple pleasure or a more complex one, and that capacity comes from Bible doctrine. It comes from +H, from an ECS.

“living” — now we get into the mental attitude sins; diagw, present active participle. It means to pass the time, living in the sense of spending time. This is the way you spend all capacity for life, believer or unbeliever. Here we are dealing with born again believers, looking at the past failures.

“in” — the preposition e)n plus the locative. The locative means in the sphere of. This is an operational sphere.

“malice” — kakia which often is translated “wickedness.” Actually it refers in this list to mental attitude which comes from jealousy. It is a secondary mental attitude which starts with jealousy. Jealousy leads to malice. It describes a mental attitude antagonism.

“and envy” — fqonoj which refers to jealousy, but it also means spite.

“hateful” — the plural noun stughtoj means “hatreds,” lots of them, but it is a hatred that comes from jealousy and not the same as the next word which is the expression of hatred …

“hatred” — misew, present active participle, means that hatred is perpetuated into a mental attitude which goes from sin to psychosis. This is actually building up to a psychotic condition. Mental attitude sins not only destroy capacity for life, and especially for the believer, but they lead to a psychotic condition.

Translation: “For we were at one time ignorant, disbelieving, being deceived, constantly enslaved to various kinds of lusts and pleasures, passing the time in wickednesses and jealousy, being detested and hating one another of the same kind [believers].”

Mental attitude sins destroy all capacity for life. They destroy the believer’s effectiveness in the angelic conflict. They mean never knowing the happiness designed for you, provided for you through grace. When you have those mental attitude sins where do you have the malfunction? In GAP. It is grace that malfunctions in the life.

Philippians 1:27-30

Philippians 1:27 — orientation to the modus vivendi of being spiritually self-sustaining. “Only” is the adverb monon which expresses Paul’s concentration on his purpose for remaining on earth. He is going to continue to live for one reason: to communicate Bible doctrine so that individual believers will become spiritually self-sustaining. Paul lived to teach doctrine which puts the believer in the Church Age on the offensive in the angelic conflict. Remember that the angelic conflict is an unseen conflict. That means the fallen angels who are our enemies, as well as the enemies of God, are not visible to us. How can we attack that which is invisible? The objective of doctrine is both growth and aggressiveness and the order for the Church Age is to attack. This attack can only occur among those believers who are spiritually self-sustaining. We have to have, therefore, concentration on doctrine so that we are able to fulfil attack.

“let your conversation be” — this is simply a poor attempt to translate a verb, politeuw. This is based upon the Attic Greek word for “city,” polij, and this particular word means to be a citizen of a city in Attica, specifically to be a citizen of Athens. As a citizen of Athens one had certain responsibilities of government for every citizen was in the government. So actually this word means to discharge one’s obligation as a citizen. Here it means to discharge a responsibility. So we should translate, “Only discharge [execute] your responsibility.” This is a present middle imperative, a command that is based upon teaching the Word of God. This is a command that cannot be fulfilled apart from the teaching of the Word of God. It is a present tense which is linear aktionsart, it is middle voice which involves the volition of the individual believer, and the imperative mood is a command. Paul’s concentration is now passed on to every believer through doctrinal inculcation. Every believer has the responsibility of full time Christian service and therefore he has the necessity for growth resulting in an ECS, and from the ECS he becomes spiritually self-sustaining. No one is spiritually self-sustaining, no one is attacking the invisible enemy, apart from the utilisation of the ECS.

“as it becometh” should be “worthy of the gospel of Christ,” which means the gospel is pure grace and it sets the standard for grace in our modus vivendi. Maximum grace operation comes through the erection of the ECS and from the ECS we fulfil the purpose for which we remain in this life.

Then we have some alternatives introduced by the words e)ite e)ite, which is translated in the KJV as “whether, or.” They are used to introduce several alternatives. The word “whether” is e)ite and introduces the first one. Now that Paul is alive he is already making his plans, so his first possibility is to come to see the Philippians personally. He wants to do this. This is a congregation that a pastor can never forget because this is a congregation that responded to doctrine. They were a group of people who loved Bible doctrine and as a result they loved Paul.

