Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
NE Bible Conference 08. Tuesday PM.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
AMP – 1CO 14:1 EAGERLY PURSUE and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest];
The Message Bible – 1CO 14:1 Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it – because it does.
PRO 17:9 He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
Impersonal unconditional love does not gossip and malign and repeat things about others. Hypocritical, pharisaical, phony human love does, but not the love of God.
MAT 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”
LUK 6:27 “But I say to you who hear, love Your enemies, do good to those who hate you,”
JOH 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep my commands.”
Impersonal unconditional love is manifested by keeping with doctrine, “not” being distracted from it.
JOH 14:21 “He who has My doctrines and keeps them, he it is who loves Me;”
JOH 14:24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My doctrines;”
1TI 4:10 “For this reason, we [pastors] work hard to the point of exhaustion, and we hang in there tough [keep on contending], because we have confidence in the living God, Who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”
1. All members and parts of the body are linked by joints or ligaments.
2. Joints permit motion and coordination of the human body.
In 1Co 12, the different parts of the body are mentioned which represent different spiritual gifts in the Royal Family of God. Different parts of the body represent the variety of differences among believers from the standpoint of spiritual gifts, growth, progress, function, and personality.
3. Joints provide the unity of the body and give it cohesion, because joints are the point of contact and the connection between various parts of the body. The word “joint” does not apply to the evangelist, but only to the pastor-teacher.
By contrast to the evangelist, the pastor-teacher has to communicate day after day.
All the members of the Royal Family of God are analogous to the body of Christ. They are linked together by the doctrinal teaching from the pastor and resultant advance toward spiritual maturity.
Christianity is not changing your personality to a certain mold, but it is growing spiritually through the perception of doctrine.
The pastor’s function must not be related to his personality, but to the content of his message.
You can receive limited blessing from reading the Bible for yourself, but you can never learn how to execute the spiritual life just from that method. It is the spiritual gift that God gave the pastor-teacher to be equipped to dig out the truth of the mystery doctrine of the Church-age and communicate it to you.
Without joints, you go nowhere, both physically and spiritually.
So it all begins, first of all, with personal love for God, which results in love for self, SSE, and then impersonal unconditional love for others, SA, and then a total dedication and devotion to loving God, SM.
“A NEW commandment” – adjective kaineen – kainhVn – new in contrast to old = NEW in species.
Kainos, the root word, immediately tells us that this is not the same commandment as found in the Mosaic law – sometimes called the eleventh commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Being a new creature and being in union with Jesus Christ demands a new set of instructions or commands for the dispensation of the Church-age believer which is about to come.
The New Commandment is based on the fact that Christ is glorified; He is absent from the earth; He is seated at the right hand of the Father, awaiting operation footstool, and therefore we have entered into the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby every believer at the point of salvation is entered into union with Jesus Christ.
This means that he has the life of Christ – eternal life, the righteousness of Christ – perfect righteousness, the sonship of Christ, the heirship of Christ, – the priesthood of Christ, the election of Christ, the destiny of Christ, and eventually he will reign with Jesus Christ.
Ambassadorship could not exist until after the incarnation, until Christ was absent from the earth, and therefore every believer is now in fulltime Christian service.
“I give unto you” – pres-act-ind – didoomi – divdwmi = God, in His grace, is providing for us this wonderful thing; this way to love is God’s gift to you.
“Unto you” – intensive dative pronoun humin – u&mi’n = relates the subject to the individual and it becomes a dative of advantage – it is to your advantage that you operate in the impersonal unconditional love.
1CO 13:8 Impersonal-unconditional love or virtue never fails;
“That” hina – i@na – the subjunctive mood of the verb introduces a purpose clause. Present active subjunctive – agapate – a*gapa’te = strictly a mental attitude love.
1. At the point of salvation every believer passes the point of propitiation which places him under maximum divine love, 1JO 2:2.
2. God is now free to love every believer with maximum love in spite of the believer’s spiritual status in this life.
3. Agape is a specialized love related to the mentality of the soul.
4. When used in connection with God it has a broader expanse; it means that God loves us in spite of the fact that He knew ahead of time what we were like.
5. Agape is found in several areas of the NT, specifically a reference to one of the NEW power options, the filling of the Spirit, ROM 5:5; 1JO 2:5; GAL 5:22.
ROM 5:5 the love of God has been poured out within our hearts [right lobe which is what we think] through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
1JO 2:5 whoever keeps His word [doctrine], in him the love of God has truly been matured. By this we know that we are abiding in Him:
GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
Agape love is not just the love of God; it is a mental attitude or a way of thinking.
“By this” – preposition en – e*n + instrumental – toutoo touvtw/ = “by means of this, [impersonal unconditional love and your RMA]”
Fut-mid-ind – ginosko = to know, to recognize; it is a perception of things as they are, not an opinion about them.
Gnomic future tense – it is totally obvious and recognizable and right to the point – impersonal unconditional love IS the greatest manifestation of living the spiritual life for the believer, NOT what you say.
ROM 5:5 – The love of God would be poured out within their hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit.
GAL 5:22 – the fruit or the production of God the Holy Spirit would be impersonal unconditional love.
Since the Holy Spirit declares that “agape” love is the greatest virtue of all in 1CO 13:13, it is reasonable that it should stand first on the list of the fruit of the Spirit.
Middle voice – ginosko = to know, to recognize – an indirect middle which means that those individuals who see your impersonal unconditional love in action are benefited by it.
Indicative mood = the manifestation of your impersonal unconditional love and your RMA reveals to others that you are truly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“That you are” – pres-act-ind – este – e*ste – keep on being.
“My disciples” – matheetai – maqhtaiv = students under discipline and authority.
PHI 1:9 In fact, I pray this, that your virtue-love may excel to the maximum still more and more by means of metabolized doctrine resulting in all spiritual discernment,