Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
God’s geographical will and the danger of emotional attachments.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
De – transitional conjunction = now + aor-pass-ind – Echaren
de – Ecavrhn deV = rejoice; to have happiness, sharing the happiness of God because you are thinking with the thoughts of God.
When he wrote Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, he was a supergrace believer.
When he wrote Titus and I and II Timothy, he was an ultra supergrace believer.
Constantive aorist – contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the entire time that Paul was in supergrace and gathers it up into one concept of now sharing the happiness of God.
Passive voice – Paul receives the action of the verb and has the opportunity to express it under the conditions of this context.
Indicative mood – declarative for the reality of Paul having received God’s happiness.
“Now, I have received much inner happiness.”
“In the Lord” – en + instrumental of kurio – e*n kurivw/ = by means of the Lord.
Greatly – adverb megalos – megavlw” = greatly, extremely, or very much.
1. The manifestation of Paul’s recovery of his supergrace status is found both in the possession of his perfect happiness and the fact that his happiness is stimulated by the obvious interest of the Philippian church.
2. Paul was in prison because of the Jerusalem fiasco – which has to do with Paul willfully disobeying God resulting in imprisonment.
“Through the Spirit” – some commentators try to make a hero out of Paul for going to Jerusalem and it was directly against the guidance of God the Holy Spirit.
Paul should have been going west to Rome, Italy, France and Spain, instead he is heading east to Jerusalem.
Paul was just like many of God’s people today, involved in emotionalism and tradition.
In Paul’s case, he is about to get out of the geographical will of God, which is where he should be.
GEN 3:9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
GEN 16:8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?”
There are some believers who are emotionally involved with geographical areas and it hinders their spiritual life.
When Paul walks through the gates of Jerusalem then he will be out of the geographical will of God.
MAT 5:28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
JAM 1:15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
Paul is moving out of the geographical will of God, the place God wants him to be.
Escorted – propempo = to accompany someone with high respect or esteem.
We are to present the truth to one another not force the truth upon each other.
ROM 14:1 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
ROM 14:1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with – even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in faith.
You can have a good attitude… good intentions… you can be very sincere… but if you are going in the wrong direction, it does not matter.
You can have the right attitude in the wrong place just like you can have the wrong attitude in the right place.
Paul still has the right to make his own mistakes without interference from others.
They will give him his privacy – and not forsake or abandon him.
Bible doctrine is the basis of making your own decisions not the bullying or coercing from other people.
Paul’s companions will follow him even though they know that he is wrong.
To pursue the matter beyond this point would be an infringement and an intrusion upon Paul’s privacy.
This is a great temptation – when you know that you are completely right and someone else is completely wrong, you have to put them in the Lord’s hands.
You can warn them in love but the moment that you start trying to force them to do something or condemn them or manipulate them, you are out of line.
Paul is not an apostate, he is a doctrinal believer making a wrong decision – and that is not grounds for separation.
2Co 8, Ph 4, 1CO 16:3 – Paul brought a large sum of money with him for the Jews. The believers at Jerusalem were in poverty because they were under divine discipline for rejecting the grace of God.
Jerusalem is filled with the same thing the United States is filled with, a lot of lazy unprepared pastors who go to the Mosaic law and extrapolate principles and teach that is the Christian way of life.