“whether I come” — aorist active participle of e)rxomai which means to make a personal appearance. It introduces the possibility of Paul coming to Philippi to teach doctrine.

“and see you” — this also is an aorist active participle of o(raw and it means to take a panoramic view, and it is used here for a public speaker. He is going to stand up and look at them as he teaches face to face. The word blepw is not used. Paul was never a blepw man in the pulpit, that would be a short devotional. Blepw means a glance.

“or be absent” is a second alternative. This indicates the fact that he is going to be alive but not always with them. So the present active participle is in contrast to the aorist active participle. When he comes, aorist tense, he will be there for a while — the time he spends teaching the people in Philippi. But then also, he is going to be away from them, a)peimi which means to be absent. He is going to be absent from them because he is going all the way to Spain. The present active participle of a)peimi indicates that he is going to be absent while he takes his fourth missionary journey which will take him all of the way to the Atlantic Ocean. His objective if he is with the Philippians is to teach them doctrine so that they can erect the ECS, but if he is absent this is what he expects from them …

“that I may hear” — he means that any time the information is brought he expects it to be good information. The present tense of a)kouw here is really dramatic. He expects that because of response to doctrine while he was there, and since then, and because they have a fine pastor in Epaphroditus, to hear any time that a report is made that which is wonderful; “of your affairs, that ye stand fast” — present active indicative of a verb, sthkw. This type of verb came from the old Attic Greek for standing, i(sthmi. Sthkw is rather rare, it means to be completely stabilised, to have a stabiliser for any kind of rough weather, anything that is difficult. It actually connotes here the function of stability. The present tense means that they will continue to be stable and the active voice indicates their positive volition toward doctrine results inevitably in the construction of a stabiliser. What does sthkw refer to specifically? First of all it indicates that they have been exposed to ICE teaching. And they have become spiritually self-sustaining because they have taken in doctrine which has then been transferred to the human spirit and into the right lobe. This is doctrine in action in the human soul. To “stand fast” means that they are stabilised and are spiritually self-sustaining.

In order for them to be stabilised there are two sections of the inner man that must be involved. They are now mentioned.

“in one spirit, in one mind [soul].” “In one spirit” is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of e(ij, the numeral. The human spirit is the word pneuma. Then we have again the locative e(ij, and this time the word “soul” — “in one soul,” yuxh which refers to the soul, not to the mind [nouj]. Here is the basis for stability and becoming spiritually self-sustaining is Bible doctrine functioning in GAP, coming into the mind, then going to the human spirit, and cycling that doctrine into the right lobe and specifically into the frame of reference. To be spiritually self-sustaining those parts of the soul that are pertinent must be filled with Bible doctrine.

“striving together” — sunaqlew [a)qlew = to compete in the games; sun = to compete as a member of the team]. So striving together means to function as a member of a team. Therefore it means to cooperate vigorously, to be in a contest as a part of a team, and this refers to the team of the ambassadors, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; each one becoming spiritually self-sustaining and becoming a vigorous member of the team. This is a present active participle. This means that in one spot when you have believers who are spiritually self-sustaining they all have one thing in common, they function as members of the same team.

“for the faith” — a dative from the word pistij which has a technical use. The word is used for faith in the sense of transferring it in GAP from the mind to the spirit but it is also used for the object of faith which is the whole area of doctrine. So actually pistij becomes categories of doctrine. Translation: “Only discharge your responsibility in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ: with the result that whether I come and see you, or be absent, I may hear concerning your affairs, that you keep on being stabilised in one spirit and in one soul, functioning as a team for the faith of the gospel.”

