Identifying the cosmic system, part 5; John 15:19; 1John 2:13-14.

Title: Identifying the cosmic system, part 5; John 15:19; 1John 2:13-14.

 

1 John 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers [first believers, probably eye witnesses of Christ and mature believers], because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one [poneros]. I have written to you, children [new converts], because you know the Father.

 

The “fathers” or mature believers know Christ, i.e. their plugging with doctrine has paid off in knowledge of the Eternal One.

 

This knowledge is only for the ones who have plugged with doctrine under the authority of their pastorteacher. Without authority there is no freedom to learn. The pastor plugs and teaches what is there, what is Christ and is not just a charismatic figure who is fun to listen to. The mature believers plugged in the past, when they didn’t want to go to class or listen to a message, but they forced themselves to and listened anyway. They buffeted their bodies to make it their slaves.

 

The “young men” are positive believers who have past the adolescent stage of the spiritual life to SSE. They have overcome the siren song call of the cosmic system.

 

These are the believers who see spiritual maturity in their sights. They have overcome the lure of the cosmic system.

 

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous and devious creatures, portrayed as femmes fataleswho lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

 

Odysseus[hero of the Odyssey] was curious as to what the Sirens sung in their song to him, so, on Circe's advice, he had all his sailors plug their ears with beeswaxand tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly to the mast, no matter how much he would beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus was released.

 

 “evil one” = ponhro,j[poneros] – a noun describing the devil as well as the distractions and deceptions of his blanket cosmic policy.

 

They have overcome it with doctrine.

 

 “overcome” [nikao – same word in Rev 2 and 3] refers to winning. This is victory on the battlefield or in the conflict between Christ and satan, between the PPOG and the cosmos, between divine virtue love and evil.

 

Verse 14 says that these are strong because the word of God abides in them; they have fellowship with it and therefore virtue from it.

 

 “children” – paidio,n[paidion] = infants, in context these are the spiritual infants who have a foundation of basic doctrine and have begun their journey of positive volition towards the meat of the word of God.

 

These are believers who have been weaned off basic doctrines or what is termed milk in the NT and are ready for solid food. But as with any step there are challenges.

 

Five reasons why the infant believer who has just learned the basics must concentrate often on things he cannot understand and things for which he has no frame of reference or no immediate use in the field of application.

 

This is like Miaggi with wax on – wax off.

 

a) A part of motivation is the will to master a doctrine that has no immediate use or interest, in which you are frankly not interested, and to concentrate even though there is no reason or motivation for concentrating.

 

What you are doing is putting muscle on self-motivation. When you are putting muscle on your self-motivation in an academic situation you are also giving strength to application of doctrine when the testing comes.

 

b) It is necessary sooner or later to realize that there is no spiritual advance, no spiritual motivation, apart from learning the whole realm of doctrine.

 

You have to come to the point where taking in doctrine is a habit.

 

c) Hearing advanced doctrine before you are ready to understand it will therefore help you to avoid many of the traps related to distraction. You will develop a frame of reference.

 

While you are avoiding the traps you will develop a frame of reference so that one day, when that doctrine comes by in a passage (you have already heard it but you didn’t understand it), you will say to yourself, “I’ve got it! Now I understand it.”

 

d) Hearing doctrine you do not understand is a challenge to keep learning doctrine so that you will understand it.

 

e) The infant believer who has just learned basics must learn more advanced doctrine by sitting on the bench and waiting to be put into the game.

 

By game I mean situations in life that will call for the application of those doctrines you are learning but not fully understanding. There comes a time when you finally make the varsity if you are consistent and when you do you make every game. You start because you are familiar with a system. There are a lot of doctrines you haven’t learned yet but that doesn’t matter because you have the frame of reference for learning doctrine. Frame of reference is learning a lot of doctrine.

 

Without these five principles the infant believer will not overcome or escape the evil of the cosmos. He knows he’s saved, he knows his sins are forgiven (verse 12) and there he stops. Without knowing Christ, whose mind is the entire realm of doctrine he just cannot overcome the schemes of the devil, the prince of the cosmos.

 

1 John 2:14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong [divinely powerful], and the word of God abides [meno – abides = divinely virtuous] in you, and you have overcome the evil one [poneros].

 

“I have written” refers to John’s extensive ministry as a non-resident pastor. He has written and continues to write as a non face to face PT. Geographical location is not important. Identification of your right PT is what is important.

 

The children category is left out because John is back on the subject of the poneros of the cosmos, the evil deception of the cosmos and the ruler or evil one that promotes it. The infant believers have to gain more of the meat of the word of God in order to be ready to get off the bench and overcome the system.

 

The fathers are described in the exact same way, as spiritually mature.

 

The young me have overcome the evil one. They have done so in one way and one way only, executing the PPOG by plugging with doctrine.

 

Divine virtue overcomes the cosmos, especially virtue love. You don’t lose your virtue by sinning; you lose your virtue by being negative towards doctrine.

 

This was the battle cry of our Lord and the legacy that He left behind for us as He spoke His last words in the upper room, in His priestly prayer, at His unfair trials, and even on the cross.

 

Therefore we parallel this passage by examining the heritage of the Church Age, the heritage of the royal family of God, as given in the will of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

 

On the cross the Lord Jesus Christ made a verbal will. It is composed of seven expressions, they are all one way or another related to the conflict of the plan of God and the cosmic system.

The PPOG is the Christian way of life for the royal family.

 

First expression:

 

Luke 23:34 But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."

 

This is a statement made from impersonal unconditional virtue love.

 

Virtue love is a part of the royal family heritage. Impersonal love is the integrity, the royal family honor code, the solution to all the personality conflicts of life, the basis for your own peace of mind and the only Millennium you will ever have on this earth which is inside your own soul.

 

Our Lord first switched to impersonal love at the time of the Roman Praetorium when the crowd began to cry, “Crucify him.”

 

He was functioning in His humanity and He was perfect inside of the divine plan invented for Him by God the Father. He was now facing the howling mob which had gathered around the place called “The Skull” in order to watch Him die. They were screaming insults, blasphemies, imprecations of all kinds; and our Lord handled this mob absolutely perfectly.

 

As they were standing there and ridiculing, our Lord was functioning on impersonal love. There is no mob, no system of violence, no system of terrorism, no adversity that anyone can execute in your direction, no evil that man can perpetrate on you of any kind, no matter how horrible it may be, that cannot be handled by impersonal love inside of the PPOG for your life.

 

Our Lord’s perfect integrity or the expression of His impersonal love inside the prototype plan was manifest in this first phrase which He uttered on the cross. It was uttered in extreme physical pain. Being locked in with impersonal love He could offer a genuine prayer which perpetuated client nation Israel for forty more years. They had reached the peak of degradation, involved in every possible room of cosmic one, the rooms of arrogance. In every possible way they were doing every vile thing. Yet, in no way could they disturb our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The issue is: All problems in life must be solved from a stabilized base, and that stabilized base is impersonal love.

 

No love relationship — right men-right woman, friends, families, loved-ones under friendship can be perpetuated on the basis of personal love.

 

Personal love, no matter how romantic or emotional; no matter how much it involves, physical, mental, and even spiritual attraction, can not be self-perpetuating.

 

It is impossible to perpetuate any form of human love no matter how noble, honorable, or great. That even includes inanimate things — love of country, patriotism. It is impossible to perpetuate patriotism on patriotism. It is impossible to perpetuate any form of love or honor apart from your own personal function in impersonal love. Impersonal love is the basis for every great thing in life.