IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 300

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LXXXIV

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment . He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:1-21).

We have now arrived at our last entry from the list of the sayings by the apostles that are deemed to speak of the vicarious atonement of the Christ. We again got a bit sidetracked yesterday and looked rather intently at some verses from the Apostle Paul to the Romans which speak of the gospel, the good news of the Kingdom as the source of the revelation of the righteousness of God and thereby the righteousness of men and we ended with some ideas on the effect, then and now, of  illusion, glamour and deception as it effects the personality and the form aspect of most all men. Paul tells us that we KNOW God “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them” (Romans 1:19) and in this we should see the universality of the Christ Within and the Spirit of God in ALL. Paul here is speaking of unrighteous men and not of disciples and he is speaking of ALL men and not just some specific group of men and in this we KNOW the potentiality of discipleship in ALL. Seeing then that ALL have been shown knowledge of God as it is “manifest in them“, to what then do we attribute the great tendency of mankind to look beyond this knowledge and look for Life and hope in the things of the world? This is the role of illusion and glamour which lead man into a life of deception. Mankind comes to believe what is convenient and not what is True and it IS the purpose of the words of the Master and the amplifying words of His apostles to change mans direction from the world to the reality of God. This is Paul’s reality of the gospel; the good news of the Kingdom is that it is at hand and that it requires only True repentance to find it and it is, as the Master tells us, within each of us so that in some mysterious way we are the Kingdom itself. Hidden also in Paul’s words is this reality as well because the knowledge of God is “manifest in them“.

Our last saying in our series is from the pen of the Apostle Peter and it goes thus:

• “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:21-25). We should see that there is but one saying in this group that can possibly pertain to the idea at hand, vicarious atonement, and this same saying  when left in the confines of the context of the whole, is much more revealing. It is this that we will explore and in doing so we will easily cast the atonement ideas aside as Peter’s intent in this writing. We start here with the idea that Christ suffered and in doing so He left us an example and that we should follow Him  but this is also an incomplete thought and one that has led to the idea of the benefit of suffering in some parts of the Church. To see the whole message we need to go even further back that we had originally scripted and should include these two prior verses: “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well , and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God” (1 Peter 2:19-20). Can we see in this the Master’s words albeit painted a bit differently? Can we see the whole concept of ‘turn the other cheek’ as the guiding light here? When the Master said “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also” (Luke 6:29) He was not speaking about some friendly encounter with another, He was speaking, as is Peter, of “enduring grief, suffering wrongfully” and Peter makes this clear by reminding us that it is not when we deserve such treatment that it is good to endure it, to turn the other cheek, but when we do no deserve such treatment. This is the way of the Master in our lead verses above; let us look:

1. “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps“. Here Peter is giving us the crux of his argument; in His mission to bring to mankind the good news of the Kingdom, the Master had to endure the suffering that was scripted as a part of it. In His death and resurrection is the example; that we should die also to the world and be resurrected into the eternal Kingdom of God. While the Master showed us this in His death and resurrection, He did at the same time tell us that we must be ever ready to give up our Life in the world for the Life of the Soul and that this must be the way in Life and not in the death of the body. He tells us this in several ways including: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).
2. “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” Here should be our understanding of the perfection of the Master and in this we should be reminded first that we “should follow his steps” and second that we should follow His words that tell us that “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and again in His saying that: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). Do we understand the role here of perfection?
3. “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously“. Two things we must note here; first that in His Power was ALL things including the moving of the mountain and in this we should see His words “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). and the reality that He could but did not and this is the True meaning of meekness. Second we must see in the Master’s actions the reality of His own sayings that He taught to us: “resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:39-45). Can we see this clearly?
4. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” This is of course the subject verse that is taken to refer to the vicarious atonement of the Master. Can we in the completeness of the saying see the intent of Peter aside from this message of atonement? That the Master was crucified and died and “that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness”; is this not the overriding message of the Master as well, is this not the summation of His teaching on the Kingdom of God. That He died on “the tree”, or as Vincent tells us, on the wood⁴, is a statement of accepted fact and of the first part of this we have spoken before on this wise: that He “bare our sins” in being the target of the sins of mankind. The Pharisees, the Roman rulers, and the people at large, in their sinful state, scourged and crucified the Master and it is in this respect that He “bare our sins“. Can we see how this carries forth from Peter’s earlier saying that “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not?” Can we see in this the  overall idea of “bare our sins“. And, can we see the import of the last phrase “by whose stripes ye were healed” and its meaning in the overall of our own lives, that in His Great Sacrifice that we “should follow his steps” and that by His example we are healed, we are made whole. We should remember here the reference at the beginning is “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example” and the reference at the end is “by whose stripes ye were healed” which is part and parcel of His suffering and it is in this relation that these sayings should be seen to the end that “that ye should follow his steps“.

Can we see the intent of the apostle in these verses? Can we see the reflection of the Master’s teaching in his words? This however is not the whole of Peter’s sayings here in this chapter for if we go yet further toward the beginning of the chapter we find the ideas that he was presenting that lead up to following the Master by His example and by His words; Peter tells us: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God“. We must remember that the apostles are speaking to readers who they assume are disciples and aspiring disciples and not to the general public and we can see this in this epistle by the way Peter frames the introduction saying that: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion” (1 Peter 1:1; American Standard Version). In the rest of these verses here we should see Peter’s admonition to all that one “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” and we should understand that in “fleshly lusts” are found all things that are contrary to the will of God and not just the common ideas that are conjured up by man from these words. Can we see in the ideas of “good works” the Master’s command that we “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Can we see also the need to follow ALL laws even when it is commonplace to not do so? This is an easy trap for man today and one that the apostle cautions us against in his many words for if we keep all the laws then none will find occasion to see in us any hypocrisy and thereby we “may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men“. Lastly Peter tells us that we must never use our discipleship, or aspiration to be one, to take any advantage over any other and for any reason but we should only be “as the servants of God“.

Except for the introductory parts we have covered the whole if this thought by the apostle and there is much in this instruction that we today can take hold of to live by and this is Peter’s intent; that we should serve the Lord and live by His example. We should see also the beauty in the way the apostle has framed these ideas to a disciples benefit. There is in our understanding nothing in these sayings that is intended to teach us that the Master’s death is in substitutionary atonement for our sins and that our sins are wiped away by His suffering and death. He tells us and the apostle remind us that our sins are only wiped away in our repentance and our willingness to be born again.

We will continue with our journey through the chapter from John at the top of this essay in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day

• ⁴    Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd  edition, 1888