Verse 28 — “And in nothing terrified.” “In nothing” is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of mhdeij which means “not anything” or “not one thing.” He is saying, “In the sphere of not one thing be terrified” — present passive participle of pturw. The word was used to describe a horse. All horses are stupid, some a little more than others. A horse has a weakness: terror. He becomes terrified even at shadows. When horses become terrified they are completely uncontrollable. The Greeks called it pturw which means to be frightened. So it has come down to us to mean to be intimidated, to be terrified like a horse running away. It is possible for you as a believer to panic because of ignorance of the angelic conflict.

The adversaries are mentioned next: “by your adversaries.” The word “by” is u(po which means to be over someone, it is a preposition for authority. But here it means dominance; “by your enemies” — a)ntikeimai, a verb which means to be in total opposition to something. Here we should translate it, “In no way be terrified [or panic-stricken] by your enemies.” The enemies are the fallen angels. This is often used for invisible opposition or opposition that cannot be seen.

“which is to them an evident token.” We would say today, “public proof.” The Greek word is e)ndeicij and it means a public demonstration or proof.

“of perdition” — a)pwleia which means to be neutralised or destroyed. In the angelic conflict neutralisation of believers comes through fear, and other mental attitude sins. Obviously then there is a lack of being spiritually self-sustaining, of being stabilised through an ECS, through an optimum amount of doctrine in the right lobe and in the human spirit.

“but” — conjunction of contrast between orientation and disorientation, the difference between victory and defeat; “to you” — the believer priest, the Philippian who is oriented to the plan of God, who has been the recipient of consistent Bible teaching from Paul and Epaphroditus.

“of salvation” — means physical deliverance here, swthria. Paul used this word for his own deliverance, now he uses it for Philippian deliverance. This is a genitive of source.

“of God” — a)po is the preposition of ultimate source.

Translation: “In no way be intimidated by your enemies: which is to them a public proof of your neutralisation, but to all of you deliverance, and this from the ultimate source of God.”

God has provided a way for victory against an unseen foe, from the hostility of Satan, from the hostility of fallen angels, deliverance, therefore from the attacks of demons; all of these things are provided through His grace.

Verse 29 — therefore you are going to receive pressure in the unseen conflict but you are also going to suffer in a very tangible way.

“For” is literally “Because”; “to you” — dative of advantage; “it is given” — aorist passive indicative of xarizomai. The ordinary word for giving is didomi and that is not used here. Xarizomai is the strongest word in the New Testament for giving, it refers to grace giving. It means to give on a grace basis, to give freely, to give graciously, to give without strings of any kind. It means to give something that is completely paid for. Aorist tense: during our phase two experience our experience is gathered up into one entirety. God has provided for the whole thing, the giving actually took place in eternity past.

“in the behalf of Christ” — “on behalf of” is upper which means substitution. We are substitutes for Christ. Christ is in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father, we are on the earth representing Him. So this prepositional phrase makes all believers in full time Christian service. On the basis of it we personally represent the Lord Jesus Christ.

“not only to believe” — the words “not only” introduces the purpose of phase one of the Christian life. The moment you believe, that sets Satan back. The word for believing, piste, is a dramatic present tense here, it is the victory of grace.

“on him” — this is our directional preposition e)ij and it means that faith must have an direction. Simply believing is not it, it must have a direction or an object and the direction or object is the Lord Jesus Christ. Translation: “with reference to him.”

“but also to suffer” — again, the present active infinitive and this time from pasxw. This is a present tense, it means that we are going to have dramatic moments of suffering. This is not linear aktionsart, it doesn’t mean that we are going to suffer every moment. That is an erroneous view of the Christian life. Here we have the concept of undeserved suffering. Suffering is a bona fide part of the angelic conflict. In fact the angelic conflict explains why there is undeserved suffering.

“for his sake” — same prepositional phrase. We are representing Him and therefore there will be a certain amount of undeserved suffering.

Verse 30 — every believer is in the angelic conflict. “Having the same conflict” — we are all in the same battle, some people know it and some people do not. The word for “conflict” is a)gwn from which we get agony. It is one of the strongest words for conflict. It was used originally for athletic contests but ones in which the loser generally died. They used to box using leather straps around the hands with pieces of metal on them. A round was over when someone was either knocked down or thrown down. The fight was not over until you were out or dead. Therefore a)gwn was used for rather a serious bout. The word eventually came to mean combat in which people got hurt.

“which ye saw in me” — they observed that Paul was in the middle of it when he was in Phillipi.

“and now hear to be in me” — Paul is still in it, they still hear about him.

Titus 3:4 — “But” is the adverb o(te which means “at that time.” It is a reference to the incarnation, the most dramatic birth in the history of mankind, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, the objective of this verse is not to discuss the virgin birth but to discuss the incarnation as a part of the plan and provision of God.

“the kindness” — xrhstothj. This is a grace word, sometimes used for generosity, sometimes for kindness, but in modern English neither generosity nor kindness begins to describe the Greek word. It really means “beneficence.” The connotation of the word is technical, it emphasises the character of God in planning the divine decrees in eternity past and in the fulfilment of these decrees at the time of the incarnation. So the word xrhstothj stands for everything that God is, everything that God was, everything that God the Father will always be in connection with His plan for us.

The doctrine of divine essence

1. God is one in essence, essence meaning the characteristics which make up God. The oneness of God and/or the glory of God refers to His essence or His character, as in John 10:30. All the characteristics of divine essence are resident in God; they are not all manifest at one time.

2. Essence must be related to the fact that there are three persons possessing it. We call them the Trinity. The Trinity means that there are three persons with this same essence. 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Isaiah 48:16.

3. Divine essence is manifest in certain activities of God.

4. The sovereignty of God

a) God is the supreme being of the universe — Deuteronomy 4:39; 1 Samuel 2:6-8; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Acts 17:24a.

b) God is the King of heaven and earth — Psalm 47:2; Matthew 6:13b; Hebrews 8:1; Revelation 4:2,3.

c) God is eternal — Psalm 93:2; Infinite — Psalm 8:1; Hebrews 6:13; self-determining — Job 9:12; Psalm 115:3; Proverbs 21:1; Daniel 4:35. His self-determination is both eternal and infinite and therefor His self-determination or volition is sovereign volition.

d) The expression of divine volition — Ephesians 1:5; results in a plan for humanity — Hebrews 6:17. In other words, the fact that we are in the plan of God right now is because God has volition, His volition is supreme; and since it is supreme He made a sovereign decision to design a plan.

e) 2 Peter 3:9 — His will for the unbeliever is that the unbeliever might become a believer. But He will not use His absolute will against the volition that he gave man — John 7:17; Revelation 22;17.

f) The application of God’s sovereignty to us is found in Acts 13:22; Ephesians 1:4-6; Philippians 2:13.

5. Divine righteousness [+R].

a) God is righteousness or absolute holiness — 1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 22:3; 111:9; John 17:11; Revelation 3:7.

b) God is absolute good — Psalm 25:8; 34:8; Luke 18:19.

c) God is free from sin — 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 1:5.

d) God is perfect in character and in person — Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 7:9; 111:3; Jeremiah 23:6; Romans 10:23; 1 John 2:29.

e) God’s righteousness is a righteousness of attitude as well as action — Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Samuel 22:31; Daniel 9:14; Revelation 19:2.

f) God’s perfect righteousness rejects human standards of righteousness — Isaiah 64:6. That is why salvation cannot be attained through standards of human righteousness — Titus 3:5.

g) The righteousness of God is available to anyone who will believe in Christ — Romans 3:22. This is the imputation of God’s righteousness which occurs at the point of salvation.

6. Justice.

a) God is fair, it is impossible for God to be unfair. Therefore God’s judgments are perfect. Justice administers the penalty which righteousness demands. The wages of sin is death but God is fair even in the administration of the wages of sin — Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Job 37:23; Psalm 58:11; Isaiah 45:21; Romans 3:26.

b) Justice in salvation is a perfect illustration of how God stays intact as far as His character is concerned. The Lord Jesus Christ through His death on the cross received the guilt that belongs to us — Romans 5:12; 6:23. This is the only thing that would ever keep God’s justice intact. This was the only way that God could save us and still not compromise His character. In transferring all of that guilt to Jesus Christ God still is just. God is therefore free to justify anyone who believes in Christ — Romans 3:21-28; 4:5. He is also free to condemn those who reject Christ — John 3:18.

7. Love.

a) God is eternal and an unchangeable lover — Jeremiah 31:3.

b) The Father’s love is specifically declared in John 3:16; 1 John 2:15; 3:1.

c) The Son’s love is declared in Romans 8:35.

d) The love of God will not permit separation. Once you come under the love of God in salvation it is impossible to be separated from that love — Romans 8:38,39.

e) God’s love in the ECS is declared in 1 John 2:5.

f) God’s love in the filling of the Spirit is declared in Romans 5:5.

8. Eternal life.

a) God is absolute existence — Exodus 3:14; John 8:58; Psalm 90:2.

b) Jesus Christ is eternal life and always existed with the Father who is eternal life — John 1:1-3.

c) Jesus Christ is eternal life and shares His life with us in salvation — 1 John 5:11,12.

9. Omniscience.

a) God is all knowledge — 1 Samuel 2:3; Job 26:6; 37:16; Psalm 139:1-6; Jeremiah 16:7; Ezekiel 11:5; Hebrews 4:13.

b) God is infinite in wisdom and understanding — 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 44:21; Proverbs 5:21; Isaiah 40:13,14; Jeremiah 17:10; 51:15; 1 John 3:20.

c) God knows the end from the beginning — Isaiah 41:6; 42:9; 46:10; Acts 2:23; 15:18; 1 Peter 1:2.

d) The deity of Christ knew all things and all men — Matthew 9:4; John 2:24; 21:7.

10. Omnipresence.

a) God is ever present, is not limited by space or time. There are two technical theological words: He is both imminent and transcendent. Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 17:27.

b) Heaven in His throne; the earth is His footstool — Deuteronomy 4:39.

c) The heavens cannot contain Him — 1 Kings 8:27; Acts 17:24.

11. Omnipotence.

a) God is all-powerful, He is limitless in His ability — Genesis 17:1; Job 26:7; Isaiah 50:2; Jeremiah 27:5; 32:27; Revelation 4:8.

b) God is limitless in His authority — Psalm 33:9; Romans 13:1; Hebrews 1:3.

c) The manifestation of His power — 2 Chronicles 16:9; 25:8; Psalm 74:13.

12. Immutability.

a) He cannot change — Psalm 102:26,27; Hebrews 1:12.

b) He is therefore absolute stability — Isaiah 40:28; James 1:17.

c) His Word and His works are unchanging — Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 40:8.

d) From His immutability comes His faithfulness. God is faithful in His plan — 1 Corinthians 1:9; faithful in His provision — 1 Thessalonians 5:24; faithful with His promises — Hebrews 10:23; faithful with His forgiveness — 1 John 1:9; faithful to keep us saved — 2 Timothy 2:12,13; faithful to deliver us from pressure — 1 Peter 4:19; faithful in the provision of stability for the believer — 2 Thessalonians 3:3. His faithfulness is based upon His immutability.

13. Veracity.

a) He is absolute truth — Deuteronomy 32:4.

b) His veracity is manifest by His modus operandi — Psalm 25:10; Revelation 15:3; by His works — Psalm 33:4; Daniel 4:37; by His Word — 2 Samuel 7:28; Psalm 19:9; 119:142; 2 Corinthians 6:7; Ephesians 1:13.

Xrhstothj means that the whole plan of God depends upon the whole character of God. There is no promise in the Word of God to you as a believer that cannot be broken down and traced to one or more characteristics of the essence box. Every time you claim a promise you a claiming a bit of God’s perfect character.

“love toward man” is one word in the Greek: filanqrwpia [filoj + a)nqrwpoj] which means “benevolence.” This emphasises the love motivation in grace.

“God our saviour” — Jesus Christ; “appeared” — aorist passive indicative of e)pifainw which means to be revealed, to be displayed, to be manifested, to make an appearance. The aorist tense is at the point of the incarnation. The passive voice: Christ received the incarnation as a manifestation of God’s perfect character. The indicative mood is the reality of the incarnation.

Verse 5 — “Not.” O)uk was originally a word of embarrassment in Greek drama. It is one of those words that gets started because it has an onomatopoetic connotation. It is a very strong negative.

“by” is the word e)c, the same as the preposition e)k. The only difference is that when you have a vowel coming up in the next word it is e)c. If it is a consonant at the beginning of the next word it is e)k. It means “out from.” So we have so far, “Not out from the source of,” literally.

“works” — the genitive plural of e)rgon, all kinds of works. The word means production, action, function of human ability, human good, human talent.

“of righteousness” — not what the Greek says which is e)n plus the instrumental case. It should be translated “by means of righteousness” — dikaiosunh in the instrumental is technical here referring to human good.

“which we have done” — aorist active indicative of poiew. Aorist tense: the point of time when human good is accomplished; active voice: human good comes from human beings; indicative mood: the reality of human good in the devil’s world. While human good exists in the devil’s world God says through this passage in the Greek, “O)uk.” No good! “Not our from the source of works by means of righteousness which we have done.”

“but” — that conjunction divides legalism from grace; “according to” — kata, “according to the norm or standard.” Here is the norm or standard by which God deals with us, by which we have a relationship with God.

“his mercy” — what is the difference from “his grace”? Grace is involved here but e)leoj brings out God’s action. The word for grace is xarij, and it is not used here because it is the principle. E)leoj definitely includes work. So e)leoj is a contrast to the word for works, e)rgon, the reason being that God works on our behalf. Mercy is grace in action, but more than that mercy is grace working on our behalf. And it is His grace working, His e)leoj. In grace God acts; in legalism man acts.

“he saved us” — aorist active indicative of swzw. The aorist tense is the point of time of salvation, the point of time in which a person believes. That point is divorced from time and perpetuated forever. Grace acts on our behalf, the work is already accomplished.

The doctrine of human good

1. Human good is identified as dead works — Hebrews 6:1. It is dead works because it is dead to God.

2. Human good is not acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6.

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

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

5. The believer’s human good is revealed and destroyed at the judgment seat of Christ — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.

6. Human good is also the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgment — Revelation 20:12-15.

7. Distinction should be made between morality and human good — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is necessary for the human race during the course of the angelic conflict. While morality is necessary human good is not.

The doctrine of divine good

1. There are three sources of the production of divine good: a) from the Holy Spirit which is the filling of the Spirit. That is the simplest form of divine good; b) from the human spirit. This is the divine good of the adolescent. Doctrine produces divine good as exhale from the human spirit; c) From the soul. This is the mature production of divine good from the ECS.

2. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

3. GAP is provided for the production of divine good — Colossians 1:9,10; 2 Timothy 2:21;3:17; Titus 2:7.

4. Phase two was designed for the production of divine good in the believer — Ephesians 2:10.

5. The production of divine good is a sign of maturity and stability — 2 Thessalonians 2:17.

6. Divine good will be rewarded — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

7. Grace is the basic principle of divine good — 2 Corinthians 9:8.

God’s plan operates on God’s character and God’s production. There are two illustrations of this in the passage:

a) “by the washing of regeneration” — dia plus the genitive. Regeneration is accomplished by God, it is not something that we accomplish. The word “washing” is always a problem, as in John 3, because water somehow gets identified with baptism.